Jun 06 2009
There’s a reason Kevin Annett has a petition stating, “apparent refusal to investigate suspected crime sites related to the mass burials of children who died in Indian residential schools.”
http://feminismfriday.wordpres…
The child was touched without permission, during this time the assailant was holding what we can easily refer to as a “deadly weapon” given that you could hypothetically be killed by a pair of scissors. In fact, it is not a stretch to imagine this happening.
Jun 06 2009
The WeaveMothers watched the train switch to the happentrack which they had just finished. The transition was as smooth as ever it could be.
The Engineer guided some steam through the whistle.
And the Storyteller began the tail of the Girl and the Five Fears.
Jun 05 2009
Texas Representative Lamar Smith has announced the formation of the Media Fairness Caucus in the House of Representatives. This would be a pretty funny venture if only because he asserts that the mission of his caucus is for…
“…the American people to get the facts and then be allowed to make up their own minds, not be told what to think. When you have network news programs and front pages of national newspapers reading like an editorial page or sounding like an oral editorial, then the American people aren’t getting the facts, they’re not getting the objective news. They’re getting opinion. And if all they do is hear is one side, that does have an impact over time.”
It sounds like Smith is launching a war against Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. But that can’t be, can it?
Jun 05 2009
The New England Journal of Medicine article at this link http://content.nejm.org/cgi/co… discusses more fully the points listed below.
I believe these stipulations have been generally agreed to by those who post health care essays. I have beat the drums for universal single payer but that conflicts with item 2 which keeps the employer in the system. That seems like a good idea as the employer can declare no smoking zones (give me a break smokers, I been there and done that), provide incentives such as paying for sick days not taken, etc.
Before I get accused of over copying, let me admit it. The way I see it now is not the time for niceties. I don’t think there is a penalty for copying a copy so cut and paste anything you find useful. Comments, corrections and additions welcome.
Jun 05 2009
The CS Monitor reports Another tough summer for Arctic sea ice is likely. According to the June 1 readings posted by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, this year’s annual melt-back of Arctic Ocean sea ice may break the 2007 record. “NSIDC researchers say they expect 2009 to be another year when the amount of sea ice left at summer’s end will fall short of the 1979-2000 average.”
And according to a recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters, Winter Northern Hemisphere weather patterns remember summer Arctic sea-ice extent (pdf). So, the loss of Arctic ice in the summer means much less fall and winter rain and snow in Norther Europe, Alaska, and the parched Western U.S.
Meanwhile back in Washington, D.C., American industry lobbies Congress for permission to pollute more, according to the Washington Post. U.S. oil refiners are seeking special cap-and-trade allowances that could be worth millions of dollars.
Led by Rep. Gene Green (D-TX), oil refiners amended the pending climate change legislation to “give petroleum refiners valuable rights to emit carbon dioxide when it otherwise might not have been allowed. Refiners could get the extra allowances in return for cutting carbon emissions by 50 percent at a single point of a vast refinery complex instead of slashing emissions by 50 percent for the entire facility.”
In addition, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) had inserted a change that “would give the auto industry $1.4 billion worth of extra allowances”. Coal industry lobbyists are also working to weaken then bill. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) “led the effort to protect coal-fired utilities and mining firms.” 35 percent of the allowances are going to the coal power industry.
Four at Four continues with enriching the rich by eliminating jobs in America, an update from Pakistan, the “most serious threat to American wildlife in the past century”, and a better levee system for New Orleans found in the Netherlands.
Jun 05 2009
Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million
by Jason Leopold, June 5, 2009
During the past four months, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) backlog of unfinished disability claims grew by more than 100,000, adding to an already mountainous backlog that is now close to topping one million.
The VA’s claims backlog, which includes all benefits claims and all appeals at the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on January 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14 percent increase in four months.
The issue has become so dire that veterans now wait an average of six months to receive disability benefits and as long as four years for their appeals to be heard in cases where their benefits were denied.
Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minnesota), a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said during a hearing in March that the VA is “almost criminally behind in processing claims.”
Overhauling the VA represents one of the most daunting challenges facing the Obama administration after years of mismanagement and neglect by the Bush administration, which stacked the agency with political cronies and kept the agency underfunded, wrapped in bureaucratic red tape and placed the interests of veterans last on a list of priorities.
Indeed, one of the VA’s biggest failures during the Bush administration’s tenure was its inability to fully implement critical components of the Mental Health Strategic Plan (MHSP) at regional offices throughout the country.
The MHSP, unveiled in 2004, would have provided veterans who show signs of being at risk of suicide or are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with immediate mental health care and eliminated the waiting period for receiving treatment.
But according to a November 2006 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), spending for the program was substantially less than what the VA had proposed – leaving untreated tens of thousands of veterans who were at risk of suicide.
Jun 05 2009
I will make two statements to begin this piece.
One: Obama does want true Progressive change. He is not, as his critics on the Left suspect, a “stealth Corporate Imperialist.”
Two: There is plain and simple, just not much he can do to bring Change about.
There is not…yet…much he can do to bring Change about for one basic reason. One basic reason, which then blooms into a thousand flowers all smelling like DC bullshit in the spring.
The one card Obama has to play in the DC Realpolitik Poker Game is….us. The Power of the People. A steady 65% approval rating, and that is a HARD 65%. The People who support him REALLY support him. And his many and varied opponents know it. He has that, and the limited (even post-Bush) power of the Executive Branch.
He brings that to the table. But sitting across from him, arrayed around the table far outnumbering him….is the entire structure of the United States Government.
A government which has been bought.
From the bowels of the bureaucracy to the hallowed Halls of Congress, a government which was once hailed as being Of The People, Buy The People and most importantly For The People….no longer even bears a passing resemblance to that shining vision.
In the BEST case scenario….there is a battle for our government between the industries and Corporations, who represent America’s Ruling Class that benefit immensely from legislation or favorable regulation by the government…..and The People.
Guess who is winning that battle?
The Ruling Class owns the economy. They own the banks, they own the insurance/health care companies, they own the energy/pollution industries, they own the Military Industrial Complex. They have lobbyists that have intimate access to the Legislators and Regulators, hell in many case they used to BE the Legislators and Regulators. But most importantly, they have The Money. The Money that the Legislators and Regulators absolutely need to keep their jobs.
Jun 05 2009
To ‘oops’ or not to ‘oops’ – that is the question! To concoct nefarious plots in dark basement labs and smoke-filled back rooms, or accept that accidents do happen and arm ourselves with some knowledge of the processes. And to hear what’s actually being said by the ‘officials’ who so love to hoard whole classes of information We the People simply don’t need to know. Usually, if anyone’s keeping track, it’s more about ‘oopses’ that make ’em look careless than about actual nefarious plots or deeds.
The CT that got me banned at the Orange Rind made a specific charge on this question based on the announcement in late April of a flu outbreak in Mexico City, official releases specific to the nature of that virus, the actual technology used by researchers in the US and elsewhere in the world toward development of influenza vaccines, and the possibilities for an ‘oops’ (or worse) to occur at any of those facilities. All set against the MI-2 plot line harkening back to ancient Greek mythology, Bellerophon vs. Chimera.
I mentioned in that diary that genetic engineering is routinely used to craft varieties of influenza with enough mixed genetic specificities to allow a vaccine to be effective against more than one likely mutation of whatever strain is going around this year. That’s the truth. Though it turns out, according to the ‘experts’ who quickly weighed in to squash any speculations about an ‘oops’, that influenza viruses like to exchange whole genes and elements from entirely different strains in infected animals or in their water troughs at will and so promiscuously that it’s a complete wonder that we humans can even come up with actual strain varieties or vector titles at all!
Jun 05 2009
It offers a way out of the Matrix, yes, that sci-fi movie series. It happened in the year 2006 and even though I have come to much the same conclusions stemming from life changing events this fills in and ads lots of humor to the mix. It is long and in three parts but well worth it.
Jun 05 2009
Happy Friday and welcome to the 6th in the Dog’s First Amendment Friday series. This series is following the syllabus for the class called The First Amendment and taught at Yale Law School by Professor Jack M. Balkin. As with the Friday Constitutional series this is a layman’s look at the Law, specifically the Supreme Court opinions which have shaped the boundaries of our 1st Amendment Protections. If you are interested in the previous installments you can find them at the links below
“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“
Jun 05 2009
Join Gottlieb, Ed Encho, and I tonight at 6pm EDT on Wild Wild Left Radio, via BlogtalkRadio.
Tonight we will be discussing the murder of Dr. Tiller, the arrest of Hal Turner and Obama’s speech in Egypt… all under the broader umbrella of whether the promotion of Peace can ever surpass the promotion of violence that the entrenched moneyed power uses for its own interests against us.
Please call with any questions you may have, or respectful commentary.The call in number is 646-929-1264
The live chat link will be added around 5:15.
Jun 05 2009
After serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, three veterans discover the value of their service as they search for employment in the midst of a troubled economy.
In Their Boots Website for the two previous of this year and links to last years online productions, as well as the other important site links.
One of those being Their Resources Page for Military/Veterans and Their Families.
