Posts filed under ‘Health – Physical and Psychological’
The Susan G. Komen Foundation Joins Republican Effort to Destroy Planned Parenthood
The nation’s leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is halting its partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates — creating a bitter rift, linked to the abortion debate, between two iconic organizations that have assisted millions of women.
The change will mean a cutoff of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly for breast exams.
Planned Parenthood says the move results from Komen bowing to pressure from anti-abortion activists. Komen says the key reason is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress — a probe launched by a conservative Republican who was urged to act by anti-abortion groups.
So, conservative congressional Republicans launch a “probe” of Planned Parenthood and then they turn to the Komen Foundation and pressure it to withhold donations to Planned Parenthood because they’ve launched a “probe?” How deceitfully, viciously clever.
Are the Komen people that stupid? Don’t they get that Republicans want to destroy Planned Parenthood altogether because they want to impose their American Taliban-like beliefs on all of us; that they don’t want women to have the freedom to chose?
Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has depicted Stearns’ probe as politically motivated and said she was dismayed that it had contributed to Komen’s decision to halt the grants to PPFA affiliates.
“It’s hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women’s lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying.”
Exactly.
And I say this to the Republicans conducting that “probe:” It takes two to get pregnant:
Barney Frank Kicks Some A**
On January 20, the New York Times Magazine published an interview with the retiring Senator Barney Frank (D-MA) titled: The Not So Retiring Barney Frank.
This quintessential Barney Frank quote is my favorite part:
Interviewer: You’ve long argued for the decriminalization of marijuana. Do you smoke weed?
Barney Frank: No.
Interviewer: Why not?
Barney Frank: Why do you ask a question, then act surprised when I give an answer? Do you think I lie to people?
Interviewer: I thought you might explain why you support decriminalizing it but don’t smoke it.
Barney Frank: Do you think I’ve ever had an abortion?
Go get ‘em Barney!
Oh, and memo to the “interviewer:” Really? REALLY?
Rand Paul’s Red Hot Hypocrisy
Not making this up:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), son of White House hopeful Ron Paul, was detained by the TSA Monday after refusing a pat-down, his dad tweeted Monday.
The father-son pair, both renegade libertarians within their party, are harsh critics of TSA searches they brand intrusive, and have called for the agency’s elimination.
“My son @SenRandPaul being detained by TSA for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner in Nashville. More details coming,” the Texas Republican congressman wrote.
[...]
The younger politician was heading to Washington to address the March for Life, a massive Pro-Life [anti-choice] rally marking Sunday’s 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
An Invitation to Assassination
This is chilling:
Operation Rescue has launched a new website that contains a database of abortion providers all over the country.
Troy Newman, president of the anti-abortion rights group Operation Rescue, announced last June that his group would be conducting a “massive research project to identify every abortionist in the country.” Newman told his supporters that he needs fellow anti-abortion advocates to contribute any information they can about abortion providers where they live.
The resulting website, AbortionDocs.org, “is a searchable database that endeavors to list every surgical abortion clinic, every ‘abortion pill-only’ clinic, and every abortionist in the United States,” a Tuesday press release says.
1) Abortion is legal in the United States of America.
2) If you oppose abortion, ask your representative(s) to change the law. Wonder why they haven’t and why they didn’t do so during the Bush II administration when they ruled the world? They didn’t because they want to hang that over your head as something they’ll supposedly do if you elect them next time and next time and next time. It’s the old God, guns, gays and abortion carrot they dangle in front of you every two years.
3) Doctors who perform abortions are just that — doctors. They aren’t “abortionists.” Again, abortion is legal in the United States of America.
4) There is a prominent abortion clinic in my town. It is operated by Warren Hern, M.D. Dr. Hern was a friend of Dr. George Tiller, the Kansas physician whose brains were blown out in 2009 for, again, practicing legal medicine in the United States of America. The AbortionDocs.org website features a picture of the building Dr. Hern practices in; it gives the phone number and address; it features a video of Dr. Hern (so he’s easily identifiable) and a map to the clinic which is in a busy area on a narrow street, across from Boulder’s main hospital. If a bomb went off in that area, as has happened at other clinics in the United States, many people could be injured or killed.
If you ask me, that’s exactly what AbortionDocs.org hopes will happen.
This. Is. Terrorism.
