Healthcare

by Linda Milazzo

Sometimes you just know when something's not right. You see it, or hear it, and you know instinctively there's something missing. You sense a faint beat where there should be a strong heart. You see a short phrase where there should be a full story. That happened to me just over a year ago in the early afternoon of April 24, 2009, when I saw the Los Angeles screening of THE SOLOIST, helmed by British director Joe Wright. The film just wasn't right.

The Obama Administration has unleashed its Federal Election Commission attacks dogs on Campaign for Liberty. They know our efforts to fight back against their statist power-grabs are succeeding and they want to shut us down.

By filling out the Declaration of Support below, you are sending a clear message to the Washington power structure that you will not be silenced. Go directly to Campaign for Liberty website. Or, read on

Email excerpt:

This battle is over a very fundamental idea - that Campaign for Liberty and our members should have a voice in lobbying their legislators and exposing the radical views of candidates for office.

Exposing what they're up to - that's what the powers that be can't stand. That's because they don't want Americans to know:

• Congress is spending at a record pace and has now left us over 13 TRILLION dollars in debt, with no end in sight.
• The out of control FED has not accounted for nearly 2 trillion dollars and has doubled our monetary base, risking our entire economy.
• The federal government has imposed a mandate that every American either purchase a health care product the Feds approve of, costing tens of thousands of dollars, or risk fines and jail time.
• The federal government has attempted to take away your 1st, 2nd and 4th Amendment rights, all in the past year, with more certainly to come.

We're exposing them - and holding them accountable as they come back home to seek reelection.

Of course, this may not sound like the end of the world. But just think: the FEC has an ARMY of lawyers and a budget of nearly $70 MILLION dollars. That's a lot of lawyers. Go to "Declaration of Support."

Comparison of outpatient health care utilization among returning women and men Veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq

Hear the horrors of the front lines and behind scenes workings of the BP Gulf Oil Spill Catastrophe.

Congress Questions Military Leaders on Suicides, Traumatic Brain Injury
by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, and Daniel Zwerdling, NPR | ProPublica

Senators pressed senior military leaders today to improve their efforts to address traumatic brain injuries, suicide and other wounds suffered by soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Responding to what he called "disconcerting" reports by NPR and ProPublica, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the military needed to better address the wide range of medical and behavioral problems affecting troops.

Earlier this month, we reported [1] that the military was failing to diagnose and adequately treat troops with brain injuries. Since 2002, official military figures show more than 115,000 soldiers have suffered mild traumatic brain injuries, also called concussions, which leave no visible scars but can cause lasting problems with memory, concentration and other cognitive functions.

But the unpublished studies that we obtained and the experts that we talked to said that military screens were missing tens of thousands of additional cases. We also talked to soldiers at one of the military's largest bases [2], who complained of trouble getting treatment. Read more.

Obama warns health insurers not to hike rates | Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama warned insurance firms on Tuesday not to use his healthcare overhaul as an opportunity to enact big rate increases and said the federal government would work with states to monitor them.

"Insurance companies ... shouldn't see it as an opportunity to enact unjustifiable rate increases," Obama said, after meeting with state officials and insurance company executives.

Obama said companies must publicly justify any rate increases on both the federal health Web site and their own sites, adding that there are "genuine cost drivers that are not caused by insurance companies." Read more.

Survey of People Who Purchase Their Own Insurance | Kaiser Family Foundation

While most people in the U.S. get health insurance through their employer, about 14 million people under age 65 have coverage through the non-group or individual market, which has faced scrutiny recently in news reports about some insurers’ steep rate increases and in the market reforms in the new health reform law that will take effect in 2014.

This survey provides insight into the current state of the non-group market and finds policyholders report that their insurers most recently requested premium increases averaging 20 percent. Most say they paid the increase, but some say they switched plans, either buying a less expensive policy from their current insurer or switching companies altogether.

The survey also provides national data on the average premiums and deductibles reported by people who buy their own coverage in the non-group market. It examines policyholders' views and experiences with non-group coverage and a focused look at the issues facing policyholders with pre-existing conditions.

The survey involved a nationally representative random sample of 1,038 people ages 18-64 who purchase their own health coverage, conducted between March 19 and April 2, 2010. Read the report.

Thanks to us and NATO now occupying instead of helping them after we drove the Taliban out, once more we walked away from them, and now we expect some sort of victory!!!

