Palin defends hiding McCain’s name | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Palin defends hiding McCain’s name

Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said she cut short her Hawaii vacation because of paparazzi, who photographed her wearing a sun visor with the name of John McCain blacked out.

“In an attempt to ‘go incognito,’ I Sharpied the logo out on my sun visor so photographers would be less likely to recognize me and bother my kids or other vacationers,” Palin said in a statement. “I am so sorry if people took this silly incident the wrong way. I adore John McCain.”

Palin defends hiding McCain__146_s name | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.

The Amazing Maze of US Health Care » The Silenced Majority

Amazing seems a most appropriate word to describe the financing and delivery of health care services in the United States of America.
James L. McGee, CEBS--On Health Care Reform

The Silenced Majority

Howard Dean says the health bill would do more harm than good.

Bill Clinton says “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

How did we get this close to health care reform legislation, but many progressives believe that it could actually do more harm than good.

Because the “progressive” position was already a compromised position?

Because “single payer” was never on the table.  Because political operatives and policy makers didn’t trust the American people.

The current health care debate certainly demonstrates the power of money over popular sentiment.  But could it be that the power of money was so intimidating to some reformers that they chose to misrepresent public opinion?

Please Click Here to Read the Complete Article by Jim McGee » The Amazing Maze of US Health Care » Blog Archive » The Silenced Majority

GM corn health risks identified – General – North Queensland Register

16 Dec, 2009 03:45 PM

AN INTERNATIONAL study of three Monsanto genetically manipulated maize (corn) varieties shows clear evidence of health risks, according to anti-GM lobby group Gene Ethics.

It says that the study analysed data from 90-day rat feeding trials of: insecticide-producing Mon 810 and Mon 863 GM maize; and Roundup herbicide tolerant NK 603 GM maize.

Adverse impacts were found on the kidneys, livers and the dietary detoxifying organs of experimental rats, and also some damage to heart, adrenal glands, spleen and the haematopoietic system.

The research was conducted by French scientists from the universities of Caen and Rouen and is published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences.

According to Gene Ethics, the report shows the GM maize events contained novel pesticide residues that will also be present in human food and animal feed where they may pose grave health risks.

EU, Latin American Accord Ends Banana-Import Dispute – Bloomberg.com

Bloomberg

EU, Latin American Accord Ends Banana-Import Dispute (Update1)

By Jennifer M. Freedman

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — The European Union and Latin American countries including Ecuador and Guatemala reached an agreement over the EU’s banana-import policies, settling the longest-running dispute at the World Trade Organization.

Under the deal secured today, which also has U.S. backing, the EU will cut duties on bananas from Latin America to 114 euros ($166) a metric ton from 176 euros over seven years, the European Commission said in a statement from Brussels. The change means banana prices in the EU will drop 11 percent while Latin American producers will see exports climb, said Giovanni Anania, a professor at the University of Calabria in Italy.

“The clear winner will be the Latin American countries, because they will expand their exports to the EU by roughly 17 percent,” he said in a telephone interview. “Total exports of bananas from Latin America to all markets will increase by 3.2 percent” while producers in African and Caribbean countries will see shipments of the fruit to the EU decline 14 percent.

Companies and consumers in the U.S. will also be affected, Anania said. Exports from companies such as Dole Food Co. and Chiquita Brands International Inc. that grow and ship bananas from Latin America will increase while the supply of the fruit in the U.S. will drop, “driving up prices minimally,” he said.

How the Senate bill would contain the cost of health care : The New Yorker

Dept. of Medicine

Testing, Testing

The health-care bill has no master plan for curbing costs. Is that a bad thing?

by Atul Gawande
December 14, 2009

In medicine, as in agriculture, efficiency cannot be achieved by fiat.

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Cost is the spectre haunting health reform. For many decades, the great flaw in the American health-care system was its unconscionable gaps in coverage. Those gaps have widened to become graves—resulting in an estimated forty-five thousand premature deaths each year—and have forced more than a million people into bankruptcy. The emerging health-reform package has a master plan for this problem. By establishing insurance exchanges, mandates, and tax credits, it would guarantee that at least ninety-four per cent of Americans had decent medical coverage. This is historic, and it is necessary. But the legislation has no master plan for dealing with the problem of soaring medical costs. And this is a source of deep unease.

Health-care costs are strangling our country. Medical care now absorbs eighteen per cent of every dollar we earn. Between 1999 and 2009, the average annual premium for employer-sponsored family insurance coverage rose from $5,800 to $13,400, and the average cost per Medicare beneficiary went from $5,500 to $11,900. The costs of our dysfunctional health-care system have already helped sink our auto industry, are draining state and federal coffers, and could ultimately imperil our ability to sustain universal coverage.

