02 March 2010
Posted in Point of View

Ann Coulter, last week, told the media there was hope for the conservative movement in America. Coulter said she was inspired by the small but enthusiastic group of “young right-wingers” who showed up at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. But when you do understand a little bit more about the leadership in that group of “young right-wingers” the idea of a bright future for the struggling movement is anything but probable.
James O’Keefe is one of those young right-wing leaders that the conservative movement embraces. O’Keefe showed up at CPAC only after he posted bail on felony charges he faces in New Orleans. That CPAC young right-wing leader was arrested for trying to tap the phone lines and computer system of a Democratic U.S. Senator. The criminal operation led by O’Keefe and several other leaders of the conservative movement’s “bright future” would not be considered inspirational by normal standards. It was a criminal operation not much different than one led by another conservative leader named G. Gordon Liddy. Liddy and his pals also believed that criminal break-ins and wiretaps should be part of the conservative social and political agenda.
Liddy’s felony convictions had no effect on how conservatives regard him. He is apparently a neo-con hero for young wing-nuts like O’Keefe. O’Keefe will no doubt become a conservative icon if he serves the full ten-year prison term he is facing for his political espionage. We can only hope.
The F.B.I. special agent who helped arrest O’Keefe explained that O’Keefe was disguised as a telephone repairman during his attempt to promote the conservative movement by tapping a U.S. senator’s phone. But do a simple Google search on O’Keefe and all his disguises are easily removed. You will see stories about his association to white supremacist groups as well as a dozen other neo-nut organizations that allow him to fit in perfectly with the birthers, the deathers, and tax protestors who kill people by crashing their airplane into government buildings. O’Keefe may represent the “bright future” by CPAC standards, but today he appears to be just another paranoid conspiracy freak who defines the new conservative movement.
It is no surprise that Ann Coulter was thrilled to see O’Keefe show up at CPAC. Coulter and O’Keefe are soul mates. She made that clear when she told us that the widows of 9/11 were “The witches of East Brunswick” who actually were “enjoying their husbands’ deaths.” She made those statements because those 9/11 widows were critical of the fact that “W” allowed that massacre to occur.
Ann also showed her best side when she said this about all Muslims: “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity.”
The CPAC meeting this year was desperate to attract a younger crowd. They organized an event called XPAC that stands for “X-treme Politically Active Conservatives.” Imagine the excitement surging through the room at that “X-treme” rally when their most visible and most relevant young right-wingers – Coulter and O’Keefe – made their entrance. Gordon Liddy surely must have felt like a proud father. He saw clear proof that the nut never falls far from the tree.
Mike Papantonio hosts Ring of Fire, a nationally syndicated radio show.  He appears as a regular contributor with political commentary on Fox News Network.

01 February 2010
Posted in Point of View

A hyena will scavenge graves for food. It is an animal that shows no respect for the dead. Instead, it merely regards the misfortune of once-living carcasses as an opportunity.

In east Nigeria they have a belief that there are people who are capable of turning themselves into hyenas at will. Rush Limbaugh gave credence to that Nigerian superstition last week when he used the tragedy of 100,000 Haitian men, women, and children to promote himself as America’s number one radio thug without a conscience.

The pseudo-manly, rational thinker without a heart radio bit is nothing new for Rush. He has built his career by giving his listeners reasons to hate, fear, judge, and attack the easiest targets among our fellow man. Recently that target was dead, dying, starving, terrified Haitians who ranged in age from newborn to 90. Rush picks his targets well. While the world was seeing pictures of the bodies of Haitian children being dug up from earthquake rubble, Rush was once again reasserting himself as the “dispassionate”, “clear thinking”, wannabe tough guy who masters concepts that are beyond the grasp of less insightful observers. That is the Rush shtick. He projects this idea that as America’s conservative brain trust he is one of the few insightful thinkers capable of rising above those lesser human emotions like compassion, empathy, and decency. His 12 years in school no doubt equipped him for that. Rush is always selling himself as a character you might find in the cult books of Nietzsche or Ayn Rand. His listeners seem to eat up the idea of him being wholly unsympathetic but thoroughly narcissistic and all-knowing when everyone else around him is weighted down with those weak-minded beliefs that the well-being of our fellow man actually matters.

