You’re chain-smoking outside a cocktail party on a Saturday night and the conversation turns to politics. Chances are at least 90 percent of the well-spoken socialites around you are pulling their information straight out of their asses. Today, The Wake will help you become a part of that other 10 percent. I know, I know – making opinions based on actual facts is a fresh and dangerous idea. But that’s what we’re all about here – fresh and dangerous.

On Conservation and Energy

John McCain (R): “I believe climate change is real,” said McCain. “Americans and Europeans need to get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand over a much-diminished world to our grandchildren.” He has developed a set of five principles to reduce emissions and combat climate change:

• Climate Policy Should Be Built On Scientifically-Sound, Mandatory Emission Reduction Targets and Timetables.

• Climate Policy Should Utilize a Market-Based Cap and Trade System.

• Climate Policy Must Include Mechanisms to Minimize Costs and Work Effectively With Other Markets.

• Climate Policy Must Spur The Development and Deployment of Advanced Technology.

• Climate Policy Must Facilitate International Efforts To Solve The Problem.

Under the Cap and Trade program, companies would be allotted a limited amount of greenhouse gas emissions. If companies are able to develop technologies to cut emissions even more, they can sell their rights to emit greenhouse gas to other companies. Like the Acid Rain Trading program of the early 90’s, the Cap and Trade program should give companies an incentive to develop clean technologies. In McCain’s version of the program, today’s biggest polluters would start with the biggest share of allotted emissions.

Putting his five policies into action, McCain plans to reduce emission to 2005 levels by 2012 and to 1990 levels by 2020. The League of Conservation Voters gave McCain a score of zero percent based on his senatorial votes on issues of environmental significance during the past year.

Barack Obama (D):Obama, on the other hand, is endorsed by the LCV, having received a 67 percent on their scorecard. Like McCain, Obama supports a Cap and Trade program, but in his version, companies would obtain greenhouse gas emission rights by auction, creating an incentive to develop clean technologies right from the start.

Obama also stresses revolutionizing the automobile industry to make fuel-efficient cars affordable to the general public.

Unlike McCain, Obama is vehemently opposed to drilling in the NAWR “I strongly reject drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because it would irreversibly damage a protected national wildlife refuge without creating sufficient oil supplies to meaningfully affect the global market price or have a discernable impact on U.S. energy security,” he said. “We should be cherishing our natural treasures, not defiling them for no good reason.”

Al Franken (D): Franken has spoken out vaguely in support of alternative energy. He does not have an LCV rating because he does not have a legislative record to base it on. However, he is the candidate endorsed by the LCV for the Minnesota senatorial elections.

Norm Coleman (R): Coleman, with a rating of 21 percent, is not endorsed by the LCV. He supports increased domestic drilling on the grounds that most Americans can’t afford alternative energy. On the other hand, Coleman is the champion of wetland protection, having proposed the 2007 Wetlands Loan.

On Stem Cell Research

John McCain (R): McCain is painted as a staunch conservative so this may surprise you, but he actually supports stem cell research. Throughout McCain’s senatorial career, he has voted for bills in support of stem cell research several times, provided the embryos are left over from fertility treatments, not created specifically to be destroyed. “I believe that we need to fund this. This is a tough issue for those of us in the pro-life community. I would remind you that these stem cells are either going to be discarded or perpetually frozen,” he said in 2007. “We need to do what we can to relieve human suffering. It’s a tough issue. I support federal funding.” On the other hand, McCain voted in support of a bill to outlaw human cloning.

Barack Obama (D): Obama has also voted to outlaw human cloning and to allow stem cell research on embryos left over from fertility treatments. He also strongly supports lifting a ban that prohibits federal funding for stem cell research. “I strongly support expanding research on stem cells,” he said. “I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations.”

Al Franken (D): Because writer and comedian Franken has previously never held public office, he does not have a history of legislation to look back upon. Therefore, Franken’s views are somewhat less transparent than his opponent’s. Health reform is a major part of Franken’s political platform, and the expansion of stem cell research is a part of that reform. “We should look for cures for deadly diseases by harnessing the full potential of stem cell research,” he said on the subject.

Norm Coleman (R): As a Minnesota senator, Coleman has voted against expanding federal funding for stem cell research from discarded embryos from fertility clinics. However, he personally introduced an alternative plan. Called the Hope Offered through Principles, Ethically-Sound Stem Cell Research (HOPE) Act, Coleman proposed offering $5 billion dollars in federal funding to methods of stem cell research that do not harm or destroy human embryos. These methods include Altered Nuclear Transfer – in which an unfertilized egg cell is programmed to develop stem cells, and using stem cells from embryos that have died naturally. “The President’s current policy does not provide enough federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. I believe we can do more – without crossing the ethical line of using taxpayer dollars for the destruction of human embryos,” Coleman said. “This approach builds on common ground which both sides of this debate can agree on and is our best option for moving forward on this divisive issue.” His bill passed in 2007.

On Abortion

John McCain (R): McCain is against abortion except in cases of rape and incest, and in cases where the mother’s life is in danger, and he has consistently voted in accordance with this philosophy. He has also voted against partial-birth abortions. However, he makes the distinction that if abortion is criminalized, abortion doctors, not women who have had abortions, will be prosecuted under the law.

McCain emphasizes encouraging social change to prevent unwanted pregnancy in the first place. “At its core, abortion is a human tragedy,” he said. “To effect meaningful change, we must engage the debate at a human level.” However, he voted against a bill to grant federal funding to non-abstinence sex education programs.

Last year, The NRLC gave McCain a 75% score based on his pro-life legislation. On the other hand, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League has consistently rated him 0% based on his pro-choice standings.

Barack Obama (D): Obama has consistently voted against federal regulation of abortion. “I think that most Americans recognize that this is a profoundly difficult issue for the women and families who make these decisions. They don’t make them casually,” he said. “And I trust women to make these decisions in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy.”

Obama voted in support of the bill to grant federal funds to sex education. “We can certainly agree on the fact that we should be doing everything we can to avoid unwanted pregnancies that might even lead somebody to consider having an abortion,” he said.

The Natural Rights to Life Committee (NRLC) has consistently given Obama a zero percent rating, and the NARRAL has consistently given him a 100 percent rating.

Al Franken (D): In his book, The Truth (With Jokes), Franken expressed his perhaps unfortunately worded view that “Nobody likes getting an abortion. Except, perhaps, rape victims. It’s just that pro-choice people know that sometimes women get pregnant when they aren’t ready to have a child.”

Franken has had a tumultuous relationship with Planned Parenthood. At one point, the organization spoke out against Franken when an article he wrote for Playboy Magazine resurfaced. Planned Parenthood said that the sexually explicit, satirical article titled “Porn-O-Rama” was sexist and offensive to women. Now Franken and Planned Parenthood have kissed and made up, as he is currently endorsed by the Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota Action Fund.

Norm Coleman (R): Coleman’s voting record has been consistently pro-life. He voted against partial-birth abortions and also against federal funding for contraception-based sex education. He has been assigned a zero percent rating by the NARRAL and a 100 percent rating by the NRLC.

Well there you have it – go out and spread your newfound knowledge of black, white, and all shades of gray in between. Democracy will thank you.

Tags: politics