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General discussion

Bush's bioethics panel: only yes-men need apply

Feb 29, 2004 6:21AM PST

Discussion is locked

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Re: GIGO..........
Feb 29, 2004 7:36AM PST

GIGO...haven't seen that term in some time, but I'm wondering if it might not save broadband by becoming an appropriate short all encompasing reply to many political posts in this forum.

Points of view are important and necessary to achieve an informed public. Points of view sans personal rancor.

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Re: personal rancor
Feb 29, 2004 1:00PM PST

Hi, Del.

I don't really hold personal rancor towards Bush -- he's supposedly quite charming in person. But other than his love for America, I despise just about every one of his policies. And even then, "his" America and "my" America are very different, a theme john Edwards has been driving home to good effect.

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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Re:Bush's bioethics panel: only yes-men need apply
Mar 1, 2004 12:18AM PST

And on a Friday, too. What a coincidence. And there just happens to be the big Haiti story going, too. Coincidence on top of coincidence. Along with garbage in garbage out advice, they're trying to throw this story out with the trash.

*sigh*

Dan

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The old "plot" senario again....
Mar 1, 2004 12:42AM PST

Ah, yes, the old "plot" senario again. Dan, the "Friday Bomb" media routine is a just before an election ploy. The "trick" is to throw the bomb at the last minute, hoping that the other side will not have time to deal with it before the polls open.
In normal times, it's not a good idea, especially in the case of something "hot" like Haiti. In the case of Haiti, the press was in positioned in the field, expecting and waiting for something to break. When it did, they were all over it. In this senario, the weekend gives more time to let what they find "make air", as breaking the normal M-F schedule disrupts complex things that were set to run. Disrupting the mass of weekend "fillers" or switching the focus of the mass of standard weekend "talk-talk" is a much simplier and easier deal.

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Re: Bush's bioethics panel: not just the left who are dismayed
Mar 4, 2004 12:42AM PST

(Unfortunately, this link requires registration)
Scientific groups angry at loss of Elizabeth Blackburn from group considering stem cells
>>US President George W. Bush dismissed two members of his President's Council on Bioethics last Friday afternoon in a move that has been dubbed a ?very ill-advised decision? by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) president Bettie Sue Masters....
To replace Blackburn, May, and Stephen Carter, a Yale University law professor who left the council in September 2002, Bush appointed Benjamin S. Carson, the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at John Hopkins and a vocal abortion opponent; Peter A. Lawler, head of the Government and International Studies Department at Berry College in Georgia; and Diana J. Schaub, head of the Political Science Department at Loyola College in Maryland.....
Coming on the heels of protests from the Union of Concerned Scientists and others that the White House has distorted scientific facts to support its policies on the environment, public health, and biomedical research, this latest action by the Bush administration has done more than raise a few eyebrows in the scientific community. Several professional organizations, including the ASCB and the ASBMB, have expressed their disappointment in Bush's decision, which will lower the fraction of research scientists on the council.
?Even before Dr. Blackburn's dismissal, scientists were heavily outnumbered by nonscientists with strong anti-research ideological views,? said ASCB public policy chair Larry Goldstein in a statement. ?Now it will be even more unlikely than before that the council will be able to make informed ethical decisions.?
Many also believe that it is an effort to increase the number of conservatives on the council. Bernard Siegel, the Genetics Policy Institute's executive director, told The Scientist in an E-mail, ?It is a shame that [Blackburn] is being replaced by outspoken foes of [somatic cell nuclear transfer] research. This is? another punch in the face to scientists and disease advocates by the folks more concerned about 'energizing their political base' than finding cures.?<<