Dying for Universal Healthcare — British Patients Starved and Left inAmbulances
By Drs. Michael A. Glueck & Robert J. Cihak
The Medicine Men
The Democratic candidates tell us they can provide healthcare for all , either mandated or not. It sounds utopian, except they don't say how we will pay for it or that the quality and quantity of care will go down as costs go up.
If we think we want universal healthcare first we need to make a few reality checks. It hasn't worked in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and Russia. [or Cuba]
There are some alarming health abuses going on in the United Kingdom recently noted by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and others.
To meet U.K. government targets, which require emergency department patients to be treated within four hours, thousands of patients are kept in ambulances outside the department for hours. Last year, more than 43,000 patients waited for more than an hour before being allowed into the emergency room.
Ambulances that are being used as "mobile waiting rooms" are unavailable to take fresh calls. The Labour government brought in the four-hour standard in an effort to end the scandal of patients waiting in casualty for days (Daily Mail 2/20/08).
British patients are being denied certain operations because of lack of worthiness, based on smoking, obesity, heavy drinking, or age. Officials are urging patients to turn to "self care" instead of physician visits.
Statistics from the Conservative Party show that the number of patients released from British National Health Service (NHS) hospitals with malnutrition has doubled in the decade since Labour came to power, increasing from 74,431 in 1997 to 139,127. While most of the patients had nutritional deficiencies on admission, the nutritional condition of at least 8,500 actually worsened during their hospital stay.
Last year, Health Minister Ivan Lewis admitted that patients were being starved on the wards, with some elderly patients given little more than a scoop of mashed potatoes for lunch. Often, elderly patients are given non-pureed food that they cannot chew or swallow. Food trays may be placed out of reach and simply taken away when patients are too weak to get to them (Telegraph 1/1/08). "The threat to cut benefits to the old and the unhealthy in Britain is a clear confirmation that healthcare can never be free," he says. "The threat also shows that healthcare can't be truly universal, at least not for the long term, because it becomes too costly to maintain as such" ("Health Freezes Over," Investors Business Daily 1/29/08).
One way to relieve strains on the system is to allow patients to pay privately for portions of their care while still receiving "basic" care from the NHS. For example, patient Debbie Hirst, who has metastatic breast cancer, attempted to raise $120,000 to pay for Avastin, a drug widely used in the U.S. and Europe but not available to NHS patients until the cancer is so widespread that treatment may be hopeless.
Such arrangements have tacitly been allowed before, but in this case the doctor delivered the news that he was getting his wrists slapped by the higher-ups. If the patient paid for Avastin, so goes the logic, she'd have to pay for all of her treatment, far more than she could afford.
Patients "hopscotch" all the time, for example paying for a timely private consultation or MRI, then getting their surgery from the NHS. But "that way lies the end of the founding principles of the NHS," said health secretary Alan Johnson to parliament.
The rules for private co-payments are contradictory and confusing. The idea of the NHS may be to assure rich and poor get equal treatment, but the system is riddled with inequities. Drug availability, waiting lists, and per capita spending for cancer care vary wildly from region to region.
As patient Hirst explained: "I'm a person who left school at 15 and I've worked all my life and paid into the system, and I'm not going to live long enough to get my old-age pension from this government" (New York Times 2/21/08). There is no need to die while seeking universal care.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
States Balk at Fed's 'Real ID'
And just how much are the states going to charge the individual for the drivers license? I don't especially like the idea of a national ID... but if WE allowed congress to pass the law and the president signed it... then it is the law and I am sure the state can figure out how to make money on it and pay for the new medicaid requirements too. SOCK IT TO US!! Right here on the chin.
Besides, I don't want to fly anywhere any way and I have no desire and see no future need to enter a Federal Building.
Margie
States Balk at Fed's 'Real ID'
It is not officially billed as a national ID card, but the outcome is about the same. Several states have passed laws against the Real ID because of the cost.
Stateline.org provides background on this issue that, if put into action, would affect every American. It already affects every state government that is trying to figure out how to pay for such an ID:
Governors sent a message to Congress and the next president that they are unhappy with federal standards to make driver's licenses more secure and with a batch of new Medicaid rules that could cost them $13 billion over five years.
Despite changes designed to lower the cost of the 2005 Real ID Act, governors attending an annual meeting of the National Governors Association voted unanimously Sunday (Feb. 24) to object to and continue to call for full funding of the driver's license measure, estimated to cost $4 billion.
Congress has appropriated $90 million to help states electronically verify the identity of an estimated 245 million drivers and reissue secure licenses. The law is meant to keep driver's licenses out of the hands of terrorists and illegal aliens and was passed by Congress in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The executive committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures also recently renewed its call for Real ID to be repealed by Congress.
