The Truth Will Set You Free !

White House Falsely Claims New Stem Cell Study ‘Has Not Been Reviewed By Scientists and Bio-Ethicists Yet’
Today, a new study was published that shows embryonic stem cells lines can be created without the destruction of human embryos. Previously, the White House has said they oppose the creation of new stem cell lines because it involved the destruction of embryos.

In today’s New York Times, White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said “Any use of human embryos for research purposes raises serious ethical questions. This technique does not resolve those concerns.” This afternoon, the White House changed their story. Here’s Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino:

QUESTION: Any decision to perhaps revisit the President’s position on federal funding for stem cell research, in light of this new development that was published yesterday in the journal Nature?

PERINO: …This study today reported in Nature Magazine has not been reviewed by scientists and bio-ethicists yet, but it is one that the President believes deserves a good look. He is encouraged that there are scientists who are continuing to look for innovative ways to do stem cell research that would not involve the destruction of embryos. And so he is going to listen to folks after they have a chance to review the study, but it does hold some promise that they would be able to do that type of research without destruction of a human embryo.

This is false. ThinkProgress spoke with bioethicist Ronald Green, who is an ethics advisor to Robert Lanza, an author of the study. Green said that in order to be published in Nature, the paper went through a rigourous peer review process, which lasted nearly three months.

The study was also reviewed by bioethicts. It was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Advisory Board of Advanced Cell Technology. Also an independent review board was constituted to scrutinize the study, as required by Massachusetts law.

$10 million. = Donations raised for Katrina relief by U.S. school children — “more than [the amount] almost every major U.S. corporation gave.” (Only Wal-Mart, Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, Exxon, Freddie Mac, and BP Amoco gave more.)

Nine African-American students in Louisiana were ordered to move “to the back of the school bus by a white driver who designated the front seats for white children.” The NAACP is considering filing charges.

Yes To India, No To Iran: Bush Administration Sends Contradictory Message On Nuclear Programs

Iran and India are making nearly identical arguments to justify pushing ahead with their respective nuclear programs.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [I'mMadInDaHead] insists that nuclear power is Iran’s right and “no one will stop us” developing the country. … “They are trying to deny our right to develop nuclear power. But no one can impose anything on the Iranian people.” … “Our main task is to develop and build the Iranian nation. No one will stop us.” Iran has insisted it is enriching uranium to generate electricity from nuclear power.

India’s prime minister said Wednesday the country would retain its right to carry out future nuclear tests despite a civilian nuclear deal with the United States, a news report said. “There is no scope for capping of our strategic (nuclear) program. It will be decided by the people, government and Parliament of the country and not by any outside power,” Press Trust of India quoted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as saying in a statement in Parliament.

While Iran’s refusal to guarantee that it will not proceed with a nuclear weapons program has elicited calls from Bush for tough sanctions against that country, India’s refusal to make a similar guarantee has not elicited a response from the administration.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for the destruction of Israel, is undoubtedly a greater immediate security threat to the world than the Indian government. But the U.S.’s contradictory message undermines the argument against the Iranian threat.

Judicial Watch Smears Judge Who Ruled Warrantless Wiretapping Is Illegal, Media Takes The Bait
Last week, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program was unconstitutional. Subsquently, Taylor was attacked by the conservative group Judicial Watch which claimed that she had a “conflict of interest” because she “serves as a Secretary and Trustee for a foundation that donated funds to the ACLU of Michigan, a plaintiff in the case.”

Judicial Watch’s allegation has garnered extensive media coverage. It’s a bogus charge. Here are the facts:
– Over the last two years the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan has donated about $50 million to charitable causes. Its $45,000 in grants to the ACLU represents just .09% of their total giving.
– The money to the ACLU had nothing to do with their activities relating to this litigation or government surveillance. The grant funded “a gay rights project.”
– Judge Taylor is one of 50 community members on the foundation’s board. It wasn’t a personal decision by Judge Taylor.

None of this information was disclosed by Judicial Watch. Once you know the facts, there is not a “reasonable question about [her] impartiality” based on the foundation’s activities. That hasn’t stopped the media (or the blogosphere) from breathlessly reporting the “story.”

Cafferty: Racist Republican Remarks Cafferty tells us, It’s not like Republicans don’t have a few problems going into the mid-term elections–"let’s talk about these three clowns."

Quickies:
A House Intelligence Committee report warned that the U.S. is facing “significant gaps” in its intelligence on Iran that could be as serious as the shortcomings in its prewar knowledge about Iraq, leaving Washington ill-prepared to assess Tehran’s military capabilities. “American intelligence agencies do not know nearly enough about Iran’s nuclear weapons program” to help policymakers at a critical time, the report said.

There is “little doubt that Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the war on terror in the Middle East,” according to a new report from a British think tank.

Things could be worse. “For three years, the president tried to reassure Americans that more progress was being made in Iraq than they realized. But with Iraq either in civil war or on the brink of it, Bush dropped the unseen-progress argument in favor of the contention that things could be even worse.”

Thousands of unexploded cluster bombs from Israeli artillery guns are turning up all over Lebanon, injuring innocent children. “They look like fat torch batteries. So they seem innocuous especially to the curious mind of a child,” said the U.N. Mine Action Service’s Chris Clark. “We find that children unwittingly pick them up and then sadly suffer injuries from them.”

And finally: Not all U.S. lawmakers are able to maintain two households with their $165,200 annual salary. Instead of renting an apartment in Wasington, Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA) sleeps on an air mattress in his office. “I see three or four of my colleagues bunking together in a two-bedroom apartment,” said Marshall. “I’ll go for my office any day over that.”

(Sources: Center For American Progress, Nature.com, CrooksAndLiars.com, NY Times, AdvancedCell.com, ABC News, Shreveporttimes.com, Reuters, AP, Washington Post, timesonline.co.uk, Judicial Watch, USA Today, The Guardian, Bloomberg)