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American Police Learn New Tactics


There is a video on Sky News showing a group of American police chiefs how the English handle suspect armed or not without killing them.

How To Avoid Gun Use

American police chiefs have been to Scotland to learn new techniques in how to avoid shooting violent suspects.

As numerous fatal police confrontations cause public anger across the US, officers are rethinking when, and how, they use force.

The results are part of a hard-hitting documentary to be shown on Sky Atlantic and Sky News. Last year, police in the US shot and killed around 1,000 civilians, many of them unarmed.

Former hostage negotiator with the Boston police department Chuck Wexler brought the team across the Atlantic in an attempt to cut the use of fatal force.

As the two sets of police officers met, Mr Wexler described how if confronted by a suspect holding a rock an American officer would pull out his gun.

“You’re going to kill someone for throwing a rock. That’s what you’re gonna do,” said Mr. Wexler.

“How would society over here think about you shooting someone with a rock? They would not accept it.”

The senior American officers, from forces such as the NYPD and LAPD, watched demonstrations at Police Scotland training centres.

Sky News cameras joined them as they went out on patrol in Glasgow, and watched as unarmed police dealt with a variety of potentially violent situations.

The four-day visit showed how Scottish police step back from confrontation, using shields and vehicles for protection.

They also saw examples of how in Scotland officers use language and negotiation in a different way to their American colleagues.

Scots police train how to tackle a violent offender Sergeant Jim Young trains hundreds of Scottish police recruits every year.

“The American style of policing, it’s very authoritative,” he said.

“There’s a difference of going in, straight up at this level, whereby you’re ordering people, you’re shouting at them. You can’t go anywhere after that.

“But if you start down low you can adjust your communications to suit.”

In the US there are an estimated 300 million firearms in circulation.

The documentary shows the American police officers, while accepting both countries are very different, learning lessons in how to approach volatile situations.

Many American forces adopt what is informally known as the “21-foot rule”.

Police officers keep that distance from someone with a sharp weapon, but will shoot if the suspect closes that gap.

Some see the controversial tactic as a ‘licence to kill’.

Scots firearms officers have shot civilians only twice in the last decade.

The last officer to be killed on duty through criminal violence in Scotland was in a stabbing in 1994.

“It’s about time that we step up and this is our chance,” said Mr. Wexler.

“It’s a crisis but it’s also our chance to do the right thing.”

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Ignorance Loses


Now that the Federal court in Texas has cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing in the “selling” of fetal tissue and indicted the “secret videographers”, the clamor has not dies down (see Blue line at the end of this post). It appears that modern politics has fallen to the depths of “yellow” journalism and outright lies. Do you suppose people in Texas will change their minds about Planned Parenthood and the valuable work they do? Probably not. The astounding thing about people is, once a seed of information  (or misinformation) is planted in the fertile soils of their bias, it is really hard to alter the thought output. As a thought, is wrong to think that people can ( or should) accept  an issue that or service that has value in spite of their personal beliefs?

 

Planned Parenthood cleared by Texas jury over videos, activists indicted

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A Texas grand jury has indicted two anti-abortion activists in a case involving covert videos on fetal tissue procurement talks with Planned Parenthood and found there was no wrongdoing on the part of the health group, a district attorney said on Monday.

The grand jury decision was a result of a probe launched last year under Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, who accused Planned Parenthood of the “gruesome harvesting of baby body parts.” No evidence was provided by Texas to back the claim.

The videos released last summer led Texas and several other Republican-controlled states to try to halt funding for local Planned Parenthood operations.

“After a lengthy and thorough investigation by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, the Texas Rangers, and the Houston Police Department, a Harris County grand jury took no action Monday against Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast,” the Harris County District Attorney’s office said in a statement.

Planned Parenthood has denied the accusation and called the probe politically motivated.

David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt have been indicted by the grand jury for tampering with a governmental record, said prosecutors for the county in which Houston is located.

The two were involved in covert videos last year in which a discussion was held with a Planned Parenthood official on the procurement of fetal tissue.

Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress that released the videos, was also charged with violating a prohibition on the purchase and sale of human organs, a misdemeanor, the Harris County District Attorney said.