In 2007, six states -- Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington -- took the nearly unprecedented step of passing laws refusing to comply with the federal law because of the costs, federal imposition on state practice and the potential threats to individual privacy.
While the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it cannot compel states to follow the law, non-compliant driver's licenses cannot be used as ID to board commercial airplanes or enter federal buildings after May 11, when the act takes effect.
Montana, South Carolina and Maine are currently the only three states whose residents won't be able to use their driver's licenses to board aircraft after the May deadline. Those three have failed, so far, to file for an extension giving them another 19 months -- until January 2010 -- to start verifying the identities of driver's license applicants.
Besides, I don't want to fly anywhere any way and I have no desire and see no future need to enter a Federal Building.
Margie
States Balk at Fed's 'Real ID'
It is not officially billed as a national ID card, but the outcome is about the same. Several states have passed laws against the Real ID because of the cost.
Stateline.org provides background on this issue that, if put into action, would affect every American. It already affects every state government that is trying to figure out how to pay for such an ID:
Governors sent a message to Congress and the next president that they are unhappy with federal standards to make driver's licenses more secure and with a batch of new Medicaid rules that could cost them $13 billion over five years.
Despite changes designed to lower the cost of the 2005 Real ID Act, governors attending an annual meeting of the National Governors Association voted unanimously Sunday (Feb. 24) to object to and continue to call for full funding of the driver's license measure, estimated to cost $4 billion.
Congress has appropriated $90 million to help states electronically verify the identity of an estimated 245 million drivers and reissue secure licenses. The law is meant to keep driver's licenses out of the hands of terrorists and illegal aliens and was passed by Congress in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The executive committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures also recently renewed its call for Real ID to be repealed by Congress.
In 2007, six states -- Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington -- took the nearly unprecedented step of passing laws refusing to comply with the federal law because of the costs, federal imposition on state practice and the potential threats to individual privacy.
While the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it cannot compel states to follow the law, non-compliant driver's licenses cannot be used as ID to board commercial airplanes or enter federal buildings after May 11, when the act takes effect.
Montana, South Carolina and Maine are currently the only three states whose residents won't be able to use their driver's licenses to board aircraft after the May deadline. Those three have failed, so far, to file for an extension giving them another 19 months -- until January 2010 -- to start verifying the identities of driver's license applicants.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Teachers Defend Against Students' Prank Web sites
I find this topic disgusting. I remember a few teachers that I didn't like, and a few that I did. But I would NEVER do something like this to ANYONE. Not even my worse enemy. Some one needs to get out a paddle or a belt.. maybe even a cat-o-nine tails. Where are the parents? Reminds me of the commercial where the people are sitting around a table and have the speaker phone on talking to their boss.. when it is over they press the mute button and make sarcastic remarks to and about the boss, then the repair man comes in to repair the mute button that isn't working.. People should learn that what goes around comes around. Even in wishful thinking.
Margie
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
It would be interesting to hear from local teachers who have suffered from online student pranks. Your local teacher's union might be a starting place.
Here are the teacher/professor rating sites you should know about:
Margie
Teachers Defend Against Students' Prank Web sites
Teachers and principals are often targets of their students' online wrath and pranks. In Charlotte, N.C., a teacher was falsely accused online of being a pedophile. The Christian Science Monitor reports:
In one case, a teacher reported receiving a large number of propositional phone calls and e-mails from gay men after a student posted the teacher's name and contact information on a gay website.
Another incident involved a parent filming a teacher's backside during a class skit and then posting the clip on the Internet to the strains of Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher." The site was removed and no charges were filed.
Now the teachers are striking back. The Christian Science Monitor article continues:Tired of fat jokes and false accusations of teacher-lounge partying or worse, teachers and principals are fighting back against digital ridicule and slander by their students -- often with civil lawsuits and long-term suspensions or permanent expulsions.
A National School Boards Association (NSBA) study says that as many as one-third of American teens regularly post inappropriate language or manipulated images on the Web. Most online pranks deride other students. But a NSBA November 2006 survey reported 26 percent of teachers and principals being targeted.
"Kids have been pulling pranks on teachers and principals since there have been schools in the U.S., but now there's an edge to it -- the tone and tenor of some of these attacks cross the line," says Nora Carr, a spokeswoman for Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina.
In the growing backlash against these cybergoofs, however, real-world norms of propriety are being pitted against the uncertain jurisdictions of the Digital Age. A new test may be emerging on how far online lampooning can go, say First Amendment experts -- and to what extent schools can control off-campus pranks.
Sometimes the abuse comes in the form of fake MySpace pages or YouTube videos. Click here for more background.It would be interesting to hear from local teachers who have suffered from online student pranks. Your local teacher's union might be a starting place.
