Saturday, March 27, 2010

"Morning Papers" - Its Origins



The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

Today is Earth Hour 2010. It occurs at 8:30 PM and that is usually when I blog a subject for the week.

I was going to do a history of the Earth awareness movement, but, I can always cover that on Earth Day which is April 22nd.

So, I've decided to serve my conscience and leave the electrical demands of pursuing a topic tonight to another time.

So, in observation of Earth Hour 2010 I won't be posting tonight.

Good night.

Supporting the local economies. Very important stuff.

...With the herd in prime condition, (click title to entry - thank you) and the couple lacking food and space to keep them, they frantically called slaughterhouses throughout the state. After several days they found an opening, but their experience highlights a growing problem for small farmers here and across the nation: too few slaughterhouses to meet the growing demand for locally raised meat....



There is an article in the New York Times that is near and dear to my heart. It is supporting local economies. It isn't such a strange concept. The Kosher Market Place started very locally. And while the 'organic and wholesome' markets are entering with more livestock than even the Kosher market place offered, there is a trend of closures to those local Kosher butchers.

The problem is economics and upgrading the facilities. It is my estimation if these two businesses would combine forces and petition their state legislators as well as their federal legislators they might find some funding. The Kosher CULTURE should never lack for enough funding to support its existence. But, it would be have more and varied business if the facility was also servicing the 'organic' and 'range fed' livestock market.

The other alternative is for the farmers to form a co-op and ask from some assistance in purchasing one or more of the former Kosher facilities and upgrading it to carry its demand and allow them to expand. I don't know if there is simply a smaller meat market, but, that can be researched without too much trouble.

Basically, the small family farm operations that enjoy this higher income market are starting to struggle and that is not a good sign.

Last update - 17:34 04/01/2010
Another U.S. kosher slaughterhouse, another closure (click here)
By Gal Beckerman, The Forward
The shuttering of a New York kosher poultry slaughterhouse for serious sanitary violations is once again putting the spotlight on a Hasidic sect, some of whose members have repeatedly defied the law.

A federal judge imposed a temporary restraining order and injunction December 29 against further slaughtering and processing at the plant, which serves the ultra-Orthodox enclave of New Square, home to members of the Skver Hasidic sect. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York had requested these measures after numerous attempts by federal officials since 2002 to get the slaughterhouse to comply with the guidelines of the Poultry Products Inspection Act.

The plant had been found by federal authorities to have numerous violations. As reported in a local newspaper,...



continued...

This is just residual effect from the sleevy Supreme Court decision. That is all this is.



This is what transpires when corporations own Supreme Court Justices and bad rulings result.
The lower courts have to allow that precedent with some brevity into their subsequent rulings.

Rulings split on campaign fundraising (click title to entry – thank you)

A three-judge panel rejects a GOP challenge to limits on direct contributions to candidates or political parties. A D.C. appeals court rules that independent groups may spend as much as they wish.

By David G. Savage

March 27, 2010

Reporting from Washington - Federal judges handed down split verdicts on Friday in two separate decisions on campaign fundraising, ruling that the Republican National Committee and other political parties may not seek unlimited contributions from wealthy donors, but independent groups may do so.

The rulings came in a pair of cases testing the legal limits on money in politics.


The RNC and several conservative groups have been filing suits in recent years challenging money limits on free-speech grounds, confident the Supreme Court agrees with their view….

This is how the RNC spends their monies. Adding to the work load of the courts to know how far they can push their limits.

The Health Care Reform Bill passed the House on Wednesday and Humana is sending RNs out to their below 62 Medicare patients on Thursday. Harassment !

From a reliable source I have found out that the day after the Health Care Reform Bill passes the House of Representatives, Humana (knowing it lost Medicare Advantage) doubled their efforts to keep their clientele.

On Thursday, March 25th, Humana started to send Nurse Consultants to their clients under age 62 to evaluate their case and seek to manage their cases over the next few years in an attempt to remove them from Social Security Disability and Medicare and into the private market place and on to Health Care Exchanges.

That is harrasment of the infirmed and exploitation of those dependent on their benefits for any quality of life. These RN CASE MANAGERS are NOT ordered by any physician to carry out this task. They are corporate record keepers seeking illegitimate information and observation while offering to improve the cost of medications to the CITIZENS.

This is all part of the corruption of Medicare Advantage. Since Humana is losing Medicare Advantage patients they are seeking to drive as many handicapped into the private market place as they can before their 'ANNUAL FEDERAL ALLOTMENT' runs out !

Corrupt! Corrupt! Corrupt!


Below is an example of the credentials of a nurse case manager. This is not my source.

