Poking Around in the Attic

....that's what coming back to this blog after all this time feels like. When I first began it, I had such high hopes. All incipient bloggers do. Everyone yearns to be the next Atrios or TPM or even, depending on your political bent, then next Instapundit. But most blogs end up with only a few posts before the proprietor realizes how much work it actually is and gives up.

(Mind you, it's only hard work if you try and write reasoned, well argued posts with a dash of humor and appropriate artwork. Simple political ranting with numerous mentions of Hitler, Marx or Stalin require much less brainpower and energy, as does WRITING IN ALL CAPS!!!!!!!)

Mine lasted a bit longer than most.

Most of the hits, though, were friends visiting, or people looking for a good recipe for home-made Bailey's Irish Cream. I'd get the occasional person who found the blog by chance and commented (which often made my day), and even got linked to on two other blogs. But it was a lot of work for very little recognition.... Still, for quite some time, I toiled on.

I must confess that I got distracted this year. Aging parents with medical problems take a toll on one's time, as does trying to make a living and keep up with commitments (in my case, charity work).

And keeping current with the news, which changes ever so fast during an election year, is work. I could have blogged about the election, but I didn't really have a horse in the race.

It's not that I didn't care who was elected.

I cared deeply.

It's just that I'm a lefty, with strong opinions on single payer, civil liberties and the war, and the candidates who most strongly agreed with me dropped out early in the primary season. I liked both Hillary and Obama, but both are fairly centrist, and I didn't much care which one won. I was voting Democratic one way or another.

Don't get me wrong. I like Obama. And I hope he can unite this country and do wonderful things. It's just that my generation has a long history of being disappointed by politicians (more so if you follow Ukrainian politics), and we don't like to get our hopes up. It hurts too much when they're dashed to smithereens.

I worked to get him elected. I proselytized via e-mail and in person, did GOTV work and canvassing. I passed out lawn signs and bumper stickers in my neighborhood. And I even worked in Precinct 9 of West Bloomfield as an election inspector (poll worker) from 6 AM to 10 PM on election day to help keep the vote honest.

I was at our local Obama headquarters on election night after the polls had closed. The excitement there was enough to give anyone a contact high. We watched one state after another turn blue. I knew we had won when Pennsylvania was called for Obama. But there was still nothing like the thrill of hearing it announced at 11 PM, of seeing John McCain concede (graciously, for a change) and of watching a million people in Chicago greet their new president. It brought tears to my eyes and hope to my jaded heart.......



So I may tidy up here a bit and start adding some new posts, now that things are quieting down. My father is recovering well from his third open heart surgery (valve replacement at the age of 82--he's one tough patient!), the world has been righted a bit, and we've stepped away from the edge of the political abyss. I'm starting to feel as though I can stop and take a breath at last.

Vote the Environment

Secret Terrorist Plot

Oddly enough, I suspect many right wingnuts really do believe much of this....including the McCain part. And I find it just a bit disconcerting that the next president of the United States may end up being younger that my kid brother! Still, better than having one who's older than dirt......and keeps [promising us more and better wars (remember "Bomb Iran"?)

((Note: Click on the cartoon to make it big enough to read)

Best Campaign Ad....Ever

Well, maybe after the "Daisy" ad in 1964:



And Gravel's other ad:

Penguins in the News!

In birding, we sometimes describe cormorants as looking like "flying penguins." I guess we'll have to find a new descriptor after this!

Pointillism

Pointillism is a style of painting in which small distinct points of primary colors create the impression of a wide selection of secondary and intermediate colors. One of the best known proponents of this style was Seurat.

Why do I bring this up? Fuzz and I spent a morning doing the aunt-niece bonding thing at the Detroit Institute of Arts. It was their first time of us had been there since the massive renovation and reorganization had been completed. We had a lovely time wandering the galleries and discovering interesting things while trying to locate other things.

Like many of us, fuzz had studied pointillism in school. Art teachers, having a bit of a masochistic streak, enjoy assigning the creation of a pointillist painting o their student–hours and hours of making small colored dots on a large piece of paper. I hated it. But I do like Seurat's paintings, and located one for Fuzz.

And I snapped this photo of in front of the painting:

(Click on photo to enlarge and appreciate)

Since it was dark in the galleries, and since flash photography is not allowed, I at an ISO 0f 1600, resulting in a very grainy photo. And, oddly enough, it ended up looking like a pointillist photo of a pointillist painting.

Regrets, I've had a few

(Click on cartoon to enlarge.)

....but then again, too few to really mention.

Apparently, Being a NeoCon means never having to say you're sorry.

4000

The odometer of death took another major turn today, as the US recorded the 4000th fatality in Iraq. 4000.

Remember "they will greet us as liberators"? Or "it will take a few weeks, or perhaps a month"? Or the risk to the USA, the WMDs and potential mushroom clouds?

