truesee's Blog

GOP says it'll block bills until tax cuts extended

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

Associated Press

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/12/01/national/w001045S54.DTL#ixzz16tgd0dOo

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/12/01/2010-12-01_oklahoma_women_ailene_brown_shmeco_thomas_accused_of_smuggling_stolen_goods_in_b.html

Love is blind: The man who lost his sight every time he had sex

Sara Nelson
Last updated at 1:58 PM on 29th November 2010

A man was forced to seek medical help after going temporarily blind every time he had sex.

The unnamed patient would lose his sight every time he climaxed during intercourse.

Bafflingly, the blindness would never occur while performing any other strenuous exercise, the NCBI ROFL blog claimed.

The original report, published by the Department of Ophthalmology at Glostrup Hospital, University of Copenhagen, revealed the cause of the condition to be vasoconstriction, where the muscle walls contract around a blood vessel, restricting the flow of blood.

Vasoconstriction is the same condition that causes erectile dysfunction.

Doctors had earlier speculated that an embolism was causing the man’s blindness.

The report said: ‘Hypothetical mechanisms of transient monocular visual loss in our patient include vasoconstriction or embolism in the arterial blood supply of the eye.

‘The repeated and completely transient nature of our patient's symptoms supports the fact that embolism was not involved.’

The patient was eventually treated using drugs to widen his blood vessels.

NCBI ROFL is a blog written by two PhD students in Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley.

It features scientific articles with humourous subjects from the PubMed medical database. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334060/Man-lost-sight-time-sex.html#ixzz16rlxweZm

Why Does Barack Obama Want to Cut the Salaries of Federal Employees?

President Obama is often blamed for not reaching out to Republicans. In truth, as Monday morning's announcement that Obama wants to cut the pay of all federal employees illustrates, he has the opposite problem. Obama frequently proposes essentially Republican policies, which makes it impossible for him to use those ideas to buy Republican votes for bipartisan legislation.

When legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions was being negotiated in the Senate Obama undermined the bargaining process by simply unilaterally opening up new areas for offshore oil drilling. Increased drilling was supposed to be one of the things Democrats gave to Republicans in a comprehensive energy reform bill as an inducement to vote for it. Republicans hardly applauded Obama for the move, and the average swing voter seems not to have given the Democrats any credit for it in the recent election. In fact, the BP oil spill turned the drilling decision into a potential liability for Democrats.

This was be a textbook lose-lose, and so is the federal employee pay cut. Just a few months ago Republicans were proposing the same thing, and Democrats, including even moderate deficit hawks like Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), were criticizing it. Democrats opposed to the idea of a two year pay freeze for federal employees, which is really a pay cut if there is any inflation, because it would be counter-productive to the economic recovery. If there is one thing that any economist from across the political spectrum will tell you it is that the government should currently be pumping money into the economy, rather than removing it. You can do that through a mix of immediate tax breaks for working families and infusions of investment in economically productive programs such as education and transportation infrastructure, as Democrats tend to favor, or you can do it less effectively through tax breaks for the wealthy as Republicans advocate. But the one thing you ought not to do is take money out of the economy. But that is precisely what this proposal would do, in the name of deficit reduction. How much deficit reduction? Not much, just an estimated $60 billion over 10 years, which is less than one-tenth of what the government will save if it allows the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans to expire.

The other reason many liberals are opposed to cutting pay for federal employees is that the argument for such a cut is based on the suspect premise that federal civil servants are highly paid. Many federal employees do indeed make more than the average American, but that's because of the type of work they do and their qualifications. Cabinet departments and law enforcement agencies are filled with lawyers, holders of advanced degrees, and other experts. Compared to the economy as a whole there are relatively few high school drop outs doing low-paid menial work for the federal government. So, in fact, it turns out that federal employees actually make less than private sector employees with comparable jobs. A report by the U.S. Office of Personnel Office for Fiscal Year 2011 found that federal employees' average 22.13 percent less (the disparity is bigger or smaller depending on where in the country). "In the context of the overall deficit problem Obama will get chump change from this policy and will only enlarge the degree to which Federal pay lags behind that of the private sector," says Lawrence Mishel, president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Even liberal economists who think some federal workers are overpaid say this approach -- punishing the underpaid and the overpaid, the effective and the ineffective, alike -- is bad policy. "There are undoubtedly federal workers who are overpaid. Why doesn't [Obama] find them and cut their pay?" says Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy Research. 

