White House Chronicle

News Analysis With a Sense of Humor

Hearing from Those Who Suffer Mostly in Silence

by 12 Comments

 

“There have been some medical schools in which somewhere along the assembly line, a faculty member has informed the students, not so much by what he said but by what he did, that there is an intimate relation between curing and caring.”

So remarked Ashley Montague, the British-American anthropologist and humanist.

The millions who suffer from what is termed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the United States, and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis in the rest of the world, await day that the medical establishment cares enough about the disease to cure it.

They await that day with an anxiousness that is unimaginable to those who have not been afflicted by the disease.

The two commentaries on CFS/ME that Llewellyn King wrote for the Hearst-New York Times Syndicate (and posted on this Web site) have elicited a terrible cry from the afflicted, including a woman who called herself “an unburied corpse.”

These cries called out for a special edition of “White House Chronicle” on CFS. That edition, featuring Deborah Waroff, a New York author, and Dr. Paul Plotz, a National Institutes of Health clinician scientist, first aired on television Oct. 8, 2010.

“I hope the television special and my syndicated columns push the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, and its political masters, to take action on this life-robbing disease,” said King, executive producer and host of “White House Chronicle.”

Here are some of the viewer responses to the CFS/ME special that we have received so far:

From: Terry

Thank you so much for your broadcast featuring ME/CFS.

I am a Canadian ME/CFS patient who has suffered from this disease for over 12 years. I am involved in research looking to see if there is a connection between the newly discovered XMRV retrovirus and neuropsychiatric disease in my child. The thought is XMRV may have been passed onto my child by me and played a role in expression of her condition.

I am waiting for general XMRV research to learn if the retrovirus played a role in cancer I was diagnosed with four years ago as well. I am wondering if I will develop other cancers and wait anxiously to learn more about ME/CFS and cancer.

I would like to state here, in my experience, CFS/ME is not biologically benign, and highlighting CFS/ME on your show is significant. Perhaps you may help move research forward and thank you in advance for this.

I am immensely appreciative, since as you can imagine, I am anxious for research to help my family understand our poor state of health.

I am a most grateful U.S. neighbor.

 

From: Melinda

I can’t thank you enough for the attention you have brought to ME/CFS suffers.

I have had to deal many times with the ignorance and intolerance towards this illness. It is such an isolating illness and it is well and truly about time that more attention is given to it.

It would be so much easier to deal with if we had understanding and support.

Again thank you!

From: Cheryl


Thank you so very much for your willingness and openness to bring new light to ME/CFS on your show.

We need you. We are desperate to have our voices heard. I can only tell you from my experience that no one would want to have this horrible, life-stealing illness.


I was a very active social worker and church and community volunteer before contracting a virus in 2004 that never went away. It took so long to get an accurate diagnosis that by the time that I did, I was completely bedbound, not being able to leave my home for weeks at a time.

I have to travel over 1,000 miles for medical care, since I am unable to find a doctor here that believes me.


In January of this year, I had to crawl out of my bed to fight breast cancer. With a compromised immune system, I worry about it coming back and not being strong enough for more treatments.

Cancer was a breeze compared to the battles of ME/CFS–and I do not say that flippantly.


Please continue to bring this horrible illness and the injustices to the public. It is a crime against humanity to be made to suffer like this with no answers.


God bless you, Mr. King.

From: Karen

How is “epidemic” defined at the White House?

When is National XMRV Testing Day?

How much longer do you think I can hold out before Chronic Fatigue Syndrome induced dysautonomia shuts down a vital central nervous system?

Put the Kettle on, Sarah Palin

by Leave a Comment

 

 

Sarah m’dear, it’s not about the party. It’s about the tea.

For those of us of the British persuasion, tea is black tea. It was the tea on which the British built the empire.

It was also, I might add, the tea that Margaret Thatcher served at No. 10 Downing Street. I enjoyed some with her there. A Conservative traditionalist, she served it with milk for certain and sugar as an option.

