I'm still here! Just distracted by real life...

How prisons profit.

We must move humanity to Mars.

An apple a day will actually do you a world of good.

Biking across Africa.

Saving our post offices one by one.

There's rioting in Africa....

Egypt. And here.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose....

Bush and his AIDS project in Africa

That everyone touts as a wonderful thing, just remember this:

Under President George W. Bush , the United States withdrew from its decades-long role as a global leader in supporting family planning, driven by a conservative ideology that favored abstinence and shied away from providing contraceptive devices in developing countries, even to married women.

Bush's mammoth global anti-AIDS initiative, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, poured billions of dollars into Africa but prohibited groups from spending any of it on family planning services or counseling programs, whose budgets flat-lined.

The restrictions flew in the face of research by international aid agencies, the U.N. World Health Organization and the U.S. government's own experts, all of whom touted contraception as a crucial method of preventing births of babies being infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The Bush program is widely hailed as a success, having supplied lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs to more than 2 million HIV patients worldwide.

However, researchers, Africa experts and veteran U.S. health officials now think that PEPFAR also contributed to Africa's epidemic population growth by undermining efforts to help women in some of the world's poorest countries exercise greater control over their fertility.

AIDS went up with Bush's abstinence program.

And he cut programs:

BUSH LIED ABOUT THE AIDS FUNDING HIS ADMINISTRATION IS PROVIDING, AS WELL AS ITS TIMING "Mr. Bush's other foreign aid initiative, announced in his State of the Union address, is $10 billion in new money to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean over five years. But his budget falls short of that promise. He is proposing only a $550 million increase over the global AIDS money in this year's spending bill now in Congress. Since the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria would be an effective channel for the aid, there is no excuse for the initiative's leisurely start. Mr. Bush's 2004 budget for the Global Fund, $200 million, actually cuts in half what Congress is likely to do in 2003. Mr. Bush has also found part of the money for his AIDS programs by cutting nearly $500 million from child health, including vaccine programs. Child survival is the biggest loser in the foreign aid budget — a scandalous way to finance AIDS initiatives. With the budget dominated by defense spending and huge tax cuts for the wealthy, the White House should not be forcing the babies of Africa to pay for their parents' AIDS drugs." 2.17.03

So while the Bush Legacy buffers search for something ... ANYTHING... that Georgie did while president that was good, this was not as gloriously wonderful as they would have you believe.

Bush's Legacy: AIDS in Africa

Shorter Bill Frist: Bush saved 10 million lives! He did! As a physician I can tell these things! He saved Africans from AIDS with his anti-AIDS program!

Really?:

Although the U.S. has been looked upon as a leader in the fight against
HIV/AIDS, the Bush administration has been criticized for playing to
fundamentalist views at the expense of girls and women and effective
comprehensive approaches.

[snip]

The U.S. has also been under fire for its Global Gag Rule that withholds
funding from any organization that even mentions abortion to its clients as
a family planning option. As a result, many clinics providing condoms to
clients shut down for lack of funds,.

In 2003, rather than put all the U.S. funds for AIDS into the multilateral
Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS established the previous year, President
George W. Bush set up a separate unilateral program called the President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Though widely seen as insufficient for the enormity of the task, the $9
billion in new money spread out over five years was a significant
contribution and encouraged other nations to do their share. Yet PEPFAR came
with restrictive funding requirements that, according to Boonstra, have hurt
countries in combating AIDS.

In accepting U.S. money, countries must use one-third of all funding to
promote abstinence. As a result, countries had to cut back on other
essential programs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that
the cutbacks included slashing programs that prevent mother-to-child
transmission and others using comprehensive approaches such as condom
distribution to high-risk, sexually active teenagers.

What was that about saving lives?

BUSH LIED ABOUT THE AIDS FUNDING HIS ADMINISTRATION IS PROVIDING, AS WELL AS ITS TIMING "Mr. Bush's other foreign aid initiative, announced in his State of the Union address, is $10 billion in new money to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean over five years. But his budget falls short of that promise. He is proposing only a $550 million increase over the global AIDS money in this year's spending bill now in Congress. Since the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria would be an effective channel for the aid, there is no excuse for the initiative's leisurely start. Mr. Bush's 2004 budget for the Global Fund, $200 million, actually cuts in half what Congress is likely to do in 2003. Mr. Bush has also found part of the money for his AIDS programs by cutting nearly $500 million from child health, including vaccine programs. Child survival is the biggest loser in the foreign aid budget — a scandalous way to finance AIDS initiatives. With the budget dominated by defense spending and huge tax cuts for the wealthy, the White House should not be forcing the babies of Africa to pay for their parents' AIDS drugs." 2.17.03

Did Frist just phone this in after watching Bush on videotape?

