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Madonna booed in Michigan over election year politics

Even though her heart was in the right place, Madonna received boos for introducing election year politics at her concert in Detroit, Michigan having taken to the stage hours late.

In her first concert since the presidential election, Madge received loud boos mixed with cheering across Joe Louis Arena as she waxed enthusiastic about President Barack Obama, describing herself as “ecstatically happy” about Tuesday’s result.

A week before the election in New Orleans a week before the election she was met with jeers after encouraging fans to vote for the president.

This time she acknowledged the negative reaction.

“You can boo all you want,” she told the Detroit crowd, “but I’ve been to countries around the world where people can’t vote for their leaders.”

More at USAToday

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News outlets reporting General Petraeus resigns CIA

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From MSNBC: CIA Director David Petraeus resigned Friday afternoon, citing his “extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair.”

Petraeus, a four-star general who led American forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has served his post in the CIA since he retired from the military and was sworn in September 2011. He was a widely respected figure in the military and the intelligence community.

 “Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours,” he wrote in his resignation letter. Petraeus first alerted President Obama of his affair on Thursday, and offered his resignation to which the president later accepted.

Read more at MSNBC

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Yale LGBT alumni group creates video “invite” for Reunion Gala

Yale’s LGBT Alumni Association doesn’t fool around when they decide to send out an ‘invitation’ for their 2nd Annual LGBT Reunion Gala.

The video invite runs the gamut of gay anthems through in amazing musical/dance production of “Over the Rainbow”, Ma Rainey’s “Prove It On Me Blues”, “No More Tears”, “I’m Coming Out”, “Like a Prayer”, “I’m the Only One”, “Beautiful”, “Born This Way”, and “Love On Top.”

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Why Nate Silver got drunk

Due to his incredibly accurate forecast of the 2012 election, “Drunk Nate Silver” has become a Twitter phenomenon. Dan Levitan’s tweet set off the meme riot: “Drunk Nate Silver is riding the subway, telling strangers the day they will die”

Second City created this hilarious video riffing on Nate’s “gift” to see into the future.

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Dan Savage takes down Tony Perkins over hate speech

Dan Savage addresses Tony Perkins of the anti-gay Family Research Council and dares him to take Dan to court.

“Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids every day when he goes to work. [snip] I welcome a lawsuit. A witness stand is a lonely place to lie. And that’s what you do for a living… I look forward to that day in court. I look forward to seeing you on a witness stand, something you have dodged and ducked for decades.”

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How passage of marriage equality could affect SCOTUS decision

Terry Baynes at Reuters considers how the recent success in four states on marriage equality could affect SCOTUS’ decision on the issue:

Historically, the Supreme Court has provided a single national framework on social issues like same-sex marriage, said James Essex, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. But it generally does so only after much of the country has reached a consensus, said Essex, who helped bring one of the challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act.

In 1967 the court ruled that Virginia could no longer ban interracial marriage, reversing a ruling that had stood since 1883, after several states repealed their anti-miscegenation laws. And in 2003 the court found that Texas could not ban sodomy, noting that the number of states with laws banning homosexual conduct had dropped from 25 to 13 since it had made the opposite finding in 1986.

“Every time it becomes clear marriage equality is more accepted and popular, that helps us in the Supreme Court in some hard-to-quantify way,” said Paul Smith, another lawyer who represents people who are challenging the Defense of Marriage Act.

“Supporters of gay rights and some academics also note that more than 30 states have passed laws prohibiting same-sex marriage, which they say shows that gays and lesbians still need special protection from the courts.”

Supreme Court will reportedly be making a decision by November 20th whether to take up the Prop 8 and DOMA challenges. Legal experts agree the court will address at least one of the cases concerning DOMA.

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Texas inmate admits assault on fellow-inmate was hate crime

Last December, Texas prison inmate John Hall attacked another inmate because his victim appeared to be gay.

Today, the Justice Department announced that Hall pleaded guilty of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the national law against targeting someone for their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

Via press release:

According to information presented during the plea hearing, Hall targeted the victim, a fellow inmate, because of the victim’s perceived sexual orientation. Hall admitted that he assaulted the victim because of his perceived sexual orientation by repeatedly punching and kicking the victim while calling the victim gay slurs.  The victim sustained multiple lacerations to his face, and chipped and fractured teeth as a result of Hall’s unprovoked attack. The assault occurred inside the Federal Correctional Institution, which is within the special maritime or territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

Another ten years could be tacked on to Hall’s current prison time.

(via Towleroad)

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President Obama invites congressional leaders to White House to address “fiscal cliff”

CNN reports that President Obama has reached out to congressional leaders from both parties to meet at the White House next week to discuss reducing the deficit and avoiding the “fiscal cliff” facing the economy at the end of the year:

Obama, speaking at the White House on Friday afternoon, repeated his stance that he wants a plan that would allow the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts only for income over $250,000.

The president said he’s “not wedded to every detail of my plan,” and that he’s “open to compromise.” But he said he wouldn’t ask middle-class families to “pay down the entire deficit” while the wealthy “are not asked to pay a dime more in taxes.”