If We Want to Talk Root Causes

How about we look at illegal immigration?

MEXICO CITY (AP) — More than 100,000 frustrated Mexicans, many carrying pictures of kidnapped loved ones, marched across the country Saturday to demand government action against a relentless tide of killings, abductions and shootouts.
The mass candlelight protests were a challenge to the government of President Felipe Calderon, who has made fighting crime a priority and deployed more than 25,000 soldiers and federal police to wrest territory from powerful drug cartels
Cries of "enough" and "long live Mexico" rose up from sea of white-clad demonstrators filling Mexico City's enormous Zocalo square. The protesters held candles twinkling in the darkness as they sang the national anthem before dispersing.
...
In the capital, Romana Quintera, 72, wore T-shirt with a photograph of her baby grandson, who was kidnapped for ransom five years ago when gunmen burst into her home and killed her niece. Two people imprisoned for the attack have refused to reveal the boy's fate, and Quintera said investigators have given up on the case.
"We're desperate," she said, holding back tears. "We ask authorities with all our heart to be more sensitive. Maybe nothing like this has happened to them, or they would be more sensitive."
Despite the arrest of several drug kingpins, little has improved the ground since the Calderon government began its crackdown.
Homicides have surged as drug cartels battle each other for control of trafficking routes and stage vicious attacks against police nearly each day. In the gang-plagued border state of Chihuahua alone, there have been more than 800 killings this year, double the number during the same period last year.
This week, a dozen headless bodies were found in the Yucatan Peninsula, home to Mexico's most popular beach resort, Cancun.
While impoverished Mexicans stage almost daily strikes and protests, Saturday's marches brought out thousands of middle-class citizens who are often the targets of kidnappings. The protest was inspired by the abduction and murder of the 14-year-old son of a wealthy businessman — a case that provoked an outcry when prosecutors said a police detective was a key participant in the abduction for ransom.

If Mexico wasn't such a corrupt, impoverished, violent place, the people would stop fleeing in droves to make it here. I doubt we'll have any national discussions about this any time soon though.

Oh Mr. Biden

Even though it's been days since it happened, Joe Biden's speech to the Democratic Nation Convention, to accept his vice Presidental part of the ticket has stuck with me. Much ahs been made of other pronouncements the man has made, and his record examined, but to see the measure of the man, I don't think we have to look beyond this one speech.

That's the America that George Bush has left us, and that's the future John McCain will give us. These are not isolated discussions among families down on their luck. These are common stories among middle-class people who worked hard and played by the rules on the promise that their tomorrows would be better than their yesterdays.
That promise is the bedrock of America. It defines who we are as a people. And now it's in jeopardy. I know it. You know it. But John McCain doesn't get it.
...
John McCain is my friend. We've known each other for three decades. We've traveled the world together. It's a friendship that goes beyond politics. And the personal courage and heroism John demonstrated still amaze me.
But I profoundly disagree with the direction that John wants to take the country. For example,
John thinks that during the Bush years "we've made great progress economically." I think it's been abysmal.
And in the Senate, John sided with President Bush 95 percent of the time. Give me a break. When John McCain proposes $200 billion in new tax breaks for corporate America, $1 billion alone for just eight of the largest companies, but no relief for 100 million American families, that's not change; that's more of the same.
Even today, as oil companies post the biggest profits in history--a half trillion dollars in the last five years--he wants to give them another $4 billion in tax breaks. But he voted time and again against incentives for renewable energy: solar, wind, biofuels. That's not change; that's more of the same.
Millions of jobs have left our shores, yet John continues to support tax breaks for corporations that send them there. That's not change; that's more of the same.
He voted 19 times against raising the minimum wage. For people who are struggling just to get to the next day, that's not change; that's more of the same.
And when he says he will continue to spend $10 billion a month in Iraq when Iraq is sitting on a surplus of nearly $80 billion, that's not change; that's more of the same.
...
As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole with very few friends to help us climb out. For the last seven years, this administration has failed to face the biggest forces shaping this century: the emergence of Russia, China and India as great powers; the spread of lethal weapons; the shortage of secure supplies of energy, food and water; the challenge of climate change; and the resurgence of fundamentalism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the real central front against terrorism.
...
Again and again, on the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong, and Barack Obama was proven right.
Folks, remember when the world used to trust us? When they looked to us for leadership? With Barack Obama as our president, they'll look to us again, they'll trust us again, and we'll be able to lead again.

