Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States

Does the oath "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States" apply only to Democratic presidents? It appears that way. The last Republican president to be held accountable for his illegal actions was Richard Nixon. That was back in the days when the Republican party stood for accountablity and believed in enforcing laws. Barack Obama apparently believes in the philosophy of "let sleeping dogs lie". Obams says, look forward and not back, forget about investigating any possible illegal activities by G.W. Bush or those in his administration. In other words the rule of law does not matter.

Unfortunately, if Obama goes down this road, it means breaking his oath of office. Did G.W. Bush defend the Constitution when he unilaterally broke treaties by allowing torture or suspending Habeas Corpus or ignoring laws or portions of laws he did not like? In my humble opinion, Bush broke his oath of office and he broke the law.

Letting Bush get away with ignoring the rule of law means that Barack Obama has every right to act just as Bush has acted. I will complain just as loudly if Obama decides to go this route. However, Republicans have given up the right to complain if Obama acts as Bush has acted.

Cold Adirondack Morning

As you can see above, it was cold last night out at the Adirondack Regional Airport. Oddly, it's gotten even colder over the last hour or there was something wrong with the weather instruments. Other temperature readings around the area for 8:30 AM include -12.2 at Petrova Middle School, -15.3 at Hurley Ave. in Lake Placid, -22 at the Mt. VanHovenberg bobsled run, and -4 in Keene, NY.

Calling Out Joe the Plumber

Yes, Joe (or is it Sam) the Plumber is now a "war correspondent" for Pajamas Media. Joe concludes that the media should not be allowed to cover war. CNN's Rick Sanchez disagrees and attempts to explain to Joe the role of the media in a Democracy.

Magic to Save Obama

You can always count on the "holier than thou" to show up to save us. But maybe someone can explain how smearing oil on a door is going to help President Barack Obama lead our country. It's also nice to know that a few of our congressmen, like Rep. (Dr.) Paul Broun (R-GA), are equally adept at delivering a sermon as well as a political speech. Let us all pray that Obama "listens" to God.

Believe it or not

This is for Mike at Trudeau.

Review of the "Imperial Presidency"

You can find a 487-page report which reviews the Bush presidency and possible illegal activities here (pdf file). The report was prepared for Rep. John Conyers and it recommends that an independent panel determine if any laws were broken by G.W. Bush. Will Bush finally be held accountable for something? In my opinion, it is unlikely. If there is an independent investigation, I hope they also investigate why Democrats let Bush get away with so much.

Cimex lectularius BEDBUGS

The bedbug problem continues to plague New York City and no one seems to be doing anything about it. There are several excellent websites that discuss Cimex lectularius. One of the best websites concerning bedbugs I've found is by Extension Entomologist Michael F. Potter at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. Other websites include those of Dr. Stephen Kells at the University of Minnesota and Hardin M.D. at the University of Iowa.

Cambridge Soundworks Radio

We hardly ever listen to our 30 year old stereo system. The receiver is going and we no longer listen to tapes or records, although we listen to a lot of NCPR. So....I decided to invest in a stereo system that we would use. After a significant amount of research I decided on the Cambridge Soundworks Radio CD745i. This radio is significantly cheaper than a Bose Wave (I paid $250 before Christmas and it is now on sale for $199). So far I am very satisfied with the choice. It sounds as good a the Bose Wave I once heard, it comes with a nice little remote, it plays CD's and has an iPOD dock. Unfortunately it lacks controls for bass and treble not that it matters that much to me. The radio picks up 20 FM stations (counting the French Canadian stations) clearly. My old receiver only picked up very local stations. I'm playing a CD of African music (Amampondo) right now and it sounds great. So if you are looking for a nice, compact (but heavy) stereo radio/CD player, now is the time to purchase one from Cambridge Soundworks.

National Debt

I've added a National Debt clock to the right side of the blog. Who is responsible for most of the debt. One or two guesses would be sufficient for most people. The above image comes from zfacts.com. The vast majority of US debt comes from the party of low taxes, low spending and small government, primarily the 2 Bushes and St. Reagan.

