This just in:
When politicians run out of things to say (amazingly, this seems to happen) they start trashing the opposition. The smears have been expanding out of the whisper regime (...psst..his middle name is.. Hussein) to the overt crap.

It's just starting.

Was that the best picture they could find to end with of Huckabee and Bill Clinton?

That's beautiful.

In some deep circle of Hell, Lee Atwater must be pausing from his enterity of torment and suffering to muster at least a small smile.

:)

fibromyalgia, a disease for hypochondriac middle aged bitches who really just want painkillers to make their day more interesting. the two people i've met who claimed to have it, also claimed to have many more diseases, some real, some not.

the worst part about something like fibromyalgia is that the people who claim to suffer from it will shop doctors until one of them confirms the self diagnosis. it's pathetic!

It's notable that clemency, along with leniency and compassion, are among those Christian values that are forever being paid lip service by the right wing. Heaven forbid anyone should actually start ACTING on those values.

Congratulations, Obamatons, your efforts to "game" (pun intended) the system worked! Now your culinary workers can strong arm the caucus goers.

As someone who attended caucuses in churches and/or government facilities in 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002, I am appalled at the idea of caucuses in casinos. Not because there is anything wrong with casinos as entertainment, but precisely because the culinary workers are right there and will have disproportionate turnout compared to everyone else.

I look forward to the next Seattle OPA meeting being held at the Police Guild headquarters.

Change, change, change, hope, hope, hope!

Smearing your opposition is much easier than coming up with solutions to problems. I love that Hillary is basiclly asking Obama "Where's the Beef" but you know, I have yet to hear any policy ideas from Hillary either.... Just saying..

Conventional doctors are full of shit. They essentially know nothing about most things, but they'll pretend to be founts of wisdom. Several years ago they would have argued, incorrectly, that there's no link between inflammation and chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Their asses were soundly kicked on that one; how long until they're proved wrong on fibromyalgia as well?

From the Op/Ed page of the NYT today --

"Statistics gathered by New York City health officials show that new diagnoses of H.I.V. infection — the virus that causes AIDS — in gay men under age 30 rose 32 percent between 2001 and 2006. Among black and Hispanic men, the figure was 34 percent. Most troubling, the number of new diagnoses among the youngest men in the study, those between ages 13 and 19, doubled."

I was in love with obama...then last night I learned the nasty truth....he wants to scrap the constitution...specificly the 2nd admenment...this in conjuction with offering no real concrete assurences to restore civil libertys we already lost has me scrambeling for the bunker with a rifle in one hand and k rations in the other....democrates and republican...it's only a question of which part of the constitution you want to burn
where's billy richerdson when we really need him
why cant I not be spyed on, say what I want to my friendS without fear AND have the tools to resist if the pigs try to take my rights away
some of you would point to ron paul
but I like the idea of universal healthcare, labor rights and tighter controls on big busness

the choices always seem so bleak to people like us ("ex"-mike gravel supporters, so all 1 percent of us...) that usually come election day we'd rather either stay home and drink or get an absentee ballot and get really shit faced before we check any box

I had to do that the last time voteing for kerry...AND THERE WASINT EVEN A CHOICE IN THAT MATTER!!

@ 10, I heard Obama wants to force you to learn to spell correctly.

That video is GREAT!!! OMG!!! I nearly shit myself laughing!!! I wish Washington was a swing state. TV would be worth watching just for the nasty political ads!!

11# exactly...forced spell check in all web posts...oh my god he's the next stalin!

as for the video. It's a great way to appeal to the south carolina republican base....look at all those dark negro faces that arent safely behind bars thanks to hukabee....if huckabees elected a mexican speed freak will take your job and a negro crack dealer will fuck your wife and daughter....

republicans are so cute...like little timmy looking for black boogymen under the bed

Fibromyalgia is a real disease; and normal painkillers don't work on it, including narcotics--so it's not people looking for drugs. It's caused by an abnormal response of pain neurons, which is why Lyrica, which inhibits neuronal sensitivity, works. Lyrica doesn't cause a high.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070625095756.htm

Fibromyalgia is related to migraines, which are also related to overactivity of neurons. My husband has migraines and is also abnormally sensitive to pain; for instance, a tickle-touch is painful for him, rather than pleasant.

