[Cross-posted from comment at http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/dec/01/obama_goes_over_well_at_warren_event]

If you didn't hear already, James Dobson's Focus on the Family today attempted to condemn thousands of Africans to a death sentence from HIV/AIDS. Upset over the slice of the Global Fund pie going to religious groups attempting to fight the epidemic disease with abstinence programs (and no mentions of condoms), these petty and vindictive leaders want "the government to eliminate all spending on the Global Fund's HIV programs because it is not providing sufficient money to faith groups and has given little support to abstinence messages."

Setting aside the obvious efficacy arguments, these people obviously have no grip on Christian values if they think the lack of money flowing to Christian groups requires the program to be cancelled, leading inevitably to thousands and thousands of unnecessary deaths from HIV/AIDS.

From the Boston Globe:

"But the Global Fund, which works closely with foreign governments, is not nearly as popular among conservative Christians in the United States. Some take issue with the Global Fund's policies, which include buying clean needles for drug users, and many are furious that just 6 percent of its program dollars goes to faith-based groups.

"There's cancer in the fund," said Peter L. Brandt, senior director of government and public policy at the Christian group Focus on the Family. "It does such an unbelievable job in discriminating against faith-based organizations."

Fund officials, worried about the religious right's influence in Congress, are pledging to try to give more money to religious charities. The executive director of the fund, Richard G.A. Feachem , yesterday told 2,000 people at an AIDS conference organized by the influential Saddleback Church in Lake Forest that the battle against the virus "will only succeed if the great faiths of the world become totally mobilized."

Feachem, in an interview, said the fund "wants to see many more programs" run by faith groups, though most funding decisions are made by local boards.

Feachem's visit to the church-organized conference occurred as the Senate is considering a proposal to more than double the Bush administration's $300 million budget request for the fund, to $700 million next year; the House wants to spend $445 million. This year, Congress sent $545 million to the fund, $245 million more than Bush requested.

Nonetheless, Brandt said he wants the government to eliminate all spending on the Global Fund's HIV programs because it is not providing sufficient money to faith groups and has given little support to abstinence messages. Brandt said the government could continue to support the fund's tuberculosis and malaria programs."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/12/01/faith_groups_urge_cuts_to_aids_fund/

Eleanor Clift in Newsweek points out John McCain's hypocrisy over gay partnership benefits:

"McCain was clearly squirming when ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pressed him on "This Week" last weekend about whether he supports civil unions, a loaded term among social conservatives who see it as a fig leaf for gay marriage. McCain avoided the phrase but said he supported various partnerships to facilitate hospital visits and the like. His home state of Arizona just voted down an anti-gay marriage initiative that also would have banned domestic partnerships even among heterosexual couples."

Maybe she doesn't realize it, but McCain not only supported the Arizona initiative barring partnership benefits, but he went so far as to record an ad for Prop. 107 in Arizona!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfkCzld4qEM

You can't run away from this position, John. It's right there on video.

Joan Vennochi of the Boston Globe and Susan Ryan-Vollmar of Bay Windows have Mitt Romney dead to rights (and somebody better send the memo to the leaders of the Evangelical community: Mitt's only pretending to be against gay equality, including at the very least domestic partnership benefits, for the sake of political expediency):

"When he ran against Ted Kennedy for the Senate in 1994, Romney wrote a letter to the Massachusetts Log Cabin Club, pledging that as "we seek to establish full equality for American gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent."

...

He backed domestic partner benefits for public employees, winning the endorsement of the national Log Cabin Republicans. In his inaugural speech, he promised to defend civil rights "regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or race."

As governor, he appointed openly gay and lesbian people to high-profile administration positions. He doubled the budget line item for the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, until he tried to disband it last May -- more political theater for the Republican right.

Romney also chose to stage his big antigay marriage rally on the State House steps after the Nov. 9 constitutional convention. Why not before legislators took their vote on the marriage amendment?"

All this is a far cry from last month, when he said, "The price of same-sex marriage is paid by the children."