WP: House Leaders Agree to Vote On Relaxing Stem Cell Limits

[Pirate Smile]

House Leaders Agree to Vote On Relaxing Stem Cell Limits

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 25, 2005; Page A03

The House leadership has agreed to allow a floor vote on a bill that would loosen the restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research imposed by President Bush in 2001, according to members of Congress and others privy to the arrangement.

The vote, expected to take place within the next two to three months, would be the first of its kind on the politically charged topic since Bush declared much of the research off-limits to federal funding. The cells show promise as treatments for many diseases but have stirred intense controversy because they are retrieved from human embryos, which are destroyed in the process.

"We're very pleased," said Rep. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.), a supporter of policy change who helped broker the deal. "This is an indication they recognize the importance of this."

Supporters of the research expressed optimism that, given a chance to vote on the issue, both the House and Senate will back a modest loosening of Bush's rules.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64316-2005Mar24.html

[adwon]

1. So much for the 'cult of life'

:nopity:

[Democrat 4 Ever]

2. This will have the freepers, the Christian Taliban and all of the

wingnuts imploding. Their heads will rotate 360º, eyes will bug out of their sockets, smoke will pour from their ears and fire will be erupting from every orifice in their bodies. First Terri and now stem cell, it is major CYA time for the repugs.

We have GOT to set up a concessions stand! This is going to get very entertaining.

[SteveG]

3. Castle was one of the five

Republicans to vote AGAINST giving the Federal Courts juristidiction over the Terri Schiavo case. He is definitly one of the "Good" republicans - not controlled by the Neo-Con's or the Religious Reich. He should not fly in small planes.

[Hand]

16. Hmm... better stay off small planes. nt

[Coastie for Truth]

4. This could have been very bad for Bush etc

1. California's Prop 71 (Authorizing sale of $3B of bonds for stem cell research, and specifically legalizing stem cell research in California) carried by a 3/2's majority.

Let's get nasty and seditious about this --->

Banning stem cell research after California's vote on Prop 71 may mean that it's time to talk about the ultimate "States Right" -- Secession. It is time to think about a Federated Republic of Pacifica - California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia.

The Federated Republic of Pacifica can't be any more bizarre then a country with Florida and Texas, led by Bush-Cheny, with its legislature led by DeLay and the Frist-Santorum Team.

Barbara Boxer for President of the Federated Republic of Pacifica.

2. The Diabetics, brain/spinal cord injury, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Caregivers, Heart Disease (Congestive Heart Failure) have seen positive results with stem cell research elsewhere -- and are getting seriously organized.

[kineneb]

9. I'm with you

I voted for Prop. 71, it was a no-brain decision: Hubby has diabetes. If anything can be done to mitigate the damage that diabetes does, we as a planet need to look into it.

And a native-born Californio, the Pacifica idea has started looking better and better. (2nd gen. CA, 3rd gen. westerner)

[lies and propaganda]

17. I have talked about a similar idea for awhile...

Though it was called "New Caledonia," and it went into Alaska.

Sounds like goddamn paradise.

[napi21]

20. HAY Damn it! don't leave the rest of us out!!!

Just because we don't live on a coast doesn't mean we aren't with you on most of these issues!

[DeepModem Mom]

5. kick

[gratuitous]

6. Well, the nutjob right is already at a rolling boil

This is as good a time as any to turn up the heat.

Rumors of insurrection sure do lend a sour taste to the morning coffee.

[salin]

8. It is ironic

the timing. Somehow I don't think it is planned - given that last weekends little act was intended to cement loyalty - whip up support, and paint the dems into a corner as "bad".

Yet the timing, I imagine, would feel like a sucker punch to the already roiled up frenzied radical religious right. Will this lead to another upswing in membership of rightwing "religious" militia groups (eg that movement in the early nineties that grew in part out of a sense that US laws and the govt were something they had to be prepared to fight against... or in the extreme some groups that the US laws did not apply to them)?

[gratuitous]

11. Ironic? Not the word I'd use . . .

Not so much ironic as practically inevitable. Republicans have been toying with some powerful, deep-seated emotions and beliefs for a couple of decades, cynically manipulating a whole segment of the population for their own ends and to gather more power to themselves.

