Read It Here

XXXXWarning of Destructive Virus

2009-12-18T08:06:00.011-06:00

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/osama.asp

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TWO SUBJECT LINES of which to be AWARE
Just verified this with Snopes and it is REAL. ALSO WENT TO TRUTH OR FICTION, IT'S on their site also.
PLEASE INFORM EVERYONE you know!
1.) Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will be able to fix it with appropriate software but will be a hassle.
If you get an e-mail along the lines of 'Osama Bin Laden Captured' or 'Osama Hanged', don't open the Attachment!!!!
This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe, but mainly in the US and Israel
Be considerate & send this warning to whomever you know.

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http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/invitation.asp

2.) You should be alert during the next few days:
Do not open any message with an attached file called 'Invitation' regardless of who sent it.
It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer!!!!
This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this E-mail to all your contacts.
It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.
If you receive an e-mail called 'invitation', even though sent by a friend. Do not open it!!!

This is a bad virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as a destructive virus .

This virus allegedly destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where other vital information is kept.
SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

where was the media

2009-12-07T20:07:00.014-06:00

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/brendan-calling/Where-Was-The-Media-63980502.html

Where Was The Media?

Probably at the Phillies game.

By Brendan Skwire

Posted Oct. 11, 2009

The protests at Cigna's headquarters generated print coverage -- mainly on the flyers handed out by the protesters.

Some of the most recent and important actions to draw attention to insurance company abuses have been practically ignored by local media, including our two big dailies. And that's just wrong, because one of the worst villains in the ~~health care~~ death-by-spreadsheet industry is headquartered right here in Philadelphia: Cigna.

Let's back up a moment: I wrote a few weeks back about news coverage of Barack Obama's visit to Philadelphia, and the circus in the streets. Reporters were going back and forth doing the he-said-she-said bit (giving a platform to people who were spouting lies they didn't even understand about the Communo-islamo-fascist threat posed by Barack Obama). But a few weeks later, when Health Care for America Now (HCAN) rallied in front of City Hall, there were no shrieking teabaggers, and skant coverage by the media. A short article in the Daily News. A brief blurb in the Inky's business section. What's the deal?

A few weeks later, five HCAN activists, including the organization's Pennsylvania State Director Marc Stier, were arrested for blocking the doors to Cigna and I haven't seen squat from the newspapers. Why not?

It's not like Cigna's the pride of Philadelphia. This is the company notorious for letting Nataline Sarkysian, a 17 year old girl, die by delaying and denying her a liver transplant until public outcry forced the company's hand: by that time it was too late. And when Sarkysian's family traveled to Philadelphia to confront Cigna, they were met with jeers and even the middle finger by CIGNA's employees. Stay classy, guys: nothing says "we care" like taunting a grieving mother whose kid died on YOUR watch.

Over at his blog, Marc Stier provides a list of reasons why he and his fellow activists were arrested, and it reads like something out of Kafka :

We were arrested today because Dawn Smith is today fighting CIGNA for the treatment she needs. Dawns has have a brain tumor. Doctors are ready to help her. But CIGNA has been blocking her from treatment for two years, while almost doubling her premiums... Because CIGNA refused to consider insuring Billy Koehler, who died of a heart attack shortly after CIGNA said it was unwilling to insure him because he had a pre-existing medical condition... We were arrested today because Stacie Ritter’s children were denied the medical care they need by CIGNA. Stacie’s twin girls were afflicted with cancer at the age of 4, and Cigna refuses to cover the human growth hormone treatments they need to grow properly.

This is the kind of activist journalism that should have reporters drooling, a really clear-cut case of David versus Goliath. Instead of screaming headlines, though, what little news gets out is buried. You'd figure in a city as poor and blue-collar as Philly, our reporters and op-ed writers would be coming out swinging. Instead, it's near silence.

It's not like this isn't a compelling story: the horrors that Stacie Ritter has faced since her daughters were treated for leukemia are enough to make you tear your hair out, and Cigna's treatment of this family is beyond cruel. But beyond Daily News blogger Will Bunch, you will be hard-pressed to find any local coverage of Ritter's visit to Cigna CEO Ed Hanway's mansion in Media (one of many he owns) where she asked to stay in his carriage house until one of those "market based solutions" the industry's always talking about could be found:

Now, I happen to know a few people deeply involved with the campaign to reform health care, and asked why the Philly media was absent. This is what my friend told me: "No reporters showed up because they were pulled of the story to cover Phillies fans at local bars. Seriously, more than one person told Marc Stier that. Feel free to bash the corporate media that cares more about baseball than the thousands of people who die everyday due to lack of access to adequate care."

That doesn't exactly square with Bunch's rationale that "The Daily News hasn't had the staffing power to have a fulltime healthcare writer for a while now, even though the sector is the region's biggest source of private jobs," when reporters are pulled off a story to cover a stupid baseball game. And as the Inky's Jane Von Bergen makes clear, the fact that people's kids and grandparents die every day because insurance companies deny them care isn't very important to her

“I did not think the protest at [Cigna CEO] Hanway’s house was news,” Philadelphia Inquirer business reporter Jane Von Bergen told us. “It was a staged event. It wasn’t real news. I avoid them. I can’t stand them. They don’t add anything. They don’t teach anything. If they go to his house, we don’t learn anything more about the health care debate.” The protest was “too manufactured,” said Von Bergen. “Just a bunch of people going blah-blah-blah.”

In the same article, Von Bergen betrays her preference for a different kind of staged event, and thoroughly demolishes her own argument:

By contrast, said Von Bergen, who covered the rowdy town meeting in August where right-wing activists confronted Sen. Arlen Specter, the news value of that event was “readily apparent.” “It involved public figures”—members of Congress. So political reporters picked up the story.

So a woman confronting the wealthy and powerful CEO, from the left, is a staged event unworthy of coverage, but a bunch of confused and misinformed people riled up by a Fox News bloviator to stage an event in which they confront a politician, from the right, makes the front page? isn't that also "just a bunch of people going blah-blah-blah"?

I'm not seeing the logic there. Maybe that's because there isn't any. And anyway, Von Bergen's excuses about public figures make no sense in light of the fact that, according to people at HCAN, the papers pulled reporters off the health care story to cover a bunch of private individuals celebrating a freakin' baseball game. That's not news: that's just pathetic.

But it sure does fit a pattern, as I reflect back on the failure to cover of HCAN's teabagger-free rally at City Hall. No screamers, no coverage.

We have a lot to be proud of in Philadelphia: neither Cigna nor our rapidly faltering newspapers fall into that category.

China Executes Corrupt Food and Drug Agency Head

2009-11-27T00:20:00.009-06:00

http://www.bintulu.org/news/2009/11/24/china-executes-head-food-drug-agency.php

China executes the former head of its food and drug agency

Posted by Editorial Team on Nov 24th, 2009 and filed under World News.

Mother of baby who died from poisoned formula weeps as she shows photo.

China executed its former top food and drug regulator on Tuesday for taking bribes to approve untested medicine, as the Beijing leadership scrambled to show that it was serious about improving the safety of Chinese products.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court carried out the death sentence against Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, shortly after the country’s Supreme Court rejected his final appeal.

Zheng, who had appealed his May 29 sentence on the grounds that it was “too severe” and that he had confessed to the bribery charges against him, became the first ministerial-level official put to death since 2000 and only the fourth since China opened it doors to the outside world nearly 30 years ago.

The official Xinhua press agency announced the execution but did not say how Zheng was killed. In most cases, the court police execute prisoners by shooting them in the back of the head, though recently the police have also used lethal injections.

China carries out more court-ordered executions than the rest of the world combined, according to human rights groups. But even by local standards, the sentence against Zheng was unusually harsh and its execution uncommonly swift.

The country’s Supreme Court has recently made a highly publicized effort to show that it carefully reviews all death sentences and that it has restricted the power of local courts to impose that penalty. But Zheng’s case appears to have served a political purpose, allowing senior leaders to show that they have begun confronting the country’s poor product safety record. Shoddy or dangerous goods, including drugs, pet food and car tires, have damaged its reputation abroad, especially in the United States.

China is the world’s largest exporter of consumer products, and tainted goods represent a small fraction of the country’s more than $1 trillion in annual exports. But officials clearly worry that protectionist forces in the United States could use the spate of quality problems to restrict trade.

At the same time Zheng was executed, representatives of the country’s leading food and drug regulatory bodies held a joint news conference to emphasize their determination to crack down on fake and counterfeit food and medicine.

After weeks of denying serious problems or accusing foreign forces of exaggerating the issue, officials have recently begun to strike a less defensive tone. One senior official acknowledged that the food and drug safety network still allowed too many unsafe goods to slip through and said that at the moment the trend “is not promising.”

“As a developing country, China’s current food and drug safety situation is not very satisfactory because supervision of food and drug safety started late. Its foundation is weak so the supervision of food and drug safety is not easy,” said Yan Jiangying, deputy policy director of the State Food and Drug Administration, the agency Zheng headed.

Asked about the death sentence, Yan said, “Corruption in the food and drug authority has brought shame to the nation. What we will have to learn from the experience is to improve our work and emphasize public safety.”

Regulators said that their ability to monitor food and drug purity would greatly increase by 2010, when they enhance their ability to respond to accidents and establish a national product recall system. The authorities said that inspectors would start shifting posts more often to prevent corruption and that they would check a wide range of goods more frequently to ferret out fakes.

But they acknowledged that they face challenges. China has some200 million farms, many of them less than an acre in size. It hasnearly 450,000 food processing companies, nearly 80 percent with 10employees or fewer, said Lin Wei, a senior official at the GeneralAdministration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

It has nearly 450,000 food processing companies, nearly 80 percent with 10 employees or fewer, said Lin Wei, a senior official at the National Administration of Quality, Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

“This is our national condition,” Lin said. “It is our hope that by 2010 we can reduce the number of small food workshops by 50 percent and effectively curb law breaking and counterfeiting.”

Officials acknowledge that responsibility for food and drug safety involves as many as 17 government agencies, ranging from the Ministry of Health, which sets hygienic standards, to the Public Security Bureau, which has power to investigate criminal cases.

This fragmented authority has led to a proliferation of licensing fees and fines. But it has also allowed local officials to protect factories in their domain and created overlapping jurisdictions in which no single agency exercises ultimate responsibility, Chinese regulatory experts say.

On Tuesday, officials asserted that the five agencies that have the most direct, front-line responsibility for food and drug safety have stepped up their coordination.

Officials also appeared worried that the safety scare could impact attendance or otherwise limit the boost to its economic development and global prestige it hoped to get from holding the Olympic Games in Beijing next year. On Tuesday, officials outlined measures they have taken to guarantee clean food and water supplies for athletes and spectators at the games.

Fears abroad over Chinese-made products were sparked last year by the deaths of dozens of people in Panama who took cough syrup that contained diethylene glycol, a poisonous chemical, that was imported from China.

The Chinese manufacturer had labeled the item as glycerin, commonly used as a harmless ingredient in drugs.

Chinese-made pet food tainted with the chemical melamine caused the deaths of cats and dogs in the United States this year.

U.S. regulators have since turned away drug-tainted seafood products, juice containing unsafe additives and toy trains colored with lead paint.

The United States and several other countries have banned Chinese-made toothpaste that contains diethylene glycol. No reports of health problems stemming from the product have emerged, however, and China allows the use of deithylene glycol in toothpaste in small quantities.

Zheng became China’s top drug regulator in 1994, when he was named to the top position of what was then called the State Pharmaceutical Administration. In 2003, the agency became the State Food and Drug Administration and acquired responsibility for overseeing the nation’s food supply as well, in an attempt by the government to consolidate regulatory authority into one agency.

He was removed in June 2005 for reasons that were not specified at the time. His ouster followed a period of bureaucratic infighting over the powers of the food and drug regulator, whose expanded responsibilities encroached on the purview and revenue sources of rival departments.

Late last year he was charged with accepting $850,000 in bribes to grant approval for hundreds of medicines. State media said that his agency approved 137 drugs that had not submitted proper applications, and that six of those drugs turned out to be entirely fake.

The list of drugs approved by Zheng included an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths in China, state media said.

Continuing the crackdown, a Beijing court on Friday meted out another capital sentence to Zheng’s deputy, Cao Wenzhuang. Cao was given a two-year reprieve, however, which often results in commutation to life in prison. — NYT

Penis Tales - #One and # Two

2009-11-11T21:40:00.014-06:00

Penis Tales (Copied from Worried's files)

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Friend_bites_mans_penis_off_in_row&in_article_id=613133&in_page_id=2

Friend bites man's penis off in row

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Teeth: bitey

A man was rushed to hospital after telling doctors how his best friend bit his penis off in a row - and swallowed it.

Horrified Marian Milczarek, 53, from Lesna in south west Poland, was attacked following a row with his friend - apparently over borrowing a trailer.

'He began hitting me with a chain and then pulled down my trousers and started biting. It was agony,' he said.

Police and medics could find no trace of Marian's missing genitalia, and believe his attacker Wojciech Sowinski - now facing 10 years in jail - may have eaten it.

'If we'd had the other bit of his penis we could have sewn it back on,' said Dr Adam Domanasiewicz from the hospital in nearby Trzebnica, where Marian is recovering.

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=67650&in_page_id=2

Wife jailed for penis hack attack

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

For private use, not privates

When doing most tasks, it's best to finish the job instead of leaving things half-cock.

Yet thankfully for one man in Malaysia, when his wife tried to carve off his penis she couldn't quite complete her grisly mission.

Now Umidah Setu has been jailed for six months for the gruesome attack that left her husband needing 11 eye-watering stitches.

Despite the damage, he still managed to drive to hospital on his motorcycle - perhaps making the most of his chopper while he still could (arf).

Setu, an Indonesian migrant worker living in Malaysia, pleaded guilty in the southern city of Johor Bahru to voluntarily causing hurt to her unnamed husband.

Criminal investigator Che Yussof Che Ngah said the 47-year-old canteen operator lashed out due to jealousy of another woman.

The couple have been married for 17 years and have two children.

[Gad: Shades of Lorena Bobbitt!]

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=33257&in_page_id=2

Row over angry, penis-removing doctor

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

'Now, you might feel a little prick'

Doctors' unions in Romania have criticised a decision to make a surgeon pay £100,000 in damages after he lost his temper and hacked off a patient's penis during surgery.

Surgeon Naum Ciomu, who had been suffering from stress at the time, had been operating on patient Nelu Radonescu, 36, to correct a testicular malformation when he suddenly lost his temper.

Grabbing a scalpel, he sliced off the penis in front of shocked nursing staff, and then placed it on the operating table where he chopped it into small pieces before storming out of the operating theatre at Bucharest hospital.

A Romanian court has now awarded Radonescu £20,000 costs – to pay for the operation to rebuild his ruined penis using tissue from his arm – as well as 100,000 pounds in damages.

The medical costs will be paid by the hospital's insurer, but doctors' unions have criticised the decision that the money for the damages has to be paid by the doctor.

They say the move sets a dangerous precedent and that Professor Ciomu, a urologist and lecturer in anatomy, has already been punished enough after having his medical licence suspended.

They said he had been under stress and had lost his temper after he accidentally cut the man's urinary channel and 'overreacted' to the situation. He told the court it was a temporary loss of judgement due to personal problems.

Vice-president of the Romanian Doctors Union, Vasile Astarastoae, said: 'Ciomu's case is a dangerous precedent for all Romanian doctors. In future doctors may have to think very carefully about what work they undertake.'

Because obviously, the last thing you want is a doctor thinking carefully about the work they're doing.

The director of the ophthalmology hospital in Bucharest, Dr Monica Pop (yes, actually her name), agreed saying that doctors would in future avoid any cases where they could end up in court having to pay damages.

She added: 'Doctors in Romanian earn too little to be able to pay amounts like this. As a result it will be entirely fair if they only accept cases where they cannot make mistakes. The only way this can be avoided is if the insurance companies cover all the risk.'

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=159058&in_page_id=2

Man gets penis trapped in sixteen washers

Monday, June 2, 2008

A man in Australia had to undergo surgery using fire brigade equipment to remove sixteen stainless steel washers that had somehow become lodged on his penis.

Fire Rescue officers had raced to help the man at about 3am, after the washers became stuck on his penis in mysterious circumstances.

After spending over an hour attempting to free his genitalia from the washers, the fire officers transported the man to hospital in Hornsby, a suburb to the north-west of Sydney.

There, surgeons took a further ninety minutes to finally extract his penis from the metallic embrace of the washers, having to use the fire service's cutting equipment because the hospital's regular ring-removing devices couldn't cope with the girth of the washers.

The man is not expected to suffer any lasting damage. The precise set of events that led up to his penis being covered in washers is currently unknown.

[Gad: Be careful what holes you poke that thing in!]

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=78700&in_page_id=2

Firemen cut metal ring from man's penis

Friday, December 7, 2007

The fire brigade are ready to tackle any emergency...

Fire fighters came to the rescue of a man who found himself in a bit of a tight spot after getting a metal ring stuck on the end of his penis.

The man, who has not been named, was rushed to the Royal Wigan Infirmary in Greater Manchester where doctors feared they would have to amputate as the ring was slowly cutting off the blood supply.

Firemen arrived at the hospital after an alert was issued and used a mini hand grinder to cut through the ring, which appeared to have been cut off from the end of a pipe.

The man was given an anaesthetic and a thin sheet of metal was placed around his penis to protect the skin during the successful 20-minute operation.

[Yeh, Numbnuts! Same advice to you as above!]

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=144297&in_page_id=2

Your views (9)

Penis theft panic leads to thirteen arrests

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A penis, yesterday

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers, after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings over the alleged of using black magic to steal men's penises.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital of some 8 million inhabitants.

They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

'You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten,' Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

When you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny

'I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke,' Oleko said.

'But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, "How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it",' he said.

Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.

'It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny,' said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Man_goes_nuts_on_his_penis&in_article_id=288572&in_page_id=2

Man goes nuts on his penis

Monday, September 1, 2008

A Malaysian man's attempt to lengthen his manhood ended in predictable pain and embarrassment, as he got a nut stuck around his penis.

According to reports, the man - a welder in the southern Malaysian state of Johor - wanted to make his penis bigger before getting engaged next week. For some reason, this involved putting a nut on it, to weight it down and hence increase his length.

Unfortunately for him, he then got an erection, which prevented him from removing the nut. Further, it seems the nut then prevented him from losing the erection, leading to a vicious circle of nut-on-penisdom.

According to the Star newspaper, the man then sought treatment in a local hospital.

The hospital were forced to (brace yourself for this) cut away the top layer of skin and drain blood from the traumatised organ in order to remove the nut.

The director of the hospital told the Star on Sunday: 'The patient is now recovering and we hope to discharge him today'. Bonus point there for the innuendo-laden use of the word 'discharge'.

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=121137&in_page_id=2

The huge penises of Japan

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Many Brits will have childhood memories of celebrating Harvest Festival, a boring event that mostly involved admiring vegetables. As is usually the case, they do this sort of thing much better in Japan.

The recently celebrated Hōnen festival is a fertility festival (hōnen meaning harvest), in which the centre of attention is less focused on prize cabbages, and more about gigantic wooden penises.

[Holy Shit! Check out the pics of what this celebration entails!]

The largest and most renowned festival (with the most renowned wooden penises) taks place in the city of Komaki, in Aichi Prefecture in central Japan.

The festival involves carrying the aforementioned massive penis from one shrine to another, while in the surrounding festivities, revellers enjoy penis-shaped food and pray while rubbing stone testicles.

Penis souvenirs are also available.

[There are many activities a person can do with penes and testicles, but I never envisioned praying to them!]

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Bering in Mind 4/27/09

Secrets of the Phallus: Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?

click on title to access article. Interesting.
Evolutionary psychologists decipher the "Rosetta stone" of human sexuality and why penises evolved to be shaped like they are and function like they do.

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http://www.metro.co.uk/metrosexual/article.html?in_article_id=19833&in_page_id=8

Wife rejects penis transplant

Monday, September 18, 2006

A man who had the world's first penis transplant had the organ removed two weeks later because he and his wife had a 'severe psychological problem' with his new penis.

The man's penis was damaged beyond repair in an accident this year, leaving him with a one centimetre-long stump with which he was unable to urinate or have sexual intercourse.

'His quality of life was affected severely,' said Dr Weilie Hu, a surgeon at Guangzhou General Hospital.

Doctors spent 15 hours attaching a 10-centimetre penis to the 44-year-old man after the parents of a brain-dead man half his age agreed to donate their son's organ.

The procedure, described in a case study due to appear in the journal European Urology next month, represents a big leap forward in transplant surgery.

After 10 days, tests revealed the organ had a good blood supply and the man was able to urinate normally.

Although the operation was a surgical success, surgeons said they had to remove the penis two weeks later.

'Because of a severe psychological problem of the recipient and his wife, the transplanted penis regretfully had to be cut off,' Dr Hu said.

An examination of the organ showed no signs of it being rejected by the body, he said.

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=241571&in_page_id=2

Man faces divorce after penis extension breaks during sex

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A man is being divorced by his wife after his penis extension snapped off during sex.

Doctors in Voronezh, southern Russia, had fitted the special prosthetic when Grigory Toporov, 47, told them he didn't measure up to his wife's expectations in the bedroom.

But she was horrified when the extension broke off during a wild sex session.

"I told her I would get a new one but she wasn't having any of it. She said she was fed up with my failures in bed and wants a divorce," said Toporov.

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=102414&in_page_id=2

Penis lengthener has got wood

Friday, February 22, 2008

Um, we're pretty much just going to run this picture with the caption that the picture agency sent over with it. Because there's nothing we could write that could possibly be better.

'Grandson of Mak Erot, Indonesia's legendary supernatural lengthener of members, Saipuloh, shows his equipments, three large wooden penises, at his clinic in Jakarta on February 21, 2008.

'Three large wooden penises lie on a colourful batik prayer mat in the house of Mak Erot, Indonesia's legendary lengthener of male members, inviting customers to pick their new look.'

Okee dokee, then.

[Okee dokee my ass! Any guy that came at me with something that looked like that, would be met with a chopping hatchet! Make kindling wood outta that thing!]

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=54895&in_page_id=2

Cambodians warned over DIY penis enlargement

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Don't think about how nasty this article is. Think about the nice bunny instead.

Authorities in Cambodia warned men on Tuesday against do-it-yourself penis enlargement treatments, in the aftermath of a case in which a man killed himself because of the side-effects of a botched enlargement attempt.

The man reportedly had been injecting hair tonic into his own penis – but the side effects were so agonising that he hanged himself to end the pain.

The hair tonic was advertised as giving thicker and more lustrous hair. It did not have the same effect upon the man's penis.

Instead, the injections caused massive, excruciating ulceration of the phallus.

The details of the case were released to the public in an effort to warn other Cambodian men against trying anything similar. Officials cautioned that they believe this was not an isolated case.

Coroner Vieng Vannarith commented: 'He wanted a bigger one very badly, and the results were tragic.'

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=25932&in_page_id=2

Police seeking owner of penis

Monday, November 20, 2006

A cock, yesterday

Police in South Africa are trying to trace the owner of a severed penis which was found lying on the ground in a village.

The penis, which was not attached to anybody, was found on the ground outside a house in the small village of Masoyi, in the Mpumalanga region of eastern South Africa.

The police were called by the man who found the penis, which was not his penis, last Friday morning.

According to local police Superintendent Benjamin Mtsholi Bhembe, the man saw an unusual object on the ground outside the house he was taking care of.

'On closer inspection, he realised that it was a man's private part,' said Bhembe.

Initial police investigations around the neighbourhood – which we imagine involved knocking on people's doors and asking ' have you lost your penis?' – proved unsuccessful.

Authorities are urging the penis's owner to come forward. If you have lost you penis, you are advised to contact your nearest South African police station.

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=155147&in_page_id=2

Man bitten on the penis by deadly snake

Thursday, May 29, 2008

A snake: probably not the sort of thing you want to see dangling off the end of your penis

A tourist in Australia suffered greatly for going to the toilet at the roadside, when an extremely venomous snake bit him on the penis while he was attending to his business.

The man was caught short on the road in Queensland, resulting in him having to answer the call of nature close to Laura (that's a town in the northern tip of Queensland, not a woman).

But as he was crouching down beside the road, a brown snake – the venom of which is deadly – spotted an opportunity, slid between the man's legs and bit him on the penis.

Fortunately for the tourist, while the snake left its mark on his genitals, he wasn't poisoned. An ambulance spokesman told cairns.com.au: 'It certainly had a swipe at him, but it didn't envenomate him.'

'As it came through it must have got a bit of a shock,' the spokesman added, with masterful understatement.

Emergency services treated the man at the scene, including wrapping his penis in plastic to prevent any venom spreading. But tests showed that no venom had entered his manhood.

The victim was left with a wound on his penis, as well as suffering vomiting and stomach pains. He was taken to a local hospital, where he recuperated overnight.

The incident happened a month ago, but was only confirmed yesterday when cairns.com.au spoke to the ambulance service.

The spokesman added that the man was 'a bit shocked and embarrassed' by the incident, and that he was 'lucky' to have escaped so lightly. Luck being a relative concept, obviously.

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The Taipan is an aggressive hunter, moving at high speed through grasslands with ease. On finding its prey by scent, the reptile flings itself at the victim and inflicts several rapid bites. Like most other venomous snakes, the Taipan uses its venom sparingly. As they don't regard man as prey, they have been know to strike and bite without releasing any venom.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090511/od_nm/us_snake_odd

Toilet snake attack: urban legend comes true?

Mon May 11, 4:56 pm ET

TAIPEI (Reuters) – A Taiwanese man became a sitting target for a snake, which bit his penis as sat on the toilet at his rural home, local media reported on Monday.

"As soon as he sat down, he suddenly felt a knife-like pain and reacted instinctively by standing up," the China Times said. "When he looked down, he saw the big snake."

The 51-year-old man, from Nantou County, was under medical care with minor injuries, a director at Puli Christian Hospital said.

"As soon as he has passed the risk of infection, he can go," the director, who declined to be named, said. "A snake's mouth isn't always clean."

Local television images showed the black and yellow reptile, reportedly a species of rat snake, being uncoiled and plucked slowly from the toilet bowl.

Snakes regularly enter rural homes in Taiwan and other sub-tropical regions of Asia.

(Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Nick Macfie and Miral Fahmy)

Basic Info

The Taiwanese Beauty Rat Snake lives up to its name. It's a large snake, usually measuring up to six feet long and splashed with yellow and brown spots. It is a beautifully colored snake, they have stripes and bands in specific places on the body. These patterns will become clearer and more well defined as the snake ages.

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=79880&in_page_id=2

Urinating man in unfortunate puppy v. penis incident

Friday, December 14, 2007

A delightful little doggy: probably wants to savage your penis

A drunk Cambodian man became embroiled in an unfortunate genital incident when, as he was urinating through a fence, a happy little puppy on the other side bit onto his penis.

News reports in Phnom Penh said that Kann Veasna was relieving himself through a hole in the fence after a hard day drinking wine when the incident occurred.

The Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper suggested that the puppy may have thought Veasna's penis was toy.

Mr Veasna's puppy/penis misfortune came to light when he turned up at hospital in the Cambodian capital, and regaled them with his tale of mirth and woe.

He was suffering from lacerations to his penis. However, doctors were able to save his organ, and are hopeful that the puppy did him no permanent damage.

News agency DPA quoted one doctor as saying: 'It's undoubtedly sore now, but luckily it should still be useful to him in the future.'

[Like I said, Guys> Be careful what hole you poke that thing in.]

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=67375&in_page_id=2

Biker's penis hit by lightning

Monday, September 24, 2007

A Croatian motorbiker will be praying that the old adage 'lightning never strikes twice' rings true.

Unlucky Ante Djindjic, 29, from Zagreb was knocked unconscious when lightning struck his penis during a quick roadside toilet break.

Djindjic said: "I don't remember what happened. One minute I was taking a leak and the next thing I knew I was in hospital.

"Doctors said the lightning went through my body and because I was wearing rubber boots it earthed itself through my penis."

Djindjic escaped relatively unscathed from the incident, suffering only light burns to his chest and arms.

He said: "Thankfully, the doctors said that there would be no lasting effects, and my penis will function normally eventually."

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=43397&in_page_id=2

Man in unfortunate saw-mill penis incident

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Here is a picture of a nice fluffy rabbit to take your mind off this story

A man has been taken to hospital in Australia after his penis and groin got caught in the machinery at a saw mill.

