The Rational Radical's Weblog

Friday, January 16, 2004

Academy of Sciences Calls for Universal Health Care by 2010

The report pointed out that because uninsured people received much less medical care than those with insurance, they tend to be sicker. About 18,000 people die each year as a result of not having insurance, it said.

In the richest country in the world, that is unacceptable.

Jack Clark 8:35 PM [+]   
Post #107431410307314224

Bush Plan to Honor Dr. King Stirs Criticism

'His administration has never supported anything to help the poor, education, or children,' said the Rev. Raphael Allen, vice president of programs at Concerned Black Clergy. 'It's all about isolationism and greed for the upper class. That's not promoting the legacy of Dr. King.'

...Pointing to Dr. King's tomb, a slab of white marble overlooking a reflecting pool, Mr. Ajabu added, 'It's quite possible that Dr. King will get up out of his grave there and say, `What's going on here? You're killing so many people?' '

What a moral outrage, Bush profaning King's tomb.

Jack Clark 8:29 PM [+]   
Post #107431375598470942

Embattled Jewish Settlers in Gaza Pray for Miracles

Noga Cohen, left, wants to stay in her isolated settlement despite an attack three years ago that maimed three of her eight children: Tehila, right, now 12, lost both legs; Israel, 10, lost a leg. Another daughter lost a foot.

This is a caption to a heartbreaking and anger-inducing picture of this evil woman and her three mutilated children. She should be in jail. You don't bring children to a war zone to support an ideology. If you want to risk your life, fine. But it's child abuse of the worst sort to subject the little ones unnecessarily to danger.

Jack Clark 7:57 PM [+]   
Post #107431183686212548

Study Disputes View of Costly Surge in Class-Action Suits  While this study is not definitive, as the end of the article points out, it does indicate there's a good chance that another right-wing obsession is predicated on a false premise.

Jack Clark 7:53 PM [+]   
Post #107431161958887703

White House Wants to Restrict Some Corporate Tax Shelters

Bush Proposal Seeks to Block Leasing Done for Tax Benefit

Could the Bush adminstration really be doing something to force the wealthiest Americans to at least pay the pitifully small percentage of taxes the law requires them to?

Jack Clark 7:51 PM [+]   
Post #107431151805557997

Halliburton Pricing Probe Deepens

U.S. lawmakers say the Pentagon's inspector general was probing possible criminal violations involving fuel shipped to Iraq by Halliburton, the oil services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

No way Halliburton committed any crimes. Any place that an honorable man like Dick Cheney worked would never do anything illegal.

Jack Clark 7:47 PM [+]   
Post #107431123945412177

According to Michael Moore

Clark has committed to ensuring that every family of four who makes under $50,000 a year pays NO federal income tax. None. Zip. This is the most incredible helping hand offered by a major party presidential candidate to the working class and the working poor in my lifetime. He will make up the difference by socking it to the rich with a 5% tax increase on anything they make over a million bucks. He will make sure corporations pay ALL of the taxes they should be paying. Clark has fired a broadside at greed. When the New York Times last week wrote that Wes Clark has been “positioning himself slightly to Dean’s left," this is what they meant, and it sure sounded good to me.

This aspect of Clark sounds pretty good to me also.

Jack Clark 7:45 PM [+]   
Post #107431114108645311

Humanity? Maybe It's in the Wiring

At a Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans last month, Dr. Allman reported finding spindle cells in an area called the frontoinsular cortex in only two species — humans and African apes. ...

This particular part of the cortex is a somewhat mysterious region, Dr. Allman said. In brain imaging studies, it lights up when people... perceive unfairness...

...Spindle cells may help people register the general appropriateness of transactions or events, he said...

Spindle cells are not present at birth. They appear around age 4 months and gradually increase during the second and third year of life, the same time that guilt and embarrassment appear. As children develop a sense of moral judgment, the frontal lobes and spindle cell system continue to expand.

I imagine right-wingers would have quite a small number of such spindle cells, and/or malfunctioning ones.

Jack Clark 7:14 PM [+]   
Post #107430929154554548

In-House Audit Says Wal-Mart Violated Labor Laws

an internal audit now under court seal warned top executives at Wal-Mart Stores three years ago that employee records at 128 stores pointed to extensive violations of child-labor laws and state regulations requiring time for breaks and meals.

The audit of one week's time-clock records for roughly 25,000 employees found 1,371 instances in which minors apparently worked too late at night, worked during school hours or worked too many hours in a day. It also found 60,767 apparent instances of workers not taking breaks, and 15,705 apparent instances of employees working through meal times.

Low prices for consumers sometimes come at too high a price for the workers.

Jack Clark 6:54 PM [+]   
Post #107430804321515698

America's Empire of Bases  Very detailed and quite revealing about the U.S. military presence all over the world.

Jack Clark 8:40 PM [+]   
Post #107422805547444000

Haitian former military chief arrested in Florida  Great to hear. Now what about all the other mass murderers we are sheltering, like Emmanuel Constant?

Jack Clark 4:39 PM [+]   
Post #107421357051927637

Ollie North Visit a Reminder of Lies, Scandal under Reagan  Great short piece if you're not quite sure why Oliver North is such a walking piece of excrement, to use a technical legal phrase.

