Jack & Jill Politics

The sale and blockage of the sale of Silverdome
http://martin-jackson.blogspot.com/2009/11/not-...

Football, politics, business deals and claims of playing the race card, this story has it all.

AFTERNOON OPEN THREAD IS UP

Obama warns of double dip recession?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/...

Mr Obama and his advisors just might be thinking about the impact that the end of the "Bush-2" tax cuts might have on the economy, not to mention the impact of the healthcare spending bill.

Would you advise him to extend the tax cuts and/or forgo the healthcare bill?

Extend tax cuts, but have a payroll tax just to pay for healthcare.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch ripped New York Gov. David Paterson (D) at a conference yesterday, saying he's a "very nice, honest man who's blind and can't read braille and doesn't really know what's going on. It's not a joke, it's a tragedy we're facing at the moment."

Murdoch Trashes Paterson

I'm waiting to see what JJPers think about this. I saw this earlier. This Murdoch character is interesting to say the least. I'm trying to figure out if this is all planned or is this guy just spouting off at the mouth. I'm thinking it's the former. I think Paterson almost painted himself in a corner when he pulled the race card. It made him be seen like he was wasn't ready for prime time. So we'll see how this plays out.

Murdoch's a through and through racist, but Paterson isn't the most sympathetic of characters.

Racist??? What do you mean rikyrah? How could an old white man from Australia possibly be a racist? Look how well his generation treated the Aborigines and he hired Juan Williams too.

Apparently the parting of the ways between the Xenophobic host of Lou Dobbs Tonight and CNN was not so amicable after all. The New York Post is reporting today, citing an unnamed source, that Dobbs walked away with a $8 million severance package, after completing just half of his $12 million contract.

CNN Paid Dobbs $8 Million to be Rid of Hate Talk Host

damn!!!

there is a really good documentary on boys from Baltimore who were sent to a school in Kenya called Boys Of Baraka. It reminded me of the kids on The Wire really moving powerful doc recommended for all

I remember that, and thought of it too when reading this story.

i take it that "inner city" in indiana means black kids...?

so, here are the politically incorrect questions: what race will the imported teachers be? what race will the administrators/decision-makers be?

I live downtown Naptown and the place is decidedly anglo (Center Township)
The High school for the city proper has a large African American contingency, but investment is getting heavy and ongoing as that school will be the training facility for the 2012 Superbowl. I am not opposed to the upgrade as high schools in the burbs and surrounding counties routinely have multimillion dollar facilities via private donation, alumni and other avenues. I'm concerned with academic regentrification. I find it interesting that anglo children have gone to schools in other countries, on board ships and other alternative situation but black kids were, by and large not included in those efforts; but now lets send them to the motherland. A semester at sea will change your life. TS

Marcus Garvey would be proud.

It would be better for the same scholars to develop a method to implement one of the many known successful programs for inner-city school children.

i agree. but at this stage in the game (in some districts), i'm open to anything that gets positive results. besides--travel rarely hurts.

Agree about travel. Although it is not the same, video teleconferencing is used in classrooms to introduce students around the world. I was also amazed to learn about how a student can be positively impacted by just periodically taking them out of their neighborhoods.

Read this in Teacher Magazine last year. Using a grant, a team of educators went into district after district with onerous dropout rates to prove that the children were capable of learning. At end of project, they reported success of creating college bound students in school after school. This affirmed my belief that change is needed in the school boards/districts.

change is DEFINITELY needed at the board-level! couldn't agree more. one of the problems is that people tend to vote along racial lines in those elections (if at all). suffering districts tend to have a board representative who looks like them but who is essentially ineffective.

there's a pretty decent resource along the lines of teaching magazine called teaching tolerance at tolerance.org (i have major issues with that word--tolerance!). a free publication that often has interesting ideas.

Conservation groups are protesting a proposed transfer of interest in approximately 1200 acres of the Tolowa Dunes State Park by the California Department of Parks and Recreation to the California Department of Fish and Game. The deal, which will open up the lands to hunting, is moving forward without any public notice or environmental review.

“The Governor apparently intends to save State Parks by disposing of them,” said Karen Schambach, California Director for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). “While State Parks can’t be sold, Fish and Game lands don’t enjoy that same protection. Is this the first step towards selling our parklands off to private interests?”


Schwartzenegger admin facilitating back-door sell-off of National Park land?

---

Why is there doubt? Did he not just offer up 250 public schools for privatization?

this is wrong, and another reason why he should be out of there.

I really liked that Rachel Maddow interview with Schaeffer. Especially this part:

"...Obama supporters had better start speaking up in support of him and not sniping at him all of the time because he's not moving towards change as fast as we'd like in every area. This is serious stuff. The chips are down, he has real enemies--some of them are violent--and as far as I'm concerned it's time to support our president, stand with him and not only wish him the best, but pray for his safety in the face of these religious maniacs....There are not many steps left on this insane path. ..."

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

I was cheering! I will continue to be fed up with the whining from the Left, the stupidity from the Right and the evilness expressed by those perpetrating Christianity. I am also sick of the daily discussion on who is going to run in 2012, this is an insult to the sitting president… and I have never known this to happen before.

yes!

New Guidelines on Breast Cancer Draw Opposition
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: November 16, 2009

Karen Young-Levi has gone for a mammogram every year since she turned 40, and she would not skip the procedure any more than she would skip her spin classes at the gym or stop wearing her seat belt. “It’s my security blanket,” said Ms. Young-Levi, 43, of Medford, N.J.

CRITICS Dr. Marisa Weiss, left, and Karen Young-Levi of Breastcancer.org. “My big fear,” Ms. Young-Levi said, “is that coverage will be diminished.”

