Live Blog: National Conference on Women's Health

While we are enjoying yogurt and healthy muffins, let me just share that MH in PA, ProSense, Otter, globalvillage, Richard and I are at a table and hope to be bringing some cool folks over to speak to the blogosphere. People here are fascinated byu what we are doing--this is all new to them!

SO pull up a chair, light up, and let's go!

or go here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/20/94027/8000

SO pull up a chair, light up, and let's go!

Posted by: karen at April 20, 2007 09:23 AM

I am so out of order.

Sandra Steingraber: Blue Nile 20 years ago. An elderly farmer, witnessed entire hillside slide into river from army building a road, killing all the fish. I asked farmer to tell me about rivers in his homestead, then he asked me to tell about river in the U.S. He asked me about the taste of the fish in the Illinois. I couldn't tell him, the fish were too contaminated.
So, he asked, why are you here in Africa? I had just passed the 5 year mark after my bladder cancer.
My African friend ordered me to go home and take up these questions in my life. Go home, drive away the men who are poisoning the fish.
Here we are at confluence of two great rivers? How do your fish taste to you?
Official reason is they're too contaminated with mercury. New research presented this week reveals something else about fish in the rivers: scientific american.com. The flesh of fish in these rivers has enough estrogen-mimicking chemicals to cause cancer in cells in the lab, especially where the two rivers come together.
Many fish are hermaphrodites, males with eggs in their gonads.
Here's my idea for the beginning of a solution: get 1,000 women with breast cancer, walk to point of rivers coming together, look at water, think about inter-sex fish below it, that they have male and female sex organs, and estrogen mimics, think about where the sewage comes from, 1,000 women with breast cancer standing along the river, and I think you'll start to talk, and the solutions will start to emerge.
Go home to your river, and talk to your fish, as the Ethopian farmer told me.

Came back from Aftica to study fetal toxicology. As new science is mounting a powerful challenge to our entire regulatory system, based on dose causes the poison, but doesn't take into account special vulnerability of women.
It's the timing that makes the poison as much as the dose.
All of us in room have blood brain barrier, but up until six months, infants do not have that. So we are discriminating against infants because our standards of acceptable toxins are based on what is acceptable to a person with a developed blood/brain barrier.

The above comments by Dr. Sandra Steingraber, PhD.

Sandra is talking about the Supreme Court ruling the other day and citing Justice Kennedy's statement from the other day: "The medical uncertainty over whether the Act's prohibition creates significant health risks provides a sufficient basis to conclude ... that the Act does not impose an undue burden,"

She says we need to open a public space re. that statement--chemicals can CAUSE abortions. Apostalic Christians believe in the sanctity of life. But her feet are on the pro-choice side. How can we talk across this great divide? Any chemical that has the power to extinguish a human pregnancy has no place in our society. Our conversation can be held on a platform of choice OR fetal sanctity.

MUST READ:

Many streams, rivers and lakes already bear warning signs that the fish caught within them may contain dangerously high levels of mercury, which can cause brain damage. But, according to a new study, these fish may also be carrying enough chemicals that mimic the female hormone estrogen to cause breast cancer cells to grow. "Fish are really a sentinel, just like canaries in the coal mine 100 years ago," says Conrad Volz, co-director of exposure assessment at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute's Center for Environmental Ecology. "We need to pay attention to chemicals that are estrogenic in nature, because they find their way back into the water we all use."

April 17, 2007
Bringing Cancer to the Dinner Table: Breast Cancer Cells Grow Under Influence of Fish Flesh
Tests of river fish indicate their flesh carries enough estrogen-mimicking chemicals to cause breast cancer cells to grow
By David Biello

read more:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=01DC8631-E7F2-99DF-3D0A925F84E60223&sc=I100322

BTW, we can ask questions if you have any...

or go here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/20/94027/8000

Devra Lee Davis

Why we know the environment is important for women's health. Before vaccines and antibiotics, infectious disease declined in the 19th century, we cleaned things up, when we didn't know which germs caused what diseases.

Hormone replacement therapy increased the risk of women's cancers. But other chemicals in the environment can mimic hormones, disrupt metabolism, disrupt growth and repair. Fewer than 1 in 10 cancer in breast cancer were born with defective geners.

We think that one of the important factors is exposure, especially in utero. If you are adopted, your risk of cancer parallels the family you grow up with, not born into. Migrants develp cancer risks of their new countries.

As identifical twins age, chromosoal bands change.

Cervix cancer in women, vary greatly on racial groups. Human papilloma virus, unprotected sex, passive and active smoking, agricultural and solvents.

10-20% of all women are affected currently; before 1921, virtually no reports.

Unexplained toddler breast growth, and young girls growing breasts.

Jobs with increased risk of cancer: solvent workers, chemists, nurses, dentists and physicians, painters, hair dressers.

Problems with ambient levels of chemicals. Fewer baby boys being born. Father determines sex of baby. Since 1970, 135,000 fewere boys born than girls expected in the U.S.

I think what is so devastating about the information that is being graphically shared with us at the conference is this:

Every part of our being, from how we feel, to how we process food, to how we think, is being affected by what we are producing and placing in the air, water, and food. We are killing ourselves.

I am seeking hope here. Pete Myers just quoted Amory Lovins from 1986, who said that conservation is the best way to address climate change. Well, Amory was right: conservation is critical to our survival.

OK, let's think about what conservation means:

1. It means we need to use less energy: gas, coal, electricity, less wasted water, fewer pharmaceuticals and beauty products, etc.

