American Medical Association Says Obamacare Is A Success And The GOP Is Going Berserk

You have a problem with Americans having the same HEALTH CARE COVERAGE that you have? 

BRAVO, ACA! 

Pat Toon to ‎Americans for Healthcare

 

"According to a new study by the American Medical Association, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has been an unequivocal success. Today more Americans have access to healthcare than ever. An extra 10.2 million Americans are now insured thanks to Obamacare. And through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Program, an additional 12.2 million of our fellow citizens now have the right to healthcare. On the financial side of things, since the implementation of Obamacare, Medicaid costs have decreased significantly, which allows the program to be in good financial shape for thirty years to come.

The mission of Obamacare is to get as many people covered as possible and the greatest advancements have been in states with programs that expand Medicaid."

American Medical Association Says Obamacare Is A Success And The GOP Is Going Berserk

According to a new study by the American Medical Association, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has been an unequivocal success. Today more...

GREENVILLEGAZETTE.COM

RSN: The Structure of Obamacare/Romneycare

Why would any reasonable person deny HEALTH CARE to Americans?

Nothing defines the GOP Moral Bankruptcy and the corruption of the Corporate Media more than this issue.

Is it solely AMERICAN RACISM?

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

A SURGE OF SMALL DONATIONS: Our small donors made a great showing yesterday. It was very uplifting and we made up ground for the November drive. There were a few donations of $100. or more and we greatly appreciate those, but the little guys are still out front. We would love to see the larger donors match the effort of the small donors. Who can do? / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

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FOCUS: Paul Krugman | The Structure of Obamacare

Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Krugman writes: "The big revelation of this week has been how many political pundits have spent six years of the Obama administration opining furiously about the administration's signature policy without making the slightest effort to understand how it works."
READ MORE

The Health Wagon: Third World Health Care

If you didn't see 60 Minutes' segment on Health Care, it's a must watch! [links below]

60 Minutes Story on The Health Wagon – Full Piece



Dirty Coal has impoverished and destroyed communities, leaving in its wake untreated health problems and hungry Americans.

In this case, dedicated workers provide much needed care. What of those communities that lack care?

60 Minutes

Nurse practitioners are providing badly needed health care to the uninsured... S46 (12:38)

Affordable Care


This defines the Moral Bankruptcy of a nation.

What if............Health Care?

 

OMG! What if Americans actually LIKE Obamacare?????

 

 

What if Americans, many of whom have NEVER had healthcare before, VOTE?

 

What if the phony victims the Dirty Energy Koch Brothers create are disbelieved by sensible Americans?

 

What if Americans who are sensible recognize that the rest of Industrialized Nations protect their citizens with HEALTH CARE?

 

 

Bill Moyers

 

MORNING READS: Six million people signed up for private insurance coverage through Obamacare’s exchanges; the New York Times reports that the health care law is working very differently in different states; Salon reports that Hobby Lobby is quietly “pumping tens of millions” into funding “a political network of activist groups deeply engaged in pushing a Christian agenda into American law.” Those stories and others, in our Morning Reads.

Morning Reads: Obamacare Deepens Blue/Red Divide; Hobby Lobby Funding a Broader Agenda

A roundup of some of the stories we're reading at Moyers & Company HQ...

Bill Moyers

Turkey in Crisis? Through a Glass Darkly

Interesting article! Consider subscribing to and supporting independent media that presents information you won't find on the Corporate Media.

FOCUS: William Boardman | Turkey in Crisis? Through a Glass Darkly

William Boardman, Reader Supported News
Boardman writes: "It's probably safe to say that the Republic of Turkey is something of a mystery to most Americans, and in part that's due to very limited reporting on Turkey by American media."
READ MORE

NSA Surveillance: Today Is the Day We Fight Back

Katitza Rodriguez, Electronic Freedom Foundation
"Today, the Day We Fight Back, the world will demand an end to mass surveillance in every country, by every state, regardless of boundaries or politics. The SOPA and ACTA protests were successful because we all took part, as a community. As Aaron Swartz put it, everybody 'made themselves the hero of their own story.' We can set a date, but we need everyone, all the users of the Global Internet, to make this a movement."
READ MORE

Obama Pressured Over Drone Policy
Joe Swaine, Guardian UK
Swaine reports: "The Obama administration came under renewed pressure to disclose the legal grounds for its drone programme on Monday, amid reports that another US citizen accused of plotting attacks against Americans for al-Qaida overseas is to be assassinated."
READ MORE

Snowden Used Low-Cost Tool to Best NSA
David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt, The New York Times
Sanger and Schmitt reports: "Intelligence officials investigating how Edward J. Snowden gained access to a huge trove of the country's most highly classified documents say they have determined that he used inexpensive and widely available software to 'scrape' the National Security Agency's networks, and kept at it even after he was briefly challenged by agency officials."
READ MORE

White House Delays Health Insurance Mandate for Medium-Sized Employers Until 2016
Juliet Eilperin and Amy Goldstein, The Washington Post
Eilperin and Goldstein reports: "Under new rules announced Monday by Treasury Department officials, employers with 50 to 99 workers will be given until 2016 - two years longer than originally envisioned under the Affordable Care Act - before they risk a federal penalty for not complying."
READ MORE

Walmart's Labor Practices Backfire
Bryce Covert, ThinkProgress
Covert reports: "[An equities research] firm lowered Walmart from a 'market perform' rating to an 'underperform' rating, pointing to three main causes: understaffing, an erosion of its price advantage against competitors, and costs associated with intensifying pressure from worker organizing."
READ MORE

Despite $93 Billion in Profits, Big Oil Demands Continued Tax Breaks
Daniel J. Weiss and Miranda Peterson, Center for American Progress Weiss and Peterson report: "Despite their outsized earnings, the oil companies are not only fighting to keep their tax breaks but also lobbying to lift the crude oil export ban. But doing so could hurt working families, our economy, and our energy security. Instead, we need to invest in cleaner transportation alternatives." READ MORE

 

 

 

When will we wage PEACE?

