Home » The Watercooler for 09/01/08 9:00 AM
The Watercooler for 09/01/08 9:00 AM
DFA's home for a free form, open-ended discussion of what matters most to committed progressive activists.
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before you think a story about arms sales and bases in Georgia have nothing to do with losing our bases in Iraq is off topic here.
so he could make this a "national security" election and Democrats better not let him get away with it.
"Who lost Russia?"
Worst. President. Ever. of course
we don't need another 50 years of an arms race, the globe faces other challenges without making one up
Where is everyone?
My gripe for this morning is about antibiotics. I want the law changed so you can buy them over the counter. In the known free world except here you can buy antibiotics over the counter. I have the millionth UTI of my life and really don't need a Doc to diagnose. But I have to suffer through a 3 day weekend till I can go pee in the jar to justify a prescription for antibiotics. Or drive 30 miles to a 'doc in the box' today. Which I may do. Wonder why USA is different from the rest -- it's always about money -- prolly the AMA finds such illnesses their bread and butter and they don't want to lose the $.
I need to go fishing since there is nothing I can do a thousand miles away
is that overuse of antibiotics is making the critters stronger
is that overuse of antibiotics is making the critters stronger and
I went through the same problems years ago. My GYN suggested I take hormones for awhile so I did and he was right -- haven't had a UTI problem since.
Inhalers for asthmatics like myself should also be over the counter as they as in every other country. I have purchased them OTC in Costa Rica and Canada w/o any prescription.
- I have no opinion on the prescription debate, but antibiotics may do mor harm than good for UTI
By Fred from Oregon on Sep 1, 2008 12:19 PM EDT...If the etiology is yeast overgrowth in the digestive system which is spilling over or migrating through tissue to the genital-urinary system.
I suffered for over 20 years and have read many books on it before I cured myself, which took about 4 years of gradual improvement.
Bacterial antibiotics may not only NOT kill the cause of the problem but do weaken/kill the friendly bacteria in the gut which competes with yeast for space and nutrition.
Toxins from yeast overgrowth enter the bloodstream and overwhelm the immune activity, stunning it, and also cause chemically-induced depression.
There may be bacterial infection, which the antibiotics may help in the short run, but the bacteria is only propagating on the tissue damaged from the yeast growth which continues with a vengence.
...Probably because there is no easy fix, surgery, or silver bullet, the AMA and convention medicine does not accept this understand of yeast syndrome. Some MDs do. It is also difficult to diagnose this problem with lab or blood tests, which can be very misleading.
You guys are a wealth if info -- thanks Fred and Joan and others...interesting about the hormones (which I have never taken)...
Just a suggestion....a few years ago my young, female internist suggested a cranberry d-mannose supplement daily--keeps UTI's away.
Made by Pure Encapsulations, available from docs who recognize it's value--or on the internet. Works like magic for me.
- Florida, Alabama border has some violent weather breaking out.
By Phil Specht on Sep 1, 2008 9:37 AM EDTThe outer band is stirring up a hornet's nest, and coastal damage will reach to Texas. It may not be Katrina but folks will be glad they headed north.
- prayers and good vibes to those sleeping on cots in a gym
By Phil Specht on Sep 1, 2008 9:41 AM EDTor hunkered down in Baton Rouge where the first hurricane force winds have just blown through
glad they are ready this time because Bush sure falied those same folks three years ago.
and to the critters people left tied up and those that are just left behind - also the zoo critters...
Republican lies ans smears continue unabated and largely unchallenged by the Democrats.
Also, virtually no attacks on McSame/Palin.
Low information voters are getting all the info they need from Swiftboaters.
Repugs don't know how to govern, but they sure know how to campaign.
I don't really understand how conservatives think -- if they do.
Will they praise Palin's teenage daughter for not using contraceptives and not getting an abortion, or will they condemn her for having sex before marriage? (We all know they'll hold the boy blameless regardless.)
Will they think this makes Sarah Palin a good parent or a bad one?
And will they think that someone who obviously can't run her own family to their satisfaction could run America to it?
Stay tuned. And never undersetimate the power of hypocrisy and denial.
gets to say the word "Russia" when no other Governor could.
the October surprise is a new cold war, does that mean Reagan didn't win the last one?
and a generous and good-hearted person. we don't talk politics, because he can't believe in more than one talking point vs fact at a time and the last time we did it almost ended our relationship. this weekend he told my Mom (an Obama supporter) that he hates Obama because he is AlQueda. he doesn't like McCain but he thinks Palin sounds great - even though he knows nothing about her.
THIS IS WHAT WE'RE UP AGAINST, FOLKS!
