Just another promise from the President.

[fallout]

He kept this one, it seems.


Bush to Sign Global AIDS Bill

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

WASHINGTON — Signing a $15 billion authorization to fight AIDS abroad gives President Bush more leverage to press other wealthy nations to work harder against the killer disease as he prepares for a European summit.

In a ceremony Tuesday at the State Department, Bush was to sign a five-year plan designed to help prevent and treat AIDS, especially in more than a dozen African and Caribbean nations.

If fully implemented, the legislation is supposed to prevent 7 million new infections, care for 10 million HIV-infected people and AIDS orphans and provide anti-retroviral therapy for 2 million.

The president had urged Congress to get the bill to his desk before he traveled to the June 1-3 "Group of Eight" (search) summit in Evian, France, where he is expected to use it to solicit other countries to contribute more to the cause.

The G-8 comprises the leaders of the world's seven richest countries - the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada - plus Russia.

"Other wealthy nations - specifically G-8 member nations - must follow suit with similar funding increases," said Jose Zuniga, president of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care. (search)

The new AIDS package, which Congress completed last week, recommends that 55 percent of direct aid go to treatment programs, 20 percent to prevention, 15 percent to palliative care and 10 percent to children orphaned by the disease. It also would allow, but not require, the administration to contribute up to $1 billion in 2004 to the international Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"This is a whole new day in the fight against this epidemic," said Mark Isaac, vice president of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (search). The foundation fights HIV and AIDS and other serious and life-threatening diseases affecting children.

To appease conservatives, the measure says one-third of the money going toward prevention be set aside for projects that promote abstinence - an issue that was prominent in the final congressional debate. The bill says religious groups will not lose funding because they oppose certain preventive methods, such as condom distribution.

Supporters of the legislation said Uganda has been successful in lowering infection rates with its "ABC" program of "Abstinence, Be Faithful and Condom use when appropriate." Others say it is a mistake to focus on any one strategy when local customs vary widely.

"We were speaking to the first lady of Uganda the day the bill was being considered in the Senate," Isaac said. "And she was quite firm in saying that people in the countries most affected are the most knowledgeable about what kind of prevention works best locally. We need to give them a full range of options."

While the legislation nearly triples current U.S. contributions to AIDS programs, Congress still must approve actual spending levels in its annual budget appropriations process. The bill calls for spending $3 billion a year, but the administration is seeking only $1.7 billion in fiscal 2004, $2 billion if related programs for malaria and tuberculosis are included.

"The president moved with great speed, but now Congress has to move with the same speed and dispatch," Isaac said.

Why not attack patent regulation?
I'm surprised a Conservative President feels the solution to a problem is to throw more money at it.
Of course the pharmaceuticals love the idea.
They don't want to lose out on that valuable market of 3rd world Africans.
Get foreign govt. to subsidize treatment, and they really are a potentially valuable market.

[Guerilla poster]

Gotta pay back those campaign contributions you know.

[fallout]

Originally Posted by Guerilla poster

Gotta pay back those campaign contributions you know.

I see. No chance he is simply trying to save lives in Africa huh?

[Guerilla poster]

Of course, but where would I be without my liberal pessimism.


Don't tell me a rich billionaire (not with my spelling abilities).

Originally Posted by fallout

I see. No chance he is simply trying to save lives in Africa huh?

The guy that didn't even know Brazil had black people?
Not a chance:

When even Pat Robertson and Gary Bauer pleaded for George Bush to
commute the execution of a woman who had "found God" and was doing
humanitarian acts of kindness inside of prison, Bush even refused and
true to being a smirking chimp, Bush made fun of her to Tucker
Carlson in an interview!!!

"Although he said he was anguished by the decision, in an
interview in Talk magazine, writer Tucker Carlson described
Bush mimicking the woman's final plea for her life.

"'Please,' Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock
desperation, 'don't kill me.'"
-- Time Magazine

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/prefurman/all.htm
http://www.agitator.com/dp/states/texas.html

[Abducens]

The punch line, Rufus and Doofus, is that don't understand that fallout posted the article to get the very responses you provided. It's an illustration of "W cannot win with certain people no matter what."

[Guerilla poster]

And I jokingly responded to play my little part in fallout's game. You are about as much fun as a limp dick (Nixon).

[fallout]

I also seem to remember something a certain poster who I don't read anymore posted that talk was cheap and he doubted anything would come of it. I would go find the source, but truly, he is not worth the effort.

[/i]

The Democrats are no better on this subject.
But they're not calling the shots right now.
If they were, I'd be bitching about them, instead.

Originally Posted by Jack Herer

The Bush/Quayle/Lilly Pharmaceutical Sellout

In America, marijuana's most outspoken opponents are none other than former First Lady Nancy Reagan (1981-1989) and former President George Bush (1989-1993), the former Director of the CIA under Gerald Ford (1975-1977) and past director of President Reagan's "Drug Task Force" (1981-1988).

After leaving the CIA in 1977, Bush was made director of Eli Lily to none other than Dan Quayle's father and family, who owned controlling interest in the Lilly company and the Indianapolis Star. Dan Quayle later acted as go-between for drug kingpins, gun runners and government officials in the Iran-Contra scandals.

The entire Bush family was large stockholders in Lilly, Abbott, Bristol and Pfizer, etc. After Bush's disclosure of assets in 1979, it became public that Bush's family still has a large interest in Pfizer and substantial amounts of stock in the other aforementioned drug companies.

In fact, Bush actively lobbied illegally both within and without the administration as Vice President in 1981 to permit drug companies to dump more unwanted, obsolete or especially domestically-banned substances on unsuspecting Third World countries.

While Vice President, Bush continued to illegally act on behalf of pharmaceutical companies by personally going to the IRS for special tax breaks for certain drug companies (e.g. Lilly) manufacturing in Puerto Rico. In 1982, Vice President Bush was personally ordered to stop lobbying the IRS on behalf of the drug companies by the U.S. Supreme Court itself. (See Appendix.)

He did - but they (the pharmaceuticals) still received a 23% additional tax break for their companies in Puerto Rico who make these American outlawed drugs for sale to Third World countries.

(Financial disclosure statements; Bush 1979 tax report; "Bush Tried to Sway a Tax Rule Change But Then Withdrew" NY Times, May 19, 1982; misc. corporate records; Christic Institute "La Penca" affidavit; Lilly 1979 Annual Report.)

http://www.jackherer.com/book/ch05.html