Number of embryos that have been “adopted” out of 400,000 that are stored in fertility clinics, according to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA). President Bush vetoed a bill last week that would have expanded federal funding for stem cell research using embryos that would otherwise be discarded. (HT: Atrios)
Bolton: My Support ‘Would Probably Be The Kiss of Death’ For Next U.N. Head
The White House released a fact sheet yesterday entitled, “Setting the Record Straight: President Bush’s Foreign Policy Is Succeeding.” The sheet declares not once but four times that the administration “is rallying the world behind its policy,” and claims that “a consensus is building behind the President’s foreign policy approach.”
Actually, U.S. standing in the world has plummeted under the Bush administration, as John Bolton tacitly admitted yesterday. Asked who he would choose as Kofi Annan’s successor at the United Nations, Bolton acknowledged, “If I told you who I thought we thought the best candidate would be, it would probably be the kiss of death for that person.” Watch it:
As Jeffrey Laurenti writes in a new piece for Mother Jones:
It is fair to say that no one has done more to isolate the United States in world councils than Mr. Bolton, who has virtually alone opposed, time and again, the path-breaking reform initiatives that have passed the U.N. since he arrived.
Full transcript: Read more
NASA quietly had its mission statement changed
last February by the White House, who deleted the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet.” NASA scientists were surprised to learn of the change. “Without it, these scientists say, there will be far less incentive to pursue projects to improve understanding of terrestrial problems like climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.”
