Many Don't Remember Reagan So Fondly (Barf Alert!)

FOX NEWS ^ | 6-09-2004 | Associated Press

[J. Semper Paratus]

SAN FRANCISCO — As one of the first physicians to confront AIDS when it began its rampage through the gay community, Dr. Marcus Conant lobbied the Reagan administration in 1982 to launch an emergency campaign to educate Americans about the disease.

It took the president five more years to publicly mention the crisis. By then, almost 21,000 Americans had died and thousands more had been diagnosed.

Conant, who lost scores of friends and patients to the disease, is still deeply angry — one of many Americans who view Reagan's legacy in a harsh light.

"Ronald Reagan and his administration could have made a substantial difference, but for ideological reasons, political reasons, moral reasons, they didn't do it," said the San Francisco dermatologist, who now deals with a new generation of AIDS patients. "President Reagan and his administration committed a crime, not just a sin."

[laredo44]

As one of the first physicians to confront AIDS when it began its rampage through the gay community, Dr. Marcus Conant lobbied the Reagan administration in 1982 to launch an emergency campaign to educate Americans about the disease.

Is Dr. Conant unfamiliar with the fable of the boy who cried wolf? Other than gays and intravenous drug users, Americans were in no real danger from AIDS. The initiation of "emergency campaigns" in the absence of real danger desensitizes the populous to real threats.

[TMD]

From a a cancer website http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/1_1.htm
Actual and estimated Spending in millions on cancer research/funding
2002 2003 2004
Breast $522.6 $564.6 $584.0
Colorectal $245.0 $267.0 $276.4
Lung $237.5 $256.6 $265.5
Prostate $278.4 $311.0 $323.0


Vs.
http://www.state.gov/s/gac/rl/rm/2004/32558.htm
Ambassador Randall L. Tobias, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator
Testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Foreign Operations
Washington, DC
May 18, 2004
Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee, I am pleased to appear before you to testify in support of the President’s Budget request for Fiscal Year 2005 for global HIV/AIDS, and to report to you on our progress in implement the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. In his State of the Union address last year, President Bush called for an unprecedented act of compassion to turn the tide against the ravages of HIV/AIDS.

The President committed $15 billion over 5 years to address the global HIV/AIDS pandemic -- more money than ever before committed by any nation for any international health care initiative:

$5 billion intended to provide continuing support in the approximately 100 nations where the U.S. Government currently has bilateral, regional, and volunteer HIV/AIDS programs.

$9 billion intended for new or expanded programs to address HIV/AIDS in 14 of those countries that are among the world’s most affected – with a 15th country to be added shortly. The initial 14 countries account for approximately 50% of the world’s HIV/AIDS infections.

And finally, $1 billion intended to support our principal multilateral partner in this effort, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, which the United States helped to found with the first contribution in May 2001.
Today, I am pleased to report that we have made significant progress in beginning to achieve the President’s, the Congress’s, and the American public’s goal of bringing prevention, treatment, and care to millions of adults and children courageously living with HIV/AIDS and replacing despair with hope.

On February 23rd, just 4½ months after we launched the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and less than a month after the Congress appropriated FY 2004 funding for the first year of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, I announced the first release of funds for focus country programs totaling $350 million.

I personally have known a dozen people who have died of various cancers, not to mention ALS and MS. None of them engaged in any sort of behavior that pre-disposed them to getting their dreadful diseases. Why is there such a disparity in funding between diseases that can be prevented and those that cannot? (I already know the answer....)

[J. Semper Paratus]

"Carter hasn't got that long to live. You watch, when he goes there will be none of this. It'll be "Saint Jimmy" 24-by-7, in spite of the fact that he was one of the worst Presidents the United States ever had. It's hard to think of a single thing that didn't go wrong under "President Malaise." But we won't hear a word of it."

Now stop it. Carter was the best president... attacked by a rabbit, while in a canoe...

He did that well.

Where were the animal rights nuts then when he had to whack the offending hare with an oar?

[Minn]

In the end, critics say Reagan's enduring legacy may be the generation of Republican leaders — including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, House Majority Leader Tom Delay, and to some extent George W. Bush — who came of age during his presidency and have pursued a conservative social agenda with even greater gusto. That, in turn, helped create the bitterly divided political environment that exists to this day.

"The tone has gotten more venomous, largely because of the people who came after Reagan and carried the Reagan banner," said Roger Hickey, co-director of Campaign for America's Future (search), a liberal advocacy group. "I give him full credit for unleashing the vast right-wing conspiracy."

Translation: We used to control everything, and now we don't. We're bitter about it. Opposing us is bad enough. Beating us is unforgivable. Exposing us for the asses we are is the height of evil. He was a big meanie that ruined our fun and I want my mommy.