Day: January 19, 2007

Fox Poll: 68% of Republicans Say Bush Is Doing a Heckuva Job

Jon Ponder

The new Fox News poll (pdf) finds that 58 percent of Americans disapprove of Pres. George Bush’s job performance. Conversely, 35 percent of our fellow citizens still live under the delusion that the president is not incompetent.

Seven percent of Americans say they live in blissful ignorance about the president. They “don’t know” whether he’s doing a good job. (I’ll take a prescription to whatever they are on.)

As we’ve seen consistently in polling lately, Pres. Bush’s approval is artificially high becase of support from within his own party. A whopping 68 percent of Republicans approve of his performance. About a quarter of Gops have awakened to the reality that they have elected the Worst President Ever — twice. And 8 percent of party members “don’t know” what to think about the president’s peformance.

Virginia Considering Mandatory Vaccination of Young Girls Against Sexually Transmitted Disease

Buck Banks

Hot shots: Should a state force girls as young as 9 to take a three-phase vaccination that prevents infection from a sexually transmitted disease which could lead to cervical cancer, even if it’s recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which, by the way, advocates abstention as the best form of birth control)? Does this not sound plain wrong? According to the Virginia Pilot, it’s a question that the Virginia state legislature will have to answer, thanks to the lobbying efforts of — you guessed it — a drug company.

Hamilton said pharmaceutical company representatives approached him about submitting the bill, PROBABLY because he chairs the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions.

Del. Phillip Hamilton, R-Newport News, has introduced a bill that would add the human papillomavirus vaccine to the list of immunizations needed for school attendance, and if it passes, it would go into effect in time for the 2008 school year. But when was the last time you heard of a Republican proposing a health measure for the greater good? Right, Hamilton makes a weasel’s excuse for volunteering to sponsor the bill:

Hamilton said pharmaceutical company representatives approached him about submitting the bill, probably because he chairs the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions. Drug companies have been among the largest contributors to Hamilton’s election campaigns.

“Probably?” You bet, Phil. And keep cashing those checks, buddy.

While the vaccination is mandatory for school attendance, the bill does provide that parents can opt out on moral, religious or just creepy grounds, just because they feel a little queasy about vaccinating their 9-year-old against a sexually transmitted disease. Not to mention that the bill would seem to undermine Virginia’s Abstinence Education Initiative, which is run by the state health department.

Not to belittle the seriousness of cervical cancer, but there are apparently about 10,000 cases of it diagnosed in the United States every year, and about 3,700 women die of cervical cancer annually. And the papillomaviruses are so common (there are 100 strains) that 75 percent of all sexually active women will likely become infected at some point, and of those, only about 1 percent will develop cervical cancer.

To me, that does not indicate a pressing need to vaccinate milions of schoolgirls who may or may not engage in safe or unsafe sex.

But then, I don’t work for the pharmaceutical industry like Philip Hamilton does.

Ayatollah Rebukes Ahmadinejad Over Nuclear Sabre Rattling

Jon Ponder

The slapfight between Pres. George Bush and his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has resembled a pair of five-year-olds squabbling in a sandbox. Now it appears a grown-up, albeit a very scary one, has stepped in:

Iran’s outspoken president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appears to be under pressure from the highest authorities in Iran to end his involvement in its nuclear program, a sign that his political capital is declining as his country comes under increasing international pressure.

Just one month after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran to curb its nuclear program, two hard-line newspapers, including one owned by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the president to stay out of all matters nuclear.

In the hazy world of Iranian politics, such a public rebuke was seen as a sign that the supreme leader himself — who has final say on all matters of state — might no longer support the president as the public face of defiance to the West.

It is the first sign that Ahmadinejad has lost any degree of Ayatollah Khamenei’s confidence, a potentially damaging development for a president who has rallied his nation and defined his administration by declaring nuclear power Iran’s “inalienable right.”