American Family Association still selling video promoting HIV+ "ex-gay" who since was accused of having gay unsafe-sex orgies

Note to our friends in the media: The religious right groups lie. Do not quote them unless they prove what they're telling you, because they lie. The American Family Association, one of the largest, and most extreme, religious right groups is selling a video promoting the notion that you can "cure" gays. The guy on the cover of the video? Michael Johnston, an HIV+ man who claimed he was "cured" of being gay, but then was accused by numerous witnesses of having unsafe sex with other men at gay orgies. (The religious right groups subsequently admitted that Johnston had fallen.) You'd think having unsafe gay orgy sex while HIV+ would be a deal-breaker for serving as a spokesman of the "I was cured of my homosexuality" movement. But not with this crowd. The American Family Association is still hocking Johnston's face right there on the cover of their video.

At least it's good to know that Larry Craig will have a place to go after he leaves the Senate. I mean, what's a little gay bathroom sex compared to this? Read More......

GOP Debate Open Thread

It's the YouTube Debate. This should be painful. John and I will be watching and liveblogging -- as much as we can stand anyway.

Oh no. The start is pitiful. Governor Charlie Crist looks quite fit and tanned after that introduction from another very nice fellow. How come Crist gets to give a sales pitch?

Well, it's 8:06 p.m. and still not a question.

Okay, finally at 8:09 p.m. a video and it's lame. The endless GOP candidate guitar song. What's the question? There wasn't one.

Of course, of course, the first question was about immigration. The GOPers love the immigrant bashing. Rudy is trying hard to be one of them. Mitt and Rudy are already going at it. This could be fun. Rudy slams Mitt's "sanctuary mansion."

8:20 P.M. Wow. Fred Thompson is really bad. This guy was considered a good actor? He's horrible. And, typical GOP crowd getting into the booing and heckling.

8:29 P.M. Geez, still talking about immigration?

8:33 P.M. McCain is right about one thing: GOPers are profligate spenders. Maybe when McCain is in the Senate, he can stop federal spending. Oh wait. He is in the Senate.

8:35 P.M. If John McCain were elected to the federal government he'd stop all the wasteful spending that he's been in charge of for decades. Oh yeah, and McCain thinks paying for children's health insurance is an example of "wasteful spending." Nice.

8:41 P.M. Nice back and forth between McCain and Ron Paul. Ron Paul wins.

8:43 P.M. Wait. The tax question is from Grover Norquist, a prominent D.C.-based GOP operative. That totally undermines the whole concept of the YouTube debate. As if Grover doesn't have enough access to the candidates. That's pathetic, CNN and YouTube. Pathetic.

8:44 P.M. Duncan Hunter said he'd vote for tax increases during the time of war. Um, Duncan, we ARE at war. He is a buffoon.

8:48 P.M. In a non-YouTube question, Rudy just blamed the police for trying to hide the tax-payer money spent for his extra-marital affair. That's low even for Rudy.

Finally, a commercial break. I've never been so happy for a t.v. ad. -- So close to a break and then, Anderson Cooper says no break because of Fred Thompson's stupid video.

This is truly painful.

They're back.

9:01 P.M. Rudy's getting tough questions about his very strong pro-gun control record. And, it was a very strong record despite what he's saying now.

9:14 P.M. What would Jesus do about the death penalty? Now that was a good question. None of the Republicans will actually give an answer to that question.

9:17 P.M. Do they believe every word of the Bible? Rudy doesn't. Although he did read it during the big crises in his life. Would that include those two divorces? Mitt seemed a little nervous, but he believes the Bible is the word of god. He doesn't disagree with the Bible. He squirmed. Huckabee (who offered to help Rudy with the answer) sure knows how to answer the question. But, he's been in the biz.

YEAH...another break after Mitt's stupid video. He gets "the big stuff done." Huh?

Ugh. Lost some of the post. Here's a recap since the last break:

The interaction between Mitt and McCain over torture was pretty good. Mitt was so out of his league. But, why did McCain compare the U.S. to Pol Pot and Communist China.

And, as for that question from the Muslim woman, as if any of the GOPers care what Muslims around the world think about us. And, note how they all turned it into a warmongering question.

Another break. This thing is brutal to watch. Brutal. Can you really imagine any of these guys being President? That's truly frightening.

Only 15 minutes left and CNN better end it on time.

9:50 P.M. The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" question. Duncan Hunter agrees with Colin Powell. And Romney won't really answer the question. And, the questioner, a retired general, gets to really lay it out to the candidates. The audience doesn't like it. They're trying to shout down the general. Nothing like a good gay bashing from the gays.

