News: Pontiac, David Beckham, Presbyterians, Simon Rex, Arkansas

Iowa same-sex marriages begin peacefully, quietly. State sees 380+ couples.

David Beckham now fancies himself a clothing designer.

Worm cat.

CBS POLL: "Forty-two percent of Americans now say same sex couples should be allowed to legally marry, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds. That's up nine points from last month, when 33 percent supported legalizing same sex marriage."

NYT: GOP re-thinking stance on same-sex marriage.

The wingnuts are engaged and telling their own to wake up and tell their lawmakers where they stand on federal hate crimes legislation. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has provided a way for you to fight back and do the same.

Singer Craig David is a boxer man.

Right Wing Watch: 150 protest marriage equality in D.C. Organizer Bishop Harry Jackson to launch "the Armageddon of the marriage battle in this country" this Friday, he says: "Jackson predicts that about 1,000 church members and 100 pastors will show up to argue that the apparently unanimous support among D.C. Council members for recognizing same-sex marriage is an affront to Washingtonians and especially to blacks."

51% favor government investigation of "harsh interrogation techniques".

GM: Pontiac closing up shop.

Vermont marriage equality: $228,000 well spent.

The Presbyterian Church again rejects openly gay clergy.

Lambda Legal wins Social Security case for gay dad: "In a letter received today, the Social Security Administration (SSA) reversed its prior determination to deny benefits to the children of a disabled gay father in Lambda Legal’s case representing the family against apparent antigay discrimination by the federal government."

SLDN asks Obama to "stand by [his] word" on repeal of military gay ban.

Simon Rex and Lance Bass get up in each other's business.

Preservationist group lists most endangered places in nation: "This year the trust made a point of highlighting the threat to Modernist buildings. Thus the inclusion of the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, where the actress Diane Keaton, a trustee of the organization, is scheduled to announce the list on Tuesday. The Century, built in the mid-’60s and designed by Minoru Yamasaki — the architect of the World Trade Center — was also chosen to focus attention on sustainability and the need to recycle existing infrastructure."

Top Utah politicians clash over same-sex marriage ban.

Know Thy Neighbor launches in Arkansas: "It has compiled a list, from public records, of all the names and addresses of the Arkansans who signed the petitions to put Act 1 on last year's ballot. This was the anti-gay measure, approved by voters, that prohibits adoption or fostering parenting by unmarried people living together. It's part of the anti-gay agenda of the Family Council, but as has been well reported, it first of all harmed children in need of homes."

Cristiano Ronaldo Totals Ferrari, Walks Away

Cristiano Ronaldo totaled his Ferrari worth more than $300K at 10:20 am this morning in Manchester, UK, and walked away shaken but uninjured:

"The front of the Ferrari 599 GTB, which reaches a top speed of 205mph, was completely crushed after absorbing the impact of the crash. Metal debris, including the front left wheel, was scattered across the road. The 23-year-old Portuguese international, who will need less than two weeks of his salary to recoup the money for a new car, was unscathed and later made his way to training. It is being reported that Ronaldo's Manchester United team-mate Edwin van der Sar, who plays in goal, was allegedly driving the car behind the star at the time of the crash...The accident occurred just two days after Ronaldo had the supercar imported from his native Portugal into Britain."

13 Cars: John McCain's Automotive Fleet Under Spotlight

John and Cindy McCain's fleet of vehicles is under scrutiny, particularly in the car-manufacturing swing state of Michigan. Newsweek reports that the McCain family owns more than a dozen cars while the Obamas own one:

"When you have seven homes, that's a lot of garages to fill. After the fuss over the number of residences owned by the two presidential nominees, Newsweek looked into the candidates' cars. And based on public vehicle-registration records, here's the score. John and Cindy McCain: 13. Barack and Michelle Obama: one."

Newsweek also notes that most of the cars are registered under Cindy's name. Huffington Post has a slide show.

Obama's car is a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, a replacement for a Chrysler 300C. Consider the outrage from the right if it was Obama that was the automotive glutton in this situation.

McCain was interviewed by a Michigan news station in September and attempted to explain why he doesn't buy American. He also said that his daughter Meghan bought her Prius herself, although last year he said that he had bought it for her. McCain lies, "I've bought American literally all my life and I'm proud." At least three of the McCain's vehicles are foreign-made.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Previously
John McCain Doesn't Know How Many Houses He Owns [tr]

Gay Man Battles State of Virginia to Keep "Poofter" License Plate

Towleroad readers may be acquainted with the face of David Phillips. He's the Washington D.C. bear who two weeks ago came forward claiming he had some messy sex two decades ago with Idaho Senator Larry Craig.

Phillips is making headlines again, this time for his refusal to hand over license plates issued by the state of Virginia which he has had on his car for 11 years. The plates say "Poofter" which most here probably know is slang, sometimes derogatory, for a gay man.

Phillips tells the Washington Post that "it's just an amusing word that I self-identify with."

Writes the paper: "The commonwealth of Virginia is not amused. It gave Phillips his vanity plates in error, Carolyn Easley, coordinator of the special license plates office, wrote in a recent letter. 'You may have grown fond of your personalized plates,' but they are 'socially, racially or ethnically offensive or disparaging' and 'you must return them.' There was no explanation for why it took Virginia 11 years to figure out what 'poofter' means."

According to the WaPo, "hundreds of battles over personalized plates have used up untold government resources in a strange corner of the law that has some of the nation's top courts issuing contradictory rulings" and the ruling often comes down to personal viewpoints vs. obscenity: "One federal appeals court ordered Missouri to approve 'ARYAN-1,' saying the state 'may not censor a license plate because its message might make people angry.' In Vermont, however, a federal appeals court said the state could ban scatological terms because that doesn't involve quashing any viewpoint. In Virginia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit prohibited the state from banning a Confederate flag logo on a special license plate for the Sons of Confederate Veterans because that would be viewpoint discrimination."

Phillips, who is scheduled to appear at a hearing over the plates in Richmond, says he has no intention of returning the "poofter" plates.

A Vehicle for Self-Expression? Not on These Roads. [washington post]

Matt Damon Wary of Making "Gay" Move with Ben Affleck

Didn't get to this item last week, but Matt Damon's interview in the most recent issue of GQ contained this little nugget about what he and Ben Affleck did with their first big paycheck:

"We both bought Jeep Grand Cherokees. It was funny, because Ben and I, we both always wanted a Jeep Grand Cherokee for some reason. That was the car. We always talked about it but never could afford one. So when we suddenly had the money, we each instantly started trying to convince each other to get a different car. We’d say, ‘Hey, have you seen the Explorer? The Ford Explorer is really cool.’ Because we knew it would just be so gay to get the same car."

And a gay car at that.

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Jesse Metcalfe's Dark Knight Fantasies

Jesse Metcalfe envisioned himself as the Dark Knight yesterday at a party celebrating the LG VX9400, a new mobile phone reportedly capable of delivering TV shows to your phone (watch out Apple), but he'll have to start thinking a lot differently to catch up with the real Batman.

The new bat vehicle, which will be driven by Christian Bale in the new film scheduled to open on July 18, 2008, was shown off yesterday by Warner Bros.

It's called the Batpod. No word on whether its dashboard has a YouTube hook-up.

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Jesse Metcalfe and Friend Get Their Tans On [tr]
Jesse Metcalfe: Dolled Up [tr]