Noisy Night

Apparently, Mother Nature decided Spring was rolling in too quietly. Last night the window screens were rattling in the wind and I could hear the sound of the movement of the boughs and limbs of the landscape plants. And before rising this morning, there was a natural alarm being repeated loudly as thunder clapped repeatedly. .this equinoctial announcement couldn't be ignored. Now it is midday and I am still awaiting the wet part of the change, we desperately need that element here in our drought stricken desert of the Valley of the Sun. It has been mercurial all morning, full sunshine with bright areas in the sky and now very clouded and gloomy dark with renewed sound effects.

The political news is as unsettled as the weather. The Edwards, John and Elizabeth, have their own storm to deal with, she has been told that her previous primary breast cancer has metastized to a rib bone. To show how quickly circumstances move in the midst of a too long campaign season, it seemed to require an almost instant decision for John to continue his desire to become president. Although perhaps this always being a possibility when one faces cancer.......the scenario might have been considered before he started this second campaign effort. It certainly adds a dimension that is probably going to be unique.

There will be interest I think in how this will play out in the "anything goes" type of political climate we live in. I have already heard one Republican strategist proclaiming on CNN that this won't insulate them from attack politics. Ah America,,,,,,,,,,,nothing is sacred.

I examine my own feelings about them and this development. Yesterday when the news was broken that there was to be a news conference regarding Elizabeth's health, I speculated that if she were positive again that John would drop his campaign. So for speculation, I should have been more patient. They are remarkably resilient and strong indivuduals and even moreso as a couple. And my own life has had enough tragedy that I understand their attitudes. One is much better off reaching out and embracing life as fully as can be managed.

But there are many individuals out there in our society that do not have the means to deal in the same way with catastrophic disease states. I happen to be one of those- I am ten months into a regimen of treatment for a lung complex of diseases that are little known and for which the treatment doesn't have that high a success percentage. It requires 18 to 24 months of strong levels of three separate drugs taken every week and generally on a M-W-F schedule, which is termed intermittent therapy.The latest best numbers on incidence is 1.0 to 1.8 per 100,000. This is variously termed in the literature about it, as NTM, MAC, Mac-PD, or MAI. Many general practitioners, physician's assistants, and even pulmonary doctors have limited knowledge of it and even less experience. It can be misdiagnosed or overlooked for years. Commonly the patient already had an underlying lung disease that makes one vulnerable to the opportunistic "bugs" that are usually harmless to very healthy individuals. One of the pre-disposing lung conditions not widely known about either is bronchiectasis, of which there are also variations.

Recently in Wa DC there was a national conference - only the second, I believe, and it received little to none, as far as coverage by the media is concerned. This was initiated by a couple that are advocates and of whom, the woman is a patient. The husband also has created a website with message board, and focusing on medical/science sources for educating the public and the patient and caregivers. It can be found at http://ntminfo.org/

So the Edwards are not alone in their battle. I wonder what the number of individuals are wearing similar shoes, at least disease-wise.


graysmoke

An Anniversary We Wish Weren't

The floor of the House of Representatives today has many members making statements about the date marking the fifth anniversary of whatever you want to call going on in Iraq. It is being referred to as a war anniversary when really I think of it more as the anniversary of our country becoming something not permissable under the Constitution. A ship of state with a captain that has never left shore before. The country has been at sea ever since. What is going to end this journey? The answer seems to be that only the passage of time --getting us to the change of the presidency in the inauguration in Jan 09 after the Nov 08 elections.

The speeches will probably continue - it is 8:15 pm. in Wa DC as I type. And in about forty-five minutes in my time zone of MST it will be time for the Nightly News with Jim Lehrer on PBS where following there will be the daily list of the fallen in print scrolling slowly enough to read the particulars, their photos, thier age, their home town; few other newscasts on our 24/7 overdose of sound bites, do daily homage to the honor roll of the dead. The latest releases after families have been notified. Why is this? The obvious answer seems that the public doesn't demand it - preferring instead to pretend there isn't any killing happening.

And then there is the absence of the deaths of all the innocents caught in this AUMF. Can you believe that estimates range from 65,000 to 500,000 plus?

I never have had anyone remark about this except on a political forum where I participate. But it is absent in daily dialogue. This is what the administration counts on - the masses in a permanent preferred state of amnesia.

What is going to be the wakeup call.



graysmoke

Sometimes the Media flabbergasts me!

Today I was listening to CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. One of his guests was the democratic mayor of Salt Lake City who has been getting attention lately, since around the first of the month, regarding his position on impeachment. I will take for granted that you probably have heard the details. But in the interview today I just couldn't resist sending in the following comment-----

Wolf -- I am having a good laugh at your question to the Mayor of SLC as to why Pelosi took impeachment off the table. The question and the answer are both hilarious!
Here's the answer - look who would be in charge if impeachment was achieved. CHENEY - need more be said.I think "we" get it out here outside the beltway.



I also copied to the mayor.

graysmoke

Cowardice versus Courage

So much of the fake bravado on display by the neocons gets me in a state of high dudgeon.

The political squeamishness over even considering a draft in order to lessen the abuse of the National Guard and the reserve forces by the extensions of their Duty Tours and/or shortening their well deserved time at home, doesn't evidently faze those cowards in Congress and the executive branch.

Another angle on this, that I don't see given much attention, is the avoidance of instituting a draft results in most of those outrageous over-priced contract services being utilized. This is weakening our nation too by putting the cost of this conflict at a price that is very threatening to the economic and financial health for the country.

So who needs terrorists when the misguided decisions of this administration and its supporters are accomplishing the goals for them.

Civil defense is also dissolved by these policies. There is hardly a state that could muster enough Guard to handle another catastrophe like Rita or Kaatrins.

Will the country survive this administration? Stay tuned til January 2009 and find out. It will be a rough ride and even if a succeeding administration abandons the ideological radicalism of the present, the mess being inherited will take a couple of generations to shake out.

graysmoke