News from Around the World

In the wake of the Terri Schiavo case, we've been hearing a lot about the so-called "culture of life." Christian conservatives use the term to refer to God's wish that we preserve all human lives, especially those more vulnerable than our own. In practice, however, it applies to a surprisingly stingy range of concerns: abortion, euthanasia, and stem cell research.

A proposed constitutional amendment that could put stem cell research controls on the ballot in California was passed by a state Senate committee late on Thursday despite strong objections by the head of the $3 billion scientific program.

Michelle Malkin has jpegs of the taxpayer funded (and profoundly stupid, and intellectually dishonest) “artwork” that features such images as a naked President Bush, bent over an oil barrel and being sodomized by an Arab. (Because, you know, everything President Bush does is all about ooooiiiiilllll. ) The President as the Statue of Liberty, wearing a Bishop’s mitre (an economical modern-day “tolerant liberal,” this artist manages to skewer two targets at once) and a button saying, “God hates fags” while...

Attractions. The places I have been visited are Manhattan area, Time Square area, Empire State Building, Statue Of Liberty, Central Park, Lincoln Center, New York Public Library, IBM in New York, Ellis Island, New York Stock Exchange, St. Patrick’s Cathedral Church, Battery Park, Tribute, Trinity Church, Supreme Court, Wall street, Chinatown, Little Italy, Carnegie Hall, The Brooklyn Residential, The Brooklyn Bridge , The Williamsburg Bridge, The Manhattan Bridge, The Queensboro Bridge, Rehabilitation of East River Bridges, The NBC studio,...

"Robert Moffit, a health-care expert at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said the private sector currently could conduct embryonic stem cell research. If the science has such big-figure payoffs, he said, "why do they [private companies] need federal funds for it?"

Not-My-President Bush is supposedly on the telly, going on about (against) stem cell research, which will inevitably result in a rants here and beyond in BlogVerse.

Just to rehash, the House had the audacity to defy Bush and vote to give federal funding to embryonic stem cell research. And this included loyal Republicans, who obviously don’t equate a pre-embryo in a petri dish with a living person.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, where are the protests against fertility clinics and research? The number of pre-embryos used thus far in stem cell research is minute, but hundreds of thousands have been destroyed in fertility research and clinical use. So where are the so-called pro-lifers, with their picket signs and protests? Why the silence about fertility research? Is this a sacred cow, or what?

That’s right, Dubya, read the fine print. What the bill would do is use embryos that are designated for destruction–get that Bush? They are designated to be thrown into the trash, those precious little pre-embryos that you love so much. Only this bill would provide federal funding for them to be used in stem cell research.

Lawmakers were lobbied by patients and their families - and even by one of their own. Rep. Jim Langevin, R-R.I., whose spine was severed in a gun accident as a teen, said from his wheelchair that he believed that embryonic stem cell research “is very consistent'’ with his opposition to abortion.

Jonathan Alter at Newsweek talks about the upcoming battle over stem cell research funding in Congress, and its potential to disrupt the plans of the administration.

It makes sense because: (a)A segment of the GOP presidential hopefuls will be wooing the religious right and they could split that part of the vote. (b)The stem cell research issue is just about to boil over: it has NOT hit its peak yet. (c)We already know of some Democrats and independents who would enthusiastically register in the GOP to vote in primaries for the candidate Bull Mooose suggests could be a viable one.

In a rare show of strong, bipartisan support, members of both sides of the aisle in the House of Representatives joined together to overwhelmingly pass a bill to expand federally funded stem cell research. (Here’s the vote.) The measure would allow scientists to use stem cells derived from embryos created for in vitro fertilization which otherwise would be destroyed as medical waste. It also has strong bipartisan backing in the Senate; yesterday, Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) sent a letter to Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN)...

Instapundit links to a post by Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice about federal funding of embryonic stem cell research:

Note that we haven’t argued for any particular outcome in the embryonic stem cell research debate here, only against the “leave morality out of science” fallacy.

2. Allow embryonic stem cell research on the unused fertilized eggs.

Robert Goldstein, chief scientific officer at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which now gives two-thirds of its grant money for embryonic stem cell research to foreign scientists.

A lot of debate going around now on Stem Cell research, with President Bush being among the small handful opposed to any new stem cell research. Here is my take, the stem cells the researchers want to use would be disposed of anyway. What is the point in throwing away stem cells, when we can do research on them? Why deny people the chance that we can cure some diseases and possibly correct paralysis?

