PSoTD

Jonathan Tasini of Working Life has a great piece at TomPaine.com about the estate tax repeal or reform that is to be brought up next week in the United States Senate. He asks:

And what’s the cost of giving the richest Americans more cash? In the first 10 years, the U.S. Treasury will lose between $750 billion and one trillion dollars, forcing more cuts in education, Medicare and other key social programs—not to mention piling on more debt for future generations.

Americans ought to be asking their U.S. Senator in the next few days - how does the federal government plan to cover that loss of revenue, specifically? It is time for the Pay-As-You-Go Caucus in the Congress to stand up and keep their ground, and require that information.

Do we need another trillion dollars in federal debt? Do we need new taxes to replace that revenue? What programs will be cut to pay for the revenue loss? If Senator Kyl and his cohorts cannot answer that question now, then the whole proposition should be tabled until it can be answered - specifically. Otherwise, there is never an answer, and the question is lost in the swirl of promises.

I've heard New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin say the following several times now on various television programs:

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told CNN: "We probably deal with almost a third of the nation's domestic oil that is produced, and that will most likely be shut down. "That could have a significant impact on oil prices going forward."

Saying it once or twice was informational. Saying it over and over has a political point to it. Oil prices for Mayor Nagin can't be too high on his radar of issues requiring immediate attention. But domestic oil isn't going to flow through the region without a lot of infrastructure being built first. That takes federal money and effort, and I think Mayor Nagin's point is that the rest of the nation is going to notice how long that money and effort takes.

Hurricane Andrew blasted its way across south Florida on August 24, 1992. Then came the political storm.

Even after it subsided, Hurricane Andrew continued to cause problems through the fierce political controversy generated by the widespread criticism concerning the speed and efficiency of relief operations.

At the beginning of September the first official estimates suggested that insurance companies would have to pay up to $7,300 million in damage claims arising from Andrew, making it the most costly natural catastrophe in US history. It was also estimated that some 275,000 of the hurricane's victims remained without electricity and that 150,000 were homeless. President George Bush, who had visited the affected region in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, made a second visit to Florida and Louisiana on Sept. 1, and pledged that the federal government would continue with the relief operation "until the job is done". In what was widely interpreted as a bid for electoral advantage--securing Florida's 25 electoral college votes was seen as essential if Bush was to win re-election to the White House--the President also announced that the government would provide 100 per cent federal reimbursement to local authorities for recovery operations, rather than the 75 per cent customary in such cases.

From eBay:

Hurricane Katrina New Orleans Domains NOReliefFund.com

10% of selling price donated to American Red Cross! NR

Starting bid: US $1,000.00

Wow, a whole 10% on a $1000 plus domain! And the domain cost you what, $10 to register?

Happy Birthday, little guy. We'll be celebrating tonight!

Network for Good has the links for Katrina disaster relief donations.

Rox's music post yesterday has dredged up this eerie spectre...

You make me feel like dancing
I want to dance the night away
You make me feel like dancing
I’m gonna dance the night away
You make me feel like dancing
I feel like dancing dancing dance the night away
I feel like dancing, dancing – aah
Doo doo doo doo – woo woop
Doo doo doo doo – oh yeah
Doo doo doo doo – woo woop
Doo doo doo doo – ah ha

It is more than I can take.

I received this the other day and am planning on participating in the conference call. Anyone interested in this discussion is invited to join. Becky Lewis can give you the specifics for joining the call.

We would like to invite you to join us for a conference call to discuss the estate tax and the upcoming vote in the Senate on September 6th to permanently repeal it. Join a discussion on this critical issue with policy experts and bloggers from around the country and learn background information, the implications for the country and all Americans of full repeal or a "backdoor repeal" compromise proposal, where Senators currently stand, and what you and other concerned people can do to help keep the Senate from enacting another tax give-away to multi-millionaires.

The American for a Fair Estate Tax Coalition (www.fairestatetax.org) has been working throughout the summer to create grassroots action to preserve the estate tax, but we need your help. Please join us!

Please RSVP to Becky Lewis at blewis@ombwatch.org or at 202.234.8494 x238 if you plan on joining the call. Thanks!

What: Blogger Conference Call on Estate Tax
When: Wednesday, August 31, from 2:00 - 3:00 pm Eastern
Where: By Phone

Moderated by:
Adam Hughes, Budget Policy Analyst, OMB Watch

Policy Experts:
John Irons, Director of Budget and Tax Policy, Center for American Progress
Joel Friedman, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

From the LA Times:

Bill Rau, the 45-year-old owner of a French Quarter antique shop that sells diamonds and 18th century clocks, flew his family to Dallas on Sunday, not because he knew anyone there but because it was the only way he could get out of town.

...

So he spent $3,000 and bought the only tickets he could find: six one-way, first-class seats to Dallas.

Bill Rau was lucky. From The Advocate News:

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation Sunday. He said he knew a large number of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, so the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome.

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.

Let me spill a little secret for those of you lucky enough NOT to be a tourist in a location where a hurricane is coming: the airline industry's response - and perhaps the nation's air traffic control response - in these situations needs public review, and hopefully by Congress.

In July we were in the Cayman Islands when Hurricane Emily, which at that point was a Category 4, approached. If you've been to the Caymans very recently, you know what Ivan did to the island last year, and you know it's not the sandbar you want to be on for a major hurricane.

We were scheduled on a flight via US Air out of Grand Cayman on Saturday afternoon, which happened to be awfully close to the time the hurricane was going to hit. US Air did not get an aircraft to Grand Cayman there early. US Air maintained their schedule.

Tourists were told that the flight was "still scheduled".

The flight was cancelled, and those in Grand Cayman depending on US Air were not able to get out at that time. Fortunately for tourists in Grand Cayman, Emily veered west a bit, and just glanced the island.

We weren't there. We didn't depend on US Air's schedule and flew out on Cayman Airlines on Friday. And we were lucky - we pretty much bought the last tickets on the last flight available.

