Health Bill Fails Due to GOP Support for Offshore Corporate Tax Havens

Look, I know some people, especially in the mainstream media business, and average Americans who live in the country, are perplexed at why polls show more and more people are turning to Jon Daily on the Comedy Channel for news and information as well as entertainment, especially younger folks.

This clip is a good reason why. The House was debating a bill that would provide up to $7.4 billion in health care aid to rescue workers who have faced health problems in the wake of the September 11 attacks in New York. The bill ultimately failed to get the needed two-thirds majority, 255-159. You can learn that from the AP story in most newspapers in the U.S.

But only Jon Stewart, and a few of us Web publishers, will get out the pertinent facts about these votes by making fun of members of Congress — who show themselves to be tools of corporate moneyed-interests on a regular basis.

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Starting in September, insurance plans will be required to pay the entire cost of recommended, preventive services. That means that, without paying a deductible, co-pay or coinsurance, many Americans will be able to take the preventive steps needed to keep themselves and their families healthy.

To help raise awareness about this important issue, the First Lady and Dr. Biden recorded this video message.

Background

Chronic conditions are impacting America’s men, women and children every day. Nearly one-third of kids are overweight or obese, putting them at risk for conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, and 12 percent of children have not had a doctor’s visit in the past year.

About 210,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will occur among women in the United States during 2010, and an estimated 40,000 women are expected to die from breast cancer this year.

But the good news is that, as devastating as these illnesses can be, many of these conditions are preventable. With expanded access to preventive services, individuals can get the information they need to make the health decisions that are right for them. Preventing illness before it starts is key to keeping America healthy but it is also an important step in reducing health care costs.

Each year chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, are responsible for 7 of 10 deaths among Americans each year and account for 75 percent of the nation’s health spending.

For more information, see HealthCare.Gov.

State Rep. Earl Hilliard Jr. announced Sunday he’s sponsoring a public health care forum on the provisions of President Obama’s new health care law from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, May 25, at the Avondale Public Library.

“The new health care law is a great step forward. However, if our objective is for everyone to have the same, high quality, affordable health care, the bill doesn’t cover everybody, isn’t the same for everybody, and may not be affordable for many people,” Rep. Hilliard said. “Therefore, it’s a glass both half full and half empty. When I am elected, my job will be as an advocate for its improvement.”

J. Walden Retan, M.D., retired Birmingham physician and founder of Health Care for Everyone – Alabama, will be the speaker and will provide a timetable for implementation of each new provision, some of which will begin in early June.

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Calls 
for 
Increased
 Funding 
for
 Training
 Additional 
Nurses


Rep.
 Earl
 Hilliard
 Jr.

 praised
 the
 nation’s
 nurses
 Saturday for
 their
 role
 in
 health
 care
 for
 Americans
 and
 called 
for
 additional 
funding 
for 
the 
training 
of
 nurses 
to 
serve 
the
 demand created by the Obama administration’s new health care la..



The
 Bureau
 of
 Labor
 Statistics report
s that
 Registered
 Nurses
 rank
 high
 in
 the
 Top
 10
 Professions
 with
 the
 largest
 projected 
job
 growth 
in
 the near 
future.




“As
 Americans
 age,
 there
 is
 a
 greater
 need
 for
 trained
 nurses.
 
 Yet
 our
 nursing
 schools
 are
 being
 forced
 to
 turn
 away
 thousands
 of
 qualified
 applicants
 because
 there
 are
 not
 enough
 instructors
 to
 teach
 these
 students,” Hilliard said. “Today
 I
 call
 for
 increased
 funding
 for
 higher
 education
 for 
our 
nurses.”


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Five Years Ago Today, this Web Press was Born to Counter the Fourth Estate

Brooks Boliek

The Boliek house in Takoma Park, Maryland, where this site was started five years ago today…

The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson

THE BUNKER – Five years ago today, I huddled in front of a little apple red iMac computer in a friend’s kitchen in Tacoma Park, Maryland, near Silver Spring. It was there I wrote the very first Sunday column for this alternative, independent news Web site, there in the pouring rain with the jazz down low on the radio.

By that time, George W. Bush had been sworn in for a second term, so we knew he would be with us for another three and a half years. There was not much hope for stopping all the damage he would surely cause in that time, but somebody had to try to warn the public.

There was always the hope of impeachment.

That story never did grow legs, or at least not long enough to ever be considered a real threat to the corporate state pulling Bush’s strings.

As the rain poured with the jazz in the background, I read about the suicide of Hunter S. Thompson, and thought of my good friend Spider Martin, who had given up the ghost two years before, also by self-inflicted gunshot wound.

You’ve just about got to be a big picture kind of writer to make sense of moments like that — in an hour or two of reading, thinking and writing. That’s about how long it takes to produce an average newspaper-style column of about a thousand words.

The problem was, everywhere you looked over the Internets on the World Wide Web at that time, there were these things called “blogs” popping up all over the place like mushrooms in a cow pasture after a summer rain.

In the face of that kind of fast-paced change, what was an experienced, real journalist to do in these times, five years after the heralded advent of the new millennium?

There was all this anonymous defamation on some sites; on others, it was mostly self-congratulatory navel-gazing, like reality TV. Ugh!

Could the Free Press and American Democracy survive both Bush — and blogs?

Gawd only knew.

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Do you want to align yourself with these nice Tea Baggers?

If so, vote Republican…

Your Moment of Zen…

Local Supporters to Party in Downtown Birmingham

With the final vote on health-care reform reconcilation behind us in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, the local schedule for a Health Reform Celebration in downtown Birmingham and other cities across America are on track.

There will be a party Friday night, March 26, from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., in the Harambe Room at 1813 4th Avenue North, according to a press release passed over the Internet for the event.

“After months and months of hard work and dedication, we now have Health Reform in America,” said Leanne Townsend, director of Organizing For America in Birmingham. “It is time to celebrate!”

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This now famous video is making the rounds on the Net…

No need for text. Just watch it…