Miss VP 2008!

By now we all know that John McCain has chosen Miss Wasilla 1984 and Miss Alaska first runner up Sarah Palin to be your new Miss Vice President 2008. But did you know who she lost the crown to in that fateful year of '84? Sarah lost to this woman:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the lovely and talented Maryline Blackburn, the first ever African-American Miss Alaska! There's a certain symmetry to that, don't you think? It seems our Miss Vice President has a history of coming up short when she has black competition. Let's hope history repeats itself in 2008.

Photo of Maryline Blackburn from the Miss Alaska Scholarship Pageant.

Bristol, Willow, Piper, Track and Trig

No, these are not characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They are not Angelina Jolie's latest adopted quintuplets. They are Governor Sarah Palin's five kids. Not making it up.

Miss Wasilla for VP!

This is Sarah Palin, Miss Wasilla 1984 who finished in second place in the Miss Alaska Pageant. Oh yeah, McCain just picked her to be his VP running mate.

She's been governor of Alaska for about 20 minutes (actually about 2 years) after her triumphant term as mayor of Wasilla, AK. That's pretty much it. So much for McCain hitting on Obama's supposed lack of experience. Further, McCain is old and his VP pick, even more than the Democrats, has to be perceived by the public as ready to be President. Is the first term governor of the smallest state in population, with no foreign policy experience at all truly ready to be President?

She's also a conservative Republican, opposed to choice. How many Hillary supporters do you think he'll corral with this pick. My prediction is not many.

Yes We Can

I thought Obama's acceptance speech last night was amazing. It was hard-hitting and long on specifics, countering McCain's claims that Obama is just vague fluff. In fact, Obama hit directly at every Republican attack and turned them into strengths, and then dug into McCain's weaknesses. He appealed to common sense, fair minded Americans about abortion, gays and guns. Clearly, Obama is going to fight hard and smart.

He got huge cheers when he said "I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and live lives free of discrimination." Of course, that only scratches the surface of what gay Americans deserve by right, but it's miles ahead of McCain.

You can read and watch the entire speech here.

But beyond the speech, the moment itself was historic and moving. The fact that this man has accepted a major party's nomination for President on the anniversary of the I Have a Dream Speech gave the evening unmatched significance. Then there was the crowd. All sorts of Americans from all walks of life were cheering together, singing together, dancing together, arm in arm. It was an almost unimaginable sight.

When I watched this spectacle of 80,000 people cheering this man and heard his inspiring speech, I realized that the Republicans can't compete with this. McCain is not going to win. In a few weeks we'll have the first Presidential debate. Imagine stumbling, confused McCain verses a born orator. Obama is going to win in November and it will not be as close as the pundits are predicting. Mark my words.

Obamabump

After all the hand-wringing about Obama's (barely) slipping poll numbers, it turns out Obama's already getting a convention bump-up. According to the latest, up to the second Gallup poll, Obama's back up to 48% nationally compared to McCain's 42%. We can all breathe a little easier now.

Ivri in English

I'm a bit of an obsessed fan of openly gay Israeli singer Ivri Lider. Watch him talk about his upcoming English language album. Then you might want to go to his Facebook page here and watch him looking seriously sexy. The second one's in Hebrew, but with eye candy like that, who cares?

Ivri Lider to speak English for new album
Uploaded by PulvisInPulverem

God's Wrath

Have you noticed that a hurricane is on a path to hit New Orleans just as the Republican convention gets started? I suppose this is what McCain gets for dissing Hagee.

Dems Get Their Groove Back

I thought it was a great third night at the Democratic Convention after two uneven nights. It started out with Hillary interrupting the roll call to move that Obama be declared the nominee by acclamation. I don't believe there has ever been an opposition candidate who has made such a dramatic display of party unity. Good job Hillary. This should quell all that BS "puma" talk.

Bill Clinton gave a terrific speech further cementing the Clinton's support for Obama and concentrating particularly on Obama's readiness to lead in foreign policy. He hit all the right notes. Joe Biden gave a speech that I thought was a bit tepid. I had hoped he would come out more forcefully against McCain, but John Kerry made up for it. I thought Kerry's was the speech of the night. He went down hard on McCain and drew an effective comparison between Senator McCain and candidate McCain. Where was that John Kerry four years ago? In any case, here's his speech. It's about 14 minutes long, but well worth it (particularly since CNN decided America would rather hear a bunch of blathering pundits pull shit out of their collective ass than hear Kerry's speech).



Finally, of course, Obama made a surprise appearance. The crowd went wild. I believe he'll recapture his rock star momentum tonight.

Del Martin Dead

Lesbian activist Del Martin has died at the age of 87. In June, she legally married her lifelong partner, Phyllis Lyon, in California.

