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Archive for the ‘Afghanistan’ Category

GLAAD launches online petition against Buju Banton Grammy noms.

Phoenix city councilman Tom Simplot and his partner David Smith, who were first to sign up for the city's domestic partner registry, have split.

Tom Ford photographs, discusses Single Man cast for V magazine.

Does Mariah Carey H.A.T.E.U???

A Gay Hockey Kid's Life (via outsports).

Preliminary witness list for federal challenge to Prop 8 revealed.

Teen seeks $4 million from Tel Aviv LGBT youth center for injuries sustained during attack: "Yonatan Buks, 15, suffered internal damage when he was shot in the
lower extremities of his body. He is undergoing rehabilitation and has
difficulty speaking, Ynetnews reported Tuesday."

Air Force acknowledges existence of stealth spy plane.

Williams College hit by homophobic graffiti incident.

Sonia Sotomayor uses term "undocumented immigrant" rather than "illegal immigrant" for first time ever in SCOTUS opinions.

Tom Brady making a bunch.

Jersey Shore's "The Situation" defends his Guido-ness.

Barney Frank endorses Sestak over Specter in Pennsylvania Senate race.

Whatever happened to Ennis Del Mar? The Autry National Center of the American West takes a look at LGBT representation in the American West at a panel discussion this weekend in L.A: "Moderated by Virginia Scharff, author and professor of history/director of the Center for the Southwest at the University of New Mexico, the panel includes Los Angeles Times and NPR film critic Kenneth Turan; Peter M. Nardi, Ph.D., author and professor of sociology at Pitzer College; and William Handley, associate professor of English at the University of Southern California and editor of The Brokeback Book (forthcoming)."

Maine reporter fired for personal email against marriage equality.

Sacha Baron Cohen sued by Bethlehem grocer and peace activist over Bruno film: "Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's attempt to pretend that he interviewed a notorious terrorist leader in the film Bruno may cost him $110 million in damages – 80 percent of the movie's gross box office earnings.

That's the sum demanded by Ayman Abu Aita, a Palestinian grocer and peace activist from Bethlehem who says his life has been ruined byBaron Cohen's movie."

Hubble goes deep…very deep.

Kabul contractors' $189 million contract dumped by State Department following exposé of hazing practices.

Jessica Simpson smashes some pumpkins.

Episcopal Bishop Mary Glasspool speaks out about election: ''I've had hundreds, probably a thousand, e-mails from people all
over the world who don't know me but who are expressing through the
fact of my election a pride in the Episcopal Church. 'I've committed
my life as a life of service to the people of Jesus Christ, and what
hurts is the sense that anybody might have that my name or my
servanthood could be perceived as divisive.''

Canada lifts ban on gay bone marrow donors.

Nebraska Supreme Court rejects appeal by Westboro Baptist Church in flag desecration case: "Police arrested Phelps-Roper for wrapping a flag around her waist as a skirt and allowing her son to stand on another flag as she and other members of the church picketed the Bellevue, Neb., funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq.

Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, Phelps-Roper argued that she was exercising her constitutional right to 'symbolic expression' in disobeying a law passed in the 1970s against 'mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning or trampling' on a flag."

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Wonder how many of these cadets aren’t telling?

The White House was asked about troop levels with regard to the Afghanistan announcement and where Defense Secretary Gates was on his review of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (via  transcript).

GIBBS: Well, I have not heard an
update from the Secretary on that. I know that obviously the President
wants that policy changed. In terms of — I mean, obviously it’s not
just Army. This is Army and Marines, as well as — well, Army and
Marines. They are — this was very specifically asked in terms of
whether force flow options would interrupt either Marine or Army
policies that have been instituted to give longer breaks for tours of
duty and then return home. The Joint Chiefs, to a commander, all told
the Commander-in-Chief that they could meet the force requirement
without interrupting what they had instituted in order to provide that
time at home and away from the tour of duty.

Q But the troops are stretched thin. I mean, it’s not –

GIBBS: No doubt. And I think that the President was very clear in
wanting to see the Joint Chiefs to, quite frankly, ask them very
directly whether that was the case. There’s no doubt that there has
been for many, many years a strain on our forces; that that strain has
caused repeated tours. And only recently has Secretary Gates and others
instituted policies that ensure that we had time outside of a theater
of war and that they believe was necessary to maintain an all-volunteer
force, which they think obviously is tremendously important, as well as
just dealing with the stress physically and mentally on them.

(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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LAst night, Obama announced he would be sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Rachel Maddow called last night's speech an "awkward bookmark" to Bush's previous West Point speech in which Bush said the Afghanistan war was "begun well."

Maddow's remarks on how the "Bush doctrine" has survived, AFTER THE JUMP…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Obama has rejected several options given to him on next steps in Afghanistan, and told advisers to return to the drawing board, after deciding none of their plans would do.

NYT: "General Eikenberry sent his reservations to Washington in a cable last week, the officials said. In that same period, President Obama
and his national security advisers have begun examining an option that
would send relatively few troops to Afghanistan, about 10,000 to
15,000, with most designated as trainers for the Afghan security forces. This
low-end option was one of four alternatives under consideration by Mr.
Obama and his war council at a meeting in the White House Situation
Room on Wednesday afternoon. The other three options call for troop
levels of around 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000, the three officials said."

Also in question is the effectiveness of the U.S. relationship with President Hamid Karzai.

Watch Rachel Maddow's report, AFTER THE JUMP…

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