That was five years ago. We still haven't located those WMDs, and we're still over there.

Those who initiated the war have no regrets. Bush thinks it was a grand adventure. Cheney (he of the five draft deferments) points out that all the servicemen who died were volunteers. Mind you, many joined up to fight those who attacked us on 9-11, but got sent to Iraq instead. From and interview with ABC news:

"I want to start with the milestone today of 4,000 dead in Iraq. Americans. And just what effect do you think it has on the country?" asked ABC News' White House correspondent, Martha Raddatz, who traveled with the vice president on a nine-day overseas trip to Iraq and other countries in the Middle East.

"It obviously brings home I think for a lot of people the cost that's involved in the global war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan," Cheney said in the interview, conducted in Turkey. "It places a special burden obviously on the families, and we recognize, I think it's a reminder of the extent to which we are blessed with families who've sacrificed as they have."

"The president carries the biggest burden, obviously," Cheney said. "He's the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm's way for the rest of us."

Raddatz noted that some soldiers, Air Force members, and Marines have been on multiple deployments and have been sent back to Iraq because of the stop-loss policy, and involuntary extension of a service member's enlistment contract. The Army alone says 58,000 US soldiers have been redeployed to war because of the stop-loss policy.

"When you talk about an all-volunteer force, some of these soldiers, airmen, Marines have been on two, three, four, some of them more than that, deployments," Raddatz said. "Do you think when they volunteered they had any idea that there would be so many deployments or stop-loss? Some of those who want to get out can't because of stop-loss?"

"A lot of men and women sign up because sometimes they will see developments," Cheney said. "For example, 9/11 stimulated a lot of folks to volunteer for the military because they wanted to be involved in defending the country."

Notice that Cheney never answers the second question. But really, war is a glorious pursuit as long as you're not the one having ot do the fighting and the dying.

P.S. As for how many Iraqis have dies, no one in this administration seems to care about that. After all, they dies free, and that's what matters. We don't count the Iraqi dead, probably because we are afraid of what the numbers might be (over 1,000,000 according to some epidemiological estimates).

ADDENDUM: Blogwhoring is the process of leaving a link to your blog in the comments of another blog (in order to increase traffic to your own blog). It is generally considered poor nettiquette, but tolerated. And I don't mind it, unless the blog you are linking to DOES NOT ALLOW comments. In that case, fuggedaboutit. Goose, gander, sauce, etc.

Merry Easter

....and may all your Easters be white!

Some holiday confusion here in Michigan, as there is quite a bit of snow on the ground at the moment–more than we had at Christmas, actually. And, anyway, it's not really Easter for some of us–those of the ancient eastern rite won't be celebrating until April 27th, by which time, I can only assume, the snow will have melted.

Below is a shot of some of my snowflake pysanky, which seem appropriate today. I haven't made many "regular" pysanky yet this year, so these will have to do for now. Expect those photos in late April or early May. And, if you need an Easter fix of pysanky, you can always visit my website.

As always, click on the photo for a closer look!

Bunny Easter

Today is the day a huge rabbit brings chocolate eggs to children in countries with germanic heritage. Why?

Remnants of ancient fertility rituals?

Or perhaps.............atonement?

Peep Show

I will never be able to look at peeps the same way now......

5 Years

Isn't it Romantic?

New Mandry Video

A lovely song about the tragedy of Ukraine under Soviet domination - the many dead, both famous and not.

Tempis Fugit

It seems just yesterday I was writing the Thanksgiving post, and now it's February and Punxsutawney Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter. Or is it four? I'm never sure, but it's cold and gray here in Michigan, and chances are good that it will stay this way until sometime in April.

I'm leaving today for India, to spend a month in Vellore. I'll be working and visiting with friends, and enjoying my friend Jiji's wonderful cooking. I love southern Indian food. I will try to blog while I'm there–I've added a link to an India blog in my blogroll on the right. Check it from time to time.

Can't say I'll miss the campaign much–I'm getting tired of it already, and there's nine months to go. It's going to be a very long year.........

Turkey Day

Today is the day that we Americans celebrate the beginning of the long genocide of our original native population. We also give thanks to the applicable deity for what we have (for many, it's much less than last year and barely enough to get by). Mostly, we just eat a lot of turkey, watch football (some) and gather with family.

Happy Thanksgiving/Turkey Day!



And who can forget this perennial favorite:

(cartoon from this site)

Tooth Abcess

According the folks at the Dove Dental Center (from whose site I cribbed this text):

A dental abscess can cause pain in the face (usually from an upper tooth), or pain in the area of the lower jaw (mandible) - (usually from a lower tooth), due to a build up of pressure from an infection which is emanating from the pulp chamber of the tooth, causing pressure along tissue planes. The pain can be quite severe. You should seek advice from a dentist urgently to get the abscess drained. It may be possible to drain the pus through the tooth itself so the tooth can be saved (root canal treatment). If not, the tooth will need to be extracted to prevent the abscess from recurring.

