WP: Calif. Stem Cell Initiative Could Backfire Nationally

[kskiska]

The resounding victory of California's $3 billion ballot initiative for embryonic stem cell studies may have the unintended consequence of slowing research on the national level and creating a backlash from religious conservatives who feel emboldened by President Bush's reelection, say activists on both sides of the issue.

With the support of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Californians approved the bond proposal 59 percent to 41 percent, paving the way for a 10-year project that aims to make the state a global leader in the controversial new field.

Already, the initiative is upending the biomedical industry, prompting some entrepreneurial scientists to relocate from other states and several California universities to draw up blueprints for new laboratories. But the measure has reinvigorated a battle in Washington over the government's role in science, the meaning of this year's election results and the question of when life begins.

"California putting such an extravagant amount of money into embryonic stem cells and cloning research really takes the wind out of the argument there needs to be federal funding," said Wendy Wright, senior policy director of Concerned Women for America, a conservative advocacy group that opposes the research. "Moral values was a strong premise for many people's vote, and that should give congressmen pause to look at the public policies they're backing and assess them against moral values."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48184-2004Nov13.html

[movonne]

1. They can take their moral values and shove them up their asses.

[Isere]

19. Hear! Hear!

Up theirs, indeed!

I'm sick of hearing about what they might do and what they might think!

I don't give a rat's!

[autorank]

The Washington Post is a Filthy Rag

I live in the DC area and it is impossible to overestimate the stupidity and offensiveness of the Washington Post. Just imagine, they take the best news a variety of disease sufferers and their families could ever receive and turn it into trash. This contrarian approach is a new conceit in their panoply of twisted logic, distorted coverage, and general filth mongering.

THE WASHINGTON POST IS THE ENEMY OF THE HUMAN SOUL

[Nancy Waterman]

9. We live just outside of DC

My husband calls it the Washington Fish Wrap, since that is all it is good for.

This is particularly disturbing:

Brownback's cloning ban would make it a crime for patients treated outside the United States with therapies derived from embryonic stem cells to reenter.

You can't get much loonier!!!

[autorank]

11. And another thing (jeez I hate the post, they get me going)

As Nancy pointed out, the ignorant Sen. Brownback wants to ban people treated with stem cells from entering the US. If he even tried a domestic ban, as a former Californian, I can guarantee you there would be a "Bear Flag Republic" independence movement in about 24 hours. This would be just great; the countries bread basket (majority of produce eaten here comes from CA...tis true) and economic engine takes a hike.

Oh yeah, Georgie poo, a defiler, not a uniter.

[daleo]

14. That does take looniness to new heights

In fact, it is an insult to a wonderful bird, the loon, which would never come up with any idea half so stupid.

[yorkiemommie1]

21. Insanity

every time i think i've heard the worst, they come up with something even more evil.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. You prefer the Washington Times? . . . . nt

[goforit]

2. I guess this will go to the Supremes.

[VegasWolf]

3. That's fine, and once again CA is on the leading cusp of

science while GA is still fighting evolution. nuff said.

[TankLV]

22. CA was on the leading edge for safe and legal abortions.

They will always be a beacon in the darkness.

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ima]

35. we can only hope

lots of pugs here that wan't to destroy Ca.

[LostInAnomie]

4. How about they try explaining their moral values to...

... the quadriplegics, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's victims who they want to see languishing in a personal hell.

Fuck those fundy bastards!

[Maat]

5. What a bunch of disgusting, hateful hypocrites (the CWA)!

And they have a male lawyer speaking for them a great deal of the time, if I'm not mistaken.

First they tell me that, because I stood up for human rights, the Religious Right got hot and bothered. Then they tell me that, because I voted for California's stem cell research, the Religious Right got hot and bothered.

Well, you know what, the Religious Right can kiss my

big lily-white, ugly-lookin' ...

[JI7]

6. how the fuck is it moral to prevent research into finding cures to help

people?

[VegasWolf]

10. It's because they think a one-celled drop of protoplasm is a

human being, while grown Humanoids in Iraq are fair
game because they are not Christian. This is as best
as I can figure out their convoluted thinking.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[lawladyprof]

30. No, it is a few days old

Multi-celled but the cells have not yet begun to differentiate, hence, they can grow into any kind of cells. It is called a blastocyst. The designation of embryo comes later (but I'm not sure how much later).