If we were in Grand Cayman, I would have been quite annoyed about the cancellation of the flight, because it wasn't due to the weather in the Caymans. Airline flights from other carriers left later in the day, until the airport was closed due to the hurricane.

There were thunderstorms in Charlotte, North Carolina, which prevented that specific plane from leaving.

That's what needs to be reviewed. Are airlines making every effort to evacuate tourists from harm's way? Tourists are fairly vulnerable in these situations - their knowledge of the area is limited, their personal resources and networks are not locally available. Can airlines do a better job of transporting people out of danger when needed? Where is that priority within an airline's operations? What should the FAA or Congress do to facilitate that?

Because I'm sure we can do better than the "flight's cancelled, you'll have to fend for yourselves until the next scheduled flight" answer. I'm sure both tourists and the authorities of localities subject to hurricanes would agree.

Every once in a while I'll post one of these. Just in case it might be useful someday...

From Legacy: History of Nursing Education at the University of British Columbia, 1919-1994

Book by Ethel Warbinek, Glennis Zilm; University of British Columbia Press, 1994

All these factors contributed to the demands in B.C. for a university-based nursing education program. As well, the activities of nurses in World War I and in the care of the Spanish flu victims in the world-wide epidemic of 1918- 1919 imparted a glorification of nurses; this was among influences that led to the opening of the Department of Nursing at UBC. Nurses had served magnificently in field hospitals, often near the front lines, and had become icons to be emulated by women. Even women's fashions were influenced by the shorter, more practical length of the skirts of nurses' uniforms. The influenza epidemic killed more than 50 million people world-wide and 50,000 in Canada and brought home to the public the need for better health care generally. During the height of the epidemic in B.C., the university was closed for five weeks and the auditorium and classrooms turned into wards for flu patients. President Wesbrook and several students died from this virulent flu. Victims generally progressed rapidly to a toxic pneumonia with severe nosebleeds that required packing. Treatment was symptomatic and good nursing care was essential: tepid sponges for high fevers, mustard plasters for chest congestion, and fluids for dehydration. The dedication of the nurses from the nearby Vancouver General Hospital was duly noted and authorities also awakened to the need for better health education generally, which could be done by public health nurses.

Funny how things change. From Napa News:

The annual Burning Man counterculture festival kicks off Monday on the northern Nevada desert -- and some Reno businesses could not be happier.

Recognizing the economic opportunity generated by the offbeat event, more hotel-casinos and other businesses are warming up to Burning Man buffs by offering special deals.

More than 35,000 people, many from the San Francisco Bay area, are expected to attend the weeklong gathering leading up to Labor Day on the Black Rock Desert 120 miles north of Reno.

"It blows my mind that in the last five years the businesses in Reno have turned around and embraced us," festival spokeswoman Marian Goodell told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Last year, the Golden Phoenix Hotel Casino & Resort became the first Reno resort to directly advertise to "burners" and offer special room rates.

The Golden Phoenix is offering special rates of $29, up from $19.95 last year. Participants only need mention they are with the event to get the deal.

The Reno Ramada also is offering special rates: $26, compared with the usual rate of $69. But burners must make reservations for post-event stays ahead of time.

Twin City Surplus in Reno is running a television advertising campaign targeting participants who need camping gear for the desert gathering.

Dozens of other businesses -- from grocery stores to gas stations -- have created links on the Burning Man Web site listing themselves as "burner friendly."

Baseball is no longer cool in the black community.

Five teams — the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies — had no African-American players on their active rosters as of Monday, while several other teams had just one or two.

When Florida's Dontrelle Willis faced the Los Angeles Dodgers' Edwin Jackson last week, it was a notable occurrence, an extremely rare matchup of African-American starting pitchers — rare because only five are in major-league rotations. And there is not one African-American catcher since Charles Johnson was waived by the Devil Rays in June.

The stark fact is that 58 years after Jackie Robinson integrated baseball, considered by many to be the single most significant event in the history of professional sports, the American-born black baseball player is slowly disappearing from the game.

Some of this is really startling. The percentage of black players in the Major Leagues has declined from 27 percent in 1975 to 9 percent this year. Only one black college player was among the first 100 picks selected in the 2004 college draft. Black colleges are having to recruit white players for their baseball teams.

I guess Jackie Robinson would be a point guard if he were around today.

A good music post. Pick your high school graduation year, grab the top 100 songs of that year, bold the songs you still like, strikethrough the songs you hate, and underscore your favorite from the list.

The year was 1977..

