Hope for the future

I must admit that I have never felt real confident about Kerry; I supported Gephardt in the initial primary. But last night, he certainly won me over entirely in the debate on foreign policy issues!

Aside from the fact that Bushie looked incompetent (which he is), Kerry asked so many of the difficult, painful questions I've wondered about since the beginning of the Iraq war. With each clearly stated question, I felt more and more confident in Kerry's ability to not only turn around the disaster that Iraq has become, but to restore America's shattered image in the world community.

I could run on for pages about how ridiculous Bush looked/acted, but if you saw the debate, I'm sure you know that already. Even if you are a die-hard Repub, and have half-a-brain, you couldn't have ignored Bush's inappropriate demeanor and lackluster performance (and that's putting it kindly).The ONE statement he kept repeating that annoyed and angered ME was, "It's a hard job," (referring to the Iraq fiasco). It damn sure is, but he's NOT the one doing the dirty, hard work: It's our soldiers on the ground over there, and NOT BUSH. I mean, how many vacations has Bush taken? How much time has he spent raising money for the Repub machine? How much time campaigning? And he has the NERVE to stand up there and almost complain that it's a hard job he has to do? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!

At any rate, I now do believe that Americans have a CHOICE in Kerry. IF we want change, we MUST vote for Kerry. Even the independents should get on board for this election, and they can worry later about having an independent party. Those independents would be enough to put Kerry ahead of Bush -- by a good-size margin.I do have hope again, but I still fear that the Repubs will come out from under their rocks and vote in droves. However, IF there is even the slightest hint/taint of Bush stealing this election, I fear there will be resulting violence here by some citizens. I even read one post today by a person who said that if Bush steals this election, we should use force to get him out of office! NO, I don't advocate that; but I think if ever there was a time that an election MUST BE FAIRLY HELD, FAIRLY REPORTED, FAIRLY COUNTED VOTES...this is IT.

I must also add that I'm disappointed in the media/press simply because ALL the difficult questions that Kerry asked Bush, the press/media reporters should have long ago demanded answers to. I don't know if it's just that the media/press have become a SINGULAR multi-mega-owned corporation and the reporters are all afraid of losing their jobs, or they lack backbone, conviction, whatever...or they fear attacking a Prez who has a war going...but they should be ASHAMED of themselves!!!

Well...while that was going on, it appears an unrelated article I found will not even get noticed so I'll post it here. It's about that brain wasting disease (from Mad Cow) and some interesting/alarming news that happened in an Atlanta hospital. Let me say that I think this run-around about this disease NOT being a case caused by Mad Cow is bunk. I actually think that there are some (if not many) undiagnosed cases of Mad Cow already, but since it's very difficult to diagnose often it is passed off as senility.

Here's the article:

Patients Told of Possible Disease Exposure

ATLANTA (AP) - More than 500 patients at Emory University Hospital have a remote chance of exposure to a fatal disease similar to mad cow after a brain surgery patient tested positive for the condition, officials said.

Although they called their risk of contracting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease "remote," officials are notifying 98 brain or spinal surgery patients who may have had contact with the surgical instruments that were used on the infected patient. They also are informing 418 non-neurosurgical patients who had operations Sept. 10-27, although they are at lower risk.

Officials said Thursday that the infected patient's Sept. 15 diagnosis still awaits definitive test results and that could take weeks. The patient entered the hospital Aug. 24 with memory problems and other neurological symptoms, and officials would not say if the patient was still alive.

"Although we believe the chances of an exposure are extremely small, we cannot guarantee they are zero," said Dr. Allan Levey, Emory's chairman of neurology. "That is why Emory is taking every possible step to deal with this matter."

Affected patients began receiving phone calls Thursday. Emory said there was nothing they could or should do in response to the notification, but said it would provide counseling for those who need it.

The concern involves the naturally occurring, or sporadic, form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - not the variant form caused by eating mad cow-infected meat. Sporadic CJD, which has no known cause, causes dementia, loss of muscle coordination and eventually death.

There have been four known cases worldwide of sporadic CJD spread by neurosurgical instruments - all occurring in Europe before 1976, when most hospitals began implementing new sterilization procedures, said Dr. Ermias Belay, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

However, Belay added that more cases may have occurred, but it's often difficult to trace the source of the disease, which can take more than seven years to show symptoms.

Emory officials said they routinely sterilize all surgical equipment and have implemented an even more thorough sterilization procedure since Sept. 15.