November 28, 2015

Planned Parenthood Shooting Suspect Made Comment About 'No More Baby Parts': Sources

Planned Parenthood Shooting Suspect Made Comment About 'No More Baby Parts': Sources
NBC News

The day after a gunman killed three people and shot nine others at a Colorado Planned Parenthood office, officials tell NBC News a motive remains unclear, but say the suspect talked about politics and abortion.

Robert Lewis Dear, a North Carolina native who was living in a trailer in Colorado, made statements to police Friday at the scene of the Colorado Springs clinic and in interviews that law enforcement sources described as rantings.

In one statement, made after the suspect was taken in for questioning, Dear said "no more baby parts" in reference to Planned Parenthood, according to two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case.

But the sources stressed that Dear said many things to law enforcement and the extent to which the "baby parts" remark played into any decision to target the Planned Parenthood office was not yet clear. He also mentioned President Barack Obama in statements...

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/planned-parenthood-shooting-suspect-made-comment-about-no-more-baby-n470706


This was predictable. Just like Sarah Palin and her crosshairs on a map, anyone with a brain knew a Democrat in one of those districts was going to get shot. The "baby parts" videos were FAKE, so why in God's name were they discussed on air and in congressional hearings as if they were real?? I completely hold the media and the republican party partially responsible for this shooting spree. WORDS HAVE CONSEQUENCES!!! They are playing to most base emotions of rage and fear, and unhinged people run amok. They can't be surprised by this. They are promoting domestic terrorism. It's sick.

November 23, 2015

Hillary is ahead in the polls, true since day #1. But for pete's sake look at these numbers.

Hillary is ahead in the polls, true since day #1. But for pete's sake look at these numbers.
By Angela Marx
Sunday Nov 22, 2015 6:49 PM EST



Like most weekends here, it’s a cavalcade of Go! Bernie diaries.

Some data, a lot of hope and guaranteed sniping by SOME of the Hillary supporters who would like Sanders to just give up already. They are #ReadyforHillary to start the big show.

But something stands in the way of that desire.

It’s a numbers thing.

What all Sanders supporters must keep in mind, is that those numbers which seem to be so persuasive to the #Ready4Hillary camp aren’t static. Yes, her numbers continue to lead. But the history of those numbers since they started polling on the race a year ago?

Hillary has had a smallish, but continued downward trend, with what could be either a bounce up since Sept 24th, or a blip upwards (but we won’t know which, until at least a couple more polls take place). But still definitely lower than last year at this time.

Sanders, on the other hand, his direction has been upwards since last year this time. Likewise for O’Malley, even though his margins are tiny (even compared only to Sanders and not Clinton).

Statistics for the table and graph are taken from the Huffington Post Polling for the Democratic Primary.
(Sorry - there is no way to put up a decent graph. Click the link at the bottom to be able to read it better at the original source.)

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY POLLING
OCT 2014 - NOV 2015 (LATEST IN each MONTH listed)

MONTH Clinton Sanders O’Malley
OCT 12 2014 62.7% 2.7% 1.0%
NOV 23 2014 62.2% 3.1% 0.8%
DEC 9 2014 61.7% 3.3% 0.8%
JAN 27 2015 60.5% 4.1% 1.00%
FEB 23 2015 60.0% 4.7% 1.2%
MARCH 31 2015 61.4% 6.5% 1.6%
APRIL 27 2015 61.6% 8.7% 1.6%
MAY 31 2015 59.7% 12.3% 1.5%
JUNE 29 2015 58.4% 15.9% 1.1%
JULY 30 2015 54.9% 18.0% 1.5%
AUG 30 2015 47.0% 23.4% 1.4%
SEPT 30 2015 44.4% 25.0% 1.1%
OCT 29 2015 53.5% 29.5% 2.0%
NOV 19 2015 55.2% 31.1% 3.0%


NAME START % END % + OR -
CLINTON 62.7 55.2 - 7.5%
SANDERS 2.7 31.1 + 28.4
O’MALLEY 1.0 3.0 + 2.0

Those numbers, even though Sanders has made up a lot of ground, still show Hillary Clinton with a pretty commanding double digit lead, right? They also show O’Malley’s numbers so low that I wonder why he hasn’t dropped out yet...

But the trending pattern is quite easy to see in the graph below, showing the past year’s polling results.