The videos purported to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to negotiate prices for aborted fetal tissue. Under federal law, donated human fetal tissue may be used for research, but profiting from its sale is prohibited.

Shortly after the release, Texas, the most populous Republican-controlled U.S. state, said it would launch a probe of Planned Parenthood.

“These people broke the law to spread malicious lies about Planned Parenthood in order to advance their extreme anti-abortion political agenda,” said Eric Ferrero, vice president of Communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

“As the dust settles and the truth comes out, it’s become totally clear that the only people who engaged in wrongdoing are the criminals behind this fraud, and we’re glad they’re being held accountable,” he said.

The Texas governor said: “Nothing about today’s announcement in Harris County impacts the state’s ongoing investigation.”

In October, Texas raided several Planned Parenthood facilities in the state.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Bernard Orr

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Taxing Information


This election season has brought several tax reform speeches from candidates but many of outside the accounting world understand what they are talking about and some omissions of details cause the raising of hackles and railing against  taxes. Just remember that without taxes this country or any others could not function. If the government were to access each of us our fair share for the amount needed to run the country, would it be more or less than the existing taxing system? We would be better served understanding the tax brackets and then looking at anything that “reform” the tax code so that it works better and  pressuring our Congress to make rational (reasonable) reforms. These reforms should consider the many European countries whose taxing system allows for free (mostly) education K-through college. If this works in smaller countries (by size and population) then why can’t the USA, being one of (if not the) the wealthiest countries in the world? The consideration is that we have people speaking for us (and we allow it) but using buzzwords and sound bites that will not stand close scrutiny. The information below is not a complete explanation but it will allow you to see what the taxing standards are.These figires provided by Credit.Com.

How Many Tax Brackets Are There?

How Tax Brackets Work

How much you pay in federal income taxes depends on how much you make, whether you are married or single and whether you are head of household.

There are seven major tax brackets – 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33% 35% and 39.6% — and there are separate sets of brackets for single tax filers, married tax filers who file jointly, married tax filers who file separately and tax filers who are single and file as head of household.

You will find tax brackets for 2014 and 2015 below.

Let’s say you are single and had $30,000 of taxable income in 2014, after your deductions.

For the first $9,075, you are in the 10% tax bracket and would pay $907.50, a 10% tax on this portion of your taxable income.

For the remainder of your taxable income, $20,925, you would fall into the 15% tax bracket ($9,076 to $36,900)
 and you would pay $3,138.75, a 15% tax on this portion of your taxable income.

This holds true for the other tax brackets as well. So you only pay the higher tax rates on the portion of your income that falls into that particular tax bracket. And you pay the lower rates associated with the lower tax brackets for those sections of your taxable income.

Am I the Head of Household?

To file as head of household, you must meet certain requirements.

You must be single on the last day of 2014

You have to have paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for a year.

A qualifying person, such as a child, stepchild or foster child, has lived with you in your home for more than half a year.

If you are divorced by the last day of the year, you are considered unmarried for the whole year and if you had a child live with you for more than half a year, you may be able to file your taxes as head of household.

If you do, your tax rate will usually be lower than the tax rate for a single filer or if you are married and filing separately.

I’m Married. Should We File Jointly?

When you file a joint tax return with your spouse, you report your combined income, deductions and exemptions. Both you and your spouse are held responsible for the payment of the taxes that you owe.

So with a joint return, if your spouse fails to pay his or her share of the taxes due, you may be required to.

If you don’t wish to be held responsible for any taxes due if a spouse fails to pay, you may wish to file your taxes separately. For tax year 2014, there are seven major tax brackets –10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35% and 39.6% — and how much you pay in taxes depends on your income and whether you are single, married or the head of your own household.

Which Tax Bracket Are You In?

