I will remember the last 8 years of financial destruction here in the US and the bloodshed of millions of civilians on a global scale. most honest political and financial experts consider him the worst leader america has ever had and this is why.
Worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression
Lied about the war in Iraq
No WMD's found in Iraq
Vetoed health coverage for kids
Ignored law, allowed torture
Illegal wiretapping
Had enough info to stop 9/11 and didn't, hid that fact from the public
Lost Bin laden at Tora Bora
Crassly unconstitutional signing statements
Stripped resources from Afghanistan and sent them to Iraq
Didn't catch Bin Laden
Allowed Al Qaeda to regroup in Pakistan Afghan war out of control
Lied about reducing greenhouse emissions, ignored warming
Muzzled warming scientists in NASA and elsewhere
Political appointments to Department of Justice and political prosecutions
Cheney, Rove, and others in contempt of Congress -- refused to tell the American people the truth
Fooled public into believing Saddam was involved in 9/11 when he knew otherwise
Made light of inabilty to find WMD's
Please sign the petition to investigate Bush/Cheney for war crimes. Then pass it on to everyony you know that will sign it.
I think he has a clear picture of what needs to be done and some great ideas about how to achieve it. He's an eloquent speaker, intelligent, and he seems to genuinely CARE about this country and Americans. Many Americans have lost trust in the current administration and the traditional ways of government operations, and when people's trusts are compromised it is difficult to restore. I think Obama's plan to revamp what is possible in Washington is commendable. The derailment and abuse of power by the current administration, and the unprecedented unpopular results it is still producing will take many years of labor to mend. The Senator's aim to work on policy reform while honoring our constitution versus catering to lobbyists and special interest groups stands to reshape the Capital and it stands to trickle down to my home town. I believe Obama is the only candidate that genuinely speaks to the possibility of change in government. I believe he can make a difference.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, failed Texas kids by voting against funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, a highly successful program that ensures children of working families have access to affordable health insurance. Despite overwhelming support for CHIP in the Senate, Cornyn sided with President Bush and partisan Republicans, opposing legislation that will provide more federal money for Texas and help increase CHIP enrollment. It's one more example of Republicans' failure to help Texas kids. Without health insurance, parents are forced to rely on emergency room visits, rather than doctor visits, to obtain care for their children. Cornyn had a chance to turn things around and ensure all Texas kids have the opportunity for a happy and healthy childhood, but he chose to play partisan politics. Let's send a clear message to Cornyn, Bush and the rest of the Republicans that we want affordable health insurance for our Texas kids.
Rick Perry and Carole Strayhorn made a lot of claims in tonight’s debate, but their rhetoric doesn’t match their records. Let’s compare what they said tonight with their records:
FACT: Rick Perry’s property tax cut is an illusion
TONIGHT HE CLAIMED:
"What we were successfully able to do was… lowering property taxes by a record amount.”—Rick Perry, defending his property tax “cut.”
FACT:
Homeowners will receive only a fraction of the tax cut Rick Perry promised them, and some will actually pay more. Statewide, the average homeowner will only receive a $150 tax cut this year – less than $8 percent of the $2,000 promised by Rick Perry’s TV ad. (Austin American-Statesman, May 26, 2006)
According to the Harris County Tax Collector-Assessor, the average homeowner living in the Houston Independent School District with a house assessed at $160,000 will pay $140 more in property taxes this year, for a 4.2 percent increase over last year. (PEGGY FIKAC and GARY SCHARRER, "Perry accused of giving false hope for major tax cut," Houston Chronicle, Sept 30, 2006)
FACT: Carole Strayhorn broke her promise not to take campaign cash from those with business before her office
TONIGHT SHE CLAIMED:
"Chris, you’re absolutely incorrect on that."-Carole Strayhorn, responding to Chris Bell’s question about why she accepted contributions from companies represented by her largest clients.