I cam appreciate the concern for life. At no time should we ever clone human beings to simply harvest their organs. But doing research on stem cells that were going to be thrown away and cloning a human just for their organs are two very different things. Furthermore, deciding against stem cell research because it may someday lead to cloning is the same thing as saying we shouldn‛t solve world hunger because it might make everyone fat.

Why Christians should support embryonic stem cell research.

According to Moviehole.net, the actress, who plays a clone in the upcoming “The Island,” is “very much pro-stem cell research”—apparently meaning the embryonic kind, since that’s the only one that is, as the article notes, “a political hot potato.”

Confirmation bias goes a long way to explaining some of the weirdness people see in politics. For instance, a "teflon" politician is usually benefiting from positive conformation bias. People have the impression that he is a good leader, and so evidence that he isn't is somewhat discounted.

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Let me offer a preview: the present possibilities look a lot more like latent and extant potentials, and an extremely strong case can be made that we are entering, or have already entered, a swing towards fascism. As an intellectual who favors progressive politics, I am - to say the least - very concerned. As a progressive interested in political strategy, I am confused. If fascism presents itself as a realistic possibility today, here and now, what are the "politics of crying fascism"?

It’s there if you want to see it. I don’t think Lucas wanted to send that message, but it’s right there. Some people might say it’s Buddhist, or non-denominational, but given the current controversy about Catholic priests marrying, I think the comparison is there to be made. While I was watching the movie, what struck me was how the Sith were not pure evil. Sure they slaughter their opponents. But the earlier filmed trilogy made the Empire out to be pure evil. In reality though, we see the Sith also want peace. The Emperor...

In the May edition of Crisis Magazine, editor Brian Saint-Paul, offers this poignant reflection on the life of the late Pope John Paul II:

For more reflections on Pope John Paul II, go here and here.

Even though Stedman's evidence is circumstantial, his testimony comes as Congress is expected to consider new copyright legislation this year. An invocation of terrorism, the trump card of modern American politics, could ease the passage of the next major expansion of copyright powers.

The Super Lawyer list is compiled by Law & Politics based on a survey of 47,000 attorneys statewide. Only 5% of Illinois attorneys earned the distinction.

Since George W. Bush publicly mentioned the word “Darfur,” or made any other reference to it. In the meantime, the American public is apparently more interested in the Michael Jackson trial and the story of the “runaway bride” — that is, if you judge the American public’s interest by what you see on network news.

* Barney & Friends - Push The Button! * Bart Simpson - 1, 2, 3, 4 * Grandmaster Flash - Birthday Party * Stevie Wonder vs. 50 Cent - Happy Birthday To Ya * Crank Yankers - Special Ed Loves Chuckie Cheese * Cracker - Happy Birthday To Me * Baltimore Music Club - Make Some Noise * The Simpsons - Happy Birthday, Mr. Smithers * Marilyn Monroe - Happy Birthday, Mr. President * The Smiths - Unhappy Birthday * SNL - That Damn Happy Birthday Song * Disney Kids - Happy Birthday To You * The Beatles - Birthday * Looney Tunes - Birthday * The Rapture vs. The Beatles - House Of Jealous Birthdays (mashup by ?) * Elvis Presley - Happy Birthday To You * The Simpsons - Lisa It’s Your Birthday (Michael Jackson & Bart Simpson) * Arrogant Worms - Stupid Happy Birthday * Crank Yankers - The Birthday Package Delivery * George Harrison - It’s Johnny’s Birthday * Janis Joplin - Happy Birthday/Happy Trails * Altered Images - Happy Birthday * Touchtone Terrorists - Whopper Penis * Weird Al Yankovic - Birthday Armegeddon * Family Guy - Stewie’s Mayonnaise & Catfood * 50 Cent vs. Iggy Pop - Lust For Da Club (DJ Tripp mashup) * The Simpsons - Ramones’ Burnsy Birthday * NOFX - Happy Birthday, You’re Not Special * Blur - My Birthday * Karaoke - Happy Birthday To You * South Park - Cartman’s Birthday Megama

I seem to remember the "Good Old" Party attacking John Kerry, a Vietnam Veteran, for not voting to provide body armor for our troops overseas. His vote was definitely a protest vote for the administration's lack of information about from where funding for the war was coming. Yet, now Republicans have the gaul to not provide the thousands and thousands of troops returning home from receiving adequate health care for their service to our nation. Talk about some thanks.

