I am extremely proud of my vote for Obama today

[La Lioness Priyanka]

As I reserve & use the right to criticize him, I also reserve the right to be proud of my vote and honestly, this does make me proud.

The ban on entry into the US by HIV positive people has been lifted by Obama.

“The connection between immigration and H.I.V. has frightened people away from testing and treatment,” said Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, a group that advocates for gay people in immigration matters. She said lifting the ban would bring “a significant public health improvement.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/us/politics/31travel.html?_r=3

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. and as always, i deeply regret not having Kerry as the president in 04

as he lead this effort to repeal the ban

[Deep13]

2. Me too. Hell, I deeply regret not having Gore in '00.

:hi:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

16. gore would have been ok. at the time he was trying to be just right of clinton

kerry was a progressive voice.

[Deep13]

19. True. That was a mistake on Gore's part.

He's better now. And he was willing to acknowledge the reality of global warming and the need to do something about it when there was still time to mitigate most of the damage. I just have to think of all the war and debt we would have avoided if the POTUS was not asleep in 2001.

I'm from MA originally and had the honor of doing campaign work for Kerry's reelection in 1990. One of the things that pushed me away from being a conservative toward liberalism was the force of Kerry's logic on the Senate floor.

[Jamastiene]

3. Credit where credit is due.

This is a good one. :applause:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. yup. its really massively good.

[Don Caballero]

5. Those who are criticizing our President are not paying attention

He is turning out to be the real change we voted for.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. in many ways yes, and many ways no. blind critisim or praise, has the problem

of being blind

[ThomCat]

7. Well said.

:)

[Deep13]

10. My feeling exactly. nt

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NMMNG]

29. Don't you have anything better to do than flog the gays?

:shrug:

[Don Caballero]

30. Me? What are you talking about?

[bullwinkle428]

35. Let's not go overboard with the condescending dismissal

toward anyone that makes a constructive criticism of the President.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

36. indeed

[Toasterlad]

8. Not Enough To Make Me "Proud", But It's Certainly a Good Move.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. it affects enough lives around me personally, that it justifies my getting out of bed

to vote for him. so in that, i am proud.

most days, i see no benefit to my getting out of bed to have voted for most people in office.

[Toasterlad]

18. I Just Don't Think You Should Be Proud of Politicians For Doing the Right Thing.

Obama lifting this ban shouldn't seen as an extraordinary act. It should be seen as the very LEAST he could do as a decent human being.

Haven't we had enough of Obama being praised simply for not being Bush?

Nonetheless, I'm very glad that the ban was lifted.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. i think unless we learn to praise him, our critism will be viewed as more of the same

[Toasterlad]

23. I Understand What You're Saying, And I Agree In Principle

I don't WANT this to be a divided nation, or even a divided party.

However, I have too many issues with Obama to pay him even lip service when I don't feel he's earned it. Yes, it's petty, but it's how I feel. Perhaps it will become easier if we get a few more of these good moves down the line.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

25. I think it will become easier. I hope it does.

[ArcticFox]

9. Ok, so he reversed one stupid policy

Big deal.

Praising him for this is like praising a 5-year old for finally picking up a few of the toys scattered around the house.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. it impacts a lot of lives and HIV is still controversial, so yes, i am proud of him.

i try to be fair in my praise and criticism.
had this been a republican president it wouldnt have happened

[mzmolly]

28. He also lifted the ban on needle exchanges.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=85838&mesg_id=85838

[Sapphocrat]

11. Yes, it's wonderful...

...but (you knew there'd be a "but"), at the risk of being flamed utterly to death, Obama only completed what the last Congress, and Bush, of all people, began.

July 31, 2008:

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, today called on the Department of Health and Human Services to update its regulations following the President’s signing of legislation to reauthorize PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Included in this measure was a provision to repeal our nation’s discriminatory law barring HIV-positive visitors and immigrants. The PEPFAR bill passed the Senate on July 16 and the U.S. House passed the bill last week. ...

(As I often say, signing PEPFAR was the only thing Bush ever did right.)

What held things up was, in a nutshell, red tape that had to wind its way through HHS and OMB...

June 7, 2009:

"As Out4Immigration explained in July: “While the President’s signature on is a first step toward working to end immigration discrimination, one more barrier for HIV-positive visitors and immigrants must be removed. US immigration laws require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to maintain a list of diseases that render people unable to enter the United States. HIV remains on that list.”

Nearly a year later, nothing has changed...

