Tuesday, February 26, 2008

On Matters of Sex, McCain is No Moderate

As this story from the Huffington Post indicates (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cristina-page/the-mcmoderate_b_88275.html ), while John McCain likes to depict himself as a moderate, on issues relating to sex education, birth control and other issues concerning the freedom of citizens to be in charge of their own sexuality, McCain appears to be a warmed over version of the Chimperator. We truly need a president who recognizes that it is the 21st century and not circa 1960. It goes without saying that McCain opposes full equality and equal protections for LGBT citizens. We clearly do not need a Bush clone in the White House in terms of policing Americans’ bedrooms. Here some highlights from HP:

With detractors like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rick Santorum, Tom Delay and James Dobson, most thinking people might conclude that John McCain comes highly recommended. But just because John McCain is an enemy of some of our most cartoonish villians does not make him a friend. This is most true on reproductive health issues.

In fact, the Straight Talk Express has skidded off the road that most Americans drive. He is more extreme than even some who consider themselves "pro-life." For example, most Americans would be stunned to learn McCain won't -- or can't -- say whether he even supports the right to use contraception.

The Coburn that McCain has chosen as his mentor on all things reproductive is Senator Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, which is like having the Taliban head up the Office for Women's Initiatives. (Think that's an extreme comparison? Keep in mind Coburn
wants the death penalty for abortion providers.) President Bush rewarded Coburn for his good work by appointing him to co-chair, of all things, the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. When it comes to the preventing the spread of AIDS, Bush clearly prefers Right-thinking anti-condom crusaders to scientists. It would appear McCain does too. And might similarly reward Coburn -- to oversee HHS, perhaps.

McCain voted against legislation that would have required insurance coverage of prescription birth control and would also have provided more women with prenatal health care. (So, throw in anti-baby too. It's also worth noting that in 2004, McCain ranked among the 25 worst Senators for children, scoring 38%, according to the Children's Defense Fund Congressional Score Card.)

He's an unapologetic proponent of the failed abstinence-only approach as well. He voted against making "abstinence-only" programs medically accurate (the most authoritative study found that more than 80% of abstinence-only curricula, used by more than 2/3 of federal recipients, contains false, misleading, or distorted information.) He also wanted to take $75 million from the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant to launch an abstinence‐until-marriage program that prohibits sexually active teens from learning about birth control. Yet another time he tried to route one- third of all HIV/AIDS prevention funds to the completely ineffective "just say no to sex" programs.

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