Ousted Ex-Hospital CEO Battles Health-Care Reform Effort – Rick Scott is the millionaire Republican who is heading up Conservatives for Patients’ Rights (CPR), a new group that plans to spend around $20 million to kill President Obama’s efforts at healthcare reform. Having Scott lead the charge against healthcare reform is like tapping Bernie Madoff to campaign against tighter securities regulation. He promised to put nonprofit hospitals out of business and touted his company’s single-minded pursuit of profit as a model for the nation’s entire healthcare system.
Scott’s company, Columbia/HCA, fudged the costs on their Medicare expense reports, recalls John Schilling, who worked for Columbia/HCA in the 1990s. They were “basically keeping two sets of books,” says Schilling. The company would maintain an internal expense report, what it called a “reserve” report, which accurately tallied its expenses. “And then they would have a second report, which…they would file with the government, which was more aggressive.” That report would “include inflated costs and expenses they knew weren’t allowable or reimbursable. The one they filed with government might claim $5 million and the reserve would claim $4.5.” Columbia/HCA would pocket the difference.
Former Republican Presidential Candidate Believes to Follow Jesus, We Don’t Really Have to Follow Jesus – Gary Bauer, a former Republican presidential candidate affiliated with several Christian right groups over the years, said the discussion should not come down to “Would Jesus torture? There are a lot of things Jesus wouldn’t do because he’s the son of God,” he said. “I can’t imagine Jesus being a Marine or a policeman or a bank president, for that matter. The more appropriate question is, ‘What is a follower of Jesus permitted to do?'”
“There is a version of Christianity in America that I think is not adequately committed to the Bible’s teachings about the sacredness of every human life, including the lives of our enemies,” said David Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University in Atlanta and president of Evangelicals for Human Rights. “It’s also insufficiently committed to the peacemaking teachings of Jesus and the example of Jesus as one who did not resort to violence or cruelty to accomplish any of his goals and instead suffered violence instead of inflicting it.”
Republicans Block Obama Pick for Interior No. 2 Post – Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s pick for the No. 2 job at the Interior Department on Wednesday in a dispute over oil and gas development on federal lands, but Democrats vowed they would soon make a second attempt to win confirmation. The 57-39 vote was three short of the 60 needed to advance David Hayes past Republican objections.
Senate Democrats, who were joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at the Capitol on Wednesday, said the move was an effort to stall the new administration from carrying out its agenda. Near the top of the list is cleaning up a department that in recent years has been embroiled in scandals that included contract rigging and instances of employees having romantic relationships with workers at oil companies doing business with the government.
“It may be uncomfortable for some to watch us have to clean up mess after mess – from corruption to lawbreaking – that is the previous administration’s legacy at Interior, but to cast a vote against such a qualified and fine person is the height of cynicism,” Salazar said in a statement following the vote.
The End of The Internet As You Know It – Cable companies Time Warner and Comcast, and phone giants AT&T and Verizon sell the vast majority of high-speed Internet service in the United States. Phone and cable companies like these have no other competition in 97% of US markets, thanks to corrupt policies passed by the Bush Administration at the companies’ behest.
These duopolies are betting on the future of their “triple-play” phone-Internet-TV service, so that you’ll pay them more than $100 per month and they can keep earning record profits. They know that if you start downloading video from online innovators like Hulu.com and Roku.com, eventually you won’t need their expensive, advertising-ridden television service. If you decide to use online phone providers like Skype, you won’t need their expensive phone service. The answer? Jack up the cost of Internet, and once again eliminate the competition. This is exhibit A for when we need government to establish and enforce consumer protections; the same brand of policies we needed to prevent the financial meltdown and protect New Orleans.
Get informed. Get involved.
Loss of Coral Region Could Displace 100 Million People – The world’s most important coral region is in danger of being wiped out by the end of this century unless fast action is taken, says a new report. The international conservation group WWF warns that 40% of reefs in the Coral Triangle have already been lost. The area is shared between Indonesia and five other South East Asian nations and is thought to contain 75% of the world’s coral species. If the world’s richest coral reef is destroyed, the fish that people rely on for food could be gone. By the end of the century, 100 million people across South East Asia could be on the march, looking for something to eat. Communities might be breaking down and economies destroyed. “We’ve fundamentally changed the way the planet works in terms of currents and this is only with a 0.7 degree change in terms of temperature,” said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg.
Regards,
Jim
Andy Hailey