Pig Flu News
- Argentine fear over flu spreads, as accusations of incompetence and numbers-rigging plague the government.
- The WHO – stop testing for H1N1 – assume it’s pig flu. Great way to fudge the numbers, no?
- Health Officials in the UK expect 100,000 NEW cases PER DAY by August.
- UN says its needs $1 billion to fight flu in poor nations. (Rush Limbaugh will probably advocate NOT fighting it, in order to reduce to surplus population.)
- Boston – swine flu panic led to prison uprising.
- No seasonal respite from this flu apparent.
Bank Failure Friday – Thursday Edition
Back from a holiday hiatus to find 7 (seven) banks failed. Normally, they close them on a Friday, but I guess the holiday gave them the opportunity to put the key in the door on these guys a day early. Interestingly, 6 of the 7 are in my home state of Illinois. Hmmmmmmmmm.
The Prez and some Lady Flyers
WASP pilot Bernice Falk Haydu pulls back the chair of President Barack Obama after signing S.614, a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots, in the Oval Office Wednesday, July 1, 2009. At far left is WASP pilot Elaine Danforth Harmon, and at right is Lorraine H. Rodgers. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) is at right in green. Current US Air Force pilots are in the background. Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) was established during World War II, and from 1942 to 1943, more than a thousand women joined, flying sixty million miles of non-combat military missions. Of the women who received their wings as Women Airforce Service Pilots, approximately 300 are living today. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
DC awash in the pig flu
Health officials in Washington say the number of cases are comparable with the seasonal flu in fall / winter.
US tips the 1 million mark in pig flu cases; resistance to drug found
So says the CDC.
If the figures are correct, it is reassuring news, because it indicates that the fatality rate from swine flu is even lower than thought, says BBC medical correspondent Fergus Walsh.
Oh, I am reassured no end. What happens when the damn thing mutates?
Funny thing, I immerse myself in news on a daily basis and heard nothing of this from US outlets. If you want to know what’s going on in your own country, best look to the Brits for the info.
Also, check out: Roche Finds First H1N1 Case With Resistance to Tamiflu.
Why we MUST have a public option
FDR
President Obama has the opportunity to reshape our society in the same way that FDR did in the 1930’s.
Unbridled capitalism has clearly failed. The rest of the world has moved beyond us to the detriment of our great mantra – “Competition”. What cripples American business is that they cannot compete with foreign companies that do not have to pay staggering health care costs to private insurance companies in order to cover their workers. And, cover them they must, if they want to retain the best workers possible, after all, they have to compete in the US labor markets as well.
I am a government worker and, as such, I have a “Cadillac” private plan – Blue Cross. But, only because I work for an entity with 7,000 employees and an Insurance Office to intercede in beefs over coverage, am I fairly satisfied. I am sure if I was working in a small law firm, if I had coverage at all, I would be subject to the whims of the coverage thugs at the insurance company.
Medicare has consistently had a 3% rate for administrative costs. My best guess, from reading a lot, is that private health care companies have a 15 – 20% administrative cost. Think about that.
The argument against a public option is that it will result in rationing. Have you dealt with a private health plan lately? I have. If they do not engage in rationing, I’ll kiss your ass in Marshall Fields’ window at high noon. Covered drugs vs. uncovered drugs? HA! That’s just the beginning.
The other argument is that WE – those of us with private plans – would be paying more out of our pocket to cover the people in the public option plan. WE already are. Most of the people who would fit into the public plan are now waiting until they are deathly ill and then seek treatment in an emergency room and the charges are astronomical. They do not pay the bill. The hospital writes this off as uncollectible and passes that loss off to US in the form of higher rates to our private insurance companies.
The snake is eating its own tail.
Bank Failure Friday!!!
A whopping 4 5 (four – FIVE – they slipped another one in on me after I posted) banks bit the big one today! Read ‘em and weep, kids!
Metro Pacific Bank, Irvine, CA
Neighborhood Community Bank, Newnan, GA
Community Bank of West Georgia, Villa Rica, GA
AND
This makes a total of 45 (forty-five) banks closed this year by the FDIC.
Government thugs said to be torturing dissident leaders in Iran
According to a report from Amnesty International:
Neda Agha Soltan, a 26-year-old Iranian music student shot to death on a street this week.
Fellow prisoners are reported to have heard screams of pain from Tajzadeh, a former deputy interior minister, and Ramezanzadeh, who was Khatami’s government spokesman, during interrogations at Evin’s section 209, which is reserved for political prisoners and run by the hardline intelligence ministry. Aminzadeh, an ex-deputy foreign minister, was heard shouting “I am not going to give interviews.” A spokesman for Amnesty International said the reports came from “very credible sources”.
A must read is Scott Horton’s piece on the Daily Beast today.
