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Signers of the Declaration of Independence … disappointed

bosskitty — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 03:35:48 +0000

(CNN) — How would the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin feel about the way the United States has turned out 232 years after declaring its independence?

Most Americans say they’re proud to be citizens, but most Americans also think the Founding Fathers wouldn’t be pleased. Not pleased, a majority of Americans recently polled said.

Poll: 69 percent of respondents think Founding Fathers would be disappointed
Still, 61 percent say they’re extremely proud to be an American
41 percent: Presidential candidates should always wear flag pin when dressed up

These Incumbent Senators are NOT our Friends

These powerful Senators remain in place to make our Founding Fathers roll in their graves.They focus on promoting misguided paranoia about a war that was really about oil, power, money and a sick religous agenda. The 4th of July should remind Americans about the original intention of our Founding Fathers.

What’s patriotism? Definitions differ

Fourth of July Celebrations Database

Excerpts from:

Declaration of The Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms

July 6, 1775

Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.

In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it — for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.

Socialized Medicine, No Medicine or Someone Else’s Medicine

bosskitty — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:05:35 +0000

As America ages, the GREED factor related to Health Care grows exponentially. Watered down services and inflated cost is squeezes every penny out of the US Taxpayer.

Health Care is no longer the realm of HEALTH and it no longer cares about anything but BIG BUSINESS bottom line. Pharmaceuticals and Hospital Corporations are the body politic pulling the strings of government agencies. The argument for medical industry under government control is oversight America can get that concept to work if they start. This is not the “Socialized Medicine” that corrupt Medical Businesses would like you to believe. Put a cap on the outrageous price fixing they have enjoyed for too long. Just ask yourself why patients have traveled to other countries to get affordable treatment. The Medical Industry has lost its way. The Corporate Owner of our US Government has victimized taxpayers. Their “Golden Goose”, the American Taxpayer, is dying. When it comes to basic health care, the US Taxpayer is out of luck. America’s Corrupt Medical Industry has marketed the fear of “Socialized Medicine” so well, that they have re-defined the whole concept into blasphemy. The current system is forcing patients into exile for life saving treatment. Medical tourism, whether it is Mexico, Canada or services on other continents, has become the only viable alternative for those having the luxury of buying a ticket. America can no longer brag about its superior medical system because it has lost its way. Corruption has saturated the medical system and made life too expensive to live it. Living a healthy life should not be a luxury, it is a necessity.

Medical tourism to earn $1.87 Billion a year by 2012

New Delhi: India is set to earn Rs.80 billion ($1.87 billion) a year in foreign exchange from medical tourism by 2012, according to a study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

With easy visa facilities to overseas patients coupled with best emerging medical infrastructure facilities, India’s medical tourism can become a lead foreign exchange earner and the earnings will grow from the existing Rs.35 billion annually to Rs.80 billion a year by 2012, Assocham president Venugopal N. Dhoot said.

The study on Prospects of Medical Tourism for Higher Forex Earning was done under the supervision of the health committee of Assocham, headed by Sir Ganga Ram Hospital chairman B.K. Rao.

“The primary reasons as to why medical tourism would flourish in India include much lower medical treatment costs for various ailments, such as bone narrow transparent, bye-pass surgery, knee surgery and liver transplant as compared to western countries,” Dhoot said in a statement Monday.

“The cost of medical treatment is very high in the western countries, forcing patients from Africa, the Gulf and various other Asian countries to explore medical treatment in India,” he said.

He noted that the medical infrastructure in the country has geared up to provide them non-subsidized medical treatment at far lower costs.

Other factors boosting medical tourism include India’s strength in traditional treatment in homeopathy, naturopathy, ayurvedic and unani systems which are becoming very popular because they do not have side effects, said Dhoot.

He called for more allocation for the health sector which would lead to proliferation of new health facilities and centres of medical excellence, which in turn will finally be able to service overseas patients.

Indian pharmaceutical industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Indian economy and has made rapid strides over the years. From being import dependent in the 1950s, the industry has achieved self-sufficiency and gained global recognition as a producer of low cost, high quality bulk drugs and formulations. Now India is ready to face the challenges of proving its efficiency as the preferred destination for global clinical trials.

