Somethings are too important to be left to the private sector. Voting is one of those things. From RS: A leading cyber-security expert and former adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says he has fresh evidence regarding election fraud on Diebold electronic voting machines during the 2002 Georgia gubernatorial and senatorial elections. Stephen Spoonamore is the founder and until recently the CEO of Cybrinth LLC, an information technology policy and security firm that serves Fortune 100 companies. At a little noticed press conference in Columbus, Ohio Thursday, he discussed his investigation of a computer patch that was applied to Diebold Election Systems ...

Fishbowl America Round-Up for July 18th:

Harold Ford Thinks Homophobia Is Politically Expedient: Former Democratic congressman Harold Ford spoke today at the Netroots Nation conference. Ford explained to the audience that sometimes you just have to embrace positions that a lot of Democrats don’t like, in order to win conservative districts. For examp ‘Sordid Lives: The Series’ Premieres In NYC: Golden Girl and TV legend Rue McClanahan was joined by her castmates Caroline Rhea, Olivia Newton-John and Leslie Jordan at the NYC premiere of their new 12-episode series Sordid Lives which took place at New World Stages earlier this

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Anti-atheist bigotry is becoming a bipartisan pastime in this presidential election. Obama has called for an expansion of Bush's hate-based initiatives to divert federal funding away from inclusive charities and towards religious ones.John McCain is not willing to be outdone in pushing for discrimination against people like myself. (Baltimore Sun 7/17/08)CINCINNATI - Appearing before some of his presidential rival's most ardent supporters, Sen. John McCain urged delegates to the NAACP convention yesterday to support school vouchers as a way to improve education in largely black, underperforming school systems.McCain acknowledged that he will have difficulty making inroads among black ...

The recent flap over the “South Carolina is so gay” British ad campaign has left the heads of LGBT citizens in the Carolinas spinning. What the hell happened and how’d it happen so fast? One minute, South Carolina’s going about its “Dixie”-whistling ways and the next it’s busting out with Barbara Streisand show tunes and musicals. Then, out of no where, the politicians take over and the Pink Palmetto is slammed back in the closet. The story broken by Q-Notes — that the directive to do away with the “So Gay” campaign came straight from the office of Gov. Mark ...

Advocates for gay and lesbian parents are denouncing Sen. John McCain, an adoptive father himself, for opposing adoptions by gays, which prompted his presidential campaign to clarify Tuesday that he does not seek a federal ban on the practice.Only one state, Florida, outlaws adoptions by gays, which have become commonplace in much of the nation.The Republican nominee-in-waiting was asked for his views on the subject in an interview published Sunday in The New York Times. "I think that we've proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don't believe in gay adoption," ...

"From a fashion viewpoint, Michelle Obama looks so comfortable and relaxed in her style and her fashion, and she exudes that. She has a presence that gives you confidence in her. Cindy McCain looks like someone has twisted her pony tail into a knot and tried to give her a face lift."~Project Runway's Tim Gunn in a Time Magazine interview. You'll have to watch the interview, as the bolded section above seems to be missing from Time's print version. Interesting.And from the candidate himself:"I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of ...

Washington Whispers: These are the never-before-seen last known photos of Sen. John McCain’s Hoa Lo prison cell, images that prove that even after being cleaned up for an American historical filmmaker, the terror of the Hanoi Hilton is real. Debra Watkins, who took the pictures and video in 1993 and 1994 before this and other areas of the century-old prison were destroyed, provided them to Whispers as part of a story that appears in the Washington Whispers column. Share on Facebook ...

Fishbowl America Round-Up for July 12th:

• Syria, Lebanon To Open Embassies, France Says - Syria and Lebanon will open embassies in each other, France’s president says. However, Syria’s leader was more cautious.
• Cynthia McKinney Nominated By Green Party For WH Run - The liberal environmentalist Green Party nominated former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney as its presidential candidate Saturday. Cynthia McKinney represented a suburban Atlanta, Georgia, district for six terms as a Democrat.
• LGBT Donors Say No To Nunn - Over at eQualityGiving, the amazing LGBT philanthropy related on-line community, a report by John Norris up that includes former Sen. Sam Nunn’s

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by Ethan Jacobs associate editor, Bay WindowsLate last month a group of about 100 movers and shakers on the religious right met in Denver and agreed to support Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign. To those who followed the 2004 presidential race news of McCain’s recent efforts to woo the culture warriors of the religious right provoked an awful sense of déjà vu.One of those power players, Phil Burress of the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values, told the Washington Times that he had met with McCain and that the Arizona senator had promised "to make judicial appointments that will resemble ...

The Huffington Post reports that at least 120 videos featuring controversial pastor John Hagee have been removed from YoutTube: "The timing was, perhaps, more peculiar than the move itself. Clips that had been online for well over a year were now being subjected to 'third-party' copyright infringement claims. And while Hagee had not been in the mainstream press since he and Sen. John McCain ended their official relationship a month prior, Hagee's Christians United for Israel annual summit is just days away, and at least one prominent McCain backer (Sen. Joseph Lieberman) is set to be in attendance." The clips ...

Fishbowl America Round-Up for July 7th:

• Changes In China: Koppel Investigates - The image of Ted Koppel interviewing world leaders is so ingrained that it feels odd to see him wearing a hardhat for a nervous trip into a Chinese coal mine, or sitting in a Chongqing karaoke bar where teenage girls are hired to “entertain” male customer
• Bush To Meet Russia’s Medvedev - US President George W. Bush on Monday holds his first face-to-face talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a chance to weigh up Vladimir Putin’s heir and tackle outstanding disputes.
• McCain Promises To Balance Budget - Sen.

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