his proposed statute reads, “No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.”

There are two ways to go with this and I can’t decide between them, so I’ll do both:

• Damn, there goes my business plan.
• So, it’s ok to sell food made out of people?

A bit more seriously, here’s what this is about:

These accusations began with an action alert issued by Largo, Florida-based Children of God for Life, a nonprofit, pro-life organization focused on the “bioethical issues of human cloning, embryonic, and fetal tissue research.” In the alert, Debi Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God, calls for the public to “boycott products of major food companies that are partnering with Senomyx, a biotech company that produces artificial flavor enhancers, unless the company stops using aborted fetal cell lines to test their products.”

…

Though Rosenberg states there is nothing on the company website linking Senomyx with HEK293, a little Googling turned up a patent issued in 2008 for “Recombinant Methods for Expressing a Functional Sweet Taste Receptor,” in which a line item mentions HEK293.

So what exactly is HEK293? It’s a cell line that started in the 1970s from human embryonic kidney cells.

Here’s the Wikipedia entry:

HEK 293 cells were generated in the early 70s by transformation of cultures of normal human embryonic kidney cells with sheared adenovirus 5 DNA in Alex Van der Eb’s laboratory in Leiden, The Netherlands. The human embryonic kidney cells were obtained from a healthy aborted fetus and originally cultured by Van der Eb himself, and the transformation by adenovirus was performed by Frank Graham who published his findings in the late 1970s after he left Leiden for McMaster University in Canada.

The patent actually doesn’t say that this cell line was used in the process, just that the patent applies if they are used. Thus, the reason for the freakout is that a company might be using cell lines in research that are descended from a fetus that was aborted 40 years ago.

Update: The patent actually does say it’s preferable to use HEK 239 cells, so the outrage is completely justified.

The Justice Department on Monday charged a former Central Intelligence Agency officer with disclosing classified information to journalists about the capture and brutal interrogation of a suspected member of Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah — adding another chapter to the Obama administration’s crackdown on leaks.

In some sense, it’s hard to feel bad for this guy since he was one of the advocates of torture. The reason I care is the same prosecution would have occured if the guy had leaked the information to show the government was doing something illegal. What makes this irritating is the fact that the Obama administration has not gone after any of the people who actually tortured or allowed torture. Glenn Greenwald notes the problem here. John Cole comments here.

Almost half of voters said the most important trait they sought in a candidate was the ability to beat Obama in November. And even though Romney argues that he is the most electable Republican, those voters also favored Gingrich.

That’s a stunning thought. This is the man who made partisan rhetoric so divisive, coming up with words to use about opponents such as anti-family, corrupt, destructive, greed, intolerant, and traitors. This is the man who helped shut down the government partially because he felt snubbed by President Clinton. This is the man who helped lead the impeachment against Clinton for his actions with Monica Lewinsky … while he was having an affair that ended his second marriage. And he left the Speakership in disgrace with these lovely words:

I’m willing to lead but I’m not willing to preside over people who are cannibals. My only fear would be that if I tried to stay, it would just overshadow whoever my successor is. Frankly, Marianne and I could use a break.

He said this at the end of 1998, he divorced Marianne in 2000.

Oh yeah, Newt also thinks we should get rid of child labor laws because children of the poor don’t have a work ethic. And that the war against drugs should be made harsher:

Here are Newt Gingrich’s nuanced, compassionate drug policy ideas: Constant drug testing for everyone (especially poor people) and stiff “economic penalties” for use. (Yes, obviously, what poor people need are more ways to incur economic penalties and more barriers to either aid or employment. Newt Gingrich has so many IDEAS.) Also, the U.S. should be more like Singapore, where people carrying enough drugs to qualify for “trafficking” charges are put to death.

Yeah, Democrats would be very worried if he was the candidate.

US Senator Scott Brown kicked off his reelection bid tonight with a call to send him back to Washington so that he can fight both “the machine” in Massachusetts and the partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill.