1. Tonight's The Night, Rod Stewart
2. I Just Want To Be Your Everything, Andy Gibb
3. Best Of My Love, Emotions
4. Love Theme From "A Star Is Born", Barbra Streisand
5. Angel In Your Arms, Hot
6. I Like Dreamin', Kenny Nolan
7. Don't Leave Me This Way, Thelma Houston
8. (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher, Rita Coolidge
9. Undercover Angel, Alan O'Day
10. Torn Between Two Lovers, Mary MacGregor
11. I'm Your Boogie Man, K.C. and The Sunshine Band
12. Dancing Queen, Abba
13. You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, Leo Sayer
14. Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffet
15. Telephone Line, Electric Light Orchestra
16. Whatcha Gonna Do?, Pablo Cruise
17. Do You Wanna Make Love, Peter McCann
18. Sir Duke, Stevie Wonder
19. Hotel California, Eagles
20. Got To Give It Up, Pt. 1, Marvin Gaye
21. Theme From "Rocky" (Gonna Fly Now), Bill Conti
22. Southern Nights, Glen Campbell
23. Rich Girl, Daryl Hall and John Oates
24. When I Need You, Leo Sayer
25. Hot Line, Sylvers
26. Car Wash, Rose Royce
27. You Don't Have To Be A Star, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.
28. Fly Like An Eagle, Steve Miller Band
29. Don't Give Up On Us, David Soul
30. On And On, Stephen Bishop
31. Feels Like The First Time, Foreigner
32. Couldn't Get It Right, Climax Blues Band
33. Easy, Commodores
34. Right Time Of The Night, Jennifer Warnes
35. I've Got Love On My Mind, Natalie Cole
36. Blinded By The Light, Manfred Mann's Earth Band
37. Looks Like We Made It, Barry Manilow
38. So In To You, Atlanta Rhythm Section
39. Dreams, Fleetwood Mac
40. Enjoy Yourself, Jacksons
41. Dazz, Brick
42. I'm In You, Peter Frampton
43. Lucille, Kenny Rogers
44. The Things We Do For Love, 10cc
45. Da Doo Ron Ron, Shaun Cassidy
46. Handy Man, James Taylor
47. Just A Song Before I Go, Crosby, Stills and Nash
48. You And Me, Alice Cooper
49. Slow Dancin', Johnny Rivers
50. Lonely Boy, Andrew Gold
51. I Wish, Stevie Wonder
52. Don't Stop, Fleetwood Mac
53. Barracuda, Heart
54. Strawberry Letter 23, Brothers Johnson
55. Night Moves, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
56. You're My World, Helen Reddy
57. Heard It In A Love Song, Marshall Tucker Band
58. Carry On Wayward Son, Kansas
59. New Kid In Town, Eagles
60. My Heart Belongs To Me, Barbra Streisand
61. After The Lovin', Engelbert Humperdinck
62. Jet Airliner, Steve Miller Band
63. Stand Tall, Burton Cummings
64. Way Down, Elvis Presley
65. Weekend In New England, Barry Manilow
66. It Was Almost Like A Song, Ronnie Milsap
67. Smoke From A Distant Fire, Sanford Townsend Band
68. Cold As Ice, Foreigner
69. Ariel, Dean Friedman
70. Lost Without Your Love, Bread
71. Star Wars Theme-Cantina Band, Meco
72. Float On, Floaters
73. Jeans On, David Dundas
74. Lido Shuffle, Boz Scaggs
75. Keep It Comin' Love, K.C. and The Sunshine Band
76. You Made Me Believe In Magic, Bay City Rollers
77. Livin' Thing, Electric Light Orchestra
78. Give A Little Bit, Supertramp
79. That's Rock 'N' Roll, Shaun Cassidy
80. Love So Right, Bee Gees
81. The Rubberband Man, Spinners
82. I Never Cry, Alice Cooper
83. Nobody Does It Better, Carly Simon
84. High School Dance, Sylvers
85. Love's Grown Deep, Kenny Nolan
86. Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman), Joe Tex
87. I Wanna Get Next To You, Rose Royce
88. Somebody To Love, Queen
89. Muskrat Love, Captain and Tennille
90. Walk This Way, Aerosmith
91. Whispering-Cherchez La Femme-C'est Si Bon, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band
92. Year Of The Cat, Al Stewart
93. Boogie Nights, Heatwave
94. Go Your Own Way, Fleetwood Mac
95. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, Elton John
96. Don't Worry Baby, B.J. Thomas
97. Knowing Me, Knowing You, Abba
98. How Much Love, Leo Sayer
99. Star Wars (Main Title), London Symphony Orchestra
100. Devil's Gun, C.J. and Co.

Some of these songs I don't remember. Supertramp stands out because it was one of the favorite songs of my girlfriend at the time, and it reminds me of my teenage makeout days. Good memories.

Today is one of those days where the differences between news blogging and reporting are put into focus. I would not be surprised if traffic on blogs in general turn out to be considerably lower today than normal, just as audience for CNN/MSNBC/The Weather Channel probably will be considerably higher today.

When one story dominates the news media, as Hurricane Katrina will today, there's not much space for other stories, and not much space for advancing the main story. In some ways, to blog about a different story might actually serve to bury that story, since blogging traffic will be down and interest will be less.

Because what news blogs do best is advance a story. It could be an unknown story, it could be a little reported story, it could be a different angle on a well known story, but that's what they do.

What the paid news media does best is initial reporting of the story to the widest audience with the greatest resources. With this kind of coverage and resource utilization, the paid news media provides the advancement of the story.

When the paid news media saturates a story, such as Hurricane Katrina, there isn't much room to advance the story until the new media "unsaturates", which will eventually happen. There will be many, many blogger posts about Katrina and NOLA that will be informative in the days to come, as the news media de-emphasizes the event. But today is not likely to be full of those posts.

In many ways, this is a day for bloggers to witness events unfold, and spend less time blogging.

From BostonHerald.com:

Host Sean ``Hold the P. Diddy'' Combs boldly claimed at the top of the show that anything can happen. Unfortunately, little of what did happen was particularly spectacular regardless of how much water poured down or how many flames shot out of the stage. The acceptance speeches were a yawn, the patter painful, the commercial breaks interminable and even the audience in reaction shots seemed listless.

I dunno, I must be getting old. This is the 22nd one of these, and I probably haven't watched any of one since Clinton was in his first term. Who is watching it?

CNN still hasn't figured out what a blog is - but I don't see any way you can call this a blog. Unless you want to start calling the Weather Service site a blog - it's updated regularly. Or bulletin boards "blogs" - they are updated regularly.

Appreciate the information Miles O'Brien is providing, but don't call it a blog.

Orton promoted to Bears' starting QB

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) -- Rookie Kyle Orton was named the Chicago Bears' starting quarterback Sunday and the team demoted Chad Hutchinson out of the playing rotation.

Orton's strong performance in Friday's 16-12 win over Buffalo when he led an 81-yard scoring drive, and Hutchinson's second straight shaky outing -- 3-for-14 passing, two interceptions and three sacks -- prompted coach Lovie Smith to make the move.

Smith said recently signed veteran Jeff Blake is now the backup and Kurt Kittner is No. 3.

Thank you Lovie Smith. Good decision.

At least at this point in time, most are online here.

Hope and pray for the Gulf Coast.

I'm already in the process of lining up the next Bloggerview, but feel free to recommend bloggers - and topics - to question.