Denied Insurance Because of…Acne?
Take a look at this
(Click here.)
People can be denied (or, presumably, kicked off) insurance because of acne and pregnancy or because they were raped?
Amazing.
That said, guess what Rick Santorum said today about pre-existing conditions:
In Keene today, Rick Santorum told the mother of a cancer patient that people with pre-existing conditions should pay more for health care because they made “poor health choices.”
Gee. A while back, I had an emergency appendectomy. Was that due to “poor health choices?” Oh, and decades ago when I was 19-years-old I had a lumpectomy for a benign lump in my breast. Was that due to “poor health choices?” And what about the diverticulitis I had four years ago? I think I inherited that from my mother because she had it too. Was that a due to “poor health choices” Ricky? Huh? Huh?!
Weasel Scott Walker Takes Credit For Health Care Provision He Opposed
Gawd, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) is just repulsive. I mean foul and detestably, nauseatingly repulsive:
Gov. Scott Walker announced a plan Wednesday [December 28] to lift the enrollment cap on a state long-term care program – a move he made two weeks after federal authorities told his administration it had to take that step.
Walker touted the $80 million plan with advocates for the elderly and disabled at a Capitol news conference, but he made no mention of a recent order from the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, or CMS, directing his administration to lift the cap in the Family Care program.
[...]
“The only reason the Walker administration backed down is because they had a gun to their heads,” said Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee). “He’s taking credit for something he was forced to do.”
Ugh. See what I mean?
Another Reason Why I Might Not Vote for Barack Obama
Salmonella Bacteria -- Photo: Janice Haney Carr / CDC
Earlier this month, the Maine-based grocery chain Hannaford issued a ground beef recall after at least 14 people were infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella. Chances are this is the first you’ve heard of it. After all, it’s not much compared to the 76 illnesses and one death back in August that led Cargill to recall almost 36 million pounds of ground turkey products potentially contaminated with drug-resistant salmonella. The particulars get confusing, but the trend is unmistakable: our meat supply is frequently contaminated with bacteria that can’t readily be treated by antibiotics.
[...]
It’s not like this is happening without a reason; the little germs have plenty of practice fighting the drugs designed to kill them in the industrially raised animals to which antibiotics are routinely fed. And although it’s economical for producers to drug animals prophylactically[1], there are many strong arguments against the use of those drugs, including their declining efficacy in humans.Probably you’d agree with the couple of people I described this situation to earlier this week, one of whom said something like, “Ugh, that’s crazy,” and the other simply, “They gotta do something about that!”
The thing is, “they” did. In 1977.
That’s when the Food and Drug Administration, aware of the health risks of administering antibiotics to healthy farm animals, proposed to withdraw its prior approval of putting penicillin and tetracycline in animal feed. Per their procedure, the F.D.A. then issued two “notices of opportunity for a hearing,” which were put on hold by Congress until further research could be conducted. On hold is exactly where the F.D.A.’s requests have been since your dad had sideburns.
Until last week, when the agency decided to withdraw them.
That would be the change-we-can-believe-in Obama administration’s FDA, bowing to corporate pressure. It’s disgusting.
Read more gory details here. I’m a meat eater but what’s going on behind the scenes in the American meat industry is horrifying. It’s enough to make me think about becoming a vegetarian.
Newt Gingrich — Passionate About the Individual Mandate
Watch Newt Gingrich passionately defend the individual mandate back in 2008:
(Via.)
Neti Pots Kill People: That Per “Officials” in Charge of Water in Louisiana
“Officials” responsible for tap water in Louisiana blame deaths from contaminated water there on a ceramic pot. No, I’m not kidding:
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has issued a warning about improper Neti pot use, which has been linked to two deadly infections.
A 51-year-old woman from DeSoto Parish and a 20-year-old man from St. Bernard Parish, a suburb of New Orleans, died after using Neti pots containing tap water to flush their sinuses. Both became infected with Naegleria fowleri, a parasite known as the brain-eating amoeba.
“If you are irrigating, flushing or rinsing your sinuses, for example, by using a Neti pot, use distilled, sterile or previously boiled water to make up the irrigation solution,” Louisiana State epidemiologist Dr. Raoult Ratard said in a statement. “Tap water is safe for drinking but not for irrigating your nose.”
