"Stay tuned. In George Bush's America, ignorance is strength"

[madfloridian]

I have seen that stem cell research and its scientific bases will upcoming this week. Thought I would post a June column by Howard Dean which covered Bush's war on science.

http://www.caglecartoons.com/previewColumn.asp?columnID={8CFF2462-78B9-40BE-A90C-054720EA4B8C}

SNIP..."I write this week’s column as a physician. The Bush administration has declared war on science. In the Orwellian world of 21st century America, two plus two no longer equals four where public policy is concerned, and science is no exception. When a right-wing theory is contradicted by an inconvenient scientific fact, the science is not refuted; it is simply discarded or ignored."

SNIP.." Recently, a scientist and a bioethics professor were dismissed from the blue-ribbon Council on Bioethics when they disagreed with the Bush administration's proposed ban on new stem-cell line development to cure a variety of diseases. In a similar vein and an unusual move, the nomination of public health experts to a CDC lead paint advisory panel were rejected by Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, and replaced with researchers with financial ties to the lead industry. The Union of Concerned Scientists, with 20 Nobel laureates and several former scientific advisers to Republican presidents, has issued a scathing Report on Scientific Integrity condemning these practices....."

SNIP..." Will it be long before a prominent panel of fundamentalist theologians, conservative columnists, and a few token scientists take up the question of whether the theory of evolution should be banned from the nation's classrooms? Stay tuned. In George Bush's America, ignorance is strength."

[Osama_Bin_Winnin]

1. I'm liking Dean more every day

I think after the election Kerry should appoint him Secretary of Pointing Out Stupid Shit

[madfloridian]

2. LOL He does do that well. I agree.

You have a neat username. :hi:

[loftycity]

3. That would be good--This country needs a department for pointing

out the crazy stuff. Good Idea.

[walldude]

4. It would take more than one Department

we'd need an entire industry to point out all the stupid shit the government is doing...

[madfloridian]

5. Column on stem cell research: "Let's win this one for the Gipper."

Knowing how strongly Howard Dean opposed Reagan's domestic policies, I do admire him for this article.

From June 21, Howard Dean's column on stem cell research.
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http://www.caglecartoons.com/previewColumn.asp?columnID={1B1FA8F4-1046-4705-9C6A-50C9DCC9199F}

SNIP..."What Mrs. Reagan and other advocates of stem cell research are asking is that the embryos be put to humanitarian and scientific uses, instead of being wasted. Perhaps the research will fail. But, if we do not try, we will never know. President Bush has confined stem cell research to such a few cell-lines, which makes most American research meaningless.

Most of the research is now going on in other countries, with a few exceptions in the U.S., such as wealthy universities that can afford to refuse federal funding. This means that Americans who suffer these diseases will be last in line to get the benefits of this potentially extraordinary research. It also means a generation of American scientists and doctors will fall behind their foreign counterparts in using whatever lifesaving technologies come out of this research.

As a physician, I am embarrassed that America would willingly and deliberately choose to set aside science and the hope it offers. As a Democrat, I say to Nancy Reagan, I'll do whatever I can to help you win this one for the Gipper."