Nonetheless, if you are a liberal who is committed to deficit reduction then you would probably be wise to accept this relatively small sacrifice as part of a bipartisan deal to reduce the long term deficit and debt. Any such deal will require sacrfices from all quarters. But that makes it all the more confounding that Obama chose to hand Republicans this potential bargaining chip in exchange for nothing just two days before the President's Fiscal Commission makes its next announcement. It seems Obama is undermining the work of his commissioners and his allies in Congress by taking a chip that could be coupled with a similar measure that Republicans would only reluctantly support, such as eliminating a tax deduction or a reduction in military spending. "Why he would offer to do such a thing without getting something from the Republicans in return is mindboggling," says Mishel.

Other liberal economic wonks reacted with similar disgust, dismissing it as motivated by political triangulation rather than legitimate policy considerations. "It's a cheap stunt," James K. Galbraith of the University of Texas says, "It's depressing that this is being offered as policy, when it's nothing but a gesture -- and a dishonorable one."

Meanwhile the Republicans who Obama seeks to curry favor with were notably silent on the President's announcement. House Republican leaders John Boehner of Ohio and Eric Cantor of Virginia, who have been advocating this policy, did not issue the kind of statement that Obama did in support of the congressional Republicans' proposed earmark ban. Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky did not a return a request for comment from NEWSWEEK.

Conservative fiscal responsibility groups have not issued statements applauding Obama either but they readily praise his move when asked. Phil Kerpen, vice-president for policy at Americans for Prosperity calls it "a very small step in the right direction," and Adam Brandon, spokesman for Freedom Works agrees that it's "a great start."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on their motivations or strategic rationale. Ezra Klein suggests one possible policy justification: it's "a smart way to protect the federal workforce." Congressional Republicans have been signaling that they will go after the federal workforce as a place to find budget cuts. By heading them off preemptively and grabbing a share of the budgetary high-ground Obama may diminish the momentum for a more drastic move, such as cutting the federal workforce, which Boehner has advocated.

Politically, Brandon suggests that Obama may have been motivated by a recent widely circulated USA Today article which reported that the average federal employee's compensation package is twice that of the average American worker. Even though that is an apples to oranges comparison, it fed a growing public perception that civil servants have been lavished with unaffordable generosity. "Federal workers earning double their private counterparts," is, as Brandon notes, "a pretty <snip>ing headline if you’ve got the American people hurting and 10 percent unemployment." Unfortunately, this reaction won't do anything to solve those problems.

Vucci/AP;Kourkounis/GettySecretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) has a fan in Christine O'Donnell.

If one-time witch Christine O'Donnell could cast a spell, she'd make President Obama disappear and Hillary Clinton would be the Democrats' presidential candidate in 2012 against Sarah Palin.

The Tea Party darling and failed GOP Senate candidate told ABC's "Good Morning America” Tuesday that a possible Clinton run would tempt her to change her party registration for the primary to help oust the President.

"Right now anybody is better than Obama," O'Donnell said.

Of course, O'Donnell's allegiance remains with Republicans.

"I love everybody in the Republican side who's even considering throwing their hat in the ring, so I'd be happy with any candidate who gets the Republican nomination," she said.

Neither Hillary Clinton, the current Secretary of State, or Sarah Palin has officially announced plans to run for President in 2012.

O'Donnell made a splash this summer with her upset win in Delaware's GOP Senate primary. Her campaign, however, was dogged by TV clips of her from the 90s talking about her dabbling with witchcraft and belief that masturbation is a form of adultery.

O'Donnell suffered a double-digit thrashing on Election Day, losing to Democrat Chris Coons.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/11/30/2010-11-30_sarah_palin_versus_hillary_clinton_for_president_in_2012_christine_odonnells_dre.html#ixzz16o4dEwQq

Tea party speaker, banned by Archdiocese of Cincinnati, moves to new site

The Enquirer • November 29, 2010

Frantz Kebreau, a 43-year-old airline pilot and national director of an organization called the National Association for the Advancement of Conservative People of All Colors, will speak from 2 to 4 p.m. Dec. 11 in the Conference Center at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. The event is free and open to all.

