The Empty Wig's flipped: proposes naming AIDS bill after Jesse Helms

Elizabeth Dole shouldn't get away with such a horrendous act like this!  
Jesse Helms HATED way more people than he liked, he knew it and he did not care.  

http://www.senate.gov/general/...

Here is a letter I borrowed from commenter Max on JMG and modified for my senators, feel free to borrow/modify.:

Dear Senator Snowe,

I have recently become aware of Senator Elizabeth Dole's submitted amendment to SA 5074, seeking to rename that bill the "Henry J. Hyde, and Jesse Helms" bill.

It is a horrifically offensive gesture to have a bill funding any HIV/AIDS relief named for a man who so vigorously opposed the right to life of people living with HIV/AIDS right here in his own country.

The reality is many millions of men, women, and children have passed away from HIV/AIDS-related causes in the last 25 years and many of those deaths may be laid squarely on the head of Mr. Helms, who so vigorously opposed research and prevention funding in the early days of the epidemic.

I ask you to consider the message renaming this particular bill after Mr. Helms sends to those currently suffering from HIV/AIDS in Maine and the United States. As well as the vicious insult it is to the memory of those friends, parents, children, husbands, wives, brothers, and sisters who have lost someone to this horrific disease.

Please urge Senator Dole to reconsider this obscene motion and allow the memory of the victims of HIV/AIDS worldwide some much needed peace.

____________________

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If anyone missed Rachel filling in for Keith Olbermann last night you missed some GREAT jokes. She discussed Bush's "energy plan", where he suggests turning off air conditioners. "So Bush's energy plan is literally HOT AIR!"

What have you done today, to make ya feel PROUD?


~Heather Small

1. Helms telling a mother who had lost her son to AIDS that her son had played Russian roulette with his sexuality.
2. Helms refused to meet with Ryan White's mother when she testified at the Capitol.
3. Helms repeatedly blamed AIDS on gay men and often said that AIDS would cease to exist if gay men stopped having sex.
4. Helms was only one of three senators to vote against the Ryan White Care Act.

That alone justifies his name being placed on something else.

Dole's Washington number: 202-224-6342

It is an insult to everyone who has died of this horrible disease to see his name put on this bill.  

"I like your Christ, but do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." ~Gandhi
"Upon the integrity, wisdom, and independence of the judiciary depend the sacred rights of free men and women."  

I'm not usually speechless but I'm ecstatic to report that the Senate just passed PEPFAR without the Sessions amendment, and Senator Biden, who managed the bill, just said they will probably avoid a conference with the House and send the bill forthwith to the president's desk. Barring some unforeseen event, the HIV Travel Ban - a relic of the days when HIV was a source of fear and stigma and terror - is finally over.

I'm not sure what happened with Dole's amendment, though.

If you want allies, you have to be an ally.

The bright side is a future lawmaker will name a crack cocaine bill after Libby.