Tap water is safe for drinking but not for irrigating one’s nose? A ceramic pot is the lynch pin in all this?
That makes no sense.
The EU Bans Airport X-Ray Machines
The Europeans are so sane sometimes:
Image: TSA
Citing health concerns, the European Union banned from European airports this week the same kind of X-ray scanners used by TSA in airports across the US. Here’s the EU’s wording:
In order not to risk jeopardising citizens’ health and safety, only security scanners which do not use X-ray technology are added to the list of authorised methods for passenger screening at EU airports.
Imagine that, a government that’s more concerned about the health and safety of its citizens than the lobbyists from the corporations who make the machines. Must be nice.
Mitt Romney is Such a Kidder!
Oh my God, this has got to be our quote of the day if not of the entire campaign season thus far:
Mitt Romney, November 3, 2011:
Mitt Romney, under fire from all sides on the issue of his consistency, said Thursday he has been as consistent as possible while still being human.
“I’ve been as consistent as human beings can be,” Romney said in a meeting with the editorial board of New Hampshire’s Seacoast Media Group.
Hahahahahaha!
Let’s see:
October 7: Mitt Romney says Occupy Wall Street is “dangerous:”
October 12: Mitt Romney says he “understands” the Occupy Wall Street movement:
January 14, 2008: If we could “get all of our citizens insured…if we can do that nationally…”
July 4, 2011: “One thing I’d never do would be impose a state’s plan on the entire nation.”
October 25, 2011: Mitt Romney Flip Flops on Supporting Unions:
And that’s just the last few months.
Gezus.
Herman Cain Isn’t Someone You’d Want to Have a Beer With
It was a slow news weekend but now we have this from Politico, an arm of the corporate-owned DC estblishment:
Exclusive: Two Women Accused Herman Cain of Inappropriate Behavior
During Herman Cain’s tenure as the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, at least two female employees complained to colleagues and senior association officials about inappropriate behavior by Cain, ultimately leaving their jobs at the trade group, multiple sources confirm to POLITICO.
The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable, the sources said, and they signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the women from talking about their departures.
And then there’s this, in all its delicious sarcasm:
Exactly.
Herman Cain may have indulged in “inappropriate behavior” but his real sin was being a TOBACCO INDUSTRY lobbyist for God’ sake. I mean, he lobbied on behalf of an industry that put profit$ above people’$ health.
Haven’t we had enough of that?
What a guy.
Cash Warfare
Rachel Maddow said it all just now as to what the 2012 election is going to be about. Forget the 99ers. Forget jobs. Forget education. Forget healthcare. Forget infrastructure.
Thanks to Bush’s Supreme Court and Citizens United, 2012 is all about:
CASHWARFARE.
I’ll put video up as soon as it’s available but ain’t that the truth?
I don’t know about you but I can’t afford to buy my representative. But Bank of America can!
Pandemic
A friend sent me an article this morning (here it is) about H5N1 “bird flu.”
That got me thinking about pandemics generally so I Googled “pandemic” and got this.
Pretty disconcerting to see that amongst the top three articles are these two:
UCLA researchers find that H1N1 has spread to pigs in Africa
UCLA researchers have made an intriguing discovery. They’ve found swine flu in North African pigs. They stumbled upon the H1N1 virus while studying swine in Cameroon. The scientists think the pigs caught the virus from humans. They say the strain is almost identical to the one that many Southlanders contracted.
It’s something like a global game of viral ping-pong.
Scientists say the H1N1 virus originally spread from pigs to humans in Mexico, then traveled to Southern California and across the globe before finding its way to pigs in Africa.
Along the way the contagion sickened around 60 million people and killed more than 12,000.
●●●●●●
Budget cuts threaten pandemic response
The nation may be more vulnerable to a pandemic because of budget cuts that have slashed funding for emergency preparedness and downsized the force of public health workers.
Nashville has been part of that trend, and so has the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The physicians who head the local health department and the CDC worry about responding to a pandemic with fewer resources. Their diminished funding faces the likelihood of more cuts as the federal government looks for ways to reduce the deficit.
Thanks Tea Party.
From Terri Schiavo to Let Them Die
Remember Terri Schiavo? Remember back in 2005 when Republicans were running all around the country filing briefs and making speeches about how her family must not be permitted to “pull the plug” that had kept her in a “persistent vegetative state” for 15 years?
