Thanks again for all of your comments. The debate was great and I look forward to more in the future.

In the meantime, you can always find me over at Donklephant.

Goodbye for now!

Heh.

In other news, there’s no guarantee that the relief wells BP is drilling will stop the oil spill.

Ugh.

In what can only be considered a miracle of modern science, patients receiving stem cell treatments have had their sight restored after being blind in one eye for a number of years.

More from KansasCity.com:

In the study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took a small number of stem cells from a patient’s healthy eye, multiplied them in the lab and placed them into the burned eye, where they were able to grow new corneal tissue to replace what had been damaged. Since the stem cells are from their own bodies, the patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs. [...]

Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells – a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.

The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.

“This is a roaring success,” said ophthalmologist Dr. Ivan Schwab of the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the study – the longest and largest of its kind.

Obviously, this is fantastic story not only for those who had their sight restored but also for everybody else who face these circumstances in the future.

Unfortunately, when you search on Google for stem cell treatments we’re reminded that this type of therapy is only available outside of the US and Canada and is not covered by our current insurance system.

Your thoughts?

The first comes from Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle. I think many of us have seen the apology ads from BP and I think we’ve all questioned the spend on these ads vs. putting that money into the clean up effort…

#10

Copyright © 2010 Creators Syndicate

Next up, from Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, concerns our personal responsibility when it comes to the business of fossil fuels. Yes, we can complain about what’s happening in the Gulf, but are we contributing to the solution or the problem?

#9

Copyright © 2010 Creators Syndicate

And here’s another from Luckovich talking about the costs as a whole…

#8

Copyright © 2010 Creators Syndicate

Sack from the Star Tribune investigates the different types of costs that this tragedy has inflicted on the nation, the local community and the wildlife…

#7

Copyright © 2010 Creators Syndicate

Breen from the San Diego Tribune explores how this all came about…

#6

Copyright © 2010 Creators Syndicate

Steve Benson from the Arizona Republic aims his gaze on Rush Limbaugh’s poliically charged statements on the oil spill, which I talked about recently here….

#5

Copyright © 2010 Creators Syndicate

Darkow from the Columbia Daily Tribune provides a powerful metaphor for addition to oil…

#4

Copyright © 2010 Cagle Cartoons

Mike Keefe from The Denver Post presents a spot on perspective about how the Gulf waters are oil rich enough to pump directly into our gas tanks…

#3

Copyright © 2010 Cagle Cartoons

Matson from Roll Call examines BP’s response (or lack thereof) in being able to fix their own mistake…

#2

Copyright © 2010 Matson

And the last, again from Darkow from the Columbia Daily Tribune, juxtaposes the unfortunate statement by BP CEO Tony Hayward vs. the people who lost their lives on the rig that exploded. May they rest in peace.

#1

Copyright © 2010 Cagle Cartoons

So those are mine. What are your favorites?

Please provide links in the comments.

In early 2011, just half a year away, we’ll be seeing the GOP presidential hopefuls start to jockey for the top spot in earnest. And they’ll be bolstered by Republican gains in the midterms, as well as the perception that the Tea Party movement can turn out the vote come 2012.

What else will bolster them?

Polls like these…

PRINCETON, NJ — U.S. registered voters remain split on whether President Obama deserves to be re-elected in 2012, with 46% saying he does and 51% saying he does not — little changed from earlier this year.

The most recent Obama re-elect measure is similar to the president’s basic job approval rating among all Americans, which was 50% in the June 11-13 USA Today/Gallup poll and 48% in Gallup Daily tracking for the same period.

Here are the numbers…

And here’s how that shakes out when looking at party affiliation…

Still, this doesn’t mean that Obama will lose the election…

However, history shows that much can change in the years prior to a presidential election. Gallup surveys in late April/early May 2002 found 69% of registered voters saying President George W. Bush deserved re-election. This was at a time when Bush’s job approval rating was 77%, reflecting the rally effect that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. By October 2004, just before the election, Bush’s approval had fallen into the 50% range and his “deserves re-election” percentage had dropped to 50%. Bush ended up receiving 51% of the popular vote to John Kerry’s 48%.

Ultimately, I think 2012 will come down to the economy and whether or not Americans will trust Repubs or Dems more.

