From Salon

Why is Obama still protecting Lieberman?

I am beginning to see the inevitable healthcare “compromise” as the product of a political song and dance conducted by Democrats and Republicans solely to appease various constituencies within their parties — and nothing else. Remarkably, The Onion accurately assessed the situation several months ago with the satirical essay “Congress Deadlocked Over How To Not Provide Health Care.” The Onion “quotes” Nancy Pelosi in a very smart passage:

 

Both parties understand that the current system is broken,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday. “But what we can’t seem to agree upon is how to best keep it broken, while still ensuring that no elected official takes any political risk whatsoever. It’s a very complicated issue

From TPM

Hoyer: House Will Accept Public Option-Free Bill

House Democrats can’t always get what they want, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters today. But if they spin it right, he said, they just might find they got what they need.

Faced with a likely public option-free health care reform bill from the Senate, Hoyer said House Democrats will vote to move the reform process forward without government-run insurance included.

Much as his colleagues in the Senate Democratic leadership did last night, Hoyer said the political reality in the Senate means Democrats have to look past things like the public option to the “guts” of the bill itself.

“[Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid does not have the votes for a public option, obviously,” Hoyer said. “In a world of alternatives, you have to take what you can get.”

Apparently, Sen, Joseph Lieberman can’t keep his lies straight. Once again reneging on not just campaign promises he made in 2000 and when he ran as an Independent for his Senate seat. Just 3 short months ago he discussed the Medicare buy in with the “Connecticut Post”, a complete contradiction of his now adamant opposition to the latest “compromise” in the Senate version of HCR bill.

Welcome to this weeks Health and Fitness.

Lessons From the War Zone

One morning as a medical student on the surgery service, I learned about a patient who had been hemorrhaging on the operating table the night before. The intern who had assisted during the operation took great pains to describe every detail of the failed efforts of several senior surgeons and the final, ultimately lifesaving, maneuvers of the department chairman. “He came in and just got control of the bleeding,” the intern concluded, waving his hands as if the chairman’s work had involved magic.

Skip to next paragraph

“How did he manage that?” one of my classmates asked.

“He’s one of the best,” the intern answered matter-of-factly. “He was a surgeon in Vietnam.”

One of the results of the 80’s and 90’s violent carnage in NYC, ER Doctors, ER Staff, Surgeons and Paramedics got to be very good at what they do best, saving lives. The Wheel Turns.

As is now custom, I’ll try to include the more interesting and pertinent articles that will help the community awareness of their health and bodies. This essay will not be posted anywhere else due to constraints on my time and in January it will be coming to you from Paris, Fr. for awhile. Please feel free to make suggestions for improvement and ask questions, I’ll answer as best I can.

This is an Open Thread

Go get’em, Rachel. She rocks in this take down of Richard Cohen and his homophobic “research” that is being used to support an death penalty law in Uganda

Welcome to this weeks Health and Fitness.

An ancient disease that has ravaged the world continues into the 21st century, taking its toll in lives. Tuberculosis is once again making headlines killing 1.8 million people as the world’s 7th most deadly disease. The disease is still epidemic in many parts of the world and is common opportunistic disease in HIV and AIDS patients.

As is now custom, I’ll try to include the more interesting and pertinent articles that will help the community awareness of their health and bodies. This essay will not be posted anywhere else due to constraints on my time and in January it will be coming to you from Paris, Fr. for awhile. Please feel free to make suggestions for improvement and ask questions, I’ll answer as best I can.

This is an open thread.

More funds needed for TB tests, drugs, vaccines

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) – Health experts on Thursday called for more research funding to develop better diagnostic tests, vaccines and drugs for tuberculosis, which killed 1.8 million people around the world last year.

While diseases like AIDS and malaria can be diagnosed in minutes by applying a drop of blood to a rapid test kit, confirming active tuberculosis, or TB, is a laborious procedure.

It requires a patient to cough up sputum, which is smeared on a slide, stained and examined under a microscope.

And the 100-year-old test misses up to 70 percent of otherwise positive cases in some places, experts say.

In Africa, where the scourge of TB is most keenly felt, many people delay follow-up testing because of cost.

“A lot of people die before a TB diagnosis is even made,” Dr Jeremiah Chakaya of the Kenya Medical Research Institute told reporters at an international conference on lung health in Cancun, Mexico.

Pres. Obama, tell me again, what are we fighting for?

I am so proud that I had the opportunity to help elect this woman. Even though the NY State Senate voted down same sex marriage equality, Sen Savino’s words are so eloquent. It is so sad that her fellow legislators did not hear her words and comprehend their meaning. Sen. Savino says it all for me and so many others.

Welcome to this weeks review of important Health, Fitness and Nutrition news. I have been posting the links to articles about health, fitness and nutrition, along with healthy recipes in ek hornbeck’s daily news round up. Since life is now making greater demands on my time both on and off line, I thought a weekly separate essay at the end of the week would be a good idea. This essay will not be posted anywhere else due to constraints on my time and in January it will be coming to you from Paris, Fr. for awhile.

I’ll try to include the more interesting and pertinent articles that will help the community awareness of their health and bodies. Please feel free to make suggestions for improvement and ask questions, I’ll answer as best I can.

Now that the big food day is over, I’ll add healthy recipes at the end of the essay.

Be Healthy. Be Safe