Laura Bush Lies, Trashes Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox, the popular former actor afflicted with a particularly nasty form of heritable Parkinson's disease, had been making the rounds in lectures and advertisments endorsing candidates who favor increasing stem cell research, until Rush Limbaugh called him out on it, claiming that he was mugging for the camera in some dastardly partisan ploy that was probably somehow Bill Clinton's fault. Fox showed a level of maturity unusual for the political arena, essentially ignoring Limbaugh and focusing on his agenda; to increase funding and availability of stem cell based therapies. Parkinson's disease is considered to be a particularly likely candidate for stem cell based therapeutic approaches, as it involves the selective death of a very specific neuron type in the brain, and researchers have been turning stem cells into these neurons in laboratories for several years.
But the GOP attack machine isn't finished chewing up Fox just yet, as it unleashed one of its big guns today, first lady Laura Bush stepped up the partisan attacks on Fox today, all the while making up facts about her husband's supposed devotion to stem cell based therapies.
Q: One of the issues thats come up. Michael J. Fox. The whole issue of stem cell research. Your reaction to the events of the past week.
LAURA BUSH: Well, I dont have any idea about any of those. I mean, Ive watch on television just like you have. But the fact is President Bush is the only president that authorized funding for stem cell research. And, um, you know, its an issue that its easy to try to manipulate peoples feelings about and I understand that. My dad died of Alzheimers. You know, there s nothing Id like more than to think there was a cure for Alzheimers. Especially before I get to be the age he is, but knowing also how he suffered. Its always easy to manipulate peoples feelings, especially when you are talking about diseases that are so difficult.
The fact is that stem cell research did begin under President Bush. George H. W. Bush, that is. The work began in 1990, but it was Bill Clinton who expanded available funding for stem cell research, only to have George W. Bush change those rules to a more restrictive set during his first year in office, limiting all research done on embryonic stem cells to existing cell lines, despite a variety of problems with those lines. So both she and Tony Snow pushing this ridiculous line that all stem cell research is available courtesy of George W. Bush is flat out lying to try and boost the GOP this close to the election.
And she's complaining that Michael J. Fox is manipulative?
Bush Vetoes Progress
For the first time in his presidency, Bush has dusted off the old veto powers and put them to use. For the express purpose of stilfling promising medical research.
President Bush vetoed a bill for the first time today, using his constitutional power to reject legislation passed by Congress that would expand federal research on embryonic stem cells, a step he said would be crossing a moral line.
This bill would support the taking of innocent human life, Mr. Bush said at the White House, surrounded by scores of children born as a result of an embryo-adoption program and their parents.
These boys and girls are not spare parts, Mr. Bush said, to loud applause.
It would appear that Bush never read the fascinating and informative article indicating that many who hold deep reservations about ES cell research do so based on a faulty understanding of how the technology works. Which is fairly evident in his statement that the bill "supports the taking of innocent human life." It most certainly does not. That life is fertilized human embryos kept in cryogenic storage in fertility clinics. These embryos are destined for destruction in any case, what's at issue here is whether they can be used to help develop therapeutic techniques to cure diseases in human patients, or whether they'll just be thrown away.
But it gets better.
The president said his own position on stem cell research, articulated in 2001, already allowed research without sanctioning the practices that violate the dignity of human life.
Keep in mind, this is the president who presided over an invasion of Iraq that resulted in the torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, the illegal detention of prisoners in Guantanamo bay and the illegal transport of suspects by the CIA and now we're supposed to believe preserving human dignity is high on its list of priorities?
Tony Snow serves up more idiotic hypocrisy.
Critics of the legislation have said it still involves taking something that is living and making it dead for the purpose of research, as the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, put it on Tuesday.
Ummmm Tony, I'm not sure if you've ever had the chance to head on over to Bethesda and check out the National Institutes of Health but "taking something that is living and making it dead for the purpose of research" is sort of the modus operandi of much of that federally funded agency. It's the basis for most of the biomedical research that goes on throughout the world.
Since it's clear that the Bush administration is unwilling to listen to the scientific reasons for why his veto is idiotic, let's all take a step back and point out the practical reasons for why he's doing it. Bush was pushed into office partially due to a small but extemely vocal conservative Christian minority group. Since he's been there he's made periodic overtures to them including supporting amending the constitution to ban gay marriage. But they want more, and this is his way of giving it to them. It has nothing to do wtih his job, which is running the country and ensuring the welfare of its citizens. That wasn't even on the list of concerns when this decision was made. It's pure partisanship; these Luddite extremists helped to put him in office, and if he and the party want to continue receiving their support, he'll do what they say.
But yeah, it's Democrats who are "beholden to special interest groups."