The Adelaide Advertiser reports that the accident is not thought to have had life-threatening consequences, but that there was a degree of uncontrollable bleeding involved.

The thirty-year-old man was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

A spokesman for Parafield Gardens Saw Mill said: 'He got caught in the log moving mechanism on one of the saws.'

The spokesman maintained that the man's injuries were not serious. Which is easy for him to say.

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=40887&in_page_id=2

Honey, I broke my penis

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Robert and Emma McClenahan: ouch

A husband pleasured his wife so passionately he broke his penis. Robert McClenahan, 38, was left writhing in agony after his mishap.

'We were having sex and he missed and broke his willy,' said his 32-year-old wife, Emma.

'We turned on the light and it was bent.'

The couple, from Colchester, Essex, went to hospital and Mr McClenahan ended up having surgery two days later.

'He laughs about it now, but he didn't at the time,' said his wife.

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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=34205&in_page_id=2

Man sues over penis tattoo

Monday, January 22, 2007

Some tattoos. Penis not shown.

A football fan is suing a tattooist who drew a penis on his back instead of his favourite team's badge.

The teenager asked to have the Boca Juniors logo etched on his back.

But the tattoo artist was a supporter of rival team River Plate and decided to have some fun at his young customer's expense.

The victim, who cannot be named, said: 'I could not see what he was tattooing because he didn't have a mirror. I only saw it when I got home and showed it to my parents.'

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http://www.funreports.com/fun/08-11-2004/1133-0

doctors reattach amputated penis

Doctors do miracles with amputated penises

Indian doctors managed to sew back a man's penis 13 hours after it had been chopped off by a jealous husband.

The surgery lasted 9 hours. Further examinations, which took a place a month later, revealed that the 18-year-old Jagdish Jivan Baria from the Indian state of Gujarat has not even lost his "manly talents". Up until today, there's been only 47 successful operations of this kind in the whole world (including Russia). The young man was on his way from a mass at a local temple when he got attacked by an Indian Othello. The latter, along with several of his friends, has amputated the poor man's reproductive organ and escaped with a penis in his pocket. Doctor Sandil Sharma, who dicrected the course of the entire surgery, stated the following in his interview to the “Times of India": "Fortunately, the boy's parents were fast enough to call the police and the paramedics. The amputated organ had been momentarily confiscated, placed in a plastic bag in a fridge. This allowed for the organ to remain in good condition for the operation."

Growing Penises

2009-11-11T21:12:00.009-06:00

http://www.livescience.com/health/091109-artificial-penis-tissue-rabbits.htm

....................................................................................................

Health

Artificial Penis Tissue Proves Promising in Lab Tests

By Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience

Buz

One day artificial penis tissue could be grown to help men, new findings in rabbits now suggest.After implantation with replacement tissue, lab rabbits that once had damaged penises had working organs and could produce offspring.

"Further studies are required, of course, but our results are encouraging and suggest that the technology has considerable potential for patients who need penile reconstruction," said researcher Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. Such methods could potentially aid men who just want to enhance their normal penises, rather than repairing any damage.

"Our intent and the goal of our work is to provide a solution for men who need penile erectile tissue for medical reasons," Atala told LiveScience. "Of course, you cannot control how the technology is used in terms of what patients want." The real hope is "that patients with congenital abnormalities, penile cancer, traumatic injury and some cases of erectile dysfunction will benefit from this technology in the future," Atala said.

The challenge

Reconstructing the spongy erectile tissue in damaged or diseased penises has traditionally been a challenge because of its complex structure and the intricate cellular interactions needed to make it work properly. A number of different kinds of surgery have been attempted — often procedures with multiple stages that can involve a silicone penis prosthesis — but natural erectile function is generally not restored.

"There is nothing more devastating for a surgeon than to be in the operating room and to have no tissue to give a patient who needs it," Atala said. "We want to find a solution to that dilemma." The researchers sought to solve this problem by engineering replacement tissues in the lab. They first harvested the kinds of cells that line blood vessels — smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells — from the erectile tissue of rabbits. During an erection, the endothelial cells release nitric oxide, which makes the smooth muscle tissue relax, permitting an influx of blood into the penis.

After letting the cells multiply, millions of them were injected into scaffolds made from rabbit penises stripped of all their cells with detergents. These scaffolds provided support as the injected cells developed. After implanting the scaffolds in the penises of 12 male New Zealand White rabbits, organized tissue with vessels began to form as early as one month afterward."In much of our work, we have learned that 'nature knows best,' and this is certainly true with decellularized organs — they are ideal to support cells as they multiply and as tissue develops," Atala said.

The cells were injected into scaffolds on two separate days, enabling them to hold nearly six times as many smooth muscle cells as in the prior research, which the scientists believe was a major key to success. Tests showed that blood pressure and flow within the erectile tissue was normal and that veins drained normally after erection.

Just like rabbits

All rabbits with the bioengineered penises were just as active as normal rabbits — they tried sex within a minute of introduction to females. Swabs from the females held sperm in eight of 12 instances and four of the females became pregnant, delivering healthy pups.

"Although many scientists shy away from doing research in this critical area, these are all very important body structures — especially if you're a man," said stem cell scientist Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., who did not take part in this research. "Certainly no one wants to be known as the 'penis doctor' — so bravo to Tony for having the courage to develop this reconstructive procedure, which could potentially help thousands of people suffering from congenital anomalies, penile cancer, and traumatic injuries. This is the most complete functional replacement of erectile tissue reported to date."

If the scientists do try and help people with this research, naturally they will not use rabbit cells with men. "We would take a small sample of a patient's erectile tissue, extract the cells we need and multiply them in the laboratory," Atala explained. "The resulting tissue would be a perfect match for the patient. Future research also might not depend on scaffolds made from decellularized penises. Instead, Atala and his colleagues could print three-dimensional scaffolds out from materials such as collagen. "We can print structures to make them to order as needed," he said.

"Regenerative medicine isn't science fiction as many people believe — it is benefiting patients right now and has the potential for even wider use in the future," Atala added. The scientists detailed their findings online November 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

2009-10-10T23:31:00.002-05:00

Watch CBS News Videos Online

VA "Death Book"

2009-10-10T23:24:00.004-05:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/22/how-conservatives-got-the_n_266275.html
How Conservatives Got The Facts Wrong On Their Latest Obsession: The "Death Book" For Veterans

***UPDATE*** Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth appeared on Fox News Sunday this morning to combat the false allegations that the VA is using...

Marcus Baram
Marcus@huffingtonpost.com |

How Conservatives Got The Facts Wrong On Their Latest Obsession: The "Death Book" For Veterans

First Posted: 08-22-09 10:08 PM | Updated: 09-22-09 05:12 AM

***UPDATE***

Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth appeared on Fox News Sunday this morning to combat the false allegations that the VA is using a "death book" to encourage veterans to end their lives.

WATCH:

The latest conservative obsession - dutifully spread via Sarah Palin's Facebook page - is marked by the same alarmism and factual inaccuracy as the hysteria over "death panels."

According to this tale, America's veterans are being steered into ending their lives via a "death book" distributed by the government.

It all started with Jim Towey, the former president of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives under George W. Bush, who penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal describing how the Department of Veterans Affairs was using an end-of-life planning document that was aimed at steering veterans toward choosing death.

Towey stated that the message of the veterans' health-care system to its patients was "hurry-up-and-die" and he contrasted the "death book" with "Five Wishes," his own advance care planning document.

In dramatic language, he wrote:

"One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veteran's health-care system that seems intent on his surrender."

Soon enough, Palin linked to the piece, stating that "the Veterans Administration encourages veterans to forego care as they make end-of-life decisions." And Fox News' Sean Hannity and RNC chair Michael Steele were calling it the equivalent of "death panels" for military veterans.

They failed to mention that the so-called "death book" contains the same advance-care planning required of all health care organizations under federal law, has been in use since 1997 and was developed with the input of interfaith ministers.

In addition, Towey seems to have his own axe to grind. He has repeatedly tried to get the government to spend millions to purchase his "Five Wishes" book, which is published by Aging With Dignity, a non-profit group he founded, to distribute to veterans across the country, according to sources within the VA. Towey used his influence with the White House to get a meeting with VA officials, including then-Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. At one meeting, Towey was informed that the VA could not act on such an unsolicited proposal without violating federal procurement regulations, according to VA sources.

The VA's policy is in accordance with the 1990 Patient Self Determination Act, which requires all institutions receiving Medicare funds to provide information to patients regarding end of life, living will and other advance directives. During the Bush administration, the VA changed its regulation to extend the act to cover all VA facilities.

In 2007, after Towey complained that the so-called "death book," "Your Life, Your Choices - Planning for Future Medical Decisions," was biased against the right-to-life viewpoint, the VA convened an outside panel of experts to assess and update the booklet.

In his op-ed, Towey stated that this panel did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. In fact, according to the VA, the panel included a priest, a rabbi, a renowned disability rights advocate, and the president of the organization that produces "Five Wishes," the alternative advance care planning document that Towey is promoting and selling.

The panel supported the use of the "Your Life, Your Choices" booklet but included some suggestions for revising its content. The plans to update and release the booklet were developed under the Bush administration and it is due for release in 2010.

Towey, along with Assistant Secretary Of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth are scheduled to discuss the issue on "Fox News Sunday" tomorrow.

Dr. Ellen Fox, the Chief Officer for Ethics in Health Care at the Veterans Health Administration, defended the use of the booklet:

Your Life, Your Choices is an educational workbook that was designed specifically for Veterans. The authors went to great lengths to ensure it would be meaningful and helpful to all Veterans, regardless of their religious and cultural backgrounds. I am impressed by the development process they used, which included extensive input and testing by different Veterans groups, religious leaders from 10 different faiths, elderly and disabled individuals, and experienced doctors and nurses.

They even made sure to incorporate everyday language that Veterans commonly use to describe medical conditions, while at the same time providing accurate information from the physician's perspective. Over the past 10 years it has been tested through scientific research, endorsed by many respected professional organizations, and widely used throughout the U.S. health care system. It is one of many educational resources we provide to help Veterans and their families. As a Federal agency we have an obligation to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars by maximizing the services we provide our Veterans. Providing an educational resource like Your Life, Your Choices at no cost to Veterans is one of the many ways we fulfill this mission. The whole purpose of this workbook is to encourage more conversations between patients, families, and health care teams. Anyone who is seriously interested in ensuring that Veterans receive the best care possible should recognize this.

Towey did not return calls placed to St. Vincent College, where he is the president.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/22/how-conservatives-got-the_n_266275.html

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/26/huffposts-marcus-baram-de_n_269483.html

HuffPost's Marcus Baram Debates Jim Towey Over VA's Use Of "Your Life, Your Choices"

Huffington Post Night Editor Marcus Baram defended The Veterans Administration's use of the end-of-life planning document "Your Life, Your Choices" Tuesday, on CBS News' Washington Unplugged.

Baram pointed out that the controversy seems like a manufactured one; "Your Life, Your Choices" was in use for more than ten years.

Jim Towey, the former president of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives under George W. Bush, was the counterpoint. According to Towey, "Your Life, Your Choices" is not sensitive enough.

The host asked Towey if his arguments can be interpreted as "sour grapes." Towey tried selling his own two-page, end-of-life booklet to the VA at a cost of $5 per veteran, but the VA declined. VA Assistant Secretary Tammy Duckworth mentioned Towey's booklet during an interview on Fox News, Sunday, Aug. 23

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/26/huffposts-marcus-baram-de_n_269483.html

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More inacuracies: Political infighting to discredit Obama. Obama did not reinstate it. It has been on the VA website all along with a notation that it was being revised. It has been available and used for TEN YEARS.

VA Death Book -"Your Life, Your Choices"- Reinstated Under ...

VA Death Book -"Your Life, Your Choices"- Reinstated Under Obama ... 52-page VA Death Book deals with end-of-life choices in which a decision has to ...

nowpublic.com/world/va-death-book-your-life-your-

2009-10-10T23:13:00.006-05:00

I'm not an Obama supporter but neither am I an Obama detractor. I figure the man deserves a chance. He inherited a pile of doo the size of Mount Everest from the previous administration and has only a kiddy sand shovel to clean it up with. That pile has been growing for years and he can't reduce it in just a few months. He gets blamed for all the mess of the Bush/Cheney years and is bombarded with lies, lies and more lies. The Repubs are mad because the Democrats got back in power so they want to destroy any possibility that Obama and the Dems might win enough favor to get re-elected next term . The sheeple who tolerated Bush/Cheney's lies and destruction now fall for the manipulative tactics of the Obama haters and rise up in a howling rage.

Sarah Palin loved her little taste of power, has dreams of glory of being the first female president so tries to curry favor with the Repubs, hoping they'll nominate her and give her backing in the 2012 election. She leaped on the destroy-Obama bandwagon and started the Death Panel lies about the Obama Health Care reform: Gonna euthanize Grandma because she costs too much to keep alive. Kill off all the old, handicapped and non-productive members of society. Shows the Repubs she's a Team Player and panders to the megarich Insurance Companies. Gotta keep the super rich happy, you know.

Palin's Death Panels -Unplug Grandma Crap

VA Death Book Lies

Death Panels - Unplug Grandma Crap

2009-10-10T23:09:00.001-05:00

Palin vs. Obama: Death Panels

August 14, 2009

Like many disagreements in the digital age, it all started with a post on Facebook. Last Friday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posted a note to her Facebook page and introduced a new term to the health care debate:

Palin, Aug. 7: The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care.

Unsurprisingly, the phrase "death panel" does not appear in the health care bill that passed House committees last month. And Palin’s post did not make entirely clear what she might interpret as a "death panel." Nonetheless, the phrase stuck. It skyrocketed up the Google search index and was quoted by George Stephanopoulos while interviewing former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich on ABC News’ "This Week." Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa made similar claims while speaking out against "a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma” at a town hall on Wednesday.

President Obama addressed these concerns about death panels and unplugged grandmothers during a town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Tuesday. He said:

Obama, Aug. 11: The rumor that’s been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for "death panels" that will basically pull the plug on grandma … this arose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end-of-life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, et cetera. So the intention of the members of Congress was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they’re ready, on their own terms. It wasn’t forcing anybody to do anything. This is I guess where the rumor came from.