Here are the teacher/professor rating sites you should know about:
Monday, February 25, 2008
Things are heating up out there...
Clintonite Stabs Obama Supporter
Cops: Man assaulted brother-in-law during political argument
FEBRUARY 25--Meet Jose Antonio Ortiz. The Pennsylvania man allegedly stabbed his brother-in-law in the stomach after the pair quarreled about their respective support of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. According to cops, Ortiz, 28, stabbed Sean Shurelds last Thursday night in the kitchen of an Upper Providence Township home. According to a criminal complaint, a copy of which you'll find here, the 41-year-old Shurelds, an Obama supporter, told Ortiz that the Illinois senator was "trashing" Clinton (apparently in regard to recent primary and caucus results). Ortiz, a Clinton supporter, replied that "Obama was not a realist." While not exactly fighting words, the verbal political tiff led to some mutual choking and punching. And, allegedly, a stabbing in the abdomen. Ortiz, pictured in the mug shot below, was charged with a felony aggravated assault count and two misdemeanors and jailed in lieu of $20,000 bail. Shurelds was flown to Hahnemann University Hospital, where he was admitted in critical condition. (2 pages)
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0225081ortiz1.html
Louis Farrakhan says
All the more reason NOT to vote for this "young upstart"; "the Anti-Christ"?
*******************
Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said Sunday
"This young man is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better," he said. "This young man is capturing audiences of black and brown and red and yellow. If you look at Barack Obama's audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed."
Farrakhan compared Obama to the religion's founder, Fard Muhammad, who also had a white mother and black father.
"A black man with a white mother became a savior to us," he told the crowd of mostly followers. "A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall."
Sunday, February 24, 2008
I share it with you
I came across this note on a blogger site.. This lady has it absolutely right!.. I hope she doesn't mind that I share it with you..
Yanno what really ticks me off about all of this?
Look, things in the military will never be perfect. It’s a huge friggin’ bureaucracy - paper upon paper, red tape upon red tape.
BUT
It sickens me to hear these people screaming about “shortages” during this administration.
Where the heck were they during the Clinton administration? They sure as heck didn’t give a damn then.
Hubs has served under Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush. You want to talk about horrid shortages, scrounging for weapons and ammo, horrid pay, horrid housing and medical care then lets talk about the Clinton administration and how the military was treated during that 8 years.
We were the red headed step child - treated like garbage, supplied like second or third class citizens.
When Bush came into office, it was like friggin’ Christmas. Pay was brought back up to levels that fell more in line with the general public. The falling apart equipment began to be replaced..etc.
People wonder why I get so friggin angry when people talk about staying home during this next election. I’ll be honest, I don’t give a dang about the “party” - I do give a dang that my husband and his brothers may be serving during a WAR under a party who has treated them like crap in the past and has done NOTHING to show that they won’t continue to treat them like worthless crap while they’re being friggin shot at and blown up in the future.
YES! I have an ulterior motive. I want my husband to have the best possible chance to come home from his next deployment ALIVE.
I don’t like or trust ANY politician, but historically, in our experience, the Republican party has taken better care of the military than the Democrats have.
Some of you people talk a great game - how much you care about and support the troops, but when push comes to shove, where will you be? Still talking or actually doing something about it?
Tink on February 22, 2008 at 10:08 PM
Friday, February 22, 2008
This makes me proud of Texans and to be a native bornTexan
Wife joins Army after husband loses leg in Iraq
Houston Chronicle
Dec 09, 2007
SAN ANTONIO — More than a year after infantryman Alejandro Albarran lost part of his right leg to a blast in Iraq, he still hasn't decided whether he'll stay in the Army.
"Right now, I'm leaning against it," Albarran said, looking ahead with distaste to a possible desk job.
But whatever he decides, Spc. Albarran, 20, won't be leaving Army life behind now that his wife enlisted to take his place among the ranks.
"After everything he's gone through — and he loves the Army — he kind of inspired me," Janay Albarran said. "I made him a promise that I would finish what he started."
Editor's Note -- What an inspiration! At a recent family event, I met a sergeant recently returned from Iraq. In his full dress uniform, he was a poster-soldier for the kind of military that makes all so very proud; just as this young couple does. It means so much to see this dedication and valor in the face of the poor-mouthing the media and left-wing politicians are giving our soldiers.
SHOTS FIRED!
My Attempted Armed Robbery...
SHOTS FIRED!
by USCCA Member "9mmShooter"
Note from Tim: One of our very own members posted this AMAZING and gut-wrenching story of an incident that involved him drawing his weapon and firing in self defense... just WAIT until you read this!
.....
