Infection Is Growing in Scope, Resistance - Los Angeles Times

Infection Is Growing in Scope, Resistance - Los Angeles Times

Methicillin Resistant Staph infection is a growing problem worldwide. I am angry that very few media outlets are covering the role of sub-therapeutic antibiotic feeding of factory farmed animals in this frightening medical problem. Just this week a NC woman died of MRSA.

Most news stories like the LA times one referenced above mention the over prescription and misuse of antibiotics as being the root cause. While this is one aspect of the problem; the agricultural misuse of antibiotics goes on unchecked in the commercial beef, pork, salmon, and chicken and egg industries. Many nations in Europe have banned the practice, but of course US Agricultural interests have co-opted the USDA and silenced the debate here.

Few commercial media outlets will touch this story, as some of their most profitable advertisers are involved. Public Broadcasting has begun to address it, but the story is not getting anywhere near the prominence it deserves. How do you think it would scan with the public if headlined "US industries recklessly endanger human life to squeeze out additional pennies of profit?"

Wait a minute - that could be a daily headline...

Bush Threatens to Veto Any Bill to Stop Port Takeover - New York Times

Bush Threatens to Veto Any Bill to Stop Port Takeover - New York Times

Ok, so Mr. Bush has yet to veto anything - no pork vetos, no vetoes of the "poorly performing" entitlement programs he decries, nada. (Using my Bushspeak secret decoder ring - I translate "poorly performing" programs as "programs performing for the poor.")

Funny he'd dust off the pen to threaten the veto of these possible bills, as the port sale to a UAE based conglomerate stands to further profit his families billionaire cronies in the mideast.

As for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's praise of the UAE as an "important strategic military partner", that may be the case this year. Wasn't it just a twenty years or so ago that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was being touted as an important strategic military parter of the US in the mideast?

Has Bush forgotten that a significant amount of the money used in the 9/11 attacks was laundered though our "strategic military partners" of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emiriates?

Oh, that's right, he helped all those folks fly out of the country in the days after 9/11...

Ever the syncophantic toady, maybe he just want to perform for the rich, regardless of where they're from?

Cheney accidentally shoots fellow hunter - Feb 12, 2006

CNN.com - Cheney accidentally shoots fellow hunter - Feb 12, 2006

This one is just too, too good. Who knew the Rove obsession with de-funding trial lawyers would lead to gunplay?

The obvious jokes are all there; "shoot first, spin later", "Don't shoot till you see the whites of thier oil" etc. It has been sickening to watch Scott McClellan and Cheney duck and feint to try and portray the accident as being Whittington's fault.

The best so far has been Jim Brady's (of the Brady Bill) comment on the matter.

When asked what he thought of the shooting, Brady replied - "Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him."

On Feb 16th the Veep broke his prolonged silence and spoke with Fox "News" about the shooting. As reported in the Washington Post - he blamed the controversy on jealousy among the press corps that a small Texas newspaper got the story first.

Oh yeah - the Vice President shoots a friend, doesn't acknowledge it until his host takes matters into her own hands and calls the local paper and the controversy is due to internecine bickering...
That's plausible...

Perhaps the delay was so everyone could coordinate thier stories?

Severe woman charged with smuggling after human head found in her luggage.

Stock Photo

USATODAY.com - Woman charged with smuggling after human head found in luggage

From the eeww gross department -

Ms. Severe was bringing the head into the US from Haiti to ward off evil spirits as part of her Voodoo practice. Maybe it's just me, but schlepping a decomposing human head around with you seems more of an invitation to bad juju than a defense against it...

I'm not one to make fun of anyone's religious beliefs. Er... OK - so I do, but I exempt fundies of all stripes from the "no fun-making" clause. (All stripes meaning the Taliban all the way to James Dobson.)

My favorite part of the article is the list of charges filed against her -

"The criminal complaint filed Friday charges Severe with smuggling a human head into the U.S. without proper documentation, failure to declare the head and transporting hazardous material in air commerce."

It begs the question - do you use Customs Form 1089 or 1089a to properly document that human head you scored on vacation?

After reading the story I had the chilling realization that Ms. Severe and I have something in common.

(Before you run shrieking into the night, let me explain.)

I transported human remains (well, cremains or ashes) in my checked luggage without declaring them after my Stepmother's memorial service. I had no idea it was a crime.

Truth really is stranger than fiction - if I wrote this story and made her name be "Severe", no one would buy it - way too on the nose...

Nero Fiddles While NOLA Floods

The New York Times Reports on Hurricane Katrina response, indicating that dire news of the levee breach reached the White House the night before the president issued his statement that New Orleans had "dodged the bullet." The president was vacationing at the ranch in Crawford as the disaster loomed.

"The president is still at his ranch, the vice president is still fly-fishing in Wyoming, the president's chief of staff is in Maine," Mr. Davis said. "In retrospect, don't you think it would have been better to pull together? They should have had better leadership. It is disengagement."

- Representative Thomas M. Davis III, Republican of Virginia, chairman of the special House committee investigating the hurricane response.

