Charlotte Front and Center

British Health-Care Better for Prisoners than for Older citizens

In practically every British news head-line this morning, reasons to distrust any government run health-care are evident once again.

Prisoners are eating much better than the elderly simply because there are not enough nurses to help in feeding patients who are too frail to manage it themselves. Once again, we can see how the older citizen in America could easily be discounted by our government if found in the same situation under the proposed health-care bills making the rounds.  It is all a matter of cost, and the machinery of super-sized government is notorious for managing details-in this case, the elderly.

Under national health-care, Britain's elderly receive cold meals,or tend to be away from their beds undergoing medical tests.  Many are just to weak to assist themselves.  Nurses complain they do not have time to see that all patients eat properly. It makes you wonder what there is time for if not for "caring."

Britain's Daily Mail reports this from Professor John Edwards: If you are in prison then the diet you get is extremely good in terms of nutritional content,' he said.

'The food that is provided is actually better than most civilians have.

'There's a focus on carbohydrates, then there's the way they prepare the food, it's very healthy. They don't add salt and there's relatively little frying of food  -  if you have a burger then it goes in the oven. Hospital patients don't consume enough.

'And from the work we've done we know that people who sit round a table eat a lot more, but this doesn't happen in hospitals.'

His colleague, Dr Heather Hartwell, said fruit and vegetables were given out in hospitals 'but this doesn't mean it's eaten'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1210109/Prisoners-better-diet-Health-Service-hospital-patients-scientists-warn.html#ixzz0PmmVOVRM

Glenn Beck: He at Least has Courage Investigating Van Jones

Whether or not you like Glenn Beck, apparently 2.4 million viewers do.  It will be interesting to see if the pressure on advertisers will force Beck off the air as he continues to unravel the possible made-over background of Van Jones (Obama's Green Czar), and the far reaching web of A.C.O.R.N.

Is Glenn Beck hitting on some "nerves"?  Basically, Beck believes that Van Jones was able to by-pass the vetting process from the F.B.I. Beck seems to indicate a sinister thuggery of people protected with Czar status over-populating Obama's
administration, and Beck has also revealed a dark background concerning Van Jones.

Glenn Beck believes the 'White House Thugs" are after the advertisers sponsoring his show. Beck may be right, but if he is chased off the air due to White House "strong-arming", then that should be a warning to our freedom of speech. If Beck is full of hot-air, then that will be soon be revealed.

Glenn Beck's enemies are protesting too much.

Obama Support Down Due to Lack of Trust

Politics aside, Americans have to have some degree of trust of their leaders, but trust is what Obama is losing with those who elected him to do as he said: "avoid politics as usual".

It was Obama who said: "I don't take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House. "  That sounds good, but what is this we  heard this past Sunday from the New York Times of Tom Daschle sneaking in the back door of the White House to advise Obama on health-care as Daschle works as a "resource" (what most of us would call a lobbyist) for United Health! As Slate reported: "Daschle is not subject to the restrictions on lobbyists working for the White House that Obama put in place when he took office". One more way Obama will lose trust as the public becomes aware of the Tom Daschle factor.  When you begin to hear more talk of insurance co-ops, think of Daschle.

When the new numbers on debt come out Tuesday,Americans will see an increase of 2 trillion over the original 7 trillion originally predicted for 2009. Obama and his administration fully expect a political backlash. Americans will change their concerns from the economy to insisting that the government bring the deficit down.  After-all,'when the Chinese have to lecture us on how to be good Capitalists',as Sean Hannity mentioned on his show, 'it is frightening.'  Americans no longer trust Obama on health-care because they don't buy-into the message. The fact that it wasn't jammed through the final session of Congress, the truth is leaking out about what the bill actually contain.

So how does health-care affect trust in Obama? The answer is in his own words: "It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today".  This appears noble as well, but by 2019 our debt will be 84% of our GNP. This doesn't sound like a nice gift for our children.

Tax Dollars Used to Blast White House E-mails on Health Care

Fox news reported the name of the source that the White House used to blast the unsolicited e-mails on Obamacare: GovDelivery.Com is the name of the private firm hired by our government, and the first paragraph on their website states:

from Scott Burns co-founder of Gov.delivery:

"GovDelivery is a Web-hosted system that is similar to Facebook or Twitter. “We’re a part of the Web 2.0 arena by default because our service is hosted, so everybody — whether it’s [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], the city of Berkley, Calif., or the British Parliament — is using the same basic platform,” Burns said.

Not coincidentally, St. Paul was Burns’ first client. “We formed a public/private partnership to roll out the service, which is very similar to that which we now provide to more than 300 government entities; that is, helping [the city] manage outbound communication with the public by e-mail, wireless devices and other types of messaging,....”