That was a mere six years ago.
Fast forward to last night. Republican/Tea Partiers cheered the idea that people who don’t have health insurance should be left to die.
The hate coming from that party is chilling.
Flash Mob Converges on Marcus Bachmann’s Pray-the-Gay-Away Clinic
This is hilarious video of a flash mob converging in the parking lot of Dr. Marcus Bachmann’s pray-the-gay-away “Bachmann & Associates” clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota yesterday. Oh, and BTW, Marcus Bachmann is Michele’s husband.
(Via.)
Americans to D.C. — Don’t Cut Entitlements!
Here’s yet another indication D.C. isn’t listening to We the People:
What if pollsters asked Americans which concerns them more: The prospect of tax hikes on people like them, or the possibility of cuts to Medicare and Social Security?
Well, a new National Journal poll released today has done just that. And by a sizable margin, a plurality is more concerned about cuts to entitlements than about paying more taxes. It’s yet another sign that the public is on the Dems’ side in this fight.
Here’s the key finding, from the internals of the poll, which were sent my way by National Journal:
In the debate over proposals to increase the federal debt ceiling, which of the folllowing possible outcomes concern you most?
A default on the federal debt that could raise interest rates for things like mortgages and consumer loans: 17
An agreement that raises taxes on people like you: 17
An agreement that authorizes too much federal spending in the next few years: 19
An agreement that cuts too much from government programs like Medicare and Social Security: 39
Hike our taxes before you cut our “entitlements.” GOT THAT WASHINGTON?!
Congress Should Get Their Retirement Funds When We Get Them
So, if Washington is going to entertain the idea of raising the age when us peons are eligible for retirement benefits, let’s include congress in that deal. So says Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
Senator Sherrod Brown has an idea. If we are going to talk about raising people’s eligibility age for retirement benefits, then members of Congress should not have access to their own retirement benefits any earlier than the rest of us.
Brown is introducing a proposal today in Congress that would enshrine this into law: It would amend the Federal retirement system to make the Social Security retirement age the point at which current and future members of Congress get access to their own Federal retirement benefits.
You might dismiss this proposal as merely designed to send a message, and indeed the proposal that may not even come up for a vote. But Brown is hoping that the very fact that it’s a long shot will force some members of Congress — and the President — to rethink the notion that it’s acceptable to raise the retirement age on hard working Americans.
“The people who cavalierly say we can raise the retirement age probably don’t know people who work in a diner or in construction or in manufacturing or in retail and had their knees go out in their 40s or 50s,” Brown told me in an interview. “People who are doing physical work always have back problems and joint problems.”
I say bravo and I say ah yeah. Duh. Congress critters have a lotta gall proposing that we can’t get our retirement benefits until we’re 67 when they get theirs immediately…even if they retire at age 40.
Let’s start chipping away at the caste system around here for God’s sake.
If Obama Agrees to Cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid…
William Rivers Pitts is spot-on when it comes to how I will feel if Obama so much as touches Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid during the, ahem, “bipartisan budget negotiations:”
There is no deal on paper as of yet, and the whole world is watching. Many people I spoke to on this were blunt: if the Democrats consent to any deal that damages or denudes Social Security and Medicare, then that’s it, hats over the windmill, and turn out the lights when you leave. Obama and his people can hope and change their way across the campaign trail until they are blue in the face. They will not be getting the votes of these people. This administration has made it clear on more than one occasion that they do not think too highly of their own base, and by acting like Republicans, perhaps they believe they will earn the votes of enough independents to offset the damage.
Maybe they will, and maybe they won’t, but that is not the point.
This is a matter of honor, plain and simple. An ocean of blood, sweat and tears has been spent bringing these all-important programs to life, and even more has been spent protecting and defending them. If this president consents to throw all that over in an act of political triangulation, he will be marked in my book for all time as a failure, a betrayer, and a disgrace.
In my book, and in many other books besides.
And there’s this from Joe Conason over at Truthout:
But the restored courage demonstrated by Democratic senators in support of his plan will not accomplish much if the president is determined to capitulate on fundamental principles. Should he prove to be so foolish, then he will find himself another step closer to the end of his presidency.
And though I believe every citizen has not only a right, but a responsibility to vote, I am feeling so deceived by Obama — he is unrecognizable from candidate Obama — I am seriously considering not voting for president in November, 2012.