More as it develops…

(Photo: Reuters via Daylife)

Until now, the Afghanistan economy has been driven in large part by the poppy crop…which yields such world-wide fan favorites as opium, heroin and a host of other illicit substances.

But now…things may be changing for the better.

US interests have identified over $1 trillion in natural resources and it could mean significant positive change for this war torn region.

From NY Times:

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

But, of course, one wonders what the Taliban will do?

Here’s more…

The corruption that is already rampant in the Karzai government could also be amplified by the new wealth, particularly if a handful of well-connected oligarchs, some with personal ties to the president, gain control of the resources. Just last year, Afghanistan’s minister of mines was accused by American officials of accepting a $30 million bribe to award China the rights to develop its copper mine. The minister has since been replaced.

Endless fights could erupt between the central government in Kabul and provincial and tribal leaders in mineral-rich districts. Afghanistan has a national mining law, written with the help of advisers from the World Bank, but it has never faced a serious challenge.

“No one has tested that law; no one knows how it will stand up in a fight between the central government and the provinces,” observed Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business and leader of the Pentagon team that discovered the deposits.

More as it develops…

UPDATE:
This from commenter davidlosangeles:

That said, this is not really new. All that the USGS did was use maps developed by the USSR during *its* occupation of Afghanistan. The US government has known about these reserves for 20 years. The world economy is in the dumps, there is not really a huge demand for more iron ore deposits over the short term (maybe a decade or two in future things might be different).

I wouldn’t be so sure. Looks like a lot more than just iron has been identified and even though the US used USSR’s maps, that doesn’t mean it had been fully explored. They started in 2006 and just now have been able to estimate what lies beneath.

Regardless, this could be huge for the Afghanistan economy and we all know the Taliban wouldn’t have done anything about it. So the war could have a silver (or iron, or copper, or lithium…) lining after all.

(Photo: NY Times)

Over the past two years I wrote, produced and directed a film called “We Will Make You Whole Again” with my co-director, editor and cinematographer Trevor Hawkins of Mammoth Media. Some of you know this because a couple months back I shared the trailer for the film and told you a little bit about what it was all about.

So now I wanted to make sure you knew that the film is available for download for just $5.

Still, why should you spend your hard earned money to watch it? After all, it’s just another short film.

Well, here are some reasons why you should take the leap:

1. The themes of illegal immigration, sexual identity, domestic terrorism, the casualties of war and a post-racial society are definitely top of mind these days, and the film explores all of these through characters who are universally relatable yet also surprisingly unique.
2. In the increasingly noisy world of radio shock jocks and talking heads, the film only has one line of dialogue and is driven almost entirely by an original score, which has been described by the Kansas City Star as “melancholic, majestic, ethereal, ominous, somber and beautiful.”
3. The title of the film comes from a phrase an Exxon representative said to fisherman in Alaska during their very first meeting back in 1989. And our film premiered about a week before the current tragedy in the Gulf struck. Eerie timing to say the least.
4. Maybe I’m naive, but I believe the work I produce has value. In particular, when I work this long and hard on something, I think giving it away for free is silly. And I hope you know that I wouldn’t ask you to spend $5 to purchase this film if I didn’t think it was worth it. So while I won’t guarantee that everybody who watches it will enjoy it, I’m confident that the vast majority will.

But hey, don’t just take my word for it. The following are reviews from some folks who’ve seen it locally here in Kansas City…

The Pitch:

Strangers cross paths. They brush shoulders or hold a glance a beat too long. In that brief moment, lives can be changed. By now, this set up is familiar — it’s a theme routinely seen in movies because it speaks volumes about the human condition. Kansas City acts as the backdrop for another such film, the beautifully shot We Will Make You Whole Again.

Shane Adams:

The movie is really great. They’ve did a terrific job telling a compelling story about 6 strangers that feel disconnected from the world and each other because of things like age, race, sexuality, gender, language and culture, while revealing the common, everyday actions and emotions that unite them all.

kckimchi:

enjoyed the local short film We Will Make You Whole Again (@wwmywa) + the Q&A w/ @jpgardner last night. Check it out if you haven’t yet

strangegirl76:

Saw @wwmywa last night & thought it was amazing! You can download it for $5. DO IT!

inaki:

Wow. Beautiful work. Really well done.

platterscratch:

@wwmywa moving and brilliant. Bravo.