Have you guys been to mybarackobama.com? You can set up an account there -- give them some info and then they've 'got your number.' I cannot believe how organized they are. As I mentioned the other night, we had a PAID Obama organizer in our tiny RED town the other night to organize the 10 Democrats here -- we are going to do some group phone banking (the organizer who is 19 says it's easier as a group b/c people yell at you and stuff). But apparently they don't phone bank just anyone, but the undecideds. They have all kinds of (very legal) data on people. Anyway, if you go to mybarackobama.com and set up an account I believe you will immediately be given tasks you can undertake if you like - like 30 people to canvas in your neighborhood, undecideds to call, etc. Try it!
...and of course, the opportunity to donate :~)
They have been playing a lot of Eric Satie on the local radio station the past couple of days -- must say it sounds like 'noodling' or improvisation to me...no easily discernible form, no easily discernible melody...just some chords. No offense to Eric Satie fans-admit to being a newbie to him.
inside th eClinton bubble, aka how did he (they) miss the real Obama?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/31/AR2008083101620.html
But Gallup refuses to measure the undecided vote, and instead gives a hypothetical description of a presidential race, "if the election were held today" - showing us that 95 percent of voters have already made up their minds. But the election is not being held today, and the Gallup Daily does not tell us the truth about how many voters are - at this point in the campaign - committed to a candidate, and how many voters have yet to make up their minds. From Plouffe's and Pfeiffer's point of view, the Gallup Daily is useless - even in understanding the national sentiment.
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/gallup_daily_the_worst_thing_i.php
In Europe I've gotten antibiotics over the counter (and very cheaply). That said - antibiotics are so over-used. Is there anything holistic you can do? It's dangerous to have an infection and not get it treated pronto.
My thoughts/prayers/good vibes are with all those folks along the Gulf Coast.
I hit *send* too quickly. My MIL is one of the most brilliant people I know. But guess what? She told my husband yesterday that Sarah Palin had as much experience as Barack Obama. She heard it on PBS. This is what we're up against. However, she will vote for Obama because she would never vote for a Republican.
I heard it said that she had as much experience as Tim Paine because he was only a governor, like her, for 16 months.
Nevermind that he served four terms on the city council of Richmond VA, served five years as Lt. Governor VA, and has vast experience in the legal field and with organizations representing the underrepresented.
Joan - What it comes down to for me is this. I want a POTUS who is brilliant, a deep thinker. Someone who has a firm grasp on all the relevant issues of today. That's Barack Obama. I actually think Palin will be popular with some of the Bubba vote because she's cute and can shoot an M-16. This is what our country has become - one big reality show. It's mind-boggling.
Anni hope your feel better soon.
Phil my prayers are with you and your son, as well as all in the path of Gustav.
The few I have talked with here in Salt Lake think Palin should be at home taking care of her children, not traipsing around. Of course UT certainly will not be in play.
I was watching video clip of McCain from yesterday. He looked and sounded so old. It really hit me, it is entirely possible he may not make it through his first term, Palin may actually be Pres. It is scary as hell.
Just got back from San Luis Obispo area, where I was for a week. Missed the convention. My portable TV turned out to be defective. On vacation, Found a buckle in the roof seam of my brand new Pace 5x8 cargo trailer. And open hole. very discouraging. Gas mileage went from 40mpg to 22 on my 94 Escort, pulling the trailer. Brakes and clutch overheated a little too. Need a teardrop trailer for this car. It is getting cold here on the West coast. Autumn has left her calling card.
Guess Barack Obama agrees with me about Biden. That was satisfactory news. So my political instincts are not that bad after all, even though I did not support BO from the beginning
Just got done listening to the acceptance speech on the web. 100% pure Obama, no artificial additives.
To rebut rumors, Palin says daughter, 17, pregnant
By Steve Holland12 minutes ago
ST. PAUL (Reuters) - The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080901/pl_nm/usa_politics_palin_dc
Distributive Networks link no good?
I was thinking about you when Barack chose Joe as his running mate. Must make you very happy!
Wow, just read the news that Palin's daughter is pregnant. Still, I think that is the family's business - not ours. I think kids are off-limits. But I also think many fundamentalists may be disturbed by it.
on my political instincts. I don't think I was wrong about Biden, rather I was wrong to write off Obama as not up to the task, and wrong about being skeptical of the political ramifications of his name and his being half African.
Once I realized what an exceptional individual he is (after Iowa) I quickly adjusted my atitude, seeing those concerns as trivial.
Now I can laugh as the Gopers scramble to get their convention back together.
