Barack in the Big House

Today, President Barack Obama entered the Big House, packed to the brim, to send the 2010 graduating class of the University of Michigan off into the world. After being presented with an honorary doctorate of laws degree, he delivered a commencement address focusing on the need for each graduate to be a good citizen, treating others with respect and civility, while continuing to constantly broaden his or her horizons in order to guarantee the health of the United States for future generations. The pragmatic address had many words of wisdom for the graduating class, as well as their peers, friends, and families in the stands, for the future. The speech was decidedly non-partisan and employed a common Obama theme of unity while embracing diversity. Below, please find the video of the commencement address and some highlighted passages. For the full text, please click here.



Highlights:

"On the last day of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was famously asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got -– a republic or a monarchy?” And Franklin gave an answer that’s been quoted for ages: He said, “A republic, if you can keep it.” If you can keep it. Well, for more than 200 years, we have kept it... Through periods of great social and economic unrest... it has allowed us slowly, sometimes painfully, to move towards a more perfect union. And so now, class of 2010, the question for your generation is this: How will you keep our democracy going? At a moment when our challenges seem so big and our politics seem so small, how will you keep our democracy alive and vibrant; how will you keep it well in this century?"

"There are some things we can only do together, as one nation -– and that our government must keep pace with the times... this notion...hasn’t always been partisan."

"But what troubles me is when I hear people say that all of government is inherently bad. One of my favorite signs during the health care debate was somebody who said, 'Keep Your Government Hands Out Of My Medicare' -- which is essentially saying 'Keep Government Out Of My Government-Run Health Care Plan.'"

"When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us."

"So, class of 2010, what we should be asking is not whether we need 'big government' or a 'small government,' but how we can create a smarter and better government."

"The second way to keep our democracy healthy is to maintain a basic level of civility in our public debate...we can’t expect to solve our problems if all we do is tear each other down...The problem is that this kind of vilification and over-the-top rhetoric closes the door to the possibility of compromise. It undermines democratic deliberation. It prevents learning..."

"For the truth is, our nation’s destiny has never been certain. What is certain -– what has always been certain -– is the ability to shape that destiny."

Bad Arguments and No Arguments

Ten days ago in the Michigan Daily, Chris Koslowski politicized the death of Ted Kennedy. But not in a way you might think:

Obama has said again and again that a major factor behind the failure of the current health care system is the execution of needless or futile medical procedures. Among these procedures, Obama specifically mentioned surgeries for terminally ill patients. During a primetime ABC broadcast from the White House this summer, he said, “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller.”...

Obama, and everyone who is in favor of public health insurance, needs to ask themselves... Would Kennedy, if he were a private citizen of average income under Obama’s public plan, have been able to pursue these life-extending procedures, given his age and condition?

Koslowski makes the point of all opponents of reform: "Obamacare is bad." But that doesn't fully address the relevant point: whether health-care reform will be better than what we have now. The fact that Koslowski doesn't ask whether his hypothetical, average-income Ted Kennedy would have been covered under a current, private plan (Answer: Probably not) shows that he hasn't done this cost-benefit analysis.

The problem is Democrats and proponents of health-care reform have not been making this argument effectively. Yes, whatever plan that comes out of Congress probably won't cover everything. But it will be better than what we have now.

One More Angle

With the recent commotion surrounding the bill for health care reform (and the fact that the bill is 1000+ pages), there has been a great deal of misunderstanding of the issue from all sides. Fortunately, Jonathan Cohn broke it down very accurately and comprehensibly on The Colbert Report last night. Check it out.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jonathan Cohn
www.colbertnation.com
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A Rainbow of Actions

I'm going to start something new. I get a lot of emails requesting me to write or petition someone for this or that reason, and I wanted to share some of them with you. There is one for each color of the rainbow. Ish.

Red: Last Tuesday, women's rights activists distributed roses outside of Zimbabwe's Parliament in a Valentine's-themed demonstration. This being Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, many were arrested. So Amnesty International wants you to write Valentines for Mugabe. Or you can email Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice and Ambassador and urge the release of Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, the founders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise. The two were arrested on October 16 for "disturbing the peace" and their bail hearing has been postponed a total of three times. The court is "very busy."

Orange: The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, the first time a sitting head of state has been indicted by the ICC. Save Darfur is worried that Bashir will lash out and wants you to email President Obama and have him name a "point man" on Darfur.