The issue is with those fundamentalists (and I guess some others) who believe that it is human life at conception but before implantation (and note protection for fertilized eggs (for these folks?) in the Unborn Victims of Violence Act although how you'd ever tell a murdered woman had a fertilized egg stage preborn baby is beyond me.

I've posted (but <sniff> no one seems interested) about using this issue as a wedge issue to divide the Republicans (encouraging Brownback, Santorum, Cobern, and any others to go out on a limb) and to draw attention to the logical endpoints of these positions (and incidentally to the danger in the country's rightward drift). PM me if you are interested.

[Gore1FL]

32. The stupid part is this:

The cells they don't want to see destroyed in research will instead be thrown into a dumper.

Their real issue should be witht he fetility clinics that create them in the first place -- not the disposal method.

[Warpy]

7. Screw the conservatives

They can pitch a fit in those dumb red states. California will keep up with the rest of the world in the stem cell research area, which will be a great benefit in the long run, keeping California's universities in the forefront while others lag far behind.

Dimbulb conservatives hate to think, hate to reason, hate to wonder and hate anybody else who enjoys doing all these things. They have been dragging this country down for years, and would complete the job if states like California didn't tell them to go to hell.

I'm done tolerating these yokels and I'm done making nice with them and I'm done allowing them to bully me. I'm glad California has stood up to them.

[tsuki]

12. Me, dumb red state.

Yesterday I got a call from a charity that I give to each year about this time.

Told them I would not be giving this year. I am sending my charitable donations to California to help fund stem cell research. I hope that they would understand that this was about the future.

They sputtered and ask that I remember them next year.

I reccommend it to everyone. Great feeling. And no talk of 'boycott.'

[Warpy]

17. Well, maybe me too

but NM still doesn't have a final total. We know the voting machines are crooked, so we may have gotten cheated into that red column.

Don't let it fool you, though. We're majority Democrats here, and we're mad as hell.

[JI7]

8. why didn't Dick Cheney just pray he gets better

instead of going to doctors at the hospital and getting tests done ? why don't all right wingers just pray anytime they get sick ? fucking assholes. flat earth society.

[saigon68]

20. the dirty bastard will do anything to stay alive

he would have someone killed to get a kidney. he's that kind of evil filth.

[JI7]

24. oh, he gets them killed to make financial profits

no question how far he would go to stay alive.

[umtalal]

23. Now would that be grand if he stuck with prayres only!!!

[daleo]

13. Interpretation - Stem Cell research supporters won

So that means they really lost? I think this is damage control by the religious right.

I bet not too many of them will turn down the benefits of this medical research when the time comes, though.

[shimmergal]

37. Well, when therapies become available from stem cell research

maybe they should be denied to people who were against it at this stage.

Seems fair to me.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

15. These fucking scumbags need a reality check.

.

[VegasWolf]

16. I thought that this was the election celebrating "moral" values. Did

Rove lie?

[Cha]

18. So everyone will have to go to

California to be cured and that will influx her economy and somehow she will get smart as a whole and vote the groper out in 2006!

[PlanetBev]

25. I'm getting real sick of this shit

Who gives a flying fuck if there's a backlash from those right wing assholes? I say we do everything we possibly can to piss 'em off. Everytime they're outraged, outrage 'em some more.

[Cha]

34. Exactamudo!

They never scared me in the first place..they are fucking toothless monsters!

[MrModerate]

29. The federal funding was trivial and the "lines" apparently . . .

. . . nearly useless.

The CA initiative (which has some problems of its own: like the biomeds and university researchers -- but not the universities themselves -- stand to get filthy rich off taxpayer money if their research pans out) is nearly 10 times what Bush proposed.

Private money is going to do this and (presuming stem cells actually lead to useful therapies, another unknown), once again, the rich will get richer (and live longer).

Another poster was right -- no one is going to turn down these therapies when it's their ass on the line, but the Bush-push guarantees that the benefits will go largely to the rich.

That's what's so perverse about these people -- even when they're trounced at the polls, they've rigged the game to eventually win.

Nevertheless, it's still great to poke 'em in the eye today, anyway.

[high density]

31. FUCK YOU, WASHINGTON POST

There, I feel better now.

[depakid]

33. Black is white! Up is Down!

More from the Washington Post!

[Snellius]

36. Anyone opposed doesn't have to take the cure.

I wonder how many families with a member with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or spinal cord injuries will refuse to take advantage of any treatment resulting from stem cell research.