Nutjob Liberal Praises Obama for Killing Embryos

This would, of course, be Nancy Reagan:

"I'm very grateful that President Obama has lifted the restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research," the former first lady said in a statement. "These new rule will now make it possible for scientists to move forward."

"Countless people, suffering from many different diseases, stand to benefit from the answers stem cell research can provide," said Reagan, who has long been at odds with other conservative Republicans over the stem cell issue.

"We owe it to ourselves and to our children to do everything in our power to find cures for these diseases -- and soon."

H/T Extremepreneur, who also supplied the title.

Stem Cell Funding Injunction Rescinded

I'm kind of surprised that the court did not tell Judge Lamberth to stop smoking pot.

But they have now permanently lifted the injunction against funding the research:

An appeals court has permanently lifted an injunction imposed by a federal judge, thereby allowing federally funded embryonic stem-cell research to continue while the Obama administration appeals the judge's original ruling against use of public funds in such research.

Considering the Obama administration's generally weak support for reproductive rights, I would have figured that they would have slow walked this, but I was wrong.

Background here.

Romney Repudiates Mormon Dogma for Political Gain

Well, it appears that in order to appeal to Christian Evangelicals, Mitt Romney is repudiating Mormon Dogma. No surprise there from Mr. Flip Flop.

But for those trained to hear the subtleties, Mr. Romney was acknowledging something more. He implied an opposition to the birth control pill and a willingness to join in their efforts to scale back access to contraception. There are code phrases to listen for - and for those keeping score, Mr. Romney nailed each one.

One code phrase is: "I fought to define life as beginning at conception rather than at the time of implantation." The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists defines pregnancy as starting at implantation, the first moment a pregnancy can be known. Anti-abortion advocates want pregnancy to start at the unknown moment sperm and egg meet: fertilization. They'd also like you to believe, despite evidence to the contrary, that the birth control pill prevents that fertilized egg from implanting in the womb.

This runs counter to Mormon doctrine, which says that a fertilized ovum does not have a soul until implantation, and hence it is not a human life.

It's why the Church of Latter Day Saints supports stem cell research, and such anti-abortion stalwarts as Orin Hatch support embryonic stem cell research.

One more case of Romney pandering over what he claims to be deeply held beliefs.

On another note, this further indicates that the religious right wants to ban all forms of birth control, because otherwise, Romney would not have felt compelled to make this statement.

Hat tip to Talking Points Memo for finding this.

Well, Obama Mans Up On Somethng

I have always felt that Obama has been profoundly ambivalent on the matter of abortion rights, so I figured that their response to a judge's injunction against funding embryonic stem cell research would be to wring their hands, bleat a bit, and suggest that "Congress" do something.

I appear to have been too cynical, because the DoJ has announced that it will appeal this ruling:

The Obama administration said Tuesday that it would appeal a court ruling challenging the legality of President Obama’s rules governing human embryonic stem cell research, as the head of the National Institutes of Health said the decision would most likely force the cancellation of dozens of experiments in diseases ranging from diabetes to Parkinson’s.

I am truly shocked. My sense was that Obama would go the way he tried to on "Don't Ask Don't Tell", and punt to Congress.

Best Healthcare System in the World

The FDA has approved the first genetic therapy for Sickle Cell disease, and it only costs $2,200,000.00 per person treated.

Given that there are 100,000 Americans with Sickle Cell, that ain't chump change.

I would also argue that at that level of remuneration, we can be pretty sure that good folks at Vertex Pharmaceuticals are NOT going to share any issues regarding effectiveness or side effects with regulators.

 Same goes for the treatment from Bluebird Bio, which costs an even more ridiculous $3.1 million.

That price is obscene:

The FDA approved the first gene therapy treatments for sickle cell disease on Friday, but it will cost patients millions of dollars.

One of the approved therapies, developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and called Casgevy, is the first of its kind to use the CRISPR gene-editing tool, according to the FDA.

………

Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics said in a statement that about 16,000 sickle cell patients who are over the age of 12 may be eligible for the therapy, which offers a "potential of a functional cure for their disease."

That therapy, however, could cost a single patient more than $2.2 million, not including the cost of associated care, such as a hospital stay or chemotherapy, according to an SEC filing.

