Alright, that’s it, I’ve had it! I cannot take one more awful, sensationalized, CAPITALIZED headline from you HuffPo.

I held out as long as I could. I even held on when you cashed out to the tune of $315 million on the backs of mostly unpaid, grassroots, local bloggers.

Ultimately it was your painful lack of copyediting, lack of pertinent details on important stories, and your sensationalized headlines that pushed me over the edge. Goodbye Huffington Post.

For anyone else looking to take the leap and find Huffington Post alternatives, here are the sites where I have ended up, in no particular order:

• Truthdig

• Salon.com

• BuzzFlash

• Mother Jones

• The Nation

• The Raw Story

• Media Matters for America

• The Daily Beast

• Truthout

• AlterNet

• The New Republic

• Talking Points Memo

• AMERICAblog

• Crooks and Liars

Finally!  11 years after Matthew Shepard’s death, the legislation bearing his name has finally made it through Congress and on to the President’s desk.  The Republicans, of course, fought it all along the way but despite their best efforts America has arrived in the 21st century.  It saddens me that Senator Kennedy isn’t here to see this come to fruition, after all of his years fighting for it.

I do wish that the bill could have been sent through Congress on its own accord, but attaching it to a defense bill was the safest bet for getting it through and the Democrats did the right thing in doing so.

Matthew’s parents Judy and Dennis have worked tirelessly to see this happen and I have enormous respect for both of them.  I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Judy at a Soulforce event protesting Focus on the Family and their hurtful, dangerous rhetoric.  She was incredibly sweet and genuine and my heart broke all over again for this women who was thrust into a role that no parent would ever wish for.  Hate took her son from her she chose to go on and fight that hate,  She is my personal hero because of it.

Today as I watched the above videos I stumbled upon this great video which contains the statement that Dennis Shepard gave during the trial of one of Matthew’s murderers.  The audio is from the movie “The Laramie Project”.  It is incredibly moving.

I just happened upon this video and it’s very fitting when considering my previous post.  We must work harder to create safe havens for LGBT individuals around the world, until that day when all people are loved, accepted, and safe in their home.

I’ve been haunted lately by the images of teenagers Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni as they wept and waited for their execution, pleading for their lives.  There are questions about their case, and whether or not they were executed for their consensual homosexual acts or not, but regardless, hundreds of people are executed in Iran and other places for simply being who they are.

There are people and organizations working to make change around the world.  Please consider joining up with Amnesty International and making a recurring donation.  When atrocities like these and in many other categories appear around the globe Amnesty is always there fighting for justice, peace, and human rights.  I have the utmost respect and gratitude for Amnesty International, and if I’m lucky maybe someday I will work for them.

So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted here but something happened tonight that is just the kind of thing that gets me to blog.  I recently met a guy named Alex and tonight when we were talking I found out his story.  He’s 27, has lived in Colorado for 3 years and is from Peru.  He’s gay and is out here but is not at a point where he feels he can tell his family or anyone back home.  He’s living here illegally; he overstayed a work visa.

I used to be a right-wing crazy who would go nuts over this kind of stuff, then I became a very conflicted and confused “moderate” who didn’t know quite what to do about these things but still strongly felt “they” should all go back and do it legally.  Now I’m a bleeding heart liberal who wants us to throw open our arms and our borders and actually live by “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” 

Why does Alex want to live in America so badly?  He wants to fall in love and be able to live openly and without fear in a same sex relationship.  As we spoke tonight he sadly told me about a close friend of his that was arrested for his immigration status almost 3 months ago.  His friend is from Morocco and is desperate to stay here because he can be jailed for his sexuality if he is sent back home.  He applied for amnesty based on his sexual orientation and was denied.  He appealed and was in the middle of the detailed and exhaustive process when he was was picked up and taken to jail for his illegal status.  He was shipped to a jail near Colorado Springs and remains there almost three months later.

I know we must have immigration laws; I understand that reality, but this is not the answer.  This man is in jail and will likely be sent back to a very unfriendly country where he may be imprisoned for who he is and we don’t consider that important enough for him to stay.

This system is broken, but how do we fix it?

Marylin Musgrave has been the target of my posts before, but this time she’s really outdone herself.

It appears that two weeks after the election where she lost by a glorious twelve percentage points, she is still refusing to concede the race and congratulate her opponent, Betsy Markey.  I’ve known for a while that this woman is shameless and just plain mean, but this is even surprising to me.

Marilyn now has the honor of making national news, as she was featured on the Rachel Maddow Show.

Furthermore, she has been listed on Newsweek’s The Dignity Index as a 78 out of 100.  Newsweek had this to say: “Despite losing her re-election bid by 12 points, Colorado GOP Rep. Marilyn Musgrave refuses to congratulate her opponent or even concede the race,”

This woman has been an enemy of my right to happiness and equality, and I am filled with much joy that the fair-minded people of Colorado’s 4th Congression District have spoken loudly and have boldly silenced Marilyn’s fearmongering and hatred.

“Stay classy Marilyn Musgrave.”

It is 2AM on October 30th and staying true to quantifying my life in terms of how close Election day is, it is 5 days away.  I have sacrificed my bank accounts and standard of living by not working when I could have been and I have let my my grades suffer by working on this campaign since August.  The thought that in 5 days it could all be a waste is a little frightening.   I just cashed out my 401k to make it through and I’m stressed to say the least.

I decided to get back into school after 6 years and my performance this semester has been less than stellar.  I hope I have time to pull it out of the gutter once the campaign is over.  I hope.

I do this because it is a cause greater than myself and my hope for the future overpowers my concerns for my present.  That is why I do this.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wow.  As funny as this is, I end up finding it very moving and extremely powerful.  Great, great piece.

Well, I’ve decided to try a new layout here.  I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, so let me know what you think.

My life has become pretty hectic as of late and it’s taking all I have to keep up the pace.  I have dropped two of my five courses this semester which I am less than pleased about.  I didn’t have much choice because I just couldn’t put the effort, time and focus on them that I needed to.  I will retake one of them next semester and the other one I am happy to let sail off into the sunset.

My work with Barack Obama’s campaign is keeping me busy when I am not in school.  I am in shock that we are down to 12 days now.  We have a countdown going on our wall in the field office with numbers about 2½ tall.  We first got those numbers when we were in the 80′s, and to now almost be in the single digits is absolutely terrifying.  I’m concerned, I’m nervous, but most of all I am excited.  I am excited at the opportunity we have to make such tremendous and world-shaping change.  I know my friends around the world are cheering us on and hoping that we make the right decisions on November 4th.

In other interesting and somewhat unnerving news, I am currently using Ancestry.com to try and figure out if my ancestors were ever slave owners.  As I’ve been sitting through an early American History course hearing about the days of the slave trade I can’t help but wonder.  I just need to know one way or the other.  My Mother’s side of the family are sugar cane farmers.  I grew up surrounded by sugar cane.  My Grandfather, his brother, one of his sons, etc. were all sugar cane farmers.  I don’t know how far back it goes, but I’m hoping to be able to rule it out fairly soon.

We’ll see, wish me luck.

Click here to view the embedded video.