Swine Flu Update

Okay, so i'm a little late with this update. Better late than never, in this case.
As of August 27,2009, there have been 8,843 people who have been hospitalized with the H1Ni influenza. There have been 556 deaths brought on by this flu.

Since I am down in the state of Florida, I will give you the latest on the flu here in the Tampa Bay area.

I would note that the schools in Hillborough County just started classes last week and that health officials expect the swine flu outbreak to go into hyper-gear as many students will be catching this flu.

In Hillsborough County/Tampa, six people have died from the H1N1 flu at this point in time. There has also been one death each in Pinellas and Polk Counties as of the 26th of August.

At Tampa Catholic High School, it is reported that 20 percent of the 700 student body are absent from classes due to the swine flu. Many parents have been told to keep their children home if they have any sort of illness at all, and it appears to be working.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/26/262124/tampa-catholic-reports-20-absent-swine-flu-spreads/news-metro/

The increase in cases was not unexpected. Young people are especially susceptible to swine flu and on school campuses, the highly contagious virus can spread quickly. Hillsborough County Health Department Director Doug Holt predicted it would take two weeks for influenza to invade a campus once classes started; that's how long Tampa Catholic students have been back at school.Holt said he eventually expects absences of at least 30 percent in public schools, where classes began this week.

With all of this nice,hot and humid weather, this flu will spread quicker than health officials think that it will, I predict. These kids will still be getting together away from school to socialize and play, spreading this flu at an even faster rate. Wait till mid-September which is when I predict that all hell will break loose here in the Tampa area.

Tampa Florida: Land Of The Lost..

... and that is putting it mildly, my friends.
I've lived here three times since the early eighties and it has turned worse in this over-grown town each time that I come here. I'm speaking of the work here, the people, and the attitude in this shithole.
Tampa tries to make itself llok like a modern town with all of the trappings of a big city, but once you have been here for any lenght of time, and not as a tourist, you soon see that this place is one big rat-hole!
One of the bigger problems here in the Tampa Bay area, other than the Rays, is the county and the city's way in which they deal with the homeless. Believe me, there are many homeless in the Tampa area and they are spread out all over the place. This is particularly true in the Northern section of the town, as well as downtown, and the South side. Every where that you go in Tampa is a haven for pan-handlers and such. Some of these folks are unable to work, or to find any work in the first place. I have a soft spot for those types. But, the fact is that many of the beggers are just to damned lazy to go out and look for work. That takes effort and doing such a thing would take away from their beer drinking time. In some cases, that is all of the day. I have no sympathy what-so-ever for those types of homeless. With the drinkers, you may as well throw in the crack-heads, and the pill-poppers. these fucks always are broke in the mornings and are out bumbing smokes and what ever.
I write all of this for one reason. Since I've been here the past few months, I've taken one of these homeless alcoholics under my wings, so to speak, just to see if I could get them to get their act together. To see how bad that they really wanted to quit and to get off of the streets.
I am not some rookie at this type of thing folks. Having been an alcoholic and a drug addict, and on the streets myself once, I know what kind of effort and work that it can take to get oneself off of the shit and off of the streets. It ain't easy, but, you have to really want to do it for yourself. If you do not, then there is no one who can help you no matter what they try to do for you.
With that in mind, my next post will introduce you to Anna, an alcoholic who lives on the streets of Tampa, and one person who surely has no business being in her situation. Anna is one of those drinkers who you can't talk to without her getting defensive and using the " it's not my fault " excuse. One who wants to change things in her life, but does nothing to make things happen. I think that you will find her an interesting study, and story. Stay tuned.

Late Night Political Jokes: Tuesday Edition

It has been some time since i've posted my " Friday Funnies" listing of the best political jokes coming from those late-night talk show hosts, so here is a shortened version for all of you on this fine Tuesday.

David Letterman:
"Congress has been agonizing over health care for months now. Squabbling, fighting, the town hall meetings going crazy. Meanwhile, while they're arguing about health care, we're stuck in two wars that were rubber-stamped in about 10 minutes. What? How does that make any sense when you think about it?"

"People are always saying to me, 'Well, Dave, are you worried?' No, I'm not worried about health care, and I'll tell you why. Because I'm with CBS. ... They have a tremendous health care plan. And here's what it is. Simply, when I die, I get to appear on a 'CSI' show as a corpse."

Bill Maher:

"And then there's the people who come to the town hall meetings about health care and think that Obama is going to do the same thing that Hitler did. I mean, what can't you tell these people that they won't believe? I could start a rumor right now. I could say, you know what? Under Obama's health care plan, when you bring your child to a pediatrician, from now on, when he's done, instead of giving him a balloon, he's going to give the kid a condom. Stupid is a preexisting condition, yes."

"And apparently, it's now no longer enough to be screaming as they've been doing at the town hall meetings. They're now bringing guns. I would say these people are armed to the teeth, but they have no teeth."

"And they're also bringing guns to events with the president of the United States. Did you see these people with the assault rifles? There was a guy -- and it was a black guy -- holding a big assault rifle, which is terrible news for white people. I mean, first we lose our dominance over music, then sports, then golf, then the presidency. Now, black people are taking over the gun-toting redneck industry."

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bldailyfeed3.htm

Have a great day!!

FISA,PATRIOT ACT Fixes Under Way?

Feingold, Durbin to intro FISA, PATRIOT fixes
by ben masel Sun Aug 23, 2009

I caught up with Senator Feingold at his re-election fundraiser/picnic this
morning.He and Senator Durbin have given up on waiting for the Administration to submit a package of amendments to the PATRIOT and FISA Amendment Acts, and are drafting their own. Rollout in approximately a month.
I also asked Russ about legislation creating statutory privacy rights in the location database collected by cellphone carriers, which are not covered by existing law, and courts have been mixed in requiring warrants for law enflorcement access. He's going to see if Durbin wants to include this in the package, otherwise he'll do a standalone bill. I'd discussed both topics with Representative Nadler, Chair of House Judiciary's Subcommitee on Courts and Constitution in the elevator at Netroots Nation, convinced him to hold hearings on the location privacy issue "in a couple months."