Yellow: Implore your Senators to investigate how the United States began to torture. (From Amnesty International.)

Green: For those affiliated with the University of Michigan, undersign this letter to President Mary Sue Coleman, urging her to reduce the university's environmental impact and encourage the research and promotion of sustainability. (From the Student Sustainability Initiative.)

Blue: MoveOn.org wants you to sign this petition to counter conservative flak and convince President Obama to appoint a progressive Secretary of Health & Human Services who can reform the United States' health care system. (MoveOn is particularly worried about Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen who made a fortune running an HMO and cut TennCare.)

Indigo: Amnesty International wants you to email Secretary of State Clinton, urging her to create an upper-level position dedicated to gender equality.

Violet:

Ken Starr, yes that Ken Starr, has filed a legal brief seeking to forcibly divorce gay California couples who married before the passage of Prop 8. Sign this petition to do something about it. (From the Courage Campaign.)

Take action!

Important Headlines for 2-11-2009

While there are a lot of important things happening, these are some recent developments that are pretty important to be aware of and a few interesting things.

First of all, the current Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stated that Iran is ready for dialogue with the USA as long as it is based on mutual respect. Here are some excerpts of the speech:

"If you really want to fight terrorism, come and cooperate with the Iranian nation, which is the biggest victim of terrorism so that terrorism is eliminated. ... If you want to confront nuclear weapons ... you need to stand beside Iran so it can introduce a correct path to you," he said.

Ahmadinejad said the world was at a "crossroads" because it had been proven that military power has not been successful — a reference to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But now, he said, "the world is entering an era of dialogue and intellect."

"The new U.S. government has announced that it wants to bring changes and follow the path of dialogue. It is very clear that changes have to be fundamental and not tactical. It is clear that the Iranian nation welcomes true changes," Ahmadinejad told the crowds at the rally in Freedom Square.

This is crucial as Iran could support the United States in being a stabilizing factor for the crises in Afghanistan and Iraq. Additionally, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the USA is very determined to pursue a dialogue with Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is up for election this year and former President Khatami is one of the challengers. For more information, please click here.

A second extremely important development is in the area of health care, specifically in regard to the prevention of HIV being transmitted. Some preliminary trials have found that a microbicide produced by a Massachusetts pharmaceutical company Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc. slightly reduced HIV infection rates among its trial subjects, where approximately 3,100 women from four different countries participated. Scientists discovered a 30% lower rate of infection among women who used the Indevus-produced gel, however it is important to note that this difference is not statistically significant and that the results could have occurred by change or been the result of other contributing factors. The study has been expanded to include more women from more countries. For more information on this key development in combating HIV/AIDS, please click here.

In important domestic news, a panel of federal judges found that the overcrowding of state prisons violates the inmates' right to adequate health care. State prisons are currently operating at twice their intended capacity and measures to reduce the amount of new prisoners being compelled are being explored so that state prisons would not have to release large numbers of prisoners at once. This decision by the judges is significant as the United States currently imprisons the largest percent of its population than any other country in the world (click here). Land of the free, right? For more information about the judges' decision, please click here.

And yet another instance after the BART subway shooting where California police have shot an innocent person. Daniel Balandran was shot and killed by police gunfire in a shootout at a Papa John's Pizza in Chino, California. Police say Balandran was caught in the crossfire; his lawyer states that he was targeted. For more information, please click here.

Finally, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates annouced a review of the ban on photographing fallen soldiers' coffins, a ban that he himself asked for a few years ago. For more information, please click here.

Give Life....only to take it back in a divorce?

Generally when people donate organs, whether they are living donors or not, they are doing so because they and their family members want to share life with all people who need a second chance. All major religions support organ donation as a truly selfless act of compassion that one can fulfill.

So what's with a New York surgeon who took the Hippocratic Oath before practicing, became a living donor of a kidney to his wife, and now, in the midst of a messy divorce, he wants his kidney back. That, or $1.5 million dollars for compensation of the organ when he discovered that his wife was having an extramarital affair.

Richard Batista, a surgeon at Nassau University Medical Center on Long Island, says that he is seeking compensation for the kidney he donated to his wife, Dawnell, in 2001. Richard Batista says she began having an extramarital affair after the transplant.

