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The Scandal of Michigan's Emergency Managers
On January 20 the progressive think tank Michigan Forward and the Detroit branch of the NAACP sent a joint letter to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder expressing concern over Public Act 4, the Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act. Signed into law in March 2011, it granted unprecedented new powers to the state’s emergency managers (EMs), including breaking union contracts, taking over pension systems, setting school curriculums and even dissolving or disincorporating municipalities.
Under PA 4, EMs, who are appointed by the governor, can “exercise any power or authority of any officer, employee, department, board, commission or other similar entity of the local government whether elected or appointed.”
What are the qualifications for such a powerful office and the six-figure salary that accompanies it? Not much: PA 4 requires “a minimum of 5 years’ experience and demonstrable expertise in business, financial, or local or state budgetary matters.”
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The outcome of the citizen referendum and the constitutional challenges may well determine if laws like PA 4 remain unique to Michigan or become the national standard for dealing with impoverished urban areas. With the Indiana Senate having just passed an emergency manager bill of its own, we may be heading down that path.
*********************************************************************************************************On January 20 the progressive think tank Michigan Forward and the Detroit branch of... more-
- Skeptikat
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The Ethical Planetarian Party Platform
The Ethical Planetarian Party Platform
by Amaterasu
Have You tired of the empty promises of politicians? Have You seen the “divide and conquer” successes in everything from school teams to country identities? Do You want the planet to coexist?
Perhaps You might consider the Ethical Planetarian Party.
What is the Ethical Planetarian Party? What are its goals and platform?
First, We stand for upholding the three Laws:
1. Do not willfully harm or kill another Being
2. Do not willfully take or damage another Being’s property
3. Do not willfully defraud another Being
In other words, We choose to maintain civil interaction, face to face. The biological parent has precedence in the case of Our children, unless there is evidence that these same Laws are not kept with Them as well. They are Beings, too. Beings are any who ask for rights, or have Others of the same species ask in proxy if They are unable to ask, Themselves. This is not license to mal-treat beings of “lower” Consciousness, for all Consciousness should be respected. The goal is for as much of Consciousness to spend as much of the time as possible comfortable.
A quick, clean and honorable death for the flesh a Being eats, having given comfort throughout the life of any domestic food.
Second, We are predicated on the idea that Humans should be free to take advantage of the abundance of the planet by eliminating money through free energy.
Third, We strive to allow religious choice, believing that there are as many Callings as there are Beings, and as long as the Laws are kept, how One approaches that which One is, is to be respected.
Fourth, We expect the use of technology under these Laws, with peaceful intent, including free energy – the key to eliminating money. We know much is presently hidden in fear that We might exact retribution or follow folly, but We are of the opinion, based on evidence, that when Humans have no money, generosity and loving behavior are expended to help Those in need. With technology We both have personal awareness of and much science and anecdote grasped, We know We can eliminate money as a necessity and provide abundance for everyOne. We call for the release of electrogravitics from black ops, where it has been held secret for over 50 years.
We are out to eliminate poverty.
Fifth, We will bring forth a website where problems can be brought up locally and People can “vote” to bump a problem up, down, show apathy by not voting, and chime in with solutions (which can be cheered and booed). Issues will drop off after the original poster indicates that the problem has been resolved or withdrawn, or there has been no activity after, say, six months (that is not set in stone). Social responsibility will be defined as spending 15 minutes a day examining issues on this site.
Also, issues with some set number of bumps up will be considered issues that need a wider awareness and go to regional sections. From there, continental, perhaps, and then global, as more are needed to be involved in solving the problem. Problems will beget the awareness to solve them.
Without money as a motive, problems will be solved more creatively, directly, harmoniously, and within the three Laws.
Sixth, We are staunch in our support of an organic planet. Though hybridization is an awesome tool, genetically modifying organisms is NOT. Without money, there is no motivation to create GMO. We know that organics can produce on par or better yield and better nutrition than their petrochemically “fertilized” brethren. Any non-organic approaches to problems will be highly discouraged, unless it is seen that such a solution is the best.
Beyond this, sustainability is Our goal.
Seventh, We see that, without money, We can build machines – robots – to do all necessary work. Without work as an “ethic,” We substitute a “Betterment Ethic,” and encourage all to look for ways – within the three Laws and with organic solutions prized – to improve conditions on this planet for everyOne, and offer these ideas for consideration and possible action.
Eighth, We understand that virtually all crime is, on one level or another, related to money, and without money as motive, virtually all crime will vanish – leaving the very few, passion-related crimes for Us to deal with. We will deal with all crime publicly, and Those who care can and will decide each case. Most such choice of behavior will lead to social pariah-hood for the perpetrators.
Ninth, We support open source in all things We program. This allows for many to make suggestions for betterment, and ensures that no one will create outside the three Laws. It also eliminates “back doors,” and other surreptitious software segments that bog down the clean functioning of the program. Without money as a motive, programmers will be proud to offer Their work for scrutinization and use, openly and freely. Status will be gained for creating the best programs.
Tenth, We understand that food waste is rampant with food distributed by profit, abundant as it is but poorly and/or untimely delivered. Without money, food distribution will be based on need and not profit, ensuring that waste is minimal, food is fresh for all (no One waiting for the wilted cast-offs), and readily available.