Kebreau recently told The Enquirer his speech, "Stolen History: What the Left Does Not Want You to Know," is a culmination of research he did independently and uncovers the truth about racism and civil rights in America's history.

Kebreau's visit was organized by Cincinnati 9/12 Project, part of a national effort championed by Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck. Initially he had planned to speak at Purcell Marion High School, but the archdiocese nixed the event once learning the title and sponsorship.

Buffalo Bills' wide receiver Steve Johnson sent out a tweet seemingly blaming God for his five dropped passes in yesterday's game against the Steelers, including one that could have been the game-winning catch. Gary Hamilton reports.

LINK TO VIDEO

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7099859n

Rove: Palin tour in Iowa 'smart,' but she has to reach outside GOP ranks

Sometimes words fail

In the lab and on the screen, stuttering gets its close-up.

Jessica Pauline Ogilvie

Special to the Los Angeles Times

November 29, 2010

Robin Sullivan was 10 when she first began looking for information about her stutter. She'd had the speech disorder for as long as she could remember — one of her earliest memories is of lying on a table practicing breathing exercises.

She wasn't bullied or teased, she says; she just felt ignored. "I went to the library, and I read everything I could get my hands on," she says. "I was looking for that feeling of not being alone."

It took Sullivan, now in her early 40s, until high school to find the help that she needed. "Up until then I felt out of control, helpless," she says.

An estimated 3 million American adults have a stutter that didn't resolve in childhood, according to the nonprofit Stuttering Foundation of America. As kids, many dealt with the giggles of classmates and confusion of teachers; as adults, they often deal with uncertain glances and the impatience of strangers. They've long sought comfort from each other, sharing their experiences at conferences and advocacy groups. Now, with the release of "The King's Speech," a critically acclaimed movie starring Colin Firth as King George VI, the so-called stuttering prince, many hope that the public will begin to comprehend their struggles.

There's no cure for stuttering — "I have good speech days and bad speech days," Sullivan says — but researchers and experts have made strides in understanding the complicated disorder. They've found versions of genes linked to stuttering risk; they've found differences in the brains of stutterers too. Both may offer clues to the roots of the speech block and, maybe, point the way toward medical therapies one day.

Stuttering affects about 1% of the adult population worldwide, and four times as many men as women. The disorder is classified by disruptions that happen during speech; people who stutter may alternately repeat part of a word multiple times, or be unable to produce sound at all.

"It's like time stops for a moment," says Sullivan of her own stutter. Her lips and face tense up, and even as she hears conversations and activity continuing around her, for the brief minute that her mouth refuses to form words, she's on the outside of it all. "You feel stuck," she says. "Just plain stuck."

As children first learn to speak, stuttering isn't unusual: Nearly 5% of kids around the age of 3 or 4 have trouble with fluency. In four out of five of those children, stuttering resolves on its own. It's unclear what causes the remaining children to retain the disorder, but experts believe that the answer may lie in family history.

In fact, approximately 60% of people who stutter have family members with the disorder, according to the Stuttering Foundation of America. And in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February, government researchers uncovered the first genetic mutations that may be at the root of the problem for some. In a large family with a strong history of the disorder, mutations in one of three genes — known as NPTAB, GNPTG and NAGPA — were found in some affected participants.

Though it's progress, experts aren't sure how the three genes lead to stuttering, and the findings don't go far in explaining the disorder in the entire population.

"Mutations in these genes account for about 9%" of stuttering cases, estimates Dennis Drayna, a genetics researcher at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, who co-authored the study. To make things more complicated, not everyone with the gene will develop a stutter, he adds.

Researchers are also looking for neurological differences in people who stutter. They've found several.

Among people who stutter, a number of brain regions responsible for movement control (including movement associated with speech) are overactive in the right hemisphere. Experts believe that this is a result

of the right hemisphere making up for a defect in the left. (In people who speak fluently, the left hemisphere is the dominant one for language.)