Photo of Madame Liberty Melting, taken after a Post - Katrina fire
in a Mardi Gras warehouse for parade floats.
from NOLA.com, photo by NOLA.com user Paul Glover.
This seem to me the quinessential image of the Bush Presidency.
____________________________________________________________________

In my experience hurricanes move rather slowly. Perhaps not slowly enough, when you're trying to evacuate entire regions, but slowly enough to fly back to Washington.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the federal response "unacceptable".

Once again the administration fails to act to defend the defenseless. It seems that dereliction of duty is a habit with this president, all the way back to his guard service.

I can't say it any better than the all Republican panel investigating the Katina response: "Our investigation revealed that Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare." - as quoted in the NY Times.

I would add that the "abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare" is the hallmark of this presidency.

"That bus don't run after Eight." - Conservatives see through Bush?

From a recent article on the conservative Human Events Online site - "Bush Is Running Out of Alibis" by Patrick J. Buchanan:

"But what has done more to radicalize Islam than our invasion of Iraq? Who has done more to empower Islamic radicals than Bush with his clamor for elections across a region radicalized by our own policies?"

You know it's been a tough year for progressives when Pat Buchanan starts to make sense.

Pat is a bit like a homeless guy I encountered at a bus stop in LA last year.

Several of us were waiting at the RAPID (super-express) bus stop. Nearby, a man was street preaching to anyone who would listen. He had a homemade telepathic uplink to Mars made of tinfoil perched on his head. He was waiting at the non-express bus stop.

This man spent the better part of an hour ranting and raving about the men from Mars, thier plans for world domination, and the transmitter they had implanted in his head.

The sane among us huddled together, sure that we would get where we were going sooner aboard the RAPID bus.

The (slow) bus pulled in. As the Martian telepath climbed aboard it he called out to us "That bus don't run after Eight."

Whoosh - the doors closed and we were left behind, choking on his exhaust.

A flash of common sense had winked at us from behind the veil of insanity.

My smugness was shattered. The awareness that I'd be waiting another forty minutes for my bus dawned with painful clarity.

It's a bit like Pat on Bush - N'est Pas?

Whatever else you think of him, Pat has some darn goods points on Bush.

Hopefully we won't all be left waiting at the electoral bus stop, with the realization of what is really going on dawning slowly...

"B... B... B... Brokeback Mountain."

In other Hollywood News-



Did you notice that Clint Eastwood could barely bring himself to say the words "Brokeback Mountain" at the Golden Globe Awards? "B... B... B... Brokeback Mountain."

I never realized Homsexual Panic causes stuttering!

The movie seems to be causing a lot of stuttering. Folks seem unable to cope with a depiciton of homsexuality that doesn't feature a campy "Will and Grace" buddy, or the "punishment" of AIDS.

The most bizzare take on Brokeback Mountain I've seen can be found in Andrew Longman's blog entry titled "You can't fight Islamism with Gay Cowboys.

This is flat out one of the weirdest rants I've ever seen. - check this bit in particular - "It is repugnant that the national icons of Missionary zeal and righteous machismo are being mocked " Since when are Missionary Zeal and righteous machismo national icons?

That said, the image of a brigade of gay cowboys sweeping over the plains of Afganistan into Kabul is certainly a gripping, if improbable one...
___________________________________________________________________
Have you seen this Brokeback Mountain grocery list circulating the web - author unknown...

>> Brokeback Mountain Weekly Grocery Lists
>>> for Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, Summer, 1963
>>>
>>>
>>> WEEK ONE
>>>
>>> Beans
>>> Bacon
>>> Coffee
>>> Whiskey
>>>
>>> WEEK TWO
>>>
>>> Beans
>>> Ham
>>> Coffee
>>> Whiskey
>>>
>>> WEEK THREE
>>>
>>> Beans al fresca
>>> Thin-sliced Bacon
>>> Hazelnut Coffee
>>> Sky vodka & Tanqueray gin
>>> K-Y gel
>>>
>>> WEEK FOUR
>>>
>>> Beans en salade
>>> Pancetta
>>> Coffee (espresso grind)
>>> 5-6 bottles best Chardonnay
>>> 2 tubes K-Y gel
>>>
>>> WEEK FIVE
>>>
>>> Fresh Fava beans
>>> Jasmine rice
>>> Prosciutto, approx. 8 ounces, thinly sliced
>>> Medallions of veal
>>> Porcini mushrooms
>>> 1/2 pint of heavy whipping cream
>>> 1 Cub Scout uniform, size 42 long
>>> 5-6 bottles French Bordeaux (Estate Reserve)
>>> 1 extra large bottle Astro-glide
>>>
>>> WEEK SIX
>>>
>>> Yukon Gold potatoes
>>> Heavy whipping cream
>>> Asparagus (very thin)
>>> Organic Eggs
>>> Spanish Lemons
>>> Gruyere cheese (well aged)
>>> Crushed Walnuts
>>> Arugula
>>> Clarified Butter
>>> Extra Virgin Olive oil
>>> Pure Balsamic vinegar
>>> 6 yards white silk organdy
>>> 6 yards pale ivory taffeta
>>> 3 Cases of Dom Perignon Masters Reserve
>>> Large tin Crisco