In a sad display of political posturing, Governor Jennifer Granholm is using the web site of Michigan's government to promote her political agenda, take a cheap shot at President Bush and Republicans in general, and encourage visitors to lobby government officials on behalf of intentionally deceptive bills which would legalize human cloning for research and killing human embryos for research.
Visitors to Michigan.gov's homepage are greeted with a call to "Speak Out in Support of Stem Cell Research!" We are then told that President Bush "used his first-ever veto to stop the discovery of new treatments and cures for injuries and diseases including juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's and spinal cord injuries."
Besides being misled down the path of false hope unencumbered by reality, uniformed readers would have no clue that Bush's veto stopped the expansion of federal funding on new embryonic stem cell lines. They would also be unaware that the legislation Granholm is lobbying on behalf of (visitors are encouraged to sign an online petition to the Republican leaders of the Michigan House and Senate) would make it legal to clone and kill human embryos for research purposes.
The online petition also leaves me wondering where the names and addresses end up. Granholm's political mailing list perhaps?
This type of political propaganda belongs on the governor's re-election campaign web site not on a web site owned by and designed for the people of Michigan. Using the state's web site for political gain and lobbying purposes is downright slimy.
Thanks so much for posting this. I've already complained to the governor about this.
The worst thing about this killed-embryo stem cell research is that it wastes money that could be used to find cures that could be used by everybody regardless of religion.
I have a real fear of getting Parkinson's like my father had, and then finding out they have a cure--- but it's based on killed-embryo stem cells so I could never use it. (And since they already have a cure, why bother find one that them darn conservatives could use?)