What they show is a trend which I think Sanders supporters see, but Clinton supporters do not.



That Clinton’s numbers are fairly static, but Sanders are dynamic and growing more as time goes by.

Which makes the only reasonable question: Can Sanders put himself in striking distance in enough states by Super Tuesday?

So far as I can see the answer is maybe, but that’s a maybe dependent upon Sanders winning at least one and more likely both New Hampshire and Iowa — which could give him the boost to win South Carolina and/or Nevada.

And so long as that word is maybe and not NO, Bernie still has my primary vote.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/22/1453266/-Hillary-is-ahead-in-the-polls-true-since-day-1-But-for-pete-s-sake-look-at-these-numbers

November 7, 2015

Why can't I find any online polls regarding tonight's forum? Weird.

A part of me can't help but wonder if maybe the media outlets don't want them. No focus groups either. Hmmm,..

Maybe I just haven't found them. Does anyone know?

November 6, 2015

CNN : What is democratic socialism, American-style?

Fri Nov 06, 2015 at 04:17 AM PST
CNN : What is democratic socialism, American-style?
by dkmich

I have absolutely nothing to add to this CNN article by Peter Dreier other than read it. It has some great pictures of the US from earlier days, and it IS the commercial Bernie Sanders should make.

Below the squiggle is a fair use quote to introduce this well written and historical look at democratic socialialism in America. At the end, follow the link and read the whole thing. Whether you are a Bernie Sanders supporter, history buff, or just reality based, you will find this article a great read.

Now that Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign is generating lots of media attention, the word "socialism" is in the news. But few Americans know what it is or what Sanders means when he describes himself as a "democratic socialist."

In the early 1900s, socialists led the movements for women's suffrage, child labor laws, consumer protection laws and the progressive income tax. In 1916, Victor Berger, a socialist congressman from Milwaukee, sponsored the first bill to create "old age pensions." The bill didn't get very far, but two decades later, in the midst of the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt persuaded Congress to enact Social Security. Even then, some critics denounced it as un-American. But today, most Americans, even conservatives, believe that Social Security is a good idea. What had once seemed radical has become common sense.

Much of FDR's other New Deal legislation -- the minimum wage, workers' right to form unions and public works programs to create jobs for the unemployed -- was first espoused by American socialists.

Socialists were in the forefront of the civil rights movement from the founding of the NAACP in 1909 through the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Socialists have long pushed for a universal health insurance plan, which helped create the momentum for stepping-stone measures such as Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s and Obamacare today.

In the 1890s, a socialist Baptist minister, Francis Bellamy, wrote "The Pledge of Allegiance" and a socialist poet, Katherine Lee Bates, penned "America the Beautiful." Throughout our history, some of the nation's most influential activists and thinkers, such as Jane Addams, John Dewey, Helen Keller, W.E.B. DuBois, Albert Einstein, A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, Martin Luther King, Eugene V. Debs, and Gloria Steinem, embraced democratic socialism.

Is democratic socialism the right path for America?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/opinions/dreier-democratic-socialism/index.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/06/1445555/-CNN-What-is-democratic-socialism-American-style

November 6, 2015

New "Gene Editing" Technique Clears Dying Baby of Leukemia

Thu Nov 05, 2015 at 06:11 PM PST
New "Gene Editing" Technique Clears Dying Baby of Leukemia
by Lib Dem FoP

Layla Foley was 14 weeks old when she was diagnosed as having an aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Despite several rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, the cancer returned. Shortly before her first birthday her parents were advised to consider palliative end of life care. Then the doctors told them of an experimental treatment being developed at the hospital and they agreed to try it. Layla became the first patient worldwide to have a new form of "gene editing" treatment. After another bone marrow transplant, she is currently clear of cancer.

The treatment involves using “molecular scissors” to edit genes and create designer immune cells programmed to hunt out and kill drug-resistant leukaemia.

Only one vial of the treatment was available for Layla. An emergency ethics committee meeting was called to seek immediate approval for the treatment.

Layla’s father, Ashleigh Richards, 30, a driver, said: “It was scary to think that the treatment had never been used in a human before but, even with the risks, there was no doubt that we wanted to try the treatment. She was sick and in lots of pain so we had to do something.”

Layla was given a small 1ml infusion of genetically engineered cells, known as Ucart19 cells. She developed a rash, as doctors expected, but otherwise seemed well.