FACT:
As a candidate for comptroller, Carole Strayhorn promised to avoid conflicts of interest. When asked if she would take contributions from companies with business before the comptroller’s office, Strayhorn answered: “When you've got these huge tax matters, I would not. I would also instruct my campaign staff not to take contributions from anyone with a pending tax matter.” ("Promises, promises; ifs, ands and buts weaken Rylander's campaign pledge" Houston Chronicle, April 24, 2002)
FACT:
Whoops! She was just kidding. A 2005 state audit reported that Carole Strayhorn gave $461 million in favorable tax rulings to companies whose representatives had given almost $2 million in contributions to her campaign account. (R.G. Ratcliffe, "Comptroller hopeful supports donation ban." The Houston Chronicle, September 16, 2005)
In 2006, Strayhorn gave the largest tax refund in state history – nearly $130 million dollars – to Texas Instruments, who was represented by Strayhorn’s single largest donor. (Laylan Copelin, “Candidates take swipes over who's giving and who's getting.” Austin American-Statesman, August 10, 2006)
FACT: Rick Perry’s energy policy has driven up prices and harmed the environment
TONIGHT HE CLAIMED:
"I was proud to announce a $10 billion infrastructure development in wind energy that will continue to keep us moving forward, giving us the diversity and the ability to bring down electric rates."-Rick Perry
FACT:
Electricity prices have skyrocketed since deregulation was passed with Rick Perry’s support. As Lt. Governor, Rick Perry pushed deregulation. Perry pushed the deregulation bill through the Senate early in the session despite the controversy surrounding the plan. (Austin American-Statesman, June 6, 1999)
Wholesale electricity prices have skyrocketed an astonishing 293 percent in Texas since deregulation. (www.hopedance.org/archive/issue27/articles27/public.htm)
FACT:
Dirty coal, not wind technology, is the heart of Rick Perry’s energy plan. Perry has ordered the fast-tracking of permits for 17 new coal-fired power plants. 11 of these plants belong to TXU, and these 11 plants alone will generate 9,079 megawatts of energy and 78 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. (Environmental Defense, “TXU Plan Threatens Progress on Climate,” posted Aug 16 2006. Available here.)
By contrast, renewable energy, which includes wind, solar and water sources, powers only 3 percent of the state's electrical needs (Dianne Sol, “Perry announces wind energy investments.” Dallas Morning News, Oct 3 2006)
FACT: Rick Perry’s record on crime is nothing to be proud of.
TONIGHT HE CLAIMED:
"Texas is a strong on crime state."-Rick Perry
FACT:
Under Rick Perry, the Texas crime rate is far above the national average. The crime rate for the state of Texas is 23.41% higher than the national average. There are 738,000 adults under correctional supervision in Texas and the correctional supervision rate is 34.87% higher than the national average. (National Institute of Corrections, available here.)
FACT: Texas Schools are Failing under Perry’s Reign of Error
TONIGHT HE CLAIMED:
"I think our public schools are doing a fabulous job."-Rick Perry, defending his record on education.
FACT:
The dropout rate for Texas public high schools is near 40%. A study by the Intercultural Development Research Association found that 36 percent of the 2001-02 freshman class left school prior to graduating in the 2004-05 school year. (IDRA, “Texas Public Attrition Study 2004-05”. Available here.)
FACT:
Texas SAT scores are among the worst in the country. Texas ranks 48th among all states in average SAT scores. (“Texas on the Brink,” office of Sen. Elliot Shapleigh, February 2005)
FACT:
Rising TAKS scores do not mean our children our learning more. Bill Haney, professor at Boston College’s Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Educational Policy, says: “There are a lot of ways to raise average test scores without improving the actual learning of students. Unfortunately, that's what seems to be happening in Texas.” (CNN: “Education, Texas style.” Aired Feb 27, 2001. Available here.)
FACT: Rick Perry has played a shell game with dedicated funds
TONIGHT HE CLAIMED:
"What Texans really want to see is that budget reform, from the standpoint of making sure that every dollar that is dedicated to a particular agency goes to that agency."-Rick Perry
FACT:
Rick Perry has routinely raided dedicated funds and left other dedicated funds unnappropriated to balance the budget. Over $10 billion from gas taxes have been diverted from the state’s main transportation fund in order to fund unrelated pet projects. These project included cemetery construction, tourism promotion, and State Capitol maintenance. (Jim Forsyth, WOAI. Available here.)
Of the $101 million bond issued for park infrastructure improvements under Proposition 8 in 2001, Texas state parks received $36.7 million from the bond for 2001-2002, nothing for 2003-2004, and only $18.1 million of the requested $50 million in bond money for 2005-2006. (“Damage from Rita adds to parks' financial woes,” Fort Worth Star Telegram, July 2, 2006.)
At the end of FY 2005, $60.7 million of hunting and fishing license fees remained unappropriated in Account 9, the Game, Fish and Water Safety Account. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, there will be an estimated $50 million remaining in the account at the end of FY 2006. (Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, Finance Committee Meeting Transcript, Jul. 19, 2006. Available here.)
Instead of going towards city and local park improvement, Rick Perry and the Legislature have kept millions of unappropriated dollars in Account 647, General Revenue – Texas Recreation and Parks that were specifically dedicated for local parks. Local parks received 53 percent ($16.3 million) for the 2004-2005 biennium and only 34 percent ($10.5 million) for 2006-2007. According to the LBB, since the reduction of appropriations in 2004, Account 647’s unappropriated balances have grown to an estimated $55.3 million. (2005 Annual Cash Report, Office of the Comptroller. Available here.)
The state charges Texans a $20 dollar vehicle title transfer fee and raises money through registration and inspection surcharges for commercial vehicles and through a fee on the sale or lease of off-road diesel equipment. The state left $314 million sitting in the account at the end of this budget cycle.(“As As Texans' fees pool, programs drained,” Austin American-Statesman. Available here.)
In Sep. 2005, Rick Perry emptied the $427 million from the System Benefit Fund and as a result 363,317 low income households in Texas were denied utility rate relief.(Source: Public Utilities Commission of Texas)
FACT: Carole Strayhorn has flip-flopped on issue after issue
TONIGHT SHE CLAIMED:
"I have my same core values that have always been"-Carole Strayhorn, in response to a question about her changing positions.
FACT:
Carole Strayhorn has flip-flopped on school vouchers. Strayhorn backed a voucher measure in 1999 and even got in hot water for using state letterhead to raise money for Leininger’s pro-voucher think tank. (R.G. Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle, August 20 2006, “Strayhorn says her politics remain true.”)
But after she announced for Governor and began courting teachers unions, she announced that she was now against vouchers and promised to veto any voucher legislation. (Austin American-Statesman, Feb. 13, 2006)
FACT:
Carole Strayhorn has flip-flopped on a women’s right to choose. “She has been pro-choice on abortion, although she now says she opposes abortion personally and would rule out tax dollars for its practice.” (Christian Science Monitor, December 31, 1985, “Is party switch of former Austin mayor part of a trend or merely opportunism?”)
FACT:
Carole Strayhorn has flip-flopped on toll roads. As comptroller, she recommended repeatedly that Texas should “build more toll roads.” (Press release from Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander, January 12, 2001; Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: “Paving the Way: A Review of the Texas Department of Transportation.” Jan. 2000)
But tonight, she repeated her rant about the Trans Texas Corridor, without admitting her role in pushing toll roads.
FACT:
Carole Strayhorn has flip-flopped on CHIP cuts and the privatization of Medicaid call centers. Strayhorn was such a strong advocate for the bill that led to CHIP budget cuts and the privatization of the Medicaid call centers that the bill’s sponsor, Arlene Wohlgemuth, has called her “The Grandma of HB 2292.” (Houston Chronicle, June 21, 2006.)
Now that she’s running for Governor, Carole Strayhorn is calling for full restoration of the CHIP budget (Jack Douglas Jr, “Strayhorn lays out her plan to improve healthcare in state,” Dallas Morning News, Sept 13 2006)
With just six weeks until the 2006 midterm elections, one would never know to look at the media -- or by where the White House or Republican Congress direct their focus -- that the United States is still involved in a bloody war that has continued almost as long as our country's entire involvement in World War II. September 20 marked three years and six months since America invaded Iraq under the pretense of weapons of mass destruction and the imminent threat the Bush administration claimed Saddam Hussein posed to us.
All of that and the contrived links between Iraq and Osama bin Laden have since been proven false and yet no oversight or investigations have been performed by the Republican-led, do-nothing Congress and, to watch the news and the actions of the GOP in Washington, one could easily miss how much American and Iraqi blood is still being shed for nothing.
Almost 2,700 Americans troops have been killed in Iraq and 20,000 have been wounded -- many with limbs missing and life-changing brain injuries -- and Iraqi civilians continue to die at a horrifying clip that I guess, at this point, is just too boring for the American media to cover.
It must be nice for Team Bush to be able to start a war for no reason, be responsible for such hideous, ongoing violence and not be held accountable by Congress or an American press that, amazingly, some idiots still have the nerve to say operates with a liberal bias. Do the American people want to be so numb to all of this that they simply forget our troops are in the middle of a civil war, on a mission that does not have -- nor did it ever have -- a damn thing to do with our national security?
If the corporate media won’t cover it, we in the blog world should and I believe most Americans do care about the horrible losses we continue to sustain.
In the first three weeks of September alone, 44 of our troops have been killed in the Iraq war. That's 44 American families forever changed, wives and husbands who will never again feel the embrace of their spouse and children who will never feel the love of a Mommy or Daddy forever lost.
In a stunning policy change of massive proportion and enormous global and domestic impact, President George W. Bush today said the Iraq War had "nothing" to do with the attacks by terrorists on September 11, 2001.
The August 21, 2006, on-line edition of the Washington Post reports, "And although Vice President Cheney repeatedly implied that an Iraqi intelligence agent met with a Sept. 11, 2001, hijacker five months before the attacks long after the story had been discredited, Bush said that 'nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September 11 were ordered by Iraq.'"
However, when Bush advised Congress he was ordering his pre-emptive, unilateral invasion of Iraq on March 18, 2003, Bush wrote, he was taking “the necessary actions against international terrorists ... who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."
Furthermore, according to the Christian Science Monitor, in Bush's "prime-time press conference last week [in March 2003], which focused almost solely on Iraq, President Bush mentioned Sept. 11 eight times. He referred to Saddam Hussein many more times than that, often in the same breath with Sept. 11.
In other words, in 2003, Bush’s official reason he started his war against Iraq was due to terrorists and 9/11. Now, in 2006, Bush blurts out on national television that the Iraq War was NOT related to 9/11.
Of all the things that George W. Bush has done to exploit our nation's tragedy on September 11, 2001, none brought him more political capital than his macho posturing in the weeks and months following the attacks. He stood on the rubble of the fallen World Trade Center and declared that the terrorists who attacked us would "hear all of us soon." A few days later, he invoked imagery of the Old West and, with steely resolve, said that he was committed to getting Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."
And here we sit, exactly 1,800 days later with a civil war in Iraq, the Taliban still killing American troops in Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden very much alive and running free to podcast threats against our country from a Dick Cheney-like undisclosed location.
President Bush seems to have missed one of the central tenets of being a real tough guy: That you're able to back up your words with action and, once you boast that you're about to open a can of whoop-ass on someone, that it actually happen.
But here's what the Resolute One said just six months later, in March of 2002 when asked by a reporter if he had a sense of whether capturing bin Laden was imminent and if Bush knew where the Al Qaeda leader was.
"I don't know where he is," said Bush. "You know, I just don't spend that much time on him to be honest with you."
And the results have certainly mirrored that tenuous resolve.
Instead of continuing to go after Al Qaeda -- you know, the people who actually attacked us on 9/11 -- Bush created a war with Iraq that even Republican Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) now says is "an absolute replay of Vietnam."
"Iraq is not the center of the war on terror," said John Kerry (D-MA) over the weekend. "The president keeps saying it is. The president keeps trying to push it down America's throat. It's wrong, it's a mistake and it's losing us the ability to do what we need to do in the region."
Which for the majority of Americans would have been to spend our time, money and military going after the bad guys, instead of pumping money into the wallets of Cheney's buddies at Halliburton with a war against a country that did not attack us, had nothing to do with 9/11 and posed no threat to our people.
And where are we now ? Well, in addition to not having Osama bin Laden, we're presiding over a civil war in the country we did attack, we've mortgaged our childrens' future to pay for Bush's quagmire, we are despised throughout the world and, in one of the biggest threats to our national security, our intelligence services operate with zero global credibility.
Oh, and as of yesterday, Bush says of Iraq that "we're not leaving, so long as I'm the president."
Even worse, the most encouraging estimates have Al Qaeda operating in exactly the same number of countries that they were in when they attacked us in 2001, with most analysts thinking they have footholds in even more places now.
"We must move away from the Iraq-centric policies that are draining our resources and focus on Al Qaeda and its affiliates who are reportedly operating in some 60 to 80 countries around the world,” Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in June. "I find it jarring that we spend so much time on the floor of the Senate and throughout the Congress talking almost incessantly about the situation in Iraq as if on 9/11 the situation involved Iraq, as if the attack had come from Iraq."
"We were attacked by Al Qaeda, operating out of Afghanistan on 9/11," continued Feingold, who voted against the resolution giving Bush the authority to start the Iraq war. "Yet our focus and our resources and our troops and our intelligence are very heavily focused only on this Iraq situation. Now I think this is just plain tragic five years after 9/11."
While we do appear to be killing a fair number of newly-minted enemy combatants in Iraq, we haven't really put a serious dent in the people who actually attacked us in 2001. And today, Osama bin Laden will celebrate day 1,800 of freedom since our tough-talking president vowed to get him “dead or alive.”
But he sure sounded like John Wayne for a second there, didn’t he?
Clinton on Politics of Terror
The Former President Spoke to ABC News From the International AIDS Conference in Toronto
By JAKE TAPPER and CINDY L. SMITH
Aug. 15, 2006. TORONTO — - Taking a break from his work at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto on Monday, former President Clinton warned Republicans not to politicize the London terror arrests, slammed Sen. Joe Lieberman, whom he campaigned for just a couple weeks ago, and tackled some of the controversies surrounding his work to fight AIDS.
"I don't think the thought in that London bomb plot has any bearing on our Iraq policy," Clinton said.
"The Republicans should be very careful in trying to play politics with this London airport thing, because they're going to have a hard time with the facts."
Clinton said that the London terror plot had raised two questions about the Republicans' political strategy.
"They seem to be anxious to tie it to al Qaeda. … If that's true, how come we got seven times as many troops in Iraq as in Afghanistan?" he said. "Why have we imperiled President [Hamid] Karzai's rule and allowed the Taliban to come back into the southern part of Afghanistan? Why was Iraq deemed to be seven times more important than finding the al Qaeda leaders for the last five years?"
Secondly, Clinton asked why the administration and congressional leadership had opposed tighter security on cargo containers at ports and airport
The Republicans are trying to put politics and terror together
This November it wont work anymore, the American people are
figuring their evil ways out.
--------------------------------------------
More from Robert Scheer
By Robert Scheer
Investigators have known for a decade about terrorist plots to bring down passenger jets with liquid explosives. So why, all of a sudden, did Bush ban most liquids on flights?
Government-induced hysteria thrives on public ignorance, which is why President Bush is so confident of turning the British bomb plot to his partisan purposes. Otherwise, how could he dare claim that his policies have made the nation safer?
Consider, first off, that the attack envisioned — smuggling liquid-explosive ingredients onto 10 passenger planes — was outlined in chapter five of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission Report as a plot first exposed a decade ago. The originator of that planned hijacking of 12 U.S.-bound planes, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was also the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. According to U.S. prosecutors, his nephew, convicted terrorist Ramzi Yousef, even managed to explode such a liquid-based bomb on a Manila-Tokyo flight, killing one passenger, as part of a plot code-named “Bojinka.”
Because checking or banning fluids was not a focus of this administration’s post-Sept. 11 airport security measures, this “coincidence” would suggest either enormous negligence on the part of those charged with protecting us or a ludicrous overreaction this past week. Knowing as we did of Mohammed’s earlier plan, why wasn’t the Department of Homeland Security requiring fliers to dump their bottles of hairspray and mother’s milk before?
Unlike Yousef, who was arrested in Pakistan in 1995, Mohammed remained at large until two years after Sept. 11 to continue pushing the Bojinka concept to any terrorist bankroller who would listen. It has been known for at least two years since his capture that he spoke in detail about the scheme with Osama bin Laden. (The two had met much earlier during their days as what President Ronald Reagan called “freedom fighters” in the crusade against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.)
After the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the exposure of the Bojinka plot, Mohammed “fled to Pakistan to avoid capture by the U.S authorities” in 1996, according to the 9/11 Commission — where he managed to find haven for nearly a decade. In fact, Pakistan, as well as Saudi Arabia, is so nefariously intertwined with the grim story of Al Qaeda and its affiliates that it boggles the mind how after Sept. 11 the Bush administration only embraced these two corrupt dictatorships all the harder while instead sinking us into a predictable (and predicted) quagmire in Iraq, which had no effective role in international terrorism.