Afghan opiate use has doubled in 5 years, UN says

21 June 2010 Drug addicts as young as a month old. Mothers who calm their children by blowing opium smoke in their faces. Whole communities hooked on heroin with few opportunities for treatment.

Use of opiates such as heroin and opium has doubled in Afghanistan in the last five years, the U.N. said Monday, as hundreds of thousands of Afghans turn to drugs to escape the misery of poverty and war.

This first is a cut of one I just posted, elsewhere, to show at least a little of what has been going on. But as to this agency I have added just a few, and there's plenty more, links to how the previous administration as well as the republican controlled congresses nearly gutted OSHA, but it isn't only OSHA as we've seen as to regulations and the countries well being, they had eight plus years to nearly destroy everything about this once envied country and it's innovations, workforce and research etc.!

AMA: House of Delegates Backs Ban on Shackling Inmates in Labor
By Emily Walker | ABC News

"Shackling women in labor runs counter to our values," said delegate Dr. Erin Tracy, an Ob/Gyn from Stoneham, Mass. "It's dehumanizing," she commented during a Sunday hearing of the AMA's legislative committee. Female inmates "need to be provided adequate compassionate care."

The American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a resolution to prohibit the shackling of women during labor -- a practice outlawed in seven states but still used in some prisons and hospitals for inmates who are giving birth.

The resolution was introduced by a group of ObGyns along with several state medical societies and adopted by the AMA's full House of Delegates on Tuesday by a voice vote.

California, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Vermont, and Colorado all have laws discouraging the practice of shackling female inmates during labor. The AMA's resolution calls on the doctors' group to write draft legislation that other states could use as a model to pass their own antishackling laws. Read more.

Gray Panthers Oppose Nancy Pelosi On Health Care Bill
By Joan Wile

The fight for a single payer health care bill is not over, if the Gray Panthers have anything to do with it. In no uncertain terms, they told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's staff on May 26 that the so-called "reform" health care legislation was not acceptable to their organization. Although there are a few aspects of the bill that they deem adequate, for the most part they cannot support it.

"Since 1970, the Gray Panthers have always fought for a single payer system, and we are still committed to that objective," said Susan Murany, Executive Secretary of the group, who attended the meeting in Pelosi's office, along with others representing organizations advocating for seniors.

Ms. Murany explained to the Speaker's staff that the Panthers demand a Single Payer system or, at the very least, a Public Option plan with teeth -- one for EVERYbody only. That is certainly not the case now, inasmuch as there is no public option at all in the current bill.

The other participants at the meeting in the Speaker's office, all leading organizations dedicated to seniors' issues, did not oppose the new legislation openly. Only Ms. Murany objected, expressing the Panthers' dissatisfaction and their resolve to keep struggling for a single payer system.

What we brought to the Iraqi People, as we have others, for no reason, and what we'll once again walk away from, as we have others, not just the present mental issues but the present to long lasting physical results, happening to many at any time even those yet born, of occupations!!

100 psychiatrists serve nation of 30 million psychologically shattered by war

Military Neglecting Fort Hood Soldiers' Medical Needs
By Dahr Jamail | Truthout

At least 50 soldiers from Fort Hood who have medical profiles that should prohibit them from military training have been sent to the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California, regardless of their conditions.

Truthout spoke with some of these soldiers on June 7, before they were to fly back to Fort Hood the next day.

"We were brought out here to NTC after being told we would be given some of the best medical treatment out here," a soldier who is an Iraq war veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD), speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared military reprisals, told Truthout. "But when we were here at Ft. Irwin, nobody would see us. It took my wife calling the Chaplain to get my medication refilled. We've gone a month without seeing a psychiatrist. Some of us see them weekly, some twice a week and we haven't been able to receive any of this."

This, despite the soldier having been given his PTSD diagnosis by the military itself. Read more.

After the first part of the report by Danny Zwerdling and T. Christian Miller of NPR and ProPublica there was the following, before the second part, that aired on the NPR show 'Talk of the Nation'.

Army Responds To Brain Injury Investigation

Guests Danny Zwerdling, NPR national desk correspondent and Gen. Peter Chiarelli, U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff

June 9, 2010 An NPR investigation found that the U.S. military often fails to diagnose traumatic brain injuries in troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The investigation also revealed that many soldiers receive little or no treatment for lingering health problems after suffering brain injuries.

NPR Player to stream discussion

The patients they care for!

