Six for 'O6

The Democratic leadership announced their game plan today, a document called "A New Direction for America." (CNN article here) I fear that it might be too late for the midterm elections but who knows, a lot of people don't start caring until right before November. Anywhere, here are the legislative priorities chosen:

# National security

# Jobs and wages

# Energy independence

# Affordable health care

# Retirement security

# College access for all

On the one hand, I seem to agree that these are all important topics (and I'm actually glad higher education got a mention since it's usually neglected). But I wonder if they're too vague to excite and motivate people. We have a lot of work cut out for us if we're going to get back the House this November.

Open Thread: Your Political Crush

Despite all the turmoil around the world, we're going to lighten things up a bit and encourage some reader participation.

Question: Who's your political crush? It can be an already elected official, a former one, a candidate, even a Supreme Court Justice. Feel free to post multiple crushes, especially if you have a guilty pleasure from the Republican side.

Everyone can comment, you don't have to be a user, so do it! You can do so under your name or anonymously.

Ready...set...go!

Political Science*

So I realize that there should be restrictions on science, but as Bush used his first veto and talked about this moral boundary that we can't cross with this newest bill on stem cell research, I just cringed. Frankly, I don't think any President should become the moral authority on everything, especially a President had torture in his prisons and more scandals in his administration lately than I can count. But suddenly the Religious Right has given him this authority. Yet, how about our moral obligation to be the leader in finding cures to Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, spinal cord injury, strokes, and more? I never try to look at any issue in strictly a utilitarian point of view but I don't believe that embryonic stem cells are life and I think the research that can be done with them has more possibilities than we could probably imagine. And I'm not just totting some party line or interest group line. There's a reason why this passed the Republican controlled House and Senate. Even uber conservative Senator Trent Lott from Mississippi voted for this.

For all those science kids who scoff at us studying political science or going into government, wake up to the fact that you can't completely seperate science from politics, for better and for worse. For better we have the power to grant you millions of dollars for research on ground breaking science; for worse we can cater to a narrow constituent base and withhold that funding. It's just a reality.

In the end, I think Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee summed it best. "Yesterday [he] compared Bush's position to those who opposed Columbus, locked up Galileo, and rejected anesthesia, electricity, vaccines and rail travel. Such attitudes 'in retrospect look foolish, look absolutely ridiculous,' said Specter." --Washington Post

*To give full credit, the title political science comes from segment that NBC Nightly News did on this issue.

Bush's First Veto?

Rove: "Bush would use first veto on stem-cell bill"

I didn't realize that Bush hadn't vetoed anything, but I guess it makes sense when Republicans have control of both chambers of Congress.

I'm glad (and even a little surprised) that the House passed this and I really want the Senate to pass this. It will be interesting though to see if Bush would actually go through with what Rove says he will. Ugh Rove. The fact that Bush would veto this angers me enough but the fact that Rove is still issuing statements for the White House gets under my skin even more.

Finally, we'll see how the Republicans and their presumptive nominees for President in 2008 deal with this. I remember last time they were debating this, it led to a big showdown between First and Santorum (hmm, his race has been flying under the radar lately).