(AIDS activists protesting Randy Tobias's speech at the 2004 Bangkok International AIDS Conference)
I couldn't give a flying f*** how ex-Deputy Secretary of State and PEPFAR Administrator Randall Tobias gets his sweet release. His personal life is none of my business. Whether he got just a massage (yeah, right!) or FS (full-service) matters not a whit.
What matters is that millions of women worldwide lost their access to HIV/AIDS prevention information and tools because USAID and PEPFAR money comes with strings attached: all aid recipients must sign an anti-trafficking and anti-prostitution pledge. Working with sex workers — the best front-line educators about HIV/AIDS prevention practices and tools — became impossible if grantees got American money.
But don't take my word for it. Please listen to the women who lost their clinics, their child care centers, and their entire communities because of George W Bush and Randall Tobias: watch Taking The Pledge, a 13-minute film featuring sex workers from Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Mali, and Thailand. They eloquently describe the problems created by the 'anti-prostitution pledge' required to receive USAID and PEPFAR funds.
Peoples' private lives are none of anybody's business. Randall Tobias can get his jollies however he chooses. But when he destroys effective HIV/AIDS prevention programs across the globe by requiring recipients to refrain from contact with sex workers, at the same time he patronizes sex workers, he is guilty of the most rank hypocrisy.
As is any Pamela Martin & Associates customer who voted for those programs. Stay tuned.
Related posts:
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- Earth to CBO, Senate Finance and WaPo: “It’s the Economy, Stupid”
- Sotomayor Filibuster Threat: You Can Help Expose GOP Hypocrisy
- Late Night: It’s The False Equivalencies, Stupid.
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Zed?
Zed!
Not!
Well, it’s not Jane’s post on watching the Rethugs debate but I guess I can go read it anyway. TeddySanFran!!!
TEDDY!!
Hooray!
zap
There oughta be an appropriate punishment for this.
Dickectomy?
I hope one of the Repubs turns to the other and says, “I knew Ronald Reagan and you’re no Ronald Reagan”. I will laugh my butt off if that happen.
TRex @
5
hooray to you too!
Did you watch the vid? It’s a heartbreaker.
Come ta think of it- what american needs right now is a good dickectomy.
dakine01 @
4
It’s coming later for debate blogging, I believe.
LS @ 8
“happens”…Jeez, type much?
There’s gonna be a big gooper mud rasslin match on the teevee tonight…..SNORE
Whew…Pam Martin has an escort service, I thought you said Pam Oshry.
-GSD
OT.. KO is on pre-debate.
On topic..this criminal administration turns
everything it touches to sh*t.
GSD @
14
Pamela Martin is Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s nom de travail.
LS#8, I’m with you. I want to see that.
Does these people like Tobias have Oppositional Disorder?
Teddy, Well put, sir! Hypocrisy = death
Why is it that these Republicans are so afraid of everything? They puff themselves up to be tough and strong but when it comes right down to it, they fear women, sex, gays, nonwhites, and most of all terrorists. And since they’re afraid (they’d never admit it, though), we all should be.
Of all these Repubs running for President, other than McCain, did any one of them ever put their life on the line for something they believed in?
Good riddance, Tobias. People like you make the world a worse place.
I just can’t bear to watch the Republics tonight. Will catch up on the high points (or more likely, low points) right here at the lake.
Teddy – Well said.
I’m counting the days until Bush and his boys are hoisted out in 2008.
Until then, keep an eye on the DOJ, the USA’s…and keep Rove busy.
TSF: Speaking of the DC madam:
EPU’d from a couple of threads down, AkinGump Secretary fired for working parttime for DC Madam. Link originally posted by Stephen_Parris CPA. Goodling’s attorney is a partner at AkinGump.
Me too Loudou. I could never watch that many republicans on my tv in my home.
Shorter ToBuyAss: “Don’t use condoms…they an instrument of Satan.”
What he meant was…If you use condoms, you might not catch a disease that Eli-Lilly has a drug to ‘cure’.
I was reading Froomkin at today’s WaPo , and I ran across this interesting Bush quote: “Of the enemy he said, ‘You can attack a nation several ways. One, you can get 19 kids to fly airplanes into buildings, or you can gain control of something a country needs and deny that country access to that, in this case, oil, and run the price of oil up, all attempting to inflict serious economic damage.’”
