Barack Obama or John McCain?

Where do Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain stand on reproductive-rights issues? Pro-Choice, Pro-Obama!
Supports safe, legal access to abortion care?
Sen. Obama said, "I have consistently advocated for reproductive choice and will make preserving women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority as President."1				Sen. McCain said that Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman's right to choose, should be overturned.2
Protects women's access to birth control?
He has voted to increase access to family-planning services and is the lead sponsor of a bill to end the birth-control pricing crisis for college students and low-income women.3				He voted to shut down the major federal family-planning program, which provides millions of women with health-care services ranging from birth control to breast cancer screenings.4
Supports medically accurate sex education?
He favors comprehensive sex education and voted in favor of funding teen-pregnancy-prevention programs and ensuring that "abstinence-only" programs are medically accurate.5				He supports abstinence-only policies in our high schools and told the New York Times he was "stumped" whether contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV.6
Will appoint fair Supreme Court Justices?
He voted against President Bush's anti-choice U.S. Supreme Court nominees, both of whom have cast votes against legal abortion.7				He has voted in favor of anti-choice Supreme Court Justices like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.8

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Footnotes

1 Statement submitted on NARAL Pro-Choice America's request, May 14, 2007.

2 Ann Althouse, Rudy & Mitt Hem & Haw on Abortion, The New York Times, February 24, 2007.

3 Clinton/Reid amendment to FY'06 Budget Resolution, S.Con.Res.18, March 17, 2005; Prevention Through Affordable Access Act, S.2347, November 13, 2007.

4 Weicker motion to table Helms amendment to FY’89 Labor, HHS, and Education appropriations bill, H.R.4783, July 25, 1988; motion to invoke cloture on Family Planning Amendments Act, S.110, September 26,1990.

5 Lautenberg/Menendez amendment to the Child Custody Protection Act, S.403, July 25, 2006.

6 Adam Nagourney, McCain Stumbles on H.I.V. Prevention, The New York Times, March 16, 2007.

7 Motion to invoke cloture on nomination of Samuel Alito to U.S. Supreme Court, January 30, 2006; vote to confirm nomination of Samuel Alito to U.S. Supreme Court, January 31, 2006; vote to confirm nomination of John Roberts to U.S. Supreme Court, September 29, 2005. Learn more about Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.

8 Motion to invoke cloture on nomination of Samuel Alito to U.S. Supreme Court, January 30, 2006; vote to confirm nomination of Samuel Alito to U.S. Supreme Court, January 31, 2006; vote to confirm nomination of John Roberts to U.S. Supreme Court, September 29, 2005.vote to confirm nomination of Clarence Thomas to U.S. Supreme Court, October 15, 1991. Learn more about Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Alito, and Justice Thomas.

Solar Energy Works

Put It All Together:

A man in Southern California owns a car that is powered by solar energy. That photovoltaic system, installed on the roof of his garage, also powers his home and heats his hot water. Thus, he has no utility bills. If every home came with a photovoltaic system as standard equipment (to run the car and house on solar energy), houses would be off-the-grid.

Whole Foods in Providence, RI is powered by solar energy. If they can do that in New England, they can do that anywhere. Every commercial building could be powered by a photovoltaic system, as standard equipment.

Every car, house and commercial building in India and China also could be powered by a photovoltaic system. Sunlight is everywhere. It is free. What is not to like about that?

Why has this concept taken 30 years to emerge? Somebody wants to sell us the energy that we use. Somebody wants to sell us the fuel that we put into our cars. Texas Oil has been in bed with Detroit for ever.

I'm not sure what is stopping China and India; however, the money-saving impact of clean energy on their national health-care systems alone seems a huge incentive to take advantage of free sunlight and go photovoltaic (not to mention using wind and wave power).

After human energy needs have been met via alternative sources, using less energy, wasting less of what we make and use, and gradually down-sizing populations, there is that other energy need: Food.

Ten pounds of grain are required to make one pound of beef. It takes me one month to consume 10 pounds of beans and rice, my dietary staple, yet someone else might eat one pound of beef in one day.

Is the meat habit really worth the misery, the cruelty, the pollution, the clear-cutting of rain-forests and the squandering of months' and years' worth of grain to support herds instead of people?