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It is when I read article like this I truly undertand why our country is in such a mess. It shows that the people behind their white wall and evory towers need to take a course in HIV 101. Even Laura Bush stated that condoms are helping in the battle of AIDS in Africa. Her statement does seem to say that there is a least on educted BUSH in Washington. Mr. Huckbee educated yourself take an HIV 101 course and go to Africa or better yet go to an HIV support group in your area learn the facts before you preach.

Paul, that is a perfect analogy! I'll have to remember that. Maybe we should also discourage handwashing because that just gives people an excuse to blow their noses on their hands and pick up feces with bare hands. We should also ban the polio vaccine because it just encourages using public swimming pools where people may drown!

This Bible-thumping is giving me a headache.

He's too right wing...

Perhaps Huckabee is also reluctant to urge people to use seatbelts. They are not 100% effective against preventing injury and promoting their use will just encourage dangerous driving.

Another hate filled Bible banging idiot heard from!!

The ability to read, comprehend, process information and respond exhibited on this topic has me very scared that this Christmas,..er ...Holiday Season, a lot of kids are going to be running around with handlebars on their iPods.

To the 4 or 5 people here that actually got it, you've made my day!

TGIF!

Dear Lord, please don't suggest there is a safer way in Africa then condems. The men with aids beleive raping a virgin will cure HIV/aids. Thank goodness condems are being used. We have a great debt of gratitude to President Clinton for his tireless effort through his foundation. He has inspired so many people to join the fight and as a result, they have medicine and education.
Stop complaining until you take a look back at where it was before.

Give them free subscriptions to World of Warcraft.

Joe Schmoe,

Man you've got me laughing. I must be a tard who can't read what I myself wrote. I said condoms are useless against armed rapists. Maybe you should try hooked on phonics?

Fact: Condoms are 86% effective when used properly.

Fact: AIDS has a 100% mortality rate once contracted.

This isn't guessing, this isn't rounding off to get a better set of number to work with, these are two very distinct proven facts.

If 100 people have sex with an infected partner and all wear condoms, with 100% contraction rate which AIDS does not have, then 86 will be protected against the disease while the other 14 will contract it. Even though condoms do not guarantee you will not contract AIDS from an infected partner even in a worst case scenario wouldn't anyone, regardless of any other factors, rather see only 14 people become infected instead of 100?

If Huckabee, or any other idiot for that matter, cannot see the simple common and humane sense in these facts then simply put then they should not only not be running for federal office, but they shouldn't even be given a forum to voice their misguided and detrimental opinions

The Vatican is not a "group," Christian.

Human papilloma virus (HPV) can be spread sexually, even with condoms, and even without intercourse. HPV can result in cervical cancer, which can kill a woman. Shouldn't people, especially in Africa, be informed that there are other dangerous STD's out there other than HIV? Ought we not include a discussion of HPV and cervical cancer when discussing condom advocacy and distribution? It seems to me that I, as a woman who currently is infected with HPV and is developing cervical cancer, would be having a much happier life right now, if Mike Huckabee's position had been the standard model for the U.S. public at the time I had gotten infected, when everyone was being told that "condoms + birth control" = "safe sex." I hope that all the Africans that are being given condoms by the U.S. to protect against HIV, are also being told that HPV can be spread, even without intercourse, and that the men risk infecting women with viruses that cause cervical cancer, even if they use condoms. Thank you, Mike Huckabee!

At least SOMEONE is talking about this horrible crisis.

Why has the rest of the industrialized world allowed the AIDS, the Darfurs, the Somalia, etc. to happen?

If we had put one-tenth of the money we have poured into the unnecesary war in Iraq to problems like this, then maybe we as a country could hold our heads up higher.

Sorry folks, but we ARE the policemen and the humanitarian leads of the world. Always have, probably always will be.

I guess oil is not involved.

No one is stupid enough to think that condoms will completely stop the spread of AIDS. However, there is no denying that condom use will help. Huckabee, as well as groups such as the Vatican, need to just accept reality.

Thank you Pete in New Hampshire, David in Gilbert, Arizona, and Bill in Charleston SC for having something intelligent to say about Huckabee's comments.
The rest of you are just ignorant to the issue and spewing your own agenda. Something you accuse Huckabee of doing.
Reread his comments and use your brain this time when you read them. Don't allow your preconceived ideals to cloud your judgment. This type of response is why America is so politically divided, you don't think objectively. Take his comments in context and in entirety, don't pull out portions to make it fit your stereotype.

Huckabee has the courage to be honest about his beliefs.

As someone who has been to Africa and works as a director for an organization that runs an orphanage full of children that lost their parents to AIDS, what Mike Huckabee is saying correct, but his remarks show that he is not going to go far enough.

While condoms do help a lot, people dont use them as they don't fully understand the AIDS virus due to lack of education. Condoms also cost MONEY, which these people do not have or relief organizations have enough of. He is right that education is needed and other action must be taken to get to the root cause of the spread of aids. Condoms are what we call a "bandaid" solution to the AIDS epidemic. Condoms alone wont effectively end the AIDS tragedy in Africa. We have to think about deeper solutions which begins at the most basic level of education, first how the AIDS virus is transmitted and how to use condoms correctly.The single thing that is missing from the equation in Africa is education.

I think it is silly to write him off as an idiot Christian for saying that condoms wont protect them entirely.

His basic philosophy of abstinence or having just one partner is biologically the best solution, but that isn't realistic. We all need to get beyond condom use to get to the bottom of curbing this tragedy.

Another 'Repugnant-can Holier-Than-Thou Family Values Phony'. Will this arrogant GOP bible-thumping bs ever end?

How some of you are trying to tie women being raped to Huckabee's comment on condom use is mind boggling. Rapists in Africa, especially the militia, aren't going to use a condom regardless so that argument is completely stupid.

The condom campaign can only apply to people who willingly engage in consentual sex, whether they are married, living together, or just fooling around.

The discussion is whether the United States should fund programs in HIV stricken areas that advocate condoms. There are candidates running for President in this election who do not wish U.S. tax dollars to fund such programs. Brownback is one of them.

When pressed on the matter Huckabee hedged. He acknowledged the use of condoms but pointed out their less than 100% reliability. Basically, in my opinion, Huckabee never answered the question. All he said is we have to look at those issues when we get there.

That's the type of politician, not unlike Hillary and her tap dance routines, that make me not want to vote for them.

Save your breath, folks. I've lived in Arkansas for 10 years and was here when the Huckster was governor. We are glad to be rid of him so the state can begin to move into the 20th century (yes, I know this is the 21st century). Huckabee is delusional in nearly every way. He is running for President because he doesn't want a real job and thinks back-woods rationale and corn-pone wit is going to get him that job in the White House and

The only fool-proof way to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases is abstinence. Condom use encourages irresponsible behavior and kudos to Mike Huckabee for saying this.

Everyone knows that condom use promotes deviant sexual behavor. We need a faith-based approach to fighting AIDS – pray hard enough and God will prevent you from getting it, unless you're a sinner.

Go ahead America elect yet another moron. "Family values” does anyone else question these so called values? Instead of wasting 10 billion a month in Iraq perhaps we should be providing a little education to the great field of GOP presidential contenders… Thompson wants to drill for Oil in the EVERGLADES (belongs to the world)… Huckabee wants abstinence and being faithful in Africa as opposed to use condoms and a good sensitive workable policy. All of that is without mentioning Tancredo he’s the real deal and his proposals to deal with immigration are GREAT!!!.

Bill from Charleston your a tard.
Condoms and education don't prevent one from getting raped at gunpoint. DUurrr!!

I typically like Huckabee (well, he kinda lost me on the evolution thing); although he was a minister, he doesn't allow his religion to define him and for a christian conservative these days, that's bonus to me. But ... he kinda lost me on this one ... isn't "an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure"?

This man is probably one of those religious fanatics who, if they had their way, would just send bibles. Will someone please educate this man regarding HIV/AIDS.

I am getting tired of paying taxes and my money being used to fight deseases,wars, and aide to countries other than the U.S.A. Imagine what our country would be like if the hundreds of billions of dollars that are spent each year where directed to fund programs here in America. We deserve it, we paid it, and it belongs to us not them.

Can you people not read? Mike Huckabee did not say not to use condoms, just that they could be more effective with education.

I'll admit I don't know much about what is going on in Africa, but if the AIDS epidemic is being caused by armed men raping women, condoms will be useless, right?

I'm amazed that he didn't preach "just say no" abstinence as a substitute.

If condoms will spare one person – it's worth it Huckabee.