Obama is referring to Section 1233 of H.R. 3200, which is titled “Advance Care Planning Consultation.” As we explained a few weeks ago, it "would require Medicare to pay for some end-of-life planning counseling sessions with a health care practitioner." Our previous article was a response to the false claim that the health care bill would require forced counseling to push euthanasia. And it’s this provision on end-of-life counseling that’s the primary basis for Palin’s remarks.

On Aug. 12, Palin attempted to clear up her argument with a detailed Facebook post. She discussed Section 1233 and said that "it’s misleading for the President to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients." Palin goes onto argue:

Palin, Aug. 12: The issue is the context in which that information is provided and the coercive effect these consultations will have in that context. … These consultations are authorized whenever a Medicare recipient’s health changes significantly or when they enter a nursing home, and they are part of a bill whose stated purpose is “to reduce the growth in health care spending.” Is it any wonder that senior citizens might view such consultations as attempts to convince them to help reduce health care costs by accepting minimal end-of-life care?

The fact remains that the bill wouldn’t require patients to receive counseling sessions, nor would it require a doctor to offer one. Rather, it modifies Section 1861(s)2 of the Social Security Act, defining what services Medicare will pay for. So if a patient receives a counseling session from a doctor or health care practitioner, he or she doesn’t have to pay for it – Medicare will. As we pointed out in our earlier story, Medicare will also pay for prosthetic limbs, but that doesn’t mean that every recipient gets those, too.

And the concern that these sessions are "part of a bill whose stated purpose is ‘to reduce the growth in health care spending,’ " while true, is hardly the whole story. One of the bill’s other goals is to "provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans." The legislation is 1,017 pages long with sections that cut costs, some that increase care, and some that do both. In fact, the counseling sessions would add to government expenses since Medicare would have to reimburse doctors. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates officially that Section 1233 will cost a net total of $2.7 billion over 10 years.

Furthermore, proposals to offer reimbursement for such counseling have attracted bipartisan support. Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, a sponsor of one such measure, gave an interview to the Washington Post on August 10, in which he discussed the benefits of these counseling sessions "both for the sanity of the family and what savings the family has." Isakson also commented on the recent confusion around the issue:

Isakson, Aug. 10: I just had a phone call where someone said Sarah Palin’s web site had talked about the House bill having death panels on it where people would be euthanized. How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You’re putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don’t know how that got so mixed up.

Palin also attempts to buttress her case by quoting some writings by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy adviser to the president. Here she’s echoing claims made elsewhere, twisting the meaning of Emanuel’s writings and taking them out of context. We examined those claims in an Ask FactCheck item we posted earlier today, and won’t repeat the details here.

Finally, for those inclined to get their information from Facebook postings, may we suggest FactCheck.org’s own page?

Posted by Justin Bank on Friday, August 14, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Filed under The FactCheck Wire · Tagged with death panel, health care, President Obama,

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Obama: I Don't Want "Death Panels" - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
President Hits Back at Claims That Government Wants to "Pull the Plug on Grandma" ... Palin brought out the Death Panel which I believe they had but ...
cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/11/politics/.../entry5234477.shtml - 217k - Cached

st 11, 2009 2:42 PM

Obama: I Don't Want "Death Panels"

Posted by Brian Montopoli

(AP Photo/Jim Cole)

Updated 5:15 p.m. ET

Shortly after telling Americans that some opponents are trying to "scare the heck out of folks" by misleading them about his health care reform efforts, President Obama told a town hall audience in New Hampshire that he is "not in favor" of so-called "death panels" in which the government would decide who does and does not qualify for care to keep them alive.

The notion that the president and Congressional Democrats are seeking to institute such panels has been pushed by former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and some activists.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) put out a statement last month claiming the health care legislation "may place seniors in situations where they feel pressured to sign end of life directives they would not otherwise sign. This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law."

Some Republicans have disavowed the "death panel" claim, which several media outlets have noted is false. It was among the "10 Health Care Myths" debunked on this site last week. The provision cited by critics, the president said today, would allow Medicare to pay doctors to counsel those seeking information about end-of-life care issues, such as living wills and hospice care.

It would not, he said, "basically pull the plug on grandma because we decided that it's too expensive to let her live anymore."

Mr. Obama noted that a Republican, Johnny Isakson, was an initial sponsor of the provision. The president said lawmakers "very sensibly thought this was something that would expand people's options."

Isakson called the notion that the provision meant euthanasia "nuts." He later disavowed the president's comments, however, writing in a statement, "I categorically oppose the House bill and find it incredulous that the White House and others would use my amendment as a scapegoat for their misguided policies."

In a Facebook post Friday, Palin wrote this: "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

The president said in a response to such claims that Americans should not listen to efforts by those seeking to "scare and mislead the American people."

"Where we disagree, let's disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that don't bear any resemblance to anything that's actually being proposed," he said.

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The "death panels" are already here | Salon News
Sorry, Sarah Palin -- rationing of care? Private companies are already doing it, with sometimes fatal results ... Gingrich backs Palin on "death panels" ...
www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/08/11/denial_of_care

The "death panels" are already here

Sorry, Sarah Palin -- rationing of care? Private companies are already doing it, with sometimes fatal results

By Mike Madden

iStockphoto

Aug. 11, 2009 | The future of healthcare in America, according to Sarah Palin, might look something like this: A sick 17-year-old girl needs a liver transplant. Doctors find an available organ, and they're ready to operate, but the bureaucracy -- or as Palin would put it, the "death panel" -- steps in and says it won't pay for the surgery. Despite protests from the girl's family and her doctors, the heartless hacks hold their ground for a critical 10 days. Eventually, under massive public pressure, they relent -- but the patient dies before the operation can proceed.

It certainly sounds scary enough to make you want to go show up at a town hall meeting and yell about how misguided President Obama's healthcare reform plans are. Except that's not the future of healthcare -- it's the present. Long before anyone started talking about government "death panels" or warning that Obama would have the government ration care, 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, a leukemia patient from Glendale, Calif., died in December 2007, after her parents battled their insurance company, Cigna, over the surgery. Cigna initially refused to pay for it because the company's analysis showed Sarkisyan was already too sick from her leukemia; the liver transplant wouldn't have saved her life.

That kind of utilitarian rationing, of course, is exactly what Palin and other opponents of the healthcare reform proposals pending before Congress say they want to protect the country from. "Such a system is downright evil," Palin wrote, in the same message posted on Facebook where she raised the "death panel" specter. "Health care by definition involves life and death decisions."

Coverage of Palin's remarks, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's defense of them, over the weekend did point out that the idea that the reform plans would encourage government-sponsored euthanasia is one of a handful of deliberate falsehoods being peddled by opponents of the legislation. But the idea that only if reform passes would the government start setting up rationing and interfering with care goes beyond just the bogus euthanasia claim.

Opponents of reform often seem to skip right past any problems with the current system -- but it's rife with them. A study by the American Medical Association found the biggest insurance companies in the country denied between 2 and 5 percent of claims put in by doctors last year (though the AMA noted that not all the denials were improper). There is no national database of insurance claim denials, though, because private insurance companies aren't required to disclose such stats. Meanwhile, a House Energy and Commerce Committee report in June found that just three insurance companies kicked at least 20,000 people off their rolls between 2003 and 2007 for such reasons as typos on their application paperwork, a preexisting condition or a family member's medical history. People who buy insurance under individual policies, about 6 percent of adults, may be especially vulnerable, but the 63 percent of adults covered by employer-provided insurance aren't immune to difficulty.

"You're asking us to decide that the government is to be trusted," Gingrich -- who may, like Palin, be running for the GOP's presidential nomination in 2012 -- told ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" on Sunday. But as even a quick glance through news coverage of the last few years shows, private insurers are already doing what reform opponents say they want to save us from. (The insurance industry, pushing back against charges that they're part of the problem, said last month that "healthcare reform is far too important to be dragged down by divisive political rhetoric." The industry has long maintained that its decisions on what to cover are the result of careful investigations of each claim.) Here is a look at a handful of healthcare horror stories, brought to you by the current system. It took Salon staff less than an hour to round these up -- which might indicate how many other such stories are out there.

-- In June 2008, Robin Beaton, a retired nurse from Waxahachie, Texas, found out she had breast cancer and needed a double mastectomy. Two days before her surgery, her insurance company, Blue Cross, flagged her chart and told the hospital they wouldn't allow the procedure to go forward until they finished an examination of five years of her medical history -- which could take three months. It turned out that a month before the cancer diagnosis, Beaton had gone to a dermatologist for acne treatment, and Blue Cross incorrectly interpreted a word on her chart to mean that the acne was precancerous.

Not long into the investigation, the insurer canceled her policy. Beaton, they said, had listed her weight incorrectly when she bought it, and had also failed to disclose that she'd once taken medicine for a heart condition -- which she hadn't been taking at the time she filled out the application. By October, thanks to an intervention from her member of Congress, Blue Cross reinstated Beaton's insurance coverage. But the tumor she had removed had grown 2 centimeters in the meantime, and she had to have her lymph nodes removed as well as her breasts amputated because of the delay.

-- In October 2008, Michael Napientak, a doorman from Clarendon Hills, Ill., went to the hospital for surgery to relieve agonizing back pain. His wife's employer's insurance provider, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthCare, had issued a pre-authorization for the operation. The operation went well. But in April, the insurer started sending notices that it wouldn't pay for the surgery, after all; the family, not the insurance provider, would be on the hook for the $148,000 the hospital charged for the procedure. Pre-authorization, the insurance company explained, didn't necessarily guarantee payment on a claim would be forthcoming. The company offered shifting explanations for why it wouldn't pay -- first, demanding proof that Napientak had tried less expensive measures to relieve his pain, and then, when he provided it, insisting that it lacked documentation for why the surgery was medically necessary. Napientak's wife, Sandie, asked her boss to help out, but with no luck. Fortunately for the Napientaks, they were able to attract the attention of a Chicago Tribune columnist before they had to figure out how to pay the six-figure bill -- once the newspaper started asking questions, the insurer suddenly decided, "based on additional information submitted," to cover the tab, after all.

-- David Denney was less than a year old when he was diagnosed in 1995 with glutaric acidemia Type 1, a rare blood disorder that left him severely brain damaged and unable to eat, walk or speak without assistance. For more than a decade, Blue Cross of California -- his parents' insurance company -- paid the $1,200 weekly cost to have a nurse care for him, giving him exercise and administering anti-seizure medication.

But in March 2006, Blue Cross told the Denney family their claims had exceeded the annual cost limit for his care. When they wrote back, objecting and pointing out that their annual limit was higher, the company changed its mind -- about the reason for the denial. The nurse's services weren't medically necessary, the insurers said. His family sued, and the case went to arbitration, as their policy allowed. California taxpayers, meanwhile, got stuck with the bill -- after years of paying their own premiums, the Denney family went on Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid system.

-- Patricia Reilling opened an art gallery in Louisville, Ky., in 1987, and three years later took out an insurance policy for herself and her employees. Her insurance provider, Anthem Health Plans of Kentucky, wrote to her this June, telling her it was canceling her coverage -- a few days after it sent her a different letter detailing the rates to renew for another year and billing her for July.

Reilling thinks she knows the reason for the cutoff, though -- she was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2008. That kicked off a year-long battle with Anthem. First the company refused to pay for an MRI to locate the tumors, saying her family medical history didn't indicate she was likely to have cancer. Eventually, it approved the MRI, but only after she'd undergone an additional, painful biopsy. Her doctor removed both of her breasts in April 2008. In December, she went in for reconstructive plastic surgery -- and contracted a case of MRSA, an invasive infection. In January of this year, Reilling underwent two more surgeries to deal with the MRSA infection, and she's likely to require another operation to help fix all the damage. The monthly bill for her prescription medicines -- which she says are mostly generics -- is $2,000; the doctors treating her for the MRSA infection want $280 for each appointment, now that she's lost her insurance coverage. When she appealed the decision to cancel her policy, asking if she could keep paying the premium and continue coverage until her current course of treatment ends, the insurers wrote back with yet another denial. But they did say they hoped her health improved.

-- Additional reporting by Tim Bella

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click link to view article. 2 videos at bottom.
Insurance employee flips off grieving mother of dead daughter

Insurance company denied liver transplant to teen aged daughter of insured, using the excuse the procedure was "experimental". This is an excuse often used by insurers to weasle out of paying for an expensive procedure. See links below: Liver transplants have been done for over 38 years at a rate of about 5,000 a year. Hardly an "experimental procedure".

Action Plan for Liver Disease Research - Minutes : NIDDK ... approximately 5,000 liver transplants are done yearly in the U.S. at more than ... The challenges in liver transplantation are many. ...niddk.nih.gov/AboutNIDDK/ResearchAndPlanning/... - 65k - Cached
What I need to know about Liver Transplantation ... surgery has been done for more than 38 years. Many people have had liver transplants and now lead ... of Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human ...digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/livertransplant_ez - 36k -

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Who has a death panel?

Pros and Cons Re: "Death Book"

2009-10-10T02:50:00.006-05:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/22/how-conservatives-got-the_n_266275.html
How Conservatives Got The Facts Wrong On Their Latest Obsession: The "Death Book" For Veterans

***UPDATE*** Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth appeared on Fox News Sunday this morning to combat the false allegations that the VA is using...

Marcus Baram
Marcus@huffingtonpost.com |

How Conservatives Got The Facts Wrong On Their Latest Obsession: The "Death Book" For Veterans

First Posted: 08-22-09 10:08 PM | Updated: 09-22-09 05:12 AM

***UPDATE***

Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth appeared on Fox News Sunday this morning to combat the false allegations that the VA is using a "death book" to encourage veterans to end their lives.

WATCH:

The latest conservative obsession - dutifully spread via *Sarah Palin's Facebook page - is marked by the same *alarmism and *factual inaccuracy as the hysteria over "death panels."

According to this tale, America's veterans are being steered into ending their lives via a "death book" distributed by the government.

It all started with Jim Towey, the former president of the ***White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives under George W. Bush, who penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal describing how the Department of Veterans Affairs was using an end-of-life planning document that was aimed at steering veterans toward choosing death.

Towey stated that the message of the veterans' health-care system to its patients was "hurry-up-and-die" and he contrasted the "death book" with "Five Wishes," his own advance care planning document.

In dramatic language, he wrote:

"One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veteran's health-care system that seems intent on his surrender."

Soon enough, *Palin linked to the piece, stating that "the Veterans Administration encourages veterans to forego care as they make end-of-life decisions." And Fox News' Sean Hannity and RNC chair Michael Steele were calling it the equivalent of "death panels" for military veterans.