The fine profile of John McCain in the most recent issue of The New Yorker contains the surprising – or maybe unsurprising – information that John Kerry delegated the task of turning McCain to none other than Warren Beatty. There is something deeply wrong with a party whose presidential ticket requires the midwifery of someone like Beatty, whose claim to fame, when all is said and done, is fabulous hair and a deftness at bedding starlets. What would have come next? Would President Kerry have dispatched Dennis Hopper to ease tensions across the...

but on the other hand, the filibuster lives, the bush social security plan has met an ignominious end, the 'culture of life' is on life support after the schiavo mess, and people are coming to realize that iraq was a bad idea, two years too late. maybe people are realizing that whether or not john kerry or howard dean are their kind of guy, and are 'progressive', it doesn't matter, but the people in charge right now, they're hell bent on heading backwards, and nobody really wants to head backwards. so maybe there is hope.

Known for lobbing softball questions at current President George W. Bush, elite press core official “Jeff Gannon” came under scrutiny by democrats and fellow press core members, who discovered his real name is James Dale Guckert with a checkered past and possible agenda. Was “Jeff Ganon” fed questions by the Bush administration to use as talking points at White House briefings or just a man trying to overcome his past and pursue a career as a journalist? Additional segments include a man who tries to prove to his girlfriend that he is no...

A shift in the polls What a difference a couple of weeks make. Polling during and just after the Republican National Convention, Time and Newsweek have George W. Bush ahead of John Kerry 52 percent to 41 percent. Post-convention polls...

Veterans of the TV series “Love Boat” joined ranks with tobacco-chewing, beer-swilling Bass Boat Veterans in a news conference that criticized Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Along with the much-publicized Swift Boat Vets, the Love Boat Vets and Bass Boat...

I’m getting tired of seeing medical blowhards aggrandizing themselves with their self-important opinions regarding public figures. In recent months we’ve seen someone who may or may not have been John Kerry’s treating physician for one of his Purple Heart wounds reveal his memories of the treatment and, further, offer his opinion that Kerry is lying about the incident; a psychiatrist who has never met or interviewed George Bush has published a book claiming to offer accurate, but very unflattering, medical diagnoses of Bush, and...

Bush doesn't deserve to appear before the military. It's like the executioner gloating over the condemned. Bush doesn't know a damn thing about combat, its terror, its carnage, or the courage it demands. Bush got the country club ticket out of Vietnam from his rich-ass family, and he couldn't even finish that. And his underlord muckrakers have the audacity to distract from this and allege John Kerry might not have deserved ALL THREE of his Purple Heart medals, nevermind that Bush thinks Purple Heart is just some tax write...

Why do you think Bush talks about christianity so much, why does John Kerry talk about being in touch with the working class when he cant even read the balance in his bank account because the number is so high. Thank God the founding fathers had some sense and make our goverment a struggle in which it is very hard to drasticly change anything, to bad that has slowly been eating away at. Eventualy this country will fall into entropy and fall like all the others before it, but I imagine it will be a fairly fun ride on the way there.

Its been one hundred and twenty-one days since John Kerry promised to sign his 180. MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180? SEN. KERRY: Yes, I will. And suddenly… During an interview with the Boston Globe, Kerry was asked if…

(CNN) — More than half of those responding to a new poll said they would be at least somewhat likely to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton if she runs for president in 2008.

The poll found 29 percent were very likely to cast a vote for Hillary Clinton for president and 24 percent said they were somewhat likely.

A new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll show that a majority of Americans will vote for Hillary Clinton for President in 2008. Here are some quotes from the article:

Hmmm… Party affiliation does not matter when taking political polls? That simply is not the case. If you poll only Democrats, Hillary Clinton will be wildly popular. Can we then conclude that she will win the Presidency in a landslide? Of course not, so you must consider Party affiliation when taking political polls. Earlier in the post, Gallup makes this claim:

Whatever the outcome of the intraparty debate, the recent record makes it clear that Hillary Clinton has staked her future on precisely the same brand of centrist political strategy that her husband fashioned a decade ago -- using many of the same advisers and relying on familiar tactics.

