News 8/27/10

(You'll be swell! You'll be great! Gonna have the whole world on a plate!

Mehlmania album cover via the ever fabulous Dr. Zaius. "Only 1,968 years until the reign of Zaius!")

• Kenya has a sparkly brand new constitution!

• Former President Peanut, the right honorable Jimmy Carter, has freed and American from captivity in North Korea.

• The Associated Press reports the trapped Chilean Miners have dominoes and playing cards way down in their hole. Whew!

• Towleroad has video of Keith Olberman and Dan Savage discussing the Karma of Ken Mehlman. Congratulations on coming out Mr. Mehlman (we all knew you were gay by the way) and good luck in the long hard fight you have ahead of you. You have done an enormous amount of evil in the world and I applaud you for setting yourself on the path to making things better.

News 8/26/10

(Your morning purgative: A big, ugly sack of Karl Rove.)

• Joe My God has an excellent refresher course on newly out, former chair of the Republican National Committee and manager of Dubya's homophobic 2004 reelection campaign: Ken Mehlman, who is trying to make amends for the 21 states that passed marriage amendments during his tenure. I'm really glad Mehlman wants to make amends, I'm just saying it's going to be a really heavy lift. Oh, and he still supports all sorts of anti-gay republican candidates.  Mehlman also thinks gays should unite with the GOP in a shared hatred of Muslims. I think I'll pass on that...

• In related news: NY cab driver Ahmed Sharif is recovering from the knife attack that left him with slashes across his neck and face.

• Sarah Palin and Tea Party favorite Joe Miller leads Lisa Murkowski as Alaska senate race comes down to the last few thousand votes.

• With Jimmy Carter knocking on the front door, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il slips out the back.

• Getting those Chilean miners out of the ground is going to be a long, slow, dangerous process. Good luck and best wishes to the whole team and the waiting families.

News 8/25/10

(Photo of all around kick ass singer and civil rights maven Nina Simone by Roland Godefroy)

• Homophobic Putz loses bid for Governor of Florida. Bill McCollum is the hatenozzle who paid George "long stroke" Rekers over $100,000 to testify in court to keep gay adoption illegal. (Via Joe My God.) McCollum's loss in the GOP primary means the Democratic candidate will go toe-to-toe with some other hate-filled scuzzwad.

• John "Where's my Gin!?" McCain defeats JD Hayworth in Arizona. Lisa Murkowski and Tea Party candidate Joe Miller still too close to call in Alaska. Nate Silver did some super live blogging last night covering the primaries. He will certainly have up-to-date coverage and analysis this morning.

• Carlos A. Ball over at Huffpo: "Without factual support for their arguments, it is becoming less and less tenable for opponents of same-sex marriage to argue that their positions are not influenced by a dislike of gay people and their intimate relationships." His whole essay is worth reading and, for the record, I still think Jonathan Rauch is wrongedy-wrong-wrong.

• Wyoming couple brings federal suit against that state's law barring marriage equality. Good luck guys.

• Ball Memorial hospital to begin training staff about how not to be a bunch of trans phobic dicks.

• Jimmy Carter arrives in North Korea to chat with the bat-shit crazy ruler of that desperate, starving, totally nuts nation.