God Or Science

IMHO, It would be great to see US policy change regarding stem cell research. Screw the conservatives. Let them go live in the dark ages.

Obama to use executive orders for immediate impact

WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas. John Podesta, Obama’s transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush’s executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own. ”There’s a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we’ll see the president do that,” Podesta said. “I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set.”

Podesta also said Obama is working to build a diverse Cabinet. That includes reaching out to Republicans and independents — part of the broad coalition that supported Obama during the race against Republican John McCain. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been mentioned as a possible holdover. ”He’s not even a Republican,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said. “Why wouldn’t we want to keep him? He’s never been a registered Republican.”

Obama was elected on a promise of change, but the nature of the job makes it difficult for presidents to do much that has an immediate impact on the lives of average people. Congress plans to take up a second economic aid plan before year’s end — an effort Obama supports. But it could be months or longer before taxpayers see the effect. Obama could use his executive powers to at least signal that Washington is changing. ”Obama’s advantage of course is he’ll have the House and the Senate working with him, and that makes it easier,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. “But even then, having an immediate impact is very difficult to do because the machinery of government doesn’t move that quickly.”

Presidents long have used executive orders to impose policy and set priorities. One of Bush’s first acts was to reinstate full abortion restrictions on U.S. overseas aid. The restrictions were first ordered by President Reagan and the first President Bush followed suit. President Clinton lifted them soon after he occupied the Oval Office and it wouldn’t be surprising if Obama did the same. Executive orders “have the power of law and they can cover just about anything,” Tobias said in a telephone interview. Bush used his executive power to limit federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, a position championed by opponents of abortion rights who argue that destroying embryos is akin to killing a fetus. Obama has supported the research in an effort to find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Many moderate Republicans also support the research, giving it the stamp of bipartisanship.

On drilling, the federal Bureau of Land Management is opening about 360,000 acres of public land in Utah to oil and gas drilling. Bush administration officials argue that the drilling will not harm sensitive areas; environmentalists oppose it. ”They want to have oil and gas drilling in some of the most sensitive, fragile lands in Utah,” Podesta said. “I think that’s a mistake.” Two top House Republicans said there is a willingness to try to work with Obama to get things done. But they said to expect Republicans to serve as a check against the power held by Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress. ”It’s going to be a cheerful opposition,” said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. “We’re going to carry those timeless principles of limited government, a strong defense, traditional values, to the American people.”

Pence, of Indiana, is expected to take over the No. 3 leadership post among House Republicans.
In other transition matters, Obama’s new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, would not say whether Obama would return to the Senate for votes during the postelection session this month. Obama’s presence would be extraordinary, given his position as president-elect, especially if Congress takes up a much-anticipated economic stimulus plan. ”I think that the basic approach has been he’s going to be here in Chicago, setting up his economic, not only his economic team, but the policies he wants to outline for the country as soon as he gets sworn in, so we hit the ground running,” Emanuel said. Also, Emanuel would not commit to a Democratic proposal to help the auto industry with some of the $700 billion approved by Congress to for the financial bailout.

Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a letter Saturday to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that the administration should consider expanding the bailout to include car companies. Podesta appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” as did Pence, and CNN’s “Late Edition,” where Reid also was interviewed. Emanuel spoke on ABC’s “This Week” and CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

written by admin \\ tags: Obama

ARRRGH! I am sick of these right wing idiots who continue to trash Obama and pray for Jesus to return with a sword and kill all the gay people and liberals. Here is another example of their shit from the Minuteman board, posted by Ed the idiot

written by admin \\ tags: Obama, Racists and Racism, Renew America Forum

“You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”Joseph Welch, head attorney for the United States Army during McCarthy’s Investigation - June 9, 1954

We are now fifty years removed from the McCarthy scandal of the mid-1950s, which, in retrospect, was a HORRIBLE period for the cause of freedom in what is often referred to the freest country in all the world. It is easy to forget, but lives were destroyed by this monster, who in truth was nothing more than a drunk attention whore, a sad, lonely man who died of alcoholism at the young age of 48. His side kick Roy Cohn was also a hypocrite, a closet homosexual who spoke out against gays during this sad period of American history.

Fortunately for us, brave men stood up tho this monster at great personal risk to their reputations. For this, men such as Edward Marrow and Joseph Welch should be considered American heros. In a way, the bravery shown by these true patriots was as impressive as the bravery shown by our young heros on the beeches of Normandy on June 4th, 1944.

The following youtube video shows a famous exchange between senator McCarthy and Welch on the 30th day of the McCarthy hearings on June 9, 1954. This exchange is regarded as the turning point that led to the downfall of senator McCarthy.

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it. How fortunate for leaders that men do not think. All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.”
Adolph Hitler, German Chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945

Here is Edward R. Murrow giving his famous commentary on McCarthy during the dark days of the McCarthy hearings. This is from a documentary on the Biography channel.

The agenda of the far religious right in the new millennium is just as deeply troubling as McCarthy’s agenda in the mid-50s. In each case, we have a small minority seeking and abusing power to force it’s agenda on the rest of the country. We must always view this as an affront to freedom and fight it with the same courage used by Murrow and Welch to fight McCarthy.

The following is a famous poem by “Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. [reposted from Wikipedia]“

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

written by admin \\ tags: Edward Murrow, History, Joseph McCarthy

More violence in the name of God, this time in the name of Allah. Ah, the ‘religion of peace’ strikes again. I have no doubt that Christians would do the same if roles were reversed. We will NEVER be able to come together until there is no more religion.