Though these approaches are revolutionary, We understand that if enough People are on board, a fresh, free, fun, and fulfilling life will be Ours – and everyone else’s – as We choose. No One needs to change anything except where there is a problem – and then Those who care are free to solve it within the three Laws.
Without money, bureaucracy will become unnecessary, vastly reducing paper use, and streamlining solutions. Jobs in banking, insurance, and other such money-related industries will disappear, and in their place, the opportunity to spend time as One wishes.
Transportation will be free – for Ourselves, Our food and product systems, and any other transportation needs. This offers the ability to go where One wishes, moving food to where it is needed, and other freedom We presently do not have, with transportation energy costing so much.
We are a planetary party and decry any solutions that maintain a “divide and conquer” attitude or outcome, including stateism, nationalism, partyism, teamism, etc. We are one species on one planet, and we seek to benefit the planet ethically and wholly.
To join, merely state that You are a member. All that is required, as a Party member, is to inform Others about the Ethical Planetarian Party – send this link, or copy and paste to email this content.
________________________
To sign the petition calling for the release of electrogravitics from black ops, click here:
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-military-release-the-technology-of-electrograviticsThe Ethical Planetarian Party Platform by Amaterasu Have You tired of the empty... more-
- Amaterasu
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'Stockblockers': Stewart Takes on Congressional Insider Trading (VIDEO)
Congress tried to tackle this particular form of corruption by introducing the STOCK Act, which would ban Congressional trading, but two of its key measures – one that would require “political intelligence professionals” to register as lobbyists, and the other that would broaden anti-corruption law – were predictably stripped by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, purposely weakening the bill’s intended effect.
http://veracitystew.com/2012/02/16/stockblockers-stewart-takes-on-congressional-insider-trading-video/Congress tried to tackle this particular form of corruption by introducing the STOCK... more-
- StewSteve
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BBC to issue global apology for documentaries that broke rules
The BBC will today apologise to an estimated 74 million people around the world for a news fixing scandal, exposed by The Independent, in which it broadcast documentaries made by a London TV company that was earning millions of pounds from PR clients which it featured in its programming.
BBC World News viewers from Kuala Lumpur to Khartoum and Bangkok to Buenos Aires will watch the remarkable broadcast, available in 295 million homes, 1.7 million hotel rooms, 81 cruise ships, 46 airlines and on 35 mobile phone platforms, at four different times, staged in order to reach audiences in different time zones. The BBC will apologise for breaking "rules aimed at protecting our editorial integrity".
The Independent exposed last year in an investigation into the global television news industry how the BBC paid nominal fees of as little as £1 for programmes made by FBC Media (UK), whose PR client list included foreign governments and multinational companies. The company made eight pieces for the BBC about Malaysia while failing to declare it was paid £17m by the Malaysian government for "global strategic communications". The programmes included positive coverage of Malaysia's controversial palm oil industry.
The BBC also used FBC to make a documentary about the spring uprising in Egypt without knowing the firm was paid to do PR work for the regime of former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
The BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee carried out an investigation into BBC World News which reported in November it had uncovered 15 breaches of editorial guidelines. Eight of the breaches were in respect of FBC programmes made about Malaysia. The trust also identified other breaches of rules on sponsorship in programmes shown by BBC World News, which is a commercial entity and carries advertising. In its apology, the BBC will say: "A small number of programmes broadcast on BBC World News between February 2009 and July 2011 broke BBC rules aimed at protecting our editorial integrity. These rules ensure that programmes are free, and are seen to be free, from commercial or other outside pressures."
Making a direct reference to the FBC documentaries, it will say: "In the case of eight other programmes, all of which featured Malaysia, we found that the production company which made the programmes appeared to have a financial relationship with the Malaysian government. This meant there was a potential conflict of interest, though the BBC was not aware of it when the programmes were broadcast."
It concludes: "Editorial integrity is the highest priority for BBC World News, which is why we apologise for these breaches of our normal standards."
The Independent has revealed FBC, which was run by the former Financial Times journalist Alan Friedman and the CNN presenter John Defterios, was also making editorial programmes that featured FBC clients for the global business broadcaster CNBC, which suspended its FBC-made show World Business. Other FBC clients included the governments of Greece and Kazakhstan and companies like Microsoft. FBC also tried to suggest in its promotional literature it had "cultivated" key opinion formers, such as economist Jeffrey Sachs, as "ambassadors". Sachs totally rejected the claim.
When The Independent published its investigations into FBC the firm said it had kept strict divisions between its editorial and PR operations. FBC closed its London offices and went into administration in October. Broadcasting regulator Ofcom is investigating FBC.
Bad practice: The stories
Hosni Mubarak
As Egypt was in the throes of a revolution, the BBC commissioned FBC to make a documentary on the country. But the firm had a commercial relationship to promote Egypt as "liberal and open". The programme, Third Eye: Egypt, warned of the threat of takeover by Islamic fundamentalists.
Mark Thompson
The BBC director general has ordered an end to the practice of acquiring news programmes for "low or nominal cost" after the BBC admitted 15 breaches of its editorial guidelines and buying documentaries for "nominal" fees as little as £1 from a company that was working to promote foreign governments.