Why is it so much cheaper to travel to other countries for medical treatments? Because they ship those same treatments to the USA so we can grease palms from CEOs to Politicians. That has become a costly affair. Fewer drugs and medical devices are home grown. The best you can hope for is “assembled in America”. We have assembled ourselves OUT OF LUCK by outsourcing our very lives. America has become a CAN’T DO SOCIETY. Must we hire immigrants to baby sit our sorry selves … must we gripe about what we have become by demonizing other options.

House Committee Hears Transgender Issues

bosskitty — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:24:26 +0000

Written Statement of

The Transgender Law Center

To the

Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions

Committee on Education and Labor

United States House of Representatives

“An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace”

This historic hearing took place on Thursday, June 26, 2008.

Rayburn House Office Building

June 26, 2008

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is a California state-wide, non-profit civil rights organization advocating for transgender communities. Created in response to the overwhelming discrimination that transgender people and our families face in nearly every institution in California, we utilize direct legal services, education, community organizing, and policy and media advocacy to overcome this discrimination and help the state become one where every person’s gender identity is respected and supported. TLC is honored to submit this statement regarding pervasive discrimination against transgender Americans in the workplace, and we thank you for your consideration of this important issue.

Our statement draws on the daily contact we have with transgender community members, as well as our advocacy work and research. Every year we assist nearly 1,000 transgender individuals with legal issues. Approximately 10% of our clients contact us regarding discrimination or harassment in the workplace. Countless others contact us with issues that directly affect their ability to secure and maintain employment, such as access to health care, identity documents, and housing.

While limited research exists on transgender people in the workplace, all available studies and anecdotal evidence point to extremely disproportionate unemployment and underemployment among transgender people. This bleak employment picture is largely a consequence of the discrimination that too many transgender people experience in employment, education, and other areas that affect transgender people’s ability to secure and maintain employment.

The attached “Good Jobs NOW!” report, supported by the Women’s Foundation of California
and conducted by TLC and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, provides sorely needed data on the
economic reality experienced by transgender people and their families. In early 2006, 194 selfidentified
transgender people living, working, or looking for work in San Francisco were surveyed. The outcomes are stark.
Among “Good Jobs NOW!” respondents, nearly 60% earned under $15,300 annually and only 8% earned over $45,900. Forty percent did not have a bank account of any kind. Only 25% were working full-time, with 16% working part-time, and nearly 9% reporting no source of income. Over 57% percent reported experiencing employment discrimination, but as few as 12% took any kind of action and only 3% filed an administrative or civil complaint. These findings are made even more compelling by the fact that the survey was conducted
exclusively in San Francisco. Both San Francisco and California have strong employment nondiscrimination
laws and regulations that support safer and more effective integration of transgender people into the workplace. However, a lack of Federal protections has a tremendous effect on the transgender community nation-wide. Every week transgender people living in states without protective legislation call TLC. These hard working Americans have little to no recourse in their home states.
Allowing employers to make decisions about hiring, firing, promotions, and discipline based on a worker’s identity goes against America’s core value of equal opportunity. All too often, we see transgender Americans forced out of successful careers when they express their gender identity.
Many transgender people fear and experience discrimination and therefore must either hide who they are, to the detriment of their health; leave jobs they love in order to transition without risking termination; or face rampant harassment and discrimination in their current workplace. Federal protection from discrimination and harassment based on gender identity would liberate the transgender community from this stark reality. Such legislation would allow transgender Americans to continue contributing to our country’s workforce without fear of being terminated
simply because of who we are.
We urge the Subcommittee to recognize this issue of basic fairness. Transgender Americans deserve to be ourselves in a workplace where we are judged exclusively on our ability to do our jobs. Work is an integral part of our lives, of who we are, just like our gender. No American should have to choose between their gender, and making a living.

Both Rep. Frank and Rep. Baldwin were key organizers of the hearing.

8 Min. Hearing testimony …

The general public has no concept of the personal toll it takes on families and friends of people with gender identity issues. When there is something very wrong with how you feel and how you are perceived, there is no word to describe the pain. It is an emotional, gut and heart pain that grinds in the background of every day life. Being treated like a side show, when every cell starves for normal blending into a normal social context, must be excruciating. Some don’t survive. Those who survive their own torment, may fall victim to hate crimes. The education system has done a poor job of explaining different conditions humans find themselves in, because they are born that way. Many poorly educated people see human differences as a free ticket to abuse. Some religious dogma fails to remind that “all God’s creatures” deserve respect.

