Keith,
The issue is not whether stem cell research is to be permitted –
but whether our taxes will support the research. Researchers can do what they
wish – they just won’t get money from the Feds.
Arnold
didn’t allow stem cell research – he allocated $3 billion of our
money to it. (I voted against it.)
I can see Bush’s point which is valid. That embryos will be
deliberately created so they can be extracted for research. Rather like Chinese
were supposedly deliberately sent to prison so their vital organs could be
harvested.
Whether Bush is sincere or is politically grandstanding on this issue
may be resolved if Congress goes over his head. If he is bitter – he is
sincere. If he is grateful to Congress (however expressed) then he is playing
to his support and his opposition is a political antic.
Harry
*******************************
Henry
George School
of Social Science
of Los Angeles
Box 655
Tujunga CA
91042
818 352-4141
*******************************
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Keith
Hudson
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 1:12
AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Futurework] Bush enters
dangerous territory
743. Bush enters dangerous territory
It is exquisitely interesting that Bush now faces out-and-out opposition from
Congress on a relatively recondite matter -- stem cell research. Rather like
the resistance Bush has met to his Social Security ideas and also his promotion
of five Supreme Court candidates, I rather think that this stem cell issue is a
surrogate for much deeper worries that both Democratic and Republican
politicians have about matters which are of more immediate importance --
increasing budget deficit, increasing trade deficit and disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It really doesn't matter overmuch whether stem cell research is allowed by the
Federal government, or by Governor Schwarzenegger's California, or by universities or by private
firms. It's going to be of tremendous importance in the coming years and it
will continue come what may, even if Bush vetoes the proposed Stem Cell
Research Bill. But what the House was actually saying to Bush in voting 238 to
194 in favour of Federal support was: "Wake up! Don't continue to be
persuaded by your anti-scientific Southern Baptists and other backwoodsmen. By
resisting stem cell research, you're showing the rest of the world that you and
your administration are not very intelligent or farseeing."
President Bush is, in fact, in deep trouble on all sorts of issues and this is
being reflected in a serious decline in his overall approval rating -- now down
to 43% in a recent Pew
Research Center
poll. On the economy in particular, support is now down to 35%. Only as
recently as a couple of decades ago this would already be regarded as dangerous
terrority for Bush. Today, however, with far fewer ordinary people engaged in
practical politics at local and state level, a 35% support is just about
sustainable.
However, if the 35% falls any lower then it starts to enter the territory of
the 25% or so of the population highly-educated opinion moulders who really do
care about the future of America
-- and can do something about it. Already the Republican worms in Congress are
beginning to turn. If Bush's standing deteriorates any further then demands for
appropriate chastisement will arise from several other quarters -- such as
academia and multinational business -- which have so far been largely quiescent
about Bush's performance.
About 18 months ago I seem to remember writing that Bush ought to have been
impeached over the invasion of Iraq.
I'm beginning to think that the deterioration in the American economy and the
general gross incompetence of this administration will cause the Iraq issue to
be raised as a surrogate method of impeachment. After all, it is quite clear
now from the evidence that pretexts were found for the invasion, so the
ammunition is to hand. But the real issue will be the economy and Bush's lack
of vision for America.
Keith
Hudson
<<<<
HOUSE APPROVES A STEM CELL RESEARCH BILL OPPOSED BY BUSH
Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Washington -- The House passed a bill on Tuesday to expand federal financing
for embryonic stem cell research, defying a veto threat from President Bush,
who appeared at the White House with babies and toddlers born of test-tube
embryos and warned the measure "would take us across a critical ethical
line."
The vote, 238 to 194 with 50 Republicans in favor, fell far short of the
two-thirds majority required to overturn a presidential veto, setting up a
possible showdown between Congress and Mr. Bush, who has never exercised his
veto power. An identical bill has broad bipartisan support in the Senate;
moments after the House vote, the Senate sponsors wrote to the Republican
leader, Bill Frist, urging him to put it on the agenda.
The House action is the first vote on embryonic stem cell research since August
2001, when Mr. Bush opened the door to taxpayer financing for the studies, but
only with strict limits. The new bill permits the government to pay for studies
involving human embryos that are in frozen storage at fertility clinics, so
long as couples conceiving the embryos certified that they had made a decision
to discard them.
"The White House cannot ignore this vote," said the bill's chief
Republican backer, Representative Michael N. Castle of Delaware, adding,
"I'm elated."
....
New York Times -- 25 May
2005
>>>>
