Stupid photo

As you can see, this is from Northampton:

Obama accuser fails polygraph

Remember Larry Sinclair, who claimed that in 1999 in the back of a limo he took coke while Barack Obama smoked some crack?

He then gave Obama a blow job in a Chicago hotel room and performed a similar sex act at another location.

Or actually he didn't.

Whitehouse.com, had offered Sinclair the sum of $10,000 to take a polygraph plus another if $100,000 he passed.

He failed.

"On the first test, questions were administered about Sinclair’s claims that he and Obama had sex.


"The second test focused on Sinclair’s claims that he and Obama did drugs. Dr.Gelb found “deception was indicated” in both tests."


Shame - though that scandal is so last week - now it is all about Barack Hussein Omaba, the Muslim.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-6964.html

When visiting his father's homeland of Kenya two years ago, Presidential candidate Barack Obama wore a traditional white turban and a wraparound white robe presented to him by elders.


In the febrile atmosphere of the 2008 primaries, that picture has been released, allegedly by staffers for his rival for the Democratic nomination for President, Senator Hillary Clinton.


Senator Obama's campaign manager was furious, and the claim and counter-claim over the issue brings the public scrapping between the only female and the only black candidate in the race for the White House to a new low.


Just days ago Senator Clinton was saying her opponent ought to be ashamed of himself over campaign leaflets about her plans for health care. Over the weekend she bitterly mocked his message of hope and change.


"I could just stand up here and say 'Let's just get everybody together, let's get unified,'" she told a rally in Rhode Island.


"The sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect.


"Maybe I've just lived a little long, but I have no illusions at how hard this is going to be. You are not going to wave a magic wand and have the special interests disappear.


"Yesterday the team around her was accused of "the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either party in this election" by Obama campaign manager David Plouffe over the photo incident.


Senator Clinton's team tried to spin the story to their advantage, but their protestations of innocence were not helped by the fact that two staffers had to resign in December after sending out emails claiming her 46-year-old opponent is a secret Muslim.


"If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed," Senator Clinton's campaign manager Maggie Williams said.


She did not comment on how the photo came to be distributed.


"Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.


"This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry."


The two contenders for the Democratic party nomination will debate tonight for probably the last time in this campaign.


The increasingly strident attacks by Senator Clinton are a symptom of her steady loss of support among her core support groups.


Meanwhile Senator Obama continues to gain ground in the key primaries of Ohio and Texas, which will be held on March 4th.Senator Obama has won the last eleven contests in a row and now has more pledged delegates at the nominating convention than his opponent.


In Ohio Senator Clinton, 60, has seen her lead reduced from 21% to 11%. The national polls are even worse for her campaign.


A New York Times/CBS News Poll published today also found that Senator Obama's appeal is broadening. Nationally, 54% of Democratic primary voters saying they wanted to see him nominated, while 38% want Senator Clinton.


See full results of the NYT/CBS poll here.


"I think if we lose in Texas and Ohio, Mrs. Clinton will have to make her decision as to whether she moves forward or not," senior Clinton aide Harold Ickes told the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

Resignation of Speaker's aide spells more trouble for Martin

A spokesman for the Speaker of the House of Commons resigned today after misleading a journalist.

Mike Granatt has done the honourable thing, but the circumstances of his departure raise more questions about Michael Martin.

It is an open secret that many MPs are very unhappy with his performance as Speaker, and they have good reason to be.

Granatt resigned after denying that the Speaker's wife had run up a £4,000 taxi bill on shopping trips. He had claimed she was accompanied by an official at all times and was buying food for official occasions.

It has now emerged Mrs Martin was in fact with her housekeeper and was off buying herself new hats and the like.

This latest example of improper use of funds comes hot on the heels of a complaint that the Speaker flew his family down from Glasgow using air miles that had been accumulated on official business.

There have been persistent rumblings about his high-handed attitude to many of the servants of the House, and ugly stories about his wife complaining about having to go through the same security procedures as everyone else.

All of this makes his position untenable. The office of Speaker is one of the few in politics that is by and large untainted by any sleaze or partisanship, or was before Gorbals Mick took the chair.

