I love Election Day. Not so much because of the whole democracy in action hooha, but because it means the TV ads will stop for a few days, weeks, maybe months if I’m lucky. For the past few weeks, I’ve been bombarded with ads from Bill Halter and Blanche Lincoln, or from unions or companies or people with lots of money who couldn’t locate a match to set said money on fire and decided to air endless political ads instead. Blanche Lincoln votes in Virginia, not Arkansas! Did you know that means she’s a witch, and the only proper punishment is burning at the stake? Bill Halter sent jobs to India, or maybe Indiana, or somewhere, but look, scary brown people thanking him! Bill Halter hangs out with brown people! Let’s deport him!

Suck it, all of you liberal-hater Wordsmokers.

Okay, yeah. Glenn says it much more succinctly and better than I did (natch). But what he says always has been and is my point. One’s sexuality is part of one’s identity. The closet is a denial of that identity.

And if one’s identity–whether that be hetero- or homosexual–is nothing to be ashamed of, then why shouldn’t heterosexuality (Samuel Alito’s wife sat prominently in the front row during his Senate confirmation hearing) and homosexuality be treated equally when it comes to Supreme Court nominee hearings?

I wouldn’t be surprised if “closetedness” became a recognized mental illness at some point in the next several decades.

P.S. I don’t really think everyone who disagreed with me is a “liberal-hater.” Not all of you were liberal, and only some of you were haters. Some of you meant well. But most of you were–and remain–wrong.

Were you up late on Friday? And were you reading the best LGBT blog on the internet?

If not, then you probably missed the fact that President Obama, our self-proclaimed “fierce advocate” for equal rights for LGBT citizens has, once again, refused to insist on a repeal of the odious “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy in the latest military funding bill, despite his rousing State of the Union Speech a few months ago.

Obama refuses to put his money where his mouth is on this issue. Rather than rail at all you Wordsmokers about why Obama’s stubborn refusal to do the right thing on LGBT rights, DADT, the Defense of Marriage Act, and the rest of the laws and social conventions that force gays and gender non-conforming citizens into the closet is so terribly wrong, I’m just going to post an excerpt from one servicemember’s letter to his Commander-in-Chief. It lays out better than I ever could why these policies–and the posture behind them–are so profoundly unjust.

For those of you who think one’s sexual orientation ought not to matter and is no one’s business when it comes to public service, I encourage you to read the entire document:

You’ve probably heard by now that Elena Kagan is President Obama’s new pick for the Supreme Court. If confirmed by the Senate, she will replace Justice John Paul Stevens, who is retiring this term.

Andrew Sullivan, whom I tend not to like very much, has raised the question on his blog of whether Kagan, if indeed she is a lesbian, needs to come out. Like right now.

Sullivan’s got it right, surprisingly enough. It’s my humble opinion that Kagan does need to disclose her sexuality and that you and I and the rest of the people in this country who care about civil rights ought to care deeply about this.

The great progressive blogger Digby has weighed in on this issue, and for once she gets it completely wrong. Her point is that a Supreme Court justice’s sexuality is a private matter that doesn’t bear on a her ability to render sound opinions on the most pressing issues of the day. That notion, which is prevalent among the politically-correct and Obama-apologist class, is, quite simply, bullshit.

You might have heard, if you strained your ears and got them as close to your laptop speakers as possible and turned up the volume to max and had someone else point out what Mr. Biden said or saw a video who’s audio was enhanced and played it again and again like the following clip:

If you watch MSNBC or follow DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas (Markos) on Twitter, then you know that there is currently an intramural feud between certain standard-bearers of the progressive wing of the Democratic party and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

The heart of this feud appears to lie in America’s epically stupid debate over health care reform, and specifically Kucinich’s opposition to the Senate’s version of the health insurance reform bill that appears to be on track to become law in the next few weeks.

