I have to write this for Jenifer...

I just had my camel and straw moment with that unbearable piece of shit that 28% of the country are still ignorant enough to call commander-in-chief. I. Have. Had. It. The clock in my living room says there are 579 days, 46 minutes til this ass-sucking administration hits the road.

Today Bush vetoed the Stem Cell Research bill - for the second time. He said fuck you to 77% of the country. He said fuck you, I hope you die to nearly 100 million Americans who suffer from diseases the NIH admitted (in private, of course) could potentially be treated if embryonic stem cell research was given the thorough support and oversight and resources that come with federal funding.

I have had the honor to work with some of the world's greatest scientists in the fields of neurology and cellular science - dedicated, distinguished men and women from the finest research institutions on the planet. My best friend Jenifer Estess was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in 1997. Jenifer and her sisters and I founded Project A.L.S. later that year. Project A.L.S. was responsible for the first-ever embryonic stem cell collaboration with the neurological community. We were witness when two brilliant doctors - one from Johns Hopkins, one from Harvard - bounded in the room to declare with glee that the stem cells had successfully passed the blood-brain barrier in mice. Project A.L.S. fully funded that work - the best one million dollar investment ever. One of those doctors, only 2 years earlier, told my friend that her cells were dying, her motor neurons, and they could never be replaced. She would die in two to five years. My friend Jenifer asked hard, thoughtful, yet practical questions - among them "if we can transplant livers and hearts, why can't we transplant motor neurons?". The doctor, "a giant in his field" we had been told repeatedly, said with a dismissive sneer "Cellular transplants? That's science fiction!" Two years later Jenifer's sister read an article in Science magazine, and a few weeks later the largest and most comprehensive international stem cell collaboration was born.

I write this with 100% conviction - the greatest minds, the most respected scientists in the world, are on the threshold of treatments, and dare I say cures - for the most complex diseases, and embryonic stem cell research is at the core. ALS, Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's - the disorders that have plagued mankind and made the brain the final frontier in reseach - we can and will soon treat them. One day in our lifetime, they will be cured.

BUT WHAT ABOUT TOMORROW? Yes, our next president will most likely reverse this course, but every day people are suffering. And dying. Needlessly. It makes me sick to my stomach to watch the continued destruction in this psycopath's wake. This motherfucker flew across the country in the middle of the night so he could 'save' a woman who was braindead. He and all his Christian buddies with their fucking meaningless faith and their shallow, empty moral character, wrote a law to save one life. One life completely devoid of humanity. And today he struck down a law to save millions. George Bush is a murderer. In a court of law the charge would be one million counts of criminally negligent homicide. He's responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans in uniform, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and hundreds of thousands of Americans like Jenifer who died when they might have lived.

When Jenifer testified before Congress for the second time in 2002, she was completely paralyzed and her respiratory function was severly impaired. She had to breathe with the help of a bi-pap (a non-invasive ventilator). She took her time, she measured each breath, and she gave the most dignified, passionate, exquisite speech I've ever witnessed. I owe it to Jenifer to keep shouting from the rooftops that these bastards have responsibilities to we, the people. Jenifer was the people. She fought harder than anyone should ever have to fight. She gave her life, for her country. When she ended her testimony that September afternoon in 2002, she closed with a simple statement: "I, too, have the right to life. And to liberty. And to the pursuit of happiness".

There was a time when those words had meaning.