Rather than admit this incalculable mistake and move forward, the president has instead continued stubbornly and against all evidence to claim that smashing up Iraq was somehow a fitting response to the Sept. 11 nightmare. This past week, chief hatchet man Dick Cheney even had the outrageous gall to argue that anti-Iraq war U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont’s Democratic primary victory over pro-Iraq war Sen. Joseph Lieberman in Connecticut would embolden “Al Qaeda types.”
For five years in a row, President Bush has declined invitations to address the annual NAACP convention. This year, with the Senate poised to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Bush said yes.
The White House says Bush wants to address the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Thursday to show his commitment to civil rights.
''The president has had five years to prepare for this speech,'' Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, past chairman of the Congressional Black Democratic Caucus, said Wednesday. ''I hope that this time, he makes it worth the wait.''
Democrats have called on Bush to use his appearance to renew the Voting Rights Act. ''He could sign it right here on this stage,'' Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., told the NAACP on Wednesday, eliciting cheers from the audience.
...
Every president for the past several decades has spoken to the Baltimore-based group. Until now, Bush, who received 11 percent of the black vote in 2004, had been the exception. His appearance comes in a critical midterm election year, when Republicans fear losing control of Congress.
In light of the President's decision to finally speak to the members of this important organization, the DNC has prepared a list of 6 questions for the President, one for every year he has ignored the NAACP.
1. If the President is committed to civil rights, what took the President so long to address one of the nation's preeminent civil rights organizations?
2. Why has President Bush failed to provide real leadership on voting rights issues or use his political capital to get the Republican Congress to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, stopping Republicans across the country from pushing discriminatory voter ID laws, and fully funding Help America Vote Act reforms?
3. Why has President Bush slashed small business loan programs that have been crucial for African American-owned businesses?
4. Why is it that, even though the number of African Americans who lack health insurance has climbed to more than seven million, President Bush has slashed funding for Medicare and Medicaid and forced through a prescription drug plan that raises prices for low income seniors?
5. If average household income for African American families has fallen by more than $2,000 and more African Americans are living in poverty, why have President Bush's budgets shortchanged college opportunities and gutted job training programs?
6. If African American seniors and children rely on Social Security at a rate disproportionately higher than the rest of the population, why is President Bush promoting a Social Security privatization scheme that would slash benefits for African American seniors and make it harder for survivors to receive benefits?
Yesterday at a press conference Tony Snow, the President's Press Secretary, said he was speaking with the group, "because he wants to." So by that logic, he has declined invitations for the past six years because he did not "want to" spend his time addressing the group.
In a bipartisan display that should send a clear message to a White House bent on exercising the first presidential veto of George W. Bush's tenure, the U.S. Senate this afternoon approved H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which will expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and give hope to millions suffering from life-threatening or crippling diseases.
The vote was 63-37, meaning that it is extremely unlikely that Senate Democrats could rally the 67 votes necessary to override a certain Bush veto.
"There has been an upsurge of demand," said Hillary Clinton (D-NY). "Support for this legislation has crossed every line we could imagine, certainly partisan lines, ethnic, racial, geographic lines."
Republican supporters agreed, with Orrin Hatch (R-UT) saying that "this is the bill that will help provide the long overdue expansion of the number of stem cell lines eligible for federally funded biomedical research. This is what our leading scientists have told us they want and need to move the field of stem cell research forward."
But any hope that Bush would change his mind about vetoing the bill -- perhaps as early as tomorrow -- was shattered today by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow.
"The simple answer is he thinks murder's wrong," said Snow at the daily press briefing. "The president is not going to get on the slippery slope of taking something living and making it dead for the purposes of scientific research."
Also passed today -- both by 100-0 votes -- were S. 3505, Rick Santorum's (R-PA) Fetus Farming Prohibition Act and S. 2754, the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act.
But H.R. 810 was the one everyone was watching as it was the legislation that would open the door to a new era of medical research in America -- and one supported by two out of three Americans and overwhelmingly sought by the scientific community and medical organizations.
Look for George W. Bush to slam that door tomorrow.
