Show Me State Shows Up For Obama

100,000 people at a St Louis Obama rally held today at the foot of the Gateway Arch.



And how many peeps are the McPalin folks getting when they're not wearing their white hoods on the weekends?

My Local Races

The old political axiom is 'all politics is local'. I'm happy to hear that an Obama team armed with truckloads of cash is searching for more opportunities to put McPalin on the defensive.

I'm overjoyed to hear that Kentucky may get more love and attention and possible visits over the next two weeks as this historic presidential race comes to a contentious, nail biting close.

We're already seeing more Obama ads on the tube here in Da Ville since our local TV stations broadcast into southern Indiana. Indiana is rapidly turning into a meeting engagement in the overall fight for the magic 270 electoral votes.

We're also seeing ads for the latest fight between Rep. Baron Hill and Mike Sodrel for the Indiana 9th congressional district seat.

We have some hot races here in Bluegrass country as well. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader is in a fierce battle just to hang on to his senate seat with Bruce Lunsford.

It's also highlighted by the fact that Mitch refuses to debate Lunsford, which isn't sitting well with me and many Kentuckians anxious to hear what he has to say about his 24 years in the senate and the current financial mess that he and other Republicans deregulated us into.




Speaking of legislative reruns, Anne Northup is trying to regain the seat she controlled for ten years before she lost it in 2006 to Rep. John Yarmuth.

Yarmuth's not only beating her as of this writing, he's been a vast improvement over little GOP Annie and her vote in lockstep with Bush 90% of the time record.

He also has a 'A' from the NAACP on his congressional report card compared to Annie's 'F' grade. Yarmuth also supported Sen. Obama in the Democratic primary and if the current polling trends continue, Rep. Yarmuth will have a very happy birthday on November 4.

I've had the pleasure of meeting him and discussing issues with him at the numerous community events he makes time for. Since he's also a man of means, he donates his $150,000 congressional salary to various local charities as well.

We also have several Metro council races, judicial races, school board and state legislative ones to weigh in on as November 4th approaches.

As a proud TK, the school board ones definitely have my undivided attention. Two members who voted for the JCPS GLB employment policy, Stephen Imhoff and Larry Hujo are being opposed by Simonite candidates. Imhoff is my rep on the JCPS board so I'll have a say in that race while Hujo is Polar's rep.

Hujo's opponent has school age children in private schools and has openly stated the reason he's running is because he hated the policy that passed on a contentious 4-3 vote last year. I question why somebody who has kids in private school would run for the JCPS board anyway. It's like putting an anti-government zealot in charge of a government agency.

With the presidential election is the Super Bowl in terms of this election cycle, w also need to ensure that Sen. Obama has help in the House and Senate to turn his proposals into law.

We also need progressives at the state, county and local levels as well.

All politics may be local, but in order to begin to think and act globally and see the type of progressive change we desperately need after years of conservative regression, we have to empower people locally who have broad progressive policy visions as well.

Win, Place And Show Me The Money

I mentioned I spent a few hours in Lexington yesterday at Keeneland along with Polar.

We were doing our annual traditional trip to Keeneland to help Dawn celebrate her October 12 birthday but I was the one having a very good day.

I've been living here for seven years and yesterday was only my third trip to a racetrack despite living in Louisville and having Churchill Downs not far from me.

The only track I've been to is Keeneland, and to be honest it's actually prettier than the Downs. It's a beautiful facility on a large plot of land near the airport with ample parking and a parklike setting. It's especially beautiful in the fall with all the trees starting to turn.

My first visit occurred only two weeks after I moved here in 2001. Dawn and Polar knew I was still severely homesick and took me there just to get me out of my funk and being down about my situation. I had a memorably entertaining one in 2004 involving a humorous race call with a horse named Scripture.

When Scripture stumbled and fell out of the starting gate, the track announcer without skipping a beat replied, "Scripture kneels to pray at the starting gate."

Unfortunately Scripture's stumble was more serious than it looked because when the race was over the horse ambulance came out and whisked him off to the vet. I discovered later he'd broken one of his legs and had to be euthanized.

While nothing that serious happened on this trip, I did have something happen for the first time since I started coming to the track. I actually won money.

Usually when I go I make my win, place and show bets on a few horses and don't win anything, Polar's hit and miss while it seems like everything Dawn bets she cashes winning tickets on.

We happened to go on one of the themed racing days, so almost everyone in honor of Big Blue Day was wearing either UK colors or their own collegiate gear. We arrived there just after the second race concluded and in time to bet the third race. I'm still learning what to look for as a horse racing neophyte in terms of picking winners, and my luck held true to form in the third race.

But the fourth race was different. There was a horse named Galloping Home in this one, and I just liked the name. When I saw his workout times I liked him even better and bet him. I did have an anxious moment when he balked at being loaded into the starting gate. But once the race started he did his thing and lived up to his name by galloping home down the stretch in first place.

After doing the happy dance I cashed the ticket out and used some of my proceeds to bet on a horse called Dookie Duck in the fifth race. He finished in second.

Feeling adventurous, I decided to bet two horses since I couldn't decide which one I liked better in the sixth race between Sweet Ransom and Impressionism.

Impressionism just beat out Sweet Ransom for third place while everybody else chased a 61-1 longshot called Cure For Sale to the pole. If I'd bet that one it would have payed $128 on a $2 bet, but alas I didn't. I had to be happy with the $2.80 I won for Impressionism's not so picture perfect third place finish.

But that made the third straight race I'd won something on, and we decided to bet one more before we called it a day.

In the seventh race I once again bet two horses, Santana Strings and Natural Speed. Natural Speed showed it late, but just finished out of the money behind Santana Strings, keeping my money winning streak alive.

It's the best day I'd ever had on our horse racing jaunts, and we topped it off with the Nighthawk special at the downtown Lexington Columbia Steakhouse location.

While the day belonged to Dawn since we were celebrating her birthday, as Polar's car headed westbound on I-64 back toward Da Ville I began humming Ice Cube's Today Was A Good Day while pondering the wonderful one I'd had as well.

Notable African-American Transgender People

TransGriot Note:-This will be an ongoing project of the TransGriot Blog. Our transkids and our people need to know (along with the GLBT community in general) that there are African-American transpeople that are doing thangs.

And yeah, I have to humbly toot my own horn and add myself to this list as well. If you are aware of African-American transpeeps who are doing things that I may not have heard of, please do not hesitate to forward that info to me.

Justina Williams
Dr. Marisa Richmond
Dawn Wilson
Valerie Spencer
Miss Major

Jordana LeSesne
DJ Miss Honey Dijon
Sharon Davis
Tracy Jada O'Brien
Earline Budd

Lorrainne Sade Baskerville
Kylar Broadus
Rev. Joshua Holiday
Laverne Cox
Zion Johnson

The Lady Chablis
Tommie Ross
Sharyn Grayson
Stasha Sanchez
Domanique Shappelle

Octavia St. Laurent
Dionne Stallworth
Louis Mitchell
Cydne Kimbrough
Tona Brown

Isis King
Imani Henry


Our Continental African Transpeeps

Juliet Victor Mukasa
Mia Nikasomo
Barbara Diop
Nick Mwaluko


Our Deceased Transbrothers and Transsisters

Marcelle Cook-Daniels
James 'Sweet Evening Breeze' Herndon
Tyra Hunter
Alexander John Goodrum
Roberta Angela Dee

Cookie LaCook
Cathay Williams
Amanda Milan
Stephanie Thomas
Ukea Davis

Chareka Keys
Chanelle Pickett
Gabrielle Pickett
Rita Hester

A Day At The Races

As part of Dawn's birthday celebration (it was Sunday) I'm getting dressed and ready to roll with her and Polar to Lexington.

It's one of our traditions, and since the fall racing season has commenced at her favorite track, we're going to give Dawn the chance to go home, hang out with her friends and release her inner elitist by spending a few hours hobnobbing at Keeneland.

Tell y'all about it later.

Smith and Carlos- 40 years Later

Forty years ago today John Carlos and Tommie Smith stood on the Olympic medal platform to collect their gold and bronze medals for the 200 meter dash.

During that medal ceremony they both raised black gloved fists that turned an Olympic medal ceremony into an unforgettable moment of protest.

McAttacks, Obama Coolly Wins Debate

For its August 2008 issue Ebony Magazine put together a list of the 25 coolest brothers of all time. To no ones surprise, Sen Barack Obama made that list.

That cool served him well in this third presidential debate at Hofstra University. McCain had promised his supporters he was going to 'whip his you know what' and came out swinging.



But in the face of unrelenting attacks on him from John McCain in this debate, Obama was so cool that ice probably would have frozen to his forehead while smoothly countering the angry McAttacks. McCain either needed a overwhelming victory or a major gaffe from Obama and got neither.

Take that James T. Harris.

With 19 days to go it isn't looking good for Team McPalin. They are getting outgunned in the money raising game. They're being forced to defend traditional reliable GOP turf or fight tooth and nail for it. Obama's also blanketing the radio and TV airwaves in these various battleground states with ads and has plenty of cash to buy more.

Obama also has as an ace in the hole in terms of the 30 minutes of TV time he bought on CBS and NBC on October 29. If that date rings a bell, it's the anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression.

But 19 days is an eternity in politics. Anything can happen, but with the debates out of the way and Obama winning all three, it's looking better and better that he may have a new address after January 20.

Conservative Negroes, Please!

As Americans, whatever political philosophy you choose to espouse, that's on you. I don't have problems with people who consider themselves to be conservative, even if they are routinely on the wrong side of history. I have some as friends despite the fact we are in opposite political universes.

What I DO have a problem with is Negro conservatives.

They don't deserve to be called Black or African-American. I'm talking about the peeps like the Clarence Thomases and Ward Connerly's of the world who sell out their own people for personal gain.

Last week I got to witness the disgusting spectacle of seeing James T. Harris begging a man who has consistently graded 'F's' on the NAACP Civil Rights Report Card, who voted against the Martin Luther King holiday in 1986, do a 'Stepin Fetchit' imploring him to attack an biracial African-American poised to possibly win the presidency.

And for what? What the hell was going through his mind when he showed up at this Wisconsin town hall? Increasing the audience for his conservative radio talk show in Milwaukee and becoming the new Ken Hamblin?



Maybe it's the same thing probably going through Clarence Thomas' mind (if he has one) every time his self-hating azz votes on a Supreme Court case in lockstep with Antonin Scalia. Maybe it's the same strain of selfishness going through Ward Connerly's mind when he fights to shut down affirmative action programs after he benefited from them.

Maybe it's trying so hard to prove that you're a conservative you forget to look in the fracking mirror and consider the fact that you are supporting the failed policies of a political ideology that bamboozles poor and middle class white people to vote against their own economic interests by using fear of African descended people to promote acceptance of it.

Maybe it's trying so hard to be a conservative that you strain all pretense of being capable of rational intelligent thought when you write a column as Thomas Sowell did trying to compare Sen. Barack Obama to Hitler.

Maybe it's as Tara Wall and Amy Holmes used to make their living doing, being spokeswomen for a party that has hated on us, suppressed our votes and race baited us for 40 years.

One of the reasons I loathe Black conservatives is because they continue to demonstrate time and time again that they don't care about uplifting all African-Americans.

All they care about is expanding their bank accounts.

The Final Debate

Tomorrow night at Hofstra University is the last debate before we go to the polls on November 4.

The stakes couldn't be higher for John McCain.

He's trailing in critical battleground states, he's changed his message once again and he was forced to turn off the race-baiting part of the GOP 'Southern Strategy' when he started losing even more ground as a result of it.

McCain promised his supporters that he'd 'kick Sen Obama's derriere' in this last debate, but he hasn't done so in the previous two and we;ll definitely be watching to see if he can back up his trash talk or is just selling woof tickets again.