It seems the White House doesn't need to keep its own fishy list, there are plenty of privately owned databases around to help take care of that. Its as if Americans are experiencing little segments of many Big Brothers ready for hire with invaluable lists of detailed information paid for by our tax dollars.

Fox also reported: "Govdelivery sent hundreds of e-mails from senior adviser David Axelrod asking supporters to help rebut criticism of Obama's health care plan circulating on the Internet. It also sent e-mails highlighting Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo and the announcement of Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court nominee." end quote~

Perhaps it would be understandable if public information was being sent on disease epidemics, but Axelrod using tax dollars for sheer political purposes seems unethical. Strangely enough, Scott Burns wouldn't say if he had been hired to send out Axelrod e-mails.

Obama Team Deliberately Marginalizing Hillary?

Image by US Army Korea - IMCOM via Flickr

It does seem plausible that Obama and his cohorts are marginalizing Hillary Clinton.  It was something that was considered a good possibility by those who supported Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy in 2008, and many worried about her vacating her Senate seat to serve in the Obama administration for that fact alone.

As Obama continues his dialogs's with rogue nations, Obama seems to lack a global strategy as he allows an array of political figures to fly around the world with missions that should originate within the State Department. Consider how Bill Clinton, Jim Webb, and now Gov. Bill Richardson have recently had their faces popping up with various diplomatic missions.

Fox News and Dick Morris cover this marginalization of Hillary in their various articles, but we know for a fact, there is no way Dick Morris could ever be "fair" in his observations of Bill And Hillary Clinton. Add to this the recent incident when Secretary Clinton gave her heated response to the question of a Congolese student:  “Mrs. Clinton, we’ve all heard about the Chinese contracts in this country,” he said. “The interference is from the World Bank against this contract. What does Mr. Clinton think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton?”  This of course only gave rise to speculation that Hillary is feeling sidelined by her husband.

The fact that Gov. Bill Richardson ( known to Clinton supporters as "Judas") is hosting Korean diplomats in his home state, and that has got to be irritating to Hillary Clinton.

We are allowing these rogue nations the choice of those they wish to negotiate when clearly these issues fall within the range of the State Department.  Obama knows this but seems to be very deliberate in those he picks for his foreign emissaries.

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A.C.O.R.N. Buried Inside Health Care Bill

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

There is real fear that should be spread around with the Health-Care Bill.  The fact that community based organizations has made its way into the wording of the bill on pages 382-387 can be seen on the committee's web site (HELP) Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Senator Dodd was questioned about A.C.O.R.N. being involved, and he wouldn't rule out the fact they would be involved.  The bill clearly says only 3 types of entities would be eligible to receive grants:State government agency;local government agency, or national network of community based organizations. 

CNS News reports: " In a section entitled, "Community-Based Prevention Health Activites," the bill calls on grant recipients (like ACORN) to measure weight loss,physical activity, smoking, and other activities of people in the neighborhood." The bill goes onto say these activities are not limited to the above mentioned.

Once again we see a sneaky provision that allows money to be funneled to A.C.O.R.N. which has proved to be a liberal activist group that is already under investigation. 

This fact of A.C.O.R.N. playing any part in health-care is what rightfully scares off so many opponents of "reform".

It is always the hidden agenda, or the woefully worded vague language that Americans have learned to be wary of when dealing with their reps. in the Senate and House.

House Staffers told CNS News that the community also involves organizations such as the YMCA.

But it looks like A.C.O.R.N. will be there to receive its good share of hard-earned American taxpayer dollars.

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Why the Swastikas at Town Hall Meetings?

Image via Wikipedia

Though many health care proponents would have you think that only "right wing extremists" are showing up at town hall meetings, it comes in part from a few who have carried signs with the ever-chilling Nazi swastika.  This message isn't an advertising for any "skin head movement", but is an attempt to voice genuine fear over attempts at nationalizing any private industry in this country.  Some think the symbol too strong of a message, and Nancy Pelosi is one.  Pelosi simply seemed to have the wish of injecting the image of the "swatiska" as representative of Americans who were giving strong voice against nationalized health care,cap and trade, TARP spending, and a host of other recent government actions.

When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, he was ushered in on promises of economic reform.  The unemployment in Germany was at 6 million. By the following year, Hitler's reforms had reduced unemployment by 50%. Though, the books may have been "cooked", the fact is: Hitler got the economy moving and people working again.  In fact, the government proceeded to give German workers jobs, and if you didn't accept, you were classified as "work-shy", and promised room in a concentration camp.

