Crazy Guide to the Internet

A soup of pharmaceutical waste spews from the faucets supplying drinking water to 41 million Americans, according to a disturbing study from the Associated Press. At least 24 major cities are affected, including New York, Washington, Boston Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Here are some of the key test results obtained by the AP:

• Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city’s watersheds.
• Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
• Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
• A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco’s drinking water.
• The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
• Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.

The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP.

What’s the source of this toxic stew? Us. Drugs that we can’t fully metabolize are pissed straight through treatment plants and back into our drinking supply.

So what’s the answer? Bottled water? General fear and panic? No. Science got us into this mess and we expect science to either get us out or tell us more. That’s reasonable, right? Right?!

What about the government? Maybe they can offer an encouraging and meaningful response. Let’s turn for reassurance to Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA’s assistant administrator for water:

“We recognize it is a growing concern and we’re taking it very seriously.”

@#$%!

AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water [AP]
(Photo: Getty)

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Travel guru Peter Greenberg shares three useful and unexpected questions that can make a huge difference when booking a hotel room. Inside, learn how to avoid digs next to the inevitable construction and instead score the room with a shower strong enough to clean a stinky elephant.

The three questions:

• 1. Ask how close your room is to the construction. Hotels are constantly undergoing renovations, so it’s safe to assume that your is no exception.
• 2. Listen Rapunzel, ask for a room below the eight floor. Firefighters aren’t scared of height, but their hoses can’t reach past the eighth floor.
• 3. Ask for a room on the same floor as the booster pumps. They make your shower strong, like Ukraine.

Tips on Choosing the Right Hotel Room [Peter Greenberg]

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A CBS investigation has revealed that parking tickets stemming from 85% of the parking meters in Philadelphia are invalid. Pennsylvania law requires inspectors to certify each parking meter for accuracy once every three years, but the single inspector working for Philly’s Licenses and Inspections Department, the city agency in change of certification, has visited less than 15% of all parking meters—but he has found the time to certify some meters 8 times while others go completely unchecked. As a result, thousands of parking tickets are invalid under state law.

“Has your department tested every parking meter in the city within the past three years?” I asked Deputy Commissioner Dominic Verdi. “No,” he replied. So how many have they inspected? The Deputy Commissioner wasn’t clear, saying “The exact number I don’t have in front of me.”

But we know, after 3 On Your Side reviewed the inspection reports ourselves. Out of 14,500 meters, only around 2,000 have been tested and certified for timing from 2005 through 2007, that is less than 15 percent!

Verdi blames lack of man power, L&I only has one inspector assigned to that job.

“There is no way possible for us to handle all of those meters,” said Verdi.

But when we checked, we found some meters were being checked time and time again! A meter on South 9th Street was tested at 11 a.m. one morning and approved, then hours later it was tested again, and approved again!

When I asked Verdi if the inspector was clueless, he just shrugged.

Then there is the situation we found on Ridge Avenue, a meter was tested and approved eight times last year, and it happened in other places too!

Parking tickets can be defective for a number of reasons. In New York, every ticket must have five items: the license plate number, plate type, the exact registration expiration date, vehicle make or model, and the vehicle body type.

Our town—which is full of parking ticket sticklers and has this suburban cowboy ticket inspector guy who revels in ticketing parents who dash into stores while their kids wait in the car—was caught issuing tickets that listed only the month and year of a registration’s expiration, not the exact day. As a result, the town’s tickets were invalid. The townspeople celebrated and the suburban cowboy cried. True story.

Anyway, if you live in Philadelphia and have an outstanding parking ticket, click on this link (PDF) to see if the meter was properly certified. If it wasn’t, the ticket is not legally enforceable and will be tossed out by any law-abiding judge.

If only this applied to New York City’s $150 parking tickets…

3 On Your Side: Parking Meter Investigation [CBS3]
(Photo: Getty)

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Polls open in Mississippi in less than 48 hours, and right now supporters across the state are going block by block to talk to people in their community to Get Out the Vote for Barack.

Today’s Mississippi Commercial Dispatch reported on the incredible experience of one group of supporters:  

Neighborhood by neighborhood, dozens of Barack Obama campaign volunteers fanned out across the Golden Triangle today to blanket each home with campaign literature and urge voters to vote for Obama in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary.

“We knocked on probably 70 houses this morning,” said Obama campaign volunteer Cheikh Taylor, of Starkville, Saturday afternoon, as he and childhood friend Carlos Harris picked up more door hangers and brochures at the Starkville Obama headquarters on Main Street at Level III. The two had been to the Rosedale neighborhood and were headed out to the Hancock Street neighborhood, Taylor’s boyhood home.

… On Hancock Circle, you could say that the warm welcome greeting Taylor and Harris - and by extension, Obama - is because these men know nearly everyone on the block. But even in the Rosedale neighborhood, where these volunteers were virtually unknown, the response to the Illinois senator has been overwhelmingly supportive.

“The response is that ‘he has my vote,’” said Taylor after canvassing in the morning.

When residents were asked if the planned to vote Tuesday and if they intended to support Obama, the response was definite.

“Oh, of course,” said George Tutton, who lives on Hancock Circle.

“Oh, sure I plan to support him,” remarked Horace Montgomery, who lives a few doors down, and who noted Taylor and Harris were the first volunteers from any campaign to have knocked on his door this year.

Obama, who started out in public service as a community organizer in poor neighborhoods in south Chicago, is someone Taylor, who works with Brickfire Project - which helps people acquire affordable housing - can relate to.

… “That’s what grassroots is. It starts from the bottom by each one of us and it grows,” said Taylor who sees Obama as something akin to a movement energized by its millions of voters and supporters.

“People are starting to feel something they haven’t in years,” remarked Taylor on his walk down Hancock Circle. “And that’s they feel like they’re a part of the political process.”

One of the incredible stories of this campaign has been the way ordinary people all across the country have come together to change politics from the bottom up. Your efforts have gotten us to where we are now, but in this close race every state, every delegate, and every vote counts.

That’s why we need all of our supporters to help Get Out The Vote for Barack in Mississippi — especially on Monday and Tuesday. If you live in Mississippi, you can sign up today to join fellow supporters to canvass in your neighborhood.

And no matter where you live, you can help by making calls to Mississippi voters from home, using our online phonebanking system.

Visit MS.BarackObama.com for more news and information from Mississippi. 

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We know some new readers are coming to the site for the first time this weekend — and while regulars know we’re always posting videos and updates from the campaign trail here, we wanted to take a minute and bring it back to the basics for all the first-timers on the blog today.  

Here are just a few videos to introduce you to Senator Obama.

Learn a little about Barack Obama’s unique background in “Meet Barack:”

See where it all began, on the steps of the Springfield courthouse, here in Senator Obama’s Presidential Announcement Speech:

Check out the face of the movement, in the state where the movement really started to take shape in, “Road to Change: Iowa:”

And watch Barack Obama take his central message of hope from the Democratic National Convention in 2004 to Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and beyond in this short video, “One Voice:”

You can check out these videos and many more on Barack TV.  

Then here is some essential, further reading about some of the most important issues facing voters today:

Where Obama Stands: On the Economy

Where Obama Stands: On Healthcare

Where Obama Stands: On Iraq

Where Obama Stands: On Energy and the Environment

If you check back into the blog often, you can watch the most recent videos of Barack and Michelle Obama on the campaign trail, read detailed posts on Obama’s policy positions, and see the regular reports coming in from the thousands of grassroots supporters powering this movement state by state. 

Please pass this post on and introduce Barack Obama to the people you know!

And if you’re new to the site, be sure to create a My.BarackObama.com account today so you can meet other supporters, volunteer, and of course join the conversation in the comments below…

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Act moutwash may look like it comes in two sizes, but according to Mouseprint, the large and small bottles are actually entirely different products. The labeling looks largely the same until you get to the active ingredient. The small bottle contains .05% of sodium fluoride while the large bottle contains .02%. Hit the jump for Act’s sneaky explanation.

Now who would ever expect that a different size bottle would have a different strength of the active ingredient? In fact, if you look at the larger bottle, there is a “2x” on it. Without reading carefully, one might assume that “2x” means twice the strength or twice the size, but certainly never half the potency. A closer examination reveals that is says “2x a day”. Okay, so you can use the product twice daily.

As it turns out, the company says the smaller bottle is a once a day product, and the larger one is a twice a day product. Apparently you get the equivalent amount of fluoride using the diluted version two times a day.

Who in their reasonable mind would expect a larger bottle to contain anything other than more product? Act is reaping undeserved profit while consumers think they are getting protection that just isn’t provided.

We guess Act and Listerine share the same rotten marketing team.

Act Fluoride: Twice the Size, Half the Strength [Mouseprint]
PREVIOUSLY: Thought Process Behind Listerine Label Finally Revealed

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From the Wall Street Journal:

Sen. Barack Obama won Saturday’s crowded Wyoming caucuses, defeating rival Sen. Hillary Clinton …

Sen. Obama won 61% of the vote to Sen. Clinton’s 38%, with all 23 Wyoming counties reporting.

Twelve delegates were at stake in Wyoming, and the win provides a boost for the Obama campaign because both candidates ran aggressively in the sparsely populated state. Sen. Obama’s victory is the first since his streak of 11 straight primary wins was shattered on Tuesday with a big loss in Ohio and a narrower defeat in Texas.

The Illinois senator has done well in caucuses and the Rocky Mountains and Plains states, which made him the favorite in Wyoming. His grassroots mobilization has helped boost voter turnout in caucuses, which are usually more involved than primaries. On Super Tuesday, Sen. Obama won contests by large margins in North Dakota, Idaho and Colorado.

… While Saturday caucuses nominated just one-half of 1% of the total delegates needed for the nomination, the visits to this town of 52,000 by both candidates underscored the tightening of the race. “It makes you feel listened to in Wyoming like you haven’t ever been in the past,” said John Gans, 51, of Lander, Wyo.

… From here, the contest turns to Mississippi’s primary on Tuesday, where 33 delegates and seven superdelegates will be awarded. Then the candidates brace for a six-week battle in Pennsylvania, which awards 159 delegates in its April 22 primary.

From the Associated Press:

Sen. Barack Obama captured the Wyoming Democratic caucuses Saturday, seizing a bit of momentum in the close, hard-fought race with rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the party’s presidential nomination.

Obama generally has outperformed Clinton in caucuses, which reward organization and voter passion more than do primaries. The Illinois senator has now won 13 caucuses to Clinton’s three.

Obama has also shown strength in the Mountain West, winning Idaho, Utah, Colorado and now Wyoming. The two split Nevada, with Clinton winning the popular vote and Obama more delegates.

… Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the Wyoming victory speaks to the candidate’s strength in the West, and that Obama is better suited to help down-ticket Democrats even in states that traditionally vote Republican in the general election.

“I think it’s evidence that Senator Obama is going to be able to put more states in play because of his strength with independent voters,” Plouffe said.

From the New York Times:

Party officials reported extremely high turnout at caucus sites across Wyoming. In Laramie County, more than 1,500 came to cast votes at the caucus site, quickly filling the auditorium in downtown Cheyenne. Hundreds waited outside for hours until they could enter and vote. (In 2004, only 160 people showed up for the Laramie County caucus.)

Wyoming Democrats, usually a lonely bunch in an overwhelmingly Republican state, basked in their moment in the spotlight.

“Wyoming, this is our 15 minutes,” Kathy Karpan, a former Wyoming secretary of state who supported Mrs. Clinton, said on Saturday morning.

Mr. Obama beat Mrs. Clinton by 23 points. He appeared to have to won seven new delegates, while she will probably gain five.

