Archive for September 2009
HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS – FOUR BASIC MODELS
graphic: TopPun.com
I have no doubt that the “health care reform” debate currently winding down in Congress has been intentionally muddled by both parties, the corporate media, and the insurance industry lobby’s deep pockets.
What we will end up with is some minor “insurance reform” and the major problems in health care will remain unaddressed, while insurance profits will continue to soar. It’s time to really look at what is possible and to stop bouncing off of labels and being prey to hot buttons.
PBS: Frontline Health Care Systems: Four Basic Models
An excerpt from correspondent T.R. Reid’s upcoming book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, to be published by Penguin Press in the summer of 2009.
There are about 200 countries on our planet, and each country devises its own set of arrangements for meeting the three basic goals of a health care system: keeping people healthy, treating the sick, and protecting families against financial ruin from medical bills.
But we don’t have to study 200 different systems to get a picture of how other countries manage health care. For all the local variations, health care systems tend to follow general patterns. There are four basic systems:
Paramilitary army occupies Hardin Montana
Evidently a private army group the “American Police Force” has taken over Hardin, MT. Locals had hopes of housing Gitmo detainees in a nearby unused prison.
Little info is available about just who APF really is, or why they are in Hardin.
Now they’ve taken to patroling the town a la local police (there are none) and there are many unasked and unanswered questions.
Local reports don’t have much info either.
The US has developed, deployed and come to depend on mercenaries over the last 8+ years, who have no civilian allegiance, oversight or control. Now they are usurpting local authority.
And WHY is Senator Max Baucus allowing a paramilitary army to wander the streets with machine guns in his home state? Too busy spending all those Health Insurance Lobby graft-dollars ??
Update: more info here
The World Seed Conference: Good for farmers?
Health Freedom AllianceBy Robin Willoughby
Last week, in Rome, a little-known agricultural symposium took place – the World Seed Conference. The conference is held under the auspices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Although the conference does not receive much press, it is perhaps the most important conference to farmers in the developing world. Two themes were clearly depicted among the talks from UN figures, government officials, and industry representatives: technology enhanced seeds, and intellectual property rights on genetic resources in poorer countries.
The event turned out to be more or less a meeting among agricultural big wigs to figure out the best way to take advantage of small farmers in poor regions of the world. The biotech industry, along with big agri, are trying to tighten their grip on the world by extending their monopoly rights towards plants created by natural reproduction that cannot be easily manipulated by technology. The outcome of the conference may have a very negative effect on small-scale farmers in developing countries.
Rather than focusing on a collaborative approach to get the best genuine biodiversity and protecting the rights of farmers, much of the discussion over the week came from the industry leaders trying to exploit economically poor, environmentally rich countries. There were, however, a few examples throughout the week that focused on an alternative agricultural approach to sustainable biodiversity, but unfortunately many laws and regulations have already been put in place that only ensures profit to big agri and the biotech industry with little gain for the small farmer.
read more (scroll half-way down the page)
Good-bye No. American Union: the SPP is dead
by Murray Dobbin (from Canada)
“…Some on the left are so accustomed to losing that they make the claim the SPP will just re-emerge with another name. While some of the nastier initiatives are still in place, like energy “integration” and common regulations, a zip-locked North America is off the agenda. Now we have a weak version called the PPA — the Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas.
Top Censored Stories of 2009/2010
Top Censored Stories of 2009/2010
- 1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
- 2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s
- 3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates
- 4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
- 5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
- 6. Lobbyists Buy Congress
- 7. Obama’s Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past
- 8. Bailed out Banks and America’s Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions
- 9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
- 10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate
- 11. Private Corporations Profit from the Occupation of Palestine
- 12. Mysterious Death of Mike Connell—Karl Rove’s Election Thief
- 13. Katrina’s Hidden Race War
- 14. Congress Invested in Defense Contracts
- 15. World Bank’s Carbon Trade Fiasco
see Items 16 to 25 here
NYC Activists Unfurl 35-foot Banner on High Line to Protest Park’s Use of FSC-Certified Amazon Wood
“We think there are well-intentioned designers and architects who have no idea that the FSC certifies wood from ancient primary forests, including the Amazon”….Ipê trees are typically 250 to 1,000 years old and grow an average of one or two trees per acre.
Israeli Scientists Show How to Fake DNA Evidence
Telegraph DNA could be faked by criminals, new study claims
New scientific research has shown that it is possible to fake DNA evidence, raising fears that people could “engineer crime scenes”.
The findings threaten to undermine the key forensic technique, which has secured thousands of convictions in Britain and around the world.
In experiments, a team of Israeli scientists were able to obliterate all traces of DNA from a blood sample and add someone else’s genetic material in its place.
The Mystique of “Free-Market Guy” Obama
Obama has continued most of Bush’s anti-democratic policies and flubbed any attempts at “change.” Evidently his primary purpose is to convince the American people that Corporate Rule is unassailable. It’s not the first time Democrats have pursued popular policies in ways that are Designed to Fail.
By Jeff Cohen 09/24/09 “Information Clearing House“
“……Some activists still see Obama as a brilliant political superhero who — although maddeningly slow to fight back against his opponents — always manages to win in the end … like Muhammad Ali defeating George Foreman.
Risks of Nano-technology
According to the Organic Consumers Association, ” …the most dangerous hi-tech poison of them all {is}- nanotechnology. Read the rest of this entry »
Wake-up Call 