The Dish

Check out this exit poll analysis of the first anti-gay-union amendment to fail. It’s from Arizona. You find some obvious data that bear out what we already know. Women are marginally more in favor of gay unions than men – but it’s not that big a gender gap. Men split 50-50. Women broke 53 – 47 against a constitutional ban. The under-30s voted against the amendment by a whopping 61 to 39 percent. I expect in a decade or so that many of these amendments will be repealed by similar margins. Education is a key indicator of being anti-gay or not. Those with dropped out of high school favored the amendment by a huge 65 to 35 percent. Those who graduated college opposed it by a narrow margin. Post-grads were overwhelmingly opposed.

The only ethnic group to favor the amendment by a large margin was black, by 61 – 39 percent. Karl Rove’s attempt to peel off a few black votes by gay-bashing was not stupid. It was based on the data. African-Americans are easily the ethnic group most hostile toward gay rights. The reasons may have more to do with education and class than race. But black homophobia exists – as any inner-city resident knows only too well. Sadly for Rove, prejudice alone can’t get blacks to change their partisan alignment. Next time, Rove might want to try and exploit other fears and prejudices to win votes. This one is strong – just not strong enough.

Remember when Republicans actually supported individual liberty? Here’s Mr Schwarzenegger, one of the few real conservatives left, extolling Milton Friedman. As a fellow immigrant who came to love America because of its promise of freedom, I second every word. And I long for the day when the GOP can once again become the party of individual freedom, rather than collective fear, debt, and intolerance:

(Hat tip: Ryan.)

Sacha Baron-Cohen comes out of character to talk about the idea behind Borat. In my view, it was better to have stayed silent.

National Revew Online’s editor recently proclaimed that most conservatives "won’t buy or read" "The Conservative Soul" because of my attacks on the Bush administration. On November 17, the Heritage Foundation had a dinner to commemmorate the 25th anniversary of the 1981 Reagan tax cut. Bruce Bartlett, who helped draft the 1977 Kemp-Roth bill, was informed he was not invited because of his criticism of the Bush administration’s reckless fiscal policies. Wednesday night, libertarian Ryan Sager spoke to a little free-market group on the Hill called the Prosperity Caucus. Heritage often plays host to their events. But when Heritage found out that Sager was the speaker this month, the Prosperity Caucus was asked to take things elsewhere.

I don’t think many Republicans and conservatives have come out of denial yet about what was done to conservatism in Bush-Rove-DeLay years. Or perhaps the first stage of coming out of denial is anger at those who came out of it years ago.

Never seen this before. Wish I hadn’t now. Happy that Howie Mandel no longer has the mullet.

"General [Eric] Shinseki was right that a greater international force contribution, U.S. force contribution and Iraqi force contribution should have been available immediately after major combat operations," – General Abizaid, finally contradicting Rumsfeld, under oath.

Soho, London, 6.15 am, post-party.

"The Americans can’t simply withdraw from Iraq, leaving the mess as it is. Who’s going to look for the safety of the Iraqis there? The Iranians can’t do it. The Turks can’t do it … This is not a question of political rivalry between Iran and the West. It has to do with the fact that the society has to have a government structure in place," – Iranian political scientist Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, on state-run Iranian television.

I’ll give you some testosterone:

In this administration, it’s not an easy mix.