2. It means we need to be more conservative about our carbon footprint, to recycle, and to be more concerned about our communities' habits.

3. It means that soil, rivers, air quality, lead, chemicals, mercury, etc. are OUR responsibility and we have to work with our communities to make the improvements necessary.

4. It means we are the adults and we have the responsibility to be aware of the inherent racism and sexism in the research agenda, and we have the responsibility to inform interpretation of such research, with critical analysis, letters to the editor, op eds, blog pieces, emails.

And your ideas?

Listening to Dr. Tyrone Hayes and it's horrifying to realize how tenuous our health is in the climate of profiteering and insider relationships with the EPA that exists now.
Please go here:

http://atrazinelovers.com/

This website, designed and maintained by Dr. Tyrone B. Hayes, PhD, is dedicated to informing the scientific community, the activist community, and the public at large about the dangers of the herbicide atrazine.

Regarding the regulation of atrazine, the US Environmental Protection Agency recently stated that "the ultimate decision is much bigger than science" and that it "weighs into public opinion."

We (the public) must play an active role in this regulatory decision.

1. What is Atrazine?

2. Environmental Contamination

3. Ecological Impacts

4. Endocrine Disruption

5. Neural Damage

6. Pregnancy Loss

7. Reproductive Cancers

8. Endangered Species

9. Risks and Benefits

http://atrazinelovers.com/a.html

Write, join, learn

I wish oncall, DiAnne, Matthew, ABQ John, Suz, Casey, and every single person here who has dealt with healthcare issues and environmental concerns was here with us. We are learning so much, and as disturbing as it all is, we can, with support, begin to make a difference.

I just got in and am reading the thread and links and catching up. Thanks for doing the live blog for those of us who can not be there.

Karen, Richard, et al...

Will there be any videos posted from this conference?

There will be video podcasts; supposedly April 29. In the meantime you can follow this afternoon's sessions here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/20/13916/8857

Karen, I wish that I was there too. But things being as there are, a bright, beautiful spring day in New York will have to do.

Posted by: Matthew Carnicelli at April 20, 2007 02:40 PM

... NY has got it goin on ...

http://www.cegmusic.musictoday.com/LionsDen/calendar.aspx

Actually Matt, this would mostly piss you off. A beautiful day may be better after all!

Hi all
Don't forget the future timebomb that is the over-fertilizaiton by midwest farmers coupled with decreasing precip.

In Michigan, my water comes from my own well and I am very concerned about the chemicals used.

Don't forget, the fertilizer companies are in business to sell product.

BTW...Does Bushco qualify as a fertilizer company due to all the product they generate?

On a second note....
Tried to protest today....
By the time I got there, the roads were all filled with cars. I assume we had a good turnout.

I apologize as I work less then 5 miles from the area and our church is very near to the school.

I didn't think to park in the church parking lot until I got back to work.

I am talking about the protest in Grand Rapids where the worst president in hisory is speaking.

BTW...Does Bushco qualify as a fertilizer company due to all the product they generate?

Posted by: battlebob at April 20, 2007 03:02 PM

Ok, we REALLY needed that, Bob!!

Thank you!

A table in the corner laughing out loud...

Posted by: karen at April 20, 2007 10:39 AM

Karen,Richard, Dorett, Cathie, and MH...

It's taking me a while to respond as I go through these links and comments you've given us. I feel a little overwhelmed as I imagine most women do.

Thanks for being there and digesting all this information for us and then forwarding it back out. It must be difficult.

You said, "Any chemical that has the power to extinguish a human pregnancy has no place in our society. Our conversation can be held on a platform of choice OR fetal sanctity."

My response. I think that's true from both sides. I know a few women who have had still births. I know one who had to chose an abortion or giving birth to a deformed baby. (She ended up having a miscarraige.) Regardless, I am at the point in wondering how I know so many people who have had still births all within the same year (or miscarraiges). Maybe it's just fate. But I find myself wondering if the pollution, the food we eat, or the water we drink has done something to cause an increase in still births. Do you know if there is any information to find out if there is an increase in stil births in my area?

Also, I'm not sure if people here are aware that I am a triplet. That's pretty 'odd' for the year in which I was born because there wasn't the infertility specialty like there is now. (Nowadays multiples are not rare.) At any rate, what makes this rarer is that there was a set of triplets who were a few years older than us who lived on the same street where I did. (Actually about 5 houses down!). BUT, then to make things even more unique, two houses down and across the street, there was another set of triplets who were a few years younger than us.

So...that means there were 3 sets of triplets within 5 houses of each other.

I use to joke that, "It was something in the water..."

Well...it makes you think, doesn't it? If there was something 'in the water' to have blessed 3 families, then what else is in the water that may not be blessing people too.

BB--I was so ready to go to that protest. But the fact is that I wasn't sure I'd make it back from it if I did go. (Car...)

However, I was there in thoughts with you. And everyone who I sent the link to said, "If only it were closer to here..." Well, obviously, Bush doesn't come to this side of the state. It's well known he's person non-grata.

Yes, well, blessings come in many forms....

According to what we heard this morning, what might have been coincidence when you were born is becoming less of a coincidence and more a result of an amalgmation of toxins, chemicals, and environmental illiteracy as a result of profiteering.

We must get smarter and be more active and proactive.

Hormone replacement therapy increased the risk of women's cancers.

