Harry Smith of CBS News had a colonoscopy done live on his show this morning. Katie Couric, whose husband died of colorectal cancer, observed. She also had a colonoscopy done several years ago when she was on the Today show.

It’s important that we get this done to make sure anything that could become cancer is removed then. When I had mine done they found 3 polyps which were snipped off at the time. I felt a pinch, but apparently the anesthetic was wearing off since I had also had an endoscopy done before that.

What I see that’s different is that Harry was allowed to keep his dignity. I was turned over on my left side and the open part of the hospital gown was wide open.

The prep for a colonoscopy is not fun because you have to empty out the colon the night before the procedure, and you go to the bathroom a lot of times.

I encourage all people over 40 to get a colonoscopy done and then do the follow-up procedures when the doctor says you need to have it done again.

Here’s Harry’s colonoscopy:

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…I do not think it means what you think it means.

On March 4, Reuters’ Chrystia Freeland explained the administration’s rationale for its renewed health care offensive: “The reason … we have the moral authority to do this is Massachusetts was just an act of God,” she related. “We had that seat; we got profoundly unlucky. … This election wasn’t scheduled to happen normally, so we shouldn’t allow this to knock us off course.”

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Bill Whittle defines in quiet, concise words “why” The Declaration of Independence should be held dear by every American, no matter political persuasion, race or religion.

(Yes, a ten minute video seems long by today’s standards, but I promise you, this one is well worth watching.)

Just a few blocks away is Ford’s Theater, and across the street, the Peterson House where Abraham Lincoln spent his final eight hours of agony. To go from that dingy, cheap little flophouse and then to the marble temple at the far end of the Mall produces a profound reaction in the human heart. But nothing I saw affected me as did the Declaration of Independence. I expected to be filled with reverence and awe. Instead, I was overwhelmed with despair.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Last night Sue and I had a nice telephone conversation, discussing me eating lobster, our families and politics.

I suggested that we have as much experience as Obama and could do a better job running the country than many of the potential candidates if we have the right liaison to Congress.

Sue will run for president and I will be her running mate. In addition to being vice president I would also be Secretary of State since Joe Biden has already admitted the vice president doesn’t do anything.

We chose Sue to also be our Treasury Secretary because she can handle money very well, Sue’s husband to be the Secretary of Defense and my husband (because he likes to stay quiet and in the background) to be the faith-based initiative person.

We still need to work on other cabinet positions but we think we would have a great team. We decided to get Newt Gingrich to be our congressional liaison since he knows the ins and outs of congress and could advise us on how to get our programs passed.

My job as vice president and Secretary of State would take me to the Mid-East, where I would tell Israel we will give her whatever she wants and not to give in to the blackmail of the rest of the world. We would tell Ahmadinejad to give up his nukes in 24 hours or we will make Iran a parking lot. I would then tell Saudi Arabia to pound sand because we would have a Republican congress that would finally allow us to “drill, baby, drill!” Sarah Palin would be our energy secretary since she has had experience in dealing with energy and energy companies.

This is just the first week of our administration and already we will have achieved world peace and solved a huge domestic problem.

After that, we should be able to fix the economy and get companies to hire again, giving us full employment. By then our first 100 days would be finished and our job would be done.

We would definitely carry a big stick, but I doubt we would speak softly.

With the right advisers we could bring us back from this nightmare we are now experiencing. We both know how to pinch pennies since we had to when we were first married and still do now, although I tend to spend faster than Sue. That’s why she would be President and Treasury Secretary.

Our deficit would be reduced and any bill that includes even one piece of pork would be vetoed. Of course, we would expect her veto to be upheld.

And if we step out in public we will be dressed professionally and not like Obama who likes to wear the shirt and jacket sans tie.

Two grandmothers and a couple of grandfathers and we can turn this thing around. Are you willing to give us a chance? We won’t use any money to campaign. It will be a whisper campaign. No point in spending money that could go to help our debt on running for office.

Since INC is a teacher we would make her the Secretary of Education. Her husband can be the economic adviser since he has an accounting degree. Actually, all our husbands have accounting degrees so we would use all of them for double duty as our economic team.

Your ideas are welcome. Be sure to pay attention to the category I’ve used for this post.

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What do our government and Schlitz beer have in common?

Glenn (Instapundit) Reynolds, via the Washington Examiner:

Each incremental decline was imperceptible to consumers, but after a few years, people suddenly noticed that the beer was no good anymore. Sales collapsed, and a “Taste My Schlitz” campaign designed to lure beer drinkers back failed when the “improved” brew turned out not to be any better. A brand image that had been accumulated over decades was lost in a few years, and it has never recovered.

