Boehner’s latest lie: US Had Best Healthcare in World Before Obamacare

Compulsive liar and House Speaker John (Spineless) Boehner accused President Obama of wrecking the world’s best health care system today.

“This is going to destroy the best health care delivery system in the world,” Boehner said.

Later on, President Obama announced a plan to fix the fallout over canceled health insurance policies. 

But was Boehner’s accusation true? Could it be?

Let’s see: two studies came out this week — and studies going back 15 years or longer — show quite the opposite. Americans pay more per capita for health care than people in any other industrialized country. In return, we are sicker, die younger and are unhappier with the system.

Can that be any clearer?

The Commonwealth Fund, which does research on health care and health reform, has shown year after year in its regular surveys that Americans spend a lot more on health care than anyone else.

Right now it’s $2.7 trillion a year — that’s $8,508 a head, compared to $5,669 per person in Norway and $5,643 in Switzerland, the next-highest-spending countries. New Zealanders spend just $3,182 per person.

The U.S. has the eighth-lowest life expectancy in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which groups developed nations.

So today’s latest lie was just more of the same bullshit from Boehner, who wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him and made him cry!

GAO Report: TSA Behavioral Screening Program a Waste of Money

    Good Day World!

TSA Administrator John S. Pistole is likely to be asked about a controversial report during an appearance before the House Homeland Security Committee today. 

In essence, the billion dollar behavioral screening program used by TSA workers, is worthless! They would have been better off putting the money elsewhere. Even new uniforms would have been better. At least they would have something to show for that huge pile of cash! Anywhere, but in that pathetic program.

The following article shares a recent GAO report that states the program isn’t working as intended:

The federal government may have wasted $1 billion on a TSA program called “SPOT” that profiles people who may be “bad guys” at airports by talking to them, according to the Government Accountability Office. There is no evidence that it works, according to a GAO report being released later Wednesday.

The Transportation Security Administration’s Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program relies on training personnel to recognize indicators like fear, stress or deceptive behavior that can be used to identify persons who may pose a risk to aviation security. Those who exhibit those indicators are then subjected to additional security screening.

But the GAO report, obtained by NBC News before its release, concludes the training produces results that are “the same as or slightly better than chance.” 

The program was rolled out in 2007 and now fields an estimated 3,000 “behavior detection officers” at 176 of the more than 450 TSA-regulated airports in the U.S., the GAO report said. Full story here

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Americans get little value for their money when it comes to healthcare

Good Day World!

We face rising health costs almost annually. It’s like a rite of spring. Costs climb like creeping vines throughout the medical industry, from prescriptions to surgeries. A deadly trend that is financially ruining a growing majority of Americans.

With the Affordable Health Care Act stumbling along like a cripple without a cane, any relief seems far away. Especially since President Obama’s mea culpa on the too-early launch of the program commonly called Obamacare. He claims he’s just found out that some Americans are really being stiffed by the new law.

That doesn’t leave me brimming with confidence if our president wasn’t getting the whole story. Lousy advisors? He made a promise to the people that he can’t keep now. Whose to blame for that? Where do we go from here?

No matter how you look at it, our nation’s healthcare system is a disaster, with dimming hopes of redemption from a new law full of loopholes. Plainly put, there’s no going back to what didn’t work, so we better hope the overhaul straightens out the exposed holes in the system.

Finally, why is our health care so expensive? What factors have led us to this bad place where people cannot afford to get medical help when they need it? The following article offers some insight into the issue:

U.S. medical care is getting ever pricier, but it’s not because so many old people are running up charges, experts reported Tuesday. Most of the money’s being spent on people under 65 with chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

And even though the U.S. spends $2.7 trillion a year, nearly 18 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), on health care, it’s not keeping up with the rest of the developed world when it comes to improving people’s health.

“It does show pretty clearly that price is the culprit here,” Dr. Hamilton Moses of the Alerion Institute in Virginia and Johns Hopkins University told reporters.

“Based on this review…the U.S. ‘system’ has performed relatively poorly,” Moses and colleagues wrote in the report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Their findings echo what other experts have found – U.S. health care gives little value for the money. (Full story here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Here’s the deal: Vitamins don’t prevent heart disease or cancer

Good Day World!

There’s not much evidence that vitamins can prevent heart disease or cancer – the two leading killers of Americans, experts say.

