Obama Pardons Turkey
Sasha Obama, the daughter of U.S. President Barack Obama, looks at a turkey named 'Courage' during the traditional Thanksgiving Day event to pardon a turkey on November 25th. President Obama remarked, "Thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sasha — because I was planning to eat this sucker — Courage will also be spared this terrible and delicious fate," (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S.
By Edmund L. Andrews
November 22, 2009
New York Times
[ Read original article ]
WASHINGTON — The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true.
Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.
November 22, 2009
New York Times
[ Read original article ]
WASHINGTON — The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true.
Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.
Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging short-term borrowings for long-term bonds, the government faces a payment shock similar to those that sent legions of overstretched homeowners into default on their mortgages.
With the national debt now topping $12 trillion, the White House estimates that the government’s tab for servicing the debt will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year, even if annual budget deficits shrink drastically. Other forecasters say the figure could be much higher.
[ Read more.... ]
Where Is Our Future?
By David Brooks
November 16, 2009
New York Times
[ Read original article ]
When European settlers first came to North America, they saw flocks of geese so big that it took them 30 minutes to all take flight and forests that seemed to stretch to infinity. They came to two conclusions: that God’s plans for humanity could be completed here, and that they could get really rich in the process.
This moral materialism fomented a certain sort of manic energy. Americans became famous for their energy and workaholism: for moving around, switching jobs, marrying and divorcing, creating new products and going off on righteous crusades.
November 16, 2009
New York Times
[ Read original article ]
When European settlers first came to North America, they saw flocks of geese so big that it took them 30 minutes to all take flight and forests that seemed to stretch to infinity. They came to two conclusions: that God’s plans for humanity could be completed here, and that they could get really rich in the process.
This moral materialism fomented a certain sort of manic energy. Americans became famous for their energy and workaholism: for moving around, switching jobs, marrying and divorcing, creating new products and going off on righteous crusades.
Maybe a New Day for Doctors’ Pay
November 8, 2009
New York Times
By ROBERT H. FRANK
[ Read original article ]
EVEN without a robust public option, any of the health care reform bills now under consideration would expand coverage greatly. But they would also start a competitive dynamic that would eliminate the fundamental conflict of interest that has made American health care so expensive.
The United States spends twice as much per capita on health care as many other nations, yet achieves inferior outcomes by such varied measures as life expectancy, preventable deaths from specific illnesses, and infant mortality. Much of the performance gap stems from the fact that many of the nation’s 45 million uninsured fail to receive needed care.
New York Times
By ROBERT H. FRANK
[ Read original article ]
EVEN without a robust public option, any of the health care reform bills now under consideration would expand coverage greatly. But they would also start a competitive dynamic that would eliminate the fundamental conflict of interest that has made American health care so expensive.
The United States spends twice as much per capita on health care as many other nations, yet achieves inferior outcomes by such varied measures as life expectancy, preventable deaths from specific illnesses, and infant mortality. Much of the performance gap stems from the fact that many of the nation’s 45 million uninsured fail to receive needed care.
U.S. Losing Ground on Preventable Deaths
Washington Post
October 6, 2000
By Ceci Connolly
[ Read original article ]
Despite High Medical Spending, Results Trail Other Wealthy Countries
HOW THE US STACKS UP ON PREVENTABLE DEATHS
1. France -- 65
2. Japan -- 71
3. Australia -- 71
4. Spain -- 74
5. Italy -- 74
6. Canada -- 77
7. Norway -- 80
8. Netherlands -- 82
9. Sweden -- 82
10. Greece --84
11. Austria -- 84
12. Germany -- 90
13. Finland -- 93
14. New Zealand -- 96
15. Denmark -- 101
16. UK -- 103
17. Ireland --103
18. Portugal --104
19. US -- 110
The U.S. ranks at the bottom of 19 industrialized nations in the number of preventable deaths by conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, stroke, influenza, ulcers, pneumonia, infant mortality and appendicitis. The number at the right represents the number of preventable deaths per 100,000 population in each country in 2002-2003.
Source: Commonwealth Fund, Health Affairs, World Health Organization
As Congress presses forward with landmark legislation to revamp the nation's health-care system, lawmakers are grappling with a troubling question:
Are Americans dying too soon? The answer is yes. When it comes to "preventable deaths" -- an array of illnesses and injuries that should not kill at an early age -- the United States trails other industrialized nations and has been falling further behind over the past decade.