For a start, his election broke the convention that the Speakership should rotate between Labour and Tory MPs. He succeeded Betty Boothroyd, a former Labour MP, over the heads of much better qualified candidates from the Conservative benches.

Ming Campbell would have been a much better choice back in 2000.

But the present Speaker has been contentious from day one, with many MPs privately questioning many of his rulings from the chair.

At Prime Minister's Questions last year he caused outrage by trying to block David Cameron from asking about the Labour leadership.

Many of his judgements appear partisan, he seems to have little understanding of the House.

That he is overseeing a parliamentary inquiry into MPs' expenses seems laughable. When compared to his two immediate predecessors, he is an embarassment to the House.

Can anyone seriously imagine the late, much missed Bernard Wetherall or the great Betty allowing themselves to be exposed as misusing public funds?

The Speaker should be above all of that.

It is time for him to retire. The question is, who will replace him? It seems certain that the next Speaker will be chosen from the opposition benches.

Ming is certainly a candidate that would be popular with MPs on all sides, and the small but perfectly-formed Tory John Bercow is known to want the job.

However, they will need to get rid of Mr Martin first.

Interview with UKIP's candidate for Mayor of London

The UK Independence Party is misunderstood and misrepresented, their candidate for Mayor of London tells me when we meet.

Gerard Batten is a somewhat unusual politician, in that he is a member of a parliament that he desires to have no power over the lives of his constituents.

As an MEP for London since 2004, he spends his days in Brussels trying to think up new ways to discredit and dismantle the European Union (or "ferment rebellion" as he describes it).

For a long time UKIP was seen as something of a joke by the political establishment, flirting with Robert Kilroy-Silk and appealing to the sort of voter who thinks the Tory party is full of bleeding-heart liberals.

They weren't laughing so hard in 2004, when the party took more than 16% of the vote in the elections for the European Parliament.

The party now has 10 MEPs, 30 local councillors and two members of the House of Lords who defected from the Conservatives.

Perhaps that is why David Cameron felt moved to refer to them as "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists."

UKIP was founded in 1993, a year after Tory Prime Minister John Major signed the UK up to the Maastricht treaty.

Its aims and beliefs are simple: full withdrawl from the EU and the return of sovereignty to Westminster, the maintenance of the union between Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland and an end to the present immigration arrangements.

Batten descibes the party as "libertarian" and denies they are racists. No one can deny that their message resonated with some Londoners – in the 2004 Mayoral elections UKIP candidate Frank Maloney came fourth, winning 6% (115,665) of first preference votes and 10% (193,157) of second preference votes.

Batten, a founder member of the party, is their candidate for Mayor of London in the May 1st election.

While unlikely to either unseat Labour's Ken Livingstone or defeat Tory candidate Boris Johnson or the Lib Dem's Brian Paddick, the party could win a seat or two on the London Assembly.

Though it should be noted that UKIP, who have nearly 17,000 members, advocate abolishing the Assembly.

Batten, who will be 54 next month, worked as a salesman for BT for 28 years before being elected as an MEP.

In person, he is fluid and likable, if somewhat exercised about the direction of the UK, and at times is reminiscent of Ricky Gervais in his tone and delivery.

His references to the views of cab drivers can seem more like Jim Davidson, but there is no doubting he is sincere in his beliefs.

A report in the Evening Standard last month claimed that Batten would end funding for Pride London and his comment that incumbent Mayor Ken Livingstone's distribution of funds to gay and ethnic minority events is "cultural Marxism" piqued my interest.

Batten contacted us to say he had been misrepresented, and we decided to speak to him about his policies on immigration, race and the politics of Europe.

PinkNews.co.uk: Let's start with the charges that UKIP is racist and has an agenda similar to that of the BNP.

Gerard Batten: We have people from different races and nationalities running for UKIP and among my friends who advise me on the Islamic issue, one of them is actually an ex-Sharia lawyer who converted to Christianity.

We don't have a problem with foreigners or people of other races. You can have a multi-ethnic society and it can work so long as people feel like they belong to the same society. What doesn't work is multiculturalism.