Note that when a doctor cannot discover what it wrong with someone, it's perfectly reasonable to find a new doctor who does have a clue. My husband had a problem with gallbladder inflammation that took going to about five doctors before it was properly diagnosed. Because he didn't have gallstones, no-one wanted to look at the gallbladder despite the fact that all the other symptoms matched a gallbladder problem. At one point he was, in fact, prescribed Lyrica for the pain; and it worked, which is how we know it doesn't give a high, just pain relief. If he hadn't doctor-shopped, looking for a reason for the constant pain, he'd still have an inflammed gallbladder giving him agony on a daily basis. It even looked normal to the surgeon who finally agreed to yank it; but the pathology came back with the finding of inflammation. Plus, the pain went away when the gallbladder did.

@6 - Sven, I see your point, but the locations have been known about for several months and were even approved by the people now suing.

The problem I have is with this:

"We believe that everyone has the ability to choose on their own, but normally we all try to stick together," said Jennifer Grote, 44, who works in food service at the Paris hotel-casino and will serve as a caucus captain on Election Day.

"You cannot divide union workers," added Leain Vashon, a bell captain at the Paris.

Any members who want to oppose their leadership and support another candidate will have to do so in front of their co-workers, wearing their casino-issued work clothes identifying themselves as members of the union.

While I do support Obama, I have a real problem with people being "encouraged" to vote for him because of their union membership. Does anyone else see a problem with this?

Mike of Renton@16:

Though I used to be a big caucus supporter, this "peer pressure" aspect of causes has always been an issue for me. MN has both a caucus and later a primary, and for MN races the pressure at the caucuses to support only "abiders"- people who promised not to run in the primary if they lost the caucus endorsement- was intense.

The main reason I'm not so hot on caucuses any more, though, is that the rise of the internet allows non-corporate dialog on candidates in a way that wasn't possible before, depriving caucuses of their raison d'etre. The SLOG can be thought of as one big town hall / caucus.

Balancing that against the "barrier to entry" for single parents and poor people, primaries now seem better to me.

@12 - Washington is a swing state.

But not this year. This is the Year of the Blue Tidal Wave, that make 2006 look like a tiny puddle.

The swing states this year are all Red states.

there is doctor shopping for something like gall bladder pain which has a definite biological cause and resolution, and there is doctor shopping for fibromyalgia which has no biological tests, etc etc.

i stand by my position that it is mostly hypochondriacs and histrionic personality disorder that have fibromyalgia.

even aspergers has more of a legit claim as a real disease, and that is one of the most self diagnosed "i'm special and this accounts for my inability to be social" disease ever.

@19,

Oh really? I didn't realize that you're a scientist or medical doctor. Let's see, you know two hysterical women who claim to have fibromyalgia just so they can get meds or special attention. OK then, genius, why is it that only women complain of this disease? Is there not a single man who likes taking prescription painkillers?

@19

Well, you see that the difficulty with that take is that we got told that there was no organic reason for the pain, that all the tests showed normal function for the gallbladder so it must be an irritated or overactive nerve. They sent us to a doctor who first used steroids on the nerves, then radiofrequencies to numb them (essentially you cook them with the heat generated). Naturally, these treatments didn't work; so we got sent to a chronic pain specialist, where boatloads of narcotics didn't work either. *It was unattributed pain for which no tests showed a cause, just like fibromyalgia.* It was only the fact that a test (HIDA) caused more intense pain during the contractions of the gallbladder and the fact that they're not particularly useful that persuaded the surgeon to take the chance on removal of the damned thing. And it took months of pain after the HIDA test to do the persuading, because the test is supposed to show blocked flow through the bile ducts due to small stones; and that part was normal, because there were no stones, just inflammation.

Can you see why I feel that just because the doctors can't find a reason, that doesn't mean there isn't one?