As promised, the second half of Q&A with Revere of Effect Measure. Again, Revere's responses are in the blockquotes.:

3) About public health systems: If the public were to pressure government and the health industry to greatly improve one component of how the public health system works, what should the public focus on? Where could the public get their greatest bang for their political buck in terms of improving the quality of health?

You ask what appears to be a sensible question, to which I have a hard time giving a definite answer. In my view this is because the problems with public health in this country are deep and systemic and not easily addressable with a single solution.

In answer to your previous question I spoke of public health being leaderless, dispirited and demoralized. There are cycles in public health and we have just been through 35 years on the "up" side. The full analysis is too long for this format, but suffice to say the profession as a whole has been marginalized and forced under the rubric of public safety (EMS, police, fire) and is being progressively militarized (hierarchical organization different from its horizontal one). One of the reasons for this is the ideological assault on the core ethic of public health, the notion of public service.

With so many crimes to lay at the feet of our political leaders over the last several decades it is hard to know which to place at the top of the list and I won't even try. Starting at least as early as the Reagan Administration, politicians of both parties have developed whole platforms based on the very notion of denigrating public service. This is what is behind the "big government is bad" theme (which is not to say that big government can't be bad, but that the theme has a different origin). The ideology here is "self-reliance" and the evil of helping those who cannot help themselves. Lakoff and many others have explored the ideological roots of this attitude (and I have explored his views extensively on the blog) so I won't go further here. But a major result has been to stigmatize public servants, take their tools away from them, and demoralize them. This, of course, includes public health professionals.

So the general (and not very satisfying) answer to your short and seemingly restricted question is a political effort (non-partisan) to restore the honor, dignity and social value of public service in general. This requires a conscious and explicit effort on the part of progressives, something we haven't seen so far. This is consistent with the theme for public health strategies I noted in my last response. The best way to approach the daunting public health challenges we face is via cooperation: neighbors helping neighbors, facilitated by resources provided by the public health system. This is an ideological approach as much as a scientific one (one we believe on rigorous analysis of costs and outcomes would be superior, although if it were not, we would still advocate it).

4) Now for a left field question: In terms of a whole earth, all species view: could a pandemic actually be a good thing for the future of the world and humankind? And if so, what's the likelihood of that?

and no, I'm not a fatalist, just philosophical in questions...

I'm a public health guy so I don't believe in "cleansing" the race. But here's my response, such as it is:

If the human species doesn't suffer a major population crash after becoming overcrowded and having fouled its own nest, it would be unlike virtually every other natural population we know about. On the other hand, humans have additional protections most other species don't have: well-developed culture and technology which have allowed it to become the geographically most widely distributed species on the globe. Those abilities have often been used in a destructive way but there is no Law of Nature (known to me, anyway; the theologically inclined may think what they wish) that forbids it from being used constructively. And I hope it will be with respect to a pandemic. It is hard to see how a pandemic could be a boon to humankind. It more likely will be a catastrophe which will cause a great deal of suffering and set us back as a species, although probably not for very long.

However, on the more cheerful side, a scourge that did wipe out the human species would be a great gift to many other species. The same technology and culture that has been so beneficial to us has had disastrous consequences for other living beings. Just think how different the living world would be if humans had never domesticated agriculture. The world, is a relatively closed system (except for solar radiation coming in and our own electromagnetic radiation going out), and eventually comes back into balance. The only question for us is whether we will still be here as a species when it does.

5) What are your hopes and plans for your blog in the future? Is your blog a short-term or long-term commitment?

Our blog is signed Revere, to recognize one of the first civilian members of any local Board of Health in America. But Paul Revere no longer exists. Neither does the Revere who signs the blog. Revere is just a label for a set of opinions and a particular voice.

The fatal weakness of blogging is that there are essentially no start-up or maintenance costs but there are substantial costs in time, emotional energy and commitment. If a blog isn't updated with some frequency it shortly loses readers. While our goal is not vast readership, neither is it no readership. We are not an online diary, but a forum for progressive public health thinking. It is our hope that it will become a place where the public health community and its many allies can begin to work out some of the daunting theoretical problems the discipline and the profession face at this point in history. But there is a delicate balance between accommodating to readers' interests and pushing the envelope. We have persistently expressed the opinion that organized religion and war are both properly seen as public health problems mindful of that tension.

How long will we do this? Hard to say. There have been multiple posts on the blog everyday, seven days a week, since Thanksgiving 2004. That is a difficult schedule when when we have extremely busy "day jobs" and professional lives that are not only separate from the blog but employ vastly different conventions in the way we must express ourselves. In some instances we are severely criticizing institutions of which we are part and parcel. At the lowest level, you can say we posted on the blog today because we posted yesterday, a fairly prosaic but perhaps accurate description of the process. But over the last nine months we have also accrued a reasonable daily readership that ,on most weekdays, averages six to seven hundred, often considerably more. If we knew we could go to a lecture room everyday and be guaranteed of an audience of six or seven hundred people specifically interested in public health that showed up voluntarily to hear our latest opinions or take on the news, we would be delighted. So we persist.

Is this long-term? Probably not, for the simple reason that things change rapidly. With new technology and new formats, blogs will have seen their day and some other way of communicating will take their place. Whether we will be moving on with that change is hard to say. If I could tell the future, I'd be rich. And I'm not.

It was from further north... From the Centre Daily Times:

State College buzzes over seeming onslaught of flies

Remember the much-discussed stench that swept parts of the Centre Region early this month, just about the time that Penn State spread some powerful manure on nearby farm fields?

Consider this Chapter Two.

In the past two weeks or so, since the stink dissipated, locals have said houseflies are appearing at startling rates -- indoors, at picnics, everywhere. Steve Jacobs, a Penn State extension associate who specializes in entomology, confirmed the reports Wednesday and said that, at least in his anecdotal observations, the housefly population in and around State College seems unusually abundant.

...in downtown State College, the buzz centered largely on the university's manure-spreading operation earlier in the month. Rebecca Durst, owner of Rinaldo's Barber Shop on South Allen Street, said the excrement seemed the likely culprit.

