Black women should be SCREAMING about Cheney today!

[mbali]

From last night's debate:

IFILL: I will talk to you about health care, Mr. Vice President. You have two minutes. But in particular, I want to talk to you about AIDS, and not about AIDS in China or Africa, but AIDS right here in this country, where black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts.

What should the government's role be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?

CHENEY: Well, this is a great tragedy, Gwen, when you think about the enormous cost here in the United States and around the world of the AIDS epidemic -- pandemic, really. Millions of lives lost, millions more infected and facing a very bleak future . . . Here in the United States, we've made significant progress. I have not heard those numbers with respect to African- American women. I was not aware that it was -- that they're in epidemic there, because we have made progress in terms of the overall rate of AIDS infection, and I think primarily through a combination of education and public awareness as well as the development, as a result of research, of drugs that allow people to live longer lives even though they are infected -- obviously we need to do more of that.
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Does anyone believe that if, say, 60-year-old white men were 13 times more likely than their counterparts to die of a particular disease, Cheney would at least be aware of it and likely ensuring that his administration was doing something about it?

Everyone should be slamming him on this, but black women in particular need to demand that the Vice President explain why he doesn't even KNOW about this epidemic that has such a terrible impact on us.

[cheshire]

1. I thought it was proof of how out of touch that he and * are.

[mbali]

2. They're only out of touch about things they don't care about

[cheshire]

7. Yes I ment to say out of touch with the un elite base.

[Alenne]

3. Do you believe black people and black women

in particular were shocked by that comment? It's what we expect from them. I would have been more shocked if he had been able to appear as if he cared.

[ohioan]

6. Not shocked - but there are a lot of people out there who still

don't realize how insensitive and cruel this administration is. This is proof.

[skylarmae]

4. some of you are too young to remember, but it took Reagan how

long to even say the word aids. The Repukes didn't want to do anything but laugh and ridicule and say it was God's doing because the gay lifestyle was evil. I remember this way back when. It's no wonder that Cheney doesn't know. Repukes don't care about this or too much else that requires compassion and science.

[Forkboy]

5. They may not be screaming

but I sure bet they caught that one.

There goes the Repubs 7 black votes :)

[RhodaGrits]

8. Why would someone at the top of an administration which has

done everything they possibly can to keep women who are financially strapped from getting decent health care have a clue about those same women's health and well-being? They don't care. Period.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Why Should He Care...

For most of his life, black women were the "hired help"

I'm sure hoping the subliminal, yet very overt racism, sexism and arrogance of this regime and the GOOP will come back to haunt them many times over in the days following Nov. 2.

Here's hoping someone like a Tom Joyner or Tavis Smiley pick up on this angle and makes lots of noise.

[CityHall]

10. At least he didn't say

"That's because they're disproportionately prostitutes and drug users," which was what he was thinking.