Arkansas Blog

The question is ... will there be a happy ending to this massage story?

Yes, I can just hear Bush in years to come, looking back on his Presidency and saying:
I only massaged America.

next step? (as if the Beltway media would)

check his govt. credit card/ expense account to see if "we" paid for it.

David Sanders should look at this as an opportunity for future guest on Unconventional Wisdom--bring on Dick Morris and Randall Toe Bias to discuss the family values of GOP presidential candidates or the political pitfalls of having to buy one's friends.

". . . will there be a happy ending to this massage story?"

Dang it, Hugh, you beat me to it. That was what I was going to post! :)

So another "faithfulness and abstinence" Repub bites the dust. Perhaps he will now go into the preaching business where a sucker is born every minute.

I'm not shocked. The same gang that threw all those sex stones at Clinton wouldn't know family values if they smacked em up alongside their twisted heads. When I picture sex gone awry...I picture Rove.

Must have been one hell of a message...

I thought full debriefings were commonplace with State Department employees.

Since the Dept. of State isn't doing diplomacy these days I hope they will not waste money hiring more pharma folks to...not conduct diplomacy.

Don't have time to to dig up links but much more of this will pop up if the arrested DC madam coughs up names.

The Foggo story is also another bombshelll waiting to drop..Thankfully Carol Lam was able to file that suit before being fired in San Diego.

I think we all can see that the former pocket pen protector guys want and need sex too. Even nerds with slide rules on their belts get erections too.

Imagine this guy or Paul Wolfowitz, naked with his undies on his head sideways dancing towards your bed. As stomach churning as that thought is......we now know it's happening. Except (according to Oprah) for 40% of American women, EVERYONE wants sex.

These goofy Republicans bastards are no exception. But the difference between them and us is that in order to finally get some sex, they had to cut throats, steal and cheat their way to the top of our government before some woman would mess with them.

Along the way they've beat the Bible, told our teens they should cover their privates with Jesus, implied all Democrats are conceived anally, and pretended to believe in the sanctity of life while bashing gays and killing 650,000 Iraqis.

At the same time they've been banging someone on the side. What year will we find out that Bush spent all of his non-reading time porking some male or female assistant? Who has pictures of Cheney humping a detainee? What manner of man, woman or animal is Condi riding at night? Query your gut......you know they're doing someone.

Twisted sex was invented by Republicans....look at their scandals for proof. They speak of the beauty of the missionary position, but they're talking about actual sex with a real Missionary. Oh for shame!

Money is not number 1 in the world. Sex is. Everything is about sex....listen to me zelda....the flu you just got over is all about sex. When a germ enters your body, it's there for sex. The reason you get sick is because that germ spends 24-7 making more germs. As it breeds and multiplies, your health plummets. When it Duggars all the way.....you die. The last antibiotics I took didn't kill the germs, it screwed with their sex lives and soon I was well again.

So no wonder germs like Tobias and Wolfie find a way to get in someone else's body, even if they have to pay for it with someone else's money, in order to spread their special brand of sickness. It's time to put a big ole condom on the Bush administration.

May favorite line from the article:

""The president loves him and Condi absolutely loves him."

Wonder how long that will last and will
Mr. Tobias be told "Good job" ?

And perhaps the ladies were underpaid as Rs tend to do..how much would it be worth to spread em for Rove, Sampson, Cheney.
Oh mercy there are fates worse than death.
_

Oh my god! This is a former AIDS Czar who fought making treatment available to protitutes on so called "moral" grounds..

These freaks know only the devil as there moral compass.

one of the groups who recieved money in the anti aids program he oversaw had as a requirement of its grant was a no prostitution pledge. how is that for typical rethuglican hypocrisy?

Bush official who promoted abstinence and denounced condoms resigns -- after admitting he used "D.C. Madam's" escort service

In April of 2004, Kaiser Networks Daily AIDS/HIV Report noted that Randall Tobias, serving as the Bush Administration AIDS Czar, was promoting abstinence and denigrating condoms:
Tobias, who was in Berlin for the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS' 2004 Awards for Business Excellence, said that promoting abstinence and monogamy are "far more effective" than distributing condoms for preventing the spread of HIV, according to Agence France-Presse. "Statistics show that condoms really have not been very effective," Tobias said, adding, "It's been the principal prevention device for the last 20 years, and I think one needs only to look at what's happening with the infection rates in the world to recognize that has not been working." PEPFAR has been criticized by AIDS advocates for placing "false hopes" on abstinence and monogamy prevention programs, according to Agence France-Presse.
That outrageous view held by the Bush administration was widely criticized by thinking people.

Today, ABC News reported that the married Mr. Tobias resigned from his post as Deputy Secretary of State after admitting he was a customer of a DC escort service
Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation. Tobias, 65, Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), had previously served as the Ambassador for the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.
In a Ted Haggard-like admission, Tobias said he only got "massages."