If religion becomes complicit in destructive behavior toward other humans, it’s representatives must be held accountable. The excuse that “God hates” this person or that person, is a criminal interpretation, it should be treated as such. God cannot hate it’s creations, God’s spokespersons interject their personal hatreds into their fiery rhetoric. This is sad because God has no spokespersons, all that’s left are interpreters. God speaks for God. The Judeo, Christian, Muslim family had originators that claimed to be God’s spokespersons and started great religious movements. Those spokespersons left their words behind to be treated as law. What happened next was morphing and division. Everything humans do is made possible by God. Discriminating is not understanding, fully, what God really had in mind. Mistreatment and crimes against others are not acceptable, whatever religion one claims to represent.

Will Americans Come Home?

bosskitty — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:05:34 +0000

What will happen when dissatisfaction reaches the top? This country was born from dissatisfaction. Some people were exiled and others fled to this continent. Entrepeneurs flocked to make their fortunes. The only difference now is that there is no place to go. Where will an American go to flee the discomfort?

Expatica.com offers news and features, an expat community, and essential resources to help you live successfully abroad. Please select the country of your interest below.

A very revealing article from Harpers in 2004 [Here]

Americans are going home just as the British are beginning to like them again

Shift In Salary Packages Entices Expatriates To Stay Longer In The UAE

Expatriates are choosing to call the UAE ‘home’ for increasingly longer periods of time and investing more in their homes than they have in the past, due to a shift in salary packages on offer from employers.

A recent survey on the salary packages of multinational companies in the Middle East has revealed the traditional focus of high basic salaries and cash allowances is shifting towards long-term incentives and ‘protection’ benefits which are enticing expats to stay longer.

Many employers are motivated to focus on benefit provision, not only to respond to competitive pressures but also erosion in value of cash-based remuneration paid in local currencies which are pegged to the weakening American dollar.

Almost all companies in the Middle East provide additional perks and allowances to their expatriates. These vary between countries and employers, but the majority provide allowances for housing, schooling and flights home. In the UAE specifically, 86 percent of multinationals in the survey provide housing allowances, while 90 percent provide support with schooling. All participants, without exception, provide allowances for return flights to expatriates’ home country.

Will a new administration bring some expats home? Not all expats are in good shape out there. It depends on where you are.

If you are an expat, please share your experience. Are you better off?

Who Are The Uyghur And Why Are They In Guantanamo?

bosskitty — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:07:21 +0000

US Guantanamo trials ‘to proceed’

Major Guantanamo setback for Bush

Guantanamo 9/11 suspects on trial

Eyewitness: 9/11 trial opens

(“You can receive millions of dollars for helping the Anti-Taliban Force catch Al-Qaida and Taliban murderers. This enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life. Pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all of your people”)

When China offered a bounty for capturing, killing or detaining the Uyghur (pronounced “Weeer”), the US Military obliged. Conveniently, they categorized the Uyghur as terrorists, because China says so … China has more influence than our own legal system. How many readers have ever heard about these people? The Uyghur are treated as bad or worse than Tibetans. Its a religious thing, Uyghur are Muslims. China has a greedy ally who will do anything for money … of course, we’re rounding up terrorists, too. Unethical behavior seldom makes media headlines, unless someone blows the whistle very loud and long, like for Tillman.

SALON In 2001 a group of 18 Uighurs, an ethnic minority from Xinjiang province in western China, was living together in a camp in Afghanistan when the coalition bombing started. They claim that they fled to the Afghan mountains, were led across the border to Pakistan by some other travelers, and were sold to the United States for bounty money. Five other Uighurs also ended up in Guantánamo, possibly sold to the United States as well.

Most of these men have been cleared for release since 2003, yet remain in Guantánamo because they can’t return to China, and neither the United States nor any other country has been willing to take them in. While five of the Uighurs were resettled in Albania in 2005, 16 others remain housed in one of the most draconian facilities in Guantánamo, reportedly because they threw feces and urine at prison guards following a dispute about the Koran in May 2007. But instead of receiving a 30- or 90-day punishment, as is common in U.S. prisons for disruptive behavior, the Uighurs were moved into one of the highest-security, most restrictive parts of the facility — indefinitely.