Water staff: Restore one of 19 streams – The Maui News

maui-news-ad

Attorney for taro farmers calls recommendations ‘ludicrous’
By CHRIS HAMILTON, Staff Writer

POSTED: December 13, 2009

WAILUKU – In what appears to be a blow to East Maui Native Hawaiian taro farmers and environmentalists – and a potential much-needed win for struggling Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. – the state Commission on Water Resource Management staff has recommended that water diverted by HC&S be restored to only one of the 19 streams it uses to irrigate its sugar crop.

The staff findings are only recommendations, but Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. attorneys said on Saturday that they believe the seven-member commission will rely heavily on the staff assessments and recommendations when it renders its decision, most likely during a public meeting scheduled for Wednesday in Paia.

The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. at the Paia Community Center with a staff presentation and time for questions from Water Resource Management Commission members, Chairwoman Laura Thielen said on Saturday. Thielen is also director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The public will get a chance to testify beginning at 1 p.m., and Thielen said she expects her fellow commissioners to reach a consensus that evening or the next day, depending on how many people want to speak.

Thielen said she received the 56-page report, signed by Deputy Director Ken Kawahara, last week.

Thielen said she thinks that the staff "did a very good, very thorough job," but she will listen to other commissioners’ questions and public testimony before making a decision on how she will cast her own vote on the issue. She also noted that the Native Hawaiian groups did get more than 12 million gallons of water a day restored to streams in the same watershed last year through an almost identical commission process.

Drought puts Big Isle and Maui on federal disaster list – Hawaii News – Starbulletin.com

star

By Helen Altonn

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 12, 2009

Hawaii and Maui counties have been designated primary natural disaster areas because of losses caused by drought this year, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials announced.

"President Obama and I understand these conditions caused severe damage to these areas and serious harm to farms in Hawaii, and we want to help," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "This action will provide help to hundreds of farmers who suffered significant production losses to warm season grasses."

Some parts of Hawaii had a lot of rain the past month, but it fell mainly in places that do not have serious drought conditions, says Kevin Kodama, senior service hydrologist at the Honolulu Forecast Office.

DROUGHT IN THE ISLANDS

Hawaii County
» Extreme drought: South Kohala
» Severe drought: Kau, North and South Kona
» Moderate drought: Lower Kona slopes (Honaunau to Kalaoa)

Maui County
» Severe drought: Central and West Maui, West Molokai
» Moderate drought: East Molokai, Lanai

Source: National Weather Service

Portions of the Big Island did not receive much rain, and they are still hurting from drought, said the National Weather Service meteorologist.

Hawaii’s wet season is from October through April, but Kodama and Jim Weyman, meteorologist-in-charge of the Honolulu Forecast Office, said in October it would be drier-than-normal from mid-December through April because of El Nino conditions.

An El Nino is a weather phenomenon in the equatorial Pacific with unusually warm sea surface temperatures that affect climate worldwide.

The Big Island’s South Kohala district had the sixth consecutive month of extreme drought in November, Kodama said. Some improvement occurred with rain in the early part of the month — from extreme drought to severe drought, he said.

Then it got windy, and farm agents said the winds "dried things out quick," Kodama said.

That window of opportunity to pull out of the drought is closing, he said.

Climate models have been pretty consistent in predicting drier-than-nomal conditions through the spring, Kodama said.

The Amazing Maze of US Health Care » Expanding Medicare – Good or Bad Idea?

Amazing seems a most appropriate word to describe the financing and delivery of health care services in the United States of America.
James L. McGee, CEBS--On Health Care Reform

Expanding Medicare – Good or Bad Idea?

The Senate Dems are talking about expanding Medicare.  Well, expanding Medicare to people over 55.  Um, expanding Medicare to some people over 55.  Er, expanding Medicare to some people over 55 who can afford to pay the price.

Is this a good idea, or part of a good idea? What and Why?

What is it?

The details are sketchy at this point.   The so-called expansion of Medicare is tied to discussions about killing the public option because that insurance company lackey, Senator Joe Lieberman (I, CN), could otherwise kill health care reform demanded by the majority of Americans.

And those right wing nut cases think we lefties are jamming health care reform down their throats?

Expanding Medicare has some appeal, but the Senate solution, like so many Congressional fixes, manages to muck it up.

We turn to the New York Times

The New York Times offered a variety of perspectives on the issue.

Please Click Here to Read the Complete Article by Jim McGee » The Amazing Maze of US Health Care » Expanding Medicare – Good or Bad Idea?