This report is from the Progressive Newswire at Commondreams.org.  All I can say about this is, "it's about time."  I think that it's wonderful that more and more people are accepting that gay people are just like everyone else. 

Maybe once the US Military's ban is lifted, then the gay marriage ban will be.   Gay marriage will be legal in the US and it will happen in my lifetime - it just rose up too fast for many people.  While we've been fighting for it for years, for the majoriyt of Americans it's a new issue they've never really thought about ....

New Poll Shows Shift in Military Attitudes Toward Gays

WASHINGTON -- October 28 -- Fifty percent of junior enlisted service members say that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey. The number is a significant increase since 1992, when two similar surveys found 16 percent of male service members held the same view. The Annenberg poll follows a report last week from the Urban Institute which estimates 65,000 lesbian and gay Americans serve in the armed forces. “Despite the military’s gay ban, service members have seen first hand the contributions of lesbian and gay Americans,” said Sharra E. Greer, Director of Law and Policy for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). “Heterosexual service members serve alongside lesbian and gay colleagues every day and they are increasingly comfortable doing so.” According to the Annenberg Survey, those who support allowing gays to serve openly do so because they believe sexual orientation is unrelated to job performance. Twenty-nine percent also believe allowing gays to serve is an issue of equal rights. Even among those who oppose allowing gays to serve openly, however, the rationales often used for excluding gays were rejected. Only 16 percent of those opposed believed lesbian and gay service members were “bad for morale,” while just 12 percent thought allowing gays to serve openly would be “bad for teamwork,” two justifications frequently used by military leaders who have rejected the idea of allowing gays to serve openly. “The old rationales used to justify the military’s gay ban aren’t even effective among those who support the Pentagon’s overall position,” said Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at UC-Santa Barbara. “Clearly, those serving on the frontlines and in the trenches do not believe gays disrupt unit cohesion or troop morale.” The Annenberg poll also reflects other recent polls finding widespread public support for lifting the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on lesbian and gay personnel. Annenberg reports 67 percent support among civilians for allowing gays to serve openly. In 2003, FOX News reported 64 percent support, and the Gallup organization 79 percent, on a similar question. “There are few people who continue to defend the military’s ban,” said Greer. “The American people and, increasingly, our men and women in uniform, realize the disservice ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ exacts on our nation. Congress must also now recognize the contribution of lesbian and gay Americans and repeal the ban once and for all.” The 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey is available online at www.naes04.org. ###

I'm really impressed.  While I was waiting in line to vote yesterday, one of the volunteers told us that they had 3000 people vote at that one polling place in the first two days of early voting.

From the lines I've seen at the other polling places I've gone past, they are all experiencing higher than usual turnout.  If the rates are consistent at all 25 polling places in Dallas County, the slightly over half a million people will vote early this year - which comes out to about a third of the county's registered voters.

This could mean that the overall voter turnout for the year is significantly higher than most of the couple decades.  While I hope that a large portion of these voters are not voting for the current regime, I'm just glad that our electorate seems to care this time around and has chosen to participate ...

For a couple months I've been checking out a site run by a Republican that does a weekly Election Prediction based on some political math and all the current state polls.  The site doesn't pretend to be unbiased, but had Kerry as the electoral lead for a good chunk of the summer - so it's not completely skewed away from any form of reality.... currently it has Bush in the lead, but the gap is closing....

A friend pointed out another site with a form of Political Mathematics that I can't say I took the time to understand in-depth but are still pretty damn cool.  This one does hourly updates as new poll information becomes available.

Yesterday it had Bush with a 40% chance of winning the election.  Today it's at 35%.  A week ago it was around 80% ... I don't know if any of these or similar sites have any basis in reality, but they are interesting to follow.  I think that poll information has been too radically off for the last few major election cycles (look at how wrong most were in 2002) To take any poll too seriously...

A commentary I read yesterday, (copied below) made me start thinking more about polls.  Whether or not Mr. Williams is correct, he does put forth a decent arguement.  While I hope he's right, I'll have to wait two weeks to find out.