Posted by: richardbell at April 20, 2007 11:27 AM

Time magazine just reported that HRT is safe despite the report in the 90's that said otherwise.

What is the truth?

There was a very interesting article in the local paper about the next pandemic being a bird flu derivative.

When I was on the farm (the article brought back memories), the chickens pecked around the barn yard. Their food and droppings never mixed. Chickens are very fragile, get disease easy, so we kept the contamination down to prevent diseases.

Now with the giant chicken pens where thousands of chickens are raised together, their waste is mingled with their food.
This must lead to rising disease rates.
It won't take much for these diseases to enter the food chain.

What to do about it?

Giant producers like Tysons are not going to change. Perhaps we can specify an organic chicken that is not raised in giant coops.
Maybe we need more and better testing. Probably only about 5% of chickens are tested which would guarantee that there is a 95% chance of detecting problem chickens.

They would be more expensive.

Sorry but talking about chickens makes me think of the Muppet character Gonzo...
which makes me think of the Gonzo who hopefully is gainfully unemployed and incarcerated for all the horrible things done in our name.

quaint

sparrow,
I have no excuse....
In fact, the helocopter escorts just went over my head.

The area is kind of a maze as there is a giant lake in the middle. It is hard to move around and the Secret Service blocked a lot of the roads

Bush may think he can but the last I checked..he can't walk on water..regardless of what Rove says.

East Grand Rapids is both solid Republican (think Jerry Ford) with a strong social bent. There is a very active anti-Iraq contingent. Bush won the area because they drink a lot of kool-aid but the war and many policies are very unpopular.
The kids want peace even if their parents vote for war.

Posted by: battlebob at April 20, 2007 03:24 PM

You're on a roll today.

Fertilizer and walking on water.

Before you know it we're going to have to get you a seat on the Comedy Network. (After all, those watching the Comedy Network are more knowledgeable and factually accurate than those watching any other network but especially compared to Fox Nonsense Network!)

Vt. Senate calls for Bush, Cheney impeachment
16-9 vote in non-binding resolution cites domestic, foreign policies

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Vermont senators voted Friday to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, saying their actions have raised "serious questions of constitutionality."

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18229765/

What makes you smile today Steve Curwood asks?

Jane: We've come so far in the past ten years. So many pesticides have come off the market. We are seeing movement.

Laurie: We just had a huge victory in Washington State and it shows we can win these battles. Not only did so many come out for this effort, but the marketplace is ready as well. They know they need to phase out chemicals that damage their markets.

Peggy: New models of collaboration work, esp. around public health and sustainable communities. Different types come together: officials, firefighters, regualr folks.

Terry: Teaches at Carnegie-Mellon. His students give him hope.

Steve: The tremendous energy and the power of the people who have dedicated their lives to this. Rachel Carson grew up along these rivers and today he sees hundreds of Rachel Carsons, no longer contented to live in this toxic soup. We are finding voices here.

There will be some among us who will make a huge difference and we will all support that.

We WILL win.

Posted by: battlebob at April 20, 2007 03:24 PM

What to do about it? Um... become vegetarians?

Oh vegetables are soaked in pesticides. That doesn't sound very good. So what then?

Go on the chocolate diet? (Sounds good to me. But Nolie has already told me that the government regulates how many bugs are allowed to be in the chocolate.)

Solution now?

(Just say no...to eating or drinking!)

Time magazine just reported that HRT is safe despite the report in the 90's that said otherwise.

What is the truth?

Posted by: sparrow at April 20, 2007 03:24 PM

Lies. That's the truth.

Fran Drescher coming up now.

Fran Drescher really hitting early diagnosis. No woman should have a late diagnosis. She is sharing her journey to recovery.

Her DIAGNOSIS took two years!

Monkey,

I seem to recall that nmp and ralphh have posted other places where they've voted to impeach. Do we have a list?

Coretta Scott King died from cancer. Anne Bancroft died from it. Both had late diagnoses. There is no excuse for this.

Take control of your body.

Fran is launching the "CancerSchmancer" movement--to let Capitol Hill know that healthcare is more important than lobbyists' interests.

She will lead.

"I don't care who you vote for. Just make sure whoever you vote for, is voting for YOU." Fran Drescher

DOJ sends anonymous letter to Leahy concerning more politicizing in the DOJ.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/20/14917/1555

Hundreds gather in peaceful protest

http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6404682

Following your comments on kos too.

Thanks for all the efforts!

bb--thanks for the woodtv link. Would have liked to have heard Ray's speech.

1000-2000 in GR is a huge turnout!

(If it had been a Saturday it'd have been triple that!)

This is in a real confined area. It was hard to even find the parking area for protestors.
EGR is the heart of Repubville.
I am really proud of my community and am really sad for not attending.

Remember when Dufus spoke to Calvin College in 2005 and there was a large protest from the college community?
Calvin College is near the protest site.

http://www.slate.com/id/2164652/pagenum/2/

Al, the President's Man
Alberto Gonzales is bloodied by his trip to the Senate.
By Dahlia Lithwick

Now that we have some medical professionals with us...

Research into the after effects of depleted uranium weapon shells and casings...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007B.shtml

Are there a larger then normal number of young healthy soldiers getting horrible cancers?

Are there a large number of Iraq people getting cancers (the ones we haven't killed yet) then a normal population number would dictate?

http://www.yahoo.com/s/561529

9-11 detox project.