"The flies are driving us crazy," Durst said as another barber swatted toward a mirror. "They're interrupting our cutting. They've been a nuisance to us and our customers."

Susan Jones, an associate professor of entomology at Ohio State University, said she "would have expected to see a (fly) boom right after" the manure-spreading. Penn State farm workers labored at least four days during the week of Aug. 1 to apply potent livestock dung to fields near Aaron Drive, in an area relatively near the northern edge of the University Park campus and East College Heights.

Jones said such manure is a favorite breeding source for house flies. Adult house flies can live 14 to 70 days, depending on whose studies you believe, she said.

"If (the manure) was moist, then it would be a ready place for them to breed," Jones said.

The Peking Duck: China's Forex Piggybank

By the end of 2005, China is expected to hold foreign exchange reserves in excess of US$900 billion, replacing Japan as the country with the largest foreign reserves. In 1995, China had US$75.4 billion, rising to US$610 billion last year. Compare that to the US’s reserves of US$79.5, Britain’s US$48.1 and the Philippines US$17,7 (June, 2005).

Archy: This is getting interesting

A senior representative of America's evangelical Christians is to make an attempt to set up a meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The Rev Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, wants to distance American Christians from the remarks of a tele-evangelist.

NewsHounds: Fox Contributor Fired After Endangering Innocent Family

John Loftus, Fox News Contributor, carelessly gave the address of an unexpecting family because he thought a terrorist lived at their address. He was wrong and the family has been tortured and terrorized since his irresponsible statement. Chrish reported this story and at that time the family was waiting for an apology from Fox News. This morning 8/27/05, CNN reported that Fox had fired Loftus and issued a written apology to the family who have gone through hell.

Unbossed.com: TABOR - Is your state on the 2006 hit list?

TABOR. If that acronym doesn't send shivers down your spine then you ain't payin' enough attention. As many of you know, Colorado is in the throes of a ballot intiative this November to provide for a five year timeout from the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights-mandated rebate to taxpayers when thre is an overage of revenues over expenditures in the state budget. For the last couple of years, Coloradans have not received rebates because of the Bush recession effect on the state budget.

Blog.Bioethics.net: Ethics and Superfat NFL Players

Art Caplan, rapidly becoming the official bioethicist of sports, writes that:

A tearful memorial service was held Tuesday in Mountain View, Calif., for Thomas Herrion, 23, an offensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers football team. The service drew more than 500 people, including the commissioner of the National Football League, Paul Tagliabue, and many other NFL officials and coaches. Their grief for the loss of this young athlete was sincere. But the NFL does not seem to have gotten one message it needs to learn from Herrion's death: Players in the NFL have gotten too fat.

Revere of Effect Measure agreed to be both subject and part of my learning curve to present e-mail blog interviews - bloggerviews. I asked a question each day and have posted the responses in their entirety.

Originally I intended to post the whole bloggerview in one post, but it turned out pretty long. So I'll post the first half today, and the second tomorrow. Let me know if you have any suggestions for the process that you think might be worth implementing.

Revere's responses are in the blockquotes.

1) What blogs do you primarily rely on for news or information or just value? How did/do you find them?

Not sure you'll like the answer. It's hard to put the URLs for the referenced blogs on dial-up and email, but all are pretty easy to get to stick in. But it's a beta test, right?

I'm not sure I can reconstruct this completely. I remember getting to Majikthise (perhaps my favorite blog) through James Wolcott, but how I got to James Wolcott is lost to my now porous memory. Those two blogs have some of the most stylish writing going. I collected a bunch of blogs off blog rolls during the 2004 election campaign, when I became a serious blog reader, and I would accrue and discard them relatively quickly. Since starting my own blog 9 months ago, I picked some up by seeing who was reading mine.

However since much of my blogging relates to current news I spend an inordinate amount of time surfing news sites now, much more so than blogs. There are a couple of other public health blogs out there (Confined Space is outstanding and is the main source of news about occupational health and safety for the progressive wing of the profession) and Stayin' Alive is also great reading. So is Pharyngula, the best biology/political blog out there by a long way.

I confess I have much less interest these days in the partisan political blogs like Atrios, DailyKos and MyDD because they are preoccupied with electoral politics, while I am mainly interested in public health issues. The Democratic party also makes me retch. It is unbelievably cowardly and has been whipped by the right wing to the point it can't even muster a reasonable response to unreasonable events like the Plame outing. Why should I bother about the latest rearrangements of the deck chairs on the Titanic? In Australia the opposition party has made in issue out of the failure of John Howard's right wing government to prepare adequately for a bird flu pandemic. In this country the head of the DNC is a doctor and all we get is silence. Jeez.

2) You post a lot about Avian flu. Who would you ask (or force) to guest post on your blog about the subject, assuming they would do it? And what specific points would you want those guest posts to cover?

This interesting question has a double answer: no one; and just about anyone that has something useful to say.

No one:

The bird flu theme on our blog is somewhat misleading. Ours is not a bird flu site, although for many months it was one of the few that mentioned it at all and during that time mentioned it very often: there have been around 150 posts on the subject. But the main topic remains what it was at the outset, public health, especially public health in the US. American public health professionals are having a difficult time. We have no effective leadership and the profession and discipline have become increasingly marginalized, dispirited and demoralized. Bird flu emerged as a theme initially because it seemed the perfect metaphor for this lack of attention by our political (and through them) our public health "leaders," and because it seemed it was a genuine emerging threat of major proportions that was not being attended to. Today, of course, we find frequent mention, both in the MSM and in the blogosphere, but for a long time we were among the few to discuss it and the only ones to discuss it in relation to the failure in leadership. Thus we have no specific need for anyone else to come along and add their expertise.

