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Submitted by Leah on Fri, 03/12/2010 - 11:50am.
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Healthfreedom it is political
Submitted by taozen on Fri, 03/12/2010 - 8:55am.Alice. Very, very, very, very fucked-up library
Submitted by Alice on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 11:03pm.[James Ridgeway, Journalist]
Just this total mess. It's like some sort of, like, very, very, very, very fucked-up library.
- The Unreasonable Man - about the condition of Ralph's office
WSJ - Health Reform Passes the Cost Test
Submitted by Kevin © on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 12:26pm.Many people are worried that the health-care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats will fail to bend the "cost curve." A number of commentators are urging no votes because of this, and Republicans have asked the president to start health reform over, focusing squarely on the issue of cost reduction.
These calls overlook the actual legislation. Over the past year of debate, 10 broad ideas have been offered for bending the health-care cost curve. The Democrats' proposed legislation incorporates virtually every one of them. Here they are:
• Form insurance exchanges. These would help curb underwriting and inefficient marketing practices that raise costs in the small-group and individual insurance markets. This is addressed in all the House and Senate bills, and the president's proposal. Grade: Full credit.
• Reduce excessive prices, including those of supplemental plans enrolling Medicare beneficiaries. The president's proposal reduces these Medicare Advantage overpayments and others to different providers, even in the face of Republican claims that reducing such overpayments is tantamount to rationing care for seniors. Grade: Full credit.
• Moving to value-based payment in Medicare. Both Democrats and Republicans have called for moving from a system where volume drives reimbursement to one where value drives reimbursement. The president's proposal includes virtually every idea offered for doing this. Grade: Full credit.
• Tax generous insurance plans. Health-insurance benefits are excluded from income taxation, providing incentives for excessively generous insurance. Many economists have proposed capping the tax exclusion to reduce these incentives. The president's proposal taxes some of the most generous policies, though it has deferred the date by which these taxes take effect. Grade: Partial credit.
• Empower an independent Medicare advisory board. Interest-group politics intrudes too deeply within the mechanics of Medicare policy, raising program costs and hindering efforts to improve care. Despite powerful opposition, the president proposes this independent board and a process for fast-tracking such recommendations through Congress. Grade: Full credit.
• Combat Medicare fraud and abuse. The administration has started an active task force to combat these problems. Other ideas to reduce fraud and abuse were presented at the recent health-care summit, and were incorporated in the president's proposal. Grade: Full credit.
• Malpractice reform. Defensive medicine is a small but important driver of medical spending. The reform proposal makes some headway, encouraging states to experiment with alternative mechanisms to reduce malpractice burdens. More could be done—for example, specialized malpractice courts and a safe harbor for physicians practicing evidence-based medicine—but the president's proposal makes a start. Grade: Partial credit.
• Invest in information technology. Many studies suggest savings in the tens of billions of dollars from IT investment. The stimulus bill passed a year ago contains funds to wire the medical system over the next few years, and the administration is supplementing this with significant funds to analyze the comparative effectiveness of different treatments—even in the face of "death panel" claims. Grade: Full credit.
• Prevention. The president's proposal includes significant public-health investments, provides new incentives for physicians to focus on preventive and chronic care, and opens Medicare to finding new ways of supporting prevention. The only area of weakness is the lack of a junk food tax or tax on sugar sweetened beverages. Grade: Partial credit.
• Create a public option. A public insurance option would provide competition for insurers in areas that are nearly a monopoly and provide a path for reforms in Medicare to expand readily in the under-65 population. The public option was eliminated because of Republican opposition, however. Grade: No credit.
So reform gets full credit on six of the 10 ideas, partial credit on three others, and no credit on one. The area of no credit (a public option) is because Republicans opposed the idea. One area receives only partial credit because of Democratic opposition (malpractice reform) and two other areas reflect general hesitancy to increase taxes (taxing Cadillac plans and taxing drivers of obesity).