I'm not going to add much to this, it explains itself and many nurses around the country know what's going on, I'm not a nurse. I have heard from friends who are as this was building to today, and many of them are unemployed, some for long periods, and get find jobs, in what's been touted as one area of the economy in dire need of, because of what the Hospitals have been doing to those nurses still working and others. Hospital have become, like the rest of the businesses and more, Industries, that which they shouldn't be!

The corporate mindset we've seen develop over the last three decades is well embedded in all the industries and Hospitals, like Schools, All Education, should Not Be Industries!! But we've been watching the mindset these last couple of years as it collapsed, Wall Street, Banks,Auto,Oil.................................you name it!

Combat's Hidden Toll: 1 in 10 Soldiers Report Mental Health Problems
Soldiers Report PTSD Symptoms and Other Mental Health Problems
By Kim Carollo | ABC News

"A high number of those that had symptoms of PTSD and depression also reported some aspect of impairment," said Jeffrey L. Thomas, one of the study's co-authors. "The range was about 9 to 14 percent." Depression rates ranged from 5 percent to 8.5 percent. But by using a less stringent definition of PTSD, they found between 20 and 30 percent of soldiers showed symptoms of PTSD, while they found between 11.5 to 16 percent of them were depressed.

Even though he's retired from active military duty, CSM Samuel Rhodes still suffers from deep emotional wounds.

"I had to take this afternoon off from work today because of anxiety," he said. "And sometimes, if I'm going through a really tough time, I think about suicide."

He spent nearly 30 years in the Army and recently spent 30 straight months deployed in Iraq where he, like many soldiers, witnessed some of the horrors of war.

"In April 2005, it started to eat me up because I started losing one soldier after another," Rhodes said. "We lost 37 soldiers that were in my unit." Read more.

Daniel Zwerdling {link takes you to a page of his reports}, of NPR, has been doing stellar investigative reporting on PTSD and TBI, now for a number of years, as the two occupations we're engaged in continued on. It took the media a few years to finally grasp what was already known as to the results of War on the soldiers we send. Even with the some four decades of many of us Vietnam Veterans, as well as other Veterans, and the Civilians who recognized those results and have been speaking out about. Like everything else the public either ignored or certainly didn't want to hear. We didn't have the present day technology and sadly it's taking two more long occupations for the realities to finally speak of what happens and reach more and more people who now can't ignore.

On May 5, 2009, 8 health advocates stood up to the members of the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Senator Max Baucus, to expose the exclusion of the health reform favored by the majority of people in America: a single payer/national improved Medicare for All health program. Industry lobbyists were invited to testify before the committee while single payer leaders were excluded despite a request to participate. The advocates, who became known as the Baucus 8, gathered one year later to discuss their motivations for speaking out on that day.

Please view this short video and check out the longer piece linked at the end if you would like to learn more about getting involved in the movement for true health reform:

Fraudulent study used to sell Obama health plan
By Patrick Martin | WSWS

Only one thing is lacking in this debunking of the Dartmouth Atlas—a single word about the role played by the New York Times itself, both in its news pages and editorially, in promoting the Dartmouth study as part of its year-long effort to present the Obama health care program as a progressive social reform, and disguise its essentially reactionary character as an exercise in cost-cutting and medical rationing.

An article published in the New York Times Thursday notes the rising volume of criticism by health care professionals of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, a study purporting to show that much of the health care service provided by US hospitals is misguided and unnecessary and that major cuts can be made in health care costs without impairing patient care.

The study was touted by the Obama administration as part of its campaign to pass its health care reform legislation, with budget director Peter Orzag citing the study repeatedly to support his claim that up to $700 billion in annual US health care spending is “waste” that could be eliminated without hurting patients.

The World Socialist Web Site has written on the fundamentally fraudulent methodology of the Dartmouth study, which is limited to Medicare patients during the final six months or two years of their lives thus excluding positive outcomes for treatment that extends life for a longer period, and which ignores regional variations in patient illnesses, hospital wage rates and similar costs. (See “The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care study: Shoddy science in support of health care cuts.”) The WSWS also interviewed prominent medical critics of the Dartmouth approach, including Dr. Richard Cooper and Dr. Michael Ong. Read more.

Government Report Finds Dangerous Residues in Meat
By Martha Rosenberg | Alternet

Many food consumers worry about pathogens like E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria in their meat. But according to a new government report, they should worry more about veterinary drugs, pesticides and heavy metals in their food.

A new Office of Inspector General (OIG) report released last month finds the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) fails to test for many drugs in cattle, inadequately tests for others and fails to recall meat which is clearly contaminated.