Almost anyone who has something useful to contribute:

However that doesn't mean we know all the answers. In fact it is clear we know hardly any of them. In our view a pandemic cannot be stopped by any conceivable policy options at this stage. What we require now is to prepare to manage the consequences if a pandemic of avian influenza should occur at some point. In that regard, there is a great deal of expertise but it is scattered among people who often don't know they have it. For example, in small but essential businesses, who are the key personnel and what are the choke points that would be affected if there were an illness with a 30% absenteeism rate? How would they work around it? If someone were the sole (material) support of an aged relative (did their grocery shopping, went to the drugstore and got their prescriptions), what would happen if that younger provider were sick for three or four weeks? If overroad trucking were disrupted by widespread illness among truckers, who would deliver the drugs to pharmacies or supermarkets who have "just in time" inventories? This kind of expertise exists, but it isn't in the public health community and isn't being harvested and marshaled for the purpose by planners. Our blog isn't the place to do this, but a "wiki" is. So along with two other bloggers (DemFromCt at The Next Hurrah and Melanie Mattson of Just a Bump in the Beltway) we started (with the amazing technical expertise of pogge of the pogge.ca blog in Canada) the Flu Wiki (http://www.fluwikie.com). It is an open site where any and all can contribute, edit and correct current entries, and take away much current information on planning for pandemic flu. It has been an amazing success and grows daily. We will need sources like this if we are to prepare to help each other in a crisis, rather than turn our backs on each other, retreat to a cabin in the woods, and guard our families with guns to avoid infected outsiders or those also seeking the staples of life. Cooperation is our strategy, not survivalist preparation and the Flu Wiki is one way to promote it. In a sense, everyone who participates there will be our "guest bloggers on bird flu."

Part II on Sunday.

From Lancaster Online:

A Christian radio station based in southern Lancaster County has agreed to run advertisements critical of state Sen. Noah W. Wenger and his $31,000 pay raise beginning next week.

New Providence-based WDAC, which holds one of the largest market shares among Christian broadcasters in the country, will be the first local media outlet to run a controversial ad by Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania.

This should be interesting.

It may be a locking gas cap.

Check out Who's The RINO, where he says:

Maybe its not us critics of the DC GOP powers, but the powers themselves...

I live in an "insecty" household. By that, I mean I'm a entomologist wannabe, and my interest in the bugs and other animals that many might call "pests" appears to be taking strong root in both our kids.

Our daughter has a "pet" toad (it will be released in the next few weeks) that a friend gave her. It's a young wild toad, and we've been dutifully catching crickets in our back yard and throwing them in the terrarium so he/she can eat. The toad's name is Oscar, although I call him/her Totally Toadly. I just like the way it sounds.

Anyways, we're having problems now with the crickets. A week ago you could walk in my backyard barefoot and crickets would jump on your feet, they were that numerous. Last weekend they became harder to find. Now we're struggling to catch enough to feed TT. They literally have disappeared from the yards - ours and our neighbors. Two weeks ago was a animal population peak I've never noticed before (not that I was looking for crickets before) and I'm not sure if now it's the natural end of summer cricket generation, or if it has to do with the fact that we're in an unofficial drought. But it is a population crash, as far as the toad's concerned. Our homeowner's association is on pace to spend half the money it did last year on mowing, and that's because last year was wet, and this year's been dry. And the past 10 days have been particularly dry. So it could be the rain situation.

I'm hoping that in the next week or two, we'll release Totally Toadly in the woodsy area on the other side of the creek. Should be a good location for him. I don't really plan on buying crickets to feed him.

If you have any general info on crickets you think might be appropriate for this post, feel free to post - I know the kids and myself will be interested.

Fact-esque has posted a helpful starter for those of us who have not been attentive to the situation in Haiti.

Baghdad Burning hasn't been updated since July 15...

What's the best practical joke you've ever played on someone?

His name is Joe Otterbein.

Other blogs with info: Herb Riede

I think this is/was Joe's blog, but it may not be.

Flu pandemic?
Plan for the Worst
Preparation
The Economics of a Flu Pandemic: II
Another Angle I Hadn't Considered

How long until the term "avian flu" shows up in the top 10 of Technorati searches...

It appears that President Bush has equated assassination as terrorism in the past:

President Condemns Assassination Statement by the Press Secretary Assassination of Israeli Cabinet Minister

The President condemns in the strongest terms the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi today. He offers his condolences and those of the United States to Prime Minister Sharon, the Israeli government and people, and the family of Minister Zeevi. This despicable act is further evidence of the need to fight terrorism.

We have noted the statement of the Palestinian Authority condemning this assassination. This statement is appropriate, but words are not enough. It is time for the Palestinian Authority to take vigorous action against terrorists. The PFLP, which operates openly in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, has claimed responsibility for this heinous act. The PA must immediately find and bring to justice those who committed this murder, as well as those who would do harm to efforts to restore an atmosphere of calm and security for Israelis and Palestinians.

Saddam Hussein's Support for International Terrorism

Iraq is one of seven countries that have been designated by the Secretary of State as state sponsors of international terrorism. UNSCR 687 prohibits Saddam Hussein from committing or supporting terrorism, or allowing terrorist organizations to operate in Iraq. Saddam continues to violate these UNSCR provisions. In 1993, the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) directed and pursued an attempt to assassinate, through the use of a powerful car bomb, former U.S. President George Bush and the Emir of Kuwait. Kuwaiti authorities thwarted the terrorist plot and arrested 16 suspects, led by two Iraqi nationals.

So, does that make Pat Robertson guilty of promoting terrorism? Is he a terrorist?

The National Coalition for School Bus Safety has renewed calls for seat belts to be installed in school buses.

The organization argues that every state has a child restraint law for other passenger vehicles, and that the 200 school districts across the nation that have adopted seat belts as an added safety measure to the required "compartmentalization" guidelines report usage rates of 80 percent to 100 percent.

Also cited is the fact that when a New York City school bus equipped with seat belts flipped over last April 26, the 44 sixth-graders it was carrying suffered only minor injuries.

The Virginia Association for Pupil Transportation, which issues guidelines to Virginia school districts, currently opposes seat belts until the NHTSA determines otherwise. The NHTSA requires seat belts only for school buses weighing less than 10,000 pounds.