Lights out in Sydney as world begins Earth Hour

Sydney dims lights for Earth Hour (click here)



The Sydney Opera House, left, and the Harbour Bridge have their lights that usually have structures well lit at night turned off in Sydney on Saturday as part of Earth Hour. Millions of people in more than 100 countries are expected to dim the lights in what has become an annual gesture against global warming.


..."From Brazil to America, to Canada, all the way down to Australia, Japan and India - it's a really diverse set of countries taking part this year," Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley said (click title to entry - thank you)....



A record 125 countries are taking part. (AFP: Greg Wood)

There seems to be a rumor circulating among Congressional Staffers that children aren't immediately covered. "W"rong.

What's the matter Sarah Palin's Governor Perry can't insure this

child's family will be alright.


Joking !


This is reckless endangerment and if anything happens to this child it is a "W"rongful death by insurance carrier !

This is your capitalism without regulation, America. Take a good look at it.

The parents may end up losing their home and income because the hospital bill wasn't covered by their insurance on a child they accepted, through ultrasound, as a child they would love no matter what.

Ask the Anti-Abortionists about this one !

March 26th, 2010
5:27 PM

Newborn with Birth Defect Denied Coverage

Health Care Provider Tells Texas Family Baby's Artery Problem is a Pre-Existing Condition; Won't Pay for Surgery

(CBS) For newborn Houston Tracy, the historic health care overhaul came too late.

Houston, born March 15 at a Texas hospital, suffers from a defect in his arteries. When his parents, Doug and Kim, applied to have his corrective surgery covered under their insurance, they were denied, with their carrier claiming Houston had a pre-existing condition, reports CBS station KTVT.

The Tracys are fighting the decision by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas.

"They kept saying it's preexisting, it's preexisting, but I don't know how it can be preexisting on a baby that was just born," Doug Tracy said. "If it's mandated that everyone have health insurance, than how can one be denied?"

Legislation passed this week by Congress and signed by President Obama that would end the practice of denying coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions does not go into effect until September...

This law could have been passed and signed into law last JULY 2009, but, whom was it that obstructed it !

Health Care Insurance Exchanges don't spring up over night. The Secretary of Health and Human Services had no authority to arrange for them in anticipation or spend any taxpayer monies on contracts to independent companies to begin the process. A bill like that would have never passed through the Senate.



I just got finished ready how 'individuals' will have the ability within 90 days to have coverage under the 'exchanges' set up by this bill.

The press needs to have better sources than this.

This was reported by the Associated Press?

They better get information from the Justice Department attorneys and not Congressional staffers.


Who do they think individuals are?

Most needy children are already covered under S-CHIP. But, for those that aren't there is definitely recourse under this bill through the exchanges.


...Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday....

...Full protection for children would not come until 2014, said Kate Cyrul, a spokeswoman for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, another panel that authored the legislation. That's the same year when insurance companies could no longer deny coverage to any person on account of health problems.
...

When the law was a bill, the House bill, there was special treatment of children in that they would be covered immediately by any government insurance, if they were proven to need it, available at birth as they were immediately citizens and had immediate need for health care. I don't know if that is in effect in 90 days, but, children can get coverage under the provisions that address 'individuals' in the exchanges.

Applications to the exchanges are 'blind' to pre-existing conditions. They insurers in the exchanges cannot ask for that information, it is prohibited.

Maybe folks can't get their mind around that yet.

See, the insurance companies haven't been conducting their business properly. They treat citizens as peasants and seek to mitigate their 'bottom line' by eliminating sick peasants.

THAT is pure moronity.

The way insurance of any kind should be performed is through statistical analysis and 'risk' vs. 'cost.'

The CEOs of the current health care insurance companies are bozos. They don't bother seeking to have a 'long term' goal for any company so much as 'upticks' that supply their next bonus. They don't address the 'stockholders' at all as far as I am concerned given the "Crash of 2008."

At all.

The stockholders are the babies thrown out with the bathwater and that was demonstrated royally with the resignation/retirement of GM's former CEO. He did fine; it was the stockholders that took a bath.

The "Captains of Capitalism" are nothing but greedy little trolls that don't look at the long term gains of any company. This bill eliminates that Plutocracy for real health care.

You all need to get it right, because, the 'tail wagging the Obama administration' within its staffers don't know what they are talking about. Do they like scandals? For some reason? Ambition or doing things differently under this President than they are used to? If they have those problems they should not be staffing Congressional offices.

As a matter of fact there was a report on NPR that addressed the companies that were headed by women. They faired just fine through the Crash of 2008. Why? Because they are long term gamers that seek 'security' over 'boom and bust' and 'the quick buck.'