Children waiting for food in Afghanistan. (photo: PressTV/File)

Salt and Terror in Afghanistan

By Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence

05 February 14

wo weeks ago in a room in Kabul, Afghanistan, I joined several dozen people, working seamstresses, some college students, socially engaged teenagers and a few visiting internationals like myself, to discuss world hunger. Our emphasis was not exclusively on their own country’s worsening hunger problems. The Afghan Peace Volunteers, in whose home we were meeting, draw strength from looking beyond their own very real struggles.

 

With us was Hakim, a medical doctor who spent six years working as a public health specialist in the central highlands of Afghanistan and, prior to that, among refugees in Quetta, Pakistan. He helped us understand conditions that lead to food shortages and taught us about diseases, such as kwashiorkor and marasmus, which are caused by insufficient protein or general malnutrition.

 

We looked at UN figures about hunger in Afghanistan which show malnutrition rates rising by 50% or more compared with 2012. The malnutrition ward at Helmand Province’s Bost Hospital has been admitting 200 children a month for severe, acute malnutrition - four times more than in January 2012.

 

A recent New York Times article about the worsening hunger crisis described an encounter with a mother and child in an Afghan hospital: "In another bed is Fatima, less than a year old, who is so severely malnourished that her heart is failing, and the doctors expect that she will soon die unless her father is able to find money to take her to Kabul for surgery. The girl’s face bears a perpetual look of utter terror, and she rarely stops crying."

 

Photos of Fatima and other children in the ward accompanied the article. In our room in Kabul, Hakim projected the photos on the wall. They were painful to see and so were the nods of comprehension from Afghans all too familiar with the agonies of poverty in a time of war.

 

As children grow, they need iodine to enable proper brain development. According to a UNICEF/GAIN report, "iodine deficiency is the most prevalent cause of brain damage worldwide. It is easily preventable, and through ongoing targeted interventions, can be eliminated." As recently as 2009 we learned that 70% of Afghan children faced an iodine deficiency.

 

Universal Salt Iodization (USI) is recognized as a simple, safe and cost-effective measure in addressing iodine deficiency. The World Bank reports that it costs $.05 per child, per year.

 

In 2012, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) announced a four-year project which aimed to reach nearly half of Afghanistan’s population - 15 million Afghans - with fortified foods. Their strategy was to add vitamins and minerals such as iron, zinc, folic acid, Vitamin B-12 and Vitamin A to wheat flour, vegetable oil and ghee, and also to fortify salt with iodine. The project costs 6.4 million dollars.

 

The sums of money required to fund delivery of iodine and fortified foods to malnourished Afghan children should be compared, I believe, to the sums of money that the Pentagon’s insatiable appetite for war-making has required of U.S. people.

 

The price tag for supplying iodized salt to one child for one year is 5 cents.

 

The cost of maintaining one U.S. soldier has recently risen to 2.1. million dollars per year. The amount of money spent to keep three U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in 2014 could almost cover the cost of a four year program to deliver fortified foods to 15 million Afghan people.

 

Maj. Gen. Kurt J. Stein, who is overseeing the draw-down of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, has referred to the operation as "the largest retrograde mission in history." The mission will cost as much as $6 billion.

 

Over the past decade, spin doctors for U.S. military spending have suggested that Afghanistan needs the U.S. troop presence and U.S. non-military spending to protect the interests of women and children.

 

It’s true that non-military aid to Afghanistan, sent by the U.S. since 2002, now approaches 100 billion dollars.

 

Several articles on Afghanistan’s worsening hunger crisis, appearing in the Western press, prompt readers to ask how Afghanistan could be receiving vast sums of non-military aid and yet still struggle with severe acute malnourishment among children under age five.

 

However, a 2013 quarterly report to Congress submitted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan shows that, of the nearly $100 billion spent on wartime reconstruction, 97 billion has been spent on counter-narcotics, security, "governance/development" and "oversight and operations."

 

No more than $3 billion, a hundred dollars per Afghan person, were used for "humanitarian" projects - to help keep thirty million Afghans alive through twelve years of U.S. war and occupation.

Funds have been available for tanks, guns, bullets, helicopters, missiles, weaponized drones, drone surveillance, Joint Special Operations task forces, bases, airstrips, prisons, and truck delivered supplies for tens of thousands of troops. But funds are in short supply for children too weak to cry who are battling for their lives while wasting away.

 

A whole generation of Afghans and other people around the developing world see the true results of Westerners’ self-righteous claim for the need to keep civilians "safe" through war. They see the terror, entirely justified, filling Fatima’s eyes in her hospital bed.

 

In that room in Kabul, as my friends learned about the stark realities of hunger - and among them, I know, were some who worry about hunger in their own families - I could see a rejection both of panic and of revenge in the eyes of the people around me. Their steady thoughtfulness was an inspiration.

 

Panic and revenge among far more prosperous people in the U.S. helped to drive the U.S. into a war waged against one of the poorest countries in the world. Yet, my Afghan friends, who’ve borne the brunt of war, long to rise above vengeance and narrow self-interest. They wish to pursue a peace that includes ending hunger.

Frank Rich | What Philip Seymour Hoffman Left Behind

Frank Rich, New York Magazine
Rich writes: "It will always be easier to make sense of Hoffman's legacy than of his death."
READ MORE

Robert Parry | Big Media Again Pumps for Mideast Wars
Robert Parry, Consortium News
Parry writes: "Forever pushing what they view as Israel's strategic needs, the neocons now are stoking fires of war against Iran and Syria by piling on old and new arguments."
READ MORE

Freeing Workers From the Insurance Trap
The New York Times | Editorial
Excerpt: "The new law will free people, young and old, to pursue careers or retirement without having to worry about health coverage."
READ MORE

Sentence Postponed for Transform Now Plowshares
Patrick O'Neill, National Catholic Reporter
O'Neill reports: "The three, who call themselves the Transform Now Plowshares, are facing long prison sentences for sabotage."
READ MORE

Kathy Kelly | Salt and Terror in Afghanistan
Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Kelly writes: "The amount of money spent to keep three U.S.
READ MORE

Texas Set to Kill Again, This Time a Woman
Tom Dart, Guardian UK
Dart reports: "Suzanne Basso is set to become the fourteenth woman executed in America since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976."
READ MORE

Why You Should Care That CVS Will Stop Selling Cigarettes
Annie-Rose Strasser, ThinkProgress
Strasser writes: "The company will discontinue not just cigarette sales, but also sales of all tobacco products. Additionally, pharmacies will begin offering new cessation programs to help smokers kick the habit."
READ MORE

 

 

Imagine....health care for ALL Americans!

