Blog Spotlight: Rebecca's Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude

It's always hard to pick one blog entry from the community to spotlight. This entry from Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude was decided on because Rebecca's addressing polio and Matthew Miller who's a guest op-ed writer at The Times for three more weeks.

Rebecca: I can't believe how outside of The Times, the media doesn't seem too concerned about the polio outbreaks. In this day and age it just shocks me that something we can treat isn't something we're all that bothered by. I noted in my first thing on polio that we spend less than twenty million a year on this, our country. It's hard to believe we couldn't be doing more.

polio and matthew miller both appear here to stay and we are the worse for it

online the new york times delivers this headline "Polio Outbreak Grows in Yemen, Indonesia."

Six million doses of vaccine are on their way to Yemen for a second round of immunizations and a vaccination campaign is under way in Indonesia, but experts expect several more polio cases to emerge before the outbreaks are contained.
''The more countries that are free of the disease, the greater the risk is that we will have sporadic outbreaks,'' said Oliver Rosenbauer, spokesman for the WHO's polio eradication program.
This happens because polio immunization campaigns often stop once the disease has been beaten. That leaves babies vulnerable to infections brought into the country.

i blogged about polio on monday and hadn't thought i'd have to address the topic again this week. but the outbreak grows.

i wonder at what point we see it, as a nation, as something that happens to 'them' but something that is happening to us. 'they' are us. but maybe we won't care unless or until it crosses our borders?

until then we, as a nation, can just cluck and put it off as something that happens over 'there.'

maybe so because talking about it might cause 'unrealistic' views of what is happening. some sort of bullshit is john tierney's justification for asking the media to not report on violence in iraq.

can some 1 just tell him to pack it in? has any journalist ever so publicly acted the fool?

there is abdicating your profession and then there is pleading others to do the same. c.i. has some comments about matthew miller at the common ills via an excerpt from bob somerby's the daily howler. as he so often is, somerby is on the money. but c.i. raises another issue and it's worth raising. matthew miller (a neo-liberal) is a temp columnist for the new york times for 4 weeks. whose shoes is miller filling? if i asked 'whose pumps?' would it be more obvious?

no, not thomas friedman! leave betty's 'husband' alone for now. matthew miller is filling in for maureen dowd.

mo do is the only woman of the columnists. bob herbert's the only person of color. when 1 of them takes a vacation, the times should make a point to be representative and not bring on another white man. and does the op-ed pages really need another neoliberal? aren't thommy friedman and kicky nicky k more than enough?

for 4 weeks, the new york times will provide 2 daily op-eds from 'columnists.' regular 1s which includes office temp matty miller. and for 4 weeks, not 1 woman will be allowed to make a continuous argument. a woman may pop up as a guest. as a 1 day thing. but there will be no larger view because the times seems to think that it's more important to have more of the same.that's really sad.

and matty miller is a 'triangulator.' he's also a hawk for war. since dowd was skeptical of the war you can note that as well. he's not a woman, he's not some 1 who was opposed to the invasion of iraq. what he is is more of the same crap this country, and the democratic party, have suffered under for more than long enough.

today matty miller attempted to provide cover for dems who want to sell our social security system down the river. who knows what other damage he'll do in the coming weeks?