Hitler introduced public work schemes, shovel ready jobs such as digging on farms to increase irrigation,building the autobahns,and planting new forests. The government took over the unions and outlawed strikes. Workers were protected and highly compensated and had a lot to show compared to any remaining on the "dole".  The German worker even had his leisure planned for him: cheap holidays, concerts, theater, hikes,lectures from the German Adult Education Office, and etc. Hitler even involved himself in the design of the People's Car, and the Volkswagen was born. The government made it affordable for everyone to buy a car with a worker purchase scheme of 5 marks a week into a government account. The government never did give people their cars. The government re-routed their money into weapons production. Who would speak out? No one. The government controlled  everything.  The German government under NAZI (National Socialist German Workers Party) control had injected millions into the economy by massive deficit spending. A massive public works project (Reichsarbeitsdienst) was started, and it rivaled anything FDR's New Deal produced. The network of autobahnens attests to the successful work. Yet due to inflation resulting from the huge national deficits, German salaries remained the same compared to salaries of 1928 when adjusted for inflation.

The promise of the German government to use the peoples money as promised, simply turned in to theft of the National treasury as it then geared its total spending towards war. The people were powerless. The German people had allowed their own Constitution to be violated to the extent they no longer had any protection and less power. Fear dominated every citizen...no one dared "speak out". 

Though (the Swastika) an unpleasant symbol for anything, has recently reared its ugly head, it simply gives a visual of how scared some citizens are of this country's direction.

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Journalists Forced to Drink Google Juice

Image via Wikipedia

Online newspapers, publishers, and other journalists are back "in school" or at least at workshops and seminars learning seo (search engine optimization), the art of social media, as they learn the ways of pleasing the search engines...primarily Google.

It is tough for these publishers to drink Google juice. They have been dragging their feet on learning seo by lamenting the part they believe Google has played in the death of newspapers.  The AP needs to take lessons from Reuters. In other words, AP must develop a positive attitude,and take their lessons from Reuters. Only then will they be able to move ahead with the change to new media. Perhaps doing so will allow the Ap to stop losing readership to Reuters.  In fact, the AP could learn a lot about relationship building from Reuters.

In a nutshell, online publishers have no choice but to learn new ways to write their titles.  These titles will have to convey fact followed by keywords with links implemented and followed throughout the content of their articles. No more cute creative titles.  Google just doesn't like it. Google will never appreciate the beauty and creativity of an article; the search spiders want cold fact. If it is a duck,says Google, by all means call it a duck and link to something about ducks.

No doubt, we will see a change in writing styles for journalists,such as those at the New York Times. For instance, editors will have to train their writers it is not threatening to link out to other on-line material. There are just a lot of new rules for publishers to follow if online newspapers are to again become profitable by attracting the traffic alongside advertisers.

Chris Crum at WebProNews has a lot of information on the subject of publishers,Google, and SEO.  Crum reports in his article how Google is already feverishly working on new search algorithms due to "real time" search competition from Twitter. Keywords and rich title tags will be more important than ever.

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1963: The Year of Julia Child and Betty Friedan

Image by wallyg via Flickr

The movie Julie and Julia is and has been a must see on the list for many, and I think that is because we really do miss our old friend, Julia Child.  Julia wanted to see "servantless" Americans become successful with French cooking.  Cooking was Julia's passion,and became Betty Friedan's new symbol of woman's oppression. With Friedan and Women's Lib came the years of intellectual disdain for the kitchen prison, too much Hamburger Helper,and a drop in culinary skills from lack of repetition and honing of ancestral cooking skills.

 A few years ago when I was recovering from GI surgery,my television stayed on the Food Channel. I didn't watch it prior to surgery, but I now took great comfort watching the foods being prepared,even though I was hooked up to numerous I.V.s,not allowed solids, and starving (so I thought). I was not a cook aficionado; but just the same, a nurse told me that I was 'not unusual,that all her GI patients loved to watch the food channel'. "Comfort", I thought, and then a realization I had finally managed a show of appreciation for the art of cooking...something I had always considered a task and drudgery. Yet, I must say, I never lost sight of cooking's creative aspect, and appreciated the talents of my Mother and sisters. It was just that it hadn't been meant for me (I then thought) nor the more "forward looking" type of women who had "higher" aspirations.

This is not to say that all women had this viewpoint about cooking as an evil drudgery.  Many women did well working a full-time career, and performed great cooking feats every night. In fact, too many of these admirable women didn't get any help.  It's also true that a stagnant economy was a factor as much as anything else that called for women needing help in the kitchen and the house. The raging effects of inflation in the 70's, and the need for additional income, had begun to push women out the door and into the workforce without any further nudging from Betty Friedan.

