Following the Democratic fundraiser heckling last month, President Obama was treated to another round of AIDS activists interrupting his prepared remarks, this time at a speech in Connecticut to drum up support for Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal. “Excuse me, excuse me young people,” Obama told the zappers. “You’ve been appearing at every rally we’ve been doing. And we’re funding global AIDS and the other side is not, so I don’t know why you think this is a useful strategy to take.” So there!, says the guy sending another four billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It’s like Tea Party activists who hate on Obama for his taxation, and have absolutely no idea he actually granted tax breaks to 95 percent of Americans.
interruptions
Obama Gave AIDS Prevention Efforts $4 Billion And all He Got Was This Lousy Heckling
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Qjersey
Although it’s great to see AIDS activistism, this crop is misdirecting its anger, just like many in the LGB communities. Obama is not a king; things do not get done by fiat.
Protest the republican f*ckers, it is the hateful and homophobic republicans since DAY ONE (Thanks Ronnie) of the AIDS crisis who have put up roadblocks and used their voting power to insert their stupidity (The Helm’s amendment, abstinence education) in compromises made to get something passed in congress.
ewe
We are the “we’re” in “we’re funding global AIDS” Obama speaks like he is a non profit doling out services. There is nothing wrong with demanding more. You all know that word MORE right? Like more time for democrats to continue doing nothing because the republicans did more nothing.
Robby
(Note: I work in HIV prevention)
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS funds HIV prevention in OTHER parts of the world, not here. Funding needs to be significantly increased here in the U.S. HIV Positive people are on waiting lists for meds in every state.
The field of HIV and STD prevention has been under-funded and over-censored for over a decade. Things have improved under Obama, but more needs to be done.
Patrick
I think most AIDS activists know how much the government is spending on AIDS. If the current plan was successful, infection rates would not be increasing. The government wants to segregate people with AIDS and deny that a problem exists; AIDS funding is always the first to be cut, and over-generalizations and distance from the actual victims create misinformation which leads to unsafe activities and more infections. We need consistent funding, and we need actual progress. Our country could cure AIDS if we’d focus on it like people with AIDS matter.
reason
I am sorry to inform you that money will not cure AIDS. AIDS is also a preventable disease, we need to focus the money that we are spending to prevent spreading AIDS. The governments pockets are not limitless and everyone from a to z has their hands in the governments pocket. Their is no excuse for the continuing transmission of AIDS, there is no way that the government can keep up with funding with the explosion of new cases. We need to use the resources we have more prudently becuase where the country stands we need to make cuts everywhere not increases.
tjr101
Heart disease, Cancer, Diabetes and a host of other chronic ailments kill a lot more people annually than AIDS. Four billion and it’s still not enough. How much more money will be enough for these people to stop heckling?
You can throw any amount of money at this problem, it still comes down to personal responsibility. Don’t mean to sound insensitive but AIDS is still a preventable disease.
Red Meat
@Robby
Stop making up lies. You use most of the money for useless advertising to “prevent” HIV from spreading.
Newsflash:
-people of all ages know how to get HIV and a STD
-they know to protect themselves through condoms
-condoms can be found in almost every store and for free at public centers like universities and hospitals.
Special situations aside, people who get HIV or a STD are reckless and CHOOSE not to protect themselves out of laziness or their mentality of what is sexually pleasurable.
On a last note, if your clinic is this horrible, please send your patients down to Florida where we throw away about a box of expired medications every month. Stop killing your patients, thanks.
MickW
I agree with tjr101, AIDS is a preventable disease – Liberals need to understand that the country is broke and that there is only so much money to go around to every group.
Brian Miller
Wow, Obama gave $4 billion of his own money towards HIV?
No?
Oh.