9:57 P.M. Mars? Are they kidding? Okay, I'll admit it. Huckabee is scary. He gives good answers...even when he's being a typically insane GOPer. Meanwhile, Tancredo just looks insane cause he is.

Always the stupid question at the end. Rudy gets asked about the Yankees and Red Sox. He should have gotten the same question as Hillary at the last debate: Pearls or Diamonds? You know, for when he does drag.

Okay, it's finally over. I'd say this was Mike Huckabee's night. He gave great answers, held his own against the big dogs. Romney looked pathetic and often uncertain. He's clearly not good when he's not scripted. McCain had some moments, but overall just doesn't have it. Rudy was just too much of a smarty pants. This was a raucous gathering and they're all getting ugly with each other. Have at it. Read More......

Don't forget the AMERICAblog shop for your Christmas (and holiday) needs

I've just added two new calendars for 2008 - one is "Paris by Day" and the other is "Paris by Night." Both contain my photos of Paris, most of which (if not all) were taken over the past year. They're $19.99 each.

And we also have our ever-popular Treason's Greetings cards in Christmas red and Hannukah blue.

There's much more than that. You can check out the home page of the shop here, and have a ball. Of course, a portion of the proceeds goes to AMERICAblog. Read More......

For Rudy, "Security" was an excuse to have taxpayers pay for his affair

Rudy keeps promoting himself as the "security" candidate. Funny thing that "security" was the code word to cover up Rudy's taxpayer financed affair when he was Mayor. What a slimeball.

Ben Smith at The Politico has the goods -- and they are good:

As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.

The documents, obtained by Politico under New York’s Freedom of Information Law, show that the mayoral costs had nothing to do with the functions of the little-known city offices that defrayed his tabs, including agencies responsible for regulating loft apartments, aiding the disabled and providing lawyers for indigent defendants.

At the time, the mayor’s office refused to explain the accounting to city auditors, citing “security.”

The Hamptons visits resulted in hotel, gas and other costs for Giuliani’s New York Police Department security detail.

Giuliani’s relationship with Nathan is old news now, and Giuliani regularly asks voters on the campaign trail to forgive his "mistakes."

Most Americans have a different definition of "security" than Rudy. Read More......

Going green delivers the greenbacks

Interesting news from this particular fund manager and there are certainly other similar success stories. GOP anti-environment knuckle-draggers can keep fighting this or join the future. Even Arnold gets it, though Inhofe and so many others in the GOP would rather the US keep propping up the old fashioned companies who insist on polluting and fighting the future. Supporting new businesses that will be employing Americans in the coming years is where the market is going.

Matt Patsky finds taking a fund green has been good not only for the environment but his investors as well.

The manager of Winslow Management's Winslow Green Growth Fund is up 11.2 percent year to date, and 22.5 percent over the last five years.

Read More......

BREAKING: State Department official Iraq update is really compilation of plagiarized major media articles

Kind of pathetic when the official report from the US State Department on what's "really" happening in Iraq is actually just a bunch of plagiarized paragraphs from the major media in the US. To wit, the following analysis an anonymous friend just sent me. I just checked it out and he's right. State outright plagiarized much of the major media in making its "report." And what's really funny, they even stole a number of paragraphs from a New York Times article when, as I recall, the NYT is the newspaper that George Bush refuses to read because it supposedly has such a "liberal bias." Here's my friend's report:

This is last week’s “Iraq Weekly Status Report” from the State Department.

It’s described thusly: “This comprehensive status report on Iraq provides weekly updates in the eight key areas identified as pillars of U.S. Government policy.”

Scroll through and it looks kind of impressive, lots of information -- good job keeping on top of the game State Department! But scroll to the bottom and it lists the sources for the information. Now it woulda been nice if they included some footnotes in the body of the document to indicate they were including outside information, but as it turns out the entire thing is basically plagiarized word for word from those news articles, with the slightest of adjustments so as to maybe give the impression it’s in their own words. Drop this code below in a post to see what I mean, pretty pathetic that the US State Department would send this out as their official “Status Report” on the preeminent foreign policy clusterfuck of our generation, and plays right into Dowd’s point about Condi being lost in the funhouse and learning everything from the news.

1. Washington Post, 11/15/07:

Senior military commanders here now portray the intransigence of Iraq's Shiite-dominated government as the key threat facing the U.S. effort in Iraq, rather than al-Qaeda terrorists, Sunni insurgents or Iranian-backed militias. In more than a dozen interviews, U.S. military officials expressed growing concern over the Iraqi government's failure to capitalize on sharp declines in attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. A window of opportunity has opened for the government to reach out to its former foes, said Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of day-to-day U.S. military operations in Iraq, but "it's unclear how long that window is going to be open."

