Iraq, Iran, McCain and Dem Superdelegates

Monday April 7th 2008
The Los Angeles Times reported on several aspects of the Iraq war. In an article entitled Officials foresee no ebb in Iraq violence reporters describe the continuing hopeless intractability of The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld war. In another article in the same edition an American consultant describes a frustrating year in Baghdad trying to set up a development center. In the New York Times talks about the ways in which the recent confrontation with Sadr's militia has only added to the instability in Iraq. The Information Clearing House reports that the testimony of Gen. Patraeus and Iraqi Ambassador Crocker will be focused on indicting Iran as responsible for the instability in Iraq as a probable prelude to war with Iran. From all indications Bush, Cheney and their neocon followers will simply not give up on their plans to invade Iran. With the continuing failure of this war on the front pages of every major paper in the United States you would think that the Democratic candidates stand on extracting us from Iraq would be welcome news. Instead the mainstream media plasters John McCain's latest insinuation that leaving Iraq to settle it's own conflicts is somehow unpatriotic all over the front page. Thankfully Frank Rich in the Sunday NYTimes details the many ways that McCain's vision of Iraq is some kind of weird misinformed militaristic fantasy.
Also in the LA Times they talk about the what's in it for me aspect of the choices the Superdelegates have to make between Barack and Hillary. By the way the people who are Superdelegates are those who used to be called the Party Bosses who made decisions behind closed doors in smoke filled rooms. If you would like to see how the vote count of the Texas Super's are totally up take a look at Burnt Orange were so far Hillary Clinton has a very strong advantage. At Capital Annex Vince Liebowitz reviews the horrible state of health care in Texas as documented in the 2007 National Health Care Quality Report released by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. In Rockwall County we can effect these disappointing statistics in two ways: 1) by supporting the charity work of the fine folks at Helping Hands who have a charity health care center and 2) by getting our own check ups and screening tests like Pap smears, mammograms, Prostate exams, colorectal screening etc. It is a shame that so many of us put these life saving tests off for years sometimes. The earlier any disease is detected the better the chance of a cure. A good example is colonoscopy where a polyp which is pre-malignant can be easily removed and prevent cancer from developing. Stop behaving like you were still children afraid of a shot at the doctor's office. Yes, like most adult responsibilities, it is always inconvenient and occasionally uncomfortable but keep in mind that we are talking about your life, not jury duty. And yes, I will get off my doctor soap box for now.
Glenda Denton, the Rockwall County Elections Administrator told me today that the turnout for the run off in the Railroad Commissioner's race in early voting was dismal. As disappointing as that is I can understand why; there just wasn't much of a way to distinguish between the two candidates, given their meager budgets and lack of media coverage.