Newt Gingrich uses "The Americano" to blame DREAM Act loss on teh gayz

A side-note on yesterday's Senate "Don't Ask Don't Tell" / DREAM Act vote fiasco....

Possible 2012 conservative presidential Republican candidate Newt Gingrich might have winked at the Tea Party recently when he gave his unqualified support to a crazy-ass cover-page Forbes Magazine article on President Barack Obama, but he's also setting himself up to be as the John McCain candidate of old (you know, the John McCain who used to be a lead semi-conservative voice for immigration rights before he turned into a cranky asshole).

If he runs, it's a safe bet that most of his rivals on the right will hem the xenophobic Tea Party mantra on immigration - and that he will position himself as the kinder, gentler conservative on the issue of immigration.

That, in fact, was probably the reason Gingrich launched The Americano in September of 2009, or, as the site's byline reads "your top source of Hispanic news and commentary".  Try not to think of FOX News when they describe themselves as "a more balanced view on all the issues that concern American Hispanics today".

Which brings us to today's leading headline: "Attempt to repeal 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' kills DREAM Act".

If you actually saw the proceedings, you'll realize The Americano is playing it both ways: The Republican Senate leadership actually argued they didn't vote in favor of the DREAM Act because they wanted a straight up and down vote on a Senate defense bill. In other words, they alleged they would have passed the bill if only the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" repeal AND the DREAM Act bill hadn't been included.  In fact, the rank and file of the Republican senate leadership used the DREAM Act to argue that the Obama presidency was "seeking amnesty for illegal immigrants".

Cue in a photo of angry Dan Choi on The Americano's entry page and an article with no byline saying that Republicans would have passed the DREAM Act if it wasn't for teh gayz pushing an end to "Don't Ask Don't Tell"

Pluhezzz The Americano, have more respect for the intellect of Latinos.

And now: A message from the next president of the United States

Gotta love this guy!

Barack Obama at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner tonight

Despicable: John McCain links Barack Obama to Hugo Chávez

One of those truly shameless John McCain attack ads has finally brought me out of blog post hibernation.

So far, most of the McCain smears on Barack Obama have been almost humorous in their obvious desperation but this one, supposedly meant only for Spanish-language media, really crosses the line (apparently an English-language version - above - has been posted on the McCain's YouTube page just for kicks).

Translation:

Announcer: Have you seen who Obama wants to talk with?
Hugo Chávez: Shitty Yankees! Go to hell, you shitty Yankees!
Announcer: Obama says that he would meet Chávez without conditions.
Hugo Chávez: Shitty Yankees, go to hell a hundred times!
Announcer: He said he would meet in the first year of his government.
Hugo Chávez: The United States which is behind all the conspiracies against our country.
Announcer: He said it was a disgrace that we haven't done it.
Hugo Chávez: If any aggression were to come against Venezuela, then there will be no oil for people or the government of the Unites States!
Announcer: Do you believe we should speak to Chávez?
Hugo Chávez: We, you shitty Yankees, know that we are resolute to be free, no matter what happens, and at any cost!
Announcer: In November, you decide.
John McCain: I'm John McCain and I approved this message.

The McCain camp calls the ads "Obama Chávez" obviously relishing the naughty opportunity to link Obama with South America's biggest anti-US dictator clown (the fucker, pardon the French, threw out two Human Rights Watch monitors earlier today based on a newly released report criticizing the Chavez government for human rights violations).

If this is what it has come to, perhaps blogger Andrew Sullivan is right in predicting that the McCain-Palin camp is about to fall off a cliff. We should all hope for a rout but until election day there's no surrender!

Except this is pure Chávez cat-nip! Watch him respond to the ad in ways that plays directly into McCain's hands!

Previously:

• Pride marchers are critical of President Chavez' record on LGBT rights (June 30, 2008)
• Top Venezuelan court says no to same-sex marriages (March 5, 2008)
• Hugo Chavez wants to be master of his domain (December 2, 2007)
• President Chavez is too macho to be gay (September 16, 2007)
• Venezuelan embassy in Spain defends Chavez from gay rumors (September 12, 2007)
• Is Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez - gulp! - gay? (September 8, 2007)

Breaking News: John McCain drops Palin, names Daddy Yankee as his new VP pick!

Maverick Republican presidential candidate John McCain certainly knows how to pick 'em! If you've been hiding under a rock (or watching CNN) you probably have just begun to hear the news just now.

