Who is Funding Log Cabin's Ads Attacking Chuck Hagel? - VIDEO

Following the publication of a new full-page ad from the Log Cabin Republicans attacking Chuck Hagel's nomination as Defense Secretary, more voices are chiming in with questions about who might be behind the funding of the group's ads.

Andrew Sullivan was asking the question over the holidays when LCR's NYT ad went up, and got a tepid response.

Now, David Mixner and John Aravosis are scratching their heads.

Writes Mixner:

Can't help but wonder if their funds wouldn't be better spent running a full page ad asking the House Republicans to cease and desist from financing the opposition in the legal battle for DOMA. Or maybe the Log Cabin Republicans can take all their newly discovered wealth and pay for full page ads demanding the Republicans support a trans-inclusive ENDA. Surely we would welcome them using their money to pay for an ad that lists all the Republicans who now support marriage equality?

Nope, they run an ad that omits key information, says Hagel apology is not sincere enough and that this issue is the most important ever for the Log Cabin Republicans. Really, this is what we should be spending our time on? This is how we should be spending tens of thousands of dollars?

Let's be honest here. Someone is using the Log Cabin Republicans for another agenda and financing these ads. The Log Cabin Republicans in order to have credibility must show us who are financing these ads. That kind of money sure hasn't been sitting in their accounts all year long. I promise you that is a fact. Show us the money!

Writes Aravosis:

I will say that I have growing concerns, not about Hagel, but about the gay Republican group Log Cabin Republicans, and whether we are witnessing another gay organization in a payola, pay-for-play, -type scandal that we previously had with GLAAD (and AT&T) and the NGLTF (and gambling interests), where both gay groups weighed in on an issue that didn’t seem to have a terribly gay angle, only to later found out that a not-gay-at-all outside interest was pulling their strings, and undermining our own community and its ongoing credibility...

...What makes Log Cabin’s new-found interest in anti-gay Republicans so curious is Log Cabin’s long-standing disinterest in standing up to anti-gay Republicans.  Log Cabin had no problem defending John Ashcroft, when he was attacked for his anti-gay comments about Hormel.  And Log Cabin had no problem getting in bed with Mitt Romney, when the GOP presidential candidate renounced pretty much every pro-gay position he had previously ever held.

Log Cabin’s tag line on the ad is “Chuck Hagel’s apology: Too little, too late.”  One could use the same tag line about Log Cabin’s sudden interest in standing up to anti-gay Republicans.

Watch LCR interim executive director Gregory T. Angelo on CNN yesterday,
AFTER THE JUMP...

Andrew Sullivan Pulls in Well Over $100,000 from Independent Donors in First Day After Announcing Pay Site

Andrew Sullivan's foray into publishing independence, in which his team will be supported by donations from readers who want to pay to read his content, is going well, at least after the first day.

He brought in "well into six figures" in the first 24 hours, said Sullivan in an interview with Buzzfeed:

"But there's no meter yet, so we won't find out how it's really all going until mid-February."

Sullivan said he wasn't sure how many subscribers at a base rate of $19.99 a year he would need to make the enterprise work long-term; the blog not only consists of him, but seven staffers. (Reuters' Felix Salmon estimates that he'll need to earn $750,000 a year to keep the operation running.)

"To tell you the truth I’m not entirely sure, because the price point has more or less been blown through by about a third of our subscribers. About a third of them are paying more than we asked for," he said, adding that the largest individual subscription thus far was for $10,000.

Previously...
Andrew Sullivan Set To Start Independent Pay Site February 1 [tlrd]

Andrew Sullivan Set To Start Independent Pay Site February 1

Gay blogger Andrew Sullivan announced today that he and his executive editorial team, Patrick Appel and Chris Bodenner, are leaving their virtual home at Newsweek-owned The Daily Beast to set up shop as a pay site with no ads, a move they say will help them get back to their online grassroots.

From Sullivan's announcement:

...As we contemplated the end of our contract with the Beast at the end of 2012, we faced a decision... As we debated and discussed that unknowable future, we felt more and more that getting readers to pay a small amount for content was the only truly solid future for online journalism. And since the Dish has, from its beginnings, attempted to pioneer exactly such a solid future for web journalism, we also felt we almost had a duty to try and see if we could help break some new ground.

