President George W. Bush to Receive 'International Medal of Peace' on 20th World AIDS Day

[TechBear_Seattle]

Source: Christian Newswire

President George W. Bush will be presented with the "International Medal of PEACE" by Dr. Rick Warren on behalf of the Global PEACE Coalition during the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health, to be held at the Newseum in Washington, on the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, Dec. 1. This award is in recognition of the President's tireless efforts and unprecedented contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

"No world leader has done more for global health than President Bush," Warren said. "The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has saved millions of lives in the past five years, so it is fitting that he be awarded the first 'International Medal of PEACE.'

"Through PEPFAR and other humanitarian programs, President and Mrs. Bush and their respective staffs have been instrumental in initiating and sustaining the largest humanitarian commitment to a single disease in history," Warren added. "All around the world, lives have been saved and improved because of PEPFAR's battle against AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis."

The "International Medal of PEACE" is given to honor outstanding contribution toward alleviating the five "global goliaths" – giant problems negatively impacting society worldwide, including pandemic diseases, extreme poverty, illiteracy, corruption and injustice and spiritual emptiness. The PEACE Coalition is a network of churches, businesses and individuals cooperating together to solve humanitarian issues through the PEACE Plan, an effort to mobilize millions of Christians to Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation.

Read more: http://www.christiannewswire.com/index.php?module=releases&task=view&releaseID=8805

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:puke:

Only a far right wing conservative Christian nut job like Rick Warren would think that Bush has done ANYTHING about HIV, and only such a person could miss the extreme irony of awarding getting any kind of peace medal.

:banghead:

[Phred42]

1. This clearly shows the CHRISTIAN perspective

:crazy:

Time to start revoking 501 C3.....

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. Actually, this is more the sort of thing that churches SHOULD be doing

From the press release:

The "International Medal of PEACE" is given to honor outstanding contribution toward alleviating the five "global goliaths" – giant problems negatively impacting society worldwide, including pandemic diseases, extreme poverty, illiteracy, corruption and injustice and spiritual emptiness. The PEACE Coalition is a network of churches, businesses and individuals cooperating together to solve humanitarian issues through the PEACE Plan, an effort to mobilize millions of Christians to Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation.

The only political aspect here is that the award is being given to an elected official. As distasteful as it is to say, that is acceptable under the law.

[Kelvin Mace]

10. Giving Bush a medal for peace

is like giving Madonna a medal for virginity.

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. That is entirely beside the point

And you remind me of a joke made by Bette Midler about Madonna: "Like a virgin, touched for the very first time. For the very first time today! Oh, my God, pity the poor soul that has to rinse out that lingerie! The only thing she'll ever do like a virgin is have a baby in a stable. By an unknown father, at that!"

[patrice]

2. = Rallying their troops to fight Healthcare Reform. nt

[santamargarita]

3. This is a joke, right?

:thumbsdown:

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. I wish it were, but the source seems legit n/t

[speakclearly]

45. You can hate Bush

all you want for other errors and policies. But his support for HIV/AIDS programs in Africa has been monumental in scope and effectiveness:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19053773

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030527-7.html

http://www.populationaction.org/Press_Room/Press_Releases/2008/02_19_Bush_HIVAIDS_AFRICA.shtml

And this is not the first award that has been given to Bush because of this program:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/129571.php
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/Daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=55544

And the program has been effective. It is widely credited in Africa for saving thousands, perhaps millions, of lives. And the network that was established to deal with AIDS/HIV has helped other Africans with health issues such as malaria and other endemic diseases:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jYIoNiMiAQJ6TolmO6aZUmuKOahQ
http://allafrica.com/stories/200302100222.html

And whitel the American Enterprise Institute, and anti-Bush vehicle, is critical of some aspects of Bush's initiative on HIV/AIDS, it also recognizes the many successes of the program:
http://www.american.com/archive/2007/november-11-07/the-bush-record-on-aids/

When someone screws up, we need to hold them accountable. When they do something worthwhile and helpful, we should also hold them accountable and recognize their contribution. Bush took much of the "stigma" off of HIV/AIDS. It has largely lost the "gay disease" label, at least in part because of his efforts to address it in Africa where it is clearly a heterosexual problem, not a gay problem. And he has inspired support from many other nations, including some African nations. The problem has not ended, but Bush gave it a strong leg up in dealing with the long-term solution.
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/bush-aids-business-and-africa/

[jaxx]

4. I am speechless!

To think that bush would have anything given to him in the guise of peace is a farce.

