BUSH'S A PUPPET TO THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT--STEM CELL VETO PROVES IT

BY RICK GRANT rickgrant01@comcast.net

For years a lot of good people worked very hard to push through the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, including Christopher Reeve and his wife Dana--sadly now deceased. Also, Michael J.Fox and Nancy Reagan wholeheartedly supported the legislation. The bill was sponsored by Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania and supported by a bipartisan group of scientists, senators, celebrities, and private citizens. Sadly, the Reeves died before the bill reached the Senate floor.

The bill would have allowed couples who had stored frozen embryos for fertility treatments to donate them to researchers rather than let them be destroyed. The issue was devisive, pitting the supporters against President Bush and the religious right along with the Catholic Church--another thorn in the sides of progressive thinkers, who would never submit to the narrow parameters of Catholic dogma.

According to the religious right's logic, using donated sperm for research and an array of fertilization processes would be murder. Furthermore, these zealots believe that masterbation is killing potential babies because the sperm ends up on the bathroom floor instead of fertilizing the egg. Of course, the medieval Catholic Church views masterbation as a sin. However, they cleverly allow men and boys to confess it, and be free to jerk off as much as they want until their next confession.

Bush's veto again shows his flawed decision-making and blatantly exposes his failed presidency that brought us the Iraq War, (based on Bush's lies) the multi-billion dollar deficit, and now Bush's veto, which wiped out years of campaigning by free thinking people who wanted to see cures for our most tragic diseases and conditions.

And to think we're stuck with Bush until 2008. However, there is a growing majority of pissed off Democrats, including me, who are working to vote out this crooked Repulican administration, one by one until we achieve a Democratic majority in the House and Senate. When Bush and his gaggle of are history, the bill can be reintroduced. It make take years to undo the damage Bush has done to this country.