There is nothing quite like the pain of a tooth abscess--it is constant, throbbing, and eventually involves the entire head. Sleep is impossible without serious narcotics (Vicodin is my palliative of choice). It is the worst pain I have ever experienced, not having gone through childbirth nor passed any kidney stones.

Luckily, although I don't have dental insurance, I do have money, so I could afford to get my tooth treated and avoid death. The pain is better, although not completely gone, but I still don't have much of an appetite and a do have a fold drainage in my mouth (from the opening left in my tooth). I am mid-root canal, awaiting subsidence of infection and inflammation in my tissues before the tooth can be closed up again.

My dentist had closed the tooth with a soft plug after initially draining it; this caused a second night of excruciating pain and heavy narcotic use before he pulled the plug out. I am now recovering, and hope to return to blogging and other normal activities soon.

Veterans' Day

Armistice Day was meant to commemorate the end of WWI, the war to end all wars. (That didn't work out, did it?) The war officially ended on the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

In the US, it has been transformed into an all-purpose "honor the veterans" affair. If only our government did more than pay them lip service this one day a year.

Back

I'm back...almost.  It's November, gray, cloudy and cold, and I'm working away at the dining room table.  I'm trying to finish up my NEJM CME (it was due November 1, but I've gotten an extension).  Once I finish, I hope to have more time to blog and do other things I enjoy.

It's been a busy few months.  I spent September and the first week of October in Ukraine.  I visited seven orphanages with our UCARE group, and two more on my own.  I visited family and friends, and stayed quite busy.  I saw many parts of Ukraine that I'd never had a chance to visit before (Transcarpathia, Chernihiv).  When I got home, I found that I had a heavy work schedule--52 hours a week--and managed to catch some unpleasant virus at work.  I ended up spending my "free" time sniffling, sneezing and sleeping.  I'm only now beginning to feel better. 

And the were the funerals--two in the past three weeks.  Two close family friends passed away, so it's been a sad time all around.  

But things are finally looking up a bit.  I have more normal work hours beginning next week, so I can finish unpacking, get my teeth cleaned, and try to catch up on my photos and blogging.  And last weekend was Val's annual birdseed sale: I stocked up on thistle, suet and seed, and refilled my feeders, which have been empty since long before I left for Ukraine.  I wondered how long it would take the birds to find their way back.  It took only a few minutes. 

 

From my seat at the dining room table/desk, I can see a bevy of winter plumage goldfinches feeding away greedily at the thistle seed.

Nuthatches, chickadees, woodpeckers and others sneak in for a bit of suet.  The jays hog the feeder, scattering seed everywhere, and the titmice, sparrows, cardinals and juncos grab a bite when they're not around. My smart squirrel had once more figured out how to get into the feeder, so I had to adjust the baffle and move the feeder again, keeping it away from overhead lines and nearby branches.  So far, so good, but it's only a matter of time.  (I'm not cruel, but the ground is covered with thousands of acorns for her, and the seed is meant for the birds.)

Oh well, back to work.  I'm through April 12th, and have to get through the end of June as quickly as possible.....

Halloween

After splashing out on really good candy (Reese's cups, Kit-Kats, Almond Joy and Gummi body parts), I was disappointed to have only THREE trick-or-treaters come by my house. They told me I had the best stuff, but still....

My personal favorite, Gummi body parts. The eyes are the best.
They come in a coffin box!

I tried. I put the lights on, and I sat near the door just in case anyone came by. But I haven't been home for Halloween in so long that no one is used to stopping by. Most kids bypassed my street completely, as the houses were mostly dark, their occupants having departed for warmer climes.

Not that it was cold. Global warming has meant a very warm October, and the leaves on the trees have barely begun to turn, much less fall. I miss autumn--I don't think we're having one this year. We will segue from late summer to early winter without our usual wonderful autumnal interlude.

Gone Traveling

Click on map to enlarge

I'm off for a five week stay in Ukraine. I'm going to be busy–I have family to visit, and lots of work to do for UCARE. We will be interviewing our scholarship students, buying goods, and visiting nine different orphanages to distribute the goods.

I'll be back in October.

It's not what most people would consider a vacation.........

Recipe for Disaster

Inaction has its consequences. From Attytood:

WASHINGTON -- President Bush yesterday proposed deep cuts to federal health care, education, and transportation programs, searching for new money in the federal budget to pay for increasingly costly defense programs and the war in Iraq.
-- Boston Globe, Feb. 6, 2007.

WASHINGTON - The White House said Thursday that an inspection two years ago found structural deficiencies in the highway bridge that buckled during evening rush hour in Minneapolis.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the Interstate 35W span rated 50 on a scale of 120 for structural stability.