With 20 days to go, Sen. Obama is in an enviable position. He's starting to get newspaper editorial endorsements, he's forcing McCain to burn up money defending GOP turf and is raking in the cash.

His task in this final debate is to not make any mistakes. He must continue to look, act and sound presidential and be the cool brother we know he is. Since this debate is focusing on his strong suit, domestic issues, he gets to showcase that formidable intellect he has laying out his agenda for tackling our nation's economic problems.

It should be fun to watch.

Moni's Busy Weekend

If you've ever seen the voter's guides or voter cards that various organizations put together for election day and wondered how they came up with their endorsement lists, well I'm about to tell ya.

I'm on the board of a local GLBT org, and I've had a pretty hectic low sleep weekend. Over the last four days I've been helping get the interviews done so that C-FAIR can get its endorsements out in time for the upcoming 2008 election.

C-FAIR only deals with local and state races when we put together these recommendations. Louisville's power grid being down cost us a week in getting this done according to our original timeline.

But get it done we did. I ended up participating in four candidate interviews over two of my days off, with the first one happening just four hours after I got off from a 12 hour shift early Thursday morning. I was on call in case I was needed Saturday and attended a two hour meeting to mull over the endorsements yesterday.

While waiting for the interviews I'd agreed to participate in, I pored over the candidate questionnaires we received, their own campaign literature, their websites and whatever other information I could find out for these meetings so I could come up with cogent questions to ask. Some of the meetings are also opportunities to gather political intel that help us make future informed strategic policy decisions.

If you're from Da Ville, you'll have to check out the C-FAIR website and see who we endorse for the local races since due to confidentiality agreements I'm bound to can't tell you what we discussed.

What I can tell you is that the process was followed to the letter and on some of the races we had to debate and thoughtfully think about which candidate to endorse.

I and my fellow board members also wanted to make the point to candidates seeking our endorsement that even though we are a GLBT org, we aren't just focused on GLBT rights issues.

We are also a cross section of concerned citizens of this community who have interests encompassing a broad range of issues that go beyond GLBT concerns.

Was it worth it? If it helps one voter feel more comfortable, at ease, and empowered enough to head into the voting booth feeling they've cast an informed ballot, then giving up some of my time to help put these endorsements together is worth it.

2008 Canadian Party Leaders Debates

This is how they roll debate wise in the True North.

Palin Booed At Philly Hockey Game? You Betcha

The one thing about Philadelphia sports fans is that they have never been shy about letting their feelings be known.

Ask Santa Claus, Mike Schmidt, the Dallas Cowboys, Terrell Owens and the long list of people who've been booed by Philly sports fans.

Despite the best efforts of Faux News and the MSM to downplay it, Palin was resoundingly booed at the Philadelphia Flyers-New York Rangers season opener when the 'hockey mom' showed up with her daughters Willow and Piper to drop a ceremonial puck to open the game. Her youngest daughter Piper was clad in a black Flyers jersey.

Ironically, the player representing the New York Rangers was Alaska native Scott Gomez, one of the few Latino players in the NHL.

To a loud chorus of resounding boos and shouts of 'Obama' conveniently edited out of the MSM version of the story, their photo op turned into a nightmare for the McPalin team. Ed Snider, the Philadelphia Flyers owner has donated to the McPalin campaign and visited a Philadelphia bar last month with Caribou Barbie.



The booing was so loud that they cranked the music up to ear-splitting levels just to drown it out.

The NHL said it did not view the Flyers’ invitation to be politically motivated.

“Governor Palin is a supporter of the sport, which she has proclaimed publicly,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said. “As a public figure who has a very public connection with hockey, her recent associations with the Flyers and other NHL franchises is not surprising and, in our view, not inappropriate.”

Yeah, right. One of your owners donates cash to a political campaign, has a team in the largest city in a critical swing state and it's not political?

Sell those woof tickets to somebody that doesn't know better.