Published on Saturday, October 16, 2004 by Working For Change

Voter Dissatisfaction Indicates It Won't Be Close Bogus polls mask landslide in the making

by Byron Williams

Conventional wisdom suggests this year's presidential election will be close. Practically every poll taken has the race within the margin of error. At the risk of looking like a fool, I am prepared to respectfully disagree with conventional wisdom to offer the following contrarian perspective: The election will not be close. Before you sit down to your computer to begin your "Williams, have you lost your mind?" rant, hear me out. I have reached this conclusion for two reasons. My first reason is shaped by what polls cannot see. When I was in Philadelphia last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story in the local section that addressed increased voter registration. The final day of registration in Pennsylvania and New Jersey last week brought huge crowds to registration offices. As of September, Philadelphia had received 219,000 applications from either new voters or those who had moved or had been stricken from the rolls. With some 60,000 applications arriving on the final day, it is possible the city's volume this year could break the record of 293,000 applications set in the tension-filled mayoral race of 1983 between Wilson Goode and Frank Rizzo. This trend of increased voter registration is replicated, in particular, in a majority of the battleground states. According to the New York Times, voter registration campaigns in heavily Democratic areas have added tens of thousands of new voters to the rolls in the swing states of Ohio and Florida, a surge that far exceeds the efforts of Republicans in both states. The analysis by the Times of county-by-county data shows that in Democratic areas of Ohio -- primarily low-income and minority neighborhoods -- new registrations since January have risen 250 percent over the same period in 2000. In comparison, new registrations have increased just 25 percent in Republican areas. A similar pattern is apparent in Florida: In the strongest Democratic areas, the pace of new registration is 60 percent higher than in 2000, while it has risen just 12 percent in the heaviest Republican areas. Project Vote says it has registered 147,000 new voters in Ohio. Americans Coming Together said that, together with allied groups that are part of America Votes, it had registered 300,000 new voters. In New Mexico, the Secretary of State's office reports that since May voter registration has jumped from approximately 958,000 to a little more than 1 million, possibly all new registrants. Those younger than 30 who are increasingly concerned about a potential draft are also registering in increased numbers. These new registrants are not considered in most polling. A growing number of young people use cell phones as their primary phone number. This further diminishes the possibility that their support for either candidate would be reflected in polling data. Thus, they are the great unknown in this election. My second reason, if history is any barometer, is that when incumbent presidents seek re-election, it is a referendum on the previous four years. Since 1932, 11 incumbent presidents have sought re-election; with the possible exception of 1948 and 1976, none of the races has been close. When we want to keep a president, we keep him; Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and Clinton are prime examples. Likewise, when we want him out, he's out: Hoover, Carter and Bush 41. More and more this race is shaping up like 1980. That race remained close until the last few weeks, when voters found a comfort level with then-challenger Ronald Reagan that allowed them to oust President Carter. It difficult for me to believe the race is as close as the polls indicate, especially when one considers that 56 percent of the electorate feels the country is headed in the wrong direction. Moreover, it has been 16 months since 50 percent felt we were headed in the right direction. I don't believe we will be in court discussing hanging, dimpled or pregnant chads on Nov. 3.

Halloween is coming quickly and it’s almost time to dance the weekend away at the Skeleton Ball here in Dallas. This is the first year for a new circuit party weekend and I really hope it comes off big since we’re really not that far from the events in New Orleans… 

From what I’ve heard in Dallas and to some extent in Houston, there are a lot of people coming. Hurray!! Big party in Dallas. The best part is that DJ Josh Gram is coming for the opening event Friday – I haven’t heard Josh spin in a couple months and, better still, I haven’t had a chance to hang out with him in even longer. I’ve been making necklaces for my circle of friends for the events. (have to be able to tell who’s hip and cool) All of them have pendants made from various and sundry Halloweenie items and are designed to take the holiday pendants off to replace them with more normal things to show off all year long. I have two favorites – a Goth Silver and pearl necklace with a ghost pendant and an orange and amber necklace with a skull pendant. So, if you’re out at the events and see people with fabulous holiday neckware, come up and say hi. I’ll be the only in the necklace made of multicolored houseflies with a black spider pendant…. See ‘ya there.