Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, more commonly known as Lady Gaga, has been considered by many to be the next superstar. After becoming the first artist to achieve four Billboard #1 hits from a debut album – with “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” “LoveGame,” and “Paparazzi,” all from her album, “The Fame” – Lady Gaga is now poised to release her sophomore album, “The Fame: Monster,” next week. The lead single, “Bad Romance,” is currently number one on iTunes, and the eight-track album is anticipated by her fans with massive excitement.

Lady Gaga has grown exponentially in fame since the release of “The Fame” back in August of last year, which has sold 3 million copies worldwide, garnering the pop star 61 award nominations and 20 awards. With the release of her second album comes news of a worldwide tour, “The Monster Ball Tour,” which has been selling so well that multiple shows have already been added, including two extra shows in NYC.

To put it simply, Lady Gaga’s fans have been quick to rally behind her as she makes her way swiftly to the top. But what not everyone may know is that Lady Gaga is just as supportive of them.

“The turning point for me was the gay community,” Lady Gaga told MTV back in May when discussing her rise to success. “I’ve got so many gay fans and they’re so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They’ll always stand by me and I’ll always stand by them.”

In fact, Lady Gaga has become an avid and outspoken supporter of gay rights, telling a national audience this year during her MTV Video Music Award acceptance speech that her award for best new artist was “for God, and for the gays.”

Lady Gaga was also invited to perform at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual national dinner this past October, during which she said that “I would like to genuinely salute all of the HRC veterans who are here tonight who have been campaigning for over 25 years.”

“In the music industry, there is still a tremendous amount of accommodation of homophobia,” she said, after which she performed her own version of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

She echoed this sentiment the next day at the National Equality March, during which she told an assembled group of 100,000 LGBT activists and supporters that “as a woman in pop music, as a woman with the most beautiful gay fans in the whole world, I refuse to accept any misogynistic and homophobic behavior in music, lyrics, or actions in the music industry.”

“Obama, I know that you’re listening,” she said, referring to President Barack Obama, whom many in the LGBT community believe has been abandoning some of his progressive, pro-gay causes since coming into office. “We will continue to push you and your administration to bring your words of promise to a reality.”

She said that she was “inspired by the masses of all the young people” that had attended the march, which she called “the single most important moment of my career.”

“The younger generation – my generation – we are the ones coming up in the world,” she said. “And we must continue to push this movement forward and close the gap. We must demand full equality for all.”

Members of this younger generation are enthusiastic that Lady Gaga has been so supportive of gay rights issues.

“I really admire celebrities that take action for issues they care about because they, by their celebrity alone, have the power to create awareness and even potentially affect change,” said Chloe Mayer, 22, a recent alumnus of the George Washington University from Tennessee.

Mayer, who “fell in love with [Lady Gaga] and her music” after hearing “Poker Face” for the first time several months ago, added that Lady Gaga’s support of the LGBT community “has made me like her 10 times more.”

“The rights of gays should be as protected as the rights of women and the rights of blacks,” Mayer said. “I find it sad that it’s 2009, and the LGBTQ community is still struggling so profoundly to live just like their fellow-Americans, with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Sarah Allan, 20, of Massachusetts says she “would love to see gay marriage legal in all states and for everyone to support gay rights,” but added that she is “split” on the issue of whether celebrities should support issues they feel strongly about.

“I think that it’s really good for celebrities to use their positions in a positive way to support important causes because, whether they like it or not, they are role models in society,” Allan said. “However, part of me wonders why I should care what celebrities think about these issues: what makes their views important?”

Allan added, however, that “I think that it’s really good for celebrities to raise awareness about important issues.”

With respect to Lady Gaga, Allan said that “her support of gay rights makes me love her that much more. I would love her music no matter what her views on gay rights were, but it makes me love her as a person as well.”

In both Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans won the gubernatorial elections by significant margins; Republican Bob McDonnell won 58% of the vote in Virginia to Democrat Creigh Deeds’ 41%, and challenger Chris Christie won 49% of the vote in New Jersey to oust incumbent governor Jon Corzine, who took 44.5% of the vote.

Exit polling in both states suggest that turnout among younger voters was way down from 2008.  In Virginia, voters under the age of 30 made up just 10% of those who voted, compared with last year’s 21%.  New Jersey showed a similar story, with young voters making up only 9% of those who voted, down from 17% in 2008.

ABC News reports that young voters sided with Corzine by a large margin, with 57% of the vote among that age group, making the low turnout among this demographic devastating for the governor’s campaign.  In Virginia, young voters went for the Republican candidate this year, favoring McDonnell over Deeds by 10 points; in this case, low turnout among this demographic did not necessarily influence the race one way or the other, given that the candidate young voters favored in this election won handily regardless.

Why the low turnout, and why so little support for the Democrat in Virginia?  Turnout among young voters skyrocketed in 2008 due to Obama’s successful courting of the youth vote.  But Obama was not running this year, and excitement about the elections was low among young Democrats.

“I didn’t feel excited about [this year’s elections] because I’m still resting on the laurels of last year’s victory, I suppose,” said Julie Taylor, a sophomore at Vanderbilt University who identifies herself as “very liberal.” 

“The entire country was changing with that election.  I didn’t feel like this election would change much of what happened.”