If The White Sheet Fits, John And Sarah....

The Repugnicans have their panties all in knots because civil rights icon and legend Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) called them out about their racist sliming of Sen Obama.

"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who only desired to exercise their constitutional right."

He said McCain and Palin are "playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all."

McPalin responded by, get this, calling Rep Lewis' comments a character attack on him and demanded that Sen Obama repudiate the remarks.

Yeah right. But Johnny boy, when Rick Warren asked you who are the three wisest men you would rely on in an administation at August's Saddleback Forum, you said this:

"I think John Lewis. John Lewis was at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, had his skull fractured, continued to serve, continues to have the most optimistic outlook about America. He can teach us all a lot about the meaning of courage and commitment to causes greater than our self-interest."

So now that he's called you on your racism, he ceases to be a wise man?

Typical Republican BS. Like the political bullies they are, they like throwing shade and innuendo, especially since they have nothing to talk about, but can't take it.

So if the white sheet fits, wear it.

The GOP Natives Are Restless

As Barack's lead widens, and the news becomes more bleak for GOP candidates everywhere, the pent up anger is starting to manifest itself at GOP rallies for McPalin.

The racist rhetoric is beginning to fly, the old lies are resurfacing as John Sidney McCain III has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has no clue about the number one issue on the votes minds, the economy.

So the GOP is dipping into their favorite tactic when they're losing, slime your opponent, lie, and 'scurr' the white working class voters into voting against their own economic interests.



How long are they gonna get away with bamboozling and hoodwinking people?

The GOP's Bad Week

Sarah Louise Palin abused her power as Alaska governor when she had Walt Monegan fired as Alaska's Public Safety commissioner because he refused to terminate her trooper ex-brother in law.

Shoot, anyone with an IQ above 100 and a progressive blog could have told you that.

So the Troopergate report actually confirmed yesterday what we already know and suspected about Caribou Barbie. The mask is off and she has been revealed as just another hypocritical Bible thumping GOP idiot with delusions of national grandeur.

That giant sucking sound you hear is the McPalin campaign nosediving into defeat. That's on top of the news that the Dems may pick up the 60 Senate seats they need for a veto-proof majority in addition to possibly expanding their majority in the House.

The full figured opera singer is about to start singing arias.

While I'm ready to do the holy dance over this news, any urge to prematurely pop a champagne cork in celebration is tempered by the fact we have one more debate left to go on the 15th and twenty plus days until the election.

While I predicted months ago the McPalin peeps would race bait if they found themselves trailing in October, even I'm shocked and alarmed at the desperate level it's reached over the last week thanks to Sarah, McCain, Faux News and Elisabeth Hasselbeck stirring caca up.



I've heard other African-Americans distressed about the rising vitriol and the reports of African-Americans media people being verbally abused at McPalin rallies privately say the 'R' word if Obama is harmed (or God forbid killed) as a result of this dangerous political game you've been playing.



The point is GOPers, you're losing because the eight years of neo-Reaganomics has come back to bite you in the rear. You have played the race baiting card one time too many and your propensity to not deal with facts you don't like has brought you on the verge of political flat lining.

Conservatism is a political philosophy equivalent to communism. Any political philosophy that benefits only a narrow segment of adherents while screwing the vast majority of people is doomed to failure. You have had a mean spirited twenty plus year run of jacking up this country. It's time for it to end and it couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of people.

The best part is the bankruptcy (pardon the pun) of conservatism is being exposed for the world to see.

You know, President-elect Barack Hussein Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama has a nice ring to it.

2008 Canadian National Elections

While channel surfing earlier tonight I stumbled across a CBC program called 'The Nation' being broadcast on C-SPAN. It was coming from a town library straddling the US-Canadian border in Quebec and compared and contrasted our two elections.

That's how I discovered we aren't the only peeps on the North American continent having elections this year. While much of the world's and our attention have been focused on our upcoming November 4 election, our northern neighbors are having their own pivotal election as well on October 14.

This Canadian election was necessary because of the dissolution of parliament on September 7, thus forcing new elections to be held.