In 1955, Del and Phyllis and four other women founded the Daughters of Bilitis, which became the nation's first ever lesbian advocacy organization. They also served as plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to overturning California's same-sex marriage ban.

She spent her life in the fight and thank God she was able to marry her wife before she died.

Update: Towleroad interviewed Mayor Gavin Newsome at the Democratic Convention and he had these heart-felt words:

Kucinich 2012!

My long time readers know that I fucking love Dennis Kucinich. He spoke at the convention last night and owned that place. He showed more passion and commitment than 50 Mark Warners and the crowd loved it. Naturally, the Dems gave him some off time to speak and I doubt that CNMSNBFOX showed a second of it. Heaven forbid the loudmouth pundits should stop their endless masturbatory blather for a moment and actually show a real live Democrat talking about real live issues. The 12 of us who were watching C-Span got to see the Ohio Congressman work up some righteous emotion and call a spade a spade. Here's a quote:

"Wake up, America. We went into Iraq for oil. The oil companies want more. War against Iran will mean $10-a-gallon gasoline. The oil administration wants to drill more, into your wallet. Wake up, America. Weapons contractors want more. An Iran war will cost 5 to 10 trillion dollars."

Read more here.

Hillary Hits it Out of the Park

Hillary came to the convention last night with a mission to rally her supporters for Obama and quash all those media-driven, disunity stories. She came through like a champ, doing all that and more. She was introduced by her gorgeous, poised daughter, then delivered her message: it is time for all Democrats to unite behind Obama. I believe her supporters heard it and will now go home and work for a Democratic victory in November. I, for one, am a Hillary supporter who is enthusiastically behind Obama/Biden and I'm not alone.

I thought Hillary was at times funny, touching, sincere, and hard-hitting. She went after McCain and made clear that the Republicans will find no support from her. Finally, someone at the convention was tough on McCain. I believe the party began the evening with some lingering questions about party unity, and by the end of the evening, those questions had been resolved, thanks to our gal. In short, Hillary delivered. No Way, No How, No McCain has just become our new rallying cry.

Now we'll see if the media can let go of their disunity meme. Those blowhards love a controversy, so I'm not holding my breath, but even Andrea Mitchell said last night that something had changed and she believed Hillary had made a difference.

And did you see Brian Schweitzer, the governor of Montana? He was fun, full of life and hitting hard at the energy mess the Republicans have gotten us into. More of him, please. Favorite Schweitzer quote:

"Senator McCain has it wrong -- we can't simply drill our way to energy independence. If you drilled everywhere, if you drilled in all of John McCain's back yards, even the ones he doesn't know he has, that single answer proposition is a dry well."

Teddy and Michelle: Yes We Can

Of course I was watching the Dem convention last night, mostly on PBS because they presentd it with minimal pundit blathering. The cable networks, with their endless, self-reverential chatter about themselves, are pretty useless.

I thought the first hour or so of the convention was blah, boring and pointless. I was getting concerned that the Dems were wasting another opportunity. Let's face it, Claire McCaskill is not exactly the most inspiring speaker in the world. Then Caroline Kennedy came out and the whole evening turned. First of all, she looks fantastic and seems to embody the best of both of her parents. She introduced an inspiring piece on Senator Kennedy by Ken Burns. Great stuff and then Teddy himself came out, and with a booming voice, made everyone forget that he's struggling with brain cancer. Amazing.

Then came Michelle Obama. I think she knocked it out of the ballpark. She needed to tell her All-American story and show people that all those lies about her are just that, ridiculous falsehoods about a smart, admirable woman. She reduced the audience to tears and made her life story seem completely relevant to all Americans. She then brought out her adorable kids for a little video-chat with Daddy. Sure, it was hokey, but it seemed sincere and felt real. She did what she needed to do.

Tonight Hillary will speak, unite her followers behind Obama and end all that over-inflated talk about a divided party.

Monday's Man: Mathew Mitcham

I've written about him before, but he deserves another mention. The hot Australian diver won a gold medal in Beijing, keeping the Chinese from sweeping all diving golds. He was also the one and only openly gay male athlete who competed in Beijing.
It was, hands down, my favorite moment of the games. Congratulations to Matthew Mitcham!

Triumph of the Will

I'll miss the Olympics since I'm such a spectacle junkie and Beijing certainly delivered. But I can't help thinking the games were a little bit too perfect, or maybe a lot too perfect. First, there was the little girl who wasn't cute enough to sing, so a cuter girl lip synced. For the good of the state, no less. Then there was the dancer who was severely injured in rehearsals for the opening ceremonies, probably paralyzed for life, and the Chinese government tried to quietly shuffle her off to a hospital, replace her with another dancer and pretend like it never happened. It was only after American reporters asked a lot of questions that the government held a press conference and promised to do all they could for her recovery. Of course, there were fake CGI fireworks in case the real thing wasn't spectacular enough for the international TV audience.

So,through the iron will of the Chinese organizers, everything was perfect, beautiful and ran like clockwork. Where have we seen that before?

There were great moments, of course. There was Matthew Mitcham's unexpected gold medal in diving, Michael Phelps' amazing eight golds, Benjamin Boukpeti's first ever medal for Togo, and, of course, the long, long parade of insanely hot men. And even more hot men. That's what I'll miss most of all.

It's Biden!

I just got a text message and the following email:


"Sam --
I have some important news that I want to make official.I've chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois -- the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago.I'm excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can't do this alone. We need your help to keep building this movement for change.Please let Joe know that you're glad he's part of our team. Share your personal welcome note and we'll make sure he gets it:http://my.barackobama.com/welcomejoe

Thanks for your support,Barack"

Biden's a smart, experienced fighter. This is a great ticket

Australian Heat

It's the weekend so let's celebrate with a picture of Australian swimmer Eamon Sullivan. Just because.

I'm going to miss the Olympics

Junior's Type

Junior's comment after my Adam Van Koeverden post:

"Btw, the bald one in the first picture on that page you linked to is mine, he just doesn't know it yet."

That bald one is Andrew Russell, and thanks, Junior for giving me an excuse to post a picture of him. Check out a more revealing picture of Andrew here.

Oh what the hell. While we're at it, let's have one of Adam's right arm.

$273,000.00

That's what the McCains spent on household staff alone in 2007, according to Politico. Hey, it takes bucks to keep eight homes going.

But you folks who are loosing your homes to foreclosure just need to cut back on your vacation budgets.

More Canadian Heat

I blatantly stole this pic of Canadian kayaker Adam Van Koeverden from Square Hippies, which has a blazing hot series on the Canada's kayaking team. You've got to go there and check it all out. This isn't even the hottest picture in the bunch. Seriously, go.
I'd pick him up, how about you?

Picture source

Olympic Spirit

This man with gigantic biceps is Benjamin Boukpeti who won a bronze medal in whitewater kayaking. He is the first ever Olympic medalist from the nation of Togo. He probably won't get much air time on NBC, but this is what the games are all about.

Stephanie Tubbs Jones

Ohio Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones died suddenly yesterday in Cleveland. She had been found slumped over the wheel of her car after suffering an aneurysm. She was only 58. She was the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress and fought hard for progressive causes. As Towleroad reported, this included solid support for gay rights:

"Tubbs Jones had a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign and fought for same-sex domestic partner benefits, funding for AIDS treatment and prevention, stricter hate crimes laws, and against the banning of gay adoption over her career."

She was also known for her unflinching support of Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.

She is irreplaceable.

Texas Gold

Handsome Texan Steven Lopez is going for an impressive third gold medal in taekwondo. He's part of the amazing Lopez family that has produced three siblings competing in Beijing.

Steven has already won gold medals in Sydney and Athens and is expected to win gold in Beijing.

So many TV talking heads have been calling Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian of all time. With athletes like Lopez competing, I'm not so sure.

Spike!

Sometimes the NBC Olympics coverage can seem like one big beach volleyball tournament. But with players like cute American Sean Rosenthal, that's not a bad thing at all.


Unfortunately, they make the men compete in shirts. Not fair! If the women have to compete in sports bras and bikini bottoms, the men should compete in Speedos.

Bush Hates Living Things

The Bush administration has gone into overdrive to wreck what little bit of our nation that's left after almost 8 years of willfully inept government. Recently, there was the (still on-going) attempt to redefine abortion to include common forms of contraception and protect doctors who put their religion ahead of women's health. Now, he's waging a sneaky, back-door attack on wildlife. According to Salon, a proposed regulation would eliminate independent scientific reviews required under the Endangered Species Act. Under the proposal, biologists from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service would no longer have input into the actions of many other federal agencies. The agencies, many of which do not even have biologists on staff, could decide for themselves if the Endangered Species Act is violated by their projects. To twist the knife into the polar bear a bit more, the Bush administration will allow public comments only for 30 days and will not allow comments by email.

Considering George W. Bush's record on executions, torture, war, women's health, abstinence only education, the air, the forests, and now the wildlife, I can only conclude that he has no concern about living things.

Flying Canadian

In my continuing effort to bring you hot Olympians who are largely ignored by NBC, I present cuter than cute Canadian Jason Burnett.

He won a silver medal in trampoline today. Chinese men took gold and bronze, naturally. It was on while I was at the gym at lunch and Jason did amazing things in the air.

And amazing things with those tights.

