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| Stem-Cell VetoDemocrats are beginning to criticize President Bush's stem-cell veto. Thankfully, the Party is speaking out against the President for vetoing the bipartisan bill.
What Bush and the social conservatives don't understand, is that they had an opportunity to save lives, but because of election year politics, they chose not to.
What many don't understand is that, stem-cells from embryos are being created every day in fertility clinics. Of every hundred or so embryos, one or two will be implanted and have an opportunity to become a human being. The rest are destined to stay in the freezer. My question is, why not use them for something?
Given all of this, it is only logical to allow stem-cell research to commence. Nevertheless, the President vetoed the bill, and now these embryos will stay in the freezer. | | |
| Bush Speaks To The NAACPYesterday, President Bush spoke to the NAACP for the first time of his Presidency, after declaring in 2004 that his relationship with the group was "non-existent." Bush lamented that so many African-Americans distrusted his political party after they abandoned the legacy of President Lincoln. He pledged to sign a renewal of the Voting Rights Act, which passed in the Senate overwhelmingly yesterday.
If the President truly regrets the Republican Party's hidden prejudice, he would understand that caring is more than just rhetoric. The Democrats have consistently favored programs to help African-Americans. Republicans don't understand that equality is more than a token here and there. For example, only Clarence Thomas believed that he was qualified for the Supreme Court. Even J.C. Watts, a former Republican Congressman resigned from Congress after being treated like a token by Conresssional Republicans.
One thing that Republicans don't realize, is that African-Americans are not stupid. Looking back at the racial records of Trent Lott, Jesse Helms, Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, and Richard Nixon, can it be considered a mystery why African-Americans don't vote for Republicans? | | |
| Poor Carl Johnson...It seems the Republicans, engaging in a game of election year politics, are going after violent video games. Of course there is no way they could go after an issue of no importance to me. I happen to enjoy video games, and I do not discriminate against violent ones. In retrospect, I did not know they would go after violent video games, but I figured that they would continue to attack elements of American culture that they deem “excessive.” However, the “excessive” elements that Republicans usually attack are almost always exclusively limited to what I do with my penis.
The main target of Republican idiocy was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This video game happens to be my all-time favorite. Many of you who know me will recall that I list Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as number one on my list of the greatest video games of all time. I believe that within ten years, most video gamers, designers, and critics will also list Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as the greatest video game of all time.
I do not claim that San Andreas is not violent. San Andreas would not be San Andreas without the carjacking, drive-by shootings, and slaughtered hookers. It is just so typical that Republicans would attack the game without focusing on the nonviolent elements. I first played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on October 25, 2004. I am proud to say that I purchased it and began playing on the first day of the game’s release. After my first session, I was astonished at how revolutionary one video game could be. Rockstar North designed an entire state! They did not just limit the game to one city, like the previous games in the Grand Theft Auto series. The game includes the three major cities of Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas. There are also several small towns, not to mention a massive countryside. Rockstar North designed all of this, designing and placing every stop sign and traffic light along with every tree and dirt path. They designed all of this while developing characters, personalities, and several interweaving stories and missions. The hero (or antihero) Carl Johnson, can do pretty much anything. He has the luxury of wearing thousands of different wardrobe combinations, buying real estate, gambling, dating, working out, eating and becoming fat, racing and pimping out low-riders. Carl can also work as a paramedic, firefighter, vigilante, pilot, figure-eight track racer, etc.
Despite what Republicans say, crime and violence make up only a fraction of Carl Johnson’s life. Republicans did not focus on any other element of the game other than violence.
I guess the Republicans should have tried playing or at least reading a review of the game. As usual, they chose a wedge issue and exploited it, despite the fact that the issue at hand was unimportant to the point of asininity.
-Brian Murphy | | |
| So President Bush has addressed the nation about a Constitutional Amendment which would define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Regardless of how we feel about the issue, we can all agree that it's funny listening to the Republicans try to justify their previous statements with their current ones. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), for example, who talked about states deciding the issue beforehand, has backtracked and now claims that a federal amendment will actually help the state amendments, which does not even make sense.
But the bigger issue here is the Republicans shameless attempt to appeal to their radical right-wing base. Nobody believes the Republicans when they say that this is something they feel strongly about. Sure they feel strongly about it when it comes to appealing to the far right, but I've noticed that this usually only comes up in even numbered years.
When we think about the Republican Party's justification for this Amendment, we usually think of some uptight right-wing blowhard claiming that his Party's Amendment represents the will of the people. Maybe now, he may be correct to say that most people would agree with him. While I personally think that same-sex couples should have the right to get married, the Republicans may be correct in saying that most people disagree with me. However, is a marriage Amendment really what matters to Americans now? Think about it: Gas prices are hovering around three dollars a gallon, currently the nation is buried deep in a mountain of debt, and we are still involved in Iraq with no exit strategy in sight. All of these factors will combine for a big pickup nationally, statewide, and locally for the Democrats in November.
While the Republicans may be correct in saying that most Americans would want marriage to be defined as a union between one man and one woman, that majority is transitive. That is, that majority will switch in time, since people are progressive by nature. Today the majority is 50% who agree with Republicans and 47% who disagree. A couple years ago, it was only about 34% who favored same-sex marriage, which is a tremendous increase in just a couple years. My instinct is that in a matter of five to ten years, the majority will change and we won't hear anything else about a federal Amendment.
-Brian Murphy | | |
| So I've been put in charge of creating a blog for the OSU College Democrats. I will give a few people the password and they and myself will update regularly. We recently had elections to fill five positions. I ran for Communications Director, but lost. I never expected to win. I ran against an incumbent who was popular. I was a new guy, but I think I did well in getting my viewpoints and ideas heard. As a result of one of my ideas, this blog was created. Do the OSU Dems have a rising star in Brian Murphy? Well, I don't know. If so, I think it would be funny if the College Republicans started to attack me. I've always liked being attacked for my viewpoints for some reason. Anyway, I'll give a few more people the password, so they can update and add to the blog as they see fit.
-Brian Murphy | | |
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