I hope people will take the time to at least skim this. If you have any questions, go to any of the sources at the bottom of this page.

Bold=Issues, Red=Bush, Blue=Kerry
Abortion/Contraception
• Pro-life unless it’s for rape, incest, or the mother’s life is in danger.
• Has belief of human life beginning at conception with abortion being type of murder.
• Signed Unborn Victims of Violence Act.
• Signed Partial Birth Abortion Act.
• Has blocked funding to any groups abroad that include abortion counseling in their family planning programs, even if the groups are sponsored by the United Nations.
• Is against contraceptive use to control the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• Doubled funding for Abstinence-only programs.

• Pro-choice.
• Has belief the Constitution protects women’s right to choose in consultation with both her doctor and her conscience.
• Voted against Unborn Victims Violence Act, calling for increased penalties for murders of pregnant women, but not with wording that restricts a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
• Voted against Partial Birth Abortion Ban because there was no exemption for cases where a woman’s health is at risk.
• Thinks health care plans need to insure contraceptive coverage and a full range of family planning options.
• Is against law that bans abortion on military bases, even when a women would pay for the procedure herself.
• Suggested ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
• Is of the opinion that contraception helps contain the spread of HIV/AIDS and should therefore be supported.


Death Penalty
• For it.
• Against it unless it’s for a terror-related crime.

College Funding
• Supports increasing Pell Grants to up to $1,000, but only for the first 2 years.
• Signed law that makes college tuition partially tax-exempt.

• Supports increasing Pell Grants to up to $2,500, and will them out for 4 years.
• Wants to offer a tax credit to offset the cost of tuition.


Environment
• Supports drilling for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge in order to not be so dependent on the Middle East.
• Has Clear Skies Act to reduce pollutants by 70%.
• Is against stricter standards under the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.
• Is for market-based solutions to improve the quality of air.
• Through Healthy Forests Initiative, wants to increase logging in national forests in order to prevent wildfires.

• Is against drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge because it’s harmful to the environment and reduces dependency on the Middle East by only 2%.
• Is against Clear Skies Act because he says it would allow twice as many sulfur dioxide emissions, allow 50% more nitrous oxide emissions, and permit power plants to emit 5 times as much mercury into the atmosphere.
• Is for strict enforcement of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.
• Introduced legislation that requires industries to reduce air-polluting emissions.
• Thinks the Healthy Forests Initiative will make it easier for logging companies to cut down trees in public forests, make it more difficult for federal courts to stop logging, and let logging companies avoid the environmental review required by the National Energy Policy Act.


Gay Marriage
• Against it and wants it banned in the Constitution.
• Against it, but supports Civil Unions.

Iraq
• Wants America to maintain its leading role in rebuilding Iraq.
• In late 2002, pushed the UN Security Council to demand full inspections of Iraq’s weapon systems.
• Feeling that the UN not willing to push inspections and enforce consequences, and exhausting all efforts to build coalitions, asked Congress to give him power to act alone.
• Said that war was needed because Iraq had links to Al Qaeda and WMDs.
• Said that Iraq was an imminent threat to America’s national security.
• Thought that establishing a democracy in the Middle East would bring peace and a wave of democratic reform to the region.
• Said the US could handle the postwar situation alone and gave $20 billion for reconstruction.
• Had lawyers look into whether or not America had to abide by the rules of the Geneva Convention.
• Doubled the death benefits for the families of veterans to $12,000.
• Allotted an additional $150 a month for the families of active troops that will not count against food stamps.

• Wants to create partnerships with other countries to rebuild Iraq.
• Supported the UN enforcement of weapons inspections.
• Voted to give the president power to wage war in Iraq without the support of the UN.
• Saying that the president was dishonest with his reasons for invading Iraq, voted against budgeting more money for war.
• Urged president to form broader coalition.
• Thinks more forces and attention should have been focused on Afghanistan instead.
• Urged involvement of the UN, NATO and other countries in the reconstruction.
• Accuses president of lying to the American people and Congress by saying that war would be a last resort and waged only with a broad coalition.
• Supports Geneva Convention under all circumstances, is very critical of the actions in prisons in Iraq, and has called for Rumsfeld’s resignation.
• Is critical of the lack of planning for the post-Saddam period in Iraq.
• Is critical of Halliburton’s profits that have been made off of the reconstruction.


Taxes
• Supports tax cuts.
• Supports tax cuts for all Americans but the top 2% wealthiest tax payers.

The Deficit
• Promises to cut it, but hasn’t said how.
• Promises to cut it, but hasn’t said how.

Health Care
• Encourages people to buy high-deductible insurance plans and use tax-free health savings accounts for routine medical expenses.
• Will give tax credits to help people get insurance and will give more assistance to community health clinics.
• Wants to promote private, managed care plans, such as HMOs.
• Wants to spend $88 billion in order to insure 4 million more Americans.

• Wants to make medical insurance available to all children and many adults without insurance. Plans to do this by using tax credits, subsidies and expanding public programs.
• Thinks that emphasizing private, managed health insurance would result in covering fewer Americans.
• Proposes a program which enrolls eligible children into health insurance when they enter school or visit a public heath clinic.
• Would allow people to buy into health benefits available to Congress and other federal employees.
• Would spend $690 billion to insure 27 million more Americans.
• Wants to cut insurance costs by 10% for all Americans.
• Wants to offer financial assistance to businesses that can’t afford to cover insurance costs for their employees.
• Wants tax credits to cover the health care costs for people reaching retirement age and those in between jobs.


Social Security
• Will allow young workers to set aside part of their payroll taxes and put it into private investment accounts. Also says the retirees and people nearing retirement will get their due benefits. Has not said how he plans to work the transition.
• Will make the government learn how to better manage their money and not take money out of social security for other things.

Medicare
• Gives drug discount cards to retirees and limited insurance drug coverage beginning in 2006. Opposes imports from Canada.
• Expanded Medicare in order to include new prescription drug benefits.

• Wants the government negotiate prices with the elderly and allows importation of prescription drugs from Canada.
• Wants to use the government purchasing power to bring down drug costs for people on Medicare.
• Is against privatizing Medicare.


The Supreme Court
• Would appoint conservative judges who are vehemently against abortion.
• Would appoint justices who would hold up ‘the law of the land,’ including a woman’s right to choose.

Energy
• Wants to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported oil. Only set idea is the drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
• Wants an increase of domestic oil drilling, an expansion of coal mining, and a development of more nuclear power.
• Thinks the past energy policy overstated the threat that energy exploration poses to the natural environment. Wants to relax certain environmental regulations and slow down the timetable for meeting fuel efficiency and conservation goals.
• Wants to promote the exploration of fossil fuel along the outer Continental Shelf, give incentives for coal bed methane drilling in the western US, exempt Native American Land from the Environmental Protection Act, and open the Artic National Wildlife Refuge to gas and oil leasing.
• Would give $30 billion in subsidies to the nuclear industry so that new nuclear power plants can be built.
• Wants research done on cleaner-burning coal.

• Wants to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported oil. Only set ideas are through conservation, including stricter gasoline mileage standards for cars, and investing in alternative fuels such as biofuels and hydrogen-based energy.
• Is for building the Alaska pipeline to distribute the state’s natural gas reserves to the rest of the US.
• Would like to see cars averaging 36 miles per gallon by 2015, which could be met through giving tax incentives to auto manufactures who develop more efficient vehicles.
• Wants to cut the government’s energy bill by 20% by the year 2020 through an increase in energy efficiency.
• Says clean energy technologies will create 500,000 new jobs.


Education
• Supports ‘No Child Left Behind Act’ and requires testing in reading and math from grades 3 to 8, and at least once in high school. Also adds resources to early childhood education and increases federal funding for public schools.
• Is for tax-payer financed vouchers to pay for parochial or private schools.
• Opposed to bonuses for teachers who work in low-income districts.
• Is against offering federal bonds to repair and reconstruct schools.

• Supports ‘No Child Left Behind Act’ and wants to spend increased funding on it and make it more affordable to school districts.
• Is against taxpayer-financed vouchers to pay for parochial or private schools.
• Would give teachers working in high-needs schools bonuses.
• Would give $30 billion to pay for increases for teachers and teacher training.
• Wants to create an Education Trust Fund to improve public education that would need $200 billion and would be financed by repealing tax cuts for families who make more than $200,000 a year.
• Outlined ‘New Bargain For America’s Children and Teachers’ which would retain or recruit 500,000 teachers during the next 4 years.


Economy
• Has passed 3 economic stimulus bills, and reduced taxes for federal income, for married couples, for inherited wealth, and gives increased tax credit for families that have children.
• Estimates tax cuts will create 5.5 million new jobs by end of term.
• Estimates the creation of 2.6 million jobs by the end of 2004.
• Proposes further tax cuts and wants to make current tax cuts permanent.


• Wants to repeal tax cuts given to households with incomes of more than $200,000 and bring back higher inheritance tax rates.
• Reduce corporate tax rates by 5% and establish a ‘New Jobs’ tax credit, which would reimburse payroll taxes to the employers affected by outsourcing.
• Get rid of tax loopholes that make businesses want to create jobs overseas.
• Give discount corporate tax rate to the companies who bring their businesses back to the US.


Job Outsourcing
• Thinks that sending jobs overseas will bring more domestic jobs in the long run.
• Has ‘manufacturing czar’ who examines the causes of the US manufacturing job decline.
• Wants to give community colleges $250 million to train displaced workers in high-tech fields.

• Wants to expand the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, which would then fund more retraining of blue-collar workers who lost their jobs due to the free-trade agreements.
• Wants to prohibit federal tax subsidies to firms that use off-shore labor.
• Wants contracted call center personnel to be required to disclose their location.


Foreign Policies
• Thinks the US must act to protect its security and interests whether they have approval from the UN and their closest allies or not.
• Is against international treaties that address global warming.
• Examined whether or not it was necessary to follow the rules of the Geneva Convention, which governs treatment of prisoners of war.
• Is against signing the Convention on the Elimination of All Form of Discrimination Against Women, because it includes abortion in its family planning.
• Is for the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
• Is for Israel’s right to self-defense, including the Israel-built security fence along the West Bank and the 2002 offensive against the Palestinian infrastructure.
• Is for loan guarantees and aid to Israel.
• Is for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
• Called for a new Palestinian leadership.
• In the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review, the Bush administration said the US would contemplate whether or not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states.
• Began to research and develop a new series of nuclear weapons, which would, for the first time ever, counter the NPT.
• In 2004, began to talk directly with North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program and offered economic incentives for the nation to not continue.
• Urged expansion of the Nunn-Lugar program, which needs $1 billion per year to secure and reduce excess nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union.
• In 2002, withdrew US from Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to build a missile defense system in Alaska as the nation’s first defense against nuclear weapons.

• Thinks US should make every effort to build international support during armed conflict.
• Wants to work with the international community to address the issue of global warming.
• Thinks the US should honor the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of the prisoners of war.
• Would sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
• Is for the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
• Is for Israel’s right to self-defense, including the Israel-built security fence along the West Bank and the 2002 offensive against the Palestinian infrastructure.
• Is for loan guarantees and aid to Israel.
• Is for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
• Called for a new Palestinian leadership.
• Thinks the US has failed by not playing a more active role in ending the current conflict and not moving forward at a more aggressive pace with the Roadmap for Peace.
• Wants to rely on existing international laws and treaty systems to prevent nuclear proliferation.
• Says that he would use military force to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons only as a last resort.
• Wants to prioritize face-to-face talks with North Korea.
• Is willing to spend more money under the Nunn-Lugar program in order to destroy nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union.
• Thinks the missile defense system located in Alaska is too expensive and ineffective against terrorism.


Terrorism/National Security
• Says military action is the most effective way to combat terrorism and ensure terrorists do not take over the Middle East.
• Willing to fight it alone and willing to act before a country has attacked the US.
• Wants to refuse safe havens to terrorists by holding the states harboring them responsible.
• Will stop terrorists from getting WMDs through confrontation or hard-line confrontation.
• Thinks the way to winning the hearts and minds of the people in the Middle East is by establishing a democracy in Iraq.
• Withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia in order to produce a new generation of missile defense to protect against nuclear attacks.
• Formed Department of Homeland Security.
• Instituted the US Patriot Act.
• Is in favor of creating a national intelligence director post.

• Would have focused more on eliminating Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
• Stresses importance of a US-led global alliance against terrorism that’s built on mutual respect.
• Would support go it alone military as a last resort.
• Wants to increase our use of intelligence gathering and economic policies to fight terrorism.
• Thinks that US should be much tougher on Saudi Arabia and it’s terrorism ties by doing things such as ending the US dependency on the Middle Eastern oil.
• Wants to build new international treaties and alliances to secure and control the existing nuclear material and to stop the production of new nuclear weapons.
• Wants to work on being more prepared for biochemical attacks and the protection of nuclear facilities.
• Wants to give more money to the fire fighters, police, and the other first responders and would use the National Guard more for domestic security.
• Would apply all the recommendations of the 9/11 commission to strengthen national security.


Women’s Rights
• Thinks that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have helped liberate the women from brutality.
• Closed the Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach, which coordinated the impact that governmental policies had on women and served as a connection between women’s groups and the government.
• Introduced a resolution at the UN that urged countries to remove the barriers to woman’s full political participation.
• Ended the Equal Pay Initiative and removed the information on narrowing the wage gap from the Department of Labor’s website.
• Reduced the enforcement of Title IX.
• Suggested a 26% reduction in funding for domestic violence and battered women hotlines.

• Even though he thinks the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have improved the lives of women, he doesn’t think enough is being done to protect their rights there.
• Cosponsered the Violence against Women Act, which gives more than $1 billion to battered women’s hotlines, shelters, and other resources, and which also increases the penalties to acts of domestic violence.
• Would implement existing laws and disclosure of payment policies to close the gap between men’s and women’s wages.
• While in Senate, defended the Family and Medical Leave Act.


Sources:
[U]Seventeen Magazine[/U], August 2004.
[U]New York Times National Edition[/U], October 24, 2004.
www.sparknotes.com/election/2004

Some countering Conservatism...

quote:

---

Is against contraceptive use to control the spread of HIV/AIDS.

---

Contraceptives don't stop HIV/AIDS. How would they?

quote:

---

Thinks the US must act to protect its security and interests whether they have approval from the UN and their closest allies or not.

---

I have three words for you: Cuban Missile Crisis. Most of you seem to be intelligent, and seem to have an education worth having, so you should be able to find out what we did then, why we did it, and why we should have that policy. You especially, Celtic, should know why and see why per your location.

and yes Ce, we know you are an exchange student in Russia, and not a Russian citizen (not yet, at least).

Wow this is quite a post. Thanks for collecting all the info and putting it together, it helped put things into perspective for me.

quote:

---

Originally posted by purpledog:
am i sensing a touch of liberalism in this post?

---

Yeah, and, what are you going to do? turn us into the CIA?

quote:

---

Originally posted by purpledog:
am i sensing a touch of liberalism in this post?

---

If you do, sorry. I tried to be as unbiased as possible. (I just translated from the ONLY sources I could find info on. If you can add, please do.)

am i sensing a touch of liberalism in this post?

Yeah, Bush (and the Pope) ceases to care about children after they are born.

One of my friends put it like this: He cares for women's rights in every country EXCEPT America.

Your Comments, Celtic, reminded me of that.

quote:

---

• Is against contraceptive use to control the spread of HIV/AIDS.

---

He didin't. I can't believe one is that stupid.

quote:

---

• Thinks the US must act to protect its security and interests whether they have approval from the UN and their closest allies or not.

---

This is why if Bush stays in office a World War may come. This "Screw it" attitude of his may cause other countries to say "Well then screw it too", and boom. WWIII

quote:

---

• Examined whether or not it was necessary to follow the rules of the Geneva Convention, which governs treatment of prisoners of war.

---

Se las busca en verdad.

quote:

---

• Urged expansion of the Nunn-Lugar program, which needs $1 billion per year to secure and reduce excess nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union.

---

Knowing thse folks by now, I'd say they don't give a damn whether the US approve or not of its making weapons. This nation will rise again in 20-30 years, especially since there is oil here.

quote:

---

• Thinks that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have helped liberate the women from brutality.

---

They are so free now, they have to stay in home because they can easily get raped if they go outside.

quote:

---

• Suggested a 26% reduction in funding for domestic violence and battered women hotlines.

---

I'm getting a feeling he beats his wife too.

Thanks, Ikki