While almost everyone has read about President Barack Obama’s signing of an executive order on March 9 that overturned the August 9, 2001 executive order banning human embryonic stem-cell research issued by President George W. Bush, few are aware of the new legislation introduced in Congress to more permanently protect such research.

On February 4, Rep, Diana DeGette (D.-Colo.), introduced H.R.873, “To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for human embryonic stem cell research.”

“I want to pass legislation as quickly as possible to codify this so it doesn’t become a ping-pong ball going back and forth between administrations,” said Rep. DeGette. The congresswoman was referring to the fact that Obama had reversed the previous executive order issued by Bush. Bush’s order did allow for limited embryonic stem cell research, but only for 21 cell lines derived from embryos destroyed previously. Congress twice passed legislation attempting to bypass Bush’s order and implement funding for embryonic stem-cell research, but he vetoed it both times. Rep. DeGette had sponsored or co-sponsored both bills.

It is important to remember that not all stem cells are derived from embryos. An AP report dated April 11, 2001 noted:  “A biotech company said [today] it has developed technology for extracting large quantities of stem cells from placentas, offering a rich new source of tissue that could be used to treat a variety of diseases.” A January 9, 2007 Daily Telegraph (London) article reported that Dr. Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University stated that the fluid surrounding the fetus has been found to contain stem cells, that, when utilized correctly, "can be differentiated towards cell types such as fat, bone, muscle, blood vessel, nerve and liver cells.” In November 2007, two separate teams from Japan and the United States announced that they have been able to get adult human skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells. And a report posted on the website of the University of Utah lists several stem cell therapies that are routinely used to treat disease, including:

• Adult Stem Cell Transplant: Bone Marrow Stem Cells
• Adult Stem Cell Transplant: Peripheral Blood Stem Cells
• Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplant

Those who oppose human embryonic human stem cell research for ethical reasons do so in cases involving the creation, usage, and destruction of human embryos. An AP report of August 2, 2001 observed that the three largest churches by membership in the United States: the United Methodist Church, Roman Catholic Church, and Southern Baptist Convention, all opposed research that destroys human embryos. On July 23 of that year, the 2.6-million member Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod sent President Bush a letter opposing embryo-destructive research. Many independent evangelical Christian churches have taken similar stands.

As we write, H.R.873 has 86 cosponsors. Oddly, it has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Though, once born, babies exhibit lots of energy, it is rather chilling to think that the leadership of the House regards embryonic human life as a “commercial” entity.

Senator Tom Harkin, (D-Iowa) has sponsored S. 487, the Senate version of DeGette’s legislation. S. 487 has eight cosponsors and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Click here to take action by sending an email to your representative and senators in Congress telling them to oppose passage of H. R. 873 and S. 487 in both Houses of Congress.

North Carolina, Wake County, Judge Ned W. Mangum is the most striking example of a blatant, liberal, agenda-driven bench-legislating, law-ignoring, anti-traditional values and morals “justice” to come to public attention in a long while.

Judge Mangum has decided, he says, not for religious or ideological motivations, but purely for personal reasons that three homeschooled children whose parents are in a divorce battle due to the father’s admitted adultery, must be registered and sent off to government school.

Mangum says the children will have a “more well-rounded education,” there. He wants the public school to “challenge the ideas” taught to them by their mother. He offers that he has “no problem with homeschooling. I said public schooling would be a good complement.” But his actions undermine his words.

The judge issued the order despite the fact that these children, through evaluation and testing showed they were at or beyond their grade level by several years. And despite the fact that the father complimented his legitimate wife for the record on her homeschooling success, even admitting she is a “loving” and “nurturing” mother.

Mangum flimsily excused his verdict by saying that because the father no longer supports the homeschooling, therefore it has “accomplished its purposes. It now was appropriate to have them back in public school.”

Hard evidence is not the only thing the judge has the arrogance to fly in the face of; the most important thing is that he is stripping the right of the parent to decide how and who will educate the children.

Mangum contemptuously referred to his guiding principle in the matter as being in “the best interest of the minor children,” but still supplanted his own judgment in place of the mother’s.

Hubris -- proof of excessive pride and the commission of outrageous treatment toward others -- used to be a sin and a crime in ancient Greece. It still should be here in America.

When President Bush banned federally-funded stem cell research in 2001, it didn’t stop the creation of hundreds of new stem cell lines. The research itself was never banned, only funding it with tax payer dollars was. California is one state that funded it’s own stem cell research all the time. But there are many companies and hospitals who have been waiting like vultures above the kill, waiting to dive in for their piece of flesh.