Ellen and Portia's Wedding

They got hitched and it landed on the cover of People Magazine . The accompanying story rightly treated the marriage as the normal and beautiful event that it was. Congratulations!

The wedding of the queen of daytime TV to a beautiful actress is being celebrated in a hugely popular mass-market magazine. As Joe.My.God said, I can't think of a better advertisement for defeating that ugly Prop. 8.

Bulgarian Beef

This is Bulgarian gymnast Jordan Jovtchev, at 35, the oldest gymnast competing in Beijing. He has competed in every Olympics since '92 and has won silver and bronze, but gold has eluded him.

Which is all fascinating and he's an amazing athlete, but let's face it, that's not why I'm posting about him.

This is why I'm posting about him. It's all part of my mission to bring you crazy hot Olympians that NBC might not linger on.

If the name "Jordan" sounds a bit more American than Bulgarian, it may be because he lives and trains in Houston.

Solid Gold

Michael Phelps models the latest swimwear and leaves nothing to the imagination.

Yet somehow my imagination is piqued.

Thanks, Doug.

Source

Monday's Man: Anton Golotsutskov

This Russian gymnast won the silver medal in the floor exercise and definitely caught my attention in the process.
Purely for his athletic artistry, of course.

American Gold

American (and North Texan) Nastia Liukin (above, in flight) won the women's all around gymnastics gold medal while her teammate Shawn Johnson won silver. Yang Yilin of China took the bronze.

Too bad, so sad for the Chinese who expected to sweep all the gymnastics gold medals. It's all right, though. Those Chinese girls can always come back in four years when they might actually be old enough to compete.

Bite Me

The blonde god on the right is Austrian Ludwig Paischer who won a silver medal in judo in Beijing. I don't know who his gorgeous sauna mate is, do any of you? One of the joys of the Olympics is discovering athletes from other countries who are insanely, crazy hot. There's much more at OhLaLaMag. You really should visit.

Too Young

You know how everybody in the world thought those Chinese "women" gymnasts were too young to compete? Huffington Post reporter David Flumenbaum has found documents that seem to demonstrate that one gymnast, He Kexin, is only 14. To compete at the Olympics, female gymnasts must turn 16 in the Olympic year. Flumenbaum found a May article from the China Daily that listed her age at 14. The same article, still available on-line, now lists her age as 16. Flumenbaum also found a roster from a 2006 Chinese gymnastics competition that listed her birth date as January 1, 1994. That would make her 14 and too young. Frankly, I find it hard to believe she's 14. She looks more like 10. Who knows what her true age is.

If this is true, then the American women's gymnastic team was robbed of the gold medals they earned fair and square. Hopefully, the Olympic Committee will find some gonads and right this wrong.

"We're All Georgians Now"

That's what McCain said a few days ago about the Russian/Georgian conflict. Err, really? What on earth does that mean? Assuming he realizes this isn't the second burning of Atlanta (a reasonable mistake considering he was there for the first one), does he think we should go to war against Russia now? The far right is salivating over Russian aggression and carting out all their old Cold War talking points, without quite getting the subtle point that the Cold War is over and the Soviet Union with it's world domination aspirations is dead and gone. Russia is an enemy Americans can understand, I suppose, so that means more votes for Republicans.

McCain, meanwhile, has got a gigantic hard on over all this. He's dispatched his BFFs Lindsey Lohan Graham and Holy Joe Lieberman to Georgia as his "emissaries" to do...I don't know, emissary stuff or something. Gee John, shouldn't the real president do those sorts of things? Doesn't he have, let's see, a State Department that might be doing stuff? You're not getting presumptuous and uppity like that other candidate, are you? Nooo, perish the thought. McCain's a man of Action! While that elite effete skinny guy is hanging out with surfer dudes in Hawaii, McCain's on the phone to the president of Georgia every day. It turns out that President Saakashvili has announced that American troops are on their way, something the Pentagon immediately denied. Where did he possibly get that crazy idea? From someone who's not the President and has no authority to commit troops, maybe? Who knows? We're all Georgians Now!

When there's a whif of war in the air, you can practically hear the blood whooshing to McCain's dick. He doesn't know much about the economy, thinks our health care is peachy, but if there's a war to be fought, suddenly he turns into some fantasy Republican super hero. Reagan Man! (except Reagan was smart enough to only start wars in tiny Latin American countries that we could whip in a day. McCain's shaking his cock all over Russia. Yikes.)

Oh yeah, did you know that McCain's chief foreign policy advisor is a highly-paid lobbyist for the Georgian government? Did you know that on the day McCain called Saakashvili and said "We're all Georgians Now," said foreign policy adviser signed a $200,000 contract with Georgia? Funny how that all works out.