POLITICS - Views From the North West

Excerpts

"8 doctors in 9 months" from The Other Side, Central Washington State

Health care is tough for everyone everywhere in the United States. Though, one of the things that makes it tough for rural areas is the lack of doctors.

In Kittitas County, we have lost eight doctors over the last nine months. I’m guessing there aren’t a lot of doctors who go through medical school and decide the fastest way to pay off all those loans is to go into general practice in a small town.

I remember reading a book called “The Dance Of Legislation” back in college that talked about Sen. Warren Magnuson working a bill through the congress and the senate that gave incentives to doctors to move to small towns.

It looks like government (HEAVEN FORBID!) is bailing us out again by providing a grant to the Community Health Center of Yakima to fund a clinic in Ellensburg. It will start with two doctors on staff and work up to four.

This is exactly the kind of thing that flies in the face of the right wing nuts that think that government should ALWAYS get out of the way and let the private sector do it’s thing.

"Fear Mongering-induced Bigotry Strikes Again" by Darryl Holman, Hominid Views

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Ay-rab Mos-lums are hiding under your bed, in your car trunk, and boarding your airplanes. How dare they board our airplanes !

From the San Diego Union Tribune:

• Flight 590 was scheduled to depart at 11 p.m. for Chicago O’Hare International Airport but was rescheduled for Wednesday at 10:15 a.m. after some kind of dispute among customers started at the gate and continued onto the plane, said American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner.


• …televised reports claimed that the incident involved a group of six to seven Iraqi Americans and another passenger who was apparently uncomfortable that the men were speaking in Arabic.


• The jet left the gate at 11:14 p.m. but did not take off and instead returned at 11:26 p.m. after a traveler with a child elected to get off the plane….

And here’s the kicker. From ABC News:

• It turns out, the Iraqi men were in California to train Marines preparing for Iraq.

"Let the spin begin" by Ron Beasley, Middle Earth Journal

The New York Times knows that the Petraeus report will be phony numbers and spin. Well the pre-spin is well under way. First we have The Pentagon's Department of Corrective Thought and now the PhD General is at it himself.

Surge working: top US general

• THE US troop surge in Iraq has thrown al-Qa'ida off balance and produced a dramatic reduction in sectarian killings and a drop in roadside bombings.

Fortunately we don't have to rely on the General or the administration for the truth. Even the AP is shooting holes in the spin.

Iraq body count running at double pace

• BAGHDAD - This year's U.S. troop buildup has succeeded in bringing violence in Baghdad down from peak levels, but the death toll from sectarian attacks around the country is running nearly double the pace from a year ago.


• Some of the recent bloodshed appears the result of militant fighters drifting into parts of northern Iraq, where they have fled after U.S.-led offensives. Baghdad, however, still accounts for slightly more than half of all war-related killings — the same percentage as a year ago, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.


• The tallies and trends offer a sobering snapshot after an additional 30,000 U.S. troops began campaigns in February to regain control of the Baghdad area. It also highlights one of the major themes expected in next month's Iraq progress report to Congress: some military headway, but extremist factions are far from broken.


• In street-level terms, it means life for average Iraqis appears to be even more perilous and unpredictable.

Violence is down in Baghdad but As the AP reported earlier any security improvements in Baghdad may be more the result of increased control by Shiite militia than an increase in US presence. There is also the fact that most of the Sunnis have already been killed or driven out of Baghdad - the ethnic cleansing is complete.

And of course there is the great job Kevin Drum has done:

THE ANBAR AWAKENING

• ...but it's this passage that makes me want to bang my head against the wall:
  
  
  • The fact is that the surge is President Bush's policy, and one that he implemented over the vociferous opposition of Democrats who thought the best strategy against al Qaeda in Iraq was to begin to leave. Now the surge has helped turn Sunni tribes against al Qaeda, advancing the goal that nearly everyone in the U.S. notionally shares of routing the terror group from Iraq.
  
  
• Say it slowly: This. Is. A. Lie. The Sunni tribes began turning against AQI nearly a year ago. They did it on their own, not as part of any American military plan. They did it before the surge started. They did it before Gen. Petraeus was even a gleam in George Bush's eye.

Kevin also compared June/July, 06 with June/July, 07 and according to most of the metrics 07 was worse than 06.

All we will get from the Bush administration and their pet general is more spin and lies - it's starting already. As The Who said many years ago:

• Then I'll get on my knees and pray
  We don't get fooled again