Former U.S. AID director Randall Tobias, who resigned yesterday upon admitting that he frequented a Washington escort service, oversaw a controversial policy advocated by the religious right that required any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to take an anti-prostitution “loyalty oath.â€
Aid groups bitterly opposed the policy, charging that it “was so broad — and applied even to their private funds — that it would obstruct their outreach to sex workers who are at high risk of transmitting the AIDS virus.†But President Bush wouldn’t budge. He signed a 2003 National Security Presidential Directive saying prostitution “and related activities†were “inherently harmful and dehumanizing.â€
Several groups and countries had their funding cut due to the policy. Brazil lost $40 million for “one of its most successful anti-AIDS strategies, persuading sex workers to use condoms or other measures to stop spreading the disease.â€
The Bush Administration refuses to give funds to any organization that teaches negotiating tactics or provides condoms to sex workers, even if U.S. funds are not used for those purposes.
Nico continues,
During an “Ask the White House†online chat in 2004, Tobias defended the policy, saying the U.S. was “partnering with communities†to begin “fighting sex trafficking and prostitution, while still serving victims of these activities.†Tobias added that he was overseeing several “highly successful†relationship programs “aimed at men and boys to help them develop healthy relationships with women.â€
A truly inspired idea, having someone who pays for “gals come over to the condo to give me a massage†run programs on developing “healthy relationships with women.â€
So typical.
Women who are not even his wife.
I would love for him to be dragged up to capital hiil and asked under oath, Did you at least use a condom?
Honestly. Yet another sterling example of what happens when frat boys find Jesus. And the joke would be funny if AIDS weren’t so inherently harmful and dehumanizing.
Let’s bring back the scarlet letter. All these Repugs who talk about family values and then betrays their own family values should wear a red H for hypocrite.
The news story I read said he originally was a “Buy American” john, using the DC Madam, but then he switched to a “Central American” outfit. So will we find out how many were working of their own free will? And how many were legal immigrants? And how many were of age?
Given the Bushovik track record, there is probably a lot of life left in this story.
What a bunch of freaks.I guess you need to have some deep rooted sexual problems to be a republican leader.
Isn’t taking a loyalty oath in exchange for receiving money a form of prostitution?
If Randall’s massages were so wholesome and on the up and up then I would guess that his wife was well aware of his activities. I know my wife considers honesty to be the most important element in a healthy relationship.
Wow, I thought I having a deja vu, but it seems that another 9 soldiers killed in Iraq. Just the other day there were 9 killed also. It’s really wierd that so many are being killed since Bush’s surge has reduced the level of violence. It’s a shame so many are dying, but the important thing is that freedom is still on the march.And even though I don’t understand it, I’m sure their deaths are worth it.
Sometimes, the stories of the Bush administration just seem like some kind of bad political satire, where the characters are simplistic and the ironies of their situations so unsubtle and overbroad. This guy joins the ranks, with the Justice Department guy who just resigned because of his links to Abramoff, who was given an award for fighting white-collar crime. And of course, the medal-winning trio of Tenent, Bremer, and Franks.
Yes, Swami, we have to go back two years to April of 2004 to find a month in which our soldiers were dying at a greater rate than right now, in April of 2007. In the first quarter of this year, Bush’s ‘surge months’, we have lost 343 soldiers.
We might be able to laugh at the ineptness of Bushies, if not for the serious deadly reality of this war.
What a bunch of freaks.
Absolutely! What was Rush Limbaugh was doing in the Dominican Republic with all that Viagra? I don’t think anyone has ever asked that question, because we know the answer would haunt our nightmares for a very long time.