"Watchmen" Target West Coast LGBT Communities

A growing and ferocious anti-gay movement in California's Sacramento Valley is centered among among Russian-speaking evangelicals from the former Soviet Union. Adherents of this international militant anti-gay movement call themselves the Watchmen on the Walls. Members are increasingly active in cities long known as gay-friendly enclaves, including Sacramento, Seattle, and Portland, Ore.

Intelligence Report and Orcinus report

Giuliani Nomination Could Prompt Third Party Run

Some influential Christian Right leaders might back a third party presidential candidate should Republicans nominate pro-choice Rudolph Giuliani. "If Giuliani gets the nomination, it can be said that the Republicans self-destructed," said Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association. Wildmon belongs to a group of leaders who have pledged not to publicly endorse a presidential candidate before the end of October.

The conservative Washington Times reports

Abortion Numbers Fall Worldwide

The number of induced abortions fell worldwide from almost 46 million in 1995 to fewer than 42 million 2003, a new survey finds. About one in every five pregnancies ends in abortion, and the number of unsafe procedures has not declined. Most abortions occur in so-called developing countries, where most abortions procedures are unsafe and illegal. The decline in abortion incidence was greater in developed countries, where, by contrast, most abortions are safe and legal.

Guttmacher Institute reports

Report Exposes GOP Minority Voter Suppression Tactics

Republicans used a Jim Crow-era tactic during the 2004 elections to challenge the voter registrations of a half-million likely Democratic voters – often minorities – in nine states, a national voting rights group charges. "The intended effect of voter caging operations is to suppress minority votes," Project Vote said in its report, "Caging: A Fifty-Year History of Partisan Challenges to Minority Voters." Three states – Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio – changed the law to make voter caging easier.

AlterNet reports

Federal Court Rejects PATRIOT Provisions

A federal judge in Portland, Ore., recently ruled that the two PATRIOT Act provisions the government had used against Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield – falsely accused of involvement in the Madrid train bombings of 2004 – violate the Constitution. Mayfield had already collected a large cash settlement. The ruling will be challenged on appeal.

Salon.com reports