For single filers, the 2014 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $9,075

15% – $9,075 to $36,900

25% – $36,901 to $89,350

28% – $89,351 to $186,350

33% – $186,351 to $405,100

35% – $405,101 to $406,750

39.6% – more than $406,751

For married couples who file their taxes jointly, the 2014 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $18,150

15% – $18,151 to $73,800

25% – $73,801 to $148,850

28% – $148,851 to $226,850

33% – $226,851 to $405,100

35% – $405,101 to $457,600

39.6% – more than $457,601

For married couples who choose to file their taxes separately, the 2014 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $9,075

15% – $9,076 to $36,900

25% – $36,901 to $74,425

28% – $74,426 to $113,425

33% – $113,426 to $202,550

35% – $202,551 to $228,800

39.6% – more than $228,801

If you were single and the head of your household at the end of the year, your 2014 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $12,950

15% – $12,951 to $49,400

25% – $49,401 to $127,550

28% – $127,551 to $206,600

33% – $206,601 to $405,100

35% – $405,101 to $432,200

39.6% – more than $432,201

The Tax Year 2015 Brackets

For single filers, the 2015 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $9,2255

15% – $9,226 to $37,450

25% – $37,451 to $90,750

28% – $90,751 to $189,300

33% – $189,301 to $411,500

35% – $411,501 to $413,200

39.6% – more than $413,201

For married couples who file their taxes jointly, the 2015 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $18,450

15% – $18,451 to $74,900

25% – $74,901 to $151,200

28% – $151,201 to $230,450

33% – $230,451 to $411,500

35% – $411,501 to $464,850

39.6% – more than $464,851

For married couples who choose to file their taxes separately, the 2015 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $9,225

15% – $9,226 to $37,450

25% – $37,451 to $75,600

28% – $75,601 to $115,225

33% – $115,226 to $205,750

35% – $205,751 to $232,425

39.6% – more than $232,426

If you were single and the head of your household at the end of the year, your 2015 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $13,150

15% – $13,151 to $50,200

25% – $50,201 to $129,600

28% – $129,601 to $209,850

33% – $209,851 to $411,500

35% – $411,501 to $439,000

39.6% – more than $439,001

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Notes From Far Afield


This in from Huffington Post:

 

We Obtained Sarah Palin’s Notes From Her Trump Endorsement Speech

“SQUIRMISH!”

01/20/2016 03:57 pm ET

On Tuesday, the question that had been keeping you up all hours of the night — “Who is Sarah Palin endorsing for president?” — was finally answered.

Palin appeared alongside with — drum roooooollllllllll — Donald Trump to officially endorse the business-man-turned-reality-star-turned-waster-of-precious-oxygen for president.

Her speech was groundbreaking in that it was clearly the first she’d ever written. We got hold of her speech notes so that you could see how it all came together as it journeyed from brain, to paper, and then on the tiresome trek back up to her brain. See for yourself:

HuffPost Comedy

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The Divide Whitens


The Racial division of the United States has not lessened no matter what the surface appearances are. We have seen the evidence in the election of Barack Obama and to another degree in the recent Oscar Nominations. What is wrong with the so called movers and shakers? These are the people we as Americans have selected, elected or chosen to be representatives of our views ( are these our views?). While the Oscars are not world changing events , they are major events in America. Folks will still go to see the non nominated movies out of curiosity or genuine interest but will never voice an opinion about the lack of inclusion by non white judges or who ever makes the selection of nominees. How many have ever heard of “Oscar Micheaux”  ? A turn of the century Black film maker who has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame and the listed honors and legacy below ( From Wikipedia):

Legacy and honors

Poster for the 2014 documentary film Oscar Micheaux: The Czar of Black Hollywood.

If not now, when? We have seen the divide and we need to immediately start the work to build the bridge beginning  with who we elect to office. Keep in mind that behind closed doors the “dirty, racial and demeaning names” are still being used as divisive tools. It is well to want to believe that the divide is closing but the reality remains as an uneasy layer under our public persona.

 

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Ok Ted, What’s Up?


“Conservatives are so pure either” Something like glass houses and stones?

Ted Cruz did not disclose 2012 Senate campaign loan: NY Times

 
U.S. Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz greets audience members at a Second …

(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz failed to disclose to the Federal Election Commission a loan from Goldman Sachs for as much as $500,000 that was used to help finance his successful 2012 U.S. Senate campaign, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The loan does not appear in reports the Ted Cruz for Senate Committee filed with the FEC, in which candidates are required to disclose the source of money they borrow to finance their campaigns, the newspaper reported.

