We don’t want to inundate you with action alerts, since they are easily the second most irritating facet of activism besides canvassers, but today there are two really good things you can do, quickly, on some issues we’ve followed here at Pinko:

(1) Last week we gay married former (well, he’s dead. So, former…) California Congressman Tom Lantos for his parting gift: a global HIV/AIDS funding bill that addresses everything that’s wrong with the Bush administration’s approach. (i.e. abstinence-only, vilifying sex workers, anti-abortion clauses, etc.) The bill faces a big hurdle in congress tomorrow … it’s “markup,” where a committee decides what language and version of the bill will go to Congress for a vote. Will it be a good bill or a bad bill? Up to us, or something.

So: Here is some more info if you need it (or here, in video format!); and here is a list of what Representatives to call and what their numbers are. (Just pick one or two off the list if you don’t live in one of their districts) The most contentious part of the bill is the so-called “anti-prostitution pledge,” which forces organizations around the world getting HIV/AIDS funding not to help, in any way, anyone involved in sex work. This is obviously a completely gay strategy since those are communities where, for many reasons, the disease is spreading. It’s bad policy. So click the link, make a call, and keep it simple: “I support the PEPFAR reauthorization, and I urge you to support removing the anti-prostitution pledge.”

Got it? Great. Also …

(2) The Associated Press has latched onto this ridiculous effort to smear Barack Obama’s patriotism because he doesn’t wear a gay flag pin as much as they think he should, etc. There is a concerted effort to make him — or any Democrat — seem unpatriotic; it’s the same bullshit we’ve seen in these long, sad, terrifying years since “our world changed.” It’s expected from the right, but what’s not expected is for the AP to follow up on the right wing attacks with a story asking if Obama is patriotic or not, and then use as their sources for that story the same people who launched the attacks to begin with as “patriotism experts,” and THEN for CNN to run a web poll based on the AP story asking if Obama is patriotic enough.

Whoever you’re supporting, the idea of the mainstream media recycling without criticism a baseless right wing attack is very bad news. Click here for a much better writeup than I can manage at Firedoglake (a great politics blog) along with a fantastic link to an auto-letter-writing do-hickey that let’s you write a nice letter to the editor calling this out as complete bullshit. Don’t use the word bullshit though, or they won’t print it.

thanks team!

About The Author
Ben Wyskida is a writer, activist, conscientious hedonist and political communications strategist living in Brooklyn. - Visit Ben's site.