The federal government, alas, finds itself in much the same position. The political class sold its legitimacy off in drips and drabs. As “smart politics” has come over the past decades to mean not persuasion but the practice of legerdemain, the use of political deals, cover from a friendly press apparat and taking advantage of voters’ rational ignorance, the governing classes have managed to achieve things that would surely have failed had the people known what was going on.

Read more.

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It was a pleasure to watch Celtic Thunder on our local PBS network this past weekend.

Not only were their voices magnificent but their performance was surprisingly diversified as exhibited in the videos below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lots of fun and highly recommended for viewing!

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In my first post titled, The Health Care Vote: Smoke, Mirrors and Brass Tacks, I go over Jim Geraghty’s vote counting this week.  Jay Cost, in Counting the Heads of House Democrats / Updated 3-5, has gone over the list of the 37 Democrats who voted No on health care in the fall to trace any potential flips to Yes. He did another update late this afternoon in which he wrote:

Eric Massa’s planned resignation takes him off the list. There are now 37 Democrats who voted nay in November who will be Democrats when (if?) the next vote occurs. With the House vacancies being what they are now, Speaker Pelosi will need 216 votes to pass the bill.

He has taken the names and grouped them into three categories.  In his “Very Hard to Persuade” list he counts 24 House members.  The “Hard to Persuade” list has 7 names and the “Persuadable” list has 6.  Bart Gordon, who was mentioned by Jim Geraghty as the closest he has seen as a possible flip to Yes, is in Cost’s “Persuadable” group.

Next Cost lists goes over the list of 8 Democrats who voted Yes in the fall, but have indicated they may not vote Yes on the Senate bill.  One on this list is Bart Stupak.  Cost finishes by going over an additional 11 Democrats he considers to be “Stupak Democrats”.  That’s 19 who voted Yes who are possible/probable flips to No.  Jay Cost’s conclusion:

Bottom line: Democratic leaders have a tough road ahead.

I highly recommend reading Cost’s column and looking at his rationale in sorting the Representatives into the various groups.  He writes that he will continue to update, and I’m sure Geraghty will as well.

If all the names and numbers make your head spin, print out their columns and read carefully through them and compare lists.  Bookmark the pages and check those names against the continuing saga of spin brought to you by Obama, Pelosi and Reid.  Don’t let the froth and frenzy of the blogosphere cause panic.  We should be marked be resolve and determination.

It’s not over ’til it’s over, and it’s not over yet!

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H/T: Real Clear Politics.

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Maybe it’s the math teacher in me, but when I hear hype and hollering I want to know the facts.  Years of training of doing proofs and being taught not to advance to the next step without a sound logical reason, leave me always wanting to find the original source and reason behind the analysis or propaganda.  While politics and blogs feed on drama, the rumors and lies of smoke and mirrors should not cause panic or despair.

So, let’s get down to brass tacks with the health care votes. Jim Geraghty and Jay Cost have gotten down to some specifics of who is voting how.  In this post I’m going to look at what Jim Geraghty has written, and in Part II, I’ll summarize Jay Cost.

Jim Geraghty of The Campaign Spot has been doing an excellent job of keeping up with the yeas and nays of health care.  Earlier this week he wrote a column titled, Pelosi’s Suicide Squad, in which he surveyed the possibilities of nine Representatives who previously voted No on health care and who have been considered to be wavering.

Here are the six non-retiring members who previously followed their constituents by voting “no” but who now are apparently uninterested in continuing their service in Congress and are instead contemplating joining Pelosi’s Suicide Squad:

Rick Boucher of Virginia…
Suzanne Kosmas of Florida…
Frank Kratovil of Maryland…
Michael McMahon of New York…
Scott Murphy of New York…
Glenn Nye of Virginia…

He also mentioned the three retiring Democrats who might join Pelosi’s Suicide Squad:  Bart Gordon, John Tanner and Brian Baird. Of all nine, he placed only Baird in the near certain category.  In his blog he has continued to count noses and quote statements as he keeps tabs on the votes: here, here, here, here, here, here and here.  Yesterday he concluded:

There are quite a few Democrats who seem certain, or near-certain, to vote no without the Stupak language. Among then, Bart Stupak of Michigan, Dennis Cardoza of California, and Jim Oberstar of Minnesota.

Other Democrats have made comments that they’re not satisfied enough with the current legislation to vote for it, including Shelley Berkley of Nevada, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, and Michael Arcuri of New York. Then again, they might just have brothers who would like to be federal judges.

Meanwhile, none of the nine Democrats who were mentioned as potential members of Pelosi’s Suicide Squad have indicated they’re willing to switch from “no” to “yes.” Three have indicated, either publicly, to other members, or to constituents, they’ll be voting “no” again: Frank Kratovil of Maryland, Michael McMahon of New York, and John Tanner of Tennessee.