It creates division and especially when you've got now the idea of introducing Sharia law to the country. The whole thing is crazy. You can have a country where people have their own culture and their own customs but they've got to sign up to one legal system, one political system.

We want controlled immigration. The BNP have another agenda, which is ethnic cleansing, and if you talk to any of their activists that's what they want. I know that because that's what they've told me.

They were regretful about it but they had to explain to me that my wife and family would have to be deported at some point in the future if they ever came to power. My wife comes from the Philippines.

I don't understand their obsession with us, because they do seem to be totally obsessed with us. The kind of people that join UKIP wouldn't join the BNP. We get the occasional person who would go off and defect but they are possibly in the wrong Party to start with.

Read the rest of the interview here.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/opinion/2005-6891.html

Nutter claims he had gay sex with Obama

And they took class A drugs together too!

So says one Larry Sinclair, an ugly, overweight, middle-aged, sartorially challenged drug abuser, whose wild and probably delusional claims have been given some worrying coverage in America.

To summarise Sinclair told equally deranged far right "news" service WorldNetDaily (A Free Press For A Free People) that in 1999 in the back of a limo he took coke while the then Illinois state Senator smoked some crack.

He then gave Obama a blow job in a Chicago hotel room and performed a similar sex act at another location.

"My motivation for making this public is my desire for a presidential candidate to be honest," he told WorldNetDaily.

"I didn't want the sex thing to come out. But I think it is important for the candidate to be honest about his drug use as late as 1999."

Sinclair has of course aired his "revelations" on that home of nutters, YouTube, see video at the bottom of this entry, and has got close to 400,000 hits.

Sinclair has filed a federal lawsuit against Obama in Minnesota district court. He is also suing campaign consultant David Axelrod and the Democratic National Committee, claiming slander, internet harassment, physical threats, and attempts to suppress his speech in violation of his First Amendment rights.

Respected politics website whitehouse.com, (which helpfully informs visitors that it is "not affiliated (with) or endorsed by the US government) has offered Sinclair $10,000 to take a lie detector test.

And do you know, he has accepted.

whitehouse.com must be pretty confident that he isn't the full shilling - they are offering him $100,000 if he passes the polygraph.

"We're going to meet him on Tuesday, February 26th at an undisclosed location in New York City," they said in a story posted on Monday.

"We've picked a polygraph expert, too: a renowned expert who has been involved in quite a few high-profile cases who we're not going to name until the results are not only in, but have been verified by a second renowned expert.

"Then, we'll post the results, the names of both polygraph experts, and other relevant information, along with video and pictures, here on whitehouse.com.

"Since the outcome of the test will be vital interest to the voting public, our findings will be made available before the presidential primaries in Texas and Ohio slated for March 4. That's all for now, but check back for updates. "

Obama has been candid about the fact that as a much younger man he dabbled in drugs. Who hasn't? Well two of the UK party leaders clearly have.

What should be worrying the good people at whitehouse.com is that a) delusional people often pass lie detector tests because they do actually believe what they are saying and b) cocaine addicts are about the most delusional people around, they lie even more than alcoholics and the coke makes them super-confident!

Meanwhile Obama beat the Hillary lady in the Wisconsin primary and the Hawaii caucus, giving him ten wins in a row.

Let's hope he can keep it up. As it were.

Texas is make or break for the Dems

As Hillary Clinton concentrates her campaign for the White House on the key Texas primary on March 4th, there is more evidence that the Democratic nomination may be slipping out of her grasp.

Polling data from the American Research Group will make for grim reading chez Clinton.

While the former First Lady leads Barack Obama among self-described Democrats in Texas 47% to 42%, Obama leads Clinton among self-described independents and Republicans 71% to 24%.

So the voters that the Democratic candidate will need to win in November vastly favour the 46-year-old Senator from Illinois.

A couple of factors in the laughably convoluted primary rules could also favour Obama - delegates in African-American districts will be over-represented among the 126 delegates Texas sends to the convention. Obama leads Clinton among African American voters in the state 76% to 17%.

While Hillary has been counting on pulling in the significant number of Hispanic voters, she only has a slight lead there, and it is the same story among white male voters and women.

