In the midterm elections, the Democrats made enough gains to win the House and the Senate. However, there were a number of close races the Democrats lost in the House.

The queer community has been slighted and ignored by the national Democratic Party for years. The process was accelerated under Howard Dean, who got rid of lgbt liaisons and who discouraged discussion of our issues in Democratic campaigns. The last time the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress in the 1993-1994 session, no significant lgbt civil rights legislation passed. In fact, a more severe version of the military ban was passed into law, replaces a less draconian executive order.

Under these circumstances, it was hardly surprising that the queer community was not as energized or involved in 2006 as in the early 90s.

Given that one can easily expect many close races in 2008 and that control of the House and the Senate could be easily grabbed by the GOP, it would be wise for the national Democratic Party to work to repair its relationship with queer voters.

The Religious Right made a strategic decision after the Supreme Court's ruling legalizing sodomy to focus on same-sex marriage as their main front for attacking and scapegoating queers, trying to make us pay the price for the failure of the institution of marriage. This made sense politically, since same-sex marriage is the most unpopular lgbt issue.

The Democrats need to take the focus off of marriage and find another queer issue to draw the general public's attention to. Hate-crimes legislation would be an intelligent choice, given that it is the most popular lgbt issue.

If the Democrats in Congress want to restore lgbt confidence in the idea that supporting Democrats will result in positive differences, they need to pass a major lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights law. Passing hate crimes legislation that includes sexual orientation and gender identity would serve that purpose quite nicely. Can you imagine suburban Republicans outside of the South having to defend a vote that lets people getting away with beating and killing people because they are gay ?

Whether Bush passes the legislation or vetoes it, the Democrats would show that they got something important to queers accomplished that Republican party leaders had blocked in Congress for over a decade.

Congressional Democrats have a lot to prove to queers. Passing hate crimes legislation would be a politically expedient and morally valid way of doing so.

Although the corporate media have too strong of a pro-Republican bias to openly acknowledge it, the racist Corker/GOP ads against Harold Ford won the Tennessee Senate Seat for the GOP. However, there were three other very close Senate contents that should be considered.

Missouri
McCaskill 49.5%
Talent 47.4%

Montana
Tester 49.1%
Burns 48.4%

Virginia
Webb 49.6%
Allen 49.3%

The controversy over the bigoted ads certainly effected the voting behavior of several groups.

1)African Americans: They had every legitimate reason to be outraged, and voter outrage is one of the most effective GOTV motivators around. Also, some black Republicans probably voted for Democrats this time around. The racism of these commercials must have reminded some people in that community (and some other Americans) of the GOP's racist response to Hurricane Katrina.
2)Latino and Asian Americans: Although they wouldn't have been personally attacked by the commercials, discouraging attacking someone for their racial or ethnic origins certainly was in their best interests. The ads may also have reminded some immigrant communities of the racist hysteria behind some of the GOP's immigration rhetoric.
3)Whites who are offended by racism: Many whites thought our country had gotten beyond the kind of racist nonsense in the Corker commercials. They had a rude awakening.
4)People offended by the ugly tone of the campaign: The corporate media tried to act like negative campaigning was equally distributed among Republicans and Democrats. This is absolute nonsense. Democrats ran more positive ads than Republicans. Democratic negative ads tended to focus more on policy differences. Republican negative ads tended to make weird and unbelievable accusations about the characters of Democrats. Swing voters were turned off by the GOP's hateful campaign tone, at least outside of the South.
5)Partisan Democrats: These disreputable ads were tremendously powerful, but unintentional, GOTV tools for Democrats who feel that their party has been treated unfairly by the Republicans for years.

On the other hand, it is unlikely that hardly any racist whites in other states would change which white person they voted for because of anti-black ads in another state.

When you factor in the large African-American populations in Missouri and Virginia, it is obvious that Democratic victories in both of those states were the result of the Tennessee ads. It also is possible that the Corker/GOP racism cost that party Montana too, with the very thin margin of victory for the Democrat.

Desperate Republicans saved one seat in Tennessee only to throw away 2-3 Senate seats elsewhere. They almost certainly lost a few close House elections because of the wildly racist commercials as well.