Some hoped that with the inauguration of President Barack Obama that the ban would be quickly lifted, but after waiting this long (Canadian Martin Rooney) has decided to “get activist” on the cause again and has started a Facebook group titled “OBAMA Revoke the HIV Travel Ban NOW.” It’s part of his preparation for a demonstration he plans to hold in August on both sides of the border, much as he did in March 2008.

But the ban is in the process of being lifted, albeit slowly.

“A proposed rule to remove that from the regulations is, we understand now, at the Office of Management and Budget,” says Brian Moulton, senior council with the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, DC.

OMB is an office in the White House that reviews all regulations proposed by various agencies before they’re put out for public comment.

“The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention prepared the regulation, and has sent that over to OMB for their final review,” says Moulton. “They’ll make it available for some period of time for public comment — that usually varies from anywhere from 30 to 90 days — and once that review period closes, they’ll look at the comments and the rule one more time and they’ll put one final change to the regulations.”

“We’re waiting for OMB to give it the green light to go out for public comment. We don’t have a precise timeline from them when that will happen, but hopefully sometime this summer.” ...

So, not to pee on anybody's parade, but the truth is, Obama didn't do this all on his lonesome; his penstroke came only at the end of a long, long process.

On the bright side, no one can blame Obama for the delay, either; it was mostly due to the usual bureaucracy.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. i am aware that bush started this, but honestly if we cant praise the president

when he does well by our community, i don't think we'll have any negotiating power either. in order for any politician to work for us, we have to somewhat support them otherwise they wont consider us their constituents at all.


bush started this, but he didnt remove the ban. obama did & should thereby get credit for this

[Sapphocrat]

17. No, no, I'm not withholding praise.

I do think it's wonderful (and desperately needed). I also think that it's one of those things that should have been expected of Obama (can you imagine the repercussions if he hadn't signed it?), and nothing extraordinary for him to do. (A fantastic, wonderful thing, yes, but expected.)

Lifting the restrictions on stem cell lines strikes me as far more extraordinary; Obama risked the wrath of the radical religionists over that one. For that, I'll give the guy a standing ovation.

[Toasterlad]

20. Agreed About the Immigration Ban, But I Don't Agree That Lifting the Stem-Cell Ban Was Extraordinary

As you said of the immigration ban, lifting the stem-cell ban was something I'd EXPECT of Obama...or any decent person.

In today's reality, I suppose you could argue that any use of "political capital" to do something unpopular with one group or another is "brave" or "extraordinary", but what a sad comment on our society that doing the right thing when it's not necessarily politically expedient is a rare and noteworthy thing.

[Sapphocrat]

22. What's even sadder...

...is that I think the stem cell deal was extraordinary for Obama. I might not have been as surprised by the same move from, say, a President Kerry, and not at all surprised with a President Kucinich.

Meaning: Obama has made his allegiance to the radical religionists so crystal clear, that I find lifting stem cell restrictions extraordinary for him.

Absolutely agree: "what a sad comment on our society that doing the right thing when it's not necessarily politically expedient is a rare and noteworthy thing."

[Toasterlad]

24. In That Context, I'd Have To Agree: Obama DOES Love the Religious Whackos.

So I suppose it was something of an accomplishment for him to lift the stem-cell ban.

[David__77]

26. It was an important thing, him becoming president. A good thing.

I did not expect that he would govern as a progressive. But his becoming president is important from the standpoint of preventing fascism and for the progressive transformation of the culture of the country. It's important that the next generation be raised in a progressive culture, in which people different ethnicities and sexual orientations are empowered and visible.

[mzmolly]

27. :)

:hi:

[jonnyblitz]

31. I love ya Pri, you are one of my best DU friends, but I completely

and vehemently disagree with your post and I will spare you the details to why publically though perhaps one day when my thoughts are not pre-occupied by other things, I will explain to in detail, maybe when I come visit you next, why! ;) I have been doing this "lesser evil" thing much longer than you. Lifting the ban on HIV POZ people is the least any decent human being could do.

:hi:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

32. in 10 years i will be you..,,

feel bad for me :P

[mitchtv]

33. It came too late for my ex

from Argentina. Still it is a good thing

[closeupready]

34. As others have said, you are one of my favorite people here, but I disagree, at least in terms of

being proud of my vote for Obama in light of this.

I will say that it does make him seem less calculating and cynical to me, and I applaud him signing it. I will not say that, on balance, it makes me happy that I voted for him.

:hi: