George Bush vetoed legislation yesterday that would have eased restrictions for federal funding of stem cell research, stating that it is a “moral line" he will "not cross”.

A moral line Bush is unwilling to cross.

Let’s then consider what “moral lines” Bush is apparently willing to cross (this is the short list):

• He has no problem lying to the American people (and the world) about the reasons for invading Iraq and to shift those reasons as each one previous exposes itself as illegitimate
• He feels justified in lying to the American people about illegal wiretaps and surveillance on Americans
• He allows his administration to expose a covert CIA officer only because her husband calls him on his disingenuous assertion that Iraq had obtained nuclear “yellow cake” from Africa. And simply ignores his own previous claim that the people responsible (Dick Cheney) will not work in his administration
• He sees fit to appoint lackey supporters to key administration posts instead of competent administrators, helping exacerbate the criminally incompetent response to hurricane Katrina
• He feels justified in invoking fear, through repeated use of the words “nine-eleven”, to cling to power, harass his opponents, and excuse ill-advised policies
• He is comfortable with abusing and violating the constitution as he sees fit, causing many to fear a dangerous slide into a “monarchial presidency” 
• He is willing to use torture as a means of interrogation
• He has no problem backing out of his own commitment to the Kyoto protocol and to do it in a way that then EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman describes as “flipping the bird to the rest of the world”. A posture he holds throughout his presidency, causing a former administrator to suggest that, according to Bush, America’s job is to do what it will, and the job of the rest of the world is to “deal with it”
• He has allowed, through deceit, incompetence, arrogance, and disdain for decency, the death of thousands of Americans and tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Iraquis in a colossally foolish, mistaken, mismanaged, and immoral war
• He has allowed war and disaster profiteering from companies such as Halliburton, looting the American taxpayer for 10 billion dollars (money that is simply “missing”)
• He proffered claims that the war in Iraq would only cost $50 billion – current estimates of the cost of the war in Iraq now stand at $1.2 trillion. That’s 1,200,000,000,000.00 (check me on that, I don’t often use such numbers – do I have enough zeros?)
• He claims a unique relationship with God, as if he has been specially chosen by the Almighty to lead the country down the abysmal path of his presidency. If this is true, God must hate us
• He claims he is “for life” in vetoing funding of stem cell research, something that would help ease human suffering and disease. And yet Mr. Bush shows no compunction crossing moral line after moral line; opportunities lost, resources squandered, families torn apart, and thousands of lives ruined. All as a direct result of his arrogance, his intransigence, and his incompetence – in other words, his presidency.

If this is moral leadership, then:

_______________________________________________________________________________________