Malaysia
Since 2009 FBC has made at least four BBC documentaries dealing with Malaysia and controversial issues such as the country's palm-oil industry and its treatment of rainforests and indigenous people. The company has received millions of pounds in payments from the government of Malaysia for a "global strategic communications campaign".
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/bbc-to-issue-global-apology-for-documentaries-that-broke-rules-6719997.htmlThe BBC will today apologise to an estimated 74 million people around the world for a... more-
- Anonmaly
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The List of 75 US Senators Who Voted To Let 30,000 Drones Shoot Americans In The Streets
Some more unbelievable stuff from America's ongoing Fake War on Terror.
***
The House and Senate voted for the passage of the FAA bill that funds 30,000 drones to surveil Americans knowing that the majority are to be armed initially with shotgun tasers. Two Americans a week die from tasers so these are lethal weapons. But these drones can easily be equipped with machine guns and rockets.
I decided to only report the Senate vote because the bill included strong anti-union sections that forced House Democrats to vote against the overall bill. A quick glance of the Senate No votes revealed one staunch Zionist from a strong union state who probably would have voted for the bill if it were a stand alone measure without the union bashing.
See list at link...Some more unbelievable stuff from America's ongoing Fake War on Terror. ***... more-
- maasanova
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- 3 months ago
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Soldiers Say KBR Exposed Them to Dangerous Chemical
Consequences from America's Fake War on Terror, which launched a war on Iraq based on imaginary WMD's.
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Under a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, part of KBR's job was to restore a dilapidated water-injection facility in the south. American and British troops provided security. It didn't take long before KBR employees and soldiers complained of bloody noses, trouble breathing, and rashes. And it also didn't take long to figure out that parts of the facility were contaminated with sodium dichromate, a chemical that contains hexavalent chromium, a carcinogenic that most people might know from the movie Erin Brockovich.
You might think that health and safety officers from both KBR and the Corps would act quickly to remove the stuff, test the workers and soldiers, and provide protective gear. Instead, it appears that both sides tried to shift the burden onto each other while figuring out how to best adopt a CYA strategy.
In 2010, the soldiers sued KBR, accusing them of lying to the soldiers about the presence and danger of sodium dichromate. However, the Army's own medical evaluations -- limited to just a fraction of those possibly exposed -- did not find abnormal chromium levels in the soldiers' blood.
This week's cover story, "Blood Money," looks into what should have been a no-brainer -- cleaning up the facility in early 2003 -- but what instead has dragged on for nearly a decade, and what some of the troops believe has already cut some of their fellow soldiers' lives short.Consequences from America's Fake War on Terror, which launched a war on Iraq... more-
- maasanova
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Chicago Named America's Most Corrupt City
"A former Chicago alderman turned political science professor/corruption fighter has found that Chicago is the most corrupt city in the country.
He cites data from the U.S. Department of Justice to prove his case. And, he says, Illinois is third-most corrupt state in the country.
University of Illinois at Chicago professor Dick Simpson, who served as alderman of the 44th Ward in Lakeview from 1971 to 1979, estimates the cost of corruption at $500 million.""A former Chicago alderman turned political science professor/corruption fighter... more-
- Truthitswhatsfordinner
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Texas' first posthumous pardon
FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The first person in the United States to be exonerated posthumously on the basis of DNA evidence received a lasting tribute in his home state of Texas this week.
State officials and the family of the late Tim Cole unveiled the first Texas historical marker dedicated to an exonerated convict, located in a Fort Worth cemetery a few feet from the grave where Cole was buried in 1999.
Governor Rick Perry issued Texas' first posthumous pardon to Cole in 2010, over a decade after he died from complications from an asthma attack while serving time in prison for a rape he did not commit.
"We finally have something visual that people can see to remember Tim," Cory Session, Cole's brother, told Reuters. "We are very pleased and grateful that Tim's life and legacy will not be forgotten."
Post-conviction DNA testing has exonerated nearly 290 people in the United States since 1989, including 17 death row inmates, according the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions. It says that witness misidentification was a factor in nearly 75 percent of cases.
Of the DNA exonerations nationwide, over 40 have been in Texas, more than in any other U.S. state.
The Texas marker tells the story of how Cole was convicted in 1986 of raping a fellow student at Texas Tech University and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. An Army veteran, Cole served more than 13 years in prison, steadfastly insisting he did not commit the crime.
He turned down a plea bargain before his trial and a parole opportunity because he refused to admit guilt.
His family's continued efforts to clear his name were boosted by the Innocence Project of Texas, which received a letter in 2007 from an inmate confessing to the crime that Cole was convicted of committing.
Preserved DNA evidence confirmed that Jerry Wayne Johnson - not Cole - committed the rape. The victim of the attack, Michele Mallin, had identified Cole as her attacker in a photo and physical lineup but later joined efforts to bring him justice, said Gary Udashen, president of the Innocence Project of Texas.
The legal maneuvers to clear Cole's name were successful, and in 2009 he was cleared in court of the crime "to a 100 percent moral, legal and factual certainty," the marker reads.
"Tim Cole's case is extremely significant and has made a real difference in the bringing justice to those falsely convicted in Texas," Udashen said.
The case prompted passage of two laws, including the Tim Cole Compensation Act, passed by the Texas Legislature in 2009, which provides compensation to those wrongly imprisoned.