“At times, I’ve been the 41st vote to stop a bad idea, other times I’ve been proud to be the 60th vote to pass a good idea and move our country forward,” Brown told a full crowd of supporters at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, the site of a rousing rally two years ago, just days before he surprised the nation by winning the special election.

One of the reasons for the partisan gridlock is the routine use of the filibuster and here’s Scott Brown talking as if it’s just the way things are. Given that his main issue in his first run for the Senate was to filibuster against national healthcare, I guess that’s to be expected.

• It is in this area (politics) of American life that labor and the Negro have identical interests. Labor has grave problems today of employment, shorter hours, old age security, housing and retraining against the impact of automation. The Congress and the Administration are almost as indifferent to labor’s program as they are toward that of the Negro. Toward both they offer vastly less than adequate remedies for the problems which are a torment to us day after day.
• Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
• Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.
• A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
• Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.
• It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.
• I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even the enemy.
• And one day we must ask the question, “Why are there forty million poor people in America?” And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy.
• There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.
• In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as ‘right-to-work.’ It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining… We demand this fraud be stopped.

The government of Myanmar signed a cease-fire agreement on Thursday with ethnic Karen rebels, whose fight for greater autonomy is one of the largest of the brutal civil wars that has bedeviled the country since it gained independence from Britain more than six decades ago.

…

Since its installation in March, ending nearly 50 years of military rule, the government has held talks with the political opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, approved the registration of her political party and her candidacy in a by-election in April, and suspended plans for a huge Chinese-backed dam that drew strong opposition both from within and outside Myanmar, formerly Burma.

…

Now the government says it is negotiating peace pacts with the other major ethnic rebel groups — the Chin, the Mon, the Kachin and the Kayah — and is determined to achieve a permanent peace with them in three to four years.

…

In another move, Myanmar state radio and television said 651 prisoners would be released under a new presidential pardon starting Friday, according to The Associated Press, raising hopes that those freed would be political prisoners. In the past two weeks, The A.P. said, the government gave amnesty to 6,656 prisoners and reduced the sentences of 38,964.

These actions have led the US to start restoring full diplomatic relations. Even a year ago these actions would have been impossible and now they’re happening. Hopefully it will continue.

If you look at the second slide, you see how things have changed–economic gains were distributed fairly evenly from 1947-1979, while most of the gains have gone to the rich since then.

Mitt Romney, I’m sure,  is upset at this talk:

QUESTIONER: Did you suggest that anyone who questions the policies and practices of Wall Street and financial institutions, anyone who has questions about the distribution of wealth and power in this country, is envious? Is it about jealousy, or fairness?

ROMNEY: You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare. When you have a president encouraging the idea of dividing America based on 99 percent versus one percent, and those people who have been most successful will be in the one percent, you have opened up a wave of approach in this country which is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under God.

QUESTIONER: Are there no fair questions about the distribution of wealth without it being seen as envy, though?

ROMNEY: I think it’s fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms and discussions about tax policy and the like. But the president has made it part of his campaign rally. Everywhere he goes we hear him talking about millionaires and billionaires and executives and Wall Street. It’s a very envy-oriented, attack-oriented approach and I think it will fail.

You see the usual Republican idea: talking about helping the rich is the proper order of things, talking about helping the rest of us is ‘class warfare’. It’s unfair if we try to blame the rich for the recession, even though (really, especially because) it was their fault (Republicans like to call the rich ‘job creator’s', but they are also job destroyers–pretty much all recessions are caused by the rich).

In 1912, Lawrence was a land of haves and have-nots. Immigrants worked 12-hour days in hot, dusty, dangerous textile mills, spending their $6-to-$8-a-week salaries to buy bread and beans and rent disease-ridden tenements from mill owners, who were raking in profits as the wool business boomed in Massachusetts.

But when the state reduced the workweek from 56 to 54 hours, and mill owners responded by speeding up machines and cutting pay accordingly, some 25,000 workers walked off the job on Jan 12.

This should tell you that things don’t really change: when legislation is passed to restrain corporate greed, the corporation will respond to circumvent the intent unless they’re pushed. The same thing happened last year after legislation was passed to make bank fees more transparent and when some fees were restricted–banks tried to raise other fees to keep their profits sky-high.  

