Auspiciousity

08-08-08 is supposedly the luckiest day of the century for the Chinese.

It was for lanky stud Michael Phelps, who's on his way to his 8-medal goal. His relay team won the gold by a fraction of a second to France.

Not so lucky for athletes who wore smog masks like normal Chinese citizens. They were forced to apoligize under cloudy toxic skies.

Not so lucky for the family of an American coach who was murdered in a strange incident by a Chinese man who leapt (or was pushed?) to his death afterward. The assailant's identity was unknown (or made to disappear?)

The victims were Todd and Barbara Bachman, parents of former Olympian Elisabeth Bachman, who is married to men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon. Bachman's father was killed.

The assailant also stabbed and injured a Chinese female tour guide with the Americans. He then committed suicide by throwing himself off a 130-foot-high balcony of the ancient landmark the Americans were visiting, the 13th century Drum Tower, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.


Oh, and those amazing fireworks over Bejing? They were partially faked. Yep, faked. Just one of many frauds from the massive country to which NBC is bowing and scraping, and in complete complicity. After all, China owns a lot of our debt, all of which was created under the Bush regime.

And what of Chimpoleon and his visit? War broke out in Georgia as Russia invaded, and what did Chimpy do? Sit petulantly at the stadium, yuck it up with bikini-clad women volleyball players, and generally make an ass of himself, so much so that one Republican Iraq War vet has turned against the GOP. A little too late, bub.

Oh, well. It is all about the athletes, even the allegedly pre-pubescent female Chinese gymnastics team. The Chinese cheat?

That would be inauspicious. And you won't read about that, or this, in Bejing.

Just remember, major corporate sponsors are: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Snickers, General Electric, Kodak, Panasonic, Samsung, Visa, Johnson & Johnson, Adidas, UPS and Budweiser. I bet you can think of a fine substitute for every one of them.



More Chimpy being all LOLBush here.

Olympic Sweep

2 Million displaced by Beijing Olympics, 40,000 jailed



Gleaming and amazing, China’s £200million Olympics stadium is shown to the world as a proud symbol of the country’s dramatic change.

But two million people driven from their homes for this summer’s Beijing Games could tell a different story… if they were allowed.

A tale of how their lives have been ruined for the sake of their rulers’ Olympic dream.

Of how their houses have been torn down with just a month’s notice.

And how those who have dared to complain have been tortured and jailed.

More than 40,000 people have been arrested for organising protests at the way lives in China’s capital have been destroyed. Many have been treated brutally by police.

And more than 200,000 have had to live on the streets while they seek a new home - in towns and cities miles from their old ones.

But Prime Minister Gordon Brown saw no sign of them on his visit to Beijing last month. Before he arrived police swept them from the streets.

Last night Amnesty International UK protested to the Chinese Embassy in London over the treatment of citizens such as Ye Guozhu, evicted with his wife and son.

He was told their home was to be razed to make way for a park to beautify the capital for the Games. There was no offer of compensation and no advice on where they could live. Ye, 38, began planning a 10,000-strong protest.

When the police learned of the plan, Ye was arrested and beaten unconscious. He woke up in a grubby cell. (more at link).

Enjoy the Olympics.

Home, less

"It's like you've stumbled upon the Cosmic Lost and Found Office, Sagittarius. whether or not it happened 'by mistake' is irrelevant. It's an opportunity to recover good stuff that prematurely disappeared from your life. But keep in mind that your valuable s may be mixed in with abandoned and forgotten junk, both yours and other people's. You might initially feel discouraged at the prospect of having to wade through all that meaningless dross in order to locate your treasures. Don't give up. Your diligence will ultimately be rewarded." - Rob Brezney


That was my horoscope the week before I flew back out to Ohio, for probably the last time (except as ashes in a box headed for the cemetery), to help my brother completely empty our family house and prepare it for auction.

My mom's already moved to Tucson, but is missing things, like her computer, and her car, which, as I type, are en route to Tucson, thanks to my bro.