On February 13, 2009, Valentine’s Day Eve, the Senate and the House with enormous bipartisan support only three dissenting Republican votes, passed a historic and ineffective piece of legislation. Today marks the one-year anniversary (or approximate anniversary depending on when you read this) of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Although it was rumored to be an 1100 page bill, the actual page count is inestimable (or almost exactly 2.2 reams). Despite its prodigious girth, at the time of its passage, the bill was considered to be so important that there wasn’t even time to read it before the actual vote. Here’s Minority Leader John Boehner joshing around with his buddies on the House floor about the bill:

Yes, Rachel Maddow has apparently already used my hed (it was “coined” (as if such an extraordinarily clever mashup of politics and Internet memes wouldn’t have been spouted by some Twittering dick sooner or later) by Spencer “attackerman” Ackerman of the Washington Independent).

But let’s talk about Evan Bayh, because I think he and the way he went out says a lot about where we are as a country right now.

Bayh was a “Democratic” senator from Indiana who just announced his retirement. Why? Because Bayh is a delicate flower who can’t stand the fact that the Senate is hard and the left-wing blogs are super-MEAN!!!!!1!

Have you heard about The Wraparound, the hottest dance for your politically-cognizant fancy-pants?

Guess what? You just did!

Here’s the deal: The corporate capture of Washington, D.C. has gotten so bad that left-wingers like online organizer Jane Hamsher and progressive economist Dean Baker are now finding common cause with the likes of Randian moron Grover Norquist and Phyllis “I hate gays” Schlafly. I am seriously not making this up!

I like to keep my nose to the grindstone, my ass to the wall and my ear to the ground. This behavior provides me with keen political insight and severe back pain. Because of my nose, ass and ear connected to varied locations, I sense things. What I sense these days is hatred. I sense this hatred directed at one fellow in particular.

This fellow is Joe Lieberman.

We keep hearing how the threat of filibuster from some senators is forcing Democrats to gut the healthcare bill of any meaningful reform. First the public option bit the dust. Then, Senator Joe Lieberman refused to back a  Medicare-expansion compromise he once supported. Democrats who support the original bill have a majority, but they are “powerless” (we are told) to stand up to moderates like Lieberman because he might … filibuster! Oh no! And we couldn’t have that, could we?

Well I say: Go ahead and let Joe Lieberman stage a filibuster — but it has to be real one. That means he has to keep talking and stay on the senate floor. If he leaves the floor for any reason — for example, to go to the bathroom — the filibuster is over.

Enough of this pearl-clutching over supposed Obama bashing.

It’s just not true that Obama could never be “good enough” for me or my liberal friends and family.

I didn’t expect the world of this guy. But seriously, this?! Is it just me, or does every passing day reveal a man increasingly incompetent and cowed in the face of our military-intelligence complex and healthkleptocracy? Call me naive, but I did expect Obama to keep a few of his campaign promises and display at least a modicum of integrity while in office.

Here are three concrete ways in which Obama could have been “good enough” for me:

“America – we are passing through a time of great trial. And the message that we send in the midst of these storms must be clear: that our cause is just, our resolve unwavering. We will go forward with the confidence that right makes might, and with the commitment to forge an America that is safer, a world that is more secure, and a future that represents not the deepest of fears but the highest of hopes.”

Mike Dukakis is probably having a good chuckle, right about now.

After all, it was inconceivable that — after the gaffe he perpetrated by letting Willie Horton go on furloughs — any Governor would be dumb enough to let some hardened criminal back out on the street.

Enter, Mike Huckabee.

Brilliant news from upper New York state, where the losingest loser in the short history of loserish Tea Party patriotism has declared himself perhaps not such a loser after all, pending the counting of actual, you know, votes.

Yes, Doug “The Dud” Hoffman has done re-thunk his previously announced concession in the NY-23 race, deciding that maybe he’d like to be the winner instead. He thinks it is possible, based on uncounted absentee and military ballots that he must have forgotten about when he previously threw in the towel and admitted to being a loser.