AIDS Activists Shut Down Capitol Rotunda Over Obama Reversal

AMERICA blog:

A group of 26 AIDS activists chained themselves to each other in the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday morning, startling visitors, shutting down the landmark area and prompting their arrest by Capitol Police.

Read the whole story: AMERICA blog

Comments

[ChiGuy]

It's too bad that SO many groups have decided that Obama should attend to their particular issue within months of having taken the oath of office.
There is no doubt in my mind that not only will his administration eventually solve the needle exchange situation, but DADT as well. (To name just two of the groups not satisfied with Obama's speed.)

Timing is everything when it comes to passing legislation, and I trust Obama to plan and execute his moves in a meticulous manner to ensure their smooth transition, rather than shoving all of this legislation down the throats of people not quite ready to accept such changes.

[underoath]

Clean needles save live's.

[symmetricol]

Hmm...so does not shooting up in the first place.

[Tommygun264]

And if everyone drove safely we wouldn't need seat belts.

[naschkatze]

Yes, and if all the Africans with AIDS would just abstain from sex and not have to use condoms, lives would also be saved there. Unfortunately, human beings are human beings so it's better to be realistic and save lives rather than to act high and mighty but cause more deaths. Some of them, btw, are innocent bystanders so-to-speak.

[ramal]

"They say get back, we say fight back. ACT UP! Fight Back! Fight AIDS!"--- A spark of the old fire still burns. Thank you.

[naschkatze]

I hope they have lit a fire that protesters of other wrongs will take up.

[day79dreamer]

For all of those who are not pleased with obama at the 6 month mark of his administration, you have the opportunity to vote more republicans in in 2010. You can also vote him out in 2012. When I voted for obama in november, I knew it was for 4 years. I will give him 4 years to make good on his promises. For those people who say obama is abandoning them, I say you are abandoning him. I believe he will sign a bill that repeals DADT and find the funds to pay for the needle exchange program. Give him time. Raise money locally to help the drug users exchange needles. Lobby Congress to change the DADT policy.

[springsm]

He has had alot on his plate...but he also has domestic issues that are being ignored or delayed. They may not be health issues or the stimulus stuff, but they are important. Yes, he promised and he promised change and transparency. Granted he is going to make the USA abit more respectul in these foreign countries...but all this flitting around won't make a bit of difference if he doesn't follow through at home. I think it is time he spends some time in his home office and concentrate on a few of those items he seems afraid to touch. WE are the ones who elected him for the audacity to hope for change. At least he can string whole sentences together and he is not actively trying to take the country down the abyss any further.

[Cambridge9]

I'm sure you meant that Obama "is going to make the USA a bit more 'respected' rather than respectful.

I don't believe that our President is afraid to touch domestic policy, but to do these things so that they can't be undone they need to go thru Congress as law. And right now - I believe - he has his priorities right with on domestic policies:-

Health care
The ecomomy
Gitmo
Global warming
Tarp
The 2010 budget
Two wars
Cleaing up Pentagon expenses
Jobs
Wall St
- and much more.

He has had - and continues to have - meetings in the WH with industry leaders and leaders in Congress; he continues to try to get some/any support from the opposition because if you remember he did say that he would be their President too. - and he even takes the time to go outside Washington to get supposrt for his programs. We Americans are notoriously impatient - and we must make a change.

By the way, exactly what would you do differently if you sat in the Oval Office?

[fallout4U]

Dems are getting what they voted for. Enjoy!

[springsm]

Thank God.

[ramal]

The American People are getting who and what they voted for, unlike the Presidential elections of 2000 and 2004.

[elusiveyo]

the way he is handling himself in office is not what he said or campaigned on, this is not what we voted for, and if 2010 and 2012 are losing years for the dems it will because they didnt stand up for their values but caved to bigotry, money and votes

[Tanyars5]

As a Democrat I think the President is doing an excellent JOB!

[Cambridge9]

Seconded!

[Tommygun264]

President Obama has done more positive things for this country in the past six months than Bush/Cheney did in eight years. However, unlike pubs, liberals worship principles, not people - just because we support the President doesn't mean we are going to follow blindly and march in lockstep the way pubs did with Bush. Pubs got exactly what they deserved with Bush/Cheney. The only problem is that they dragged the rest of the country down with them in the process.

[NilesCrane]

How about we just kill people who stick needles in their arms to get high? people will be quitting within minutes...

[truegreen]

Again, if its not DADT, its the Needle Exchange program. The President continues to rely on congress to address the issues a president can simply change w/ an executive order. OBAMA HAS NO STONES.

[Tanyars5]

Please invest in a class on the American Government. This is a problem with many who are "fighting for gay rights." Executive orders can be reversed and let SP get in and that would be gone in a hearbeat. Obama is not a King. Please get an education.

[SD Indy]

Tanya you are correct that an executive order can be reversed. However, as you like to continuously point out, he has 3 1/2 years. The executive order COULD be used until Congress addresses these issues. The question now, is why isn't he will to use his EXECUTIVE powers.

[elusiveyo]

educate yourself, congress never passed a law desegregating the army after truman signed an executive order desegregating the armed forces, your argument has no validity, i believe they call that a strongman, educate yourself otherwise you sound like a bush republican

[Luvial]

Obama is a homophobe.

[Disuberence]

I believe the issue is that he left the funding out of the budget.

[naschkatze]

Was it in the budget, but he cut it out?

[Bystander]

Yet another group duped by BO. Change we can believe in!

[Tanyars5]

Don't worry the savior SP will be available for voting for PRES in 2012. She will pray for those fighting for gay rights.

[Cambridge9]

Tanyars5 - I just fanned you

[Avanti2]

I am in a Single Payer Government Controlled Medical Plan where the Benefits of the Plan are Dictated by the Federal Government. I have been in this Plan for a little over a year. When I first entered the Plan, I was encouraged to get an annual Physical, which I did. The Plan covered the cost of the Physical and the cost of the Blood Tests.

Now, one year later, I visit my Dr. for my second Annual Physical under my new Plan and to my shock, I learned that Annual Physicals and the Blood (Lab) Tests are not covered. That preventative Medicine like an Annual Physical and Blood Tests are only covered the first year when you first enter the Single Payer, Benefit Controlled, Government Plan.

I ask what my options are, and there is only one, pay 100% the cost of the Physical and Lab work. I did but i AM VERY DISAPPOINTED. Preventive Medicine is one of the main ways Health Care Costs costs can be lowered and the quality of life improved.

Oh, the name of my new Plan is Medicare.

[jcwtts1]

get the supplemental insurance. Physicals and blood work would then be covered.

[naschkatze]

My husband and I have supplemental insurance. We pay $99 each for Medicare each month, and $144 each for supplemental insurance. That comes to nearly $500 a month during a period in which our income has been sharply reduced because of the economic collapse. (And no, we weren't playing the market, but we are only getting about 1/3 of l % on our "safe" investments.)

[lvdragonlady]

WTF??????????????
Someone was NOT doing their job if they let this happen.
WHO else is NOT doing their job because they do NOT like OUR President?

[PAposter]

How weird is it that TroIIs are posing as Liberals...I could never pretend to be a right winger, ewwwwww!

[Disuberence]

Why would anyone tro// a topic as important as this?

[PAposter]

Please they are troIIing the revolution in Iran on the other thread...making rac!al references to Iranians. They have no shame.

[sosi]

Sen B Sanders on Healthcare: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/449824/real_health_real_reform

"I would hope that every activist in America, every progressive in America, will stand firm and say that if we're not gonna do single-payer, at least you need a strong public plan, and that we cannot go forward without that.... As to the exact process of how the two committees come together, I don't think anyone knows that at this moment. But we're gonna need a lot of grassroots activism to oppose a weak bill."

[Hare]

Where is that italian link? I want to read that

[PAposter]

About what?

[Cambridge9]

During the 1939-1945 conflict my mother required injections for her health problem (no she wasn't an addict). There were no needles available, even if we had the money to buy them. So, my father boiled them and when they got blunt he sharpened the points - until a three centimeter needle was less than one centimeter. It is said that "WHERE THERE IS A WILL - THERE IS A WAY."

And no - we should not be a country of enablers!

[PAposter]

I agree...and like your father, intravenous drug users have methods for sterilizing needles...they are quite resourceful. This should not hold up health care reform.

[springsm]

Except they don't and they end up being a guest of the states, sadly enough.

[larry278]

Typos: interestiong shound read interesting; state should read states.

[missjulz]

That still didn't make your post any more worthwhile.