Background: On February 12, openly gay junior high student Larry King (no relation to the CNN host) was murdered in a classroom, shot twice in the head by a fellow student as other students watched.

The cover of issue 1005 of The Advocate features a dithered black-and-white photo of Larry King with the headline "Who's to blame?" The cover story begins on page 28 of that issue with the lead quote, "15-year-old Lawrence King was encouraged to be himself. Did that lesson help send him to his grave?"

In a brazenly sensationalist attempt to sell magazines, The Advocate sends a chilling and offensive message one might hear from Fred Phelps: Stay closeted or die! There's one person to blame for Larry King's murder: Brandon McInerney, the classmate who shot him. To even whisper the idea that encouraging someone to come out is a factor in murder is absurd; it's like blaming 9/11 on travel agents who "encouraged" people to fly that day, or Hurricane Katrina on the architects who designed lovely homes in New Orleans that "encouraged" people to move there.

Anne Stockwell, editor-in-chief of The Advocate, owes the magazine's readership an apology and a resignation for having not only green-lighted the story, but featuring it on this issue's cover.

I hired some contractors to install a new bathroom for my house.  I told them exactly what I wanted, and let them go to work.  When I inspected the finished bathroom today, I was shocked.  

Those &%(#!!@ contractors gave me faucet handles with Hillary Clinton's initials on them!   I looked in the shower, and her initials were there, TOO!  I can't believe these blue-collar workers have sold out to the Republican-lite DLC Hillaristas.  I will never use them again!

Who'd have thought such unassuming people could be in bed with the Clintons just like CNN, MSNBC, Saturday Night Live, Starbucks, and kos (even though he pretends not to be).  The bias is EVERYWHERE!

In the wake of Thursday's shooting that took the lives of six people at NIU, and wounded over a dozen others, none of us at Virginia Tech could avoid being reminded of our own tragedy less than a year earlier. From the moment the news broke, we knew we had to get involved and reach out to the NIU Huskies.  

On Friday, we added a temporary marker to our campus memorial, which will later be sent to NIU. Tonight, we gathered in a candlelight vigil to show our support for NIU.  A number of student organizations are holding fundraisers this week to help NIU families with medical and travel expenses.

If you wish to contribute directly, the address is:

NIU Memorial Fund
DeKalb County Community Foundation
2600 DeKalb Ave
Sycamore, IL 60178

kos writes:

Open primaries are stupid.

I disagree. Open primaries are more small-d-democratic.  

• Years and years ago, there were counties in my home state of South Carolina where the voter registration was nearly 100% Democratic (these were "Strom Thurmond" Democrats...)  Local elections were decided during the primary, as the primary winner would run unopposed in the general election.  In these areas, closed primaries would have locked minority voters out of their only opportunity to select a candidate.
• Amendment 1 to the Constitution guarantees us the right to peaceably assemble -- which also includes the right to not associate.  Closed primaries require that an eligible voter forfeit that right in order to participate.
• In the US, political parties have the right to charge membership dues. Neither of the two major parties does so (currently), but at least one minor party does.  Closed primaries open the door to a 21st century poll tax.

Six days ago, I posted this diary accusing the producers of Countdown with Keith Olbermann of sexism for a story on Wendy Vitter's dress.  

Tonight, Keith Olbermann issued an on-air apology for the story that completely addressed the concerns I raised.  Of course, I'd have preferred the story not air at all, but I'm satisfied that he listened to our concerns and took them to heart.  

Apologies for the short diary, but I felt an obligation to bring closure to the story, having levelled the original complaint.

Tonight's Countdown With Keith Olbermann with Allison Stewart featured a segment (#2 on the countdown) in which Stewart and Jeff Bercovici discuss the dress Wendy Vitter wore last night in terms of the sexual messages it sent.  

We rightfully objected to the media scrutiny of Nancy Pelosi's scarves and sense of fashion.  It is a sexist double-standard, and we should be no less in opposition to this double-standard just because the target happens to be a Republican.  

The transcript is not yet up, but the summary of tonight's show appears here.

I'm embarrassed for this low point in Countdown history.