Umm … okay. However — as far as I know, besides intermittent saber-rattling from Saddam Hussein, there was never any real effort on the part of Iraq to deprive the US or it’s allies of oil. Even if Hussein did decide not to sell to the US, all that would mean is that other countries would buy the Iraqi oil which would mean that they would buy less oil from other countries that the US could then buy oil from. It’s not like Hussein had complete and utter control of the oil fields of the entire planet.
And secondly, isn’t this the administration that has steadfastly denied that there’s any link between their decision to go to war and the desire to secure Iraq’s oil fields for the United States? Viewed through that lens, ‘you can gain control of something a country needs and deny that country access to that, in this case, oil, and run the price of oil up, all attempting to inflict serious economic damage’ becomes a terribly revealing statement.
dakine01 @ 23
this a typo: it should be Achin’ Rump.
If I wanted to watch softballs being thrown I’d go down to the high school athletic field.
ccmask @ 24
Yeah, I’d end up throwing a brick through the teevee within the first five minutes.
mc @ 20
Because they all have small willies.
dakine01 @ 23
One might want to consider the Republican hypocrisy theory on this one.
LoudounLib @ 21
There should be a Houston Astros vs Cincinnati Reds baseball game on that will be far more enjoyable than watching a bunch of rich white guys talk sh*t that they have no clue about.
mc @ 20
So much for the Republican “Home of the Brave”.
ccmask @ 24
Too scary! ;-)
dakine01 @ 32
Golden State Warriors v. Dallas Mavericks at 7:30 p.m. PDT. Can they complete the upset?
watching the pugs at the library walking down the hall… all in black suits, all boring old white men…
strange representation of America.
dakine, there is NO baseball on here tonight in my market :-(
Well, if this is, as Olbermann just alluded to, a coronation; then I say let’s crown Queen Pelosi!!
Let’s face it; the re-uglican’s want to eliminate the middle class. If/when they accomplish that the war will turn to others. Those others are all that are left. The easiest way to get rid of them is to let AIDS run its’ course. Yes, it’s sickening but that is how they feel. poor people cannot/ don’t have the resources to fight the spread, so they think of this in a political stance. If they can get rid of that section of poor people they can continue along with their plan of world domination through extermination of the lowliest of peoples. It is so despicable, that it fit’s perfectly with their goals. God Bless Us All.
dakine01 @
23
AkinGump’s in a bind — they can’t quite fire their secretary-employee, since she’s a government witness and firing her might be unfair. They can’t keep her around the office, since they are probably afraid she knows more than she does.
AG might have employees, partners, or clients who are PM&A customers, on whose behalf AG may even be negotiating with PM&A or ABCNews.
punaise @ 35
According to Sport’s Guy on ESPN, you can pretty much make book on it…
Hypocrisy is to Republicans
as
Missing fingers are to the Yakuza
dakine01 @ 41
my recently acquired seat on the Warriors bandwagon is pretty comfy.
RagingGurrl @ 30
Show your work, please. *g*
mc @ 20
I think they start out being afraid, the rest unfolds from there. FOr instance, if you are afraid you are not normal, or strong, or virile, you can either say well, that’s how it is, or you need to make a huge investment in appearing to be normal, strong or virile.
By the way George w Bush doesn’t give a shit about us, just remember that, you’ll be better off.
LoudounLib @ 37
I could even watch the Yankees and Rangers but since I detest the Yankeees, it ain’t happenin’. But the basketball would be the alternative for me if I didn’t have a Reds game available. Or whatever movie I’ve already seen fifteen times on the encore or HBO channels.
TeddySanFran @ 40
Do you suppose Karl knows about Ms Palfrey’s service? Gives a whole new meaning to the term Party Whip.
TeddySanFran @ 40
AkinGump’s in a bind — they can’t quite fire their secretary-employee, since she’s a government witness and firing her might be unfair. They can’t keep her around the office, since they are probably afraid she knows more than she does.
AG might have employees, partners, or clients who are PM&A customers, on whose behalf AG may even be negotiating with PM&A or ABCNews.
From what the article says, she probably knows far more than is good for her. I can’t quite build up much sympathy for the folks at AkinGump or the unnamed clients who will presumably be outed tomorrow night.
I sure hope ABC comes through with the names tomorrow night. Their ratings will be through the roof.
As with any republican concern, the appropriate response is: “Jeez, project much?”