"This doesn't mean there was a risk of failure, but if an inspection report identifies deficiencies, the state is responsible for taking corrective actions," he said. The bridge was 40 years old.
-- AP, Aug. 2, 2007.

A 2005 federal study found that the bridge was "structurally deficient."

"A structurally deficient bridge might be one not adequate for the traffic it takes, but not necessarily dangerous," Burnett (former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board) said. "But a lot of structurally deficient bridges are dangerous."

Burnett said he believed it would be the state's responsibility to check on the bridge in light of those reports. But he conceded that there could be a federal role and an issue of whether fed standards are adequate.
-- Scripps News, Aug. 2, 2007.

Recipe for disaster: Find a problem. Ignore it (for over two years).

We were warned about New Orleans–we knew the levees wouldn't hold. But funding for their repair was cut, and the money diverted to Iraq.

We were warned about our bridges, and our crumbling infrastructure. But there is no money to pay for the repairs–it has all been diverted to Iraq, and to fund huge tax cuts for the richest of the rich.

Then again, what did you people expect, when you continue to vote for a party that doesn't believe in government, and is hell bent on PROVING that government doesn't work?

Five Down, Two To Go

A recent world-wide survey has come up with a list of the NEW Seven Wonders of the World. The old list of wonders was centered around the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and consisted of

Great Pyramid of Giza
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Temple of Artemis
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Mausoleum of Maussollos
Colossus of Rhodes
Lighthouse of Alexandria

Seven Wonders, as depicted by 16th-century Dutch artist Marten Heemskerk

Of the old wonders, only the pyramids of Giza still remain. I had a chance to see (and crawl through) them back in 1990.

A new list of wonders, spanning the globe, was announced 7-7-07. Of the new seven wonders, I have visited the five:

Great Wall of China


Machu Picchu, Peru


Chichen Itza, Mexico

Colosseum, Rome, Italy


Taj Mahal, India

This leaves two items on my to-do list:

Petra, Jordan


Christ the Redeemer (statue), Brazil

Summer Vacation

It's summer, and the livin' is NOT easy. I've got a lot going on. I'm helping write a (non-political) book, trying to organize my photos, preparing for my September UCARE trip to Ukraine, working in the yard, going out of town, updating my web site, trying to do my ABOG recertification, and hanging out with family.

Busy, busy, busy.

I'll still send the occasional e-mail, but will be taking it a bit easy blog-wise.

Read the blogs in my blogroll (right) to keep informed.

See you later!

'Nuff Said

Rebuild America First

Merle Haggard tells it like it is on this Fourth of July:

Bush the Merciful

I've been a wee bit upset with the commutation of traitor Libby's sentence by Dear Leader, and a mild upset of this sort often leads to incoherent ranting. I found a blog post on BeggarsCanBeChoosers that says it all so well:

Bush Wasn't Known For Mercy Before Libby Case

By MARC McDONALD
George W. Bush has shown us a side we never knew he had in extending mercy to former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Bush spared Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term, calling his sentence "excessive."

Perhaps Bush is following the advice of Jesus, who once said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." After all, Bush once declared that Jesus was his favorite philosopher.

Yeah, right.

The fact is, if you look at Bush's political career, you'll find a man who has never cared much for mercy. Indeed, you find a cold, callous person who never blinked as people were sentenced to harsh prison terms and given the death penalty under his watch.

Take the case of Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman to be executed in Texas since the Civil War. Serving as Texas governor at the time, Bush ignored an international outcry for granting clemency for Tucker, who'd become a born-again Christian while in prison (and who, the prison warden testified, had become a model prisoner who had been reformed). Bush ignored all pleas for mercy from everyone from Pope John Paul II to the United Nations to the World Council of Churches.

Indeed, according to an account by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, Bush showed shocking callousness in the case. Carlson described how, during an interview, Bush smirked and pursed his lips and said "Please don't kill me," as he mocked Tucker's pleas for clemency.

In fact, Bush was never a man known for mercy in death penalty cases. In his five years as governor, Texas executed 152 prisoners, by far the highest total for any state and more than any other governor in modern American history.

A number of commentators argued that Bush routinely failed to give serious consideration to clemency requests in death penalty cases. Among these critics was Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and leading advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.

As CommonDreams.org pointed out Bush presided over a death penalty cases that was noted for "notorious examples of unfairness," noting cases in which lawyers were under the influence of cocaine during the trial, drunk, or even asleep.

CommonDreams.org quotes a report by The Chicago Tribune on the 152 death cases that occurred in Texas while Bush was governor:

In one-third of those cases, the report showed, the lawyer who represented the death penalty defendant at trial or on appeal had been or was later disbarred or otherwise sanctioned. In 40 cases the lawyers presented no evidence at all or only one witness at the sentencing phase of the trial.

Of course, there's a big difference between the vast majority of defendants in these death penalty cases and Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Most of those executed in Texas were poor people from destitute backgrounds. Many were minorities.

