Posted on 06/21/2004 8:12:25 PM PDT by SJackson
DENVER, June 21 - Backed by the unusual endorsement of 48 Nobel laureates, Senator John Kerry on Monday accused the Bush administration of letting ideology trump science, and promised to lift the limits on federal financing of stem-cell research and to build an economy "based on innovation, ingenuity and imagination."
Mr. Kerry and his scientific supporters echoed a 38-page report issued in February by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which accused the administration of "manipulation, suppression and misrepresentation of science" on issues like biotechnology, global warming and nuclear power.
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Mr. Kerry vowed to "listen to the advice of scientists" and make their advisory reports open to the public. The group of scientists had complained that the White House heavily edited a report by the Environmental Protection Agency to remove almost any finding pointing to a human link to global warming.
Mr. Kerry also invoked the recent death of President Ronald Reagan from Alzheimer's disease and echoed Nancy Reagan's call for stem-cell research "to tear down every wall today that keeps us from finding the cures of tomorrow."
"We need a president who will again embrace the tradition of looking toward the future and new discoveries with hope based on scientific facts, not fear," Mr. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, told thousands of people here at Civic Center Park, many of whom waited for hours on a rainy 50-degree day to see him.
"Presidents are supposed to think big and dream big and help our nation to do so," he said, citing Franklin D. Roosevelt's creation of the national laboratories, John F. Kennedy's commitment to put a man on the Moon, and Bill Clinton's support for mapping the human genome. "When America sees a problem or a possibility of greatness, it is in our collective character to set our sights on the horizon and not stop working until we get there," Mr. Kerry said.
On Monday night, Mr. Kerry decided to upend his schedule, canceling a fund-raiser and speech on Tuesday in New Mexico to allow him to fly back to Washington overnight for a possible vote on an amendment to make health care financing for veterans mandatory. Mr. Kerry has rarely interrupted his campaign activities for Senate business, but veterans' health care is a signature issue in his campaign.
Burton Richter, who received the Nobel in physics in 1976 for discovering a subatomic particle and who helped Mr. Kerry's campaign collect his colleagues' support over the last 10 days, told reporters that "Nobel laureates tend not to use their names for anything outside of science," adding, "I hope you take that as a sign of how seriously all of us think the errors of our present course are."
Mr. Kerry's speech, beginning a week focused on science and technology, was his first public appearance in Colorado, a Republican-leaning state that the Democrats hope to win. He noted, as he has in television advertisements, that he was born at an Army hospital nearby. It also reflected his increasing attention to stem-cell research, an issue for which Democrats believe they have public support.
Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Mr. Bush's re-election campaign, did not respond to the criticism of the president's policy prohibiting research of stem cells harvested since his order in 2001. The issue has split his party, with many Republicans signing on to legislation to lift the limits, particularly since Mr. Reagan's death. Mr. Schmidt answered the attack by pointing out that 22 of the 48 Nobelists who signed the pro-Kerry statement also signed a statement in January 2003 opposing war in Iraq, and 16 had given money to Democratic candidates.
In addition, 13 of the 48 were part of the group that released the February report criticizing the administration's approach to science.
"Only John Kerry would declare the country to be in scientific decline on a day when the country's first privately funded space trip is successfully completed," Mr. Schmidt said in a statement, referring to the rocket plane SpaceShipOne's journey 62 miles from earth and back.
For those unhappy with the Kerry position, I'm sure he was against it before he was for it. And you know who's money is going to pay for it.
Oh yeah, real unusual. Aren't these the same people who come out in favor of every liberal cause?
Of course Ho Chi Kerry will only seek the advice of the scientists who espouse the diabolical practice of harvesting embryonic stem cells and will completely dismiss the scientists who promote the use of adult stem cells which can be obtained from umbilical cords.
Adult stem cells have at least shown some positive results whereas embryonic stem cells have shown none.
These are usually Nobel winners who got their award by writing about the benefits of communism or some other debunked "ideology" and rarely have anything have anything to do with science, other than profess a love for eugenics.
Well spit. They believe that Mama Gummint's teat is essential to making this fly. Craven bottom feeders all.
1. What does a subatomic particle have to do with biology?
2. One reason that Nobel laureates tend not to use their names for anything outside of science is probably the fact that none of them have any clue about life outside their labs. I still think Jimmy Carter is the only president elected in years who had an academic career that was equal to mine. Lawyers are a dime a dozen and don't impress me. Mr. Carter survived the Navy nuclear program at Annapolis and earned an advanced degree there. I have three engineering degrees, but I would have been hard pressed to do the same. However, all of his academic accomplishments don't change the fact that Jimmy Carter knew nothing about leadership and was an inept president.
3. I wonder whether this guy has ever received a paycheck that didn't come from a government grant. Maybe his support for Mr. Kerry is nothing more than self-interest and his own inability to see outside his own experiences in life.
One More Tribute (to President Reagan)
Bill
Please cross over to other ideas about to gather stem-cells without harm to babies, e.g., from cord blood...........
Click to scroll to commentary.
Stem Cells An Unlikely Therapy for Alzheimer's Reagan-Inspired Zeal For Study Continues
The Washington Post ^ | June 10, 2004 | Rick Weiss
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1156980/posts
"Presidents are supposed to think big and dream big and help our nation to do so," he [Kerry] said
See, I always thought they should shut their mouths about social issues and worry about the military and vetoing spending bills. That's what I thought. I don't want a President, especially a New England liberal elitist, dreaming up big ridiculous things domestically while holding on to a position of power. The problem with the government is that too many idiots like Kerry ARE 'dreaming big'.
You are clueless as to Carter's so called academic record...He got into Annapolis but was short some units that were prerequisets so he spent a year doing precollege work at a local junior college. He went to Annapolis and graduated with a bachelors degree. He spent time in the Navy and during that time was asked to do some college work at Union college to help understand the nuckear reactor aboard the submarine he was thinking of being part of. He has NO advanced degree. He is NOT a nuclear engineer. He is just a dumb peanut farmer from Georgia. Which makes me wonder how smart you really are.
In either case, my point was that academic accomplishments do not make a great president or great leader. I'm sorry if you weren't able to figure out that point.
I have engineering degrees from Virginia Tech, Penn State, and Tennessee Tech. My lowest GPA was a 3.4. What are your credentials? I have no doubt that I'm at least as intelligent as you are and likely much more intelligent. You and your doubts about me are irrelevant.
One More Tribute (to President Reagan)
Bill
My information on Carter comes from reading up on his background during his first run for the Presidency. Newspaper articles , magazine articles and the like. Also doing research about when the Naval academy decided to introduce a "nuclear engineering" option...( and no it wasn't in 1943). You seem to be overly impressed with book learning and no I won't flaunt mine for you because I am one of those who find it naive at best to think that because one persists through the time it takes to earn various degrees that it either makes one smart or a decent human being. I let it stand that I have worked for a government agency in one career and a lot of reserach companies in another. My grades were better than yours ....so what? Carter wasn't smart . Your comment about "real technical" courses is silly because it only means that one has a slug of math, physics, chemistry, and engineering...It is one of the reasons that PhDs in these areas are so socially inept. Book learning ( for all that it is worth) is not the be all and end all of living. Some of the very brightest people I have ever worked with ( or even worked for) have been C students who understood what they were trying to achieve. Intellecutal elitetism is unbecoming. SO put your degrees away because trust me when I say if we got into a pissing match I would win
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