………

The second treatment the FDA approved on Friday is called Lyfgenia. Lyfgenia modifies a patient's blood stem cells and transplants them, but it instead adds normal hemoglobin that is uninfected with the disease to the cells so that they have a lower risk of sickling, according to the FDA.

Lyfgenia will come with an even higher price tag of $3.1 million, Bluebird Bio, the biotech company that developed the treatment, said in a news release.

These are all dependent on the CRISPR gene editing tool, which was developed with federal funding, and the isolation of the mechanism and the genes behind Sickle Cell disease were discovered with federal funding, so maybe it's time to get serious about executing march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act, which would allow the US government to license these technologies to other (far less larcenous) entities.

It should be noted that march-in rights have never been used in the 43 years that this law has been on the books.

It's about time to start.

Court Injunction Against Federal Embryonic Stem Cell Research

My non-lawyer opinion

This seems to be a rather strange ruling to me.

Federal Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the plaintiffs had standing because someone else might get grants if studies using embryonic stem cells could get funding, which seems top be a big of a whiskey tango foxtrot moment to me.

The Dickey-Wicker amendment prohibits the NIH from funding the destruction of embryos, and not all research post this act, which makes appear to me that this ruling is rather a bit of overreach by the judge as well.

Embryonic Stem Cells Cure Paralysis

Geron is going to the FDA to get approval to test its stem cell spinal treatment of paralysis, following successful tests in rats.

Needless to say, the Bush Administration anti-science blockhead political appointees in the FDA won't approve it, but we have only 100 months to wait for them to be swept clean.

Elections Have Consequences, Part III

Obama is reversing Bush's politically motivated and unscientific restrictions on stem cell research, and allowing researchers to use more recent families of embryonic stem cells in federally funded research.

Linkage

• Japan Celebrates First Native Sumo Champion in 19 Years (Wall Street Journal) Good on Kisenosato for achieving Yokozona status. I do appreciate the sport, there is a lot of finesse and balance involved, though I am not an avid follower of the sport.
• America's Long-Overdue Opioid Revolution Is Finally Here (Smithsonian) New chemicals which would avoid the side effects of traditional opium derived substances. I'd like to see the doctors and pharma executives who have knowing profited by the addiction epidemic thrown in jail. This has to be a part of the fix.
• Paralyzed man regains use of arms and hands after experimental stem cell therapy at Keck Hospital of USC (University of Southern California) Promising, but we still have a way to go.
• Double Standards: Where Were the Liberal Protestors During Obama’s Wars? (Counterpunch) "They were asleep, weren’t they? Because liberals always sleep when their man is in office,  particularly if their man is a smooth-talking cosmopolitan snake-charmer like Obama who croons about personal freedom and democracy while unleashing the most unspeakable violence on civilians across the Middle East and Central Asia."
• In The Grandest Metaphor Of The Week, An Actual GOP Ghost Train Left 30th Street Station This Morning (PHILEBRITY) Congressional Republicans had a meeting in Philly. Their hotel was surrounded by garbage trucks to keep out protesters, and when the time came to leave, they were afraid to enter the station to use their chartered train. Priceless.
• Obama’s administration made the “Muslim ban” possible and the media won’t tell you (Terra Incognita) Money Quote: "Trump didn’t select seven “Muslim-majority” countries. US President Barack Obama’s administration selected these seven Muslim-majority countries." (Emphasis Original)
• The Real 007 Used Fake News to Get the U.S. into World War II (The Daily Beast) If all the assertions by Democratic Party apparatchiks regarding Putin's meddling in US elections are true, they still pale beside Winston Churchill's.
• Crowds are wise enough to know when other people will get it wrong (Ars Technica) An interesting development regarding the predictive powers of the Delphi principle. Basically, the more that a group thinks that other people will get the answer wrong, the more likely that they are right.
• Obama built a deportation machine that Trump can follow (McClatchy) The main stream media starts to notice.

The video really makes things clear: Many of Trump's policies are extensions of Obama's: Mass deportations, coddling the big bankers, implicit and explicit support for torture (Under Obama, they were not prosecuted, they were promoted to run the agencies), etc.

