On sex-ed ad, McCain is right

[DixieBelle]

What was that Illinois sex-education bill really about?

By Byron York

In recent days, a consensus has developed among the Obama campaign and commentators in the press that John McCain has decided to lie his way to the White House. Exhibit A in this new consensus is McCain’s ad, released last week, claiming that Barack Obama’s “one accomplishment” in the field of education was “legislation to teach ‘comprehensive sex education’ to kindergartners.”

Within moments of the ad’s appearance, the Obama campaign called it “shameful and downright perverse.” The legislation in question, a bill in the Illinois State Senate that was supported but not sponsored by Obama, was, according to Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton, “written to protect young children from sexual predators” and had nothing to do with comprehensive sex education for kindergartners. In a stinging final shot, Burton added, “Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn’t define what honor was. Now we know why.”
 
Newspaper, magazine, and television commentators quickly piled on. “The kindergarten ad flat-out lies,” wrote the New York Times, arguing that “at most, kindergarteners were to be taught the dangers of sexual predators.” The Washington Post wrote that “McCain’s ‘Education’ Spot is Dishonest, Deceptive.” And in a column in The Hill, the influential blogger Josh Marshall called the sex-education spot “a rancid, race-baiting ad based on [a] lie. Willie Horton looks mild by comparison.”

The condemnation has been so widespread that the Obama campaign has begun to sense success in placing the “McCain-is-a-liar” storyline in the press. But before accepting the story at face value, it might first be a good idea to examine the bill in question, look at the statements made by its supporters at the time it was introduced, talk to its sponsors today (at least the ones who will consent to speak), and find answers to a few basic questions. What were the bill’s provisions? Why was it written? Was it really just, or even mostly, about inappropriate advances? And the bottom-line question: Is McCain’s characterization of it unfair?

21st-CENTURY SEX EDUCATION
The bill in question was Senate Bill 99, introduced in the Senate in February 2003. Its broad purpose was to change and update portions of Illinois’s existing laws concerning sex education. (The text of the bill is here, and everyone interested in the issue should take a look at it.)

SNIP

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzI3ZDUzOTE0ZThlMTU3MTY0MDI4ZTY0MTZhY2I2MGY=

[DumbAss Tanker]

Teh Truth, it burrrrnnnnnnssss!

 

[Wretched Excess]

interesting.  in reading the text of the legislation , it appears as though the bill originally read "grades 6 through 12", but
was changed to read "K through 12".  I wonder why?

Each  class  or  course  in  comprehensive  sex
education offered in any of  grades  K  6  through  12  shall
include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted
infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread
of HIV AIDS.

[Wretched Excess]

britt hume featured this tonight.  his conclusion was that this bill did exactly what john mccain claims that it did, despite the MSM following the official obama campaign line and screaming that it is a lie.  and he wondered how the NYT and WaPo could have come to the conclusions that they did if they had actually read the bill.

mccain's ad is the truth. 

[Jim]

I'm as upset at all the verbage that was struck out as anything else.  Why not honor marriage ?