The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

In a major campaign appearance, Senator Sam Brownback will receive the 2006 Pro-Life Leadership award from the National Pro-Life Action Center. The award will be presented at an event called “The National Memorial for the Unborn” and is related to the March for Life. My favorite part of the announcement?

WHAT: Prayer service to end abortion and award presented to Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KN)

Yes, Republican from the state of “KN”. I’m not sure where that is…

In any case, this is another targeted appearance for his presidential campaign. These marchers will be his most fervent volunteers and donors in the run up to the Iowa Caucuses and the South Carolina primary. This is a bread and butter appearance to be sure. Events like these will help cement him as the Christian Conservative candidate in 2008. Which is exactly where he wants to be.

Light posting today, but I wanted to throw in this quote from the Concord Moniter regarding Senator Sam Brownback’s comments about fetuses with Down’s Syndrome:

Hassan commented also on the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. She pointed specifically to a comment from Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, who opposes abortion, saying 80 to 90 percent of fetuses found to have Down syndrome would be aborted this year.

“It is not Roe vs. Wade that is creating that problem,” Hassan said. “It is a world, instead, that does not support people with disabilities.

Hassan said she has a child with severe disabilities and can relate to concerns over whether a child would have the health coverage, educational support, homecare and social services necessary for someone with Down syndrome. To those legislators who cut those programs and also vote against abortion, Hassan said, “show me that you support a culture of life.”

For me, that is the crux of the problem.  All too often, republicans care about what happens before birth much more than what happens after birth.  Personally, I don’t like the idea of abortion. I don’t think anyone does. We should do all we can to prevent a woman from ever having to be in the position to consider having an abortion.

Birth control should be free and availble to kids along with comprehensive sex education at a young age. The more unwanted pregnancies we prevent the less abortions will occur.

Pre-natal care should be free as well as comprehensive health coverage for the mother and the child after birth. No one should have to wonder whether they can afford to have a baby. For that matter, no one should have to wonder whether they can afford any sort of medical coverage, but that is another debate entirely.

Vote against Pre and post natal care, vote against education, vote against birth control and sex education? Don’t give me crap about a culture of life.

Sometime over the next few days The Anti Sam Brownback Blog will be moving to a new server (at the same host).  If everything goes correctly you should not notice anything different. *Knock*Knock* on wood.

I just wanted to gove fair warning in the unlikely case things get a little crazy around here.

As always, your tips about Senator Brownback are always welcome.

In the January 16th 2006 edition of Business Week magazine, a Stanford scientist takes Brownback to task for his dark-ages stance on Stem Cell research:

As Stanford University professor Irving Weissman reflects on his lifelong quest to solve the mysteries of cancer, he bristles at the prospect that his work could be outlawed. A bill sponsored by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) introduced last spring would make it a crime to place human brain cells in animals. That means Weissman’s work — which involves transplanting human brain-tumor cells into mice — could conceivably land the 65-year-old scientist behind bars.

Weissman, who directs a stem-cell research institute at Stanford and also co-founded a company called StemCells Inc., believes that treatments for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) could emerge from research like his. Experiments on mice with partially humanized brains could shed light on how brain diseases progress. And such animals could provide testing grounds for embryonic stem cells and other methods of regenerating diseased brains. “Tell me, Mr. Brownback, which of these diseases should we not pursue?'’ says Weissman as he points to a list on his laptop. “There are people whose window of opportunity is very brief to get these therapies. As far as I’m concerned, he’s condemning them.'’ [From Lexis Nexis]

I will admit that bioethics is an area in which I do not have much experience. However, I know that genetic disease research is an arms race and if the United States does not lead in this area other countries will. I would much rather have America at the forefront of research that could cure Alzheimer’s and juvenile diabetes than France (no offense to the French). We must not let politics get in the way of science.

Do remember that 70% of Kansans support stem cell research. Politics is all huff and bluff until a relative gets Alzheimer’s.

Never Forget, Senator Sam Brownback Hates Children With Diabetes.

It is no secret that Senator Sam Brownback wants churches to be able to endorse candidates. However, currently that is against the law. The law has not stopped Ohio Pastor Rod Parsley and his World Harvest Church from brazenly supporting Kenneth Blackwell for governor. On October 15th 2005, Senator Brownback was a guest at a “Reformation Ohio” rally that may be subject to an investigation by the IRS. The New York Times is reporting a group of concerned clergy are asking the IRS to investigate this event and several others that appear to have violated tax law for non profits:

In their complaint, the clergy members contend that the two Columbus-area churches, Fairfield Christian Church and the World Harvest Church, which were widely credited with getting out the Ohio vote for President Bush in 2004, have allowed their facilities to be used by Republican organizations, promoted the candidate, J. Kenneth Blackwell, among their members and otherwise violated prohibitions on political activity by tax-exempt groups.

