healthcare debate picks up in the US, there has been much discussion about how to pay for it. Coinciding with this debate are vocal concerns about the countrys underlying fiscal position which some have suggested as a reason to delay healthcare reform.
What this argument ignores is that healthcare is central to the long-term fiscal and economic prospects of the US. If costs per enrollee in Medicare and Medicaid grow at the same rate over the next four decades as they have over the past four, those two programmes will increase from 5 per cent of gross domestic product today to 20 per cent by 2050.
Healthcare cost growth dwarfs any of the other long-term fiscal challenges the US faces. Nothing else we do on the fiscal front will matter much if we fail to address rapidly rising healthcare costs.
The US spends almost 50 per cent more per person on healthcare than the next most costly nation, but our health outcomes lag those of most industrialised countries. For families, after adjusting for inflation, health insurance premiums have increased 58 per cent while wages have risen only 3 per cent since 2000. For states, rising healthcare costs are squeezing their budgets, leading to cuts in essential services and tax rises. And for the economy as a whole, if healthcare costs grow at the rate they are now, healthcare will consume one-fifth of GDP by 2017.
That is why Barack Obama is committed to undertaking healthcare reform this year. Based on estimates by Dartmouth College and others, the US spends about $700bn (428bn, 505bn) a year on healthcare that does nothing to improve Americans health outcomes.
Reducing the number of tests, procedures and other medical costs that do not improve health presents an enormous opportunity. Our fiscal future is so dominated by healthcare that if the US can slow the rate of cost growth by just 15 basis points a year (0.15 percentage points), the savings for Medicare and Medicaid would equal the impact from eliminating Social Securitys entire 75-year shortfall. If we slow the rate of healthcare cost growth by 1.5 percentage points per year, by 2030 we could reduce the federal budget deficit by 2.5 per cent of GDP, which is about $350bn relative to todays economy.
So what must be done? As he made clear in his speech to the American Medical Association on Monday, Mr Obama is firmly committed to making healthcare reform deficit neutral over the next decade, using real savings or revenue proposals that can be scored by the Congressional Budget Office. The offsets are not theoretical; they are specific proposals determined by outside, impartial arbiters such as the CBO to cut spending or raise revenue.
In particular, Mr Obama has put forward in his budget proposals to generate $635bn for healthcare reform with roughly half coming from Medicare and Medicaid efficiencies (such as reducing Medicare overpayments to private insurers) and half from tax provisions limiting the itemised deduction rate for the wealthiest Americans to what it was when Ronald Reagan was president. On Saturday, Mr Obama also proposed an extra $313bn in Medicare and Medicaid savings proposals including a proposal that will generate about $106bn in savings over 10 years by reducing payments that help hospitals with the cost of treating patients without insurance because as we expand coverage, the need for such payments is reduced. Taken together, these total about $950bn over 10 years, an amount that puts us in a good position to fully fund health reform in a deficit neutral way.
We must also address the forces making the healthcare system unaffordable and inefficient. The system creates incentives for doctors and hospitals to provide more care, not the best care. A lack of information on what works leads to huge variations in the quality of care and its cost. As Atul Gawande has described in the New Yorker, there are cities such as McAllen, Texas, that spend close to twice the national average on healthcare and do not get better results than lower cost, high-quality cities even in their own state or region.
The US must move towards a higher-quality, lower-cost system in which best practices are universal rather than concentrated only in some parts of the country. The administration has therefore put forward initiatives such as health IT, research into what works, prevention and wellness, and changes in provider incentives. We must also change the process of policymaking so that policy can keep pace with a dynamic health market, for example by expanding the role of bodies such as the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
It is partially because of the unnecessarily high costs of our system that too many Americans lack insurance and are exposed to big financial and health risks. Mr Obama has said that healthcare reform must reduce costs and expand coverage since doing the latter without the former is fiscally unsustainable.
This is not the end of our commitment to fiscal responsibility. Once healthcare reform is in place, the US can then focus on other aspects of fiscal sustainability, including Social Security reform. But the bottom line is that healthcare reform is a necessity both for millions of American families and the long-term fiscal and economic health of the nation.

