Former president Bill Clinton has successfully secured a pardon for two American journalists sentenced to hard labor in North Korea , as reported by the Associated Press.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has issued a “special pardon” to two American journalists convicted of sneaking into the country illegally, and he ordered them released during a visit by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, North Korean media reported early Wednesday.

The release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee was a sign of North Korea’s “humanitarian and peaceloving policy,” the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Clinton, who arrived in North Korea Tuesday on an unannounced visit, met with the reclusive and ailing Kim — his first meeting with a prominent Western figure since his reported stroke nearly a year ago.

North Korea accused Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, of sneaking into the country illegally in March and engaging in “hostile acts,” and the nation’s top court sentenced them in June to 12 years of hard labor.

But not everyone is amused.

John Bolton, an outspoken hardliner in the previous administration of George W. Bush, told AFP that Clinton’s mission to Pyongyang undermines a number of public stands held by his own wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists,” Bolton told AFP when asked about Bill Clinton’s trip to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

“I think this is a very bad signal because it does exactly what we always try and avoid doing with terrorists, or with rogue states in general, and that’s encouraging their bad behavior,” Bolton said.

No John. That’s called diplomacy. A concept your not familiar with.

In hardly shocking news, a Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll revealed that Southerners and Republicans buy into the birther nonsense more than anybody else. The poll asked a simple question “Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States or not?”

First by region. Note how Southerners are half as likely to believe Barack Obama is a citizen, while at least three times as likely to believe he is a foreigner, or they simply don’t have a clue.

Next by party affiliation. No real surprises here.

It seems that while perceived as a fringe movement from the outside, among Southerners, and by-and-large most Republicans, the birther movement is practically mainstream.

The poll did ask one other interesting question barely covered in the media reports. The question was “Do you believe that Africa and America were once a part of the same continent?” The results are shall we say, interesting…

An Iraqi refugee has accused the U.S. Military of atrocities against gay Iraqis and claims to have the photographic evidence to back it up.

Two gay Iraqi refugees, who declined to use their real names, delivered a presentation at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters July 24 in which they detailed alleged abuses of fellow gay Iraqis while calling on their audience to donate funds to Helem, a Lebanon-based center that works to address the plight of LGBT people in the Middle East.

One of the Iraqis, who goes by the name “Hussam,” showed the audience of about 80 people gruesome images, including shots allegedly of a beheaded man who was gay and another of the victim’s twin brother grieving over the severed head.

While asserting that anti-gay violence in Iraq is often committed by Iraqis, Hussam also said U.S. service members were involved in anti-gay hostility. For example, he said service members displayed signs in front of their barracks with the words “Fuck Off Fags.”

But the reaction from the audience turned from anger to shock when Hussam said U.S. service members had detained Iraqi civilians perceived to be gay and executed them.

He then showed an image of what appeared to be an American soldier standing in front of a small group of four or five kneeling naked men who were chained together. Hussam claimed the men were gay Iraqis and that he possessed images of their execution, which he did not show the audience.

While there have been numerous reports of violence against gays in Iraq, as reported in the USA Today as late as yesterday, this is the first accusation against the U.S. Military.  Defense officials have not yet commented on the allegations.

Update: Jonathon Campos has committed suicide.

Navy petty officer Jonathan Campos has been charged with the murder of August Provost III, a gay sailor who was shot multiple times while standing guard duty at Camp Pendleton in San Diego. Provost had confronted Campos as he attempted to break into a secure compound and set fire to a hovercraft.

“The Navy lost a well-respected sailor who was standing his assigned watch, who was standing at his appointed place of duty,” Capt. Matt Brown, a Navy Region-Southwest spokesman in San Diego, said during a news conference at Naval Base San Diego. Provost was training to go on his first deployment later this year.

Brown refuted allegations that Provost’s shooting was a hate crime, a charge raised by some of the sailor’s relatives and friends because Provost had not hid his homosexuality or bisexuality from others and reportedly had complained that he had been harassed.

“No information has been gathered to date to support allegations of a hate crime or a crime that was gang related,” Brown said, adding that the command had received no complaints from Provost of harassment.

Brown said he didn’t know if Campos and Provost knew each other well in the 500-member unit.

Campos has recently been arrested for DUI, and is now alleged to have committed other illegal activities,  including the “use of psilocybin mushrooms, and breaking into another service member’s home to steal $5,400 worth of electronics, jewelry and a .45 caliber pistol.”

Campos is now facing ten criminal charges, including murder, arson, attempted arson, wrongful possession of a concealed and stolen firearm, unlawful entry and stealing military property.