What's more the consequences of these policies led to a Completely Foreseeable backlash which put Trump in office.

She Said What?!?!?!?!

In an interview with Andrea Mitchell Hillary Clinton praised Nancy Reagan's "Low key activism" on HIV/AIDS.

While I fully understand the desire not to diss the Nancy on the day of her funeral, this bit of "Can't we all just get along," historical revisionism is completely repulsive:

In an interview conducted at Nancy Reagan’s funeral today, Hillary Clinton recounted a version of history that didn’t happen, lauding the former first lady’s “low key advocacy” for the cause of HIV/AIDS awareness. “Low key” is one way of putting it. In fact, the Reagan White House is infamous for its lengthy, deadly silence on the epidemic.

Clinton’s remarks came after an extended explanation of Nancy Reagan’s efforts to expand stem cell research after her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimers. Then, in a bizarre turn, Clinton began talking about AIDS in the 1980s, a topic anyone looking to remain civil and complimentary would go far out of their way to avoid at the funeral of Nancy Reagan:

“It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. And because of both President and Mrs. Reagan, in particular, Mrs. Reagan, we started national conversation when before no one would talk about it, no one wanted to do anything about it, and that too is something that really appreciated, with her very effective, low-key advocacy, but it penetrated the public conscience and people began to say ‘Hey, we have to do something about this too.’”

It’s almost tempting to interpret this as withering, devastating sarcasm—the Reagans “started a national conversation about AIDS” in the same sense that George W. Bush “started a national conversation” about Iraq.

In reality, the Reagans were infamously, disastrously silent on AIDS—as President, Ronald Reagan spoke more about UFOs than HIV, and didn’t even say the word in a public address until 1987, by which point it had killed tens of thousands of Americans. The virus was quite literally a joke inside the Reagan White House. Whatever “advocacy” of Nancy’s Clinton is dreaming up here must’ve been low-key to the point of non-existence—just last year it was reported that she ignored her Hollywood friend Rock Hudson’s pleas for help as he himself died from AIDS. It’s hard for one ugly episode to stand out among so many ugly aspects of the Reagan administration, but Nancy and Ronald’s deliberate silence on one of the defining public health crises of the era is surely near the top of any list. What Clinton is saying isn’t just untrue, but erases the deadly legacy of the Reagan era.

The most charitable way to describe the Reagan administration's behavior on the AIDS crisis is as an atrocity.

Once this blew up, Clinton walked it back, but this comment is indefensible:

Hillary Clinton’s statement on her comments about the Reagans' record on HIV and AIDS: pic.twitter.com/RtIs0zpJfk

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 11, 2016

I can't figure out whether this is a moment of mind-boggling stupidity, or if she was trying to pander to the right in the hope of picking up a few votes.

In either case, particularly when juxtaposed with her late to the game support of gay marriage, this is a major f%$# up.

For anyone interested in LGBT issues who is still on the fence, this is a push to Bernie Sanders.

More on Fascist Catholic Archbishop in St. Louis

Saint Louis University's basketball couch Rick Majerus tells fascist Archbishop to piss off regarding said cleric's suggestion that disciplinary action be taken against him because he showed up to a Hillary Clinton rally, and made pro-choice statements.

Ignoring the towering idiocy of demanding that a basketball coach towing anti-woman, anti sex line of Archbishop Raymond Burke, there is also the matter, rasied in my last post on this issue, that St. Louis University just won a court case regarding a tax financing for a new sports arena because they had demonstrated they were not, "controlled by a religious creed".

This is not the first time that this moron has damaged both the reputation and the institution of the Catholic Church:

Burke has spoken out before against Catholics or Catholic institutions that stray from church doctrine. During the 2004 election, he said he would not administer Holy Communion to presidential candidate John Kerry, a Catholic, because he supported abortion rights.

Last year, Burke dropped his seat on the board of a charity that let singer Sheryl Crow perform at a benefit concert. Crow supports abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research.

On Tuesday, Burke said he would ask Saint Louis University officials to take "appropriate action" against Majerus after the coach gave a TV interview at the Clinton rally during which he said he was Catholic and pro-choice.

In 1942, the Bishop of Father Coughlin to STFU. Perhaps it might be advisable for someone in Burke's chain of command to do the same.