They failed to mention that the so-called "death book" contains the **same advance-care planning required of all health care organizations under federal law, has been in use since 1997 and was **developed with the input of interfaith ministers.

In addition, Towey seems to have *his own axe to grind. He has repeatedly tried to get the government to spend millions to purchase his "Five Wishes" book, which is published by Aging With Dignity, a non-profit group he founded, to distribute to veterans across the country, according to sources within the VA. Towey used his influence with the White House to get a meeting with VA officials, including then-Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. At one meeting, Towey was informed that the VA could not act on such an unsolicited proposal without violating federal procurement regulations, according to VA sources.

The VA's policy is in accordance with the 1990 Patient Self Determination Act, which requires all institutions receiving Medicare funds to provide information to patients regarding end of life, living will and other advance directives. During the Bush administration, the VA changed its regulation to extend the act to cover all VA facilities.

In 2007, after Towey complained that the so-called "death book," "Your Life, Your Choices - Planning for Future Medical Decisions," was biased against the right-to-life viewpoint, the **VA convened an outside panel of experts to assess and update the booklet.

In his op-ed, Towey stated that this panel did *not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. *In fact, according to the VA, *the panel included a *priest, a *rabbi, a renowned *disability rights advocate, and the *president of the organization that produces "Five Wishes," the alternative advance care planning document that Towey is promoting and selling.

The panel supported the use of the "Your Life, Your Choices" booklet but included some suggestions for revising its content. The plans to update and release the booklet were developed under the Bush administration and it is due for release in 2010.

Towey, along with Assistant Secretary Of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth are scheduled to discuss the issue on "Fox News Sunday" tomorrow.

Dr. Ellen Fox, the Chief Officer for Ethics in Health Care at the Veterans Health Administration, defended the use of the booklet:

Your Life, Your Choices is an educational workbook that was designed specifically for Veterans. The authors went to great lengths to ensure it would be meaningful and helpful to all Veterans, regardless of their religious and cultural backgrounds. I am impressed by the development process they used, which included *extensive input and testing by *different Veterans groups, *religious leaders from *10 different faiths, *elderly and *disabled individuals, and experienced *doctors and nurses.

They even made sure to incorporate everyday language that Veterans commonly use to describe medical conditions, while at the same time providing accurate information from the physician's perspective. Over the past 10 years it has been tested through scientific research, endorsed by many respected professional organizations, and widely used throughout the U.S. health care system. It is one of many educational resources we provide to help Veterans and their families. As a Federal agency we have an obligation to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars by maximizing the services we provide our Veterans. Providing an educational resource like Your Life, Your Choices at no cost to Veterans is one of the many ways we fulfill this mission. The whole purpose of this workbook is to encourage more conversations between patients, families, and health care teams. Anyone who is seriously interested in ensuring that Veterans receive the best care possible should recognize this.

Towey did not return calls placed to St. Vincent College, where he is the president.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/22/how-conservatives-got-the_n_266275.html

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/26/huffposts-marcus-baram-de_n_269483.html

HuffPost's Marcus Baram Debates Jim Towey Over VA's Use Of "Your Life, Your Choices"

Huffington Post Night Editor Marcus Baram defended The Veterans Administration's use of the end-of-life planning document "Your Life, Your Choices" Tuesday, on CBS News' Washington Unplugged.

Baram pointed out that the controversy seems like a *manufactured one; "Your Life, Your Choices" was *in use for more than ten years.

Jim Towey, the former president of the *White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives under George W. Bush, was the counterpoint. According to Towey, "Your Life, Your Choices" is not sensitive enough.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/26/huffposts-marcus-baram-de_n_269483.html

Iraqi-Horrors of War

2009-09-11T01:14:00.013-05:00

These photos are less graphic than the ones posted at: http://unbearable-stench.blogspot.com/2006/12/warning-extremely-graphic-photos-do.html . Still, these are tragic enough to display the horrors of war. Do not access the link above if you are sensitive or squeamish.

The Iraqis gather up, wash, dress and bury their dead in home made wooden coffins. How do you think they feel about a nation who did this to their loved ones? They do not hate us for our freedoms, as Bush so foolishly said. They hate us for what our country has done to them over the years.

Christian Fundamentalist Terrorists

2009-06-29T16:37:00.014-05:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannyn-moore/christian-fundamentalist_b_209521.html

Shannyn Moore: Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism

Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism.

It's shocking to write. But it's time to start calling it what it is.

When Jim D. Adkisson walked into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church with 76 rounds and a shot-gun, he killed 2 people and was charged with murder. His motive was "he hated the liberal movement" and was upset with "liberals in general as well as gays." He should have been charged with terrorism.

George Tiller, a Wichita doctor, was killed INSIDE the lobby of his Wichita church. Reformation Lutheran Church became a crime scene; fundamentalist terrorism.

The right wing media hacks make targets of the left. The fundamentalist reverends blather their intolerance of other Americans. Their marriages are in jeopardy if the GLBT community can walk down an aisle. Their children are going to be molested if you have to rent to a same sex couple. Fear...fear...fear the queer.

Bill O'Reilly's hit piece on Dr. Tiller is a training tape for Christian Fundamentalist Terrorists. Never did he ask the woman interviewed how she, as a 13 year old, got pregnant, who was the father, or where her parents were when she underwent an abortion at Dr. Tiller's clinic. I'm sure O'Reilly's drivel will insist on personal accountability for the murderer. I'm sure he won't be in line for any "accountability" for calling the doctor "Tiller the baby-killer" or his clinic a "death mill."

Are anti-choice groups celebrating today? An abortion doctor is dead so women won't have unwanted pregnancies!

The "war on terror" needs to include domestic religious, fundamentalist terrorists.
Who is next?

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-mapes/no-mercy_b_209529.html

article below:

Your request is being processed...

Mary Mapes

Veteran TV reporter, on the team that broke the Abu Ghraib scandal

Posted: May 31, 2009 05:41 PM

No Mercy

Read More: Abortion, George Tiller, George Tiller Killed, Kansas, Murder, Operation Rescue, Politics News

Buzz u

I felt just sick today when I saw the bulletin about the murder of Dr. George Tiller.

Sicker still when I saw the "sympathy" letter issued by officials at Operation Rescue, the virulent anti-abortion organization that dogged this poor man for the past two decades. The statement said, "We pray for Mr. Tiller's family."

They had better say a few prayers for their own souls. They had better pray for forgiveness for relentlessly working to make this man a target.

Operation Rescue's Web site said the organization was "shocked" by the murder.

Well, I'm not.

This has been a long time coming, and no one has played a greater part in the run-up to the doctor's death than Operation Rescue. Their leaders -- and all of the group's enablers -- should be cowering in shame today.

I was in Wichita, Kansas in 1991 covering Operation Rescue's cruelly misnamed "Summer of Mercy," a six-week ordeal when thousands of anti-abortion protesters descended on Dr. George Tiller.

These "rescuers" -- sweaty mobs of zombie-like true believers -- swarmed across the street in front of the clinic like angry ants. They crawled over the hot asphalt toward his office on their hands and knees. They collapsed onto the stairs, chained themselves to the fence, shrieked prayers and threats and bellowed the Biblical equivalent of evil spells at anyone who approached the place. They fell lifelessly to the ground, some of them swooning and crashing spectacularly to earth.

When I went to Wichita to cover this, I thought I would be assigned there for a day or two. But this became more than a single protest. It turned out to be the birthplace of heartland civil disobedience against abortion and it went on and on and on.

Like the protesters, news people at the siege had a regular daily schedule.

Every day we rose early and raced to the clinic, set up our cameras in the hot Midwestern sun and waited for the anti-abortion performance art to begin.

Like clockwork, Operation Rescue's fleet of air-conditioned buses would pull up an hour before the office opened. Out would pour hundreds and hundreds of protesters eager to lay their lives and their bodies on the line for the "babies."

Wichita police were overpowered and overworked. The protesters were over-excited and overweight.

Day after day, weary local cops had to pick up and drag away protesters by the ton, literally. By the end, all the officers were wearing wide leather lifting belts in an attempt to protect their backs as they struggled to hoist and carry off so much dead weight. Police complained to us bitterly about colleagues who had seriously damaged their backs.

I remember one cop telling me he was praying the protests would stop before he ruined his back and his career.

Every night in the hotel that Operation Rescue designated as its home base, the organization sponsored a "worship service" that featured singing, prayer, sermonizing and a whole lotta snake oil.

Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry, an egotistical, self-aggrandizing super-nerd, commanded the room like a rock star. Women fainted and lay trembling on the ground when he entered to thundering applause and the screams of people who love Jesus so much they act like they're crazy.

The chemistry in the room was unlike anything I've been around, before or since.

In just a few weeks in Wichita, Operation Rescue forged an unholy alliance of sexually repressed super Christians, men who hate women and women who hate themselves and turned them into a supercharged army of bullies for Jesus.

And they were bullies.

In 1991 and until his murder, Dr. Tiller was one of the few doctors in this country who performed late-term abortions. Despite what Operation Rescue claimed, none of his clients were ending pregnancies on a whim. None of them wanted to be there.

Each case was a tragedy -- a much anticipated child discovered to have only a partially formed head, a baby that was dying in the womb and had to be delivered, a child with medical problems so profound as to be unimaginable, a diagnosis that meant a child's life outside its mother's body would be both brief and brutal.

Tiller's clients often included couples who had been hoping to become parents but had their hearts broken late in pregnancy when they received horrifying medical news about their much-wanted babies.

These people got no mercy from Operation Rescue.

They were hounded and harassed, shoved and shouted at on the most heart-breaking day of their lives. In order for patients to make it to their appointments, clinic supporters had to coordinate each woman's arrival with walkie-talkies. They shielded the patient by forming a flying wedge of bodies that rushed through the crowd to escort her into the building.

I watched one woman sobbing as she and her husband were helped into the clinic. Her tears went unnoticed by the hundreds of protestors surrounding her who shrieked and wailed and tried to trip the people escorting her to the door.

It was horrible.

And now, finally, after all the heavy breathing about heaven and God, evil and innocence, Operation Rescue by all appearances has goaded someone into killing George Tiller.

He was shot to death as he worked as an usher at his longtime church. His wife was close by in her regular place in the choir. The circumstances of his murder highlight precisely how hypocritical and grotesque this brand of "morality" is.

The zealots are already feigning shock that something like this could happen. Their partners in crime will soon be doing the same.

I can already envision the backpedaling and rationalizing that we'll hear from longtime Tiller critic Bill O'Reilly. Dr. James Dobson, who hosted the triumphant closing "Summer of Mercy" event that summer in Wichita, will undoubtedly declare himself deeply saddened.

I keep going back to Operation Rescue's catchy slogan for the "Summer of Mercy." They yelled it at everyone within earshot.

"If you believe abortion is murder, act like it's murder."

Maybe they have a point.

After this country's seemingly endless assaults and murders of clinic doctors and staff, the explosions and fire bombings, the vandalism and harassment, it's clear that this violent behavior is not a natural outgrowth of religious belief or moral concerns.

This is not part of a disagreement over when life begins.

This is terrorism.

And if we believe this is terrorism, we need to act like it's terrorism.

No mercy.

Related News On Huffington Post:

George Tiller Killed: Abortion Doctor Shot At Church

***UPDATE*** US Attorney General Eric Holder is dispatching US Marshals to protect abortion clinic and doctors around the country. Holder issued the following statement: The...

George Tiller: Abortion Doctor Shot In 1993, Clinic Bombed In 1985 (PHOTOS)

Buried within the news today about George Tiller, the Kansas abortion doctor, who was gunned down while attending church, is a reference to the multiple...

Recent Cases Of Abortion-Related Violence

A look at recent cases of abortion-related violence: _ May 31, 2009: Prominent late-term abortion provider George Tiller is shot and killed in a Wichita...

George Tiller, Kansas Doctor, Acquitted In Late-Term Abortion Case

WICHITA, Kan. — One of the nation's few late-term abortion providers was acquitted Friday of misdemeanor charges stemming from procedures he performed, but moments after...

Related Blogs On Huffington Post:

Shannyn Moore: Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism

Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism. It's shocking to write, but it's time to start calling it what it is. The "war on terror" needs to include domestic terrorists.

Michelle Kraus: Domestic Terrorism Strikes in the Assassination of Dr. George Tiller

May others pick up the fallen gauntlet, and heroic work of Dr. George Tiller, may his family find solace in his good works, and may he rest in peace.

Cristina Page: The Murder of Dr. Tiller, a Foreshadowing

For those who would like to think today's murder in church of Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider, is an isolated incident, here's the horrifying news: You are wrong.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-mapes/no-mercy_b_209529.html

Bill O'Reilly Crusaded Against George Tiller For Years (VIDEOS)

2009-06-29T13:40:00.033-05:00

Re: next two posts below: "The Hate Spewers and Spreaders", and "Bill O'Reilly; Fire of Hate and Murder".

Videos

Your request is being processed...

Bill O'Reilly Crusaded Against George Tiller For Years (VIDEOS)

First Posted: 06- 1-09 08:59 AM | Updated: 06- 1-09 05:33 PM

Your request is being processed..Bill O'Reilly Crusaded Against George Tiller For Ye

Update: Media Matters has uncovered a 2006 clip from Bill O'Reilly's radio show in which O'Reilly said, "if I could get my hands on Tiller."

His full comments:

OK. So, I'm the fascist, I'm the bad guy, I'm the problem. Not Tiller. No, he -- no, no, no. He's a good guy. Now, Tiller's pumping all kinds of money into obviously the attorney general race. He wants the guy that's gonna let him off the hook to win. Those of you listening in Kansas, you ought to know that. You know, I don't -- I'm not gonna tell you who to vote for. You guys know these guys better than I do, but I tell you what, anything Tiller wants, I'm voting the other way. And if I could get my hands on Tiller -- well, you know. Can't be vigilantes. Can't do that. It's just a figure of speech.

But despicable? Oh, my God. Oh, it doesn't get worse. Does it get worse? No.

Listen:

Original Post: While many Americans may never have heard of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller, who was killed Sunday, his name -- and nickname, "Tiller the Baby-Killer" -- should be familiar to viewers of Fox News' "O'Reilly Factor." Salon's Gabriel Winant reports that Bill O'Reilly has mentioned Tiller on 29 episodes since 2005, most recently in April of this year.

