Recap of Day One of the Republican National Convention

Recap of last night's Republican National Convention:

6:30 pm Laura Bush reads from a prompter. Talks about all the great things her husband has done.

I can't stop thinking about her ex boyfriend that she ran over with her car after he dumped her for a prettier girl in her high school. I mean, that's a coincidence, right? I mean, he had just dumped her. For one of her friends. Two weeks later she rams into his car and kills him?

Okay, I'll give you that it may have been an accident but if you see a photo of the intersection, it's a wide open field: you can see for miles in every direction, so how could she not see him?

Anyway, I see that plastic face of her's and imagine all that she's had to put up with and wonder where her soul is at. Then I think of that vehicular homicide and figure her fate was sealed then.

She's wrapping up. Will she say "God bless this country"? Wait for it, wait for it... yup, there it is. "God bless you all. God bless the United States."

6:45 George Bush reads his speech from a prompter via satellite from the White House.

Propaganda, lies. God, he can't even give a speech. He's reading it!

When I look at him, all I can see is that footage of him sitting in an Elementary School and doing nothing when he is informed that a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center. And saying, "Good job, Brownie!"

George is still reading. Wait, what's that...behind the curtain. No, don't look behind the curtain? What? It's Dick Cheney!?

Shots of convention goers - terribly, terribly misguided people.

George Bush endorses McCain. It's no secret, these men don't get along. In fact, McCain wasn't excited to get the Bush stamp of approval considering the president's popularity polls are currently somewhere in the toilet.


Shots of Cindy McCain. Wow, she's had some good face work! Kudos. Or is that just a lot of make up?

7:00 PM Tribute to Ronald Reagan. They show a video clip reel of Ronald Reagan produced by Leni Reifenstahl...um, er I mean the Republican party.

This is just another ra-ra, we love the party video.

Important part to note: They refer to Reagan was a "maverick"...which you know, tied into McCain.

7:14 PM Fred Thompson speaks. Since he is also an actor, he does not READ his speech from the prompter.

He speaks highly of Sarah Palin and criticizes the liberals and the media for picking on her. These people seem perfectly happy to elect to office a completely unqualified candidate. I guess they watch Battlestar Galactica where every single government official is killed right down to the Secretary of Education who is then elected president. Republicans: This is a tv show. And I knew Mary McDonnell, and sir, Sarah Palin is no Mary McDonnell!

Thompson talks about our wonderful troops, which I find odd since it is they who have so clearly no regard for them, tossing them over there tour after tour after tour like they are disposable tissues. Then, the conditions in the VA hospitals are just astoundingly bad when they return. I could go on. These people don't care, it's just propaganda.

Thompson gives McCain's bio, of course emphasizing his prison sentence during the Vietnam War. Graphically.

He is still talking about Vietnam.

I'm wondering how much more of this I can watch before I am physical ill. Heck, I made it through George and Laura Bush and the Reagan tribute, I can hold out. Funny that Thompson is still talking about "torture".

Bored by the propaganda, I start drafting an open letter to TMZ and The National Enquirer that goes something like, "Dear Sirs, Considering all the Hollywood celebrities are behaving these days, might I suggest sending a team of your best reporters to the RNC? There would be so much to uncover and the ratings would be fantastic for your papers and web sites. It's easy pickings finding someone with a prostitute, drugs, a same sex bathroom tryst or drunk driving. I mean, it's a jack pot! Sincerely, JD"

The crowd is now chanting USA USA USA. My stomach doesn't feel so good.

Thompson endorces Palin as probably the only candidate ever that has been able to "dress a moose (for you city folks like me, that means cut up once you've shot it). You gotta be reaching when you pull this outta your hat.

Thompson says they care about the unborn babies and the newborns. Which I assume means if they're straight.

Country First is plastered everywhere. What does that mean? I don't get it. Do they mean our citizens in New Orleans during Katrina? Our service people who have been killed? The people that lost their houses? Um...do they mean how they borrowed from my and your social securities payments to bail out the mortgage banks?


7: 39 PM Okay, so next up is Joe Lieberman who is a former Democrat. Let's see if he reads from the prompter. Nope. Not so bad.

First thing, mentions Gustav then our "larger American family". Which means you if you're not gay or black or Muslim or Mexican.

"We reach out to help each other". Unless you're gay and you want to visit your partner in the hospital, or you're a single mother that needs insurance for her children but can't afford it, or a dark skinned person who has just been arrested and flown to Guantanamo Bay without a writ of habeas corpus, or a Mexican immigrant trying to get into this country to make a better life for his family.

Lieberman: "Country matters more than party".

Once again, see above. By "country", I guess they mean white and Christian.

More USA USA chanting.

Lieberman's whole role here is to try to present partisanship. Oh, and here it comes. This is kinda funny considering McCain strongly considered switching to the Democratic party some years back when he was warring with Bush.

Lieberman just called 9/11 a natural disaster. Ooops.

Lieberman just referred to himself as a Democrat, although I think he's an Independent.

