NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST January 22, 2008

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MiamiHerald.com

http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/v-print/story/388577.html

Huckabee begins 'unconventional' strategy

BY MARC CAPUTO
Posted on Tue, Jan. 22, 2008

With the presidential race tight and his cash even tighter, Mike Huckabee isembarking on a new ''unconventional'' strategy that focuses on numerousSouthern states and de-emphasizes Florida's relative importance.

While his opponents blanket Florida with ads and personal appearances,Huckabee is making a small step daily in Florida as well as states likeGeorgia to maximize his free news media coverage and keep expenses low.

And if Florida's notoriously expensive media markets prove too costly andthe polls show it's pointless to hunt for the state's winner-take-all votes,Huckabee acknowledged he'll probably spend his cash -- and time --elsewhere.

But not yet.

''Right now, our plan is to play ball in Florida. We think we can play here.Obviously, every single day is a new day in the campaign, especially whenit's as fluid as it is,'' he told reporters. ``I don't want to abandonFlorida yet because we have not come to the conclusion that Florida is outof play. We've had leads here when we didn't have any reason to have leadshere in Florida. So, I mean really, it was just astonishing to us. We wereleading polls. We thought: We don't have a single staff person, we don'thave a field operation here, we're not running TV or radio and we're leadingpolls.''

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NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/opinion/l22hiv.html?sq=gay&scp=10&pagewanted=print

January 22, 2008
The Battle Against H.I.V.: No Letup
To the Editor:

In "H.I.V. Rises Among Young Gay Men" (editorial, Jan. 14), you correctlylink the lack of a comprehensive H.I.V. and AIDS policy that focuses on thegroups most at risk to the rise in AIDS cases nationwide.

It's heartening that New York City's health commissioner has raised thefacts about the increase of H.I.V. and AIDS among the city's young gaypopulation, and has pledged to address this issue. But until our nationalleadership implements policies that will help eradicate root causes such asstigma, discrimination, racism and poverty that mostly affect at-riskpopulations, we will continue to see a rise in AIDS cases nationwide.

A national approach supported by strong leadership in Congress and the WhiteHouse - which includes collecting additional data on vulnerable populations,advances policies and financing, and supports front-line evidence-basedinterventions among grass-roots AIDS organizations - will help jump-startthe next wave in the war against AIDS.

Kevin Robert Frost
Chief Executive, American Foundation for AIDS Research
New York, Jan. 14, 2008

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To the Editor:

Your editorial suggests that a significant decline in H.I.V. among gay menover 30 might be the result of personal loss. Many of us, including men intheir 50s like me, are still grieving; our friends are no longer with us,and we feel their absence in our lives every day.

Our goal is to remain H.I.V.-negative and to live. Casual sex is out. Forus, the discussion and the debates are over.

Benjamin M. Hamilton

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NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/us/politics/22giuliani.html?sq=gay&scp=2&pagewanted=print

The Long Run: In Matters Big and Small, Crossing Giuliani Had Price

By MICHAEL POWELL and RUSS BUETTNER
January 22, 2008

Rudolph W. Giuliani likens himself to a boxer who never takes a punchwithout swinging back. As mayor, he made the vengeful roundhouse aninstrument of government, clipping anyone who crossed him.

In August 1997, James Schillaci, a rough-hewn chauffeur from the Bronx,dialed Mayor Giuliani's radio program on WABC-AM to complain about ared-light sting run by the police near the Bronx Zoo. When the call yieldedno results, Mr. Schillaci turned to The Daily News, which then ran a photoof the red light and this front page headline: "GOTCHA!"

That morning, police officers appeared on Mr. Schillaci's doorstep. What areyou going to do, Mr. Schillaci asked, arrest me? He was joking, but theofficers were not.

They slapped on handcuffs and took him to court on a 13-year-old trafficwarrant. A judge threw out the charge. A police spokeswoman later read Mr.Schillaci's decades-old criminal rap sheet to a reporter for The Daily News,a move of questionable legality because the state restricts how suchinformation is released. She said, falsely, that he had been convicted ofsodomy.

Then Mr. Giuliani took up the cudgel.

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