Become a televangelist and forget the Presidency. That's where the big bucks are.

I guess he's not the brightest crayon in the box now, is he?

The Bible has shown that even abstinence isn't 100%, since Mary of Nazareth abstained from sex, but still got pregnant somehow.

All jokes aside, any percentage of protection more than the 0% that comes with completely unprotected sex would be a step in the right direction, whether it's 10% or 90%.

"I’d want to see how that’s used." Take one banana and one condom ... . Huck's too much of a religious joke to be an authority on this topic. AIDS will continue to decimate Africa so long as African governments deny the connection between sex and the disease, and the men refuse to use condoms.

Why do our countries republican politicians insist that their values must be imposed upon others. Condoms are the best alternative for avoiding HIV/aids. Abstinence, while a noble ideal, just doesn't work in places that have a different culture.

The catholic church also likes perpetuate the myth about condoms because of their problem with birth control. Our problems in the world today are directly related to the fact that we have far too many people. The christian right as well as the muslims would like us all to continue to have children when it is clear that the world does not have the resources to take care of them. To have one of our presidential canidates promote the idea that condoms may not be effective does a huge diservice to a part of the world that could use a few less people, as well as right to have healthy children when they do have them.

Over 25 million Africans currently live with HIV. Over 12 million African children have been orphaned by AIDS. About a fifth of the residents of South Africa and Zambia are infected with HIV. In Botswana, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe, that rate is even higher. In Swaziland, ONE-THIRD of the nation's residents are infected with HIV. Few Africans in any of these countries have the money to access expensive AIDS treatment.

It must be very pleasant for Governor Huckabee to make these kinds of morality calls from the comfort of his safe. air-conditioned Arkansas home. For those U.S. citizens who are actually trying to get handle on the AIDS crisis in Africa, we have already come to the conclusion that perhaps now is now the time to impose a value system regarding abstinence, and just try to save as many lives as possible. You would think a pro-life candidate would agree.

Perhaps the governor would like to explain his policy to the people of Swaziland?

These comments by the religious right do a disservice to the health care of people throughout the third world. There total belief in abstinence is counter-productive and naive. It may make them feel self-righteous, but at the end of the day it just leaves more people sick and dead.

Nothing in life is 100% Huckabee, this is the real world, not some holy-alternate universe. Condoms are effective when used properly, yes the only way not to get HIV is to not have sex at all, but try and tell that to a defenseless child in Sub-Saharan Africa, who can't defend against someone much older and much stronger trying to force sex on them.

I could go on for days about stuff like this.

Huckabee spewed: "it gives some people a false sense of security thinking that they can still live dangerously and recklessly and that that’s going to be a fail safe protection when it obviously is not.”

Whose they? The Militia rapists or the women victims?

Huckabee, the spread of AIDS comes from the rape of the women by HIV positive militia gangs with guns. And so their children are born HIV positive.

I doubt the women choose to "live dangerously and recklessly" in a continent that's rife with warfare...

Your just a clueless white man in a rich country.

He also spewed: “The details are something we've got to focus on as we get there.”

The details are men and kids with guns raping and pillaging villages as they go.

Yes, "abstinence, being faithful, and consistent condom use" are good measures, except for the part when you’re raped at gunpoint by several strangers.

Perhaps you should arm those women with guns instead of condoms. It's not like they are amoral sex addicts over there.

What a crock. His comments have immediately added to the number of AIDS patients every where. I know his religious wacko formula is for abstinence .. but as study after study has proven, this doesn't work. It plays well to his pseudo-christian base, but it is condemning thousands of women and men to death. Not very Christian like to me.

Of course condoms are not 100% effective, but they will help dramatically. I appreciate that a Christian conservative like Huckabee at least concedes that they can be somewhat helpful. I've always been amused how most conservatives condemn abortion and welfare, but don't support sexual education and contraceptives.

Just come out and say it Mike. You want Africans to die. There is no doubt whatsoever that condoms are more effective than promoting abstinence and being faithful. Most infections in Africa are between comitted couples, and even priests can't practice abstinence. Get a clue!

Has this clown ever even been to Africa? Does he REALLY think that condoms would not be effective in DRAMATICALLY, and I mean DRA-MATIC-ALLY reduce the spread of AIDS when it is currently the worst epidemic in the world, let alone Africa? This reeks of radical religious backing for this type of reasoning.