TechniPol

[via politicalprof]

Gates donates $750 million to fight AIDS, TB and malaria

Davos, Switzerland (CNN) — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will inject $750 million into the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced Thursday at the World Economic Forum.

The donation comes in the form of a promissory note, not as cash, which the Gates Foundation said “gives the Global Fund the flexibility and authority to distribute funds efficiently based on immediate needs.”

“By supporting the Global Fund, we can help to change the fortunes of the poorest countries in the world,” Gates said in a statement. “I can’t think of more important work.”

At a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Gates said the funds could be used immediately to “saves lives, whether it is bed nets (to protect against mosquitoes carrying malaria) or TB (tuberculosis) treatment, those are two diseases that don’t get perhaps the visibility of the work done in HIV but they are every bit as important.”

The investment comes on top of $650 million the Gates Foundation has already contributed since the Global Fund was launched 10 years ago.

The fund has been under scrutiny after controversy over the possible misuse of funds. Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the fund, said Tuesday he would resign in March after leading the organization for five years. Kazatchkine cited the fund’s decision to appoint a general manager as part of its “ambitions transformation plan” as the reason for his departure.

Speaking to journalists with Simon Bland, the Global Fund’s chair, Gates downplayed the controversy.

The way it had been written about was “pretty disappointing,” he said. “If you are going to do health programs in Africa, you are going to have some percentage that is misused.”

“The interest is saving lives,” Gates said, adding there were “all sorts of things that are going on that far overwhelm any amount of misdirection or whatever it was.”

inothernews:

Bloomberg Businessweek’s rejected cover for this week’s edition, depicting the man who might come in second to Newt Gingrich in Florida, maybe.

(Cover Junkie via BoingBoing)

Newt Gingrich was for 'food stamps' before he was against them

The Grio:

Among the changes pushed through by Gingrich and his conservative caucus as part of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, was the replacement of the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program, which had been in place since 1935, with something called TANF: Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. The new program put a five-year limit on cash benefits for needy recipients, imposed tighter limits on who could receive food stamps (most immigrants became ineligible), and most importantly, required welfare recipients to get a job within two years of receiving benefits.

Ironically, Gingrich, a key champion of the work requirement, now claims that poor children don’t see anyone around them working, when by Gingrich’s own design, those on welfare, after the 1996 reforms, are required to work.

Meanwhile, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Gingrich and the Republicans’ crowning achievement also increased Americans’ reliance on food stamps. By restricting the cash assistance available to families, TANF indirectly pushed more working families to rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs — also known as “food stamps” — to fill in the gap.

So despite his zeal to push “personal responsibility” and to force people off welfare, Gingrich, like Dole, may have inadvertently become a Republican godfather of food stamp growth.

Or to put it another way: Gingrich just might have been the “food stamp Speaker of the House.”

shortformblog:

Jan Brewer vs. Obama: An airport meeting turns into an epic battle

She wrote some things in her book he didn’t like: The tough-on-immigration Arizona governor, who was not particularly happy with the way the president treated her in a much-talked-about-at-the-time 2010 meeting, wrote about it in her new book ”Scorpions for Breakfast,” and Obama didn’t like what she said. So, last night, when Obama got into Phoenix, this happened. ”I will say that a picture is what it is,” she said. “I must say, I was not hostile. I was trying to be very, very gracious. I respect the office of the president, and I would never be disrespectful in that manner.” What we would give to hear that conversation up close. (AP Photo) source

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Early Success in a Human Embryonic Stem Cell Trial to Treat Blindness

Time:

“For the researchers at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute who launched the first-ever study to show that human embryonic stem cells may help reverse patients’ disease, the history-making day began at 4:30 a.m. It was an early morning wake-up call, to be sure, but a necessary one to prepare for the groundbreaking work that lay ahead. On July 12, 2011, the scientists injected retinal cells derived from embryonic stem cells into the eyes of two patients suffering from progressive blindness, and the results announced Monday suggest that the treatment has changed their lives.

The international group of doctors and researchers involved in the safety trial, sponsored by Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), which produced the retinal cells, report in the journal Lancet that the patients who received the therapy are doing well, showing no signs of adverse effects from the treatment and even reporting small improvements in their vision. So far, 24 additional patients are expected to receive the same treatment.”

(Source: azspot)

anticapitalist:

How much has Romney made since he started running for president on January 3rd, 2007?

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Egyptian protesters hold up an obelisk with the names of those killed during last year’s uprising, at a huge rally in Tahrir Square on January 25, 2012, marking the first anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

thedailyfeed:

Mitt Romney earned $21.6 million in 2010 — and paid just 14% in taxes, far less than Newt Gingrich’s 31.7% or Obama’s 26.3%.

In fact, the Romneys paid a higher tax rate to foreign countries, handing over 18 percent on the almost $375,000 that they garnered abroad. The former Massachusetts governor also shelled out almost $3 million to charity, roughly 16 percent of his post-tax haul.

washingtonpoststyle:

In a phone call from the Capitol immediately after the State of the Union address last night, President Obama informs John Buchanan that his daughter Jessica, a kidnapped aid worker, was rescued by U.S. Special Operations Forces in Somalia earlier that evening. 

Official White House photo by Pete Souza

"Each time I look at that flag, I’m reminded that our destiny is stitched together like those 50 stars and those 13 stripes. No one built this country on their own. This nation is great because we built it together. This nation is great because we worked as a team. This nation is great because we get each other’s backs. And if we hold fast to that truth, in this moment of trial, there is no challenge too great; no mission too hard. As long as we’re joined in common purpose, as long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union will always be strong."

President Barack Obama [full transcript]

Rick Santorum, GOP presidential candidate: It’s not  my job to correct woman who says Obama is a Muslim

Rick Santorum has a message for critics ripping him for not correcting a woman who called President Obama a Muslim: That’s not my job.

The Republican presidential candidate lashed out at reporters earlier this week in Lady Lake, Fla, after a woman identified Obama as a Muslim.

“It’s not my responsibility as a candidate to correct everybody who makes a statement that I disagree with,” the former Pennsylvania Senator said after the campaign event, as first reported by ABC News.

The dispute began after an unidentified Florida woman told Santorum, “He is an avowed Muslim and my question is, why isn’t something being done to get him out of our government?” she asked.

Santorum responded he was doing “everything I can” to see that Obama does not win a second term.

“There are lots of people who get up and say stuff in a town hall meeting and say things that I don’t agree with, but I don’t think it’s my obligation, nor should it be your feeling that it’s my obligation, to correct somebody who says something that I don’t agree with,” Santorum added.

A similar issue came up in 2008 in Minnesota, when Sen. John McCain was running for President after a woman told the Arizona politician that she heard Obama was an “Arab.”

McCain dismissed the claim.

“No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab].”

A new Public Policy Survey shows Santorum in third place, just a week before the crucial Florida primary.

reuters:

President Barack Obama will pitch new initiatives on jobs, taxes and housing in an election-year State of the Union address on Tuesday, making a sweeping case for a second term despite the slow U.S. economic recovery and high jobless rate.

Read: Obama to make pitch for second term in State of the Union address

brooklynmutt:

Fox News

Tweet of the night - “Given what South Carolina did tonight to keep a black man in office, I think they’ve atoned for any previous racism.” [via The Dish]

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