So Ms. Young-Levi was confused and unnerved last week when news seeped out about new federal recommendations to scale back routine breast cancer screening. Like many women, she reacted with dismay and disbelief that the value of the one screening test she relied on had been questioned.

“If someone ran a computer analysis that determined that wearing a seat belt is not going to protect you from being killed during a crash, would you stop using a seat belt?” Ms. Young-Levi asked. “My big fear is that coverage will be diminished and that a very valuable tool to detect something at an early stage could be taken away from me.”

For years, organizations like Breastcancer.org, where Ms. Young-Levi works, have promoted regular screening and an unambiguous message that early detection saves lives. So even though some healthy women were relieved to hear that they might start skipping mammograms with a clear conscience, many cancer advocates rejected the new recommendations. Some doctors said they would ignore them and continue to advise patients to have mammograms early and often.

“I’m riled up; this is a giant step backward and a terrible mistake,” said the founder of Breastcancer.org, Dr. Marisa Weiss, an oncologist who practices at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Pa. “We know mammography overperforms and finds things that will never be life-threatening, and we know it underperforms in some women. But it has no chance to perform in women who don’t get it.”

The new screening guidelines, issued on Monday by the Preventive Services Task Force of the Department of Health and Human Services, recommend against routine screening mammography in women 40 to 49. They would scale back screening for women 50 to 74, to every other year from annually.

The recommendations question the usefulness of mammography for women 75 and older. And they counsel against teaching women to perform breast self-exams and question the usefulness of clinical breast exams.

Some cancer survivors, especially those whose cancer was discovered during a routine screening in their 40s, said the new guidelines felt like a slap in the face. They suggested that national efforts to curb health costs were behind the recommendations, though the expert panel based them on a rigorous review of medical evidence.

“You’re going to start losing a lot of women,” said Sylvia Moritz, 54, of Manhattan, who learned she had breast cancer at 48 after an annual mammogram. “I have two friends in their 40s who were just diagnosed with breast cancer. One of them just turned 41. If they had waited until she was 50 to do a routine mammogram, they wouldn’t have to bother on her part — she’d be dead.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/health/17scre...

Welcome to govt. mandated cost/benefit healthcare soon to come to you everywhere - no appeal, no recourse. Well, you can always pay for the mammogram out of your pocket.

On the other hand, medicare might buy you a scooter chair.

You may not be able to pay for things out of pocket.....all in the name of "cost controls". A Medicare doc can't take cash from any medicare patient, mostly because the govmt is afraid a cash payer with get preferential or better care. HMMMM. Notice how the Administration is defending this reduction in care, for what? Concern for patients or politics?

As long as the insurance companies can make money off them....

In all sincerity, I must ask..... do you have breasts?

What difference does it make? Does it negate his opinion if he doesn't?

do u?

No, but I care about them.....

I thought I'd replied to that, but it didn't show up, for some reason. No, I don't have breasts.

When I first posted my question, I was convinced you were being insensitive, but now realize that it was me being hypersensitive about an issue that has impacted me greatly. I'm quick with the caustic comments as well usually, so I should be prepared. Basically, I'm hurt because I lost my wife to BC, I'm angry at SOME of the doctors involved because of bad decisions they made.

Putting on my political hat I would say that Blue Cross paid over $1million for her to live 3 extra years, see our disabled son start kindergarden (first day had to be taped and taken to the hospital), as well as being a guinea pig for other's benefit. Some of this I see as problematic for a government managed system. The government can enforce more reasonble prices on some of the treaments (Herceptin combo therapy was $3500/WK for a while), but also there are going to be some hard decisions made that are not going to be "nice" when bureaucrats and budgets get involved. The article is only the tip of the iceberg in this realm.

Panel Urges Mammograms at 50, Not 40
By GINA KOLATA
Published: November 16, 2009

Most women should start regular breast cancer screening at age 50, not 40, according to new guidelines released Monday by an influential group that provides guidance to doctors, insurance companies and policy makers.

The new recommendations, which do not apply to a small group of women with unusual risk factors for breast cancer, reverse longstanding guidelines and are aimed at reducing harm from overtreatment, the group says. It also says women age 50 to 74 should have mammograms less frequently — every two years, rather than every year. And it said doctors should stop teaching women to examine their breasts on a regular basis.

Just seven years ago, the same group, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, with different members, recommended that women have mammograms every one to two years starting at age 40. It found too little evidence to take a stand on breast self-examinations.

The task force is an independent panel of experts in prevention and primary care appointed by the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Its new guidelines, which are different from those of some professional and advocacy organizations, are published online in The Annals of Internal Medicine They are likely to touch off yet another round of controversy over the benefits of screening for breast cancer.

Dr. Diana Petitti, vice chairwoman of the task force and a professor of biomedical informatics at Arizona State University, said the guidelines were based on new data and analyses and were aimed at reducing the potential harm from overscreening.

While many women do not think a screening test can be harmful, medical experts say the risks are real. A test can trigger unnecessary further tests, like biopsies, that can create extreme anxiety. And mammograms can find cancers that grow so slowly that they never would be noticed in a woman’s lifetime, resulting in unnecessary treatment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/health/17canc...

-------------------

I call BULLSHIT on this.

unneccessary biopsies?

any biopsy that results in you being told that you DON'T HAVE CANCER is NOT UNNECESSARY.

no mammogram until 50?

tell that to my sister who caught hers early at 44, and we are NOT a family with a history of Breast Cancer.

hell no to this.

Agreed Rikyrah. Someone is trying to "save" money at a woman's expense.

Playing politics like this will have some pertinent folks' nuts in a vise. They have underestimated the number of voters impacted by breast cancer in this country.