By contrast, Libby is more like Bush himself: male, white, wealthy and from a prosperous, pampered, silver-spoon background.

See, if everyone were rich, white Republican and male, we COULD have equal justice for all!

Who Said It?

"I don't believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own, unless there are new facts or evidence of which a jury was unaware, or evidence that the trial was somehow unfair."

Answer: George W. Bush, while governor of Texas

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

What does the cartoon above tell us? That all reporters are Democrats and that the news has a well-known liberal bias*. Right?

Well, that's what it wants us to think. The data come from a recent study, but there was a bit of elision performed: what the study actually showed was that, of the less than one percent of journalists (143 out of 100,000+) who actually contributed money to political candidates, 87% of them contributed small sums to the Democrats.

Additionally, what is left unspoken is that the majority of OWNERS media outlets (newspapers, radio and television stations) contributed much larger sums of money to the Republicans.

Besides, who gets to decide what is shown on the TV or written in the newspaper–the hired hand (reporter) or the owner (via his editor)?

As A. J. Liebling said, "Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one. "

______________________________
*As Stephen Colbert once said, the FACTS have a well known-liberal bias, and that is why Fox has decided to go with a fact free format.

Popular Support

Last night, at the Giants' game, as the National Anthem, began some unidentified people unfurled a banner about 14 feet long and 5 feet high that simply said "IMPEACH." They were up in the walkway above the bleachers, so the majority of the fans could have seen it.

Within a minute, stadium people were on the scene and the banner was taken down.

Creationism

Now here's a version of the creation story I could believe:

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

State of the Nation

A recent CBS News poll shows that

Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with the Iraq war, President Bush and the Congress, as well as the overall direction of the country.

More Americans than ever before, 77 percent, say the war is going badly, up from 66 percent just two months ago. Nearly half, 47 percent, say it's going very badly.


While the springtime surge in U.S. troops to Iraq is now complete, more Americans than ever are calling for U.S. forces to withdraw. Sixty-six percent say the number of U.S. troops in Iraq should be decreased, including 40 percent who want all U.S. troops removed. That's a 7-point increase since April.


The poll has bad news for President Bush, too. His job approval rating slipped to 27 percent, his lowest number ever in a CBS news poll – 3 points less than last month,and 1 point below his previous low of 28 percent in January. His disapproval rating is also at an all-time high of 65 percent.

Vice President Dick Cheney received a similarly low rating, with 28 percent approval and 59 percent disapproval.


The poll found a record number of Americans, 75 percent, believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Only 19 percent think the U.S. is on the right track — the lowest number since CBS News first asked the question in 1983.

And so it goes. Americans have finally opened their eyes; htey must now take back the power and set this country back on the right track.

Thomas Jefferson said it best...

And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Especially tyrants.

Boston Liberty tree

King George

Click on cartoon to enlarge

Waterloo

...is not just a town in Belgium or Ontario. For Nixon, it was in Viet Nam. For George and his merry band of Neocons, it seems to be located a bit north of there.

Volunteers

When the President Talks to God

The General's Report

Sy Hersch strikes again in this week's New Yorker, with his profile of General Antonio Taguba, yet another member of our military who has had his career cut short by the Bush administration. Why? For reporting the truth about Abu Ghraib.

Taguba was sent to Iraq to do a job–investigate the abuses at Abu Ghraib. His mistake was believing that this administration wanted the truth; others (Lee Hamilton?) would have known that a whitewash was in order.

You can read his story here.

Sick Children

"Who in their right mind would send 363 TONS of cash into a war zone? But that's exactly what our government did."- Henry Waxman (D-CA)

Over 4 billion dollars were shipped to Iraq on pallets, and then, well, disappeared. No receipts were asked for, none given. Altogether, more than 8 billions dollars have just gone missing in Iraq. And that does not even begin toinclude the billions of dollars in overcharges, graft corruption and no-bid Halliburton rip-offs.

We have spent close to a trillion dollars in Iraq so far, with no end in sight. (Mind you, this is the war that the Neocons swore would pay for itself through oil revenue. I wonder what happened to all that oil money?) The last reauthorization bill was for 80 billion dollars.

Why is this salient? Bob Herbert writes in today's NYT:

You won’t see these stories on television, but Marian Wright Edelman and Dr. Irwin Redlener could talk to you all day and all night about children whose lives have been lost or ruined because they didn’t have health insurance.

This is not a situation one associates with a so-called advanced country. That you can have sick children wasting away in the United States, the wealthiest nation on the planet, because medical treatment that could relieve their suffering is withheld by men and women with dollar signs instead of compassion in their eyes is beyond unconscionable.

Ms. Edelman is the president of the Children’s Defense Fund, and Dr. Redlener is president of the Children’s Health Fund.

Both are appalled at the embarrassing fact that nine million American children have no health coverage at all. Among them are children with diabetes, chronic asthma, heart conditions, life-threatening allergies and so on. In many instances they are left untreated until it is too late.

