Went vote this morning, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. And got a runaround. Finally found the right spot at a public elementary school. Even had a flag picture posted on the door. Plus a sign in English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Spanish and a couple of languages I did not recognize. More after the break.

This is my peace offering in the racist diary issue. I am an older out gay man who was totally offended by Obama's hiring of McClukin. After being told that 'you people aren't popular' and that there are 'many more African American voters than gay voters', after reading all the homophobic comments, I feel moved to do something. Nolalily and geekesque have called for healing of this divide. This is my small effort to help.

What struck me was that so many of the black commentators appeared not to have first hand knowledge of gay people. While all the gay posters appeared to have some knowledge of black people. The common assumption was that gays are a group of white people who were dumping on a black man. Actually, there are lots of people who are publically both black and gay/lesbian. After the jump, I will present a few of them. Two are no longer with us; Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin. Three are very active in both black and glbt areas. Reading about Mary F Morten, who is a leading Obama lesbian supporter, I kept wondering why he did not have some one of her stature and standing speaking for him regarding McCulkin. Keith Boykin and Pam Spaulding are blacks who have widely read blogs.

For an introduction to the topic of Lesbian and Gay voting, here is what one study finds:

A recently released study found that a phenomenal 92.5 percent of gay men and 91 percent of lesbians voted in the 2004 presidential election, and 82.4 percent of gay men and 78 percent of lesbians voted in the 2006 midterm elections. As the Los Angeles Times noted, that compares with an overall turnout of about 61 percent in 2004 and a 40 percent turnout in 2006. The financial participation of gay Americans in politics is also remarkable. This same study found that 40 percent of gay men and 31 percent of lesbians gave money to a political party within the year—compared with 7 percent of Americans overall. (In the run up to the 2008 election, the lion’s share of donations to candidates is going to Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.)

The continuously appearing diaries about how Hillary will keep the troops in Iraq for years etc have been getting to me. I found this youtube of her statement last January to General Patreus. What she says, the policies she endorses are not at all like the NeoCons. Hillary does admit that they probably don't have the votes to set a timetable for withdrawal. Her proposal is to keep only the direct funding for our troops and defund the rest of the war. Which appears to be a new proposal. There is no transcript up yet at her Senate webpage. When it is available I shall put it up also. Please listen to Hillary before declaring her a warmonger.

Surprised to learn that Feb 12, 1809 brought forth two men who became major emancipators of humanity. Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky. Charles Darwin was born in England. Lincoln into poverty, Darwin into the great wealth of the Wedgwood family. Anyway, Monday is a major celebration world wide of Darwin Day.

Never done a diary before. Tonight after listening to prezelnet wrestle the English language and lose, I wandered around a bit. Ended up at Little Green Footballs, which is AFAICT the closest the right has to DKos, and picked up a number of quotes from actual people posting there on prezelent's 'speech'.

The posters strike me as somewhat intelligient. Compared to the prezelnet they are veritable giants of intellectual discourse. Anyhoo, they seem to grudgingly support Bush. Even if it is too little too late. And somehow connect the war in Iraq to the problem of illegal aliens from south of the border. How they do this, I really can't say. But it is a clear inference that if we don't start indiscriminantly shooting Iraqi's our children will be forced to eat tacos and speak Spanish. Or maybe Muslims will make our children Catholic. The whole discourse has a tone of disengagement, of some sort of logic that only the initiated can truly follow.

Below the fold are actual quotes from actual green footballers. They really don't like Kos Kids. We are the prime enemy. But not one that would be engaged in actual dialoge.

As far as I can tell, there is no comparable diary.