is a candidate education and voter education project working to make sure that candidates for public office know what it takes to end AIDS and that voters who care about ending AIDS know where the candidates stand on our issues.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Leading AIDS groups turn up the heat on 08 presidential candidates

LEADING AIDS GROUPS TURN UP THE HEAT ON ‘08 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Website and new report unearth surprising responses on hot-button HIV/AIDS issues

Clinton, Edwards, Obama and Kucinich support ending ban on federal funds for needle exchange

New York City, Nov. 28, 2007—Housing Works, Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago—three of the nation’s leading AIDS organizations—polled 16 presidential hopefuls on pressing AIDS-related issues as part of an ongoing HIV/AIDS candidate and voter education campaign. Now the results are available on AIDSVote.org.

“World AIDS Day is this Saturday, but you could also say that World AIDS Day is Election Day 2008. That’s because our next President will have the opportunity and the responsibility to end AIDS,” said Charles King, President and CEO of Housing Works. “She or he will have the tools to treat 33 million people living with HIV—including over a million Americans—around the planet, as well as the tools to stop the spread of the virus. We’re here to build the political will to make that happen.”

“More than ever,… (more)

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

GMHC issues in-depth report on 08 Presidential candidates and HIV/AIDS

“Where Do They Stand? The Gay Men’s Health Crisis Report on the 2008 Presidential Candidates and HIV/AIDS is a new in-depth report on the backgrounds of all major-party candidates on HIV/AIDS and LGBT issues and the positions they’re taking—or not taking—on this year’s hot-button AIDS issues. Click here for a print ready version of GMHC’s Crisis Report on the 2008 Presidential Candiates and HIV/AIDS And the report includes a useful ”quick chart” comparing the candidates’ AIDS-related public record and positions. Full information on the report here. Key findings:

• The GMHC report documents, for the first time in one place, the stark differences between Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on nearly every AIDS issue. For example, seven Democrats have committed to investing $50 billion to fight HIV/AIDS globally over the next five years. No Republican candidate has made a similar commitment. All eight Democratic candidates support comprehensive sex education, whereas seven of eight Republicans have opposed it. Most of the Democrats support lifting the ban against HIV-positive foreign nationals visiting… (more)
  Posted by Michael Kink on 11/28 at 04:45 PM
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Tami from Iowa on last night’s Cedar Falls AIDS Vigil

Tonight we held our candlelight service in Cedar Falls on the UNI campus. Sen. Biden was speaking at an education forum at 4:00 p.m. on campus before the rally. I showed up early hoping that I could remind him of the candlelight service hoping he would come and light a candle with us. I didn’t get to talk to him before the forum, but stayed for the end. Once he was done answering questions, I went up and told him I had met him at an earlier event in New Hampton. I had a picture of Adrian (my son) and I that I have given to other presidential candidates. I write on the back, AIDS funding saves lives, AIDS funding saves families with my address and contact info. I told him I hoped he would be able to come to the candlelight service, that my son would be there and would like to meet him. He made sure that a staffer knew where the event was taking place. He gave me a hug and told me he would be there. We held off the rally as long… (more)

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Iowans Bird Dogging The Candidates

Iowans are no strangers to national influence. Every four years large groups, hoping to drive national conversations and set public policy, open offices in the state. The groups’ pet issues are as varied as there is public sentiment and range from education to sub-prime lending, from health care to global warming. There is at least one group in the state, however, that not only takes its marching orders from local residents, but is having a major impact on how presidential candidates and local activists view the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Source

Iowa leaders call for AIDS plans from Giuliani, Huckabee, all other candidates

Iowa Religious and Community Leaders Call for Plans to Fight AIDS from Giuliani, Huckabee and all other candidates 4 days before World AIDS Day, hundreds of Iowans join prayer vigils in five cities across Iowa UPDATE 11/26/07 10:25PM CT: Senator Hillary Clinton has released her plan to fight AIDS, one day before a candlelight prayer vigil was planned outside her office in Davenport. “Sen. Clinton has stepped up to the plate, and released a plan to fight AIDS which, if enacted, will help turn the tide of the AIDS epidemic worldwide. She joins Obama and Edwards in calling for adequate funding and effective policies to fight AIDS at home and abroad, and today, we are praying for all other candidates, Republican and Democrat, to do the same,” said Kaytee Riek of Iowans for AIDS Action. Iowa- Hundreds of Iowans today attended prayer vigils to commemorate World AIDS Day, December 1st, and to call on all presidential candidates to release a plan to fight AIDS in the US and around the world by World AIDS Day. The vigils were organized by Iowans for AIDS Action, a statewide network… (more)

NY Times on Hillary Clinton’s AIDS Plan—and the other candidates

November 27, 2007

Clinton to Offer an AIDS Policy, Joining Her Main Rivals

By PATRICK HEALY and LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will propose steps today to strengthen the government’s strategy to battle H.I.V. and AIDS in the United States and the rest of the world, becoming the latest Democratic presidential candidate to commit to a significant expansion of federal efforts to combat the epidemic.

Mrs. Clinton’s two main rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Barack Obama and John Edwards, have already released plans of their own. Taking Mrs. Clinton’s into account, the three approaches are similar in terms of spending, goals and differences with President Bush’s AIDS policy.

Like her rivals, Mrs. Clinton proposed spending at least $50 billion cumulatively on global initiatives to combat H.I.V. and AIDS by 2013; the Bush administration has budgeted $30 billion for that period. She would also double money for H.I.V./AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health to $5.2 billion annually.

Mr. Edwards, in… (more)

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Giuliani says he’ll continue or expand Bush Global AIDS funding!

Felipe and his mom Katherine traveled to a Giuliani town hall in Nashua, NH—Felipe got the third question: “I am a medical student here and have helped to take care of patients in this country and abroad. I am also deeply concerned about national security. Colin Powell said that one of the great threats to America is global destabilization due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We have made promises to children in Africa—children like these (gesturing to the kids sitting in front of him)—but who are orphans, that we have broken promises to. The amount of development aid we give is much less than we have promised. We promised to give 0.7% of Gross National Income, or 70 cents on every 100 dollars, to global development, but we only give about 25 cents on every hundred dollars. As President, will you commit, not only to increasing our foreign development aid—now this is not the military but development—to 0.7 percent of our Gross National Income, and also commit 50 billion dollars of that to AIDS over the next five years?” Giuliani responded, Well, you know President Bush made historic… (more)

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

CNN: Giuliani offers few specifics on global AIDS, pushes trade as cure for Africa’s ills

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/11/12/giuliani-more-trade-will-help-solve-health-crises-in-africa/