"School buses are heavier, experience less crash forces, and distribute crash forces differently than do passenger cars and light trucks," the NHTSA explains in a position paper on the subject. "Because of this, the crash force experienced by passengers of large buses is much less than that experienced by the occupants of passenger cars, light trucks, or vans."

As a parent, I really would prefer that the buses have seat belts. But here's the deal - hardly anyone wants to pay for school bus seat belts if they don't have kids riding on the bus. Why can't they come up with a system of portable seat belts that parents can buy, and students can bring onto the bus? If the marketplace really can solve any question, why isn't it solving this one?

You have until September 5th to submit your ten candidates for this list to XPN.

Here are my ten, although not necessarily in this order:

Hounds of Love - Kate Bush
Abbey Road - Beatles
George Winston - December
The Who - Quadrophenia
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Graham Parker - The Mona Lisa's Sister
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Roger Miller - Classics

This list could easily have 7-8 new candidates from me if I were asked this question in a month.

Anyone know the process for calling a Constitutional Convention for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania? I can't seem to find it in the State Constitution.

Which one(s) do you prefer, and why? Technorati, Feedster, IceRocket, whatever else...

Guess who is expected to be the lead agency in case of pandemic in the United States?

God help us.

One of the appearances, at least, from the state rosters of Lefty Blogs are how few liberal/progressive/left blogs there are in some states. Take a look at these numbers:

Mississippi - 1 blog - and it is a newspaper
Louisiana - 2 blogs
Nebraska - 4 blogs
Arkansas - 4 blogs

If you know of a "lefty" blog from one of those four states, can you post their link here in comments? I think the liberal blogosphere ought to try to flesh out the coverage in some of the lesser blogged states.

Update: A few Mississippi blogs for consideration:

Magnolia Politics
Hungry Blues
Kaustic
JohnSugg.com

In this article about nudism, this one sentence caught my eye:

Jimmy Murly-Gotto, an Oxford University student, is touring American resorts to write a thesis on the political economy of nudism.

Brilliant! Jimmy Murly-Gotto has figured out how to make the system work for him.

I have to admit, it's a little surprising that Current, the blog for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, actually has a publicly visible, although also publicly unofficial, take on the political furor about the state legislator pay raise.

That take, on the other hand, is not a surprise:

So a lot of people have asked me why I haven’t discussed the pay raise issue. Since “I don’t want to,” doesn’t seem to satisfy, let me try this…

Rule #1 of any communication/advocacy effort is to STAY ON MESSAGE. Our members are concerned about the economy and the Commonwealth’s competitiveness for jobs. So, to embroil ourselves in the public furor over the pay raise only distracts from the Chamber’s Agenda for Jobs.

Secondly, The Chamber has not heard an outcry from our membership over the pay raise. Rather, the outcry has been over the lack of movement on our Agenda for Jobs. Therefore, see above for Rule #1.

There's more. But the short answer is, We can't piss off the folks we are trying to lobby.

This position isn't any different from any other organization that lobbies the Pennsylvania General Assembly for advantages. There's no way that the grassroots efforts that are pushing on the General Assembly to rescind the pay raise can look for any useful participation from the "players" in Harrisburg.

Question of the Day: What will be the show business name of the person who replaces Wolf Blitzer at CNN? (Assuming that CNN eventually realizes that Blitzer has the interest and charisma of a dried up milk spill)

And no, I don't think it will be Chet Ubetcha.

I don't know why my wife received a catalog for this product yesterday, but the whole concept gives me a case of the willies:

MyTwinn - the just like me doll:

Every child is an original, and that's why every My Twinn doll is custom made to be a beautiful reflection of your special child. Create a treasured resemblance of your child by choosing your doll's individual qualities. Each 23" doll is fully poseable with 18 points of poseability and is carefully crafted with the highest quality materials.

There's even a Doll Hospital. The whole idea seems like a bad learning experience for kids and/or fixation for parents.

The Robertson School of Government at Regent University recently announced two new tracks of study: International Politics and Terrorism and Homeland Defense.

Apparently they're still looking for instructors to teach one of the new courses, GOV 699, Political Tools for Expediency: Assassination.

Then: From The Washington Lobbyists, by Lester W. Milbrath; Rand McNally, 1963

RECRUITMENT OF LOBBYISTS

The average person probably never considers making a career of lobbying. Colleges and professional schools do not prepare students specifically for this position. If a youngster announced that he would like to be a lobbyist, his parents would probably vigorously discourage him. Public disapproval of lobbyists and lobbying is so strong that most present practitioners admit to being lobbyists only reluctantly and qualifiedly.

Today: From CNN:

Six-figure jobs: Lobbying

A survey conducted by the American League of Lobbyists (ALL) in 1998 – the latest information the ALL has — found that 65 percent of respondents, who mostly held senior-level positions, made over $100,000.

To get a six-figure salary you either need to have a well-known name in politics – it's not unheard of for politicians to become lobbyists once they leave office – or you need to put in at least five to 10 years working your way up the ladder.

No degree is required. Most lobbyists, however, have at least a college degree and many have graduate degrees, typically in law.

And there is now a two-week course on professional lobbying and political influence offered by the Public Affairs and Advocacy Institute at American University.

So how many universities now offer a degree or special study in lobbying?

George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management offers a concentration in lobbying.

Where else?

And who is monitoring what they're teaching?

We're up to 1607th with a bullet on The Truth Laid Bear, so I took a look around at some of my new neighbors, and here are some of the more interesting posts:

My 2 Cent:

So I been in this wheelchair for about 4 weeks and I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as handicap access. It's just an illusion. Businesses and such will tell you they are handicap friendly but it's mostly lip service. Yeah, they meet government standards, but that's not saying much. Here are a few examples:

Shopping malls. Sure they have the wheelchair ramp, but once you get to the front door, there's no button or switch to get it to open automatically. So, I try to pull it open, but the thing is fucking heavy and I'm no weakling. I look up to make sure I'm at the right door and sure enough it has a handicap sticker. OK guys, putting a sticker on it doesn't make it any easier to open. Fuck! Now this isn't every mall, but it was a good bit of them.

