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Sunday, October 31, 2004 Update! At The Intersection Of Stupid And Evil Republican Treachery The day started with a trip to Mt. Hermont African Methodist Episcopal Church. Actually, the day started with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but nobody cares about that now. We drove to the church to catch the sermon and the early voting. They were driving straight from the church to the polling place at the library. The pastor was laying a heavy squeeze on the congregation but most of them had already voted. Only five nice ladies got in the van to drive to the poll. The line stretched through the parking lot and around the fence. It was ninety-nine percent black. There were different people pushing different issues and lots of signs and there were the phony Democrats, the Republicans posing as Democrats, with rainbow signs announcing Kerry/Edward Support Gay Adoption. "We're with ActUp," the guy told me. He was wearing a greenish yellow bicycle shirt. His girlfriend was wearing a denim top and denim shorts with a cat-ear headband. The other girl had a fake nose ring. "You're not with ActUp," I told them. "Yes we are. We're from San Francisco," he said. Ross came by and started filming him and Josh started taking pictures. The guy walked away but I followed him. "I'm asking you nicely not to take pictures of me," the guy said, hiding behind his sign. He seemed timid. I thought if this is the best they can do they're not going to do very well. If he tried that in Chicago Daley's goons would have wrapped him in a pipe necklace. "You can ask me not nicely," I said. "You're creating news by posing as a Democrat and we're capturing that. We're not going anywhere." This was a strangely bold thing for me to say since I'm a coward. I was counting on the nice ladies from the church protecting me. But also, there was something unintimidating about a Republican disguised as a gay abortion rights activist supporting Kerry. The absurdity of his agiprop made me confident. I followed him off to the side. He kept insisting he was from San Francisco. "I'm gay," he said. "I support Kerry. I know about the Castro and Polk Street." The women were closer to the line arguing with the local activists. Someone in a yellow shirt got on a cell phone saying, "Let me call someone to take care of these Republicans." I asked the people in line if it bothered them that there were Republicans posing as Democrats at their polling place. "Most of the people in this line I guarantee you they know what they're going to do before they get in," a lady in a black NAACP shirt said. Once we started photographing and filming the Republicans they left fairly quickly. I followed them to the front of the library and then they walked north and they looked sad and stupid in their outfits. I thought it must be lonely lying to a big crowd and either being ignored or stared down with contempt. They had come to intimidate and make fun of people but were afraid to show their faces. Wherever they are now they are telling each other over beer and onion rings that it was worth it, that they were justified. But I imagine she's looking at him as less of a man than he was this morning, when he stood naked in his hotel room and pulled the curtain aside to let in the light and his cock cast a shadow across the nitestand. The window a portrait of the swimming pool and he announced his plan. Maybe she asked him to come back to bed then, a hero before the battle. But now staring at the drips of grease in the bottom of the wicker basket, he was just another fool in a long line of fools, and she was wearing cat ears and boots and denim shorts. It was humid and they were all leaving early, going back to where they live, at the intersection of evil and stupid. The lesson here for Republicans is don't lie in front of your girlfriend. The lesson to all people in polls in swing states: bring cameras, especially video cameras. Don't listen to them if they tell you not to film them. If you see voter intimidation it's important to catch it on tape. Once you start filming chances are they'll leave. Here's Josh's write-up of the scene. Josh mention a fourth GOPer but I didn't see him. 
as long as you're here why not buy my book. It makes a great christmas present posted by Stephen Elliott 11:57 AM | link | |
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"Any true love story, if told with the urgency and animal intelligence of love, isn't for the fainthearted. On every page of this profound, distilled work of art, Stephen Elliott wrestles with the unknown and unspoken essences of love, and articulates that unknown so beautifully, with such clear-eyed fearlessness... Imagine a glass of pure water with one drop of blood hanging in its center, about to dissolve... Then drink it and be transformed." -Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City "There's an emotional courage to these stories, and a sense of urgency, that are thrilling to encounter. Elliott writes as if his life depended on each sentence. It is not overstating the case to say that he does for the BDSM community in this book what Denis Johnson did for lost druggies in Jesus' Son." - Steve Almond, The Believer Magazine Best of the year: Salon.com, San Francisco Chronicle Reviews: Salon.com, LA Weekly, The Believer Excerpts: My Stripper Year, Just Always Be Good Purchase from Amazon, Powells, Cleis, and your local bookstore 
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