This & That!

Breast Cancer – Pfizer researchers may have discovered a new drug that can stem the advancement of breast cancer. A recent clinical trial determined that the new drug reduced the median time before the cancer progressed or the patients died from 20.2 months to 10.2 months. Researchers remain guardedly optimistic as they pursue further testing.

If you dig through the recent 2015 budget proposed by the Republican Party you will discover that this is exactly the type of research that they want to cut in order to reduce the deficit. In their eyes the path toward fiscal responsibility cuts a large swath through social programs, Pell grants, student loans and research funding. All at the expense of increases in defense spending to pre-sequestration levels.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in this country. We have no cure.

We do have the largest military in the world. We spend more on defense than all the other nations combined. For example…we have 20 aircraft carriers…the rest of the world has 12. The largest air force in the world is maintained by the United States Air Force. The second largest is maintained by the United States Navy. We spend 10 times more on defense per capita than any other nation.

And what does it get us? Look at Iraq and Afghanistan and judge for yourself.

In the end we spend ten times more on blowing things up than we do on educating our children or seeking a cure for our most dreaded diseases. And yet we keep getting our asses kicked by third world countries.

Torture – The Senate Intelligence Committee has voted to release a previously classified 6,300 page report on the tactics used by the CIA after the 911 attacks. According to the Washington Post, the report details the controversial interrogation and detention program initiated by the Bush administration, and concludes that the US did in fact torture enemy detainees.

Members of the Bush administration, most notably former Vice President Cheney, have steadfastly maintained that the tactics used were not torture but “legal enhanced interrogation techniques.”

Kudos - To the more than two dozen students who walked out on Dick Cheney last week during his speech at American University. Some called Cheney a “war criminal” as they filed out of the building. Truer words were never spoken.

Cheney has spent the better part of the last decade trying to re-write history and secure his legacy. Hopefully this report will provide the answers the American people are seeking and bring Cheney’s fractured fairy tale to an end once and for all.