Why is reform viewed so negatively? In part, it may reflect the perfect being the enemy of the good. If the only passing grade is 10 out of 10, then reform clearly fails. But given where the Republican Party is on a public option, no reform will get a passing grade. If both parties were willing to raise taxes and Republicans negotiated malpractice reform for their overall support, we could probably get a nine out of 10.
Reform is also viewed negatively because official scorekeepers do not believe anything on this list other than reducing prices will save much money. The Congressional Budget Office has consistently estimated that policies built around changing incentives and thus encouraging more efficient care will not have any effect on cost trends. My own calculations, mirrored by other observers and a host of business and provider groups, suggest that the reforms will save nearly $600 billion over the next decade and even more in the subsequent one.
Of course, no one knows precisely how much medical spending increases will moderate. But one cannot doubt the commitment to try. What is on the table is the most significant action on medical spending ever proposed in the United States. Should we really walk away from that?
Mr. Cutler is a professor of economics at Harvard University.
Am I an American Person?
Submitted by btchakir on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 12:32pm.I listened to a Congressman from Alabama give the Republican's weekly statement (after the President's weekly statement) on NBC this morning and was told that despite what Pelosi and Reid want, despite the threat of using reconciliation to push the Health Care bill through, the American People don't want the Health Care bill as it has been debated and argued over the past year. He said the American People want Congress and The President to "start over on a new page."
Here in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, about as American a location as you can find, I sit watching this knowing that I WANT a Health Care bill to be passed NOW. I know that if the government starts on a NEW PAGE it will be in the face of a rate-raising, highly profitable private insurance system and a 10-to-1 ratio of lobbyists who are NOT starting on a new page, who will work day and night to weaken any progress.
Do I want to allow this to happen? Do I not want to see the potential for Health Care plans that will be made available for 30 million more people, that will allow insurance companies to cancel existing plans or not let folks with pre-existing conditions (like little ol' diabetic me) sign up if they change jobs? Am I not an American Person?
I asked my wife, who also wants to see Health Care passed NOW if she was an American Person. Oddly enough, she said she was. Last night we sat in a lounge with friends from the Philadelphia area (they are pretty American, too, and all 4 were People) and they had the same feelings about Health Care politics that we had.
Yet the Republicans keep pointing out that the American People want things to start again on a NEW Page.
Well, as an official American Person, in contact with lots of other American People, may I say that WE DON'T WANT TO START ON A NEW PAGE. We want the Health Care plan to go through NOW. We have too many other things to get to and we don't want to throw away all the work that has been done so far. And we don't want the Insurance Industry and the Lobbyists to be given still another advantage in the debate.
No Republicans have asked me for my opinion, yet, as an American Person, they are willing to form their opinion as reported words from my mouth. Maybe they should get on board with the rest of us and put America ahead of Party Politics.
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Brick TeeVee Oscar Special: It's all an act!
Submitted by FilthyRich on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 12:03am. Your Guest List for Sunday's Talking Head News Shows beamed across America by Corporate Media PLUS reports from the best lib/prog media! If you have other Sunday Talkie shows' guest lists we don't have please share below. DEBUNK HERE! Throw Bricks!
First brick is on us!
Hidden names / HVP/\ MSG
Submitted by taozen on Sat, 03/06/2010 - 8:37am.http://www.drpressman.com/#video-365 I found this at alan Pressman's web site
as 'LATEST VIDEOS' THE TRUTH ABOUT MSG MONO SODIUM GLUTAMATE
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http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/securit/addit/msg_qa-qr-eng.php
http://www.msgmyth.com/hidename.htm
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http://www.truthinlabeling.org/nomsg.html
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www.msgmyth.com/
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This topic is less confusing once I saw The video on Pressman's web site first.
============
Acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP,[1] is produced by boiling cereals or legumes, such as soy, corn, or wheat, in hydrochloric acid and then neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide. The acid hydrolyzes, or breaks down, the protein in vegetables into their component amino acids. The resulting dark coloured liquid contains, among other amino acids, glutamic acid, which consumers are more familiar with in the form of its sodium salt, monosodium glutamate, or MSG. It is used as a flavor enhancer in many processed foods.
A similar product, from dairy origin, is hydrolyzed whey protein.
