Clinton bashes Bush for lack of focus on AIDS

The Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 7/24/02 | Kate N. Grossman

[GeneD]

Former President Bill Clinton took several swipes here Tuesday at the Bush administration for focusing on the war against terrorism at the expense of the deepening AIDS epidemic.

"I'm all for fighting in Afghanistan . . . but no one believes that we can build a safe world just by preventing and punishing bad things," Clinton said at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's annual convention. "We have to make some good things happen."

Clinton also talked about the choices confronting a former president over the role he should play in his post-White House years.

A former president can either "be a has-been and play golf and pretend you were a Republican, even if you weren't," Clinton told a roomful of 1,600 diners at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, who chuckled in response. "Or you have to find some way to be useful."

"So what you do," a relaxed Clinton said, "is swap power for influence."

Clinton has picked several issues to take on, including economic opportunity for the poor, ending religious and racial strife in the Middle East and Northern Ireland, and AIDS prevention and eradication.

He heads the International AIDS Trust, which raises money to fight AIDS, and just returned from the international AIDS conference in Barcelona, Spain.

"Our goal has to be to solve it, reverse it and end it," Clinton said after sounding a United Nations warning that AIDS could kill 70 million by 2020.

"And this is a disease that's 100 percent preventable," Clinton said, noting advances in prevention and treatment that have yet to reach many parts of the developing world. Women and children now account for a significant number of new infections.

In Africa, only one in a thousand infected receive the drugs they need, said Clinton, who shared the podium with the first ladies of Nigeria and Haiti, countries hit hard by the AIDS epidemic.

Clinton said fighting AIDS will give desperate countries an economic and humanitarian lift.

Without help "you're going to have millions of young boys that are more than happy enough to be mercenaries or terrorists because they'll think they'll be dead in a year or two."

Clinton urged world leaders to spend the $10 billion a year recommended by experts to fight AIDS globally, with the United States contributing about $2 billion. The United States now spends up to $1 billion on worldwide anti-AIDS efforts.

"That sounds like a lot of money," Clinton said. "But it's less than two months of the Afghan war."

U.S. officials said they are doubling international spending on AIDS in the next 18 months. At the AIDS conference in Spain, they described a new $500 million program aimed at preventing mother-to-child transmission and improving health care delivery in Africa and the Caribbean.

President Bush also has pledged $500 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, a quarter of the fund's pledges and more than any other nation, U.S. officials said.

America's total spending on AIDS/HIV this year is more than $16 billion, up from $14.2 billion two years ago, with most spent in the United States.

[Bill Sadik]

This a-wipe has some nerve does'nt he?

[elcaudillo]

When is this piece of camel dingleberries going to come down with a serious dose of AIDS?

[smiley]

I can't stand this guy.....clinton...go away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[abclily]

He's saying that a has-been who plays golf is usually a Republican. However, in Billy Blythe's case he is a Democrat has-been who plays golf. His stereotyping was also fuzzy.

[Charles Martel]

Lets see - there would be the terrism thing, the market in freefall thing and the other stuff that goes along with holding that office, but bozo wants him to worry about AIDS?

Betcha someone showed him a copy of the HIV+ "Muppet" picture that Registered cooked up here a few days ago. We joke around, associating the Zipper King with AIDS - then he adds to the joke by speaking out on the subject! God must be a comedy writer.

[maxwellp]

"So what you do is swap power for influence".

Interesting choice of words. Obviously, he liked being "powerful" and it's got to be killing him that he's now a nothing. And to my way of thinking, he's not even influential.

[Dick Bachert]

A cretin with Clinton's proclivities SHOULD be concerned about cures for sexually transmitted diseases.

Clintoon's book will be published by Alfred Knopf Publishing.

“Knopf” is 13th Century German for “ incredibly stupid buyer of other peoples’ garbage.” Knopf is a very old publishing house best known for such early classics as

“How to Enjoy The Inquisition” by Father Torquemada
“You Get My Point?” by Vlad the Impaler
“Guillotine Maintenance and Repair” by Citizen Robespierre

Three of their more recent offerings are “PeeWee Herman’s Movie Guide,” “Gary Condit’s Guide to Picking Up Chicks” and “Compared to Us, Ponzi Was a Freakin’ Choirboy” co-authored by Gary Winnick, Ken Lay and Terry McAuliffe.

All available in a dumpster or landfill near you!

[MHT]

I sometimes feel that I am a party of one--I am SO SICK of THEM! Why can't they just exit stage left? Drudge has TWO stories about them today. And to think that SHE is upset about ACTIVIST courts!!!!!! (After they stuffed the bench, of course...)

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

"And this is a disease that's 100 percent preventable," Clinton said ...

There are two cures Bill, "abstinence" and "monogamy", you should try it sometime.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

[Harvard Study:]UGANDA'S SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY AGAINST AIDS BASED ON CHASTITY

[RIGHT IN SEATTLE]

Whe he keels over.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Oops! I gave him the other barrel. (^:

[cardinal4]

Could it be that he is jealous of President Bush's determination to fight terror and wants to tear if apart?

The one thing Billy Jeff will never get over; that 9/11 didnt happen on his watch.

[cardinal4]

God forgive me, I hate this man, his family and his friends.

The man is beneath contempt. I believe God understands my hatred. Yours,too.

[Republic]

We can love him as a human being (tho it is hard to truly believe he is one) and absolutely HATE everything he does. I know I do.