Parts of the left hemisphere "never fully develop" in stutterers, suggests Dr. Gerald Maguire, director of the Kirkup Center for the Medical Treatment of Stuttering at UC Irvine. "So the right hemisphere begins to compensate."

The longer a person stutters, Maguire adds, the more the right hemisphere compensates and the stronger the brain imbalance grows.

Scientists also believe that key differences between stutterers and non-stutterers lie in parts of the brain that compose what's called the basal ganglia. These structures, located toward the center of the brain, together play a complex role in the smooth timing and initiation of movements. Recent research has confirmed that the severity of stuttering correlates with the level of activity in the basal ganglia — and that this activity improves after participants undergo speech therapy.

In a 2004 literature review, Swedish researcher Per A. Alm suggested that in people who stutter, the basal ganglia are probably dysfunctional in their ability to properly start, and rhythmically time, speech. His theory that stuttering is, at least in part, a timing issue is supported by the fact that singing, speaking with a metronome or speaking in unison with other people often helps to improve the fluency of people who stutter.

Researchers are also examining whether activity of a nerve-signaling chemical called dopamine, which is responsible for regulating the basal ganglia, might be dysfunctional in people who stutter. In a 2009 study of 112 people who stutter and 112 who don't, researchers in China found that stutterers were more likely to have a mutation in several genes that regulate dopamine.

It's not nervousness

Whatever the future may reveal about the physiological underpinnings of stuttering, there is one point on which experts agree: Stuttering is not an emotional disorder.

"The most common misconception about people who stutter is that it's a sign of nervousness. That's not true — people who have anxious personalities do not have a higher degree of stuttering," says speech language pathologist Phil Schneider, who has several offices in and around New York City.

And yet those who stutter deal with this "it's just nerves" misconception on a regular basis. "If I had a dime for every time I heard, 'Slow down, relax, take a deep breath, think before you speak,'" Sullivan says, "I'd be wealthy."

Although the disorder isn't caused by anxiety, it can be exacerbated by anxiety. And for many who stutter, the very act of speaking is anxiety-inducing. "You're always on the alert for sounds or words that might strangle you," Sullivan says. People who stutter therefore often develop specific fears: it may be speaking in front of crowds, it could be talking on the telephone. When speech-language pathologists begin treatment, Schneider says, one of the initial issues they address is often emotions associated with stuttering — giving people an opportunity to talk about their feelings.

From there, therapists help clients learn physical exercises to make their speech more fluent. The most widely used methods are ones that slow the speed of speech: prolonging the first sound or syllable of a word, pausing more frequently during speech, or easing gently into a word by starting with a humming noise.

"Stuttering is speed-sensitive," Schneider says. "The faster you go, the more likely you will have interruptions."

In treating children, parents are a key component. Specialists may recommend that parents set aside a few quiet minutes every day to talk to their child, model slow speaking and talk openly about the problem.

"What we try to emphasize with children and adolescents is the notion that what the child is saying is far more important than how he or she is saying it," said Tommie Robinson, president of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Assn.

Speech therapy may last anywhere from a few sessions to a lifetime. But the exercises are often difficult, and for that reason, Schneider often suggests practicing them for no more than a few minutes each day.

"To use the brain to think about speaking [instead of] what you want to say — it's like trying to walk backwards all day long," he says.

No medication is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat stuttering. But doctors occasionally prescribe drugs off-label that have been shown to help, including antipsychotic drugs such as risperidone and olanzapine, which affect brain levels of dopamine. And some people who stutter find relief from anti-anxiety medication.

Recently, experts had high hopes for a drug called Pagoclone, but it failed in a trial to meet the goals of its manufacturer, Endo Pharmaceuticals, and it's unclear whether further trials of the drug will take place.

As more is understood about the genetics and the brains of people who stutter, researchers hope that medication aimed directly at the disorder eventually will become available. "The basal ganglia [could be] the target of our medication," Maguire says. "If we fix the timer or initiator [of speech] then we can jump-start the whole system."

For now, Sullivan says, many who stutter find solace in meeting others who struggle with similar issues, and in knowing that there are resources available. She runs regular stuttering support groups in the San Fernando Valley area, to help others find the community she sought as a child.