Thank you, Vermont!

 

We do. Tell your friends! Even as Obamacare is successfully expanding health coverage to millions across the country, Vermont is pushing forward with an even mo...re ambitious state-based single-payer, Medicare-for-all model that could change America forever. Share this image to show your support for this important initiative that could pave the way for even greater success for progressive healthcare reform. Will YOUR state will be the first to follow Vermont's lead? Image by Occupy Democrats.

Impressive success in Varese Ligure!

Varese Ligure, Italy. (photo: Shutterstock)

How Renewable Energy and Organic Farming Helped Revitalize a Small Italian Town

By Laurie Guevara-Stone, EcoWatch

09 January 14

trip to Varese Ligure, Italy, will bring you face to face with a charming town of pastel-colored houses and a plethora of restaurants serving dishes with organic porcini mushrooms and chestnuts.

Stop at the bustling markets and you will see Italians who have traveled from far and wide to purchase the locally produced organic meats, cheeses, and honey. It's a far cry from just 20 years ago, when this town in the Liguria region of northwest Italy was fading away due to a lack of jobs, no industry, decaying properties, and a lack of essential services.

At the end of the '80s, Varese Ligure, a small town (pop: 2,400) located in the Vara valley in the province of La Spezia, had gone from a population of 6,000 to 2,250. However, the mayor at the time, Maurizio Caranza, refused to give up hope for his dying town. He decided to take what others thought of as Varese Ligure's weaknesses-geographical isolation, lack of modern industry, antiquated farming practices-and turn them into strengths. He realized the valley's clean air and unspoiled land were assets and opportunities. What better way to capitalize on those attributes than by becoming a sustainable tourist destination through renewable energy and organic farming?

 

"We realized the only thing to do to prevent the village from dying was to protect the environment and rehabilitate the agriculture sector," Caranza told Italian news agency Adnkronos International.

The forward-thinking mayor hit on a gold mine. This was in the early 1990s, before climate change and mad cow disease became household words. Little did he know that in the following decades the organic and environmental movements would mushroom (pun intended).

 

Now, 20 years later, four wind turbines produce 8 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, generating three times more electricity than the town uses. The town hall and secondary school are covered with solar photovoltaic panels, producing on site 98 percent and 62 percent of their electricity needs, respectively. The wastewater treatment plant has a 4 kW PV system and the town swimming pool is heated with solar panels. There is also a small 8 kW hydroelectric system.

 

The electricity from the renewable energy systems is fed into the local grid managed by ACAM, the electric utility company in La Spezia. While ACAM manages and maintains the wind turbines, the ACAM utility and the municipality jointly own them. ACAM pays Varese Ligure about $30,000 each year for the excess electricity and also provides the town with various services as part of its payment for the electricity, such as sorted waste and landfill site management.

 

To rebuild the town, Caranza asked the residents if they would be willing to repair and renovate their ancient stone houses-an image of which sits juxtaposed against a modern wind turbine on the municipality's website-if the public administration got funding to redo the roads, sewers, aqueducts, and street lighting. Though some people were resistant at first, Caranza finally won them over, and home renovations began. While some of the funding for renovations came from the European Union, the majority of it came from the citizens themselves. A psychological factor was at work, Caranza told travel journalist Giovanna Dunmall. "If you go to someone's house and it's much nicer and cleaner than yours, then when you go back to your home you realize that you want to improve it, too."

 

There was also a lot of education about organic farming practices, and a push for farmers to stop using chemical fertilizers. Most farmers actually couldn't afford chemical fertilizers, so were farming organically out of necessity already, but weren't officially certified. To get these conservative farmers to become organic certified, Caranza explained that organic products could be sold at higher prices and helped farmers get EU grants for organic farms. Now 108 organic farms supply 98 percent of town's produce, meat, and dairy products. The Vara valley, now known as the "Organic Valley," became Europe's first valley to be certified ISO 14001, the international benchmark for environmental management.

 

One important program they started in the town in 1996 was the Environmental Education Center (CEA), which educates children of the region about organic agriculture, renewable energy, and sustainability. The CEA takes schoolchildren on tours of organic farms, dairy cooperatives, and bee keeping operations; it offers educational courses on small wind turbines, solar panels, and solar cookers; and it educates youth about energy consumption and climate change.

 

Varese Ligure is currently rated one of the best small towns in Italy by the Touring Club Italiano, even receiving the organization's orange flag, awarded to small towns for excellency in tourism, hospitality, and the environment. There has been a 500-percent increase in tourists since the late 1990s, an additional $514,000 in annual tax revenues, 140 new jobs, and a stable population.

 

Caranza is proud of what has become of his town. "Tourism is an important sector for six months a year, local farmers produce an abundance of organic fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy products, and the village now recycles 25 percent of its refuse," he reported to Adnkronos International.

 "Because the political will existed, we succeeded in arresting Varese Ligure's decline." And more than arresting decline, with a mixture of clean energy and sustainable agriculture, they have truly transformed the community.

The rest from RSN:

 

Charles Pierce | Chris Christie Is Not Doomed

Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "Steve M is convinced that Chris Christie has fired a shot below his own water line by signing New Jersey's version of the DREAM Act, and then by promoting what he'd done as a good thing for his state and for the nation. He argues - and not entirely unreasonably - that what Big Chicken did will doom him with Republican primary voters in places like, say, Iowa and South Carolina. I am less sure about that."
READ MORE

Gabrielle Giffords Completes Skydive on Shooting Anniversary
Brian Skoloff and Terry Tang, Arizona Daily Star
Skoloff and Tang report: "Gabrielle Giffords marked the three-year anniversary of an attack that left her severely wounded and forced her to resign from Congress by skydiving Wednesday in a feat that highlights her ongoing recovery after having to learn how to walk and talk again."
READ MORE

Utah Will Not Recognize Same-Sex Marriages Performed Before Court Ban
Reuters
Excerpt: "Utah will not recognize, at least for now, the marriages of gay couples who rushed to wed after a federal judge's ruling briefly rendered gay unions legal in the conservative, predominantly Mormon state, the governor's office said on Wednesday."
READ MORE

Barbra Streisand | Why the Health Care Law Will Make Our Nation More Secure
Barbra Streisand, Reader Supported News
Streisand writes: "My interest in health care policy was spurred by researching women's health care issues and discovering more women than men die from heart disease. Heart research, however, was primarily conducted on men."
READ MORE

Dana Milbank | The GOP's War on the War on Poverty
Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
Milbank writes: "Well, yes, 10 million more Americans are in poverty now than there were in 1963 - but the overall population has increased by 125 million. If you include all of the financial assistance from anti-poverty programs, the poverty rate dips to below 8 percent today. And people who are poor suffer less because they receive health care through Medicaid and nutrition through food stamps."
READ MORE

GMO, Food & American Healthcare Debate

Carl Gibson raises a significant and thought-provoking issue of the lack of health of many.

