John Sidney McCain III made his first national "executive" decision a few weeks ago. He chose a person who was singularly unqualified to hold even city wide office to be his (and, unfortunately, our) Vice President.

I think that single decision shows us who John Sidney III really is, reveals him more clearly than anything I have seen in this or his many previous failed campaigns.

His choice, as far as I have been able to determine, may have been partially forced upon him by the darker forces of neo-conservative Republican politics. The Roves and the Cheney's intend to rule from Mordor long after their official tenures are over in Washington. They need their Bushes, their McCains and Palins.

Forced though the choice may have been, McCain made it with a degree of public glee, of arrogance and cynicism that I have never personally witnessed in presidential politics in my tired old life.

Everyone knows McCain is comfortable staying in Iraq for the next 100 years.  If you think that is the only area where he would have a lasting impact of equal duration, you are mistaken. Click on the image below to see what hangs in the balance:

Consider the legally protected (for now) reproductive rights of women.  Any women under the age of 40 can be forgiven for assuming "it was always like this" and will always be like this.  After all, many take it for granted that "choice" means deciding which type of birth control to use.  

The reality is quite different.  The reproductive rights women take for granted hang by a slender thread.  Unlike the legal rights of African Americans to citizenship or voting, the reproductive rights of women are not protected by any constitutional amendment or acts of congress specifically drafted for their benefit.  Reproductive rights are protected only by a handful of Supreme Court rulings.   Over the years there has been a constant campaign to undo these gains.  In recent years, these attacks have all been held back by narrow 5-4 decisions.  

NOTE: Welcome to this new column series. In "BTB Review" we will be discussing US national politics through the relatively unclouded lens of Beyond the Beltway, a weekly two-hour syndicated political radio talk show headquartered in Chicago. On this independent Sunday evening program which airs from 6 to 8 PM Central Time, veteran host Bruce DuMont teams up with conservative, liberal, Republican, Democratic, and independent guests to "take America's political pulse" and provide "a fresh and balanced perspective of national politics." I discovered this show in late 2003 and have been listening to it ever since on Fort Wayne, Indiana station AM 1190 WOWO. Given that after twenty-eight years of steady running Beyond the Beltway is still not well known, I hope that this column will encourage people to listen to the show, to learn and think more about the issues our country faces, and to become better informed and more responsible citizens of the United States of America.

Imagine a nonpartisan presidential candidate who lives in a modest house, walks or bicycles around town, mows his own lawn, travels in a 1990s motorhome, and does without air conditioning and TV. Meet "Average Joe" Schriner. Joe explains that his age (52), his height (5'10"), his weight (180 pounds), his yearly income (five digits), his home state (Ohio) and his overall political outlook represent the average American.

As a blogger I get invited to many political events Now as a parent and scientist I can't make many of them, but I still meet more candidates and politicians than the average voter. So I hear lots of political speeches. Usually, since I am meeting similar minded people, I like the speech. But only occasionally do I find the speech to be dead on and exemplary of what ALL Democrats should be shouting from the top of every hill. Things like: Liberal IS patriotic, pro-Choice IS pro-life and marriage equality is about nothing but fairness. Oh, yeah, and how about we have to get out of Iraq. This is what I heard from Steve Harrison, a fairly traditional man running for Congress, and I would like to introduce you to him.

New York City has only one Republican Congressional Rep, Bush Lap Dog Vito Fossella. This guy opposes securing America's ports, flip flops on privatization of Social Security, and has voted to support Bush's Iraq quagmire at every opportunity. Fossella has voted the Bush Republican Party line more than 90% of the time. Hence his designation as Bush Lap Dog. Steve Harrison is the man who can defeat Lap Dog Fossella and actually represent New Yorkers.

Mr. Hannity: "The primary evil we face today is terrorism." (p. 3)

My response: With the traumatic images of September 11 burned into our consciousness, it can be tempting to look on international "Islamic" terrorism as the greatest evil inflicted by human beings upon our civilization. However, this view is erroneous, pathetically myopic, unconsciously self-pitying, encourages unlawful revenge, and is hypocritical.

By Scott Swenson

Sen. Sam Brownback's remarks that rape and incest victims should carry a pregnancy to term amount to verbal rape of the body politic.

Greetings from Kansas, where I am home with family starting a summer of writing on the road.  Kansas is also home to Sen. Sam Brownback whose presidential campaign has yet to crest the two percent mark in most GOP polls.

He trails even "None of these candidates." If there were a percentile ranking for compassion, he would rank even lower.

Speaking before the National Catholic Men's Conference, Brownback said women who become pregnant from rape or incest should carry the pregnancy to term.

Brownback's argument follows a preverse "two wrongs don't make a right" logic for which the assembled Catholic men gave him a standing ovation.  Without any discussion of the millenia of sexist indoctrination introducing the concept of male dominance before a man even considers rape, Brownback ignores the original sin to get to the red meat --- the "compounding" issue of abortion.