Leaving children uninsured is a form of Russian roulette, Dr. Redlener said.

“All children should be covered,” said Ms. Edelman.

Congress and the president could do something about this right now. Of the nine million children without coverage, six million are already eligible for either Medicaid or the popular State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or S-chip, which covers children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private health insurance. The bulk of the funding for S-chip comes from the federal government.

S-chip, which had strong bipartisan support when it was established 10 years ago, is currently up for reauthorization in Congress. The program should be expanded as part of a broader effort to cover as many of the six million eligible-but-uninsured kids as possible.

Eligible children remain outside of S-chip and Medicaid for a variety of reasons, including the following: because there is insufficient funding to cover them; because families do not realize their children qualify for coverage; because red tape and complicated regulations discourage families from signing up.

A number of S-chip re-authorization proposals are being developed. The best-case scenario would be legislation — costing as much as $50 billion in additional funding over the next five years — that would cover millions of additional youngsters from poor and working-poor families. This would put the U.S. on the road toward universal coverage for children.

Ten billion dollars a year is considered a pittance when it comes to funding wars and tax cuts for the very wealthy. But it’s suddenly a lot of money when the subject is the health of American children.

One of the worst scenarios has been offered by President Bush in his White House budget proposal. That calls for just $4.8 billion in new funding for S-chip over the next five years. The result, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would be a net loss of coverage for 1.4 million children.

The old expression was “taking candy from a baby.” The White House is ready to take away vitally needed medicine.

Negotiations over the reauthorization of S-chip are under way. It will be interesting to see whether the Democrats who crowed so much about their newfound power when they took control of Congress will stand tall for the kids of the poor and working poor, and whether there are enough caring Republicans to resurrect the spirit of bipartisanship from a decade ago.

As the heat gets turned up on this issue, the White House appears to be falling into its old habit of creating its own reality.

The Congressional Budget Office and most researchers have agreed on the six million figure for the number of youngsters who are eligible for government-sponsored health coverage but remain unenrolled — roughly four million for Medicaid and two million for S-chip. This has not been controversial.

Yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services began circulating a study that tries to make the case that the total number of eligible but uninsured youngsters is a mere 794,000, an absurdly low figure.

If you can wave a magic wand and make five million poor kids disappear, you no longer have to think about caring for them.

Advocates like Dr. Redlener and Ms. Edelman don’t have that luxury.

“Kids who grow up with poor access to health care carry a high risk of having underdiagnosed and undertreated chronic illness, both physical and emotional,” said Dr. Redlener. “We know what to do. We should fully fund this effort at the $50 billion level and make coverage mandatory for all children.”

But Bush and the Neocons had to have their war and their tax cuts cuts for the rich, and now the children of America must pay the price.

Fathers' Day

Happy Birthday, Beth!

Memory Loss

The Washington Post reported that Alberto Gonzales used the phrase “I don’t recall” and its variants 64 times during a five-hour hearing in April, “treat[ing] the committee to a mixture of arrogance, combativeness and amnesia. Even his would-be defenders on the Republican side were appalled.”

Recent hearings with his aides have shown that such memory loss seems to be rampant in the Justice Department. Perhaps it's something in the water there?

Yet Another Terrorist Plot Foiled!

Another plot foiled, the headlines read. A group of home-grown Muslim terrorists had planned to put a bomb in the fuel lines at JFK airport and cause a huge explosion and massive loss of life.

Except they hadn't really planned it so much as talked about it.

And none of them had the necessary access.

And it wasn't even technically feasible.

But arrests were made, the media was notified, and the American public has been appropriately scared and lie quivering in their beds. Our brave Homeland Security team has saved us again!

And nothing will come of it, because there was no there there. The plot was as real as fantasy football, dreamed up by a governmetn informer, who then urged on a group of losers and malcontents to go along with him. And the FBI helped out with money and wires, and took credit for a save. As before, and will over and over agian. It's easier to create criminals than to actualy infiltrate al Qaeda and stop real ones.

Nora Ephron has a take on this, explaining "How to Foil a Terrorist Plot in Seven Simple Steps":

1. In order to foil a terrorist plot, you must first find a terrorist plot. This is not easy.

2. Not just anyone can find and then foil a terrorist plot. You must have an incentive. The best incentive is to be an accused felon, looking at a long prison term. Under such circumstances, your lawyer will explain to you, you may be able to reduce your sentence by acting as an informant in a criminal case, preferably one involving terrorists.

3. The fact that you do not know any actual terrorists should not in any way deter you. Necessity is the mother of invention: if you can find the right raw material -- a sad, sick, lonely, drunk, deranged, disgruntled or just plain anti-American Muslim somewhere in the United States -- you can make your very own terrorist.