Mr. Parsley has been careful not to endorse anyone from his pulpit, which would clearly violate I.R.S. rules, but he has expressed his support for candidates in other locations. There have been widespread reports of the contributions he and his mother made to Mr. Blackwell’s campaign, and shortly before the 2004 presidential election, he said in an interview with ABC News that he supported President Bush.

His church has also invited conservative Republicans like Ann Coulter and John Ashcroft to speak, and they have voiced support for Mr. Blackwell. In August, former Senator Zell Miller, a Democrat who has aligned himself with the conservative Christian movement, stood in World Harvest’s pulpit at a Reformation Ohio meeting and told Mr. Blackwell, who was seated in the front pew, “You are the kind of leader this state - any state - needs.”

Does Senator Brownback support Churches breaking the law? Will he attend future events affiliated with the World Harvest church of Reformation Ohio? Was he aware at the time that the Churches may have been violating the law? All questions that need answers.

I want to be clear that I support everyone’s right to free political speech. I just believe that if you are going to be political you forfeit your tax exempt status. I would have no problem with Reformation Ohio if they were a tax paying entity.

While I was not at the game, I heard from several friends that Senator Sam Brownback attended the KU Basketball game on Saturday. The KC Star confirmed the sighting. I wonder for whom he was cheering? If anyone out there has a photo of the senator at the KU game, I would like to add it to my collection. Any other details about his attendance would also be welcome.

In other Brownback news, his national profile seems to be rising with the combined media draws of the Alito hearings and the Bush Spying scandal. While Arlen Specter made the headlines this morning when he dropped the “I” word (impeachment), every article about him also mentioned Brownback’s discomfort with Bush’s spying. While this might not seem like a big deal, every little bit helps for a Senator that is practically unknown nationally outside of anti-choice circles.

I also find it interesting to notice the difference between the two stories political impact. While the Alito hearings and his screeds on abortion are clearly aimed at the Iowa and South Carolina religious fundamentalist crowds, Brownback’s stance on domestic spying is more McCain-esque and would play better in New Hampshire. Just something to think about.

For any of you who doubted Senator Sam Brownback endlessley pontificated during the Alito hearings, the statistcis are in. According to a blog named “Nihilist In Golf Pants”, during the Alito hearings Brownback spoke %68.1 of the time, leaving 31.9% of the time to let Alito himself answer the questions.

One caveat with these numbers. I have never read that blog before. It is cited by numerous reputable blogs, many conservative. I would verify the numbers, but I don’t have the time. I just want you, the reader, to be fully informed about the source.

In a move sure to enrage Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, Washington DC has quietly passed a comprehensive domestic partnership ordinance. SF Bay Times reports:

The Domestic Partnership Equality Act of 2005 grants registered D.C. domestic partners an impressive range of benefits and obligations. The law grants full inheritance rights to registered partners and their children, prevents partners from being compelled to testify against one another in court, ensures the right to make medical decisions for each, and grants legal standing to sue in wrongful death cases.

The measure is also unusual in that it allows opposite-sex couples of any age, as well as blood relatives, to enter a domestic partnership.

The statute also adds several “marriage-like” obligations to domestic partnerships. Both partners are responsible for alimony and child support should the partnership dissolve. Each partner is also responsible debts the other has accrued under home mortgages and property holdings.

Fairness, equality, compassion. Sounds like an ordinance Brownback will hate. As I have mentioned in the past, he is the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the District. In other words, he holds the purse strings to the District’s budget. You better believe he will wield this like a cudgel. Nothing like equality to bring out the bigoted monster Brownback.

Strong words? Yes. I support equal rights, and I cannot understand people who believe discrimination should be allowed. Brownback is motivated by his religious fervor. I’m sure he will also soon start a crusade against shellfish consumption:

And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you: They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you. (Leviticus 11:10-12)

Come on Sam. “Shellfish Sucks (and that’s bad) 2008″ It has presidential campaign slogan written all over it.

Jesus’ General, everyone’s favorite satirist, made Brownback the subject of one of his letters. You should go read it all, but here is an excerpt:

Dear Sen. Brownback,

You’ve made a lot of progress in your fight to end discrimination against Blastocyst-American citizens. There is certainly less informal discrimination around today–I seldom hear anyone use slurs like “blob” or “goo” anymore. Unfortunately, a more damaging form of bigotry, institutional blastocysism, continues….

Once you’re elected, think about how easy it’ll be to get a Blastocyst-American through the [Supreme Court] nomination process. Just put one of those snowflake babies on the table and it will be the Alito hearings all over again–the Senators can ask questions all day long and they’ll never get an answer. The only sound anyone will hear is Wolf Blitzer’s praise for the frozen embryo’s coolness under fire.

Like I said, read it all. If you don’t read Jesus’ General daily you are truly missing out.