Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, this week was a big one for AIDS humor. The first guffaw came courtesy of Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, who made the most of getting to be on stage a little while after everyone’s favorite evil genius/war criminal turned political commentator, Karl Rove:

First came Rove, who, with new Fox News colleague Chris Wallace, sought to defend the appropriateness of his hiring as an election-season commentator after he recently refused to testify to the House Judiciary Committee. “It is not between me and Congress; I have not asserted any personal privilege,” Rove said. “It’s between the White house and Congress.” A few hours later came MacFarlane, who fell back on the quintessentially good taste we’ve come to expect:

“Is this where Karl Rove sat? Because I don’t want to get AIDS.

All and all I would say this is pretty hilarious, and I would have to give it two snaps. Although you know he was totally wracking his brain before he went out trying to thing of the perfect thing to say (I do the same thing). To his credit he pulled it off. The second joke is a bit more…subtle.

And of course by subtle I mean absolutely fucking infuriating. It seems this week that Elizabeth Dole, 2008’s Incumbent Most Definitely Losing Her Seat In Congress (and psst…I’ve heard she can’t even get her husband hard), decided it would be somehow appropriate to honor Jesse Helms by adding his name to the Senate bill dealing with HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that was voted on this week. From Towleroad, my main man when it comes to all things faggot:

“Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) yesterday introduced an amendment that would have added the name of Jesse Helms to the title of the HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria bill that is before the Senate…The name of the Act proposed in S. 2731 is “Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008″. The Act would be named after former Reps. Tom Lantos (D-CA-12) and Henry Hyde (R-IL-06), who worked together in their last years in Congress to achieve bipartisan support for federal funding for the fight against these diseases.”

The language was as follows: “SA 5074. Mrs. DOLE submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 2731, to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2009 through 2013 to provide assistance to foreign countries to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: On page 1, line 5, strike ‘and Henry J. Hyde” and insert ‘, Henry J. Hyde, and Jesse Helms’.”

Yes, this would be the same Jesse Helms that described AIDS prevention literature as “so obscene, so revolting, I may throw up.” The same Helms that said “There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy.” Who in 1995 said (in opposition to refunding the Ryan White Act) that the government should spend less on people with AIDS because they got sick due to their “deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct.” And who in 2002 announced that he’d changed his mind about AIDS funding for Africa, but not for American gays, because homosexuality “is the primary cause of the doubling and redoubling of AIDS cases in the United States.”

I am not going to comment any more on this other than to say that now that the devils huge red spiky cock is ripping apart Jesse’s withered old asshole on a daily basis, I hope that is really, REALLY hurts.

Seth MacFarlane’s Reign of Offensiveness Now Includes AIDS Jokes About Karl Rove [Defamer] (yes, I know it is part of the evil empire, but Seth is my hot, hairy Jew daddy so deal with it)

Elizabeth Dole Wants to Improve Jesse Helms’ AIDS Record Posthumously [Towleroad]

Elizabeth Dole Says “Fuck You” to Americans Who Died from AIDS [Joe. My. God]