For Hillary Clinton, current and former aides acknowledge, it has been a much more arduous journey. These days, aides tout her willingness to sponsor bipartisan legislation and to enjoy a cordial relationship with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), one of the leaders of the effort to impeach her husband. But in the early days of the Clinton White House, she was known for her zeal for combat. Her instinct was to regard political opponents with deep personal antagonism; she was certain they regarded her the same way.

One day in July 1994, the president was in Massachusetts when he slipped off message and announced that he would consider 95 percent coverage a victory. Hillary Clinton was at the White House when she got word of her husband's statement, and soon she was on the phone with him. "What the [expletive] are you doing up there?" she demanded, according to an aide who overheard the conversation. "You get back here right away." The next day, Clinton retracted his statement.

• Hillary Clinton Book Rushed Into Print; Vanity Fair Report Due Out

• Sen. Hillary Clinton in shadows during filibuster debate

Sen. Hillary Clinton has cornered Eastern and Midwestern Democratic contributors, helping to make her the prohibitive early favorite for the 2008 presidential nomination.

• Hillary Clinton Book Rushed Into Print; Vanity Fair Report Due Out

• Sen. Hillary Clinton in shadows during filibuster debate

FactCheck debunks the claim, made most recently by Howard Dean this past Sunday, and by Sens. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry in recent statements.

With the potential for two open Senate races in New Jersey in 2006 and 2008 . . . and another open seat one year later in New York if Hillary Clinton vacates it to run for President, the shifting of hundreds of thousands of votes in New York and New Jersey could hurt Democrats . . .

Now, the acting Commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Lester Crawford, is up for Senate confirmation as permanent office-holder. My very own Senator, Hillary Clinton, joined by one of the upper chamber’s leading women’s advocates, Senator Patty Murray, and with partial support from the Senate’s leading healthcare advocate Ted Kennedy, are holding Crawford’s feet to the fire on the emergency contraception issue.

According to Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean and John Kerry abortions in this country are up under GWB. According to Factcheck.org they are full of ^(^*& as the study was not a nationwide study but only of 16 states and the methods of data collection are questionable.

However, a more damaging revelation never got published, thanks to the LA Times, which buried the story according to the LA Weekly. It centers on the pardon of Carlos Vignali, whose father donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to various Democrats who lobbied Clinton on the younger Vignali's behalf. The father also hired Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, as his representative for $200,000, which Rodham returned when the payment was made public. All of this got some press at the time, but later slid off the pages of most newspapers.

The Hunting of the President : The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton

Filed under: Hillary Clinton | Republicans | The Hillary Haters

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's chief accuser Peter Paul said Saturday that yesterday's acquittal of her former campaign finance chairman, David Rosen, doesn't mean she's in the clear.

Excuse me but this article says that the forests of Siberia are being threatened by fires, and underfunding, NOT by Global Warming as it says on your headline.

You have shown your complete ignorance BERNIE, forrest fires are an impact of global warming, if you dont know how... figure it out.

I hate to hear about how the fires are not being put out because the forrest is "inexpensive" with respect to market value. That basically disgusts me that no other reason exists to put out a forrest fire besides the economic consideration. I do believe there is value in wilderness, having placed the value there myself and not because I value the economic value of the forrest. I mean most people would agree that there are values in the world besides market value.. there is no market value to protect innocent chidren from child molesters, there is...

Sorry, but global warming does not exist. 30 years ago it was the terror of an impending ice age in Newsweek that scared children in their beds at night. Over population is the problem not CO2. You only have to go look at the population trends from a thousand places along with the NOAA database on temperature from weather stations at ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/anomalies/global_meanT_C.all You can find the plot of the data and discussion on junkscience.com for the global warming bogeyman.

Global warming wheel card classroom activity kit : a lesson plan for teaching about global warming and how to calculate greenhouse gas emissions in ev ... students grades 6-8 (SuDoc EP 4.2:G 51/3/KIT)

When Blinking Lights is good, it’s as good as anything Eels have recorded. But more than a couple songs feel like the outtakes that they are—after all, a lot of these are songs that didn’t end up on those other Eels records for some reason. Having said that, it’s still worth picking up. I don’t love Blinking Lights, but I like the single CD I burned after choosing my 15 favorites. (And the guest appearances by Tom Waits, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, and E’s dog, Bobby Jr., are worth hearing.) If you’re looking...