In March, The President signed an executive order, lifting that eight-year ban on embryonic stem cell research (read the text of the executive order here). That action sent a clear signal that the culture of death will not only continue, but grow exponentially.

Many Republicans have been pushing for the change, including John McCain. Before Obama's executive order on the subject, six so-called House moderates including Fred Upton of Michigan, Charles Dent of Pennsylvania, Brian Bilbray of California, Michael Castle of Delaware, and Mark Steven Kirk and Judy Biggert of Illinois, sent a letter to the President, saying in part: “We are writing to respectfully urge that you immediately lift the current federal restrictions on funding for embryonic stem cell research.”

The President needed little convincing, however, as he promised to overturn the ban during his campaign. He planned all the while to emphasize science over ideology, as he put it. He also plans to advance new safeguards that would protect what he terms advances in science from political and moral “interference.”

Obama's move will "restore scientific integrity in governmental decision-making," says White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes. She said funding research is also part of the administration's plan to boost the plunging U.S. economy. "Advances with regard to science and technology help advance our overall national goals around economic growth and job creation," she added.

This was echoed by Dr. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and co-chairman of Obama's science advisory council, who said on Sunday that Obama will "endorse the notion that public policy must be guided by sound, scientific advice.

But Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) committee on pro-life activities, called Obama's decision instead, "a sad victory of politics over science and ethics." "This action is morally wrong because it encourages the destruction of innocent human life, treating vulnerable human beings as mere products to be harvested," he added.

Samuel Casey of Advocates International says Obama’s order would, “give a green light to the kind of eugenic human experiments that people think of when they talk about cloning.”

The USCCB’s director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, Richard Doerflinger said: “The question is, does the Bush policy get replaced with the law of the jungle,” where scientists can create and clone human embryos for the sole purpose of studying their cells and then destroying them? “We are very concerned about this as a moral issue.”

This executive order lifted the ban, but the releasing of the tens of millions of dollars for private research companies will still have to go through Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested that it won’t take much time for Congress to consider when and where the money will go.

It will allow unrestricted embryo destruction, all in the name of scientific research, using tax payer money to fund the destruction, certainly unconstitutional and unnecessary, given the promise of adult stem cell research.
 

The news media and the American people are swooning over President Obama’s  “I think I messed up. I screwed up,” confession over Tom — cheating-on-his-taxes — Daschle’s nomination to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Said the President: "I take responsibility for it and we're going to make sure we fix it so it doesn't happen again."

Normally, apologies, if they are sincere, are good and important parts of human interaction. But the lexicon used in President Obama’s apology is not something one would expect of a President of the United States or any head of state — instead it must be some of that new "change" we are to expect.

It is more troubling, however, that the President has been nominating people for his cabinet who seem to have trouble properly reporting and paying their taxes.

That aside, there is something more revealing about the perceived state of the American culture that is revealed by the way in which President Obama phrased his apology. The pedestrian language used, instead of the more dignified languange one might expect from the office of the president, was intended to be disarming. It was most likely calculated to be seen, and more importantly, felt by the American people as a indication of strong leadership. As such, it suggests that the White House believes that American society is ruled by emotion rather than logic. They may be right about that, but in such a circumstance it would be most helpful to have the nation's head of state set a salutary example rather than succumb to the political calculus that dictates an appeal to base emotion.

In any case, it is the appointment of individuals with tax-dodging histories that is, again, of primary concern.

"Ultimately, I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics," Obama said. "And I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards — one for powerful people and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes."

The president attempts to come out smelling like a rose by making an example of just one of the tax-plagued nominees. The new treasury secretary, Tim — failure-to-report-and-pay-taxes-worst-of-the-bunch — Geithner has done the same thing, and he’s still holding to his cabinet post and will oversee the IRS.

Again, more political calculus and crass triangulation. In the time-honored tradition of arraying oneself against the moral backdrop of president's past (and against one in particular)next President Obama trots out Abraham Lincoln, a sure bet to silence any detractors. "You know, when I think about Abraham Lincoln, what I'm struck by is the fact that he constantly learned on the job. He got better. You know, he wasn't defensive. He wasn't arrogant about his tasks. He was very systematic in saying, 'I'm going to master the job, and I understand it's going to take some time.' "

What a snow job! President Obama’s attempts at humility are simply not credible, because he does indeed adhere to the two-standard policy that government elitists cling to.

Particularly amusing is Eric Cantor’s (R-Virginia) comment that it’s no wonder the Democrats always push for more taxes, “because, you know what--they don’t pay them.”

Everyone loves an apologist, don’t they? There seems to be nothing the American people can’t forgive as long as it’s accompanied by what they believe is a heartfelt apology — one that’s jammed down their throats by a very accommodating media.