Avast, tis Blackwater thinkin' a fightin' pirates!

Think Progress:

The private security firm Blackwater is planning to offer a new service to make money: protection from the pirate-infested waters off the coast of East Africa. “Blackwater’s push to land its first antipiracy contract is part of a strategy to build its business outside its State Department security work in Iraq, which brings in between $300 million and $400 million a year.” The security company may be looking for new lucrative opportunities partly because the Iraqi government has now ratified a law stripping Blackwater contractors of immunity. Indeed, Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell noted the legal benefits of operating in the open sea: “We would be allowed to fire if fired upon; the right of self-defense is one that exists in international waters.”

This will work fine. Private companies pay for private security on the high seas ... until Blackwater starts shooting innocent fishing vessels out of the water. And the media will always go and wreck it by finding out that pirates have starving families too....

You say Tomatah and I say Tomato

Let's call the whole thing off!

John McCain misspoke and confused his African countries while talking to reporters on the Straight Talk Express today. This time, he was bailed out not by Joe Lieberman, but by his close aide Mark Salter. “How can we bring pressure on the government of Somalia?” McCain asked, which prompted Mark Salter to correct him. “Sudan,” Salter said. “Sudan,” McCain repeated. “There’s a realpolitik side of my view of the conduct of American foreign policy.”

Should we be concerned yet?

Noah had to use duct tape to get this one on the ark

I suppose this one ate coconuts as well?

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Fossils from two newly discovered meat-eating dinosaurs that lived in the Sahara Desert 110 million years ago paint a fearsome picture of life in Africa's Cretaceous period, which appears to have been teeming with unusual carnivores.

University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno unearthed Kryptops palaios, a short-snouted, hyena-like beast, and Eocarcharia dinops, a shark-toothed, bony-browed killer in a 2000 expedition.

Both were about 25 feet in length -- and on the prowl for meat.

"These are two of three that we dug up. To have three large predators in this area is really extraordinary," said Sereno, who describes the dinosaurs in the scientific journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

[snip]

Sereno said the animals lived in the southern landmass that was known as Gondwana, where distinctive meat-eaters arose, many of which bear no likeness to the better-known North American predator of the time, Tyrannosaurus rex.

[snip]

Kryptops was a scavenger and had a uniform series of relatively pointy teeth and a short snout. "The idea was that the animal was sticking its head into carcasses," he said.

Eocarcharia, or "dawn shark," is known for its blade shaped teeth and bony brow.

"The teeth are very narrow side-to-side. They are blade-shaped for cutting. This animal specialized in capturing live prey and severing limbs. It was definitely a sabotage attacker, waiting for an opportunity to jump at something," Sereno said.

Eocarcharia and members of the group carcharodontosaurids gave rise to the biggest predators on southern continents, matching or exceeding Tyrannosaurus in size.

Sereno said the fossils epitomize the split world of dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period, which occurred because the continents began to drift apart.

"There is nothing quite like it in North America Cretaceous because after a few fits and starts, the tyrannosaur came into being and they are often alone as the large predatory dinosaur."

I am very grateful to be living in the Holocene Epoch, thank you very much.

Peace on earth, good will to men

Blackwater wants you to know they are peacekeepers.

And I suppose we should start apologizing now.... Georgie is planning a bunch of furrin trips:

At his year-end press conference last week, President Bush said “I go around spreading good will” to other countries. His schedule next year will test his ability to spread good will:

In early January, Bush flies to Israel for his first visit as president. While in the region, he also will visit the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The trip is a follow-up to the Israeli-Palestinian talks that the U.S. hosted in Annapolis, Maryland, last month.

In February, Bush will tour Africa, where U.S. public health initiatives are popular. That will be followed by an April North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Romania, a June U.S.-European summit in Slovenia, a July meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Japan, the summer Olympics in China and a November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru. Bush is likely to visit other, nearby countries during those trips.

Jim Jeffrey, the deputy White House national security adviser, said, “We want to be well-perceived in the world.”

Besides choking on my tea when I saw there actually is a Jimmy/Jeff in the White House (is he bald?), this last line apparently was said with a straight face and no trace of irony....

Isn't it ironic....

A Nobel Prize-winning scientist who provoked a public outcry by claiming black Africans were less intelligent than whites has a DNA profile with up to 16 times more genes of black origin than the average white European.

An analysis of the genome of James Watson showed that 16 per cent of his genes were likely to have come from a black ancestor of African descent. By contrast, most people of European descent would have no more than 1 per cent.

"This level is what you would expect in someone who had a great-grandparent who was African," said Kari Stefansson of deCODE Genetics, whose company carried out the analysis. "It was very surprising to get this result for Jim."

