Carl Schmid, Director of Federal Affairs at the AIDS Institute, stated that over 1.1 million people in the U.S. are currently living with the HIV/AIDS virus. He also remarked that 56,000 new people are found to be infected every year. He added that African Americans and homosexual males are affected at a disproportionately high percentage.

Rebecca Haag, Executive Director of the AIDS Action Council, called it “shameful” that Washington D.C. has higher AIDS rates than some Sub-Saharan African countries.

Haag said it is vital for the U.S. government to “develop a national AIDS strategy.” Haag was surprised that a strategy hasn’t already been formed 25 years into the epidemic.

Haag advocated better sex education. She said that there is no evidence that abstinence-only education has any impact on preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

Christine Lubinski, Executive Director of the HIV Medicine Association, claimed that health care reform is very important to the fight against AIDS. She mentioned that if the health care system works for those with HIV/AIDS, “it will work for everybody.”

As the holiday season rapidly approaches, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) warns that due to recent decisions by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), toys that parent’s purchase this Christmas may be less than safe.

Following a wave of recalls in 2007, Congress passed legislation that gave CPSC more resources to ensure product safety. However, while the legislation stated that companies would have to cease selling toys containing toxic phthalates by February 10th, 2009, the CPSC published a legal opinion informing manufacturers that they will be allowed to sell these products until their inventory run out.

“Unfortunately, while the product safety bill is a major step forward, many of it’s protections are still not fully in effect, so it’s still buyer beware this year…Congress gave America’s children the gift of safer toys and the CPSC is taking them away,” said U.S. PIRG Public Health Advocate Liz Hitchcock during a news conference for the release of PIRG’s 23rd annual toy safety survey.

In the absence of CPSC protection, PIRG suggested that parents could evade health risks this holiday season by avoiding toys that are made of soft plastics and children’s jewelry that is made out of metal since each run the risk of containing toxics or lead.

While Hitchcock did not answer how many of the toys that made this year’s list were manufactured in China, Consumer Program Director Edmund Mierzwinksi mentioned that 80% of toys sold in the U.S. are imported from China. While a rise in imports would naturally warrant further safety inspections, Mierzwinski contends that increased inspection have not kept pace with the rising amount of imports.

“There haven’t been enough guards at the gate,” said Mierzwinski.

President elect Obama announced his nominees for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and discussed a plan to cut wasteful government spending.

Peter Orzag, director of the Congressional Budget office, will serve as the new OMB director and Robert Nabors, 13th Clerk and Staff Director of the House Appropriations Committee, will serve as OMB deputy director.

Following the President-elect’s statement yesterday that his economic team would craft a stimulus package aimed at creating jobs and rebuilding the national infrastructure, Obama announced that in order to pursue these investments, the U.S. will need to cut wasteful spending.

“When we are facing both rising deficits and a sinking economy, budget reform is not an option. It is an imperative. We cannot sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness, or exist solely because of the power of a politician, lobbyist, or interest group. We simply cannot afford it,” said Obama during a press conference held at the Chicago Hilton Hotel.

“This isn’t about big government or small government. It’s about building a smarter government that focuses on what works. ”

The President-elect also said that the responsibility for shaping a more effective budget will fall with the OMB, and that Orzag’s prior experience is ideal for this task.

“Peter doesn’t need a map to tell him where the bodies are buried in the federal budget. He knows what works and what doesn’t, what is worthy of our precious tax dollars and what is not,” said Obama.

UN Correspondent Tala Dowlatshahi will be attending a UN briefing on women and violence.

The Washington Bureau will be covering a discussion on “Voices of America: U.S. Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century” at the Brookings Institution, a discussion on “World Energy Outlook: Energy Projections to 2030,” a news conference by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group to release its 23rd annual toy safety report, and a conference call on how President-elect Obama can improve the domestic HIV/AIDS situation.

Joy Phumaphi, Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank, says that while economic improvements in poorer countries have been made, the global financial crisis puts those improvements in danger. (0:31)

 

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The economic crisis has led to 100 million more people starving worldwide according to David Beckman, President of the Bread for the World Institute. In addition to that, Joy Phumahi, Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank said that 44 million more people are suffering from malnutrition as a result of the worldwide financial crisis.