As mentioned, the film is available for download for just $5. That gets you both a high quality .mov file that you can view on laptops and HDTVs and a medium quality .m4v file that you can use on most any portable media player, the most common being the iPod and iPhone.

So, if you’re a fan on independent film consider buying a copy. And if you’re a blogger, please consider writing about the film.

Thanks much and I hope you enjoy, “We Will Make You Whole Again.”

After all, the jobs report today, while not overtly positive, was still nearly 200,000 better than the previous month and one would think it could be seen as either neutral or slightly positive.

Yes, many of the jobs added were seasonal and created by the government…but that’s still money going back into the economy and job experience that folks didn’t have before. And, trust me, that’s a good thing for those workers.

And now we get a sign that states, who were seriously suffering the last two years, are actually bringing in more than they were spending.

From USA Today:

The fortunes of many governments could improve dramatically this year if the national economic recovery continues, a USA TODAY analysis found. A flood of federal stimulus money and a modest upturn in tax receipts have improved the health of states after two years of financial havoc.

Revenue has grown faster than spending for three straight quarters, reports the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Tax collections are up, too, although they remain below the peak of 2008.

“The turnaround is here, thankfully,” says North Carolina budget director Charlie Perusse.

Most states, cities and school districts are still struggling to balance budgets whacked in a recession that began in December 2007. But most signs provide rays of hope.

And here’s a look at the states’ spending over the past decade…

Long story short…we’re headed in the right direction. And don’t let anybody tell you differently.

Okay, so help me out here…

The jobs estimate came in about 70,000 less than what was expected, but we still added nearly 200,000 more jobs than in the previous month…which was the highest job growth in 4 years…and this is bad news?

Yes, the government added a lot of new workers…but they’re still jobs and they’re keeping people off the unemployment rolls, contributing money to the economy, etc. Also, the private sector is still adding jobs. Not as many as the market had hoped, but let’s remember what happened in May…

First, we had Greece’s credit rating downgraded to junk status. Yes, that was in late April, but its effects were really felt in early May.

Second, we had the terrorist bombing attempt in Times Square. Enough said.

Third, the market experienced a 1,000+ point drop in one day due to computer error, which only served to reinforce how fragile/flimsy our economic stability is.

And on top of all that…we’ve had the largest man made natural disaster in our nation’s history unfolding in the Gulf. That one happened in late April as well, but we didn’t realize the impact until early May.

Long story short…I’d say we’re actually doing okay for everything that’s been going on. Obviously today’s report wasn’t “good news,” but to characterize it as a overtly negative doesn’t seem like a fair shake. At worst, it’s neutral. Nothing to get excited about and nothing to get upset about.

When they say markets are emotional…they aren’t kidding.

(Photo: Getty via Daylife)

Good news on the job front from the Labor Department.

Looks like the big cities, where many of our jobs are, have seen decent drops in unemployment. In fact, 346 cities saw job growth while only 12 cities saw job losses. 14 didn’t see any growth or losses. In March, big cities saw growth in 257 locations and job losses in 89. So this is definitely great news for the majority of us.

Meanwhile, planned job cuts have dropped considerably. In fact, they’re now at pre-recession levels.

This morning, the outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said that planned payroll cuts were 38,810 in May — roughly the same level as in April, when job cuts hit a four-year low. It’s good news: Planned layoffs have stabilized close to their rate before the recession hit. As long as employers continue to add jobs to already winnowed payrolls, the unemployment rate should start to cede in the second half of the year.

“Announced job cuts have, for all intents and purposes, returned to pre-recession levels. What makes the low job-cut totals we have seen this spring particularly remarkable is that we still have not reached what is the slowest downsizing period of the year, which typically occurs during the summer months,” John Challenger, the company’s chief executive, said in a release. “It is difficult to imagine the pace of downsizing slowing even further, considering that the economy, while recovering, is still in a relatively fragile state. However, monthly job cuts may indeed continue to fall during the summer, when many businesses hold off on making dramatic staffing changes.”

But will the unemployment rate change that much? Probably not…but that’s actually a good thing. Because all of those folks who had stopped looking for work are now looking…and since more folks are now drawing unemployment benefits…this drives up the rate. And do know that this is why the unemployment rate should have been higher under the Bush administration…because people simply gave up.

More as it develops…

(Photo: Getty via Daylife)