Today, at an event celebrating the unveiling of his health care bill, I asked Reid what specifically he'd said to Nelson--along with Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA)--about reconciliation. His answer left no wiggle room: "I'm not using reconciliation," he said. link

Because there is no rational basis for denying benefits to the same-sex spouses of [Office of Federal Public Defender] employees while granting them to the opposite-sex spouses of FPD employees, I conclude that the application of DOMA to the [Federal Employee Health Benefits Act] so as to reach that result is unconstitutional.

President Barack Obama is "bowing down" to Republicans and corporate interests on health reform, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said Thursday.

Conyers, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a longtime advocate of single-payer healthcare, blasted the president for a perceived weakness in leadership on health reform.

"I'm getting tired of saving Obama's can in the White House," Conyers said on the liberal Bill Press radio show. "He only won by five votes in the House, and this bill wasn't even anything to write home about."

"The only way he could have got it through was that progressives held their nose. . . ." Conyers added.

Not sure how scoring in your league works but Peyton has scored for me, on average, about 50% of my opponent's total each week; he's the #1 overall scorer and an absolute beast! I wouldn't trade him for anything. Historically, Romo in December is not a pretty sight, the 'Boys of the last few years seem to think the season ends on Turkey day.

White Castle stuffing

November 18, 2009

MAKES 12 SERVINGS

4  tablespoons butter
1  large white onion, peeled and diced
1/2  head celery, diced
1  pound brown mushrooms, sliced
1/2  ounce fresh sage, chopped
1  tablespoon paprika
¼  teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
18  White Castle hamburgers (no pickles), chopped into 1-inch pieces, or 1 small loaf white bread, cubed and toasted
1  cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large saute pan, heat butter until foamy. Add onions and celery and cook until tender but still slightly crisp. Add mushrooms and some salt. Cook until mushrooms are brown and liquid is gone.
Add sage, paprika and nutmeg to the pan and cook until spices are fragrant.
Pour the mixture into a bowl and add diced White Castles; toss together. Put the stuffing in a baking dish and drizzle chicken stock over. Toss again and season to taste.
Bake for 20 minutes, uncovered, until the top is brown and crispy.
Jill and Chris Barron

Here's the nauseating video...certainly appears to be a very intentional handball.

Racism alleged in Wall Street Journal editorial on Butler

Nov. 19, 2009 5:26 p.m. | Madison -- A state senator, a former state Supreme Court justice and a Wisconsin lawyer accused the Wall Street Journal of racism Thursday for referring to an African American judicial nominee as "the White House Butler."  A Thursday editorial ripped President Barack Obama for appointing former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis B. Butler Jr. to the federal bench. The editorial, headlined "The White House Butler," took issue with the appointment because of Butler's rulings and because he was twice rejected by voters in statewide elections.

Madison attorney Jon Axelrod asked the paper for a retraction and apology.  "Not only do I strongly disagree with the contents of the editorial as deliberately misleading, but it is totally inappropriate to demean Judge Butler because of his race by comparing him to a butler, an occupation unfortunately stereotyped as predominantly African American," Axelrod wrote the paper. "You owe this distinguished Wisconsin jurist an immediate retraction tomorrow as well as an apology. . . ."

An appreciation from Bloomberg.

Her credentials here

The abstract for her article is pasted below.  If you have access (as I do) to a university that subscribes to the JAMA, you can see her full article through PubMed.  I checked my non-academic library access to PubMed, and it appears they get articles that are at least 6 months old, so possibly in another 4 months, you can see this article through your library. (Unfortunately, if I shared the full article, I'd go to jail for copyright violation.  Anyway)

Rethinking screening for breast cancer and prostate cancer.
Esserman L, Shieh Y, Thompson I.

Department of Surgery and Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA. laura.esserman@ucsfmedctr.org

After 20 years of screening for breast and prostate cancer, several observations can be made. First, the incidence of these cancers increased after the introduction of screening but has never returned to prescreening levels. Second, the increase in the relative fraction of early stage cancers has increased. Third, the incidence of regional cancers has not decreased at a commensurate rate. One possible explanation is that screening may be increasing the burden of low-risk cancers without significantly reducing the burden of more aggressively growing cancers and therefore not resulting in the anticipated reduction in cancer mortality. To reduce morbidity and mortality from prostate cancer and breast cancer, new approaches for screening, early detection, and prevention for both diseases should be considered.