I'm Still Here

Last semester pretty much drained me of all energy. But I'm beginning to recuperate. Spring semester should not be so bad as I will be teaching courses that I've taught before. I must admit that I really didn't have much interesting to say....or at least decided not to say what interested me, if that makes sense. But I will be making more regular posts starting Jan. 14th if not sooner.

One thing I do want to discuss is a book my daughter gave me for Christmas. It's Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything". This book is extremely readable and I could not put it down. In fact, I'm going to read it again. It should be required reading for everyone.

2008 in Review

NY Budget Hits Saranac Lake School District

Governor Patterson's proposed NY state budget appears to be hitting the Saranac Lake school district very hard. The governor's proposal would result in a decrease in State aid of almost one million dollars to the Saranac Lake school district.

"Like our Superintendent Gerry Goldman said, this amount of money is not going to be made up by curtailing field trips and turning off the lights," Kilroy said.

This is exactly right. Unfortunately, the hit could have been lessened if the school board had insisted on a higher health insurance contribution in the recently approved teachers contract.

In a concession to the district, employees' contributions toward their health plans have increased. A single plan will rise from $150 a year to $375. A family plan will increase from $250 to $750.

There is a concession for you....contributing 35-42 dollars a month for health insurance. That's a contribution of about 6-8% tops. Most employees I'm aware of are contributing far more than 15-20% for their healthcare. What if the employees has been asked to contribute 15-20%? How much savings would the District and taxpayers have seen then?

Yes, the hit from the State is a big one. Maybe even an unfair one. But demanding a larger contribution from district employees for their healthcare would lessened the hit dramatically.

Merry Christmas, Baby

Rove Advice to Obama

Advice to President-elect Obama from the turd blossom:

Less obvious is how to create a White House where forceful debate can take place. Plain speaking, straight talk, and dissent must be encouraged, with participants thoroughly prepared, ideas offered with deference for opposing views, and colleagues not subjected to self-serving leaks.

Too bad he didn't give the same advice to the current President.

Something GW Bush is Good At?

Dodging shoes! That was an excellent dodge - both times. I'm a bit surprised how long it took the secret service to react.

GOP - Party of Herbert Hoover

Looks like any auto bailout deal is dead thanks to three idealist republican senators: Corker, Shelby, and DeMint. These three guys wanted pay cuts for unionized auto workers to take place next year rather than in 2011 when their contract expires.

Featherbrain Jim DeMint has actually predicted "more" riots if an auto bailout deal is passed.

“We’re going to have riots. There are already people rioting because they’re losing their jobs when everybody else is being bailed out. The fairness of it becomes more and more evident as we go along. The auto companies may be hurting,” he said, but “there are very few companies that aren’t hurting and they’re going to hurt. We don’t have enough money to bail everyone out.”

I keep a pretty close eye on the news, but I must have missed those riots that have already occurred. By DeMint's logic, the more people that lose their jobs, the less likely it is that they will riot because they unfairly lost their job. That sums up republican logic.

So we can look forward to a huge downturn in the stock markets today thanks to three guys who think believe cutting wages is the answer to saving our economy. It's a mystery why the rest of the republican congress went along with this madness - even G.W. Bush was in favor of this bailout. Dick Cheny, for gods sake, said "if we don't do this we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever".

So, if we take the leaders of GM and Chrysler at their word, in a few weeks tens of thousands of auto workers and people who work for auto supply companies will be out of work. This should be great for the economy. But then again, republicans will have taught union members something about personal responsibility. I guess this is one way of busting unions and helping cut costs for big business.

It appears that only big finance companies and banks are worthy of being saved. Looks like Bush will need to use some of that $700 billion to save US automakers.

Illinois Scandal Will "Dog" Obama

Here is our liberal press:

President-elect Barack Obama hasn't even stepped into office and already a scandal — not of his own making — is threatening to dog him.

