Our own Congressman Jimmy Duncan thinks [1] that the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the U.S. Institute of Medicine, the American Psychological Association, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are a bunch of "elitists" for pointing out that abstinence-only education has increased teen pregnancies and STDs.
From Yahoo News: Lawmakers cited government statistics showing that one in four U.S. teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease and 30 percent of U.S. girls become pregnant before the age of 20.
Republicans said even if some abstinence-only programs do not work, others do, and it would be wrong to end the funding.
Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems "rather elitist" that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate. "I don't think it's something we should abandon," he said of abstinence-only funding.
Seems that Duncan is more interested in funding right-wing fundamentalist elitists than actually solving the problems of teen pregnancies and STDs. Methinks Mr. Duncan is not only out of touch, he's also going to get some letters.
And Keith Olbermann thought so highly of Jimmy Duncan's brilliant perspective [2], he slammed Duncan while declaring abstinence only education number two in the pantheon of 50 Bush Administration scandals:
A Tennessee Republican congressman named John Duncan says it is, quote, “elitist” that people with academic degrees in health, think they know better than parents. Of course, you wouldn‘t want anybody with an education getting involved in sex education.
more of Olbermann's excerpt after the flip):
The headlines breaking in the administration‘s 50 running scandals - Bushed.
Number three: The nexus of politics and terror-gate. You remember the seven losers in Florida who let an FBI agent posing as an al Qaeda talk to them about staging an attack on bureau headquarters in Miami and the Sears Tower in Chicago. Remarkably, two trials now and two hung jurors.
The jurors have already implied they largely believe the defense claim that these people were only interested in the FBI agent‘s money and the car he promised of them, and they thought they were run a scam on the guy. But since the Bush administration has yet to have a major terrorism conviction, the U.S. attorney for South Florida now announces, he will try this case for a third time.
Number two: Abstinence-gate. Since the late ‘90s, at the insistence of the Republicans in Congress and then the Bush administration, the federal government has spent $1,300,000,000 taxpayer dollars on so-called Abstinence-Only programs that were supposed to combat sexually-transmitted diseases and teen pregnancies. The results are now in: four major medical organizations say, “The abstinence-only programs have slightly increased teen pregnancies and STDs.
A Tennessee Republican congressman named John Duncan says it is, quote, “elitist” that people with academic degrees in health, think they know better than parents. Of course, you wouldn‘t want anybody with an education getting involved in sex education.
And number one: Support the troops-gate. As our friend, Dana Milbank reports in today‘s “Washington Post,” the family of Lieutenant Colonel Billy Hall, one of the most senior officers yet killed in Iraq gave its permission for media coverage of his funeral yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. They wanted the nation to know about his sacrifice.
Clearly, Mr. Bush and his people did not. Journalists were kept 50 yards away from the services, far enough away that they could not hear what the chaplain‘s final words over the American hero‘s body were. Behind enough yellow rope, that the faces of the next of kin would be obscured from photographers.
Whatever this war does and does not mean to the history of this country, nothing could have more greatly impacted the family of Lieutenant Colonel Billy Hall. And if his story and the story of other American heroes is kept from the American public, it is not the doing of a media that somehow dishonors the troop.
The blame lies clearly and completely at the feet of the Bush administration. It does not want our heroes honored. It wants itself honored. And all else, Lieutenant Colonel Hall and his family and their wishes, they can all, Mr. Bush is saying, “Go to hell.”