These guidelines wouldn't have helped or hurt my first wife, who died at 35 of breast cancer (in 2004), but the thinking/groupthink behind this is questionable and frightening. Politically, I would like to connect this to the current health care debate and make the point that there will be much more of this to come (UK and CA have many examples), but it really hurts to try now that I'm reliving some of the bad moments today. Maybe politics later.

Personally, I'm horrified that we could backtrack on our successes against some types of cancer. It's a tangled mess enough to try to do what's best for yourself when something comes up; Doctors are people too and they don't know everything.

while i would like women to have access to the health care procedures that they believe are right and necessary for them, i actually tend to agree with some of the findings. i did a research project and taught a class on breast cancer and the environment. the mammogram procedure actually involves radiation and there are some who believe that overusing the procedure actually could contribute to the risk of breast cancer. and yes, my mother was a breast cancer survivor, my sister in law left an infant when she died of breast cancer and many other women in my family have suffered from the disease, so i know first hand the terrible tragedy and pain.

so do i, zack. my maternal aunt had a double-mast in the 70s...i touched and saw her reconstructed breasts. felt something in my right breast years ago (i was in my early 20s). went to the doctor, who recommended a mammogram, which was (in addition to being excruciatingly painful!) inconclusive because--according to the tech--black women have "dense, lumpy breasts". okaaaaaaay. so my doctor wanted me to have a biopsy, which i declined after speaking with a family member who is a medical professional. found out i was pregnant a few months later and same doctor seemed to be trying to convince me to have an abortion because "pregnancy sometimes negatively affects breast lumps". had the baby, breastfed and...lump was gone! i'm now 44 and haven't had a mammogram since and my breasts are fine.

not saying my case is typical (don't know if it is), but i think that the guidelines were over-the-top to begin with.

Editorial
Hunger in the United States
Published: November 17, 2009

Congress should make a priority of expanding federal nutrition programs that are aimed at helping millions of struggling families feed their children. The need to bolster these programs was underscored again this week in a dismaying Department of Agriculture study showing that a record number of households had trouble getting sufficient food at one time or another last year.

These facts are troubling enough, but a separate federal study showed that even before the recession began, more than two-thirds of families with children who were defined as “food insecure” under federal guidelines contained one or more full-time worker. This suggests that millions of Americans were trapped in low-wage jobs before the downturn that made it more difficult for them to provide children with adequate nutrition.

Families were categorized as “food secure” or “food insecure” based how they answered several questions on their eating habits during the previous 12 months. Among other things, adults were asked whether they or any of their children had ever forgone eating for an entire day because the family lacked money for food.

According to the new federal data, the number of people in households that lacked consistent access to adequate nutrition rose to 49 million in 2008, 13 million more than in the previous year and the most since the federal government began keeping the data 14 years ago.

About a third of struggling households had what the researchers called “very low food security,” meaning that members of the household skipped meals, cut portions or passed on food at some point during the year because they lacked money. The other two-thirds managed to feed themselves by eating cheaper or less varied foods, relying on government aid like food stamps or resorting to food pantries and soup kitchens, which have been seeing heavier and heavier traffic in recent years.

Families with inadequate resources typically feed the children first, shielding them from hardship as much as possible. But the new data showed that the number of households in which children were exposed to “very low food security” rose to 506,000 from 323,000 in 2007.

The Bush administration tried to deep-six this annual survey. But President Obama has dealt with it openly and called the danger to children especially troubling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/opinion/18wed...

I would want to see the "survey".

not to mention racist intake workers/gatekeepers who systematically deny food stamps to families who actually qualify. this is a HUGE problem in san diego, and a dedicated group of lawyers (and a few recovering former lawyers) are on the case! it's a tragedy.

yet... there were people on this website in denial that the 90% stat re. black children and foodstamps was accurate?!? what the hell???? we can't solve a problem that we're afraid/ashamed to ACKNOWLEDGE!!!!!

this is from yesterday, but we were having problems with the board, so here's a repost.

I'll ask again...what is he, the Black MARK SANFORD?

Last Updated: November 17. 2009 1:00AM
Kilpatrick defends self, says he still loves Beatty
Ex-mayor due in court today for hearing

Detroit --Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is due back in court today, says he still loves Christine Beatty and is stronger for what he considers ongoing persecution from those disappointed he wasn't destroyed by the scandal and criminal charges that drove him from office last year.

"I have talked to her since all of this stuff happened," Kilpatrick told The Final Call, the Nation of Islam's newspaper, according to a video excerpt of the interview posted online Monday.

"I tried to make sure that she understands that I still care about her very deeply. A lot of times when women get caught in a situation like that, they get perceived as a whore. I think that is so unfair. It takes two to tango. She is a very good person. ... We made some bad decisions and we are living with the consequences of those decisions, but I respect her tremendously and love her."

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091117/METRO/9...

Ex-Mayor ' Trifling', is at it again.

If he were the "Black Mark Sanford" he would not be in jail or or prosecuted. At least he taking it like a man, unlike Ensign, Vitter, Sanford, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, etc., ad nauseum. Was he wrong? That's between he and himself. A gentleman never tells. It is not his option.
Love's a bitch, dont ya know. As to Ms Beatty, where is she going to find a partner of her station or is she just to hang with BGD in the School Book Depository. There have been lots of scrutiny of the situation educated black men and women that have empowered themselves, and the lack of choice of peer group. And the situation is exacerbated as they get older. Michelle O married a subordinate, something way too many would consider unethical and grounds for dismissal. From the movie "Prospero's Books," pertaining to the Book of Love: There is a man and a woman; the rest is pure conjecture.TS

"Was he wrong? That's between he and himself. A gentleman never tells. It is not his option."