My interview with Brian Paddick, Mayor of London candidate

Pubished on Monday on PinkNews.co.uk

Brian Paddick is enjoying running for Mayor of London.

The Liberal Democrat candidate may be a distant third in opinion polls, but he has one distinct advantage in this race – lots of people know who he is.

The 2008 Mayoral election is already the most exciting contest since the post was established at the turn of the century.

Incumbent Ken Livingstone is facing a concerted (some would say co-ordinated) barrage of negative press on everything from cronyism to his alcohol intake.

After eight years of his rule London's main newspaper, the Evening Standard, has gone into anti-Ken overdrive.

The election is further enlivened by the presence of one Boris Johnson, the Tory candidate. He is no stranger to the press or the voters.

A journalist, broadcaster, columnist, scallywag and sometime Member of Parliament, he has been happily knocking lumps out of the Mayor and banking on his unique personality appealing to London's voters.

Faced with those rivals, even the most exceptional third party candidate would struggle to make his voice heard.

Paddick, who is 50 in April, does not have a track record as an elected representative, only rejoined the party he now represents two years ago, and he talked to the Tories about the possibility of representing them.

So why would not one party but two want him to run for Mayor? As a career Metropolitan police officer, he first came to the attention of the press over cannabis policy in the London borough of Lambeth.

For operational reasons, he took the decision as borough commander to concentrate resources on hard drugs. That meant cautioning instead of arresting people caught with amounts of cannabis small enough to be considered for personal use.

The fact that he was openly gay only gave the right-wing press more to be unhappy about. His career at Scotland Yard proved even more controversial, and he earned a reputation for honestly over the Jean Charles DeMenezes affair.

His account of when senior police officers knew that the man they had shot at Stockwell tube station in July 2005 was not a terrorist but an innocent electrician was at odds with that of the Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair.

It is no secret that Paddick had professional ambitions beyond the role of Deputy Assistant Commissioner, but he left the force at that rank in 2006, after 30 years service in the Met.

When asked about his lack of experience as an elected official, he claims:

"In terms of politics, there is nothing more political than the eighth floor of Scotland Yard."

He says that running for Mayor has allowed him to speak more freely than he ever could in uniform.

"It is a bit like being a senior officer again," he says of the campaign.

"Morning, noon and night it is TV and radio and newspaper interviews, so I am very comfortable with it. But it has the bonus that I can say what I want.

"It took a while for me to convince myself that I wasn't going to get hauled in front of the Commissioner every time I gave an interview, which was the situation it had got to in the police.

"So it's quite liberating. I am in my comfort zone.

"If Ken and Boris keep taking lumps out of eachother like they are now then I might be the last man standing."

To read the rest of the interview click here.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/politics/2005-6813.html

O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!

Three for three for Barack Obama in the Patomac primaries. He took DC, Maryland and Virginia last night, and not by a small margin.

Meanwhile the Hillary lady flew off to Texas, the last really, really big state in the race, and talked up her campaign. She didn't mention that she has lost the last eight to Obama and his momentum.

"We're going to sweep across Texas in the next three weeks,” the former First Lady said.

"I'm tested, I'm ready, let's make it happen."

Yes, let's hope. Oh, sorry, hope is his thing.

Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina are also have significant amounts of delegates. Then there is the super-delegates. There are 796 of them, about 20% of the overall total.

They are Democrat Senators, Congressmen, members of the Democratic National Committee (397 of them - big committee) and 23 distinguished party leaders, and 76 others.

The way this race is going, it could be up to them who gets the party nomination.

At present she is estimated to have 62% of these superdelegates on her side.

In any case, the Clinton campaign are fighting every inch of the way, and cannot be helped by the fact that her deputy campaign manager is reported to have resigned, just days after her campaign manager departed.

She is racking up the attacks on her opponent, 14 years her junior.

Her tactic of focusing on the big states should make sense, but remember if Obama keeps winning all the rest of the small states she could be out before the end of the race - unless the superdelegates save her.

Where them MPs?

How come politicsjunkie aint been chatting about fascinating things going on in Westminster.

Well the reason for that is because they are all away on a well-deserved week's holiday.

Normal service should resume until next week!

Obama wins a Grammy!

