It’s been a while since I got all that political on here, but I figured it was time again…  😉

I think it’s come to a point in the election where it’s clear McCain/Palin don’t have much of a clue and the calm, steady, competent choice is Obama/Biden. It’s not just about gay issues…

• Obama (and the people advise him) are better on the economy. Early in the campaign McCain admitted he didn’t know anything about the economy. When he was asked who he’d consider for Treasury Secretary the first name he mentioned was Warren Buffet – an Obama supporter. And his suggestion that the federal government pay for everyone’s bad loans is just offensive to those of us who only took on as much as we could afford. Plus, Robert Reich (I LOVE that man’s mind) is such a strong Obama supporter he supported him in the primaries, despite his history with the Clintons.
• Obama is better on foreign affairs. Why? ‘Cause it’s about diplomacy, not war. The rest of the World is rooting for Obama to win, which means he’ll have an easier time making peace, which is what we need right now.
• Obama is better on civil rights. So much has been taken away from us in regards to civil rights in the past 8 years, we need someone who will stop that and put it back where it should be.
• On every issue except gay marriage, Obama is better on gay rights. Since when is marriage our only issue? There are so many others and McCain/Palin are almost always on the wrong side of the issue, or their support for us is half-hearted at best.

Frankly, I don’t understand US voters. I mean how was it that George W. Bush won the last election? 86% of the people in Manhattan voted for Kerry. That’s about how it should have been nationwide, IMO. I don’t even understand how it could have been close, nevertheless Bush won…

Actually, I sorta do get it. Bush won the last election because of bigotry toward gays. Outlawing gay marriage is what got a lot of conservative voters to the polls and it was enough to get him elected. Think about that for a moment. We might be out of Iraq by now and not in a deep economic hole if it hadn’t been for the fact that so many straight people hate us so much that they went out of their way to make sure we wouldn’t be considered their equals.

This time around it’s racial bigotry, “the Bradley effect” might make McCain win, even though Obama is ahead in the polls. Curious how the news media is talking openly about racism this time around, but didn’t talk about homophobia last time. But again, we might have the weaker candidate win simply because of bigotry. When you think of it that way America deserves whatever misery it gets if its politics are guided by hatred and fear…

Take a look at what average Republicans are willing to say openly these days. I can see why they don’t use the word “moral” much anymore…

How can a Log Cabin (gay) Republican feel good about being a Republican when members of their party use the words like “Commie Faggot” so easily? And no one in that crowd seemed bothered by what what going on. Do you think any of those people would care if they saw you getting gay bashed?

If you’re one of those racists who just can’t see yourself voting for a black man, then as the video below points, out Obama isn’t exactly black – he’s half white. So “vote for the white half”…  🙂

Seriously… Your freedoms are at stake in this election. Three liberal Supreme Court justices are thinking of retiring. If you can’t see it any other way, vote for the candidate who will appoint the best judges.

And if you can’t say Barak Obama’s name without saying his middle name in there too… Do everyone a favor and just stay home.

The problem with democracy is that people like the woman above vote. Yet democracy is still the best system in the long run, but it only works if the voters are educated, and guess which party is best with education?

Just to push the point a little further… In last night’s debate, in the context of discussing hate speech at his political rallies, John McCain said the following…

That’s right, he said “Let me just say, categorically, I’m proud of the people that come to our rallies.” I was shocked. That said, he has corrected some of the people who’ve called Obama a Muslim and a terrorist, and been boo’d for it. So who knows what he really thinks.

That said, look what people at McCain rallies said to a reporter from Al Jazeera…

I’m sorry, but there’s way too much of that shit in the Republican party. It’s time for good Republicans to stand up and say something, but I seriously doubt that will happen. I mean Bush is killing and torturing people and simultaneously wrapping himself in the mantle of Christianity. Meanwhile real Christians, who follow the pacifist teachings of Christ, have said practically nothing. There’s a reason why I’m down on the Republicans – this stuff has been going on in their party since the 70s. I know ’cause I was at some of the Moral Majority rallies with Anita Bryant and Jerry Falwell back then. It’s gotten worse and worse and people have just gone along with the fear and hatred. It needs to stop. If we’re lucky Obama will win, things will get better, and what the hate mongers say will just sound empty, hollow and bitter.

I’d like to compliment John McCain on his choice of running mate. He went with 44 y.o. Sarah Palin – the Governor of Alaska. I think it was a brilliant choice and will get insure him the election.

Things are close now and from what I can tell there are plenty of white people in the US who just won’t vote for a black guy as President. Hell, if we have gay guys who can’t understand why Obama is a better choice than McCain, Obama is shit out of luck.

Palin compensates for a lot of McCain’s shortcomings – she’s young, female, and vibrant. All those feminists that wanted a woman in the White House just might vote Republican. Who knew feminists would vote Republican?

To me this is just all really sad. I don’t get why people don’t understand that McCain is just 8 more years like Bush…

Oh well, at least I live in a wonderful liberal bubble called NYC, where even many of the Republicans are liberal (if you can find them).

UPDATE: So after a few days now it looks like Palin would be even less qualified than G.W. Bush to run the country should something happen to McCain (which is completely possible given his age). Apparently she left the little town she was mayor of in financial ruin and her being on the PTA is still consisdered relevant experience by the Republicans.The question will be who is more qualified – Palin or Quale?