What in the world are you talking about? "That's between he and himself" This guy had cheated on his wife with someone on his staff and with other women. He got the cops fired who were investigating him and then the city had to settle for millions of dollars. (Black cops I might add) He had stripper parties at the mansion and I'm supposed to feel sorry for this negro. He also lied about the whole thing. Now I'm watching this interview and he's trying to make himself out to be a victim of circumstance. Like it was because of the racist elements that made his downfall. Detroit doesn't need you Kwame. Good riddance. All you did was act like an overgrown Hip Hop child in a suit.

As far as the black mark sanford I don't think so. Sanford was an adulterer like most married are but I don't think he committed perjury and got cops fired.

I am only referencing the affair.
I don't feel sorry for him as well
if he ran the office like a BET vid (thats a racist painting)
But of what was he convicted. Im just say'n
Aint the first, aint gonna be the last
Im just full of folks worrying about
someone's dick. His dick is his problem.
Detroit is a city in crisis (for any number of reasons)
to the extent I've heard talk of just abandoning it.
A sociocultural Katrina, It would be naive to think
politics are not a factor. The situation is he set
himself up to be shot down. Lets separate the facts;
If you want to talk about perjury, lets talk perjury:
If is obstruction, then obstruction. An affair is an affair and much more personal and only for the parties involved. TS

I'm just not sure if the former mayor is not the getting the same treatment as other nefarious ner' do wells. Sarah Palin had State Police fired: Nominated for VP, sorta writes an book and makes millions, Oprah interview and future talk show host. Mark Sanford abandoned office and may have used state funds/resources for personal purposes: under investigation. John Ensign: boinks a married staffer, PARENTS pay hush and violate campaign laws: under investigation? I'm seeing a pattern. Black man: dick slapped up one side and down the other. Anglos: business as usual. TS

The question now is: how does a disgraced ex-mayor who earned a low six figure income as mayor spend $750,000 in the last year (excluding legal fees)?

Kwame is a slime ball. He has money but he's trying to find a slick way out of paying restitution. And shame on the Final Call for doing that cupcake interview.

Final Call got what it wanted
Have you been watching the Motor City
other than the mayor? Business and anglos
have left, gone, bye bye... What is left
is very poor, mostly black and uneducated people
struggling on a daily basis and serious old money
trying to get the last drop of blood out of that turnip.
It is a Katrina event; only unnatural.
Cairo, IL, East St Louis, East Chicago are the model at work here

I know plenty about the 'City without a Motor' as I call it out. That's another reason why I don't like Kwame. He had the opportunity to do right by the citizens of Detroit who needed a mayor to turn around the mess they call a city. Instead he practiced cronyism and brought corruption.

City without a motor is accurate. I dont know if Kwame was ever capable
of handling the problems endemic in Detroit or if he was a manifestation
of the frustration of the population that they will elect anyone with a glimmer of hope. Perhaps he was part of the process Detroit has to experience to scrape the figurative shit off the collective shoe and start again. What is Detroit has been in progress for decades.

I'll concur with that but his shenanigans didn't make it any better.

True, just a bit playa. but at this point, could anyone affect progress? Cairo IL is the model. 150 years ago, Cairo was the grandest city at the confluence of two slave states and a free state. Everything going up or down the ONLY means of transport passed through Cairo and it flourished. But over the years, power, old money and small town politics have overwhelmed the city until today what is left are poor black and privileged whites. The downtown is so far gone, buildings are literally falling down and there is not enough money to tear them down, Detroit is exactly the same: old money hangs on to what they have left to the detriment of the people that have to live there and the city in general.

Philadelphia Gives Homeowners a Way to Stay Put
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: November 17, 2009

PHILADELPHIA — Christopher Hall stepped tentatively through the entranceway of City Hall Courtroom 676 and took his place among dozens of others confronting foreclosure purgatory. His hopes all but extinguished, he fully expected the morning to end with a final indignity: He would sign over the deed to his house — his grandfather’s two-story row house; the only house in which he had ever lived; the house where he had raised three children.

“This is devastating,” he said last month as he sat in the gallery awaiting his hearing. “This is my childhood home. I grew up there. My mother passed away there. My grandfather passed away there. All of my memories are there.”

A union roofer, Mr. Hall, 42, had not worked since August 2008, when the contractor that employed him as a foreman went broke and laid off more than 40 people. He had not made a mortgage payment in more than a year, and his lender, Bank of America, was threatening to auction off his house through the sheriff’s office.

In most American cities, that probably would have been the end of the story: another home turned into distressed bank inventory by the national foreclosure crisis. But in Philadelphia, under a program begun last year to try to keep people in their homes, Mr. Hall entered the courtroom with a reasonable chance of hanging on.

Under the rules adopted by Philadelphia’s primary civil court, no owner-occupied house may be foreclosed on and sold by the sheriff’s office before a “conciliation conference,” a face-to-face meeting between the homeowner and the lender aimed at striking a workable compromise. Every homeowner facing a default filing is furnished with counseling, and sometimes legal representation.

So, as Mr. Hall stepped into the ornate courtroom just after 9 o’clock, he was swiftly provided with a volunteer lawyer, Kristine A. Phillips. She huddled briefly with a lawyer for Bank of America and returned with a useful promise. The bank would leave him alone for six more weeks while his housing counselor pursued further negotiations in an attempt to lower his payments permanently.

“You’ve got more time,” Ms. Phillips told him. “We’ll get this all worked out,” she said.

“Thank you so much,” Mr. Hall said softly, his body shaking with pent-up anxiety now tinged with relief. “It’s a lot of weight off of my shoulders.”

In a nation confronting a still-gathering crisis of foreclosure, Philadelphia’s program has emerged as a model that has enabled hundreds of troubled borrowers to retain their homes. Other cities, from Pittsburgh to Chicago to Louisville, have examined the program and adopted similar efforts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/business/18ph...