America’s prison for terrorists often held the wrong men

China: Religious Repression of Uighur Muslims

Architecture of Xinjiang Suppression Detailed

“The worldwide campaign against terrorism has given Beijing the perfect excuse to crack down harder than ever in Xinjiang,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “Other Chinese enjoy a growing freedom to worship, but the Uighurs, like the Tibetans, find that their religion is being used as a tool of control.”

China ‘crushing Muslim Uighurs’

China has been accused by two US-based human rights groups of conducting a “crushing campaign of religious repression” against Muslim Uighurs.

China Confirms Protests by Uighur Muslims

SHANGHAI — Chinese officials said Wednesday that they were grappling with ethnic unrest on a second front, in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where Uighur Muslims protested Chinese rule last month even as Tibetans rioted in the southwest.

FindLaw By JOANNE MARINER, human rights attorney

Uighurs in Albania Most Americans have never heard of the Uighurs and wouldn’t be able to find Albania on a map. And if the Uighurs are obscure, then Uighurs in Albania are obscurity squared: an alien people in a faraway place.

But there are now five Uighurs in Albania, and how they ended up there deserves attention. It’s a story of superpower politics, ethnic oppression, and the limits of the law. It highlights a problem that the United States has brought on itself: what to do with the hundreds of detainees who are currently held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, some of whom cannot be returned home.

China to Afghanistan to Cuba

The Uighurs are Turkic Muslims from the Xinjiang region in far western China. A group of them were in Afghanistan when war began in 2001 and were captured in the wake of the fighting, some by Pakistani bounty hunters. Twenty-two Uighurs were sent to Guantanamo, along with other detainees deemed the “worst of the worst.”

By late 2003, having interviewed them extensively, U.S. officials concluded that most of the Uighur detainees were not a threat. Five of them, in fact, were found not to be “enemy combatants” at all, while ten more were deemed to be low-risk enough to merit release.

But while bringing the Uighurs to Cuba was easy, getting them off the island was not. They could not be sent to China, their country of citizenship, for fear of persecution. As part of the “fight against three evils” — terrorism, religious extremism and separatism - the Chinese government has cracked down hard against its Uighur minority. Accusing them of plotting bombings and other sabotage, the Chinese government has incarcerated Uighur dissidents with little proof of actual involvement in violent acts.

Under international law, the only country that is clearly obliged to accept a person’s entry is that person’s country of citizenship. So while the U.S. could not return the Uighurs to China, it could not require any other country to take them either.

Instead, the U.S. had to wheedle: to appeal to other countries’ humanitarian inclinations. But this is an age of unwanted refugees and, more importantly, of growing Chinese power. Few countries are willing to risk alienating Beijing by granting asylum to the Uighurs as a group . Although the U.S. approached a whole host of countries — Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and others - none agreed to accept them.

Uighurs in Court

At the same time as the U.S. government was trying to negotiate the Uighurs’ resettlement, a case brought by two of the Uighurs was making its way through the federal courts. At issue in the case was whether the U.S. could hold the Uighurs indefinitely even after it found that they pose no threat to national security.

On the merits of their claim, District Judge James Robertson ruled unequivocally in favor of the Uighurs. “The detention of these petitioners has by now become indefinite,” said Robertson in an opinion issued in December 2005. “This indefinite imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay is unlawful.”

At a hearing prior to his ruling, Judge Robertson had suggested that he might order the Uighurs released temporarily into the United States. But his final ruling found, instead, that he lacked the legal authority to remedy the Uighurs’ plight. “The question,” he wrote, “is whether the law gives me the power to do what I believe justice requires. The answer, I believe, is no.”

Winning in principle but losing in practice, the Uighurs filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. It was a long-shot effort, given that the case was still pending in the lower courts, and in April the Supreme Court declined to consider the appeal. The case was due to be heard by a federal appellate court last Monday, but, just days in advance of the hearing, the two plaintiffs (and three others) were released to Albania.

The Albanian Solution?

While five Uighurs have left, ten other Uighurs cleared for release remain at Guantanamo. And the Uighurs are not the only detainees who cannot return home. There are three others — a Russian, an Algerian and an Egyptian — who have been found not to be “enemy combatants” yet who remain incarcerated.