Yet now,the country's attitude has changed. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect there to be an entire network for food, just as I would never have been as clever as Celente to predict water being bottled and sold.  Yet, some attitudes do change for the better, and I'm glad, in this case, to be following the flow of new cooking ventures, and learning life's true secret from Julia Child: that real butter is as necessary to life as is water.

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Let's Give a Big Hand for Reuters News Service

For those of us who love to keep up with the news in the world via the internet, it seems we find a friend in Reuters who believes in the positive things bloggers,readers, newsers,and search engines want: free access to the news wires. AP will now charge $12.50 for every 5 words or less quoted from their material via the internet.

Link-Love

We have been hearing for a good while how the AP has been upset with Google and bloggers who make a living off their news reports. The AP now stands to lose internet traffic to Reuters because it wants to charge bloggers and other notable news sources on the web for excerpts quoting their articles.

It stands to reason what they are saying at Web Pro News: Ahern at Reuters: "I believe in the link economy. Please feel free to link to our stories — it adds value to all producers of content. I believe you should play fair and encourage your readers to read-around to what others are producing if you use it and find it interesting. Chris Crum at Web Pro News: "With a major publishing force like Reuters publicizing this kind of position, you have to wonder if it will get other major publishers like the AP its like-minded peers to re-evaluate their position.

Either way, Reuters is bound to get a lot of link love after this. That will be great for the news organization's traffic"...end quote~

In my own opinion, Reuters gives a better overall view of world affairs and doesn't seem to show much bias in their reporting as does the AP which is American based. Also, the AP doesn't seem to understand that it isn't all about content theft...which is wrong without attribution, but if anyone quotes you and links back to what you say...that's great for everyone. Search engines also are savvy enough to know where the original article or quote had its origination.

Let's give a hand to Reuters and to Google, and a big thumbs down to the AP for going the way of the now unloved record industry.

Nixon's Enemies List ; Obama's Fishy List

“When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny."; - Thomas Jefferson

On August 16, 1971, John Dean sent a memo to Lawrence Higby explaining the purpose of the Nixon White House "Political Opponents List". Dean clearly stated in this memo: "This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration; stated a bit more bluntly—how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies." end quote~

This Nixon "Enemies List" started with 30 names including Ted Kennedy, Paul Newman, and Barbara Streisand.  The list ended up being 30,000 names in length with some of the names handed over to the IRS.

We have actually seen the White House website requesting the names and addresses of those people who voice dissent on Obamacare.  The lists are illegal. When Nixon solicited the same information, the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional to compile such a database.

The White House will have to reveal this list.  They have violated the law.They can not destroy the "fishy list".

Remember poor Rosemary Woods?

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Kathleen Parker Stirs Up Old Southern Stereotypes

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience." ...Harper Lee

While recently interviewed about what was wrong with the Republican party, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich didn’t hold back. “It’s the Southerners,” he said. “They get on TV and go ‘errrr, errrr.’ People hear them and say, ‘These people are Southerners."

 But, some of us southerners think that 'errr, errr' is better than a thousand "uhh uhhs" and "you Know,um you know".

What is Voinovich trying to do? Start another Civil War? With Kathleen Parker smelling blood in the water, she adds to his insults by devoting an entire column to pummeling southerners and Republicans at the expense of us here southerners.

Parker even found a way to drag Sarah Palin into her article. Gee, Palin isn't from sweet old Dixieland. But I guess that isn't the point with Parker. Palin is by default a southerner because Kathleen Parker knows so many of us rednecks voted for her;therefore, Sarah Palin,too, must be ignorant, bitter, racist, and uggggh...lower middle-class at best.

Parker denigrates republican southerners (now known as "birthers") by accusing them of spreading such birther "disinformation" in a comparison to Kudzu growth. Gee, kudzu got out of hand when Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal (Soil conservation Service) encouraged its planting and growth to prevent land erosion in the southeast. Kudzu growth got way, way, out of hand. That's what we got for listening to "Yankees" like Parker. It should be duly noted that improvement in preventing kudzu growth has been achieved by clearing vast amounts of land in the past 15 years; we have had to make way for the hordes of Northern transplants into Tupelo,Atlanta,Charlotte, and other areas of the rich,romantic,mysterious, yet ignorant South.