So, any thinking person would never elect her to the #2 spot in the free world, but then again after the last two elections where Bush’s incompetance was so obvious, I don’t see the US electorate made up of thinking people anymore… So, all I can say is, if McCain/Palin win, the US derves every minute of misery they’re sure to heap on them – lost jobs, soliders dying in pointless wars, human rights restrictions, etc.

Just saw this on Joe. My. God.

Ten New York Republican Senators have introduced legislation to the State Senate that will ban homophobic bullying in schools. The ‘Safe Schools for All Children Bill’ calls for training to help teachers identify and respond to bullying and places the responsibility of keeping tack on bullying cases with schools. The bill also includes protection for transgender students and teachers and a cyber-bullying stipulation.

In other words, even Republicans in New York understand that you need to protect gay kids. That’s so far ahead of so many places in the US – usually you just find that stuff in New York City, not new York State as a whole. Kudos to the NYS Senate!

I didn’t grow up here, but I’m still proud to call myself a New Yorker – it truly is a great state!

THE BOTTOM LINE: A portion of the money you give to Manhunt has gone and apparently will continue to go to conservative Republican causes.

Get this – the owner of Manhunt has given the legal maximum to the McCain campaign. If in the past we boycotted companies like Coors for working against gay rights, I think we need to hold members of our own community to an even higher standard – especially ones that make their money by facilitating gay sex!

So here’s what I’d like you to do… Use the customer service link on Manhunt to tell them what you think of their owner’s politics. They’re making $30 million a year off of us having sex, they should not be working against us.

Next, make it so your membership does not automatically renew – change it so you have to manually renew. If they haven’t fixed the problem by the time your membership renewal date rolls around, don’t pay them more until they’ve reversed their policies (a big contribution to the Democrats would be nice.)

And lastly, put something in your profile telling other people to write customer service as well. Let’s make it clear that if they want our money they cannot support people who don’t like gay people.

Yes, they have every right to be self-hating jerks, but not with our money. Use Adam4Adam instead (it’s free), or better yet BarebackRT – anything but Manhunt. Do not give your money to someone who is going to give even a cent of it to the Republicans and set our rights back even further!

UPDATE:

Just to make things perfectly clear… Here is where McCain stands on gay rights vs say abortion rights (which we know Republicans hate) in terms of whether he’d consider a running mate who was pro-choice or pro-gay…

I think it’s a fundamental tenet of our party to be pro-life but that does not mean we exclude people from our party that are pro-choice. And I think Ridge is a great example of that. Far more so than Bloomberg, because Bloomberg is pro-gay rights, you know, a number of other issues.

So there you have it – being pro-gay is an anathema to the guy – pro-life he can live with (surprisingly), but not pro-gay – god forbid! Which explains why it’s unforgivable for the owner of Manhunt to give him money (in case there was any question).

UPDATE #2:

Well, there’s been a big development… The guy who donated to McCain (Jonathan Crutchley) has stepped down from Manhunt’s board of directors. The problem is that he’s probably still the main recipient of Manhunt’s profits. To me, that’s a good first step, but it’s not over yet… I want to know when I give them money that none of it will get to Republicans.

A massive donation by Jonathan Crutchley to a very liberal gay cause would go a long way right now…

UPDATE #3:

I had this whole blog post written which I’m not going to publish. The bottom line is Manhunt is a bit of a divided company. It appears the a majority shareholder (Larry Basile) is pretty liberal, but his co-founder (Jonathan Crutchley) is a Log Cabin Republican who gives to conservative causes. While Crutchley has stepped down he will continue to get a huge share of Manhunt’s profits and will continue to give to causes most of us abhor.

Manhunt (the company) is hiding behind the excuse that the company didn’t give the money, an individual did, but for me the bottom line is that money from customers is going to people and causes most of their customers have huge problems with. Yes, Crutchley has the right to give the money, but he shouldn’t expect his customers to want to give him more money to give to conservative causes.

The company is also being completely rude to their customers who object. If you put anything about it in your profile (like “I won’t fuck Republicans who give money to McCain”) they remove it and send a pissy message saying Manhunt is not a political forum. To me that’s bullshit. If their profits can go to conservative political causes, then they should at least allow funny polticial commentary in profiles. And for god’s sake – APOLOGIZE! The letter they send is so fucking harsh and never once acknowleges that people have a completely understandable reason for being mad at them.

Basically, given how they’ve handled the situation they’re saying what Crutchley did is reasonable. I have a big problem with that. They need to be on their knees apologizing for his actions and separating themselves from him. They really need to buy him out, bu I understand that takes time.

Here’s what I urge all of you to do…

• Stop giving Manhunt money
• Try out other hookup sites like BarebackRT and Adam4Adam
  
• When you have to ask other Manhunt members to e-mail you pics, explain why you don’t have a paid membership.

IMHO, I don’t think a formal boycott of Manhunt will work. The issue is too complicated since there are liberals at Manhunt, and people feel sorry for the employees of Manhunt. As far as the employees I’m not too worried about them as a group – the jobs Manhunt will lose, some other hookup site will gain.

But don’t take this lying down… Please send a clear message that Jonathan Crutchley is a liability for Manhunt and the sooner they buy him out, the better…