[msongs]

5. it's all about the glorification of Warren, and btw, follow the $$ warren makes off this... nt

[theblasmo]

7. Boom!

And the irony meter just blew up. Or committed suicide at the thought.

[undeterred]

9. Is this the ONION?

[TechBear_Seattle]

12. Christian Newswire. Same thing. n/t

[spiritual_gunfighter]

33. It has to be a joke

Are we sure this isn't some parody news article?

[MilesColtrane]

11. If PEACE stands for...

Pillage oil from Iraq, Equip Halliburton, Blackwater, and the Pentagon, Annihilate tens of thousands of innocent civilians, Crash the economy and Erase the Constitution,

then he deserves it.

[TechBear_Seattle]

15. Alas, it stands for

Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation.

As I said, only a far right wing conservative Christian nut job like Rick Warren....

[AlphaCentauri]

21. well if that is the case they are miss leading the public

like they alway do

[patrice]

17. No Joke! That's EXACTLY what PEACE is to Rick Warren and his zombies. nt

[Rambis]

14. Why not!

black is white, north is south, peace is war, this is the last gasp of the world of 1984.

[go west young man]

16. It's called you scratch my back I'll scratch yours.

Bush gives churches money by not taxing them on the money they receive and they say the sun shines out of his murdering ass! Isn't organized religion a beautiful thing?!!!!

[TechBear_Seattle]

18. You can't blame Bush for churches getting 501(c)(3) status

Rather, this is about "faith based" programs, which have given millions of taxpayer dollars to help promote theological and doctrinal teachings.

[AlphaCentauri]

19. Those guys at the christian coalition must be smoking something good

they are speaking in tongues and having visions

[lonestarnot]

20. Rght to lifers still don't get it. You can't be all you can be when you're dead.

[petepillow]

22. Adolf Hitler receives posthumous Leadership Award, presented by the KKK

[fbahrami]

27. Thanks :)

I needed that.

[Joe Chi Minh]

30. Heck, Hitler was on the short-list for the Nobel Peace Prize before WWII !

[mlevans]

23. This would be really amusing if it weren't so damned pathetic.

I suppose next we can look for him to present himself with the Medal of Freedom.

[jetphixer]

24. This is 4 a LAFF

This is unbelievable!! Ill bet Rick will get some $$'s out of this. Now tell me how can someone who WILL be investigated for war crimes receive N E thing involving the word peace? Where do the wing nutz live ? Surly not here on planet earth. Or a neighboring planet . Humm maby the parallel universe that is devoid of N E form of common sense.

[patrice]

25. = Gathering to worship the Golden Calf. Where is OUR "Moses"?? nt

[LeftHander]

26. Oh look....a frozen ass monkey from hell......nt

[gatorboy]

28. Could this look any more transparent? The is the first medal of it's kind.

Obviously created to give Bush something positive to leave office on.

I guarantee there won't be a second "International Medal of Peace".

[Loudmxr]

29. I have to stick up for GWB on this one.

In the fight against AIDS the United States has been an effective partner with other leaders under GWB. Unlike his usual cowboy go it alone way of doing things. We have been more generous, as generous, or less generous than our contemporaries instead of dead last like usual.

Really he could have ignored it or screwed it up like usual. But he didn't and it may be the one thing in his sorry eight years that he did half way right.

Mind you a "Peace Prize" for this is like giving a "Best All Around Sport" to the guy who won at mumblypeg. But that's the delusional right.:smoke:

[90-percent]

32. I concur with above poster

GWB should spend the rest of his life in prison, but, to be fair, he did do a lot of stuff that was good for people in Africa suffering from AIDS.

For the record...

I'm not an expert on the subject, but I think it's one area where GWB didn't screw it up for eight straight years.

