BOEHNER AND REPUBLICAN OBSTRUCTIONISTS PROMISE TO SUSTAIN BUSH'S VETO OF STEM CELL RESEARCH BILL; FOR GOP IT'S LIKE THE DARK AGES

The House overwhelmingly passed a final stem cell bill today-- but not overwhelmingly enough to overcome Bush's promised veto, not with 176 Republican House members promising to vote against an override attempt that will follow the veto.

For the third time, the House easily passed legislation today that would loosen President Bush's six-year-old restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.

The bill, which matches language approved by the Senate in April, now heads to the president, who immediately renewed his promise to veto it, as he did a similar bill last July.

Boehner said Democrats shouldn't bring up legislation that they know Bush will veto and he doesn't care that the majority of Congress or that the majority of the American people favor it. There's only one way legislation like this will become law: a Democratic poresident and a lot fewer Republicans in Congress. May I suggest you think about that and do a little Blue America action today? Any bucket on that page will be a vote to override Republican obstructionism.

The Senate passed this bill in April with a huge margin: 63-34, although still four votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority. A similar bill that passed last year also was vetoed and that veto was sustained by Bush's rubber stamps in Congress.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) a leading advocate for stem cell research, said during today's debate that Congress must pass the bill "to send a message to the president and the country that America wants stem cell research. There's a strong consensus in the House and the Senate and there's one thing stopping that and that's a stubborn president." 

16 Democrats disgraced themselves by voting with the Repugs today : Jerry Costello (IL), Lincoln Davis (TN), Joe Donnelly (IN), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Marcy Kaptur (OH), Daniel Lipinski (IL), Jim Marshall (GA), Mike McIntyre (NC), Alan Mollohan (WV), James Oberstar (MN), Collin Peterson (MN), Nick Rahall (WV), Rahm Emanuel's Heath Shuler (NC), Bart Stupak (MI), Gene Taylor (MS), and Charles Wilson (OH). The 37 Republicans who abandoned their reactionary leaders were mostly ones who have been caught doing something illegal and are already afraid of the voters' wrath next year, like this year's runner-up with Jerry Lewis for most corrupt member of Congress Don Young (AK), Young's earmark partner Connie Mack (FL), lobbyist/xenophobe Brian Bilbray (CA), Heather Wilson (NM), earmark crook/sex deviant Ken Calvert (CA), closet queen David Dreier (CA), Ralph Regula (OH), student loan grafter Buck McKeon (CA), and, of course, the most corrupt Republican since Tom DeLay was indicted-- Jerry Lewis (CA), to name a few.

Rep. James Langevin, (D-R.I.), who was paralyzed by a gunshot injury to his spinal cord years ago, reiterated his hope that stem cells may someday free him of his wheelchair.

"I'm opposed to abortion . . . but I'm committed to protection of life at all stages," Langevin said. "I believe that this legislation is vitally important."

Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), a physician, saw things differently.
"I don't believe, given that millions of Americans believe in the sanctity of life, that we should be funding research that destroys human life," Weldon said. Citing the advances in mice announced Wednesday , he predicted that embryonic stem cells would before long be seen as an antiquated means of developing cures. "Science," he said, "is going to move beyond this discussion."

Congressmen like Weldon, as well as the Boehners and Blunts, Pencii, and the Democratic traitors like Taylor, Marshall, Shuler, McIntyre, etc, show sign a pledge vowing that they and their family members will forego the medical benefits of stem cell research they are working so hard to deny the rest of us. These people are like from the Dark Ages where anything that sought to increase knowledge or technology was seen through a narrow prism of superstition and fear. These are sick people and they shouldn't be in positions of responsibility by any stretch of the imagination.


UPDATE: WINGNUTS FURIOUS THAT GIULIANI'S FIRM LOBBIED IN FAVOR OF STEM CELL RESEARCH

Earlier today we tried to emphasize what a total whore Fred Thompson has always been-- selling his ass to the highest bidder. His spokesperson claimed that being a lobbyist is an honorable profession and that many other candidates are as well. Many? No. Giuliani? Yes. And he's in trouble too-- at least with the most extreme right members of his dysfunctional party.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, has lobbied Congress on stem cell research for Johns Hopkins Institutions, according to its public filing.

This has drawn fire from social conservatives because Johns Hopkins’s stance on stem cell research appears to conflict with Giuliani’s stated position.

“We believe Giuliani’s firm may be lobbying in favor of H.R. 2560, a bill that would allow the creation and destruction of human embryos for research purposes,” said Joseph Cella, president of Fidelis America, a conservative Catholic organization, who yesterday raised concerns over the lobbying records.

“It is important for the public to know if Giuliani’s firm is lobbying for this, or any other policies, that would promote embryo-destructive research.

“Should this be the case, how can he justify profiting from this lobbying when it would contradict his public position on the issue?”

...When asked if he would expand federal funding of stem cell research, Giuliani replied: “As long as we’re not creating life in order to destroy it, as long as we’re not having human cloning, and we limit it to that, and there is plenty of opportunity to, then use federal funds in those situations where you have limitations.

“So I would support it with those limitations, like Sen. [Norm] Coleman’s (R-Minn.) bill in Congress.”

But the director of the stem cell program at Johns Hopkins, Dr. John Gearhart, has blasted Coleman’s bill as ineffective.

“We find this to be an absolutely bizarre bill because the presumption upon which it is based is flawed."