It was 8 PM on Sunday night, Jan 20th that my life was forever changed in an instant. I had planned on meeting some friends at his apartment complex and walking across the street to a popular sports restaurant to watch some football and relax as we all had Monday off for Martin Luther King's day.
I had stopped at a local 7-eleven store and picked up a 12 pack of beer and 4 tall cans to keep the refrigerator stocked and had no issues at the 7-eleven store. I parked my vehicle in my friends apartment parking lot, (which are nice luxury apartments), got out of my vehicle and had the 12 pack of bottles in my right hand, I used my remote to lock my vehicle, then transferred the plastic bag with the 4 tall cans to my right hand also, Leaving my LEFT (shooting) hand free. I was walking toward the sidewalk, when I was approached by a black male, face covered with bandana, gun drawn and pointed at my stomach on my left side, approx 2-3 feet from me. When I noticed him, he said "this is a hold-up, give me your wallet", and I replied, "Let me get is for you" and time Slloooweed way down for me.
My first mental reaction was I was an Idiot for allowing and armed BG to get this close to me and I didn't notice him, and take him out at 20-30 feet. But, I had just returned from the range that day, breaking in a new Colt Defender .45, but I decided to carry my Springfield Armory EMP 9mm with hydra-shock hollow points. Mentally I was rehearsing just how fast I could draw my gun (which I carry in a Galco FBI cant snap-on belt holster), get the thumb safety off, and get my right hand free to get a good sight picture and neutralize this BG. As I reached for what normally would be a wallet, I went for my gun (on my left side), when the BG saw stainless steel coming instead of a wallet, he ran approx 20 feet, stopped, turned, aimed and fired 2 shots at me. It is a surreal feeling "knowing" you are going to be shot at, when he fired I had my gun in my left hand, safety off, and was waiting to get my right hand on the gun to fire. ( I have since practiced shooting one handed, and the "zipper" technique) I immediately returned fire with 5 rounds, and it did appear my last shot hit him, but he ran across the apartment complex zig-zagging, and I was attempting to get 2 more shots, but I never took them because one shot he was by floor level patio with glass doors, and the next one he was heading into another open parking lot full of parked vehicles. I don't remember hearing any shots fired, what I do remember is the flash of his muzzle blast 2 times, and one more time as he was running across the apartment grounds for a total of 3 shots fired at me.
I do remember my CHL training kicking in, and I dialed 911 and described who I was, and what had just happened and shots were fired. The 911 dispatcher stayed on the phone with me until the officers arrived, and the police were very professional. The first officer on scene exited his car, not with his gun drawn but his first statement was are you, "Mr ..........", and I said yes, he asked where my gun was, which I had been told by the 911 dispatcher to put on the ground, and he secured my gun, then asked if I was hit, and what the BG looked like. The follow-up is the BG is a leading suspect in multiple armed robberies, and they have a BG suspect with a bullet "graze" wound problem, but so far he has not been arrested. So, I am still carrying and on full combat alert.
I present my story to this group, as proof that you Never know when you will be attacked, and you must Always be ready. I am still mad at myself for allowing an armed BG to get that close to me, and of course, that I missed him, and he was able to run away. The detectives did tell me that leading up to my attempted robbery, for 13 nights in a row, there had been an armed robbery of some sort across town, but after my incident there wasn't any armed robberies for a good 10 days or so. I welcome any comments and suggestions.
SHOTS FIRED!
by USCCA Member "9mmShooter"
Note from Tim: One of our very own members posted this AMAZING and gut-wrenching story of an incident that involved him drawing his weapon and firing in self defense... just WAIT until you read this!
.....
It was 8 PM on Sunday night, Jan 20th that my life was forever changed in an instant. I had planned on meeting some friends at his apartment complex and walking across the street to a popular sports restaurant to watch some football and relax as we all had Monday off for Martin Luther King's day.
I had stopped at a local 7-eleven store and picked up a 12 pack of beer and 4 tall cans to keep the refrigerator stocked and had no issues at the 7-eleven store. I parked my vehicle in my friends apartment parking lot, (which are nice luxury apartments), got out of my vehicle and had the 12 pack of bottles in my right hand, I used my remote to lock my vehicle, then transferred the plastic bag with the 4 tall cans to my right hand also, Leaving my LEFT (shooting) hand free. I was walking toward the sidewalk, when I was approached by a black male, face covered with bandana, gun drawn and pointed at my stomach on my left side, approx 2-3 feet from me. When I noticed him, he said "this is a hold-up, give me your wallet", and I replied, "Let me get is for you" and time Slloooweed way down for me.