-90% jimmy

[catrose]

34. But what about Jimmy Carter's efforts?

Since his presidency, he's devoted himself and his money to eradicating various diseases in the 3rd World. And NOBODY has done more for world health than GWB? Hard to believe.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

44. I disagree. His demand that 1/3 of the preventative money be spent on abstinence instead of condom

use was ridiculous and demonstrated to the world how out of touch he (and by extension we) are.

[struggle4progress]

46. No. DUers know King George better than that: he actually refused to work

with existing multilateral programs, demanded "abstinence only" platforms from countries he worked with, refused to fund condoms, and prevented US scientists from attending international AIDS conferences unless the Administration could guarantee that their scientific presentations were politically acceptable to the White House

In short, this was handled the way the White House has handled everything: by ignoring reality in order to pander to the religious rightwing Republican base, by attempting to undermine existing international institutions, by politicizing specialist civil servant positions which are properly apolitical, and by seeking to increase the discretionary power of the Oval Office as much as possible

Since Obama will be required to undo the damage, it's counterproductive to pretend Bush did the right thing for AIDS prevention

[AlphaCentauri]

47. Hope his leadership doesn't have nothing to do with the pharmaceutical industries

remember We all love our mothers,
but I just remember that in 2002 there was a ban on generic AIDS drugs for Africa

"Today we have decided to openly break the patent right of the pharmaceutical companies ... because we have decided that the life of a patient cannot be put under the patent right," Dr. Eric Goemaere of Doctors Without Borders in South Africa said at a news conference.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/conditions/01/29/safrica.aids.patents/index.html

[ixion]

31. whatever...right wing whack jobs, geez

true Christians should be really pissed off at the affront to their religion.

[rasputin1952]

35. I would expect to see this in The Onion, but considering that

some RWnutjob is coming up w/this "event", I guess it was to be expected.

bush...one of the most destructive people on the planet...gimme a break, he deserves the "Alfred E.Newman Medal for Sheer Incompetence"...it's made from slag, and hangs from a rope designed as a noose.

[TechBear_Seattle]

36. If the Associated Press is a legitimate source for LBN, why isn't the Christian Newswire?

I'm curious as to why this was removed from Late Breaking News.

[Ichingcarpenter]

40. Gary McCullough is the director of the nation's leading religious newswire Christian Newswire,

In 1989, McCullough worked for the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue founded by Randall Terry. McCullough arranged the first interviews for jailed cell-mates by keeping details of media interview times and phone numbers written with soap on his jail cell's concrete floor. McCullough has been arrested for peaceful sit-ins (called Rescues) in front of abortion clinics over 30 times ( See McCullough's bio). http://www.earnedmedia.org/gary_mccullough.htm

He has been the voice and/or strategist behind battles on behalf of anti-abortion, religious liberty, and political campaigns. Projects of note include the confirmation of Ashcroft, several Supreme Court battles, protecting the public display of faith and the symbols of faith, the Terri Schiavo family, the formation of Operation Rescue, and the resurrection of the White House Office of Special Media (Catholic, Christian, & Minority Media) for Bush 43; this department had been eliminated by President Clinton.

[struggle4progress]

37. Bush, the AIDS President? Don't believe everything you read in the newspaper (Utne Jul-Aug 08)

by Danielle Maestretti

... Congress is looking into reauthorizing PEPFAR, which will present an opportunity to address some of the problems. Currently, one-third of the funds marked for prevention must go toward promoting abstinence until marriage; PEPFAR grantees must sign a pledge stating that they oppose prostitution; and PEPFAR dollars cannot be used to run needle exchange programs, even in areas where needles are the primary method of HIV transmission.

These stipulations make evaluating PEPFAR “a moral conundrum,” writes Michelle Goldberg for the American Prospect online (July 10, 2007). “How do you weigh lives saved by treatment against lives lost through policies that sabotage prevention?”

