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1.: STEM CELLS, AND JOHN MCCAIN'S FIRST WIFE From: Stephen Meyer

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1.: STEM CELLS, AND JOHN MCCAIN'S FIRST WIFE

Posted by: "Stephen Meyer" Stephen276@comcast.net stephen_meyer_stemcells

Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:50 am (PDT)

STEM CELLS, AND JOHN MCCAIN'S FIRST WIFE

When Bill Clinton fooled around, the Republicans fought with all their
strength to impeach him. .

But when John McCain cheated on his crippled wife, the GOP nominated him
for President.

Did you know about McCain's first wife? A former swimsuit model,
Carol McCain was tall, willowy, beautiful—until a terrible car
accident.

Flung through the windshield of her car, Carol McCain lay on the frozen
ground all night. Her pelvis was broken. Both legs and an arm were
shattered, she had massive internal injuries— the doctors despaired
for her life.

Fortunately for Carol, Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot took over her
medical bills: paying for her six months in hospital-- and 23
operations, necessary just to keep her alive. So many bone fragments had
to be removed from her body that she lost five inches in height.

Carol McCain was disabled for life.

So when John McCain came home from the war in Viet Nam, how did he stand
by the woman he promised to love and cherish till death did them part?

He began cheating on her, systematically and casually, with a variety of
women.

Finally the still married McCain chose Carol's replacement, the
movie-star-gorgeous Cindy, heiress to a fortune.

He divorced Carol, married the heiress one month later, and his new
father-in-law gave him a job as an executive at his beer
company—and John McCain was rich.

H. Ross Perot had this to say:

"McCain is the classic opportunist… always reaching for
attention and glory. When he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he
threw her over for a poster girl with big money…"

—"The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind",
Sharon Churcher, Daily Mail UK, June 8, 2008.

To this day, Carol remains loyal to McCain, who pays her medical bills.

Now some people feel that McCain, as a former prisoner of war, is not to
be criticized. Democrats always acknowledge John McCain's service,
unlike the Rove-Republican attack machine and their Swift Boating
tactics, continually smearing John Kerry's heroism in the same war.

But to my way of thinking, the fact that John McCain was a prisoner of
war does not mean we forget everything else about the man.

John McCain deserves to be judged on his actions, his record, his
positions and choices, and how his decisions will affect all our lives.

First, let me state my personal bias: why John McCain's essential
abandonment of a disabled person affects me so deeply.

My son Roman Reed is disabled, a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the
shoulders down because of a college football accident.

Every day I try to do something to advance the cause of stem cell
research, because I know it works.

I have seen it. On March 1, 2002, I held in my hand a laboratory rat
which had been paralyzed, but which walked again, thanks to embryonic
stem cells. That was in the Reeve-Irving Research Center, University of
California at Irvine.

It has been so frustrating, these past eight years, having an
anti-science President in the White House. The policies of George Bush
policies are based on ideology and ultra-conservative religion, not the
healing science our country so desperately needs.

But John McCain says he is different from Bush, that he supports
embryonic stem cell research.

I don't trust him.

Different from Bush? Not a whole lot. McCain co-signed Senator Sam
Brownback's bill to put scientists in jail for advanced stem cell
research—he also chose Sarah Palin for his Vice President, and she
is completely opposed.

With a new GOP platform calling for a complete ban on embryonic stem
cell research, we could be worse off than we were under Bush.

McCain says one thing, and does another.

McCain says he supports the disabled—then votes against the
Community Choice Act, which would have allowed disabled folks to be
cared for in their own homes, instead of having to be institutionalized.

He likes to call himself a "maverick", reminding us that he once
dared to opposed President George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.
However, (and with McCain there is always a however) when it came time
to gain his party's nomination, he tossed that courage out the
window. Now he wants to make those tax cuts permanent: as the rich get
richer, the middle class gets pushed down into the ranks of poverty, and
the poor are increasingly on their own.

He promised to run a respectful campaign, saying that he won't talk
trash about his rival—he just hires Karl Rove's friends to do
it. And did you see his face when his second in command when his
second in command went into her carefully planned speech of character
assassination. He was giggling like a schoolgirl when Ms. Lipstick
Pitbull trashtalked Obama.

Did you notice how he first said he did not know anything about
economics, but suddenly discovers he has all the answers?

He says he believes in freedom, but his second in command wants to
censor library books, and fired a librarian who stood up to her.

McCain says he hates war, but pushed hard to get us involved in Iraq
from the very beginning. That war cost us our economy. America went from
being rich to being in debt. That was started by George Bush, and
continued by John McCain, who promises more.

Granted, Iraq is quieter now; if you kill enough people it will
definitely calm things down; graveyards are not noisy places.

"Maverick" McCain says he is against government wastefulness and
corruption—so where are his speeches on the mountains of money lost,
stolen, or mis-spent in Iraq, entire fork-lift pallets of money
unaccounted for?

He even abandoned his enthusiasm for President Bush—in his
acceptance speech he never mentioned the name of that man he once so
publicly embraced, putting his cheek on the President's chest.

As a former prisoner of war, McCain deserves respect.

But when he mentions his war record, which he does at any possible
excuse, we should remember there are other veterans, whose interests he
routinely votes against.

Like the soldiers in VA hospitals, who were recently told by the Bush
Administration, that they can no longer be helped to register to vote.

The same veterans whose care John McCain so frequently votes against.
They also were soldiers. Their heroism also deserves recognition.

Many are disabled, like John McCain's first wife. They must not be
abandoned.

We also have an estimated one hundred million citizens suffering from
incurable disease; they must not be forgotten.

We need a President who will not only look out for everyone, but also
try to make things better: to heal the ill and injured.

John McCain is not that man.
Don C. Reed
Sponsor, Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act
co-chair, Californians for Cures
Vice President, Public Policy, Americans for Cures

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