The legislature also created the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions to help prevent future such convictions in Texas.
The marker was the result of a two-year effort by Cole's family.
"I was driving my daughter through another cemetery to visit a grave when we saw a historical marker," said Session, policy director for the Innocence Project. "I decided right then that's what I wanted for Tim." (Reporting By Marice Richter; Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Cynthia Johnston)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/12/convict-exonerated-after-death_n_1272061.html?ref=crime&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl6%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D135220FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The first person in the United States to be... more-
- MotherForTruth
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- 4 months ago
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The Truth Shall Set You Free...Or in This Case Get You Fired
On the last show before the decision was made to cancel Freedom Watch, Judge Napolitano tells it how it is...
I would love to see a discussion here about what he said...On the last show before the decision was made to cancel Freedom Watch, Judge... more-
- JRBarilla
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1% US banks gamble $5 million per US household; $532 trillion total
Reuters and wanttoknow(dot)info provide prima facie evidence that the US 1% runs Wall Street as rigged-casino gambling to transfer wealth from the 99% to themselves. The amount of money fraudulently gambled is not millions of dollars, not billions, not even tens of trillions, but over five hundred trillion ($532,000,000,000,000).
Look at Demonocracy’s images to get an idea of this magnitude of money.
Let this sink in: $532 trillion means that the 1% US banksters gamble over $5 million dollars for every US household and $1.7 million for every American.
It also means that the 1% has cooperation from “leadership” in Congress, law enforcement, and almost all corporate media to have this gambling as the core of the 99%’s mortgages and pension funds, with the criminal fraud of representing this as “investments,” “regulated,” and “fair.”
Ending global poverty would be accomplished with an annual investment of $100 billion a year for ten years. This would save the lives of a million children who die from preventable poverty each month, is less than 0.7% of the developed countries’ GNI, has reduced population growth rates in every historical case, and is the best way the CIA concludes to reduce terrorism. The annual amount to end poverty is 0.02% of what the top five US banks gamble every year.
Excerpts from Reuters and www(dot)wanttoknow(dot)info:
(Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows.... Reuters reported in December that under Holder and Breuer, the Justice Department hasn't brought any criminal cases against big banks or other companies involved in mortgage servicing, even though copious evidence has surfaced of apparent criminal violations in foreclosure cases.
OCC’s Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities: Third Quarter 2011
December 2011, OCC (U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Administrator of National Banks)
http://www(dot)occ(dot)gov/topics/capital-markets/financial-markets/trading/derivatives/dq311(dot)pdf
The OCC’s quarterly report on trading revenues and bank derivatives activities is based on Call Report information provided by all insured U.S. commercial banks and trust companies, reports filed by U.S. financial holding companies, and other published data. The notional amount of derivatives held by insured U.S. commercial banks decreased $1.4 trillion, or 0.6%, from the second quarter of 2011 to $248 trillion. Notional derivatives are 5.7% higher than at the same time last year. Derivatives activity in the U.S. banking system continues to be dominated by a small group of large financial institutions. Five large commercial banks represent 96% of the total banking industry notional amounts. Insured commercial banks have more limited legal authorities than do their holding companies.
Note: Graphs in this report show that the holding companies for the top five banks also control massive amounts of derivates totaling $326 trillion! The holding companies JPMorgan Chase, BofA, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs have over $311 trillion in derivates, 95% of the total U.S. market. So these banks and their holding companies combined own $532 trillion in derivates, equivalent to roughly $75,000 for every person on the planet. What are the bankers doing? If the above link fails, click here.
After 15 years of my own research after US political leadership reneged on all promises (public and private) to end poverty after we led to create the Microcredit Summit in 1997, here's my best explanation of what's driving economics:
(more @ link)
https://www.examiner.com/nonpartisan-in-national/1-us-banks-gamble-5-million-per-us-household-532-trillion-totalReuters and wanttoknow(dot)info provide prima facie evidence that the US 1% runs Wall... more-
- Anonmaly
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Medicaid counselor encouraged teen to get pregnant for dental coverage
DALLAS -- No one would say being a single mom is easy. Especially being a single, teenage mother.
But the State of Texas appears to be encouraging teenage girls to become pregnant so they can receive free dental care under Medicaid.
Our investigation last year found hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money spent for free braces on kids' teeth under Medicaid. That spurred a federal investigation, because cosmetic braces aren't supposed to be paid for under Medicaid.
If that is an example of good intentions gone bad, Latricia Banks and her mom, Patricia Jones, may exemplify a good idea gone terribly wrong.
For them, home is a tiny, wooden house in the shadow of Dallas' skyscrapers, which they share with Latricia's 82-year-old grandfather. It is a household held together with love, not money. Medical and dental care came mostly through Medicaid.
A little more than two years ago, Latricia's mom got a postcard in the mail, like many people in the neighborhood. Access Dental was offering to provide free braces for qualified children like Latricia, then 17 years old.
Mother and daughter responded.
Access Dental pulled one of Latricia's upper front teeth, the mother and daughter say, and put braces on remaining upper teeth. Latricia was left with a huge gap in her smile.
But the job went unfinished, because the clinic said Latricia needed a dental implant, which is not covered under Medicaid.