My first mental reaction was I was an Idiot for allowing and armed BG to get this close to me and I didn't notice him, and take him out at 20-30 feet. But, I had just returned from the range that day, breaking in a new Colt Defender .45, but I decided to carry my Springfield Armory EMP 9mm with hydra-shock hollow points. Mentally I was rehearsing just how fast I could draw my gun (which I carry in a Galco FBI cant snap-on belt holster), get the thumb safety off, and get my right hand free to get a good sight picture and neutralize this BG. As I reached for what normally would be a wallet, I went for my gun (on my left side), when the BG saw stainless steel coming instead of a wallet, he ran approx 20 feet, stopped, turned, aimed and fired 2 shots at me. It is a surreal feeling "knowing" you are going to be shot at, when he fired I had my gun in my left hand, safety off, and was waiting to get my right hand on the gun to fire. ( I have since practiced shooting one handed, and the "zipper" technique) I immediately returned fire with 5 rounds, and it did appear my last shot hit him, but he ran across the apartment complex zig-zagging, and I was attempting to get 2 more shots, but I never took them because one shot he was by floor level patio with glass doors, and the next one he was heading into another open parking lot full of parked vehicles. I don't remember hearing any shots fired, what I do remember is the flash of his muzzle blast 2 times, and one more time as he was running across the apartment grounds for a total of 3 shots fired at me.
I do remember my CHL training kicking in, and I dialed 911 and described who I was, and what had just happened and shots were fired. The 911 dispatcher stayed on the phone with me until the officers arrived, and the police were very professional. The first officer on scene exited his car, not with his gun drawn but his first statement was are you, "Mr ..........", and I said yes, he asked where my gun was, which I had been told by the 911 dispatcher to put on the ground, and he secured my gun, then asked if I was hit, and what the BG looked like. The follow-up is the BG is a leading suspect in multiple armed robberies, and they have a BG suspect with a bullet "graze" wound problem, but so far he has not been arrested. So, I am still carrying and on full combat alert.
I present my story to this group, as proof that you Never know when you will be attacked, and you must Always be ready. I am still mad at myself for allowing an armed BG to get that close to me, and of course, that I missed him, and he was able to run away. The detectives did tell me that leading up to my attempted robbery, for 13 nights in a row, there had been an armed robbery of some sort across town, but after my incident there wasn't any armed robberies for a good 10 days or so. I welcome any comments and suggestions.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
If global warming gets any worse we'll all freeze to death.
Record snow pack for Colorado
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 11:55 AM By: Phil Brennan Are the world's ice caps melting because of climate change, or are the reports just a lot of scare mongering by the advocates of the global warming theory? Scare mongering appears to be the case, according to reports from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that reveal that almost all the allegedly “lost” ice has come back. A NOAA report shows that ice levels which had shrunk from 5 million square miles in January 2007 to just 1.5 million square miles in October, are almost back to their original levels. Moreover, a Feb. 18 report in the London Daily Express showed that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than usual, challenging the global warming crusaders and buttressing arguments of skeptics who deny that the world is undergoing global warming. The Daily express recalls the photograph of polar bears clinging on to a melting iceberg which has been widely hailed as proof of the need to fight climate change and has been used by former Vice President Al Gore during his "Inconvenient Truth" lectures about mankind’s alleged impact on the global climate. Gore fails to mention that the photograph was taken in the month of August when melting is normal. Or that the polar bear population has soared in recent years. As winter roars in across the Northern Hemisphere, Mother Nature seems to have joined the ranks of the skeptics. As the Express notes, scientists are saying the northern Hemisphere has endured its coldest winter in decades, adding that snow cover across the area is at its greatest since 1966. The newspaper cites the one exception — Western Europe, which had, until the weekend when temperatures plunged to as low as -10 C in some places, been basking in unseasonably warm weather. Around the world, vast areas have been buried under some of the heaviest snowfalls in decades. Central and southern China, the United States, and Canada were hit hard by snowstorms. In China, snowfall was so heavy that over 100,000 houses collapsed under the weight of snow. Jerusalem, Damascus, Amman, and northern Saudi Arabia report the heaviest falls in years and below-zero temperatures. In Afghanistan, snow and freezing weather killed 120 people. Even Baghdad had a snowstorm, the first in the memory of most residents. AFP news reports icy temperatures have just swept through south China, stranding 180,000 people and leading to widespread power cuts just as the area was recovering from the worst weather in 50 years, the government said Monday. The latest cold snap has taken a severe toll in usually temperate Yunnan province, which has been struck by heavy snowfalls since Thursday, a government official from the provincial disaster relief office told AFP. Twelve people have died there, state Xinhua news agency reported, and four remained missing as of Saturday. An ongoing record-long spell of cold weather in Vietnam's northern region, which started on Jan. 14, has killed nearly 60,000 cattle, mainly bull and buffalo calves, local