State Dept Iraq Weekly Status Report, 11/21/07 (page 9):

Senior military commanders now portray the intransigence of Iraq's Shiite-dominated government as the key threat facing the U.S. effort in Iraq, rather than al-Qaida terrorists, Sunni insurgents or Iranian-backed militias. Several U.S. military officials have expressed growing concern over the Iraqi government's failure to capitalize on sharp declines in attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. A window of opportunity has opened for the government to reach out to its former foes, said Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of day-to-day U.S. military operations in Iraq, but "it's unclear how long that window is going to be open."

2. AP, 11/14/07:

The Iraqi government seized the west Baghdad headquarters of a powerful Sunni Muslim group today, cordoning off the building and accusing the group of supporting al-Qaida, officials said. The Association of Muslim Scholars, a hardline Sunni clerics group with links to insurgents, has its headquarters in the Um al-Qura mosque in the capital's Sunni-dominated Ghazaliyhah neighborhood.

State Dept Iraq Weekly Status Report, 11/21/07 (page 3,9):

The Iraqi government seized the west Baghdad headquarters of a powerful Muslim group November 14, cordoning off the building and accusing the supporting al-Qaida, officials said. The Association of Muslim Scholars, Sunni clerics group with links to insurgents, has its headquarters in the mosque in the capital's Sunni-dominated Ghazaliyhah neighborhood.

3. UPI, 11/19/07:

The United Nations announced it will help the Iraqi government with the increasing number of refugees returning to their homes. In a statement, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq Staffan de Mistura said the assistance is a result of a request by the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration. As there are indications that both refugees and (internally displaced people) are starting to return back to their homes, we stand behind the Iraqi government in ensuring that this initial positive return is properly assisted and implemented," Mistura said. Aid and relief agencies estimate 2 million people fled the country since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion and subsequent sectarian fighting, while another 2.3 million left their homes for other parts of Iraq. The assistance will include technical advice, developing monitoring and data-gathering tools and providing capacity-building support to the ministry, a U.N. statement said.

State Dept Iraq Weekly Status Report, 11/21/07 (page 4, 26):

UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq Staffan de Mistura announced the UN will help the GOI with the increasing number of refugees returning to their homes. The assistance will include technical advice, developing monitoring and data-gathering tools and providing capacity-building support to the ministry, a U.N. statement said.

4. Voices of Iraq, 11/18/07:

The Iraqi Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to better assist journalists in their work and grant them any permission necessary for the fulfillment of their mission.

State Dept Iraq Weekly Status Report, 11/21/07 (page 4, 29):

Strengthen Public Understanding Insurgents
The Iraqi Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Kurdistan Regional Government to better assist journalists in their work and grant them any permission necessary for the fulfillment of their mission.

5.UPI, 11/16/07:

Oil companies are welcome to Iraq, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said, except for the "opportunist" firms already in Iraqi Kurd territory. Iraq is moving toward signing a batch of oil deals, with or without a national oil law, as it attempts to pick up production of the world's third-largest oil reserves. "All the major oil companies ... are very interested for obvious reasons to come work in Iraq and with the improved security conditions they've been approaching us and indicating their keen interest," Shahristani told reporters on the sidelines of an OPEC summit in Riyadh. "We have always told them that they are most welcome to come work in Iraq with us and we don't necessarily need a new hydrocarbon law to do that. "We have our prevailing laws that allow the minister of oil in Iraq to sign any kind of contract; of course it has to be presented to the Parliament depending on the kind of contract," Shahristani said. "We have already started talking to a few major oil companies who are interested in the super giant fields in the south which are already producing. We are producing oil from there but there are new technologies, they have been working and studying these fields. We'll find a way to cooperate to enhance production from these fields and make more oil available to the world market." While Baghdad has only recently said it would soon sign oil deals, based on a Saddam Hussein-era oil law, the Kurdistan Regional Government passed its own oil law in August and since then has signed 14 oil deals with smaller international oil companies.

State Dept Iraq Weekly Status Report, 11/21/07 (page 13):

Speaking about international investment opportunities, Shahristani said all companies, except for the “opportunist” firms already in Iraqi Kurd territory, are welcome to invest in Iraq. Iraq is moving toward signing a batch of oil deals, with or without a national oil law, as it attempts to pick up production of the world’s third-largest oil reserves. While Baghdad has only recently said it would sign oil deals based on a Saddam Hussein-era oil law, the Kurdistan Regional Government passed its own oil law and has signed 14 oil deals with smaller international oil companies.

