The International AIDS Society will hold its biennial conference in the U.S. in 2012, “for the first time in 22 years after President Barack Obama lifted the ban on travel by people infected with HIV.” Yesterday, on the eve of World AIDS Day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “made the strongest statement yet by an administration official” that the U.S. will not tolerate discrimination of gay men and women in countries that receive U.S. funding to fight HIV/AIDS.
A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the Senate health care bill “would leave premiums unchanged or slightly lower for the vast majority of Americans.” The report undermines many of the fear-mongering arguments against health reform that have been put forward by conservatives.
The Congressional Budget Office also said yesterday that “it estimates that the federal stimulus package sustained between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs in the third quarter, and raised gross domestic product by 1.2 to 3.2 percentage points higher than it would have been without the program.”
Obama “has decided to expedite the deployment” of new troops to Afghanistan to bring the “total American force to nearly 100,000 troops by the end of May.” “Until recently, discussions focused on a deployment that would take a year,” but Obama decided to speed the pace in order to “reverse the momentum of Taliban gains.”
Special envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke is pushing for the U.S. to “extend its control over the day-to-day running of Afghanistan with the appointment of an international ‘high representative’” that would serve on the “shoulder” of President Hamid Karzai. The proposal has “caused a split between Washington and its closest NATO allies,” who believe it could undermine the legitimacy of the Afghan government.
Norah Niland, the United Nations’ human rights representative in Afghanistan, told reporters yesterday that rape in Afghanistan has become a problem of “profound proportions.” “Women and girls are at risk of rape in their homes, in their villages and in detention facilities,” Niland told the press.
“Establishment Republicans are recoiling at a draft proposal before the Republican National Committee that would bar party financial support for candidates who fail to meet eight of 10 issue tests,” Politico reports. “We’re becoming a church that would rather chase away heretics than welcome converts and that’s no way to become a majority party,” said former Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA).
The D.C. Council is scheduled to vote today on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the District. “Marriages would begin in the city as soon as the bill passes a period of Congressional review.” Congress will likely not alter the law, as “Republicans are pessimistic about their chances of preventing its implementation.”
The health care advocacy group FamiliesUSA warns in a new report that millions of unemployed Americans will face sharply higher premiums as temporary subsidies for the COBRA program expire. The subsidies were enacted under the $787 billion stimulus program and are set to expire at the end of December.
And finally: Corduroy skirts are a sin.
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