The only completely clear and transparent way to do this, we concluded, was to become totally independent of other media entities and rely entirely on you for our salaries, health insurance, and legal, technological and accounting expenses.
...
As of February 1, we will revert to our old URL - www.andrewsullivan.com... Here's the core principle: we want to create a place where readers - and readers alone - sustain the site. No bigger media companies will be subsidizing us; no venture capital will be sought to cushion our transition (unless my savings count as venture capital); and, most critically, no advertising will be getting in the way.

The cost will be $19.99 a year, which works out to about a nickel a day. Whether or not you think that is a fair price probably depends on how much you value Sullivan and his team's opinions. If you ask me, that's actually a pretty good deal.

In the meantime, The team's work will still be accessible at The Daily Beast until their new site officially launches next month.

Andrew Sullivan, Off the Ledge, is 'Bloody Elated' Over Debate: VIDEO

Since the last debate, folks have been equally concerned and amused by Andrew Sullivan's hand-wringing over Obama's performance which at times after the first debate reached almost a level of hysteria. Sullivan's back on board now, in fact he's 'bloody elated'.

Hear him call in to MSNBC, AFTER THE JUMP....

Cato Scholar To Host Marriage Benefit

Tomorrow evening, various conservative eminences shall gather in a Maryland home, as Buzzfeed has it, to "raise money to advance conservative values on marriage." Which is to say: they want to uphold Maryland's marriage equality law.

The home is that of Cato Institute scholar Walter Olson and his husband, Steve Pippin. The event's "hosting committee," according to the invite received by Buzzfeed, includes, among others, Jonathan Rauch and Andrew Sullivan, whom one might expect to be there; and David Frum, the conservative speechwriter and journalist currently suffering a protracted falling-out with neo-Republican radicals.

From BuzzFeed:

The event is taking place from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at the home of Olson and his husband, Steve Pippin. The couple married in Massachusetts, and Maryland's highest court has held that the state recognizes such out-of-state marriages. The event — with lead hosts donating $500 — benefits Marylanders for Marriage Equality, which is the group formed to fight the referendum on the bill that will be on the ballot this November.

Saying that he wanted to "make sure that the people who are to the right of center were brought in to the campaign in the most effective way," Olson told BuzzFeed, "There are tons and tons of people ... who are not necessarily reached by the more visible element of the campaign, which is often geared toward progressive principles."

Dharun Ravi's Support From The Gay Community

Reuters published an article yesterday neatly summarizing the support Dharun Ravi has received from various members of the gay community. (If you're just tuning in: Ravi is the 20-year-old who, two years ago, briefly used his webcam to spy on his new roommate, Tyler Clementi, during a gay hookup; Clementi committed suicide shortly thereafter, and Ravi's now been convicted of a hate crime. He could face substantial prison time, and will likely be deported.)

Reuters quoted Aaron Hicklin, the debonaire editor of Out:

"Ravi's conviction was a compelling signal that harassment and bullying of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people carries penalties," Aaron Hicklin [wrote] in an article arguing that Ravi be set free.

"Yet the verdict also left a bitter aftertaste, as if what was being satisfied was not justice, but revenge."

Hicklin cited a past comment by Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan that even if Clementi were alive today, he would have presented virtually the same case to the jury. Anyone who believes Kaplan, Hicklin wrote, is "kidding himself."

"Ravi was convicted because Clementi is dead," Hicklin wrote, adding that the suicide "left us reaching for simplistic answers where there are none."

... and gay rights activist Bill Dobbs:

At a rally in support of Ravi outside the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton this week, Bill Dobbs ... told the crowd that Ravi was "overcharged" in the incident.

"The hate crime law in New Jersey has got so many problems that it should be repealed," Dobbs said. "It has become a dangerous weapon that is not necessary."

... and Andrew Sullivan:

Sullivan ... said the hate crime charges, without which Ravi would likely get probation and no prison time, were "tenuous" and "repellent."

"This was a bigoted online hazing, followed by a judicial witch-hunt," Sullivan wrote.

... and lesbian writer E.J. Graff:

E.J. Graff ... said in her column in The American Prospect, "I fear that Ravi is an easy scapegoat for a complicated problem."

... and the head of Garden State Equality, Steven Goldstein:

"Justice is best served by his serving some jail time for the crime committed," ... Goldstein said. "The moderate position is not to throw the book at this young man, nor should he get off Scott free."

... and mentions that Ravi has the support of Dan Savage and New Jersey's gay ex-governor, Jim McGreevey, as well.