Other sources of glutamate, sometimes used in conjunction with HVP, include autolyzed yeast extract and hydrolyzed yeast extract.
Because of the high levels of MSG in hydrolyzed vegetable protein, people sensitive to MSG should avoid hydrolyzed vegetable protein.[2]
In the case of soy sauce, a residual of the soy protein hydrolyzation process creates the carcinogen 3-MCPD.
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MSG Gelatin Calcium Caseinate
Monosodium glutamate Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP) Textured Protein
Monopotassium glutamate Hydrolyzed Plant Protein (HPP) Yeast Extract
Glutamate Autolyzed Plant Protein Yeast food or nutrient
Glutamic Acid Sodium Caseinate Autolyzed Yeast
Vegetable Protein Extract Senomyx (wheat extract labeled as artificial flavor)
The following substances contain some factory created free glutamate in varying amounts. Please note that some food labels list several of these items, which can add up to a considerable and dangerous amount in one product:
Malted Barley (flavor) Natural Flavors, Flavors, Flavoring Modified food starch
Barley malt Reaction Flavors Rice syrup or brown rice syrup
Malt Extract or Flavoring Natural Chicken, Beef, or Pork, Flavoring "Seasonings" (Most assume this means salt, pepper, or spices and herbs, which sometimes it is.) Lipolyzed butter fat
Maltodextrin, dextrose, dextrates Soy Sauce or Extract "Low" or "No Fat" items
Caramel Flavoring (coloring) Soy Protein Corn syrup and corn syrup solids, high fructose corn syrup
Stock Soy Protein Isolate or Concentrate Citric Acid (when processed from corn)
Broth Cornstarch fructose (made from corn) Milk Powder
Bouillon Flowing Agents Dry Milk Solids
Carrageenan Wheat, rice, corn, or oat protein Protein Fortified Milk
Whey Protein or Whey Anything enriched or vitamin enriched Annatto
Whey Protein Isolate or Concentrate Protein fortified "anything" Spice
Pectin Enzyme modified proteins Gums (guar and vegetable)
Protease Ultra-pasteurized dairy products Dough Conditioners
Protease enzymes Fermented proteins Yeast Nutrients
Lecithin Gluten and gluten flour Protein powders: whey, soy, oat, rice (as in protein bars shakes and body building drinks)
Amino acids (as in Bragg's liquid amino acids and chelated to vitamins) Algae, phytoplankton, sea vegetable, wheat/ barley grass powders
European numbers for glutamate containing additives :( thank you europe)
620 625
621 627
622 631
623 635
624
The book, Battling the MSG Myth, will simplify your life by giving in depth facts about these hidden substances and the common foods in which they are found. Find tips on label reading, shopping, and cooking. Enjoy good eating by learning how to avoid all the common foods and supplements that contain MSG, aspartame, L-cysteine, and sulfites. Learn how to substitute healthy alternative products that can be found in most supermarkets.
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TECHNOCRACY implemented via Smart Grid
Submitted by nora on Fri, 03/05/2010 - 5:03am.If you haven't yet read about Smart Grid as a tool of TECHNOCRACY, here's your chance.
All sorts of interesting stuff here, like how the Technocrats were turned away during FDR's administration in the 1930s, and like how the Technocrats are finally making headway with the Smart Grid and a new world economic currency -- CARBON CURRENCY.
http://www.augustreview.com/issues/technocracy/smart_grid:_the_implement...
[excerpt]
...the current crisis of capitalism is being used to implement a radical new economic system that will completely supplant it. This is not some new idea created in the bowels of the United Nations: It is a revitalized implementation of Technocracy that was thoroughly repudiated by the American public in 1933, in the middle of the Great Depression.
The Technocrats have resurfaced, and they do not intend to fail a second time. Whether or not they succeed this time will depend upon the intended servants of Technocracy, the citizens of the world.
Indeed, the dark horse of the New World Order is not Communism, Socialism or Fascism. It is Technocracy.
...