“Between July 12, 2007, and March 11, 2008, FSIS found that four carcasses were adulterated with violative levels of veterinary drugs and that the plants involved had released the meat into the food supply. Although the drugs involved could result in stomach, nerve, or skin problems for consumers, FSIS requested no recall,” says the report.

Drugs cached on the national dinner plate may include antibiotics like penicillin, florfenicol, sulfamethazine and sulfadimethoxine, the anti-parasite drug Ivermectin, the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug flunixin and heavy metals says OIG, which oversees Department of Health and Human Services programs. Read more.

Lawsuit Seeks Full Disclosure of Dispersant Impacts on Gulf’s Endangered Wildlife
By Center for Biological Diversity | Common Dreams

The Center for Biological Diversity today filed an official notice of its intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for authorizing the use of toxic dispersants without ensuring that these chemicals would not harm endangered species and their habitats. The letter requests that the agency, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, immediately study the effects of dispersants on species such as sea turtles, sperm whales, piping plovers, and corals and incorporate this knowledge into oil-spill response efforts.

"The Gulf of Mexico has become Frankenstein's laboratory for BP's enormous, uncontrolled experiment in flooding the ocean with toxic chemicals," said Andrea Treece, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The fact that no one in the federal government ever required that these chemicals be proven safe for this sort of use before they were set loose on the environment is inexcusable."

Dispersants are chemicals used to break oil spills into tiny droplets. In theory, this allows the oil to be eaten by microorganisms and become diluted faster than it would otherwise. However, the effects of using large quantities of dispersants and injecting them into very deep water, as BP has done in the Gulf of Mexico, have never been studied. Researchers suspect that underwater oil plumes, measuring as much as 20 miles long and extending dozens of miles from the leaking rig, are the result of dispersants keeping the oil below the surface.

On May 24, EPA Administrator Jackson expressed concern over the environmental unknowns of dispersants, which include the long-term effects on aquatic life. Nonetheless, the federal government has allowed BP to pump nearly 1 million gallons of dispersants into the Gulf of Mexico. Read more.

By Linda Milazzo

For eight hellish years, Bush and Cheney ruled America by fear. Images of Osama Bin Laden were drawn on us like weapons. Terror. Terrorism. Terrorists. War. Fear. Warfare. This was the Bush/Cheney mantra that kept Americans in despair.

Today, because of their tactics, our nation is in tatters, with wars not jobs, bombs not books, and warfare not health care. America lacks the resources to confront immediate dangers that have nothing to do with bin Laden: hurricanes, oil spills, floods, tornadoes, unfunded education, decaying infrastructure, exorbitant health costs, corporate greed, and more. Because of partisan politics and hawks like California Congresswoman Harman, more dollars are spent on unending wars than are spent on education. Perhaps you've seen this expenditure chart based on our 2009 taxes:

Extreme Medicine Gets Pentagon Push; Human Trials Rushed
By Katie Drummond | Wired

Some of the most debilitating war injuries, from lost limbs to mangled muscle tissue to permanent burn scars, could soon benefit from cutting-edge regenerative procedures.

Human clinical trials of the latest in extreme regenrative medicine — including bone-fusing cement and muscle-growing cell scaffolds — are being fast-tracked, thanks to an extra $12 million in funding from the Department of Defense.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are working on some of the most promising Pentagon-backed medical research projects. Just last month, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen visited the university’s labs to see the science firsthand. And despite the looming threat of a shrinking Pentagon budget, he told them that “10 years doesn’t satisfy any of us,” where clinical trials were concerned.

And that’s exactly what this funding infusion is going to address. Dr. B.J. Costello, the lead researcher behind the university’s bone cement project, told Danger Room that the Pentagon’s contract is meant “to catapult us forward.” Costello’s program was expected to be in human clinical trials in 5-7 years. With the new grant, it’ll be more like 12 months to 2 years. Read more.

Did War Vet Kill Self To Make A Statement?
By Lucas Sullivan and Margo Rutledge Kissell, Staff Writers | Dayton Daily News

The suicide rate among 18- to 29-year-old men who have left the military has gone up significantly, the government said in January. The rate for those veterans rose 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to data released by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Jesse Charles Huff walked up to the Veterans Affairs Department’s Medical Center on Friday morning wearing U.S. Army fatigues and battling pain from his Iraq war wounds and a recent bout with depression.

