Huckabee called for AIDS Quarantines in '92

By 1992, after Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive, people with brains understood that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact.

"It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents."
...
"I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."

Huckabee also opposed federal funding for AIDS research and "suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies..."

And this guy's apparently surged into second place, behind Mayor 9/11.

Saturday Malamute Video Blogging

23° feels like 13° but that doesn't discourage Kodizliak, one of an ancient breed of snow dogs of the north.

Shorter Washington Post

Hormonal teenagers breaking the law and having sex is somehow just as shocking as a congressman preying on congressional pages.

Oy.

First Rule of Fight Club...

...know who your opposition is.

Something's really gone off the rails when the Obama campaign decides to release an oppo document on Paul Krugman. It's not only the actual attacks that are weak (most of them rely on misinterpreting one comment, then misinterpreting the next, then pretending there's a contradiction), but, seriously, it's Paul Krugman. Arguably the most progressive voice in American media.

Obama's basically embraced what Krugman has accused him of. His campaign is essentially an attack from the right. I'm inclined to agree with Jason in comments:

But Obama is a sideshow, a candidate whose celebrity is his only rationale. It is very fitting that Oprah is campaigning for him. Obama's supporters represent a disturbing cult of personality that I do not see anywhere else (except Ron Paul). They seem to think that his very existence is somehow miraculous and that his election would be "transformative" in some ineffable, metaphysical way. Andy Sullivan's argument, essentially, which should really tell you something.

Friday Night Malamute Blogging

Snow bunny?

Lest We Forget

The Village Voice reminds us that Dick Cheney's long umbilical cord to Halliburton was intact up until last year:

Dick Cheney was getting a salary from Halliburton until last year, and he did well by his company. Halliburton's financial picture was shaky until after 9/11, when the Iraq debacle infused it with these huge bundles of taxpayer money.

Now Halliburton is taking advantage of UAE's nonstop service between Houston and Dubai to ship the "huge bundles of taxpayer money" they've made thanks to Dick and his minions, to their brand new headquarters there—in Dubai, where "The law permits indefinite routine prolonged incommunicado detention without appeal."

That sounds like Dick's kind of town.