Posted by: sparrow at April 20, 2007 03:36 PM

Ultimately, if we each really want non-pesticide, non-toxic fertilizer-laden food, the answer is that we are going to have to go back to having our own gardens, preserving our own food for our own families, raising our own chickens and pigs and beef (or know somone on a farm who has room to raise one or two animals for us - not those huge livestock farms).

Most people nowadays haven't a clue about how to provide food for themselves, how to plant seeds, preserve food, milk a cow or a goat, make butter, feed livestock, raise grain, etc. We've been socially and environmentally conditioned to stop at the supermarket and get our food there (which, incidentally, wastes gas and pollutes the environment because most of us don't plan ahead or do any stock-up grocery shopping), so the fine art of growing or raising our own food has been lost to anyone who does not currently reside on a farm.

In short, droughts or floods from global warming notwithstanding (depening on the area where one lives and how global warming is affecting them), if the grocery stores and food-delivery services (pizza) disappeared, most people (at least in this country) would starve because they don't know how to grow and preserve their own food....

All in all, we're pretty pathetic.

Depleted Uranium: Poisoning Our Planet
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007B.shtml
On April 14, an event was held at Portland State University that was titled, "Our Poison Planet." One of the main focuses of the event was the effects of depleted uranium. Truthout's Geoffrey Millard and Lance Page were there and filed this story.

William Rivers Pitt | What Gonzales Really Told Us
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007A.shtml
William Rivers Pitt writes: "The testimony given Thursday by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing to investigate the firing of eight Unites States attorneys, deserves a place of high honor in the Gibberish Hall of Fame. It was astonishing in its vapidity, almost to a point beyond description. The emptiness of Gonzales's answers, after several hours, became the political version of a Zen koan. They simply stopped my mind."

The New York Times | Gonzales v. Gonzales
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007D.shtml
The editors of The New York Times write: "If Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had gone to the Senate yesterday to convince the world that he ought to be fired, it's hard to imagine how he could have done a better job short of simply admitting the obvious: that the firing of eight United States attorneys was a partisan purge. Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik, incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch."

David Swanson | Putting the Gone in Gonzales?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007F.shtml
David Swanson writes: "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales assured the Senate Judiciary Committee today that nothing improper has been done and that, in addition, he's not to blame for it because he simply obeyed the CSLDJ, although he does not actually remember having done so. And if members of the CSLDJ contradict Gonzales or have acted in ways he does not approve of, well, you'll just have to ask Mr. Sampson about that."

"Devastating" Moyers Probe of Press and Iraq Coming
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007H.shtml
The most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq will appear next Wednesday: a 90-minute PBS broadcast titled, "Buying the War," marking the return of the "Bill Moyers Journal." The war continues today, now in its fifth year, with the death toll for Americans and Iraqis rising again - yet Moyers points out, "The press has yet to come to terms with its role in enabling the Bush administration to go to war on false pretenses."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2007/04/20/notes042007.DTL&nl=fix
Mark Morford
Everyone Should Get A Gun!
Then no one would kill anyone, right? Also: Guns are fun. Americans like fun!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070420/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_joke
Group launches ad against McCain's joke
{McCain's responses to reporters who asked him about this incident show him to be just as "sensitive" as Herr Boosh....}

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070420/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq
Dems reluctant to oppose Iraq funding
{Which, of course, is why the war/occupation will continue unabated. Until/Unless the Dems are willing to cut off war funding cold-turkey (but fund the troop withdrawal and set a date for withdrawal), nothing will stop Georgie and Dickie from continuing their war to control Iraq's oil.}

Matt Renner | White House Wants First Crack at RNC Emails
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007J.shtml
The Congressional investigation into the US attorney firings has revealed that Bush administration officials have been communicating through unofficial email accounts, many of which are administered and archived by the Republican National Committee. There are signs that the White House is preparing to invoke executive privilege to prevent the RNC from turning the emails over to Congress.
{{{Executive privilege, my @$$!!! I want someone to get a legal FISA warrant and tap into RNC's email database, and recover the allegedly deleted emails....}}}

FBI Raids Another GOP Congressman's Family Business
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007L.shtml
In a second blow to House Republicans this week, the FBI raided a business tied to the family of Representative Rick Renzi (R-Arizona). The Renzi investigation may be connected to the firing of former US Attorney Paul Charlton, who was forced out of office in December in a purge of federal prosecutors that Congress is currently investigating.

DNC Sues Justice Department Over Emails
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007M.shtml
The Democratic National Committee sued the Justice Department on Thursday, demanding it turn over any email traffic with the Republican Party on the US attorneys controversy and criminal investigations.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070420/ap_on_bi_ge/world_bank_flap
World Bank orders Wolfowitz discussion

Gonzo looking like he just received scraps of 'lovin' from his Master.

http://static.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/gonzo_bush.jpg

That's how my doggy looks at me after I give him a steak bone.

We are about to pass out but I wanted to share some thoughts about today and tonight. (Richard and I just collapsed in a motel room, after a full day of liveblogging, meeting amazing activists and scientists, hanging with our blog homeys, and attending a reception where The Indigo Girls did a set.)

I am really hoping that globalvillage's video camera picked up sound--we did some wonderful on-the-spot interviews, including one from Teresa herself. Almost everyone focused on two themes/insights:

1. The sense of hope and personal empowerment came through loud and clear. Think about this: over 2000 people (mostly women) sat in a huge room and listened to horror stories all day long, and finished up feeling like they could make a difference, personally and communally. I think this is a testament to those 2,000 women as well as to Fran Drescher and Teresa Heinz, who finished the day with calls to direct action.