First Dad takes some time out for his girls – instead of screwing around on his wife with some chippie in Argentina, like some people we know
President Barack Obama pushes daughters Malia and Sasha at the unveiling of swing-set on South Lawn outside Oval Office, March 4, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Palin is Favorite with Republicans
Gov. Palin goes turkey shoppping.
According to a new poll by the Pew organization, anyway. She stomps Mitt Romney, her nearest competitor. Among Republicans, the balance of opinion about Palin is more positive. More than seven-in-ten Republicans (73%) express a favorable opinion of Palin while just 17% have an unfavorable opinion. Mitt garners about 57% GOP approval. Please, please, please God – let them nominate Palin!
What more do they want him to say?
President Obama.
The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost. I’ve made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is not interfering with Iran’s affairs. But we must also bear witness to the courage and the dignity of the Iranian people and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore the violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place. This is what we’ve witnessed. We’ve seen the timeless dignity of tens of thousands of Iranians marching in silence. We’ve seen people of all ages risk everything to insist that their votes are counted and that their voices are heard. Above all, we’ve seen courageous women stand up to the brutality and threats, and we’ve experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets. While this loss is raw and extraordinarily painful, we also know this: those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.
President Barack Obama, speaking today at the White House.
The End of Empire – The BRIC is hitting the fan, folks!
Children playing with stacks of cash in Weimar Germany.
Stop reading right now unless you are prepared to be massively depressed. Our empire has fallen. We are now, officially, the Romans. In a stunning, devastating piece at TruthDig, Chris Hedges puts together the cataclysmic chain of events to come that many of us have struggled to round up and articulate since September of 2007. It took a year after that for the situation to get so bad, on September 21, 2008, that the Congressional leadership was called together by the Fed and Treasury and told without a massive cash infusion of tax dollars the whole rotten movie set that was our economy was going to fall on top of us. Riot, mayhem, violence and disintegration were sure to follow. Out of that meeting was born TARP, TALF, AIG, GM, the stimulus package, etc.
The whole piece is a must read, but some snippets after the jump will curl your hair.
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends – 06/15/09 – Foreign Relations Edition
- Ngo Dinh Diem, suddenly unemployed.
- Jack booted Fascism – Iran jailing critics, beating students bloody, rigging elections. Supreme Leader OKs investigation. Diem Brothers result for Mr. I’MaDinnerJacket?
- My Boy Berlusconi meets with Our Barry today at the WH.
- Natenyahoo kills peace dealwith poison pill over a de-militarized Palestine. Why SHOULD they go for it? I’d tell him to suck it.
- Speaking of nuts, the Dear Leader in N. Korea keeps up his saber-rattling.
Pig Flu Alert Raised to Highest Level
- A nurse in the 1918 Pandemic.
- The WHO says flu is unstoppable.
- First official pandemic in 41 years.
- Reuters: U.S. has been there for weeks.
- Times of London asks, “What took them so long?”
- The WHO says its a sign of incresed spread, not lethality.
- Yet, a Boston biotech company says that lethality IS increasing.
- Now in more than 70 nations.
- ‘Working hypothesis’ among experts is virus to follow 1918 pattern.
- Risk to pregnant women said to be on the rise.
Paying Their Respects
President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama (l) and Malia Obama watch as Sasha Obama lights a candle in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, June 6, 2009. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)
To Oppose Israeli Government Policy IS NOT Anti-Semitism
Now that our government is telling the hard right wing government of Israel that expanding the Jewish settlements in occupied territory is the major stumbling block to peace, fully expect radical Zionists to start calling people who agree with the President anti-Semites. (I just heard Jack Levin do that very thing on Countdown with Olbermann.) Be on the lookout. Make the distinction. To be against a government’s policy is not the same thing as being against the people of that country.
Domestic Terrorism Watch – Right Wing Extremism
- Right Wing Extremist Randall Terry Says Obama Makes Attacks Inevitable; Also Serves Beer, Wings.
- Geriatric right wing extremist shoots kills guard at National Holocaust Museum. Is also wounded in attack.
- Shooter is ex-con with right wing extremist background.
- Homegrown hate groups increase in number.
- So, how about that awful DHS report now? A doctor assassinated in Kansas and a security guard shot in DC – both gunned down by domestic terrorists / right wing extremists well known to authroities.
- At least Fox’s Shep Smith admits he was wrong. Will his network? HAH!
- Responsibility? Glen Beck. Sean Hannity. Rush Limbaugh. Bill O’Reilly. Speaking of those rabble-rousers, check out this from a shooting last year in Tennessee.
- Museum shooter a “birther” – individual who promotes theory that President Obama was not born in the U.S. – a frequent right wing radio cant.