As the battle for the Democratic nomination continues to be the most closely-fought in decades, Senator Hillary Clinton has reordered her core team.

Her rival Senator Barack Obama won yesterday's Maine caucus by a wide margin, his fourth victory over the weekend.

The Former First Lady had been hoping to secure the state.

Last week she had to lend her campaign $5m (£2.56m) of her own money after it suffered "cash flow problems."

Senator Clinton has replaced Patti Solis Doyle, who led campaign since the start, with aide Maggie Williams.

She reportedly met with former candidate John Edwards, who has yet to come out in support of either remaining candidate.

The removal of her original campaign manager is intended to send a signal to donors and supporters that she is responding to Senator Obama's increasing momentum in the race.

At last night's Grammy awards Senator Obama won the spoken word award for his reading of his best-selling book The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.

All eyes are now on the so-called Beltway Primary, when Washington DC and surrounding states vote for a Democratic candidate for President.

Speaking to supporters in Virginia yesterday, Senator Obama damned his opponent with faint praise:

"She's a smart person, she's a capable person, she would be a vast improvement over the incumbent.

"What is also true is, I think it's very hard for Senator Clinton to break out of the politics of the last 15 years.

"Keep in mind, we had Bill Clinton as President when, in 94, we lost the House, we lost the Senate, we lost Governorships, we lost state houses. And so, regardless of what policies they wanted to promote, they didn't have a working majority to bring change about."

Senator Clinton still retains a tiny lead over Senator Obama in the number of delegates pledged to her and the support of John Edwards could be key ahead of the remaining primaries and caucuses.

She is trying to portray herself as the experienced candidate who can take on the likely Republican nominee John McCain.

Speaking to a rally in Virginia yesterday she said:

"Who can go the distance? I want you to think about this.

"If Senator McCain is the nominee for the Republicans, as it appears he will be, you know that they will do everything in their power to make this election about national security, about homeland security, and that is exactly what will happen. I look forward to making it clear that I have big differences with my friend Senator McCain."

Senator Obama beat two former US President's at last night's Grammy awards, both Democrats.

Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were nominated for best spoken word album alongside Maya Angelou and Alan Alda.

The title, The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream,refers to Senator Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention:

"In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

"I'm not talking about blind optimism here, the almost wilful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it.

"No, I'm talking about something more substantial.

"It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

"Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope."

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/politics/2005-6815.html

The Christian Right have no love for McCain

He may be a war hero who invented oven chips, but it seems that Senator John McCain is not getting any love from the conservatives, Christians, and Christian conservatives in his own party.

This key section of the Republican party ushered George "born again" Bush into the White House twice in a row, but the results from the weekend primaries show that they still want former Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee to do the Lord's work from the Oval Office.

The Huckster, ably supported by leading intellectual Chuck Norris, took Kansas by two to one (a winner takes all state, boosting his delegate total) and Louisiana. Washington state is too damn close to call.

"If you look at where our votes are coming from, it's clearly from the conservatives," Huckabee said after this latest string of wins, neatly echoing what I just said. "I think that makes sense. I am the most conservative candidate left standing."

What does this mean for McCain? Well, as we can see, the conservatives are flocking to Huckabee, though in the long run they will end up voting Republican on election day - or not at all.

What Bush, or more correctly Karl Rove, was masterful at was energising Christian voters and using their established community networks to get out the vote.

With a candidate they mistrust, such as McCain, they are likely to stay home altogether.

If he has any sense, the front runner will recruit Huckabee as his VP running mate, and hope that the smooth-talking Southern preacher can get out the vote to beat Hillary/Barack on November 4th.

Obama has the big Mo

It's all about momentum, and it looks once again as if 46-year Barack Obama has it.

He scored a series of stunning victories last night over his only rival for the Democratic nomination for President, that Hillary Clinton.

The most significant prize was Washington state, which sends 97 delegates of various sorts to the nomination convention later this year.

Obama not only won that state by a wide margin, as much as two to one, but also took Nebraska, the delegate-rich state of Louisiana and the votes of Democrats in the US colony on the Virgin Islands.

The Clinton campaign are confident they will win today's Maine primary, which is nice for them.