The clinic installed a false tooth, held in place by her braces.
"On my right hand side, I have a tooth that's really fake," Latricia said. "It even moves."
If her braces were ever removed, she would be left with an unsightly gap between her front teeth.
Three months ago, Latricia turned 19. Her Medicaid counselor told her she was now too old to receive Medicaid Orthodontic treatment, unless she got pregnant.
"Why do I have to have a baby just to get my teeth fixed?" Latricia said. "That's just not right."
Latricia's mother asked the state to explain the pregnancy policy, in writing.
They did.
"Ms. Latricia Banks is now 19, and no longer eligible for Children's Medicaid," the Dallas office of the Texas Health and Human services wrote Mrs. Jones, in a letter. "If she becomes pregnant, she can apply for Adult Medicaid."
Latricia's mother was infuriated.
"What you're saying is telling my daughter to go get pregnant!" Jones said.
Fifteen miles away in Carrollton, obstetrician Dr. Bill Montanaro has hundreds of teenage Medicaid patients. As an obstetrician, he both delivers babies and provides birth control under several state and federal programs.
A couple of years ago, he began noticing that many of his pregnant teenagers also had braces on their teeth.
"I thought, there's something seriously wrong with this picture," he said.
He gradually realized that state policies might be encouraging emotionally immature girls to become pregnant when a 14-year-old girl came to his office.
She'd already delivered one baby, and he'd implanted a birth control device under Medicaid. Then she lost her Medicaid coverage and came back to his office, offering to pay cash for him to remove it.
"She said, 'I need to get back on Medicaid, because I want to get braces,'" the doctor said. "Her means to get back on Medicaid was to get pregnant again. ...And she said, 'My sister has [braces] too, and she's pregnant.'"
"I'm thinking there's a pattern here," Montanaro said.
Montanaro says pregnant teenagers receive expanded health care under state and federal programs, Medicaid among them. He estimates that at least five percent of his pregnant Medicaid patients have braces on their teeth.
According to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHS), the state provided braces for nearly 1,181 pregnant girls last year under Medicaid.
At HHS headquarters in Austin, spokesperson Stephanie Goodman responded to WFAA questions in writing.
Ms. Goodman said Medicaid Orthodontic coverage extends through age 20, not until age 19, as Patricia Jones had been told. Latricia's care would be finished under Medicaid expense. If care is begun before age 21, it is not possible to "age out" of the program. Pregnancy is irrelevant to orthodontic coverage.
Further, Ms. Goodman wrote, "The line about Medicaid for pregnant women was inappropriate and should not have been included [in the letter to Patricia Jones.] I can understand why the family was offended and I apologize for the misunderstanding."
Latricia Banks is still worried about her teeth, but a kindly dentist, not affiliated with Access Dental, has begun the process of putting an implant in her mouth for free. That should ultimately allow her orthodontic care to continue.
She's started college at Navarro Junior College in Corsicana, where she plans to learn to become a dental hygienist.
"I don't want anyone else to experience what happened to me," she said.DALLAS -- No one would say being a single mom is easy. Especially being a single,... more-
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The obesity industrial complex making Americans fatter is a profitable business.
In the US the obesity epidemic is growing. The Pentagon conciders it is a national security threat, as it finds it harder to source healthy recruits. But for some, making Americans fatter is a profitable business.
The problem is being tackled at the highest level. First Lady Michelle Obama, who is a long-time champion of healthy eating, is now targeting America’s military. The DoD is to change nutritional standards – for the first time in two decades.
The plan is to have more fruits, vegetables and grains on the soldiers’ tables. Mrs. Obama said “America's entire military once again stepping forward to lead by example,” on proper eating habits.
The plan will affect meals served in 1,100 service member dining facilities, as well as vending machines used by the military, retirees and their family members.
The Pentagon’s concern with obesity is easy to understand. Currently one in four people applying for military service in America is ruled unfit due to their waistline problems. This goes hand in hand with the general civilian trend, which has so far made around 75 per cent of Americans overweight.
The military also loses budget money when it has to discharge overweight people. Annually some 1,200 first-term enlistees are terminated from the service due to weight-related health issues before their contracts expire, according to a report released by Mission: Readiness. The nonprofit organization, which aims to alleviate the problem of overweight recruits, says each such case costs the military $50,000 to recruit and train a replacement.
No states currently have an obesity rate of less than 20 per cent. In 1990, no state had an obesity rate of more than 15 per cent. This increase is going to take time to reverse, and the hard work needs to start now, Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, a retired Air Force officer, told ABC News.
http://rt.com/news/us-obesity-military-corporations-059/
The big business of bigness
Obesity may do great harm to the public, but for some companies it is part of how their business works, reports RT’s Liz Wahl.
Those are not only the food industry giants, which stuff their high-fat products with cleverly cooked-up flavors to make people love them. Companies further up the production line, like the agriculture giant Monsanto, are also eager to get their share.
Also cashing in on the fattening of America are pharmaceutical companies. The US spends $147 billion each year treating obesity-related illnesses.