"There's no other person who bears as much responsibility for the characterization of Tiller as a savage on the loose, killing babies willy-nilly thanks to the collusion of would-be sophisticated cultural elites, a bought-and-paid-for governor and scofflaw secular journalists" than O'Reilly, Winant writes.

Some of the things O'Reilly has said of Tiller, according to Salon:

He "destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000."
He's guilty of "Nazi stuff,"
a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida
"This is the kind of stuff that happened in Mao's China, Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union"
"operating a death mill"
"has blood on his hands"
"executing babies about to be born"

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Your request is being pr

Read Winant's full article here.

Watch Salon's collection of clips

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Watch Daily Kos' collection of clips

http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001803

O'Reilly Jihad Against Tiller. (I had difficulty downloading this video. If video doesn't come up after a few moments, please access link to watch brief clip of his hate rhetoric against Dr. Tiller.)

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Watch a 2006 segment:

Note O'Reilly's rude, unprofessional behavior, constantly over riding the statements attempted by his "guest", acting like a prosecuting attorney by demanding "yes or no" replies instead of allowing the guest to explain her position and why , even though he hammers on with his views. He allows no productive dialogue

Watch an ambush segment from earlier this year:

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TVNewser reports that O'Reilly will address Tiller's murder on the Factor Monday night.

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Brad Friedman: O'Reilly Back-Peddles, Tones Back 'Tiller the Killer' Rhetoric on First Show Since Murder

His reportage is still as misleading and inaccurate as ever but we're happy to see O'Reilly toning back his own rhetoric.
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From You Tube :

O'Reilly Rationalizes His Stance

O'Reilly continues to twist the facts. Claims Dr. Tiller performed 60,000 abortions over 35 years BUT leaves the impression it was late term abortions.

Related Blogs On Huffington Post:

Shannyn Moore: Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism

Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism. It's shocking to write, but it's time to start calling it what it is. The "war on terror" needs to include domestic terrorists.

Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:

Jeffrey Feldman: The Politics of "Murder"

This right-wing rhetorical strategy is used so often, people barely give it any notice anymore. Calling people "murderers" and "baby killers" has become a normal part of U.S. media.

Lynn M. Paltrow: In Memory of Dr. George Tiller - He Supported Women's Dignity

Many were women with wanted pregnancies who learned that their baby had no brain, or kidneys growing on the outside of their bodies.

Mike Lux: Political Violence in America

It is undeniably true that there is a dangerous and virulent streak of violence and fascism in American conservatism, now and throughout our country's history.

More Blog Posts: « First Prev 1 2 Next Last »

Bill O'Reilly - Fire of Hate and Murder

2009-06-29T12:46:00.013-05:00

Re: Post below: "The Hate Spewers and Spreaders"

Bill O'Reilly Ignites the Fire of Hate and Kindles the Flames of Murder. He is the BuzzFlash Media Putz of the Weak.

Submitted by Chad on Wed, 06/03/2009 - 9:00pm.

BuzzFlash Honors

BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

Bill O'Reilly

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

This was a special week for the lowest of the low in the media. We had a lot of great nominees for Media Putz. This was a week where these people did NOT win: Glenn Beck for his "Hispanic chick lady" rant; Rush Limbaugh for comparing Sonia Sotomayor to David Duke; and G. Gordon Liddy on the issue of racism, bizarre translations of Spanish, and of course, his fear of menstruating.

No, this week was special because one media figure stood above all the others, even above the previously stated mess. That person is Bill O'Reilly.

O'Reilly skewered Dr. George Tiller 29 times on the air since 2005, often in unbelievable reprehensible style. On Sunday, Dr. George Tiller was assassinated in cold blood inside a church where he worked as an usher.

Often in his rhetoric, O'Reilly would launch into "Tiller, the baby killer, as some call him." Perhaps O'Reilly was correct, some may have called him that. But that speech pattern is prevalent in O'Reilly's work, expressing his own feelings about someone but hiding behind the "some people said" phrasing. After all, some people said O'Reilly wore a toupee during his "Inside Edition" days, but saying so doesn't mean it's true. In his traditional brand of cowardice, O'Reilly backtracked this week without admitting that he did. Though saying that you aren't backtracking means you probably are.

"No backpedaling here, madam [Mary Mapes]. Unlike you, I report honestly. Every single thing we said about Tiller was true, and my analysis was based on those facts."

But it's not true.

"Dr. George Tiller destroys fetuses for just about any reason, right up until the birth date."

Nope, Kansas law requires that two independent doctors agree that the mother would not be at risk of irreparable harm by giving birth.

"If you want to kill a baby, you hire Tiller. You've got to pay him $5,000 up front, and he'll kill the baby."

Tiller performed the procedure on girls as young as 10 who were victims of incest. It's doubtful that Tiller charged a 10-year-old girl $5,000 or demanded that up front before performing the procedure.

"This is the kind of stuff happened in Mao's China, Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union."

No, this isn't. Again, Kansas law -- a rather conservative state -- has careful procedures to make sure there are legitimate reasons for doing so. And the women who have these procedures aren't being forced into procedures by any government official. But again, when you compare something to Mao or Hitler or Stalin, you are often, often wrong.

But O'Reilly isn't interested in these women's stories. He was dismissive of their reasoning, even as O'Reilly wasn't even referring to specific instances. Disagreeing with a person's reasons for doing something is one thing, but when you don't even have the energy or concern to address them correctly, you undermine your own legitimacy.

When you listen to the stories of these women who wanted to be anywhere but where they were, of brains growing outside of skulls, of fetuses that were going to be born dead, you may not agree with them, but without that perspective, and the facts O'Reilly conveniently ignores, you can't make a true judgment on this story.

(Article text continues below after Obermann's anti-O'Reilly video. If video is duplicated, I couldn't successfully delete the duplication )

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

In watching the tapes about O'Reilly, you can see that the truth of what Dr. George Tiller did never entered his brain, that O'Reilly never considered the stories of these women. Instead, it's this false anger, this television emotion not geared at true anger over someone, but in a way to propel others to express his anger outside the television box.

This isn't to say that Bill O'Reilly killed Dr. George Tiller with his rhetoric, but O'Reilly did foster an unhealthy climate and obsession against the doctor with his reckless, inaccurate diatribes.

When you deliberately lie about what Dr. Tiller was doing in Kansas, when you distort the reasoning behind tough, crucial decisions, when you rise up countless times in fake TV anger, when you send your producers to stalk this non-public figure because you are too damn afraid to do it yourself, then you have crossed the line of decency and gone way past any sense of responsibility. We are sorry that we can only offer Bill O'Reilly one week's worth of being the Media Putz of the Week.

Bill O'Reilly previously won the Media PUTZ of the week on March 26, 2009, February 12, 2009, September 4, 2008, and July 5, 2007. You can see a list of all previous nominees here.

BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

Technorati Tags: BuzzFlash Honors Media Putz Bill O'Reilly George Tiller Tiller the Baby Killer Fox News Channel

The Hate Spewers and Spreaders

2009-06-12T15:49:00.003-05:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rowe/the-holocaust-museum-shoo_b_214133.html

Michael Rowe

Award-winning journalist and author of Other Men's SonsPosted: June 11, 2009 01:53 AM

Death at the Holocaust Museum and the Degradation of the American Dialogue

Ann Coulter, the self-described "conservative Christian" right-wing talking head, is much on my mind as I contemplate the horrifying images that came out of Washington from the Holocaust Museum, where white supremacist James von Brunn opened fire in an attempted mass-murder of Jews. His killing spree was cut short by security guard Stephen Tyrone Jones who put himself in the line of fire and died so others might live.

I am remembering an October 2007 segment of the Donny Deutsch Show where Coulter asserted that America would be better off if everyone was Christian and that "the Jews" merely needed to be "perfected" through conversion.

Coulter has made her fortune by generating, fanning, and nurturing hatred and contempt for a variety of people, including liberals, Democrats, gays, foreign nationals, 9/11 widows, feminists, single mothers, Muslims, and any other group she could throw to her disenfranchised readership as shark bait.

To Coulter, referring to Jews as "imperfect" on a talk show hosted by an observant Jewish host must have seemed like just another day at the office. Coulter shook her blond hair and tittered, as though waiting to be found witty, charming, and adorably irascible. Oh Ann, you minx! You're just pushing everyone's buttons, aren't you? Shame on you, you dead-sexy fascist pin-up. Stop teasing. You don't really mean that. I mean, not really, right? Right?

Deutsch, clearly appalled, pointed out that the comment was not only patently absurd, but also hateful. Coulter giggled. A gold crucifix gleamed against her bony clavicle. "No," she said, "it's not hateful at all."

This week, nearly two years later, James von Brunn, driven by his own twisted version of Coulter's publicly-proclaimed perspectives regarding the "imperfection" of Jews, entered the Holocaust Museum in Washington and put them into action, with tragic and deadly consequences.

Much the same thing happened on May 31st when Scott Roeder entered the Reformation Lutheran Church during Sunday services and slaughtered abortion provider provider Dr. George Tiller. Media analysts continue to explore a possible continuum between Tiller's murder and FOX host Bill O'Reilly's well-documented on-air tirades against the doctor, whom he repeatedly called "Tiller the Baby Killer." O'Reilly broadcast his vendetta to millions and millions of FOX viewers already infected with evangelical superstitions and a horror of science, especially science as it applies to a woman's right to choose.

If O'Reilly had been a serious journalist or broadcaster instead of a sclerotic, chronically-aggravated right-wing rage pimp, he might have had the professional self-awareness or ethical sense to realize that he was putting George Tiller's life in danger over the more than 28 broadcasts in which he used Tiller's name. But O'Reilly, like, for Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and indeed Coulter herself (to name only the gratin of that particular food chain) is neither of those things.

As a group, they are the pop culture equivalent of necrotic carrion beetles, crawling with insectile determination from one infected open wound in the American psyche to another. The wounds include fear of race, fear of foreigners, fear of sexuality, fear of difference, hysterical religious fundamentalism, violent nationalism, and paranoia. They lay their eggs in the infected abrasion, then scuttle away. When the eggs hatch, disgorging rage and discontent, they start counting money.

When challenged on the inherently destructive nature of their enterprise, they invariably claim that their First Amendment right to free speech is being abrogated. Or, like Ann Coulter defensively does in those instances, they cite their place on the New York Times bestseller list. Or the ratings. In other words, since people buy it, watch it, or listen to it in huge numbers, it must have merit, and it must be right.

The difference between John McCain and Sarah Palin became clearest to me in the middle of the campaign last summer.

At a town hall meeting, McCain was confronted by an elderly woman who told McCain that she was a supporter of his because Obama was "an Arab." McCain was clearly uncomfortable, and it was patently obvious why. It had nothing to do with McCain's feelings about Arabs. It had to do with an old-school Republican accidentally moving the rock, and coming face to face with what actually lived beneath it. He recognized that the woman was making an unambiguously racist statement about his opponent, and he was mortified to be asked to answer it. Even though McCain famously and horribly bungled his answer ("No ma'am, he isn't. He's a decent family man.") I knew when he meant. He was addressing the intended racial slur and disavowing it, however badly.

In that moment, I felt deeply for my Republican friends who, on some level, must also be experiencing the embarrassment and discontent of recognizing that their party had been hijacked by racists and religious fanatics who derided education and achievement as "elitist."

Sarah "Screw the Political Correctness" Palin, on the other hand, seemed right at home. She marched into those same crowds grinning and winking, and "Yoo betcha-ing" like she was onstage at the Miss Alaska pageant. While her supporters waved watermelon slices and stuffed monkeys, Palin talked about who the "real Americans" were, and who was "palling around with terrorists." She refused to address the blatant racism of her fans, or address the obvious exploitation of Obama's middle name, Hussein, and the implication she herself was making with her "terrorist" comments.

She was, after all, playing to the accurately-named Republican "base," the same crowd to whom George Bush had sold his second presidential term by pandering to their darkest and most cowardly aspect. This time out it was fear of gay marriage and adoption, carefully tended fear of another 9/11, fear of more fallout from a war they still didn't believe he'd lied about.

One can almost appreciate the horrible honesty of the racists among the McCain-Palin supporters who were able to admit what the others obfuscated: that they didn't want a black man in the White House. Certain videos from their rallies are deeply disturbing. They showcase the seething racism of her most ardent followers.

History has already recorded their obsession with Obama's origins, his religious background, and his citizenship, which remains an obsession among them today.

Obama's citizenship was reportedly also something of an obsession for von Brunn, and likely very much on his mind when he walked into the museum and opened fire to make a statement about what "his" America ought to look like. I have no trouble imagining which radio stations he listened to, or which pundits best represented his baseline political ideology. And why. Even FOX's Shep Smith has said he's disturbed by the escalating virulence and menace of the anti-Obama emails the station is receiving.

There was a time when decency, even honor, was an essential part of the American dialogue in its most ideal form, and part of its very identity. There was a time when our culture would have recoiled in horror at the vituperation flowing unchecked from radios, televisions, and the Internet, instead of applauding it as "common sense," "free speech," or "mavericky," or "a spin-free zone."

There was a time when intellectual honesty was not considered unpatriotic; when compassion for, and understanding of, your fellow man was a sign of strength, not weakness. There was a time when the phrase Have you no shame? meant something, and the First Amendment was not used as toilet paper to wipe up the excremental verbal degradation of vulnerable segments of the American population. A time when it was expected that citizens would understand the difference between free speech and irresponsible speech. Somewhere along the line, a cancerous segment of American popular culture and media cunningly exploited the long-standing, honorable American "cowboy" motif and mentality. They grafted cruelty, divisiveness, and ignorance to it, making the two appear indistinguishable, and natural allies. And they are neither, or at least ought not to be.

There is no Environmental Protection Agency to measure hate pollution in national dialogue, and no mechanism in place to warn us when the poisonous rage spewed into the national consciousness by shock-jocks, poisonous television pundits, megachurch leaders, and oh-so-subtle politicians, has reached dangerously toxic levels.

No, there is only the result: widows, orphans, collective grief, and an absolute refusal on the part of our loudest, coarsest voices to take any responsibility for their part in the carnage.

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Cheney-Wes Craven Horror Monster

2009-06-12T01:37:00.012-05:00

John Feffer: Scream 4: Cheney Returns. If Wes Craven decided to make a horror movie out of the last year of U.S. politics, he would definitely cast Dick Cheney as the monster that can't be silenced.