"There's no deeper pain or betrayal from somebody you loved and devoted your whole life to," he told reporters Wednesday.

Richard Batista said he went public with his request after becoming frustrated with ongoing divorce negotiations...

Dr. David Cronin, the director of liver transplantation at the Medical College of Wisconsin, has been performing liver, kidney and pancreas transplants for more than a decade. He says a price tag cannot be placed on a human organ.

"Any efforts that have been made to sell organs, broker organs … have come up and been squashed," he said about Richard Batista's legal tactic.

Cronin likened donations from live donors to a contract in which the donor agrees to give up the organ to the recipient and expect nothing in return.

The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 says that an organ donation from a living donor is a gift and is not eligible for "valuable consideration."

...As far as Richard Batista's getting his kidney back from his soon-to-be ex? That isn't going to happen either, according to Cronin.

"That's just foolish," he said.

But if a judge were to award the surgeon compensation for the kidney specifically and not just divorce-related damages, that could challenge the notion of organs as gifts.

Cronin likened the whole story to a soap opera, calling it an "entertainment blip."

While the anger that Batista feels is understandable, nothing justifies reclaiming an organ given to save another's life. His actions cast a terrible shadow of misconception onto the issue of organ donation which already is an extremely misunderstood by so many.

No price should be placed on a human life, nor on human organs that save them. For a surgeon to demand his kidney back, knowing full well that he faces far greater risks of infection in such action as well as the inherent demise of his ex-wife's health potentially killing her, is nothing more than revenge.

For the complete article, please click here.
For reliable information on organ donation, please visit this website: Gift of Life.

Cure for AIDS on the Horizon?

Reuters and the Associated Press just recently released articles about a leukemia patient in Germany, also HIV positive, who received a bone marrow transplant from a donor that had an immunity towards HIV. Now, two years later, doctors cannot detect any signs of HIV and the patient appears to be HIV negative. The patient has been off of antiretroviral medications for this two year period. However, the procedure is not at all sufficient to be used as a cure for AIDS at this stage. Below are excerpts from the Associated Press' article.

This isn't the first time marrow transplants have been attempted for treating AIDS or HIV infection. In 1999, an article in the journal Medical Hypotheses reviewed the results of 32 attempts reported between 1982 and 1996. In two cases, HIV was apparently eradicated, the review reported...

As Huetter [physician treating patient for leukemia] — who is a hematologist, not an HIV specialist — prepared to treat the patient's leukemia with a bone marrow transplant, he recalled that some people carry a genetic mutation that seems to make them resistant to HIV infection. If the mutation, called Delta 32, is inherited from both parents, it prevents HIV from attaching itself to cells by blocking CCR5, a receptor that acts as a kind of gateway...

Roughly one in 1,000 Europeans and Americans have inherited the mutation from both parents, and Huetter set out to find one such person among donors that matched the patient's marrow type. Out of a pool of 80 suitable donors, the 61st person tested carried the proper mutation.

Before the transplant, the patient endured powerful drugs and radiation to kill off his own infected bone marrow cells and disable his immune system — a treatment fatal to between 20 and 30 percent of recipients.

He was also taken off the potent drugs used to treat his AIDS. Huetter's team feared that the drugs might interfere with the new marrow cells' survival. They risked lowering his defenses in the hopes that the new, mutated cells would reject the virus on their own.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases in the U.S., said the procedure was too costly and too dangerous to employ as a firstline cure. But he said it could inspire researchers to pursue gene therapy as a means to block or suppress HIV.

"It helps prove the concept that if somehow you can block the expression of CCR5, maybe by gene therapy, you might be able to inhibit the ability of the virus to replicate," Fauci said.

So, while not a cure for HIV/AIDS all together, these developments do offer hope that a cure is possible with more research and trials.

For the full article from the Associated Press, please click here.

Headlines, 9-25-08

"Obama calls on McCain to keep Friday Debate Date," LA Times.

Either McCain has the worst campaign manager ever or he is afraid to debate Barack Obama or he truly wants to lose the election. Or, all of the above.

"NYPD investigates two officers in Taser death of naked Brooklyn man," Daily News.

The NYPD lieutenant who ordered the second officer to Taser Inman Morelas was stripped of his badge and gun and assigned to desk duty. Yet another example of persistant problems with NYPD officers' aggression towards minorities.