Thatcher did not ask her guests, as bad hotels do now, what kind of tea they would like. Tea to Thatcher was black tea, sometimes known as Indian tea, though it might have been grown in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe or Sri Lanka. It was neither flavored nor some herbal muck masquerading as tea.

The former prime minister knew that good tea is made in the kitchen, where stove-boiled water is poured from a kettle onto tea in a pot, not tepid water poured from a pot on a table into a cup with a tea bag.

Boiling water in a kettle, or pot, on the stove is important in making good tea. In a microwave, the water doesn’t bubble. Tea needs the bubbles.

While the Chinese drank green tea hundreds of years before Christ, the British developed their tea-drinking habit in the 17th century. In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted permission for the charter of the British East India Company, establishing the trade in spice and silk that lead to the formal annexation of India and the establishment of the Raj.

Initially, tea was a sideline but it became increasingly important and started to define the British. The coffee shops–like the one that launched the insurer Lloyds of London around 1688–continued, but at all levels of society tea was becoming the British obsession.

By the 18th century, tea drinking was classless in Britain. Duchesses and workmen enjoyed it alike.

Tea was the fuel of the empire: the war drink, the social drink, the comfort drink and the consolation drink. Coffee had an upmarket connotation. It wasn’t widely available and the British didn’t make it very well.

Also as coffee was well established on the continent, it had to be shunned. To this day the British are divided about continental Europe and what they see as the emblems of Euro-depravity: coffee, garlic, scents and bidets.

Although tea is standardized, the British play their class games over the tea packers. For three centuries, most tea has been shipped in bulk to various packing houses throughout the British Isles. But the posh prefer Twinings to Lipton.

Offering tea with fancy cakes, clotted cream and fine jams separates the workers from the ruling classes. One of Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting, Anna Maria Stanhope, known as the Duchess of Bedford, is credited as the creator of afternoon tea time; which the hotels turned into formal, expensive afternoon “teas.” The Ritz in London is famous for them.

The British believe that tea sustained them through many wars. “Let’s have a nice cup of tea. Things will get better.” I’ve always believed that America’s revenge against the British crown was to ice their beloved tea. Toss it into Boston Harbor, but don’t ice it. If you should have the good fortune to be asked to tea at No. 10, or at Buckingham Palace, don’t expect it to be iced.

Incidentally tea bags are fine, and it’s now just pretentious to serve loose tea with a strainer. Of course, if you want to read the political tea leaves you’ll have to use loose tea.

If you’re serving tea to the thousands at your tea parties, Sarah, remember that unlike politics, tea is very forgiving. It can be revived just with more boiling water.  –For the Hearst-New York Times Syndicate

The Health Care Fix That Dare Not Speak Its Name

by Leave a Comment

 

Workaround is a made-up word that came to us from the computer industry – at least, that is how it came into general usage. In that industry, a workaround can be a crafty piece of engineering to get the results you want without infringing on someone else’s patent.

 

Watching President Barack Obama at last week’s prime-time news conference, one had the feeling that he was engaged in a workaround. He was selling a vague health care reform proposal. His spiel was very long because he was selling something that is still a work in progress. Worse: Whatever Obama gets is not going to be the real thing. It is going to be a workaround.

 

One has the feeling that congressional pusillanimity has the Democrats and their leader working around what at heart they know is the only solution to the challenge of health care – a strong federal role. Call it the solution that dare not speak its name, like Oscar Wilde’s love.

 

One had the feeling in the East Room last week that the president wanted to lay down the burden of political gamesmanship and say, “National systems work from Taiwan to Norway, Canada to Australia; why, oh why can’t we face this reality?”

 

The first answer is that no one has the courage to face the Banshee wails of “socialism” that already echo from the right and would intensify to the sound of a Category 3 hurricane. Politically, it would be seen as a bridge too far. Had Obama said in the presidential campaign that he was for a single-payer option, the Democrats on Capitol Hill might have had the temerity to investigate what works remarkably well in Belgium and Japan, among dozens of other countries.