6. New York Times, 11/16/07:

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq has approved the trial of two Shiite former officials who are accused of killing and kidnapping hundreds of Sunnis, according to American advisers to the Iraqi judicial system.

The case, which could come to trial as early as this month, would be the first that involved bringing to trial such high-ranking Shiites for sectarian crimes.

An Iraqi judge ruled last month that there was sufficient evidence to try the two former officials, who held senior positions in the Health Ministry. But there had been concern that the ministry might try to block the case by invoking a section of the Iraqi criminal law that proscribes the prosecution of officials who are executing their official duties.

The approval to hold a trial was provided in a memo issued earlier this week by the acting health minister. Mr. Maliki has formally endorsed the decision, American officials said.

State Dept Iraq Weekly Status Report, 11/21/07 (page 4, 25):

According to American advisers to the Iraqi judicial system, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has approved the trial of two former Shiite officials who are accused of killing and kidnapping hundreds of Sunnis.

o The case, which could come to trial as early as this month, would be the first that involved bringing to trial such high-ranking Shiites for sectarian crimes.

o An Iraqi judge ruled last month that there was sufficient evidence to try the two former officials, who held senior positions in the Ministry of Health (MoH), but there had been concern that the MoH might try to block the case by invoking a section of the Iraqi criminal law that proscribes the prosecution of officials who are executing their official duties.

o The approval to hold a trial was provided in a memo issued earlier this week by the acting minister in the MoH. PM Maliki has formally endorsed the decision.

Read More......

Global warming negatively impacting the poor

It's difficult to lift yourself up with your bootstraps if you don't have any bootstraps or they're under water. As an American or European it's hard to understand or imagine what it's like to live on under $2 per day though millions upon millions in world do precisely that. When I look at the billions blown on Wall Street or the black hole of spending in Iraq, I wonder why it's so difficult for wealthy nations to step up and help those who are in need, at home or abroad. The people that I've met in poor communities work just as hard as anyone else, but are often stuck due to circumstances well beyond their control.

Without the money, the panel found, a warmer world "could stall and then reverse human development" in the countries where 2.6 billion people live on $2 a day or less.

Scientists have reported that temperatures rose an average 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 100 years, bringing the prospect of a century of extreme weather, rising seas, widening drought and disease and harm to fisheries, forests and farmland.

According to development officials, the unfortunate consequences include women and young girls walking further to collect water in the Horn of Africa, people erecting bamboo flood shelters on stilts in the delta of the Ganges River, and others planting mangroves to protect themselves against storm surges in the delta of the Mekong River.

"These impacts ... go unnoticed in financial markets and in the measurement of world gross domestic product (GDP)," the panel's report said. "But increased exposure to drought, to more intense storms, to floods and environmental stress is holding back the efforts of the world's poor to build a better life for themselves and their children."

Read More......

TIME magazine's laughable "correction"

As Markos notes, the media will simply repeat whatever the Republicans tell them, no matter how absurd, now matter how offensive. But when the Democrats rail about a real issue, more often than not the media is nowhere to be seen because, you know, the Democrats are "just playing politics." But the Republicans talk about how Democrats quite literally want to make America safer for Al Qaeda and TIME magazine thinks that's news. Not to mention, TIME actually believes that the Republicans believe what they're saying. This is simply a standard Republican talking point - that Democrats hate America. Republicans don't actually believe what they're saying (the very definition of playing politics). The only people who believe what the Republicans say are TIME magazine and the rest of the media that's been ref-played into submission by the GOP. Remember when the media used to actually look at an issue and report the objective unvarnished truth? Now they're no better than White House hooker Jeff Gannon. And at least Gannon got paid when he got F'd by a Republican. Read More......

Marriott bans AMERICAblog in Chicago too

You'll recall that yesterday we found out that a Marriott hotel in New Jersey was banning AMERICAblog from its business center computers because our site has used the word "lesbian" in our reporting on gay issues. I just got from the following note from a reader alleging that we're banned in other Marriott hotels as well:

John, I stay at the Marriott Fairfield Inn, downtown Chicago and the Marriott Courtyard Inn downtown Chicago about once a month. They always have Americablog blocked. I was in Concord N.H. last month at a Hampton Inn, and they had Americablog blocked as well, I believe they are part of the Hilton network of hotels. Just thought you would wan't to know.