At the top of this open thread, mcjoan points to a recent Newsweek poll showing Bush at a 26% overall approval rating.

Newsweek gives the by-party breakdown as follows:

Current Total	26%	65%	9%
Republicans	60%	25%	15%
Democrats	8%	87%	5%
Independents	20%	71%	9%

A little linear algebra (below the flip) reveals an interesting consequence of these figures:    Only 27% of the respondents identified as Republicans, while 41% identified as Democrats (or, alternatively, Newsweek weighted the data in this manner, although Mystery Pollster states that Newsweek does not weight by party.)  

I knew Democrats had an advantage in party ID, but fourteen points?  

As I look at the photos of the victims of Monday's tragedy, I'm filled with sadness. But I'm also filled with pride: Ours is a rich and diverse campus, and our lives here at Virginia Tech are enriched every day for the wealth of international opinion and perspectives represented in our community. These thirty-two randomly-selected victims represent five continents.

In the photos that follow, I've tried not to make people the focus of the photos, out of respect for their privacy. You've seen plenty of hugging and crying students already on television. There are, unavoidably, people in the photos, but they're not photos of people. I'm trying to show other ways that this story has left a mark on our campus.

Yesterday's events were shocking, but this morning we're starting to learn the names of the victims. Some of them were names we heard last night -- rumors on Fark, Myspace, or Wikipedia -- some of the names were new.  

I woke this morning to the confirmation that Liviu Librescu was among the ones whose gunshots were fatal. Dr. Librescu and I met a few years ago, as fellow participants in a summer faculty workshop. He was already in his early 70's even then, and still here because it was clear how much he enjoyed his job. He was quiet, but had a wickedly sly sense of humor, and little patience for the bureaucratic red tape we had to put up with at the workshop. Once the workshop was over, I had little contact with him, except that occasionally I'd see him in the hallway and say hi.  

That's how it is with a lot of the people at this community -- the odd semester-based schedule that academia lives by (but nobody else) often means that people are thrown together to see each other regularly for a few months at a time, to find that the following semester, their schedules separate them completely. There are so many people here, that "I knew one semester" but are now just nodding acquaintances.  

CNN reported yesterday a partial list of companies who pulled their advertising from Don Imus's CBS radio show before CBS made the decision to cancel his show completely.  

Among these advertisers?  Procter & Gamble, Inc:

"Effective Friday, April 6, we pulled all P&G's brand advertising from the MSNBC daytime rotation," said P&G spokeswoman Jeannie Tharrington. P&G would not advertise again "until we can evaluate the Imus situation fully," she said.

So, why does Procter & Gamble continue to advertise on The O'Reilly Factor?  You can ask them here.

This diary was inspired by quaoar's excellent story on the security of journalists in Iraq.  Go read it if you haven't done so already.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 99 journalists have been killed in Iraq since March 2003.  37 additional media support personnel (interpreters, drivers, etc.) have also been killed.  This is larger than the number of journalists killed in any previous war, and in fact, exceeds the number of journalists killed in Korea and Vietnam combined.  

Why the dramatic increase in violence against journalists?  

The first two front-paged articles at Redstate tonight are a delightfully pointed illustration of the principle known as IOKIYAR.  In the first article, Traitors Without a Cause, haystack writes:

After the vote in the House today on H R 1591, the so-called "U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007," we get to meet our 2 newest traitors from the GOP [...] Wayne Gilchrest, MD. and Walter Jones, NC.

A Republican marching out of lockstep with his party?!  Voting his conscience?!  Ah do believe ah'm getting the vapours!  haystack goes on to threaten to "make them pay" for their "grotesque mistake".

The article immediately following, The Democrat Whip Memo, criticizes Democratic leadership ("think Sopranos", writes RSinsider) for expecting party unity against a Republican motion to recommit on the very same bill!

A Republican who votes his or her conscience is a "traitor", and a Democrat who doesn't do so is a "Soprano".

If Virginia Democrats had successfully followed Dean's 50-state strategy, George Allen would have conceded on Tuesday night instead of Thursday. We lucked out in a nailbiter of an election that could have been an utter rout.