2. This was a day in which scientists and activists came together, It was clear that the scientists were enthused by the activism. It was equally clear that the activists were grateful to the scientists for their hard work and commitment, as well as for their sense of hope.

Over the past four years, I have been privileged to have hope rarely, but it always happens around large inspirational gatherings, where once again it is clear that no one can succeed in changing the world, but a small group can.

It is beholden on all of us to continue to fight for the truth, to share the hope, and to do the work.

After the nap!

Waxman Sets Hearing to Consider Batch of Subpoenas
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007R.shtml
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-California) is ginning up the subpoena mill, scheduling a meeting next week to consider subpoenas in four different investigations of the Bush administration.
Excerpt:

"The committee is conducting long overdue oversight that has already saved taxpayers millions," Waxman said at the time. "It has exercised all its powers responsibly. In contrast to the model set by the Republicans during the Clinton administration, when subpoenas were a daily occurrence, the Committee has yet to issue a subpoena."

{{{I note Waxman, et al., are only going to meet to "consider" issuing subpoenas. That does not mean they actually are going to do so. Like Pelosi, all that power that could be wielded to get the crooks out of office and/or to question them is going to waste. Nothing is being done but more talk, more talk, and more talk... and no action. The Dems seem hell-bent on abiding by the Con strategy of letting the clock run out on the crooks in office, and they don't seem a bit willing to DO anything about it. Meanwhile, more people die, more people are getting tortured, and the debt is getting larger by the nanosecond.... And no one on the Con side of the fence is claiming responsiblity....}}}

Lawmakers Rail Against Halliburton Unit for Alleged Abuses
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007T.shtml
US lawmakers on Thursday railed against senior Army officials and defense contractor KBR Inc. over persistent allegations of fraud and contract abuse on a multibillion-dollar deal to provide food and shelter to US troops in Iraq.

Study Shows Sudden Sea Level Surges Threaten One Billion
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/042007EB.shtml
More than one billion people live in low-lying areas where a sudden surge in sea level could prove as disastrous as the 2004 Asian tsunami.
{{{I highly suspect the reason politicians are dragging their feet on rebuilding New Orleans is because they know it will be underwater in the future so they consider it a waste of money to rebuild or even build dykes. Patriarchal pontificating aside, someone somewhere knows the truth. They're just continuing to lie to us per Bu$hCo's propagandizing.}}}

Ellen Goodman | Governing the Womb
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/042007WA.shtml
"For many years, Sandra Day O'Connor had kept an uneasy peace in the court and maybe the country. She upheld Roe v. Wade while allowing states to regulate abortion as long as they didn't place an 'undue burden' on a woman's right to decide," writes Ellen Goodman. "But the new court majority has decided something quite different," Goodman says, referring to the recent Supreme Court decision.

Abortion Ban Spurs "Free Choice" Move in Congress
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/042007WB.shtml
Democrats reintroduced the Freedom of Choice Act in Congress a day after the Supreme Court upheld an abortion-procedure ban. The bill could lead to a reversal of the ban that broke legal precedent by providing no health exception for the woman.

Impeachment Fever Rises
By John Nichols
When Nancy Pelosi announced last fall that impeachment was "off the table," official Washington accepted that the primary avenue for holding lawless Presidents to account had been closed off by the new Speaker of the House. But the Republic's citizenry has not been so inclined.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070507/nichols
Cited in article: Manual of Parliamentary Practice by Thomas Jefferson
http://www.constitution.org/tj/tj-mpp.htm

Vermont Senate Calls For Impeachment Of Bush
By Associated Press
Vermont senators voted Friday to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, saying their actions have raised "serious questions of constitutionality."
http://cbs2chicago.com/national/topstories_story_110100239.html

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/20/top-10-the-dog-ate-my-homework-bush-excuses/
Bush’s Top 10 “Dog Ate My Homework” Excuses

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/20/daily-show-alberto-i-do-not-recall-gonzales/
Daily Show: Alberto “I Do Not Recall” Gonzales

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/20/barney-frank-mr-speaker-does-republican-whining-come-out-of-my-time/
Barney Frank: “Mr. Speaker - does [Republican] whining come out of my time?”

OH..wrong thread (of course) but I thought of something else for the website. Can we get one of those A things that let's you pick the size and darkness of your letters? I notice that mine changes depending on the computer. And some of the different degrees hurt my eyes and are hard to read.

NonnyO--thanks for posting those links. But I disagree with you that they're letting the clock run out. They are doing massive investigations. They are passing legislation. The combination of the two are important because it helps us prove that we're able to work FOR the people instead of against the people.

They are laying down a solid foundation for impeachment and they're laying down a bigger hurdle for the Republicans to jump.

For otter...

You won't take my word for it, but will you consider Bill Moyers's words???

Bill Moyers on Obama
Who do you see as a key figure in the time ahead?

I wish I were wise enough to answer that question. Who would have thought that an obscure black preacher from Montgomery, Alabama would become Martin Luther King? I believe that elites have to let go. Hillary Clinton would make a good president, but the same old crowd would come back with her. But when I look at Barack Obama, I think about John F. Kennedy, who leaped over Hubert Humphrey's generation to bring in fresh voices and fresh ideas. I keep thinking that we need to let that happen again. People say, "Obama is so inexperienced." No, he's as experienced as Lincoln was when Lincoln went into the White House. Lincoln had two years in Congress and eight years in the state legislature. Obama represents a generational metaphor. He opens up new gates so that younger people can feel that there's opportunity for them, that they can come in with him and create new possibilities. That's what's important. I've been around a long time in journalism and politics, and I come down to "Put not your trust in princes, they will disappoint you every time."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/20/205821/936

Not 2,000 women. At one point I stood at the side of the room and did a quick reference count -- at 30 tables of 10 persons each, I counted 8 males (two of which were Richard and myself.)

