Time's running out for the presidential candidates.

The Iowa Caucuses are a mere 52-days away and trust the the hopefuls have been doing double time trying to persuade voters that they're the real deal. Take, for example, Barack Obama…

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The New York Times editorial crew sure has been opinionated lately - and gay. In addition to taking on the ever-complicated ENDA, the paper's journos offered their thoughts on New Jersey's "flawed" civil unions:

It is hardly a surprise that New Jersey’s civil union law is not working very well. During the past several weeks, dozens of same-sex couples have testified that the law has not provided the equal benefits that were promised when it passed.

Now, the special commission that heard the testimony has made it official: the civil union law has been a “failure.” Frank Vespa-Papaleo, who is chairman of the commission as well as the state’s director of civil rights, said the law is not as effective “as if the word ‘marriage’ were used.”

The obvious conclusion is that the Legislature should give same sex-couples the right to marry.

Ah, yes, but that would be too easy and politicians have a severe allergy to expediency. Except, of course, when it comes to fucking people…

• Garden State Equality and Blue Jersey will start airing some pretty clever gay marriage ads tonight.

• A hefty paycheck ain't the only thing Rosie O'Donnell wants from potential employer MSNBC. From Jossip:

Sources tell us the network is frantically trying to scrounge up the cash to bankroll her outlandish list of demands (Think a gold-plated trapeze and a private chopper to take her to and from 30 Rock every day. Seriously). But why now? Because MSNBC’s on the eve of renegotiating their contract with their cable provider and landing a big star (no pun intended) and proving they can go toe-to-toe with O’Reilly will give them infinitely more leverage.

If anyone can take on O'Reilly, it's O'Donnell.

• Michigan Supreme Court mulling university benefits.

• The Scottish Socialist Party wants you to put pressure on Stagecoach buses, which attempted to boot a gay teenage couple last weekend. Re-read the original story and check out comment number two.

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A Hudson County grand jury drew up an indictment against two Burger King employees accused of an anti-gay hate crime.

Garden State Equality chairman Steven Goldstein provides the details, after the jump…

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Despite what well-meaning politicians may say, civil unions are not the same as marriage. Not convinced? Just look at New Jersey, which has been officially recognizing civil unions for the past eight months.

New Jersey's 8-month-old civil union law has failed to live up to its promise of giving same-sex couples all the protections of marriage by another name, the state's top official for enforcing civil rights said yesterday.

Civil Rights Director Frank Vespa-Papaleo, who chairs a commission that recently concluded three hearings on how the new law is working, said, "To me as a commissioner, the testimony revealed overwhelmingly that the civil union law has been a failure. It is not working as effectively as if the word 'marriage' were used… That could be controversial. I could lose my job for saying that."

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It's been a year since New Jersey's supreme court ruled in favor of gay civil unions. A new survey shows that while the majority of the Garden State's residents approve of civil unions, they remain nearly evenly divided on the ever-contentious issue of queer marriage.

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• We started the day gossiping about alleged pervo Lou Pearlman. Let's go out with one of his more successful boy bands, 'N Sync. And, yes, we like this song…

• Ask Hillary Clinton about HIV.

• We're contractually obligated to wish our media-obsessed sibling Jossip a happy fourth birthday. Cruise on over and see what they have to say for themselves. Our editor even makes a brief cameo. Also, daddy David can't tell the difference between pink and fuchsia.

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Representative Rob Andrews of New Jersey should have led the Senate Subcommittee hearing on ENDA today. As we all know, however, that vote's been postponed until politicos can lobby their peers to include trans in the discrimination protection measure. In an effort to get some answers, Blue Jersey sat down with Andrews with a little chat.

While Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the committee wants to wait up to two weeks before voting on the issue, Andrew says it could happen sooner. They just need to win 70-80 votes to support trans rights.

Back to the drawing board for Merck researchers in New Jersey:

A promising experimental vaccine to prevent the AIDS virus has failed in a crucial experiment, with volunteers becoming infected with HIV anyway, leading the drug developer to halt the study.

Merck & Co. said Friday that it is ending enrollment and vaccination of volunteers in the large international study, which is partly funded by the National Institutes of Health.
…
Officials at the New Jersey-based company told The Associated Press that 24 of 741 volunteers who got the vaccine in one segment of the experiment later became infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

God, that's really terrible! Wait, what?

The volunteers in the experiment were all free of HIV at the start. But they were at high risk for getting the virus: Most were homosexual men or female sex workers. They were all repeatedly counseled about how to reduce their risk of HIV infections, including use of condoms.

Oh, okay…

A triple shooting on August 5, 2007 may have been an anti-hate crime. For those of you not in the New York region, three Newark, NJ college students - Terrance Aeriel, Dashon Harvey and Iofemi Hightower - were shot execution style. While police initially thought the killings, which left one survivor, Natasha Aeriel, were a simple robbery, gay activists - and the victims friends - suspect otherwise.

Gay activist James Credle released a statement reading:

Several young people, friends and classmates of [victims] Terrance Aeriel, Dashon Harvey, Iofemi Hightowner, and Natasha Aeriel have come forward. In their fear and grief, they are further driven to despair by the refusal of the city administration, the police, and the media to acknowledge the fact that some of the deceased were members and friends of their community.

They ask, 'Why, when so much was said about the victims, about their promise, their accomplishments, the bright futures, was this important aspect of their lives, their very identities, suppressed?'

In an effort to steer the investigation in a queer direction, Credle and his allies have sent a letter to Newark mayor, Cory Booker.

Read said letter, after the jump.

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• Wait, is the world flat?

• Larry Craig cruises back into Senate.

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Not so fast, a New Jersey court is telling gay couples who are looking to make good on the promise of equal rights. Just because NJ couples are allowed to get together under the civil union umbrella, that move didn't take effect until Feb. 19, which means twosomes looking to file joint tax returns are out of luck for 2006 returns. Technically, because the date started in the middle of the '06 fiscal year, they don't get to mark the "couple" box until 2007's filings.

In the initial lawsuit filed by Maureen Quarto and Judith Prichason – who wed in Canada, and then had their union recognized in New Jersey – "the state Division of Taxation said no, reasoning that their union was not recognized in the 2006 year and that it could be hard administratively to deal with more couples filing jointly."

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine must have talked some sense into United Parcel Service.

The mail giant came under fire after denying Garden State employees the same benefits as their straight colleagues. Now Allen Hill, UPS human resources VP, backtracked via press release:

Based on an initial legal review when New Jersey's law was enacted, it did not appear that a 'civil union' and 'marriage' were equivalent. Over the past week, however, we have received clear guidance that at least in New Jersey, the state truly views civil union partners as married. We've heard that loud and clear from state officials and we're happy to make this change.

And, we're sure, avoid even more scandal.

Jake Shears really has something to sing about.

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• Vikki-Marie Gaynor claims DHL-owned Exel Europe forced her out of her job after she started living as a woman:

Almost as soon as I told them I was changing my name to Vikki-Marie and entering the transition stage of my gender reassignment things changed. I started getting hurtful comments and my shifts started being cancelled without warning.

• Juan Uys, South Africa's alleged "gay sex" blogger and fraudulent activist, arrested.

• Damien Hirst joins forces with Levi's.

• We're less intrigued by what Lisa Rinna is doing in the main picture and more concerned with how she got into the bathing suit. It looks complicated.

• Kelly Clarkson apologizes for dissing Clive Davis.

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