Asked if she felt Obama could have done more to encourage young voters to get excited about this year’s Democrat candidates, Taylor said “it’s not Obama’s responsibility to take care of other peoples’ campaigns.  Isn’t that their responsibility?  Although there could have been more hype about the election, I don’t feel like it was on Obama to cause it.  It was on the candidates and the party as a whole.” 

“I wasn’t nearly as excited for Corzine’s bid as I was for Obama’s,” said Jesse Regis, a junior at the George Washington University who lives in Long Valley, New Jersey, not far from where Christie lives.  “Despite the fact that Corzine’s proposed policies would affect my day-to-day life more than Obama’s currently do, I was excited by the idea that my vote and involvement with the [Obama] campaign could help affect the outcome of an election and the future of the entire country.”

Regis said he intended to vote for Corzine “because of his strong stance on social issues,” but could not because he did not send in his absentee ballot request early enough.

Here’s the thing: because you know (don’t act like this is a surprise) that none of the Republicans are going to vote for the bill no matter what, you don’t need to make them any concessions.  That’s the problem with the bill Baucus just made public today: it was a bipartisan bill without bipartisan support.  And because it was so bipartisan (read: contorted to match the demands of stubborn Republicans), even some of the Democrats don’t want to vote for it.  That’s not how you get a bill passed.  Since none of the Republicans are going to vote for it, the Dems are on their own. 

But the Dems aren’t just the Dems: there are the liberal Dems who want a public option or bust, and there are the Blue Dogs (also referred to with a hint of bitterness as the Conservadems) who don’t.  Those are the two groups of people you need to get to agree.  Not the Democrats and the Republicans, but the liberal and moderate Democrats.  And that’s just what you need to do if you want healthcare reform, this year or next.  Let me break it down.

This is stuff we learned in middle school: we get together, we brainstorm, and we come to agreements on how to move forward.  You need to get all of the Democrats in a room together (I believe this is called a ‘caucus’), and you need to have President Obama come in with a big white board and a dry-erase marker.  (And for any of you thinking I’m trying to find the Dave Barry in me, I’m not joking right now.)  On one side of the white board he writes “Stuff We Agree On” and on the other side, “Stuff We Need to Discuss.”  I’m a big fan of such lists.  Why?  Because they work: they’re organized, they’re succinct, and they help drive the brainstorming session.  Okay, so on the first side you write all the stuff that all Democrats agree need to go in a healthcare reform bill: lowering insurance costs, not adding to the deficit, not killing grandma, etc.  The other side is the trickier (and, wouldn’t you know it, more important) side: it’s the stuff that you don’t agree on, the stuff that needs to be debated so we can make this bill as progressive (that’s not another word for “liberal,” it means literally making progress) as possible without losing too much support among moderate democrats.  Stuff like “Public option?  Co-Op?” need to go there.  So you make your lists, and you discuss all of your points, particularly in the second column, and you try to convince (and Obama’s a good convincer, which is why he’s the one with the marker) moderate democrats that they can vote for a bill with a public option or Co-Op program without facing backlash back home or whatever they’re concerned about.

The bottom line is, talking to Republicans isn’t going to help.  You need to bring the Democrats together and have an honest, open, and fact-based discussion about healthcare reform.  All of the Democrats agree that reform is needed, they just don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye in terms of what that reform should look like.  So bring them together and develop some sort of consensus.  Have they even tried that yet?

Trust me, Mr. Baucus, you can do this.  And then the Huffington Post will stop calling you a wimp.

Unspoken rules of presidential politeness aside, does anyone actually disagree with Obama?  Like, does anyone here not think that Kanye was a jackass?  A complete, total, obnoxious jackass?  I don’t particularly like Taylor Swift’s music, but to steal the microphone from someone accepting an award to proclaim to the world that they didn’t deserve it is just unacceptable.  (Of course, props have to go to Beyonce for bringing Ms. Swift back on during her own acceptance speech so that Swift could have her “moment.”  Beyonce’s a classy woman, don’t ever forget that.)

So the question I ask is this: if what he’s saying is completely and totally true, should the President really get in trouble for saying it just because he’s the President?  It wasn’t like he was calling President Sarkozy a jackass; he’s not going to start an international crisis for his comments.  I stand by him in his statement and echo it.  And the stars have alligned with him as well: Kelly Clarkson, just to give one example, blogged that she likes her “asshole” of a cheating ex-boyfriend more than Kanye.  “Is winning a moon man that much of a life goal??” Clarkson asked.  “You can have mine if it will shut you up.”

And to any Republicans who plan on dissing Obama for his word choice: let me preempt the attacks by saying you’re the ones who voted a failure into office because you wanted someone you felt you “could have a beer with.”  That was a beer, not a merlot.  I agree with Obama that Kanye acted inappropriately and obnoxiously, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks so.

A team based at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla reports today in the journal Science that they have isolated two so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies that can block the action of many strains of HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS… the antibodies target a portion of HIV that researchers had not considered in their search for a vaccine. Moreover, the target is a relatively stable portion of the virus that does not participate in the extensive mutations that have made HIV able to escape and antiviral drugs and previous experimental vaccines.

What this means is that scientists may have discovered the antibodies that will help them in the search for an HIV vaccine. Importantly, this vaccine would not stop those who already have HIV from getting AIDS (such medications already exist and, these days, are actually quite effective). Rather, the vaccine would help people not get infected with HIV in the first place.

Considering that, according to the World Health Organization, at least 25 million people have died from AIDS and 33 million are currently infected, this is something that certainly deserves our attention.