How many Republicans does it take to screw in a light bulb?

The light bulb never actually gets screwed in, but hundreds of Republicans in right-wing think tanks work feverishly to find a way to blame Bill Clinton for it.

It was difficult to understand why the Bush regime dragged out its show-trial of Saddam Hussein so long. It was an embarrassing spectacle to people who care about America and its values. It also provided an example of how dysfunctional the Bush Regime's colonial governance of Iraq has been.

Now we know the reason for this delay. The Bush regime scheduled the verdict and sentencing for the weekend before the midterm elections. People who are informed about Iraq will not have their opinions influenced much by this game-playing. However, Karl Rove is trying to pick up small percentages of voters in crucial states, not all of whom will pay much attention to the news or to politics.

I was just watching MSNBC and saw how Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough were trying to spin this like crazy, suggesting that people should all vote Republican just because of verdicts hitting at just the right time, in a joke of a trial. The corporate media are relentless in their pursuit of a rightist, pro-GOP agenda. We will have to see if this spin makes any difference.

Saddam Hussein is hardly a sympathetic figure. Yet, the Bush regime tried him on a relatively small massacre, leaving out his more enormous crimes. They have cut him a break in terms of his legacy in Iraq by not trying Hussein for his larger crimes against humanity.

Why? It is simple. Saddam Hussein got his chemical and biological weapons from the Reagan administration. Guess who were the two Reagan administration officials most famously involved.

That's right. They are Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

The crimes that Hussein was not charged with are as fascinating as the timing of the verdict in this Stalinesque show-trial.

Site with Famous Photo of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein

"Heckler Subdued at George Allen Event"

This headline, on a story with a byline for Bob Lewis of the Associated Press, was extremely misleading. In the article, you find out that George Allen staffers put someone in a chokehold. Putting someone in a chokehold is not “subduing” someone. It is assault and battery.

The San Francisco Chronicle at least included mention of the chokehold, though some news outlets that ran the AP story conveniently edited it out.

The assault and battery victim, Mike Stark, was asking perfectly reasonable questions about claims that George Allen spat on his first wife. Court records from Allen's first divorce have been sealed, an unusual circumstance which only adds to the suspicious nature of the situation.

Mike Stark was asking the kind of questions that any mainstream reporter would be asking if not for the rampant right-wing bias in the corporate media. Yet, the AP article dismissed him as a "heckler" and downplayed the crime of assault and battery that was committed against him. Just because Stark is a centrist blogger does nothing to alter or justify the crime commited against him or the lack of real reporting from the corporate media.

If newspapers want moderate and liberal readers to take them seriously, they need to make sure their articles are accurate and not pro-GOP propaganda. Wire services need to have higher standards of accuracy or they will continue to undermine the circulations of their customers, daily newspapers.

MyDD has some excellent suggestions for Google-bombs for this election cycle. I have edited some out for the following reasons:

1)Some links had expired.
2)Wikepedia articles tend not to be that accurate on controversial matters, though it is a wonderful resource for non-contested matters such as gardening.
3)Some articles seemed only parenthetically related to the candidates in question.
4)One article actually criticized a Republican for switching a position from pro-Iraq war to anti-Iraq war.

Plenty of links remain. Even if you have no interest in influencing search engines, the remaining articles are a rich resource on the GOP Congress.

Here is what people really should be seeing in their search results when Googling GOP candidates.

CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

CT-04: Christopher Shays

FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

FL-22: Clay Shaw

IN-02: Chris Chocola

IN-08: John Hostettler

KY-03: Anne Northup

KY-04: Geoff Davis

MD-Sen: Michael Steele

MN-06: Michele Bachmann

MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

NV-03: Jon Porter

NH-02: Charlie Bass

NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

NM-01: Heather Wilson

NY-03: Peter King

NY-26: Tom Reynolds

NC-08: Robin Hayes

OH-01: Steve Chabot

OH-02: Jean Schmidt

OH-18: Joy Padgett

PA-04: Melissa Hart

PA-07: Curt Weldon

PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

PA-10: Don Sherwood

RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

TN-Sen: Bob Corker

VA-Sen: George Allen

VA-10: Frank Wolf

WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

WA-08: Dave Reichert

The latest Republican filth in the Virginia Senate race is so disturbing. The Democrat, Webb, was writing a book about what he saw in Vietnam in a way to show some of the more disturbing aspects of what our troops experienced there.

