‘The Bush Administration Stands Alone’

[UpInArms]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5438912/site/newsweek/



July 14 - Health advocates cheered last year when George W. Bush announced a five-year, $15 billion plan to fight AIDS in the developing world. But the U.S. initiative is coming under heavy attack this week as researchers, caregivers, activists and health officials meet in Bangkok for the 15th International AIDS Conference. Protestors heckled U.S. AIDS coordinator Randall Tobias at public events while AIDS experts accuse PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) of undermining efforts that stand a better chance of saving lives. The controversy centers mainly on three issues: the U.S. preference for unilateral action over collaborative effort, the emphasis on sexual abstinence in U.S.-sponsored prevention programs and the Bush administration’s refusal to pay for generic AIDS medicines that the World Health Organization has endorsed and many countries are already using successfully. NEWSWEEK's Geoffrey Cowley raised these issues in separate interviews with Tobias and Dr. Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. Excerpts:

<snip>

The Bush administration’s 2004 budget included only $200 million for the Global Fund. A bipartisan congressional majority came up with $550 million, despite the administration’s resistance. This year, the Global Fund is asking the United States to double its commitment to $1.2 billion. That’s America’s share of the $3.6 needed to sustain the Global Fund’s commitments through 2005. But instead of scaling up the commitment in 2005, the Bush administration wants to slash the commitment by 64 percent. The president has again requested only $200 million for the Global Fund—less than half the current U.S. spending level, and just one sixth of what is needed.

...more...

[struggle4progress]

1. Typical Bushista tactic: Say one thing, do another. eom

[gratuitous]

2. A five year, $15 billion commitment?

Must be heavy, heavy, heavy on the backside if Bush has only proposed to spend $400 million (that's 2.7%) in the first two years of the five year proposal.

As usual, the Crawford Weasel announced the $15 billion with great fanfare, but when it was time to follow through on the public commitment, the effort is noticeably lacking.

[Hobarticus]

4. I give Cheney a week...

....before he's quoting the $15b figure again, and claiming that this administration has done more for AIDS than any before.

[struggle4progress]

5. All hat, no cattle. eom

[tlcandie]

3. Off topic, but can we get those posters/signs up every time * appears?

eom

[Cocoa]

6. they're very powerful

those Thais really know how to get to the point.

[bobthedrummer]

8. Dennis Kucinich too.

He simply said Bush lied a long time ago.

[dArKeR]

7. Politics trumps science at AIDS conference

BANGKOK - Bangkok’s Impact conference centre swarmed with 19,843 delegates to the annual global meeting on AIDS this week, but Hall 3, where the scientific posters were displayed, was eerily quiet.

Science has taken a backseat to politics at the 15th International AIDS Conference, which closed on Friday with no major research breakthroughs reported and a vaccine, the holy grail in the war on the incurable virus, still years away.

Aside from incremental progress on antiretroviral drugs, which may offer new ways to keep the HIV virus at bay with fewer adverse side effects, the scientific agenda of the conference was notable more for challenges faced than progress made.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5448268

Disgusting Fundimentalist Christians!

[gratuitous]

9. Hey, what's a few million lives?

When balanced against making the Invisible Cloud Being grumpy?

You know, Jesus (and Paul and Jeremiah and Isaiah) had some pretty hard things to say against religious fanatics who put their devotion to God ahead of serving the community. I wonder why some people's Bibles don't seem to open to those passages?

[louis-t]

10. Ha! Pages glued together

by executive order.

[Triana]

11. remember too...

... that that the bu$hit maladministration now requires its scientists to get APPROVAL from his admin BEFORE they can collaborate with the World Health Organization on anything. We can't even get accurate scientific information on ANYTHING in this country before bu$hit vets the information and the scientists providing it first, to see if it fits HIS religious ideologies. STALIN would love it.

This a**hole and the reich-wingnut extremeist ideologues he caters to, are ruling this country and mishandling the most devastating and dangerous diseases and health issues on this planet with blind extremeist ideology and dogmatism rather than reason, foresight and scientific facts. Talk about your dangerous GROUPTHINK. There he goes again...

As always, bu$hit is PART OF THE PROBLEM, rather than being part of the solution, and once again, his policies only serve to make the very issues they apply to - WORSE. And this is something we can ill afford when it comes to diseases like AIDS.

This man has GOT TO GO.

[dArKeR]

12. AIDS meeting ends with little progress and stark divisions

DPA , BANGKOK
Saturday, Jul 17, 2004,Page 5

The 15th International AIDS Conference ended with a sense of "relief" yesterday, with stark divisions evident between the world's political and medical establishments and the millions who suffer in silence with the killer virus.

"It is such a relief for myself and all my colleagues that this conference ends successfully and uneventfully today," said Thai Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan in her closing address to the week-long conference.

Like many government officials, drug company executives and particularly IS representatives, Sudarat found herself in the firing line from AIDS activists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/07/17/2003179313