Abstinence is for the little people, not the loyal Bushies. They don't have to practice what they preach.

And Clinton didn't inhale!
And Jimmy lusted in his heart.
And Tricky Dick was not a crook.

Minority AIDS Initiative threatened by funding changes Julie Weisberg
Published: Friday April 27, 2007

Funding for a federal grant program to help city and states fight rising HIV infection rates within minority communities has been suspended only days before the Center for Disease Control released a report calling for a "heightened response" to the "major health crisis" of HIV/AIDS in African American communities.

"This could be catastrophic for many organizations," Damon Dozier, director of government relations and public policy for the National Minority AIDS Council, said of the funding gap in an interview with RAW STORY Tuesday. "This funding is critically important."

The Minority AIDS Initiative

The Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) was created in 1998 in response to rising HIV infection rates within racial and ethnic minority communities and was intended to provide HIV/AIDS-related services to under-served and heavily-affected minorities. The hope was that channeling funding through local community-based organizations would make it possible to reach high-risk populations, who tend to fall through the cracks of more traditional HIV prevention, education and treatment services.

The overall initiative - overseen by the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies - hands out money to several different federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. However, the grants for cities and states are awarded through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which falls under the larger umbrella of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Last year, HRSA handed out more than $42.9 million in MAI grants to cities and more than $6.8 million to states. Each municipality and state appropriates and passes on portions of their grant money to local community organizations.

African Americans account for 51% of new HIV cases

The Minority AIDS Initiative's importance was heightened early last month, when the CDC released its latest numbers regarding disparities in HIV infection rates between the nation's African American community and other ethnic groups. According to the report, blacks accounted for 51 percent of new HIV diagnoses between 2001 and 2005, even though they only make up some 13 percent of the population. Black men who have sex with other men (MSM) made up the majority of those new infections.

In response to its findings, the CDC simultaneously released a "heightened response" plan to ramp up its efforts to lower infection rates in African American communities nationwide. The plan [PDF link here] focuses on four main areas: expanding the reach of prevention services, increasing opportunities for diagnosing and treating HIV, developing new, effective prevention interventions, and mobilizing broader community action.

While the CDC plan received mixed reviews within the HIV/AIDS community, advocates are in agreement when it comes to the importance of HRSA's MAI grants in targeting at-risk minorities that larger organizations, like the CDC, may have difficulty reaching.

Alterations to the funding process

In the past, HRSA awarded its grants in an ongoing, formula-based process. Last December, however, President Bush signed into law the Ryan White Treatment Modernization Act of 2006, making significant changes to the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act. One major change involves how funds are awarded across the country - including funding under the Minority AIDS Initiative, which was codified and incorporated into the renewed act.

Previously, MAI grants were divided among all eligible metropolitan areas according to a formula based on their proportion of racial and ethnic minority AIDS cases. Similarly, state grant awards were based on each state's proportion of all racial and ethnic minority AIDS cases nationwide.

But according to the new law, HRSA's Minority AIDS Initiative grants for Plan A (cities) and Plan B (states) will now be awarded through a competitive "request for proposal" process. This funding change will only affect HRSA's grant program, not any of the other federal agencies that receive MAI money.

To focus on meeting the new requirements, HRSA officials suspended its MIA grant program for the two plans beginning March 1.

"We needed time to actually get a competitive process set up," David Bowman, a HRSA spokesperson, told RAW STORY in a phone interview Wednesday, explaining that the agency was forced to suspend the funding while they developed the new competitive process. "It is a matter of the law."

Disrupting services and lives

Bowman said HRSA expects to award funds through the Minority AIDS Initiative for cities (Part A) and states (Part B) programs in August. The criteria the agency will use to award the new competitive grants should be released sometime later next week, he said.

But some advocates say that the HRSA funding gap could have a destabilizing effect on thousands of low-income, uninsured and under-insured people living with HIV/AIDS who receive care, treatment, and support services through minority community-based organizations.

"Clearly, this is causing a lot of disruption around the country," Michael Kink of Housing Works - a minority community-based organization that provides housing, health care, advocacy, job training, and supportive services to homeless New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS - told RAW STORY.

"These organizations are the front door to many services" for the high risk populations they serve, Kink said. "It's not enough to have large organizations. Having folks you recognize and trust is very important in [HIV/AIDS] care."

Kink said that in his recent discussions with some of the smaller community-based organizations around the country, many of them are already "running on fumes," and this six-month gap in MIA funding could cause them to "go out of business."

"We are concerned that HRSA is not moving as quickly as the community deserves," Damon Dozier said, adding that many of the community-based organizations that depend on this funding have "very limited budgets."

Dozier pointed out that MAI grant money makes up some 10 percent of the budget for many HIV-related minority community-based organizations in Washington, D.C.

"These are the people right in the community... who are out on the streets," working directly with local high-risk population, he said of community-based organizations. "This is critical work."

Bowman, however, said creating a competitive process "takes time."

