Bush, Brownback and why blogs are so valuable

One of my favorite blogs is TheCarpetbaggerReport.com. It's a good source for real news analysis, and it happens to be run by a friend. There are two posts on the site tonight that I would like to encourage everyone to read.

The first is The Carpetbagger Report's take on the coverage by mainstream media of George W. Bush's use of the "s-word." As The Carpetbagger Report suggests, the mainstream media has completely missed the point.

Right now, the lead political AP item is, "Bush utters expletive on Hezbollah attacks." The top headline on CNN is, "Open mic catches Bush expletive on Mideast." The Washington Post's story mentions in its second sentence that a live microphone caught Bush "talking in tough, occasionally profane terms."

I can appreciate that it's interesting -- or at a minimum, unusual -- to hear the president use the "s-word" during a private chat with Tony Blair, but like Ezra, I think the media's preoccupation with Bush's potty mouth is rather silly.

As Carpetbagger points out, what we should be hearing from mainstream media is:

Bush's unplugged moment today included some of the most surprisingly newsworthy remarks from the president in a very long time. We got a glimpse into how the British Prime Minister is pressing Bush on the Middle East. We heard a little about how the president would like to see the crisis resolved. We learned that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice might be traveling to the region, presumably to apply diplomatic pressure and invest the U.S. in the crisis.

And for fun Carpetbagger included:

And for those interested in Bush's persona, we learned that Bush is perhaps even more unsophisticated and clumsy in private than his fiercest critics had feared.

The media entry is followed by a report about how Sen. Sam Brownback has stooped to a new low in trying to frighten people into believing embryonic stem cells "form tumors."

I can appreciate the fact that the science behind stem-cell research is extremely complicated for those of us without a scientific background. But I feel pretty confident in saying that one need not be a medical researcher to know the difference between a legitimate argument and a blatant scare tactic.

Carpetbagger closes by saying:

Now, I'm not a scientist and Brownback isn't a scientist. And if Brownback wants to argue that an embryo is a full-fledged human with the same rights as you and I, and that in-vitro fertilization is a moral wrong that should be banned, he's free to make that case. There's a certain logical consistency to it, even if I believe it's completely wrong.

But to believe Brownback is to believe that the world's finest scientists and medical researchers want to give people tumors. If this is the best Brownback can come up with, it's no wonder the far-right is losing this debate

The strange tie that binds these two stories together is word that should the Senate vote to allow embryonic stem cell research, Bush has threatened a presidential veto of the bill. What a sad commentary it will be if Bush uses his first veto to prevent scientific research that could vastly improve or save lives.