Similar posts: metro health

After another day of massive demonstrations against last weeks disputed presidential election, Iranian authorities and protest leaders uneasily awaited a rare public statement Friday from the countrys supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei planned to deliver a sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran, something he does only two or three times a year, the Irans state-run Press TV reported Thursday. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and two other main presidential candidates, who have echoed Mousavis allegation that the election was rigged, said they would attend the sermon, Irans al-Alam Arabic television channel reported.

There was no immediate word on whether President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would attend. Ahmadinejad, who election authorities declared won in an landslide last week, generally shows up whenever Khamenei speaks.

The massive turnout of the Iranian nation in the Friday prayers congregation will manifest the solidarity and unity among Iranians, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said. But U.S. officials and specialists in Iranian politics said the sermon could give Khamenei the opportunity to make a definitive statement on the election and its aftermath.

Mousavis movement has forced Khamenei into the center of the growing crisis, questioning his role as the final authority on all critical issues. So far, he has tolerated the demonstrations, urging the people to pursue allegations of election fraud within the limits of the cleric-led system.

Mousavi joins protesters:

Mousavi boldly joined tens of thousands of black-clad supporters Thursday in the streets of Tehran to honor demonstrators killed in clashes over Irans disputed election.

Witnesses said many in the mammoth crowd wore green wristbands, toted green balloons and carried flowers as they filed into Imam Khomeini Square, a large plaza in the heart of the capital named for the founder of the Islamic Revolution. Green is Mousavis campaign color.

Demonstrators marched silently until they arrived at the square, where some chanted Death to the dictator! and Where are our votes! witnesses said.

Press TV, an English-language version of Iranian state television targeted at foreigners, estimated the crowd at hundreds of thousands and said the people listened to a brief address from Mousavi, who called for calm and self-restraint. The size of the crowd could not be independently verified.

Foreign news organizations have been banned from covering the protests over the election last Friday, which the government declared that Ahmadinejad won by a landslide. Mousavi and his supporters claim that the election was rigged and that he was the true winner.

The demonstrators included people from all walks of life. Young, trendy girls with their scarves pushed back on their foreheads joined women in chadors, the traditional cloak worn by Iranian women in public, NBC News reported.

Americans, many of Iranian descent, have joined the protests in cities across the United States. Shouting slogans and holding signs, several hundred people demonstrated Wednesday evening outside the Iranian interests section in Washington, D.C. The protesters denounced Ahmadinejad and called for a new election.

Organizers planned for a march Thursday evening to the Chinese Embassy to protest Chinas recognition of the election results, followed by a similar march to the White House on Saturday.

Limited recount:

Trying again to satisfy the protesters demands, Irans main electoral authority invited Mousavi and the two other main candidates to a meeting. Al-Alam said the three candidates would meet with the Guardian Council on Saturday.

The unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts, which is close to Khamenei, has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities.

Mousavi charges that the Guardian Council is not neutral and that it supports Ahmadinejad, and he has demanded an independent investigation and a new election.

The councils spokesman, Abbasali Khadkhodaei, said Thursday that it received a total of 646 complaints from the three candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad.

The council provided few other details, but the number of complaints raised the possibility that even a limited recount could turn into a far larger and messier exercise than the government desires.

People in the streets:

The huge protests began Monday, when hundreds of thousands turned out in a large procession that recalled the scale of protests during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Seven demonstrators were shot and killed that day by pro-regime militia in the first confirmed deaths during the unrest.

The massive gathering was followed by three days of marches along Tehrans main avenues, presenting one of the gravest threats to Irans complex blend of democracy and religious authority since the system emerged out of the Islamic revolution that brought down the Western-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The ruling clerics still command deep public support and are defended by Irans most powerful military force, the Revolutionary Guard, as well as a vast network of militias.

But Mousavis movement has forced Khamenei into the center of the growing crisis, questioning his role as the final authority on all critical issues.

Protest targets:

For the moment, protesters have focused on the results of the balloting rather than challenging the Islamic system of government. But a shift in anger toward Irans non-elected theocracy would sharply change the stakes. Instead of a clash over the election results, it would become a showdown over the foundation of Irans system of rule, the almost unlimited authority of the clerics at the top.

The Iranian government has directly accused the United States of meddling in the deepening crisis. A statement by state-run Press TV blamed Washington for interference. The report cited no evidence.

Despite wide coverage of unrest, foreign media have not been able to provide any evidence on a single violation in the election process, state radio said Thursday.