I think the apprehension among Democrats will be wiped away at the end of the first debate. McCain just can't run his record or Bush's. Though I'm astounded at how hard the MSM is trying to shut out the Democrats' message since the convention.
Like they put their fingers in their ears and go, "Nya nya, I can't hear you and we'll stop everyone else from hearing you too!" Do they have a clue of how lame it looks?
Actually, though, my only concern other than the possibility of Bush refusing to leave office, and my prayers for Obama's safety, is the voting machines. If we can reasonably maintain the integrity of the vote, we aught to do well.
won't give up on the baby Trigg story. He wants to see the birth certificate that shows Sarah as the mother of the four month old infant. I just think the liberal blogosphere looks rabid going after a teenager.
By Phil Specht on Sep 1, 2008 7:01 AM EDT
so he could make this a "national security" election and Democrats better not let him get away with it.
............
we don't need another 50 years of an arms race, the globe faces other challenges without making one up
----------------------
Of course they "better not let him" but its tough Phil, isn't it?
To do that they must recognize completely diferent enemies of American People than "agressive Russia" and even Al-Qaeda. Those two may be able to start, to support The "struggle" BUT the main part will belong to us, to Americans. They CAN'T do EVERYTHING for us.
There is some job, none but Americans must do...lol.
Phil, sorrry I missed the joke last night.
I will not go 'after' a seventeen year old girl, but I will go after her mother. Where are Palin's priorities? Does she think that America needs her so much that she will hit the campaign trail rather than tending to her disabled baby and young pregnant daughter?
I have no problem with Bristol's decision (assuming that it is Bristol's decision.) I have no problem with working moms. I do have problems with child neglect in favor of a 'fabulous' career.
In case anybody thinks that none of this is my business, that's fine. But I think Palin made it my business when she succombed to the bright lights of national fame. She is in my face. I didn't put her there.
Your comment is the sexist attitude employers have about woman in the work place all the time. Thanks for pointing out that such attitudes are not solely a Rebub problem. Can't work and take care of a pregnant teenager?? What is she to do, sit home and watch Oprah with her?? Woman can and do work while raising a family. What about her husband, why should he not quit his job to take care of the kids. Sexist attitudes should be combated everywhere.
I have been a working mother of very young children, so I don't need your 1970's talking points. I have lived them. I was the sole support of my family.
I doubt that Bristol will be staying home and watching Oprah. But I doubt that she will be on the campaign trail with Mom and the rest of the family.
As for Todd Palin, he already quit his job once to become a stay at home dad. The thing is though that he didn't stay at home. He sat in on his wife's gubenatorial strategy sessions. It was not well received.
Not to worry though. Todd is back at work. With British Petroleum.
Good thing there's no chance of conflict of interest here.
I have nothing against role change. It is present in my own life. But one parent should be home watching the kids, at least part time. If the Todd's job is full time, I would think most responsible parents would frown on it.
Such criticism is not meant for two-parent-working family that needs to do so to survive, or to hold on to their home.
Obviously the Parin's are not in that situation. They fit the stereotype where two parents work out of greed, or because their career is more important than the quality time needed with the kids, and it gives them more satisfaction.
They find it more cost-effective and personally satisfying to farm out the child-raising to day-care and live-in nannies. This has created a brat culture in our country IMO, which has little regard for the struggling working class, the working poor, and the hardship-case/disabled poor.
Because the parents let them get away with murder. They blame all the problems on the nanny, and when they do have some quality time with the kids, the let them have their way with everything, to not sour the mood, and/or out of self-guilt (blaming themselves) at not being with them more often. They often lavish their kids with material possession to no limit, in lieu of the love and time they know they should be giving them.
Meanwhile the kids learn how to survive in group settings with little personal love and attention, and how to manipulate care-takers and other kids for selfish reasons.
This has been my observation, while raising my daughter and encounters she's had with other kids, and their parents.
on the issue of a working mother.
Of course everything about Palin is our business at this point. I would not vote for a candidate not knowing everything I can about her.
This woman will not pass scrutiny on many fronts. But if Democrats keep pounding on her, it could actually help her. Therefore, I prefer to rather ignore her as the oddity of a presumed nominee that she is.
My wife always gets furious when stay at home moms act as if they have put more into their family than she has into hers as a professional working woman. Claiming that you can't do both is a sexist attitude. She does not need to give up her career because she has a special needs child nr does her daughters stupid decision to become sexually active in HS require she sit at home.
Guess she cut the abstinency class Bush conservatives have insisted be taught to curtail teenage pregnancies.
I see no mention of the baby? It is a special needs child. The poor thing has been put away somewhere.