Even though half the U.S. population pops vitamins in the belief they can help people live longer, healthier lives, a very extensive look at the studies that have been done show it may be a waste of time when it comes to preventing the diseases most likely to kill you.

The findings, by a team at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., being used as the basis to update recommendations by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), aren’t clear-cut. They are likely to add to confusion over the benefits of vitamins.

"A healthy balanced diet is critical for good health, and that's probably the most important way that we get the nutrients that are essential," says Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a heart disease specialist at the University of California San Francisco who's a member of the Task Force.

“The USPSTF reviewed 24 studies of individual vitamins, minerals, or functional nutrient pairs. Across all the supplements studied, there was no evidence of beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease, cancer, or all-cause mortality," they wrote. (Full story here)

Employers are mad because Johnny can’t write!

Good Day World!

Can you tell a pronoun from a participle; use commas correctly in long sentences; describe the difference between its and it's?

If not, you have plenty of company in the world of job seekers. Despite stubbornly high unemployment, many employers complain that they can't find qualified candidates.

Often, the mismatch results from applicants' inadequate communication skills. In survey after survey, employers are complaining about job candidates' inability to speak and to write clearly.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported there were a net 204,000 new jobs created in October, though the unemployment rate rose to 7.3 percent. The numbers easily topped economist expectations of 120,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs for the month.

Experts differ on why job candidates can't communicate effectively. Bram Lowsky, an executive vice president of Right Management, the workforce management arm of Manpower, blames technology.

(Read full story here)

Majority of Americans think JFK assassination was a conspiracy

Good Day World!

 The Warren Commission report -- the 888-page document produced by the committee appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate John F. Kennedy’s assassination -- remains the official account of what happened in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

But in the decades since, the report, which determined that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, has created more uncertainty than closure, according to a new book by former New York Times investigative reporter Philip Shenon.

“At the end of the day, unfortunately, the Warren Commission left so many questions unanswered that we will probably forever more have to deal with conspiracy theories about the assassination,” said Shenon, the author of A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination.

As the 50^th anniversary of Kennedy’s death approaches, a majority of Americans – 59 percent – believe in some sort of conspiracy behind the assassination, according to a poll by the Associated Press and GfK, a public opinion research firm.

The poll, conducted in April, found that nearly one in six Americans suspect that multiple people were involved in a plot to kill the president. Twenty-four percent believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and 16 percent are unsure. A Gallup poll from 2003 found that three-quarters of Americans subscribe to some sort of conspiracy theory, though there was no consensus – mafia, Cuban or Soviet involvement, perhaps? – about which theory to believe. (Read full story here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Legal Pot Industry on brink of breakout…

  Good Day World!

 It looks like any other business conference — lots of suits, name badges, a long line to the buffet — except that the 700 people who each paid $599 to be in this conference hall south of Seattle are in an industry unlike any other: marijuana.

The people at this meeting aren’t Cheech and Chong. They’ve come bearing business degrees and investor money, looking for the next great thing.

"This conference is 100 percent focused on business," said Chris Walsh, editor of the Medical Marijuana Business Daily. His publication is sponsoring the National Marijuana Business Conference. Now in its second year, attendance has doubled, and more than 30 exhibitors paid as much as $16,000 to talk about investments, equipment, legal services and accounting.

"There's a lot of other types of shows out there that are for the typical stoners," Walsh said. "This is all business and financial."

The pot business is, well, growing. A Gallup poll shows that U.S. support for legalizing cannabis has reached 58 percent. Election night saw pro-marijuana laws passing in places such as Portland, Maine, and Lansing, Mich.

(See whole story here)

Please tell me how leaking classified information to terrorists makes someone a hero?

           Good Day World!

I’m still trying to understand why Edward Snowden is being treated like a hero by so many people. As his well-wishes gush about freedom and whistleblowers, American’s enemies think they’ve died and gone to heaven!

The world’s terrorist community, led by al Qaeda, have been dancing for joy since Snowden skipped off with classified NSA records. The fact that he’s caused the US so much trouble with its allies alone is enough to make any enemy of America gleeful. 

Still trying to gauge how many American spies have been put at risk. Snowden leaks stuff out a bit at a time, probably at the insistence of his new master Putin (now there’s a nice guy). If you think Putin is letting Snowden stay in Russia for nothing in return you still believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny!