The big bucks use their leverage in the Congress to uphold policies that keep them profitable. Recently it declared pizza a vegetable, which made school doors open to it. Health activist David Rosen calls the system “the obesity industrial complex”. With the military industrial complex’s now opposing that, America’s waistline may now face the pressure to move back to the slim side of the spectrum.In the US the obesity epidemic is growing. The Pentagon conciders it is a national... more-
- MotherForTruth
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Repulsive Progressive Hypocrisy
A new poll shows deep support among liberals for the very Bush/Cheney policies they once pretended to despise
BY GLENN GREENWALD
During the Bush years, Guantanamo was the core symbol of right-wing radicalism and what was back then referred to as the “assault on American values and the shredding of our Constitution”: so much so then when Barack Obama ran for President, he featured these issues not as a secondary but as a central plank in his campaign. But now that there is a Democrat in office presiding over Guantanamo and these other polices — rather than a big, bad, scary Republican — all of that has changed, as a new Washington Post/ABC News poll today demonstrates:
The sharpest edges of President Obama’s counterterrorism policy, including the use of drone aircraft to kill suspected terrorists abroad and keeping open the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have broad public support, including from the left wing of the Democratic Party.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that Obama, who campaigned on a pledge to close the brig at Guantanamo Bay and to change national security policies he criticized as inconsistent with U.S. law and values, has little to fear politically for failing to live up to all of those promises.
The survey shows that 70 percent of respondents approve of Obama’s decision to keep open the prison at Guantanamo Bay. . . . The poll shows that 53 percent of self-identified liberal Democrats — and 67 percent of moderate or conservative Democrats — support keeping Guantanamo Bay open, even though it emerged as a symbol of the post-Sept. 11 national security policies of George W. Bush, which many liberals bitterly opposed.
Repulsive liberal hypocrisy extends far beyond the issue of Guantanamo. A core plank in the Democratic critique of the Bush/Cheney civil liberties assault was the notion that the President could do whatever he wants, in secret and with no checks, to anyone he accuses without trial of being a Terrorist – even including eavesdropping on their communications or detaining them without due process. But President Obama has not only done the same thing, but has gone much farther than mere eavesdropping or detention: he has asserted the power even to kill citizens without due process. As Bush’s own CIA and NSA chief Michael Hayden said this week about the Awlaki assassination: “We needed a court order to eavesdrop on him but we didn’t need a court order to kill him. Isn’t that something?” That is indeed “something,” as is the fact that Bush’s mere due-process-free eavesdropping on and detention of American citizens caused such liberal outrage, while Obama’s due-process-free execution of them has not.
Beyond that, Obama has used drones to kill Muslim children and innocent adults by the hundreds. He has refused to disclose his legal arguments for why he can do this or to justify the attacks in any way. He has even had rescuers and funeral mourners deliberately targeted. As Hayden said: ”Right now, there isn’t a government on the planet that agrees with our legal rationale for these operations, except for Afghanistan and maybe Israel.” But that is all perfectly fine with most American liberals now that their Party’s Leader is doing it:
Fully 77 percent of liberal Democrats endorse the use of drones, meaning that Obama is unlikely to suffer any political consequences as a result of his policy in this election year. Support for drone strikes against suspected terrorists stays high, dropping only somewhat when respondents are asked specifically about targeting American citizens living overseas, as was the case with Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni American killed in September in a drone strike in northern Yemen.
The Post‘s Greg Sargent obtained the breakdown on these questions and wrote today:
The number of those who approve of the drone strikes drops nearly 20 percent when respondents are told that the targets are American citizens. But that 65 percent is still a very big number, given that these policies really should be controversial.
And get this: Depressingly, Democrats approve of the drone strikes on American citizens by 58-33, and even liberals approve of them, 55-35. Those numbers were provided to me by the Post polling team.
It’s hard to imagine that Dems and liberals would approve of such policies in quite these numbers if they had been authored by George W. Bush.
Indeed: is there even a single liberal pundit, blogger or commentator who would have defended George Bush and Dick Cheney if they (rather than Obama) had been secretly targeting American citizens for execution without due process, or slaughtering children, rescuers and funeral attendees with drones, or continuing indefinite detention even a full decade after 9/11? Please. How any of these people can even look in the mirror, behold the oozing, limitless intellectual dishonesty, and not want to smash what they see is truly mystifying to me.
[edited for length]
As this post demonstrates, long before Barack Obama achieved any significance on the political scene, I considered blind leader loyalty one of the worst toxins in our political culture: it’s the very antithesis of what a healthy political system requires (and what a healthy mind would produce). One of the reasons I’ve written so much about the complete reversal of progressives on these issues (from pretending to be horrified by them when done under Bush to tolerating them or even supporting them when done by Obama) is precisely because it’s so remarkable to see these authoritarian follower traits manifest so vibrantly in the very same political movement — sophisticated, independent-minded, reality-based progressives — that believes it is above that, and that only primitive conservatives are plagued by such follower-mindlessness.
The Democratic Party owes a sincere apology to George Bush, Dick Cheney and company for enthusiastically embracing many of the very Terrorism policies which caused them to hurl such vehement invective at the GOP for all those years. And progressives who support the views of the majority as expressed by this poll should never be listened to again the next time they want to pretend to oppose civilian slaughter and civil liberties assaults when perpetrated by the next Republican President (it should be noted that roughly 35% of liberals, a non-trivial amount, say they oppose these Obama policies).