The latest (and please try not to let your brain explode): Extreme right-wing Alaska governor Sarah Palin (right), who McCain announced as his running mate on Friday, has since been linked to the following:

• An ethics investigation for alleged misuse of her powers as a governor
• Trying to keep her 17 year-old daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy under wraps, which, of course, doesn't fit with the 'abstinence only' and 'wholesome family values' memes that have been used by Republicans over and over again
  
• And, most chillingly, "painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord" as The Huffington Post unveiled
  
• Oh, and that is tied to her emerging Reverend Wright moment (h/t Andrew Sullivan)

So pardon me for jumping the gun but I am now willing to bet that the BIG news of the Republican National Convention will be... drum roll please!...

Palin will be dropped by week's end and Daddy Yankee (above) will be McCain's new running mate! Here's why:

Both met John McCain only once and evidence indicates they were hardly vetted, if at all:

• In a jaw-dropping move, Daddy Yankee appeared at an event staged in an Arizona high-school a week ago Monday and endorsed McCain (they had only met only once before and the campaign staff were reported to be at a loss on how the endorsement arrangement came about - and were clueless about his raunchy lyrics).
• In a jaw-dropping move, Sarah Palin appeared at an event staged in Ohio on Friday and was named as McCain's vice-presidential pick (they had met only once before and she was only vetted a week ago today - and staffers were clueless about everything that has been revealed since she was selected).

Both have children with colorful names:

• Daddy Yankee, who is 31, has three children with his wife Mirredys: For some bizarre reason they thought it would be cute to call their kids Yamilet, Jesairis (nicknamed Yayi) and Jeremy (ok, Jeremy gets a pass). For someone who is a musical star in Puerto Rico, he is famously protective of their privacy and rarely talks about them to press.
• Sarah Palin, who is 44, has five chidren with her husband Ted: For some bizarre reason they thought it would be cute to call their kids Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig (ok, I admit Trig is a pretty cool name). For someone who is a political star in Alaska, she has certainly benefitted from having a large family and being seen as a mom with good ol' American family values.
  

Both love la gasolina:

• Daddy Yankee's biggest hit was "Gasolina" which McCain famoulsy invoked during the endorsement event apparently oblivious to the fact that the song is not about pumping gasoline but, instead, about - er - pumping semen into a girl.
• One of Sarah Palin's biggest hits with conservatives is her embrace of oil drilling as a panacea for the economic doldrums. McCain has famously said that the ticket will push for accelerated off-shore oil drilling aparently oblivious to the fact that he's just making oll companies wealthy and destroying the environment with little economic return.
  

Both love their guns and ammo:

• In building up his street-cred, Daddy Yankee can't stop singing about guns and ammo even though, as with "Gasolina" sometimes in his songs a gun means something else altogether.
• In building up her street-cred, Sarah Palin can shoot AK-47's with the best of them even when she's showing her children how to kill Bambi's dad.

Both are way, way, waaaay out-of-field VP selections which appeal to very specific voting niches:

• Daddy Yankee is from Puerto Rico and appeals to Latinos
• Sarah Palin is from Idaho and appeals to gun-tottin' PUMA's

Both are tapped to head-line events during this week's Republican National Convention:

• Daddy Yankee headlined what was supposed to be a Latinos for John McCain fundraiser concert on Monday (which, alas, came on the day that Hurricane Gustave hit Louisiana so the money was given to the Red Cross instead).
• Sarah Palin is headlining tonight's prime time speeches (which, alas, was meant to be celebratory but now seems to be all about damage control).

Neither has any idea of what a vice president does:

• Daddy Yankee 'cause, well, he's Daddy Yankee
• As for Sarah Palin she is actually on record (check the 2:55 minute mark from this YouTube video from a month ago)

And if she doesn't have a clue, why not select Daddy Yankee for Vice President? I mean, how worse a VP selection could it turn out to be?

Plus, McCain would look more hip to the youngsters as well! Or not... (via David Ortez)

Ben Smith: Daddy Yankee tried to endorse Obama before endorsing McCain

And, regarding the endorsement of John McCain by reggaeton star Daddy Yankee, how could things not get even funnier?

If you missed it: On Monday Republican presidential candidate John McCain made a special appearance at Central High School in Phoenix, AZ - where his wife Cindy graduated in 1972 - and brought out Daddy Yankee for a public endorsement in front of 120 cheering students.

That afternoon I translated an excerpt from "Latigazo" - just one of Daddy Yankee's many raunchy songs (in it, he describes being with a woman who enjoys being hit, slapped, whipped and punched in and out of bed and sings about asking her to kiss a good buddy of his) - and wondered about the stupidity of staging an endorsement by such a misogynist recording artist at a high-school!

