Putting Out The Call!
Archive for December, 2009
How health lobbyists influenced reform bill
Dec 20th
By Andrew Zajac Tribune Newspapers
December 20, 2009 WASHINGTON – David Nexon had a big problem. An early version of national health care legislation contained a $40 billion tax aimed squarely at members of the medical device trade association he represents.
Nexon, a former adviser to the late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, went to work. He marshaled 14 people like himself — lobbyists who were once congressional aides, many of them from staffs of congressional leaders or committees that had a hand in crafting the health care overhaul.
When Senate Democrats unveiled their bill in mid-November, Nexon’s handiwork was evident. The tax on device-makers was still large — $20 billion — but only half what it might have been without the efforts of Nexon and his fellow lobbyists.
Nexon’s team is an illustration of how deeply the health care industry has embedded itself on Capitol Hill, using former aides of lawmakers and ex-lawmakers themselves.
An analysis of public documents by Northwestern University’s Medill News Service in partnership with the Tribune Newspapers Washington Bureau and the Center for Responsive Politics found a revolving door between Capitol Hill staffers and lobbying jobs for companies with a stake in health care legislation.
At least 166 former aides from the nine congressional leadership offices and five committees involved in shaping health overhaul legislation — along with at least 13 former lawmakers — registered to represent at least 338 health care clients since the beginning of last year, according to the analysis.
SHOW ME THE MONEY!
Dec 20th
Props to Brasscheck TV
Recently, the NYC District Attorneys Office was caught with unregistered accounts of over $150 million dollars. Since that revelation, a total of over $250 million in unregistered accounts has been uncovered scattered throughout the city’s agencies. Note this in only a preliminary, and very incomplete, calculation. It’s also what is known as a limited hang our. In other words, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s the part of the story they’re willing to share to immunize the public against the scope of the real story. Keep in mind NYC’s quarter of a billion dollar slush fund is just a partial number for just ONE city in just ONE state. How many states, counties and cities are there in the US? Over 54,000 cities, counties, states, agencies etc. Every single one of them has been playing this game and so has the federal government. It started after WW II.
“The Biggest Game InTown” about the Government CAFR wealth shell game
US Attack Kills 120 In Yemen
Dec 19th
Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike on Suspected “Terrorists”
By BRIAN ROSS, RICHARD ESPOSITO, MATTHEW COLE, LUIS MARTINEZ and KIRIT RADIA
December 18, 2009 “ABC News” — On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News in a report broadcast on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.
One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said “an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned.”
The Yemen attacks by the U.S. military represent a major escalation of the Obama administration’s campaign against al Qaeda.
In his speech about added troops for Afghanistan earlier this month, President Obama made a brief reference to Yemen, saying, “Where al Qaeda and its allies attempt to establish a foothold — whether in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere — they must be confronted by growing pressure and strong partnerships.”
Normalising the Crime of the Century
Dec 12th
By John Pilger
December 09, 2009 “Information Clearing House” — I tried to contact Mark Higson the other day only to learn he had died nine years ago. He was just 40, an honourable man. We met soon after he had resigned from the Foreign Office in 1991 and I asked him if the government knew that Hawk fighter-bombers sold to Indonesia were being used against civilians in East Timor.
Everyone knows, he said, except parliament and the public.
And the media?
The media, the big names have been invited to King Charles Street (the Foreign Office) and flattered and briefed with lies. They are no trouble.
As Iraq desk officer at the Foreign Office, he had drafted letters for ministers reassuring MPs and the public that the British Government was not arming Saddam Hussein. This was a downright lie, he said. I couldn’t bear it.
Giving evidence before the arms-to-Iraq enquiry, Higson was the only British official commended by Lord Justice Scott for telling the truth. The price he paid was the loss of his health and marriage and constant surveillance by spooks. He ended up living on benefits in a Birmingham bedsitter where he suffered a seizure, struck his head and died alone. Whistleblowers are often heroes; he was one.
Pearl Harbour as Japanese Blowback
Dec 8th
Props to Information Clearing House
The United States, its abandonment of law and worse
By Christopher King
Christopher King says that the United States has gone beyond lawlessness and inhumanity into pathologically vicious means of waging warfare. It has experienced blowback from its past actions and can expect more from its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pearl Harbour attack was blowback and current Japanese objections to US base arrangements might be the commencement of blowback from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Obama surge
December 08, 2009 Redress — We have entered a period of government lawlessness, led by the United States, with inevitably serious consequences for everyone. Nuclear war is a possibility. With climate change threatening the planet itself, we do not need this as well. Europe must cease supporting this berserk state. It needs to recover the vision, the spirit of goodwill and humanity that laid the foundations of the European Union. In following America, Europe has lost its way.
American behavior extends beyond inhumanity into viciousness. The character of Barack Obama, which in dealing with non-Americans is no different from that of George W. Bush, also shows the American characteristic of cruelty without limits.
It is said that the Afghan surge is Obama?s defining action, which is probably true politically. He revealed himself much earlier however, in April, at the time the Maersk Alabama?s captain was held by three teenaged pirates. The pirates were in a boat tied to a US warship and were attempting to negotiate for their lives. The captain was in no more danger than he had been for days but Obama approved killing the men who held him. It was not a firefight. It was cold-blooded murder by trained snipers ? hailed in the American media as heroism. That defined Obama as I said at the time. His approval of the Afghanistan surge was inevitable.
Copenhagen Climate Summit
Dec 7th
Monday, December 7, 2009 by Democracy Now!
Ahead of Copenhagen Talks, Tens of Thousands Protest Across Europe Calling for Climate Justice
A Message From The Taliban
Dec 7th
Props to Information Clearing House
Who Is Responsible for the Anarchy in Afghanistan?
By Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Dec, 04, 2009 — Obama’s new strategy which is the result of the same mentality that wants to continue the occupation of Afghanistan by military means, will add to the anarchy prevailing in the country. In fact, Americans are responsible for the chaotic situation. They handed over power to notorious warlords, venal officials and mafia-linked governors;
But still, they claim that they want a clean government in Kabul while their convoys of logistics are escorted by some murderous militias involved in kidnapping and extortion of arbitrary taxes. There are hundreds of private unregistered militias in Afghanistan under the name of security guards who carry heroin in official vehicles. These militias have links with warlords who have hold over high government positions. They carry out their criminal activities with impunity.
The warlords usurp government and people?s lands and buildings. No one can ask them why. A government land in Shirpur, located to the north-east of the Kabul city is a good example on hand. Once a property of the Ministry of Defense, now it is a posh area usurped by the warlords who have built luxurious houses there. Karzai himself has granted 6000-7000 acres of lands to his favorites. Many drug-smugglers who had been sentenced to prison by court have been released by decrees of the President.
Climategate Explained by JFK & Eisenhower
Dec 6th
Props to IGNORANCE IS FUTILE!< Link to & read the emails they don't want you to see.
Fearmongering at its worst
Dec 6th
Props to Brasscheck TV
Climate change brainwashing
Those pushing the threory that man is responsible for global warming have one agenda and are willing to lie to implement their plans for a global government and carbon tax. I guess the Beatles had it right, “And you’re working for no one but me.”
Recent Comments