Other campaigns have been fined for failing to make such disclosures, which are intended to inform voters and prevent candidates from receiving special treatment from lenders, the Times said.

Cruz has surged in recent opinion polls and now leads billionaire businessman Donald Trump in Iowa, which on Feb. 1 holds the first contest in the process to choose the Republican nominee for the November presidential election.

In 2012, Cruz was campaigning for the Texas Senate seat as a populist firebrand who criticized Wall Street bailouts and the influence of big banks in Washington, and the loans could have conveyed the wrong impression about his candidacy, the Times said.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday after a campaign event in Dorchester, South Carolina, Cruz called the failure to disclose the loans to the FEC a “technical and inadvertent filing error.”

“Those loans have been disclosed over and over and over again on multiple filings. If it was the case that they were not filed exactly as the FEC requires, then we’ll amend the filings. But all of the information has been public and transparent for many years,” he said.

Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for Cruz, said Cruz had taken out the Goldman Sachs loan against his own assets and had paid off the loan in full.

Cruz and his wife, Heidi, who is on leave as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, also received a loan from Citibank for up to $500,000, but it was not clear whether that money was used in the campaign, the newspaper said.

There was no evidence the Cruzes got a break on their bank loans, which were disclosed in personal financial statements filed with the U.S. Senate, according to the newspaper.

(Writing by Eric Beech in Washington; Additional reporting by James Oliphant in Dorchester, S.C.; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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GOP Pitch


Interesting Meeting of GOP Maimliners.

 

GOP candidates pitch conservative path to fight poverty

By BILL BARROW and SERGIO BUSTOS 16 hours ago

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Republican presidential candidates said Saturday their party must do more to convince poor Americans that conservative policy — and not an active federal government — will expand economic opportunity.

But the White House hopefuls, addressing a conservative economic forum in the early voting state of South Carolina, didn’t agree on all the details, particularly on taxes.

Moderated by House Speaker Paul Ryan, the event gave a half dozen candidates the chance to champion long-standing conservative ideas about alleviating poverty, such as letting states spend federal money on safety net programs without federal strings, and spending public money on independent charter schools and vouchers for private-school tuition.

Yet when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie bragged that he doubled a key tax credit for low-income workers in his state, he met opposition from 2016 rival Ben Carson, who countered that the federal Earned Income Tax Credit is a “manipulation” of the tax code.

Carson calls for an across-the-board tax rate, with no deductions or credits for any household or business. He criticized progressive income tax rates — the framework that has endured though decades of Republican and Democratic administration. “That’s called socialism,” he said. “That doesn’t work in America.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee pitched his “fair tax,” a single-rate consumption tax to replace all other taxes on wages, investments and inheritance. “It’s a powerful unlocking of the economy,” Huckabee said. However, he said he would allow something similar to the Earned Income Tax Credit to ease the tax burden on low-income households.

Responding to Carson, Christie said he does not necessarily prefer the complications of the existing tax code. “If we were starting from the beginning … we could do things a lot differently,” Christie said. But, “We have to be practical.”

Missing from the lineup Saturday were two leading GOP contenders: businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

During his remarks, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was interrupted multiple times by protesters angry about his immigration policy.

“He has brought fear to our community and we are here to tell him that our community needs to be treated with respect and dignity,” said Yadira Dument of New York, one of several protesters escorted from the forum by police and security guards. As a pair of protesters shouted, Rubio said, “We are going to enforce our immigration laws.”

Rubio was key in a bipartisan effort to overhaul immigration law and backed away from the initiative when it failed in 2013. He now calls for a piecemeal approach that only offers a pathway to legalization after the influx of illegal immigration is stopped.

The conference came as Republicans try to improve their standing among poorer Americans, who favored President Barack Obama in 2012, according to surveys of voters leaving the polling station.

Ryan said the old “War on Poverty,” a phalanx of government programs largely from Democratic administrations, “has been a stalemate.” Conservatism, he argued, “can open up a renaissance,” dismantling a system that “isolates the poor.”

About one in seven people lives below the federal poverty rate, which in 2014 was measured at about $19,000 per year for a two-parent household with one child, the government says.