They of all people should know about momentum - after all, in 1992 it propelled Bill into the Oval Office.


The most heatening aspect of the Obama win in Washington is the excitement the candidate generates, especially among groups disenchanted with politics, such as young people.


As he continues to hoover up votes and delegates, the Clinton campaign must be worried.

They have nothing with which to capture the public imagination, beyond sensible trouser suits and the dubious promise of Bill Clinton back in the White House.


To give you just one example of the Obama's appeal, yesterday he addressed a rally of 20,000 supporters in Seattle.

The doors opened at 6am and had to close at 11am and thousands were turned away, all eager to see live the man who has inspired them so much.

The general impression from the caucuses up and down the state is of twice as many people as expected turning up, and all of them supporting Obama's candidacy.


It is called momentum, and Obama has it. Clinton supporters point to the upcoming contests. The so-called Beltway Primary on Tuesday, when DC, Virginia and Maryland choose.


Then Wisconsin the week after that - by that stage, hopefully, the Barack bandwagon will be a juggernaut.


March 4th is the day to watch. Texas and Ohio, both heavily populated and therefore delegate rich, will choose their Democratic candidate.

If Barack Obama can continue to ride the wave of popularity, he can clinch the nomination from under Senator Clinton's nose.

With Mitt Romney out of the race and Mike Huckabee looking increasingly likely to be pitching to do the Lord's work from the Vice President's office, John McCain is almost certain to be the Republican candidate.

A 71-year old WASP, a Washington veteran, a man of intergrity certainly, but will Americans really pick him over the hope of Obama or even the sensibly-dressed female candidate?

It seems that history will be made in 2008, and it will be the Democrats who make it.

There is no place for Islamic “divorce” in the UK

A century ago, women across Britain asserted their right to vote. Today the Archbishop of Canterbury is suggesting we accept part of Sharia law in the UK.

Not the bit about killing gay people, but other equally controversial concepts such as allowing Muslim people to have Muslim divorces.

At first glance that might sound sensible, sensitive even. It isn’t. Under Sharia, women are judged differently from men, women are constrained in ways that are unacceptable in our society.

And that is the point – it is our society and its values are fundamentally incompatible with aspects of Muslim attitudes.

What is more worrying is that Muslim commentators have been suggesting some sort of ‘live and let live’ idea, where we Christians get on with life under our rules and let them take responsibility for their personal lives under Sharia.

That is unacceptable. Women – all women – in this country have equal rights with men in this country.

Those rights are set out and protected by Parliament. They are the only body in this country that makes laws, and they apply to everyone.

British Muslims, at least those who speak up for the community on TV and newspapers, seem not to have grasped that fundamental point.

Why the Archbishop of Canterbury is hawking this nonsense, under the nebulous cause of “improving social cohesion,” is entirely unclear.

I can think of nothing that would damage the fabric of British society more than different standards, different laws and different rules for different religions.

Gordon Brown talks a lot about Britishness, and to his credit his response was robust.

"There are instances where government has made changes - for example on stamp duty - but the general position is that Sharia cannot be used as justification for committing breaches of English law nor can its principles be used in civil courts,” his spokesman said today.

“British laws should be based on British values."

Hillary - experience? What experience?

Hillary Clinton is keen to tell voters that she has experience - most of it as First Lady.

But it is a matter of fact that in the White House she did little except wifely duties, after being comprehensively shot down when she tried to reform health care.

She did not have access to the most sensitive documents, and so her experience is as great as that of Laura Bush or Bess Truman.

Either she is saying that she had a major impact on Bill Clinton, and therefore Americans will in effect be voting for a second co-Presidency, or she should stand on her own record.

Before the White House she never held public office - so her experience, given that she has denied that her husband will be a prominent voice in her administration, will amount to her inauspicious time in the Senate.

So which one is it?

Barack and Clinton both soar on Super Tuesday

With the results from yesterday's primaries and caucuses in nearly half of the United States counted, it appears that the Republicans have chosen their candidate for President while the Democrats are still unable to choose between a woman and a black man.

Senator John McCain, the 71-year-old war hero and former Vietnam prisoner of war, took nine of the 21 states voting in the Republican contests.

