Bush Asks for $15 Billion to Fight AIDS in Africa (It's unprecedented and will save lives)

reuters ^ | 1/28/2003 | Maggie Fox

[weikel]

You see if it was buying votes I'd have less of a problem I could rationalize as a conservative master plan to destroy the Dems forever and then when they are gone smash everything thats been done since Woodrow Wilson but; THIS IS GOING TO FOREIGNERS they don't vote. This is retarded.

[Kevin Curry]

Was it preventable?

Of course it was, and aggressively so. Someone made a conscious voluntary decision to engage in behavior that spread it. Had they not acted on that voluntary behavior decision, the disease would not have been transmitted.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Now tell me how the raped child could have prevented it... Should she have worn a different outfit?

[DoughtyOne]

Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, welcomed what he called "the first dramatic signal from the U.S. administration that it is now ready to confront the pandemic and to save or prolong millions of lives."

Here are my printable comments concerning this man, his comments and his organization. ""

There is an unnamed organization out there who claims to care more about humanity than any other.  It has a budget in excess of $100 billion dollars per year.  Despite this it couldn't find it's way to devote $15 billion to AIDS.

If the US funnels one dime of this money through the United Nations, it will exhibit the depths to which we have sunk as a nation.  If we're going to do this, we need to do it with people who are decked out in uniforms that identify them as citizens of the United States, delivering care from the citizens in the United States.

[nmh]

"You are 100% correct -- we didn't start the thing but it will reach us anyway if we don't take steps."

The steps we need to take in the U.S. are the steps Libya took. Demand abstinace for those unmarried and shun sexual promiscuity. They NO longer have an aids problem. DO a search on that country.

"Besides, we don't want Africa to be "helped" by the Islamofascists who will indoctrinate their hate of the USA. We don't want Africa to become another Middle East."

Too late. They're already there busily persecuting CHristians. Look up Sudan. Geesh, have you NO CLUE on what's going on? The stuff you come out with is stunningly dumb.

[texson66]

No. Money well intended. By the time the $ flow from the US treasury to the UN to Africa, I seriously doubt that 10% will be directly spent on an African AIDS victim.

And why is it the US government's job to provide health care for non-US citizens????

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their
constituents." - James Madison (Thanks Gunslingr3!)

[wimpycat]

Don't worry about it, Chad. Some of these people...well, I just don't know what to say.

[Big Mack]

I don't believe that it is in the job discription ( the constitution) for our congress to give $15b to fight hiv/ aids in Africa. This action won't garner 1 queer vote (You still haven't spent enough to find a cure for aids so I can go on with my filthy lifestyle), nor one vote from the blacks (We don't care about those africian blacks, where is the govedrnment nipple to suck on while we figgure out how to get more welfare) Some time ago I read a story here about Davy Crockett when he was in congress about "It's not your money to spend!" We should send a copy to all elected people.

It is my uneducated opinion, that for the next five oar six elections, we should vote out each and every incumbent in every office from local dogcatcher to the top. Once all the "good ol' boys are gone we might begin to get citizen politions the way it was to be. We need to end the idea of a two party system. And, we need to return to the states the power to take care of their own people.

I scare myself as I think I'm starting to sound more like a libertarian than a republican.

[Myrddin]

More money being pissed away.

Agreed. The money spent on drugs does nothing to cure or stop the spread of AIDS. Money spent on screening blood supplies, testing and identifying HIV carriers and educating people to avoid multiple partners will help reduce the spread. Something as simple as identification and permanent quarantine could eradicate the disease in the time it takes for the incurably infected parties to die.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I'm not worried. :0) But I wish I could see the look on their face when they come face to face with their maker and try to explain...

[wimpycat]

The steps we need to take in the U.S. are the steps Libya took.

Libya is not a free country. It is an oppressive dictatorship. The U.S. is a free country of free people, who can only be persuaded, not forced to alter their sexual behavior. Libya is the last country I would look to as an example of how to do things in the U.S.

[myrabach]

Keeping money out of the UNs paws was exactly what I thought when I first heard that. Looks like Bush is going to make the UN completely irrelevant! This way we can have more control over how the money is spent and who is doing the administering of the drugs, etc.

As much as I would like to see money stay in the United States I feel this is a good move. I agree that the problem will ultimately come here unless we make an effort now.

[sinkspur]

I don't see how rewarding people for screwing up and getting aids will discourage the behaviour which leads to it.

Apparently, you don't know the first thing about how AIDS is spread in Africa. Women and children get it, innocently.

Stopping AIDS in Africa is going to involve a whole lot more than lectures from a bunch of do-gooders.

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

What about them? Are they Fags and junkies who deserve death? Was it preventable???

Emotional rhetoric doesn't convince anyone that this is the responsibility of the American taxpayer. Every single person on this planet right now will be dead within approximately one hundred years, and no amount of wealth redistribution will change that. This is no different than if you applauded government agents confiscating money from someone's checking account just because you think they're going to do something nice with the money.

[Kevin Curry]

Fairbanks is thinking with his glands--not his brain. If the money is going to be spent it ought to at least be spent wisely. That's means understanding what the effective vectors of the disease are and designing a strategy around that knowledge.

Weeping and wailing that it isn't fair to single out anal sodomizers and intravenous drug abusers for their behavior choices doesn't constitute a strategy. It might make Fairbanks feel self-rightoues and pious, but it is not a strategy.

[weikel]

What your saying God would be angry about us objecting to our taxmoney being pissed away on by and large a preventable disease nearly all of which is going to be stolen anyway. Yeah he'll be real pissed we were against getting Mugabe a new Ferrari ( sarcasm).

[weikel]

Weeping and wailing that it isn't fair to single out anal sodomizers and intravenous drug abusers for their behavior choices doesn't constitute a strategy. It might make Fairbanks feel self-rightoues and pious, but it is not a strategy.

I feel so weird agreeing with you.

[Moosilauke]

Yep. Money down a rat hole. The expectation is that it will buy political cover from the left. It won't. When the 15 billion has been blown and the problem remains, then it will be America's fault for not doing enough. Oh well, it's only 15 billion and it does give us all a chance to feel warm and fuzzy for a few days.

[freedumb2003]

>>Too late. They're already there busily persecuting CHristians. Look up Sudan. Geesh, have you NO CLUE on what's going on? The stuff you come out with is stunningly dumb. <<

1. I know that Islam has penetrated Africa and yes, I am aware of what is going on in Sudan. That is not the entirety of Africa and it is also no reason to give up.

2. There is no call for name-calling. They have a name for people who deride any opinion other than their own: Liberals.

[habs4ever]

I have some associates that have been working on an aspect this deal for over a year, and from what i know, it is being run by the State Dept and US Overseas Development Agency, with the full cooperation of the Federal Reserve.I do wish the know nothings would shut it until they learn what's what.

I know what I'm talking about here.