Veterans May Face Health Care Cuts in 2008

As Gomer always said "Surprise, surprise, surprise"

WASHINGTON - At least tens of thousands of veterans with non-critical medical issues could suffer delayed or even denied care in coming years to enable President Bush to meet his promise of cutting the deficit in half — if the White House is serious about its proposed budget.

After an increase for next year, the Bush budget would turn current trends on their head. Even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing by leaps and bounds, White House budget documents assume a cutback in 2008 and further cuts thereafter.

In fact, the proposed cuts are so draconian that it seems to some that the White House is simply making them up to make its long-term deficit figures look better. More realistic numbers, however, would raise doubts as to whether Bush can keep his promise to wrestle the deficit under control by the time he leaves office.

"Either the administration is proposing gutting VA health care over the next five years or it is not serious about its own budget," said Rep. Chet Edwards (news, bio, voting record) of Texas, top Democrat on the panel overseeing the VA's budget. "If the proposals aren't serious, then that would undermine the administration's argument that they intend to reduce the deficit in half over the next several years."

Reverse Evolution?

Strange affliction A hoax?

Iraq’s Prime Minister

partial to Chomsky
Why won’t Chomsky come to Iraq? he asks.
-Too funny!

ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message

50/50 chance of interpreting it correctly.

According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I've only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.

The researchers took 30 pairs of undergraduate students and gave each one a list of 20 statements about topics like campus food or the weather. Assuming either a serious or sarcastic tone, one member of each pair e-mailed the statements to his or her partner. The partners then guessed the intended tone and indicated how confident they were in their answers.

Those who sent the messages predicted that nearly 80 percent of the time their partners would correctly interpret the tone. In fact the recipients got it right just over 50 percent of the time.

"People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they 'hear' the tone they intend in their head as they write," Epley explains.

At the same time, those reading messages unconsciously interpret them based on their current mood, stereotypes and expectations. Despite this, the research subjects thought they accurately interpreted the messages nine out of 10 times.

The reason for this is egocentrism, or the difficulty some people have detaching themselves from their own perspective, says Epley. In other words, people aren't that good at imagining how a message might be understood from another person's perspective.

-Assertaining the tone of an e-amil is without a doubt a tricky business. The reader has no visual cues and to make matters worse often times email composers write "like they speak" adding to the complexity. Nevertheless, even educational psychology professors believe they are so skilled that they can interpret email tone wtihout a problem. The researchers in this study call it "egocentricism." This researcher calls is "assholism."

If You're Nervous and Hungover,

Do Not Go on Live TV Funny!

Insults to the Mahatma,

ignored by India

George W Bush's protocol handlers have notified South Block that the American President's deep belief in his born again faith precludes his visiting Mahatma Gandhi's Samadhi at New Delhi's Raj Ghat -- during his forthcoming visit to India.

When asked -- by reporters on a recent trip aboard Air Force One -- if he will be breaking a decades long tradition of foreign dignitaries visiting India paying respect to the Father of India, Mr Bush, as is his wont, was caught off guard and mumbled something about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ views cremation as a pagan practice.

Not visiting Mahatma Gandhi's Samadhi-Indeed! Well, I know I'm thoroughly insulted.

Take...

A second look

Japanese Cat Feeder

I'm all for breast feeding but this is even too far for me. OUCH!

Scott serviceman kills wife, self

in Edwardsville Yikes!

EDWARDSVILLE - A Scott Air Force Base serviceman apparently shot his wife and himself in front of their 9-year-old son early Monday morning.

Police said the female victim had been living with her mother for some time with her 9-year-old son, as her husband had been stationed overseas in Iraq. The couple had remained separated upon his return.

'Adversity can be good for you'

Interview with Boy George

VA Nurse Investigated for 'Sedition'

for Criticizing Bush. Interesting link sent to me by Jackie.

What happens when...

Johnny comes marching home, again. Again is the operative word. I've said this before but I'm going to say it over-Here come the next generation of men who will be coming home to become our next wave of homeless and mentally ill. Just wait until the head injured and amputee population soars and becomes visible in society. We will start hearing about Mcdonalds being shot up and post-men going postal once more. An even worse prediction is there will be a need for "Rambo the next generation" movies to come back.