So extrapolating that outwards, if there were 2,000 people at this event then only 1,947 of them were women... give or take a couple of Y chromosome sets, since that 2.66% dude-to-chick ratio is an approximation based on a representative sample, not a full head count of the whole.

But even allowing for the customary statistical margins of error and so forth, anyway you slice it estrogeniacs outnumbered testosteronians in that room today by an outstandingly large number.

Oh, the humanity!

lub dem feemail wimmins,
Otter

madame d:

If I were to take anyone's word for it, yours would be more than enough for me. Bill Moyers certainly has no more credibility on Planet Otter than you do yourself. (And I don't say that because I don't respect Bill Moyers' credibility, ahem.)

When it comes to Mr. Obama, well, so far I have yet to see anything with my own eyes or hear anything with my own ears that inclines me have more faith than doubts in his onstage role as the next heir to Camelot.

That is not to say that I will never see or hear anything from him that will incline me do that; only that I have not seen or heard that thing yet.

jeebus people it's still only spring '07 get a grip already,
Otter

jeebus people it's still only spring '07 get a grip already,
Otter

Posted by: Otter at April 20, 2007 10:17 PM

I like to get my ducks in a row early, then move on to more important things like...cosmos & chocolate.

We know what we will get with Hillary. The same old middle-of-the-road-triangulation-don't take-a-risk crap because she totally lacks any imagination or fire.
Obama has a lower floor now but a higher ceiling later.
I was really disapointed in him at the health care summit. To come to a discussion without preparing for the topic is really amateurish at best; incompetent at worst.

They both have flaws. I have prety much tuned Hillary out because I am not buying what she is selling. Obama has an opening but he must do better.

I am not counting Edwards even though he hiref Trippi. Trippi blew through 40 mil in Iowa in nothing flat for the Dean campaign. Things like private jets, fancy hotels, expensive food. It goes with the $400.00 haircuts.

Posted by: madame defarge at April 20, 2007 09:55 PM

I agree that people need to see beyond the fame and wealth in order to elect their next president. I have an outsider's view of the situation and it pains me to think that Bidens and the "backbone" award winner, Senator Lewis (?) can't ever be contenders. They certainly have the passion.

But in a leader we need a quieter passion perhaps. I like John Edwards but, no matter what he and Elizabeth say right now, there is absolutely no doubt that he will be distracted by their inner struggles with Elizabeth's cancer. In that sense, of those available to the democrats, I would wish for Obama.

I don't believe that Americans will allow it to become a popularity contest again. Nor will people vote democrat to end a war. They already did that and it didn't work. The wars continue to escalate and the lines of who's right and who's wrong are even more blurred than they ever were. And right now it appears that the Iraq war is simply a prelude to the much broader attack on Iran.

Terrorism can never be defeated. It has been around from the beginning of human existence. Perhaps if more money were in your health coffers, the young assassin of college students the other day would never have happened. There were plenty of warnings that he was seriously disturbed - a ticking bomb. But health care is non-existent to many.

Earth Health. Women's Health. Men's Health. Children's Health. If we can renourish our earth, then health will come down that food chain into all humans and animals. Renourishing the earth means just that - not a token plot of ground that can grow organic vegies - if that's even possible considering air and water pollution - but an end to the overcrowded lots of animals crammed together. Their existence is to satisfy financial greed, escalating the growth of the animals, with hormones, to reach adult (profitable) size in the shortest amount of time. It's no wonder that some children are appearing with abnormal growth regardless of food intake. For example, a two year old already weighing 40kg in the UK. MOMO syndrome it's called and there are only 3 identified cases in the world. When we change nature, we change the consequences of our own actions.

In Australia, for many years now we have had a well-informed and continued public education, through the media, about breast cancer. It's a rare woman - in developed nations - who wouldn't have a regular PAP smear every year or two. This year, in Australia the concentration is on men's health and the publicised media education for awareness is directed towards prostate cancer. It's a major campaign and it is raising awareness and the importance of early diagnosis. Last year it was testicular cancer addressed as a public concern. As a mother of sons I am pleased that they see these awareness fillers every day/night on tv.

I am suspicious of all the food in supermarkets. Suspicious of its uniform size; its uniform colour - vibrant, deep and rich; its uniform perfection. The only flaw in these products appears in the eating - they have uniform no-taste!

I believe our own health can only improve when we return a little to the past. Free range cattle, dairy cows, pigs, chooks (chickens), sheep and everything we eat. We are there already in much of Tasmania. We'll stay this way until the Poisoning Pulp Mill comes into being.

I go to a Fruit and Vegie Shed for my fruit, vegetables, eggs and other farm products. It really is a big tin shed with unlined walls and a dirt floor. It has probably trebled in size over the past year and a half that I've been shopping there. People wait in long queues, chatting happily to strangers on either side of them, without the edginess of supermarket checkout lines.

The produce doesn't shine like it does in the big supermarket across the road. There are blemishes on the skins and they come in odd shapes and sizes. Kind of like nature intended - who amongst us, is blemish free? One way we can effect change is to shop at reputable, smaller providers, rather than relying on the convenience of the supermarket that has everything.