Snowden may be a hero to people who hate America, but I think he’s a confused punk who got in over his head! What good is coming out of his revelations?

How have they helped Americans? Snowden isn’t the first one to suspect the NSA and other agencies were wiretapping a lot more than they admitted.

_____________________________________________

Edward Snowden has more secrets to share, father says after Russia visit

________________________________________________________

Face it, every country in the whole world is spying on each other. It’s the 21st century for cripes sake! Cameras are everywhere. Because some uninformed people think Snowden is out to protect the little guys rights, he’s being described as a martyr who’s protecting the US Constitution.

What baloney! He broke his contract, stole sensitive materials, and took off like a thief in the night; hopping from country-to-country until Putin took him into his benevolent arms! A hero? I think not.

_________________________________________________

Edward Snowden to start work at Russian website

_______________________________________________________________

You and I will never know the true amount of damage Edward Snowden’s done to America’s security and intelligence community because no one is going to broadcast that information.

Our friend Great Britain has also suffered from information leaked by their journalist of note, Glenn Greenwald, who has become Snowden’s conduit to publication.

_____________________________

 Terrorists 'rubbing their hands with glee' at Snowden leaks, says UK spy chief

_____________________________

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Uninformed Americans believe in partisan propaganda – no surprise!

         Good Day World!

 Try having a conversation with a stranger. Ask them what they think of the current issues facing the Supreme Court. Don’t be surprised if they eye you suspiciously and ask if you’re a Democrat or Republican?

 Chances are, they have no idea of what’s really going on with the Supreme Court, or other important issues facing Congress beyond a blind obeisance to the political brand they follow.

The following article will leave you wondering how this country is ever going to get beyond partisanship and get back to solving real world problems and stop playing stupid games. There was a time when it happened you know. Not so long ago.

If you think the widening chasm between the rich and the rest spells trouble for American democracy, have a look at the growing gulf between the information-rich and-poor.

Earlier this year, a Harvard economist’s jaw-dropping study of American’s beliefs about the distribution of American wealth became a  viral video.  Now a  new Pew study of the distribution of American news consumption is just as flabbergasting.

According to the Harvard study, most people believe that the top 20 percent of the country owns about half the nation’s wealth, and that the lower 60 percent combined, including the 20 percent in the middle, have only about 20 percent of the wealth. 

A whopping 92 percent of Americans think this is out of whack; in the ideal distribution, they said, the lower 60 percent would have about half of the wealth, with the middle 20 percent of the people owning 20 percent of the wealth.

What’s astonishing about this is how wrong Americans are about reality.  In fact, the bottom 80 percent owns only 7 percent of the nation’s wealth, and the top 1 percent hold more of the country’s wealth –  40 percent – than 9 out of 10 people think the top 20 percent should have. 

The top 10 percent of earners take home  half the income of the country; in 2012, the top 1 percent earned more than a fifth of U.S. income – the highest share since the government began collecting the data a century ago.

But America’s information inequality is at least as shocking as its economic inequality. Read the whole story here

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Discover the true story of the real ‘Lone Ranger’

The real “Lone Ranger,” it turns out, was an African American man named Bass Reeves, who the legend was based upon.

Perhaps not surprisingly, many aspects of his life were written out of the story, including his ethnicity. The basics remained the same: a lawman hunting bad guys, accompanied by a Native American, riding on a white horse, and with a silver trademark.

Historians of the American West have also, until recently, ignored the fact that this man was African American, a free black man who headed West to find himself less subject to the racist structure of the established Eastern and Southern states.

While historians have largely overlooked Reeves, there have been a few notable works on him. Vaunda Michaux Nelson’s book, Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal, won the 2010 Coretta Scott King Award for best author.

Arthur Burton released an overview of the man’s life a few years ago. Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves recounts that Reeves was born into a life of slavery in 1838. His slave-keeper brought him along as another personal servant when he went off to fight with the Confederate Army, during the Civil War.

Reeves took the chaos that ensued during the war to escape for freedom, after beating his “master” within an inch of his life, or according to some sources, to death. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this escape was that Reeves only beat his enslaver after the latter lost sorely at a game of cards with Reeves and attacked him.

After successfully defending himself from this attack, he knew that there was no way he would be allowed to live if he stuck around.

Reeves fled to the then Indian Territory of today’s Oklahoma and lived harmoniously among the Seminole and Creek Nations of Native American Indians.