Sex infections still growing in U.S., says CDC
Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:39am EST
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American squeamishness about talking about sex has helped keep common sexually transmitted infections far too common, especially among vulnerable teens, U.S. researchers reported Monday.

Latest statistics on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis show the three highly treatable infections continue to spread in the United States.

"Chlamydia and gonorrhea are stable at unacceptably high levels and syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated," said John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world," Douglas added in a telephone interview.

The administration of President Barack Obama has signaled a willingness to move away from so-called abstinence-only sex education approaches promoted by his predecessor, George W. Bush, and conservative state and local governments.

Several studies have shown such approaches do not work well and that it is better to encourage abstinence while also offering children and teens information about how to protect themselves from diseases as well as pregnancy.

"We haven't been promoting the full battery of messages," Douglas said. "We have been sending people out with one seatbelt in the whole car."

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5...

GWU Study: Yes, The Stupak Amendment Would End Coverage Of Abortion Services Over Time
By: David Dayen Tuesday November 17, 2009 2:30 pm

We here at FDL, particularly myself and Jon Walker, have been having an argument with some more establishment figures over the impact of the Stupak amendment. Politifact and others have claimed that the measure would be limited and that coverage of reproductive choice services would not be affected. A new study from George Washington University says they’re wrong.

The analysis from the GW School of Public Health confirms that there would be industry-wide impact to the effective denial of coverage for abortion services inside the exchanges. The key paragraph:

In view of how the health benefit services industry operates and how insurance product design responds to broad regulatory intervention aimed at reshaping product content, we conclude that the treatment exclusions required under the Stupak/Pitts Amendment will have an industry-wide effect, eliminating coverage of medically indicated abortions over time for all women, not only those whose
coverage is derived through a health insurance exchange. As a result, Stupak/Pitts can be expected to move the industry away from current norms of coverage for medically indicated abortions. In combination with the Hyde Amendment, Stupak/Pitts will impose a coverage exclusion for medically indicated abortions on such a widespread basis that the health benefit services industry can be expected to recalibrate product design downward across the board in order to accommodate the exclusion in selected markets.

This is an confirmation of what we’ve been saying all along – that the insurance industry would reach a tipping point, where it would no longer be financially viable for them to offer abortion coverage in their health plans. Too many segments of the population would be excluded from the coverage, and the tendency to reduce administrative costs by standardizing plans would kick in. Bart Stupak, Chris Matthews, Politifact and the rest may not want to own up to this, but the amendment would, over time, end coverage of reproductive choice services. Period.

Furthermore, the GW study says that supplemental “riders” for abortion services are a non-starter:

In our view, the terms and impact of the Amendment will work to defeat the development of a supplemental coverage market for medically indicated abortions. In any supplemental coverage arrangement, it is essential that the supplemental coverage be administered in conjunction with basic coverage. This intertwined administration approach is barred under Stupak/Pitts because of the prohibition against financial comingling. This bar is in addition to the challenges inherent in administering any supplemental policy.

The analysis adds that insurance companies can be expected to interpret the Stupak amendment broadly, “excluding coverage of not only most medically indicated abortion procedures but also treatments for serious illnesses, injuries, and medical conditions that include an abortion undertaken for health reasons.” In another words, “chemical abortions” or D&E procedures would end up not being covered by any insurance plan, setting up a real barrier for these expensive procedures and severely threatening women’s health.

This is a huge repudiation of the “we’re just following current law” talking point that Stupak has been peddling. According to these experts, it’s bogus. The Stupak amendment would represent the biggest barrier to abortion services since the passage of Roe v. Wade, without question.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2009/11/17/gwu-stud...

does anyone know if they post clips of the George Lopez Tonight show? last night's monologue was pretty damn funny; had a lot of political stuff, and he was HARSH. I loved it.

if you find a link to clips of his shows, please post and thanks.

Hugs all round as Barack Obama meets half-brother during Asia tour
Matthew Weaver
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 November 2009 12.48 GMT

US president greets Mark Ndesandjo, his brother on his father's side, who lives in the Chinese city of Shenzhen

Barack Obama squeezed in a family hug between making deep bows before Japanese and Chinese leaders on his tour of Asia, his half-brother revealed today.

Soon after landing in Beijing and prior to dining with the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, the US president met Mark Ndesandjo, his brother on his father's side, who lives in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Ndesandjo flew to Beijing for the reunion and introduced Obama to his wife, who he said was the president's biggest fan.

"He came directly off the plane, changed some clothes and then came down and saw us," Ndesandjo said. "And he just gave me a big hug. And it was so intense. I'm still over the moon on it."

In an interview with the Associated Press, Ndesandjo joked that his wife was "still recovering", but gave few details about what had been discussed.

"All I can say is, we talked about family, and it was very powerful because when he came in through that door, and I saw him and I hugged him, and he hugged me and hugged my wife," he said. "It was like we were continuing a conversation that had started many years ago."

Obama told CNN: "I don't know him [Ndesandjo] well. I met him for the first time a couple of years ago. He stopped by with his wife for about five minutes during the trip."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/18/bar...

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if anyone sees a picture of the two of them together, would you please leave the link? thanks in advance.

yikes! A whole world of crazy and for a good laugh read the comments.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/11/16/172...


"Palin's Prayer Leader Hinted Terrorist Attack Could Make Sarah President

Democrat Deeds ran without his base, Kaine says
Outgoing governor also faults decision to downplay Obama
By Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Monday that Democrat R. Creigh Deeds lost his campaign for governor because he was unable to energize his base, falling into a Republican trap that led him to shrink from the president and his policies.