TeddySanFran @
44
Its because they have treated so many so poorly for so long that they fear everyone/thing.
meep! @ 26
In addition, less oil is being exported from Iraq NOW than while Iraq was exporting WHILE UNDER SANCTIONS!
It was the United States that acted to restrict oil exports and production in Iraq…NOT Saddam Hussein!
How in the world did these people get into power? Tobias is going to make sure people stay virginal, Wolfowitz is going to manage corruption, Rove has everybody going through the freaking looking glass, Cheney the Chickenshit sends boys and girls to their deaths, and Bush is clearly just plain whacked.
TeddySanFran @ 40
AkinGump’s in a bind — they can’t quite fire their secretary-employee, since she’s a government witness and firing her might be unfair. They can’t keep her around the office, since they are probably afraid she knows more than she does.
AG might have employees, partners, or clients who are PM&A customers, on whose behalf AG may even be negotiating with PM&A or ABCNews.
What would their founder, Forrest Gump, do? WWFGD?
MSNBC Scary…except for Keith,
OK I tuned in pre debate for minute. I admire KO for not laughing out loud. The whole long walk to nowhere was just so telling.
That’s all I can watch…)
OT
Did the Dems cave to the veto??? I heard on the radio that they did but can’t find anything about it.
Great post Teddy. Damned Rethuglicans are only “pro-life” from conception to birth, after that you are on your own. But they are definitely anti-sex (except for themselves) and supreme hypocrites.
It is extraordinary that, in some very conservative societies, the sex workers managed to form unions (!) and find one another for education, services, programs, child care, disease prevention, and community support. Our AID aid money was, in some cases, the sole support of these organizations assisting the marginalized outcasts. But – it was working. Just as in communities across the US, these communities were finding their voices and reaching one another with appropriate, culturally relevant messages.
Then — PEPFAR. And BushCo turned off the spigot of money. Just as they did in this country with fearsome federal audits, they did it abroad with these stupid pledges. Essentially, while looking like heroes to people they duped (Bono et al.) BushCo managed to screw up HIV prevention worldwide. Uganda, where HIV prevention was working, is going backwards now, because ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful, use Condoms) has been replaced by Abstinence Only. US aid demands it.
It’s terrific that these voices are being heard on this video. If it takes the DCMadam to get their voices heard, so be it.
Speaking of the DC madam
“Peoples’ private lives are none of anybody’s business.”
A lesson good old Randy had to learn the hard way. Some people just have to be pounded over the head before they can see the light…..and then again, sometimes they just see stars, and will never get it.
Mary McCurnin @ 58
Nancy and Harry say not. Greg Sargent talked to the WaPo guy and he sticks to his story. Somebody’s telling tales out of school, it looks like. And not even true ones?
Teddy, if it makes you feel any better, WaPo ran an article today where they said:
Cool — I like revealing (and revelling in) hypocrisy. But there was also another article somewhere (forget where) that said ABC would likely only reveal two names tomorrow night. ::pout::
So there is still hope.
HotFlash @ 62
I blame Steny Hoyer. There was also discussion prevthread of Rahm’s smirk.
Moon @ 61
I dunno. Perhaps call a tie between Tobias and Foley for forging sex predator laws???
Even more scary…Commander Guy on C-Span-2 telling us what God thinks. I am going back to MSNBC, less scary republicans.
Teddy!!! Excellent Post!!! In mulling over the sheer hypocrisy of Tobias, I reflected back to my youth!!! When, a year after HS, I was stationed for two and half years at a small Kaserne outside Weisbaden, FDR. Much of Europe has accepted the practicing of the ‘Oldest Profession’! It is well regulated and taxed! Mandatory testing is conducted by the state, treated at no cost, and for pete’s sake, no social stigma!!! This sort of pragmatic attitude should be adopted stateside! Korea has also adopted the E.U. model! Americans should get over their Puritanical Hypocrisy!!! The benefits range far and wide, just like Palfrey’s little black book! Think about it!!!
TeddySanFran @
60
BushCo HATES to see ANY government programs of ANY type from ANY country be successful. Just goes against their mostly non-existent principles.
Of course, I do realize that the only principles ever evidenced by BushCo is loyalty to BushCo only.