 

Globally, the single-payer option – or, let’s face it, nationalization – has brought in universal coverage at about half of what the United States spends today; let alone what we will spend with the clumsy hybrid that the president is selling and Congress is concocting.

 

Under nearly all state-operated systems, private insurers have a role. My friends in Britain and Ireland all have private insurance for bespoke medicine above that available on the state system. Sure, state systems are criticized, especially in Italy (along with everything else), but not one country that has a state system has made any political move to repeal it. State systems are popular.

 

In Britain, where I have had most experience with the National Health Service, it is the third rail of their politics. Even the great advocate of free enterprise, Margaret Thatcher, did not dare to even think of touching it. Every British Tory wants to make it more efficient, but none wants to repeal it. Thatcher repealed anything that had the whiff of socialism about it and privatized much, including the railways, but the health system was sacrosanct.

 

The issue should not be whether we can keep every insurer alive and whether we should continue to burden employers with the health care of their staffs and their families, but whether a new system will deliver for all Americans at reasonable cost.

 

It is probably too late to rationalize the system all at once. There are too many interests, too much money at stake and a pathological fear of government, fanned by the loud few. No matter that the Tennessee Valley Authority works well, that the Veterans Administration is a larger, and probably better, state program than those in many countries. It is not just in health care that Congress and the administration are engaged in workaround. Cap-and-trade in energy is another piece of avoidance.

Utility chief, after utility chief, after utility chief–among them, John Rowe of Exelon and James Rogers of Duke–has said that a simple carbon tax would be more effective and cheaper than cap-and-trade. But the same people who yell “socialist” get severe arrhythmia at the mention of “tax.” Workaround.  –For North Star Writers Group

 

 

 

 

Letter to the Editor

by Leave a Comment

Your article this morning (“Requiem for U.S. newspapers,” Commentary by Llewellyn King, Nov. 1, 2008, The Providence Journal) rang a bell here! Your article should be compulsory reading for all sentient humans. Opinions are worthless if there
is nothing real to base them upon.
Well done.

CHARLES ANDREWS
East Greenwich, RI
The writer is chairman of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations

Barometer: Heatwave Edition

by


Tom Tancredo: Bomb Mots

He would deter Islamic militants’ nuclear attacks on the United States by threatening to bomb Mecca and Medina. Mexicans should start practicing duck-and-cover. Foul/Falling

Joe Biden: Talking Guy

Good new book, but what a title to frighten away the punters. Also Joe knows he talks too much, but he can’t shut up. Something to do with his childhood stutter? Rain/Cloudy

Barack Obama: Treading Water

He’s in the foreign policy deep-end, and Hillary Clinton is trying to push him under. Don’t worry, Barack, she’s the one who voted for the war. Obama wins on points. Fair/Rising

John Edwards: Our Crowd

Poor little rich boy is trying to be a populist. But he’s not gotten through to the minimum-wage crowd. They suspect a trick. Only his hairdresser knows for sure. Rain/Cloudy

Rudy Giuliani: Magic Date

Did you know he was mayor of New York City on 9/11? If you didn’t know, he was mayor of NYC on 9/11, you should know he was on deck on 9/11. Let the angels sing: “Giuliani was mayor of The Big Bagel on 9/11.” Sing we now. Foul/Falling

Mitt Romney: Moving Target

Mitt has flipped to please the base, and the base hasn’t responded. All that Massachusetts liberalism leaves it mark. Rain/Cloudy

Barometer: The Long Hot Summer of Discontent

by


George W. Bush: Up Is Down

The National Intelligence Estimate says that the risk of al-Qaeda attacks is up, but Bush says it’s down. But then he still thinks that invading Iraq and sitting on his hands in the Middle East for six years was policy. You can go sunbathing in the dark too. Foul/Falling

