Bush approval - disapproval

I love the Colbert Report and found this quote about President Bush's ratings to be funny . . . "So don‘t pay attention to the approval ratings that say that 68 percent of Americans disapprove of the job this man is doing. I ask you this, does that not also logically mean that 68 percent approve of the job he‘s not doing?"

the Opinion is News campaign

I found this in a response to an op-ed on Huffington Post Look for the Economic Lies From the GOP Debate column by Hale "Bondad" Stewart.

"Here's the trick, Rush-bot: you have to say it reeeeal fast on the radio, then don't take any rebuttals, and go to a quick commercial, like Rush did. When you write his crap down, someone can call you on it, and you, I'm sorry to say, (as a Cost Analyst for a Fortune 500 co) just look stupid."

Boy does that sum up the "opinion is news" Fox/Limbaugh talking heads. Ever notice how when someone calls in and asks a good question, the host simply makes a quick reply then goes ahead and talks about whatever he wants to on his high horse?

Nobel Prize for Medicine - stem cell research

The scientists created a technology to genetically engineer so-called ``knockout'' mice, animals missing a particular gene, the Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation said today in a statement.

Their discovery fuels the work of researchers who study the development of embryos, the genesis of diseases or the workings of cells. The technique is used to disable or weaken single genes, illuminating their roles in disease and aging, and has produced more than 500 mouse models of human disorders such as hypertension and cystic fibrosis, which may aid drug studies.

``This is staggering,'' Capecchi, 70, said in an interview. He called the 3 a.m. phone call from Sweden ``a huge surprise.''

Capecchi was born in Italy, where he was forced to wander the streets for four years after his mother was imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp. His mother found him after World War II and brought him to live with his aunt and uncle in the U.S. He completed his thesis work under James D. Watson, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine along with Francis Crick in 1962 for their work on the structure of DNA.

Now a human geneticist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Capecchi and Smithies, 82, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, showed how a mouse's genetic information can be permanently changed, creating animals that pass down their disease traits to their offspring.

Junkbond king Michael Milken says . . . .

``The most important asset and the largest asset category in the United States or any country is human capital,'' Milken said. ``The cure of cancer is worth $45 trillion to the U.S. economy. The elimination of heart disease as a cause of suffering and death is worth almost $50 trillion to the U.S. economy. The solution to those two problems far outweighs any other economic discussion which we could have today.''

what a great take on the resources of the US

Oil for Food

More than 2,200 companies paid almost $1.8 billion in bribes to the Iraqis to win contracts, according to a 2005 inquiry led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Eight people (in addtion to Oscar Wyatt, who just plead guilty and will forfeit $11 million plus go to jail for 2 years) have pleaded guilty or were convicted of charges stemming from the federal investigation.