Predictions for November

The novelty of having a woman and an African American running for president has motivated many previously apathetic citizens to get out of their armchairs and vote. The caucus turnout during the Texas primary is evidence of that. However, so much of the media attention has been on the Democratic party candidates that it is almost easy to forget about the Republican party nominees; and that is exactly what is going to happen in the November election.
This is a critical election. The country is now going into year six of the Iraq war and people are getting tired; tired of sending their sons to die for a fight that some would argue is not ours, and tired of watching more money being poured down the drain to fund this possible hundred year war. People want change, but they won’t find drastic change in another member of the GOP.
In addition, the economy taking a down-turn has the American public worried. History shows that when this happens, the party in power is punished by being removed from power.
Just being of the same party is close enough association to the current president that many voters who are unhappy with President Bush will most likely be turned off to the idea of another Republican president.
Not only will the desire for change generate more activity at the polls but, as mentioned previously, so will the excitement over the Democratic candidate, whether it is Senator Clinton or Senator Obama. Both of them bring something new to the table that may appeal to voters who have not shown an interest in politics before.
To be sure, Republican voters are aware of the heightened activity in the Democratic camp. This is something that will bring more Republicans to the polls in November as well. However, it will likely not be enough to counter the Democratic vote. The Republican nominee will be forgotten this November.

AIDS funding

According to an article in The New York Times the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a compromise between House leaders and the White House that would authorize $50 billion over the next five years to support the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
This is a significant increase over the $19 billion that was appropriated for the first five years of this program and also an increase over the $30 billion that the President had originally proposed to fight only AIDS. This new program would authorize $37 billion to $41 billion for the fight against AIDS.
The program that started five years ago has already provided drug treatment for 1.5 million men, women, and children.
Some of the money will be used to train 144,000 new health care workers to care for those with HIV. That is just the tip of the iceberg though considering the shortage of health care workers in the developing world is in the millions.
A requirement of the new program is that countries use part of the funds for campaigns for abstinence until marriage and fidelity thereafter and the use of condoms.
Countries will have to report if funding for those programs falls below a certain percentage.
This may sound harsh, but it is an improvement over the previous requirement that a full one-third of the funding be dedicated to abstinence and fidelity education.
However, even $50 billion will not meet the need of universal treatment for all who are HIV positive.
One might ask why even bother with such a program if it won’t completely solve the problem and the problem is over there not here.
Since this program is not going to eradicate the HIV virus and AIDS why throw so much money at it?
To answer that question, AIDS research benefits everyone. Also some might argue that it’s our duty on a basic human level to offer help to those who cannot help themselves.