Scream 4: Cheney Returns

John Feffer
Posted: May 26, 2009 04:14 PM

Horror movies usually follow the same script. The monster - whether genetically modified, abused as a child, or flown in from Alpha Centauri - picks off the frightened teenagers one by one. After many thrills and chills, the hero drives a stake through the heart of the beast. Finally, just as we're finishing off the last of our popcorn in relief, the not-quite-dead monster makes one last attempt to dispatch the hero. It fails, but not before we've dumped popcorn all over our laps.

If Wes Craven decided to make a horror movie out of the last year of U.S. politics, he would definitely cast Dick Cheney as the monster that can't be silenced. The former vice president is Leatherface, Jason, and Freddie Krueger all rolled into one: lawless, methodical, and unpredictable with firearms. He's had more sequels than Chucky: White House chief of staff, House minority whip, secretary of defense, CEO of Halliburton, vice president, and now rogue pundit.

In the last presidential elections, the voters repudiated the Cheney legacy. But like Glenn Close in her final scene in Fatal Attraction, Cheney's not yet down for the ten-count. As the various TV appearances and his speech last week at the conservative thinktank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) suggest, he's still got some fight in him.

Frankly, Barton Gellman's book Angler should have KO'd the man politically. Here's a guy who not only stage-managed the vice-presidential search for George W. Bush and then took the position himself but also extracted confidential information during the search process that he subsequently used against his potential adversaries. Here's a guy who assembled the crack legal team - or was it a legal team on crack? - that provided the constitutional argument for expanding executive power, upending domestic and international law, and justifying torture. Here's a guy who created a real Secret Team inside the Bush administration that bypassed the State Department, Congress, and all normal procedures.

And yet, like Nixon emerging from the grave of Watergate, Cheney has sought to rebuild his reputation as the national security conscience of his party. "On the question of so-called torture, we don't do torture," he argued in a December interview on ABC. "We never have." He defended the intelligence data that the administration cooked in order to persuade the country to go to war against Iraq. He declared the "global war on terror" still on and Guantanamo still indispensable.

But last week, he went further. At AEI, he attacked The New York Times for uncovering his secret surveillance program that collected untold amount of information about U.S. citizens and should have outraged every privacy-minded conservative in the country. He argued that "enhanced interrogation techniques" provided critical information that prevented the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. He warned the Obama administration of closing Guantanamo and bringing terrorists "inside the United States" as though the president were about to release them on the streets of New York. It was a speech, to quote Cheney himself, that reeked of "recklessness cloaked in righteousness."

The AEI speech, like Cheney's performance as vice president, was rife with misstatements and calculated distortions. As journalists Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel point out, the CIA inspector general, FBI director, and director of national intelligence all concur that there is no proof that the information gained through torture thwarted any attacks. The Abu Ghraib abuses were not, as Cheney claimed, the result of a few sadistic guards but the result of orders from top administration officials. Most of those detained in Guantanamo have not been "ruthless enemies of this country" but innocent people or low-level combatants without any valuable intelligence.

If you don't believe journalists - because, as Cheney implies, they don't have the best interests of the country at heart - consider the perspective of the chief U.S. interrogator in Iraq, Matthew Alexander. "Torture and abuse became Al Qaida's number one recruiting tool and cost us American lives," Alexander writes. "Our greatest success in this conflict was achieved without torture or abuse. My interrogation team found Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaida in Iraq and murderer of tens of thousands. We did this using relationship-building approaches and non-coercive law enforcement techniques."

Of course, Dick Cheney has never been particularly interested in the truth. He wants to achieve his goals. And it appears that he is having some effect.

By rallying the conservative forces and putting pressure on invertebrate Democrats, Cheney has influenced national policy. The Senate refused to appropriate money for the closure of Guantanamo and the transfer of the prisoners. The president has refused to support a truth commission. More ominously, the Obama administration is now working out its own policy of "preventive detention" - indefinitely holding people that can't be charged and tried in U.S. courts - that violates fundamental American legal principles. In his speech at the National Archives last week, Obama defended his important departures from Bush-era policy (end of torture, closure of Guantanamo) but also showed the influence of Cheney in his emphasis on war, "taking the fight to the extremists," and military commissions.

Liberal commentators have generally been enthusiastic about Obama's caution. Just check out The Washington Post's liberal stable: David Broder praised Obama and Cheney for both opposing a truth commission; "Obama has mostly called it right," observes Ruth Marcus; and E.J. Dionne, Jr. is delighted at the resurrection of cold war liberalism. Cheney makes Obama look good. But he also pulls the president further to the right.

Dick Cheney is not just fighting for his principles. He is fighting for his career and those of the team that bent the Constitution to their will. No one expects that the villains in horror movies will observe Marquess of Queensbury rules. The same applies to the former vice president. Expect more down-and-dirty fighting from Dick Cheney. This is one nightmare from which we haven't quite woken up.

Crossposted from Foreign Policy In Focus where you can read the full post.

..........................................

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WWII Love Remembered

2009-06-04T05:01:00.001-05:00

......................................................................................

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1190664/On-eve-D-Day-anniversary-achingly-poignant-story-love-Nazi-snipers-bullet-kill.html

Thursday, Jun 04 2009

On the eve of the D-Day anniversary, the achingly poignant story of the love a Nazi sniper's bullet could not kill

By Frances Hardy
Last updated at 8:25 AM on 04th June 2009

They met at the rollerskating rink in Swindon, a social hub for wartime teenagers where the more accomplished could dance on their skates.

The young American soldier strode up to Monica Tovey and said: 'Hi honey. May I take you on the skating floor for a waltz?'

'He was tall, charming and wellspoken,' she recalls. 'We'd heard the accent on films, of course, but for all we knew of America then, he could have come from the moon.'

Wartime romance: Monica Tovey was just 16 when she became engaged to paratrooper Martin Collins

Monica accepted the invitation - and began a sweetly innocent love affair that would end in tragedy, but bring her golden memories for the rest of her life.

On Saturday, Monica Tovey will place a posy of bright flowers in a hedge that skirts a Wiltshire field as she has done on the anniversary of D-Day for the past 65 years.

She will say a silent prayer for the first man she ever loved, who died in action on that day. And in this small, private act of remembrance she will replicate the sorrow and pride of countless others bereaved in the Second World War.

Monica's story is a poignant one. She was just 16 when she became engaged to that American paratrooper, Martin Collins. Martin, then 19, was stationed at the U.S. Army base in Ramsbury, close to Monica's home in Swindon, as he trained for his battalion's crucial role in the Normandy Landings.

'Martin was always the perfect gentleman'

Monica, though too young to join officially, was attached to the local Land Army - women who worked in the fields in place of the men who had gone to war. After six months of courtship, Martin proposed to her in the spring of 1944.

Monica accepted, but her happiness was shortlived.

She didn't see Martin after D-Day. Although he landed safely in France on June 6, dropping by parachute with his comrades, he was shot dead by a German sniper later in the day.

Monica bore her loss stoically, but she never forgot him. Although she was later happily married to electronics engineer Arthur Tovey, who died 17 years ago, on every D-Day anniversary she has made her pilgrimage to the site of the U.S. base in Love's Lane, Ramsbury, to place her bouquet of garden flowers at the field's edge.

And this year she will be accompanied by Martin's sister Anna Black, 83, and his niece Mary-Lou, who have flown from the U.S. to meet her for the first time, having traced her two years ago.

'Whatever will it be like to meet the "wonderful" girl my brother told us about in his letters home all those years ago?' Anna wrote to Monica.

So fond, indeed, were Anna's feelings towards Martin's English fiance that she named one of her daughters after her.

Now 81, Monica remembers her first sighting of the U.S. servicemen, newly arrived in Wiltshire. She says: 'They were the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division and they were nicknamed the Screaming Eagles after the bird of prey embroidered on their arm badge.

Never forgotten: Monica Tovey will pause to remember her lost love on D-Day

And, though we didn't realise at the time, they were the elite. They had to undergo incredibly rigorous training, both mentally and physically. It broke those who were not up to it.

'They were slim and fit and had flat-top crew cuts. And, of course, they were all so smart. Even the privates looked like officers in their beautifully tailored uniforms, cut from fine cloth which made the rough serge of my dad's Home Guard uniform look homespun.'

Monica accepted Martin's invitation to waltz on the roller-skating rink. A striking, leggy brunette, she was also an accomplished dancer.

Martin had learned to iceskate during the frozen winters of his boyhood in northern Pennsylvania. The couple made a striking pair on the rink, whirling round to foxtrots, military two- steps and waltzes, to the accompaniment of a live band.

'After three or four evenings, Martin asked for permission to walk me home,' recalls Monica. She introduced him to her father Francis Trim, a builder, and mother Joan. They found Martin charming and a chaste courtship ensued. It was several weeks before Martin requested permission to give Monica a peck on the cheek.

'A few days later, he said: "May I kiss you, Monica?" ' she recalls. 'And that was my first proper kiss. I was 15 and I still remember how lovely it was.'

But Martin, who had 'delightful' manners, never took advantage of her innocence. 'There was never more than a nice kiss and cuddle,' she recalls. 'Of course, there was the saying that the Americans were "over-paid, over-sexed and over here", but Martin was always the perfect gentleman.

'The young British servicemen were understandably jealous because the Americans were very highly paid and so beautifully turned out. That was why they were stationed in different parts of the county from the British boys.'

The teenage love affair grew under the watchful eye of Monica's mother, who treated Martin as one of the family.

'He became a regular visitor to our home,' Monica recalls. 'He'd call and take me out to milk bars, lovely art deco palaces of glass and chrome where we drank cream sodas while Glenn Miller records played in the background.'

'I knew as soon as his buddies approached me they had bad news'

'The Americans taught us to jitterbug and jive. They took to the floor and we couldn't believe our eyes. They were giddy, risque dances - nothing like the demure ballroom steps we'd learned - and our skirts would whoosh up, giving daring glimpses of our knickers. My mother thought it was disgraceful.

'We went to the cinemas to see morale-boosting films starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Hedy Lamarr. 'They were lovely, lighthearted and full of fun because we were trying to forget the grim business of war. We went for long, lingering country walks. Martin loved nature, flowers and trees.'

Monica's brother Graeme, who is nine years her junior, also liked the young American and was invited to children's parties at the U.S. base, where such rare gifts as oranges and bananas were dispensed. The pretence that life was a round of carefree pleasure persisted.

But it couldn't last. Messages reached Monica that Martin was absent on secret military exercises. 'We'd see the Dakota planes flying overhead and we knew the paratroopers were off to do a practice jump,' she says.

The unspoken fear persisted that death could cut short their romance. And Monica knew that the mission to France on which Martin would shortly be engaged would be as hazardous as any wartime operation. 'But you couldn't worry. You were expected to be strong,' she says.

However, as D-Day loomed, Martin planned to formalise their love affair. He proposed in March 1944. Monica can still recall the moment.

'It was a lovely feeling. My heart turned a somersault,' she says. 'I'll remember it all my life. We walked through the fields and Martin stopped at a five-bar gate. He asked if we could become engaged and then, if it all worked out, he said he'd come to fetch me and take me back to America, where he planned to take over the family farm.'

'Those early days of a first, shared love are so heady and wonderful. I said I'd accept - as long as Mum and Dad gave their blessing. They loved Martin like a second son, but Mum was concerned. She said: "You have to face the fact that Martin could be killed. You must steel yourself to accept whatever might happen with strength."

'But she said, on condition I did so, neither she nor Dad would stand in my way. She knew we were in love and she believed Martin should go to war in a happy frame of mind.'

Monica duly chose a solitaire diamond ring that formalised their engagement. Her mother threw a party in the village hall and for a few weeks their happiness was complete. Then, without warning, Martin and his comrades were confined to camp.

'There was no notice, no chance of a farewell kiss,' recalls Monica. 'Word just reached me that I couldn't see Martin. We knew the men would be working to get to the peak of their physical fitness and we guessed that something big was about to happen. But in those days you didn't blab - we were told "Be like dad: keep mum" - because we knew a careless word could cost lives.'

'Sometimes I sense him behind me,' she says. 'I feel if I were to turn round very quickly, I'd see him there'

Much later Monica learned that the paratroopers were preparing for a mission as vital to the success of the D-Day campaign as it was perilous. A new book - Tonight We Die As Men - records the heroism of the 575 men who were dropped from planes into Normandy on the night of June 5, 1944.

Only 140 survived to complete their mission - the holding of two strategically vital wooden bridges over the Douve River at Brevands, which prevented the Germans crossing with reinforcements to the Normandy beaches.

Martin was one of the casualties. He was shot by a woman sniper - the German female soldiers were noted for their accuracy - at St Mere Eglise. He died instantly.

It was several weeks before the news reached Monica. She was dancing at the skating rink when a group of Martin's comrades arrived with the solemn tidings.

'The music continued,' she recalls. 'The skaters danced on round and round. I knew as soon as his buddies approached me they had bad news.

'They did not mince words. They told me Martin had been killed on D-Day. I felt my stomach lurch. It was as if my whole self was disintegrating. This lovely, positive soul, this force for good, was no longer in this world.

'The boys told me to get my coat. They walked me home and I cried floods. Mother knew the instant she saw me what had happened. She said she felt her heart stop.'

Monica knew, too, that she must honour her promise to her mother and not wallow in her grief. So she simply carried on.

'There was death and chaos all around you,' she reflects. 'I was not alone. I knew I had to pull myself together. So I went to bed and had a jolly good cry.

'Then the next morning I was up, dry-eyed and very early, to go to work with the Land Girls. And they were a wonderful support. They walked me home for ages afterwards.'

Six-and-a-half decades have passed since that day. Monica went on to marry Arthur Tovey and spent 34 happy years with him. Now, she remains capable, kind and energetic.

She enjoyed careers in nursing and as a civilian with the fire service, and although she had no children of her own, she revels in the company of her nieces and nephews.

But throughout the passing years, Martin has never been far from her thoughts. She keeps the poem he wrote in her autograph book which expresses, in its last line, the tender and poignantly unrealised hope: 'I shall be returning for the dearest friend of mine.'

As she makes her annual D-Day pilgrimage to Love's Lane, there will be solace in the company of Anna and Mary-Lou, who traced her via her brother after he wrote of his wartime memories of Ramsbury in a local newspaper.