The candidates Saturday mostly agreed that traditional welfare discourages work, rejected a minimum-wage increase and said the private sector and religious community should take on more responsibility for fighting poverty.

“Compassion is not measured by how much money you spend in Washington,” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said. “It’s acting on your sense of consciousness.”

Bush has proposed eliminating several federal programs and shifting money to states in the form of block grants to help poor families.

Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich said the federal government should empower states, but Christie said Obama “doesn’t trust governors,” Democratic or Republican, to enact locally tailored programs.

And Christie said his party must reach out in ways it hasn’t. “We need to be going into African-American churches … into the Hispanic community,” he said. “We need to go there, show up and campaign in places where we are uncomfortable.”

Mexico: Drug lord located thanks to interview with Sean Penn
 

Chicago Classic-Pumped Up!


December 31, 2015

The Sudden But Well-Deserved Fall of Rahm Emanuel

By Rick Perlstein

 

A majority of Chicagoans now think that the Mayor should resign. It’s hard to remember a time when Rahm Emanuel wasn’t a Democratic Party superstar. Go back to 1991, when the thirty-two-year-old took over fund-raising for Bill Clinton. He was soon renowned for making the staff come to work on Sundays, shrieking into the phone to donors things like “Five thousand dollars is an insult! You’re a twenty-five-thousand-dollar person!”—and, not incidentally, helping Clinton afford the blitz of TV commercials that saved him from the Gennifer Flowers scandal, clearing his course to the White House. The legend continued through this past April, when Rahm—in Chicago and D.C., he’s known by that single name—won a second term as the mayor of Chicago in a come-from-behind landslide.

Nine months later, Chicagoans—and Democrats nationally—are suffering buyer’s remorse. Last month, a Cook County judge ordered the release of a shocking dashcam video of a black seventeen-year-old named Laquan McDonald being shot sixteen times by a policeman while he was walking away. Five days later, the officer was charged with murder. The charge came after four hundred days of public inaction, and only hours before the video’s release. Of almost four hundred police shootings of civilians investigated by the city’s Independent Police Review Authority since 2007, only one was found to be unjustified. So the suspicion was overwhelming that the officer would not have faced discipline at all had officials not feared a riot—especially after it was learned that McDonald’s family had been paid five million dollars from city coffers without ever having filed a lawsuit. Mayor Emanuel claims that he never saw the video. Given that he surely would not have been reëlected had any of this come out before the balloting, a recent poll showed that only seventeen per cent of Chicagoans believe him. And a majority of Chicagoans now think he should resign. ” For twenty years now, there have been those who say that this emperor never had any clothes on in the first place. Given the speed and intensity of his fall, perhaps it’s time to reconsider their case.

Start with the 1992 Presidential campaign. Emanuel persuaded Clinton to prioritize raising money. This, to put it lightly, caught up with him. And while Emanuel was never tied to the fund-raising chicanery involving forgotten names like James Riady, Yah Lin Trie, and John Huang, it was that zeal for cash that provided Clinton’s Presidency its original taint of scandal. Obsessive fund-raising is also the foundation of Emanuel’s political operation in Chicago. When two reporters for the Chicago Reader filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the mayor’s private schedule in 2011 (unlike previous mayors, his public schedule was pretty much blank), they discovered that he almost never met with community leaders. He did, however, spend enormous blocks of time with the rich businessmen, including Republicans, who had showered him with cash.

There are moral complaints to be made about this, to be sure. But the behavior has also failed Emanuel on political grounds: when he found himself in trouble, he was left without a broad base of political support, unlike the previous mayor, Richard M. Daley, who in similar straits fell back on his close relationships in all fifty city wards. When one of those rich Republicans donors—Bruce Rauner, with whom Rahm has vacationed—became Illinois’s governor, last year, at least the scolds could comfort themselves that their mayor would enjoy privileged access to lobby for the city’s needs. But that hasn’t worked, either: instead, Rauner has given Rahm the cold shoulder.