If Technocracy had truly been extinguished before the onset of WWII, we would not be concerned about it today. However, when Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era in 1968, it was essentially a Neo-Technocratic treatise calling for a fourth and final stage of world history, or the Technetronic Era.
When David Rockefeller picked Brzezinski to co-found the Trilateral Commission in 1973, it was with the specific goal to create a "New International Economic Order." Without some knowledge of historic Technocracy, exactly what the Trilateral Commission ultimately had in mind with such a goal could not possibly have been understood.
Today, it is necessary to rethink these issues in order to determine a) if this radical movement is still operating, b) what are their goals and c) how do they plan to achieve their goals.
In Carbon Currency: A New Beginning for Technocracy?, the subject of historic Technocracy was introduced in the context of creating a new economic system based on energy accounting rather than price accounting. An energy-based accounting system uses "energy certificates," or Carbon Currency, instead of dollars or other fiat currencies. Periodic and equal allocations of available energy are made to citizens, but they must be used within the defined time period before they reach an expiration date. Furthermore, the ability to own private property and accumulate wealth would be deemed unnecessary.
The pressing and unanswered question is how would such a Technocratic system actually be implemented?
This paper will now address the strategy, tactical requirements and progress of establishing an energy-based Technate in North America. ["Technate" is the term used to describe the geographic region operated according to Technocracy. Thus, a North American Technate would include Canada, Mexico and the U.S. and they would all be under common control. ]
...
Requirements
The Technocracy Study Course, written by Howard Scott and M. King Hubbert in 1932, established a detailed framework for Technocracy in terms of energy production, distribution and usage.
According to Scott and Hubbert, the distribution of energy resources must be monitored and measured in order for the system to work -- and this is the key: monitoring and measuring.
They wrote that the system must do the following things:
1."Register on a continuous 24 hour-per-day basis the total net conversion of energy.
2."By means of the registration of energy converted and consumed, make possible a balanced load.
3."Provide a continuous inventory of all production and consumption
4."Provide a specific registration of the type, kind, etc., of all goods and services, where produced and where used
5."Provide specific registration of the consumption of each individual, plus a record and description of the individual." [Scott, Howard et al, Technocracy Study Source, p. 232]
In 1932, such technology did not exist. Time was on the Technocrat's side, however, because this technology does exist today, and it is being rapidly implemented to do exactly what Scott and Hubbert specified: Namely, to exhaustively monitor, measure and control every ampere of energy delivered to consumers and businesses on a system-wide basis.
It's called: Smart Grid.
...automatic actions are intended to be triggered by direct interaction between objects, without human intervention. The rules will be written by programmers under the direction of technocrats who understand the system, and then downloaded to the controllers as necessary. Thus, changes to the rules can be made on the fly, at any time and without the homeowner's knowledge.
[end excerpt]
========================
ARE SMART METERS SAFE?
PG&E of California was given an EXEMPTION from proving environmental hazards, and the study it did do was not peer reviewed. Sounds like a greased slide right into the homes of consumers:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/green-light/post/smart/
[excerpt]
The FCC safety standards for wireless devices are based on short term heating and do not address the non thermal health effects which are documented in the Bioinitiative Report, which has been recognized by the European Parliament. RF is under investigation as a carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program.
In the interest of protecting public health and in light of the call for the precautionary principle from scientists and environmental agencies, the EMF Safety Network has started a petition asking the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and the Sebastopol City Council to investigate the PG&E Smart Meter proposal and hold public hearings. We ask they require PG&E to submit a characterization study, the health and safety study, to allow customers to “opt out” as well as place a 6-9 month moratorium on all new wireless installations to allow time for a thorough review.
Already there is a class action lawsuit filed against PGE in Bakersfield over the new meters and many people are complaining about price spikes in their utility bills.
There are a number of additional reasons to oppose smart meter technology aside from the public health issues mentioned above and it’s use by utilities to overcharge customers (discussed at the TURN website). These include Big Brother-like questions regarding local utilities monitoring one’s use of home appliances and making adjustments in this use without the consent of their consumers, and national security issues that arise becasue wireless networks are easier to hack into and compromise than their conventional wired counterparts.