And make no mistake, lives will be lost, considering who is left out of PEPFAR’s prevention equation. The “prostitution pledge” ensures that some organizations will opt against working with prostitutes in order to up their chances of snagging PEPFAR funding. In Zambia, writes William Smith for the RH Reality Check blog (March 11, 2008), the prostitution pledge is interpreted “as an explicit direction from the U.S. government that prevention with sex workers is a risky business if you want grant money.” In the truck-stop town of Kafue, where impoverished women and girls sell sex to drivers passing through on one of Zambia’s major highways, there’s only one group handing out condoms—and it’s not PEPFAR-funded ...

http://www.utne.com/2008-07-01/Media/Bush-the-AIDS-President.aspx

[AndrewP]

38. Wow

:puke:

[struggle4progress]

39. GAO Criticizes Bush's AIDS Plan (WaPo 2006)

Abstinence-and-Fidelity Provision Sowing Confusion, Report Says

By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 5, 2006; Page A03

The requirement that a large fraction of President Bush's global AIDS plan go to promote abstinence and fidelity is causing confusion in many countries and in a few is eroding other prevention efforts, including ones to reduce mother-to-child transmission of the virus ...

The Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator requires that 20 percent of all AIDS spending go for prevention. Half the prevention budget must be spent to stop sexual transmission of HIV. Two-thirds of that spending, in turn, must be used promoting abstinence and fidelity.

"Most of the 20 PEPFAR teams . . . reported that fulfilling presents challenges to their ability to respond to the local epidemiology and cultural and social norms," the GAO authors wrote. About half a dozen teams said the spending requirement "can undermine the integrated nature of HIV/AIDS prevention programs."

Of the 15 "focus countries" -- 12 African countries, plus Haiti, Guyana and Vietnam -- nine reduced the amount of money for programs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in their 2006 budgets to meet the spending target for abstinence promotion ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040401628.html

[struggle4progress]

41. President Bush on AIDS: More Questions Than Answers (2004)

Comment by John S. James

... The high-profile attention to AIDS is welcome, and the announcements look generous when reduced to headlines. But they leave major questions unanswered ...

* Bush did not mention that his administration recently stopped 28 researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control from attending the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok in July, forcing the withdrawal of about 40 scientific papers, after pressure against the Conference from right-wing members of Congress -- or that his administration is demanding that the World Health Organization get political approval before inviting any U.S. government scientist to WHO scientific meetings.

* Possibly by coincidence, the president spoke one day before the global day of demonstrations to invest in heath not war, called by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) of South Africa for June 24. From the call:

"In January 2003, the Bush Administration promised $15 billion over the next five years to alleviate the HIV epidemic. This was cautiously welcomed by human rights and AIDS organizations. Yet the expenditure approved by the US Congress as part of this commitment for 2004 is only $2.4 billion. The total amount of US aid money for 2004 is $17.55 billion. Yet the military budget approved for 2004 is already $368.2 billion, an amount that does not reflect the $87 billion war supplemental requested by the Bush Administration. Much of this military budget is being used to fight the so-called War Against Terror and to sustain the occupation of Iraq. We acknowledge the threat of terrorism. However, the most important and widespread threats to global security are the ones exacerbated by poverty and lack of development: the HIV, malaria and tuberculosis epidemics, as well as malnutrition. Alleviating these problems together with promoting human rights and negotiating solutions to world problems through international institutions is the best way to ensure long-term global security."

http://www.aids.org/atn/2004/06/bush-philadelphia.html

[rurallib]

42. In related news, Saxbe Chambliss gets medal for promoting racial harmony

[struggle4progress]

43. Here's a link to a 2004 article arguing that Bush ignored existing multilateral

arrangements for addressing HIV/AIDS in favor of less effective ones, essentially controlled by the White House

A GRAVE AND GATHERING THREAT: BUSINESS AND SECURITY IMPLICATIONS OF THE AIDS EPIDEMIC AND A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S RESPONSE
Georgetown Journal of International Law, Winter 2004 by Burton, Adam
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4140/is_/ai_n9392422

[merh]

48. Oh, it's like wetland mitigation.

Only its human life mitigation, sure, responsible for killing hundreds of thousands but look, gave money for aids drugs :sarcasm:

Fucking joke, what a fucking joke.

[heliarc]

49. This sounds like an Onion Headline. n/t

[bdamomma]

50. is this a joke or something

a medal of peace???? him?