There are several possible next developments, and most of them are bad: The disaffection you mention, which can lead to either opting out of the system or taking affirmative steps to challenge or end it; these people might re-evaluate their whole system of loyalties and fragment, which would end not only their perceived political power but any real power they actually possess; some of them will drop their Republican ties, and the Democrats could pick up a few voters if they offered them something they recognized (real compassion, bleeding-heart liberal style as opposed to phony compassion, conservative style?); and some of them will surely cleave ever more closely to their abusers, denying the reality before their eyes as they focus ever more tightly on rhetoric and ignore ever more willfully the actions.

[salin]

13. good analysis

two things come to mind on the surface. First many mainstream churches have gone more literalist/fundie over the past 20 years - but they aren't necessarily hard core. Some congregations may start migrating back a bit if they become to turned off by extremism on display. If that is the case - I think that they become less politically active - and turn more inward. Not plus or minus.. voting will probably go back to where it was pre-political organizing of those churches by the Christian Coalition.

Some will do exactly as you say (remain cleaved in "righteousness" to their abuser, making excuses for why...)

But some - and it is sadly a much larger number than I would have thought even ten years ago - have been fomented for years by religious exploiters (eg Robertson, Reed, Falwell) - that will be the disaffected crowd. I have no idea what they will do - try to take over the party further (they have had great success in many state level organizations)... OR start breaking off into fringe groups that view themselves as righteous warriers fighting the establishment in the Name of God. Because this has been the heightened rhetoric for years... (but within the exploited system) I fear this will be taken to heart by some. And our own domestic violent fringe that already exists... will just grow in number. That frightens me.

[gratuitous]

15. I don't know what they'll do, either

And what's most worrisome to me is that now, possibly moreso than at any time in a long time, we have a strain of eschatological fever that is quite virulent. A lot of people are absolutely convinced that the end of the age is imminent, and some of them will act accordingly.

Offhand, I'm thinking of the guy who was arrested trying to steal a gun so he could get some water to Terri. He's not the only one entertaining such a hare-brained scheme, but he's the only one so far we've heard about. I worry that some of his ideological compatriots will plan better or take more extreme steps to bring about the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. And even a small group of religious fanatics (say, 19 or so) can cause a whole lot of damage.

The GOP has been screwing around with some real primal forces in the human psyche, and it may even now be too late for the pebbles to say that the avalanche shouldn't start.

[salin]

18. this is probably the one time that I can remember

that I am so sad, to find myself in complete agreement with you. Yes, the ominous feeling that I have is about something much worse than the wacko trying to steal the gun.

A few years ago there was this nutty group of militia men who heard that a staging of something they didn't like (maybe the vagina monologues?) was going to happen on an IU campus... they planned to release anthrax or someother poison through the airvents... but do it in some "clever" way such that they would be elsewhere and out of suspicion. Now stupid folks tend to be ... well... stupid. So someone gets unnerved... and they get ratted out and caught at a highway roadstop restaurant on the way... wait for it... to the wrong IU campus (not where said play was playing). Now in this case the happy militia folks were not righteously motivated...seems that to fund their activities that they had gotten to dealing drugs and one of the conspirators was implicated... so this anthrax scare was really supposed to be a cover for a "hit" on whoever they thought that it was that ratted out their drug running to the authorities.

The point, and yes there is one, is that there are some very unhinged folks out there. And their plans can be very deadly. Add the sense of righteousness - and the sense of coming "end times" and I think that some could be very, very dangerous.

[rodeodance]

14. so now it is Congress's turn to show the public that they are the 'good'

guys..

[bettyellen]

7. .

[salin]

10. kick

so is this a move forward? To allow a floor vote - or is it an opportunity to prove loyalty to the radicalized right (that is - see we keep voting in you favor... even if the last one was a little blatant in its opportunism)

[ElectroPrincess]

12. Kick for mid-afternoon crowd

:kick:

[VegasWolf]

19. Looks like a bad week all around for the Christian Tailban. n/t