The Yes On 8 group Protect Marriage has launched their first TV ad. Jeremy at Good As You has pulled the clip off their site, go check it out. Jeremy thinks the clip is an “ineffective snoozefest.” The ad ridiculously claims that Prop 8 would cause churches to lose their tax-exempt status and flashes a completely unrelated headline from the …

Via AP: The nation — and the city of Laramie — has become more accepting of gays and lesbians in the 10 years since a gay University of Wyoming student was beaten, lashed to a lonely fence and left to die, his mother said Saturday. “We’ve learned a lot, we’ve talked a lot; we do it in public forums now,” …

Scientists at Purdue University are lobbying Congress to require that radiation detectors be installed in cell phones, allowing the government to instantly triangulate the location of a potential dirty bomb. “We have to fight this American knee-jerk toward the highest tech,” says Andrew Longman, a project leader. The Purdue team is designing a detection system that’s so small it could …

Via Get Listy:1. Washington Mutual, Seattle (2008)Total assets: $307 billion 2. Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust, Chicago (1984)Total assets: $40.0 billion 3. First Republic Bank, Dallas (1988)Total assets: $32.5 billion 4. IndyMac Bank, Pasadena, Calif. (2008)Total assets: $32 billion 5. American S&LA, Stockton, Calif. (1988)Total assets: $30.2 billion 6. Bank of New England, Boston (1991)Total assets: $21.7 billion 7. …

Pam Spaulding came across this pizza box-wielding baby fundie at North Carolina Pride this weekend. Go check out Pam’s videos and slideshow for a cavalcade of crazy Christers, as well as some of the good people working on your behalf. By the way, the kid’s t-shirt says “Virginity Rocks!”

Over at BlogActive, one of Mike Roger’s readers has laid out the case for exposing John McCain’s hypocrisy in employing chief of staff Mark Buse.

Former New York mayor and full-time opportunist Rudy Giuliani is rubbing his hands with glee over the financial meltdown on Wall Street. Rudy Giuliani is positioning his law firm to cash in on Wall Street’s train wreck – a move that has become a gift to political enemies of his pal John McCain. Even as the nation’s $700 billion, taxpayer-funded …

She’s now at -10 (meaning 40% view her favorably, 50% unfavorably). Two weeks ago she was at +17. (Via – Daily Kos)

The Yankees held their annual hazing of the rookies this weekend, forcing the newbies to dress as the Village People and parade around Boston. I watched it on the news, wondering if there might be a faint hint of homophobia in making the players dress as the most famous gay group of all time, but everybody seemed to be having …

This is the Queens entrance to the Midtown Tunnel, which opened in 1940. Every March, the tunnel is closed for one night for the Ringling Brothers / Barnum & Bailey Circus to walk their elephants to Madison Square Garden. The toll for cars is $5 each way, elephants are free.

Is the McCain campaign planning an October surprise? In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one — the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election. Inside John McCain’s campaign the expectation is growing that there will be …

Via Gawker: Dirty Jobs host, Deadliest Catch narrator, and former opera singer Mike Rowe has yet another accomplishment to add to his already impressive resume. Readers at Gay.com have voted him the number one dude they’d like to cheat on their boyfriends and husbands with. Poor old silver fox Anderson Cooper’s stock is on the decline, as he came in …

Paul Newman died of lung cancer yesterday at age 83, leaving behind one of the greatest acting legacies in history. For many, however, Newman will be more fondly remembered for a lifetime spent as a generous philanthropist. Newman’s line of natural food products has donated over $250 million to numerous charities since he first came up with the idea of …

It wasn’t the most stirring of debates, no single line jumped out at me right off the bat. Maybe something will come up during the coming endless analysis. But I wasn’t too happy to hear Obama say over and over “John is exactly right,” knowing that McCain’s flacks would jump all over that. Sure enough, the ad is already out, …

From Google co-founder Sergey Brin: As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions — Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay — we do not generally take a position on issues outside …

Yesterday when Sarah Palin visited a downtown 9/11 memorial, author Michael Daly was there signing copies of his book about Father Mychal Judge, the quietly gay yet celibate priest who was killed by falling debris outside the Twin Towers. When Palin approached Daly’s table, his handlers suggested inscribing a copy for her. In the photo at left, Daly’s book is …

In Hamilton, Ohio, an 8th grade boy is getting grief for wearing makeup to school. I’m guessing that this is only a story because schools are now terrified of having their own Lawrence King tragedy. A Garfield Middle School student and his family are challenging the Hamilton City School District over his right to wear black eyeliner and lipstick to …

Dan Savage unearthed this clip of a smashed Hillary supporter in Kentucky railing against Obama. “Black got nothin’ to do with it. These A-rabs are trying to sneak this guy into our country.” This clip hits ALL the redneck talking points, including a couple of uses of the n-word. With Democrats like this…

Via Washington Post: Although the fate of tonight’s presidential debate in Mississippi remains very much up in the air, John McCain has apparently already won it — if you believe an Internet ad an astute reader spotted next to this piece in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal this morning. “McCain Wins Debate!” declares the ad which features …