For Daddy Yankee the endorsement was supposedly all about McCain's track record on immigration issues (never mind that in moving to the right he has dropped most of his pro-immigration stands) and a Latina.com article says this of Daddy Yankee: "When we asked if he had plans to meet with Democratic candidate Barack Obama, Yankee responded with a curt, 'No.'"

Curtness indeed! Today Ben Smith at Politico says this:

A Democratic Party source tells me a representative for Daddy Yankee approached Obama's Latino outreach staffers earlier this year about possibly endorsing Obama. But he didn't pass the vetting, and Obama's aides said they weren't interested in his support. So, apparently, he moved over to McCain.

So here is John McCain, cluelessly walking into what seems to be an attempt by Daddy Yankee to use the presidential race to get publicity for his sputtering career. Damn! Just who is vetting who at the McCain camp?

If this had been an Obama endorsement event Fox News and the right-wing radio chatterers would be going crazy with this. And, as silly as it may be, you do have to wonder just how seriously clueless the McCain campaign is.

UPDATES: Fox News pipes up! If only to say that Daddy Yankee is denying he ever approached the Obama camp (no mention of his songs' lyrics though).

Also, there is a Hispanic Ledareship Fund press release out saying that Daddy Yankee will be headlining a Fiesta Latina concert on the opening night of the Republican National Convention (Sept. 1).

In the meantime, recording artist Fat Joe tells MTV that Daddy Yankee is a sell-out.

FACEBOOK GROUP: By the way, there is now a Latinos who reject Daddy Yankee's endorsement of McCain Facebook Group.

SIDE-NOTE: Ben Smith's original post on Politico was titled "Obama rebuffed by Yankee Daddy" which he quickly changed to Daddy Yankee when someone pointed out his mistake which shows how little about Latino pop culture some of of the most read bloggers know out there. Then there's Wonkette who says: "It was confusing when Hispanic rapper guy Daddy Yankee endorsed John McCain in person the other day, because who is Daddy Yankee?" which is actually a common sentiment out there as well. If you haven't heard about Daddy Yankee, then he must be a nobody, right?

RELATED:

• Barack Obama didn't want Daddy Yankee's endorsement anyway (Guanabee)
• Not all Latinos support Abuelo Yankee (Reggaetronica)
  

Reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee endorses John McCain

Castígala! [Punish her!]
Dale un latigazo! [Hit her with the whip!]
Ella se está buscando el fuetazo! [She's looking for a lashing!]
Castígala! [Punish her!]
Dale un latigazo! [Hit her with the whip!]
En la pista te voy a dar... [On the dance floor I will give you...]
Yo pal' de azotazos y palmetazos! [...a couple of beatings and slap her with the palm of my hand]

Just the opening salvo from reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee's hit "Latigazo" (video above). And that's as a prelude to singing about sharing the submissive girl with a friend and describing how she asks to be beaten-up again while having sex with him!

Yeah, I know. Pretty par-for-the-course when it comes to reggaeton. Thing is earlier today Mr. Daddy 'Let's-beat-up-that-girl-on-the-dance-floor" Yankee endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain in front of dozens of adoring, giggling and screaming teenage girls at a hush-hush event closed to the general public.

And guess what! A beaming McCain fully accepted the endorsement (see video below).

Not that we expect McCain to be a reaggaton fan or to even know Daddy Yankee (or what he sings about) but this is up there with McCain inardevertedly offering his wife Cindy McCain as a contestant for a topless beauty pageant at a biker's rally. Yikes!

By the way, Marisol has a different take on this endorsement even as we both agree that it might backfire on McCain:

Rather than addressing the social realties that reggaeton speaks to and represents, it remains easier for certain segments of the Latino/a community to dismiss reggaeton and the culture around it as an aberration of Latinidad. It's crazy because in a way this whole Daddy Yankee - McCain thing made me think about the way's in which Latinos/as are climbing over each other for a piece of that Americano Dream. At whose cost are Latinos/as representing themselves as idealized American citizens? (Excerpt from "Los Republicanos, pt. Deux" - Post Pomo Nuyorican Homo, August 25, 2008)

Update:

• Ben Smith: Daddy Yankee tried to endorse Obama before endorsing McCain (Aug. 27, 2008)

Related:

• Daddy Yankee Comes Out... As a Young Republican and for McCain (Rod2.0)
• McCain endorser blends reggaeton with 'gangsta rap' (Raw Story)
  
• Is a John McCain - Daddy Yankee ticket forthcoming? (Los Angeles Times)
  

LGBT bloggers for Obama

Seems as if that summer bumble-bee is not pretty enough for some of you to tide you over until my next blog posts (see post below and hit 'Comments'). Damn it!