The 27-year-old Dayton man had entered the center’s emergency room about 1 a.m. Friday and requested some sort of treatment. But Huff did not get that treatment, police said, and about 5:45 a.m. he reappeared at the center’s entrance, put a military-style rifle to his head and twice pulled the trigger.

Huff fell near the foot of a Civil War statue, his blood covering portions of the front steps.

Police would not specify what treatment Huff sought and why he did not receive it. Medical Center spokeswoman Donna Simmons declined to answer questions about Huff’s treatment, citing privacy laws. But police believe Huff killed himself to make a statement.

Scott Labensky, whose son lived with Huff, agreed. He said the veteran was injured by a ground blast while serving in Iraq and received ongoing treatment for a back injury and depression. Read more.

By Linda Milazzo

Americans spoke out loudly this past Tuesday. In two of the nation's most anticipated primaries, the Sestak vs. Specter Democratic primary in Pennsylvania and the Paul vs. Greyson Republican primary in Kentucky, the party underlings defeated their party leaders' choices and demolished the status quo. On the Democratic side, despite the full throttle barrage for Specter by Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey and Governor Ed Rendell, Congressional upstart Joe Sestak beat three decade incumbent Arlen Specter by 54 to 46 percent.

In Kentucky, political neophyte, libertarian extremist, and tea party enthusiast, Rand Paul, clobbered the hand picked candidate of Senator Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican in D.C. The results of both elections send an earsplitting message to the leadership of America's two dominant parties, that warns: 'Your choices, endorsements and power don't matter. We're electing who WE want.'

Thom Hartmann Show audio of PDA's Tim Carpenter on the success of Brown Bag Vigils

American Heart: Wisconsin Man Starts 'Good Food' Revolution
One Man's Passion for Urban Farming Has the White House Taking Note
By Chris Bury and Jessica Hopper | ABC News

Will Allen is a towering figure in his Milwaukee, Wisconsin, field. Working as a farmer, missionary and coach, he preaches the gospel of good food grown in the heart of the city.

"Our new farmers will not come from rural America," Allen said.

As president of the nonprofit organization Growing Power, Allen promotes urban farming among diverse groups in the inner city.

Farming Is in His Blood

Farming is in Allen's blood. Allen's parents worked as sharecroppers in South Carolina. Allen, 61, grew up on a small farm in Maryland. He played pro basketball in his 20s and then toiled in the corporate world. Then, 18 years ago, he spotted a tiny 5-acre farm, the last one left in Milwaukee.

"There was a sign, 'for sale,' for this place and something made me stop," Allen said.

Now, Allen and 40 farmhands grow 160 different crops in solar-powered greenhouses. They also raise fish and house a full barnyard of animals.

"We grow enough food to feed 10,000 people," Allen said. Read more.

At What Cost? BP Spill Responders Told to Forgo Precautionary Health Measures in Cleanup
By Riki Ott | Huffington Post

Local fishermen hired to work on BP's uncontrolled oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico are scared and confused. Fishermen here and in other small communities dotting the southern marshes and swamplands of Barataria Bay are getting sick from the working on the cleanup, yet BP is assuring them they don't need respirators or other special protection from the crude oil, strong hydrocarbon vapors, or chemical dispersants being sprayed in massive quantities on the oil slick.

Fishermen have never seen the results from the air-quality monitoring patches some of them wear on their rain gear when they are out booming and skimming the giant oil slick. However, more and more fishermen are suffering from bad headaches, burning eyes, persistent coughs, sore throats, stuffy sinuses, nausea, and dizziness. They are starting to suspect that BP is not telling them the truth.

And based on air monitoring conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a Louisiana coastal community, those workers seem to be correct. The EPA findings show that airborne levels of toxic chemicals like hydrogen sulfide, and volatile organic compounds like benzene, for instance, now far exceed safety standards for human exposure.

For two weeks, I've been in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama sharing stories from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which devastated the community I lived and commercially fished in, with everyone from fishermen and women to local mayors to state governors and the crush of international media.

During the 1989 cleanup in Alaska, thousands of workers had what Exxon medical doctors called, "the Valdez Crud," and dismissed as simple colds and flu. Fourteen years later, I followed the trail of sick workers through the maze of court records, congressional records, obituaries, and media stories, and made hundreds of phone calls. I found a different story. As one former cleanup worker put it, "I thought I had the Valdez Crud in 1989. I didn't think I'd have it for fourteen years." Read more.