"We are working as quickly as we can," he added.

"We could see something catastrophic in May"

Advocates say the suspension and funding process change come at a difficult time, when money and resources for community organizations are already highly competitive.

"The more community-based you are, the more likely you are" to have your MAI-related funding cut by cash-strapped municipalities and states, Jane Shull, executive director of the AIDS service organization Philadelphia FIGHT, told RAW STORY.

FIGHT receives MAI grant money through the city of Philadelphia. Worried about HRSA's suspension of MAI funds, the city has decided to flat-fund the HIV-related community organizations it supports through the HRSA grant program for the next eight months, Shull said.

Supplemental MAI grants through HRSA, which have also been delayed due to the law change, are slated to be awarded by April 30. Shull is concerned, however, that many cities expecting to use that supplemental funding to get them through to August, may be disappointed.

"I think we could see something catastrophic in May," Shull said. "You just can't go on hiatus [for eight months]... people will just shut down and find something else to do."

Doc,

You forgot:

"Dim Son" really didn't snort cocaine.

"Hocus POTUS" really showed up for duty with the Georgia Air Guard, he just was wearing the "Harry Potter" cloak of invisibility Barbara got him for Christmas.

Ronald "Rayguns" really didn't remember.

George the Elder, really wasn't at the meetings.

Vallery Pflame wasn't undercover.

Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

"Scratch a Republican fins a . . ."

"Scratch a Republican find a . . ."

Sorry, can't type.

I think we can pretty much assume that every finger they've been pointing the last 6 years is really pointing back at them.

If they are against gay marriage, check an see how many of them have cute cowboy outfits in the closet the with ass end cut out.

If they are telling our kids to JUST SAY NO, find out how often they say yes to anyone and anything.

They say the Surge is working....well..you can just bet the opposite is true.

They say they are Christians and love that God........you bet.

Total hypocrites when they speak of human behavior and total liars when they're talking about money or supporting our troops...that they are getting killed in increasing numbers.

Why haven't we stormed DC to pull them out by their round heels????

Prostitution scandal has Washington in new 'shock and awe'

Apr 28 04:17 PM US/Eastern

The demise of a call-girl ring and pending trial of an alleged madam claiming thousands of clients has the US capital riveted by the chance powerful men may now be caught with their trousers down, with a senior state department official apparently first to fall.
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, dubbed the DC Madam in local media, has been arraigned in federal court on charges of operating a Washington prostitution service for 13 years until her retirement in 2006.

Palfrey has denied she ran a prostitution ring. Her company, Pamela Martin and Associates, was simply a "high-end adult fantasy firm which offered legal sexual and erotic services across the spectrum of adult sexual behavior and did so without incident during its 13 year tenure," she said.

Palfrey contends her escort service provided university educated women to engage in legal game-playing of a sexual nature at 275 dollars an hour for a 90 minute session, the Washington Post reported.

But Palfrey has also hinted that she has a record of the phone numbers of thousands of more than 10,000 customers that could embarrass more the a few of the US capital's high-fliers.

Friday, the US State Department announced that Randall Tobias, the embattled head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), was resigning for unspecified personal reasons.

However ABC News, which said Palfrey has provided it with a record of the numbers of calls to her private cell phone, reported that Tobias stepped down after they spoke to him about his allegedly contacting her number.

Tobias since 2003 also was President George W. Bush's first global AIDS coordinator, a job which drew criticism for his emphasis on faithfulness to partners and abstinence over condom use in trying to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus.

Before entering government he was chairman, president and chief executive of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, and also, from 1997-2000, chairman of the board of trustees at Duke University.

His now-reported links to a firm accused of prostitution have raised more than a few eyebrows.

Palfrey's California home and other assets were seized by US tax authorities in October, and Palfrey has been trying to raise funds for her defense through an appeal on her website.

Her lawyer, Montgomery Blair Sibley, told Fox television last month: "The statistical certainty (is) that there are a fair number of high-profile people who used this service across the government and private sector in the metropolitan DC area."

And the Post reported Saturday that local jitters appear to be multiplying. It said Sibley claimed that "he has been contacted in the past few days has been contacted by five lawyers asking whether their clients' phone numbers are on Palfrey's list of 10,000 to 15,000 customers from 2002 to 2006."

That may have something to do with the fact that Palfrey already has named her first name, as it were, on her website, where she has posted a court document from April 12 in which she alleges formal US naval commander Harlan Ullman was a "regular customer" whom she needs to subpoena.

With James Wade, Ullman developed the military doctrine of "shock and awe" used by US government in its invasion of Iraq. According to one definition, it is shorthand for rapid dominance based on the use of "overwhelming decisive force," "dominant maneuvers," and "spectacular displays of power" to subdue the other side.

Earlier this month Ullman told CNN that "The allegations do not dignify a response," and referred any other questions to his lawyer.

Click here: Prostitution scandal has Washington in new 'shock and awe'