In a meeting with editors and reporters of The Washington Post, Kaine (D) said Deeds squandered the opportunity to sell his own appealing life story as a guy who had overcome long odds and economic disadvantage. Instead, the rural state senator took the advice of campaign consultants who wrongly assumed Deeds's Democratic support was solid and believed he should instead focus on wooing independents by attacking Republican Robert F. McDonnell.

"After the [June] primary was done, his advisers basically said, distance yourself from the president. We think we have our base locked down, we've got to win independents. And we're going to win by being negative about McDonnell," Kaine said. "That was the basic strategy they pursued, despite some significant urging to the contrary."

Asked about his own advice to Deeds, who lost to McDonnell on Nov. 3 by 17 percentage points, Kaine said: "I'd rather not talk about my personal conversations. But what I will say is that I always believed from the very beginning that the paradigm in Virginia had changed and that the way to win the race was to energize voters who had demonstrated they would vote for Democrats. That I did advise him very, very early. I advised all the candidates, prior to the primary, that was a path to victory."

Kaine's post-election analysis echoes criticism of the Deeds campaign that emerged from Washington and top aides to President Obama even before the election. It is a narrative that shields Obama from counterarguments by Republicans, who have contended that Virginia voters backed McDonnell to send a signal that they were displeased with Obama's leadership.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

1. Wouldn't distancing yourself from the president DISCOURAGE your base (as it did)?

2. McDonnell hovered around 50, 51% in the polls even through all the angry town halls in August. People weren't into McDonnell like talking about it. McDonnell didn't solidify his support in the polls until it became apparent Deeds was a dud. People were BEGGING Deeds to come up with something.

3. McDonnell had better TV ads and looked like a governor. Deeds looked like a stumbling, bumbling goober.

4. I already told you about the fundraising incident where the big money people were expecting Deeds to show up so they could open their wallets but got an uninformed teenager instead. That was a big DIS, FAIL and NO-NO. You don't dis the money people.

5. It was very hard to get DEEDS signs and impossible to get a bumper sticker. McDonnell had all sorts of bumper stickers: Veterans for McDonnell, Sportsmen for McDonnell, Women for McDonnell. I have YET to see a single DEEDS bumper sticker and I travel around the state on a semi-frequently basis. It was very hard to get signs. Maybe Deeds would have had money to print up bumper stickers had he not DISSED the money people.

6. Then when it became apparent that he was losing BADLY, THEN he wanted Obama's help. The one ad Obama did for Deeds was more about Obama than Deeds. Obama only came down as a favor for Tim Kaine because I'm sure Obama was over it and over Deeds. He probably told Michelle "This little fucker ran away from me all summer long and now that he's like 20pts down in the polls is all up in my grill asking for help."

7.I would really love to know what went down between Sheila Johnson and Deeds. Because her dissing him was PERSONAL. Her endorsement of McDonnell (and Wilder's non endorsement) didn't hurt Deeds with the blacks who voted because he got 93% of the black vote (Kaine got 92% back in '05). But voter turnout was down across the board, and I don't think black people should be doing the heavy lifting for a lackluster candidate when nobody else is checking for him either. But Sheila gets to co-chair McDonnell's inauguration and hob-nob with the white rich folks, just like she co-chaired Kaine's 4 years ago.

8. The public option thing hurt the "base," too. Why should the base turn out for you when you won't turn out for them?

9. Deeds might understand Rural western VA, but he doesn't understand the rest of VA. The man was not ready for Richmond, so he got sent back to the boondocks where he belongs.

Controversial court nominee survives Senate test
By LARRY MARGASAK
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 17, 2009; 6:07 PM

WASHINGTON -- Democrats on Tuesday crushed a Senate filibuster against a controversial appeals court nominee, demonstrating to Republicans they can't stop President Barack Obama from turning the federal judiciary to the left.

The 70-29 vote limited debate over the qualifications of U.S. District Judge David Hamilton of Indiana, and assured his elevation to the Chicago-based appeals court. Sixty votes were needed to end the filibuster, but confirmation only requires a simple majority of the 100-member Senate.

Ten Republicans repudiated their own party leaders and voted to limit debate. The Obama administration made a crucial decision from the outset by getting the support of Hamilton's home-state Republican senator, Richard Lugar.

The vote emphatically warned Republicans that with only 40 senators, they're too outnumbered to prevent Obama from making major inroads into a judiciary that was populated over eight years with conservative judges chosen by President George W. Bush.
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Republicans have objected to holding a vote on Hamilton's confirmation since June, when the Judiciary Committee reported his nomination favorably to the full Senate.

Conservative Republican senators and their judicial-watching outside groups then launched a major political assault on Hamilton.

They criticized his rulings against Christian prayers in the Indiana legislature and against a menorah in the Indiana Municipal Building's holiday display.

Conservatives were furious that Hamilton struck down part of an Indiana law requiring women to make two trips to a clinic for counseling before they could get an abortion. He said the requirement placed an undue burden on a woman's constitutional right to choose to end a pregnancy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

USDA Reports Stunning Rise In Hunger
by Nulwee [Subscribe]
Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 07:43:53 PM PST

Many of the food insecure are wage earners, even former food donors. It's not just the unemployed, or those without work inexplicably excluded from the data. Among the actual youth of the nation, food insecurity's exploding. No, they don't all just get taken care of by the churches or Uncle Sam. People fall through the cracks every day.

Maybe we're a third world nation by these numbers. Maybe we've fallen behind four generations. Either way, decisions await us.

So, what is an acceptable number of hungry children for our society?

* Nulwee's diary :: ::
*

h/t to C&L

My home state is among the hungriest. At the very height of the Bush boom from 2006-2008, 1 of 8 Oregon households went without. But as we all know, things are very different now from illusory "good" times.

So, how many vacays, purses and Hummers will those with the ability-to-pay be willing to forgo so that less Americans know the pangs? Where do we draw that line?

