As someone who endorsed Clinton early in the campaign (well before the mainstream media went ga-ga over Obama after his Iowa victory), I saw her as the party’s best chance to beat the GOP nominee and the candidate with the most relevant international experience to tackle the myriad crises inflicted on us by George Bush.

Unfortunately, all the talk of experience and competence was belied by a campaign rife with incompetence. From Bill Clinton’s ruinous (and arguably racist) campaign swing through South Carolina, to an obvious failure to craft a strategy past Super Tuesday, her campaign staff made so many miscalculations that Hillary went from a coronation to a shocking defeat.

* * * *

But she didn't emerge victorious and the time has come for her supporters, gay and straight, to embrace Obama’s campaign for the White House. The stakes are too high to allow primary race disappointments to demoralize Democratic voters. And the stakes for gay voters are higher.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton’s gay supporters should take a day to mourn her defeat and then join Obama’s cause. She’s resilient and will bounce back, probably as Senate majority leader, a job much more in line with her skills than that of president.

After blogging about my being banned from blogactive, Michael Rogers went apeshit, threatening me with legal action if I were to e-mail him or his "colleagues" and even going so far as to say that I'm the reason why there is a high school for gay teens in NYC. And yes, he even cited information from an anti-gay activist.

Mr. Garcia:

Clearly you are not aware of my previous employment in an agency that served the same kinds of kids that you saw fit to abuse, which landed you in prison for a year. Let me be perfectly clear: If you write me, email me, call me, contact me in any further way, I will immediately contact the Bronx District Attorney and explain your harassment of me and visitors to my blog. This letter is to formally request that you cease and desist contact with me immediately.

Mr. Garcia, if you contact me or any of my colleagues, it will be considered authorization to reproduce the attached image on the web or imprinted form.

Google has been notified of your use of the web for nefarious purposes.

Michael Rogers
Blogactive.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A video of a Baghdad rocket attack posted online by a Republican congressman might have aided insurgents whose subsequent attack killed two soldiers, his primary opponent alleged Friday while demanding an investigation.

“It is imperative for the people of this nation, and especially those serving in the military, to know if a U.S. congressman exploited an attack on our military to impress voters back home,” said Lance Sigmon, who served as a lawyer in the Air Force for 21 years.

Sigmon is challenging incumbent GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry in the state’s May 6 primary election. McHenry, of Cherryville, is the youngest member of Congress and an outspoken conservative who is perhaps known best for his bulldog efforts to tweak the Democratic leadership in the House."

What Rogers does makes some Democrats squeamish, because they think no one should ever decide for someone else when he must come out of the closet. But Representative Frank is not among Rogers’s detractors.

“I think what Rogers does is legitimate,” Frank tells me. “I think hypocrisy is something to go after. If you had pro-life people having abortions, or if Sarah Brady had a gun, there would be no hesitation. Think of any other context in which people would be allowed to blatantly violate the public policies they advocate and say, ‘I have a right to keep this secret.’”

The erudite Frank -- often voted the smartest member of Congress by Hill staffers -- cites John Locke’s second treatise on civil government as the “philosophical grounding” for his position.

“Locke says that one of the major arguments for, in effect, representative government is, if the people who make the laws are not subject to the laws, they will make bad laws with impunity,” Frank says. “That was a very important principle in the document that was the single most important influence on our Constitution. A basic principle of free government is that rulers must be subject to the laws they make.”

On March 31st, police, investigating the allegation of rape by the 20-year old Marshall McCurdy, obtained a warrant to search Barclay's home. They didn't find evidence of rape. But they did find videotapes of hundreds of sexual encounters with men that Barclay had filmed on high-tech surveillance cameras. The cameras were hidden inside AM/FM radios, motion detectors and intercom speaker systems, among other places. There was also one at his business office.

None of the subjects were aware they were being filmed and no permission had been obtained, Barclay admitted. According to a second warrant issued on April 9th, Barclay also admitted to hiring prostitutes on a weekly basis from the now-defunct website harrisburgfratboys.com.

Peter Tatchell, the gay human rights campaigner, was detained by police this afternoon in London as the Olympic torch was controversially paraded through the capital on its way to Beijing. He was held briefly before being released with a warning.

Thomas Athans, the husband of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and cofounder of a liberal talk radio network, told Troy police detectives that he paid a prostitute $150 for sex at a Troy hotel in late February, according to a police report obtained Wednesday by the Free Press under the Freedom of Information Act.

"In talking about Ryan's first role, I realize that what I said came out wrong," the host said in a statement. "I certainly didn't mean any malice. I agree it was a dumb thing to say, and I apologize." Leno also called GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano directly to extend an olive branch.

Phillippe, on the show to promote his new film Stop-Loss, got his acting break on One Life to Live playing daytime television's first gay teen character. Leno riffed on the sexuality of the character, asking Phillippe to reenact his work by giving his "gayest look" to the camera. Phillippe tried to laugh it off, but Leno continued his misguided use of adolescent humor. The visibly flustered actor stood up and jokingly threatened to leave but stayed for the rest of the interview adding, "This may be my last visit."

"We are proud of Ryan for refusing to participate in Leno's thoughtless attempt at humor," GLAAD's Giuliano said after the incident. "Under the guise of comedy, the talk show host is demonstrating a lack of respect for the gay community and insensitivity to both his co-workers and the audience, to whom he owes an apology."

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: Senator Lieberman, I think, is a national treasure, because no matter how you feel about his politics, he was willing to risk everything, politically, for a cause he believed in.

The passing of Friday’s 5:00 p.m. deadline brings to a close a career in elected office that began with Craig’s election to the Idaho state Senate in 1974 and all but clears the way for Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch (R) to take his seat next year in the strongly Republican state where President Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) 68 percent to 30 percent in the last presidential contest.

"Anybody who looks at the two cases will see that there is an enormous difference between the two of them,” he said. “The people that are trying to draw comparisons to the two cases are people who’ve never agreed with me on important issues like immigration and other things.”