press reported Monday. By Feb. 17, the spell had killed a total of 59,962 cattle in the region, including 7,349 in the Ha Giang province, 6,400 in Lao Cai, and 5,571 in Bac Can province, said Hoang Kim Giao, director of the Animal Husbandry Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, according to the Pioneer newspaper. In Britain the temperatures plunged to -10 C in central England, according to the Express, which reports that experts say that February could end up as one of the coldest in Britain in the past 10 years with the freezing night-time conditions expected to stay around a frigid -8 C until at least the middle of the week. And the BBC reports that a bus company's efforts to cut global warming emissions have led to services being disrupted by cold weather. Meanwhile Athens News reports that a raging snow storm that blanketed most of Greece over the weekend and continued into the early morning hours on Monday, plunging the country into sub-zero temperatures. The agency reported that public transport buses were at a standstill on Monday in the wider Athens area, while ships remained in ports, public services remained closed, and schools and courthouses in the more severely-stricken prefectures were also closed. Scores of villages, mainly on the island of Crete, and in the prefectures of Evia, Argolida, Arcadia, Lakonia, Viotia, and the Cyclades islands were snowed in. More than 100 villages were snowed-in on the island of Crete and temperatures in Athens dropped to -6 C before dawn, while the coldest temperatures were recorded in Kozani, Grevena, Kastoria and Florina, where they plunged to -12 C. Temperatures in Athens dropped to -6 C before dawn, while the coldest temperatures were recorded in Kozani, Grevena, Kastoria and Florina, where they plunged to -12 C. If global warming gets any worse we'll all freeze to death.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Congress should immediately investigate.
FBI and CIA Hit New Low in Recruitment Drive
Looking Under a Rock
By Steven Emerson
In a frightening and bizarre turn, the two chief agencies tapped with safeguarding America’s national security have started advertising in a publication that can only be described as objectively pro-terrorism.
The online edition of the Washington Report for Middle East Affairs (WRMEA), a publication linked to former Congressman Paul Findley, who once described himself as “Yasir Arafat’s best friend in Congress,” features recruiting advertisements seeking new agents for both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.
WRMEA’s history of support for Hamas, other terrorist groups and individual terrorists is well known. Currently on the front page of its website, right in the center, is an homage, constituting of a collection of articles and hagiographies, to convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Sami Al-Arian.
Al-Arian was investigated by the FBI for a decade and finally brought to trial in 2005, prosecuted by the Department of Justice in Tampa. In April 2006, Al-Arian pled guilty to one count of “Conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a Specially Designated Terrorist.”
This is the same Al-Arian who once told an audience of Muslims, “Let us damn America. Let us damn Israel. Let us damn their allies until death. Why do we stop?”
And yet, the same FBI that sought to convict him as a terrorist is now advertising for recruits on a pro-Al-Arian (and pro-terrorist in general) website. The pro Al-Arian orientation is part of a long and documented history of pro-Islamic terrorist features published by WRMEA during the past 15 years. Reviewing just about any issue of this Saudi-financed magazine would clearly determine its pro terrorist bias.
It is the same lack of judgment that led the Department of Justice to set up a recruitment booth and serve as a co-host for the annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention in September. Four months earlier, the same Justice Department designated ISNA as an unindicted co-conspirator in Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) case as part of the Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy in the United States. U.S. Reps. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Sue Myrick, R-NC, protested the Justice Department’s recruitment effort with ISNA in a letter to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asserting that ISNA is a Jihadi organization.
The Justice Department blithely dismissed the concerns, saying other organizations did it, too. That was true. That willful blindness was evident in the fact that, in 2006, the Department of Defense dispatched Deputy Secretary Gordon England to an ISNA conference and sent another representative to the annual conference in 2007. The Department of Homeland Security was there, too, with its recruitment booth adjacent to the Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical movement which endorses the use of violence and is devoted to establishing a global Islamic state governed by Shariah law.
After that embarrassment, the FBI placed a full-page recruiting ad in the November 2007 issue of ISNA’s magazine Islamic Horizons. “Help us light the way to a new era of understanding,” the ad reads.
Just what types of recruits are the FBI and CIA looking for? Apparently, these agencies do not learn from experience, even recent experiences. Just last November, former FBI and CIA agent Nadia Nadim Prouty was arrested and pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining American citizenship through a sham marriage, and using her illegally acquired status to attain employment with both the FBI and CIA. Prouty is the sister of Elfat Al Aouar, who is the wife of Talal Chahine – the Detroit-based restaurateur linked to Hizballah.
While it is too soon to determine where the breakdown occurred in allowing a Hizballah operative to infiltrate the FBI and the CIA, it is clear that these ads fall into the disturbing pattern where background checks of Islamic militants are not being pursued properly.