The John McCain painted by Joe Biden is not a great person. He doesn't care about the poor. He refuses to help those who struggle, while going out of his way to make the rich richer, at the expense of the poor. He refuses to give cheap affordable energy to everyone, and instead wants us to continue to fund terrorism. He has emboldened our enemies and is making Americans less safe. Quite frankly, his foreign policy will end up killing scores of Americans, both soldier and civilian, and will lead to piles of dead bodies. Because of McCain, Israel may be annihilated, Georgia razed by Russia, Tibet run over with Chinese tanks. All because McCain won't just sit down and talk with these people and tell them the error of their ways. This John McCain is pretty damned evil, or, at the very least, cruelly indifferent. This John McCain has killed the American dream!

So why the hell is this man Joe Biden's friend? Why the hell would Joe Biden have a 30 year friendship with such a man, who is responsible for so much suffering? As Biden himself would say:

You know, I believe the measure of a man isn't just the road he's traveled; it's the choices he's made along the way.

So, for 30 years, Joe Biden has willingly associated with McCain. Either McCain is the monster he is, and Biden overlooked it, working on legislation with him out of political expediancy, or Biden is lying about his long time friend, and villifying him to advance his political career. Either way that's the bedrock of Washington politics. And, as Joe Biden now likes to say:

"That's not change; that's more of the same."

No Duh Story of the Day

Botox is Dangerous!

Months after US authorities sounded the alarm, European officials are warning of dangerous possible side effects from the wrinkle-smoothing injection Botox, according to a German news report.
The London-based European Medicines Agency had by August 2007 recorded more than 600 cases of negative effects potentially linked to the popular cosmetic treatment, Focus news weekly reported in its issue to be released Monday.

In 28 cases Botox users died.

While potentially devestating news to people trying to pretend they're 16 again, once you realize what botox is, it's not all that shocking.

The botulinum toxin is a natural poison found in decomposing food that is 40 million times more powerful than cyanide.

Injecting poison into yourself is bad? Whoda thunk it?

We banned wood treated with CCA because it contained small amounts of arsenic. Yet the FDA only notes that injecting something 40 million times more toxic than cyanide is a bad idea. No ban? What the hell good are they?

Another Hurdle for Clean Energy

A completely new NATIONWIDE infrastructure would have to be made for Wind to be a viable power source...

Sigh

When the builders of the Maple Ridge Wind farm spent $320 million to put nearly 200 wind turbines in upstate New York, the idea was to get paid for producing electricity. But at times, regional electric lines have been so congested that Maple Ridge has been forced to shut down even with a brisk wind blowing.
That is a symptom of a broad national problem. Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands.
The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.
The grid today, according to experts, is a system conceived 100 years ago to let utilities prop each other up, reducing blackouts and sharing power in small regions. It resembles a network of streets, avenues and country roads.

So for wind power to even produce any power we have to tear down the system we have and start from scratch? That'll take decades, and billions. Hell, by that point, we're spending more money than we're saving. How viable is an energy source that needs an entirely new infrastructure?

HPV Vaccine Not Safe

From ABC:

First, Gardasil's long-term effectiveness is unclear. Because cervical cancer takes years to develop, critics say the current information is insufficient to determine whether Gardasil works.
"The overall effect of the vaccines on cervical cancer remains unknown," Dr. Carolyn J. Haug, the Journal of Norwegian Medical Association's editor, wrote in the New England Journal editorial. "The real impact of HPV vaccination on cervical cancer will not be observable for decades."
...
"Most of the information people have right now leads them to believe that if they're vaccinated with Gardasil, they're protected for life, and that's just not true," said Dr. Diane Harper of Dartmouth College.
There is also the issue of side effects. FDA records reveal that, since Gardasil's approval, nearly 9,000 girls had "bad health events" after receiving their shots. These included 78 reported outbreaks of genital warts, 18 deaths and six cases of Guillain Barre Syndrome, which can result in paralysis. It is unknown whether there are unseen side effects, like decreasing the body's ability to fight off other strains of the HPV virus.