After the Civil War finally concluded, he married and eventually fathered ten children, making his living as a Deputy U.S. Marshall in Arkansas and the Indian Territory. If this surprises you, it should, as Reeves was the first African American to ever hold such a position.

Burton explains that it was at this point that the Lone Ranger story comes in to play. Reeves was described as a “master of disguises”. He used these disguises to track down wanted criminals, even adopting similar ways of dressing and mannerisms to meet and fit in with the fugitives, in order to identify them.

Reeves kept and gave out silver coins as a personal trademark of sorts, just like the Lone Ranger’s silver bullets. Of course, the recent Disney adaptation of the Lone Ranger devised a clever and meaningful explanation for the silver bullets in the classic tales. For the new Lone Ranger, the purposes was to not wantonly expend ammunition and in so doing devalue human life.

But in the original series, there was never an explanation given, as this was simply something originally adapted from Reeves’ personal life and trademarking of himself. For Reeves, it had a very different meaning, he would give out the valuable coins to ingratiate himself to the people wherever he found himself working, collecting bounties. In this way, a visit from the real “Lone Ranger” meant only good fortune for the town: a criminal off the street and perhaps a lucky silver coin.

Like the Lone Ranger, Reeves was also expert crack shot with a gun. According to legend, shooting competitions had an informal ban on allowing him to enter. Like the Lone Ranger, Reeves rode a white horse throughout almost all of his career, at one point riding a light grey one as well.

Like the famed Lone Ranger legend Reeves had his own close friend like Tonto. Reeves’ companion was a Native American posse man and tracker who he often rode with, when he was out capturing bad guys. In all, there were close to 3000 of such criminals they apprehended, making them a legendary duo in many regions.

The final proof that this legend of Bass Reeves directly inspired into the story of the Lone Ranger can be found in the fact that a large number of those criminals were sent to federal prison in Detroit.

The Lone Ranger radio show originated and was broadcast to the public in 1933 on WXYZ in Detroit where the legend of Reeves was famous only two years earlier.

Of course, WXYZ and the later TV and movie adaptions weren’t about to make the Lone Ranger an African American who began his career by beating a slave-keeper to death. But now you know. Spread the word and let people know the real legend of the Lone Ranger.

story via Political Blindspot

Hey Paulie! The Man Who Would be President is a Plagiarizer

Good Day World!

 Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants to be the next president of the United States, but he has a problem: he plagiarizes others works and calls them his own.

In the last ten days evidence of Paul’s proclivity to steal other peoples words has come to public light over and over and over and over and over again.

Yesterday, Andrew Kaczynski found yet another instance in which part of the senator’s most recent book plagiarized an article from Forbes magazine.

With new revelations popping up at least once a day, the Kentucky Republican decided to address the controversy by talking to the New York Times Tuesday:

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who in recent weeks has had to explain a series of plagiarism charges, said in an interview Tuesday that he was being held to an unfair standard, but that there would be an office “restructuring” to prevent future occurrences.

Sitting in a conference room in his Senate office complex, Mr. Paul, drawn and clearly shaken by the plagiarism charges, offered a mix of contrition and defiance…. Acknowledging that his office had “made mistakes,” he said he was putting a new system in place to ensure that all of his materials are properly footnoted and cited.

The quotes in the Times piece are remarkable, in that it seems the senator feels put upon – as if having to play by the same rules as high-school kids who are taught not to present others’ work as their own is some kind of imposition.

“What we are going to do from here forward, if it will make people leave me the hell alone, is we’re going to do them like college papers,” Paul told the Times.

The senator’s office, despite numerous instances of blatant plagiarism, will not dismiss any of the staffers responsible, but it will adopt what a senior adviser called a “new approval process” for works “going forward.”

As for how and why Paul has had so much trouble in this area, the senator told the Times he’s very busy. “We need to get stuff earlier, but it’s hard,” Paul said. “We probably take on more than we should be doing.”

It’s an odd defense. There are 99 other senators, all of whom give speeches and write op-eds, but none of whom find it “hard” to avoid plagiarism.

For that matter, let’s also not forget that Paul has national ambitions – he sees himself as the next president of the United States. If he’s taking on too much now, and is so busy he and his team feel the need to plagiarize, what does it tell voters about the senator’s ability to effectively oversee an enormous professional operation? article source

Time for me to walk on down the road…