Prouty used her security clearance, in violation of the law and her job responsibilities (for which she also pled guilty), to do background searches into the FBI investigation of her sister and brother-in-law. But that hasn’t stopped the FBI – or the CIA for that matter – from reaching out to a pro-terrorist crowd for its next batch of recruits. And it is Americans who will likely pay dearly for the fact that the FBI and CIA have failed to learn the obvious lesson from the Prouty case. And Prouty aside, the fact that the CIA and FBI are advertising for employment on a site that lionizes an Islamic Jihad kingpin and other terrorist groups should frighten everyone.
Congress should immediately investigate.
Looking Under a Rock
By Steven Emerson
In a frightening and bizarre turn, the two chief agencies tapped with safeguarding America’s national security have started advertising in a publication that can only be described as objectively pro-terrorism.
The online edition of the Washington Report for Middle East Affairs (WRMEA), a publication linked to former Congressman Paul Findley, who once described himself as “Yasir Arafat’s best friend in Congress,” features recruiting advertisements seeking new agents for both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.
WRMEA’s history of support for Hamas, other terrorist groups and individual terrorists is well known. Currently on the front page of its website, right in the center, is an homage, constituting of a collection of articles and hagiographies, to convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Sami Al-Arian.
Al-Arian was investigated by the FBI for a decade and finally brought to trial in 2005, prosecuted by the Department of Justice in Tampa. In April 2006, Al-Arian pled guilty to one count of “Conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a Specially Designated Terrorist.”
This is the same Al-Arian who once told an audience of Muslims, “Let us damn America. Let us damn Israel. Let us damn their allies until death. Why do we stop?”
And yet, the same FBI that sought to convict him as a terrorist is now advertising for recruits on a pro-Al-Arian (and pro-terrorist in general) website. The pro Al-Arian orientation is part of a long and documented history of pro-Islamic terrorist features published by WRMEA during the past 15 years. Reviewing just about any issue of this Saudi-financed magazine would clearly determine its pro terrorist bias.
It is the same lack of judgment that led the Department of Justice to set up a recruitment booth and serve as a co-host for the annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention in September. Four months earlier, the same Justice Department designated ISNA as an unindicted co-conspirator in Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) case as part of the Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy in the United States. U.S. Reps. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Sue Myrick, R-NC, protested the Justice Department’s recruitment effort with ISNA in a letter to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asserting that ISNA is a Jihadi organization.
The Justice Department blithely dismissed the concerns, saying other organizations did it, too. That was true. That willful blindness was evident in the fact that, in 2006, the Department of Defense dispatched Deputy Secretary Gordon England to an ISNA conference and sent another representative to the annual conference in 2007. The Department of Homeland Security was there, too, with its recruitment booth adjacent to the Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical movement which endorses the use of violence and is devoted to establishing a global Islamic state governed by Shariah law.
After that embarrassment, the FBI placed a full-page recruiting ad in the November 2007 issue of ISNA’s magazine Islamic Horizons. “Help us light the way to a new era of understanding,” the ad reads.
Just what types of recruits are the FBI and CIA looking for? Apparently, these agencies do not learn from experience, even recent experiences. Just last November, former FBI and CIA agent Nadia Nadim Prouty was arrested and pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining American citizenship through a sham marriage, and using her illegally acquired status to attain employment with both the FBI and CIA. Prouty is the sister of Elfat Al Aouar, who is the wife of Talal Chahine – the Detroit-based restaurateur linked to Hizballah.
While it is too soon to determine where the breakdown occurred in allowing a Hizballah operative to infiltrate the FBI and the CIA, it is clear that these ads fall into the disturbing pattern where background checks of Islamic militants are not being pursued properly.
Prouty used her security clearance, in violation of the law and her job responsibilities (for which she also pled guilty), to do background searches into the FBI investigation of her sister and brother-in-law. But that hasn’t stopped the FBI – or the CIA for that matter – from reaching out to a pro-terrorist crowd for its next batch of recruits. And it is Americans who will likely pay dearly for the fact that the FBI and CIA have failed to learn the obvious lesson from the Prouty case. And Prouty aside, the fact that the CIA and FBI are advertising for employment on a site that lionizes an Islamic Jihad kingpin and other terrorist groups should frighten everyone.
Congress should immediately investigate.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Hooray for Cheney!!
By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 9, 2008; Page A01
Vice President Cheney signed on to a brief filed by a majority of Congress yesterday that urged the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling that the District of Columbia's handgun ban is unconstitutional, breaking with his own administration's official position.
Cheney joined 55 senators and 250 House members in asking the court to find that the Second
Amendment protects an individual's right to possess firearms and to uphold a lower court's ruling
that the D.C. ban violates that right. That position is at odds with the one put forward by the
administration, which angered gun rights advocates when it suggested that the justices return the
case to lower courts for further review.