The big surprise of the night was former Governor of Arkansas Mike Hucakee.

He won his home state and Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia. His brand of fundamentalist Christianity clearly appealed to Southern Republicans wary of McCain's perceived liberalism, and his campaign has received a significant boost.

Meanwhile Mitt Romney, who has spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money on his bid for the White House, took seven states: Massachusetts, where he was Governor from 2003 to 2007, Alaska, Utah, North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and Colorado.

Many of the contests in Republican races are winner takes all, which explains why Senator McCain won 511 delegates last night while Governor Huckabee took 147 and Governor Romney 176.

The delegates gather at the party conventions at the end of the summer to formally nominate their candidates for President. The election is held on November 4th.

"While I've never minded the role of the underdog, and have relished as much as anyone come from behind wins, I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican party front-runner for the nomination," Senator McCain told supporters.

Just six months ago his campaign was viewed as a minor distraction from the rise of Romney.

However, despite poor results Governor Romney pledged to keep fighting and has no intention of dropping out of the race, while Governor Huckabee can hardly contain his glee at sweeping the South.

In the Democratic races, which took place in 21 states, American Samoa and among expatriate party members, the candidates are apportioned delegates based on how many votes they won.

This makes second place important in the overall race.

The results were close. Senator Hillary Clinton won eight states, including many with large populations and therefore a high number of delegates, among them the biggest of them all, California. It is thought that Hispanic support was vital to her victory there - 70% of them voted for her.

She also won in her home state of New York, New Jersey and Arkansas, where she was First Lady for 12 years.

Her rival for the Democratic nomination, 46-year-old Barack Obama, won his home state of Illinois and 12 others, among them some mid-Western states such as Kansas, Missouri and Minnesota.

These states, while they may not carry with them a large number of delegates, indicate that Mr Obama continues to appeal to white voters.

Despite taking 13 states to Senator Clinton's eight, she won more delegates, because of the populations of the state where she took the lead.

AP reports that Senator Obama won 562 delegates to Senator Clinton's 582. Overall she has 845 delegates to her opponent's 765. The winner requires at least 2,025.

42% of the total delegates to the Democratic convention were apportioned yesterday.

Senator Obama's momentum seems hard to stop.

"There is one thing on this February night that we do not need the final results to know," he told supporters last night.

"Our time has come. Our time has come, our movement is real and change is coming to America."

Meanwhile Senator Clinton, at all times emphasising her experience as a White House spouse and member of the Senate, said:

"Tonight in record numbers you voted not just to make history, but to remake America.

"I look forward to continuing our campaign and our debate, about how to leave this country better off for the next generation, because that is the work of my life."

All eyes are now on phase four of the Democratic race. On Saturday Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington state and the US Virgin Islands will hold their primaries and caucuses, followed by Maine the next day.

Next Tuesday is the so-called Beltway primary, when the states surrounding Washington DC, such as Maryland and Virginia, and DC itself, go to the polls.

In March, April, May and June Washington DC, a further 14 states and two territories will choose until on June 3rd Montana and South Dakota will hold their primaries. The key races will be in the populous states of Ohio and Texas.

While many commentators expect the race to have a winner atfer those two key primaries, the closeness of the candidates makes it possible it could be up to Democrats in Montana and South Dakota who runs for President.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-6769.html

Super duper Tuesday!

So here we are - American Democrats and Republicans are going to the polls - its pretty clear that John McCain is going to wrap up the Republican nomination.

Great news. As I have said before, I just do not think America will vote for a 71-year-old.

So tonight will be most interesting to see if a woman or a black man will take the lead in the Democratic race.

Barack Obama has a knack of getting out the vote, particularly young people. In a few hours will will find out how many of the 20-odd states will back him.

His team are playing down any chance of a stunning victory, but the BBC reports that privately his inner circle are happy with his surge in numbers.

"The more the voters see of him, the more they like him," said one reporter. They have seen plenty of Hillary Clinton.

Exciting stuff.

Are the papers being homophobic?

Derek Conway certainly thinks so. The disgraced MP has hit out at press coverage of his son Henry, one of the family members Conway paid a generous salary to for doing what would appear to be no work.

