Frank Rich: President Bush's 'passion of the embryos'

[cal04]

On Sunday in a column entitled "The Passion of the Embryos," New York Times columnist Frank Rich blasts President Bush's decision to use his first veto on a bill passed by both Houses which would have expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, RAW STORY has learned.

(snip)
"Placing his profound religious convictions above the pagan narcissism of Americans hoping for cures to diseases like Parkinson's and diabetes, he decreed restrictions to shackle the advance of medical science," Rich writes.

Excerpts from Rich's Sunday NY Times column:

That the administration's stem-cell policy is a political fiasco for its proponents is evident from a single fact: Bill Frist, the most craven politician in Washington, ditched the president. In past pandering to his party's far-right fringe, Frist, who calls himself a doctor, misdiagnosed the comatose Terri Schiavo's condition after watching her on videotape and, in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, refused to dispute an abstinence program's canard that tears and sweat could transmit AIDS. If Frist is belatedly standing up for stem-cell research, you can bet he's read some eye-popping polls. His ignorance about HIV notwithstanding, he also knows that the facts about stem cells are not on Bush's side.

....

Tacticians in both political parties have long theorized that if a conservative Supreme Court actually struck down Roe v. Wade, it would set Republicans back at the polls for years. Bush's canonization of clumps of frozen cells over potential cancer cures may jump-start that backlash. We'll see this fall. Already one Republican senatorial candidate, Michael Steele of Maryland, has stepped in Bush's moral morass by egregiously comparing stem-cell research to Nazi experiments on Jews during the Holocaust.

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http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Frank_Rich_The_Passion_of_embryos_0722.html

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. By doing such, he has denied the cells of Parkinson's

patients, the cells of diabetic patients and the cells of many other patients the right to life. Cells are people too.

[Kenergy]

2. There is a pattern to Bush's decisions:

Plenty of money available for war...no money available for the people.

[madeline_con]

3. So, are they looking to have the evangelicals keep ....

the Repugs in power? There's the key to winning the midterm and the next presidential right there.

Dems need to get out and vote and take as many people to the polls as their vehicles will hold. We can beat this.

BTW, from Rich's piece, "Placing his profound religious convictions above the pagan narcissism of Americans..."

:puke: to the "profound" crap. The only thing profound about DUH-bya is the depth of his stupidity.

[DanCa]

4. It sucks when your life and death becomes a wedge issue

It looks like I am going to have to get brain surgery after all. Hell the other side isn't even honest about thier position. They don't want to privitize scr they want to eliminate it.
And the kicker is that they dont read our bills and have never even been inside a stem cell lab. It's all a frickin game with them.

[AnnieBW]

5. "Pagan Narcissism"?

Why do people always equate Christian with self-sacrificing, moral, or "for the common good" and Paganism as narcissistic, immoral, or self-centered? Have they ever looked at modern Paganism vs Fundamentalist Christianity? Most of the Pagans I know aren't self-centered (other than wanting to be Lord-or-Lady-High-Hoop-de-doo). Although I don't agree with some of her methods, Starhawk (a leading Pagan author) has been out there on the front lines with Cindy Sheehan, and is currently heading up an effort to use environmentally friendly materials to clean up New Orleans.

Sorry, but as a Pagan, this kind of crap really irritates me.