One final point: I’ve often made the case that one of the most consequential aspects of the Obama legacy is that he has transformed what was once known as “right-wing shredding of the Constitution” into bipartisan consensus, and this is exactly what I mean. When one of the two major parties supports a certain policy and the other party pretends to oppose it — as happened with these radical War on Terror policies during the Bush years — then public opinion is divisive on the question, sharply split. But once the policy becomes the hallmark of both political parties, then public opinion becomes robust in support of it. That’s because people assume that if both political parties support a certain policy that it must be wise, and because policies that enjoy the status of bipartisan consensus are removed from the realm of mainstream challenge. That’s what Barack Obama has done to these Bush/Cheney policies: he has, as Jack Goldsmith predicted he would back in 2009, shielded and entrenched them as standard U.S. policy for at least a generation, and (by leading his supporters to embrace these policies as their own) has done so with far more success than any GOP President ever could have dreamed of achieving
Full column, unedited at source link:
http://shar.es/f9F1MA new poll shows deep support among liberals for the very Bush/Cheney policies they... more-
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Maldives issues arrest warrant for ex president Mohamed Nasheed
It is unclear what charges the former Maldives president faces. The upheaval in the strategic Indian Ocean nation has sparked concern that China may exploit the unrest.
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
February 10, 2012
Reporting from New Delhi— A criminal court issued an arrest warrant Thursday for deposed Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed amid fear of further violence in the Indian Ocean nation after rioting the day before. It wasn't immediately clear what the charges against him were in the confusing and fast-evolving political crisis.
Newly installed President Mohammed Waheed Hassan moved Thursday to assemble a Cabinet, naming defense and home ministers who have had differences with Nasheed.
The jockeying and political upheaval come at a sensitive time for a country that held its first democratic election four years ago. The turmoil also provides a potential opening for China, which has been angling to expand its influence on India's doorstep, given the Maldives' strategic location astride Asia's main oil shipping lanes. And a protracted crisis could threaten the idyllic archipelago's tourism industry if it starts scaring away European and American travelers.
Nasheed, 44, spent much of Thursday with reporters and allies at his house as several hundred supporters formed a cordon outside under umbrellas in the inclement weather. Local news reports said the deposed president had sent his family to Sri Lanka while he awaited arrest.
Government officials and local reporters said a warrant was also issued Thursday for former Defense Minister Tholhath Ibrahim Kaleyfaanu.
Newly named Home Minister Mohamed Jameel Ahmed said in a telephone interview that violent protests Wednesday by Nasheed supporters, which he said saw shops, courts, police stations and at least 17 police vehicles destroyed, were "clearly an act of terrorism."
Ahmed said he didn't believe the warrant for Nasheed was issued on terrorism charges but rather was related to a police investigation of the president's firing of a judge last month, which galvanized opposition to his rule.
"The situation is very tense," Ahmed said. "We're trying to restore order. In the capital the situation is under control, but in the outer islands, as with all countries, there are limited resources."
Nasheed allies counter that democracy has been subverted just as it is taking root in the Maldives. Paul Roberts, an aide to the former president, said that after seizing control with questionable tactics, the new government has subverted many branches of government and arrested elected representatives.
"It looks really bad," he said.
The United States and India announced that they are sending officials to confer and monitor the situation amid concern that the unrest could be exploited by China.
The crisis hit the international spotlight Tuesday when Nasheed announced his resignation for the good of the country. On Wednesday, the former human rights activist shifted gears, saying he had been forced to resign at gunpoint. Fresh rioting followed his statement.
Hassan has denied there was a coup and has called for a unity government.
Nasheed has told supporters and journalists that he won't seek an immediate reinstatement but believes Hassan should step down and call for elections to settle the issue democratically.
Nasheed was elected in 2008 amid great promise after three decades of rule by autocratic leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. But Nasheed ran into trouble with police and parts of the army after he dismissed the nation's top criminal court judge last month, accusing him of subverting his rule and maintaining close ties to Gayoom.
Analysts said the government may decide not to arrest Nasheed, or to at least delay his detention until things quiet down, given the protests and intense scrutiny.
Ahmed Tholal, vice president of the government's Human Rights Commission of the Maldives, said protesters arrested Wednesday after the rioting were released early Thursday. "We spoke to them and they suffered no further injury" in detention, he said, adding that commission members have received threats.
"We're calling for calm," he said. "We're very concerned about the deteriorating law-and-order situation."
More at the linkIt is unclear what charges the former Maldives president faces. The upheaval in the... more-
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Bill McKibbon email re: Keystone XL...It's baaaaaaaack!!!!
The Keystone XL zombie is lurching back to life and we need your help to knock it back again.
This week, the Senate is considering a series of tricks designed to force approval of the project. It’s hard to track what’s real and what’s just noise, but our friends on the Hill assure us this is a crucial moment for the public to weigh in.
Keystone XL is the perfect symbol of the cronyism that’s corrupting our government: the 44 Senators who co-sponsored the most recent piece of legislation have taken $22.3 million in oil and gas money -- that’s more than three times as much dirty money as those opposing the pipeline. The one Democrat on this list, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, has taken more money from the fossil fuel barons than anyone else in his party—it’s really just a game of follow-the-cash.