As soon as the story broke jounalists showed an unhealthy interest in Henry. He promotes a club night at a venue the Royal Princes like to go to. That's gold dust to the Daily Mail.

He is gay, out and by all accounts camp. The Sun loved that.

He has a Facebook profile - perfect "research" for the lazy journalists, who stole pictures and wrote shit 'profiles' of Henry with the crappy scraps of information they found online.

Even The Times and The Independent found time to comment on Henry's sexuality.

Is that homophobia? Well, it is hard to tell.

If the Conway child had been a female socialite, with a reputation as one of the best connected young people in London, who ran club nights in trendy venues, it is likely that would have got just as much coverage.

"MP pays socialite daughter" is perfectly plausible, especially if this fictitious creature was attractive.

However, there is something nasty about the newspapers' reporting on Henry. The smell of old -style homophobia that the British press used to be notorious for.

Even if Henry worked as a vicar in an inner London parish and gave all the money to the poor, the tabs and even the "respectable" papers would have mentioned his homosexuality.

Today his father hit out.

"One newspaper even tried to suggest that he'd had a sex-change on the NHS," he said.

"It is complete rubbish. These homophobic clowns think every gay wants to be a woman.

"Why should he be pilloried for being gay? He's my son."

Now while that is particularly low, and probably homophobic, it strikes me as no less serious than the shit everyone else unlucky enough to be ripped apart by the tabloids has to endure.

The way Henry has been treated is probably homophobic.

The way lots of other people are treated in ways that do not have a handy label, but are just as despicable. The conclusion we should draw is not that the British tabloids are homophobic.

They are complete bastards to everyone.

And as for Mr Conway, this quote caught my eye and stuck in my throat:

"He (Henry) goes out as normal people go to bed. It is portrayed as a gay lad bouncing round London; drink, drugs, whatever.

"It is hard to watch when you know he has committed no crime. "

No, you are the one who has committed the crime and caused your whole family to be thrust into the limelight.

The aspect of this whole sorry incident that most upsets me is the arrogance of Conway.

After more than 20 years in Parliament, he obviously has no respect for it or for his party or constituents.

He actually conceived this scheme and thought he would get away with it. No-one would know or care.

The other thing he may have done is stop MPs employing their wives - this is a grave mistake, as well as an insult to the many women who do an outstanding and dedicated job for not very much reward.

Will Conway have to resign before the next election?

My gut instinct is no - the worst of the storm is over, he has promised not to seek re-election and the last thing the Tories want now is a by-election just before the London Mayoral elections.

The expert speaks

A good start to 2008's shortest month - a nice quote from me in The Observer:

Figures from the Office for National Statistics confirm the downward trend. They show that while 16,100 couples formed a civil partnership in the UK in 2006, at an average of 4,000 every three months, just 4,060 did so in the first half of last year. 'One reason for the decline may be that some gay people aren't interested in formalising their relationship,' said Tony Grew, editor of the pinknews.co.uk website. 'Some don't want to have all the formality of a civil partnership because they think it's the death knell of a relationship.'

Some highly political gays, such as activist Peter Tatchell, see civil partnerships as part of a process of 'assimilation' or integration into wider society that they reject in favour of a proudly 'queer' lifestyle. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights lobby group Stonewall, said: 'There was a big pent-up demand from couples in long-term relationships to form a civil partnership, which is why so many did it early on after the law changed in late 2005, so a tailing-off would be logical.'

Summerskill pointed out that when civil partnerships were introduced the government predicted that about 11,000 to 22,000 would take place by 2010. 'But we have already far exceeded that number,' he added. There were 1,950 in December 2005, then 16,100 during 2006, and more than 4,000 in the first half of last year, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Grew said that the low rate so far of gay divorce - known as 'dissolution' of a civil partnership - and the long time spent together by many couples who form one, 'shows that gay people are treating them with due solemnity and respect. Generally, they take them more seriously than many people who get married. The people who go for it are older, have been together longer and have more committed relationships. That's why we won't see the 40 per cent or 50 per cent divorce rates we see in heterosexual marriages,' he said.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2251581,00.html