The Next Hurrah

Announcing The Flu Wiki - Please Read; Come Visit

Just a Bump in the Beltway, The Next Hurrah and Effect Measure blogs announce the launch of a new experiment in collaborative problem solving in public health, The Flu Wiki at http://www.fluwikie.com/.

A Wiki is a form of collaborative software that allows anyone to edit (change) any page on the site using a standard web browser like Explorer, Firefox or Safari.The purpose of the Flu Wiki is to help local communities prepare for and perhaps cope with a possible influenza pandemic. This is a task previously ceded to local, state and national governmental public health agencies. Communications technology has now become sufficiently available to allow a new form of collaborative problem solving that harvests the rich fund of knowledge and experience that exists among those connected via the internet, allowing more talent to participate.

What the Flu Wiki is not:

It is not:

• a news filter
• a discussion board
• a place to promote commercial products
• a soap box
• a place to advance pet theories

There is nothing wrong with these things. Many of us have blogs that do some or all of them. The wiki is not a replacement or competition for any existing blog or site. We hope existing sites will continue to grow, flourish and generally continue to carry out the important functions they have already done so well.

Frist's Incompetence Makes the News

by emptywheel

The WaPo has discovered something we've been talking about for a while: Bill Frist is an idiot. Actually, they're a little more circumspect than that, asking simply if "Frist is up to the task of being President."

In true 21st Century hardhitting journalistic fashion, the WaPo carefully presents both sides of the Republican case. Presenting evidence that Frist is not up to the job of majority leader are two Republicans who bend over backward to compliment Frist while highlighting the problems he is having. There's Bill Dole, who explains "It's not easy being Senate majority leader." And there's Alan Simpson, who seems to suggest Frist is a lightweight--a smart one, but still a lightweight.

"I think he's very bright, but he had never been in hardball politics," said former senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), referring to Frist's comparatively swift and painless ascension to the leadership post in early 2003. "Politics is a contact sport."

There are some more strident critics (hey, who knew that Norm Orenstein is non-partisan?):

Some nonpartisan analysts see deeper shortcomings in the way Frist approaches difficult issues, such as judicial nominees and Bolton. He sometimes compounds his problems, they say, with ill-timed comments and actions that a cannier Senate leader might have avoided. "We still see a bumpy learning curve," said Norman J. Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Framing, Positioning... and Billy Graham

by DemFromCT

As a follow-up to Kagro's post about Republicans hiding their wingnuts, note how these well-known Dems are positioning themselves. I chose a lesser known source (a self-identified Christian-friendly outlet), but heard the same story on CBS radio:

According to the Associated Press, when Bill Clinton joined him on stage, Graham "quipping that the former president should become an evangelist and allow 'his wife to run the country.'"

Rev. Schenck has considered Billy Graham his role model for over 25 years. That's why the Capitol Hill minister traveled from Washington, DC, to New York City this weekend to witness what may be the ailing evangelist's last crusade. But after he saw the Clintons exploit the aging Graham, he couldn't bear to stay and hear him preach.

"I was stunned and appalled," said Schenck, who left the Flushing Meadows Park as Graham was still complimenting the Clintons.

"This was a deliberate, cunning, purely political move by the Clintons to divide the Evangelical vote and assure Hillary of a victory in '08," said Schenck, a minister with the Evangelical Church Alliance and a missionary to elected officials.

It was also a gathering of 80,000 in Flushing Meadow, NY to hear the Rev. Graham in his last crusade. Graham brought up the Clintons because they were guests who spoke yesterday, and when the mostly cheering conservative crowd was joined by some sprinkled booing, Graham stepped up to the defense of the Clintons with a warm series of words about them.

The Strange Case of Dr. Frist and Mr. Dobson

by Kagro X

Late Friday, we heard rumors about Bill Frist possibly reviving the nuclear option during this coming week. Much speculation ensued, of course. Why next week? And for what nomination? (Assuming it is a nomination, and not a sly joke about, say, the energy bill.)

Whether or not the next Supreme Court nomination battle begins this week, both sides are gearing up for a fight. Interestingly, though perhaps not surprisingly, the Republican side will fearture a battle within the battle: the fight to keep its kookier side under wraps. A struggle, that is, over whether the public face of the nomination fight will be that of Dr. Frist, or Mr. Dobson.

Short Takes - a TNH Open Thread

by RonK, Seattle

Nuggets from the slagheap. From Andy Mosher and Bassam Sebti in Baghdad, via WaPo:

Bending over and picking up an onion spattered with blood, he began to cry. "Every one of you in Karrada calls me Crazy Ali," he said to no one in particular. "But I would never do such a thing. I am better than you sane people. At least I do not hurt you."

From New Donkey Ed Kilgore, on Russell Shorto's profile of anti-gay activists in last Sunday NYT Magazine:

And that's why they can't compromise: they're out on a limb with their souls on the line, secular to the core but unable to see it.

In a case of ecumenism run amok, Bullmoose Marshall Wittmann covers the Wasichu front and

declares that he is Dr. Moose, Scholar of Advanced Talmudic Studies!

And NYT columnist David Brooks outdoes himself, arguing:

It's just wrong to seek withdrawal now ... [because?] ... we live in a democracy, where decisions are made by all.

To what majority does Brooks appeal when he invokes "democracy" contra the polls? It's

those serving in Iraq, and their families [who] voted to re-elect President Bush [and] seem to want to finish the job.

Oh, I see. Call me Crazy Ali ... but I would never do such a thing. How about you?

