You Big Mouth, You!

I received an e-mail request to add the logo and link for Central Command to this site. You will find it over on the left, just above the archives. CentCom is a good starting place for information about the War on Terror.

I don’t know whether we can credit Al Gore for it, but I have to say that there are a remarkable number of useful government web sites up now. I just wish information flowed just as well in the opposite direction to our government.

How can I help with the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita?

Two ways. First, give to charity, one run by your church, or to the Red Cross or Salvation Army. Give what you can, and a dollar more. Secondly, participate in the Pork Busters project.

This project is an effort by bloggers to identify programs and grants in the Federal budget that can be cut to help pay for hurricane relief. The link at the logo will take you to a variety of pages detailing what is being done. It’s important to follow up with your congressman and Senators, more than once, and to make Pork Busting a priority. Simply freezing descretionary spending for two years would go a long way to both pay for the recovery and to balance the budget. Remember, taxes are your money and Congress consists of your employees. It’s more than OK to ask them to account for what they do with your money.

How this for a wack job? I’m thinking, something I try to do regularily, and I see a box. On the box is the French phrase for tomato ketchup. It dawns on me that the French are actually saying ketchup with tomato. Odd, I think. Then I realize that in English, the word tomato is used as an adjective. Hmmmm… pickle relish. Pickle is an adjective.

Hey, I’m sick. What do you expect from me?

I see the doc next week and find out when I can get back to work without busting a gut or contaminating the world.

How can I help with the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita?

Two ways. First, give to charity, one run by your church, or to the Red Cross or Salvation Army. Give what you can, and a dollar more. Secondly, participate in the Pork Busters project.

This project is an effort by bloggers to identify programs and grants in the Federal budget that can be cut to help pay for hurricane relief. The link at the logo will take you to a variety of pages detailing what is being done. It’s important to follow up with your congressman and Senators, more than once, and to make Pork Busting a priority. Simply freezing descretionary spending for two years would go a long way to both pay for the recovery and to balance the budget. Remember, taxes are your money and Congress consists of your employees. It’s more than OK to ask them to account for what they do with your money.

How can I help with the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita? Two ways. First, give to charity, one run by your church, or to the Red Cross or Salvation Army. Give what you can, and a dollar more. Secondly, participate in the Pork Busters project.

This project is an effort by bloggers to identify programs and grants in the Federal budget that can be cut to help pay for hurricane relief. The link at the logo will take you to a variety of pages detailing what is being done. It’s important to follow up with your congressman and Senators, more than once, and to make Pork Busting a priority. Simply freezing descretionary spending for two years would go a long way to both pay for the recovery and to balance the budget. Remember, taxes are your money and Congress consists of your employees. It’s more than OK to ask them to account for what they do with your money.

From Hitler’s death camps to “Frozen Chosen”. I saw this before I got sick and it moved me. Google up some additional information on this extraordinary man, a true hero. America is fortunate that he chose our nation to live in.

Mudville Gazette

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:

Corporal Tibor Rubin distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism during the period from July 23, 1950, to April 20, 1953, while serving as a rifleman with Company I, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division in the Republic of Korea. While his unit was retreating to the Pusan Perimeter, Corporal Rubin was assigned to stay behind to keep open the vital Taegu-Pusan Road link used by his withdrawing unit. During the ensuing battle, overwhelming numbers of North Korean troops assaulted a hill defended solely by Corporal Rubin. He inflicted a staggering number of casualties on the attacking force during his personal 24-hour battle, single-handedly slowing the enemy advance and allowing the 8th Cavalry Regiment to complete its withdrawal successfully. Following the breakout from the Pusan Perimeter, the 8 th Cavalry Regiment proceeded northward and advanced into North Korea. During the advance, he helped capture several hundred North Korean soldiers. On October 30, 1950, Chinese forces attacked his unit at Unsan, North Korea, during a massive nighttime assault. That night and throughout the next day, he manned a .30 caliber machine gun at the south end of the unit’s line after three previous gunners became casualties. He continued to man his machine gun until his ammunition was exhausted. His determined stand slowed the pace of the enemy advance in his sector, permitting the remnants of his unit to retreat southward. As the battle raged, Corporal Rubin was severely wounded and captured by the Chinese. Choosing to remain in the prison camp despite offers from the Chinese to return him to his native Hungary, Corporal Rubin disregarded his own personal safety and immediately began sneaking out of the camp at night in search of food for his comrades. Breaking into enemy food storehouses and gardens, he risked certain torture or death if caught. Corporal Rubin provided not only food to the starving Soldiers, but also desperately needed medical care and moral support for the sick and wounded of the POW camp. His brave, selfless efforts were directly attributed to saving the lives of as many as forty of his fellow prisoners. Corporal Rubin’s gallant actions in close contact with the enemy and unyielding courage and bravery while a prisoner of war are in the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.

How can I help with the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita? Two ways. First, give to charity, one run by your church, or to the Red Cross or Salvation Army. Give what you can, and a dollar more. Secondly, participate in the Pork Busters project.

This project is an effort by bloggers to identify programs and grants in the Federal budget that can be cut to help pay for hurricane relief. The link at the logo will take you to a variety of pages detailing what is being done. It’s important to follow up with your congressman and Senators, more than once, and to make Pork Busting a priority. Simply freezing descretionary spending for two years would go a long way to both pay for the recovery and to balance the budget. Remember, taxes are your money and Congress consists of your employees. It’s more than OK to ask them to account for what they do with your money.