From the USDA, we know the 2007 Bush depression:

...catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people -- including almost one child in four -- struggled last year to get enough to eat.

...In 2008, nearly 17 million children, or 22.5 percent, lived in households in which food at times was scarce -- 4 million children more than the year before.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/17/805460...

Sheila Johnson Co-Chairing McDonnell's Inauguration
Eric Kleefeld | November 17, 2009, 4:37PM


A special name pops up on the list of co-chairs for Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell's (R-VA) inauguration: Sheila Johnson, a co-founder of Black Entertainment Television -- who is best known for having made fun of Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds for stuttering.

The McDonnell campaign had initially declined to condemn Johnson's joke or distance themselves from it, after it had come to light. Johnson herself issued an apology shortly afterward. Her status in the campaign did not seem to be damaged, as she later continued to hold McDonnell events and even starred in a campaign ad.

Also on the list is Susan Allen, a former first lady of the state, and wife of former Governor and former Senator George Allen.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/shei...

Ugh @ Susan Allen.

McDonnell better get fitted for some good tap shoes and start studying Bojangles Robinson and Savion Glover tapes because he's going to be doing a LOT of tap dancing in the next 4 years. Pat Robertson didn't invest nearly $100K in him for nothing, and Robertson is ALREADY causing trouble for McDonnell by saying that Islam was not a religion but a violent political system and anyone who practices it should be locked up. That was just last week, and the man hasn't even been sworn in yet.

C Street House No Longer Tax Exempt
Zachary Roth | November 17, 2009, 1:40PM


Residents of the C Street Christian fellowship house will no longer benefit from a loophole that had allowed the house's owners to avoid paying property taxes.

Previously, the house -- despite being home to numerous lawmakers -- had been tax exempt, because it was classified as a church. That arrangement had allowed the building's owner, the secretive international Christian organization The Family, to charge significantly below market rents to its residents. In recent year, Senators John Ensign (R-NV), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Reps. Zach Wamp (R-TN), Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) have all reportedly called C Street home.

Natalie Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Office of Tax and Revenue for Washington D.C., told TPMmuckraker that her office inspected the house this summer. "It was determined that portions of it were being rented out for private residential purposes," she said. As a result, the tax exempt status was partially revoked. Sixty-six percent of the value of the property is now subject to taxation.

According to online records, the total taxable assessment is $1,834,500. The building's owner last month paid taxes of $1714.70 on the property.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/...

let's cross our fingers that nothing goes wrong with the board today.

Goldman Sachs Group (GS), under heavy criticism in Washington for allocating over $16 billion in bonuses in the first nine months of this year, is preparing to team up with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), — the largest shareholder in New York-based bank — to provide assistance to small businesses.

According to Bloomberg, Goldman has notified President Obama’s administration already, and could announce the alliance as early as today. The action, which is a charitable effort from Goldman and Buffett, is designed to offer assistance — ranging from counseling to obtaining funding — to 10,000 U.S. small businesses.

The effort on the part of Goldman Sachs is in all probability designed to also dispel criticism from the main street who perceives the famed investment bank as the greedy face of a financial industry whose excessive risk-taking fueled the credit crisis. Whether Goldman will be successful in its ‘PR’ campaign remains to be seen.

The initiative, notes Bloomberg, coincides with one of the Obama administration’s top economic priorities: spurring hiring at small companies.

Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs Team Up to Help Small US Businesses

---

Right. While operating under Sachs' version of God's work which is organized looting, they are now attempting to convince the public they are really the good guys.

Right. While operating under Sachs' version of God's work which is organized looting, they are now attempting to convince the public they are really the good guys

I know. they have no shame whatsoever.

AM: Damn Mel Watts! I know the banks are one of your main constituencies, but this kind of whoring is despicable.

Audit The Fed Effort Under Threat In House

A bipartisan effort to force transparency on the Federal Reserve is suddenly in jeopardy after a House Financial Services Committee member introduced an amendment that would let the multi-trillion dollar organization continue throwing tax dollars around in secret.

Rep. Mel Watt, a Democrat from North Carolina, has introduced an amendment intended as an alternative to the measure to audit the Federal Reserve introduced by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson's (D-Fla.) . But instead of increasing transparency, as the amendment claims to do, Watt's measure would instead make the institution more opaque.

The measure could come for a vote anytime this week. Read the amendment here.

Watt pitched his amendment in a letter to colleagues circulated Tuesday. "While my amendment will certainly fall short of demands by those intent on destroying the independence (if not the existence) of the Fed, the critics of my amendment will have to concede...that my amendment will provide transparency of the Fed's financial operations that will be completely unprecedented," he wrote.

In fact, the critics are conceding no such thing. "The Watt Amendment, as written today, actually places new restrictions on the little authority that exists, such as it is, for independent auditing of the Fed," Grayson said. "It keeps in place all existing restrictions and adds four more. So I don't see why anybody would reasonably think that it creates unprecedented authority to audit the Fed."

The devil, as always, is in the details. While Watt's amendment talks a big game about opening up the Fed to a complete audit, all of the new powers granted must be carried out "each case in accordance with subsections (b) and (e)."

Those subsections of the current law delineate the many restrictions that an auditor confronts when seeking to audit the Fed. Watt's measure not only leaves those in place but requires all audits to abide by them.

And in addition to the current restrictions in place, it creates new ones. An auditor could not look at loans or liquidity arrangements the Fed enters into, the terms of those arrangements, or the effect of those loans and other liquidity deals on "reserves, the balance sheet or financial condition of a Federal reserve bank or the Federal Reserve System."

The Fed has expanded its balance sheet drastically over the last year, entering into exotic swap arrangements and otherwise pumping trillions of dollars into the economy. How it has done so and who has been on the receiving end would remain secret under Watt's bill.