The big question is Iraq...
Hillary's answer was maintaining troop levels before the latest rub-up. That is the equivalent of "whatever".

Obama wants a time table which is the most politically palatable.

I like the Terrible Dennis's proposal: Cut funding except to train Iraqs and get the soldiers out now. Also, single-payer health care. No one other then him has the balls to propose it.

I am tired of selling my self out for the annointed candidate all say can win. Vote for the best person with the best ideas who can lead the best. Don't settle for less because we can't dream.

Chuck off-topic:

Me, I'm loyal to a fault and like to go with known commodities. So I would back Kerry if he were in. Since he's not, I like Edwards then maybe Gore if he runs. Both Clinton and Obama seem promising to me as well.

Battlebob, Iraq is a big question indeed. When we went in there, I figured we could take out their military in a month or two but after that I thought of the dog chasing the car -- what will the dog do when he catches it? Well, we caught it. For that reason, I thought we should have followed the UN inspections process rather than force the issue. We didn't, which was a big mistake in my opinion. I have no idea what we should do now.

Chuck in Houston

You know, come to think on it, on Iraq, the French were right. What ever happened to Andree anyway? Also, don't they have an election soon?

Chuck in Houston

Kevin Rudd is our next PM, all things going the way they should. He's standing on toes (amongst the party faithful - mine included) but he's also breaking bread with the unexpected - like expat Murdoch (a carefully considered wise move I suspect). He's playing the game well so far, and while I don't always agree with his policies, he's certainly a far better person to lead Australia than Howard has proven to be. He has an ethical stance that goes beyond power and wealth. He also answers my emails personally!

Now, this from the Melbourne Age today, Saturday April 21st,
"Mr Rudd yesterday addressed the prestigious left-wing thinktank The Brookings Institution."

What is the Brookings Institution and how does it fit into the puzzle of American Government Administration?

The article is here:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/rudd-murdoch-meet-in-new-york/2007/04/21/1176697139006.html

Bush: Sectarian killings drop in Baghdad
President says murders drop by half as military continues buildup

EAST GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - President Bush said Friday that sectarian murders have dropped by half in Baghdad since the U.S.-Iraqi military buildup began in February, rejecting a Democratic leader's claim that the war is lost.

"These operations are having an important effect on this young democracy," Bush said in a speech on terrorism, his second in two days. "They're showing Iraqi citizens across the country that there will be no sanctuary for killers anywhere in a free Iraq."

Bush said he continues to believe that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is committed to peace and reconciliation. At the same time, he said the U.S. military commitment in Iraq is not-open ended.

"I respect the Democratic leadership," he said. "We have fundamental disagreements about whether or not helping this young democracy is, you know - the consequences of failure or success, let's put it this way."

(WTF did he just say???)

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18234901/

That's right folks, for less than 2 cups of latte a day, less and less people will die in Iraq each month... (dramatic pause, sniffle)... with the help of your non tax deductible tax dollars, each month, due to the aformementioned killings and massive migration, and as there are less and less Iraqi's actually left alive in Iraq to kill, the numbers of killings will amazingly continue to go down, as your tax dollars continue to pour in at record levels... until we reach our goal one day of having no more Iraqi's to kill anymore (or pesky al-Qaida!)... ahhh, true peace... but it won't matter how history judges us, we'll all be dead anyway.

Crack is Whack

And all those dead Iraqis aren't real people worth counting?

My take is that Edwards will have a very strong ground game come January, and especially mid-February, and Trippi can only help. I would assume that JE has made note of Trippi's previous mistakes, and will use him in a fashion that maximizes his strengths.

My big question about Edwards' campaign is this: will he understand that in a country where a majority now describe themselves as "independents", winning the Lou Dobbs constituency is the key to winning the White House?

Somebody in this race has to take up the free trade issue, and make the connection between Mexican poverty and our inability to stem illegal immigration. A starving man will attempt to climb, or tunnel under, any fence in an attempt to feed his family. If NAFTA is actually increasing poverty in Mexico, then NAFTA (and other similar trade agreements) has to be on the agenda in 2008. We need trade policies in the 21st century that protect workers globally, not merely locally. We cannot erect a wall against the world, but we can begin using America's economic might to make a friend of the working man everywhere on the planet.

Matthew, we have no economic might anymore.

Woz, yes, I agree with you about the veggies and fruit. They look like plastic perfection and they taste like plastic too. It's best to support the farmers directly if you can. (Or plant your own.)

Monkey, Jenna and Barbara are still not in Iraq 'bringing Democracy.' In fact, there's still no "Bush" bringing Democracy in Iraq. It's obvious that the people migrate out but I'd bet you that somewhere just outside the new "American zone" they're planting a bunch of road bombs for later.

You commented about there being no Iraqis left...Maybe that is their plan anyways. Because then they can formally make Iraq the 51st state.

By the 'Blog's Early Light'
Author Gore Vidal pulls no punches in criticizing America's education system, electorate and news media.

April 20, 2007 - The 81-year-old author of "The City and the Pillar," "Myra Breckinridge," "Burr," "Lincoln," "Washington, D.C." and numerous other books, both fiction and nonfiction, on politics and history (he also ran for Congress and for the governorship of California) is no stranger to controversy—The New York Times would not review seven of his books, and just last December he slammed U.S. policy on a trip to Cuba by stating the 40-year embargo on the country was "ridiculous." Matthew Link recently spoke to the prolific writer in his current home in the Hollywood Hills. Excerpts:

You've written extensively about anti-intellectualism in America. Where do you think we are right now?
Deeper in the swamp of unknowing! Nor does it help that the heads of the nation are some of the stupidest people in our history. Could Darwin have been wrong? Why do so many of our statesmen have calloused knuckles?

Are we watching the end of an empire? Do you think America is trying to hang on to past glories?
What glory? We never peaked. There was 1945 and the end of World War II, that was a military peak and an economic one, too. But, culturally, we didn't have much of anything, just the beginning of something. The so-called golden age that I refer to—even though nobody knows what I'm talking about. What I mean is that in 1945, it was the very first time, after the victory over Europe and Japan, that suddenly we were No. 1 in many things. All the arts were coming alive—it was a golden age. In the theater, there was Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, in music there was Aaron Copland and Lenny Bernstein, in poetry James Merrill and Robert Lowell. Even in ballet, previously hardly known, we were preeminent. This exciting time lasted only five years, and then came the Korean War, and we've been at war ever since. And we lost any cultural lead we might have had in anything except junk entertainment. So we never made it to a civilization. We had the potential, but it was never allowed to develop. We were too busy being imperial, while 10th-rate hustlers ran the country.

Isn't that the end result of a capitalistic culture? Where the most popular win by pushing the right buttons?
That was always the thinking, but the popular have no more chance of winning than the intelligent do. We have been convinced that in a true democracy the really nice guy is going to be elected president because he has a nice smile. But even that seldom happened. We elected creeps—Lyndon Johnson was hated, Richard Nixon was hated.… People have kind of withdrawn from the life of the Republic: the Greeks were good at seeing what would go wrong, how republics are lost. Also, reading Aristotle tells us how we are going to lose these fragile constructs. In the end, republics do not last. They become imperial; they lose energy.

You've accused President Bush of getting into office twice fraudulently.
Not Bush himself. The election frauds of 2000 and 2004 were beyond his meager gifts. Let's say he was arbitrarily selected by the Supreme Court, when the people in their popular vote made it clear they wanted Gore. The re-election of 2004 was the work of corporate America—for instance Halliburton, making vast profits from Bush's totally unconstitutional wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. A rogue secretary of state in Ohio not only headed the re-election team for Bush and saw to it that Democratic votes were not cast or counted, etc. The Supreme Court, properly burned by their behavior in 2000, wisely stayed out of the Ohio mess while the Republican majorities in the legislative branch—eyes blinded at the thought of all that taxpayers' gold coming their way—stood guard against any serious investigation of the secretary of state's crimes. Not to mention the corruption of electronic voting machinery. Then Rep. John Conyers entered the field. With a competent staff, he investigated Ohio's election. He showed how and why the election had been stolen. Pro bono publico, I wrote a preface to the Conyers report. Since Conyers was then minority head of the House Judiciary Committee, I thought, no one can defend the highjacking of the election. But I'd underestimated the cunning of the corporate-owned media. Every major newspaper in the country refused to mention the Conyers report on what happened in Ohio and how the 2004 election was stolen.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18200917/site/newsweek/

Thanks for the Gore Vidal interview, monkey. He's a particular favourite because he makes absolute sense whenever he writes or speaks. He doesn't suffer fools and his icy wit cuts razor-sharp through the crap, leaving no doubt as to his meaning.

Monkey,

Even reading the section of the Gore Vidal interview where he speaks about the corporate media shut down on the stolen election depresses the heck out of me!

All the 'what if's' start pouring down.

I found Gore Vidal's "Inventing a Nation" fascinating reading. He hints at Alexander Hamilton being in bed with the British, in a way that no historian that I've read seems to emphasize.

The best short book that I've come across so far on the crisis of the Founding Era is Joseph Ellis' Founding Brothers.

I think I missed this entire thread - was at work & couldn't peek much and didn't refresh my computer. Just read through it all - great people, great stuff!

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Criticism mounted Saturday over a wall U.S. troops are building around a Sunni enclave surrounded by Shiite areas in Baghdad, with residents calling it "collective punishment" and the local council leader saying the community did not approve the project before construction began.

Violence continued Saturday, with at least three people killed when a bomb left on a bus exploded in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, police said. The minibus was gutted by flames and its windows shattered.

Gunmen stormed a house in Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, killing a mother, father and their two teenage daughters, police said. The victims were Kurds who had received death threats from al Qaeda-linked militants operating in the area, witnesses said.

A U.S. soldier was also killed Saturday by a roadside bomb southwest of the capital, the military said.

The U.S. military says the wall in the minority Sunni community of Adhamiya is meant to secure the neighborhood, which "has been trapped in a spiral of sectarian violence and retaliation."

The area, located on the eastern side of the Tigris River, would be completely gated, with entrances and exits manned by Iraqi soldiers, the U.S. military said in a statement earlier this week.

But some residents were alarmed about the plan, and said they had not been consulted about the barrier being built in their own neighborhood.

"This will make the whole district a prison. This is collective punishment on the residents of Adhamiya ," said Ahmed al-Dulaimi, a 41-year-old engineer who lives in the area. "They are going to punish all of us because of a few terrorists here and there.

"We are in our fourth year of occupation and we are seeing the number of blast walls increasing day after day, suffocating the people more and more," al-Dulaimi said in an interview.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/21/iraq.wall.ap/index.html

How 'bout that model of democracy, huh?