And things are starting to look very much like the early twentieth century in some ways. Extreme poverty is coming back:

More than 57,000 Illinois children were homeless in 2010, up from 30,636 in 2006, according to a December report from The National Center on Family Homelessness.

Nationally, 1.6 million U.S. children lived in homeless shelters, motels, with relatives or other families or living on the street in 2010 — a 38 percent increase since 2007, according to the center.

and it is now helps politically to campaign against the poor and disadvantaged:

Pennsylvania plans to make the amount of food stamps that people receive contingent on the assets they possess – an unexpected move that bucks national trends and places the commonwealth among a minority of states.

Specifically, the Department of Public Welfare said that as of May 1, people under 60 with more than $2,000 in savings and other assets would no longer be eligible for food stamps. For people over 60, the limit would be $3,250.

Houses and retirement benefits would be exempt from being counted as assets. If a person owns a car, that vehicle also would also be exempt, but any additional vehicle worth more than $4,650 would be considered a countable asset.

Notice that this is a purely punitive move, since it makes it less likely that people will be able to get out of poverty–you need to save money to better yourself. As this article notes, this is a fairly widespread phenomenon.

Ron Paul, who thinks that free markets police themselves, and Newt Gingrich, who likes child labor, should be specifically asked about what they think about the strike.

and then there’s this:

The Romney plan would reduce federal tax revenues substantially. TPC estimates that on a static basis, the Romney plan would lower federal tax liability by $600 billion in calendar year 2015 compared with current law, roughly a 16 percent cut in total projected revenue. Relative to a current policy baseline, the reduction in liability would be roughly $180 billion in calendar year 2015.

which means he would have to make large cuts if he wants to balance the budget–yeah, I know, Republicans aren’t really serious about that.

Under the terms of the bill, which was sponsored by state Rep. J.R. Hoell (R-Dunbarton), a parent could object to any curriculum or course material in the classroom. The parent and school district would then determine a new curriculum or texts for the child to meet any state educational requirements for the subject matter. The parent would be responsible for paying the cost of developing the new curriculum. The bill also allows for the parent’s name and reason for objection to be sealed by the state.

Hoell stressed the new law could allow parents to address both moral and academic objections to parts of the curriculum. The lawmaker said he could imagine the provision being utilized by parents who disagree with the “whole language” approach to reading education or the Everyday Math program.

“What if a school chooses to use whole language and the parent likes phonics, which is a better long-term way to teach kids to read?” Hoell said to HuffPost.

I’d be curious to see what happens if some parents object to a ”whole language” approach and others object to phonics–would they not teach reading at all?

On the other hand, they think there’s too much democracy in elections (Kingsbury says he is a libertarian–I thought that meant he would want less government, but not when it might go against his wishes I guess):

The lawmakers have introduced a bill calling for state legislative caucuses to select candidates for the Senate primaries, ending an almost century-old practice of Granite State residents filing to run in Senate races. State legislatures elected senators until the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913.

“This is original intent,” said state Rep. Bob Kingsbury (R-Laconia), the bill’s lead sponsor.

Kingsbury said the bill would align the state with the original intent of the Constitution by letting the legislature play a role in the selection of Senate candidates. He stressed that the bill would be in the same spirit as the 17th Amendment because it would leave the final say up to the voters.

The original intent of the Constitution was to allow slavery and not allow women to vote, will Kingsbury push to get rid of those amendments next?

They also think that separation of powers is for the birds:

A group of Republican lawmakers in New Hampshire have recently proposed state constitutional amendments that have the goal of overhauling aspects of the court system. The bills would give the state legislature the power to dissolve the state’s Supreme Court and Superior Court and raise the minimum age to be a state judge to 60. Proponents said these proposals would allow for a check on the courts and for more experienced judges in office.

New Hampshire used to be the old-fashioned conservatives (as in, don’t change things)–obviously they felt left out from all the craziness that’s taken over the Republican party.