This is a stream contaminated by Mountaintop Removal of DIRTY COAL:

Do you use COAL-FIRED electricity?

Brayton Point and others spew soot, mercury and other hazardous chemicals into our air, leaving toxic coal ash behind to jeopardize drinking water.

We might also consider the expanding environmental pollution caused by Big Corporations and Dirty Energy, the destruction of clean drinking water caused by Mountaintop Removal, Fracking, Dirty Tar Sands spills and much else.

While Big Corporations whine about environmental costs imposed, many escape those costs, leaving unseen pollutants to impose their health costs.

Not only do GMOs pose risks, but large scale agri-farms plant mono-crops requiring massive amounts of fertilizers and pesticides, destroying healthy soil, spreading pesticide residues in consumed food.

Animals are not raised with the  goal of creating healthy food, but raised as a commodity to speed to market at the greatest possible speed, frequently laden with antibiotics.

Shouldn't we be asking WHY? Why do we allow it? Why do we suffer the health consequences caused by our silence?

The real issue is the high cost of health care. (image: Shutterstock)

American Healthcare Debate Misses the Mark

By Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News

04 January 14

he real healthcare debate in this country shouldn’t be focused on insurance, but on the fundamental causes of the outrageous costs of healthcare and why even basic health insurance is unaffordable for millions of Americans.

 

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is an improvement over the status quo. Health insurers can no longer deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, young adults can stay insured on their parents’ plans until they’re 26, and some states have chosen to expand Medicaid under the ACA. I recently wrote about my decision to pay 1 percent of my income in penalties rather than buy health insurance through healthcare.gov. This prompted a direct response from Ezra Klein, editor of the Washington Post’s Wonkblog.

 

Klein made multiple arguments explaining his view of how important it was to buy private health insurance now, even going so far as to suggest single-payer healthcare would be worse for someone like me in terms of cost (not taking into account that it could be funded through progressive taxation). His main argument was that young healthy people enrolling is part of the same social contract that makes social insurance programs like Social Security work. By everyone paying in from an early age, the program will be there later in life when they need it.

 

While I agree in principle, Klein’s argument neglected the failure of US companies to participate in the same social contract we do, which has been the prime reason healthcare is so expensive, and even the most basic health insurance policies are still unaffordable for Americans in the lower middle class. And before we even address the insurance argument, we must demand corporations abide by that same social contract, or it becomes meaningless altogether.

 

In the last 50 years, American healthcare costs as a percentage of GDP tripled from 6 percent in 1960 to 18 percent in 2010. And the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects that healthcare costs will be almost 20 percent of GDP by 2022. This means as Americans, we’re spending more than two and a half times more on healthcare than the OECD average. So what sets America apart from other countries spending far less on healthcare than we do?

One prime cause could be that the United States is the world’s largest grower and consumer of genetically-modified (GM) foods. As of 2010, the United States had 66.8 million hectares of GM crops planted, covering 16.5 percent of our total agricultural area. Because GM foods are made with proteins from organisms that weren’t previously part of the food chain, GM foods have caused allergic reactions in children several years after these foods were made available for public consumption. Additionally, genetically modifying food can result in disease-causing bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics, leading to widespread food-borne illnesses.

 

As Americans eat GM foods and get sick, they rely on drugs made by pharmaceutical companies to get well. The relationship between Monsanto, a chief grower of GM crops, and Pfizer, one of the world’s largest prescription drug manufacturers, is insidious. According to Monsanto’s own website, prior to September 1, 1997, the Monsanto Company owned a pharmaceuticals business that later became known as Pharmacia, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pfizer. Both companies are heavily invested in growing food that makes people sick when they eat it, and selling sick people the drugs to treat those health conditions.

 

More than 20 countries around the world have all taken action to ban the growing or importing of genetically-engineered foods. While citizens in several states have unsuccessfully tried to pass GM labeling ballot initiatives, the GM industry has used its tremendous wealth to drown out pro-labeling advocates with millions of dollars in misleading advertisements. Until the US government addresses the fundamental issue of what GM food does to American consumers, our healthcare costs will continue to rise.

 

One major reason people like me are choosing not to purchase a health insurance policy is simply because they are still so unaffordable. The cheapest bronze HMO plan, for me, would cost $1800 annually in premiums, plus a deductible between $2000 and $6000. Since I make $30,000 a year in self-employed income (roughly $14 an hour), and pay no alimony or student loans, I don’t qualify for a premium tax credit on healthcare.gov. But millions of other Americans are in a far worse financial situation than I am.

 

Even as corporate profits have been skyrocketing, and the Dow Jones and S&P 500 have both hit multiple record highs in 2013, workers’ wages have actually gone down. While the actual unemployment rate has been steadily decreasing, new job growth has been mostly in fast food and retail sectors, which still pay the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour despite their growing profits. If the minimum wage had kept up with worker productivity over the last several decades, it would actually be roughly $22 an hour today. If companies like McDonald's, Target, and Walmart paid workers just $15 an hour, those workers would have enough to support their families, their local economies, and purchase health insurance.

 

If America is ready to have a real healthcare debate, let’s discuss the causes of skyrocketing healthcare costs and why they’re unaffordable for so many. Only then will we have real, meaningful healthcare reform.