Why Aren't The Dems Hammering This Every Day?

Georgia Democratic Gubernatorial candidate, and former Governor, Roy Barnes, is now explaining to the voters that wingnut Republicans are more than poor stewards of the public trust, but that they they are actually an embarrassment to the people, and the state, of Georgia.

Some text from his ad:

It's hard for industry to take us seriously when the Legislature attempts to outlaw stem cell research, passes bills about microchips in the brain, and talks about seceding from the Union.

………

We can't bring jobs to Georgia with the rest of the country laughing at us.

An appeal to civic pride, reminding folks that these folks are f%$#ing nuts, and that we should be embarrassed that they win elections, is a simple and easily understood: They are laughing at you, not with you because of these clowns.

This is a message that can, and should, be hammered at every day until election day.

OK, So Electric Eels Embedded in Your Fat is Creepy, but..

OK, so the electric eel squicks me out, but stem cell and DNA technologies to cure male pattern baldness,^* I find that cool and hopeful.

^*That is a really old pic on the right hand side of the blog.

Bogus Job Creation Data?

I would be stunned if the Bush Administration would take a nonpartisan collection of data, and massage it for political advantage. What if they did it on Global Warming Data ANWR Drilling Stem Cell Research Morning After Contraceptives Safe Sex Preventing AIDS Lead Paint Mercury Iraq

Well, it now appears that Bush and His Evil Minions^™ are overstating job growth in the US, see Dean Baker and Barry Ritholtz.

Basically, it comes down to the fact that the BLS cannot get questionnaires regarding employment to all the businesses out there. A number of businesses, particularly newer and smaller ones, slip through the cracks.

It's called birth-death adjustment, and in 2007, it guesstimated about 300,000 more jobs than were actually created.

Dean Baker notes that the BLS is showing that the restaurant sector is shown to have added 48,000 jobs in January and February, but restaurant spending is shown to have decreased by about 0.6% over the same period.

Barry Ritholtz notes that the B/D adjustment accounted for 80% of all new jobs in 2007, and he has a nice picture of 2008 adjustments:


Given Baker's data on restaurants, I would circle hospitality too, but the idea that construction and financial services are surging is just loopy.

Obama Throws Gays Under the Bus.....Again

Over a year ago, I called out Barack Obama for throwing gays under the bus with his gospel concert in South Carolina, when he let an anti-gay bigot (who's also ... you know gay ... but all better now really ... no ... really ... he's all better now...) take the stage ... scratch that take over the stage...

Well, I'm not stunned and amazed: He handled the McClurkin contraversy in the way most calculated to be hurtful, and now he
is having bigot Christo-Fascist^* Rick Warren to give inaugural invocation.

The PFAW president describes himself as 'Profoundly Disappointed' by this development, and Atrios gives Obama the coveted Wanker of the Day award.


The good folks at Right Wing Watch have the scoop on just what this man has done and said, which includes:

• Coming out vociferiously in support of Prop 8 stripping the right to marry from gays in California.
  • This also includes him lying like a dog, and saying that this would allow pastors to be arrested for sermons
• Declaring that marriage, abortion rights (anti), and stem cell research were "non-negotiable" issues for Christian voters.
• Has said that the difference himself and James Dobson is a just tone.
• He has compared abortion to the Holocaust.
• Declared that those who do not believe in God should not be allowed to hold public office.

I'm a bit disappointed, but I am far from surprised, I expected some sort of backhand to "te gay" as a demonstration of "bipartisanship."

My gay friend who thinks that Obama sh%$s ice cream though....I don't know how he'll rationalize this.

If you are expecting a move on Don't Ask Don't Tell in the military before the 2010 elections, you are sorely mistaken.

^*I could also use the term "Talibaptist"....Your thoughts on which works better?

I'm So Happy With Obama's DNC Chair

You know, Tim Kaine, who Obama hand picked as head of the Democratic National Committee, who just signed a bill creating "Choose Life" license plates in Virginia, and has promised to support a bill banning state funding of embryonic stem cell research in the state.

I guess that throwing pro-choice advocates to the wolves is Obama's way to "reach out to the right."

Thanks a lot, Barack, for foisting this tool on the Democratic Party.