1. One dose of Vicodan will not relieve a caffine withdrawal headache but it will make you not care quite so much. Two will make you not care about anything, and the headache will go away.
2. God bless nurses. I will never say a bad thing about them again. They have to deal with the gross and disgusting, including me, for hours on end. As an EMT, I get to dump the gross and disgusting off at the hospital.
3. One of the patient care techs was a guy called “Ting”. From the Congo, he came to America for a better life. He was very surprised that I knew anything about his homeland. He should be a Senator or Congressman.
4. You can spell “Nicky” “Nicci” and “Melanie” Malanie”.
5. Did I mention God bless nurses? I’d still be there, and still hungry, if several at different times had not advocated for me with the doctors.
6. This whole HPPA thing is malarky. Between overhearing the roomie’s many doctor visits, and all the stuff in the hall and at the nurses’ station. Forget patient privacy.
7. I did not know that IV antibiotics had to be mixed at the patient’s bedside, at least the ones I had. Interesting in a “How can that be consistent?” way.
8. As I asked one nurse, if there’s normal saline, is there abnormal saline?
9. The only daytime TV worth watching is on Univision.

Iraq Weekly Update [PDF file]

On September 14, the Iraqi government�s contract committee approved an additional $12 million in funding for the first fully functional, long-range civilian radar in Iraq. Raytheon is scheduled to complete the civilian radar system in December.

A nephew of Saddam Hussein was sentenced on September 19 to life in prison for funding Iraq’s violent insurgency and for bomb-making, the government said in announcing the first verdict against a family member of the ousted leader.

Average daily electricity service decreased slightly in the last week (September 13-19) to 102,000 MWh. Baghdad average available electricity decreased to 11.9 hours with insurgent attacks on transmission infrastructure. The national average was 13.9 hours per day. Demand continues to decline with lower seasonal temperatures.

The Project and Contracting Office�s (PCO) Nassriya Water Supply Project in Thi Qarprovince is now 43 percent complete. When completed the project will benefit 550,000 people. The Karbala Water Treatment Plant has finished construction. In addition to providing water to many of the residents of Karbala, this plant provides potable water to the millions of visitors who make the pilgrimage to the Hussein Shrine each year.

The Project and Contracting Office (PCO) has completed 117 kilometers (km) of village roads in Iraq, out of 424 km planned. There are 107 village road projects programmed throughout Iraq of which 44 have been initiated and 61 are complete. The projects help provide stable, long-term employment to Iraqis in rural areas.

Reuters reports that Iraqi authorities are expected to issue an arrest warrant for the country�s former defense minister, Hazim Shaalan, in connection with the disappearance of more than $1 billion, a top corruption investigator said on September 19.

How can I help with the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita? Two ways. First, give to charity, one run by your church, or to the Red Cross or Salvation Army. Give what you can, and a dollar more. Secondly, participate in the Pork Busters project.

This project is an effort by bloggers to identify programs and grants in the Federal budget that can be cut to help pay for hurricane relief. The link at the logo will take you to a variety of pages detailing what is being done. It’s important to follow up with your congressman and Senators, more than once, and to make Pork Busting a priority. Simply freezing descretionary spending for two years would go a long way to both pay for the recovery and to balance the budget. Remember, taxes are your money and Congress consists of your employees. It’s more than OK to ask them to account for what they do with your money.

Yes, I know the papers all say over a billion. I’m trying very hard not to duplicate figures and I am not finding a lot of information about individual versus corporate donations. I actually think we might be as high as $1.25 billion. There is a big, BIG delay in getting donations totaled up. The volume is overwhelming even the largest charities.

I took a few minutes over the weekend to analyze the latest information from the Census Bureau on Poverty in the United States. That information can be found here.

I have updated the table I created here.

TERM	AVG % ALL	AVG % FAMILIES
Reagan I	14.7	13.3
Reagan II	13.5	12.0
Bush 41	13.8	12.4
Clinton I	14.3	12.8
Clinton II	12.3	10.7
Bush 43	12.3	10.5

I have also taken the time to graph a variety of data from the report. Why? Well, everyone keeps saying how wonderful things were under Bill Clinton. The graphs tell the true story. Except for the Clinton “boom” years, the current President’s data stacks up quite nicely in comparison. In fact, were it not for the Clinton “boom” most of the major data would be at record numbers, to the good, for George Bush.

Of Clinton’s eight years in office, only the last three had a better poverty rate than George Bush. The same holds true for the black poverty rate. When it comes to youth in poverty, only two of Clinton’s years were better than Bush. Poverty among the elderly is at the second lowest rate in history, in 2004, and Clinton’s record low was only one tenth of a percent lower, in 1999. Clinton only had two years when the poverty rate for the elderly was lower than any of the four Bush years.

Now comes the topper. NOW, indeed. Wage parity between women and men is at record levels under the Bush administration. Bush’s worst year of the four is still over a percentage point higher than Clinton’s best year. How come NOW isn’t rejoicing in the Bush Presidency?

Let’s face facts. The Bush administration has reduced poverty in America.

Here are the data and the graphs: POVERTY