Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Abstitnence-Only Education Not An Education At All

• There have been countless studies which have pointed to the fact that abstinence only education doesn’t provide teens with the tools they need to remain healthy. This latest report, though, takes the cake. [AP]
• Some Florida teens believe drinking Mountain Dew or smoking marijuana will prevent pregnancy and that swallowing a capful of bleach will prevent HIV/AIDS.
• Experts and advocates are saying that the reason teens are led to believe these falsehoods is because the state’s reliance on abstinence-only sex education.
• Thankfully, that could change. Under new proposed legislation, schools would still be required to teach abstinence as the only sure way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseasese, but they would have to teach more about sex.
• The bill’s chances, though, remain slim with the annual 60-day legislative session nearly half over. The bill would have to clear three more committees before getting a Senate floor vote. The House version has yet to get a committee hearing.
• “Young people are getting too little information too late,” said Jenna Cawley, director of education for Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando.
• The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, said Florida’s current approach isn’t working because the state has the sixth-highest teen pregnancy rate nationally.

Naturally, in Florida.

SCOTUS Given Choice To Protect You Or Big Drug Companies. Picks Drug Companies.

• Given the choice of protecting you from powerful drug companies selling you dangerous, possibly lethal meds or protecting the powerful drug companies from you, the Supreme Court is about to side with…the drug companies.
• Drug companies say that even if their drugs turn out to be really dangerous for you, if the FDA approved them at one point, you’re not allowed to sue if you get really hurt. [NY Times]
• For years, the courts have said of course they could issue rulings to hold drug companies responsible for doing harm. But the newly conservative Bush Supreme Court, which likes to protect big corporations, is on the brink of reversing that.
• Here’s an example.
• For years, Johnson & Johnson *hid* evidence that one of its birth control patches delivered too much estrogen to women, raising the risk of blood clots and strokes.
• They even put incorrect information about the estrogen levels on the label.
• Women got sick. They wanted to sue Johnson & Johnson. But Johnson & Johnson said that, since the patch was approved by the FDA, the Courts have no jurisdiction and cannot hear cases against the company.
• Until now, the courts laughed at Johnson & Johnson. But the new Supreme Court – backed by the White House — wants to protect Johnson & Johnson from having to take responsibility.
• Dirty, huh?

Says the FDA: No Comment.

The Bush Strategy For Soldier Stress

• Bush’s strategy in Iraq is taking its toll on America’s soldiers, and even the Joint Chiefs agree. [NY Times]
• As the Washington Post reported yesterday, Bush is “bypassing several levels of the military chain of command to give [General] Petraeus a privileged voice in White House deliberations over Iraq.” [Washington Post]
• Petraeus’s counsel on Iraq: Keep the number of American troops in Iraq “nearly the same through 2008 as they have been through most of the five years of war there” and make sure “any decision on major reductions in American troops from Iraq will be left to the next president.” [NY Times]
• The trouble: The Joint Chiefs (who outrank Petraeus) have “expressed deep concern about stress on the force.”
• Here’s the context:
• 513,000: The number of active duty troops who have served in Iraq since 2003
• 197,000: The number who have deployed more than once
• Over 53,000: The number who have deployed more than three times
• 1 in 4: Share of combat troops deployed for more than three tours who show “signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress.”
• If current troop levels continue through the year, the number of troops deployed for their third tour “would have to increase in the months ahead.”
• Says Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, speaking for Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, “Our readiness is being consumed as fast as we build it. Lengthy and repeated deployments with insufficient recovery time have placed incredible stress on our soldiers and our families, testing the resolve of our all-volunteer force like never before.”
• Beyond that, being mired in Iraq is decreasing our ability to deploy to other crises, should they erupt elsewhere in the world: “Any mission could be carried out successfully, the chiefs believe, but the operation would be slower, longer and costlier in lives and equipment than if the armed forces were not so strained.”
• Matthew Yglesias, on why Bush listens to Petraeus: “Bush has, from the beginning, always listened to people who tell him what he wants to hear — starting a war with Iraq is a great idea, continuing a war with Iraq is a great idea.” [Matthew Yglesias]

Yglesias: “If Petraeus told Bush tomorrow that he should admit failure and open up a regional dialogue on how best to manage an American withdrawal from Iraq, suddenly his privileged position would be gone.”

Good News, Bad News

America’s Copy Editor

Meet America’s geeky, annoying, but, uh, useful friend. Jeff Deck is a 28 year-old creative writing major who travels across the United States “correcting its typographical errors.” ABC reports, “wearing a brown fedora, he’s the Indiana Jones of typos. He finds them on parking signs, where cars will be towed at ‘owners expense,’ and at the ’stationary’ store, where they sell ‘dye cast’ metal key chains.” Um, way to go, Jeff. [ABC]

GOOD NEWS

“So far he has put 5,000 miles on his 1997 Nissan Sentra. Friends come along for a few weeks at a time.”

BAD NEWS

Those friends won’t last long, Jeff.

Quote Of The Day

“Well look. I’m happy. That was in 1983, he didn’t make any apology, he didn’t make any apologies in 1987, so I guess I’m thrilled and forgiving that finally when he’s running for President he remembers to apologize. No, that’s great.”

—A sarcastic Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) slams Senator John McCain for finally apologizing in 2008 for voting against the creation of a federal Martin Luther King holiday in 1983 and “supporting former Arizona governor Evan Mecham in 1987 when Mecham rescinded the holiday in the state.” [Think Progress]

Speed Round

BLACKWATER BACK IN THE SADDLE

Why not? The State Department says that, even though the FBI is still investigating the Blackwater private contractors for, you know, murder, that’s no reason to not renew the company’s contract for another year. [AP]

OUT

In American politics, one day you’re in, the next you’re OUT. “Mark Penn, a pollster and senior strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential bid, left the campaign Sunday after it was disclosed he met with representatives of the Colombian government to help promote a free trade agreement Clinton opposes.” [Salon]

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Why do we turn our back on a president who has not turned his back on us? The day will come that we will thank him for what he’s doing.” — U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, on why we’ll miss President Bush, this war, this economy and our stolen privacy one day. [Billings Gazette]

CHINA

Chinese police kill eight after firing upon monks and Tibet protesters. [Times OnLine]

CONDI WANTS IT

“Condoleeza Rice has been actively campaigning for this.” – GOP Stragist Dan Senor, on Condi’s quest to become the next Vice President. [Raw Story]

61%

The share of a 109 leading historians polled by Pew who call George W. Bush the worst American president ever. [Harpers]

MIXED REVIEWS

“The new incarnation of the Newseum is dazzling, innovative and absorbing, a first-class addition to the capital’s cultural institutions. It is also, in some respects, an overpriced monument to journalistic self-glorification. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” [Washington Post]

FOOL ME ONCE

Despite wanting to get their money out of mortgages, investors are wary about putting their money in high-tech start-ups. [LA Times]

RED ZONE

“Three U.S. service members were killed and dozens were wounded Sunday in rocket attacks on the fortified Green Zone and a military base in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.” [Washington Post]

1 Million

The estimated number of Afghan drug addicts among Afghanistan’s population of 32 million. ” More than six years after U.S.-led forces launched a military campaign here against the ruling Taliban movement, drug addiction is fast becoming a major concern for the government.” [Washington Post]

THE HOSTILE SKIES

A new study shows that airline complaints are on the rise. [USA Today]

STAY OFF THE ROADS

Rough weather in New England has decimated crucial roads in the region. [USA Today]

WE SMELL BACON

A must-read expose on the ins and outs of pork barreling. [NY Times]