Bushwhacking in America

The George W. Bush administration has done things to America that I believed were only possible under Nixon, Stalin or Hitler. He likely stole TWO presidential elections. He put us into a war under false pretenses instead of capturing or killing bin Laden, or whomever attacked and killed almost 3000 souls on OUR soil. By his actions, Bush has infuriated and energized terrorists worldwide. This is dedicated to Mr. Bush, "W" as he's known to many.

Monday, June 25, 2007

The Cincinnai Post on Bush and Stem Cells

A Rear-Guard Action

Politically, President Bush is on the losing side of federally financed stem-cell research. The public supports it and so, increasingly, does Congress.

The Republican Congress passed a stem-cell-research bill last year and Bush vetoed it, the first veto of his presidency. This year, the Democratic Congress passed a similar bill and last week Bush used just his third veto.

Indicative of the growing support, the second attempt at a bill passed by greater margins than the first, 63-34 in the Senate, just four votes shy of the margin needed to override a veto.

Broadly, these bills would have permitted federally funded research into cells obtained, with the donors' permission, from surplus embryos that fertility clinics would otherwise destroy.

Bush argues, defensibly, that he and others are deeply, morally opposed to the destruction of embryos, even if only a few days old and no bigger than a pencil point, for research purposes and they should not have to see their tax money pay for it.

There is no ban on the research. States and private institutions are free to carry out the research. California voters have approved $3 billion in state funding for such research.

In 2001, Bush did issue an executive order allowing research on pre-existing stem-cell lines, but none on embryos created after the date of the order. But scientists said those lines were either inadequate or tainted, and even though the final outcome is far from a certainty, evidence continued to grow that the all-purpose embryonic stem cell was the most effective replacement for nerves and tissue destroyed by diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Following his veto, the president issued another order directing the government to encourage the search for non-embryonic cells, from amniotic fluid or umbilical cords or by reprogramming adult cells. And perhaps one day that will make this whole debate moot, but the beneficiaries of a cure for wasting diseases and their allies are not inclined to wait.

In what's likely to be a wave of such efforts, the Senate Appropriations Committee came right back and, by a vote of 26-3, attached a rider effectively overturning the ban to a must-pass funding bill for the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services.

Bush can go on fighting this, even as his own party begins deserting him on the issue, but one day he will almost certainly lose and he may find that the strength of his convictions has left him with no say in how this research will ultimately be conducted.

(Unfortunately, by then, Bush, and his administration, will have been responsible for setting back stem cell research six-plus years, and killing and/or sickening millions of Americans. Add to this his non-response to the 9/11/01 attacks, his horrible response to natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, and his Iraq "war", and he has cost the people of this country a tremendous human toll. His "moral" compass is so far off that he -- and Cheney, the real "decider" -- daily prove how far out of touch with the American populace they are --the people they are supposed to protect and serve.

Make no mistake about it. The Bush administration has clearly charted a course which cares for the wealthy and corporations at the expense of middle America, poor folks, the aging and the infirm.

~ Applejack)

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