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Things That Make You Go Hmmm
Apparently the Straight Talk Express hit a serious bump in the road as Senator McCain told reporters today "I certainly do not want to discuss that issue" in reference to insurance companies covering Viagra but not birth control. This is not the first time Senator McCain has struggled with his position on several key public health issues.
American women and families deserve to know how Senator McCain feels on matters such as public funding for contraception, abstinence-only education, and the effectiveness of condom use in preventing sexually transmitted disease. When he was asked if "condoms stop sexually transmitted disease" he responded "I've never gotten into these issues or thought much about them."
As a public health nurse who has spent the better part of my career working on these issues I thought I'd share a few facts with Senator McCain in the hopes it will help him clarify his position on these important questions of public health policy.
First, abstinence-only education, as funded by the Bush Administration, is not based on science. According to the non-partisan Government Accountability Office these programs, which you seemed to say you wanted to continue, often contain incorrect information about reproductive health and contraceptives and has proven to be largely ineffective in reducing teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Based on your stated repugnance for wasteful government spending, I would imagine you would want to rethink your support for this federally funded boondoggle. I would encourage that change of heart.
Second, I would also ask you to reconsider your opposition to public funding for contraception in Africa to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. The U.S. has made an enormous financial commitment to reducing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and encouraging economic and democratic development throughout the continent. Restricting funding for contraception severely undermines the effectiveness of our efforts to combat this deadly disease.
Finally, I would note that yes, condoms are an effective tool in preventing the spread of sexually transmitted disease. If used properly, condoms can greatly prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. Of course, encouraging comprehensive, scientifically based sex education is an important part of ensuring that condoms are properly used.
I hope you find all this information helpful
Congresswoman Lois Capps (CA-23) spent 20 years working as a public health nurse in Santa Barbara public schools. She currently serves as the Chair of the Democratic Women's Working Group and the Vice-Chair of Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health.
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Those are good questions. I've a few of my own for you, though it seems I'm unable to receive any answers on this fine blog.
What I want to know is how, with no leadership experience to speak of and no significant legislative prowess, will this wonderful writer and teleprompter-speaker lead this nation in such troubled times? (Off the teleprompter, he verbally fumbles and loses yardage.)
Change? From status quo to what? I've found most of the changes in my life were beyond my control and not particularly good.
Hope? For what? For Obama to gain the 23 years of Senate experience that his rival has on him? For him to understand military capabilities between the armies arrayed against us?
What are his plans for solving today's energy crisis, let alone tomorrow's?
Why did he change his stance on traditional marriage?
What kind of health care will he provide those who have none and who will pay for it?
Will Obama secure our borders, since Bush seems uninterested?
What are his ideas about restoring the dollar in the world of currencies?
Is he really trying to amend the Right to Bear Arms amendment? Why? Isn't the first thing Hitler did was to confiscate the weapons of the Jews? No, I'm not calling him Adolf, but many fascist ideas seem to be making a come back in some of his speeches.
Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com
Ahh Happy Dae,
They say ignorance is bliss, so I assume every day is a happy one for you.
The answer to most of your questions can be found on Barack Obama's website. A blog is not a place to look for replies, there are many resources at your fingertips to answer every question you posed.
I have a question for Ms. Dae: Why are supporting a man who admits he doesn't know much about economics even how to use a computer?
>> Why are supporting a man who admits he doesn't know much about economics even how to use a computer?
Oh, another requirement for the Presidency? That would have excluded FDR, too.
Happy Dae.
Part 1:
Wow, straight off the daily Republican Talking Points memo handout! Try writing your own material next time.
...and by the way, Obama does not stumble when off a teleprompter (I have seen him in person in Philadelphia). You seem to be describing McCain to a "t". Even with a teleprompter, your candidate is horrible as witnessed in the green background Louisiana speech of a month ago. Even your best "brown shirt", Karl Rove was on the air laughing his head off at that delivery instead of trying to spin it into something positive.
...and maybe you'll have to ask McCain about his thoughts (and lies) about traditional marriage as he seems to have lost any credibility there as of late: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/11/mccain-divorce-account-co_n_112096.html LIAR and PHILANDERER seem to be the words that quickly come to mind.
Part 2:
Your hope - What really has McCain accomplished in he 23 years he has been in the Senate? McCain-Feingold is it, end of story...oh, lest one forget the Keating 5...yea, Mr. Integrity...how many billions did that debacle cost the taxpayer? Military capabilities of the armies arrayed against us? After what we have had, witnessing the incomplete idiocy of the last 7+ years and with stumblingstuttering Johnny just signing right along into all of it, please! Don't worry, your Halliburton dividend checks will still be coming. They'll still have work to do that will keep them in their current no-bid contracts. I am certain with Clark and Webb at the very minimum at Obama's disposal, the direction and realities of situations at hand will be clearly ascertained and addressed. McCain can't even keep the factions over there straight (and more than once) let alone bring a new perspective to proven failed policy.
I think you need to do a little research...
This should get you started
http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=53270
Part 4:
Your change - wow, right out of Johnny's latest ad! Practically word for word! Well, humans inherently resist change, but gravitate towards it when things get to a point that it is obvious that the "status quo" is not and really has not been working. So you have never changed jobs in your life? Too afraid? Perhaps being such a staunch Republican you don't need a job as the rest of us "whiners" do...or maybe spreading this drivel over numerous blogs IS your job. Well, when something isn't working out it is time for change, whether it be something in your life or matters of country. Crack a book open about the men who shaped this nation about being scared of change. They literally signed their death warrants if things hadn't worked out.
