Progressive Update--01/20/2006

DC Road Trip—Local activist and doctor Philip Pollner is helping to organize a bus trip TOMORROW to DC to talk with two US Representatives. They plan to meet with Rep. Castle in a last attempt to convince him of the necessity to vote against the budget cuts on Wednesday. They also plan to meet with Rep. Conyers to support his legislation for universal health insurance and new legislation for an affordable Medicare prescription plan for seniors. If you wish additional information on this please call Dr. Pollner ASAP at the following numbers: [removed for privacy reasons, contact me directly if you need it].

AfterShock Showing—The documentary AfterShock (www.aftershockthemovie.com ) will be shown on Sunday at noon at the Newark Unitarian church (www.uufn.org ). It covers the protests that accompanied W’s 2^nd inauguration 12 months ago. Please join us.

State of the DisUnion—The only way I can watch W speak is with kindred spirits (or with a barf bag). Consider hosting or attending a ‘Watch Party’ tomorrow night to watch the State of the Union speech with other progressives. Go to http://www.dnc.org/a/2006/01/watching_the_st.php to sign up.

Stem Cell Research—(Prepare for Paul’s ranting)—This month the Delaware House of Representatives showed that they have no backbone. Senate Bill 80 was the most reasonable and ethical bill you could imagine, carefully setting out guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research, to ensure that Delaware could be one of the leaders in this promising medical fields, with potential to find cures for such awful illnesses as Parkinson’s, and Multiple Sclerosis. The guidelines forbid embryos from being sold, and requires that only those embryos developed in fertility clinics, which would otherwise be destroyed could be used. Makes sense, right? It passed the Delaware Senate in June 14 to 7. Enter a lobbying group called a Rose and a Prayer which distributed roses to our Representatives, who apparently felt that it would be bad PR to vote in favor of a bill that helps our children and grandchildren. Clearly the Hare Krishnas missed out passing flowers to passengers at airports—to change minds they should have passed out roses in Dover! The House Amendment 2 to Senate Bill 80 was approved 38 to 0, and so Democrats were as guilty as Republicans of caving to the lobbyists’ intimidation.

If you are as fed up as I, let your Representative know that they must represent Delaware better than their abysmal behavior this month if they would like to get your vote this fall. I believe that there is an opportunity when the House and Senate work on a compromise bill for the Representatives to step up and do the right thing here, and support ethical medical research to help cure diseases, and ensure that Delaware does not lose jobs in this industry to neighboring states New Jersey and Maryland who have approved such ethical standards.

Delaware Democrats—To keep up on news with the Delaware Democratic Party, including how they plan to gain six House seats (and the majority) in this November’s election, go to www.deldems.org regularly. By the way, they are now asking committee members to share what it means to be a Delaware Democrat. My first answer is to put ethical science, and our grandchildren’s future ahead of roses.

Delaware Progressives—Joe Rupert has a new website with a strongly progressive and national focus. You can find it at http://home.comcast.net/~jlarupert/ .

Progressive Democrats of Delaware—Their site is http://www.progressivedemsdel.com/ . They host monthly meetings, and also put candidates through an endorsement process to identify which Democrats are progressive (no DINOs for us, Democrats In Name Only).

Progressive Line—Ernie Lehman has a wonderful site at http://www.theprogressiveline.com/.

Blog—All of my postings are at paulprogressive.blogspot.com I will get this posted sometime this week.