October 6, 2000
By Ceci Connolly
[ Read original article ]
Despite High Medical Spending, Results Trail Other Wealthy Countries
HOW THE US STACKS UP ON PREVENTABLE DEATHS
1. France -- 65
2. Japan -- 71
3. Australia -- 71
4. Spain -- 74
5. Italy -- 74
6. Canada -- 77
7. Norway -- 80
8. Netherlands -- 82
9. Sweden -- 82
10. Greece --84
11. Austria -- 84
12. Germany -- 90
13. Finland -- 93
14. New Zealand -- 96
15. Denmark -- 101
16. UK -- 103
17. Ireland --103
18. Portugal --104
19. US -- 110
The U.S. ranks at the bottom of 19 industrialized nations in the number of preventable deaths by conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, stroke, influenza, ulcers, pneumonia, infant mortality and appendicitis. The number at the right represents the number of preventable deaths per 100,000 population in each country in 2002-2003.
Source: Commonwealth Fund, Health Affairs, World Health Organization
As Congress presses forward with landmark legislation to revamp the nation's health-care system, lawmakers are grappling with a troubling question:
Are Americans dying too soon? The answer is yes. When it comes to "preventable deaths" -- an array of illnesses and injuries that should not kill at an early age -- the United States trails other industrialized nations and has been falling further behind over the past decade.
Hurdles Remain on Climate Change Goals
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 5, 2009
By Juliet Eilperin
[ Read original article ]
Like most members of President Obama's climate team, David Sandalow was one of President Bill Clinton's negotiators in Kyoto. And he carries an indelible lesson from the experience of signing off on the international climate pact there 12 years ago: "Only agree abroad to what you can implement at home."
He had been elated at the deal by more than 180 nations in December 1997. But within months, a television ad appeared, decrying the agreement for not including developing nations such as China and India. "It's not global and it won't work," said the ad, which was sponsored by business groups including the American Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute. It captured the growing discontent in the United States over the Clinton administration's signing off on a package that did not force similar cuts by major developing countries.
That political backlash is one of several reasons why any deal struck two months from now in Copenhagen will at best signal the start of a new global approach to tackling climate change, rather than its successful conclusion.
Kyoto's legacy -- including the decision to exclude major developing countries from the agreement, the failure of the United States to ratify it and the fact that many of its signatories have missed their emissions targets -- continues to dominate U.N. talks aimed at curbing the world's greenhouse gas output. It has made the United States more cautious about defining specific reductions, made other industrialized nations skeptical of the U.S. commitment and made developing countries more insistent on getting money from rich nations to address their problems.
"If we have any kind of international agreement in Copenhagen, there will have to be some accommodation of American political realities, but you have to meet a number of political realities on the other side," said Melinda Kimble, senior vice president of the U.N. Foundation and a lead negotiator for the State Department when Kyoto was forged.
Monday, October 5, 2009
By Juliet Eilperin
[ Read original article ]
Like most members of President Obama's climate team, David Sandalow was one of President Bill Clinton's negotiators in Kyoto. And he carries an indelible lesson from the experience of signing off on the international climate pact there 12 years ago: "Only agree abroad to what you can implement at home."
He had been elated at the deal by more than 180 nations in December 1997. But within months, a television ad appeared, decrying the agreement for not including developing nations such as China and India. "It's not global and it won't work," said the ad, which was sponsored by business groups including the American Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute. It captured the growing discontent in the United States over the Clinton administration's signing off on a package that did not force similar cuts by major developing countries.
That political backlash is one of several reasons why any deal struck two months from now in Copenhagen will at best signal the start of a new global approach to tackling climate change, rather than its successful conclusion.
"If we have any kind of international agreement in Copenhagen, there will have to be some accommodation of American political realities, but you have to meet a number of political realities on the other side," said Melinda Kimble, senior vice president of the U.N. Foundation and a lead negotiator for the State Department when Kyoto was forged.