--
Keep up with US Uncut!
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Carl Gibson, 26, is co-founder of US Uncut, a nationwide creative direct-action movement that mobilized tens of thousands of activists against corporate tax avoidance and budget cuts in the months leading up to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Carl and other US Uncut activists are featured in the documentary "We're Not Broke," which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. You can contact him at carl@rsnorg.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and follow him on twitter at @uncutCG.

 

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

 

 

 

 

The rest from RSN:

 

Court Allows US to Keep Legal Memo on Phone Data Secret
Sari Horwitz, The Boston Globe
Horwitz reports: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected an effort by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to make public a January 2010 memo from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that allowed the FBI to informally gather customer phone call records from telecommunications companies."
READ MORE

US Economy Losing 'Up to a $1bn a Week' After Jobless Benefits Cut
Paul Lewis, Guardian UK
Lewis reports: "The US economy is losing up to a billion dollars a week because of the 'fiscally irresponsible' decision to end long-term unemployment benefits, a Harvard economist said on Friday."
READ MORE

Access to Abortion Falling As States Pass Restrictions
Erik Eckholm, The New York Times
Eckholm reports: "A three-year surge in anti-abortion measures in more than half the states has altered the landscape for abortion access, with supporters and opponents agreeing that the new restrictions are shutting some clinics, threatening others and making it far more difficult in many regions to obtain the procedure."
READ MORE

Obama Administration Pushes to Strengthen Background Checks on Mentally Ill Gun Buyers
Sari Horwitz, The Washington Post
Horwitz reports: "The Obama administration on Friday announced two executive actions to try to strengthen federal background checks and prevent guns from ending up in the hands of mentally ill people who pose a danger to others."
READ MORE

Climate Change Could Put One-Fifth of World's Population in Severe Water Shortage
Ari Phillips, ThinkProgress
Phillips reports: "A new study by a diverse group of researchers from twelve countries found that of the human impacts stemming from climate change, the threat it poses to global water supplies may be the most severe."
READ MORE

 

The Spin War Over Obamacare [AKA RomneyCare]

It's baffling that Republicans have focused on defeating the same plan they previous proposed.

Pity so many blindly follow!

Fighting the 'spin' war over Obamacare

Commentary: claims are distorted, but GOP is displaying message discipline

By Wendell Potter

6:00 am, December 2, 2013

 

Now that November is history, will the Obamacare website work flawlessly from now on? Or, as the president has said, will it at least work for the “vast majority” of people who need to buy insurance on their own?

We will know in a few days if, as administration officials pledged last week, most of the problems that plagued HealthCare.gov were actually resolved. They predicted that at least 90 percent of folks seeking to enroll in a health plan online would be able to do so by the first of December.

The tech team that has been working around the clock to fix the website said it can now handle 50,000 users at a time — and up to 800,000 a day — without crashing. And if folks have trouble with the site during particularly busy times, they can leave an email address to be notified later when fewer users are online trying to enroll.

It will be a largely seamless experience for most, and hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of people who were previously uninsured or underinsured will have quality, affordable coverage beginning January 1, many for the first time.

But that doesn’t mean those who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to scare people about the reform law — including health insurers — will throw in the towel. On the contrary, we can expect them to double down, at least through 2014.

That’s because this is about politics. It is not about making sure that all Americans have access to solid medical care when they need it. It is about which political party will control the House and the Senate after the midterm elections eleven months and two days from now.

Both political parties will be seeking to control the debate — and the media coverage — about Obamacare. The way things seem to be shaping up, the Republicans may have the advantage. That’s because unlike Democrats, GOP lawmakers have shown that they can stay on message about the law, that they can take the talking points of the week they’re handed and repeat them over and over again. And it’s because many Washington reporters have demonstrated a willingness to be little more than dictation takers, reliably reporting what politicians say without taking the time to determine the veracity of those claims.
From the very beginning of the health care reform debate — before the first word of legislation was written — Republican political consultant Frank Luntz advised GOP lawmakers to call whatever plan the Democrats came up with a “government takeover of health care.” It was repeated so often — and dutifully reported by the media — that Politifact chose it as the “Lie of the Year” in 2010.
Luntz didn’t coin the term. Variations of it have been used for decades to defeat reform efforts. When I was still working as an insurance industry PR guy, my colleagues and I settled on “government takeover of health care” in 2007, in press releases from a front group we had created, as the central message of a campaign to persuade the public that filmmaker Michael Moore was advocating such a takeover in his movie SiCKO.
Two and a half years later, on November 7, 2009, the day the House of Representatives narrowly approved what became the Affordable Care Act, just about every GOP member of Congress rose to condemn the legislation as a “government takeover of health care.”
As the New York Times reported a few days back, House Republicans are returning to their playbook, distributing memos with “talking points and marching orders” about Obamacare.
According to the Times story: “Republican strategists say that over the next several months, they intend to keep Democrats on their heels through a multi-layered, sequenced assault.”
Having participated in numerous clandestine meetings with Republican strategists in years past — at PR agencies in Washington and in airport hotel conference rooms in cities like Chicago and Dallas — I can almost assure you that some of my former colleagues are playing behind-the-scenes roles in crafting the current batch of talking points. Like, “Because of Obamacare, I lost my insurance.”
While most insurers like the requirement that Americans have to buy coverage from them, they don’t like the profit-limiting consumer protections in the law. They know they will have a better chance of weakening or getting rid of them if the GOP can take control of both the House and Senate next November.
Democratic consultants have developed a few talking points of their own, of course, but I have not observed the same level of message discipline among Democrats as I have seen among Republicans. Unless they figure out how to adapt the GOP playbook to their own advantage, they will continue to be on the defensive about Obamacare for months to come.

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Presidency of Barack Obama, Politics, United States, Politics of the United States, 111th United States Congress, Democratic Party, Republican Party, Political parties in the United States, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PolitiFact.com, Frank Luntz

Wendell Potter

Former CIGNA executive-turned-whistleblower Wendell Potter writes about the health care industry and the ongoing battle for health reform.

 

 

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/12/02/13872/fighting-spin-war-over-obamacare?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=watchdog&utm_medium=publici-email

 

 

John Bonifaz via Free Speech For People

The Hobby Lobby case is the next round in the fight to challenge the fabricated claim of corporate constitutional rights.