As a child of historians, I've been fascinated by Canada ever since I noted that the African descended peoples of both nations share some interesting connections and parallels in our cultures despite being separated by the world's longest undefended border. It was also heightened by my fascination with a Afro-Canadian junior high classmate who was born in Calgary and lived there until he was eight.

For you Canadian politically challenged Americans, here's a quick primer on Canadian politics (Veronique, Renee and my other Canadian commenters please chime in on this where necessary)

Canada has a federal parliamentary system on the British model. It's a constitutional monarchy, composed of the Queen of Canada, who is officially represented by the Governor General (or by a lieutenant-governor at the provincial and territorial levels), and Parliament. The House of Commons has 308 seats directly elected by the people in national or by-elections at the provincial level. There is an upper chamber, the 105 member Canadian Senate.

The Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982 set the maximum time between federal general elections at five years, except in time of real or apprehended war, invasion or insurrection. An election can also be called earlier than the five year period if the Prime Minister so chooses or if the Government is defeated on a motion of confidence in the House of Commons.

The Canadian Parliament just recently passed a bill implementing fixed election dates every four years on the third Monday in October starting in 2009, subject to an earlier dissolution of Parliament.

MP's represent a riding, which is akin to our congressional districts.

There are 15 registered political parties in Canada, but the three major political parties are considered to be the Conservatives, The Liberals and the New Democratic Party or NDP. There are other parties who are players in the Canadian Parliament such as the Bloc Quebecois, who are the heirs to the Quebec separatist movement and the Greens.

The Conservatives and PM Stephen Harper are currently running thangs in Canada pending the results of the October 14 election. Liberal leader Stephane Dion and NDP leader Jack Layton are vying in this election to deny the Conservatives (or Tories) the 155 seats they need for a clear majority of the parliament and replace him as prime minister.

BTW, if you're interested and seeing a different style of political debate, the Canadian leaders debates will be broadcast on C-SPAN.

So this political junkie, while she awaits her chance to weigh in our on national elections, will be keeping an eye on what's happening with our northern neighbors as well.

Reading

Hey peeps. I'm spending the day catching up on my reading. I have a ton of material I have to review in preparation for these C-FAIR candidate interviews I'm participating in.

There are also a few books I've checked out from the library that I want to take some time to read before I have to turn them in.

Will tell y'all all about it later

'Rednecks for Obama' Want To Bridge Culture Gap

'Rednecks for Obama' want to bridge yawning culture gap

by Michael Mathes Thu Oct 9, 9:50 AM ET

SAINT LOUIS, Missouri (AFP) - When Barack Obama's campaign bus made a swing through Missouri in July, the unlikeliest of supporters were waiting for him -- or rather two of them, holding the banner: "Rednecks for Obama."

In backing the first African-American nominee of a major party for the US presidency, the pair are on a grassroots mission to bridge a cultural gap in the United States and help usher their preferred candidate into the White House.

Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 60, got politically active last year when it occurred to them there must be other lower income, rural, beer-drinking, gun-loving, NASCAR race enthusiasts fed up with business as usual in Washington.

Viessman had a red, white and blue "Rednecks for Obama" banner made, and began causing a stir in Missouri, which has emerged as a key battleground in the run-up to the November 4 presidential election.

"I didn't expect it would get as much steam and attention as it's gotten," Spencer told AFP on the campus of Washington University in Saint Louis, the state's biggest city and site of last week's vice-presidential debate.

"We believe in him. He's the best person for the job," Viessman, a former state trooper from Rolla, said of Obama, who met the pair briefly on that July day in Union, Missouri.

The candidate bounded off his bus and jogged back towards a roadside crowd to shake hands with the men holding the banner.

"He said 'This is incredible'," Spencer recalled.

It's been an unexpectedly gratifying run, Viessman said.

Rednecks4obama.com claims more than 800,000 online visits. In Denver, Colorado, Viessman and Spencer drew crowds at the Democratic convention, and at Washington University last Thursday they were two of the most popular senior citizens on campus.

