Month: July 2008

A young street artist in New York inflates his tags.

The list of signatories keep growing. Here’s the latest list of groups lobbying the Senate to remove the unique legislative stigma attached to HIV in immigration and travel:

ACT UP, Philadelphia, Paris
Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House
African American Health and Social Services
African Services Committee
AIDES (France)
AIDS Action
AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth & Families
AIDS Alliance for Faith and Health

AIDS Charitable Trust of New Mexico
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
The AIDS Institute
AIDS Project Los Angeles
AIDS Services In Asian Communities
AIDS Services of Austin
AIDS Task Force of Greater Cleveland
AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition
AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition
Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House
Alliance for Microbicide Development
American Academy of HIV Medicine
American Civil Liberties Union
American Jewish World Service
American Medical Students Association 
American Psychological Association
ANERELA+
Austin Health Center of Cook County
Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations
Being Alive People with HIV/AIDS Action Coalition
BIENESTAR
BiNET USA
Boston May Day Coalition
Boston Rosa Parks Human Rights Coalition
Breakthrough: building human rights culture
Bronx AIDS Services
Cable Positive
California Council of Churches IMPACT
CARE USA
Cascade AIDS Project
The Center for HIV Law and Policy
Central Illinois FRIENDS of People with AIDS
Central Louisiana AIDS Support Services, Inc.
Charleston AIDS Network
Chicago Foundation for Women
Chicago House and Social Service Agency
Clinicas De Salud del Pueblo, Inc.
Colorado Anti-Violence Project
Coloradans for Immigrant Rights
Compass, Inc.
Emerson Rojas-Project Coordinator
Empire Justice Center
Empire State Coalition of Youth and Family Services
Eternal Hope Community Development Corporation, Inc.
Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative
Gay Men’s Health Crisis
Global Action for Children
Global AIDS Alliance
Global Campaign for Microbicides
Global Fight Against AIDS, TB and Malaria
Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS
Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS
Haitian Centers Council, Inc.
Health GAP (Global Access Project), New York City
Hema Diagnostic Systems
Hispanic Federation
HIV/AIDS Legal Services Alliance
HIV/AIDS Services for African Americans in Alaska
HIVictorious
HIV Law Project
HIV Medicine Association
Hope and Health Center of Central Florida
House of Joseph II
Housing Works
Human Rights Campaign
Hyacinth AIDS Foundation
Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
Immigration Equality
Immigration Law Project, Fordham University School of Law
In This Together, Inc.
INdetectable
Interaction Law
International AIDS Empowerment
International AIDS Society
International Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS
INERELA+
Integrated Minority AIDS Network, Inc.
International Rectal Microbicide Advocates
International Women’s Health Coalition
Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Kentucky Equal Justice Center
Kentucky HIV/AIDS Advocacy Action Group
Khush DC
Jamaica Plain Rapid Response Network
Lambda Legal
Latino Commission on AIDS
Lexington Fairness
Liberty Research Group
LIFE Foundation
Lifelong AIDS Alliance
Lowcountry AIDS Project
Mendocino County AIDS Volunteer Network
Metrolina AIDS Project
Michigan Equality
Michigan HIV/AIDS Council
The Ministry of Caring
My Brothaz Home, Inc.
National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors
National Association of People With AIDS
National Association of People With AIDS (Nepal)
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Council of Jewish Women
National Health Law Program
National Immigrant Justice Center
National Immigration Law Center
National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
National Minority AIDS Council
New Mexico AIDS Services
New York AIDS Coalition
New York Trans Rights Organizations
Night Ministry (Chicago, IL)
Oklahoma State University Physicians
OneAmerica
Open Door Clinic
Open Society Policy Center
P.A.C.- Positive Advocacy Coalition
Parents, Famililes and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Initiative
Physicians for Human Rights 
Pierce County AIDS Foundation
Political Asylum Immigration Representation Project
Political Asylum Project of Austin
Power Inside, Baltimore, Maryland
POZ Magazine
Project Inform
Project SMART
Public Health Division, City of Portland Maine
Queer People’s Health Collective
RESULTS USA
Richard’s Place
SafeGuards LGBT Health Resource Center
San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, Inc.
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
San Mateo County AIDS Program Community Board
Search for a Cure
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
SisterLove, Inc.
South Asian Americans Leading Together
South Asian Network
Southwest Community Services, Inc.
Spokane AIDS Network
Tahirih Justice Center
Terrence Higgins Trust
Title II Community AIDS National Network
Treatment Action Group
Triad Health Project
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church & Society
Vermont CARES
Victorian AIDS Council
Voices of Hagar HIV/AIDS Health Ministry
The Wall Las Memorias
West Alabama American Red Cross
West O’ahu Hope For A Cure Foundation
Weingart Center Association
Whitman Walker Clinic
Who’s Positive
Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Disease
The Women’s Center
The Woodhull Freedom Foundation
YWCA USA

Bora Zivkovic believes religion evolved to encourage group cohesion:

For the group cohesion to work, one HAS to, by definition, feel that one’s group is superior to all other groups. This sense of superiority is enhanced by the additional "attachments" that may differ between different religious traditions, e.g., the belief in an inerrancy of the leader who gets orders directly from the group’s omnipotent god(s), various trance-inducing chants and dances, behavioral rules, sacred books, etc. All of these also promote internal policing by the group – those of "weak faith" are detected and punished mainly by other members, not necessarily by any kind of official armed forces, though some groups may use the latter as well.

So that’s how the Republican party machine works.