10 Hours in the Hospital = $5,230+
My husband has been diagnosed with sleep apnea. On June 12 he spent ten hours at a medical office building across the street from our local hospital being “tested” to see which of several treatments might be best for him. He checked in at 8:00 p.m. and checked out at 6:00 a.m. on June 13.
They hooked him up to a a bunch of monitors, put him to bed in a room with a bunch of cameras, and they recorded his movement, BP and oxygen intake for the night. He didn’t get any food and he brought his meds with him.
We got the bill today: $5,234.00.
Per the “Ryan Plan,” House Republicans (100% of them) voted to give seniors who are on Medicare $8,000 a year to buy coverage from a private insurer.
Far as I can tell, President Obama has, tragically, been convinced that the Ryan Plan is a good thing and he is negotiating with Republicans to adopt some, if not all of its provisions in an effort to “reduce the deficit” and cow to conservatives who he apparently thinks are in the majority, even though they aren’t. (Google this issue. Americans overwhelmingly don’t want cuts to Social Security or Medicare/Medicaid. They want taxes to be raised on people who make over $250,000. Period.)
Anyway, think about this for a minute. You have $8,000 to spend on a plan that supposedly covers you for a year and voila, your coverage essentially evaporates after one procedure? Yeah. That’ll work.
As the Incidence of Diabetes Increases Worldwide, Walmart and Kmart Jack Up Cost of Diabetes Drugs
Ah yes, capitalism is a wonderful thing:
There’s this:
Diabetes Rate ‘Doubles’ – Imperial College and Harvard Research Suggests
The number of adults with diabetes in the world has more than doubled since 1980, a study in the Lancet says.
And there’s this:
Wal-Mart Hikes Branded Diabetes Drug Prices — Study
Big-box retailers Wal-Mart Stores and Kmart, pioneers in the push to cut consumer prices for generic drugs, have been raising prices for the most popular brand-name diabetes drugs, according to a new study.
[...]
The study also showed that Wal-Mart has raised prices for the 10 most-prescribed diabetes treatments by 32 percent between 2008 and 2010, compared with an average industry-wide increase of 21 percent, which includes chain drugstores, mail-order firms and independent pharmacies.
Kmart, a unit of Sears Holding Corp, raised its prices by 35 percent over the same two-year period, according to the study.
Are Governments Lying by Omission About Fukushima?
Al Jazeera has a chilling article up titled: Fukushima: It’s Worse Than You Think — Scientific experts believe Japan’s nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public. There’s a lot of alarming info in it, including this:
Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.
The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.
“These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant,” he explained, “One cigarette doesn’t get you, but over time they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can’t measure them with a Geiger counter. Clearly people in Fukushima prefecture have breathed in a large amount of these particles. Clearly the upper West Coast of the US has people being affected. That area got hit pretty heavy in April.”
And this:
In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.
The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster.
If we had a real news media in this country they’d get the author of this article on, pronto, and some of the people mentioned in it, and blast this information out.
Ain’t America Great?
What. An. Unbelievable. Story:
Man Robs Bank so He Can go to Jail and Get Health Care
Often, crimes are borne of desperation. However, most robberies aren’t motivated by a desperate need for health care.
James Richard Verone, of Georgia, attempted to steal one dollar from a bank so that he would be arrested, taken to jail and — most importantly — provided with health care, the Gaston Gazette reported.
Verone worked for Coca-Cola for 17 years, but lost that job three years ago. Now 59 years old, Verone can’t handle the physical demands of the part-time jobs, like working in a convenience store, that he has successfully been hired for. Hence, he has no health care.
“The pain was beyond the tolerance that I could accept,” he told the Gazette. “I kind of hit a brick wall with everything.”
He had no criminal record prior to the planned robbery June 9, either. On that day, he walked into a bank, handed the teller a note demanding a dollar, then sat and waited calmly for the police to arrive and arrest him.
My God. This is what we have come to.
A Yearly Income of $6,000 is Rich?
Imagine being in a family of three, having a yearly family income of $6,000, and being told you’re too rich to qualify for health care assistance:
Despite recent polls that show Americans are just as protective of Medicaid as they are of Medicare, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is trying to gut the popular program in his state and prevent 23,000 people from receiving benefits. Christie has proposed cutting Medicaid eligibility to absurdly low levels: from the current maximum income of $24,645 to $5,317 a year for a family of three. Apparently, the governor believes a family of three making $6,000 a year is simply too rich to receive Medicaid.