Yep, we sold out childhood home and everything left in it that we hadn't shipped to ourselves, for a little over $100,000. Not much, but pretty good considering the market and the economy.


Memories since 1970 (We lived elsewhere in Ashland for a few years, and in NYC before that) were boxed up, shipped, sold, or thrown out.


Old family friends who still live in Ashland stopped by to bid on a few trinkets. Then Becky took me, bro, and pal Lori out to the Lyn-way, a favorite restaurant, more known for its pies than the quality of its cuisine.



I should have been melancholy, but was instead elated after a near week of boxing and hauling, tossing and sorting. The cutie-pie junior auctioneer made things entertaining. He donned a flowered hat that had hung lifeless on a wall for years. The 50-year-old yet good condition wooden lawn furniture was sold to a woman who is a family friend, and who grew up in the house before we lived there.

That's the good thing; all those objects sitting in that house, are dispersed, and given new life. The house, cleaned out and ready for a vital, young new owner, will enjoy a resurrection. Out of our hands, we're free to continue our lives elsewhere.

More later. Here's the auctioneer with my sister's hat:

Black out

It was great to be completely offline for almost a week when I visited Ohio, probably for the last time, to help my brother sell our mom's house and estate. A month before, we'd helped her move to Tucson, and I'll have pics and videos of the sale soon.

Actually, catching up has been quite time-consuming. It's a good thing I get to proofread my own paper, otherwise I wouldn't have time for news. But for other updates, I check out my filtered news sources of choice, 365gay.com, JoeMyGod, Towleroad and Queerty.

People are getting assaulted outside bars, pride marches are being attacked, McCain continues his flatulent campaign, etc. etc.

The pic above is from today's solar eclipse, visible in China. The folks there say it's a bad omen for their Olympics. I'd say they're right. Bulldozing the homes of thousands, imprisoning thousands more, shutting down gay bars, using slave labor, censoring all media access, bullying through the torch ceremonies.

Yep, you got a truckload of bad karma. I'd be worried about more than the moon upstaging the sun.

War Presidents

Huffington Post has photos and video of Barack Obama in Iraq on a congressional visit; face it, it's also a pre-presidential audition.

So far, nobody's been killed in droves, as they were immediately after John McCain visited a few years ago. John will have you believe that's because things are going great it in Iraq, which means soldiers should stay there, for years. decades. And then bomb Iran. And then Syria, and whatever other countries are on the New World Order's list, and in McCain's Manchurian Candidate ticking time bomb of a brain.

Oh, and while relic McCain says gays should still not serve openly in the military, or at all, 75% of the nation thinks differently.

Public attitudes about gays in the military have shifted dramatically since President Clinton unveiled what became his administration's "don't ask, don't tell" policy 15 years ago today.

Seventy-five percent of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, up from 62 percent in early 2001 and 44 percent in 1993.

Majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike now believe it is acceptable for openly gay people to serve in the U.S. armed forces. Shortly after he took office in 1993, Clinton faced strong resistance to his campaign pledge to lift the military's ban on allowing gay people to enlist. At that time, 67 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of conservatives opposed the idea. A majority of independents, 56 percent, and 45 percent of Democrats also opposed changing the policy.

Today, Americans have become more supportive of allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the armed forces. Support from Republicans has doubled over the past 15 years, from 32 to 64 percent. More than eight in 10 Democrats and more than three-quarters of independents now support the idea, as did nearly two-thirds of self-described conservatives.

Changing attitudes on the issue parallel broader swings in public views about homosexuality. In their recent review of 20 years of polling data, the Pew Research Center reported "a major shift away from highly negative attitudes toward gays and support for punitive actions against gays." In the 2007 Pew data, for example, 28 percent said local school boards should have the right to fire teachers known to be gay; that was down sharply from the 51 percent who said so in 1987.