We need to let the Senate know that we’re on to their game. Last month, we called a penalty on Congress with hundreds of referees blowing the whistle in Washington, DC. In the coming weeks, we’ll be organizing dozens of similar referee actions in districts across the country.
Together, we’re not only beating back Keystone XL but going on the offensive against an even larger scam -- the billions of taxpayer dollars the fossil fuel industry gets in handouts and subsidies every year.
Right now, the most important thing we can do is flood the Senate with messages opposing Keystone XL. Here’s the link where you can send an email:
act.350.org/letter/senate-keystone-xl-feb/
Your great work all fall and winter has meant that energy and climate issues are at the heart of the debate in Washington as they’ve really never been before. It’s good to see our representatives engaged on this.
Now we need to press even harder—and not just about this single pipeline, but about the deeper question of whether we’re ready to rein in the fossil fuel industry and get serious about clean energy. Thanks to you, that’s what’s on the line.
With respect,
Bill McKibben for 350.orgThe Keystone XL zombie is lurching back to life and we need your help to knock it back... more-
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WHACKO-TV SUPER PAC RATS
As the Republicans slash and burn each other in the primary season, WHACKO-TV decided to think globally, but act locally. We are covering the race for 3rd Circuit Judge in Bunckmeister County, where famous judge Tony Facovia is running for his favorite position, sitting. As a sitting judge, he would be able to determine whether that parking ticket really was a parking ticket and not some flyer from a local massage parlor. Under full disclosure, Facovia is a contributor to WHACKO-TV's Law & Disorder department. But really, it was a JUDGE who created the Super PACs and now we have to endure, as Americans, this terrible use of media. Just another way government has messed up TVAs the Republicans slash and burn each other in the primary season, WHACKO-TV decided... more-
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Mainstream Broadcast Media Suppressing Obama Assassination Story
As AFP predicted in the Feb. 6 edition, the call by the publisher of The Atlanta Jewish Times, Andrew Adler, for Israel’s Mossad to utilize its American-based assets to assassinate Barack Obama has been almost entirely suppressed by the mainstream media. In contrast, the story has been big news in Israel and widely reported in Jewish community newspapers all across America.
Most astonishing—in response to Adler’s provocation—is that there are many Jewish writers openly acknowledging there is a deep hatred for Obama within the Jewish community, which most Americans presume to be strongly supportive of the president.
And although there have been attempts to paint Adler’s Atlanta Jewish Times as being somehow without influence, one of Adler’s regular columnists is Chuck Berk, a leader of the Republican Jewish Coalition, who—as recently as Dec. 30—was pictured in the Times in the company of Israel’s consul general in Atlanta, along with the governor of Georgia and several state senators.
In the meantime, Scotty Reid—columnist for a black-oriented Internet site, ThyBlackMan, raised important questions: “Are there Israeli assassination teams in the U.S.? If Israeli Mossad agents are based in the United States, what they are doing?”
Reid also noted that, “Adler is not just some crazed or mentally impaired individual publishing outlandish conspiracy theories.” Instead, Reid emphasized, Adler is not only publisher of a weekly newspaper but also producer of a local television show on which he has interviewed a number of Israeli government officials.
While JTA suggested most Jews still claim to support Obama, it did not mention that polls showing significant Jewish opposition to Obama could be enough to cause Obama to lose the electoral votes of key states, particularly in the Northeast, where politically active Jews in large numbers reside.As AFP predicted in the Feb. 6 edition, the call by the publisher of The Atlanta... more-
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Congress calls for drones to be fully integrated into US airspace by 2015
Congress Is Demanding That The FAA Make Room For The US Drone Fleet
We reported yesterday that the past decade has seen unprecedented growth in the number of U.S. drones flying the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan.
With unfettered access to the occupied air space and burgeoning technology, the American UAV fleet has swelled beyond what was imagined before the wars.
Now, with ground operations concluded in Iraq and scheduled to end in Afghanistan by 2014, those new drones will be coming home and their pilots will need a place to fly them and train.
Which could be why Congress is calling for the accelerated use of unmanned drones in U.S. air space.
Steven Aftergood at FAS dug up the authorization bill before the Federal Aviation Administration requiring the agency to put “a comprehensive plan to safely accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system” within nine months.
The bill goes on to say “The plan… shall provide for the safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015.”
The bill calls for numerous test ranges to be operated in conjunction with NASA and the Department of Defense, use of drones in the Arctic, guidance system improvements, and an assessment of the “catastrophic failure of the unmanned aircraft that would endanger other aircraft in the national airspace system.”
This bill follows up the Army's January directive to use drone fleets in the U.S. for training missions and "domestic operations."
And both of these initiatives are mandated in the NDAA (section 1097) that calls for six drone test ranges to be operational withing six months of that bills signing December 31.
http://www.businessinsider.com/congress-passes-law-for-drones-us-2015-2012-2Congress Is Demanding That The FAA Make Room For The US Drone Fleet We reported... more-
- JRBarilla
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Anonymous: We are Humanity. Expect Us.
One of the most inspirational videos I've seen from Anonymous yet. This is a good one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWuSI9aBC_kOne of the most inspirational videos I've seen from Anonymous yet. This is a good... more-
- JRBarilla
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Why Hasn't This Video Gone Viral?
Created by Christian Malazarte-
- JRBarilla
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