A recent study found that people living in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Vermont were the healthiest in the nation, while people in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana were the least healthy.
While every state has gotten healthier since 1990 when the survey started, the gains have been eroded by increasing levels of obesity, poverty, and a rise in the number of uninsured people.
I think the saddest statistic is that we experienced another rise in infant mortality rates, and are now only 28th in our level of infant mortality. A baby born in the U.S. has twice the chance of dying as one born in Japan or Sweden.
Keith Olbermann
is following up on allegations of fraud in Ohio. I’m still paying attention.
What exactly happened in Warren County? Why did they feel the need to close the count to any observers, when no other county did?
Was a peaceful solution possible?
On the day when thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces have entered Fallujah to kick some insurgent ass, Leah at Corrente takes note of an article in the Washington Post which reports on local Iraqi efforts to create a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Fallujah and elsewhere. She is rightly angered to find that the administration wanted no part of it.
Can anyone who isn’t a completely crazed neocon not understand that the offer described above has the makings of a major breakthrough, one that Bush & Co could even take credit for, deserved or not, one they could even use to justify their bloody air attacks on Fallujah as a “get tough” policy that is working. Thus, I read those first quoted paragraphs with increasing excitement. Nothing is more important than that the Sunni Iraqis participate in the January election, absolutely nothing. Without their participation, the election will be seen as an American/Shia election, not an Iraqi one.
Do I have to even tell you what the response of the Bush-league administration is thus far? Zero. Zed. Zilch. Nothin.
Election standards
The New York Times has an excellent editorial outlining ten things we can do to improve elections in this country. They include such obvious measures as allowing a holiday for voting, improving wait times, insuring audit capacities for all machines, and so on. Read the thing to get it all.
Nothing will come of it, I suspect, because not enough people in this country seem to care whether our elections are fair and transparent, and too many politicians stand to gain from the continuing ability to cheat.
Dollar falling, in spite of good employment news
When you run a large federal deficit, that means some one else is financing your spending. Just as when your household budget gets out of balance and you end up at the mercy of the credit card companies, when the nation carries debt we are the mercy of those who buy our bonds. China and other nations currently hold a huge amount of American debt, and when they stop buying, our economy is going to feel it.
Red states = welfare states?
Over at Angry Bear, the Angry Bear himself lays out the statistics which show that red states can’t support themselves very well. In fact, the blue states are the generous givers of money while the red states, mostly, suck it up. Isn’t it time we put an end to this welfare relationship?
Still relevant
President Eisenhower’s 1961 Farewell Address:
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
“An Election That Will Live in Infamy”
Even some conservatives realize that re-electing Bush was a disastrous move.
Generals critique the war
They think things look pretty bad.
Gen. Merrill “Tony” McPeak
Air Force chief of staff, 1990-94:
We have a force in Iraq that’s much too small to stabilize the situation.
Adm. Stansfield Turner
NATO Allied commander for Southern Europe, 1975-77; CIA director, 1977-81:
I think we are in a real mess.
Lt. Gen. William Odom
Director of the National Security Agency, 1985-88:
It’s a huge strategic disaster, and it will only get worse.
Read the whole thing, and weep.
Election irregularities, cont.
Here’s a good summary of the possible vote fraud in Ohio.