Yet Another Bush "Veto on America" As He Wages Bloody War on Science

Grrrrrr.... What is even MORE infuriating is that we've seen examples of several cases where the rabid rightwingers who fight against any use of embryonic stem cells (taken only from those that would be lost anyway) then turned around and used their OWN money and their OWN clout to seek the benefits FROM those stem cells. These, the same folks demanding that embryos that are barely more than a few cells deserve far more right to life than the women carrying them or the fully-cooked human beings who could benefit from REAL science. From Think Progress:

Today, President Bush issued the third veto of his presidency on legislation expanding funding for embryonic stem cell research, which recently passed Congress with a bipartisan, overwhelming majority.

Faced with the opposition of nearly two-thirds of Americans, White House spokesperson Tony Snow today attempted to spin the veto as a positive development. Snow claimed that Bush has a “unique and unprecedented role” in supporting stem cell research, and attacked critics for “misstating” the administration’s policies, claiming that Bush was in fact “putting science before ideology.”

In an attempt to drum up support for less potent alternatives to embryonic stem cell research, Snow falsely characterized the science behind stem cell research, claiming scientists “are not even entirely sure about what the possible benefits of embryonic stem cells [are].”

Just another loud, arrogant, and infinitely harmful "Fuck You" from the White House we pay to abuse us.

Gee, is Tony Snow, battling colon cancer, using stem cell treatments or at least using doctors willing to explore this? I (sadly) would not be surprised.

Yeah, Bush's War on Science is as well founded in fact and executed just as effectively as his other wars (on health care as a whole, on public education, on reason, on brown people not named Alberto Gonzales, to name a few).

Tony Snow: Cancer Spread to Liver

News outlets report that White House spokesman Tony Snow, who had a bout with cancer a few years ago, now has the cancer spread from his liver to his colon.

While I can't pretend to like or respect the man, I do wish him and his family the best in what will no doubt be an extremely difficult time for them all.

Speaking of Opportunistic Health Crises

If yesterday, the news surrounded the announcement by John and Elizabeth Edwards that her breast cancer has metastasized (spread) to her bones, then today's was all about Tony Snow(job)'s disclosure that he was to undergo removal of a tumor. While I have less than zero respect for Snowjob, I do wish him well.

However, I'm feeling less than charitable after watching and listening to the way some of the rightwing responded to Elizabeth Edwards' tale. The (dis)likes of Rush Lamehog... er.. Limpfog... uh HamhogLimbaugh going way out on the metaphorical limb to suggest that the wife of the former senator and current 2008 Democratic race candidate for the 2008 Dem presidential nomination "engineered" this horrific crisis to aid her husband's poll numbers.

Were I a good Bushie, a great Kool-aid carrier for the far rightwing "always on message" agenda like a Rush or an Ann Coulter or a Michelle Malkin, I might ask if Tony suddenly "dreamed up" this surgical procedure simply to distract us from the sympathy extended to Mrs. Edwards, the lies Tony spins each and every day, and the GonzalesGate mess. After all, as one of the not-too-brighty righty bloggers yesterday posted, "The timing is damned convenient, so much so it makes one wonder."

Thankfully, however, neither you nor I is quite possessed of the cold lump of coal of a heart that so much of the "compassionate Christian conservative" right demonstrates. So we can wish Snow better than he delivers himself as water carrier for the Bushies, without looking into bizarre motives.

Helen Thomas: There's Petty and Stupid, And Then There's Bush Petty and Stupid

Since Bush rolled into office on the votes of the U.S. Supreme Court rather than the will of the majority of American voters in 2000 - and close to that again in Ohio in 2004 - this administration's biggest threat hasn't been Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, al Zarqawi, Saddam Hussein, or hell, not even Iran's Ahmedinejad. No, it's a little old lady (just 86 years young) from Hearst Newspapers (probably one of the few good things a Hearst publication ever offered): her name is Helen Thomas.

Having covered the White House for decades, Helen has always commanded a certain degree of respect and even had her own front row seat - the only one with her specific name upon it. But with the same petulance and pettiness that the Bush Administration has showed toward truth, truthtellers, whistleblowers, and too many times, its own soldiers on the ground, the White House is pushing Helen out of her assigned front row seat to the proverbial bleechers.

Of course, the White House press corps won't stand up for her and say this is wrong. For all these years of Bush, they've often sat there cowering like the worst schoolyard bullies-turned-wusses whenever Helen pipes up with a question THEY should have asked themselves and, of course, did not. And when she repeats the question when the liar at the podium like Fleischer, McClellan, and now Tony Snow(job) don't answer it or answer only in 400 rpm spin.

This is patently wrong!

And what is worse is that what this White House does to Helen Thomas it does to us ALL. As Cheney's words yesterday indicate, this White House isn't the least bit interested that the will of the people has spoken very loudly on Iraq - and I daresay on this administration as well.

We need to show the Bushies the door... not just the door out of the White House, or the door INTO a court on treason charges; we need to show them the door into federal prison.

I've had the pleasure of corresponding with Helen a few times. This woman has more integrity in a hangnail than ALL of the Bushies combined. It's time we stopped a dictatorship of thugs masquerading as a democracy.

But Dana Milbank, We're Frigging Tired of The Washington Press Corps Making Nice With the Bushies

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post tells us all about a mock press gaggle at the White House where Tony Snow gets to question reporters. It all went so nicely.

Dana? We are soooooooo unbelievably tired of the Washington press corps - with the noble exception of the tenacious little nicely-attired pitbull named Helen Thomas, God love her! - making nice with the White House.

Do you really think there would be so many blogs being written if we thought the Washington press corps was up to their jobs? But they aren't.

More Snow Jobs, With Noxious Hume Fumes Added

Tony Snow, who was never a journalist to start with despite what he called himself, as White House spokesvillain, claimed today that any politician voicing concern about a possible war with Iran simply wants to protect Iran. What? Oh please! Tony, go fight in a fucking war and come back to us once you do! I think your insight might change a little. It's very easy to sit in Washington's toniest restaurants and opine like you know something (you don't, that's very clear) about a war you wouldn't be caught dead getting within two continents of.

Meanwhile, the best Fox NoiseNews Channel's Brit Hume can do is call Jack Murtha "senile" for trying to do the will of the people and get us out of the Iraq war that only profits the Bushies, the neocons, the energy companies with their sweetheart deals, AND the military industrial complex.

As Think Progress points out:

Numerous military and regional experts agree that there is no military solution for Iran. They say it would be “disastrous for the United States,” “empower reactionaries [in Iran] and validate their pro-nuclear argument,” and “usher in chaos and instability.” None of them are trying to “protect Iran.” Tony Snow’s hysterical rhetoric is false.