When Was the Last Time You Were Tested for HIV?

The New York Times is reporting from the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City that, because of a new test that can distinguish between new and longstanding HIV infections, the Centers for Disease Control may have been under-reporting the number of new HIV infections in the US each year for the past fifteen years. The number of people living with HIV could actually be 1.3 to 1.4 million instead of the 1 to 1.1 million it was believed to be until this study was done. Up to one quarter of those infected do not know they are HIV positive. Gay and bisexual men of all skin colors make up 53% of all new infections. Regardless of sexual orientation, blacks are seven times more likely than whites and hispanics are three times more likely than whites to become infected.

Also according the the NYT, the CDC has known of these study findings since October 2007 but held off communicating them to the rest of us until they could get them published in a major medical journal, the occurrence of which was intended to coincide with a press conference and much fanfare at a high-profile international event such as the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. Two other journals refused to fast-track the article, but JAMA stepped up to the plate. However, the press conference in Mexico City was absolutely ruined when the press embargo was broken by public criticism from "a number of leading health experts" who were just hell bent on preventing as many new infections as possible.

Bush Appointee at HUD Attempts to Extort the City of Brotherly Love

The Inky's lead story today informs us that the Bush-Cheney junta's man who is temporarily in charge of HUD attempted to extort Philadelphia's Housing Authority to give up valuable land intended for new public housing. The junta's guy, Alphonso Jackson, thought the land could be better used by a wealthy financial supporter of the Bush-Cheney junta. Considering the fact that Bush and Cheney are both still free men after committing dozens and dozens of high crimes and misdemeanors that include starting an illegal war in which over 80,000 innocent people have lost their lives, it is not anticipated that Jackson will be subject to any sort of justice in the this life.

Editor of Ganymede's Ghost Is Old Enough to Be Father of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Over 12,000 military careers have been cut short since we decided to allow gay and lesbian Americans to serve their nation secretly fourteen years ago. Apparently not asking is not the same thing as witch hunts that solicit unsubstantiated accusations from a soldier's piers.

Biologic Agents Found In, On and Around Senate Gallery

It could be "an unfortunate incident involving a child," but it's more likely a shockingly disgusting yet fiendishly creative political statement made by several adults who smuggled in an enormous amount of putatively human shit.

Republicans Prefer Violence

Taking an obvious conflict-resolving lead from the Bush-Cheney junta, a Republican member of the Alabama legislature attempted to exert his political will by punching a Democrat with whom he disagreed. Charlton Heston is expected to arrive shortly with a surge of pro-violence reinforcements from the NRA.

Dick Cheney Is Full of Shit

Responding to a shortage of virgin unicorn blood, doctors seem to have discovered that pumping Dick Cheney full of shit has slowed the process believed to be turning him into a giant blood clot. We may all rejoice in the fact the process has been slowed down enough to allow him to continue the Bush-Cheney junta's assualt on the rule of law.

Wondering Whether to Buy Groceries or Gas this Month?

Don't forget you'll need some gas to get to the store and to transport your groceries home. MoveOn has a petition you can sign. They're lobbying Congress to end special tax breaks for Big Oil, pass antiprice-gouging legislation, and to ensure that existing antitrust laws are enforced and applied.

Dick Cheney Is Still Alive

Thanks to the provider of the fresh virgin unicorn blood [I think]. Now we can finally impeach Cheney [maybe {and then Bush, and then Nancy Pelosi would be Queen!}].

Quickly! Someone bring more fresh virgin unicorn blood! Cheney is turning back into a giant clot, and Kucinich won't introduce the Articles of Impeachment until he's on the mend.

We are killing each other at an alarming rate, but at least we're not going to lock up some peace activists who tried to visit the offices of former Senator Santorum.

Congress May End Annual Fines for Gay and Lesbian Families

There is a short little article on Gay.com that reminds me it's about time to send my tax crap to my accountant and begin composing my annual letter of protest to the IRS. The federal government withholds hundreds of special rights from nonheterosexual United States citizens and even fines many of us for having the audacity to live as our hearts and consciences guide us. Many of these fines are assessed annually through the federal tax code by considering a spouse or partner’s health insurance as taxable income unless the partner receiving the health insurance is of the opposite sex and the couple has obtained a marriage license from a qualified government official or a government-sanctioned, superstition-based official [clergy member]. And since the federal government specifically refuses to acknowledge the existence of any nonheterosexual marriages, even ones performed in states and provinces where they are perfectly legal, I’ll personally be fined over $1000 this year, as will thousands of other Americans who are only trying to provide health insurance for their families. It’s not like people who register as domestic partners in Philly get free yachts [or even the right to visit one’s partner in a hospital without a separately obtained and paid for medical decision-making legal directive].

