Dr. ooz is ozing us; or Dr. Oz is jamming us, so to speak.

Dr. ooz is ozing us; or Dr. Oz is jamming us, so to speak.
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The celebrity doctor Dr. Oz was called to testify yesterday before a US Senate committee on his promotion of weight loss products.
...
The good doctor admitted that the natural products he has promoted lack scientific evidence to support the contention that quick weight loss will be the result.

Why should this surprise us?

Our system is consumer capitalism; and many celebrities are corporate shills, making big bucks as part of the system.

It's also important to have a realistic perspective on our power structure; and the 1950ies analysis by C. Wright Mills, in The Power Elite still resonates.

Mills describes three levels of power in the US: the corporate elite which dominates; the politicos in Congress, the White House and active politicans at the state/local level comprises the 2nd level; and the bottom level is the mass public, the media, and the celebrities.

Dr. Oz is at the third low level; and we should be focusing on the top level power elite, the corporate/finance sector.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/17/dr-oz-congress_n_5504209.html

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Elite-Wright-Mills/dp/0195133544 

Iraq, Bush 2 and the blame game.

(IRBIL, Iraq — The stage was set Friday for a major sectarian confrontation in Iraq after the government and the country’s most powerful Shiite cleric implored civilians to take up arms against Sunni militants — a move that would partially plug the ranks of the decimated security forces with religiously motivated volunteers.

Those developments appeared directly at odds with the approach urged by President Obama in Washington, who appealed to the Iraqi government to find way...s to bridge the country’s sectarian divisions.

After an offensive this week by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) triggered a massive retreat by security forces in the north, the government turned to its citizenry for help, issuing a call for volunteers to join the battle. On Friday, that call was echoed in a message from Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, delivered at prayers in the southern city of Karbala, a Shiite holy city.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/volunteers-flock-to-defend-baghdad-as-insurgents-seize-more-iraqi-territory/2014/06/13/10d46f9c-f2c8-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html?hpid=z1

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The Grand Ayatollah Alial-Sistani has called for an Islamist Sunni caliphate of Iraq.

I am not a Muslim; and to have a religious leader call for a violent caliphate (whatever caliphate means) is grotesque.

Even in the Caltholic Church, the presiding Pope is generally ignored on faith issues that are antiquated and silly.

If the Pope, with over a billion Church followers, were to call for a violent crusade against various Christian sects, he would be laughed out of the Vatican.

The blind following of a call by a Muslim Ayatollah for violence is stupid. The majority of Shiites and Sunnis have only a shadow knowledge of why they oppose each other. Ask them, and most of the those fighting would throw up their hands, and say the divide happened centuries ago, and all we really are sure of is that Muslim females must wear the vials and remain in the house.

The Iraqi PM Maliki (sp.?) is a Shiite and is a non-democratic autocrat. His Shiite sect religious leaders are also forcing him to exclude Sunnis from real power in Baghdad.

Saddam Hussein was a bad guy; a ruthless dictator who kept the lid on the sectarian divisions.

Bush 2, Cheney, Rummy , William Kristol, and the neo-con coterie in Bush 2's circle were all wrong when they invaded Iraq. The current turmoil in Iraq is a case of the chickens coming home to roost.

The blame game will be strong, with the Congressional GOP blaming Obama

Clinton’s favorability rating has hit a six-year low, according to a new Fox News poll.)

 

(Clinton’s favorability rating has hit a six-year low, according to a new Fox News poll.)
*******************
HRC will not run for POTUS 2016.
In any case, no potential candidate will jump in until the Nov. mid-terms are completed.
Methinks the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, will oppose her mother running, arguing that the campaign will be very toxic, vicious, and exhausting.
The Clintons have lived in the White House; and all three likely call the WH and Capital buildings a giant political sinkhole.
The argument that HRC will break the glass ceiling if she becomes POTUS is historically mushy.
Woodrow Wilson's second wife, Edith, became the defacto (not constitutional) POTUS when WIlson was incapacitated by a severe stroke.
She kept all visitors away, including Cabinet members.
She controlled the paper flow, and actually made decisions on what her hubby should see and sign.
The GOP national committee has already compiled a negative notebook on HRC; a file that would be J. Edgar Hoover's wet dream.
There is a long history of HRC's public career; and possibly the most damaging would be her administrative style.
In 1993, Bill wanted a health care reform bill and gave HRC the charge to develop the plan.
She ignored Congress, worked secretly behind closed doors, and used the wonkish consultant Ira Magaziner to produce a convoluted, complex plan that put heavy emphasis on HMOs.
HRC had been captured by the HMO interests.
HRC opened the closed conference door; took the plan to Congress; and dropped it on the legislatures' desks. GOP Senate leader Bob Dole pronounced it DOA.
But more importantly, the 1994 mid-term election saw the GOP take control of the House, with the HRC health plan a major issue.
With the House victory, the then radical conservative firebrand Gingrich became Speaker.
The last six years of the Clinton presidency never recovered.

 

Amanda Knox and the new guilty verdict

Amanda Knox was found guilty in a do over by the second highest Italian court.