But return to Washington in the early nineteen-nineties, when a grateful Clinton awarded his young charge a prominent White House role. There, Emanuel’s prodigious energy, along with his contempt for what he called “liberal theology,” rocketed him higher and higher into the Clinton stratosphere. “He gets things done,” Clinton’s chief of staff, Erskine Bowles, enthused late in 1996, when Emanuel usurped George Stephanopoulos as senior adviser for policy and strategy. Among his special projects was helping to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement and the 1994 crime bill. He also tried to push Clinton to the right on immigration, advising the President, in a memo in November, 1996, to work to “claim and achieve record deportations of criminal aliens.” These all, in the fullness of time, turned out to be mistakes.

NAFTA, in alienating the Party’s working-class base, contributed to the Democrats losing control of the House of Representatives in 1994. As for the crime bill, which included a “three strikes” provision that mandated life terms for criminals convicted of violent crimes even if their other two offenses were nonviolent, Clinton himself has apologized for it, saying that the policy “made the problem worse.” The attempt to out-Republican the Republicans on immigration never took off. Republicans are the party solely associated with vindictive immigration policies, which leaves them in the long-term crisis they’re finding themselves in now—identified as anathema by Latinos, the nation’s fastest-growing ethnic group. If Rahm had had his way, that never would have happened.

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The Dreaded Asscam!


 In case you haven’t had one yet or are in the age bracket where your Doctor will suggest one (yes suggest!). The article below is as clear as it can be about the procedure and accurate.  I have had the procedure several times over the years.

The Truth About Getting A Colonoscopy

Prevention
January 02, 2016
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(Photo: Getty Images)

There are a lot of good things about turning 50. You’re more self-aware and more confident. You no longer sweat the small stuff. And if you took care of yourself in the decades prior to hitting the half-century mark, you’re probably in pretty good shape. On the 50-really-stinks side of things: it’s time to schedule a colonoscopy. That involves letting a doctor insert a flexible tube up your bum to check for polyps that could lead to colorectal cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer death.

As a health reporter, I’ve written about the life-saving benefits of colonoscopy for ages. Yet I put off my own procedure for 2 years. I told myself I didn’t have the time (even as I told others to make the time). The truth was I dreaded the necessary bowel cleansing, aka “the prep.” (Are your insides out of whack? Then try The Good Gut Diet.)

After being read a modified riot act by my primary care doctor (I was compliant with everything else except this screen), I finally made the appointment. Then I cancelled it. Then I made it again. And I eventually went through with it. (Here are tips to get over your colonoscopy fears.)

Guess what? There are far things worse than the bowel cleansing. Think an infestation of termites, identity theft or, of course, colon cancer—which, if you have a colonoscopy, could be discovered and treated early.

If you’re shying away from having the screening, it’s probably because you still don’t feel like you know what you’re signing up for. I’m here to enlighten you.

 

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Very rarely will a doctor tell you to shun salads and whole grains. But for a few days leading up to your exam, it’s low-fiber, all the way. You get to eat cake, croissants, white bread, butter, pasta, and meat without the gristle. No popcorn, nuts, seeds. No whole-wheat toast! The rationale is simple: Low-fiber foods move through your digestive tract quickly, making the prep easier.

“Let’s put it this way: we don’t want to find corn kernels or lentils in your colon when we do the screen,” says gastroenterologist Carol Burke, MD of the Cleveland Clinic, adding that these tough-to-digest foods can also clog the scope. “Basically, we want the cleanest colon possible, and eating low-fiber, low-residue, easily-digestible foods will help you achieve that,” she says.

Clear liquids are your friend.

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OK, the cake part was nice. Sadly, the day before your exam, you don’t get cake. You don’t get to eat anything, really. The only things on the menu are clear liquids like white grape juice, bouillon, and water. There are actually more translucent beverages and clear liquid food-like substances than you ever thought, and your doctor will send you a list of approved fare. (To make the water go down easier, try one of these sassy water recipes.)

The prep takes hours.

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Simply put, bowel prep means taking nuclear-strength laxatives. The goal is to get your colon squeaky clean so your doc can see what’s going on in there. It’s also the reason that many people, like me, put off scheduling the screening or never schedule it at all, says Burke. But once your commit, you need to follow through whole-heartedly: You don’t want to be on the table and be told you have to go through it all over again because your prep wasn’t done properly.