Teddy, I agree, Steny seems to fit the description ‘Pelosi aide’ and Rahm is ‘Party leadership’, but there are at least two more. Who else? Joe? And it would be really,really nice to know for sure — there are primaries coming up for some of these folks.
cathy @ 50
I sure hope ABC comes through with the names tomorrow night. Their ratings will be through the roof.
I read somewhere that they will ‘out’ precisely *two*.
I’m pulling for Gannon/Guckert as an employee and Rove as a client, but then I’m an incurable optimist.
TeddySanFran @ 65
Well, WaPo claims it came from Pelosi’s office, didn’t they? And has Hoyer redeemed himself yet with the awesome speech on the floor yesterday? I kinda liked it. I think he was only arguing strategy about the countermove. Am I channeling the wrong voices?
Jane is up.
http://www.firedoglake.com/200…../#comments
Tobias proves the DCMadam’s point — “it wasn’t sex I was selling.” That’s why she has an incentive to name names. ABCNews will name names for ratings. Or, as Peterr suggested the other evening, ABC will use a name on the DCMadam’s list to generate a better story, with emails and phone logs and photos.
There could be any number of ancillary benefits to ABCNews working the list like journalists should. Although we are unlikely to hear about any ABC employees on the customer or Associate side of the business.
More and more talking heads and DCPundits are using the Howie Kurtz excuse — Jon Stewart had a mashup the other nite of a couple of them saying: “What if someone called the WRONG NUMBER?”
do-si-do @ 66
I was quoting the FDL post. Didn’t mean to imply anything goes.
TeddySanFran @ 65
Rahm is a distrubing smirk
HotFlash @ 70
HoJo reminds me of that Monty Python/Palin character towards the end of MP and the Holy Grail. The noble father who says (after Lancelot comes in automatically slaughtering everyone at a wedding party, upsetting the guests, cuz that’s what knights do): “Now, now, let’s not talk about ‘hoo’s killin’ ‘hoo. This is supposed to be a ‘appy occasion!”
jayt @ 71
I read somewhere that they will ‘out’ precisely *two*.
I’m pulling for Gannon/Guckert as an employee and Rove as a client, but then I’m an incurable optimist.
Two?!? In that case, I won’t bother to watch. I’ll just wait until I log on tomorrow.
HotFlash @ 70
I wonder if we will see the “burn your sources if they lied” principle acted on by Weisman and Murray, the WaPo reporters. The story, while on A01 in the deadtree edition, no longer appears on the frontwebpage.
If you google sex or porn addiction, you will see that a HUGE recovery industry has grown up in the Christian community, where it seems (if these sites are any indication) to have reached epidemic proportions.
So none of this should be surprising to anyone…
Woodhall Hollow @ 81
Is that the biz that Rev Haggard and the Mrs are going into?
Trends since 2003.Following the six week “Shock and Awe” invasion phase (March 19 – May 1, 2003), which alone caused the deaths of some 7,400 civilians, the violent death toll has steadily risen year-on-year. There were 6,332 reported civilian deaths in the 10.5 months following the initial invasion in year one, or 20 per day; 11,312 in year two, 55% up on year one’s daily rate; 14,910 in year three (32% up on year two); and a staggering 26,540 in year four (78% up on year three, and averaging 74 per day). Not counting the 7,400 invasion-phase deaths, four times as many people were killed in the last year as in the first. And from the invasion to the present, at least 110,000 civilians have been wounded, 38,000 of them during year four.
bodycount.org
The president says that winning is defined by violence reduction- he has INCREASED violence four times in the last four years- so he’s LOSING THE WAR- by his OWN measures..
Why doesn’t the media point this out?
Guess it ain’t relevant.
I wonder if the 2 who are going to be outed on ABC already know they are going to be outed.
Woodhall Hollow @ 81
Sam Brownback’s apparently tempted, perhaps at times tormented just by the thought of being alone in a hotel room with it right there behind the dial!
Rooling Stone on Brownback
btw, if you haven’t read this article, it’s worth it just to learn about the Family, or the Fellowship. scares me
They’ll probably out one gooper and one dem- equal time ya know.
cathy @ 84
surely they’ve each been contacted for comment.
TeddySanFran @ 44
RagingGurrl @ 30
mc @ 20
Why is it that these Republicans are so afraid of everything? They puff themselves up to be tough and strong but when it comes right down to it, they fear women, sex, gays, nonwhites, and most of all terrorists.
–
Because they all have small willies.
