And now, A MidMorning News Break

Can they do this? And would the Senate care if they did? Would ANYONE care?

13 state AGs threaten suit over health care deal
Republican attorneys general in 13 states say congressional leaders must remove Nebraska’s political deal from the federal health care reform bill or face legal action, according to a letter provided to The Associated Press Wednesday.

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There were a couple of interesting stories over at TruthOut:

America the Traumatized: How 13 Events of the Decade Made Us the PTSD Nation

The Millennial Decade screwed with our heads and destroyed our national identity. Are we in for a cataclysmic century?

And:

Why Obama Must Continue Releasing Yemenis From Guantánamo

. . . in this final article I look at the stories of the six Yemenis who were also released. These releases were enormously important because Yemenis make up nearly half of the remaining 198 prisoners in Guantánamo, and until these six men were repatriated, only 16 Yemenis had been freed from Guantánamo throughout the prison’s long history.

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Feminomics: Top Five Heroines of Financial Reform

Women are leading the charge on financial reform. In the spirit of celebrating their contributions, here are the top five heroes of 2009.

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Lying Your Way Into War? Apparently Not a Scandal

Not mentioned? The Bush administration lying its way into a war of choice, listening in on the phone conversations of Americans, torture, Abu Ghraib, putting an unqualified crony in charge of FEMA, the US Attorneys firing, outing a CIA operative to get back at her husband, etc.

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Well, I wasn’t going to do it but here’s an underwear story:

The Global War on Stealth Underwear

There is no “war” against terrorism. What George W. Bush launched and Barack Obama insists on perpetuating does not qualify. Not if by war one means doing the obvious and checking a highly suspicious air traveler’s underwear to see if explosives have been sewn in. If Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had put the stuff in his shoes we would have had him because that was tried before, but our government was too preoccupied with fighting unnecessary conventional wars and developing anti-missile defense systems to anticipate such a primitive delivery system.

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And I’ll end on a story that was the highlight of my year…. CCSVI (Chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency) is one of the medical highlights of the year. In fact I’d say, the developing story of a possible cause of MS — and the potential for a cure — is THE medical story of the year:

The Obama effect and the year in medicine

An Italian doctor has captured international attention with a new theory – and possible treatment – for multiple sclerosis.

Paolo Zamboni, a professor of medicine at the University of Ferrara, has published a series of papers suggesting that a narrowing of blood vessels in the neck could contribute to the development of MS. According to Dr. Zamboni, veins draining blood from the brain are malformed, or become blocked, leading to a buildup of iron in the brain which, he thinks, causes the neurological symptoms of MS.

By increasing blood flow, through a relatively simple operation, he believes symptoms can be reversed or minimized. The procedure has been performed on 65 MS patients, including Dr. Zamboni’s wife, with mixed results.

If you, a friend or family member has an interest in MS – W5 the CTV show – did a fabulous job explaining just what CCSVI is and how The Liberation Treatment has already changed the lives of MS patients.

The Liberation Treatment: A whole new approach to MS (video links to the show on the right sidebar)

Dr. Zamboni wondered if the iron came from blood improperly collecting in the brain. Using Doppler ultrasound, he began examining the necks of MS patients and made an extraordinary finding. Almost 100 per cent of the patients had a narrowing, twisting or outright blockage of the veins that are supposed to flush blood from the brain. He then checked these veins in healthy people, and found none of these malformations. Nor did he find these blockages in those with other neurological conditions.

“In my mind, this was unbelievable evidence that further study was necessary to understand the link between venous function and iron deposits on the other,” Zamboni told W5 from his research lab in Ferrara.

What was equally astounding, was that not only was the blood not flowing out of the brain, it was “refluxing” reversing and flowing back upwards. Zamboni believes that as the blood moves into the brain, pressure builds in the veins, forcing blood into the brain’s grey matter where it sets off a host of reactions, possibly explaining the symptoms of MS.