4. Now the good part begins. Money! The FBI will give you lots of money to take your very own terrorist out to lots of dinners where you, wearing a wire, can record yourself making recommendations to him about possible targets and weapons that might be used in the impending terrorist attack that your very own terrorist is going to mastermind, with your help. It will even buy you a computer so you can go to Google Earth in order to show your very own terrorist a "top secret" aerial image of the target you have suggested.

5. More money!! The FBI will give you even more money to travel to foreign countries with your very own terrorist, and it will make suggestions about terrorist groups you can meet while in said foreign countries.

6. Months and even years will pass in this fashion, while you essentially get the FBI to pay for everything you do. (Incidentally, be sure your lawyer negotiates your expense account well in advance, or you may be forced -- as the informant was in the Buffalo terrorist case -- to protest your inadequate remuneration by setting yourself on fire in front of the White House.)

7. At a certain point, something will go wrong. You may have trouble recruiting other people to collaborate with your very own terrorist, who is, as you yourself know, just an ordinary guy in a really bad mood. Or, alternatively, the terrorist cell you have carefully cobbled together may malfunction and fail to move forward -- probably as a result of sheer incompetence or of simply not having been genuinely serious about the acts of terrorism you were urging it to commit. At this point, you may worry that the FBI is going to realize that there isn't much of a terrorist plot going on here at all, just a case of entrapment. Do not despair: the FBI is way ahead of you. The FBI knows perfectly well what's going on. The FBI has as much at stake as you do. So before it can be obvious to the world that there's no case, the FBI will arrest your very own terrorist, hold a press conference and announce that a huge terrorist plot has been foiled. It will of course be forced to admit that this plot did not proceed beyond the pre-planning stage, that no actual weapons or money were involved, and that the plot itself was "not technically feasible," but that will not stop the story from becoming a front-page episode all over America and, within hours, boilerplate for all the Republican politicians who believe that you need to arrest a "homegrown" terrorist now and then to justify the continuing war in Iraq. Everyone will be happy, except for the schmuck you shmikeled into becoming a terrorist, and no one really cares about him anyway.

So congratulations. You have foiled a terrorist plot. Way to go.

Not Forgotten

Memorial Day

Justifiable Violence

According to a recently released Pew poll, American Muslims are much more assimilated into our society than are, say, French Muslims into theirs. That is a good thing. But what has righties upset is the finding that the finding that while 80% of American Muslims oppose attacks on civilians in all cases, 13% said they could be justified in some circumstances.

There has been much gnashing of teething, rending of garments, and general frothing at the mouth from the conservative punditocracy, of course. Why? Because such violence is unacceptable, and would never be condoned by real red-blooded peace-loving Americans. Or would it?

Glen Greenwald has this to say about the Pew poll:

The reality, though, is that it is almost impossible to conduct a poll and not have a sizable portion of the respondents agree to almost everything. And in particular, with regard to the specific question of whether it is justifiable to launch violent attacks aimed deliberately at civilians, the percentage of American Muslims who believe in such attacks pales in comparison to the percentage of Americans generally who believe that such attacks are justifiable.

The University of Maryland's highly respected Program on International Public Attitudes, in December 2006, conducted a concurrent public opinion poll of the United States and Iran to determine the comparative views of each country's citizens on a variety of questions...

One of the questions they asked was whether "bombings and other types of attacks intentionally aimed at civilians are sometimes justified"? Americans approved of such attacks by a much larger margin than Iranians – 51-16% (and a much, much larger margin than American Muslims – 51-13%):

Click on image to enlarge

A rather substantial 24% of Americans thought that such attacks are justified "often" or "sometimes," while another 27% thought they were justified in rare cases (total=51%). By stark contrast, only 11% of Iranians think such attacks are justified "often" or "sometimes," with a mere further 5% agreeing they can be justified in rare cases (total=16%). Similar results were found with the series of other questions regarding violence deliberately aimed at civilians – including women, children and the elderly. Americans believed such attacks could be justifiable to a substantially higher degree than Iranians.

As Kenneth Ballen noted in The Christian Science Monitor in February of this year, Americans express greater support for "attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria." Make of that what you will -- and its meaning is debatable -- but those are just facts.

Where is the rightie outrage here? It does make sense, though, from their perspective–I suppose they feel that it's wrong for Muslims to want to attack us, but OK for us to want to attack them, because we are right and good and doing God's work.

Worse than McCarthy?

Bush held a press conference today–always a risky venture for him, being a sufferer of foot-in-mouth disease. Today he was in peak form. As Rick Perlstein noted:

President Bush today: "These people attacked us before we were even in Iraq!"

Can we have a little frankness, please?

The President of the United States is a racist. Or at the very least, an anti-Muslim bigot.

In Iraq, Shi'ites and Sunni are fighting each other to the death. Under what possible logic can they be joined by a common identity?

There is no "these people" except in their common Middle East-ness.