Part 3 (For some reason it did not make it in here originally):
Comparing Obama (through this gun BS) to facism? Are you serious? (how low do you have to go to twist anything for your purposes?) Here we have had an administration that has literally shredded our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, even the Geneva Conventions at EVERY turn and laughed at doing it the entire time and you have the audacity to even try to plant the seed in anyone's head about fascism and Obama? If you haven't read real history (not your Republican issued reader), GWB's granddaddy Prescott was the Hitler SUPPORTER and most of the moves over the last eight years have reeked of Corporatism/Fascism under the false pretenses of protecting our borders.
The problem with making assumptions, as you did about me, is that you are wrong most of the time.
I'll just say that I am among the WHINERS of this country. Not my term, and I'm trying to correct this attitude. McCain was not my first choice for a presidential candidate. I cannot correct that. I am not a Republican, but I do think conservatively.
Now when you attack me on historical issues, you assume that I've not "cracked a book" on the history of our nation. I have, young one, and many of them. Indeed, most of my views have been developed through STUDYING history. It really helps in my genealogy work, too.
You don't understand the word fascism.
What I want is for the country that I love to return to its honorable state. No gangs, traditional marriage, no racism -- even as that revived by Obama supporters to his chagrin. I want ONE vote for each citizen, NOT superdelegates. I want E Pluribus Unum, not separate entities persuing homosexual, Hispanic, Islamic, African, or other cultural divisions. I want LIBERTY, not equality. I want IN GOD WE TRUST, not freedom of speech UNTIL it contains Christian principles.
Your thoughts? Or can you express them without hate or name-calling?
Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com
I agree with McCain. I don't see why this is a presidential issue.
The guy doesn't know what a condom does but thinks he should be president? I guess 8 years of an uneducated president aren't enough for the PUMA crowd, eh?
Hey PUMA!
Go away! Don't need you
You’re right! It’s not a presidential issue; ‘The Prez’ has already weighed in on health
care and education with ‘Abstinence Only’ and ‘No Child Left Behind’ and it’s working!
In our small neighborhood alone only one sixteen year-old and his girlfriend went to
live with her mother because she’s pregnant. The others are still here.
Only one fifteen year-old girl has AIDS, we hope.
The fifth grader across the street has no concept of multiplication tables other than
drawing little circles on a piece of paper and counting them (FCAT) until she thinks she has the right answer - she usually doesn’t. Her report card says she is an A - B student.
Tragically, she ISN’T the only one.
Bush’s programs for our children are working so well that a few months ago Charlie
Crist slashed Florida’s education budget by hundreds of millions (No two sources can
agree on an exact figure.). Won’t he and McCain make wonderful leaders? And they
won’t even have to think about such non-issues!
Watching the 'Viagra/birth control' video of Senator McCain I realized he is intensely embarrassed when asked a question about anything having to do with sex. People of his generation just don't discuss such things openly. I know because I'm only seven years younger.
The idea that children won't be interested in sex until their wedding night is ludicrous; the idea that telling them not to have sex is sufficient to protect them is even more so. They need the education necessary to help them survive the age of raging hormones and peer pressure and most won't get that at home.
Sadly, I don't believe Senator McCain is capable of changing the way he feels on these issues.
I see no reason for him to change. It's hardly relevant to the position of the president.
He's not interested in playing the nanny role. Obama may be. He seems to talk alot about how people should live.
Hello? John and the repubs want to control what they consider the "correct" life style all the while living quite differently. Look at the Larry Craig business among others. At least Spitzer wasn't trying to legislate no sex when he got caught. Oh, I'm ready to accept the congressional health insurance plan rather than my overpriced COBRA coverage or the deceptive high deductible HSA eligible policies.
Where do they find trolls like you?
Having an opinion on an issue may not be a problem. The problem is not remembering how you voted on that issue. As my dad once told me, don't lie, it's too hard (and stressful) to remember the lie.
you should educate PUMA Miss.
I think we know where he stands on all those issues and it ain't on your side.
"I think we know where he stands on all those issues"
Are you kidding? even HE doesn't know where he stands on all those issues. And chances are whatever his position is, it'll change by day after tomorrow...
It is both very glib and very sad when a supporter is reduced to saying "I think we know where he stands"... when obviously you don't. He articulates contradictory position on topics large and small; He simply makes stuff up off the top of his head based on the tone and tenor of the questioner. And, of course, he flat out lies. He claims to have supported bills he didn't. He claims support from people who never gave it. When confronted with his godawful voting record on veterans issues he denies it. In spite of several films of him saying he is no economic expert, he needs to be educated, he says he never said it. You think you know where he stands, but does he. The most laughable aspect of this is the moniker "Straight Talk Express. When the time comes the ads are going to show him showing his ass without any commentary by juxtaposing his comments against his comments and playing his pontifications against his voting record. That may be unfair, of course, since his voting is very old news as he doesn't and hasn't for some time now.
There. That is McBush for you. How can any woman with brains listen to this Rethug, let alone vote for him? Incredible.
What Rep Capps fails to realize is that the republicans don't know the difference between science and fairy tales. If they did, we wouldn't be in half the pedicaments we are as a nation.
>>republicans don't know the difference between science and fairy tales.
That really nets it.
G W B actually thought that he would become a war hero.
Probably all his knowledge of war came from watching John Wayne movies.
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