An 18-day-old baby girl is in St. Louis Children's Hospital in critical condition and police have charged her father with two counts of aggravated battery. George W. Norris of 2561A Cumberland at Scott Air Force Base was charged Friday and was being held at the St. Clair County Jail with bail set at $500,000.

Norris, who works in the transportation division at Scott Air Force Base, returned from Iraq in late 2004, Eversman said.

Authentic Bush Ad

Great ideas back to back from the Republican party. Erick found this on michelle malkin's blog. It was a flash commercial. There were several other great ideas in the commercial but the 'stoppping wasting spending by contributing money' suggestion is a classic.

Sapir-Whorf

revisited

In each experimental trial of the present study, participants saw a ring of colored squares. All the squares were of exactly the same color, except for an “odd-man-out” of a different color. The odd-man-out appeared in either the right or the left half of the circle, and participants were asked to indicate which side of the circle the odd-man-out was on, by making a keyboard response. Critically, the color of this odd-man-out had either the same name as the other squares (e.g. a shade of “green”, while the others were all a different shade of “green”), or a different name (e.g. a shade of “blue”, while the others were all a shade of “green”). The researchers found that participants responded more quickly when the color of the odd-man-out had a different name than the color of the other squares — as if the linguistic difference had heightened the perceptual difference — but this only occurred if the odd-man-out was in the right half of the visual field, and not when it was in the left half. This was the predicted pattern.

RIP: tortilla chip tech pioneer Rebecca Webb Carranza

interesting story

Out of jail

into the army

You will have to watch a free day pass comercial before given access to this article. Frankly, I think it is just fine that the military is letting in people who have committed these minor offenses:

After his parents filed a domestic-abuse complaint against him in 2000, a recruit in Rhode Island was sentenced to one year of probation, ordered to have "no contact" with his parents, and required to undergo counseling and to pay court costs. Air National Guard rules say domestic violence convictions make recruits ineligible -- no exceptions granted. But the records show that the recruiter in this case brought the issue to an Air Guard staff judge advocate, who reviewed the file and determined that the offense did not "meet the domestic violence crime criteria." As a result of this waiver, the recruit was admitted to his state's Air Guard on May 3, 2005.

A recruit with DWI violations in June 2001 and April 2002 received a waiver to enter the Iowa Air National Guard on July 15, 2005. The waiver request from the Iowa Guard to the Pentagon declares that the recruit "realizes that he made the wrong decision to drink and drive."

Another recruit for the Rhode Island Air National Guard finished five years of probation in 2002 for breaking and entering, apparently into his girlfriend's house. A waiver got him into the Guard in June 2005.

A recruit convicted in January 2004 for possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and stolen license-plate tags got into the Hawaii Air National Guard with a waiver little more than a year later, on March 3, 2005.

What's the point in keeping them out?

Did JFK visit Belleville?

Local Urban Legend?
Did JFK kiss a bride in Belleville?

Q. I believe that John F. Kennedy visited Belleville during his run for the presidency, speaking from the steps of the old courthouse on Public Square. I seem to recall hearing somewhere that, while traveling to or from the square, Kennedy's motorcade stopped in front of St. Mary's Church on West Main Street. A wedding was taking place there, and Kennedy left his limousine to kiss the bride. Can you please verify whether this happened?

-- Dave A. of Belleville

A. JFK may have kissed a lot of babies during that memorable campaign in 1960, but I can tell you with almost absolute certainty that he did not plant a smooch on any blushing bride in Belleville.

I say "almost" because I can't find anyone who can tell me flatly that they know it didn't happen. But, like Ivory soap, it's a 99 and 44/100 percent likelihood that you've been told some obscure local urban legend that my sources have never heard.

For starters, JFK made his whirlwind tour of the state on Oct. 3 -- a Monday. Now there may be exceptions, but if people are going to tie the knot on Mondays, they do it in the county courthouse, not in fancy weddings in a Catholic church.

The timeline also works against your story. Because of heavy rain early that day, JFK left much later than planned from the Chase Hotel in St. Louis. By the time he made numerous appearances in Alton, Granite City, East St. Louis and other towns along the way, he was two hours behind schedule.

So, it would have been unbelievably serendipitous had he just happened to be passing by St. Mary's when a wedding was going on. And, the 20 cars and two press buses in the motorcade would have had to pull over and find parking as well, stealing many precious minutes.