Well, here's some news: Long time activist and philanthropist Terry Bean has launched a blog to encourage LGBT community members to contribute to the Barack Obama campaign in these presidential elections.

The site, which provides fundraising tools to help the campaign, information on how Obama compares to John McCain on LGBT issues (and, truly, McCain is simply no match), links to local "Obama for President" meet-ups and events and tools to encourage your friends to support Obama, can be found by clicking on the above image or here:

LGBTforOBAMA.COM

The effort is also notable for something else: Featuring a bevvy of well-known bloggers and activists for content and comentary.

They include:

• John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog
• Bil Browning, Jerame Davis and the crew at Bilerico Project (and associated blogs Bilerico Project - Florida and Bilerico Project - Indiana)
• Yours truly at Blabbeando
• Michael Crawford at Bloggernista
• David Mixner at, well, David Mixner
• Waymon Hudson at Fight Out Loud
• From the Left
• Jeremy Hooper at Good As You
• HRCbackstory, the Human Rights Campaign official blog
• Hillary Rosen at The Huffington Post
• Obama Pride and Obama Pride - Metro DC
• Michael Rogers at Page One Q
• Pam Spaulding at Pam’s House Blend
• Cathy Renna and the team at Renna Communications
• Rod McCullum at Rod 2.0 Beta
• Keith Boykin and the team at The Daily Voice
• Michelangelo Signorile at The Gist
• Terrance Heath at The Republic of T
• Daniel DiRitio at Thought Theater
• Andy Towle at Towleroad
• Marti Abernathey at TransAdvocate

...also included is Barack Obama’s Blog

Others in the LGBT for Obama team include television actor Chad Allen, former HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch, Reverend Gene Robinson and community activists Phil Attey, Vic Basile, Jeff Hickey, Corey Johnson, Robin Kane and Jake Kaskey.

At the moment, the two top posts explain the purpose of the blog and showcases a comparisson table between Obama and McCain.

Fresh daily content can be found right below those two posts.

Barack Obama on LGBT families

I have been struggling with returning to a more frequent blogging schedule. Most of it is work related stuff that keeps me from writing as much as I would like. But that's life.

It's been a while since I wrote about Barack Obama and the presidential race. I just checked past posts to see when I first mentioned the Democratic presidential candidate and I was surprised to see that it goes back to March of 2007 - loooong before his momentum-changing January caucus win in Iowa.

That all seems so long ago now and I still remember the general reaction from friends involved in politics in New York when I'd tell them I preferred Obama over Hillary Clinton. The general reaction seemed to be a mix of pity and concern for preferring someone who OBVIOUSLY had no chance in getting the Democratic nomination (I remember a friend telling me that he respected my political conviction but that sometimes in politics one had to be pragmatic and go with a winner).

Then came LGBT Latinos for Obama at a time when the argument was that few Latinos would vote for a black man and Sergio Bendixen, a pollster working then for the Clinton campaign, whispering to the New Yorker magazine that "...the Hispanic voter--and I want to say this very carefully--has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates."

Well, guess who Bendixen is working for now. Enough said.

Now, there's been a lot of blabbering about Obama becoming a centrist politician and of sacrificing his true political nature but, for some of us who have followed him even before Iowa, his recent positioning on issues have not been a surprise and actually reflect some consistency, except - perhaps - on FISA.

On LGBT rights some will still not forgive him for the Donnie McClurkin drama from last year despite the fact that McCain has lurched way right on LGBT issues flip-flippity-flopping on DOMA and adoption rights for same sex couples - trying to appease those on the extreme homophobic right who would love to see the gays stoned and tarred. And despite that Obama has been close to stellar on his support for the LGBT rights.

Anyway, as the presidential election enters the silly season (if these were the primaries and John McCain was a Democrat he'd long ago been asked to leave the race as desperate and insubstantial as his campaign is becoming), I wanted to bring your attention to a pretty amazing statement released by the Obama campaign earlier today.

Barack Obama on LGBT families:

In light of the recent and offensive statements by McCain on the right of same-sex couples to adopt, Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of the Family Equality Council, wrote the following to the Obama campaign:

As a lesbian mother and the executive director of Family Equality Council, the national organization working to ensure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families by building community, changing hearts and minds and advancing social justice for all families, I know how hard parents work to raise happy, healthy children. Regardless of their sexual orientations and gender identities, regardless of how many parents or caregivers are present in a family, all parents begin each day with their children at the forefront of their thoughts. On behalf of diverse families, I ask for your plan to recognize, respect, protect and celebrate all of the loving families you seek to represent... These families want to know how your administration will address their needs. What policies and positions will you take to make sure that all loving families are recognized, respected, protected and celebrated? How will you lead all families to a brighter future?

