Posts made by leatherbear

Find out how your senators voted on DADT – and call them!

The Senate's vote to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was a landmark victory and an unforgettable moment in our history. Now we need to let our senators know we were paying attention to how they voted.

1. **Find your senators below and see how they voted – then call the main Capitol number at 202-224-3121 and ask for one of your senators' offices.

2. If they voted for repeal, thank them. If they voted against repeal, tell them you're extremely disappointed!

3. Hang up, call the same number back, and speak with your other senator's office.**

Find your senators below, then call BOTH of them at 202-224-3121:

State Senator How They Voted
AK Begich (D) For Repeal
AK Murkowski (R) For Repeal
AL Sessions (R) Against Repeal
AL Shelby (R) Against Repeal
AR Lincoln (D) For Repeal
AR Pryor (D) For Repeal
AZ McCain (R) Against Repeal
AZ Kyl (R) Against Repeal
CA Boxer (D) For Repeal
CA Feinstein (D) For Repeal
CO Bennet (D) For Repeal
CO Udall (D) For Repeal
CT Dodd (D) For Repeal
CT Lieberman (I) For Repeal
DE Carper (D) For Repeal
DE Coons (D) For Repeal
FL LeMieux (R) Against Repeal
FL Nelson (D) For Repeal
GA Chambliss (R) Against Repeal
GA Isakson (R) Against Repeal
HI Akaka (D) For Repeal
HI Inouye (D) For Repeal
IA Grassley (R) Against Repeal
IA Harkin (D) For Repeal
ID Crapo (R) Against Repeal
ID Risch (R) Against Repeal
IL Durbin (D) For Repeal
IL Kirk (R) For Repeal
IN Bayh (D) For Repeal
IN Lugar (R) Against Repeal
KS Brownback (R) Against Repeal
KS Roberts (R) Against Repeal
KY Bunning (R) Did Not Vote
KY McConnell (R) Against Repeal
LA Landrieu (D) For Repeal
LA Vitter (R) Against Repeal
MA Brown (R) For Repeal
MA Kerry (D) For Repeal
MD Cardin (D) For Repeal
MD Mikulski (D) For Repeal
ME Collins (R) For Repeal
ME Snowe (R) For Repeal
MI Levin (D) For Repeal
MI Stabenow (D) For Repeal
MN Franken (D) For Repeal
MN Klobuchar (D) For Repeal
MO Bond (R) Against Repeal
MO McCaskill (D) For Repeal
MS Cochran (R) Against Repeal
MS Wicker (R) Against Repeal
MT Baucus (D) For Repeal
MT Tester (D) For Repeal
NC Burr (R) For Repeal
NC Hagan (D) For Repeal
ND Conrad (D) For Repeal
ND Dorgan (D) For Repeal
NE Johanns (R) Against Repeal
NE Nelson (D) For Repeal
NH Gregg (R) Did Not Vote
NH Shaheen (D) For Repeal
NJ Lautenberg (D) For Repeal
NJ Menendez (D) For Repeal
NM Bingaman (D) For Repeal
NM Udall (D) For Repeal
NV Ensign (R) For Repeal
NV Reid (D) For Repeal
NY Gillibrand (D) For Repeal
NY Schumer (D) For Repeal
OH Brown (D) For Repeal
OH Voinovich (R) For Repeal
OK Coburn (R) Against Repeal
OK Inhofe (R) Against Repeal
OR Merkley (D) For Repeal
OR Wyden (D) For Repeal
PA Casey (D) For Repeal
PA Specter (D) For Repeal
RI Reed (D) For Repeal
RI Whitehouse (D) For Repeal
SC DeMint (R) Against Repeal
SC Graham (R) Against Repeal
SD Johnson (D) For Repeal
SD Thune (R) Against Repeal
TN Alexander (R) Against Repeal
TN Corker (R) Against Repeal
TX Cornyn (R) Against Repeal
TX Hutchinson (R) Against Repeal
UT Bennett (R) Against Repeal
UT Hatch (R) Did Not Vote
VA Warner (D) For Repeal
VA Webb (D) For Repeal
VT Leahy (D) For Repeal
VT Sanders (I) For Repeal
WA Cantwell (D) For Repeal
WA Murray (D) For Repeal
WI Feingold (D) For Repeal
WI Kohl (D) For Repeal
WV Manchin (D) Did Not Vote
WV Rockefeller (D) For Repeal
WY Barrasso (R) Against Repeal
WY Enzi (R) Against Repeal

Call both of your senators at 202-224-3121.