Indeed, nearly 30 percent of the detainees at Guantanamo - about 141 men — have been cleared to leave, but still remain. For many, the U.S. government knows that conditions are unsuitable at home. Dozens of detainees have filed motions seeking advance notice of any transfer, seeking to challenge their return on the ground that they might face torture.

So what are the options for detainees who cannot return home? There is the Albanian solution - find a country that, for humanitarian or other reasons, is willing to give them a safe haven. But that may not work in every case.

Mugabe: We Just Sat Back And Watched Morgan Tsvangirai Quit

bosskitty — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:50:26 +0000

Zimbabwe’s Tsvangirai quits run-off

Head of Movement for Democratic Change cites violence against supporters as main reason for boycott.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, has announced that he will not take part in the run-off presidential election against Robert Mugabe, the country’s long-standing president.

Tsvangirai said on Sunday that Mugabe has “declared war by saying that the bullet has replaced the ballot”, and so his party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will not be a part of the June 27 vote.

Citing violence against his supporters as a major reason for the withdrawal, Tsvangirai called on the United Nations and the African Union to intervene to stop “genocide” in Zimbabwe.

South Africa: Grant Temporary Status to All Zimbabweans

Because of South Africa’s dysfunctional asylum system, many asylum seekers’ claims are not examined adequately and others are not able to lodge their claims at all. Because its deportation practices are also arbitrary and haphazard, many of the tens of thousands of Zimbabweans registered as asylum seekers in South Africa are at risk of refoulement, the forcible return to persecution in Zimbabwe, a fundamental breach of international refugee law. As a party to the refugee convention, South Africa is bound by the principle of non-refoulement, and may not send people back to face persecution.

South Africa faces a stark choice: it can break international law by deporting asylum seekers and ignore the harsh reality faced by hundreds of thousands of other Zimbabweans on its territory, or it can grant them temporary status and the right to work.

Gerry Simpson, author of the report and refugee researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Shame on the world for letting this happen. We have watched this catastrophe unfold for months. We have watched the people of Zimbabwe decline into food and economic crisis. We have moaned and groaned and wrung our hands at the plight of Zimbabweans. We have watched neighboring countries abuse and attack Zimbabwe refugees. We have watched The United Nations fail to mediate or intervene successfully. News media has risked life and limb to bring pictures of Zimbabwe and Darfur to the World’s attention. But, the world has distracted itself with personal economics. Consumerism, mortgage crisis and oil prices have trumped humanitarian interests. World Humanitarian Agencies are struggling to help with one hand tied behind their backs. If it is not in YOUR back yard, why should you care? Because, this is what happens when shouts of terror fall on deaf ears. The Golden Rule needs to be remembered by everyone. Every religion has a version of the same concept.

The wimpy GLOBAL humanitarian efforts applied to the Darfur and Burma disasters appear to have become the norm … This is unacceptable! Put down those IPODS and cell phones long enough to donate that dollar you would have spent on the lottery or latte. The Humanitarian Agencies need your help. Start with:

Corrupt Medicine Is Not A Panacea - No Medicare Oversight

bosskitty — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:21:54 +0000

Medicare: Thousands of Medicare Providers Abuse the Federal Tax System

GAO-08-618 June 13, 2008 Highlights Page (PDF) Full Report (PDF, 39 pages)

Medicare Providers Involved in Abusive and Potentially Criminal Activity Related to the Federal Tax System

Under the Medicare program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and its contractors paid over $400 billion in Medicare benefits in calendar year 2006. GAO was asked to determine if Medicare providers have unpaid federal taxes and, if so, to (1) determine the magnitude of such debts, (2) identify examples of Medicare providers that have engaged in abusive or potentially criminal activities, and (3) determine whether CMS prevents delinquent taxpayers from enrolling in Medicare or levies payments to pay taxes. To determine amount of unpaid taxes owed by Medicare providers, GAO compared claim payment data from CMS and tax debt data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In addition, GAO reviewed policies, procedures, and regulations related to Medicare. GAO also performed additional investigative activities.