But of course, all the gays have AIDS, so they should be happy that he gave a smattering of other people’s money to keep them alive. Now sit down and shut up, homos!
ewe
@reason: @MickW: you dismissive motherfuckers. i have heard your blame game and bullshit since 92. Fuck the both of you. Ever hear of kicking someone while they are down? That is what you two shits do talking the way you do. Get the fuck off your pedestal, it isn’t real. You got some nerve.
ewe
Obama can get off her pedestal too Bitches. Do you go around telling people who have malignant cancer that it is preventable after the fact? Assholes.
GrrrlRomeo
Tsk, Queerty. Obama pledged $48 Billion over 5 years. That’s like promising a 10% tax cut and only cutting 1%. Obama is actually doing less on Global AIDS than Bush did.
What a terribly uninformed article. Here’s one with real information:
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/17860/obama-playing-partisan-games-with-lgbt-issues-still
CityTime
LOL…PamsHouse?! I wouldn’t trust that dopey site on anything.
Chapeau
What is up with the reporting from Queerty.?.
Funding here at home is why folks are protesting …
Get a clue Queerty.!.
Robby
Red Meat & others –
You are obviously missing the complexities of HIV prevention and human behavior. People have knowledge about cigarettes, poor diet and lack of exercise, not wearing seatbelts and the risks of skiing but they continue to engage in those behaviors as well.
Many of the new infections are among younger gay & bi men, 15-24. This is a generation that has received little or no quality sex ed or received the harmful & counter-productive abstinence only until marraige “education”. They did not go to 60 funerals in the 1980s and many believe AIDS is something you just take a few pills for and then you’re fine.
The reasons so many gay & bi men of all ages are not protecting themselves are far more complex than your judgemental ideas of “laziness” or sexual pleasure.
As for wasting money on HIV prevention campaigns, I wish we had money to “waste” on that. Prevention workers have not been given enough money to reach the people they need to reach and often are not allowed to say what needs to be said to those that are reached.
(Note: I did not say I worked in a clinic and I am not “killing patients”. If Florida has so much excess meds available you might try to find other underfunded states who need them before throwing them out.)
ewe
@Robby: That is very kind of you to attempt educating these IDIOTS. I doubt they will comprehend what you say and know from your own direct experience.
Tammy
@GrrrlRomeo: Pam’s House Blend? That rag isn’t worth reading – ever.
Pam Spaulding is ignorant and just wants to be some kind of Lesbian-Power-Princess. She doesn’t represent the GLBT community and she deserves no respect.
Robby
@Red Meat:
Here’s what seems to be going on in Florida…
FLORIDA: “Florida to Drop 350 Patients in AIDS Drug Program”
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) (11.02.10):: Bob Lamendola
About 350 uninsured HIV/AIDS patients will be dropped from Florida’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program in a month in a cost-cutting move by state health officials. Another 2,000 ADAP patients are at risk of losing treatment coverage unless more funding can be tapped for the program, Florida Department of Health (DOH) officials said Tuesday. The $100 million-a-year program is $16 million short of the funds it needs through April 1, 2011.
ADAP previously covered patients making up to four times the federal poverty level. That will drop to only three times the poverty level, or $43,710 for a family of two, making about 350 current clients ineligible, officials said.
Many will be eligible for low- or no-cost treatment through HIV drugmakers’ charity programs, said Tom Liberti, chief of the state Bureau of HIV/AIDS. The state has helped many of the more than 2,300 patients who are on Florida’s ADAP waiting list access treatment through these programs.
Loss of jobs and job-related health insurance has boosted ADAP demand, and clients are living longer because of effective treatments.
“We are all pursuing every possible legal and financial option we can to make up the deficit,” said Liberti, noting that he is asking DOH for emergency funds and for federal clearance to allow Florida to negotiate lower drug prices. If neither happens, “a minimum of 2,000 people, maybe more” could be temporarily dropped from ADAP, Liberti said.
Next year, the state expects more ADAP funding through different sources, Liberti said. States with ADAP waiting lists could receive $50 million in a budget bill that will come before Congress after the Tuesday elections, a federal health official said.
Henry
@ewe: More? $4 billion dollars is A LOT of money. Sheesh.
The Artist
Stop the insanity towards the man… http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/