He tells us not to listen to advertisements because "God only made one John McCain". Holy toledo. Really?

Did he just compare McCain to Clinton? Wow, mentioning God and Clinton within ten minutes - they are really trying to associate McCain aren't they?

Uh-oh. Now onto Sarah Palin. "She's a reformer. She's taken on the special interests and crossed party lines to get things done." Unless you're gay, want an abortion, or want to preserve the environment. Have you read the quote yet by her where she states that she thinks the whole global warming thing is not real? Yup.

They keep mentioning the American people. Does that mean me since I'm gay?

More shots of the audience. Terribly misguided people.

There's a huge American flag waving on the big screen monitor behind him as he says, "Because of John McCain, thousands of troops are coming home!". Is that true?!

Oh wait, does he mean this:



Oh, now he's speaking "directly to my fellow Democrats". Does that mean me, because I'm gay? There's so much hate directed at my kind, it's hard to tell if they ever think we're part of the system. "This is not an ordinary election and John McCain is no ordinary candidate." Oh god. "You can always count on him to be straight with you." Um, in the last week I've seen video to the contrary. I mean, y'all know how much he's flip flopped right? I don't need to go into that, do I?

I could vomit. "Vote for the person, not for the party you belong to." Um, Supreme Court justice appointees much?

I'm getting that feeling in my stomach again. It's like when you feel that you got food poisoning.

Joe Lieberman ran as the VP candidate with Al Gore in 2000 making him the first Jewish candidate. He is an Orthodox Jew. He tried to run for president in 2004, but didn't get out of the gate. He got out of serving in Vietnam with an educational deferment. He is a friend of the gays as he voted "no" on a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, and has championed same-sex employee benefits. He did, however vote for an amendment introduced by Jesse Helms which would prohibit federal funding from schools that teach or promote homosexuality as a positive lifestyle.

Meanwhile, outside the convention, police gassed protestors.

Meanwhile, outside the convention, police gassed protestors. No kidding. Here's what went on outside when the above was going on inside.


I'm surprised they didn't arrest them last week. In a sweep prior to the RNC, local police arrested all people they thought would violently protest. Nice, huh?


The local paper in Minn/St Paul reported:
Ramsey County authorities conducted raids across Minneapolis and St. Paul Friday and Saturday as a pre-emptive strike against disruptive protests of the Republican National Convention. Five people were arrested and more than 100 were handcuffed, questioned and released by scores of deputies and police officers, according to police and elected officials familiar with the raids.

The woman in the photo above? She's a member of the National Lawyer's Guild who was trying to protect the people inside the house the police tried to raid. So they handcuffed her!

In America, people.

But once again, as the folks said tonight, COUNTRY FIRST.

Tune in tomorrow when the moose killer speaks.

Tune in prior to the convention for the back story. SmokingCocktail style.

'til then, May GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

The Lovely and Talented Republican VP Candidate

To understand McCain's choice of Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as VP nom, one merely has to follow the crumb trail from the last Bush election to note the power of the Evangelical vote. And who's hand is rocking that cradle? An organization called The Arlington Group, which is a government lobbying (read as bullying) group with membership consisting of every Christian power player in the US, including Rev James Dobson (Focus on the Family) and Jerry Falwell.

Much like the Pope. if these guys say "jump" 18 million Christians in this country respond, "Off what cliff, sir?"

Dobson was in bed pretty tight with Rove and Bush, but he has never supported McCain. It's been a battle of the wills and egos between these two, but with the polls pretty close between the Democratic and Republican nominees, McCain had to bend over.

Just last year, Dobson proclaimed, "Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances." Then he initiated a million signature petition of McCain (see below for that text). Talk about positioning!

What he was trying to do was bully McCain into jumping on board his party line, which is simple: 1) No abortion. 2) Homos rot in hell. There's one more thing, I can't remember, but you get the drift.

It's so easy to make fun of these guys, but they are unbelievably powerful in this country. If the LGBT base of voters would only turn out and vote as a group, things would be mighta different, my friend. But we don't. And they do.

I knew something was up the night of Obama's speech when McCain made a lovely statement noting the wonderful significance of his nomination. While watching it I could definitely hear, "Mwaa- ha - ha, wait until tomorrow baby!"

And sure enough in a political race that rivals DAMAGES, THE SOPRANOS and LOST in twists, turns, egos and scandals, the very next day McCain presented a woman he had met only once as his Vice Presidential Candidate.

In her speech, she mentioned Hillary as if to woo the Clinton supporters. Let me tell you something, Missy, Hillary did NOT make 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling so a gun weilding, anti-gay, pro-creationist teaching, hockey mom could waltz through.

I woulda liked to have the concession on xanax at the Clinton home that morning.

Meanwhile, McCain campaign, can I point out to you that you can not replace one woman with another and expect us to vote that way? Palin is not, as you can see from this photo, a member of the coveted Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuit.

