Gov. Richardson Getting Hammered For "Gay Lifestyle Choice" Remark - Huff Post

This was on the Huff Post:

"Richardson again apologized for saying last week he believes homosexuality is a lifestyle choice rather than a biological characteristic. The comment at a candidates' forum on gay issues sparked outrage in the gay community.

"I made a mistake. I screwed up," he said, acknowledging that the gay blogosphere is upset with him."

That's a touchy subject. But I think what he's referring to is that it's easier for someone to choose to be Gay or hide that they are. For decades prior to the 20th Century many Gay entertainers had to hide -- be in the closet -- rather than reveal who they are. Many even got married.

My take is the people who were attacking him were undoubtedly too young to know this.

CNN / YouTube Debates - Send The Republican Presidential Candidates A Message

Many in the YouTube community are very upset that several Republican candidates -- Sam Brownback, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Mitt Romney, and Tom Tancredo as of this writing -- have refused to participate in the Republican CNN / YouTube Presidential Debates. My idea is to simply send each one a video message. For more information, click on the video!

Zennie's Video Take On The CNN / YouTube Debate - Score The Debate For Barack Obama

CNN/YouTube Debates Current Statistical Breakdown As Of 10 AM Sunday July 22

As you know, the CNN / YouTube debates is set to air tommorrow night and give the American public a window into, well, what America's thinking about. I'm a video presenter, having submitted seven clips, including the one that is part of the example video at youtube.com/debates

I thought it would be fun and informative to cull through as many of the submissions as possible and find patterns.

Here's what I've learned.

First, CNN and YouTube have strict guidelines. They are as follows from the debates website:

Be original -- choose your own approach.
Be personal -- your perspective is important.
Choose your focus -- you can address one or all of the candidates.
Keep it quick -- your question should be less than 30 seconds (and, in the language of your choice).
Make it look good -- speak loudly and keep that camera steady.
Provide context -- in your question or video description, include your name & home town.
Please note -- all videos are subject to the YouTube Terms of Use.

The guidelines are rather subjective, save for one: "your question should be less than 30 seconds"

They're pretty serious about that one and to the degree one can pair down a video to get under this, it stands a better chance to be picked for the debate itself. I wondered just how many videos were over 30 seconds in length, so I counted them one by one. I came up with 631 submissions that were over the limit, and some were way over, like 3 to 5 minutes -- ok, just two of them. But that comes to 26.7 percent of the total and dropped the number of eligible videos to 1,649 as of this writing.

I next wondered how many of the submissions were by women, or had women in them as part of a group or couple. The number was about where I thought it would be. There were 551 videos that featured women or had women in them. That comes to 23.7 percent of the total, and that does include the videos that are over the time limit. That means about 1 of every four submissions was female. Ideally, since women are about 50 percent of the population, you'd like to see a video submission spread that reflects the culture. We're 25 percent off here.

Now the other question is how many people of color are represented in the CNN / YouTube Debates? Well if you really stop and think about it, that's a hard question to give a perfect answer to without surveying the people themselves. CNN / YouTube did not do this, so I had to use an "eye count" and that's a hard one because taking away someone like myself who's obviously black, how can you tell if someone's a mix of, say, Latino and Black, or any combination?

Well, you can't.

But it's important to try and gain some handle on this question of racial / ethnic representation, so you know what I did? I counted all of the obviously black and African American faces like mine. I came up with 157 people, or 6.6 percent, or to put it another way, almost 7 percent of the total number of submissions. I was also careful not to include people -- like myself -- who made more than one entry. There's one guy called "antmoe" that must have installed 15 videos -- I think he holds the record number so far.

So the 157 count is a good one -- no double counting.

According to the 2002 U.S. Census update, 13 percent of the U.S population was black -- and that includes children. This is 2007, of course, but we've got to go with the best data, and that's the best the country can do right now. But that comes to just over 1 of every ten people. We're at 7 percent -- almost -- here. But I'm going to give a different take on this, because again, according to the U.S. Census, 79. percent of the population lives in urban areas.

My point is that the real number that is of importance is the one that shows the racial composition of the 80 percent of the population that's in urban areas. It's really hard to get a good number which reports this for the whole country and not city - by - city -- WEIRD -- but I can tell you that the ranks of blacks and other minorities is greater and the city is also the place most likely to contain people who will make and upload videos.

What I'm getting at is there's not enough black and African Americans in the video submissions to really represent the population in my view. But it's getting better and I think it will improve and in a short time. What I do take from this spread of videos is that on the whole the population of them is closer to than the American makeup than I thought they would be. I'm really happy about that. Moreover, as racial and ethnic integration improves -- in other words, more people realize that racism is a mental illness and will not be racist -- the improving condition will be further reflected in the video program.