Jack Clark 9:08 PM [+]   
Post #107405691991784330

Bush Told U.S.-Imposed Policies Are 'Perverse'

Latin American leaders told President Bush on Tuesday that 'perverse' economic policies imposed by Washington had failed their countries, mired in debt and poverty.

Wish we had more such straight talk from mainstream U.S. politicians.

Jack Clark 9:05 PM [+]   
Post #107405675599303414

Editorial Observer: Can Disabled People Be Forced to Crawl Up the Courthouse Steps?

When George Lane showed up at the Polk County Courthouse with a crushed hip and pelvis, he had a problem. His hearing was on the second floor, there was no elevator, and the judge said he had better get upstairs. Mr. Lane, both of whose legs were in casts, somehow managed to get out of his wheelchair and crawl up two flights of stairs. 'On a pain scale of 1 to 10, it was way past 10,' he says.

While Mr. Lane crawled up, he says, the judge and other courthouse employees 'stood at the top of the stairs and laughed at me.' His case was not heard in the morning session, he says, and at the lunch break he crawled back down. That afternoon, when he refused to crawl upstairs again, he was arrested for failing to appear, and put in jail.

This is not made up. This is true. And right-wingers would love for states to be able to continue to deny disabled people access to government buildings. Of course, since right-wingers want to kill people all over the world, what could discrimination against some disabled people amount to in their view?

Jack Clark 8:39 PM [+]   
Post #107396878726968866

The Barreling Bushes: Four generations of the dynasty have chased profits through cozy ties with Mideast leaders, spinning webs of conflicts of interest  Wow, these details are staggering.

Jack Clark 8:27 PM [+]   
Post #107396805498611777

Venezuela's Chavez Says U.S. Seeking His Overthrow  Would we ever overthrow a democratically elected government? Let's see -- Guatemala, Iran, Chile.... the answer is, of course we would.

Jack Clark 8:19 PM [+]   
Post #107396759936417435

War College Report: Iraq War an 'Error'

A report published by the Army War College calls the Bush administration's war on terrorism unfocused and says the invasion of Iraq was 'a strategic error.'

Another article about this: Army War College Report Blasts War on Terror

A report published by the Army War College criticizes the Bush administration's global war on terrorism as 'unfocused' and contends that the war in Iraq is 'unnecessary' and a 'detour' that has diverted attention and resources from the threat posed by Al Qaeda.

The report warns that the administration's global war on terrorism may have set the United States 'on a course of open-ended and gratuitous conflict with states and non-state entities that pose no serious threat to the United States.'

What does the Army War College know? Could it have more expertise about this than George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, what with their illustrious military and intelligence backgrounds?

Jack Clark 8:11 PM [+]   
Post #107396709216804977

The O'Reilly Factor - Talking Points - Another Big Win for the ACLU

The nation's most dangerous organization...

...a fascist organization that uses lawyers instead of Panzers.

I imagine donations to the ACLU will go up again after this imbecilic (is there any other kind with him?) O'Reilly outburst.

Jack Clark 9:41 AM [+]   
Post #107392931875109618

God, Country and the Politicians

To the Editor:

If anything, the "God gulf" in America (column, Jan. 7) isn't wide enough. After reading that an incredible 72 percent of my fellow citizens don't "believe" in the scientifically established fact of evolution, I've begun praying -- for partition.

Ah, the fantastic dream of separation, no longer being part of the same country as the Bushian devil-possessed scum.

Jack Clark 9:58 PM [+]   
Post #107388712244915383

Sick State Budgets, Sick Kids

While headlines continue to tell us how great the economy is doing, states across the U.S. are pulling the plug on desperately needed health coverage for low-income Americans, including about a half-million children.

...The worst of the cuts are in Texas.

..."All told," the report said, "Texas is eliminating coverage for between 344,000 and 494,000 children and adults. Census data showed that, even before these changes, the percentage of people who were uninsured was higher in Texas than in any other state."

A loss of health coverage frequently leads to a reluctance to seek needed care. "In poor or low-income families, where there is not a lot of disposable income, people will avoid going to the doctor or getting a prescription," said Leighton Ku, one of the authors of the report. "Certain diseases can then become much more severe. With children, it's likely that they won't get treatment for ear infections, asthma, diabetes -- conditions that can ultimately lead to hospitalization."

...It seems extremely strange that in the United States of America, the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world, we are going backward in the 21st century in our ability to provide the most fundamental kinds of health care to ordinary people, including children.

...Maybe the nation itself needs a doctor. Shoving low-income people, including children, off the health care rolls at a time when the economy is allegedly booming is a sure sign of some kind of sickness in the society.

We are a sick society. And does it surprise you at all that some of the worst outrages are being perpetrated in Texas?

Jack Clark 9:49 PM [+]   
Post #107388654331028450

Not only did the IMF conclude that US debt threatens the world economy, but Tony Blair's chief scientific advisor says that US climate policy is a bigger threat to the world than terrorism. The Bushians are certainly getting some pretty heavy-hitter critics!

Jack Clark 9:32 PM [+]   
Post #107388552484219317