...the global rush is on. In every case, Smart Grid is being accelerated by government stimulus spending. The global vendors are merely lining up their money buckets to be filled up with taxpayer funds.
As is the case in the U.S., there was little, if any, preexisting or latent demand for Smart Grid technology. Demand has been artificially created by the respective governments of each country.
Conclusion
Smart Grid meets 100 percent of the Technocracy's original requirements as described above. In other words, it will monitor and control both delivery and consumption of energy and other green resources such as water and gas.
The Smart Grid initiative was developed and funded by government agencies and NGO's. It was the Energy Department's Bonneville Power Authority that invented the concept in the 1990's. It was the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that invented the Grid Friendly Appliance Controller. It was the Federal Administration that showered billions of dollars over the private sector to jump-start the nationwide initiative to implement Smart Grid in every community.
If the Federal government had not been the initial and persistent driver, would Smart Grid exist at all? It is highly doubtful.
Following the same pattern as the U.S., many other industrialized nations are implementing Smart Grid at the same time, using their own stimulus money. This synchronized implementation is certainly by design, and as such, it implies that there must be a designer. Who might be providing such top-down coordination on a global basis must be saved for another paper. One thing is certain: The technology being purchased world-wide all originated in the United States and is being marketed by the same global corporations as mentioned above.
Lastly, there is an assumption throughout Smart Grid literature that the Federal Administration will have full visibility of all data within the Smart Grid, even down to the individual household. They will also be in a position to set national, regional and local distribution and consumption policies, such as your "fair share" of available energy, gas and water.
International standards created for Smart Grid will also enable the U.S. Smart Grid to be connected seamlessly with Canada and Mexico, thus providing a comprehensive North American energy management and distribution system.
Is Smart Grid destined to be a global phenomenon? Yes. Is it designed to support a new global Technocratic, resource-based economic system? Yes.
Technocracy must be seen for what it is: An attempt to impose a totalitarian, scientific dictatorship. In 1933, it called for the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as dictator in order to "pave the way for economic revolution." Fortunately at the time, they failed in their attempted coup.
If today's Smart Grid is successfully completed, it will enable the conversion of our existing economic system into something far different and far worse. This is why the American people repudiated Technocracy in 1933, and this is exactly why we (and citizens around the world) should thoroughly repudiate it today.
[end excerpt]
==========================
These articles interest me because I read that as soon as the SMART Meters were installed in a central valley area of California, the PG&E utility bills increased about $100 per month for ratepayers in that region -- a jump no one seems capable of explaining with a concrete explanation. With a Smart Meter on one's home, it is said that one can read one's own meter, and manually record the readings; however, the remote control aspects of the technology's reset capabilities seem to confuse the issue, and already complaints/disputes in the community mentioned above are being waved aside by the utility company. The utility company says this is the consumers' fault -- that consumers do not yet understand how to use the new technology!
The Smart Meter really is like having Big Brother monitor all your energy use and what you use it for, when you are home, etc., and allows the authorities to remotely control your energy use. The claim is that the Smart Grid will prevent energy grid drains by allowing the utility company to unplug certain consumers only during emergencies. (The irony here in California is that the main serious black-outs and brown-outs experienced here were due specifically due to ARTIFICIAL SCAMMING BY ENRON, and that the reasoning that this new technology is necessary is largely BOGUS. It also is an attempt to build in a system that will hold energy distribution to the present large distribution model, rather than facilitate homeowners and communities in becoming energy self-sufficient local producers/consumers instead of regional consumers, and local producers who must remain on the larger grid.)
(Can this new technology be a political tool? Of course it can. Comparing voter rolls (or other criteria) with utility rolls means that, with a mere computer command, only certain select households could be deprived of energy. One should recall that the Smart Grid program is a Bush Junior project, instituted after that bizarre black-out that struck the Northeast to Ohio in August 2002, and, like 9/11, put legislators in a 9/11-like emergency mode in regards to deferring to Bush. This article indicates the legislators did not even fund the development of Smart Grid program, however Obama is "implementing" Smart Grid to the tune of billions of dollars.)