"I'm shocked, actually, but excited" that such a demographic would be organizing support for Obama, said student Naia Ferguson, 18, said after hamming it up for pictures behind the banner.

"When most people think 'redneck,' they think conservatives, anti-change, even anti-integration," she said. "But America's changing, breaking stereotypes."

A southern comedian, Jeff Foxworthy, defines the stereotype as a "glorious lack of sophistication".

Philistines or not, he said, most rural southerners are no longer proponents of the Old South's most abhorrent ideology -- racism -- and that workaday issues such as the economy are dominating this year's election.

"We need to build the economy from the bottom up, none of this trickle down business," Spencer said. "Just because you're white and southern don't mean you have to vote Republican."

To an important degree, however, race is still the elephant in the polling booth, experts say, and according to a recent Stanford University poll, Obama could lose six points on election day due to his color.

Racism "has softened up some, but it's still there," Viessman acknowledged from Belmont University, site of Tuesday's McCain-Obama debate in Nashville, Tennessee.

Despite representing the heartland state of Illinois, and having a more working-class upbringing than his Republican rival John McCain, Obama has struggled to shoot down the impression that he is an arugula-eating elitist.

Surely he alienated many rural voters earlier this year when the Harvard-educated senator told a fundraiser that some blue-collar voters "cling to guns or religion".

But Viessman, who says he owns a dozen guns, said Obama "ain't gonna take your guns away."

The South traditionally votes Republican -- victories for southerners Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were exceptions -- but with less than a month to election day, four states in or bordering the South are considered toss-ups: Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia.

Viessman says he'd like to think his grassroots movement could sway enough people in small-town America to make a difference.

"There's lots of other rednecks for Obama too," he said. "And the ones that's not, we're trying our best to convince them."

Stop Hatin' On Tyra

Y'all know how much I love Tyra Banks. She was one of my role models when I was trying to sort out what type of sistah I wanted to project to the world. Watching her proudly strut the runways in trailblazing fashion back during the 90's also helped me get over my height hangup when I first began my transition.

Lately I've been seeing a lot of haters on The Net posting their snide comments toward my girl. I also noted that one of the main cheerleaders of the 'Hate on Tyra' crowd is none other than Janice Dickinson's silicone enhanced behind.

While you peeps keep swigging Hateraid from 55 gallon drums, peep the SECOND Emmy award she just picked up for The Tyra Banks Show in the 'Best Talk Show' category.



She's made it clear that she is a supporter of the transgender community, she's a proud African-American woman and outside of my mother, sister and various other women in my family she's an excellent person to emulate.

I also love the fact that the more people keep sleeping on this sistah, dissing her, underestimating her intelligence and drive, the higher she rises.

So y'all keep on hatin'. The Inglewood girl is surviving, thriving and well on her way to becoming the 21st century Oprah Winfrey.

2008 Amazing Philippine Beauties Press Launch

This is a transgender beauty pageant that hasn't been around as long as the more widely known Miss Tiffany Universe in Thailand or Chicago's Miss Continental, but has rapidly gained popularity in the pageant crazy Philippines and garnered worldwide media attention as well.

The press conference launching this year's edition of the pageant was held yesterday for the 6th annual Amazing Philippines Beauty Pageant. There will be 25 ladies competing to see who will succeed 2007 winner Rianne Barrameda, possibly represent the Philippines at the upcoming Miss International Queen pageant in Thailand and the slots in the Amazing Philippines Theatre Show that go with it.



The Amazing Philippines Theatre is modeled on the transgender cabaret shows of Thailand, but features homegrown Filipino and Filipina talent. The winner gets in addition to a cash prize a contract to perform in the show.





Like the Miss Tiffany's pageant has discovered over the course of its existence, the contestants have not only been beautiful, but increasingly have been drawing college educated contestants with talent as well.





The pageant will take place on October 24, and at that time the Philippines and the rest of the world will discover who the new Miss Amazing Philippines Beauty will be.