I'm sorry, I can't seem to stop laughing...

Slavery is good

Here Michael Medved blithers about the African slaves and how we did them a favor by bringing them to America. One point stood out:

5. WHILE AMERICA DESERVES NO UNIQUE BLAME FOR THE EXISTENCE OF SLAVERY, THE UNITED STATES MERITS SPECIAL CREDIT FOR ITS RAPID ABOLITION.

Which brought me to this book review: Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy:

In this eye-opening look at the contemporary American scourge of labor abuse and outright slavery, journalist and author Bowe (Gig: Americans Talk About their Jobs) visits locations in Florida, Oklahoma and the U.S.-owned Pacific island of Saipan, where slavery cases have been brought to light as recently as 2006. There, he talks to affected workers, providing many moving and appalling first-hand accounts. In Immokalee, Florida, migrant Latino tomato and orange pickers are barely paid, kept in decrepit conditions and intimidated, violently, to keep quiet about it.

A welding factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma imported workers from India who were forced to pay exorbitant "recruiting fees" and live in squalid barracks with tightly controlled access to the outside world. Considering the tiny island capital of Saipan, Bowe explores how its culture, isolation and American ties made it so favorable an environment for exploitative garment manufacturers and corrupt politicos; alongside the factories sprouted karaoke bars, strip joints and hotels where politicians were entertained by now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The detailed chapter gives readers a lasting image of the island, touted a "miracle of economic development," as a vulnerable, truly suffering community, where poverty rates have climbed as high as 35 percent.

Bowe's deeply researched, well-written treatise on the very real problem of modern American slavery deserves the attention of anyone living, working and consuming in America.

The United States still has slavery?

And this about Bush, Abramoff and the Northern Mariana Islands, John Aravosis of Americablog in 10/16/06:

Remember how just two years ago George Bush claimed he wanted to put a stop to human trafficking - i.e., women being forced into sexual slavery?

Then why was the Bush administration's premiere advocate for stopping such sexual slavery forced out of his job a while back?

According to the Sunday Los Angeles Times, he was fired because convicted criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff was representing one of the countries that most profits from sexual slavery and human trafficking, the Northern Mariana Islands. Abramoff wanted this Bush administration official fired because the official's anti-human-trafficking agenda - now George Bush's agenda - posed a direct threat to Abramoff's pro-sex-slave client.

But Jack Abramoff doesn't have the power to fire a Bush administration official - all he can do is ask. Someone inside the Bush administration had to do Abramoff's dirty work and fire the official on behalf of Abramoff and his client. According to the Los Angeles Times, that someone was former senior Bush White House official, and now head of the Republican party, Ken Mehlman.

And then my post about the collection of illegal immigrants and others being held in concentration camps in the United States with no oversight.

I've been getting consistent hits on this last year's post about a parody site about slavery being good for the economy. It boggles my mind.

What the hell is going on?

If people insist on using condoms

Make them afraid of them:

The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately.

Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected "in order to finish quickly the African people".

The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms, advising fidelity within marriage or sexual abstinence.

Aids activists have been angered by the remarks, one calling them "nonsense".

"We've been using condoms for years now, and we still find them safe," prominent Mozambican Aids activist Marcella Mahanjane told the BBC.

The UN says anti-retrovirals (ARVs) have proved very effective for treating people with Aids. The drugs are not a cure, but attack the virus on several fronts at once.

How on earth did someone think this was a good idea in the first place, socially awkward celibates advising sexually active people on sexual activity?

Never quit trying

How many lions were on this poor calf along with one determined croc? And it still escaped back into the herd. Best part is the flying lion: (Hijacked from Steve Bates at The Yellow Doggerel Democrat)

What you get when you toss the use of the soft voice

And use only the big stick.

The Bush administration's lack of diplomacy around the world is backfiring. Steve Benen at Talking Points Memo:

Walter Lohman, who covers Asian affairs for the conservative Heritage Foundation, noted, "Canceling a meeting here or there may not seem like a big deal, but the slights are piling up." He added, "Unless the Bush administration can quickly get back on track, the game is over; it will fall to the next president to revitalize the U.S. commitment" to Asia.

And Latin America. And Africa.

Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said outside of Europe, where Bush has made some efforts at engagement, "things don't look as good," particularly in countries experiencing far-reaching changes stemming from China's rise. Kupchan added, "There doesn't seem to be anybody who's minding the store at the top level."

We've all seen the quality of work at the top level...









Update: Apparently the top level is still trying to sell its tired old propaganda in place of diplomacy. Via Firedoglake:

A few months ago, she decided to write an opinion piece about Lebanon. She enlisted John Chambers, chief executive officer of Cisco Systems as a co-author, and they wrote about public/private partnerships and how they might be of use in rebuilding Lebanon after last summer’s war. No one would publish it.

