Bad Deeds for 2-27-2012

Republican Representative Says “Killing a Couple” of Democrats Only Way To Pass Ryan Budget – Oklahoma Republican John Sullivan told the crowd, “Like I said, after this last election, the first order of business is pass a budget. Now, I believe that. I supported the Paul Ryan budget and sent it over to the Senate. Now I live with some Senators, I yell at them all the time, I grabbed one of them the other day and shook him and I’d love to get them to vote for it — boy I’d love that. You know but other than me going over there with a gun and holding it to their head and maybe killing a couple of them, I don’t think they’re going to listen unless they get beat.”

Incited by politicians and pundits, the 2010 elections saw a surge in violent outbursts, both at candidate events and, prior to that, during fights against health care reform. But politicos shied away from violent rhetoric for a long time after the assassination attempt on Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who, prior to the shooting, was pegged as a “target” with crosshairs by Sarah Palin’s PAC in the 2010 elections. But the moratorium appears to be reaching an end. Last month, five Missouri Democrats found crosshair stickers on their nameplates at their offices in Jefferson City. And the Kansas Speaker of the House was recently chastised for what some construed as “praying” for the president’s death.

Texas Republicans Take Away Health Care From 130,00 Poor Women – Texas Republicans effectively killed off one of the state’s most successful public health initiatives as part of the ongoing crusade to strip funds from Planned Parenthood. The Republicans crafted a new rule that is designed to exclude Planned Parenthood from participation in the Women’s Health Program. The WHP is a Medicaid-waiver program that provides basic healthcare and family planning services to low-income and uninsured women who would not otherwise be eligible for Medicaid unless pregnant. WHP was designed to increase access to preventative health care for women and to reduce the number of births paid by Medicaid.

It’s done both with great success. Texas currently has about 1,600 WHP providers located across the state and in 2010 Planned Parenthood served 46% of all WHP clients, estimated at more than 84,000 women.

Planned Parenthood effectively provides half of all WHP services across the state of Texas, which is no small service in a state where more than half of all births are paid for Medicaid. In 2007, the first year of the program, the WHP served 91,683 women; by 2010 the program served 183,537 women. Those are women who would otherwise end up on Medicaid because of their pregnancy.

Those gains are now at risk. The rule approved today redefines the word “affiliate” in order to exclude any Planned Parenthood clinic from participation in WHP by defining “affiliate” so that Planned Parenthood clinics that do not perform abortions are considered affiliates of clinics that do, even if that affiliation is nothing more than a shared name.

Upper-Class People More Likely to Cheat According to Study – People from the wealthy upper classes are more likely than poorer folks to break laws while driving, take candy from children and lie for financial gain, said a US study on Monday.

The seven-part study by psychologists at the University of California Berkeley and the University of Toronto analyzed people’s behavior through a series of experiments.

For instance, drivers of expensive vehicles such as Mercedes, BMW and Toyota’s Prius hybrid were seen breaking the rules more often at four-way intersections than people who drove a Camry or Corolla. They were also more likely to cut off pedestrians trying to cross the street than drivers of cheaper cars.In another test using a game of dice, given the opportunity to win a $50 prize, people who self-reported high socio-economic status were more likely to lie and say that they had rolled higher numbers than they actually had.

“Even in people for whom $50 is a relatively small amount of money, cheating was three times as high,” said lead author Paul Piff of UC Berkeley.

“It really shows the extreme lengths to which wealth and upper rank status in society can shape patterns of self-interest and unethicality,” he told AFP.
In other studies, people with higher status were less likely to tell the truth in a hypothetical job negotiation in which they were the employer trying to hire someone for a job they knew was soon to be eliminated.

And when given a jar of candy that they were told was for children in a nearby lab — though they could take some if they wanted — the richest people took more candy than anyone else.

According to Piff, people with more money tend to look more positively on greed and rely less on family and friend networks for support in times of need, and this elevated status tends to disconnect them from society.
“It is that very different level of privilege in your everyday life that gives rise to this independence from others, this reduced sensitivity to the impact of your behavior on others’ welfare, and the prioritization of your self-interest,” he said.

Rupert Murdoch’s ‘Sun’ Newspaper Found to be Illegally Paying Sources – Journalists at Britain’s Sun newspaper paid large sums of cash to corrupt public officials, aware the practice was criminal, an inquiry into press ethics heard on Monday, revelations that could prove damaging to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire (which includes Fox News).

The police officer heading three criminal inquires centered on Murdoch’s British newspaper arm, News International, said, “There appears to have been a culture at the Sun of illegal payments, and systems have been created to facilitate those payments whilst hiding the identity of officials receiving the money.”

The disclosure could damage Murdoch’s News Corp if it gives ammunition to the FBI and other American government agencies that have stepped up their hunt for signs of illegality at the U.S.-based company.

Regards,

Jim