Iran and Iraq fought a decade-long war - Shia against Sunni. They are, to our president, "these people." "They" attacked us. "They" continue to attack us. Iran, Iraq: all the same.

The people who attacked us on September 11 were from a group called "al Qaeda." According to U.S. intelligence, Iraq was one of the few countries in the Middle East where Al Qaeda did not have a beachhead.

In the 1960s, to much of the public, China and Russia were equally "these people." Even as those countries were on the verge of nuclear war with one another. Bad people stoked the equivalence of the two even after they knew better (Richard Nixon did it nearly until the day he made China our ally). They did it to keep a monstrous war going, as the American people began to know better.

It's much worse now. Who are "these people," Mr. President? Why are you worse than McCarthy?

That about sums it up. We're in Iraq because some brown-skinned Arab types brought down the World Trade Center. And because, as Cheney pointed out, when told that al Qaeda was actually responsible, "there are no good targets in Afghanistan!" Nor oil........

UCARE

I spent most of my free time last week updating the UCARE website. We had reached the limits of the old technology, so I switched to new templates, moved around a lot of old material, made some deletions, and have begun adding new material. It's a lot of time-consuming effort.

Make an orphan (and a poor webmaster happy)–go and have a look!

April is the Cruelest Month

A particularly attractive fungus from northern Michigan

It's been a month since I posted anything on this blog, and longer that that since I made any regular postings. Blog fatigue set in, and it was April.

Very few have the stamina, the dedication, or the attention span to be a blogger. Posting several bits of genius every day is not an easy task; neither is posting several bits of drivel, which is what most bloggers really do. Still, either takes time and effort and, every once in a while, you just get tired.

So I took a break. It was not an entirely voluntary break; April is a busy time for me, what with taxes and my NEJM CME both being due. (Yes, I could have done either much sooner, but I am a procrastinator by nature, and need deadlines to accomplish anything.) And then there is Easter; when you are a maker of pysanky, it's a busy time of year.

Still, it's May that's devoid of postings. I went away for the first to weeks, my annual trek to the UP, to visit friends and watch hawks. The weather was great, the sompany stimulating, and spent minimal time on the internet, just a few minutes a day to check my e-mail and make sure we weren't at war with Iran yet.

But now I'm back, and having recovered some of my mojo by sending out mass e-mailings to my friends on various political themes, and ready to once more take up the mantle of blogger.

Sorry.

Clueless Bozos

Which crazy leftie said the following:

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course." So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough."

And this:

Why are we in this mess?

How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them—or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.

Answer: Lee Iacocca. He saved Chrysler once. Now he's trying to save the rest of us.

So It Goes

Kurt Vonnegut died quietly on Thursday, news of his death being lost among all the Imus blather in the media. Kurt was the anti-Imus: knowledgeable, never purposely cruel, a humanist who came by his views through life experience–he survived he bombing of Dresden in WWII–and wanted to make the world a better place.

His books were an important part of my youth; I read them all throughout high school and college. Unlike many other favorites of my youth (e.g. Heinlein), they have stood the test of time, and I enjoy them still. His books were a melange of science fiction and social consciousness, with a good deal of humor. His plots were nonsensical yet meaningful. He was Kilgore Trout with good writing skills, a latter day Mark Twain.

The purpose of his books, was, in his own words, to "catch people before they become generals and presidents and so forth and poison their minds with humanity."

He opposed the War in Iraq, and took other unpopular stands. The was a humanist/atheist, and never felt compelled to lie about or justify it. He love his country, but not unconditionally, and could see her flaws:


Kurt on the state of our country:

I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka 'Christians,' and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities.'

On Bush's foreign policy:

So let's give another big tax cut to the super-rich. That'll teach bin Laden a lesson he won't soon forget.

About the causes of the Iraq war:

Here's what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.

About how our two-party system has come to be defined by the media:

If you want to take my guns away from me, and you’re all for murdering fetuses, and love it when homosexuals marry each other, and want to give them kitchen appliances at their showers, and you’re for the poor, you’re a liberal. If you are against those perversions and for the rich, you’re a conservative. What could be simpler?

About Bush's former popularity:

"The overwhelming popularity of President Bush, in spite of everything, finally shows us what the American people, whom we have so sentimentalized for so long, a la Norman Rockwell, really are, thanks to TV and purposely lousy public schools: ignorant. Count on it!"

About global warming:

We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap.

About his general political philosophy, one with which I am in complete accord:

I don't want to belong to a country that attacks little countries.

Per PZ at Pharyngula, I think it is also only fair to give him Kilgore Trout's epitaph:

We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.

PZ Myers also notes a request from Kurt:

I am, incidentally, Honorary President of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that totally functionless capacity. We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, "Isaac is up in heaven now." It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, "Kurt is up in heaven now." That's my favorite joke.

Per his request.......Kurt is up in heaven now!


A nice eulogy here.