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On November 4, 2004 - The Daily Mirror, a British publication asked on its cover: How can 59,054,087 Americans be so dumb? "I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being President." 406 more days of the "decider" # 397 Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - NO STEM CELL "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" -Don't Buy the Lie! Why is the Bush Administration, the Religious Right, and the Republican party declaring "Mission Accomplished" with stem cells? Is paralysis cured? Is the Catholic Church suddenly okay with cloning, which the new research could easily do? Have we found the answer to cancer? Are America's one hundred million chronically ill patients all better? Why is the media deluged with a carefully coordinated onslaught of stem cell "success", which not even the scientists involved are claiming? I can tell you the answer in one word, or rather, one number. 2008. The stem cell issue is being defused, to keep the conservatives in power. Who would lose, if the Republicans were resoundingly defeated in next year's elections? The Religious Right, the anti-taxers, the anti-science, anti-environment, pro-military-industrial complex, anti-union, pro-Big Business-etc., etc. For eight years, they have enjoyed unimpeded access to power, and have no wish for the party to end. What is stem cell research compared with that? So, the decision is made. Let this one form of semi-embryonic stem cell research alone. Pretend the skin cell reprogramming is politically acceptable, religiously okay, and scientifically perfect. The President declares "Mission Accomplished", as was done in Iraq-the millions who support embryonic stem cell research are placated-- and an electoral landslide is averted. Hey, it worked before. When George Bush put on his flight jacket and stood on the deck of the air craft carrier, in front of that enormous banner, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, America bought it-the issue was defused, or rather delayed-- just enough to return him to power for a second term. The reality, of course, is that the only victory in Iraq is the silence of the grave. So many people have died there, that the opposition is just waiting till a better time. We wasted our blood and our billions, and the only winner was the war machine and the oil companies. Acceptance of the new form of research is a cookie we are being flung, to distract us, to quiet us down. If we accept it, and return the conservatives to power, they can go back to business as usual-which is to increase their dominion over all our lives. Another Republican President will have the opportunity to appoint at least one more hyper-conservative to the Supreme Court, another Roberts, Thomas, or Scalia.They already have a 7-2 Republican majority-imagine the change just one more Republican could bring. Then, the payoff. The "life begins at conception" folks bring that issue before the most conservative Supreme Court in the history of America-- 8 Republicans and 1 Democrat-and we can forget about serious research for cure in our lifetime. Not to mention civil liberties, a woman's right to choose, real efforts on global warming, any serious thought given to peace as a problem-solver, etc. Maybe I am wrong-test the equation for yourself. First, could the new research be used for cloning, which is (until now) the untouchable evil? You bet. Consider: if the new stem cells are equivalent to embryonic, as claimed-they can be used to make any tissue of the body, including sperm and eggs. Make a sperm and egg from the skin cells, put them together, implant the resulting blastocyst in a woman's womb- and there it is, human reproductive cloning.* Ask any stem cell scientist if they really think the new research is everything they need. Ask any patient, are they healed? Ask yourself: if this new research had been announced in 2009, after the election of a Republican President, would it have been greeted with such adulation? The next election is the most important in our lifetime. Everything is at stake. We can turn the situation around, begin making the massive peaceful changes necessary to quite literally save the world. Or, we can buy the lie a second time. *Remember, the same objection was made about Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, called therapeutic cloning-- not that it was cloning babies (it wasn't) but that it might be used as a stepping stone to learning how. The same objection could be made about the new research. But now the objectors are silent. Don Reed www.stemcellbattles.com Don C. Reed is co-chair (with Karen Miner) of Californians for Cures, and writes for their web blog, www.stemcellbattles.com. Reed was citizen-sponsor for California's Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act of 1999, named after his paralyzed son; he worked as a grassroots advocate for California's Senator Deborah Ortiz's three stem cell regulatory laws, served as an executive board member for Proposition 71, the California Stem Cells for Research and Cures Act, and is director of policy outreach for Americans for Cures. The retired schoolteacher is the author of five books and thirty magazine articles, and has received the National Press Award. Rayilyn Brown Board Member AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn