hurricane-2011: August 2011

Health & Fitness Helps Cancer Patients Improve Their Health

Today I would like to share with you a guest post by blogger David Haas. David is a cancer patient advocate who spends time writing and researching for the betterment of others. You all know how I stress exercise during and post treatment. David shares with us some helpful information on the subject. Just remember, during treatment, you need to listen to your body and your mind. Some days you may feel like exercising and some not; this is okay; really….my wish is for you to feel good about it and yourself. Be well.

Health & Fitness Helps Cancer Patients Improve Their Health, by David Haas

For a person who just received a cancer diagnosis or is experiencing physical pain from cancer treatments, physical activity may seem like the least beneficial thing they can do for themselves. Cancer patients may feel tired after their treatment, and they may not feel up to the challenge. However, becoming or remaining physically active is actually the best thing that a person who is battling cancer can do, and it has benefits that extend far beyond weight loss or increased agility. There is a proven connection between the body and the mind. Consequently, keeping both of them healthy is the best way to achieve a balanced life beyond a cancer diagnosis.

According to an article by the National Cancer Institute, fatigue and physical functioning are factors that directly influence the quality of life for cancer patients. This has the same effect whether someone is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer or going through painful and overwhelming mesothelioma treatment. If a cancer patient is experiencing extreme tiredness from treatments or from mental stress, they may not want to engage in exercise. However, fatigue may soon set in as a result of inactivity. Then, reduced physical functioning is almost sure to follow. Because this will lessen the quality of life for the cancer patient, keeping a schedule of regular physical activity is of the utmost importance.

Along with keeping the body and the mind healthy, engaging in fitness activities while undergoing treatment can also help some patients keep their weight down and their muscles well toned. Weight gain can occur due to some of the medicine that a cancer patient is taking, or as a result of neglecting to carefully monitor their diets. Working with a doctor or fitness expert to create a fitness routine that can effectively address these issues will help to make sure that the patient’s body remains in the best possible condition throughout the process of diagnosis and treatment.

The National Cancer Institute article mentioned above states that there are often more gains in health that happen with cancer patients who exercise than with those who do nothing at all. This should help cancer patients understand the importance of making sure that fitness is a priority. It is understandable that someone who has just finished a chemotherapy treatment or a round of medicine may not always feel up to walking on the treadmill or biking through the park. In these cases, it is imperative that the patient remembers that balance is the key to achieving a healthy body and healthy mind. When balance is the ultimate goal, fitness can become an enjoyable part of any cancer patient’s life.

Elyn Jacobs

elyn@elynjacobs.com

http://elynjacobs.blogspot.com

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Elyn Jacobs is President of Elyn Jacobs Consulting, Inc. and a breast cancer survivor. She empowers women diagnosed with cancer to navigate the process of treatment and care, and she educates about how to prevent recurrence and new cancers. She is passionate about helping others get past their cancer and into a cancer-free life.

Hurricane Primer

I haven't found a more recent online version, but this 2006 St. Petersburg Times Hurricane Guide is pretty comprehensive. To supplement whatever's being provided up north.

EDIT: St. Pete Times tweeted me the URL of their 2011 online version.

Stay safe over there.

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too

Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.), Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite, Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny, Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines, Vol. 5, Deviations: TelZodo, Vol. 6 and conclusion: Deviations: Second Covenant.Free downloads at the Deviations website (click here for alternate link), Smashwords, and Manybooks.

Proud participant, Operation E-Book Drop (provides free e-books to personnel serving overseas. Logo from the imagination and graphic artistry of K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman); Books For Soldiers (ships books and more to deployed military members of the U.S. armed forces); and Shadow Forest Authors (a fellowship of authors and supporters for charity, with a focus on literacy). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Read Their Lips

No new taxes ~~ever, for any reason whatsoever~~, except on working people and businesses looking to hire Americans.

[P]ayroll-tax cuts are the sort of tax break most likely to "get the economy moving again" during a recession. (Because they put money in the hands of people most likely to spend it and therefore boost other businesses. And on balance they lower the cost of adding new workers.) Income-tax breaks at the top end are least likely to create new demand or jobs. (Because they go to people who have a lower "marginal propensity to spend" and are more likely to park the money in the bank.)

Makes sense to me. I'd reckon that, if they made this a really big issue, Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives might start cracking the false narrative of Republican Tax Relief, kneecap support for the Bush Tax Cuts, gain some desperately needed political capital, and hammer the GOP on a fundamental economic vision for America. This situation, after all, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Barack Obama cut taxes so that working people and small businesses were the primary beneficiary. It also demonstrates that Republicans, who have literally picked "not raising taxes" as their hill to die on in the Debt Ceiling debates, are actually willing to raise taxes whenever it is politically convenient to do so.

And by "raise taxes," I'm using the GOP definition which includes: letting certain tax cuts expire, closing loopholes, ending subsidies, and the spectre of raising taxes at some future time.

So now that we've determined what kind of tax opponnents Republicans really are, all that's left is negotiating. Oh, and spreading the word to the American people before the GOP is able to work its way onto both sides of this issue as well.

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Fake Cattle

Truth begins to emerge about Rick "Miracle Worker" Perry's Texas.

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Always Right

Republicans are never wrong. They've always got people working the angles, so the Democrats can take the blame.

Remember all the Libya war hate from the Republicans? That was an easy position to go on the news and advocate back when the rebels looked like they were about to get thrown into the sea by Qadaffi's mercenaries, wasn't it?

But now that the Libya intervention seems to have worked, the pro-interventionist Republicans get to blame the President for not getting involved soon enough.

I really like how no one in the GOP even acknowledges that there is a difference of opinion within their own party. That's a powerful media strategy, my friends.

Same as it ever was.

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Behaving Badly

There's a lot of cultural nonsense about how enlightened Europeans are versus the boorish behavior of Americans. Then things like this happen and we're reminded that anyone from any nation or any culture can behave like a total dick.

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Republicans Don't Care About Spending

Worried about government spending? Worried about the deficit? Worried about a balanced budget? Worried about the national debt? Think the USA has a "spending problem" and not a "revenue problem?"

Republicans don't. Otherwise they wouldn't have been sending dozens of funding requests for government projects in their districts.

You know what, I'm down with putting people to work now and getting all these projects funded now. As long as the President publicizes the shit out of the fact that all this government spending is what Republicans ask for when the cameras are turned off. He should sign into law each district's requests and call them Republican Stimulus requests. They are the ones who made stimulus a dirty word, after all.

All that fear-mongering about the state of the country's finances is just talk-talk. They love stimulus and bringing home the bacon just as much as any other politician.

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Declaration of Victory

In Georgia, politics will no longer be decided along partisan, political party lines. Instead, all decisions will be made based on intraparty politics.

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School's Out Forever

It is time to stop beating around the bush and start talking about what these people are saying and what their goals are: Many mainstream Republicans want to de-legitimize and deconstruct public education as a concept in the United States of America.

This isn't their sole historical property, mind you. There was a time not so long ago when populist Southern Democratic governors stood in schoolhouse doors and fought public education as well. These are old questions, it is an old fight. And Democrats don't have a very good record of holding political allies responsible for the failing state of many public schools across the land.

That being said, there are two questions that must be asked about public school: Do you think that every child in the United States should be offered the opportunity to obtain a basic education? Do you think a government organization is the most effective way to deliver this basic education to the most possible children?

The current answer from the right wing continues to be "no," and "hell, no." That answer dominates the mainstream Republican Party mindset.

Let's not mince words, those kinds of beliefs are not political non-negotiables. Our own national history has often been built on the fights for universal access to basic education. It often took generations of struggle to reform school policy to include one group or another, or to fund one group the same as any other. Once one goal was acheived, it opened up a new host of problems that had to be addressed, and the political debate continued. That debate never ended, it just changed.

Right now, those answers to those two questions are winning the national debate. They are doing so because any political opposition refuses to accept that those questions make up the heart of the debate.

The current crop of Republicans is out to destroy the concept of public education in the United States of America.

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Poisoning the Food and Water

Who needs all this pesky environmentalism stuff, anyway? We're not even talking ~~global warming~~ climate change anymore. We're talking about all the poison within 100 miles of home.

And for the poison just outside that circle, there's still oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. But don't worry, BP assures us it has nothing to do with them.

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Not a Counterpart

First of all, you'll have to forgive me for taking another look at what Van Jones is doing. The hit job against this young man came about back when the right was still creating narratives on cheaply bought credibility, back before all the fabrications about ACORN, the academic cover of Kenyan anti-colonialism, and the absolute fantasy of the Ground Zero Mosque.

And as "pro-slavery" Republican Presidential candidates discovered, it isn't difficult to put your name on a petition without realizing what's in it.

Not that I think Jones is out there creating a left-wing response to the Tea Party. That's nearly impossible in the first place. Organizations have been trying to unify the left at a grassroots level for generations without much success; or maybe I should say too much success - many of these organizations already exist, and compete for the progressive activist for funding and involvement.

Secondly, is that really such a good idea? The Tea Party has terrible approval numbers nationwide because A) their unifying message is simply a hatred of all things liberal, B) their marketing has burned through a tremendous number of empty platitudes, and C) they have very little long-term credibility outside their core supporters. Hell, even their charges about Van Jones have probably been forgotten as the outrage machine has found new false emergencies to rant about.

Pardon me if I don't think "the left" ever needs an organization that fits that billing. Hopefully, it sounds like Jones is actually working on something different, and the Tea Party comparisons are going to come mainly from a media standpoint.

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Wordle-Play

I wanted to see what would happen if I made Deviations word clouds -- so I went over to Wordle. According to the website, "The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."

I've combined the six word clouds into a single image here, but they can be viewed separately (at full size and crisper) on my Wordle gallery page.

The clouds make for a neat analysis. I especially like how the terms "Masari" and "Yata" -- the two main peoples of the series -- relate to each other across the volumes. "Yata" trumps "Masari" for almost the entire series, beginning as slightly larger in Covenant. That discrepancy increases in Appetite and increases yet more in Destiny. Both are enlarged in Bloodlines (the longest book in the series), but "Yata" still outshines "Masari." Both drop into the background in TelZodo (which, as the words show, focuses mainly on its title character, along with TripStone), but "Yata" is still significantly larger than "Masari." Only in Second Covenant does "Masari" gain in stature, to the point where its size matches that of "Yata" exactly (by my measurement). The clouds do a nice job of encapsulating that particular dynamic of the epic.

TripStone, the main heroine of the series, maintains a steady prominence through Destiny. That standing decreases slightly in Bloodlines, giving her the same emphasis as BrushBurn. The drama in Bloodlines is as much his as hers, given the disruptive influence of the character Jirado, whose name is the next-largest one in the cloud. Clearly, the action in Promontory takes center stage, contrasting with but not equaled by the drama unfolding in Crossroads (with its major players HigherBrook, Ghost, CatBird, and Gria). Even so, the place name of Crossroads (TripStone's village) is slightly larger than Promontory, a dynamic in itself.

TripStone's slightly decreased emphasis holds steady in TelZodo, but the title character clearly takes prominence. Taken within the context of the individual novels, "TelZodo" ranks the highest in the series. That has mainly to do with the book's narrative style. The other volumes are ensemble pieces, but TelZodo is a Bildungsroman, defined here as, "the story of a single individual's growth and development within the context of a defined social order."

TripStone vanishes by the time we get to Second Covenant, whose story is told by members of the new generation. Her name appears in the book, just not often enough to merit representation in the word cloud.

Destiny, a drug that can be considered a character in itself, sneaks into Covenant as one of the smallest words in the cloud. Its size grows considerably in Appetite and considerably more in its title volume, Destiny. It drops back down in Bloodlines, to smaller than it had been in Appetite. It drops out of the TelZodo word cloud entirely (despite the role that Destiny Farm plays in that book), but it roars back to life in Second Covenant. Not only does "Destiny" hold more within-novel prominence here than in any other Deviations book, but it outshines all of Second Covenant's sentient characters.

The Covenant, a religious system that is also a character in its own right, undergoes its own journey. Its small size in its title volume is deceiving; the religion, constantly in the background, drives the action. By the time of Appetite it has been destroyed and has shrunk in that volume's word cloud. It vanishes entirely from the word cloud for Destiny.

But it peeks back in for Bloodlines, achieving the same size it had possessed in Covenant. It barely makes a showing in the TelZodo word cloud, a tiny blip between "now" and "away;" and it appears again, matching its original strength, in Second Covenant.

The gods, absent from the word clouds for the first three volumes, stake their claim in the Bloodlines word cloud, stick around in unbeliever TelZodo's word cloud, and make their best showing in the word cloud for Second Covenant.

I could play with this every which way. Wordle's a neat tool for studying story dynamics.

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too

Terri's Big Dream

Today's guest post is by Terri Wingham. Thank you Terri for sharing your dream with me. I have heard countless women saying that their lives and focus changed dramatically after cancer, and that their old lives seem empty. Her dream may inspire you to join in or find your own dream.

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting, he thought, as he looked again at the position of the sun and hurried his pace." - One of my favourite quotes from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Cancer turned me from a pragmatic realist into a dreamer. In my old life, I wrapped my fingers, like the sucking tentacles of an octopus, around anything I thought could control. I thought if I could work 60-80 hours a week, juggle my schedule to try to make other people happy, and earn a six figure salary by the time I turned 30, someone would give me the key to a mystical place where my worries would disappear and I could finally relax.

Then, October 27, 2009 arrived and as I sat on a scratchy purple couch outside the doors of one of the cavernous conference rooms at the Vancouver Convention Center, a doctor's voicemail pried the fingers of control open and I watched life as I knew it, slip right through.

Some of you know the rest of the story...18 months of treatment including 3 surgeries, 4 round of chemotherapy, baldness, a flat chest, hot flashes, depression, and disillusionment....what a ride. But, then...on New Years Day of this year, the heavy fog surrounding my heart lifted and for the first time ever, I listened to the Hell Yes in my gut and came up with a crazy dream to go to Africa.

With an outpouring of support from friends, family, and readers, I raised the money to participate in a six week volunteer program in the Townships of Cape Town. Some of you came along as I crashed into love with a group of mischievous 1-3 year olds, met women my age who had lost entire families to AIDS, and saw more joy on the faces of people who struggled to provide their families with the basic necessities of life, then I ever felt when I earned my six figure income.

If you visit the My Story page on A Fresh Chapter, you will read my (still unanswered) email to Oprah and learn about the book I am sweating through writing. But, today, I want to tell you about a different dream, a MUCH bigger dream that might involve you or someone you know. If I can just get past the anxiety building in my chest and string letters into sentences so I can share it with you, I know I will get one step closer to making it a reality.

I can hear you saying, as you think of all of the other things you need to do today, "C'mon already....what's the dream?"

So, here it is.

I want to start a Not For Profit to help other cancer survivors volunteer internationally. If you have a few moments, please come visit my new page entitled My Big Dream where I tell you more about why I think this experience might heal other survivors in the way it healed me.

I would love to hear your thoughts, positive or negative, about this idea because I don't pretend to know what will work for everyone. Each of us who have faced cancer have handled the experience in our own way and come through it with a different perspective about what we need to move forward. This idea is still a red faced, naked, newborn baby and I know your input will help shape it through the sleepless nights and dirty diapers of its infancy...

In order to start making this dream a reality, I am officially giving up my apartment in Vancouver on September 30th, lending or giving away almost all of my worldly possessions and packing my bags for a Round The World Trip. As I write these words, the old me wants to drop-kick the new me and wrap my arms around everything I own and refuse to let go.

But, every time I feel the old tightness of fear clamp down on my chest, I look at Mark Twain's quote, written on a card, and stuck to my fridge: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines! Sail away from the safe harbour! Catch the trade winds in your sails! Explore! Dream! Discover!

I'm not suggesting that all of us should quit our jobs and travel the world in the hopes of starting a Not For Profit. But, I would love to bring you with me as I figure out a way to partner with a volunteer organization and then raise awareness for this new venture by traveling the world, volunteering in Asia, Africa, and maybe even South America and then putting the structure in place to help other people dream big, post-cancer, reinvent your life kind of dreams.

So, what do you think?

If you want to get involved or have any ideas around shaping this Not For Profit, please email me. I would LOVE your support and to hear your feedback. I have no idea how to make this happen, but recent events in my life have taught me that Courage is Not the Absence of Fear and if I dream a big dream, anything is possible.

Terri Wingham is a blogger, world traveler, friend, sister, aunt, daughter, wine lover, post-wine booty shaker, writer, dreamer, and breast cancer survivor. Terri’s current address is in Vancouver, Canada, but after her recent return from 10 weeks in Africa, she is itching to finish her book, pack her bags, and travel the world while she starts a Not For Profit to help other cancer survivors volunteer internationally. Follow Terri’s adventures on her blog: A Fresh Chapter. http://www.afreshchapter.com/.

Elyn Jacobs

elyn@elynjacobs.com

http://elynjacobs.blogspot.com

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The Invisible Man...

Jon Stewart in top form:

The Daily Show

Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Scandal

I'll send y'all over to Georgia Sports Blog for the proper introduction to the college football news that just hit the web.

University of Miami's having a bad day. Please, don't take a picture.

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All Hat & Fake Cattle

If Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives had two ounces of sense to rub together, they'd make Rick "Miracle Man with a Silver Bullet" Perry's campaign for President the poster child for both the policies that got America into all our current messes and the politics of right-wing cognitive dissonance.

In fact, they could go after Perry for not being a fiscal conservative and only playing one when the cameras are rolling. That would, of course, make the "Perry is the Next Bush" politics far more credible than the crap they are likely thinking of running.

Such a focus will be far more credible than the coming campaign against the Confederate States of America some of those never-squander-an-opportunity-to-lose-the-South professional bloggers and activists are doubtlessly planning on running. It would also allow the DLP to actively challenge the very right-wing narratives and political marketing that have been so effective since 1994.

HT: Andrew Sullivan.

Perry is going to be the nominee. He is the embodiment of the current Right-Wing, GOP, Tea Party alliance. He displays all their strengths and weaknesses, and could give President Obama and what Democrats remain an actual foil to run against and turn their own numbers around.

And they don't even have to make stuff up to do it.

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Bonkers: The Democrats & Congress

It doesn't matter that John Boehner is as unpopular as Nancy Pelosi on the generic ballot or whatever.

A. Pelosi's unpopularity all came from one side of the aisle, unifying an opposition and allowing them to sell that unpopularity to independents. There is no similar marketing campaign to turn independents against Boehner.

B. If Democrats are somehow able to make Boehner's popularity an issue in national congressional elections, they'll be asking independents to exchange his leadership for....Nancy Pelosi. In a contest between two incredibly unpopular choices, the incumbent has an edge, and the best marketing has an edge. The GOP has both.

C. Republicans and Independents-who-vote-Republican will not express their displeasure with incumbent Republicans by voting for Democrats.

D. District boundaries matter. Both in how many likely voters live in each district (favors the GOP) and how much campaign infrastructure can be organized for Congressional elections (favors the GOP).

E. You have to have electable Democratic candidates to run in those Republican-leaning districts, and they have to be able to organize campaign infrastructure.

The Republicans will maintain control of the US House of Representatives. They will actually increase their majority. The Senate will be under the control of the GOP, possibly to a supermajority. The President can get reelected, but only if Democrats nationwide start realizing how many disadvantages they are actually facing in 2012.

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Why Redistricting Matters

Georgia was a de facto one party state. Now they're a de jure one party state.

2023. At least a few people realize what's going on here.

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More Reality With That?

There are still a lot of folks who aren unwilling to accept the reality presented by the loss of the Wisconsin recall effort. I know it is a lot of reality to accept, and it isn't the reality that was thought to exist before the polls closed. But you can take your medicine now and start figuring out how to do things differently, or you can hold fast and keep losing.

Here are six things the Wisconsin votes showed us, the most important of which is that unions, under their current SOP, are finished as a major political force in this country.

As I've been telling people, union-busting, defund public education Republicans hold the government of Wisconsin. They took them in general elections, and survived a mulligan set of special recall elections in which the full force of union political power and money was brought to bear. Again, in Wisconsin.

You don't get more game-set-match than that.

Time to reinvent the wheel.

(HT: Andrew Sullivan)

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Structural Politics

So, already, we've seen the right-wing go after the state governments and legislatures while Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives focused on national issues and ignored the power of redistricting.

Now we see the end-game of Federal Judiciary stacking, while blocking young justices nominated by opposing political interests.

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The Trickle

In a Tea Party Economy, Washington does not attempt to land the unusustainable house of cards economy fall softly, it just lets the collapse trickle down. By the time it gets to the local level:

State and local officials face tough hurdles for the foreseeable future as service needs will not diminish, but assistance formerly received from higher levels of government are likely to be cut. These same elected officials will have to face an electorate who feels “taxed enough already”, and aren’t likely to want to hear that the services they have been receiving have at least partially been financed by deficits in Washington D.C.

Truth hurts.

But don't worry, I'm sure the folks who play conservative on television will find some way to blame all this on Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives.

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Red Tape Hurdles

There are some oversimplified narratives our nation entertains as if the events they describe happen in a vaccum. They're usually used to deflect responsibility for a problem from those who can actuall fix the problem.

Like "Teachers are responsible for the state of public education, and blaming school administrators, school boards, state offices and state legislatures are just excuses." Or "Blighted properties exist because poor people don't take care of the large and valuable properties they own, and cities can't do anything about it."

Another big one is "Amtrak specifically and trains in general don't make money," as if laws didn't exist to specifically make their overhead more expensive and hamstring their ability to make money and possibly turn a profic.

As if the laws Amtrak must follow rained upon the organization out of the clear blue sky.

And let's not even talk about how their competition is able to "make money."

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Texas A&M to the SEC

Team Speed Kills disects the rumour mill. It all comes down to this:

The SEC is a great conference the way it is and should not expand just to expand. But if the Big XIIish is going to spin apart -- and it eventually will -- the SEC has to get Texas A&M.

While I think this probably means things will happen sooner rather than later, I still come back to the same question I keep thinking of: what other team gets the invite?

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Know Truth: The Perry Presidency

The general election for President of the United States of America began last Wednesday night, when Texas Governor Rick Perry "slipped" some information about Texas A&M joining the SEC, and dominating the millions-strong college football fan news cycle for 24 hours. That was followed up on Thursday night, when a staffer "let slip" that Perry would be announcing his assumed candidacy for the Presidency on Saturday. Governor Perry will be speaking in South Carolina on Saturday, and will sew up the Republican nomination for President of the United States of America before he's finished. That contest is all over but the shouting - everyone else is now vying for second place, and a favorable speaking time at the Republican National Convention.

As I've said before, not only is Perry the most likely candidate to win the GOP nomination, he is the most likely Republican to win the White House in 2012.

And the biggest "political liability" he has - or that his opponents think he has - is the "neo Confederate" ties that really aren't. While opponents will portray this as much more than it is, all that does is play to the crowd that already agrees with them, and build his supporters up. He'll be able to counter that with The Dukes of Hazzard and Smokey and the Bandit imagery, and his apologists will note that such "liberal" stalwarts as the late Senator Robert Byrd were actual Klan members and were still welcome as part of the caucus. And who looks more un-American, those folks, or the Kenyan anti-colonialist?

If his opponents were very smart, they'd link him with the Tea Party (which has lower ratings than even the CSA) and remind everyone that Perry = Bush III. And keep reminding people that these are not scare tactics, they are the stated beliefs of the Republican-NeoCon-Tea Party Caucus. This is how they want to "govern" our nation:

1. We'll be at war with Iran and Syria in his first term, while gearing up for war against Venezuela in his second. If they use anything like Bush's strategy, the USA will be at war until 2036. Run charts showing how much all that will cost, especially because we won't be out of Iraq and Afghanistan first.

2. The inability to cut defense spending, and the promise not to "raise taxes" or "end subsidies" or "close loopholes" means deep Social Security and Medicare cuts. Far from being changed and made solvent, they could actually be closed down as "unaffordable" entitlement programs. And if Social Security and Medicare are doomed, so much for any social welfare or shelter the homeless or feed the hungry programs. Those will be exported to charitable organizations first thing.

3. Banks and Financial Institutions will be able to do whatever the hell they want with your money and investments, leading to the next bubble, the next bust, and the next Panic. That's the Tea Party economy!

4. A lame duck Obama might be able to end the Bush Tax Cuts for three months until President Perry, a GOP Senate Supermajority, and a Tea Party House of Representatives delivers even bigger and deeper tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans: "job creators" who aren't creating jobs, despite the lowest tax rates, biggest loopholes, and most luxurious subsidies in in the post WWII era. Hell, they may finally be able to end the income tax this time, and take us back to 1829 instead of 1929.

5. You thought unions were in trouble before? Hah.

6. So much for all the gay marriage legislation at the state level. Instead of going after corrupt police departments and civil rights violations, the Perry Justice Department will go after those states with gay marriage and any state proposing a civil union, and probably stop enforcing hate crimes laws. DADT will be back with a vengeance, and no company that allows partner benefits will receive any government subsidy at any level. Equal Rights advocates will get hammered so hard, they'll start fondly remembering Clinton and the Defense of Marriage Act.

7. Drill, baby, drill. It doesn't matter that gasoline prices won't go down relative to the economy. It doesn't matter how dangerous this policy is. It doesn't matter how many subsidies this policy already showers on fossil fuel industries. It doesn't matter.

8. The Environment? Global Warming? Have fun with that, fellas. As natural disasters continue to overwhelm our infrastructure that we won't be paying for (pork), droughts and floods continue to make economic waves of instability for those not affected by disaster even as insurance companies lobbyists make sure no one is held accountable for screwing over disaster victims regardless of coverage. Rick Perry will pray for you, though, while your house washes away in the flood, your crops whither in the drought, and the earthquakes level your city.

9. And you can forget suing the chemical or fossil fuel companies when they poison the food and water and air your children eat, drink, and breathe. Tort reform, baby! Your kid's health is frivolous.

10. And when people take to the streets to protest all this stuff, they'll just be labeled the enemy. And what do you think the Perry administration will do with all those folks who can be called:

America-hating, baby-killing, terrorist-sympathizer who, with help from my illegal immigrant friends and union thugs, will follow our illegitimately elected Kenyan anti-colonialist President to turn this nation into a communist economy with a sharia legal code that follows the homosexual agenda.

My guess is, the reaction will not be kind.

Obama better get his game in gear, and Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives need to figure out what exactly is at stake in 2012 and start telling people what politicians like Perry really stand for. The Rebel Battle Flag is the least of your worries.

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Making Stuff Work

On the other hand, look what simplified and well stated zoning has done for Freret Street in New Orleans.

Things done correctly tend to work, after all.

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Falling Apart

Let's try this:

1: An historic building is grandfathered in to a zoning change

2: The buiding changes owners

3: The building closes for needed renovations

4: The renovations take some time

5: During that time, the city removes the historic building's historic use

6: There is no other way to use the building

7: The city offers a longer, more tedious, and possibly less successful process to amend the zoning

For a city like New Orleans, where historic character is theoretically held in high esteem, this is ridiculous. It proves the lie behind what passes for historic preservation in this town, and the joke that is zoning here. This city is in such terrible condition in many ways because there are government regulations that force it to be this way.

And that's not just some sort of Tea Party "goverment = bad" rhetoric. Regulations are necessary, but you have to make sure they work for your city and don't kneecap your neighborhoods. You have to have a process where historic buildings can be purchased and updated and renovated so those properties can maintain value. If you require specific, specialized renovations, that work is going to take time. If that work takes time, you have to recognize that when it comes to zoning issues.

Most importantly, some aspect of reality must be factored into your decision-making process. Who the F wants to buy a 14 unit aparment building off the current owners and renovate it again for one or two family living?

Here's a few scenarios:

A: This will artificially drive down the value of the property for the current owners, who have already sunk money into the project. Some well connected individual can come along and buy the property so the current owners take a loss, then use their connections to get the zoning fixed and make bigger profits.

B: This will artificially drive down the value of the property for the current owners, who have already sunk money into the project. Some very wealthy individual comes along and buys the property, tears down the historic building, and constructs something more realistic to reflect the zoning.

C: This will artificially drive down the value of the property for the current owners, so they let the property deteriorate. It won't appraise for as much, but what is their incentive to keep up a property they cannot use? As a St. Charles Avenue home, this isn't likely to happen, but anywhere else this could contribute to blight.

You'll notice that "make a reality-based decision about the property; charge the owners a small fine for being late on the renovations; allow the property to go back into commerce and increase the city's property tax base, historical character, and housing stock" are not a part of the viable scenarios here. That would be to "win-win-win" for a city like New Orleans.

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The SEC Year in Preview

By Spencer Hall, can be found here.

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Dispatches from the Tea Party Economy

Remember how the fake issue of John Kerry's boat was considered newsworthy some years ago because it brought into question the taxes he owed on it?

Well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives across the nation should make Georgia Tea Party Congressman Tom Graves' business transactions a mater of national media attention, stat. And, here's a hint to the DLP - don't wait for the mainstream media to do it for you because they won't talk about it until someone else makes it an issue.

And there are a lot of issues to choose from, here:

Banks colluding with politicians to offer millions of dollars in loans the banks knew couldn't be paid back. Loans made based on shaky grounds anyway. Non-payment of taxes and fees accrued over the course of the litigation. Real estate falling into disrepair and contributing to blight.

And of course the "do as I say but not as I do" problem. These guys are Tea Party Republicans, after all, who make it their business to decry spending money and accruing debt as well as those 'free-spending, irresponsible liberals.' I mean, if your main political position is that the other side acts irresponsibly, you open yourself up to serious criticism when you yourself are anything less than above board in your business affairs.

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Coastal Lyric Cicada

Large view

Tibicen lyricen virescens, a subspecies of the Lyric Cicada. This one was hanging out by the entrance to my auto mechanic in late morning.

According to Bugguide, "These cicadas are native to the Florida peninsula ranging northward along the Atlantic coast - at least into North Carolina."

Large view

I first photographed this subspecies at night, almost exactly two years ago (side, top, and front shots). Winged adults emerge both night and day, but the adults feed on the sap of fruit trees, hickories, and sweetgum during the day.

Large view

According to the University of Florida, the Lyric is one of 19 known cicada species in the state. Click here to hear its song.

"Even though Florida species emerge as adults annually, their life cycles surely require more than one year," according to UF. "In fact, the larger woodland species (Tibicen spp.) seem likely to require many years (at least a decade?), though no one has yet determined exactly how long the nymphs of any species of Tibicen remain underground."

Large view

Cicadas have also been used as a food source, UF continues, and "are even credited with having saved some family groups from starvation early in the history of North America."

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too

On the Other Foot

What would the national reaction be if there was a liberal version of the Tea Party? Though the craziest thing about this is that nothing would change. They already say all the worst things they can about liberals in this country.

Hell, half the time, they ain't even talking about liberals when they say those things: they're talking about pragmatists, moderates, centrists, and even really real conservatives. There's only one thing anyone has to do to enter the "Enemy of America" club in the eyes of these radical right-wingers: disagree with radical right-wingery. The only acceptable version of America, to them, is their own version, no matter how make-believe or utopian that version is.

HT: To the Dish where we are also reminded about the peaceful, non-violent nature of America's internet "Christian" population. < / sarcasm >

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National Repercussions

The focus of Peach Pundit is on Georgia state politics, so when the politics of other states show up on the front page, it is generally for a purpose. Here's their thoughts on the Wisconsin recall elections, and if you were looking for a quick summary of what those elections meant, you won't find it put more succinctly:

The election results will likely embolden Washington conservatives to stand their ground in upcoming budget debates.

...

Imagine the crushing effect that a Wisconsin Democratic takeover victory would have had on state-level conservative reformers across the country. After all, our state governments are often the place where new ideas are incubated and then carried to Washington.

I added emphasis to that last part, because that statement by itself is of vital importance to understand why Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives continue to lose elections as well as policy and political questions. The GOP has gone after the states first, have built up their party organization, and have no end of ideas or candidates to bring off the bench into the national spotlight. Those ideas and candidates almost always have a support structure, press, and political review ready when they debut. Not only that, but they already have some idea what opposition to expect and how best to counter or discredit that opposition.

It didn't take long before another Peach Pundit front-pager chimed in:

Republicans are quick to note that Democrats just spent an amount that could run three competitive U.S. Senate races and their result was to pick off two State Senators, one with serious personal baggage. Moreover, they point to the fact that national union interests flooded a major union state with cash and workers, only to have the majority of Republican reformers affirmed by voters.

It isn't just Republicans who should note this dynamic. As I said before, the DLP needed to win or tie the Wisconsin recall elections. They did not. If DLP's can lose to Republicans in Wisconsin over the issue of union-busting and defunding public education, the rout is officially on: in 2012, expect the GOP to add to their number of state legislators, to bolster their majority in the US House of Representatives, to gain the majority in the US Senate, and probably oust the incumbent President of the United States.

And that's just national politics; as far as unions go, this election consigns their current political clout to the dustbin. They are finished under their current operating model. Their two options now is to deny that reality and continue losing competitive elections by inches or come up with a new way of organizing, adding value for their membership, and marketing themselves poltically.

Kyle Wingfield at the AJC puts it more succinctly:

Republicans held onto four of the six — and thus a one-seat majority in the Senate — by an average of 6 percentage points. The cumulative vote was 53 percent to 47 percent in the GOP’s favor.

A union-busting, defund public education GOP in Wisconsin.

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Keep Your Money At Home

But not under the mattress.

Here's someone with a $15 Trillion stimulus plan for the American domestic economy.

Of course, reverse engineer this idea, and you'll find that most of that money is currently going into the hands of ~~professional gamblers~~ Wall Street financial planners, corporate interests that aren't creating jobs, and real estate oversupply. Is it any wonder why the current American economy is unsustainable and stagnant?

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Southern Strategy Endgame

Why won't the Democratic Party regain the US House of Representatives for the next 12 years (at least)? For the same reason the Democratic Party is going to permanently lose Georgia State Senate and House seats in this round of reapportionment. Georgia House Minority Leader Stacy Abrams puts it this way:

They accomplished this by purging the state of Georgia of white Democrats.

Maybe Representative Abrams needs to ~~get together with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and together they can~~ tell the rest of the Professional Democratic, Liberal, and Progressive side of the aisle why they keep losing policy and political issues to the other side.

HT: Peach Pundit.

Of course, it would be par for the course for Republicans to point out that this kind of thing is A) the same thing Democratic officials did to the GOP for two generations, and B) that this is simply the logical result of the Voting Rights Act. < / Rolling Eyes >

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Truth About Blight

Owen Courreges at the Uptown Messenger examines some of the legal hurdles to addressing blight in New Orleans.

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ENOUGH

Volunteers in London take a stand against the rioters. As it always has been, and God willing, will forever be.

"As I watched those white fires flame up and die down, watched the yellow blazes grow up and disappear, I thought, what a puny effort is this, to burn a great city."

- Edward R. Murrow, October 10, 1940

We are reminded, at times like these, not to confuse thuggery like this with civil disobedience. We should also remember that riots or looting has not been a problem in other places often accused of being riot and looting-prone.

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"Unable to Move"

Athenae at First-Draft talks about what is at stake this week in Wisconsin.

I feel like most people know what kind of country we are. They know we're mean and paralyzed and small. They know we've talked ourselves into being unable to move, and either they can't see how we can get out of it, or they don't care if we ever do.

This is how it works: You start out just not doing one thing because it's too hard, and pretty soon you can't do anything. We are a country that cannot button our shirt in the morning because we actually cannot conceive of the process by which we would do that, no matter how many shots of brandy we take to steady our nerves.

This election will mean different things to different people. To me, it will show us just how hard people are willing to fight for those things that defined America from 1929 to 2001. Win or tie, and there are still some things left of the old consensus, that cultural belief that we were on an bending arc towards a more perfect union. Lose, and the whole modern political complexion of the country will be forever changed, and the march to pre-1929 philosophies, so long consigned to the dustbin of history, will continue nearly unopposed.

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House of Cards

You play with fire long enough, you're liable to get burned.

If your object is to get back to the pre-1929 world economy, we're well on our way and it looks like the whole world is coming with us. Of course, all of this should have been expected, because what else do you think happens when the American government - maybe the one entity with the ability to spending enough money to land the economy safely - says they're going to stop spending money? Business leaders and stock brokers know that there is no one left to spend the money. Companies aren't spending money, despite massive tax breaks, subsidies, and loopholes. Individual people aren't spending money, because they're too busy trying to make ends meet. People in other nations aren't spending money, because their economies are based of the USA spending money.

Not only that, but if you borrow money from the USA, there is the very real possibility that a completely untrustworthy political group is going to put the brakes on you getting paid back so they can further curb the spending ability of the one organization left that can still spend money.

Thanks, Tea Party! Y'all own this economy, now. While all the kids may have pushed on the antique vase that ended up broken, the kid holding the baseball bat should recieve the most scrutiny. This isn't just the Tea Party Economy, y'all, this is the exactly stated results of their policies.

For a little while, it looked like we might get let down easy. The unsustainable economy America has been building over the last two generations was finally being exposed for the fraud it was. The panic of 2007-08 evaporated trillions of dollars in Monopoly Money from the economy, to the shock of many. The nation was bleeding jobs even as real estate oversupply sent house values tumbling below what owners and developers borrowed from the banks to pay for the land. Those are the types of jobs that aren't coming back, so not only are people going to need to find new jobs, they have to discover new ways to live within their means or create new jobs on their own. The whole time, the cost of health care continues to rise, along with prices of food and energy.

Of course, few politicians were willing to say in public how screwed the country is, lest they be called out for "making the situation worse" with a dose of reality. Out of our political caste, President Obama comes the closest to the truth the most often with the most consistentcy. And while that reality might draw derision from the Professional American Left, their national influence wanes the further away you get from the New York Times editorial pages.

On the other hand, talking about reality only draws howls and hatred from the fanatic and ideologically pure Right-Wing, content to sell cultural panic for the political capital necessary to win elections. At this point, the Right-Wing's stated policy goals include returning this country to a mythical utopia of stars-and-stripes-colored unicorns and business-friendly faeries where the government is based only on the parts of the Constitution they agree with. After all, the theory goes, how bad could things have been back in the days when the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery after Paul Revere raised his guns and bells to warn the British of an insane and armed American population?

And if you think incredible historical misconceptions are very different from the historical buffoonery of Bachmann and Palin, you're just kidding yourself.

Anyone mildly versed in United States history knows that pre-1929 economics would take us back to the boom and bust cycles of pre-1929 America, where the economy didn't experience "recessions" as often as it experienced "panics." Sound good? Try this: those economic panics happened so often they had to be labeled by the year instead of the decade, and often evaporated entire regions of national economic health.

The Right-Wing political sales pitch is more American Pie than Jim Crow, Segregation, and the legacy of slavery; more Strict Constructionist than Louisiana Purchase; more "right to work" than children in the coal mines; more seperate but equal vouchers instead of public education; and more Whistlin' Dixie than the Battle Cry of Freedom that eventually mtobilized the Union for total war.

Bobby Lee might have been revered by his soldiers and, later, an America that adores tragic heroes, but Grant and Sherman came after him with more men, more guns, more ammunition, more food, railcars to move all of those things and shoes on their soldiers' feet. I think of that any time a Tea Partier from the eleven states of the Old Confederacy talk to me about government being the problem.

These howlers aren't interested in the reality of the situation with the American economy, it only matters what they can sell the loudest to the 24 hour cable news consuming public. Discussing the real problems and real solutions would be difficult professionally and would make for boring television, after all.

Well, I doubt pre-1929 America was a boring place to live, based off the history I have read. Thanks to the Tea Party Economy and the right-wing, I think we're about to get a taste of just how "exciting" that kind of life would be.

(NOTE: This was scheduled to post Monday around lunch, and then I saw that Dante had posted Monday around breakfast, so I pushed it back.)

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Religion of Peace

Anybody care to take a guess at what religion the perpetrators of this crime identify with?

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The Problem With Protests

Jeffrey does some fine work covering the PCU-like, protest-for-protest's sake nonsense that helped legitimize the ALEC convention in New Orleans last week. Because nothing makes a bunch of lobbyists in suits look more adult than a bunch of smelly "anarchists" making fools of themselves outside:

As they came by shouting "This is what Democracy looks like" it occurred to me that they were probably right about that. Elites and lawmakers quietly dividing up the wealth of the nation in a hotel suite while clueless douchebags and idiot kids prattle on to no affect in the street is pretty much exactly what American democracy looks like in 2011.

For the longest time, I have believed that individuals who show up at protests like this are really actors paid by the "targets" of their "ire." Real protests don't look anything like that nonsense, they look and sound more like this.

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Getting to the bottom of the $2 trillion mistake.

Standard & Poor's downgraded the US to a AA+ rating over the weekend. The Treasury Department immediately fired back that Standard & Poor's analysis was based on a $2 trillion mistake. There are pretty smart people running Standard & Poor's but they are fallible. So ok, what sort of mistake?

From the Treasury:

Specifically, CBO calculated that the Budget Control Act, including its discretionary caps, would save $2.1 trillion relative to a “baseline” in which current discretionary funding levels grow with inflation.

S&P incorrectly added that same $2.1 trillion in deficit reduction to an entirely different “baseline” where discretionary funding levels grow with nominal GDP over the next 10 years. Relative to this alternative “baseline,” the Budget Control Act will save more than $4 trillion over ten years – or over $2 trillion more than S&P calculated. (The baseline in which discretionary spending grows with nominal GDP is substantially higher because CBO assumes that nominal GDP grows by just under 5 percent a year on average, while inflation is around 2.5 percent a year on average.

Entirely different baseline? What the hell? How do you get a second baseline? Well, the Treasury Department doesn't want to say. That makes me suspicious. What does Standard & Poor's have to say about this? (Stupid Flash. Sorry, for not linking directly, but if you go to standardandpoors.com there's a press release called "S&P Clarifies Assumption Used On Discretionary Spending Growth" currently on the main page).

We used the Alternative Fiscal Scenario of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which

includes an assumption that government discretionary appropriations will grow at the same rate as nominal

GDP.

