CONGRESSMEN TELL BUSH TO "BRING IT ON"

Two Democratic congressmen have challenged Bush to "bring it on." Bush has promised to veto expansion of federally funded stem cell research, and Washington Congressmen Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott believe the political fallout would prove that the pResident is failing to realize that the American people aren't with him on this issue.

As the Christian mother of a son with cerebral palsy, I simply cannot understand the Christian right's position. How is it possible to equate a few cells in a petri dish with a suffering human being? When Christ said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me," I cannot believe he was speaking of cellular tissue as his brethren. It surely is clear that when he invited the children onto his knee and instructed his disciples, "Let the little children come unto me and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven," he wasn't suggesting we hasten their deaths so that they could be reunited with Jesus.

Anyway, the whole opposition argument is ridiculous. Bush has already shown his hypocrisy on this issue by allowing existing stem cell lines to be used. Embryos are washed down the sink every day in fertility clinics. Where's the consistency of position? When will the wingnuts sponsor a bill that demands that every embryo produced by an infertile couple be implanted into the mother's womb?

Are these people nuts? I know Bush isn't acting on principle, it's all politics with him, but some of them are. But what KIND of principle? A principle of preserving the POTENTIAL for life at the expense of the living? That logic, carried to its natural conclusion, would forbid masturbation.

I'd LOVE to see the wingnuts try to enforce that.