A report by Al Jazeera English shows soldiers in Afghanistan passing around Bibles in Pashto and Dari, the languages of Afghanistan, presumably to be distributed. The chaplain leading the discussion acknowledges that “proselytizing” is against military rules, but one soldier says, “you can give gifts“:

But in another piece of footage taken by Hughes, the chaplains appear to have found a way around the regulation known as General Order Number One.

“Do we know what it means to proselytise?” Captain Emmit Furner, a military chaplain, says to the gathering.

“It is General Order Number One,” an unidentified soldier replies.

But [Sergeant Jon] Watt says “you can’t proselytise but you can give gifts“.

A military spokeswoman said the Bibles “were never distributed as far as we know.” The Al Jazeera report also shows Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, telling a congregation of U.S. servicemembers that their job as Christian is to “hunt people for Jesus.” “That’s what we do, that’s our business,” he said. Watch it:

Yesterday, the New York Times’ Room for Debate blog hosted a conversation about how repealing the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy banning openly gay men and women from serving would “affect the military ranks.” Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who supports continuing the ban, claimed that “a majority of the American people” agree with “section 571 of the 1994 National Defense Authorization Act, which states”:

The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.

But Inhofe is wrong about the views of the American people. Last week, the Quinnipiac Polling Institute released a comprehensive poll showing that not only do a majority of Americans support repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but 58 percent of Americans reject “the argument that allowing openly gay men and women to serve would be divisive.” This includes 56 percent of voters with family in the military. (HT: TPM DC)

After ThinkProgress and other outlets noted last week’s changes to the Civil Rights page on whitehouse.gov, watering down language on the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Tips-Q noted that the website also has completely eliminated the portion objecting to the Defense of Marriage Act. As late as April 28, the website highlighted President Obama’s commitment to “repealing” DOMA, as a cached image shows:

Today, the website states only that Obama supports full “federal rights for LGBT couples”:

He supports full civil unions and federal rights for LGBT couples and opposes a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

According to ProPublica’s Change Tracker, the changes to the DOMA language were made on April 30. During his campaign, Obama repeatedly pledged to seek to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, telling The Advocate, “I for a very long time have been interested in repeal of DOMA.” During the primary campaign, he touted his longtime opposition to DOMA, in a strongly-worded “open letter” to the LGBT community:

Unlike Senator Clinton, I support the complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -– a position I have held since before arriving in the U.S. Senate. While some say we should repeal only part of the law, I believe we should get rid of that statute altogether. Federal law should not discriminate in any way against gay and lesbian couples, which is precisely what DOMA does.

Last week, after bloggers pointed out Obama’s seeming hypocrisy on “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the White House quickly revised the language to once again pledge to “repeal” the policy, rather than just change it. Will the White House similarly fix this mistake, and reinstate Obama’s campaign promise to grant gay couples their full federal rights?

A sticking point in talks on health care is President Obama’s “public plan,” which will bring down health care costs and dramatically expand coverage. Republicans already oppose the plan, fearmongering about “socialism” and government bureaucracy. Today, CAPAF hosted a conference call announcing the creation of Doctors for America, a group of 11,000 physicians pushing for health care reform this year. On the call, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) acknowledged that the public plan “is one of the two or three 800-pound gorillas” in Congress, adding that the public option is unlikely to pass Congress unless Democrats pass health care with a simple majority via budget reconciliation:

BAUCUS: We’ll probably spend some time looking at a couple three different public option alternatives to see how well it can be leveled out, the playing field actually be leveled. Because otherwise, this could be difficult to pass the Senate. It may pass the House. It may pass the Senate too — there’s a procedure called reconciliation. But that’s — we have to think that through a lot.

Listen here:

“It’s on the table, but it’s a little over on the side of the table right now,” Baucus said of the public option, adding that “it’s going to come up tomorrow when we have our roundtable discussions.” In an interview with the Wonk Room in March, Baucus said, “I think we can accomplish” health care reform “without” a public plan.

In an interview with Christianity Today, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher said that calling gay people “queer” “is not like a slur” because homosexuality is “strange and unusual.” He also declared that he would never let his gay “friends” “anywhere near my children:”

Q: In the last month, same-sex marriage has become legal in Iowa and Vermont. What do you think about same-sex marriage at a state level?

JTP: At a state level, it’s up to them. I don’t want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it’s wrong. People don’t understand the dictionary—it’s called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It’s not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we’re supposed to do—what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we’re supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they’re people, and they’re going to do their thing.

When asked if he had planned to run for public office, Wurzelbacher said he didn’t have any “right now.” “God hasn’t said, ‘Joe, I want you to run.’ I feel more important to just encourage people to get involved, one way or another. If I can inspire some leaders, that would be great. I don’t know if I want to be a leader,” he said.