If you are interested, the details of the custom Webb wrote about and Allen's campaign is describing are available.

Yet, the Allen campaign is calling passages in the book describing this ritual behavior in Indochina "child pornography." How could anybody come up with something so incredibly warped? I find it difficult to see how anyone but a pedophile would misinterpret Webb's writing in such a fashion. There must be a pedophile or group of pedophiles working for Allen. It is the only plausible explanation.

It also is useful to keep in mind that child molestation is rampant in the GOP, something the corporate media refuse to acknowledge because of their conservative, pro-Republican bias.

www.armchairsubversive.com

I am so sick of the constant barrage of telemarketing calls I'm getting on my land line, all of which are from Republicans. One of the worst offenders is my GOP House incumbent who thinks that harassing people and violating peoples' privacy is the way to win votes.

I was considering voting for a Green Party candidate in this race, but now I'm punishing the Republican scumbag by voting for the Democrat.

I'm still wondering how those scumbags got my unlisted number.

Just when you thought the GOP wouldn't come up with another way to make you hate them...

The corporate media and the GOP are constantly spinning about "records" in economic data. The Bush regime was fond of talking about "record home ownership," though home ownership records should be happening all the time in a country whose population is growing.

They try similar nonsense with "record tax revenues." We would have to be in a depression, not just our current economic stagnation, in order for that not to be the case. As usual, the ordinary is lionized as some sign of spectacular success.

Now, the GOP and the corporate media are doing the same thing with "record Dow numbers." These should be happening fairly often, since stock markets increase in value over time. Yet, late 2006 is the first time it has happened under the Bush regime.

People are more used to hearing "records" discussed in the context of sports, where they are true achievements. In economic data, beware of “records” that are quite ordinary.

The Yahoo! message boards are primarily a venting arena, but every once in a while, an excellent idea is brought up there. In this case, the idea is to seize the assets of Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater, Big Oil, the Bush Family, the Cheney Family and other Bush regime cronies to help pay for the Iraq war.

It was be justice, both poetic and literal. Besides, why should the taxpayers foot all the bill for an illegal and unAmerican war in Iraq? It's not like we elected any of these people.

James Hagedorn, CEO of Scott's Miracle-Gro, is pushing hard for a homophobic hate-group, the Republican Party. At a recent GOP fundraiser, Hagedorn said:

"It may be unpalatable to push the button or pull the lever for a Republican this year, but the choice is not to flush the party of business down the toilet," Hagedorn told about 50 fellow businessmen and (Republican Rep. Deb) Pryce at the breakfast. "As bad as the Republican Party has gotten itself, what's the choice?"

It would be shameful under any circumstances for Hagedorn to support a viciously homophobic organization like the GOP under any circumstances. To support such a hate-group when it also is in political trouble for massive corruption adds insult to injury.

The Republican he was raising funds for, Pryce, has engaged in viciously homophobic spin derived from the Christian Right. After her opponent ran an ad criticizing Pryce and the GOP leadership for protecting Mark Foley, Pryce accused her opponent of “gay baiting.”

This was a reprehensible use of the Christian Right's talking point, that Foley is in trouble for being gay, not for sexually harassing minor employees. It is a devious effort by Pryce to equate homosexuality with pedophilia and sexual abuse. It is hardly new for Republicans like Pryce to smear us by associating us with child rapists, but it still is just as morally repugnant when it happens.

I refuse to buy any more Miracle-Gro products until the company has another CEO. By supporting the GOP, Hagedorn is endangering me in terms of possible physical assault or loss of employment. The fact that he is raising money for a particularly despicable homophobe like Pryce only makes things worse.

You can express your outrage at Hagedorn's behavior by filling out the online form at:

http://www.scotts.com/index.cfm/event/contactUs.showForm