What to do, what to do? This year, like the last two years in which I have had to pay this fine, I will make sure to send my tax crap to a good accountant whom I trust to ensure that my fine is not one penny larger than it has to be. I will also write a letter of protest and staple it to my tax return, which I will intentionally send in a few days or weeks after the April 15 “deadline” just to make a point. I once went a few years without filing, but I was young and rebellious then. I think because I work for a nonprofit with a conscientious payroll department, have a mortgage, and have no other sources of income besides my salary, I always end up getting a refund [which would double if I didn’t have to pay the stupid fine]. This might be why I never get any kind of response to my late returns and protest letters. But it can’t hurt to let the bureaucrat who has to open and process my tax return [why the staples are used in direct defiance of the instructions] know that he or she is aiding and abetting the persecution of thousands of law-abiding Americans merely because they do not conform to the lifestyle preferences of some ungracefully aging, superstition-based bigots.

This year, in addition to finding as many creative ways as possible to cost the federal government more than it fines me [that do not result in my arrest and/or incarceration], I will write to my senators and congressman and encourage them to vote for this legislation. I also urge you to do the same. It’s still a long way to actual equal treatment under the law, which is perversely and ironically already guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment to the US Constitution, but at least this is a [baby]step in the right direction.

US Dept of Justice Nears Collapse Under The Man Who Services Bush's Pleasure [or something like that]

A conservative daily, The Washington Post, is reporting the resignation of first-string Gonzales Goon Squad (GGS) player Monica Goodling. Goodling is the person who felt the need to invoke her fifth amendment right not to incriminate herself before anyone in Congress has had a chance to ask her any questions about a rovian plot to steal the 2008 presidential election by replacing as many US attorneys as possible with unqualified Republican political operatives. And that's not all that went afoul this week: three career attorneys in Minneapolis demoted themselves rather than work for another GGS operative, Rachel K. Paulose, who was recently installed in that city.

Iran returns hostage child soldiers to the UK.

Bush-Cheney Junta Continues to Violate International Law

The BBC is reporting that, according to Amnesty International, conditions for the 385 people being held hostage without due process by US "personnel" at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base are actually getting worse. Most hostages are now being held in solitary confinement, isolated twenty-two hours daily and only allowed to exercise at night. Many routinely go for days without seeing sunlight. This news comes after Bush's newly appointed Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, has recommended closing the facility because it hurts our ability to get along with other countries that are opposed to both terrorism and fascism.

Gonzales' Goon Squad Backs Down, for Now

The AP is reporting that independent videographer, Joshua Wolf, has been released from federal detention after 226 days. He had refused to surrender video footage [that we now know shows mostly police brutality] obtained at the G8 protests in San Francisco in 2005. Instead of surrendering it to the secretive [and we now know politically compromised] federal grand jury that was investigating the injury of a police officer during the protests, Wolf arranged to have the footage posted publicly on the web. While the Gonzales Goon Squad (GGS) is still claiming the prerogative to compel Wolf to testify in person before the grand jury, Wolf made a clear public statement immediately following his release that he has no intention of testifying before the grand jury. Watching the footage and making the assumption that GGS wants to win its case, I'd think it would be unlikely that they would actually try to make the guy testify. But once you know that one third of our current federal prosecutors were chosen for their political loyalty to a would-be dictator over their professional abilities, you realize that winning cases might not be what it's all about anymore.

What happens when a Severely Deluded US Senator wants to take a stroll in Bagdad to prove that he's not Deluded?

Over a hundred American troops have to drop what they're doing to secure his perimeter. Thinkprogress is already reporting that snipers have returned to the lucky open-air market our Republican senators chose for their latest installment of political theater [of the absurd].

In a surprise move today, the Supreme Court has ruled that greenhouse gases are actually greenhouse gases and the EPA has the authority to regulate all of the pollution coming out of tail pipes, not just the pollution that existed as pollution prior to 1860.

You know it's bad when they can't [really can't be bothered to] determine who Philly's 100th murder victim of 2007 is because the 101st body found may have been there since before the 100th body was found. You also know it's bound to get worse when the discrepancy exists because children playing saw the body about ten hours before anybody bothered to call 911.

Bush Lies to Wounded Troops at Walter Reed

In his most recent installation of pathetic political theater, George Bush visited Walter Reed medical center where he toured an empty hospital room with a wide-screen TV and then lied to about a hundred wounded troops. He told them, "The problems at Walter Reed were caused by bureaucratic and adminstrative failures." The reality is that the problems at Walter Reed actually began when the Bush-Cheney junta tried to oust the VA bureaucracy and replace it with a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of Halliburton.

Here's a blog that's well worth the read. The author is not one of the "bloggers" quoted by Bush last week, saying things are getting better in Bagdad. According to another blog well worth the read, Bush actually quoted an editorial in the Wall Street Journal that he misconfabulated as a blog [he still must be getting used to all this new internets jargon].