This is the kind of issue GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign should be jumping on. It's not just about AMERICAblog, it's about every Web site on the Internet that ever mentions gays and lesbians. The religious right understands these kind of issues, how they are so much more important than just the single incident. Hopefully our side does as well. Read More......

Romney has just made his Mormon faith fair game

TPM Election Central reports that this week wasn't the first time GOP presidential candidate, and serial flip-flopper, Mitt Romney said that he wouldn't permit Muslims to be appointed to the presidential cabinet because of their religion. I'll be writing more on this later, but suffice it to say that Mr. Romney has now made his own belief in Mormonism fair game. If we are to look at Muslims' religious beliefs before placing them in the presidential cabinet, then why not look at a Mormon's beliefs before placing him in the Oval Office? Especially when that Mormon is running as a religious (right) candidate, someone who is promising to inject his religion into our politics. And he calls Muslim's radical. To paraphrase an argument so popular on the original-intent right, "Did the Founding Fathers really intend to hand the scepter of power to a Mormon?" Romney can't have it both ways. Either religion in politics matters or it doesn't. Romney says it does matter, but only when someone else's religion is the subject of scrutiny. His religion only matters when he intends to jam it down our throats after he's elected. Then again, both ways is the way Romney lies it best. First pro-gay, then anti-gay. First pro-gun, then anti-gun. First pro-choice, then pro-life. And now he's flip-flopping on whether the religion of a nominee is a relevant factor in their employment.

Actually, I'm less worried about Romney's religion than I am the growing sense that the man has no substance beyond his hair gel. Read More......

Just like most of us, Condi learns about major international news from the t.v. She is clueless.

Okay, I'll admit it. I often get my news from reading the crawl on the t.v. while I'm working out. But, I'm not the Secretary of State during major international crises, including a war I helped start. But, in fact, your Secretary of State also gets news about major world developments from the t.v. while she's working out. And, bad news does not interfere with her exercise regimen.

Just in case anyone still wonders why U.S. foreign policy is such a disaster, this passage in Maureen Dowd's column is illustrative:

In 2006, when Israel invaded Lebanon and many civilians died, including children, Condi and W. drew Arab and U.N. ire for not forcing Ehud Olmert to broker a cease-fire faster.

That same year, in another instance of spectacular willful ignorance, she was blindsided by the Hamas win in the Palestinian elections.

As she described it to Bumiller, she went upstairs at 5 a.m. the morning after the Palestinian elections in 2006 to the gym in her Watergate apartment to exercise on her elliptical machine. She saw the news crawl reporting the Hamas victory.

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s not right,’ ” she said. She kept exercising for awhile but finally got off the elliptical trainer and called the State Department. “I said, ‘What happened in the Palestinian elections?’ and they said, ‘Oh, Hamas won.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness! Hamas won?’ ”

When she couldn’t reach the State Department official on the ground in the Palestinian territories, she did what any loyal Bushie would do: She got back on the elliptical.

“I thought, might as well finish exercising,” Rice told Bumiller. “It’s going to be a really long day.” It was one of the few times she was prescient on the Middle East.

Wow. Read More......

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

You're probably all relieved to know that Dick Cheney is back at work after his most recent heart incident. That means he's back at work trying to instigate a war with Iran. Time is running out.

What else is going on? Read More......

New Australian government makes another positive move

Julia Gillard will become the first female Deputy Prime Minister in Australia. Read More......

Wells Fargo joins the billion dollar write-down club

What a sorry state of affairs. Nice computer models in this industry, huh? I still find it hard to believe that all of these companies both in the US and Europe, could all have such pie-in-the-sky forecasting in their systems. Are they honestly saying that nobody out there in the industry could foresee the crash? Many in the Pentagon predicted the sloppy mess in Iraq, so I find it hard to believe the financial industry missed this one.

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N), the second-largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Tuesday it would take a $1.4 billion fourth-quarter charge largely related to losses on home equity loans as the nation's housing market deteriorates.

The company, which is also the fifth-largest U.S. bank, said it also was significantly scaling back making home equity loans through brokers, citing a need to tighten lending standards and reduced demand from investors to buy the loans.

The industry certainly is cyclical though the depth of the losses are something that did not have to happen so what went wrong and why? The obvious first thought is that too many people made too much money from fluff instead of real business. What is more troubling is that people such as Greenspan should have stepped in and raised a few flags but he too was caught up in the excitement. Perhaps he was excited about heading into retirement with a hot economy? I don't know, but this costly debacle will be a drag on the economy and on individuals for a while. We deserve much more from our government than this. Much more. Read More......