"If one teenager, one kid, finds out they're not alone," she says, "I'll have come full circle."

'WARNING'

This story contains graphic photographs

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/smithsonian-christmas-season-exhibit-fea

Monday, November 29th 2010, 4:00 AM

Fuentes/APLeBron James (c.) and Dwyane Wade (r.) are not succeeding together in Miami because they are similar players and neither is a great shooter, says Pistons forward Tracy McGrady (below).

Yeater/AP

AUBURN HILLS - Tracy McGrady believes there is a fundamental problem with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

"When they're on the court together," McGrady says, "they're terrible."

McGrady isn't saying LeBron and Wade are terrible as individual players but rather that the chemistry between the two isn't good.

"Him and D-Wade don't complement each other," McGrady said. "They're somewhat the same type of players, 'Bron and D-Wade. If you look at Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, (Allen's a) traditional shooting guard. Ray Allen, he doesn't need the ball. And Paul Pierce is a small forward. You add Kevin Garnett ...

"(LeBron and Wade), they're not like that. Both of those guys need the ball and they don't shoot the ball like Ray Allen. That's why they're having trouble scoring in the halfcourt because they can't get a rhythm, because one of them is dominating the ball. That guy might be getting off, but the other guy (isn't).

"That's why when they're on the court together, they're terrible. They're rhythm players that need the ball. I'm like that. I can't stand out there and catch and shoot. I've never been a guy that sits out there waiting for the ball to come to me."

McGrady feels that if James had made up his mind to leave Cleveland he would have been better off in Chicago with Derrick Rose as his running mate.

"It was a better decision, a better place for him," said McGrady, who scored a season-high 13 points off the bench for the Pistons Sunday but was 0-for-3 after intermission. "You can't just go somewhere and have that type of chemistry he had in Cleveland."

McGrady appeared in 24 games for the Knicks last season and apparently the decision not to return to New York was mutual. McGrady never embraced Mike D'Antoni's system while the Knicks wanted to use McGrady's expiring salary to make a run at James.

"I told you that wasn't going to happen," McGrady said of the Knicks' failure to sign LeBron. "They obviously added an All-Star in Amar'e and a guy that I think will help them. (Raymond) Felton is a great addition for the team. Seems like he's playing with a lot more confidence than he did in Charlotte. I think they're capable of making the playoffs."

NOT BETTER LATE: Several Pistons players arrived at the arena less than 90 minutes prior to the 1:30 p.m. start. And on the television screen inside the Pistons locker room? A tape of the Knicks? No, it was ESPN's NFL pregame show.

WARNING

"EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!!!"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333848/US-doctors-battle-save-Baby-Klaus-head-expanded-TWICE-normal-size.html

Undocumented UCLA law grad is in a legal bind

Luis Perez, who in May became the first undocumented immigrant to graduate from UCLA School of law, came to L.A. from Mexico at the age of 8 and made getting a good education his top priority. But because he's not in the country legally, he may not be able to practice law even if he passes the bar. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

His family crossed the border illegally when he was an 8-year-old, but he has done everything right since then. Will his adopted country now do right by him?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101127/ap_on_re_us/us_portland_car_bomb_plot

Getty German woman fears her boyfriend may want her implants after she doesn't cough up dough.

BERLIN- A German woman who splurged on breast implants with a loan from her then boyfriend now fears her assets could be repossessed after she failed to fully reimburse him, the 20-year-old woman told Bild newspaper.

Her ex-boyfriend is demanding that she return the $5,865 he gave her to pay for her breast enlargement surgery in 2009 or he'll call the police and get the repossessors involved, Bild reported on Wednesday.

"It's true that Carsten signed a loan agreement shortly before the operation," the woman named only as Anastasia is quoted saying. "The condition was that I wouldn't have to pay him back if I stayed with him for a year."

But the pair split shortly after she underwent the plastic surgery. The woman said she had transferred nearly $4,000 into her ex-boyfriend's account last week.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2010/11/26/2010-11-26_german_woman_fears_boyfriend_may_take_her_fake_boobs_after_she_fails_to_repay_hi.html#ixzz16Tl7uXtO