Dick Cheney: Hours Of Power

Cheney cooked up the Iraq war, and it’s been a disaster. For two hours on Saturday, when Bush was under the knife, the veep could’ve concocted a war with Iran. No word on whether he ordered up some torture. Foul/Falling

John McCain: Last Campaign

Better loved our war hero cannot be, except by the Republican base. He’s for the war, OK. And he’s for legalizing immigrants and campaign finance reform, not OK. Better the dress-wearing, divorce-prone, gay-loving Rudy Giuliani. Foul/Falling

Hillary Clinton: Cold Case

The rap on George W. Bush is too much secrecy. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet! Nobody is more secretive than Hillary. She snows the press, but she can’t project warmth. Show her, Bill. Rain/Cloudy

Jim Gilmore: Silent Exit

He’s carried himself back to Old Virginny. Was he ever in the race? Why did one of Virgina’s many non-entity governors think he should be president? All he ever did was cut a car tax. Foul/Falling

Barometer: Special Summer Sale–20 Percent Off All Politicos

by


 


George W. Bush: Special Case

Who would’ve thought the president had such a kind heart? He let Scooter Libby walk. Pity about all the other clemency cases. But they’re not Cheney cronies. Foul/Falling

Dick Cheney: Resting Easy

Sleep well, Dick. Scooter is ruined, but he’s not going to jail. Now push George for a full pardon, and Scooter is back in business—on K Street. What are friends for? Foul/Falling

Fred Thompson: Heatstroke

Those lazy, hazy days of summer—just the time for a lazy, hazy candidate. Such a big country, so much talent, and Fred is the front-runner. Ah, the sweet mystery of B movies. Rain/Cloudy

Harry Reid: Nevada Dealer

Harry can’t hold the Democrats together, but he can keep nuclear waste out of Nevada. Harry is an unlikely front man for the casinos, but he sure keeps them winning. Fair/Rising

Hillary Clinton: Girl Interrupted

What’s a girl to do? Barack gets the money and Bill gets the crowds. Makes you wonder about democracy, doesn’t it? An unknown senator and a cheating husband get raves, and Hillary gets negatives. Rain/Cloudy

Gordon Brown: Health Threat

He knew that he’d have trouble with the U.K. health service. But he didn’t know that some of the doctors were terrorists. See what you get with socialized medicine? Rain/Cloudy

 

 

 

 

 

Reporter’s Notebook

by

 

Lobster Summit

 

President Bush was a goofy mood moments before Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.

 

The president joined his mom and his wife by the side door of the mansion on Walker’s Point, but he had come out prematurely. First lady Laura Bush walked up to him and started fiddling with the buttons on his blue Oxford-cloth shirt–seems he had forgotten to button one.

 

“Buttons,” he said to the laughing press corps.

 

The exchange that followed, when he walked over to the gaggle of reporters waiting on the driveway, was hilarious:

 

“Welcome. Is everybody having a nice day here?” the president asked.

 

“Yes. The lobsters are good,” one reporter called back.

 

“They are good.”

 

“How was the fishing today, sir?” another reporter asked.

 

“Lousy. Was that you, Chuck, the other day?” Bush asked funky photographer Charles Ommanney. “No wonder we didn’t catch any fish. They took a look at you and [laughter] headed out.”

 

After a lull, Mark Knoller of CBS Radio filled the silence by asking: “You sure you won’t come back here a little more often?” All the reporters–many of whom have done dozens of trips to Crawford, Texas–laughed.

 

“That’s what I figured,” Bush said. “Well, the guy is counting the days in Crawford, you know.”

 

The resident statistician called back: “I’m counting your days here, too–35. Nine trips.”

 

After some baseball small talk and Putin’s arrival, former President George H.W. Bush got in on the act: “Where did these guys all come from? When I left, there was nobody here,” he said to laughter.