In short, at this moment, if every wavering Democrat votes yes, and all of the pro-life Democrats vote yes, the bill passes. If any one of them flips, and none of the previous “no” votes flip, it’s game over, the bill can’t pass the House.

Yesterday the Susan B. Anthony List released their poll results of eight Democrats who voted for the Stupak Amendment last fall.  Geraghty looks at the numbers. Beside each name I’ve placed in brackets if the Representative voted Yes or No on health care last fall.

They asked, “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote to re-elect Congressman/Congresswoman [name] this year if (s)he votes for healthcare legislation that includes federal government funding of abortion?”

The percentage who said less likely, in each district:

[Yes] Steve Driehaus, Ohio’s 1st district: 55 percent.
[Yes] Charlie Wilson, Ohio’s 6th district: 64 percent.
[Yes] Marcy Kaptur, Ohio’s 9th district: 47 percent.
[No] John Boccieri, Ohio’s 16th district: 62 percent.
[Yes] Brad Ellsworth, Indiana’s 8th district: 65 percent.
[Yes] Baron Hill, Indiana’s 9th district: 61 percent.
[No] Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania’s 4th district: 58 percent.
[Yes] Paul Kanjorski, Pennsylvania’s 11th district: 53 percent.

“Makes no difference” scored between 10 and 13 percent in every district; “more likely” ranged from 14 percent in Boccieri’s district to 24 percent in Kanjorski’s district.

Last time, Driehaus, Wilson, Kaptur, Ellsworth, and Kanjorski voted yes; Boccieri and Altimire voted no. Of course, last time the bill included the Stupak language, which restricted private insurers participating in the exchange from offering abortion coverage as part of their policies. There is little to no chance the legislation will include these limits this time around.

Of the five who voted Yes on the bill in the fall, three might be in serious trouble in the 2010 election if they don’t vote No now because of the abortion language in the Senate bill. Kaptor might survive a Yes, but from these numbers Kanjorski would have a harder time squeaking out a win.  I am unfamiliar with other demographics of the districts that also might come into play.

Today Geraghty writes that the closest he’s seen to a flip from no to yes has been in a statement by retiring Congressman Bart Gordon.  He also notes that  Eric Massa, who voted No last fall, will retire on Monday.

In my next post, I’ll summarize Jay Cost’s vote count on health care.

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H/T: Wikipedia, NRO, The Campaign Spot, Susan B. Anthony List.

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Full body scanning machines are being deployed to all American airports now because of the latest bombing attempt on the flight to Detroit.

I have seen photos of the full body scans and it is quite easy to pick out the body parts of the people in the scans. Supposedly the scans are destroyed and no one else can see them later, but it’s the idea of being figuratively stripped naked in front of strangers that turns me off to the idea.

Every time I fly anywhere I seem to be the lucky one chosen to be taken aside to remove my shoes and be checked by hand up and down my person. Because I obviously fit the description of a terrorist (almost all gray hair, old, short, grandmother) I most probably would be chosen to have a full body scan and everyone would be able to see all my sags. As you get older things drop on the body.

I was raised to be modest about my body, and unless it is a family emergency I doubt I will voluntarily fly commercial any longer. It may take longer to drive to my destination and my bones may ache a bit more, but at least I’ll be able to take a full bottle of shampoo with me and a bottle of water or other beverage (soft and diet please) if I care to do so.

Seriously, we really don’t know who might or might not be a terrorist, and just because I look like and am a senior citizen does not mean I or someone who fits my profile could not be a terrorist. I understand the rational behind the idea, but I am not willing to strip in front of complete strangers, and outside of doing that this is the closest thing. Then there’s the problem of my husband having trouble with his left arm and he’s not able to raise it fully. He’ll see the doctor today and will discuss that problem with him and hopefully get rehab done to fix that problem.

When I had therapy for that one of the exercises was to take a cloth and do circles on a door. Maybe I can get him to wash and clean all the interior and exterior doors as therapy.

I will be traveling by car in the future. I can take more luggage without the extra fee, take what I want and even take our dogs with us if we decide to do that. Heck, if I decide to light up a cigar I can do that without people acting as though I’m a criminal. Not that I smoke cigars.

But, sooner or later, my husband and I will be too old to drive long distances and will be forced to strip in front of body scanners or stay closer to home.

Younger relatives, come see me instead of me going to see you. If you don’t mind the body scanners I’ll even pay your airplane ticket.

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The comment section of this piece at The Strata-Sphere provided a link to this information:

Michele Bachmann asks “What in the world is going on in the White House?” and then proceeds call for an independent investigation into the White House for offering a judgeship to the brother of a member of Congress and then asking that member for their vote on health care.

Leaves one longing for a Republican administration when the press did their job, doesn’t it?

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