She will go with them, bearing, as always, her bouquet of early summer garden blooms that Martin loved so much. And there is little doubt she will feel his presence around her.

'Sometimes I sense him behind me,' she says. 'I feel if I were to turn round very quickly, I'd see him there. To be remembered is a wonderful thing.'

• Tonight We Die As Men: The Untold Story Of Third Battalion 506 Infantry Regiment From Toccoa to D-Day, by Ian Gardner and Roger Day, is published by Osprey at £20

Insignia

Screaming Eagles

Coat of Arms

Patch

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

Beautiful Flowers

2009-06-03T09:53:00.021-05:00

The 15 Most Beautiful Flowers In The World

XCanna
Cannas not only feature pretty blossoms, but also beautiful leaves (often likened to that of the banana plant) that come in a variety of stunning colors. Popularized in Victorian times, Cannas are popular garden plants.
XCherry Blossom
The unofficial flower of Japan, the spectacular display of blossoms that arrive in the spring are celebrated by festivals both in Japan and the U.S. The most popular colors are white and pink. They are beautiful while on the trees and remain a stunning sight even after carpeting the ground.
XColorado Columbine
Growing high in the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado Columbine is a welcome reward for the enterprising climbers of Colorado's 14,000-foot high mountains. Picking one in the wild carries a fine ($5-$50 depending on the Ranger who catches you)!
XHydrangea
Magical snowball puffs in fall: gorgeous. The clusters of star-shaped blossoms, often found in delicate pastel hues, embody innocence. They are popular in wedding bouquets and as garden flowers.
XLily of the Valley
A delicate and fragrant sign of spring, the Lily of the Valley has inspired a number of legends. One such Christian legend explains that the tears that Mary shed at the cross turned to Lilies of the Valley, prompting the flower to sometimes be referred to as "Our Lady's Tears." Another legend tells of Lilies of the Valley springing from the blood of St. George during his battle with the dragon.
XCalla Lily
While visually stunning and elegant, this beautiful flower is actually a member the poisonous species, Zantedeschia. All parts of the plant are highly toxic, with the capability to kill livestock and children if ingested.
XBlack Eyed Susan
The black eyed susan, a cheerful wildflower, is a perennial that serves as a beautiful back drop in any garden. The contrast of the bright gold yellow petals and dark middle makes it any easy one to spot and recognize. This official drink of the Preakness stakes horse race is named after this flower, consisting of 2 parts Bourbon whiskey, 1 part citrus vodka, 3 parts sweet & sour mix, one part orange juice and garnished with orange and a cocktail cherry.
XBleeding Heart
These whimsical, almost fairy-like blossoms are a traditional favorite in shady gardens. The flowers are either red, pink or white and appear in April-June.
XBlue Bells
In spring, many European woods are covered by dense carpets of this flower; these are commonly referred to as "bluebell woods". It is thought that they were named by the romantic poets of the 19th century, who felt they symbolized solitude and regret.
XLantana
These delicate flowers, with their pink and yellow petals, are butterfly magnets. The bush can grow to be quite large and the color of the petals change as the plant ages. Beware - Lantana is considered a weed by many that is quite difficult to get rid of.
XRose
Roses are one of the most romantic and wonderfully scented of flowers. The giving of roses is steeped in tradition and cultural meaning, from the yellow rose of friendship to the deep red rose of true love.
XOriental Poppy
This perennial poppy has a delicate and striking color. After flowering in the spring, their foliage dies back entirely, only to grow new leaves once again with the autumn rains. The Oriental Poppy is the flower of The Wizard of Oz.
XMussaenda erythrophylla (Ashanti Blood, Red Flag Bush, Tropical Dogwood)
These plants are native to the Old World tropics, from West Africa through the Indian sub-continent, Southeast Asia and into southern China. The beautiful red and yellow petals are a real showstopper. A favorite of not only of gardeners, but also butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.
XBegonia
The first Begonia was introduced into England in 1777. Now one of the most popular flowers grown in the United States, Begonias are prized for their flowers as well as their leaves. This versatile plant can be grown either inside or out.
XIxora
Ixora flowers, also commonly called West Indian Jasmine, are often used in Hindu worship, as well as in Indian folk medicine. This plant has traditionally been associated with enhanced sexuality and the re-kindling of passion. Who wouldn't want that as a gift!
XDendrobium
Dendrobium is a large genus of tropical orchids that include over a thousand species. The sprays of flowers are so delicate and yet so perfectly formed, they appear magical.

Image credits from top: MShades, lisaschaos, maynard, olvwu, stanzim, todorrovic, good_day, natashap, joeshlabotnik, hands_of_sand, 5348 Franco, liisamaria, neal1960, scilit, andreasgraemiger

Anal Poisoning; An Epidemic

2009-05-28T02:58:00.008-05:00

http://open.salon.com//blog/dorian_de_wind/2009/05/20/anal_poisoning_an_epidemic

MAY 20, 2009 5:29PM

Anal Poisoning. An Epidemic

Dorian de Wind

Last Friday, I was blissfully reading an article by one of my favorite columnists, Joan Walsh at Salon.com, when I came across the name of a disease that I hadn’t heard of before. Obviously quite a serious disease as apparently many people are going to die of it.

The disease is “anal poisoning.”

Since English is an acquired language to me, I wrote it off to unfamiliarity with the language and asked my doctor friend, a pathologist, about it. He had never observed this phenomenon in his “patients,” nor was he familiar with the term, although he mentioned that mercury or arsenic when inserted into the proper place might produce such results.

Well, my next place for such research was, of course, Google.

And, lo and behold, there were 15,000 references for “anal poisoning.”

I thought that I had hit the mother lode on this perilous medical condition. But to my surprise, every one of the references I looked at—I stopped after about the 400th entry—was somehow related to that famous entertainer (some refer to him as the de facto leader of the GOP), Rush Limbaugh.

It was déjà vu to the time when, if one Googled “miserable failure,” a million references to George W. Bush popped up.

Still looking for a medical description of the disease, I delved a little deeper into some of the references.

One link took me to a column by Jason Linkins at the Huffington Post, a column that includes a video of the man "on loan from God" recently insulting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown “with a mental image that one must work at to un-think about, warning that if the British Prime Minister keeps ‘slobbering’ over President Barack Obama, he’ll ‘come down with anal poisoning and may die from it.’”

Another reference took me back to February, 2008, when Dr. Limbaugh implied that the disease was quite contagious and made a double diagnosis. When asked on his radio show by a caller whether he thought McCain would pick Sen. Lindsey Graham as his running mate, Dr. Limbaugh diagnosed: “I may be wrong … Lindsey Graham is certainly close enough to [McCain] to die of anal poisoning.”

Apparently this disease has been around for a while. Back on January 5, 2007, Dr. Limbaugh prematurely diagnosed the former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe’s condition by saying that he “will die of anal poisoning because he is so close to drilling Hillary [Clinton].”

I thought that I’d finally hit upon the medical term when I came across the entry “J Anal Toxicol.”

But it was not to be. J Anal Toxicol stands for the Journal of Analytical Toxicology (JAT), the international source for practical clinical/forensic applications for isolating and identifying potentially toxic substances.

I decided to crank up the intensity a little bit by Googling “acute anal poisoning.”

There were five references to “acute anal poisoning.”

One was a “fake news” one on Rush Limbaugh’s girlfriend—obviously off limits.

Two were on Willie Nelson and George W. Bush and were not written or spoken by an authority like Dr. Limbaugh, thus to be ignored.

The last two were in Japanese, with the only English words being “acute anal poisoning.”

I don’t understand Japanese, and I decided not to pursue those references.

Not being any wiser as to this medical condition, I went back to the Joan Walsh column to see who was the latest patient thusly diagnosed by Dr. Limbaugh.

It was worse than I thought.

Apparently the disease has become pandemic.

According to Dr. Kevorkian Limbaugh, “Obama knows he’s being followed around by a bunch of sycophants who are going to die of anal poisoning…”

Horrified, I consulted a book written by soon-to-be U.S. Senator Al Franken, and was somewhat relieved when I found what could be a reason for Dr. Limbaugh’s alarming prediction and intense interest in this disease.

In his best-selling “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot,” Franken writes about the military draft history of this man, who never served in the military: “According to Limbaugh, the physical deferment was for either a ‘football knee from high school’ or a ‘pilonidal cyst’”

I’ll spare the reader what Franken himself calls a “disgusting” description of this medical problem.

I am sure there are other explanations for Limbaugh’s fixation with all things anal.

One day, we may know the full story.

Author tags:

books, satire, limbaugh, gossip, politics, health

Right attacks, undermines Left

2009-05-28T00:53:00.008-05:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/betting-on-failure-the-ri_b_207952.html

Betting on Failure: The Right's Story

Congressional Republicans are marginally more popular and significantly less contagious than the swine flu. Even conservatives are keeping their distance. House leader John Boehner's perpetual tan has become a presidential punch line. Senate leader Mitch Dr. No McConnell is known only for obstruction. Ideologues like Rush rush to fill the leadership vacuum, seeking to purge the party of any lingering moderates. It's gotten so bad that neo-con Bill Kristol suggests that leading presidential candidates for 2012 might well be the oft disgraced Newt Gingrich and..gulp.. Darth Cheney himself. [ GF:NO! NO! NOOOOO!]

Cheney and Gingrich are worth paying attention to - not as presidential contenders but as very sophisticated conservative political combatants. Both are brass knuckled politicians, steeped in the Lee Atwater school of anything goes wedge politics. And both are laying down clear markers for the debate to come.

Cheney's torture campaign managed to spook querulous Democrats about Guantanamo and force Obama into the lists to respond to him. Cheney's speeches were less analysis than rant, but they told a clear story:

[GF:Cheney Bull Shit lies - same=o same=o as during Bush Administration]

"America is at war. Evil enemies lurk in dark corners. After 911, the Bush administration took the steps necessary - some of them harsh, some unspeakable, but all necessary - to keep us safe. Now Obama is dismantling vital elements in that protection, emboldening our enemies, confusing our friends, and weakening our defenses."

In Cheney's words, "The administration seems to pride itself on searching for some kind of middle ground in policies addressing terrorism... But in the fight against terrorism, there is no middle ground, and half-measures keep you half exposed...There is never a good time to compromise when the lives and safety of the American people are in the balance."

Cheney is betting on failure. He has set Obama up to take the rap if there is another terrorist strike in America, or if things go badly in Iraq or Afghanistan. He's essentially advising Republicans to forget the moderating steps of the Bush second term, and to draw a bright line in assailing any retreat, any compromise, any turn to legal or constitutional niceties.

Gingrich pursues the same strategy on the economy, only he's willing to throw Bush under the bus. In his speech before the Conservative Political Action Convention, he lacerated Obama for ushering in the "European socialist" takeover of America's economy. At same time, he tied Obama to Bush in what he calls "a Bush-Obama big spending program that was bipartisan in its nature. Last year the Bush Obama plan had a 180 billion stimulus package in the spring which failed. It came back with a 345 billion housing package in the summer which failed. It then had a 700 billion Wall Street bailout in October which failed. It had a 4 trillion dollar Federal Reserve guaranty which failed. The Bush-Obama plan was continued. We didn't get real change. ..We got big spending under Bush, now we have big spending under Obama, and so we have two new failures."

Gingrich recycles the old standards of the Reagan conservative mantra to describe the choice facing the country:

"They have shared openly and honestly with us their vision of higher taxes, bigger government, more bureaucracy, greater corruption, more political power by people unworthy of doing it, and a policy which will kill jobs, cripple the economy, trap children in schools that are disasters and weaken America's future. They have every right to have that vision and we have every right to go to the polls and defeat it.
[GF: Sounds like what has happened the past 8 years under Bush!! Except "openly and honestly". Bush era was secretive, deceptive- lies and corruption.]
We should have as a goal 435 campaigns in this country of people dedicated to representative government, to lower taxes, to less power in Washington and to taking back from the bureaucracy the power it can't possibly use over the American economy."

In Gingrich's speeches, there is very little on how we got into the mess we are in. Rather the focus is on the failure to get the economy going and the choice going forward.

Again, Gringrich is betting on failure. If, as is likely, unemployment keeps rising over the next year, foreclosures continue, any recovery is halting at best, Gingrich's argument is designed to blame Obama rather than the mess that conservatives left him.

Democrats must engage on this level of analysis. That is why the mantra of not "litigating the past" is foolish. Democrats have to tell clearly the story of how we got into the hole we are in -- both abroad and at home.

Obama is the best at this. His response to Cheney was compelling, but circumscribed:

Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions. I believe that many of these decisions were motivated by a sincere desire to protect the American people. But I also believe that all too often our [Bush] government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight; that all too often our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions. Instead of strategically applying our power and our principles, too often we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford. And during this season of fear, too many of us -- Democrats and Republicans, politicians, journalists, and citizens -- fell silent.

...I categorically reject the assertion that these [waterboarding and other tortures] are the most effective means of interrogation. What's more, they undermine the rule of law. They alienate us in the world. They serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists, and increase the will of our enemies to fight us, while decreasing the will of others to work with America. They risk the lives of our troops by making it less likely that others will surrender to them in battle, and more likely that Americans will be mistreated if they are captured. In short, they did not advance our war and counterterrorism efforts -- they undermined them, and that is why I ended them once and for all.
[GF: All true! America has been tarnished and degraded by Bush/Cheney Administration]

On the economy, Obama has evoked the language of biblical parable in contrasting the economy built on sand with that build on rock. The economy built on sand, begun under Reagan, with top end tax cuts, deregulation, the cult of the CEO, the myth that markets would police themselves that led to a frenzy of speculation, greed, corruption and the placing of bigger and bigger bets with more and more borrowed money until that economy collapsed on its own excess.

"We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity - a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad. "

It's easy to scoff at Gingrich and mock Cheney. Voters weren't buying the conservative mantra when McCain and Joe the Plumber trotted it out in the campaign. But don't misunderestimate the right. There is no question that conservatives will learn the narratives put out by Cheney and Gingrich. The conservative movement excels at teaching their choir the lines of the hymnal. Over time, they will work hard to make Obama own the economic mess they left behind, and decry signs of weakness abroad.

It is vital that the real story be told - and not just by the president, but by neighbors to neighbors, citizen to citizen. The story on how conservative policies and follies led us into the hole we are in - and now are obstructing the efforts to get us out.

Related News On Huffington Post: [very good articles pertinent to Cheny's bull shit]