call me a conspiracy theorist if you want. i have been called far worse. here's my thoughts on the current stem cell argument.

virtually everything discussed in congress these days is some kind of distraction technique put up by the republikkkans to hide the fact that they're still stealing money from us hand over fist (never you mind the missing katrina relief funds, or the vast sweeping tax cuts for the wealthy republikkkan base, there's a bunch of mexicans threatening your fruit picking career! hurry, before they teach your children spanish, impregnate your daughters with non-lilly-white offspring, and make enchiladas our national dish!). the stem cell debate is more insidious than usual, though. this is the republikkkans best chance to distance themselves from dubya and darth cheney they're going to have. here's how it works.
1) make it appear that a few of those incumbents whose seats are up for grabs are in favor of actual scientific progress in opposition the phony religious proclamations of the moron in our highest office.
2) dubya threatens to use the veto for the first time.
3) fake bravado from the toadies like frist, claiming that we must broaden the scope of stem cell research (especially adult stem cells and cord blood stem cells, which have shown so much promise).
4) veto
5) "we'll keep pushing for this legislation in our next term if you give us another chance..."-type speech that fades out sometime mid-november
6) see religious wackjobs? no harm done, and now all of your moral protectors are still in office.

numerous media sources are predicting that the neo-con movement is on its way out, but in my opinion, even if we get rid of the worst of them, the damage has been done. the political realm been infected, and the religious right is resistant to the pennicillin of the separation of church and state.

the hardest part is that i'm related to most of them. my grandmother gets a christmas card from the white house every year.

fuck all of those bastards.