At a presentation held by the Bread for the World Institute, Phumaphi said “all countries are in harm’s way.” In order to try and help global poverty and hunger, Phumaphi felt the U.S. must financially assist in improving health, agriculture, and infrastructure. She also stated that the U.S. must invest in better education abroad. Phumaphi noted that children leaving school as a result of the financial crisis “rarely return to the classroom.” She did acknowledge that there had been positives in poverty globally, especially in Africa, but this crisis had left those improvements “at risk.”

Ken Hackett, President of Catholic Relief Services, said that any foreign assistance should be done in the interest of the poor. He also claimed that foreign assistance has become too “fragmented,” and collaboration should be a priority in improving foreign assistance. He also felt it is “critical” that civil society agencies be used to help assist government in providing relief to poverty-stricken communities globally.

In a report released by the Bread for the World Institute, the institute states U.S. foreign assistance reform should include specific goals of poverty reduction worldwide, partnerships with countries receiving assistance to meet long-term goals, and closer coordination with other international donors worldwide.

In contrast to the American Presidential transition of power, Kathryn Stoner-Weiss argued that the transition of power from Russian President Putin to President Medvedev is not bringing any change at all. Weiss, associate director of research and senior research scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University and former Title VIII supported scholar at the Kennan Institute, made this argument at a discussion on “Medvedev’s Challenges in Governing Putin’s Russia: What a New American President Should Know.”

With the current global economic crisis and Russia’s growing interest in economic development over security, Weiss advises President-Elect Obama to engage with Russian civil society and improve relations with Russia and their European allies.

Weiss said President Medvedev has always been working under Putin, and that Putin is clearly still running the country. Russia is currently proposing to extend the term of president from four years to six years for the next elected president, which Weiss believes opens the door for Putin to come back into office. Weiss argued that the causes of economic growth under Vladimir Putin were independent from the regime change after President Yeltsin, and that the corruption and drawback of freedoms actually worsened under Putin. Transparency International dropped Russia’s ranking by 26 places from last year, tying Russia with Syria and Kenya.

Weiss also believes Putin did not necessarily represent a democracy because he had high approval ratings. She said his high approval was the result of people conflating a leader with an era, and because Putin put restrictions and regulations on the media.

The Heritage Foundation hosted a discussion with Michael Medved about his thoughts on the major falsities surrounding America as developed in his book “The Ten Big Lies about America”. Medved focused on three of his ten lies beginning with the idea that the one solution for economic downturns is to respond with aggressive government programs. Medved singled-out FDR and the New Deal as a perfect example for failure in terms of economic recovery. He believes that the new Obama administration will not “waste a crisis” and will behave in an extremely Rooseveltian capacity.

The second lie Medved specified was that the United States is an imperialist power and a constant threat to world peace. The alleged past of isolationism and pacifism that is believed to have existed at some point in American history is a fabrication that “never existed”, said Medved. He continued to deny America’s imperialist tendencies by pointing out that Canada is still “allowed to exist” almost undefended against our borders.

The final lie believed to distort America’s political dialogue is that America is in a state of “irreversible moral decline.” Medved says that every generation since the inception of America has believed they were the worst generation in the history of the world. However, conservatives can be reassured and encouraged by the passing of legislation like California’s Proposition 8 that created an amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the state, as opposed to the discouragement they felt with the overwhelming support for Democrats.

No matter what, Medved called himself a “tremendous optimist even at the age of the dawn of Obama”. He encouraged the conservative tone of the discussion by invoking the memory of Bill Clinton’s 1992 election. A similar sense of hope and change was in the air at the turn of that election, and by 1994 the Republicans had gained more seats (55 in the House of Representatives) than had ever been gained before in one election. Medved says this brings hope to the Republican Party for the possibilities in 2010.

Robert Greenstein, Founder and Executive Director of the research organization The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that based on unemployment predictions, the amount of people living in poverty may rise by 10.3 million. (0:18)

 

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Daniel Markey, senior fellow of India, Pakistan, and South Asia, says that recent discussions regarding a reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban is unlikely (0:31).

 

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