A Stealth Attack On The HIV-Positive?

The late introduction of a new policy further burdening travelers to the US with HIV has caught many AIDS organizations off-guard. The new visa waiver – promised as "streamlined" – is anything but. Worse:

The 30-day deadline for public comment imposed by DHS means a cut-off date of December 6 for reactions to the new regs, leaving little time for the AIDS advocacy community to mobilize. That, Ordover told Gay City News, is a departure from standard practice for proposed new federal regulations; the time frame for public reaction isusually much longer, she said.

No other democratic country bars people with HIV from even entering their borders; no other democratic country uses HIV as a bar to becoming a permanent resident or citizen; no other democratic country treats HIV as if it were malaria. The US does solely because of a Jesse Helms conniption decades ago now, when knowledge of HIV was minuscule compared to today and subject to massive hysteria. Instead of burdening people with HIV with even more stigma, hostility and fear, the Bush administration should surely adjust its travel and immigration policies to reflect the rest of its AIDS policy: humane, destigmatizing and rational. I’m baffled why they – and the Democrats, for that matter, cannot seem to end this draconian anachronism. Increasingly, it’s an international embarrassment. If China can end its ban to avoid global embarrassment during the Olympics, why cannot America? Is America really more backward than China on treating those with HIV? Here’s a small measure that the Bush administration could get through Congress that would add to the kudos they deserve on tackling the global stigma of HIV.

Obama and “Experience”

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"Obama also has valuable experience apart from elective office, and he also has to be careful about how he uses it. This is his experience as a black man in America and as what you might call a "world man" — Kenyan father, American mother, four formative years living in Indonesia, more years in the ethnic stew of Hawaii, middle name of Hussein, and so on — in an increasingly globalized world. Our current president had barely been outside the country when he was elected. His efforts to make up for this through repeated proclamations of pal-ship with every foreign leader who parades through Washington have been an embarrassment. Obama’s upbringing would serve us well if he were president, both in the understanding he would bring to issues of America’s role in the world (the term "foreign policy" sounds increasingly anachronistic) and in terms of how the world views America. Clinton mocks Obama’s claims that four years growing up in Indonesia constitute useful world-affairs experience. But they do," – Mike Kinsley, declaring for Obama.

My Obama essay, discussed this morning on This Week, can be read here.

Post-Stephanopoulos Clinton Nugget

I just found out that the Clinton campaign contacted the Stephanopoulos show before the airing this morning to ask who would be on the round-table to counter me. I’m flattered. But, jeez, I’m just a writer. It’s not like I work for a candidate, or, have ever worked for one like the, er, host. (Who, as a journalist, I might add, seems extremely even-handed to me.) As for balance, Cokie Roberts made a case for Clinton as a feminist change-agent on the show. Whether she or I were persuasive enough is for the viewers to judge.

Maybe the Clintons are merely concerned that some of the arguments in this essay are gaining more traction out there. If so, good. If you’re interested, "Why Obama Matters" can be read here, or is available on newsstands in the new Atlantic.

A Travesty Of Justice

I do not know exactly who Bilal Hussain and do not know for sure whether the wild claims of the bloggy lynch-mob seeking his imprisonment are in any way merited. That’s why the justice system exists – in both civilian and military contexts. It exists to ensure that the guilty are correctly identified, and factual claims substantiated and weighed by an impartial system. Alas, under this president and during this war, these notions have become largely moot. This strikes me as a real outrage:

In the 19 months since he was picked up, Bilal has not been charged with any crime, although the military has sent out a flurry of ever-changing claims. Every claim we’ve checked out has proved to be false, overblown or microscopic in significance. Now, suddenly, the military plans to seek a criminal case against Bilal in the Iraqi court system in just days. But the military won’t tell us what the charges are, what evidence it will be submitting or even when the hearing will be held.

From what I hear behind the scenes, almost all of this is fueled either by animus or by an attempt to save face by the military, which internally concedes it has nothing to charge Hussain with but circumstantial hysteria. It does the US no good at all if the country’s international reputation is increasingly one that is at ease with kangaroo courts, is happy to detain individuals indefinitely without charges and then seeks, as in Gitmo, to construct "trials" that are mere Potemkin shows to exact revenge on enemies, real and imagined.

RCP and Ron Paul

Dave Weigel makes a good point:

Earlier this week Mike Huckabee told reporters he was the only presidential candidate who’s seen a steady surge of support. Not true: Ron Paul has decisively broken from the 1 percent/margin of error ghetto into, at the very least, spoiler status. RealClearPolitics still doesn’t include Paul in all of the averages, but 4.5 percent in Iowa, 6.8 percent in New Hampshire, and 7.3 percent in Nevada. The latest South Carolina poll puts Paul at 8 percent. David Bergland, the (disastrous) 1984 Libertarian Party candidate for president, is overjoyed.

My italics. C’mon, guys. Be fair.