Linkage

• Dubious stem cell clinic got hold of smallpox vaccine. FDA just took it away (Ars Technica) That was even easier than I had feared.
• The Arpaio Pardon (Wall Street Journal) The most brain-dead conservative editorial board in the nation just cut Trump a new one,
• Paducah, Kentucky man who booked prostitute finds it's his own wife (County Weekly) Awkward
• Lurid Trump allegations made by Louise Mensch and co-writer came from hoaxer (Guardian) It's been clear that she was an untrustworthy nut-job for a while now, but she still got to publish her unhinged rants in the New York Times.
• Google Critic Ousted From Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant (New York Times) Critic claiming that Google has too much power is ousted by Google. QED.
• Google to Comply With EU Search Demands to Avoid More Fines (Bloomberg) I'll believe it where I see it.
• Crowdsourced gaming of Google Translate dubs Kim Jong Un “Mr. Squidward” (Ars Technica) Google bombing Google Translate. Sweet.

A hummingbird pool party

Michael Steel as Head of the RNC?????

Excuse me while I clean what I was drinking from the screen.

It appears that former Maryland Lieutenant Governor and US Senate candidate Michael Steele is looking to chair the RNC.

There is no way to put this delicately.

Michael Steele is stupid....Mind bogglingly stupid....I mean comparing stem cell research to the Holocaust in front of the Baltimore Jewish Council stupid.

I think in terms of raw brain power, he's probably not that stupid, but it's clear that he is so convinced of his own wit and genius, that he cannot help but make it worse.

He may not actually be stupid, but he has a penchant for doing stupid things that buggers the mind.

If he gets the post, I'm going to need to take up a collection for the popcorn.

Hey! I Voted Against That Guy!

Three Times!

Twice as Robert Leroy "Bob" Ehrlich, Jr.'s Lt. Governor, and once for the Senate when he ran against Ben Cardin.

Now Michael Steele has been elected chairman of the RNC.

My take on him is that he is really, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY stupid.

He is, after all the guy who compared stem cell research to the Holocaust.....to the Baltimore Jewish Council.

The frightening thing is that he might have been the smartest one there, what with Ken Blackwell, Katon Dawson, etc. being on the ballot.

I don't think that he will make a lick of difference though.

I Missed this in September

The good folks at Ars Technica had a review of their top stories of the year, and I came across a story that I had missed. It appears that a hospital told their employees that if they had a religious objection to Covid-19 vaccines because or the use of fetal stem cells, they would have to pledge to eschew all drugs developed with that technology.

The list of drugs developed with that technology includes, "Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, aspirin, Tums, Lipitor, Senokot, Motrin, ibuprofen, Maalox, Ex-Lax, Benadryl, Sudafed, albuterol, Preparation H, MMR vaccine, Claritin, Zoloft, Prilosec OTC, and azithromycin." 

Nice way to call out religious hypocrisy:

A hospital system in Arkansas is making it a bit more difficult for staff to receive a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The hospital is now requiring staff to also swear off extremely common medicines, such as Tylenol, Tums, and even Preparation H, to get the exemption.

………

"This was significantly disproportionate to what we've seen with the influenza vaccine," Matt Troup, president and CEO of Conway Regional Health System, told Becker's Hospital Review in an interview Wednesday.

"Thus," Troup went on, "we provided a religious attestation form for those individuals requesting a religious exemption," he said. The form includes a list of 30 commonly used medicines that "fall into the same category as the COVID-19 vaccine in their use of fetal cell lines," Conway Regional said.

The list includes Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, aspirin, Tums, Lipitor, Senokot, Motrin, ibuprofen, Maalox, Ex-Lax, Benadryl, Sudafed, albuterol, Preparation H, MMR vaccine, Claritin, Zoloft, Prilosec OTC, and azithromycin.

Conway Regional notes that the list includes commonly used and available drugs but that it is not an all-inclusive list of such medicines.

………

The intent of the form is twofold, Troup says. First, the hospital wants to ensure that staff members are sincere in their stated beliefs, he said, and second, it wants to "educate staff who might have requested an exemption without understanding the full scope of how fetal cells are used in testing and development in common medicines.

I am amused.