Obama isn't accused of anything. But the fact that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a fellow Democrat, has been charged with trying to sell Obama's now-vacant Senate post gives political opponents an opening to criticize him. A slew of questions remain. The investigation is still under way. And the ultimate impact on Obama is far from certain.

Yep, Obama isn't accused of anything. US Attorney Fitzgerald has stated as much. But our liberal press, who is in the pocket of Obama is going to dog Obama about the Blagojevich scandal. Afterall, Obama is from Illinois, so he must be in on the senate-seat selling scandal.

We can all hope that more of the liberal media goes bankrupt in the coming months.

Good-Bye George

We are only 12 hours away from only 40 days and 40 nights of the G.W. Bush presidency.

Tuesday's Big News - Almost

The big news yesterday, before Gov. Blog was arrested, was the report of the success of a new malaria vaccine.

The studies, published online Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine, were reported at a New Orleans meeting of tropical medicine researchers and were hailed as a significant breakthroughin the fight against one of the most intractable and deadly infectious diseases.

The paper, if you are interested in reading the actual results, is here.

Let's look at the headline of this report in FP Passport. The headline claims "New malaria vaccine more than 50 percent effective". Ok, so what does "effective" mean? Most vaccines that we get provide what is often called sterile immunity. They prevent occurence of a disease. For example, get vaccinated against the polio or measles virus and you most likely will never become infected with polio or measles.

This malaria vaccine does not provide sterile immunity. It is best described as an anti-disease vaccine. You still become infected, but with fewer parasite-infected red blood cells. This means you might suffer less severe symptoms of malaria. Also, a lower parasite burden may allow for a more effective immune response against the remaining parasites.

So why doesn't the new vaccine (it was actually designed in the late 1980's) provide sterile immunity? It's because of the malaria parasite's life cycle.



Parasites injected into the bloodstream of a host (you) rapidly penetrate liver cells - they become intracellular. The vaccine, RTS, S (with an adjuvant), specifically targets the mosquito-injected stage of the parasite called a sporozoite. The sporozoite is free in the blood for just minutes before they penetrate liver cells. So two types of immunity are necessary. Antibodies can bind to the sporozoites while they are free in the blood and prevent them from penetrating the liver. If no sporozoites reach the liver - you have no malaria and thus sterile immunity. The RTS, S vaccine obviously does not prevent sporozoites from penetrating the liver because vaccinated individuals.

Once the liver cells become infected, a type of immunity called "cell-mediated" immunity is required. Especially needed is a type of T lymphocyte that can kill parasite-infected cells - a CD8+ cytotoxic cell.



A single liver cell infected with a single malaria sporozoite results in hundreds to thousands of merozoite stages that burst out of the liver cell and infect red blood cells.



The RTS, S vaccine induces no immunity to these blood cell stages.

The paper actually reports that "clinical malaria" developed in 32 of 402 RTS, S vaccinated children compared with 66 of 407 children that did not receive the RTS, S vaccine. This is nothing to sneeze at. But how do the researchers define "clinical malaria"?

The primary end point was a clinical episode of malaria, defined as an axillary temperature of 37.5 (degrees C) or higher with a Plasmodium falciparum density or more than 2500 parasites per microliter. The presence of any faciparum parasitemia density with a temperature of 37.5 (degrees C) was a secondary end point.

50% effective means that about half of the vaccinated children did not show signs of a researcher defined "clinical malaria"

This is good for the children that were protected from a more severe case of malaria. This vaccine is likely to save the lives of many children. However, it's unlikely to have any significant effect on reducing the levels of malaria worldwide.

Right-Wing Bloviaters

The above video shows a bullying coward and a traitor bloviating about how the economy really isn't in too much difficulty. The liberal media is just making you think the economy is bad. Why would the liberal media do this? Well, it's to make Barack Obama look good. Are there words to describe these two disgusting creatures?