Our analysis of data provided by CMS and IRS indicates that over 27,000 health care providers (i.e., about 6 percent of all such providers) paid under Medicare during calendar year 2006 had payroll and other agreed-to federal tax debts totaling over $2 billion. The $2 billion in unpaid tax debts only includes those debts reported on a tax return or assessed by IRS through its enforcement programs. This $2 billion figure is understated because some of these Medicare providers owed taxes under separate tax identification numbers (TIN) from the TINs that received the Medicare payments or they did not file their tax returns. We selected 25 Medicare providers with significant tax debt for more in-depth investigation of the extent and nature of any abusive or potentially criminal activity. Our investigation found abusive and potentially criminal activity, including failure to remit to IRS payroll taxes withheld from their employees. Rather than fulfill their role as “trustees” of this money and forward it to IRS as required by law, these Medicare providers diverted the money for other purposes. Willful failure to remit payroll taxes is a felony under U.S. law. Furthermore, individuals associated with some of these providers at the same time used payroll taxes withheld from employees for personal gain. Some of these individuals accumulated substantial wealth and assets, including million-dollar houses and luxury vehicles, while failing to pay their federal taxes. In addition, some providers received Medicare payments even though they had quality-of-care issues, such as losing track of a patient in their care who has not been found. CMS has not developed a policy to require contractors (1) to obtain consent for IRS disclosure of federal tax debts and (2) to screen providers for unpaid taxes. Further complicating this issue, absent consent by the taxpayer, which CMS does not require, federal law generally prohibits the disclosure of taxpayer data to CMS or its contractors. IRS can continuously levy up to 15 percent of each payment made to a federal payee–for example, a Medicare hospital–until that tax debt is paid. However, CMS has not incorporated most of its Medicare payments into the continuous levy program. As a result, for calendar year 2006, the government lost opportunities to potentially collect over $140 million in unpaid taxes.

As federal deficits continue to mount, the federal government must take all effective measures to collect the billions of dollars of unpaid taxes. Because payroll taxes fund the Medicare program, Medicare providers should especially pay their fair share of taxes owed, especially payroll taxes. However, with respect to the continuous levy program, the federal government continues to fail to reach its potential. A substantial amount of Medicare payments to delinquent taxpayers will continue to go uncollected until CMS can establish a process to incorporate its payments into the continuous levy program. The failure to enforce tax laws against Medicare providers has a detrimental affect on compliance.

Medicare Fraud Overview - Beneficiary Ombudsman

As America ages, the GREED factor related to Health Care grows exponentially. Services provided are watered down and cost is inflated to squeeze every penny out of the US Taxpayer. Health Care is no longer the realm of humanitarian motives. Health Care is BIG BUSINESS with roots in Pharmaceuticals and Hospital Corporations. The argument for and against the medical industry under government control has its benefits and drawbacks. The most glaring Benefit is oversight (Drawback: if America can ever get that concept to work), for service the medical system provides. This is not the “Socialized Medicine” that corrupt Medical Businesses would like you to believe. This is a cap on the outrageous price fixing they have enjoyed for too long. There are too many examples to cite for price fixing … just ask yourself why patients have traveled to other countries to get affordable treatment. The Medical Industry has lost its way. The US Government has victimized taxpayers by lining their pockets with kickbacks from their “Golden Goose”. The US Taxpayer has funded too much fraud and waste in general. But, when it comes to basic health care, the US Taxpayer is out of luck. Corrupt business has marketed the fear of “Socialized Medicine” so well, that self-serving semantics have re-defined the whole concept of medical oversight.

Western Medicine Fails

Tim Russert A Glaring Omission of the Facts

The most glaring omitted information from Russert’s doctor is telling us what diabetes medication he was taking. I am willing to bet that he was taking Avandia, the drug the FDA should have pulled off the market because it causes a whopping 43% increased risk of a sudden heart attack, information the FDA actively sought to sequester during that drug’s approval process. Why do I think that? Because in the scant health data his doctor is giving out he has stated that Russert had high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol – the exact metabolic profile that Avandia is supposed to treat. When a treatment has death as a common side effect it can hardly be considered a treatment.