:cheesy2:

Growing up in South Wales, it was hard enough being a Tory, let alone being gay

Truth: Nigel Evans is to come out as gay in a move that will help MPs be more open about their homosexuality

By Simon Walters
Last updated at 5:26 PM on 19th December 2010

The Deputy Speaker of the Commons is to come out as gay tomorrow to mark the launch of a Parliamentary group that will help MPs and staff be open about their homosexuality.

Senior Tory MP Nigel Evans, who deputises for Speaker John Bercow, says he is ‘tired of living a lie’ and has received threats of blackmail in the past from political enemies.

Mr Evans said he had been threatened with exposure by a former Labour MP.
He admitted: ‘The MP was saying to anyone who would listen, “Why is it that Nigel Evans leads a life whereby he is gay to some people and not others?” ’

He refused to name the Labour politician, but added: ‘I could not afford it to be used as leverage against me. I couldn’t take the risk. I don’t want any other MP to face that kind of nastiness again.

‘I am sure there are other gay MPs who would like to be open about their sexuality but are fearful of the consequences. I hope this new group will help them to do so.’

Mr Evans’s decision came partly as a result of a chance conversation with a friend, the actress Vicky Entwistle, who plays plain-talking Janice Battersby in Coronation Street.

She lives in Mr Evans’s Ribble Valley constituency in Lancashire and invited him to a 50th anniversary party for the ITV soap opera.

Mr Evans, 53, said: ‘Vicky and I went for a drink after the party and she said to me, “You’re gay, aren’t you?” It’s a subject I avoid usually but Vicky is very natural and I told her I was. I thought to myself, “I am now telling people I am gay – it’s time I did something about it and told everyone.” ’

He was also encouraged after discussing it with fellow Welshman and rugby union star Gareth Thomas, who came out last year.

‘If people like Gareth, who was married, can come out, it should be no big deal for me,’ he said.

Each Category has a poll for voting.

Contest Closed ~ Voting Begins!!!

Contest Closed ~ Voting Begins!!!

Contest Closed ~ Voting Begins!!!

Contest Closed ~ Voting Begins!!!!!

Contest Over Voting begins!!!

Contest Over Voting begins!!!

As many as 1.5 billion people worldwide will be able to watch when the Earth's shadow creeps across the moon's surface early Tuesday morning, the first time in hundreds of years that a lunar eclipse will fall on the winter solstice.

With the full moon high in the winter sky, the lunar eclipse will be visible from four continents, with the best views from North America and Central America if weather permits, scientists say.

The moon appears totally covered by shadow as the Earth passes between the moon and the sun during a lunar eclipse in January 2001.

"It's a really democratic event," Andrew Fraknoi, the chairman of astronomy at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, told the San Francisco Chronicle, "because you don't need an expensive telescope or any other sophisticated equipment to enjoy the spectacle – just your eyes or, if you like, a pair of binoculars."

Unlike a solar eclipse, eclipses of the moon can usually be observed anywhere in the hemisphere where the moon is above the horizon.

This particular lunar eclipse also may be seen in totality from northern and western Europe, some of northeast Asia, Hawaii and New Zealand, according to Space.com. In total, some 1.5 billion people may have a chance to see the full eclipse, the website reported.

Total lunar eclipses during winter in the northern hemisphere are fairly common, NASA says. However, a lunar eclipse falling precisely on the date of the solstice is quite rare.

Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years for NASA.

"Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21," Chester said, according to NASA. "Fortunately we won't have to wait 372 years for the next one ... that will be on 2094 DEC 21."

This year's event will take 3 hours and 38 minutes. The eclipse begins on Tuesday at 1:33 a.m. ET, when the Earth's dark-red shadow will turn up on the edge of the moon, according to NASA. It will take about an hour for the shadow to cover the entire moon. Totality begins at 2:41 a.m. and lasts for 72 minutes.

Sponsored Links

If you only have time for a quick look, NASA recommends that you take a peek 3:17 a.m. ET. That's when the moon will be fully covered in an amber light.

For more information on how often the December full moon coincides with the solstice, see this explanation of Greenwich mean time and the resulting time zones.

And for a graphic slide show of the lunar eclipse, see the website shadowandsubstance.com.

::)