Speaking of HRC: they get a lot of shit - and rightfully so - for blindly supporting democratic candidates. You may recall reported douche bag Chris Crain's comments against the group's stale politics, in which he said:

The effect of the new HRC strategy is to put all the gay movement's marbles in the Democratic Party basket... What's worse, HRC support for Democrats, especially in the most contested congressional races, often went to beat moderate and even pro-gay Republicans.

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We were just trolling around Salon and came across an article entitled, "There is a gay agenda - winning elections." Obviously there's no way in hell we'd pass on that, especially when we saw that it's penned by none-other than Kerry Eleveld (the same homo-journo who blessedly used our name in conjunction with The New York Times.)

Anyway, Eleveld takes a meticulous look at the who and - more importantly - how much money went into ousting anti-gay politicos. Pivoting on the necessity of financial involvement, Eleveld's piece reads like a Fortune article, lauding the success of big money in gay politics. For example, she highlights Adam Rose's $500,000 contribution that may or may not have helped oust New York Representative Sue Kelly (pictured).

While reading about the power of the pink dollar certainly gives one hope for a viable pro-gay political future, where does that leave the people on the ground, the less fortunate. The fact that money wins elections has been made painfully obvious. Yes, it's great to encourage people to give to the candidate or cause of their choice, but what about alternative routes to power? A reading of this article suggests that there are none. You're either spending the money or distributing the money.

So, does this exclude the masses? You be the judge...

While we're on the subject of politics, we'd like to offer a bit of a We Want Your Art/The Power Issue crossover. To be fair, we intended on posting this last week but got distracted. What can we say? We've got a lot on our collective mind...

Above you see "Election Day 2004 - Blood and Red Ink", a painting sent to us by David Castle. Here's what he had to say: I spent most of election day in November, 2004 working on this painting in my studio in Denver. I was thinking about big bloody tongues spitting out hard, carbon-like cubes of lies."
Pretty dark, no?

Below, we have "Elementals - New Day", Castle's watercolor representation of this year's midterm elections. Far more cheery, although we can't help but notice the distinct boxes. We can only assume they represent the American people, segregated from one another, color by color, vote by vote. But, of course, that's just us. Feel free to share your own feelings...or, of course, you can repress them. It's up to you.

Not sure if you heard, but there's an election coming up. Yeah, nearly slipped our minds, too.

As with all elections, myriad groups are urging Americans to take advantage of our delicious democracy and cast their votes. Sure, MTV's Rock the Vote's all well and good, but they fail to capture the patriotic attention of America's most important voting bloc: the homo hornballs.

Now Cruising For Sex - the self-explanatory website - has launched the "Don't Stroke. Vote!" campaign in an effort to fill that gaping hole, so to speak.

We want to encourage site visitors to stop stroking on this one day and instead devote their spare time to voting," said company founder Keith Griffith. "It is also not missed on us the not so subtle message to site visitors that the future of porn in the USA is on the line. Taking porn offline is an intention of the current Bush administration and this is being backed by laws from Congress."

We can't help but wonder what would happen if every single sex-site in the world shut down for a day. We don't remember exactly, but we think that's what killed the dinosaurs.

Read the entire release after the jump...

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One thing the conservative French party Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) does not have in common with American Republicans is an obsession with abstinence. In fact, the UMP is handing out condoms with the party logo on them to students currently on August vacation. The party is also giving away flip-flops that leave the UMP logo on the sand as you walk.

We find it odd that the conservative party would spend so much money trying to attract students and young people, as they generally are a demographic less receptive to conservative ideals. However, we do give props to the UMP for handing out condoms, and hope that the trend of conservative politicians encouraging safer sex will spread to the rest of Europe and across the Atlantic.

France Campaign Trail Paved With Condoms [AP]

The Senate race in Pennsylvania is heating up as incumbent Senator Rick Santorum is trailing his opponent Bob Casey in the polls despite having raised twice as much campaign money. Hoping to help Mr. Casey out with his fundraising, sex columnist (and the one who coined the popular defitiion of the word "santorum") Dan Savage sent a $2100 check to his campaign, the maximum amount for a personal contribution.

Casey at first accepted the donation and even invited Dan to a campaign even in Seattle where he could have his photo taken with the candidate. Savage couldn't make the event, but days later the Casey campaign returned his check, claiming that Dan's occupation as a sex columnist could provide ammunition to Santorum's campaign that would be far more costly than $2100.

Savage took it like a man is now putting his money towards an organization called Philadelphians Against Santorum, who will help elect Bob Casey.

Casey To Savage: You’re Vulgar! [The Stranger via The Malcontent]
Philadelphians Against Santorum [Official Site]

If these little spots of pink keep appearing in the red states, they're going to turn magenta, or at least mauve. Last night in Oklahoma, openly gay Democrat Al McAffrey won 51 percent of the vote in his primary, leaving him poised to take a position in the state legislature as there is no Republican candidate in his district.

McAffrey will be the first openly gay legislator in Oklahoma history. This news comes after last week Alabama elected its first openly gay legislator. We hope this is the beginning of a new trend that ultimately reveals that, contrary to popular belief, sexual orientation does not have to be the defining factor in an election.

First openly gay candidate elected in Oklahoma [KTen]
Al McAffrey for Oklahoma [Official Site]