 

Maine No Chance

 

The former president is really enjoying his autumn years.

 

On the press conference day, the elder Bush walked onto his Maine mansion’s lawn wearing pink pants, a sporty windbreaker, and big wraparound glasses. He held court with the gaggle of reporters for a few moments, telling the story of the morning fishing trip with Putin–the only one to catch a fish that day.

 

“He’s a really good caster, bait-casting,” 41 said, instructing reporters, “Make sure you put that down: bait-casting is hard.”

 

A reporter asked what was the fastest he ever went in his cigarette boat, Fidelity III. “Seventy miles per hour–three passengers, half a tank of gas. That’s important. Put that down.”

 

Bush Sr. said Putin and his wife had been very kind when he and former first lady Barbara Bush visited Russia, and that he had invited the Russian president to drop by anytime.

 

But when another reporter yelled out a question–“Did you sit on official meetings?”–41 said with a big smile, “Hey, I’m not doing a darn press conference here!”

 

Cow Palace

 

The former president and first lady have a nice place. Really nice.

 

As you drive through the big gates, and past the Secret Service booth, there is a sign on brick gatepost that says, “Slow: Children on Golf Carts.” A driveway winds behind the house, along the ocean, past the tennis court, and up to the main house. There’s a five-bedroom house nearby called “The Bungalow.”

 

On the lawn stand two white, life-size plastic bovines (a bull, and a calf) covered with painted handprints. They were arrayed around Houston at one point, just as D.C. has its colorful elephants and donkeys.

 

Before Putin arrived, Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin took some shots of the posing first ladies, flanking Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

 

Putin arrived in a Mercedes limo with Russian plates, wearing an exquisitely tailored, cognac-colored suit and no tie. He shook hands with Bush and presented a large and loud bouquet of flowers to the first lady, whom he kissed on both cheeks. An aide gave him another bouquet; he handed those to Barbara and kissed her on both cheeks.

 

But by then, Bush had had enough of the press.

 

“OK, it’s been real. Thanks for coming.” White House officials quickly shooed the media away.

 

Fake Franklin

 

Buzzing about the seaside town of Kennebunkport this week was this tale:

 

A Russian man attempted to pass off a phony $100 bill at the New Hampshire State Liquor store in Portsmouth on Thursday, according to the store manager, who said a cashier discovered the bill was bogus.

 

Store manager Mike Smith said the man, accompanied by four other Russian men, attempted to purchase two bottles of Scotch whisky with the bum bill. The cashier used a special pen to mark the bill to test its authenticity.

 

“It turned a color that it’s not supposed to, and when he saw that, he grabbed the bill back and left,” Smith told a reporter.

 

Portsmouth police received a call from the liquor store that the man and his friends were on foot, headed to the nearby Holiday Inn. Police responded to the scene. A dispatch message on the police scanner said diplomatic immunity might be involved.

 

But Police Lt. Dante Puopolo said that diplomatic immunity was not invoked because police did not make any arrests.

 

“We have no evidence of any kind,” he said. “We don’t have the $100 bill.”

 

However, he said there are currently Russians staying in town who are entitled to diplomatic immunity, he said. “Their version of the Secret Service are staying here in Portsmouth,” he said.

Reporter’s Notebook

by

Photo Grave Error

The White House has placed an embargo on any photo release of the new West Wing Briefing Room until Monday, July 9, the White House Correspondents’ Association told members this week.

“I am working with them to move the date up so photos can be released the weekend prior to the official opening for any ‘advancer stories’… and will keep you posted on that,” WHCA President Steve Scully wrote.

However, the immediate directive from the Office of Administration and senior staff is no photo release is allowed.

On Wednesday, Tony Overton, who is coordinating the construction effort between the White House and news organizations, wrote: “Please advise press not to enter the space with cameras. Not sure what their intent is but we had a lot of traffic with still cameras in tow today and GSA/escorts were asking them not to take any photos. Hate to put them in that role. — Anthony J. Overton, Chief Facilities Officer, Executive Office of the President of the United States.”