This afternoon the Obama campaign posted excerpts from a response from Barack Obama himself which reads as follows:

While we live in a nation that is enriched by a vast array of diverse traditions, cultures and histories, it is our commonality that most defines us. The desire to build a life with a loved one, to provide for a family and to have children who will grow and thrive -- these are desires that all people share, regardless of race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. My own experience has taught me this lesson well. I was born to a single mother, my devoted grandparents helped raise me, and then I married the woman of my dreams and had two beautiful daughters.

and

We know that the cost of the American dream must never come at the expense of the American family. For decades we’ve had politicians in Washington who talk about family values, but we haven’t had policies that value families. Instead, it’s harder for working parents to make a living while raising their kids. It's even harder to get a break.

That's why I'll double spending on quality after-school programs - so that you can know your kids are safe and secure. And that's why I'll expand the Family Medical Leave Act to include more businesses and millions more workers; to let parents participate in school activities with their kids; and to cover elderly care. And we'll finally put federal support behind state efforts to provide paid family and medical leave. We'll require employers to provide seven paid sick days each year. We'll enforce laws that prohibit caregiver discrimination. And we'll encourage flexible work schedules to better balance work and parenting for mothers and fathers. That's the change that working families need.

and

We have to do more to support and strengthen LGBT families. Because equality in relationship, family, and adoption rights is not some abstract principle; it's about whether millions of LGBT Americans can finally live lives marked by dignity and freedom. That’s why we have to repeal laws like the Defense of Marriage Act. That’s why we have to eliminate discrimination against LGBT families. And that’s why we have to extend equal treatment in our family and adoption laws.

I’ll be a president that stands up for American families – all of them.

My expressed support for Obama has nothing to do with a cult of personality or the so-called Obama-mania that opponents use to disqualify support for the man (as a matter iof fact, I avoided some recent 'Gays for Obama' gatherings in the city because they seemed to much about rah-rah which I wasn't interested in).

I loathe false hopes and I am always weary of predicting who will win, specially when it comes to political campaigns. But this presidential race offers such an opportunity to do the right thing. Vote for Obama!

BTW, today and a bit late to the game, the DC-based Human Rights Campaign announced that they will officially endorse Obama this week.

• Related: Sen. Obama responds to Jenifer Chrisler's questions on family policy (Family Equality Council blog, August 5th, 2008)

Do Republicans get a pass?

So a minor political dust storm was kicked earlier this week when both leading Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama seemed to hesitate for a moment on whether homosexuality was "immoral" in the wake of General Peter Pace's comments to the Chicago Tribune.

Both Clinton and Obama quickly released statements (here and here, respectively) seeking to quell the rising sentiment that they were perhaps more concerned about losing potential votes from centrist Democrats or moderate Republicans.

But what about those leading Republican presidential candidates?

The Politico has asked the question to representatives from the top three Republican presidential candidates (McCain, Giuliani and Romney) and - guess what - they all dodge the question as well.

In the meantime, John McCain seems to have stumbled on a question he didn't like either. No, not just on the issue of "immorality" of homosexuality but on the use of condoms to stem the transmission of HIV/AIDS.

From the Washington Post's On the Campaign Trail blog:

And then someone asked about public funding for contraception in Africa to prevent the spread of AIDS.

"I'm sure I've taken a position on it in the past," he stammered as he looked to his communications director. "I'm sure I'm opposed to government funding."

Sensing a vulnerable moment, reporters kept the questions coming. What about sex education in the schools? Should it mention contraceptives? Or only abstinence, like President Bush wants?

"I think I support the president's present policy," he said, tentatively.

More questions: Do condoms stop sexually transmitted disease?

A long pause.

A stern look.

"I've never gotten into these issues or thought much about them," he said, almost crying uncle. "Obviously, we all want to stop the spread of AIDS. Everybody wants to do that. What's the most viable way of doing that?"

Well? The reporters asked?

In a last ditch attempt to rescue himself, McCain told an aide to go get a briefing paper prepared by Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, a doctor, who he said has been advising him on "these issues." But the aide couldn't find the briefing paper. "We've lost it," McCain mumbled.

"Whether I support government funding for them or not, I don't know," McCain said about contraceptives. He then said he'd look into it for the reporters, who finally let him off the hook and moved onto other subjects again.

Yikes! This sure will be one looong presidential race...