Think about that. Every one of the major newspapers approached refused to publish an essay by the secretary of state. Price Floyd, who was the State Department’s director of media affairs until recently, recalls that it was sent to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and perhaps other papers before the department finally tried a foreign publication, the Financial Times of London, which also turned it down.

As a last-ditch strategy, the State Department briefly considered translating the article into Arabic and trying a Lebanese paper. But finally they just gave up. “I kept hearing the same thing: ‘There’s no news in this.’ ” Floyd said. The piece, he said, was littered with glowing references to President Bush’s wise leadership. “It read like a campaign document.”

Losing Africa to China

Because of diplomatic neglect and focus on Iraq:

At a time when Western nations have failed to fulfill investment and development promises in Africa, China has taken the lead in building much-needed roads, schools and clinics and establishing telecommunication networks, all at 30% below the cost of Western nations.

Home to 34 of the world's least-developed countries, Africa is in need of sound development investments and political allies. For now, both China and its African allies maybe benefit from limited economic growth, but the risks attached surely outweigh the long-term benefits. Poor business practices could undermine domestic stability, development and Africa's goal of creating a better way of life through political and economic indigenous models, such as NEPAD.

The United States has failed to convey the message adequately that African nations have a vital role to play in the international system and the leaders of progressive African nations must be seen as equal partners. This failure left a void for a country such as China to fill with promises of expanding trade and the idea of "non-interference in domestic affairs".

It is no secret that China's long-term goal has nothing to do with creating a peaceful, dynamic and stable African continent, but rather its goal is to use its economic soft power as a way to limit Western influence in developing nations such as in Africa and Latin America. China has targeted the US as its major global rival and is using developing nations as means to tighten its grip on resources and political power - only five African nations have diplomatic relations with China's political rival Taiwan.

China's successful model of "development minus democracy and non-interference in domestic issues" is leading to lack of respect for human rights, is creating an immense gap between rich and poor, and will ensure that poor working conditions remain the norm throughout the continent.

If African nations fail to act soon, these same nations will once again face exploitation at the hands of a foreign presence and continue down a road of despair and unfulfilled promises.

Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Africa.

Relations between China and the US turn sour.

Evolution under attack in Kenya

Where ancient fossils support the evolutionary development of man:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Deep in the dusty, unlit corridors of Kenya's national museum, locked away in a plain-looking cabinet, is one of mankind's oldest relics: Turkana Boy, as he is known, the most complete skeleton of a prehistoric human ever found.

But his first public display later this year is at the heart of a growing storm - one pitting scientists against Kenya's powerful and popular evangelical Christian movement. The debate over evolution vs. creationism - once largely confined to the United States - has arrived in a country known as the cradle of mankind.

"I did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it," says Bishop Boniface Adoyo, head of Kenya's 35 evangelical denominations, which he claims have 10 million followers. "These sorts of silly views are killing our faith."

[snip]

Among the 160,000 fossils due to go on display is an imprint of a lizard left in sedimentary rock, dating back 200 million years, at a time when the Earth's continents were only beginning to separate.

Dinosaur fossils and a bone from an early human ancestor, dating back 7 million years, will also be on show along with the bones of short-necked giraffes and elephants whose tusks protrude from their lower jaws.

They provide the clearest and unrivaled record yet of evolution and the origins of man, say scientists.

But the highlight will be the 5-foot-3 Turkana Boy, who died at age 12 and whose skeleton had been preserved in marshland before its discovery.

It will form the center stage of the exhibition to be launched in July following a $10.5 million renovation of the National Museums of Kenya, financed by the European Union. The EU says it has no concerns over the displays and that the museum was free to exhibit what it wished.

Followers of creationism believe in the literal truth of the Genesis account in the Bible that God created the world in six days. Bishop Adoyo believes the world was created 12,000 years ago, with man appearing 6,000 years later. He says each biblical day was equivalent to 1,000 Earth years.

Abstinence-only connected to rise in AIDS.

Uganda's falling rates of AIDS is now on the upswing because of the Bush abstinence-only program.

Americablog:
"The reasons for the increase are not clear, but there has been a shift in the message from Uganda's leadership. Between the early 1990s and early 2000s, HIV prevalence fell sharply in major cities among pregnant women - the group most commonly monitored because they have contact with health services - as President Yoweri Museveni worked to raise awareness of the dangers of HIV and put the authority of his office behind condom use.

But in recent years the message on condoms has been diluted in favour of greater emphasis on sexual abstinence until marriage - in line with the thinking of the Bush administration, which is spending millions of dollars on HIV prevention and treatment. Critics say many women are not in a position to abstain from sex and that many are infected by their husbands."