Suitable for Mixed Company:

Some Dominican nuns have found a United States company that still manufactures washboards, and they are delighted to have been able to buy a new one to replace the ones they'd worn out keeping their white habits white. The Columbus Washboard Co. has bowed to the times and makes musical washboards and decorative washboards, too, but it still makes working washboards - and has a special program to provide soldiers with washboards and cleaning supplies.

Better Living: Thoughts from Mark Daniels:

My wife and I just returned from her thirty-fifth high school class reunion. I always enjoy these get-togethers because we graduated from the same school with me following her by a year and I know and am friends with many of her classmates.

We had a great time.!

But one big surprise hit us. After a mixer, we moved toward the banquet hall. An Amish guy greeted us by name. Ours was a city high school and definitely had no Amish contingent. It was a member of the class of '70, though. After thirty years as a Math or Science teacher, he told me, he retired, moved to Logan County, about forty miles northwest of Columbus, our hometown, and became Amish!

I didn't know a person could become Amish!

Has anyone ever heard of this before?

Transterrestrial Musings:

Bob Moog has died. It's hard to overestimate how much he changed the face of modern music.

Organic Baby Farm:

Why, in the good ol' U. S. of A., home of capitalism and famous for American ingenuity, can't anyone seem to make a bra for the busty that is affordable and cute and provides uplift, separation, and style? And why can't these be carried in normal stores?

cre8d journal:

There’s a desire in me to simplify, slow down and get to a deeper level of reflection and thinking.

Do you struggle with this desire and the reality of a day of interruptions too?

With all this focus on connectedness and community, have we forgotten the importance of balancing this with aloneness and silence?

Were we meant to multitask?

Surprisingly, the new neighborhood is somewhat vacated... a lot of the blogs that surround PSoTD on this countdown have stopped publishing earlier in 2005.

So, if you were really, really determined to get Wonkette to link to a blog post, what subject matter would give you the best chance for the link?

From the Lincoln Journal star:

Jeff Scheinost is a Republican, a supporter of President Bush, a military veteranwho served eight years in the Army after the Vietnam war.

Scheinost, the Budweiser distributor in Scottsbluff, said people in the area do not think the war was a mistake and they're glad Saddam Hussein is gone.

But they increasingly believe "the way we went about it was a mistake," Scheinost said. "We didn't have a plan and we didn't know what we were getting into."

People in western Nebraska remain very patriotic, he said.

"But they want to see our troops come home. We've had some soldiers killed from this area and that has hit home really hard.

"It's time for the Iraqi people to accept responsibility. If those people want to blow each other up because of their convictions and religious differences, that's up to them. It's time to bring our soldiers home."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Iraqi people have to accept responsibility. That's who has been most irresponsible, the Iraqi people. Not the American government. Not the War Republicans that run the current government, and their enabling Democrats in the Congress. Not the Americans that elected the Republicans that run the current American government. Not the Americans that RE-ELECTED the current American Government. No, they can't accept any responsibility - because when the troops come home they're going to try to conveniently forget that they had anything to do with this. The Iraqis WILL have to accept responsibility, because they're going to be in a huge freaking mess, courtesy of Bushfucks Incorporated.

Another conservative blogger.

It's time for us conservatives to face facts. George W. Bush has pissed away the conservative moment by pursuing a war of choice via policies that border on the criminally incompetent. We control the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and (more-or-less) the judiciary for one of the few times in my nearly 5 decades, but what have we really accomplished? Is government smaller? Have we hacked away at the nanny state? Are the unborn any more protected? Have we really set the stage for a durable conservative majority?

One of the biggest problems with letting a marketplace manage itself?

Hoarding.

North American sales of the drug oseltamivir have more than tripled in recent months, a trend public health experts see as evidence individuals are stockpiling the once little-used antiviral as a hedge against a possible flu pandemic.

With similar reports emerging in other countries as well, a leading advocate for pandemic preparedness is concerned public demand could soon outstrip the limited global supply.

And what happens when supply can't meet demand in that marketplace?

"We are on a collision course to panic," warns Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

"I think that what's going to happen is . . . that this drug - which has yet to really be demonstrated to have any clinical impact on H5N1 infection - is now going to become the 'I can't get product, therefore I must have it right away product.'

"The reality is going to come through that there is only so much available."

Some summers you can look back and call it "the summer of this" or the "summer of that".

For our little family, I think 2005 will be the "Summer of the Hampden Pool".

Earlier this summer I posted about the Hampden Township Pool:

" I have to say the local Hampden Township pool which is reasonably priced for residents ($90 for a family season pass), has great facilities for all ages, a water slide, and the best benefit of all - relatively empty by dinner time, which is when we like to pack a picnic and head on over. "

This summer we've probably been to the pool 25 times. It's just that easy for us and we all like the water and to swim. So, I figure that for $90, we've had 100 individual entries into the pool, and probably spent at a minimum 50 hours per person there this summer. It's rare to see directly a government service - admittedly, an optional rather than required service - be so cost-effective for the user.

You're going to be attacked for statements like this...

"We should start figuring out how we get out of there," Hagel said on "This Week" on ABC. "But with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East. I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur."

Hagel said "stay the course" is not a policy. "By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning," he said.

Hagel, who was among those who advocated sending two to three times as many troops to Iraq when the war began in March 2003, said a stronger military presence by the U.S. is not the solution today.

"We're past that stage now because now we are locked into a bogged-down problem not unsimilar, dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam," Hagel said. "The longer we stay, the more problems we're going to have."

The long knives will be out later this week, I'm sure.

A P.S. It's started. The goal - make Hagel seem like a backbencher and a nobody to real Republicans.

PowerLine: What exactly makes Chuck Hagel a "leading Republican senator"? Not seniority; he is a second-termer. Not any official responsibilities; Hagel is not a member of the Senate leadership, nor does he chair a Senate committee. Not legislative accomplishment or influence; Hagel has little noteworthy legislation to his name, and is more often an eccentric voice--e.g., in his call for reinstatement of the draft