wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Jon Corzine, New Jersey Democratic candidate for Governor and U.S. Senator
- on his election campaign

» Senator Corzine's Website
» Corzine for Governor

Anita Dancs, research director for the National Priorities Project a nonpartisan that shows the local impact of federal policy
- on their study on the demographics of who is joining the military

» National Priorities Project

Chris Dickey, Paris bureau chief and Middle East editor for Newsweek,
- on the riots in France

» Newsweek

John Leland, staff reporter for the New York Times, wrote the article, "The Money Trap" in the paper's "Being a Patient" series
and
Jan Hoffman, staff reporter for the New York Times, wrote the article, "Overwhelmed by Choice"in the paper's "Being a Patient" series
- on their ...

James Ahearn, op-ed columnist and contributing editor at the Record of Bergen County,
and
Jon Shure, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that conducts research on state issues,
- debate the merits of creating a lieutenant governor job in New Jersey
...

Listen to today's "Patients is a Virtue" segment featuring New York Times staff reporters John Leland, who wrote the article, "The Money Trap," and Jan Hoffman, who wrote the article, "Overwhelmed by Choice." Both pieces appeared in the paper's "Being a Patient" series.

Subject: Making Your Own Health Decisions
[...] until relatively recently people either doctored themselves or made decisions with their "healers" about the proper route to take for treatment.

two examples, in the 1920s, my dad suffered a serious injury to his arm. the doctor wanted to amputate. my grandmother said, try to save it. basically, the doctor sewed the lower half of the arm back on -- my father's arm healed extremely well. he went on to be an excellent ball player. no one ever knew that he had nearly lost an arm. healer-patient conferences in which the patient makes the final decision existed long before "the modern medical (patriarchal) establishment" came into being.

second example: in the 1970s, my uncle had sinus cancer, a particularly difficult cancer to kick. this guy had survived iwo jima, so he was tough. the doctors said, here are your options. we have no idea what will work because we don't have a good track record with this cancer. you tell us how much radiation and how much chemo (it's your head) and we'll do whatever you want. my uncle said blast the cancer to the point at which you think i'll almost die. my uncle survived. he's still alive. the doctors wrote up his case in a medical journal as one way to beat what at that time was a nearly unbeatable disease.

people have to reclaim their own agency in health care and medical decisions. in this post-modern age, people have disconnected from themselvs and their bodies -- "lay people" can be just as effective in decision making as the so-called "professionals."

don't be afraid. do the homework. ask every question and, if need be, fight the system when you think you're right. my family has and we have many examples of being right when the "docs" were wrong.
-BS

Subject: Prescription Assistance Program
For people needing help paying for medication, they can turn to the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (https://www.pparx.org). 1-888-4PPA-NOW
-DD

Subject: Healthcare discussion
Just fyi, NJ residents can go to http://www.rx4nj.org to get free or covered prescriptions and it links to many options, including programs set up by pharmacutical companies.
-LB

Jon Corzine was on our show today (click here for that), but if you're still undecided between him, Doug Forrester, Jeffrey Pawlowski, and Hector Castillo, there's always the gramatically-impaired gym buff Eddie McOwskey, whose heroes are Jesus ...

Ragin' Cajun Congressman Charlie Melancon somehow got his hands on former FEMA Director Michael Brown's emails written during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. And he's making them available on his website here, complete with the congressman's analysis.

...

BL has interviewed the many of the minor party candidates for Mayor of New York and Governor of New Jersey, our first ever web-only feature. Click here to listen to the interviews.

Corzine's ex-wife featured in Corzine ad (Star-Ledger)

Bush approval at new low (Washington Post)

Snow aims to halve budget deficit by end of Bush term (Financial Times)

Romania and Poland to be investigated for CIA prisons (NY Times)

Paris riots spread (Al Jazeera)

Musharraf ...