Robert Rapier wrestles with our energy conundrum:

The thought struck me as I got ready for work a couple of days ago that we may have reached ‘peak convenience’ as a result of high oil prices, which I believe are here to stay. Most people are going to find that certain conveniences that we have taken for granted during the age of cheap oil are less attainable (i.e., more expensive) than they once were. I can see a future in which something like the morning shower shifts to later in the day, after the solar water heater has had time to heat up the water. Or we have to drop our electrical usage way down at night because our solar output has dropped off. People are definitely going to have to become accustomed to tracking their electricity usage, to avoid a very big surprise at the end of the month. (On the flip side, I think we will continue to make medical and technological advances, so it isn’t as if I think we are headed back to the Stone Age).

Zengerle hyperventilates:

…the image is satirical only because it appears on the cover of the New Yorker, which, we all know, is a right-thinking magazine read by right-thinking people who couldn’t possibly be among the 10 percent of Americans who believe Obama’s a Muslim. The New Yorker assumes everyone knows it’s being ironic with its cover, sort of the way the white hipster in a gentrifying neighborhood assumes everyone knows he’s being ironic when he wears a "Stop Snitching" t-shirt. But put that image on the cover of National Review, or that t-shirt on a black person in a crime-infested neighborhood, and the message takes on a very different meaning.

Ezra is calmer:

…this is a cartoon.

The very medium mocks and dismisses the content of the picture. Anyone who didn’t get the joke would be left looking at a caricatured illustration, not a believable image of Obama gripping bin-Laden’s portrait. What’s actually happening, I think, is that the New Yorker is a physical institution that can be criticized, while the e-mail forwards and talk radio whispers actually fueling these rumors — in their believable, not their cartoon, forms — won’t stand still long enough to be subject to public opprobrium.

It’s July, isn’t it?

"But in all seriousness here, we haven’t had a recession—there is an economic slow down. I share your concern. Everybody I talk to is furious at $4.50 a gallon for gasoline, especially when they know we have more resources than the Middle East, but I want to know. I want to ask you this. I’ve met people that grew up in tyranny. I knew people that grew up in the former Soviet Union for fear of speaking out against their government. Never had an opportunity to pursue their dreams … In this country, maybe we do, is there some truth to the fact, maybe we do whine too much. Maybe we don’t to appreciate this gift we have of freedom. Maybe we don’t take advantage of, maybe too many of us look to the government to solve every problem we have," – Sean Hannity.

Another marvel from Michel Gondry:

New voter registration in Florida is raising some eyebrows:

Through May, Democratic voter registration in Broward County was up 6.7 percent. Republican registrations grew just 3 percent while independents rose 2.8 percent. Democrats have posted even greater gains statewide, up 106,508 voters from January through May, compared with 16,686 for the Republicans. "It’s a huge swing," says Marian Johnson, political director for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. "I looked at that and said, ‘Wow.’"

I think that moniker is a little more fitting – if a little less marketable – for Ross’ and Reihan’s hoped-for constituency than "Sam’s Club" Republicans. After all, the problem with the working poor, as GNP has it, is not that they’re capable of finding shopping bargains and living within their means. It’s that they’re sinking in a welter of family dysfunction and economic distress – and end up like the plaintiffs on Judge Judy. Why are they sinking? GNP blames the elites for getting jiggy with it in the 1960s and 1970s and setting a bad example for those without the resources to cope adequately with extra- and pre-marital sex, contracepted intercourse, divorce, re-marriage, and so on.

Now, in an extra twist of the sociological knife, the yuppies and elite boomers and wealthy urbanites have actually gotten their act together more, are bringing up their kids well, and often sticking together in later, more durable marriages. The poorer Red Staters, meanwhile, are still getting abortions, raising criminal kids, doing drugs and generally failing to stay afloat. I exaggerate, of course. The book adds layers of explanation to this, including, critically, the impact of Bell Curve style assortative mating and social stratification. But this is the gist.

GNP‘s answer is to shift financial resources to working poor families, specifically those with children. To put it uncharitably, they want to tax those who have gotten their act together and give the money to those who haven’t yet. With the extra cash from wage subsidies or child credits, these poorer folks might then have the resources to keep one parent at home, and be better citizens all round. At least that’s the hope.

And hope is the operative word. The newly working poor may also keep their sexual adventures, poor parenting, multiple spouses – and their wage subsidies as well. Who can say? Since GNP doesn’t actually condition the new money on any behavioral changes – they balk at reserving child credits for the married, for example – there isn’t much leverage for social improvement, and one fears that the scheme could end up as essentially a bribe for an electoral demographic the GOP increasingly needs. Say it ain’t so, Ross.

But my deeper question is really about how things like family breakdown can actually be put back together by government. I’m not sure they can. Yes, you can remove actual disincentives for marriage and work, as in welfare reform. But using government to remoralize society on this kind of scale? A fundamentalist religious revival has made no dent on the poor morals of the red states, so why would wage subsidies? And if this remoralization doesn’t work out, aren’t you just left with a vast redistributionist scheme?

This Nate Silver post strikes me as about right:

"That does not mean that the Obama that emerges from Lizza’s piece is particularly warm and cuddly. He is certainly a very political creature, and there is something a little steely and postmodern about it all. But it is also not clear that Obama is playing some kind of angle. He seems, rather, to hold a lot of fairly mainstream, somewhat empirically-driven views — still an idealist in certain ways, but not highly ideological. The White House may represent to him some sort of final step in his self-actualization, but he’s not going there to get a blow job, or to play out some sort of Oedipal complex. It’s all actually sort of … boring."