Arkansas Blog

Great news and I guess we should thank God that this worthless asshole
will no longer be in Washington. What a waste of time for taxpayers
the entire time he was in Congress. thought since he is leaving congress i'd add his track record and some history to DR Frist damage and lack of education about HIV and tha harm he has caused the HIV postive community. in honor of WORLD AIDS DAY .2006 and i'm afaid Mike Huckebee would do more of the same misinfomation if he became president .

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=752

I can never forget when he appeared on ABC's Sunday, George
Stephanopoulos'' show. Stephanopoulos asked him if aids was spread
by saliva, sweat, tears and Dr. Frist didn't know. One hell of a
physician I must say and a rotten politician as well.

Please Tennessee, send us no more of these idiots. Send him back to
your institutes of proctology because only there could a perfect
asshole be appreciated.

Hallelujah Brothers and Sisters!
Rick L .Ramsey

Old news shown below about Frist's ignorance:

Health Organizations and AIDS Organizations Denounce Sen. Frist's
Inaccurate and Harmful Comments about HIV Transmission, Condom
Effectiveness

For Immediate Release: December 10, 2004
For More Information: Jodi Jacobson, Center for Health and Gender
Equity (CHANGE), jjacobson@genderhealth.org, 301-270-1182
Asia Russell, ACT UP Philadelphia, (267) 475-2645
Sponsor Organization: Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)

AIDS Activists Demand Apology and Retraction-or Resignation
AIDS organizations and people living with HIV/AIDS today demanded Sen.
Frist (R-TN), the Senate Majority Leader and a medical doctor,
apologize for and retract inaccurate statements regarding HIV
transmission made on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos"
December 5, 2004. After telling Stephanopoulos he "didn't know" if HIV
could be transmitted through tears or sweat, Dr. Frist went on to say
that transmission of HIV through tears or sweat "would be very hard
.... I mean, you can get virus in tears and sweat but in terms of the
degree of infecting somebody, it would be very hard." (NOTE: full
transcript pasted below.)

But according to the Centers for Disease Control, "[c]ontact with
saliva, tears, or sweat has never been shown to result in transmission
of HIV."

"A doctor takes an oath to do no harm," said Waheedah El-Shabazz, a
person living with HIV from ACT UP Philadelphia. "A simple 'no' was
the responsible answer. We are working on the front lines, trying to
correct dangerous myths about HIV transmission. But Dr. Frist's
comments endorse these myths and undermine our efforts to protect
people from HIV infection. He should be sent back to medical school if
he can't get his facts straight about HIV transmission."

In 2004 alone the Bush Administration's spent $170 million in the U.S.
and $86 million in developing countries on "abstinence only"
prevention programs. Recent analysis by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has
shown these programs teach inaccurate and misleading information.

(See:
http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/investigations.asp?Issue=Public+Health
)

According to the activists, Dr. Frist was so unwilling to be seen
calling the veracity of those Administration-endorsed programs into
question, he refused to provide a clear answer. "Unfortunately the
Bush Administration is not only using public money to spread
inaccurate HIV prevention information at home and abroad-politicians
like Dr. Frist are also bending over backwards to reinforce these
dangerous myths," said Jodi Jacobson, Executive Director of the Center
for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE).

During the interview Dr. Frist also stated that condoms have a "15%
failure rate," another inaccurate comment. According to peer-reviewed
studies, consistent and correct condom use is associated with a much
smaller failure rate, about 2%. For people who use condoms
inconsistently or incorrectly, failure rates can reach 13%.

--BEGIN TRANSCRIPT--

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) Okay, let me switch to another subject. There was a bit
of an uproar in Washington this week about this issue of these
abstinence programs that are funded by the Federal government, the
funding has doubled over the last four years but there was a report by
the minority staff at the House Government Affairs Committee that
showed that 11 of 13 of these programs are giving out false
information. I want to show some of the claims they identified in the
curricula. One of them was, one of the programs taught that "The
actual ability of condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS,
even if the product is intact, is not definitively known." Another,
"The popular claim that condoms help prevent the spread of STDs is not
supported by the data." A third suggested that tears and sweat could
transmit HIV and AIDS. Now, you're a doctor. Do you believe that tears
and sweat can transmit HIV?

SENATOR BILL FRIST

I don't know. I can tell you ...

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) You don't know?

SENATOR BILL FRIST

I can tell you things like, like ...

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) Well, wait, let me stop you, you don't know that, you
believe that tears and sweat might be able to transmit AIDS?

SENATOR BILL FRIST

Yeah, no, I can tell you that HIV is not very transmissible as an
element like, compared to smallpox, compared to the flu.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) No, let's talk. I want to talk about all of it.

SENATOR BILL FRIST

But about, about condoms, for example. We know there's about a 15
percent failure rate. You know, this is a deadly virus and you know it
is directly transmissible with a relatively high degree of infectivity
by, by sexual relations. If there's a 15 percent failure rate in, in
condoms ...