The doctors at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children (GOSH) are cautiously optimistic this could provide a new and effective treatment for the most common cancer in children. It is also possible that it will be effective on a range of other drug-resistant cancers but this is only the very start of using the technique and will need to be shown to work long term.

Dr Paul Veys, from Great Ormond Street, said the transformation was one of the most remarkable things he'd seen in 20 years: "We're in a wonderful place compared to where we were five months ago, but that doesn't mean cure.

"The only way we will find out if this is a cure is by waiting that one or two years, but even having got this far from where we were is a major, major step."

He described the run of events as "almost like a miracle".

Layla's story is being presented at the American Society of Haematology, but this is only a single case that has not been tested in a clinical trial.

The team developing the technique came from GOSH, University College of London (UCL), UCL's Institute of Child Health and the French biotech company Cellectis. GOSH's press release explains in more detail.

The treatment works by adding new genes to healthy donor T-cells, which arm them against leukaemia. Using molecular tools (TALEN®) that act like very accurate scissors, specific genes are then cut in order to make the T-cells behave in two specific ways. Firstly, the cells became invisible to a powerful leukaemia drug that would usually kill them and secondly they are reprogrammed to only target and fight against leukaemia cells.

The team at GOSH and the UCL ICH, along with investigators at University College London and biotech company Cellectis, had been developing ‘off-the-shelf’ banks of these donor T-cells and the first of which was due to be used for final stage testing ahead of clinical trials. But, after hearing about this infant, the team received special permission to try the new treatment early.

Professor Waseem Qasim, Professor of Cell and Gene Therapy at UCL ICH and Consultant Immunologist at GOSH, explains: "The approach was looking incredibly successful in laboratory studies, and so when I heard there were no options left for treating this child’s disease, I thought ‘why don’t we use the new UCART19 cells?’

"The treatment was highly experimental and we had to get special permissions, but she appeared ideally suited for this type of approach."

The patient’s parents were also keen to try the treatment. Mum, Lisa, says: "We didn’t want to accept palliative care and so we asked the doctors to try anything for our daughter, even if it hadn’t been tried before."

The treatment consisted of 1ml of UCART19 cells delivered via intravenous line in around 10 minutes. After the cells had been delivered, the patient spent several months in isolation to protect her from infections while her immune system was extremely weak. Throughout this time, the patient stayed generally well.

After several weeks there were signs that the treatment was working. Professor Paul Veys, Director of bone marrow transplant at GOSH and the patient’s lead clinician, says: "As this was the first time that the treatment had been used, we didn’t know if or when it would work and so we were over the moon when it did. Her leukaemia was so aggressive that such a response is almost a miracle."

Once doctors were confident that the leukaemia cells had been removed, the patient was given a bone marrow transplant to replace her entire blood and immune system which had been wiped out by the treatment. The child is now recovering well at home, although she returns to GOSH regularly to check that her bone marrow cells are healthy and blood counts continuing to normalise.

Full clinical trials funded by Cellectis are now being planned to test UCART19 cells in larger groups of patients and are set to begin early in 2016. In light of the recent bad news about price hikes for generic drugs, the statement by the company is particularly interesting:

“Cellectis main objective is to provide cancer patients with an accessible, cost-effective, off-the-shelf allogeneic CAR-T therapies across all geographies. With clinical trial for the first gene-edited UCART on the horizon, it could be the beginning of a revolution in cancer immunotherapy,” says Dr. André Choulika, Chairman and CEO of Cellectis.

GOSH is one of the world's leading centers for the treatment of children. You may recognize the name from the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony where patients and staff from GOSH joined other NHS workers in celebrating universal health care and children's literature. As well as British NHS patients, it takes children from all over the world, often funded by their home governments. Part of its charity collecting is used to build hotel type accommodation so parents can stay far from home while their children receive treatment. UCL and UCLICH are of course also government funded institutions and, working in cooperation with the French company, have developed this treatment.

The cost to Layla's parents of all her hospital treatment was of course nothing but in return for their courage in allowing the experimental treatment they have got back something priceless, Layla's life from her first birthday. Let's hope this will be a long one and that her pioneering treatment will save many more in the future.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/06/1445433/-New-Gene-Editing-Technique-Clears-Dying-Baby-of-Leukemia