September 27, 2009 - October 3, 2009

Bill Frist Would Vote for Health Care Reform Bill? Hire Him Mr. President

by coonsey - October 3, 2009, 11:54PM

Perhaps Bill Frist is ready to run for major office again? Keep in mind that this man is also a famous surgeon. The man said he would run for only two terms and he did just that.

Former Senate leader Bill Frist would vote for the bill....

Or so the former Senate Republican Leader, a surgeon who has written a new book on health care, told me a few minutes ago in an interview.
Were he still in the Senate, "I would end up voting for it," he said. "As leader, I would take heat for it. ... That's what leadership is all about."
This is not to say that Frist is entirely happy with everything that is in the bill...
Frist also faults some in his own party for injecting alarmism into the debate. "Clearly, the death panels and public plan arguments have been overblown," he says. Frist noted that Republicans themselves voted for a Medicare prescription drug bill that would have established a version of a public plan--with the government negotiating directly with drug companies--if private-sector competition had failed to materialize...
For those keeping a tally, that's three former Republican Senate Majority Leaders who have endorsed the sorts of reforms President Obama and his allies are pushing. Previously, Howard Baker and Bob Dole signed on to a plan they negotiated with Tom Daschle and George Mitchell, former Democratic counterparts, through the auspices of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

He's right, the Obama administration had best be looking at the exit strategy of actually creating the new health care reform and handling the emergencies it will cause many Americans.
Perhaps several groups (transition team) should be created to manage the the implementation of the bill?
Perhaps President Barack Obama should lash onto this doctor and former Senate majority leader as head of this new Health Care Reform transition team?

Q: Why Not Chicago? A: Bush Policies

by Ickyma - October 3, 2009, 10:39PM

Say what you want... but I think this, more than anything else, BEST explains why Chicago didn't get the nod:

From ThinkProgress:

Bush Administration's Tourist Visa Policy May Have Cost America The 2016 Olympics

In spite of President Obama's lobbying efforts, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) may have chosen to reject hosting the 2016 summer olympic games in Chicago due to the post-9/11 visa tourist policies established by his predecessor, George W. Bush. Michael Froomkin, Professor at the University of Miami School of Law, is convinced that the "the same stupid anti-visitor policy that is destroying American higher education" also sunk Chicago's Olympic bid. Chicago was eliminated during the first round and received the fewest votes. A New York Times article points out:

In the official question-and-answer session following the Chicago presentation, Syed Shahid Ali, an I.O.C. member from Pakistan, asked the toughest question. He wondered how smooth it would be for foreigners to enter the United States for the Games because doing so can sometimes, he said, be "a rather harrowing experience."

A "harrowing experience" may be an understatement. Immediately after 9/11, the Bush Administration began requiring fingerprints and photographs of tourists from all but 28 countries entering the US. President Bush required that all foreigners register online within three days of travel. Thirty-five (mostly European) countries now participate in the US Visa Waiver program, however tourists from the rest of the world still have to jump through the following hurdles:

Pay hefty visa processing and issuance fees.
Undergo an interview by a visa officer at the US Embassy.
Provide evidence which shows the purpose of the trip, intent to depart the United States, and arrangements made to cover the costs of the trip may be provided.
Present convincing evidence that an interested person will provide financial support if the applicant does not have sufficient funds to support him or herself.

The average wait for a US visa has risen to about three months. Brazil, which will host the 2016 Olympic summer games in Rio de Janeiro, has a reciprocal visa policy with all countries. US tourists are required to have a $130 advance visa before entry into the country and are fingerprinted and photographed upon arrival -- matching US requirements for Brazilians.

Homeless White Woman Gunned Down in Hate Crime on Streets of Phoenix, Arizona

by NobleCommentDecider - October 3, 2009, 10:07PM

A gunman opened fire on a 39-year-old woman and her friend early Saturday morning in what Phoenix police are calling a possible hate crime.

The woman, whose name wasn't released, was shot dead. Her friend, Jeffrey Wellmaker, 48, told police he and the woman were walking in Palma Park, on 12th Street and Dunlap Avenue around 1:30 a.m. when a heavily tattooed, bald White man confronted them.

Wellmaker, who is Black, said the tattooed man yelled, "What are you doing with that White woman," said Detective James Holmes, a Phoenix police spokesman. The friends, who are homeless, didn't respond and kept walking, Holmes said. Investigators don't know why the couple was in the park, police said....based on the description of the shooter, "one could assume it might have been racially motivated," Holmes said. report link

FYI. Racism alive and active on gun saturated streets of Arizona. Is there any doubt the venom and anti-Obama hostility of the right-wing is killing people?

Pink Shawls Pow Wow

by ~flowerchild~ - October 3, 2009, 9:45PM

On a cold morning, when I was quite young, I would take the scratchy woolen blanket from my bed, wrap it around my shoulders, and then wander into the kitchen where my father would be fixing himself a cup of instant coffee. He would look at me when I entered the room, frown a little and say, "That's Indian. Go put on your robe."

And so, I would go put on my robe.

It was quilted satin, white, with a trail of pink rosebuds around the hem and up the front. It was quite pretty, a little princess robe, cozy and wonderfully smooth to the touch. Even the buttons were covered with satin. There was nothing about that robe that any little girl would not love. And yet, I loved the scratchy woolen blanket around my shoulders more. I felt protected, surrounded by love, cradled, you might say, by that old, faded blue blanket.

I did not know all those years ago that the blanket was my first shawl. My Native American heritage was hidden from me in my younger years and so the lessons whispered to me by the ancestors were not understood by me. It wasn't until I was much older that I became aware of the significance a shawl had to a Native American female. All I knew back then, was that I was more satisfied swathed in that rough piece of wool than I was buttoned up in the smooth quilted satin.

The Pink Shawl Project began in 2003 as a way to bring awareness to Native American women of the need to be tested for breast cancer. The death rate from breast cancer in NA women is higher than the national average.

This is not a physical inferiority. Native American women are not less hardy than any other race. It is rather, a fault of culture. Traditionally raised Native American women are modest and do not, as a general rule, make an outward display of emotion. Simply put, you will never see them cry in public. You will not overhear them discussing their personal health in the check out line at the grocery store. It's just not done. They keep their miseries to themselves. Even if it kills them.

Add to the cultural restraint the handed down distrust of non-tribal authority figures, like physicians, well, it's easy to see why not being pro-active in health matters can be a death sentence for them. Self-inflicted, be that as it may.