With Mary Wiseman, Ohio Gets its First Openly Gay Judge

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland this week replaced retiring Common Pleas Court Judge John Kessler by appointing former Dayton city commissioner Mary Wiseman to replace him. In doing so, Strickland apparently gave Ohio its first openly gay judge.

The AP reports: "Officials with gay rights group Equality Ohio say Wiseman's appointment makes state history. Forty-five-year-old Wiseman says she's proud if the gay community sees her as a role model and says she believes the rest of society can grow more comfortable about gays and lesbians in public office. Strickland gave Wiseman the news more than a week ago. On Monday, he said he's happy if he broke a barrier, while noting he made his choice because of Wiseman's qualifications."

Earlier this month, Daniel Anders took the bench in Philadelphia, giving that city its first openly gay male judge. And of course, earlier this year, Judge David Young became TV's first openly gay judge. Justice for all.

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Washington State Rep's Alleged Extorter Has a Porn Past?

One of our tipsters has alerted us to the fact that Cody Castagna, the Spokane waiter at the center of the Richard Curtis alleged extortion case in Washington state, may have a porn past. Our tipster claims that Castagna starred in "Damon Blows America #3" from Treasure Island Media.

After doing a bit of research, it seems there is a "Cody" appearing in that release who looks much like Mr. Castagna. I'm not sure that this has any relevance to Curtis' case although it was reported that a couple videos were bought at the erotic video boutique where he met Castagna, so perhaps Curtis wanted, oh, I don't know, something to take away from his encounter later that evening?

After the jump is the screenshot (with adult portions blurred) I took off Treasure Island Media's video page. If you want to see where it came from, click here (NSFW).

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Washington State GOP Rep. Curtis Exposed by Sordid Police Report [tr]

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Australia's Family First Party Candidate Dropped Over Porn Photos

It's happening everywhere!

Australia's Family First Party dumped its candidate Andrew Quah for the western Sydney seat of Reid after nude photos of Quah showed up on gay porn websites: "Mr Quah, 21, has also admitted to looking at porn websites in the past two weeks, which made his position untenable given his party's strong commitment to protect children by making porn harder to access on the internet. Mr Quah told the Herald yesterday he thought it was possible that he had posed for the compromising photographs. 'I might have been drunk off my face or my political enemies might have drugged me...But that's not my penis. Look, maybe somebody photoshopped it, and put another one on the photo. I can tell you, it's not me. I know these things. But really, I can't remember … All I know, I have been humiliated.'"

Australian blogs published the photos, branding Quah "Australia's Smallest Loser".

Meet Family First's member for nowhere [the age]

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Roger Federer Trades His Tennis Racket for a Sword

Disney Parks updated their Disney Dreams portrait series today with three new images shot by Annie Leibowitz. You may remember the David Beckham as Prince Charming that came out last January. This time, tennis's #1 Roger Federer plays King Arthur.

In addition to the Federer image, there are two more new shots. In one, Julie Andrews portrays the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio with Abigail Breslin as a Fairy-in-Training (Disney knows their target audience, eh?). In another, Rachel Weisz plays Snow White.

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David Beckham Plays Prince Charming for Walt Disney [tr]

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Democrats Debate at Drexel University

Above, the first ten minutes of last night's debate at Drexel University. Right off the bat Obama likened his rivalry with Clinton to that of Rocky and Apollo Creed, calling himself Rocky, a tag that inspired disapproving murmurs from the audience. Clinton responded by announcing she's the subject of conversation and consternation by the Republicans for a good reason. Edwards goes at Clinton from the other side, saying Americans deserve a President that will tell them the truth.

Below, Joe Biden slams Rudy Giuliani's lack of qualifications for President, and Dennis Kucinich calls for the impeachment of George W. Bush.

Also, check out the New York Times interactive debate transcript for additional highlights.

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Mike Gravel Wants You To Get Mad!

You may have heard that Mike Gravel held his own debate last night since he was excluded from the one that took place at Drexel University.

The New York Times reported yesterday: "Though he has been included in most of the previous Democratic debates, MSNBC contends that Mr. Gravel failed to meet any of the network’s criteria for participation in tonight’s event (candidates had to meet certain standards in at least one of three categories: polling, fund-raising and travel). Mr. Gravel’s camp is crying 'corporate censorship,' and the former Alaska senator argues that his opposition to the military industrial complex is prompting backlash from G.E."

Actually, he did make an appearance, and it was incendiary. That video is above.

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