Parker makes allowances for some southerners, but it sounds like they must be small in number. Kathleen Parker believes things have become so bad here that we must seriously think of a way to "drive a stake through the heart of old Dixie"...I think Parker wants the southern Republican to go away, but she doesn't understand that many Democrats, and Independents want Pelosi,Reid, and Obama to go away, and to stop what goes against clear and fair governing of all the people.  I think Kathleen Parker doesn't like Southerners...at all.

Manufactured Anger: White House Attacks "Some of the People"

How absurd this White House can act when hearing any dissent.  When the Obama administration reacts to voiced criticism or protests from groups of citizens, they are always referred to in such a negative manner by Robert Gibbs and his media cohorts as elements of a fringe group of extremists, and Republicans at best.

Today,The Washington Times reported that the group Think Progress referred to the conservative organizations of Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity as working "to create an image of mass public opposition to health care and clean energy reform".

Protesters,from every walk of American life, have been turning out in large numbers at various events, to express genuine outage towards its representatives ever since the April 15th Tea Parties first began.  Most of these citizens are protesting for the first time. Average citizens are now going  to town hall  meetings to express their outrage on proposed health care legislation.

Robert Gibbs refers to citizen protests as "manufactured outrage"

"Some of the People" quite probably represent "We the People" on proposed Obamacare legislation. No matter the number, Americans should not be demonized for disagreeing with legislation or policies they consider unwise or simply dangerous. Never should there be a time when the White House insults and denigrates the citizens they serve.

Fox Nation asked its readers "Why is the White House attacking Americans?". Most of the readers noted how their speaking out in opposition to the Obama administration's policies brings labeling,and one label seems to be assigning the name "stupid" or "angry mob".

Perhaps these same "angry mobs" will vent their anger at the polls in 2010.

Euthanasia: Will Our Government Decide Our Fate at 65?

Though we hear many politicians snickering as they refer to rationing and joking that 'We won't kill your grandparents..', how many will absolutely promise this will not be part of government run health care at age 65?

Marie Jon at Right Side News says: "If Obama-Care is passed, the same insidious protocols - "Advance Care Planning" - will be set into place to cut the cost of his massive government health care program. Our senior citizens will receive mandated appointments for counseling that will determine if they receive minimal medical treatment or are told to go home and die".

Fear tactic? It isn't fear mongering until we have assurances and know for a certainty what is really at stake in Obama-care. Rushing such massive legislation should make us suspicious and let us know we are not headed for a mandated death sentence if one faces a serious illness at age 65.

From the UK Telegraph we read current stories about their NHS: "The Government's drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known". Another story from Britain discusses cancer drugs that could extend your life for a few months to a few years not even being mentioned to patients if the doctor knows the drug is too costly. Those suffering from chronic back pain can no longer receive pain medication, but "Instead the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy."

The above instances are cases of British government health care. Such cases do not inspire confidence in government run programs in our private lives. We need health care reform but genuine input is needed from all reps in the House and Senate, and Americans need to know just exactly what they are buying in to.

Is Obama Putting Senior Citizens Last in Health Care?

Any indicators coming from the government are simply scary if paying attention to how Obama is presently handling health care.  If you are over 64 yrs. of age, you are not last on the list for receiving the swine flu vaccination. In fact, you have been left off the list! 

Here is how CNS News explains the governments prioritized list:  "On its Flu.gov Web page, HHS says the government is working to produce enough vaccine for the entire population, but there will be shortages when a vaccine first becomes available – probably in mid-October. That means the “limited supply” will have to be “prioritized for distribution and administration.” end quote~ -- Pregnant women -- Health care workers and emergency medical responders -- People caring for infants under 6 months of age -- Children and young adults from 6 months to 24 years -- People aged 25 to 64 years with underlying medical conditions (e.g. asthma, diabetes)

 Where are the citizens listed over the age of 64? Was it just an oversight? If so, that sounds like typical government management.

One citizen gave a comment at CNS News on this priority list: "I believe this philosophy is beginning to permeate (sic) society and it is so wrong. I cannot remain silent and want to speak out against any discrimination against senior adults. We play a major part in society for our children, our grandchildren and many of us who continue to work and pay into the tax system the same as others".

One can see the rationing of health-care coming.  At least we know that the Eskimo myth of putting the old,unproductive citizens on an ice flow is just a story. The Straight Dope says, "Senilicide (the killing of old people) was never universal among Eskimos. It was common in some parts of their range but more so among the Inuit (Greenland to Northern Alaska) than the Yuit (western and southwestern Alaska). Even among the Inuit, some groups found the custom repugnant".

Fear mongering is taking its place in regards to health-care, but we can only judge what the government has already demonstrated, and rationing is already rearing its ugly, socialistic head.

Perhaps it is time to remind Congress once again about upcoming elections in 2010.