By contrast, the Paul-Grayson amendment is patterned after Paul's bill H.R. 1207, which has broad bipartisan support. It has more than 310 cosponsors in a chamber with 435 members.

Paul's measure would repeal the provisions that Watt's leaves in place. If every member who cosponsored Paul's bill votes for it in committee this week, it would have the votes to pass. Watt's amendment is an effort to peel off votes.

Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said that Watt's proposal falls far short of the transparency that the multi-trillion dollar organization needs.

"The new exemptions are described as limited but they are extremely broad," Grayson said. They're so broad, in fact, that there would be very little left for an auditor to look into. What could an auditor check up on?

"Count the pencils on the desks," Grayson speculated. "Perhaps check on proper Metro card usage."

D you have a link?

I'm on Grayson's side too. shame on you, Mel Watt.

The Tax Man:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/...

Soldier suicides this year are almost sure to top last year's grim totals, but a recent decline in the pace of such incidents could mean the Army is starting to make progress in stemming them, officials said Tuesday.

Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli said that as of Monday, 140 active duty soldiers were believed to have died of self-inflicted wounds so far in 2009. That's the same as were confirmed for all of 2008.

"We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year ... this is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way," he said.

Army suicides to top 2008, but progress reported

because of the macho nature of the military; combine that with the strong sense of ' i'm not going to be weak and get therapy', then add in that they don't have ENOUGH mental health professionals, it's a bad combination that leads to tragedy.

The National Urban League is teaming with a small-business financial specialist to offer loans to companies unable to get approved by banks.

On Deck Capital will provide loans through Urban League local affiliates, starting in Philadelphia and Los Angeles and then expanding across the country, it was announced Wednesday.

The program offers one-year loans ranging from $5,000 to $100,000 at interest rates of 18 to 36 percent. All the loans must be repaid through automatic daily "micro-payments" from the business' bank accounts.

The program will focus on urban areas with high concentrations of minority businesses and help create new jobs there, said Patricia A. Coulter, president and CEO of the Urban League of Philadelphia.

Urban League and partner to offer small biz loans

Certainly good news. Hopefully it wont be a rip iff.

that was my first thought; like Tavis' partnership with Wells Fargo.

Some 100 new militia groups have formed since the election of President Barack Obama, says the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In a re-run of the phenomenon seen when President Bill Clinton took office, gun-rights advocates, libertarians, survivalists and others are forming militias as a symbol of their resistance to what they see as an administration that threatens to restrict their right to bear arms and expand government control over the lives of private citizens.

"The truth is that these groups are popping up like mushrooms after a spring rain," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a social-justice group that has been tracking the rise of militias over the past year.

100 new militia groups since Obama elected; watchdog alarmed

It gets old hearing about the same ol' musty far right and "their guns" and I'll be damned if I'm going through another decade of hearing the same ol' talking points and Turner Diary crap. Where's everyone else? Folks need to counter that mess!!!

not surprised, and this is why the SECRET SERVICE is overworked. they need to just have a branch devoted to investigating these mofos.

Another poor, massive, uneducated African-American teenager lumbers onto screens shortly after Precious, obviously timed as a pre-Thanksgiving-dinner lesson in the Golden Rule. But unlike the howling rage of Claireece Precious Jones, The Blind Side's Michael "Big Mike" Oher (Quinton Aaron) is mute, docile, and ever-grateful to the white folks who took him in.

Directed by John Lee Hancock and based on a true story recounted in Michael Lewis' 2006 book of the same name, Blind Side the movie peddles the most insidious kind of racism, one in which whiteys are virtuous saviors, coming to the rescue of African-Americans who become superfluous in narratives that are supposed to be about them.

The Blind Side: Whitey comes to the rescue

Wow, another YT to the Rescue! movie.

So, the implication of your comments and those below are that Oher's a sellout, he's in denial about his blackness?

Which comment are you attributing to me?

"The White Guy" is intentionally missing the point...just another rhetorical game.

LOL.

I think I recall this person's story a while back on some morning news story and thought the same thing then...

see, this is why I have no interest in actually seeing this movie, even if it's a true story.

A national researcher told state lawmakers that access to health care is largely dependent on race, background, education level and social standing.

Dr. Camara Jones, a health research director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spoke to lawmakers on Tuesday.

Delegate Don Perdue, chairman of the House Health and Human Resources Committee, invited Jones to address the Legislature during this week's special session after hearing her speak at a CDC conference in Atlanta.

Official says racial issues still hurt state

race effects everything else in America, and I know this isn't a shock. but, I guess we need some sort of ' official' to make what is plain actually 'real'. no shock that Black folk are on the short end of the stick when it comes to healthcare.

More than 150 years after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the notorious Dred Scott decision affirming slavery, a Maryland city unveiled a plaque Tuesday to educate visitors about the opinion and the local man who wrote it — and to quell a local controversy.

The rectangular bronze marker stands on a granite pedestal at Frederick City Hall about eight feet from a stern bust of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney that has occupied the plaza for nearly 80 years despite calls for its removal.

The plaque is a compromise between residents who wanted the Taney statue gone and those who consider him a great jurist whose racial views reflected the tenor of his times. Frederick, roughly 50 miles from Washington and Baltimore, has population of about 59,000, and is about 15 percent black.

Taney practiced law in Frederick from 1801 to 1823. As a Supreme Court justice, he wrote the 1857 decision that said even freed slaves and their descendants could never be U.S. citizens. The case became a catalyst for the Civil War.

Md. city erects Dred Scott decision plaque to quell rancor over Supreme Court justice's statue

yes, a damn plaque is such a compromise.

G-T-F-O-H