"Energy Drinks can cause caffine intoxication," LA Times.

Lay off the caffine. From the LA Times, "Caffeine intoxication is a recognized clinical syndrome. It is described as nervousness, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, gastrointestinal upset, tremors, rapid heartbeat, restlessness and pacing. In rare cases, caffeine intoxication can cause death."

"Judge Orders Mistrial in P2P Piracy Case," PCMag.com.

From PCMAg.com, "Jammie Thomas, who was ordered to pay $222,000 to a group of music labels for allegedly pirating songs using the Kazaa peer-to-peer service, has been granted a new trial...The key word and definition was 'distribution,' which both the labels and Thomas' lawyers disputed. Both sides agreed that the only copying of files in the case was by MediaSentry, a firm hired by the labels to seek out pirates. The lawyers for Thomas had argued that a copyright holder or its agent, MediaSentry, can not infringe its own copyright."

"Johnny Depp Signs on to bring back Captain Jack in 'Pirates 4,'" MTV.

Oh, please. Give it a rest. The man is 45 years old and his most famous role is a pirate with make-up and the movie is based off of a roller coaster. Time to move on.

Lies and Blinking

"This is the narcissism of partisan. You get furiously outraged at the other campaign's lies, and you love your own. Nonetheless, I do think it is fair to say that the McCain campaign has been more egregious than the Obama campaign." --David Brooks

John McCain is drawing criticism for claims he's making about Barack Obama, even from the normally welcoming ladies on The View:

In one of the two ads to which Joy Behar is referring, McCain accuses Obama of sexism for saying, "You can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig." But Obama wasn't insulting Sarah Palin; he was referring to the McCain-Palin ticket's attempt to portray themselves as agents of change. And compare Obama's comment to Palin's "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick," and McCain's saying the same thing about Hillary Clinton's health care plan during the primaries.

The other ad accuses Obama of perversely wanting to teach comprehensive sex ed to kindergartners, when he really supports teaching what constitutes inappropriate behavior from adults.

And while speaking in Missouri last week, McCain said that Obama's health care plan would "force small businesses to cut jobs and reduce wages and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor." Even though Obama's plan drew criticisms in the Democratic primaries for not forcing all Americans into a government-run system. Said Jonathan Oberlander, a professor of health policy at UNC-Chapel Hill, "I would say this is an inaccurate and false characterization of the Obama plan. I don’t use those words lightly.”

"We must do whatever it takes, and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target." --Sarah Palin

On the New York Times' most-emailed list lie at least three editorials criticizing Sarah Palin's naïveté. And why not? Her ignorance is shocking even if you're not an Eastern media elite. (Side note:

Perhaps Mitt Romney thinks he's a reporter for the Daily Show?)

Palin argued that Alaska's proximity to Russia gives her better insight into Russian affairs. Can you "[i]magine the derisive laughter in conservative circles if the Democrats had tried such nonsense"?

She was completely ignorant of the Bush Doctrine. Talking heads later argued that most Americans couldn't explain the Bush Doctrine, but how many of them are running for vice president? Others have argued that several policies could be labeled that way, but Palin seems completely unaware that the label exists at all.

She claimed that our soldiers in Iraq are fighting "the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans." In short, Sarah Palin's ignorance is frightening, reflects poorly on McCain, and is oddly reminiscent of Bush circa 2000.

It is also nicely satirized by Tina Fey:

Headlines: Flowers & Showers

30 April 2008:

• Cage Match
  

  McCain is worried about what Jim Webb's (D-VA) "21^st Century G.I. Bill of Rights" will do to the Armed Forces' retention rates.
  

• Federal Money in Health Care Plan from McCain
  

  "Let's take away the tax credit we give to companies to provide insurance and give $5000 to every family in America to pay for an insurance policy that costs, on average, $12,106. Don't worry; the forces of the free market will drive the price down 59%!"
  

• Obama Repudiates Wright:
  

  I'm the one in the back applauding arrhythmically.
  

1 May 2008:

• Belarus Expels 10 U.S. Diplomats
  

  Apparently, somebody is a little authoritarian.
  

• Another Move to Obama
  

  Former DNC chair Joe Andrew switches from Hillary to Obama. Funny thing: he was appointed to head the DNC by Bill Clinton.