Everyone thought this was lunacy - this inexperienced Alaskan Governor until... Dobson finally gave his support to McCain. Come to find out, miss thing is Evangelical. In fact, the entire Christian community gave their support.

When asked about the right-wing’s reaction to the choice of Gov Palin, the New York Times quoted Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition as saying, “They’re beyond ecstatic”

But then...the unwed teenage daughter is pregnant! Which us progressives think is hysterical since Palin is against sex ed and for abstinence. Oops, that didn't work too well in your own household, now did it?

I thought about it and wondered, "Gee, how many Christians have tons of children in and out of marriage"? I mean, afterall, the conservative Christians, Catholics and Mormons have always been in favor as MAKE MANY MANY MANY CHILDREN so they can all have a larger base.

Sure enough, the Christian coalition backed Palin even more.

The Wall Street Journal reported "This is the evangelical daily double," said David Brody, a commentator with the Christian Broadcasting Network. "It's actually a plus because it puts the life issue front and center."

"I don't think it [hurts] at all," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who hailed Palin's nomination to US NEWS today.

Dobson issued the following statement: "Being a Christian does not mean you're perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord. I've been the beneficiary of that forgiveness and restoration in my own life countless times, as I'm sure the Palins have."

I don't have time to tell you why Dobson is public enemy number one to every single homosexual, bisexual and transgendered person in this country, but let me tell you I've been tracking this puppy since he wrote a book called The WOnderful Word of Boys (as a psychiatrist, I guess about raising them) and he was creepy as hell on his book tour for it. The book is mainly photos. Ew.

Roy Cohn. Look him up.

Anyway, since we don't vote and we can barely organize amongst ourselves, and the Evangelicals and conservative Christians can, there it is.

Meanwhile, McCain once again rolled over. All bets are always off during the election where alliances are made (Clinton/Obama) and opinions stated merely to win the vote.

So far, I've noted that Obama and McCain have both flip flopped, both gone against previous alliances and formed new ones just to win this election.

I've been promised by certain - I can't say "insiders" as I don't know any, but i do know several "near by-ers" - who have told me the younger Evangelical base is moving away from these conservative platforms and are open to broader issues. Some are even interested in Obama.

Please. Please. PRetty please, universe, I promise I won't ask for anything ever again in my life if you would just make this true!!!

Tonight is day one of the RNC... set your tivoes!

Meanwhile, take a look at the petition Dobson sent out when he was boycotting McCain:

Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman Dr. James Dobson invites values voters to pledge to uphold pro-family principles during this year’s election.

In response to the media’s efforts to minimize the impact of values voters, Dr. Dobson and Focus on the Family Action are initiating a nationwide Values Voter Pledge. The pledge is a statement by citizens who are committing to vote only for candidates who uphold the highest pro-life, pro-faith and pro-family principles.

Focus Action is hoping 1 million voters will take the pledge, which will serve as a demonstration of the strength and seriousness of Values Voters in this election.

The pledge itself reads:

As a concerned citizen, I am signing this Values Voter Pledge for 2008 indicating my commitment to stand for the values of life, faith and family during this election year. I am pledging to support candidates who uphold these bedrock values of:

• Life -- I will only vote for candidates who have committed to defend sanctity of life from conception to natural death.

• Family -- I will only vote for candidates who stand for one-man, one-woman marriage and oppose efforts to undermine the nuclear family.

• Faith -- I will only vote for candidates who support the public acknowledgement of God and affirm the religious liberties of all Americans.

I also oppose any and all efforts by the media, organizations or candidates to diminish the role that Values Voters are playing in this year’s election. I authorize Focus on the Family Action to represent my Values Voter Pledge before the media, political candidates or other suitable forums as a demonstration of the strength and seriousness of Values Voters in this election cycle.

The Social Pages: Out and About in LA

There have been some great LGBT events in the last month, and some fantastic ones coming up (just click on the link to the right under UPCOMING EVENTS to see the list).

Remember, nothing says PARTY like attending a fundraiser for your favorite LGBT non profit/advocacy/support organization! Get your community on, baby!

Of course, the talk of the town is the election. Everywhere you go, it's all about politics and the upcoming marriage initiative in November.

All the gals gather as The Trevor Project hosted it's first women's Sunday afternoon party.

Tiffany O'Hara talks to the crowd about working as a volunteer at The Trevor Project's suicide hotline. Peggy Rajki - one of the organization's co founders - stands to the left of her.
Producer/director Andrea Meyerson and Work Out's Briana Stockton watch the presentation.

At the OUTFEST major donor party, everyone went inside to watch Hillary's speech on the big screen.

With Kevin Connell and Thomas Stilling at the OUTFEST major donor cocktail reception.

The Gay & Lesbian Center hosted Simply D'Vine - a huge wine tasting at 2 Rodeo.

The first thing to greet me inside the wine tasting: a huge MOET stand with tastes of all their bubblies!

Casper Andreas at TheSmokingCocktail.com Mixer to celebrate the DVD release of his film, A Four Letter Word.