The Gateway (Last One Before Atonement and Boy Do I Need It Edition)

This is going exactly as I predicted:

Warren Cohn: Here's the latest: Team Cohn just left the board of elections finished counting the emergency ballots…I know that my opponent has already declared victory, however I currently hold the LEAD by 41 votes and counting. I want to thank all of the hard workers at the board… of elections and thank you all for your continued support and love. Please keep me in your prayers!

For those of us who know and love the man Mark Green used to call "THE RALPH," this is very sad news:

Ralph Perfetto: "Tonight I congratulated Kevin Peter Carroll on his win. I want to thank all of my supporters for your help over the years.

Bill Maher on reverse racism and other things we did on our summer vacation Bill Maher Talks Glenn Beck's 'Diabetic Mall-Walkers,' Summer Of Racism (VIDEO) www.huffingtonpost.com

Goldberg: What other country, sixty-two years after its birth (rebirth, actually) requires advocates to argue that it should continue to exist? Why is it that the world's only Jewish country is the only country to persistently face questions about its own legitimacy? In my brief remarks at the dinner, I mentioned a pri…me strategy of the Israel-denial movement, which is to convince self-defined liberals and leftists that Zionism is incompatible with their understanding of the world….the most liberal country in the Middle East is being abandoned by people who should be its natural allies. Of course, as I've mentioned before, I believe Israel could do a much better job of being liberal — liberal in the broadest (and American, not European) sense of the term, but Israel's many flaws have not (yet, at least) overwhelmed the fundamental truth that it is the safest and best place in the Middle East to be, among other things, a woman, a gay person, a journalist, and a dissident. The Fight to Marginalize Delegitimization – Jeffrey Goldberg – International – The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com