In order to make his dramatic break with the administration, Cheney invoked his rarely used
status as part of Congress, joining the brief as "President of the United States Senate, Richard
B. Cheney." It is a position he has used at times to make the point that he is sometimes part of
the legislative branch and sometimes part of the executive.
"That is one of his titles," Cheney press secretary Megan Mitchell said when asked whether it
was significant that he had joined the brief in that capacity rather than as vice president.
The position puts Cheney at odds with a brief filed by U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement,
who represents the government and the Bush administration before the Supreme Court. Clement
said that the court should recognize the individual right but that the lower court's ruling was so
broad it could endanger federal gun-control measures, such as a ban on possession of new
machine guns.
"The president leaves procedural questions to the lawyers. What's most important is that this
administration firmly supports the individual-rights interpretation of the Second Amendment."
Mitchell said Cheney signed on to the brief because "the vice president believes strongly in the
Second Amendment." Reminded that it put him at odds with the administration's official
position, she repeated, "It's an issue he feels strongly about."
Neither Mitchell nor Fratto would say whether the president and the vice president talked about
Cheney's decision.
"We're glad to have the vice president on board with the Second Amendment," said Alan Gura,
one of the attorneys for the D.C. residents who challenged the law. He was sharply critical of
Clement's brief when it was filed, saying it was "basically siding with the District of Columbia."
The District's argument takes the position adopted by a majority of the nation's appeals courts
that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms only as a collective, civic right
related to military service.
But even if the amendment provides an individual right, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit held last spring, the city argues that it may ban handguns if it
allows citizens to own other kinds of firearms, such as rifles and shotguns.
Clement's brief said that was dubious but also said the appeals court was wrong to rule that just
because handguns are "arms" as defined by the Second Amendment, government cannot ban them.
"If adopted by this court, such an analysis could cast doubt on the constitutionality of existing
federal legislation prohibiting the possession of certain firearms, including machine guns."
The congressional brief filed by Hutchison and others said lower-court review is unnecessary
because the District's ban "is unreasonable on its face," no matter how lenient the standard of
review.
National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called the congressional brief
"a historical message to the court" that Congress believes the Second Amendment guarantees an
individual right to possess firearms. A statement from the organization said it is "grateful and
fortunate to have a friend of freedom in the vice president."
Clement urged the court to send the D.C. law, the strictest in the nation, back to lower courts
for further review.
The government's position, which technically supported neither the District nor those challenging
the law, nonetheless infuriated supporters of gun rights. They saw it as an abandonment of their
cause just as the court was ready to interpret the Second Amendment for the first time in 70
years.
The effort to draw up a brief for lawmakers was led by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.).
When she disclosed the names of her co-signers on Thursday, Cheney's was not among them. But
his name was added when the legal brief was filed yesterday.
Lawyers said it may be unprecedented for a vice president to take a position in a case before the
high court that is at odds with one the Justice Department puts forward as the administration's
official position.
"To my knowledge, I don't recollect it ever happening before," said Richard Lazarus, co-director
of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown Law Center.
Bush spokesman Tony Fratto emphasized where the sides agreed rather than where they
disagreed.
"Like the members of Congress who signed the amicus brief, the president strongly believes that
the Constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear firearms," Fratto said.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Spanish Ted
I remember when Ted Kennedy's daddy had to buy his way back into Harvard.
Margie
The Sacramento Bee reports:
Sen. Edward Kennedy delivered a passionate speech at East Los Angeles College with a Spanish accent that the heavily Latino crowd surely had never heard before. Proclaiming that a vote for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is a vote for the people, the white-haired, barrel-chested senator from Massachusetts cried out, “Un voto para Obama es un voto para la gente,” in a voice drenched with his classic Bostonian accent. He went on for several more sentences in Spanish and then stopped himself. “There may be people here who don’t understand my Spanish,” he said.
There is a reason why his Spanish is so poor. In 1951, he was tanking in a Spanish class, so he had a friend take the final for him. Harvard caught him and threw him out.
Margie
The Sacramento Bee reports:
Sen. Edward Kennedy delivered a passionate speech at East Los Angeles College with a Spanish accent that the heavily Latino crowd surely had never heard before. Proclaiming that a vote for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is a vote for the people, the white-haired, barrel-chested senator from Massachusetts cried out, “Un voto para Obama es un voto para la gente,” in a voice drenched with his classic Bostonian accent. He went on for several more sentences in Spanish and then stopped himself. “There may be people here who don’t understand my Spanish,” he said.
There is a reason why his Spanish is so poor. In 1951, he was tanking in a Spanish class, so he had a friend take the final for him. Harvard caught him and threw him out.
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