In the earlier RedBlue blog, I had a good go round on this case with others, particularly with a blogger who believed Knox was guilty.

I have not changed my position on this.
I understand the new guilty verdict was garnered without going into all the evidence from the previous trial.

Knox can appeal to the Italian appeals court, which can take months or years.
This court may simply affirm yesterday's guilty decision.

After that Knox could appeal to the European Court of Justice, which can overturn the guilty verdict.

In any case, Knox should never return to Italy.
And our State Dept. should deny Italy's request for extradition in the future.
Knox has been tried 3 times, and this latest do over would constitute a violation of US double jeopardy guidelines.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/30/amanda-knox-afraid-of-today-s-court-verdict.html

The buzz among the politico cognoscenti, and talking heads, is the current New York mag. interview with Hillary.

(..In the world of the Clintons, of course, what constitutes

ordinary


and everyday has never been either. So the question was inevitable:
Given who he is, and who she is, does Bill, among their guffaws over the
dogs and stupid movies, harangue her daily about running for president?
….To this, Hillary Rodham Clinton lets loose one of her loud, head-tilted-back laughs. “I don’t think even he
is, you know, focused on that right now,” she says. “Right now, we’re
trying to just have the best time we can have doin’ what we’re doin’.?”

There’s a weightlessness about Hillary Clinton these days.
She’s in midair, launched from the State Department toward … what? For
the first time since 1992, unencumbered by the demands of a national
political campaign or public office, she is saddled only with
expectations about what she’s going to do next. And she is clearly
enjoying it….”
http://nymag.com/news/features/hillary-clinton-2013-9/
***************

The buzz among the politico cognoscenti, and talking heads, is the current New York mag. interview with Hillary.

Her comments are being interpreted as being open to running for POTUS in 2106.

Sure, such comments make good fodder for our 24/7 news media.
But no ambiguous politico plans beyond the next electoral cycle..in this case, 2014.

Will 2016 be a good year for a Dem. POTUS candidate?
How will the stupid party, now morphed into the crazy party (GOP) evolve? Will it become embers in the tea party bonfire? or will it shed its’ extremism, and move toward the middle?

If Obama burns up, and is as unpopular as Bush 2 in 2008, the Dem. POTUS nomination will not be worth it.

And HIllary’s potential candidacy really depends on her, and Bill’s health, and other personal factors.

Should Hillary run, her polarizing role in Bill’s White House years; and her somewhat mediocre tenure as Sec. of State will be major issues.

 

(Iran's new president, Hasan Rouhani, is leadings the country's delegation at the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York.) **************

3. (Iran's new president, Hasan Rouhani, is leadings the country's delegation at the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York.)
   **************
   
   And that cuddly curmudgeon Newt Gingrich says the POTUS, any US Pres., should only meet with a head of state if there is an agreement to sign, or a treaty to ok. A extemporaneous meet-up would not meet that standard.
   
   Newt, the historian, surely recalls the JFK and Khrushchev meeting in Vienna in Summer 1961.
   There was little to originally agree to, except a possible Laos neutrality agreement.
   Otherwise, Kh. ranted to the young new POTUS , giving a long tirade on how communism would "bury" capitalism; and how he would sign a separate agreement with East Germany/East Berlin that would block the West from access to W. Berlin.
   
   After a day of the rambling tirade, JFK had to get a shot from Dr. Feelgood; a concoction of speed and vitamins.
   
   After two days, JFK put a hat on over his face, sat down, and told James Reston,NYT, how it was the worse two days of his life.
   
   Well, that wouldn't happen with Obama and Rouhani....different time, different personalities.
   
   So what would be wrong with meeting informally?
   It would not require a duel press meet after the meeting, but would signal a potential break threw in bringing Iran back into the international community.
   
   Iran is hurting, economically, with the hard-hitting sanctions.
   Rouhani, with the apparent concurrence of the Allotaha, seems to want a new beginning in relationships.
   
   Israel is opposed; and the Israeli lobby in DC is very influential.
   
   Is Rouhani lying in saying Iran does not want a nuke military weapon?
   
   Can Israel, alone, conduct a quick strike on Iran's nuke facilities, as it did in Syria a couple of years ago?
   
   It would not be the same walk in the park for Israel.
   
   Diplomacy is the path to follow; peace is the goal that is necessary.
   
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/iran-un-talks_n_3981107.html

   
   

    

Is there no sense of decency anywhere nowadays?

(MIAMI — Diana Nyad's 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida has generated positive publicity and adoration for the 64-year-old endurance athlete — along with skepticism from some members of the small community of marathon swimmers who are questioning whether she accomplished the feat honestly.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/diana-nyad-swim-cuba-florida-questioned-article-1.1449150#ixzz2eV4fxtoP)
**********

Is there no sense of decency anywhere nowadays?

Is the level of competition in sports at a level that a 64-yr. old lady can't get the plaudits she apparently deserves.

I don't hear that Cuban exiles in Miami are challenging her bona fides.

How many of these exiles would have gladly swam from Castro's Cuba to Miami, without jellyfish protection