AM Feed - July 20: Bush Issues First Veto
Hot Topics
- As expected, President Bush vetoed the stem cell research bill passed by Congress. It was the first veto issued by Bush during his time in office, and he used it on a bill that had wide-ranging support from the scientific community, the American public and politicians of both parties. The House of Representatives was unable to raise a two-thirds majority to override the decision. In his trademark oversimplified rhetoric, Bush has stated that stem cell research destroys a life. In fact, such research is conducted using embryos from fertility clinics that would otherwise be destroyed. (Curiously, in the past, Bush has praised fertility clinics.) Bush’s veto gives more legs to stem cell research as a political issue. [link]
- The Bush White House has fervently backed the system of secret military tribunals for trying detainees, but last month the Supreme Court ruled the tribunal system to be largely unconstitutional. Initially the Bush team signaled that it would be open to widespread changes in the program, but now it is shifting its rhetoric. Yesterday, White House officials signaled that the president will soon unveil a new system of tribunals largely based on the old, disputed system. This could set up yet another clash between Bush and the Congress – a bipartisan group of Senators is working on a bill to propose a new system of tribunals that would grant more rights to defendants. [link]
- Is yet another earmarking scandal about to blossom in the House: Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) apparently earmarked funds for a Russian overseas studies program that was coordinated by his friend and business partner, the wife of a former KGB agent. Two of the students involved in the program hail from the same town in Russia where Taylor is the majority owner of the town bank and an investor in real estate. [link]
Quote of the Day
“American scientists will be looking at the tail lights of our competitors overseas.” – Reaction to President Bush’s stem cell veto by Terry Devitt, spokesperson for the University of Wisconsin, where the first embryonic stem cells were grown in 1998.
Morning Snark
- A Bush policy that’s causing a distinct lack of progress? Say it ain’t so!
Comment
- Are we back in the dark ages yet?
— jen Jul 20, 11:41 # - We’re getting there Jen. And sooner than we think. I’ll bet if one of his twins needed this, they’d do it and then try to keep it a secret.
— Jeannine Jul 20, 11:45 # - My first reaction is to think about what a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal our President is; but on further consideration the veto occurred for much more cynical purposes. It was done purely for political resons in anticipation of the ‘06 election, which in my opinion, is immoral. I hope to hell it backfires.
— Tommy Jul 20, 11:59 # - Ah, the science-detesting fetus cult scores another victory! A cell is a human being too. If the mindless elites can declare that a corporation is a person and that money is speech, it should not be too surprising that a cell that’s destined for destruction anyway should attain the status of personhood.
Meanwhile, while Bush ardently defends the right of cells to exist, he gives the thumbs-up to Israel’s savagery against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and the U.S.’s ravaging of Iraq…
— John Jul 20, 12:08 # - postpartum people in Palestine, Lebanon and sitting on death row don’t fit the right-to-life-think model.
— Doyal Jul 20, 12:20 # - I will tell my poor Parkinson’s riddled, nursing home confined father that he has another 2 years to wait before our government will fund the research that may cure his disease. He’ll be so thrilled to hear that the compassionate republican party (of which he was a lifelong member) has consigned to him a slow agonizing, debilitating death of a disease that will be cured once the democrats regain control of congress or the presidency – a far away time in which he’ll already be dead, I’m sure. For the record, even though a republican – he didn’t vote for Bush – I was able to help him see the error of his ways before the election.
— jen Jul 20, 12:27 # - Jen, I’m sorry – my heart goes out to you and your Dad…
— John Jul 20, 12:49 # - Am I the only person who noticed that all the people behind Georgie yesterday at the Veto Party were white? And that their babies were mostly white, too? So these people could afford to purchase a white baby, whoops, I mean adopt an embryo… and this is a good thing? And those babies and children already here that could be adopted… not quite white enough?
And for that we put off cures and treatments for so many people suffering right now.
This idiot makes me angry in so many ways most days.
— Lani Jul 20, 12:58 # - Lani, I did notice that and I think that’s why the realm of political debate is so narrow and shallow – and that’s why Katrina was such a preventable disaster and why we have worse segregation in our schools today than ever before (Brown v. Board of Ed. be damned) and that’s why women don’t get paid equal wages (African-American women making less than white women and latina women drawing down the lowest pay for equal work) and that’s why there’s all this hysteria about our southern border and not our northern border and that’s why indigenous people are living in squalor and poverty on reservations. This country is riddled with sexism, racism, classism and speciesism.
— John Jul 20, 14:07 # - If apathetic, disinterested Americans can’t get away from their entertainment centers, off their Lazy-Boys, stop worrying about Tom and Katy’s baby and take an interest in what is happening to their country under this miserable GOP administration, then our republic, as we have known and loved it, will probably be lost.
— Neil Sl Hutchens Jul 20, 15:03 # - Thank you, John.
Did you notice that many of the GOP’s in congress are now beginning to think that cut’n and run’n may be the way to go after all? It seems they’ve just discovered that things are not going so well in Iraq after all, Duh!
— jen Jul 20, 17:46 #
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