Thanks in part to recent political darts flung at the LGBT community, New Yorkers are mobilized to step out and vote tomorrow. As Dierdre Ann, a lesbian from Brooklyn Heights, said, “It’s far too dangerous not to vote.”
Some question whether Democrats will get the “safe vote” from the gay and lesbian community as they have in recent past, as the Obama administration's lack of support on some issues may have turned some LGBT voters off from voting blue. But, in New York, at least, LGBT voters and their straight supporters seem energized, thanks to recent inflammatory anti-gay statements made by GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino—such as when he recently suggested that acceptance of the gay lifestyle was a result of “brainwashing.”
Still, in mid-term elections, voter turnout is typically only about 40 percent, so the American “Non-Voter” may still win out this year. But, as Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said on Face the Nation, “Democrats are much more fired up in the last two weeks than people would think,” so tomorrow’s election may not be the landslide that most pundits are expecting.
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Yesterday, Brazil elected its first female president, Dilma Rousseff, with 55.6 percent of the vote, despite the fact that Rousseff had never previously held elective public office and was once a guerrilla rebel.
Rousseff, the daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant and a schoolteacher, joined the guerrilla group National Liberation Command to fight the military dictatorship that controlled Brazil from 1964 to 1985 and was even jailed and tortured for her association with the group in the 1970s. During her presidential campaign, Rousseff was supported by wildly popular soon-to-be-ex President Silva while campaigning. She served as President Silva’s chief of staff and energy minister.
As Terry McCoy, Latin American studies professor emeritus at University of Florida, said, “There was no good reason to vote against her. People throughout [Brazilian] society are better off and they feel it.”
Meanwhile, back in the states, we have yet to elect a female president, but Sarah Palin might be looking to change that. She said recently that she’d be willing to “make the sacrifices” necessary to run for President of the United States—but only if the country “needs” her, of course.
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A nude painting in the living room of a former UK foreign secretary has sparked controversy, but the ex-public official says the depiction of naked ladies dancing is a joyous scene, and art critics be damned.
David Miliband is the former secretary and art lover fallen under attack, thanks to the photo that won the UK Times Young Photographer Of The Year Award. But, it wasn’t the photo itself that garnered the most talk—it was the painting of nude women dancing that served as a backdrop to the photo’s subjects.
Art critics from around the UK were quick to defame the painting, saying it was "middle-brow junk” and more appropriate for a “pole-dancing club.” But Miliband has responded to the critics of his living room—such as Stephen Bayley, who compared the painting to “finding a severed head in the linen basket”—in a written statement published in the Daily Mail.
“The women look happy and free. They certainly don’t look as if they are worried about the prying eyes of Stephen Bayley,” Miliband wrote. “They make sure Louise and I look on the bright side of life.” Naked women dancing do tend to change one’s outlook for the better.