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) But this was suggesting that they don't work even if the
condom is intact.

SENATOR BILL FRIST

Oh, I know. But, but let me just say because the whole, the whole
success, if you look in Africa today where as you know 28 million
people are infected today is on this ABC, abstinence which is sort of
the initial thrust itself which is the only way to prevent, only way
to prevent.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) Only surefire way.

SENATOR BILL FRIST

That's right. Only surefire. Very hard culturally in lots of
approaches. Being faithful. Again, one partner and in certain cultures
that is very hard and, then third, condoms. If you take out just
condoms and say that is the answer with the 15 percent failure rate
with a highly infective virus through
sexual relations ...

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) These are suggesting that they're really never the answer.

SENATOR BILL FRIST

No, well, clearly. I'm telling you that the proposal that the Federal
government supports is officially this A, B, C approach, we put $15
billion into this, what I would regard as one of the great moral and
public health tragedies of the last 100 years, probably HIV/AIDS.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) But do you think these abstinence programs should be
reviewed and that they should be required to give out scientifically
accurate information?

SENATOR BILL FRIST

Oh, I think of course they should be reviewed, I mean, and that's in
part our responsibility to make sure that all of these programs are
reviewed but whether it's abstinence or whether it's condoms or
whether it is better education on the infectivity of how washing hands
in terms of the flu, all of these are public health challenges that we
need in terms of better education, yes, the government has a role,
especially if we're gonna be ...

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) Let me just, I wanted to move to another subject, let me
just clear this up, though. Do you or do you not believe that tears
and sweat can transmit HIV?

SENATOR BILL FRIST

It would be very hard. It would be very hard for tears and sweat, I
mean, you can get virus in tears and sweat but in terms of the degree
of infecting somebody, it would be very hard.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) Okay, let me turn to one final subject, steroids...

"Republican sympathizer Mara Liasson on NPR said this left the Republican Party without a Southern candidate or one friendly with the Religious Right."

I was standing in the kitchen when I heard her say that and I rared back and had a good laugh. Trotting out Mike Huckabee for President is like trying to win a dog show with your pet head lice. No one can see him....no one can hear him....he simply doesn't have what it takes and he simply doesn't matter.

If they aren't already I'd suggest the Huckabees check into becoming Amway dealers....power to the pyramid ya know!

Frist: "At this point a return to private life will allow me to return to my professional roots as a healer.."

So, is the Huckster a healer? Faith or any other kind?

"Mara Liasson on NPR said this left the Republican Party without a Southern candidate or one friendly with the Religious Right."

She better get head-in-ass diagnosed before too long. There's Newt from Georgia, and McCain is sucking up to religio-wingnuts daily, probably already
OD on kool-aid more than once.

now we have the glassy eyed so-called christains jumping on hucks back for him to be their savior. is he going to have any more causes than the christain coalition or is he going to figure out what the gay agenda is and attack it? is piglet going to measure the white house for sidin? stay tuned for what happens later.

Thanks, RLR, for reminding me of that FRIST/STEPHANOPOULOS interview.

Pitiful. How did he ever make it into and through med school?

I fully expect a report in the next year saying that Frist left the Senate and will not run for President because of a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's.

One wonders if the reason the right wingers preach abstinence instead of condoms is that they want as many people as possible that don't follow them to die.

That is the only thing that makes sense. Just like the anti-birth control pro-forced birth crowd. It seems they want as many women as possible to die or be maimed that are not in their pro-large family religious right group.

Anyone who has ever been in the hospital or seriously ill knows how sadly fallacious is the idea that you have to be smart to become a physician or surgeon. Like stockbrokers, preachers and siding installers, there are inevitably some clever ones, but it's not a requirement. You do have to be good at memorizing, though, and Frist isn't even successful at that (for instance, he forgot the symptoms of "has brain the size of walnut" in the case of Terry Schiavo). He was supposed to be a decent cutter, though.

Max and DBI - I had the same thoughts when I heard this on NPR on the drive home. Woops....guess Huckabee better work on the PR.

Let's see, what southern state had a GOP physician in a public health position who said that rape victims couldn't get pregnant?
Hint: Go Hogs!

Our Gov was mentioned in ABC's The NOTE this morning ..... The Los Angeles Times' Joel Havemann concludes that Frist's exit means Romney, Brownback, Huckabee, and Gingrich are the strongest beneficiaries in the game to court social conservatives.

Our Gov was mentioned in ABC's The NOTE this morning ..... The Los Angeles Times' Joel Havemann concludes that Frist's exit means Romney, Brownback, Huckabee, and Gingrich are the strongest beneficiaries in the game to court social conservatives.

Our Gov was mentioned in ABC's The NOTE this morning ..... The Los Angeles Times' Joel Havemann concludes that Frist's exit means Romney, Brownback, Huckabee, and Gingrich are the strongest beneficiaries in the game to court social conservatives.