Thousands of Christians flee killings in Mosul
By Leila Fadel, McClatchy Newspapers2 hours, 6 minutes ago

BAGHDAD — Christians in Mosul are fleeing their homes after a spate of killings this week that left 12 Christians dead in one of the largest Christian communities in Iraq .The killings follow large protests by the community last month against the passage of the provincial elections law. An article that would give representation to Christians and other minorities was removed from the law before its passage.

Now the last safe haven for Christians is gone, said Canon Andrew White the vicar of St. George’s church in Baghdad .After a spree of killings and forced evictions of Iraqi Christians in Baghdad last year, many fled to Mosul . But even there they could not escape the danger. In February of this year the Archbishop Paulos Faraj Raho of Mosul was kidnapped and killed. ”Christians are being killed in the only place they felt safe, in Ninevah,” White said, referring to the province of which Mosul is the capital. “This is where they fled to and now there’s no safe place for them.”

Over a thousand Christian families have fled Mosul for outlying villages and villages in the Kurdistan region in search of safety, a spokesman for the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs said. Posters are being put up with guidelines on how to leave. ”The Christian families left in Mosul are very few indeed,” said Mariwan Nakshabandee, spokesman for the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs , which oversees Christian communities in Mosul .

Iraqi Assyrian and Chaldean Catholics trace their roots to ancient Mesopotamia and Christian communities were prominent in many major Iraqi cities, including Mosul in the north and Basra in the south and Baghdad. The capital had enclaves in the central neighborhood of Karada, the eastern neighborhood of New Baghdad and nearby al-Ghadir as well as Dora in the capital’s south.

Christians once were estimated to be about 3 percent of the Iraqi population or about 800,000 people. But as Iraq grew bloody and violent the Christian community dwindled. Now some estimate that more than half of Iraq’s Christians have fled. White believes that the Christian community is about a quarter of the estimated 800,000. ”It isn’t easy for these people to leave,” he said. “They have no representation… we need the Christian world to do something about it.”

On Saturday, three more Christian men were found dead in Mosul . Among the 12 killed just this week were doctors, engineers, pharmacists and at least one disabled man. Three empty homes of Christian families in eastern Mosul who had fled were reduced to rubble as a warning, police in Mosul said. Some of the assassins told those they killed “you want an autonomous region,” said Auxiliary Bishop of the Chaldean Patriarch in Baghdad Shlemon Wirduni, who was getting updates every few hours from churches in Mosul . The assassins were referring, he said, to aspirations of some Assyrian and Chaldean Christians to create an autonomous Christian region in the northern plains of Ninevah Province .

Wirduni lamented that despite outcries to the international press, United Nations officials and Iraqi government officials nothing was being done. In Ninevah province, governor Duraid Kashmoula said the increase in attacks on Christians was due to the failure of a recent security operation in Mosul . He blamed Al Qaida in Iraq , an extremist Sunni group, for the recent string of killings. Mosul remains a volatile province despite a recent security operation and both Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police officials said they’d seen and uptick in Al Qaida in Iraq activity in the area.

“Killing the peaceful Christians is a crime and it doesn’t pass without punishment,” he said. According to Kashmoula, the killings were because of “the failure of the security plan and the fleeing of the elements of Al Qaida from Anbar to Mosul unchecked.” The Hammurabi Association for Human Rights released a statement demanding international attention to the assassinations of Christians likening it to “genocide.” ”We call on the authorities, central and local and international to stop this Christian bloodshed and to contain the violations and violence and terrorism that Christians in Mosul are facing,” the statement said. ”We also are victims of the civil war between Iraqis and the objective of the threats of Al Qaida is to displace Christians because they are a minority in Iraq ,” said Salwan Khoshaba from Al Tahira Church in Mosul .

written by admin \\ tags: Jihad, religion, violence, War In Iraq

Stem Cell Research and Organ Transplantation

It makes my sick and extremely angry to know that I might die 20 or 30 years before my time from a disease that could have been cured through stem cell research. These assholes strongly lobby congress for a ban on stem cell research because they believe it is a form of abortion, despite the fact that these cells WILL NEVER BECOME HUMAN LIVES. They will only be tossed into the trash. Is this something that GOD really wants? Is it better to throw these cells in the garbage than to use them in research that will save lives? MURDER.

They also refuse to donate their organs to science for research or to save lives via transplantation. Their rationale is that GOD forbids destroying the body on death, preferring instead to let the worms do it in the grave. Some believe that it is even a sin to allow cremation and that anyone who does it risks eternal damnation. What kind of a senseless monster would GOD be to require this? MURDER!

Homosexual Homicide and Gay Bashing

The far right opposes civil unions between gay couples, which means that both partner will be denied health insurance and other rights that only married couples get (e.g., lower taxes and tax incentives). Not having access to health care can result in poor health care and even death. The far right is against using more federal funds for AIDS research, believing it to be a gay disease, which is most certainly is not, and a judgment from GOD. They don’t seem to give a shit about all the innocent spouses/partners and babies, as well as blood transfer recipients who have gotten the virus through no fault of their own. The far right is also against hate crimes legislation being extended to homosexuals, who are more likely to be the victims of violent crime, usually at the hands of redneck bible thumpers. Christian Reconstructionists, the people who want to dethrone democracy in favor of theocracy, are on record as favoring the death penalty for unrepentant homosexuals. These people are BIGOTS and HATE-MONGERS.

Conclusion

It is easy to see that Organized Religion is a dangerous, racist, murderous institution of man. It brainwashes people from an early age to hate others in the name of religion. More people need to wake up and put away these childish fairytales. I am sorry, but if you believe that the ocean magically spit in half, in spite of the fact that this is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE, then you are insane and in need of professional help. 

written by admin \\ tags: Homosexuality & Gay Rights, Stem Cell Research