In light of the emergence of the Downing Street Memo, Members of Congress should introduce a Resolution of Inquiry directing the House Judiciary Committee to launch a formal investigation into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its constitutional power to impeach George W. Bush, President of the United States.

In his book Worse Than Watergate (Little, Brown and Company-NY, 2004), John W. Dean writes that “the evidence is overwhelming, certainly sufficient for a prima facie case, that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have engaged in deceit and deception over going to war in Iraq. This is an impeachable offense.” Id. at 155. Dean focuses, in particular, on a formal letter and report which the President submitted to the United States Congress within forty-eight hours after having launched the invasion of Iraq. In the letter, dated March 18, 2003,...

The United States House of Representatives has a constitutional duty to investigate fully and comprehensively the evidence revealed by the Downing Street Memo and other related evidence and to determine whether there are sufficient grounds to impeach George W. Bush, the President of the United States. A Resolution of Inquiry is the appropriate first step in launching this investigation.

Directing the Committee on the Judiciary to undertake an inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist to impeach George W. Bush, the President of the United States.

Whereas considerable evidence has emerged that George W. Bush, President of the United States, has engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people as to the basis for taking the nation into war against Iraq, that George W. Bush, President of the United States, has manipulated intelligence so as to allege falsely a national security threat posed to the United States by Iraq, and that George W. Bush, President of the United States, has committed a felony by submitting a false report to the United States...

Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary is directed to investigate and report to the House of Representatives whether sufficient grounds exist to impeach George W. Bush, President of the United States. Upon completion of such investigation, that Committee shall report thereto, including, if the Committee so determines, articles of impeachment.

Not long after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many on the left, including more than a few in America’s media (among them many columnists at The New York Times), saw fit to lay blame at the doorstep of President George W. Bush. It was, after all, on his watch. It was proclaimed that he had done nothing to protect us from the scourge of terror.

Now, years since and amidst what is only the beginning of a long, protracted, and necessarily often murky War on Terror, George W. Bush has aggressively combated terrorism and terrorists across the globe. For this, his reward includes attacks on himself, his administration and any US agency or department that dare provide the very protection previously demanded. And all from the same who cried foul weeks after September 11, 2001.

Politicians from Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Howard Dean have recently contended that abortions have increased since George W. Bush took office in 2001.

For the record, 5th straight weekend of crummy weather. I’m thisclose to using the Force to eviscerate the next person I hear talk of global warming. I could give a rat’s ass if it’s the Jedi way or not.

Global warming? Where???? I swear, in the past 3 years our weather down south has gotten strangerer and strangerer.. i know.. warming actually means.. cooling.. but.. c’mon. it’s may.. in alabama.. and i’m still in a light sweater???? Geeze!

For a printable copy of this article, click here. (I’m going to steer my thoughts towards the environmental impact consumerism has) As we hear constant reports on global warming, oil prices/reserves, and other nature-related issues, I think the pattern of consumerism that is rampant in North America must be met with wisdom and reflection. I am beginning to see how the [often] fatalistic view Christians have of time can motivate them to care less for the environment (which is really the whole of nature, which God created…this term often...

Especially since Bush's reelection, Democrats have been divided on electoral strategy. One camp believes the key to revival is courting centrist swing voters (a la Bill Clinton's "third way"). The second says the party must emulate Bush and focus on mobilizing its base by stressing unity.

The French could use a Bill Clinton, whose most powerful theme as president was his 1996 campaign slogan of building "a bridge to the 21st century." Clinton assured American workers that he felt their pain about outsourcing and global competition -- and so would provide the training and other help for people to find jobs in the new economy. He never pretended that workers could opt out of competition. Chirac was never able to sound that positive theme in his "yes" campaign.

James Levin, a friend of former President Bill Clinton and a Democratic fundraiser, testified last month that he engaged in a minority contract fraud scheme and bribery.

We like big government, but we don't really want too much more of it. Contrary to what Bill Clinton proclaimed nearly a decade ago the era of big government is not over. Government continues to grow, but slowly and with no particular direction; it grows by inertia as much as anything else. With the "vision thing," in the elder Bush's description, a no go all that is left is old fashioned patronage and regional management