That itchy-fingers incident prompted Scully to forward WHCA members an e-mail from the White House press aide Josh Deckard: “Press are NOT allowed to photograph the brief room during this transition–they aren’t even supposed to be in there. Press took pictures this morning and got very rude w/ the workers when they asked them to stop. Please make sure those pictures don’t run. If anyone breaks this rule from here on out they will lose their pass. Thanks.”

The White House has placed an embargo on any photo release of the new West Wing Briefing Room until Monday, July 9, the White House Correspondents’ Association told members this week.

“I am working with them to move the date up so photos can be released the weekend prior to the official opening for any ‘advancer stories’… and will keep you posted on that,” WHCA President Steve Scully wrote.

However, the immediate directive from the Office of Administration and senior staff is no photo release is allowed.

On Wednesday, Tony Overton, who is coordinating the construction effort between the White House and news organizations, wrote: “Please advise press not to enter the space with cameras. Not sure what their intent is but we had a lot of traffic with still cameras in tow today and GSA/escorts were asking them not to take any photos. Hate to put them in that role. — Anthony J. Overton, Chief Facilities Officer, Executive Office of the President of the United States.”

That itchy-fingers incident prompted Scully to forward WHCA members an e-mail from the White House press aide Josh Deckard: “Press are NOT allowed to photograph the brief room during this transition–they aren’t even supposed to be in there. Press took pictures this morning and got very rude w/ the workers when they asked them to stop. Please make sure those pictures don’t run. If anyone breaks this rule from here on out they will lose their pass. Thanks.”

Nose Didn’t Know

The White House conference center was evacuated on Monday after a bomb-sniffing dog reacted to a minivan being used for Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert’s visit.

Reporters were ushered out of their temporary workspace for a 90-minute break while the Secret Service investigated. Nothing suspicious was found in the vehicle, said Secret Service spokesman Dan Blackford.

Olmert was having meetings at the Blair House, the government guest quarters on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House, and his schedule was not affected, members of his delegation said.

The evacuated building was the White House conference center, on Jackson Place around the corner from Blair House. These clear-outs didn’t happen when the press corps was right off the West Wing.

Party Hearty

The president and his family had to land on the Mall on Sunday because the White House lawn was set up for the big congressional picnic bash on Tuesday.

Black picnic tables and giant white tents dotted the South Lawn for the annual chow down, which the president (according to an insider) is not too fond of.

But this year at least the food will be good: The White House called in New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme. The Cajun-cackling chef brought along hundreds of pounds of shrimp and fish from the Gulf of Mexico for the picnic and will make one of his signature dishes, blackened redfish.

The full menu: Tables with cheese, vegetables, breads and fruit; barbecued shrimp station with toast points; spinach salad with blue cheese dressing and garnishes; potato salad; butter beans; fried green tomatoes with St. Charles sauce; bronzed beef, gingersnap gravy; fried chicken; chicken and sausage gumbo; sweet potato pecan pie squares with Chantilly cream; and pecan pralines.

The music, though, was not so hot—White House press secretary Tony Snow’s garage band, Beats Workin,’ got the gig. Bush described the band as a “bunch of mediocre musicians,” but he was only kidding. Or was he?

Old Mode

Long before the advent of the Internet, White House reporters used to call in to the lower press office to hear a recording of the president’s upcoming schedule. For some reason, it’s back.

Called the “Press Announcement Line,” members of the media can dial (202) 456-2358 to hear a recording of the president’s press schedule as well as the gaggle and briefing times. Most reporters, though, will probably stick with the new-fashioned way–reading the sked on their Blackberries.

Daddy Dearest

The president got some dud gifts on Father’s Day: a CD of workout music from daughter Jenna, and some ties from the first lady. Yup, he’s just like you.