Let's see how it takes before Cramps McAint flipflops on this one, too.
That is, if he bothers to read "the googles" and see the news.

'04 Dead in Ohio

Ohio Attorney Files to Lift Stay on '04 Election Case, Cites Allegations, Evidence of Massive Fraud by a Number of GOP Operatives

At a press conference this morning in Columbus, Ohio, Cliff Arnebeck, lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the case of King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell, announced that he is filing a motion to "lift the stay in the case [and] proceed with targeted discovery in order to help protect the integrity of the 2008 election."

Arnebeck will also "be providing copies of document hold notices to the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform and the U.S. Justice Department for Karl Rove emails from the White House."

This case has the potential to put some of the most powerful people in the country in jail, according to Arnebeck, as he was joined by a well-respected, life-long Republican computer security expert who charged that the red flags seen during Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election would have been cause for "a fraud investigation in a bank, but it doesn't when it comes to our vote."

"This entire system is being programmed in secret by programmers who have no oversight by anybody," the expert charged, as Arnebeck detailed allegations of complicity by a number of powerful GOP operatives and companies who had unique access both to the election results as reported in 2004, as well as to U.S. House and Senate computer networks even today.

The presser was attended by some of the corporate-controlled media, including the head of the Ohio AP bureau, the Columbus Dispatch, and IndyMedia. Listening in by phone were ABC News, our friends from RAW STORY, and I, your humble blogger. I recorded the presser, so I have no links for the quotes in this post, but I transcribed them word-for-word and can vouch for their accuracy.

One of the more delightful and interesting quotes comes from Arnebeck, concerning what he expects to discover as the stay is lifted: "[W]e anticipate Mr. Rove will be identified as having engaged in a corrupt, ongoing pattern of corrupt activities specifically affecting the situation here in Ohio."

Map of sudden election changes in Ohio in 04

Previous article on Ohio Election fraud in 2004

Not Diebold, but Traid, did it:

December 15, 2004

As part of the Democratic staff's investigation into irregularities in the 2004 election and following up on a lead provided to me by Green Party Presidential Candidate, David Cobb, I have learned that Sherole Eaton, a Deputy Director of Board of Elections in Hocking County, Ohio, has first hand knowledge of inappropriate and likely illegal election tampering in the Ohio presidential election in violation of federal and state law.

Friends & Associates

My hunky Cyclizen book cover model Patricio is on the flyer for the Trannyshack Kiss-off Party next month. You must go see the end of a drag era.

* My former OutWeek editor Mike Signorile has a popular radio show. Recently, a caller implied that dead pig bigot Jesse Helms was a crossdresser.

* Elizabeth Dole might make a better drag king than an eloquent politicians. The old Rethuglican hag wants to rename an AIDS funding bill after alleged ugly drag queen Jesse Helms. Rethugs sure have a bitter appreciation of irony. JoeMyGod rails on appropriately.

UPDATE: HIV Travel Ban Lifted as AIDS funding bill is approved. Dole's cynical attempt to name it after gay-hater and barrier to AIDS prevention funding -pig bigot Jesse Helms- fails.

* Prop 8 backers (the "we hate gay marriage 4ever cabal) hate each other so much that they're splitting up!

* Back when I was writing my much-read 8-part series on the California AIDS Rides, PR firm Bragman, Nyman & Cafarelli basically obstructed, colluded and prevented me from getting any quotes from AIDS Ride flacks, including the elusive Dan Pallotta.

Well, the CAR is dead of its own bloated corruption, replaced by AIDS rides organized from within nonprofits.

But Howard Bragman, who's gay, of its PR firm continues to occasionally hype ...questionable clients, like Al Reynolds, Star Jones' allegedly not-gay ex-hubbie.

Oh, and ousted Grey's Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington is another of his clients. He's the one who allegedly called costar T.R. Knight a faggot, etc.

Outsports has a buttkissing piece on Bragman somewhere on their cluttered site. Yada yada. I'm bored.