–
Show your work, please. *g*
–
it’s an educated guess :-P
cinnamonape @ 53
Just follow the money. Never have so few profitted so greatly from so much chaos.
And today, the annual petro chant about “limited refining capacity causing gas prices to rise” was dusted off & rolled out again for our gullible consumption. The largest, richest, most profitable industry on the planet cannot, after about a hundred years of watching it happen, adapt to a tiny blip in demand caused by summer vacation.
Just follow the money, and the shit-eating grins on the faces of those telling you about the global complexities forcing them to steal it.
I could speculate that this individual that could be named by the D.C. Madam is none other than Grover Norquist. Then the question is whether there was a bathtub involved.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/3/1762/68685
Looks like he uses a condo but not a condom. And if this was a State Department residence would that make Condoleezza the condo leaser? Which raises another question.
Did the Condo-Man condemn condom and con dumb Condi ?
And all the girls would wonder.
Is he the Condo man, the condom man, or the Condi man?
This Randy Tobias, so randy to buy us.
And considering Randall “Duke” Cunningham, this is the second Randall Scandal of the year.
In tribute to the all of this:
“Randyman Candyman”
Who did take an escort
Sprinkled and withdrew?
Massaged a foggy bottom and a spherical or two
The Condo man, the Condi man can,
No Condom-man can ’cause he mixes it with faith
and thinks the whore’ll taste good…
The Condi Man fakes
Policy he makes
Stat defying and malicious.
It can really be pernicious
Making abstinence propitious
Who can take Relief Funds
Use to disinform
Waste the money just to make regressive thought the norm
The Condo man, the Condi man can,
No Condom-man can ’cause he mixes it with faith
and makes the world chaste, good…
The Condi Man rejects
Latex for his sex.
Monogamy and faith for AIDS Czar,
Not as much a thrill as maids are,
n’ Condi knows what fun charades are.
Who can take pandemic
Modern science spite?
Squander all the funding to enrich the Christian right
The Condo man? The Condi man can, the conned dumb man can…
No Condom-man can ’cause he nixes it with faith
and makes the world chaste, good…
And the whore’ll taste good
’cause the condemned man thinks with wood …
Chances are this guy was exchanging sex for funding. It probably wasn’t cut and dry like that, but come on. This guy had billions at his disposal, so anyone who wanted some, and knew his weak spot for hookers, would get their seat at the table. Remember the Olympics Committee in Utah? When you’re giving away money, people want to be nice to you. When you’re giving away millions at a time, people want to be really nice to you.
Georgesimian @ 92
I get the feeling there’s a diplomatic level that’s just a cesspool. I bet lots of people know lots of things in that wrold.
Brownback called RGJoe a Jew. oh wait….
A quick flyby, maybe you guys saw this.
Speakin’ of things blown in the wind, CNN SitRoom was doing the history of sex scandals, and all they could come up with were Clinton, Gary Hart and Wilbur Mills. And say, what’s this? They’re all Democrats.
Can you smell the sweet stench of pre-Revelations by Ross innoculation? I knew you could.
After all, who could forget Newtie and the choir girl?
Or Bob Livingston, his heir apparently-not, and the groupies, er, group thing….
Only one man could be so totally one-sided, bias blazing…the inimitable Blitzed.
Well, prolly not.
Huckabee would get rid of the IRS. What, quit collecting taxes and make them voluntary?
ya see- this post is exactly why it is no longer feasable for us “good Libs” to give these pieces of shit another day(inch) let alone 3 or 4 months!
if anyone out there can give me one single reason to “let the surge try and work, or its gods’ will that people will contract aids, or some of the other fucking lies that these bastards are spewing out or for me to see that if we don’t defeat them in Iraq so that they won’t come and attack us here—- well, I don’t have to answer cause these scum simlpy lie. That is all they do.
some will say- “now that is ager.” well yup!! thats anger and so is this– tobias should only see someone he loves slowly whither away and he should be reminded every sigle day that thats what happens! To Bad!!!!!
Now that approaches the anger that not only do I feel but it should be the anger that we all should feel now. Does anyone realize just how much more damage these bastards are going to do in the next 18 months???????????????????
Impeach the chimp and tie up everything until January 9th 2009.
billjpa
when will they get it.. aids is EVERYONE’S problem? let bush or one of his cronies lose a family member, as many of us have!! then maybe they will get moving…. oh, right. I’m fantasizing.