The War On Science: When Mob Rule Prevails

by DemFromCT

Whereas the Bush Administration does little to support science and much to undermine it, an atmosphere of know-nothingness naturally follows. One clear example of this is Intelligent Design; see previous posts on the Kansas embarrassment. But one example that is not so clear is the increasingly bitter debate about vaccines and autism.

Public health officials like Ms. Ehresmann, who herself has a son with autism, have been trying for years to convince parents like Ms. Rupp that there is no link between thimerosal - a mercury-containing preservative once used routinely in vaccines - and autism.

They have failed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Institute of Medicine, the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all largely dismissed the notion that thimerosal causes or contributes to autism. Five major studies have found no link.

Yet despite all evidence to the contrary, the number of parents who blame thimerosal for their children's autism has only increased. And in recent months, these parents have used their numbers, their passion and their organizing skills to become a potent national force. The issue has become one of the most fractious and divisive in pediatric medicine.

"This is like nothing I've ever seen before," Dr. Melinda Wharton, deputy director of the National Immunization Program, told a gathering of immunization officials in Washington in March. "It's an era where it appears that science isn't enough."

No question that the movement to ban thimoserol is gaining strength. But that doesn't mean it's rational:

Let's Talk Flu

by DemFrom CT

I haven't put up any flu diaries lately, but I haven't been idle. I've been working with the Reveres (editors of the public health blog Effect Measure) and Melanie Mattson (Just a Bump In The Beltway) to put together a flu wiki to act as a respository and also as an experiment in how-to for local communities and those with specific issues. I'm going to steal from Effect Measure:

Many readers of this site know what a wiki is. But probably many more don't. Here is one description, taken from the site that makes the software engine we plan to use (pmwiki):

WikiWikiWeb is an "open-editing" system where the emphasis is on the authoring and collaboration of documents rather than the simple browsing or viewing of them. The name "wiki" is based on the Hawaiian term "wiki wiki", meaning "quick" or "super-fast". The basic concept of a WikiWikiWeb (or "wiki") is that (almost) anyone can edit any page. While at first this sounds like a recipe for complete anarchy, the truth is that sites using this system have developed surprisingly complex and rich communities for online collaboration and communication. Yes, it's possible for someone to go and destroy everything on a page, but it doesn't seem to happen often. And, many systems (including this one) have built-in mechanisms to restore content that has been defaced or destroyed.

The point of the system is to simply make it as quick, easy and rewarding as possible to create or edit online content.

Using any standard Web browser, a person can edit (almost) any page on the system using relatively simple TextFormattingRules. [In fact it's] not even necessary to learn the Text Formatting Rules; others will often come in and reformat things for you. After all, anyone can edit!

Short Takes - a TNH Open Thread

By Meteor Blades

Environmentalism, it has been said by some progressives, is a damaged brand, in need of reframing, rejuvenation and realignment, with much hope for this being placed on the likes of Brian Schweitzer, the Democratic governor of Montana.

My old pal Patti Limerick, a MacArthur genius and author of one of the best books on the history of the West - The Legacy of Conquest – touched on this subject in her column in Wednesday’s New York Times:

Son of the Return of the Nuclear Option -- The Novakening

by TNH Staff

From a busy late-Friday email thread:

From: Trapper John
To: TNH
Subject: Novak -- nuclear?

Just caught the end of a Novak piece on Inside Politics in which it appeared he was reporting that Frist is going to bring back the nuclear option (he said "nuclear," and not "constitutional!") next week.  Que?????

From: Emptywheel

I've been saying for a while there is no way BushCO will use nukes for Bolton--it'd give too many people reason to balk, it'd deprive people like Sam Brownback of the ability to filibuster things like stem cells, and it'd make it a lot harder for them to try again with SCOTUS. But I could be wrong...

Not only that, but if they threw nukes for Bolton, I've got to imagine it'd make it harder for him to get 51 votes in favor of nomination.

From: Kagro X

He could be thinking of testing the deal -- or more accurately, just going through motions for the base -- on another judicial nomination.

If it's Bolton, the party's on!

From: DHinMI

This morning on Diane Rehm's news roundup, Kristol said the scuttlebut is that Rhenquist may not retire, but that O'Connor will announce retirement next week.  She's sold her house in DC, her husband's health is failing, and she hired 3 clerks but then never hired the fourth clerk she's alloted. That makes a showdown over a swing vote, especially on abortion, and a very different kettle of fish than replacing Rehnquist.

More below the fold!

Rove accuses Dems of shortchanging the military--then lies to shortchange our Veterans

by emptywheel

I'm in perfect agreement with calls to make Rove pay for his incendiary words. But I think we ought to focus our response using today's announcement that the VA is $1 billion short on healthcare funds to highlight the ways the GOP isn't supporting the troops. Focusing on VA shortfalls is going to fracture GOP unity a lot more quickly than calling on politicians (outside of the Atlantic seaboard area, at least) to denounce Rove's words, because GOP legislators already know they're vulnerable.

When I first heard of the problem from an NPR report, I thought the shortfall was just poor accounting--a failure to anticipate all the healthcare costs associated with the GWOT. Indeed, that's what the appointees at the VA would like you to think:

"We weren't on the mark from the actuarial model," Perlin testified. He said that the department has already had to use more than $300 million from a fund that had been expected to be carried over to the fiscal 2006 budget, and that as much as $600 million for planned capital spending will have to be shifted to pay for health care.

But the shortfall has all the trappings of Bush lying and mean-spiritedness.