This is how totally, insanely out of whack things get when politicians represent corporations and the truly rich instead of We the People.
Planned Parenthood’s “Abortionplex” — Yikes!
The Onion:
Planned Parenthood Opens $8 Billion Abortionplex
The state-of-the-art facility, which features an IMAX movie theater as well as multiple fetus incinerators.
Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday the grand opening of its long-planned $8 billion Abortionplex, a sprawling abortion facility that will allow the organization to terminate unborn lives with an efficiency never before thought possible.
During a press conference, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards told reporters that the new state-of-the-art fetus-killing facility located in the nation’s heartland offers quick, easy, in-and-out abortions to all women, and represents a bold reinvention of the group’s long-standing mission and values.
Hey, it’s The Onion folks. But no. Wingers believe it. Note some of their reactions:
– PAID FOR WITH TAX DOLLARS — MAKE ME SICK!
– Planned Parenthood’s Auschwitz . Who would have thought?
– Something is seriously wrong with our society…..WOW….I am sickened and saddened by our society.
Read more here.
Dumbed down or WHAT?
Is it any wonder Republicans what to cut funding for schools? It works to their advantage and people fall for this stuff.
Ah. Mazing.
Fox News Trashes Mitt Romney
Fox News functions like an IV to the Republican base. If Fox News (I use the word news lightly) doesn’t like you, the base won’t like you and Fox News doesn’t like Mitt Romney. I dare say Mitt Romney is done because Fox is ripping the speech he gave yesterday explaining what he did in Massachusetts with regard to “RomneyCare.”
After all, righties think providing health care to needy people is a terrible thing. Fox has convinced them of that because Fox works for the corporatocracy. Just think: All that money could go to the likes of United HealthCare and its bazillion-dollar-a-year CEO.
Duck the people.
(Via.)
How Republicans Screwed Us Today — 5/10/11
So, what did we learn today about how Republicans are f**king us? Here’s what:
Alabama’s GOP Delegation Voted Against Funding for Tornado Forecasting
U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) spent the better part of two days last week touring areas of his state devastted by killer tornadoes. Bachus was in Tuscaloosa when President Obama toured perhaps the hardest hit area in Alabama. And Bachus issued a somber statement, calling on citizens to come together to help comfort those affected by the storms.
Bachus, however, apparently neglected to mention that he and other Republicans in Alabama’s Congressional delegation voted against funding for satellites that are critical for accurate storm forecasting. The Web site climateprogress.org reports that Bachus and his fellow Alabama Republicans–Martha Roby, Mo Brooks, Robert Aderholt, Mike Rogers, and Jo Bonner–voted against a bill that would replace aging satellites that are the heart of America’s weather-forecasting system.
Boehner Goes to Wall Street and Says Hi Guys, I Work For You!
House Speaker John Boehner will step up his efforts Monday to lay out a strategy for raising the debt ceiling to a crowd heavy on Wall Street players who are anxiously watching the fierce debate over the debt ceiling unfold.
In a speech to the Economic Club of New York in Midtown Manhattan, the Ohio Republican is set to reiterate to leading financial executives that he believes that reforming Medicare should be part of negotiations in raising the debt ceiling, saying that there needs to be “an honest conversation,” because the program is on an “unsustainable path if changes are not made,” according to sources familiar with the speech. Boehner also is expected to advocate for immediate cuts rather than deficit and debt targets preferred by some Democrats.
“Reforming Medicare.” Yeah, right. The “reform” Republicans are pushing is about pouring Medicare and Medicaid dollars into the “health care” corporatocracy. They’re salivating at the thought and Boehner aims to deliver, with our tax dollars.
Florida City Paying $2,500 A Day To Radical Union-Busting Firm To Stop Workers From Organizing:
Now, the city of Winter Park, Florida, is going to new lengths to stop nearly 150 city workers from joining a union. Apparently more concerned with stopping the union than saving money, Winter Park hired consultants at Kulture LLC, “a firm specializing in labor relations” at the rate of $2,500 a day to persuade workers to vote against organizing this summer.
Don’t you just love how they have money out the wazoo for their favorite things but not for ours?
