Media Tidbits: HBO Pines for Gore, Obama's Book Greed, The 'Transgender' Agenda

-- One liberal message in the week before elections has been questioning the reliability of election devices, softening up the public for widespread litigation if Democrats are losing in any close races. On Thursday night, HBO will air a documentary entitled "Hacking Democracy." It's being widely advertised on liberal blogs with a poor-President-Gore spin: "In the 2000 Presidential election, a vote-counting computer recorded negative votes for Al Gore in Volusia County, FL. If our votes aren't safe, then our democracy isn't safe, either."

-- MediaBistro's GalleyCat blog on the book biz suggests Sen. Barack Obama isn't such an idealistic Goody Two Shoes, at least when it comes to striking Hillary-like book deals with the big advance up front to avoid Senate ethics rules:

Peter Osnos has kept track of his young author, who of course has gone on to tremendous political and publishing success since Crown revived Dreams two years ago, and what bothers him about that steady upward climb is Obama's decision to dump Dystel as his agent and hire Robert Barnett, the attorney who handles literary affairs for just about everybody on the DC A-list, then cutting a seven-figure book deal with Crown before being sworn into the U.S. Senate...in other words, before the income would require public disclosure.

While recognizing that Obama's business decision is "completely legal and entirely within his rights as a writer," Osnos is still disappointed at how quickly the senator has cashed in on his high-profile arrival on the political scene. "I just wish that this virtuous symbol of America's aspirational class did not move quite so smoothly into a system of riches as a reward for service," Osnos observes, "especially before it has actually been rendered."

-- Wonder how Speaker Pelosi will pander to the San Fran constituency? Check the gay press. The front page of the October 20 Washington Blade ran the headline "Democratic House a gay boon?" The Blade reported the gay agenda is being lined up for consideration:

Gay political activists and Democratic leaders are already planning post-election strategies and priorities for an expectedly bluer and more progressive House of Representatives.

The preliminary plans, which could change wildly based on the outcome of next month’s elections, put a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act atop the wish list of gay rights supporters...A federal hate crimes bill that covers crimes motivated by hatred of gays and transgender people is also a priority, along with a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the military’s ban on openly gay service members....

A spokesperson for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told the Blade that the expanded hate crimes law would also do well in a Democratic-controlled House.

“There is strong bipartisan support for all of these issues,” said Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy press secretary.

He noted Pelosi’s “commitment to non-discrimination and other protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community will continue to guide her in her leadership of House Democrats.”

The October 27 Blade added that Rep. Barney Frank will indeed push a "trans-inclusive ENDA" next year:

Democratic and Republican members of the House and Senate will introduce a new version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, early next year that for the first time will include protection for transgender persons, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said this week.

Frank, who has been a lead sponsor of ENDA in the past, said he believes a carefully drafted trans-inclusive ENDA would likely receive the same if not more co-sponsors than the earlier version did in 2004.

--At the left-wing blog BAG News Notes, they demonstrate just how aggressively you can read into the RNC Harold Ford ad -- race is suggested by "racially suggestive" black and white outfits and even hair colors:

Because the ad is so blatant -- associating Ford with ugly stereotypes regarding the black man's sexual appetite and hankering for white women -- one tends to overlook the more subtle touches.  Those spatial, tonal or environmental elements, however, are what reinforce the coding at a more subconscious level.

For example, notice how the dress and the sighting of the two couples is so similar.

In each case, one person is wearing blue (true blue; blue collar; democratic blue; neutral blue; blue jean demin) while the other is (severe; extreme; racially suggestive) black-and-white.  As well, the vista of the sidewalk (which I sliced for emphasis) emphasizes the difference...

If you can find racism in the "vista of a sidewalk," then you're deep in the weeds.