Could it be that Russert is a casualty of one of the great Big Pharma/FDA scams currently going on? How ironic, since all news programs are sponsored by this industry’s ads and the media fought tooth and claw in the past year to ensure that dangerous drug ads could continue to run non-stop during all news programs – exposing millions of Americans to drug-induced injury (while they got their billions in ad revenues). I am stunned that no reporter interviewing his doctor seems to be able to ask such an obvious question.

http://www.wellnessresources.com/freedo…

Nationwide, there are about 2500 pharmaceutical facilities.4 One hundred and twelve of these are large sites and are shown grouped by state in the map below.1

Global Food Crisis Includes America - The Planet Speaks, Op Ed

bosskitty — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:09:08 +0000

“What’s important is that the action took place, when everybody believed it to be unthinkable. If it took place this time, it can happen again…”

Jean-Paul Sartre, 1968

Soaring gas prices, food shortages, earth quakes, cyclones, floods, fires, war on terror, global warming…. human toll mounting

Food riot, 1917

During World War I, wartime inflation severely taxed the limited budgets of working-class families. Although wages also rose during the war, they could not keep up with prices. On February 20, 1917, after confronting pushcart peddlers who were charging exorbitant rates for necessities, thousands of women marched to New York’s City Hall to demand relief. The “food riot” precipitated a boycott campaign that eventually forced pushcart prices down. Women in Boston and Philadelphia took similar action.

Food riots of the 21st century

US Food Prices Spike Upward

Sticker shock at the supermarket

Families struggling as bills begin to bite

Preparing for the end of food?

Food riots will spread – USA & the World will suffer similar pain. More families cannot afford the gas to drive to a store to buy inflated groceries. Although many will become creative to provide food and hygiene for their families, many more don’t have the resources to get by. In America, the nature of infrastructure, places families in the suburbs and several gallons of fuel away from safety. Urban populations can walk or bike to food, but that food will be expensive because transportation costs are over the top. Wages cannot keep up because the cost of doing business is also over the top. People may be forced to steal food … people may be forced to do unthinkable things just to survive.

Frustration and desperation does that to people. This places disconnected leaders at risk. No government can survive the desperation of its people without becoming totalitarian and deadly. Look at Myanmar, Darfur and Zimbabwe. These governments elect to suppress and disenfranchise rather than address the suffering of their populations. The Bush administration has prepared this country for a similar treatment … the constitution and people’s rights have been breached for fictitious justifications.

This is a spiral. The hot air filling the inflated human ego is leaking out, and the victims will fall back to earth, some may survive. Those survivors, not caught up in the blame game, will adapt and prolong their survival.

This is the human reality check! Modern humans have departed from the respect for nature that our ancestors held. Mother Earth has no regard for human politics, human dogma, or personal egos. Religion and politics have distracted the human race from the reality that we occupy a planet. This planet does what planets do, it changes and evolves. It does not care what religion you adhere to or what explanations you have accepted. Truth is what the natural progression of planets follow, putting the mask of religion on earthly events acts as a blindfold. The only truth remaining is that this planet is going through another cycle and humans are as clueless as the dinosaurs. You would think that human intellect would anticipate these events and prepare for survival … but NO! Humans are so self absorbed that their potential for planning is retarded by ego and selfishness. Learning to live with the earth’s natural processes appears to be beyond the human ego. Nearsightedness has guaranteed the infamous Armageddon that too many religious zealots are anticipating. Those seeking the Rapture have condemned the rest of humanity. They trash the planet and wait for GOD to reward them by relocating them into a heaven, fresh and clean, for them to trash all over again.

“Will mankind one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age?”

“Can entropy ever be reversed?”

Violent Clash of Dogma In Israel - Messianic Jews Targeted

bosskitty — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:55:04 +0000

Israel’s Messianic Jews Under Attack

The flyers appeared everywhere inside the Jewish settlement of Ariel, on car windshields, telephone poles, and in bus shelters. “Beware,” it read, “these are the members of the Jewish Missionary Cult. They are baptizing Jews into Christianity.” Included was a photo of Pastor David Ortiz and his address.

Ortiz didn’t give it a thought. His Jewish neighbors liked him, and so did Ariel’s mayor, who found Ortiz, originally from Brooklyn, useful in recruiting funds and political support from American and German Evangelicals for this stone-clad settlement on a breezy hilltop inside Palestinian territory.

But somebody disliked Ortiz and his beliefs enough to try to kill him and his family. By chance, Ortiz and his wife Leah were gone on March 20th when an unknown person dropped off a bomb disguised as a holiday gift package loaded with candy and chocolates. When Ortiz’s 15 year-old son Ami plucked off a chocolate, it detonated a bomb powerful enough to blow out all the apartment’s windows apartment and to be heard a mile away. The bomb was packed with nails, screws and needles. Doctors found over 100 piece of metal embedded in the boy’s body by the blast, which sheared off the skin and muscle on his legs and chest. The teenager survived, but still faces six more operations of skin grafts and the removal of shrapnel from his eyes. Whoever did it, says Ortiz, knew “that we adults wouldn’t open up the Purim package — it would be the kids.”