There’s more than one way to cleanse your bowels, but the most commonly-prescribed option requires you to drink vats of a liquid polyethylene glycol (PEG)–based solution. The evening before your exam, you’ll start guzzling about a half-gallon of this sludge. It doesn’t taste great, but some regimens can be mixed with flavor packets or Crystal Light. (Check with your doc.)

Every 10-15 minutes you down 8 oz, and about 45 minutes later you’ll start running to the bathroom to eliminate waste. About 5 or 6 hours before your procedure you get to guzzle another half-gallon (again in 8 oz increments, every 10-15 minutes). (Here are other screenings you might consider having for gut health.)

While none of this is super fun—and if you have an early-morning appointment, it means getting up in the middle of the night to finish the job—it’s far easier than downing an entire gallon in one sitting (which is what doctors used to recommend). This newer “split-dosing” is also more effective, says Burke.

If this sounds truly terrible, speak up. There are alternatives, including pills and smaller-volume solutions. “Your doctor will work with you to find the best prep for you both in terms of your health and preference,” says Burke. “We don’t want prep to be an impediment.”

The test isn’t as embarrassing as you imagine.
There really wasn’t much to blush about. “Everything is designed for patient comfort and safety,” says Burke, noting that the only person looking at your butt for a moment is the doctor when he or she checks for hemorrhoids, fissures, or other abnormalities. After that, the scope goes in and all eyes are focused on the screen looking for polyps. (In other words, no one cares about your butt cheeks.)

The only slightly embarrassing moment came post-procedure, when a rather attractive male nurse asked if I had passed gas. I said nope. He then asked me to move my knees up to my chest. I did. And then I tooted, and tooted again. (During the procedure the doctor inflates the colon with air to help get a better view. So the “passing of air,” isn’t done to embarrass you, says Burke, but rather to help get rid of any excess air in the colon. Leftover air in the colon can cause discomfort.)

The test is pretty quick and doesn’t hurt.

<span class=”mceItemHidden” data-mce-bogus=”1″>&amp;amp;amp;lt;<span class=”mceItemHidden” data-mce-bogus=”1″><span class=”hiddenSpellError” data-mce-bogus=”1″ pre=””>img</span></span> class=”StretchedBox W(100%) H(100%) ie-7_H(a)” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/kA.svIJTyzfMDucj0EzlMw–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9NTQwO2g9MzQ4O2lsPXBsYW5l/http://l.yimg.com/cd/resizer/2.0/FIT_TO_WIDTH-w540/55d442e0cbae0ae140c804d94763759318b34be5.jpg”/&amp;amp;amp;gt;</span&gt;

(Photo: Getty Images)

Unless you are a hero and don’t want any anesthesia, you’ll most likely get “conscious sedation”—a drug combo designed to relax you and block any pain. I am not a hero. I got sedation, and I felt nothing. Many people even fall asleep, but I couldn’t stop talking.

The doctor asked me to roll on to my left side and to pull my knees up toward my chest. Then we were off to the races as he inserted the flexible, camera-laden tubing up my butt and gently advanced it through my colon. I heard things like, “excellent prep.” “Things are going well.” And then I remember asking how close we were to being done. My doctor said we were done. The whole thing was over in about 30 minutes.

Best of all, I heard the words that everyone undergoing a colonoscopy hopes to hear: “See you in 10 years.” Translation: nothing suspicious cropped up, and I can wait a decade before my next colonoscopy. (Although you may want to limit some meat consumption to keep your colon healthy.)

As I headed home, I was felt relieved—and ravenous. Many people say they “eat light” after a colonoscopy to avoid cramping and other potential problems. I did not eat light. I tore through a rotisserie chicken like a Viking shield maiden. Then I slept, and dreamed of cake and white bread.

By Joan Raymond

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Rubio: A Mini Trump?


This one of aspirants to the Presidency of the United States, Senator Marco Rubio is holding up an important Ambassadorial nomination to Mexico over his personal and some non related issues . You would think a “smart guy ” like this would understand that his actions are doing harm to many more people than he can possibly imagine or even foresee in the potential future damage to Mexican American relations. Story below.