Background: On October 19, I wrote this diary about a trip through very red Carroll County, Virginia, and a perception I had that support for George Allen was softening.  I decided to follow that up today by checking the vote total for Carroll County with their vote totals in 2004 for Bush vs. Kerry, and it turns out that I was slightly right:  Allen performed worse than Bush in Carroll, but not by a tremendous amount.  

So, I decided to delve a little further and compare the rest of Virginia's localities as well -- full table on the flip.  

I'm bubbling over with a lot of little things that I wanted to write down -- none of them substantial enough for a single diary, but maybe all lumped together, they're an interesting read.  (I guess I could have posted these as comments if I wanted to monopolize an open thread...)

Turning a landslide into an avalanche  

• For the next two years, we'll hear from the screeching right-wing noise machine that everything that goes wrong from here on out is our fault.  (Actually, haven't we been hearing that for the past six years, too?)  We'll need to counter that.  Democratic leaders need to be willing to call out media figures by name.
• We need to use our majorities to fix the problems with HAVA and at a minimum require voter-verified paper trails in all federal and state elections.  (Bush may veto this -- and if he does, we need to hang the issue around his neck.)
• We also need to start the voter registration process early in blue precincts, "adopting" people who move into the precinct (and those turning 18) and then following up with them to keep them aware of the issues, and then make sure they vote.

I'll confess:  I hate phone-banking.  I don't mind getting hung up on by voters, but I feel really awkward when I get someone on the line who's too polite to hang up but convey through the tone of their voice that they're exasperated by the phone calls:  

Me:  Hello, I'm Jyo Fitch with the Montgomery County Democratic Party.  Have I reached the Smith household?

Other end:  <groan>  Whaddya want?

And I've heard it a lot lately -- you hate volunteering for GOTV efforts, too. For 2008, I'm graduating from GOTV to GOTGOTV (Get out the Get-out-the-Vote!)  And here's what I'm asking of you:

(more on the flip...)

Just got back from an exciting and energized rally in Christiansburg, VA to support our Democratic candidates. Jim Webb, Rick Boucher (the incumbent in VA-09) both spoke briefly to the crowd, as did former Governor Mark Warner, and current governor Tim Kaine. Dennis Nagel, the candidate for Commonwealth's Attorney, was present but did not speak.    

Several media outlets were there; I was able to identify personnel from CNN and our local CBS affiliate, WDBJ. I'm disappointed that WDBJ took Jim Webb's one negative line from the day and made it the focus of their story.  His speech was overwhelmingly positive -- some highlights after the flip:

Today, I had the opportunity to drive through some of the side roads through rural Carroll County, VA.  Carroll County is in the reddest part of western Virginia; consider these past results:

2004 President:

    all of Virginia: Bush 53.7%, Kerry 45.5%
    Carroll County: Bush 67.4%, Kerry 32.1%

2004 House of Representatives 9th District:

    all of VA-09: Boucher (D) 59.3%, Triplett (R) 38.9%
    Carroll County: Boucher 49.9%, Triplett 48.4%

2005 Governor:

    all of Virginia: Kaine (D) 51.7%, Kilgore (R), 46.0%
    Carroll County: Kilgore 59.2%, Kaine 38.9%

Along US Highway 52 and State Route 69 -- about 20 miles of road, I saw no Webb signs.  On the other hand, I saw only /one/ Allen sign -- in front of "Stagecoach Station Guns and Antiques".  Is this a sign that Allen's not working his base?  That his support is soft?  Or am I just reading way too much into this?

Republican incumbent Bob Goodlatte still has no filed opponent in the U.S. House race in Virginia's 6th district, according to Jawis.  The filing deadline is April 14.

The 6th district includes Roanoke, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, and Staunton, and surrounding areas.

A filing fee of $3,304 is required, along with the notarized signatures of 1,000 registered voters of the district.  (The Board of Elections recommends that you get 1,500 so that you have a 'cushion' in case of a challenge.)  The candidate may either sign his own petition or circulate petitions and collect signatures but not both.  

1. Does anyone know if we have a candidate who has not declared yet?
2. If not, is there a Kossack who'd be willing to run?  I will gladly assist in any way I can to help defeat Goodlatte!