What kind of mother is that??
This is a mess for McSame. Thank god.
Sexist attitudes? Give me a break. Donna's point is relevant. Nothing sexist about it.
I feel badly for Bristol Palin in all of this. I'm sure she would have liked to have kept this within her family - now the whole world knows.
- Everybody knows only liberals have sex and get pregnant B4 marriage, right?
By Fred from Oregon on Sep 1, 2008 2:37 PM EDTWhat a joke. It is like my right-wing repub uncle blaming my marijuana use that ended 26 years ago, for his teenage daughter going to rehab for cocaine 7 years ago. It was his own alienation from her that caused her to turn to drugs and punker friends, not my pot-smoking history.
Palin's ambitious-career-woman image that precludes the welfare of her family will not sit well with the cultural conservatives, and her political positions will lose out with the moderates, but I must admit she is about as good an image as he can project right now, for people who vote on sound-bites and pictures.
A couple thousand protesters waving peace sign flags and hundreds of police wearing bulletproof vests and carrying billy clubs gathered today at the state Capitol in advance of an anti-war march that organizers hoped would draw as many as 50,000 people.
Police were preparing for disruptions from a self-described anarchist group, with officers in riot gear assembled along the route of the march.
The anarchist group, called the RNC Welcoming Committee, was targeted in police searches over the weekend that resulted in six arrests. The group, which did not organize today's march, issued a statement saying it was "moving forward with a national call to crash the convention."
http://www.twincities.com/rnc/ci_10356224
This is just one of the many protest groups to which the Feds and local law enforcement are overreacting, sometimes when there is nothing to react to according to a Green Party protester.
Someone translated my blog into German. I guess over there they call me "Metro." lol
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080901/D92TTNBO0.html
...............
"With its reaction to the Georgian aggression, Russia has set a certain standard of responding that fully complies with international law," Lavrov said. Russian soldiers, he said, followed "our deeply Christian tradition of dying for our friends."
The reactions of some Western countries to the crisis "illustrates a deficit of morality," he said. "It's high time for Europe to get back to simple, non-politicized and non-geopolitical values," Lavrov said.
We just got back from Obama's appearance with several union presidents in downtown Detroit's Hart Plaza. He ditched his stump speech to make a short, subdued appeal to those present to think of those in the path of Gustav.
I haven't seen a a crowd estimate. We attended the Wings victory parade in June which drew over one million people to the city, and there were thousands there today. I don't have a useful frame of reference because we were in the center of a massive, many tentacled throng that stretched out from the plaza in all directions. Evidently people had come downtown as early as 5 a.m.
We arrived around 9 and followed a line from the foot of Jefferson and Woodward down Jefferson, to Griswold, down to Larned, splitting north and south up and down Shelby. The lines simply held too many people to gain admission so we watched his speech on a huge monitor from the middle of Jefferson. Phenomenal.
Repubs think Palin was not too forhcoming? Might they be thinking McCain had more than a senior moment when he chose her, unvetted and almost unknown to him?
Do we think that the Repubs have suddently become empathetic to hurricane victims? I would liike to be a fly on the wall at the meetings that are taking place at the convention site. Will the mainstream Repubs confront the Right? They wouldn't do it when they had the upper hand, but maybe now? Dump Palin, maybe even McCain? Is there one with a spine?
All the planning that went into the demonstratioons, and now no party to go to. One of the groups has made a national call to disrupt the convention, ......if they can find one.
Tuesday's Rally for the Republic is just days away!
A few things to announce:
1) Today, 638...seats will be released....
2) At 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning...400 wristbands will be handed out....
3) Volunteers will be a big part of...a success....
The situation our country faces is as dangerous as ever.... Both major parties remain committed to militarism and reckless spending - and inflationism to fund it all.
...Democrats uttered barely a peep about the surveillance state, the police state...
Needless to say, there was not a word about the Fed and what it's done to our economy. We can only imagine what the GOP Convention will have in store for us.
The Rally for the Republic is the first step in alerting our countrymen to these dangers, and holding out the message of freedom as the only remedy. We must resist the false choices the two major parties are giving us. Help me spread our great ideas far and wide. Join me in Minneapolis, and let's shake the rafters.
In liberty,
Ron
- no exit here either?
By Phil Specht on Sep 1, 2008 6:53 AM EDTMoscow warns EU on Georgia ties
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said further Western support for Georgia's present leadership would be a mistake of historic magnitude.
Mr Lavrov called for an embargo on arms supplies to Georgia until a different government was in place there.
He was speaking ahead of an emergency EU summit on the Georgian crisis.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7591162.stm