Republican Party

Bush's plans to veto HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, after it is likely passed by the Senate sometime this year have generated quite a bit of notice over the last couple of days. If it were allowed to go through, the bill would effectively overturn Bush's currently standing restrictions that prevent federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Although this latest flurry of attention was sparked by Monday's report from the Denver Post that Karl Rove has reaffirmed Bush's veto plans, this is by no means a new finding, since Bush has been threatening this all along…
On the 29th of June, the Senate finally announced an upcoming vote on HR 810, a bill which would overturn President Bush's current prohibitions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. As I reported before, the announcement has been anticipated for some time, and many were disappointed when the one year anniversary of the passage of HR 810 in the House of Representatives (on May 24th) came and went without any progress in the Senate. The media coverage of this event has mostly been unexceptional, not particularly good or bad, although probably overly optimistic considering the…
Yesterday, the AP released a story describing the general approval within the scientific community of the science behind Al Gore's new documentary An Inconvenient Truth The AP contacted more than 100 top climate researchers by e-mail and phone for their opinion. Among those contacted were vocal skeptics of climate change theory. Most scientists had not seen the movie, which is in limited release, or read the book. But those who have seen it had the same general impression: Gore conveyed the science correctly; the world is getting hotter and it is a manmade catastrophe-in-the-making caused by…
On Sunday, I wrote about the Miller Amendment to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Act, an amendment that would put into law some of the most comprehensive protections against political interference to date. I noted that the amendment had been stalled by the Republican leadership but should be voted on sometime soon. Well, Michael Stebbins of Sex Drugs & DNA reports this evening that the amendment came up for a vote in the House Science Committee today and was solidly voted down by the Republican majority. In fact, while all Democrats voted for it, all Republicans…
I bring of the subject of political interference in science so much that I'm starting to sound like a broken record. By this point, it's pretty much a topic that needs no introduction around here, so we'll just dive right in. In the ongoing struggle against political interference Michael Stebbins of Sex Drugs & DNA reports that Representative Brad Miller (D-NC) has introduced a scientific integrity amendment to HR 5450, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Act, which is currently under consideration in the house. HR 5450 was introduced on May 22nd by Vernon Ehlers (R-MI…