There's your second baseline. Standard & Poor's took the savings estimated from the debt deal which was based on the CBO's Baseline and applied it to the Alternative Fiscal Scenario. But why even look at the Alternative Fiscal Scenario? What is the difference between the two?

Time to ask the CBO directly:

The budget outlook is much bleaker under the alternative

fiscal scenario, which incorporates several changes to current

law that are widely expected to occur or that would

modify some provisions of law that might be difficult to

sustain for a long period. In this scenario, CBO assumed

that Medicare’s payment rates for physicians would gradually

increase (which would not happen under current

law) and that several policies enacted in the recent health

care legislation that would restrain growth in health care

spending would not continue in effect after 2020. In

addition, under the alternative scenario, spending on

activities other than the major mandatory health care

programs, Social Security, and interest would fall below

the average level of the past 40 years relative to GDP,

though not as low as under the extended-baseline scenario.

More important, CBO assumed for this scenario

that most of the provisions of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts

would be extended, that the reach of the alternative minimum

tax would be kept close to its historical extent, and

that over the longer run, tax law would evolve further so

that revenues would remain at about 19 percent of GDP,

near their historical average.

There are some odds and ends the CBO deems likely but aren't actual law yet. The linchpin of these arguments is that the Bush tax cuts will be extended. I think it's fair of Standard & Poor's to assume the Alternative Fiscal Scenario is closer to reality, but the Treasury Department was correct. It is absolutely a mistake to apply savings from the debt deal which were projected under the CBO's standard baseline to the Alternative Scenario. The CBO didn't calculate savings based on the Alternative so if S&P believes that baseline to be the more accurate one, they would need to do their own calculations.

Instead, S&P admitted their mistake and went with the standard CBO baseline. Good catch by the Treasury Department. Even if I can understand S&P's reasoning, you can't switch baselines like that. A final point on the mistake was that it wasn't a $2 trillion mistake as far as S&P was concerned. That $2 trillion is based on a 10-year projection. S&P deals with 3-5 year projections. It was a $345 billion mistake.

It didn't change anything. S&P still downgraded the US. You can discuss the whys of that decision if you want. This post was mainly to get to the bottom of this mistake business since it was so widely reported yet so poorly defined.

Another Left-Wing Narrative

"Poor and Working People make up one politically homogeneous demographic." Another can be added to this: "The Democratic Party represents poor and working people."

Right-wing narratives are easy to spot, and are marketed better. All you have to do is listen to a Republican, a Tea Partier, or Fox News for five minutes, and you'll hear no less than three repetitions of some assumed and politically marketed false choice or oversimplification sold with all the truth of accepted common wisdom.

On the left, they're a little more difficult to spot. One reason is because "the left" is really a loose, bickering coalition of competing interests that can hardly agree on any issue. They usually have to cut deals to achieve policy goals, and can't often get everything they want at once because so many varied stakeholders have to be in on the deal. That's one structural reason why the right-wing is usually the group setting the terms of every political conversation.

Luckily, every once in a while, I'm reminded that a few overarching left-wing narratives do exist that tie a huge majority of "the left" together. In this case, it is a narrative often used in dismay or disgruntlement by someone on the left, who is frustrated that politics are hard, and that the Democratic, Liberal, and Progressive coalition that makes up "the left" must usually factor into their governing philosophies the political priorities of the Libertarian, Conservative, Tea Party, and Republican coalition that makes up "the right."

This is especially true when "the right" has some sort of political power or capital that they are willing to cash in to get policy concessions from "the left." Such policy concessions are not seen as a necessary part of the governing process, they are considered wholesale surrender of all progressive political priorities everywhere and for all time, that will throw us immediately back into the 3rd World poverty and vassalism of the Dark Ages.

Since the Democratic Party so obviously has broken with the Liberals and Progressives in their coalition, the only answer is a third party that really represents poor and working people.

Just like the Tea Party is waiting on a 3rd party ready to represent the wishes of Real Americans (tm).

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Early Detection is NOT the Same as Prevention

The State of Maryland recently convened a team of researchers, patients and doctors to develop an anti-cancer plan they call the Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan. Control? Interesting word, but not one I want to hear from government. http://trap.it/TWQBWX. However, the plan has some merit. Ann Taylor, vice president of support services at Atlantic General Hospital, explains that “The state plan is superior to one released in 2004 because it focuses on individual ownership of health with emphasis on nutrition and continued screenings for cancer.” I like this. I also liked what Frances Phillips, Deputy Director of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, had to say: “We know now that so much cancer is preventable or survivable with early detection and good treatment. There are also chapters on pain management and support for families burdened with cancer. It’s important we keep in mind that cancer is a disease that affects virtually every Maryland family.”

However, what I didn’t like is that they confuse readers by suggesting that prevention is the same thing as detection. “Prevention methods include blood tests for colon cancer and mammograms to check for breast cancer. Other methods for cancer screening include PET scans, MRI scans and CT scans, which can be expensive since they use advanced equipment.” Sorry, Mr. Phillips, but while screening is great, it does not prevent most cancers (the exception being colonoscopy [before polyps become cancerous]and paps and maybe a few others). Screening does not prevent breast cancer. One could argue that screening sometimes discovers the pre-cancerous LCIS, but for all the women whose screening did not detect anything less than cancer, one needs to be careful. One does not have to have LCIS to develop cancer, and is involved in very few cases.

I have heard so many women say, “But how could this have happened, I get a mammogram every year!” Too many women are led to believe that screening is preventive. Not true; screening allows for early detection. The jury is still out whether or not early detection saves lives, but for sure it saves quality of life (i.e. less horrific and toxic treatment). Ms Taylor goes on to say “Our focus is to prevent recurrence in patients who have had cancer. We work with programs to fit patients into breast and cervical, colonoscopy screening.” Screening does not prevent recurrence, it detects it so it can be treated or managed.

So, my feeling is that while I applaud the State of Maryland for taking action, they need to understand the facts and not delude people into thinking that by undergoing screening, they will reduce risk. They need to beef up efforts to educate people on real preventive measures such as maintaining a healthy weight, moderate exercise, a healthy diet, giving up smoking, reducing inflammation, avoiding environmental toxins and reducing stress.

Elyn Jacobs

elyn@elynjacobs.com

http://elynjacobs.blogspot.com

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