From a purely political standpoint, Brownback's campaign is raising no money, attracting no voters, and bringing no new ideas to the table. His debate performances have a Howdy-Doodey on meth quality that only serve as comic relief from the dour Reps. Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo.  He seems to believe the only way to attract attention is to state extreme positions in front of friendly audiences.

Stepping out of one's comfort zone, asking the tough questions about what it means to be pro-choice, exposing one's fears and learning about fellow advocates--the Abortion Conversation Project addresses it all.

 By Andrea Lynch

Just when you thought the information surfacing about "Dr." Eric Keroack's professional practice and extracurricular pseudo-medical activities couldn't get any weirder ... it just got weirder. Back in November, Keroack ... it just got weirder. Back in November, Keroack was appointed by Bush to head the Title X Federal Family Planning Program, amidst widespread outrage over the fact that he runs a chain of highly unethical crisis pregnancy centers, believes contraception is demeaning to women, and has used junk science to argue that premarital sex undermines women's biological capacity to fall in love. After just five months on the job, on March 29 Keroack abruptly resigned as Head-Anti-Family-Planning-Zealot in charge of meeting low-income women's family planning needs, amidst investigations into the legitimacy of his professional practice. This week, the Boston Globe took a closer look at the Mass. board of medicine's accusations, and their report indicates a disturbing series of ethical lapses that should come as no surprise to those who have been following the coverage of Keroack to date.

By Andrea Lynch

Mitt Romney makes me sick, and not just because he hasn't stopped hating on my home state of Massachusetts since he shed the governor's mantle in favor of a shiny new presidential hopeful suit. I'm sorry, but the man has no integrity, and if so-called "values voters" wind up voting him into office, then we will finally have definitive proof that they do not know what the word "values" means.  

   

A quick review of the flip-flopping--more worthy of a freshly caught fish than a man who honestly believes he has the credibility to run for president--that has characterized Romney's political career.  Our story begins in 1994, during an unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate. During a debate with staunchly pro-choice opponent Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Romney made the following statements on abortion:

   

"I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country."  

 

"We should sustain and support [Roe v. Wade] and the right of a woman to make that choice."

 

"I do not impose my beliefs on other people."

 

"You will not see me wavering on that."

By Marcy Bloom

Earlier, I wrote about the evolution of abortion rights as basic human rights and how that legal strategy can potentially be used to change laws in many countries, with the ultimate goal to end the tragically high maternal mortality rates around the world.

 

I will continue now with a discussion of how four human rights specifically apply to the need for safe and legal abortion.

By Tyler LePard  

In an appeal to the Republican Party's conservative base, John McCain said that he does not support the law that legalized abortion and that it should be overturned.  This contradicts his statements on the campaign trail in 1999 when he took a softer stance, saying that he "would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade, which would then force x number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations."  

While in South Carolina, he also attended an abstinence-only rally for students, sponsored by a crisis pregnancy center (whose website compares the link between abortion & breast cancer with the link between smoking & cancer--a new twist on an old myth).

   

According to a recent poll, McCain is out of sync with over 60% of Americans who would not like to see Roe v. Wade overturned.

By Eesha Pandit
 

An alarming number of physicians do not feel obligated to tell their patients about certain medical procedures they morally oppose. Often falling into this category are teen birth control and abortion. A recently published study in the New England Journal of Medicine, led by Dr. Farr Curlin, a bioethicist at the University  of Chicago has brought forth new information. The researchers surveyed 1,144 doctors from all around the US and found some truly disturbing facts about medical care in this country. Many doctors who morally oppose certain treatments do not feel obligated to refer people elsewhere for care they do not wish to provide.

By Amie Newman  

Her parents lovingly named her their "pillow angel" because she is "so sweet and stays right where we place her--usually on a pillow." But the simple and ethereal term belies the controversy that has surrounded Ashley, the "pillow angel", and her parents for the last six weeks.

   

In January of this year, a story broke that unleashed a media torrent and a worldwide discussion outwardly centered on medical ethics. Unpeel the layers, however, and you find a story that shares a great deal in common with the quest for reproductive justice and what it means to be able to sincerely and lovingly make a choice that may seem, to outsiders, the wrong choice--and therefore the unacceptable choice--but an individual's loving choice all the same. At the center of the story, Ashley, a now nine-year-old girl who was diagnosed at 3 months old with "static encephalopathy of unknown etiology"--an unchanging brain abnormality that sentences Ashley to live the mental and developmental life of a three month-old infant while her body continues to age normally. Ashley cannot move or talk but she is expected to live a long life. To read the story of Ashley's early life on her parent's blog is both heartbreaking and beautiful.