Write Your Senators to Help Pass AIDS Funding

[Senators will be added to the list below in bold as they sign on.] I have said before that the only thing that Bush has done that is worth a damn is his initiative to fund AIDS prevention and treatment in the hardest hit countries around the world. (BTW, my challenge to anyone to tell me ONE other good thing he has done still stands and is still unanswered - but I digress.) The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has saved (and is right now saving) millions of people infected with HIV (especially in Africa, which is the hardest hit continent in the world) by providing essential antiretroviral medication and prevention programs. These programs not only save lives but curtail the spread of the disease. The original appropriation was a 5-year, $15 billion allotment and it is currently up for re-authorization (estimates are that $50 billion will be the price tag for the next 5 years but that number has yet to be negotiated). So, one would think that one of the most successful foreign aid programs in U.S. history would be re-authorized lickety-split, right? Wrong. A group of seven Republican Senators led by bat$#!#-insane Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn are blocking the re-authorization. The ONE Campaign has organized a petition drive to get 50 Senators to co-sponsor the legislation. If your Senators aren't on this list: Joe Biden (D-DE) Richard Lugar (R-IN) Chris Dodd (D-CT) Richard Durbin (D-IL) Chuck Hagel (R-NE) Edward Kennedy (D-MA) John Kerry (D-MA) John Sununu (R-NH) Gordon Smith (R-OR) Then go here to send them a message asking to help get PEPFAR reauthorized and funded. This is good humanitarianism AND foreign policy. Why do you think Africa is the only place people don't uniformly hate Bush? [Also, while I'm on the subject, check out this article by the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) on 25 years of HIV.]