Now That We Have Balls, Will They Be Used?
Buck November 18th, 2006 - 9:16 amTwo recent news items have me pondering this question.
Doc’s appt. angers family planning group
ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Writer
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, to the consternation of its critics, has picked the medical director of an organization that opposes premarital sex, contraception and abortion to lead the office that oversees federally funded teen pregnancy, family planning and abstinence programs.
The appointment of Eric Keroack, a Marblehead, Mass. obstetrician and gynecologist, to oversee the federal Office of Population Affairs and its $283 million annual budget has angered family-planning advocates.
Keroack currently is medical director of A Woman’s Concern, a Christian nonprofit. The Dorchester, Mass.-based organization runs six centers in the state that offer free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and counseling. It also works to “help women escape the temptation and violence of abortion,” according to its statement of faith. And it opposes contraception, saying its use increases out-of-wedlock pregnancy and abortion rates.
“A Woman’s Concern is persuaded that the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness,” its contraception policy reads in part.
“The appointment of anti-birth control, anti’sex education advocate Dr. Eric Keroack to oversee the nation’s family planning program is striking proof that the Bush administration remains dramatically out of step with the nation’s priorities,” Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.
Democrats warned not to block judges
LAURIE KELLMAN, AP Writer
WASHINGTON - The Senate’s next Republican leader issued a veiled threat to block action on legislation if Democrats refuse to allow confirmation votes on President Bush’s troubled judicial nominations.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who will become minority leader Jan. 4, told the conservative Federalist Society Friday not to feel bad about the Senate election results because Republicans will hold 49 seats in a body that requires 60 votes to end a filibuster and bring legislation or presidential nominees to a final vote.
If the “Democrats want our cooperation, they’ll give the president’s judicial nominees an up-or-down vote,” McConnell said.
Vice President Dick Cheney told the same group Friday that Republicans’ loss of Congress in last week’s election won’t dissuade Bush from continuing to nominate strict-constructionist judges to the federal bench.
Surely with their majority status Democrats can neuter the control the theocratic mindset has, right?