The Supreme Court Justices Agree to Hear Hobby Lobby Case

Submitted by Lindsay Van Dyke on Tue, 11/26/2013 - 14:12

The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it would hear the case of Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. The case involves craft store chain Hobby Lobby and the requirement under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare”) that all health insurance plans provide contraceptive coverage at no separate cost.

Hobby Lobby is using the argument that providing contraception to their female employees goes against their first amendment right of religious freedom. Corporations, because of the 2010 Citizens United case, already have the right to free speech.

We do not believe these "rights" should be used to control or sway employees' personal decisions.

For more on the story click here.


(Supreme Court Justices, 2013)

NSA Spied On Porn Habits et al

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"There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." - C.G. Jung "Don't seek love externally, it's fleeting. Go beyond the ego and awaken the love that already exists within; it will encompass everyone and everything in your life; it will permeate your very being." - Danielle Pierre "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?" - Martin Luther King Jr.

November 28, 2013

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France Makes Virtue out of Vice to Exploit Central Africa Chaos By Finian Cunningham The strategic value of uranium cannot be overstated as a vital national interest for France. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36991.htm Iran: It's Not about Nuclear Weapons By Sheldon Richman Look at the leading opponents of the agreement: Israel and Saudi Arabia. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36985.htm Netanyahu's Peace Gesture is Meant to Extract Concessions By Jonathan Cook Netanyahu's offer was as hollow as his previous utterances about Palestinian statehood. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36984.htm US Sends B-52s to China's Air Defence Zone By John Chan If China responded by scrambling fighters to the area and the US military called in fighters from nearby Japanese bases, the incident could have led to an aerial clash with far-reaching and potentially catastrophic ramifications. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36987.htm Top-Secret Document Reveals NSA Spied On Porn Habits By Glenn Greenwald, Ryan Gallagher and Ryan Grim The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36983.htm The N.S.A. Dips Into Pornography By ANDREW ROSENTHAL J. Edgar Hoover compiled secret dossiers on the sexual peccadillos and private misbehavior of those he labeled as enemies - really dangerous people like Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy, for example. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36992.htm America, Want Freedom of Choice? Try Public Healthcare Like Canada By Adrienne Silnicki Our system ensures the right to care without considering ability to pay or profit margins. No one gets betweens us and our doctors. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36989.htm Pope Francis Understands Economics Better Than Most Politicians By Heidi Moore The pope's screed on "the economy of exclusion and inequality" will disappoint those who considers themselves free-market capitalists, but they would do well to listen to the message. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36988.htm Shakespeare and the Defeat of the Swiss Referendum on Compensations By Jimmie Moglia The defenders of extreme capitalism in Switzerland spent as much money as required to defeat the measure, and employed all that can impress awe upon the mind of man. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36990.htm We Will NOT Fight For Queen and Country Video The vile religion of Patriotism. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36993.htm Russell Brand "I'm Awake Now" The Only Thing That Matters To Any Of Us Is Love Short Video "The dead human ape has fulfilled its potential," - "now we must transform, become enlightened, so that we can acces the next realm of conciousness necessary for evolution." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36986.htm Hard News Bush- Blair Legacy Continues As - 49 killed in Iraq: - Suicide bombings and other attacks killed 30 people in Iraq Wednesday, and authorities found the bodies of 19 others shot dead in Baghdad, scenes eerily reminiscent of the country's gruesome sectarian war. http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/20046409/echoes-of-sectarian-war-as-49-killed-in-iraq/ Ten years after the invasion: Iraq helpless under rain of terror: Saddam Hussein may have gone but, for many poor Iraqis, little has improved. Now a devastating flood has left villagers homeless and there is precious little government support http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/ten-years-after-the-invasion-iraq-helpless-under-rain-of-terror-8967622.html Spoils of war: Maliki inaugurates branch of Standard Chartered Bank in Iraq: "Maliki mentioned in his inauguration speech that "We are witnessing an important turning point in the economic field where the entry of international banks in Iraq will support the construction process through meeting all required banking services." http://www.iraqinews.com/baghdad-politics/maliki-inaugurates-branch-of-standard-chartered-bank-in-iraq/ Syria: Video Of Children Fleeing Shelling: A group of youngsters run for their lives after an explosion behind them but thousands of children have died in the conflict. http://news.sky.com/story/1173976/syria-video-of-children-fleeing-shelling Inside Syria: Al-Qaeda Was Here: A tour through the newly won territory gives a rare look at life under the extremists - and a window into their vision for Syria. "It's a black-and-white world for them. You can become their enemy very fast." http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/inside-syria-al-qaeda-was-here Turkey, Iran call for Syria ceasefire before Geneva two talks - report: "All our efforts are to end the conflict and for a ceasefire if possible, even before the Geneva 2 conference takes place," said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at a news conference in Tehran with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/11/27/uk-syria-crisis-turkey-iran-idUKBRE9AQ0NF20131127 Syrian govt says will not surrender power at Geneva: Syrian authorities will attend talks in January aimed at resolving the civil war but will not succumb to Western demands for President Bashar Al Assad to step aside, a foreign ministry source said on Wednesday. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2013/November/middleeast_November206.xml Bush- Blair Legacy Continues As - 49 killed in Iraq: - Suicide bombings and other attacks killed 30 people in Iraq Wednesday, and authorities found the bodies of 19 others shot dead in Baghdad, scenes eerily reminiscent of the country's gruesome sectarian war. http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/20046409/echoes-of-sectarian-war-as-49-killed-in-iraq/ Ten years after the invasion: Iraq helpless under rain of terror: Saddam Hussein may have gone but, for many poor Iraqis, little has improved. Now a devastating flood has left villagers homeless and there is precious little government support http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/ten-years-after-the-invasion-iraq-helpless-under-rain-of-terror-8967622.html Spoils of war: Maliki inaugurates branch of Standard Chartered Bank in Iraq: "Maliki mentioned in his inauguration speech that "We are witnessing an important turning point in the economic field where the entry of international banks in Iraq will support the construction process through meeting all required banking