As it was, he canceled a rest break so he could hit the Belleville square at 1 p.m. -- only 75 minutes late. From there, he went immediately to the old Augustine's restaurant for a brief lunch with area politicos before traveling on to Carbondale and Springfield.

"No, I would have known about it, because we'd have covered it," said News-Democrat photographer emeritus Bill DeMestri, who has been taking pictures of Belleville events almost since George Blair donated an acre of land for the Public Square.

"We never heard anything about it, and we would have heard about that. I'd take that with a grain of salt."

Father John Myler, the pastor of St. Mary's, says he knows of no such event at the church. And, while noting unexpected stops by Kennedy at a filling station and café to grab a soda, an account in the old East St. Louis Journal makes no mention of it, either.

Instead, JFK stayed on topic, blasting his opponent, Richard Nixon, for voting against public housing and health bills, while, in Alton, comparing the Communist menace to the evils of slavery a century earlier.

Interestingly, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was visiting New York the same day, calling for major changes in the United Nations. He complained that the New York weather was not as invigorating as Moscow's, but said he might stick around to watch a pro football game that weekend.

Too bad the Cincinnati Reds' season was over.

Not at all!

BELLEVILLE - The morning was rainy, the photographer was late, and the traffic was horrendous.

But those memories pale in comparison to the moment presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy kissed Carol Schlosser on her wedding day 46 years ago in Belleville.

"He had these bright green eyes," the Swansea woman said of her unexpected close encounter with the nation's soon-to-be 35th chief executive on Oct. 3, 1960.

"He must have been wearing green contacts. That's the only thing I can think of. They were really green-green. I don't think anybody could have that color eyes."

Her e-mail and subsequent phone call Monday set the record straight on the memorable event that occurred during Kennedy's one-day campaign sweep through Southern Illinois.

Based on information provided, an Answer Man column had concluded Monday that the smooch probably was an urban legend. But even without seeing The Associated Press photos in her wedding album, you only have to hear the emotion in her voice to know this was no hoax.

Her wedding day started on a frustrating note. It was a dreary, stormy morning, and her photographer missed taking pictures before the ceremony at St. Teresa's Church. A post-wedding celebration at the old Bismarck cafe did not improve her mood.

"My boss gave me a meal -- my wedding breakfast," said the former Carol Starms, who was 18 and working at the Bismarck when she married Robert Appel. "But I was upset because there was so much traffic. It was really hard to get to the restaurant."

As it turned out, fate was conspiring in the young bride's favor. After the meal, the couple had to drive to the old Academy of Notre Dame for the photos missed earlier. And, because of the bad weather and crowds, Kennedy was more than an hour behind schedule.

As a result, the newlyweds were at Schlosser's in-laws at 60th and West Main for still more photos when they heard sirens in the distance. Still dressed in their wedding finery, the couple saw the approaching motorcade and made their way onto the grassy median that once divided West Main Street.

The odd entourage in the middle of Main prompted Kennedy to make another unexpected campaign stop.

"He was very nice. He said, 'Where did you get married?'" said Schlosser, trying to mimic Kennedy's distinctive Bah-stonian accent. "After he shook hands with us, my husband said, 'Hey, Jack, you want to kiss the bride?' So, he picked me up and then they got the pictures. He was sitting on the back of the front seat, and he just leaned over.

"It was fun. The front of my dress got all kind of wet from the car. I wasn't happy about that, and I wasn't happy about the crowd, but other than that it was exciting."

Soon, she was receiving published pictures of her brush with celebrity from all over the country. One person even told her of seeing it tacked up in the White House amid a collection of campaign pictures.

"It's just too bad it didn't last," she said of the marriage, which ended in 1969.

Still, Schlosser, who works at Cedarleaf Photography and does senior outreach ministry for Faith Family Church, tells the story with fondness at least once a year, said her son, David Appel, a history teacher at Belleville East High School.

Appel shows off the photos himself each year when he lectures students about the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon race. And, this summer, Schlosser, 63, can start telling the story to a brand new generation when her first great-grandchild joins her family of five children and 10 grandchildren.

But the next Democratic presidential candidate shouldn't think that Kennedy's kiss changed her voting habits.

"I'm a staunch Republican girl," she said, "and my dad was a Republican and everybody was Republican."

See the amazing photo