Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

Senate majority leader Bill Frist reversed himself yesterday and now supports stem cell research opposed by Bush. Frist, a heart lung surgeon, finally recognized reality and stated, "It's not just a matter of faith, it's a matter of science." This stance immediately drew the ire of the christain defense coalition which issued a terse statement: "Senator Frist should not expect support and endorsement from the pro-life community if he votes for embryonic research funding."
Frist jabbed at the Bush policy by stating, "While embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage, the limitation put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases."
So Bush will now likely face the inevitable task of vetoing a bill that is supported by both houses and, according to various polls, by the majority of americans as well. But not to worry, an ultraconservative republican nutcase has already threatened to filibuster the bill in order to "save his president from the embarrassment of having to veto a bill supported by his own party." And, of course, Bush himself is guided by the eternal light that only he can see so we will all be saved from further research...

KNX news radio carried an account of the reported killings in Iraq yesterday of six marine snipers after their position was "somehow given away." The gear and rifles of the snipers were removed by their killers. As snipers are experts in concealment, KNX reporters wanted to know how something like this could possibly happen. The reporters turned to top marine sniper Jack Caughlin, author of the book, "Shooter." As a sniper credited with 60 kills and familar with area where the marines met their deaths, he could not give any definitive explanation of how such an occurrence may have arisen, given the training and expertise of the men. He offered the possibility of "luck" on the part of insurgents who just may have happned to be in the area during the insertion of the sniper teams.
Frankly, other possibilities are that insurgents are infiltrating Iraqi units that work in tandem with marines or local civilian populations are providing information about US troop movements to the insurgency. Both kinds of these possibilities have already happened in Iraq.
All of the dead snipers were killed by small arms fire. None of the snipers apparently got off a shot.
I think this all speaks to the "culture of insurgency" that permeates Iraq as previously reported by CNN in a recent TV broadcast. An exiled shiek reported this "culture" at the time of the broadcast and, unfortunately, it's all too evident on a daily basis in Iraq...

CNN is reporting the governor of New Mexico has declared a state of emergency in four counties along the border with Mexico. The governor declared the emergency in the counties he descibed as "devastated" by crimes such as drug smuggling and illegal immigration. Governor Bill Richardson criticized the federal government for "total inaction" in helping to protect his state's residents along the border. He also called upon the government of Mexico to bulldoze the abandoned town of Las Chepas that is recognized as a staging area for drug smugglers and illegal immigrant crossings... Good luck on that one as it probably has as much of a chance of happening as the federal government does in actually protecting our own borders...

Seven hundred US paratroopers trained to descend upon the enemy from high and low altitudes with the spirit of the airborne rangers coursing through their veins and the unity of a band of brothers have arrived in Iraq for...guard duty!!!
Yep, the US military is now so manpower depleted it must deploy our paratroopers to provide security at Abu Ghraib prison while a new prison must be built to house more than 10,000 Iraqis. Ten thousand Iraqis? Where did all these home grown Iraqis come from and what are all these Iraqis doing in jail in Iraq in the first place? Perhaps they are waiting for amnesty that is likely to come in time while we build and staff another facility to house them before they leave it to go back to their own towns. The US military refers to them as suspected insurgents but Mr Bush doesn't use the word insurgent in his speeches anymore and instead refers to them as "terrorists". So even though the US miltary acknowledges that most insurgents are derived from home grown Iraqis, they are, in fact, "terrorists" as per Mr Bush and must be imprisoned for an undetermined amount of time. Gee, that seems like a tactic that Mr Hussein used to use when he was running the place...

CNN will air a program entitled, "Dead Wrong" on Sunday August 21. In a preview, it appears to document many of the intelligence failures regarding alleged Iraqi WMDs that did not exist.
In particular, it appears to show a reluctant Colin Powell making the case for the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq while documenting his misgivings on the validity of the intelligence available AT THE TIME he was making his presentation to the UN. It appears he was thinking he would be held responsible for placing up to a half a million men on the ground in Iraq who would conduct a futile search for WMDs that did not, in fact, exist. The progran appears to demonstrate a Bush administration that was hell-bent-for-leather in invading Iraq even though the intelligence was faulty.
Watch it and draw your own conclusions...

As per CNN, a border patrol helicopter had to make an emergency landing in Yuma, Arizona after a group of illegal immigrants threw rocks and damaged the rotor.
How could this be? Afterall, not too long ago, the Mexican government provided illustrated guidebooks to prospective illegal immigrants specifically informing them not to throw stones at the border patrol. Why is it that some people just don't get the word? Must be some sort of communications glitch.
An angry resident of Arizona complained to Lou Dobbs that the Arizona national guard is unavailable because they are off to Iraq. Must be another glitch...

Paula Zahn on CNN presented a debate between a doctor who is being sued by an obese patient for "prejudice" and an author of a book entitled," Fat, So?"
It seems an obese patient refused a doctor's request to have her weight checked and when the doctor attempted to advise the patient of the risks associated with obesity, the patient decided to sue the doctor claiming he is prejudiced against obese people.
The author of the book defended the obese patient and her lawsuit claiming obese people are being discriminated against by members of the medical profession because, according to her, obesity and health risks are correlative and not causative, and doctors are providing erroneous information to obese patients by falsely assuming obesity is the cause of their problem(s).
The doctor, for his part, appeared to be genuinely interested in the health of his obese patient and noted the risks of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and related conditions. He also noted many doctors will not address the problem of obesity and they will simply note "morbidly obese" on the patient's chart and they go onto the next patient.
I've never heard of a lawsuit such as this one before, and I find it troubling to say the least. I've advised patients before on the risks of obesity and disease entities, but the problem I've encountered is one of compliance: diet diaries aren't completed by patients and recommended diets aren't followed.
If this suit succeeds, it will probably deter doctors from advising obese patients on related risks associated with obesity. In the meantime, I am off to counsel another obese patient...

Bush is said to be pondering whether or not to release oil from the strategic oil reserve in the wake of the hurricane in order to "help the refineries." Er,ah, how about helping the entire country?
So where is Bush today? He's in Ontario, California to speak to a "hand-picked" dissent-free group of seniors regarding medicare. He will speak later to a group of miltary officers and their families in San Diego who also will have a zero dissent accord on Bush's policies in Iraq. No dissent? How could it be any other way, afterall this is America!
Getting back to the oil crisis, this IS a crisis and an emergency so let's get Bush out of California where he's not wanted anyway and Cheney out of his bunker and get them both in a situation room to actually govern and help the nation instead of posturing to help themselves!

The mayor of N.O. has just told the feds they don't have a clue and they need to get off their ass.
Bush, himself, has just stated the federal relief effort is "not acceptable".
The mayor added he keeps hearing this and that are coming but it's all "BS".
By the way Bush, where's the oil you promised?

CNN did analysis of the quality of the jobs being created in early August. CNN stated the majority of jobs were in the service sector, specifically in waiters and waitresses and bartenders along with health care, specifically nursing. Manufacturing jobs were said to be down by 50,000, making this the first recovery to occur without a net increase in this significant area. Additionally, information technology, ie computer-related jobs declined as well.
If we look at the latest report we again see the most jobs in health care (likely nursing again) and leisure (likely service-related such as waiters/waitresses and bartenders).
Quantity is one thing but the quality of the jobs being created is quite another. There's certainly nothing wrong with the jobs being described although the income potential is usually less and perhaps far less than the other sectors that are not progressing.