To compare this against an unsafe drug...Fen Phen had less than 200 negative side effects, and 1 death, when it was pulled from the market. Guardasil has about 4500% more health problems related and 1700% more deaths than the "unsafe" Fen Phen. Far from being considered a health risk, it is potentially going to be forced on young girls by several different states. By any objective standard of risk, this drug qualifies. The lead toy, and date rape drug toy scandals of last Christmas claimed no lives, and injured few, yet they held the headlines for days. This drug has killed almost 20 and has maimed thousands, and yet may be forced upon unwilling teens?

Where the hell is the FDA?

Bush's Third Term

Lurches Sharply to the Left...

GOP Platform may have Global Warming Plank

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- The Republican platform may include a first-ever plank on global warming, an examination of a draft document indicated.

"Increased atmospheric carbon has a warming effect on the Earth," The Hill reported the draft document as saying. "While the scope and long term consequences of this warming effect are the subject of ongoing research, we believe the United States should take measured and reasonable steps today."

Sen. John McCain, poised to become the party's presidential nominee next week during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., is a proponent of tackling global warming.

McCain, supposedly the massive right winger, comes out to endorce a milder version of Barack Obama's position. While the Republicans are tepidly endorcing McCain, because he's not Obama, positions like this are the reason for McCain's lagging support. And they put the lie that McCain is Bush III, and a massive rightwinger to boot to rest.

More Government Efficiency

In not firing consistantly missing employees:

Via ABC:

The federal government has 2.6 million civilian workers, making it the nation's largest employer. But, it turns out a growing number of these workers are not working.
"People have just flat not shown up for work," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "My question is: If people aren't showing up for work, why are they still employed by the federal government?"
Coburn commissioned the report "Missing in Action: AWOL in the Federal Government," which tracked the number of absent workers without leave, AWOL workers, across 18 government agencies from 2001 to 2007.
It found that federal workers missed nearly 20 million hours of work in the last six years, not including vacation time or sick leave. On average, 2.8 million hours of work are lost per year because of AWOL absences.
The numbers show the formation of a growing trend: Forty-five percent more workers are absent without leave throughout different government agencies than in 2001.

A massive government agency not noticing if some of it's employees are absent? Say it aint so!

How could this happen?!? Let's hear the explaination:

"To me it's a scathing indictment of the Bush administration, their total incompetence and mismanagement and disdain for government and running government," said Mark Roth, general counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees/AFL-CIO. "Apparently, they are so asleep at the wheel that they're letting people go for months without any consequences."

The head of these people's union passing the buck? Astonishing!

Realistically though, it's assinine to expect any one man to actively monitor 2.6 million people. It can't be done. Even if that person had no other responsibilities, it would be impossible to keep track of that many people with any real accuracy. Even expecting 535 people (Congress) to do it would be a daunting task. And since these people live lives and have other responsibilities, expecting the federal government to take care of problems that these agencies won't is unrealistic. If the agencies themselves aren't cracking down, and they have full legal power, what is any Congress or President to do? If these problems were being widely reported...they would be taken care of now wouldn't they?

The simple problem here is that the bigger any agency gets, the harder it becomes to micromanage. It's easy to look at one office with 10 people and determine waste or laziness. When that becomes 500 offices with 50,000 people that becomes harder still. If the company is not reporting the problems they know about to the higher ups, it becomes impossible to determine the problems. Ridiculously, the article quotes the biggest offender, the VA, as to what the solution is:

Also, the State Department and independent agencies don't monitor the number of AWOL workers, which could increase the number of lost work hours considerably, according to the report.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, the worst violator according to the report, has asked for more employees.

Of course the solution is to replace the people who don't work with people who do. Not simply to add more workers. Unfortunately, putting the people at fault in charge of the solution is more than a little like putting the Fox in charge of the Henhouse.

Of course this is nonsense. Would a parent accept "Well if my allowance was higher, the grass would get mowed better" as an excuse? Of course not. They'd demand the lawn was done or no allowance would be tendered. If you took your car to a mechanic and paid 100 bucks for a new tire, then found the tred worn bare...would you pay more money for a different tire? Of course not. You'd demand a new tire since you paid for a new tire. We should hold these agencies accountable like we would any business.