While both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama pushed hard to win the state, the Obama campaign’s early organizing here appeared to have paid off.

The campaign set up shop two weeks before Mrs. Clinton’s did, opening five offices in the state to two for Mrs. Clinton.

… The newfound attention by the candidates and the national news media drew many newly registered Democrats to caucus on Saturday — officials said there were more than 2,000 registrations recently — and lifelong Democrats who had never caucused before.

Vernice Sack, 80, and her husband, Paul Sack, 83, counted themselves among the first-time caucusgoers. They both supported Mr. Obama, they said. “He’s got the right ideas,” Mr. Sack said.

From Reuters:

Pennsylvania, the biggest remaining state in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, should be a safe win for Hillary Clinton but experts say there are pockets of vulnerability for Barack Obama to exploit.

… Clinton was ahead in the polls by as much as 20 percentage points at the start of the year but Obama’s string of victories in February pushed him closer, narrowing the gap to just 6 points in the latest Quinnipiac poll in late February.

… Sean Smith, a spokesman for Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, argued that the demographics claimed as friendly by the Clinton campaign had helped him win Wisconsin and could do so again.

“We did extremely well in Wisconsin with the same types of voters,” he said, pointing to older voters who were “absolutely open” to Obama’s message of hope and change and “bringing the country together to solve our problems.”

Richards of Quinnipiac said Obama needed to do three things to have a chance of winning: boost turnout among black voters, which is historically low in primaries, motivate students at the state’s numerous universities and colleges, and win over affluent voters in the Philadelphia suburbs where Clinton is vulnerable.

The race has generated considerable excitement, election officials said. Abe Amoros, executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, said the state has not played such an important role in the primary process since 1976, when it helped propel Jimmy Carter to the White House.

“Since January 1 we’ve seen more than 40,000 changes in registration from Republicans or independents to Democrat because they want to participate in the primary,” Amoros said, predicting turnout at the primary could double from 2004 when 26 percent of all eligible Democrats participated.

From the Chicago Tribune:

In a stunning upset Saturday that could be a sign of trouble for Republicans this fall, a little-known Democratic physicist won the special election for a far west suburban congressional seat long held by former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

… The result also could be an omen for November, when two other Illinois congressional seats are up for grabs following Republican retirements, and Sen. Barack Obama could bring out a huge turnout if he’s the Democratic presidential nominee.

“It tells me that voters are ready for a change. They want new leadership in Washington,” said Sen. Dick Durbin.

… Obama called Foster to offer his congratulations late Saturday.

“By electing him to a traditionally Republican seat—a seat that former Speaker Dennis Hastert held for 20 years—the people of Illinois have sent an unmistakable message that they’re tired of business-as-usual in Washington,” Obama said in a statement.

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With Tuesday’s important primary just days away, the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger has endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president:  

Mississippians go to the polls March 11 to give preferences for the Democratic and Republican nominations for president. In the tight Democratic primary, Mississippi voters will have an important role this election.

With U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama so close in the delegate hunt, Mississippi’s 40 Democratic delegates are highly coveted.

Both top contenders offer sharp differences from the GOP and nuanced differences from each other in promoting health care for average Americans, withdrawing troops from the Iraq war and encouraging U.S. jobs.

Sen. Obama is the best choice. He provides a broad vision that motivates not only minorities, but old and new Democrats of all stripes. He also is popular with independents and young, unaffiliated voters - giving Democrats their best shot for the White House.

… America needs a president who can motivate and inspire a nation which now is divided and demoralized by a sagging economy and foundering foreign policy.

… It’s time for Mississippians to speak out. Vote on Tuesday.

See the full list of over 100 newspapers that have endorsed Barack . . . 

If you live in Mississippi, there is still time to help Get Out The Vote for Barack in your neighborhood.

And no matter where you live, you can help by making calls to Mississippi voters from home, using our online phonebanking system.

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