Yes, it's the so-called "American Values Agenda" and it's the usual carload of right wing insanity. This is what Congress thinks we should be focusing on:
The "American Values Agenda" also includes a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage — which already has failed in the Senate — a prohibition on human cloning and possibly votes on several popular tax cuts.
"Radical courts have attempted to gut our religious freedom and redefine the value system on which America was built. We hope to restore some of those basic values through passing this legislative agenda and renewing our country's commitment to faith, freedom and life," Speaker Dennis Hastert' R-Ill., said Tuesday.
The priorities are part of competing attempts by the two parties to appeal to target voters in the fall campaign, with control of the House and Senate at stake. It's unclear how many of these bills might clear Congress and reach President Bush's desk, given the controversy many will cause and the relatively short time remaining before the two-year Congress ends.
Still, political strategists argue that by bringing controversial issues to a vote, one party can broadly emphasize differences with the other on an issue such as abortion, and increase the determination of its own supporters to go to the polls. Several GOP aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Republicans were hoping to increase voter intensity among conservatives.
"Radical courts have attempted to gut our religious freedom"?? Absolute raving, lying bullshit. This whole sewer of legislation Hastert and the other rightwing thugs are pushing is the same tired collection of measures intended to stir up hatred of gays, make gunowners paranoid, score meaningless pseudo-patriotic points, and feed Religious Right persecution fantasies. Yes, it is indeed merely an election year ploy to stir up the ugliest of the right's fanatics and get them to the polls.
Meanwhile, David Sirota makes a strong case for what's really wrong:
- The American Journal of Public Health reports more than 1,700 African Americans die each week because they don't have the same access to health care as other Americans.
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 110 workers die each week in workplace fatalities - many of which could be prevented by better enforcement of basic workplace laws by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (which is being gutted by budget cuts).
- The Pentagon reports roughly 15 American soldiers die each week in Iraq.
- The Institute of Medicine reports 346 Americans die each week because they lack health insurance.
- The Environmental Working Group reports that 192 Americans die each week because of exposure to asbestos.
Please, please, PLEASE, in the name of what is right, sane, fair, and truly American, PLEASE give the Democrats--
- Your money.
- Your time.
- Your effort.
We can go on letting America be swindled, lied to, and distracted by the Republicans who are dragging this country into catastrophe, or we can fight back.
There isn't much time left. What will you do to stop the phony "American Values Agenda"--and force Congress to look at real American values?
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