Messianic Jews, as these Jews who believe in Jesus are called, number just a few in Israel — anywhere between 6,000 and 15,000 — but they provoke hatred all out of proportion to their meager numbers. Many orthodox Jews view them as traitors for joining the Christian faith, which for centuries has persecuted Jews. One Messianic Jew, Tzvi Sadan, a teacher and editor, recalls telling his father, a Holocaust survivor, that he had accepted Jesus as his savior. “My Dad flipped out. He said that the SS guards in the camp had ‘God is With Us’ written on their belts. He told me, ‘You’ve joined the enemy.’ But he calmed down a bit when he saw my prayer shawl.”

Some rabbis also view the Messianic Jews’ conversion as part of a grand Evangelical scheme to fulfill Biblical prophecy (which requires the conversion of the Jews) and hasten the Messiah’s arrival. Messianic Jews observe Judaism’s rites, holidays and customs but believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

But lately, the outrage among extremist orthodox Jews has spilled into violence. Even after the Ariel bombing it has continued. Last month, when the deputy mayor of Or Yehuda, a town near Tel Aviv, found out that Messianic Jews had been passing out copies of the New Testament to a community of poor Ethiopian Jews, he ordered the books to be collected and they were set alight in a bonfire. He later apologized and said the Bibles had been burned accidentally. “If somebody had done that in Europe to Jewish Torahs, you can image what sort of a reaction that would provoke here,” says Ortiz. To be fair, commentators and officials in Israel were quick to condemn the act, comparing it to the infamous book burning by Nazis.

Messianic Jews living in the Negev Desert also say they are routinely harassed and attacked by yeshiva students, some inspired by Yad L’achem, a religious organization dedicated to stamping out Christian missionary activities in Israel. Random acts of anti-Christian violence have also occurred: last October in Jerusalem, a church was fire-bombed, and several days after Christmas, a German pilgrim who was returning from Bethlehem carrying a large wooden cross was attacked by a gang of ultra-orthodox youths who smashed the cross into splinters. These are isolated attacks, and Christians living in Israel say that as long as they refrain from missionary work — prohibited by the Israeli government — they are left free to worship.

Israel finds itself in a predicament: it wants to welcome Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land out of goodwill and for tourism revenue, but it also wants to keep exuberant missionaries from trying to convert Jews. At the same time, news of these attacks — especially the Ariel bombing and the Bible-burning — has circulated widely among Christian churches around the world. “I’m getting calls from Norway,” says Leah Ortiz, “asking if Christians are being persecuted in Israel, and I say ‘No, of course not.’ What happened to our son, this isn’t religion. It’s insanity.”

So far, police have failed to make any arrests in the Ortiz bombing. But whoever assembled the bomb knew what he was doing and had access to plastic explosives, probably stolen from the Israeli military. “We’re afraid that whoever did this,” says Ortiz, ” might try it again. With us, they crossed the line, and we’re afraid of it happening to someone else.”

Given the hardship Messianic Jews face in Israel and his son’s multiple injuries, would the Ortiz move his family back to Brooklyn? “No way” Ortiz replies. “Jesus wasn’t born in Brooklyn. He was born here. We’re staying.”

Religious sensitivity is always exacerbated by perceived intrusion upon one’s personal beliefs. Resentment leads to confrontation. Confrontation between two or more strong faiths leads to violence. Conversion is coercion. Conversion accepts that someone else’s beliefs are inadequate. Any religion that feels duty bound, through hearsay commands, to “SAVE” another from their own religion is provocative intrusion. Conversion must be left to those interested in converting. Dissatisfaction with one’s own faith or philosophy is what generates true seekers. When true seekers discover what satisfies their soul and spirit, they are finally at peace with themselves and their maker. Trying to convert the unwilling is despicable and demeaning.

The same energy used to intrude and insult other religions should be turned inward to polish the virtues you understand to be necessary. If you can set a shining example, you do your faith more justice than a hundred missionaries …