services." http://www.iraqinews.com/baghdad-politics/maliki-inaugurates-branch-of-standard-chartered-bank-in-iraq/ Syria: Video Of Children Fleeing Shelling: A group of youngsters run for their lives after an explosion behind them but thousands of children have died in the conflict. http://news.sky.com/story/1173976/syria-video-of-children-fleeing-shelling Inside Syria: Al-Qaeda Was Here: A tour through the newly won territory gives a rare look at life under the extremists - and a window into their vision for Syria. "It's a black-and-white world for them. You can become their enemy very fast." http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/inside-syria-al-qaeda-was-here Turkey, Iran call for Syria ceasefire before Geneva two talks - report: "All our efforts are to end the conflict and for a ceasefire if possible, even before the Geneva 2 conference takes place," said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at a news conference in Tehran with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/11/27/uk-syria-crisis-turkey-iran-idUKBRE9AQ0NF20131127 Syrian govt says will not surrender power at Geneva: Syrian authorities will attend talks in January aimed at resolving the civil war but will not succumb to Western demands for President Bashar Al Assad to step aside, a foreign ministry source said on Wednesday. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2013/November/middleeast_November206.xml Syrian Rebels Shun Geneva Peace Talks: The commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army says his group will not participate in a peace conference planned for January in Geneva and intends to pursue its fight to topple President Bashar al-Assad regardless. http://www.voanews.com/content/syrian-rebels-say-no-ceasefire-for-peace-talks/1798048.html Iran: Construction will continue at Arak nuclear site: Iranian FM says "no new nuclear fuel will be produced," no new components will be installed, but Iran will continue heavy-water reactor construction. http://www.jpost.com/Iranian-Threat/News/Iran-Construction-will-continue-at-Arak-nuclear-site-333166 Obama adviser urges Israel not to strike at Iran: President Barack Obama's close aide and deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes encouraged Israel to give the negotiations a chance, and warned that military action could be counterproductive. http://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-adviser-urges-israel-not-to-strike-at-iran/ Clashes in Hebron after funeral for 3 men killed by Israel: - Clashes broke out across the Hebron district on Wednesday as thousands of mourners gathered to take part in funeral processions for three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces a day earlier. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=651741 UN votes overwhelmingly on five decisions on the Question of Palestine: The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted five draft resolutions on the Question of Palestine. This year's number of countries to vote in favour of draft resolutions on the Question of Palestine has increased compared to last year. http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/8542-un-votes-overwhelmingly-on-five-decisions-on-the-question-of-palestine Over 40 suspected Boko Haram members killed in Borno: More than 40 suspected Boko Haram Islamist sect members were Wednesday killed in a Military raid involving air strikes and ground troops of the 7 Division, Nigerian Army in Bita village area along Damboa-Gwoza road of Borno state. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/11/40-suspected-boko-haram-members-killed-borno/ 3 soldiers killed as Libyan army fights Islamists in Benghazi: Libya's army clashed with Islamist militants in the eastern city of Benghazi early on Wednesday and three soldiers were shot dead, security and medical officials said. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/libyan-army-fights-islamists-benghazi-three-soldiers-killed-123029076.html#bxQAlbT Libya struggles to pay salaries, more clashes erupt: Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said today his government will be unable to pay public salaries and may have to seek loans if armed militias blockading oilfields and ports continue to choke off crude shipments. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131127/world/libya-struggles-to-pay-salaries-more-clashes-erupt.496513 Prominent militant leader killed in Sinai offensive: Egypt's army spokesperson says three militants, including prominent leader Abu-Mounir, were killed Tuesday in a joint police-army offensive in Sinai http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/87519/Egypt/Politics-/Prominent-militant-leader-killed-in-Sinai-offensiv.aspx Egypt court hands 14 Brotherhood women 11-year jail terms: Sources: An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced 14 women from the Muslim Brotherhood to 11 years in jail after convicting them of belonging to a "terrorist organisation," judicial sources said. http://dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Nov-27/239124-egypt-court-hands-14-brotherhood-women-11-year-jail-terms-sources.ashx Egyptian secular activists arrested under new protest law: Arrests follow return of secular protesters to streets in significant numbers for first time since fall of Mohamed Morsi http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/27/egypt-secular-activists-arrested-protest-law China asserts control over air zone despite US B-52 flights: "The Chinese government has the will and ability to defend our national sovereignty and security," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular press briefing. http://news.yahoo.com/us-flies-b-52-bombers-chinas-air-defense-172803843.html 33 armed "Taliban militants" killed in Afghan operations: Afghan police keep order after a protest in KabulAt least 33 Taliban militants were killed during military operations conducted by Afghan national security forces in various provinces of Afghanistan during the past 24 hours. http://www.khaama.com/33-armed-taliban-militants-killed-in-afghan-operations-3119 6 Afghan soldiers killed in blasts: Six Afghan army soldiers were killed and six others wounded in separate roadside bomb attacks over the last 24 hours, said the country's Defense Ministry on Wednesday evening. http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=183356 Six Aid Workers Killed in Faryab: Six Afghan staffers of the French Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) were shot dead by militants on Wednesday in northern Faryab province, local officials said. http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/12887-six-aid-workers-killed-in-faryab US looks to bypass Karzai on Afghanistan security deal, sources say: U.S. officials seeking to resolve a tense standoff with Afghan President Hamid Karzai were exploring on Tuesday whether they could bypass him and get other senior officials to sign a security deal authorizing American troops to remain in the country after 2014. http://www.adn.com/2013/11/25/3199224/us-looks-to-bypass-karzai-on-afghanistan.html Five policemen killed in Pakistan firing: At least five policemen were killed and one person was injured in two separate incidents of firing at police mobiles in Hyderabad city of Pakistan's Sindh province Tuesday night, Xinhua reported. http://newindianexpress.com/world/Five-policemen-killed-in-Pakistan-firing/2013/11/27/article1913921.ece Pakistan urges end to drone strikes in UN General Assembly: Pakistan called for the immediate cessation of "illegal" US drone strikes on its territory, after a UN committee unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday that underscores the need for an international agreement on legal questions involving the use of remotely piloted aircraft http://dawn.com/news/1058935/pakistan-urges-end-to-drone-strikes-in-un-general-assembly NATO supply trucks still stuck in Pakistan: Trucks carrying NATO troop supplies to Afghanistan remained stuck in Pakistan on Tuesday as concern lingered about demonstrators seeking to stop the vehicles in protest of U.S. drone strikes, Pakistani transportation officials said. http://news.yahoo.com/nato-supply-trucks-still-stuck-pakistan-125510474.html Pakistani Party Identifies Man It Says Is C.I.A. Station Chief: The political party of the former cricket star Imran Khan on Wednesday identified a man it described as the Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Pakistan, in an escalation of Mr. Khan's campaign to end American drone strikes in the country. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/world/asia/pakistani-party-identifies-man-it-says-is-cia-station-chief.html 'Hostile' aircraft could be shot down in new air zone: Chinese air force general: A PLA air force general has warned that any foreign aircraft disobeying warnings and deemed to be "hostile" could be shot down in China's newly-established air defence identification zone (ADIZ), Chinese media reported on Wednesday. http://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1367110/hostile-aircraft-could-be-shot-down-air-defence-zone-pla-general Thailand: Parliament on lock-down for no-confidence vote: Video report - Police were in heavy presence at the National Assembly of Thailand where members of Parliament are debating a no-confidence vote against President Yingluck Shinawatra, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z16Whv39xz4&feature=youtu.be Protesters force evacuation of 'Thai FBI', aim to invade every ministry: Thousands of protesters in Thailand have forced the closure of several government ministries and vowed to take over government offices nationwide in a bid to force embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from power. http://rt.com/news/thai-protesters-evacuation-department-373/ Teen caught in 'fake war on terror' contrived by U.S. spy agencies: On Tuesday, a court filing by Daoud's attorneys characterizes U.S. spy agencies as outlaw arms of the government that snagged the west suburban teenager in a dummied-up bomb plot. The nation's intelligence gathering agencies, they believe, are operating in what amounts to a fourth, runaway, branch of government. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=9340967 Judge Suspends Sentencing Of Would-Be Bomber After NSA Revelations: The sentencing of a Somali-American man convicted of trying to bomb a holiday tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., in 2010 has been put on hold indefinitely. That move comes just days after the Justice Department notified his lawyers that part of the case against him had been "derived from" secret NSA electronic surveillance. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/11/26/247412767/judge-suspends-sentencing-would-be-bomber-after-nsa-revelation Fact or fiction? Spies worry over "doomsday" cache stashed by ex-NSA contractor Snowden: One source described the cache of still unpublished material as Snowden's "insurance policy" against arrest or physical harm. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/25/us-usa-security-doomsday-idUSBRE9AO0Y120131125 How The FBI Actually Does Much Of The NSA's Spying, But Is Keeping That Quiet: For all the focus on the NSA of late, a few folks have been trying to remind everyone that the FBI is heavily involved in all of this and, in many ways, has an equally bad if not worse record in abusing the rights of Americans. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131125/02515925349/how-fbi-actually-does-much-nsas-spying-is-keeping-that-quiet.shtml Thousands protest against tough new official secrets law in Japan: Critics say proposed secrets act would stifle information on issues such as the Fukushima nuclear crisis http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1362220/thousands-protest-against-tough-new-official-secrets-law-japan Leakers, privacy activists find new home in Berlin: : An international cadre of privacy advocates is settling in Germany's once-divided capital, saying they feel safer here than they do in the United States or Britain, where authorities have vowed to prosecute leakers of official secrets. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/leakers-privacy-activists-find-new-home-in-berlin/2013/11/26/272dc7fc-4e1d-11e3-97f6-ed8e3053083b_print.html How In Five Short Years, China Humiliated The World's Central Banks: China has expanded its financial balance sheet by 50% more than the assets of all global central banks combined! http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-26/chart-day-how-five-short-years-breakneck-liquification-china-humiliated-worlds-centr Bitcoin Tops $1000: Having broken above $900 yesterday to new record highs (and a 100% gain in a week), the crypto currency is not looking back now. On what is higher than average volume this morning, Bitcoin just broke above the magic $1000 level for the first time (at $1025). http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-27/bitcoin-tops-1000 UK: Cameron targets welfare benefits for EU migrants: Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed a swath of benefit cuts and "free movement" restrictions to EU migrants in a bid to shore up the UK's social welfare system, as a fresh wave of Bulgarian and Romanian migrants are set to arrive on British soil. http://rt.com/news/uk-cameron-welfare-migrants-379/ UK: Britain's state pension one of the worst in the world: Of the 34 countries in the OECD, only Mexico had a worse rate at 29 per cent compared to a 54 per cent average across the rest of the bloc. http://www.express.co.uk/news/retirement/445328/Britain-s-state-pension-one-of-the-worst-in-the-world UK; Figures show number admitted to hospital with malnutrition has almost doubled since 2008: Bradford West MP George Galloway asked for the statistics in response to concerns of constituents he says have to choose between food or heating. And yesterday those figures were revealed to him by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/10835986.MP_George_Galloway_calls_for_action_over_levels_of_malnutrition_in_Bradford/ US banks could face legal charges of over $100 billion: : The fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis continues to plague U.S. banks, according to Standard and Poor's, with the ratings agency estimating billions of dollars in extra litigation fees may hit major lenders. http://www.cnbc.com/id/101231303 Poll: Most Americans Unhappy About Economy, Fear Losing Their Jobs: Among those with jobs, 62 percent said they worry about losing their jobs because of the economy, including 32 percent who worry "a lot" and 30 percent who worry "a little." http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/Poll-Jobs-Economy-America/2013/11/26/id/538851 Cross-border shopping promotes inequality: Twelve years ago, author Barbara Ehrenreich described what it's like to be poor in America after taking low-wage jobs at a big-box retail outlet, a diner, a long-term-care home, and a housekeeping service. http://www.straight.com/news/537276/cross-border-shopping-promotes-inequality We're Not Broke - We've Been Robbed: Op-Ed: Slashing government spending now is just going to make our nation poorer. http://otherwords.org/broke-weve-robbed/ === "Let us be peace and joy" Tom Feeley

Cost Of War Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq "1,455,590" Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America's War On Iraq: 4,883 Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 3,397 Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan Total Cost of Wars Since 2001 $1,492,445,517,164 http://www.costofwar.com/ Quick Links... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Website More About Us Email: emailtom@cox.net Contact Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone:San Diego USA 619-407-7054 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~