Limbaugh is much like that Nigerian mythical creature who evolved to the point that he is more hyena than human. When he suggested last week that there was no need for Americans to provide for Haitians because we have already paid income tax, he knew that statement would improve his radio ratings. A real “ditto head” would embrace that idea, and he knew it. After that, he used his mic time to politicize the tragedy by suggesting that, in keeping with Obama’s new healthcare reform “death panel” policies, Americans would be giving pills to Haitians to end their lives and their suffering. That was great radio entertainment in Rush’s world and I’m certain that as he spoke those words he was focused on how his clever snarkiness could extract bigger Nielsen ratings from the dead bodies of Haitian earthquake victims.

Haitians are easy targets for hate talkers like Rush. After all, they are black. And as we have heard from every neocon nut with a microphone, they pose an illegal immigration problem in America. They live in self-imposed and self-perpetuated poverty on a useless island. Worse yet, if you believe the TV evangelist Pat Robertson, they are Satan worshippers, capable of black magic and sorcery. As I watch this story unfold, I am hopeful that a surviving Haitian will use sorcery to change Rush’s bloated figure from a hyena back into a human being.

01 December 2009
Posted in Point of View

Trying to Save
a Flawed Technology

It has always been known that mammograms carry a significant risk of causing and spreading breast cancer, yet it has been widely ignored by mainstream medicine. Mammograms can cause breast cancer through repeated irradiation of the breasts and spread cancer by the fracturing of the fibrous capsule surrounding the tumor through compression of the breasts. In 2005, the Nuclear Information Resource Service concluded that all levels of radiation are confirmed to cause cancer.

I was thrilled when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued its report last month regarding new mammography recommendations and questioning the need for women to get routine mammograms in their 40s. At least the Task Force’s recommendation was a move in the right direction.

Why are the Spin Doctors, those involved in the politics of cancer and in the mammography industry, in an uproar and defensive when new scientific discoveries are made?

Is it because mammography is a multi-billion dollar industry? Are they trying to create a scientifically ignorant society? Are we going to allow it?
Ladies, wake up! Be your own health advocate. Women have the most influential impact on the new generation. We are the educators and nurturers; we must lead by example. We owe it to ourselves, our sisters, our daughters and our mothers to stand together and demand better screening methods be made available, along with preventative therapies.

Breast thermography is a non-invasive state-of-the-art digital infrared thermal imaging technology that empowers women in prevention and the earliest detection of even the most microscopic physiological changes in their breast tissue.
Quite a few women I’ve met have had the unpleasant experience of receiving a biopsy after their mammogram discovered a mass. Some still suffer from pain and tenderness at the biopsy site years later. Not to mention the emotional toll it takes. Less than 17% of biopsies are positive; most masses are benign.

With this in mind, if you did choose to have a mammogram and there was a mass discovered, why wouldn’t you be sent for a breast thermogram to determine if the area has a significant heat signature or abnormal vascular pattern?  The heat created by an abnormal vascular signature is easily detected by a thermogram. This could help a patient and their healthcare provider decide if a biopsy is truly necessary.
While the Spin Doctors and critics have denounced the new recommendations by the independent U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, shouldn’t we ask, what does the Task Force have to gain by releasing an unsubstantiated report?  These are objective scientists who simply reported their findings.

We need to look at the evidence and be open to considering new recommendations, especially when the mortality rate from breast cancer has not changed much in over 40 years. The fact is, doubts about mammography have been mounting for decades. Many, on both sides of the argument, agree that the value of mammograms may have been over-exaggerated while some of the drawbacks, dangers and risks of subjecting many women to unnecessary treatment have been minimized or ignored.

If we want different results, we must do things differently. Do your own research, know your body and don’t let the Spin Doctors bombard you with misinformation and negativity about breasts? Our breasts are not the enemy or time-bombs waiting to go off. Most women do not get breast cancer.
All breasts are a work of art and should be celebrated as the beautiful wonders they are.

Gaea Powell, CTT
Atascadero