The Evolution of the God Gene
During 15 years of excavation they have uncovered not some monumental temple but evidence of a critical transition in religious behavior. The record begins with a simple dancing floor, the arena for the communal religious dances held by hunter-gatherers in about 7,000 B.C. It moves to the ancestor-cult shrines that appeared after the beginning of corn-based agriculture around 1,500 B.C., and ends in A.D. 30 with the sophisticated, astronomically oriented temples of an early archaic state.
This and other research is pointing to a new perspective on religion, one that seeks to explain why religious behavior has occurred in societies at every stage of development and in every region of the world. Religion has the hallmarks of an evolved behavior, meaning that it exists because it was favored by natural selection. It is universal because it was wired into our neural circuitry before the ancestral human population dispersed from its African homeland.
My Near Death Panel Experience
or... The Life and Times of Lies in the 2009 Healthcare Debate
November 15, 2009
New York Times
By EARL BLUMENAUER
[ Read original article ]
I DIDN’T mean to kill Grandma. I didn’t even mean to create death panels.
But now that I and my fellow lawmakers in the House have passed a health care bill, I’m finally free to explain what I learned as the author of the now-famous end-of-life provisions. My experiences during the bizarre controversies of the summer should provide a note of caution about what potential troubles and political distortions might lie ahead as health care legislation moves forward in the Senate, through the reconciliation process and toward a final bill.
November 15, 2009
New York Times
By EARL BLUMENAUER
[ Read original article ]
I DIDN’T mean to kill Grandma. I didn’t even mean to create death panels.
But now that I and my fellow lawmakers in the House have passed a health care bill, I’m finally free to explain what I learned as the author of the now-famous end-of-life provisions. My experiences during the bizarre controversies of the summer should provide a note of caution about what potential troubles and political distortions might lie ahead as health care legislation moves forward in the Senate, through the reconciliation process and toward a final bill.
China’s Sprint for the Gold
November 14, 2009
Ny Times
By DAVID BARBOZA
[ Read original article ]
PRESIDENT OBAMA’s first official visit to China brings him this weekend to a country that, despite the global downturn, is increasingly wealthy, confident, ambitious — and perplexing.
Over the past decade, even as China’s exports have soared, the nation has begun transforming itself from a global font of low-priced goods fueled by cheap labor into a much more diverse and complex economic power. Along with that, it has developed huge disparities of wealth.
“There are a lot of billionaires, but there’s also a lot of poverty in China,” says C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “It’s a very bipolar society. People have to recognize that both elements are there.”
Ny Times
By DAVID BARBOZA
[ Read original article ]
PRESIDENT OBAMA’s first official visit to China brings him this weekend to a country that, despite the global downturn, is increasingly wealthy, confident, ambitious — and perplexing.
Over the past decade, even as China’s exports have soared, the nation has begun transforming itself from a global font of low-priced goods fueled by cheap labor into a much more diverse and complex economic power. Along with that, it has developed huge disparities of wealth.
“There are a lot of billionaires, but there’s also a lot of poverty in China,” says C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “It’s a very bipolar society. People have to recognize that both elements are there.”
Massive Defense Spending Leads to Job Loss
Center for Economic and Policy Research
Truthout, November 10, 2009
Dean Baker
[ Read Original Article ]
There is a major national ad campaign, funded by the oil industry and other usual suspects, to convince the public that measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and slow global warming will result in massive job loss. This ad campaign warns of slower growth and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, possibly even millions of jobs, if some variation of the current proposals being debated by Congress get passed into law.
Fox News: Fear and Imbalance
(or What the Fox!)
"Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse."
- Adlai E. Stevenson
In wondering how the U.S. has gotten into so many messes in so many areas, its hard to avoid the intentional or accidental public acceptance of just plain bad information. In this game Fox News leads the pack by intentionally distorting information and inserting into the public dialogue, just plain bad information (ie. "death panels", US is #1 healthcare, etc....) that leads to plain bad decisions by the public.
HANNITY BUSTED USING FALSE FOOTAGE
"Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse."
- Adlai E. Stevenson
In wondering how the U.S. has gotten into so many messes in so many areas, its hard to avoid the intentional or accidental public acceptance of just plain bad information. In this game Fox News leads the pack by intentionally distorting information and inserting into the public dialogue, just plain bad information (ie. "death panels", US is #1 healthcare, etc....) that leads to plain bad decisions by the public.
HANNITY BUSTED USING FALSE FOOTAGE
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