Debate 3
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Well, this was disappointing. Lame questions were the name of this game.
Jessi Klein had a good summation on
CNN's blogI know I'm very quaint in my old fashioned beliefs, but I really am a fan of separation of church and state and I wish we didn't have to hear about how much or how little our president or his opponent prays. Could we ask them something more relevant to our lives, like who they think is hotter, Ashlee Simpson or Jessica Simpson?A highlight (or lowlight) of the debate was the question about abortion. Bush's answer was really frightening. First, he sounded like he was actually pro-choice, when he said we need to lessen the need for abortions. Then you look at his record and the record of his party, fighting AGAINST sex education and birth control availability at every step of the way, when those two things are the key to preventing unwanted pregnancies.
Then he had to bring up the red herring "partial birth" abortion issue, calling it a "brutal practice". I wonder, why doesn't he rail against amputation? That's a pretty brutal practice. "Doctors chop off a patients limb! Come on! That's horrible. What? You say it's only done in extreme cases to save the patient's life? That's crap...that's just a myth by the pro-amputationist left...there is NEVER a need to amputate...it goes against the wishes of God. You shouldn't get to make a serious medical/ethical decision like that on your own with your doctor...politicians should make it FOR you. And we have: If there's a choice between losing a leg and dying, you should die!"
Update: Received a good email from "K" in Wisconsin, USA which read as follows: (first he quoted Bush from the debate)
BUSH: "I think it's important to promote a culture of life. I think a hospitable society is a society where every being counts and every person matters. I believe the ideal world is one in which every child is protected in law and welcomed to life. I understand there's great differences on this issue of abortion, but I believe reasonable people can come together and put good law in place that will help reduce the number of abortions.
Take, for example, the ban on partial birth abortion. It's a brutal practice. People from both political parties came together in the halls of Congress and voted overwhelmingly to ban that practice. It made a lot of sense. My opponent, in that he's out of the mainstream, voted against that law.
What I'm saying is, is that as we promote life and promote a culture of life, surely there are ways we can work together to reduce the number of abortions: continue to promote adoption laws -- it's a great alternative to abortion -- continue to fund and promote maternity group homes; I will continue to promote abstinence programs."
In response to this I'm going to have to go with Bush's favorite quote of the evening:
"his rhetoric doesn't match his record."
Bush's record is to remove funding from international health organizations that promote anything other than abstinence-only programs. He panders to fundamentalist Christians who at worst promote killing doctors who perform abortions and at best "say nothing" about the killing of doctors who perform abortions. (Don't you think they should at least release a statement condemning the murder. I mean, even Islamic leaders issue statements against violence in Israel sometimes). The problem is that abstinence-only programs DO NOT WORK. (As in they do not reduce unwanted pregnancies) The best way to reduce unwanted pregnancies is frank and specific sex education. It is fine to promote abstinence. No one can argue that when practicing abstinence the chance of getting pregnant or contracting an STD is 0.000000%. However, since one of the most basic instincts we have is our sex drive, it is not realistic to promote abstinence-only programs.
If Bush's "resolve" wasn't so blinded by dividing the world into Black and White, he could see that the best way to reduce abortions is to carefully swing sex education toward abstinence. By destroying family planning and health care for poor women Bush has hurt many more people than the few abortions that would occur during the transition to a society with health practices that make abortions the procedure of last resort. Not to mention sending hormone raging teenagers out in the world without realistic information actually increases the spread of STD and unwanted pregnancy.
By the way, I have a plan that would decrease abortions sharply; free birth control for any girl over 14 yrs. Free sterilization for drug addicts. This plan would not only reduce unwanted pregnancies it would reduce something even more horrible; unwanted babies!
Speaking of last resort procedures. Partial birth abortions are a procedure of last resort. It is almost always done to save the life of the mother. Anti-choice propaganda would like you to believe that lazy loose women are going to doctors when they are 9 months pregnant and having the baby killed on it's way out of the womb. That couldn't be farther from reality! It is however, typical of the President's campaign strategy; FEAR, FEAR and more FEAR!
By the way Bush, we have had some very extreme terrorists in this country since long before 9/11 and they continue to be active with little or no public attention. You can find them outside abortion clinics and online through links from fundamentalist Christian websites.
Whew...I didn't mean to go off, but I got a little worked up there. (My emphasis added)
Posted by Hylo
at 3:49 PM MEST
Updated: Thursday, 14 October 2004 9:03 PM MEST