 

By most accounts, Roberta Jacobson’s confirmation as U.S. ambassador to Mexico should have been a shoo-in.

Fluent in Spanish, expert in Latin American politics and skilled in cross-border trade negotiations, the career diplomat was nominated by President Obama to take over the crucial foreign service post six months ago.

After working on Latin American affairs for both Democratic and Republican administrations for three decades, Jacobson has broad bipartisan support in Congress.

Mexico expressed enthusiastic approval and prepared to welcome her to Mexico City. The Republican-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the nomination and sent it to the full Senate.

The hold-up means the United States has not had an ambassador in its third-biggest trading partner since August, when Ambassador Tony Wayne retired.

Mexico is an important export market for California and other states. It also is the permanent residence of approximately 1 million U.S. citizens, and 1.5 million visit on any given day, according to the State Department.

The two countries share a 2,000-mile border and are partners in numerous security agreements involving extradition, weapons trafficking and cross-border police training.

“The failure to complete her nomination sends a bad signal to our Mexican partners and all those Americans whose livelihoods and well being depend on maintaining a good and balanced relationship between neighbors,” said Eric Olson, associate director of the Latin American program at the nonpartisan Wilson Center in Washington.

Rubio, a senator from Florida, placed a hold on Jacobson’s nomination in October, a legislative maneuver that blocks a confirmation vote.

“We need an ambassador in Mexico City that has the trust of Congress for this important post,”  Rubio explained. “I do not believe that Ms. Jacobson is that person and will oppose her confirmation.”

He cited several concerns, including the Obama administration’s failure to seek timely extradition of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman before he escaped from a Mexican prison in July.

But Rubio’s sharpest knife was whetted on Cuba.

Jacobson’s sin, in the senator’s view, was her role in executing the rapprochement with the island’s Communist-led government following Obama’s decision last December to renew diplomatic ties after more than half a century of official hostility.

Jacobson subsequently led negotiations with the government of President Raul Castro aimed at opening a U.S. Embassy in Havana last summer, easing restrictions on travel and business for Americans and, most recently, establishing mail service between the two countries.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, accused Jacobson and the White House of failing to ensure that Cuba improve human rights before restoring ties, and of glossing over the Castro government’s penchant for stifling dissent.

Though Jacobson, 55, was not the architect of the administration’s Cuba policy, she was its most visible shepherd.

In an interview, she declined to discuss the nomination process, but she lamented leaving the ambassador’s post vacant at a critical time.

“There are huge opportunities for Americans” thanks to structural economic reforms in Mexico, especially in the energy and telecommunications industries, she said.

“The advocacy, support and visibility of a U.S. ambassador to help promote American businesses … makes a difference,” Jacobson said.

Rubio declined to comment for this story. But his enmity for Jacobson is not new.

In 2011, an aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern that Rubio would try to block Jacobson’s promotion to assistant secretary of State, her current position, according to emails recently released by the State Department.

Rubio’s focus at the time was the plight of Alan Gross, a U.S. government contractor from Maryland who was imprisoned in Cuba.

“He alludes that he will take it out on Roberta in the confirmation process,” the aide wrote.

After five years in a Cuban jail, Gross was released in December 2014 as part of the diplomatic opening that Rubio opposed.

Any senator can slow or hold a nomination — a dozen ambassadorial nominations are currently pending in the Senate — but the Mexico City job is more significant than most

Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he had worked with Jacobson and “there is no one more qualified to serve as our top diplomat” in Mexico.

“At a time when the United States faces threats all over the world, Congress should deepen our strong security partnership with Mexico, not take it for granted,” Engel said.

Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Whittier) also emphasized the U.S. relationship with Mexico, citing the 22.3 million U.S.-born Mexican Americans who reside here.

“While I understand Sen. Rubio has his own political ambitions to serve, there is absolutely no justification for holding up the nomination of [such] a qualified woman,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez and 18 other Latino members of Congress wrote a letter to Rubio this month urging him to lift his “misguided” hold on the Jacobson nomination.

“Strong leadership at our embassy in Mexico City has perhaps never been more important,” they wrote

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