But that written, if we consider that about 50 percent of the U.S Black Population consists of kids, then the number of adult blacks roughly matches the percentage of participants in the debate - just over 6 percent. That's good, I think.



See, acts like the making and submission of videos for this contest are a cultural development. But if, say, only one part of the culture's doing it, that fact points to segregation of behavior and ideas. That's bad. The CNN / YouTube debates reveal that even though we still have a long way to go, we get better with each passing generation. But I think one short-term solution is in the "team videos" that are present in the contest.

"Team Videos" are where the username -- say DailyYonder is actually a collection of video questions by different people under one YouTube name. These group efforts present different people asking questions and the range is racially, sexually, and age diverse. It's really the one practice that has contributed to what diversity exists in the debate effort.

But what it says more importantly is the desire of a group of Americans to help level the field for everyone else. That's the beauty of this country.

Debate Question: "Brownie" and Your Presidential Cabinet

http://zennie2005.blogspot.com - This is a question for the CNN / YouTube Debates and it's regarding the presidential candidates. Remember Michael Brown? "Brownie?" The man President Bush picked to head FEMA and became the poster child for government failure during the Katrina Disaster, and who had no qualifications for the job other than his loyalty to President Bush?

Will you hire your friends to run key government positions, or the best and the brightest? Or are you prepared to tell me that your friends are the best and the brightest?

Ron Paul Wins Poll Again - Takes Fox Poll After Debate

Rep. Ron Paul has done it again, confounding and even angering the conservative pundits who've focused on Rudy Giuliani and other front runners in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination.

Ron Paul made a statement that the U.S involvement in the Mid East was the reason for 9-11. Even though it's controversial, it's true.

Rudy Giuliani Supports Don Imus - GOP Presidential Candidates Would Appear On Don Imus' Show - Wash Post

Just a few days after the major on-air racial slur uttered by Don Imus , GOP Presidential Candidates stated that they would -- I repeat -- would -- appear on The Don Imus Show, according to the Washington Post . This is right after Staples, Proctor & Gamble, and Bigelow Teas pulled their ads from the shock-jock's show. Rudy Giuliani, the current GOP front runner, has openly said he would appear on Don Imus' show again.

I guess through reasoning we can assume that Rudy Giuliani will not get donations from representatives of Staples, Proctor & Gamble, and Bigelow Teas.

Here's what was reported:

* Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.): "The comments of Don Imus were divisive, hurtful and offensive to Americans of all backgrounds. With a public platform, comes a trust. As far as I'm concerned, he violated that trust."

* Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.): "I certainly understand the outrage over his remarks. ... Those women did not deserve those hateful and hurtful comments."

* Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.): "He has apologized ... He said that he is deeply sorry. I'm a great believer in redemption. Whether he needs to do more in order to satisfy the concerns of people like the members of that team, that's something that's between him and them. But I have made many mistakes in my life ... and I have apologized, and most people have accepted that apology."

* Former Gov. Mike Huckabee(R-Ark.) spokeswoman Kirstin Fedewa: "The Governor said yesterday that what Imus said was both insensitive and wrong -- and that he certainly should apologize for his remarks. On top of everything else, what made this so inappropriate was that it was directed at young college women who are amateur athletes and not public figures."

"The Governor considers Imus a friend -- even though he doesn't agree with him on this. Imus did apologize, and he should -- and he's taking repeated steps to show genuine contrition, including offering to meet with the girls, to apologize in person."

* Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) spokesman Kevin Madden: "Governor Romney hasn't been invited to appear on the show again, but if he did go back on the show he would be sure to tell Mr. Imus how awful those remarks were. Governor Romney believes that those remarks were hurtful and obviously never should have even been uttered."

* Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.): Spokesman Pahl Shipley said that Richardson has been in North Korea on a diplomatic mission and was not even sure whether the governor was aware of the controversy.

* Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.): "As the father of two young girls, I can imagine how hurtful these comments were to these young women and their parents. The comments were wrong and unacceptable. We know what the charges are, and we should see what actions he takes in the coming days. I'm glad that he has apologized, and I take him to be sincere in his apology. But his actions in the future will be the test of that sincerity and I'll let that guide my decision."

* Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella: "Mayor Giuliani spoke with Don Imus earlier today and it was clear that Mr. Imus recognizes he made a very big mistake. The Mayor believes Don Imus understands the damage he has done and he did the right thing by apologizing. Mayor Giuliani would appear on Don Imus' program again."