Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Why Mitt Romney's Sons Can't Enlist


"One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president."

-- Mitt Romney, explaining today why it's okay that none of his five sons enlisted in the military.

America thanks you, sons of Romney, for your brave and noble sacrifice on behalf of this great nation.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Local Tennis Player Has Colonoscopy


Great letter in today's Bee Alan and thanks for sharing about the colonoscopy!!

Whom should we believe? The Bee's Two Views (Vision July 29) featured John C. Goodman from the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative think tank, and Ramon Castellblanch, associate professor in the Department of Health Education at San Francisco State University.

Mr. Goodman claims Michael Moore's film, "Sicko," is fraught with errors. He cites that "In Britain, 1 million patients are waiting to be admitted to hospitals at any one time." Hundreds of thousands are waiting in Canada and New Zealand.

When I had my colonoscopy, I was scheduled to have the procedure done two weeks later. I waited a week for my eye exam. I wonder if Mr. Goodman wants to leave you with the impression that the statistics he cites all refer to critically needed treatment when, in fact, most of it includes situations I just described.

He just makes a blanket statement, as opposed to Mr. Castellblanch's references to statistics from the Organization for Economic Development and World Health Organization. Now consider who funds Mr. Goodman's think tank. I'm willing to bet Mr. Goodman also said "Fahrenheit 911" was full of errors and that Iraq would be a cakewalk. Has the question been answered?

Alan Cheah

Oakhurst

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Why Democrats Won't Be Getting Any $ From Me Yet


Looks like they are simply incapable, despite our hopes, of growing a spine!!

The Senate bowed to White House pressure last night and passed a Republican plan for overhauling the federal government's terrorist surveillance laws, approving changes that would temporarily give U.S. spy agencies expanded power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a court order.
The 60 to 28 vote, which was quickly denounced by civil rights and privacy advocates, came after Democrats in the House failed to win support for more modest changes that would have required closer court supervision of government surveillance. The legislation, which is expected to go before the House today, would expand the government's authority to intercept without a court order the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States who are communicating with people overseas.

Bush is getting practically everything he asked for. Indeed, under Bush's warrantless-search program launched in 2001, the administration could conduct oversight-free surveillance only if it suspected someone on the call was a terrorist. Under the bill passed by the Senate yesterday, that condition no longer exists.