The government has blocked certain Web sites, such as BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and several pro-Mousavi sites that are vital conduits for Iranians to tell the world about protests and violence. Many other sites, including Gmail and Yahoo, were unusually slow and rarely connect.

Mousavi has condemned the blocking of Web sites, saying the government did not tolerate the voice of the opposition.

Similar posts: metro health

Stephon Washington won a pair of Class A 300-meter intermediate hurdles titles on raw ability. Now that he’s understood the need for polish, the Omaha Burke junior is on the all-time charts and a possibility to be the first in state history to break the 37-second mark at this weekend’s state meet. A Division I prospect in football as well as track and field, Washington left Omaha Central after his sophomore year for Burke for personal reasons. He said he’s sure that it was the right move, for he’s getting better grades and he’s enjoying his new teammates.

Similar posts: metro health

Posted By: Big Earl:People of WV I would like to ask you a question: what is the state animal of the great state of WV? That’s right, if you stayed awake in WV history in the 8th grade it is the great Black Bear. Which leads me to my next point. If coal mining is really destroying the planet like these green hippies and PETA types claim, then how come we have so many bears in WV? If you don’t believe me just leave the lid off your trash can now that the frost is done. I mean all I hear from these tree huggers is how we in WV trying to earn an honest living and keep the country running decent are killing polar bears and penguins and other snow creatures up at the north pole. People the polar bear must be a worthless bear. What good are they? You know all truly great bears have been turned into cartoon characters to do some good for the public. Take the noble brown bear, Smokey, who teaches little children not to set the hills on fire. How about those three black bears who teach that little girl not to nose around on other peoples property? The only place I have ever seen a polar bear is on a Coke commercial and that is only at Christmastime. If coal mining was really killing off the polar bears and turning Tennessee Tuxcedos igloo into a slushee, then how on earth have so many bears lived here in prosperity for so long in such a honored status. It is simple to figure out if you have got any sense at all.

Similar posts: metro health

UPDATED 8:05 p.m.
CLEVELAND A Parma man waived his right to a jury trial Thursday and pleaded guilty to bludgeoning a woman with a rock while she walked her poodle in a Parma park last year.
Todd Torok, 40, pleaded guilty Thursday to the aggravated murder of Chevonne Ecclestone and the attempted murder of Leslie Safranek earlier the same day in May 2008. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery, kidnapping, impersonating a police officer, assaulting a police officer, felonious assault and drug charges.
Torok waived his right to a jury trial before a three-judge panel in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and accepted a plea deal that spared him the possibility of the death penalty. Common Pleas Judges Michael Russo, Jose Villanueva and John Suster sentenced Torok after a hearing outlining the case.
Parma Police Capt. Robert DeSimone testified that Torok's deadly rampage began about 5:30 a.m. May 10, when he talked his way into the home of Safranek, a family friend.
Once inside, Torok attacked Safranek with a 5-pound dumbbell, gagged her and attempted to drag her to her car, DeSimone said. Torok fled when Safranek tried to yell for help.
DeSimone said others who crossed paths with Torok that day told police that he claimed to be an undercover police officer and offered them $10 for a ride into the woods.
All declined but Ecclestone, who had stopped to walk her dog at the West Creek Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks in Parma when Torok approached her. Witnesses told police they saw the 52-year-old Strongsville woman leave the park just after 2 p.m. with Torok in her car.

Similar posts: metro health

The local building laborers union has stopped work on several construction projects in Northeast Ohio after contract negotiations with a contractors' group broke down.
Job sites went silent this week after Local 310 of the Laborers' International Union of North America couldn't reach a contract agreement with the Construction Employers Association. The previous contract, covering about 2,000 workers, expired April 30.
Among the sites where work has stopped is the $160 million Cuyahoga County juvenile center project at East 93rd Street and Quincy Avenue, where 200 people were working, said Jay Ross, the county's director of central services.
"The whole project is shut down," he said. "We hope this doesn't last for long."
No one has worked since Tuesday on the $155 million TriPoint Medical Center under construction in Concord Township, said Julie Ann Strogin, a spokeswoman for Lake Hospital System. She said other unions on the project were honoring Local 310's decision to stop work.
Other projects where work has either halted or slowed include the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's African Elephant Crossing, the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center and the AT T building on Huron Road in Cleveland. Local 310 members on several larger projects, including those at the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, remain on the job because the union has project labor agreements prohibiting strikes or other job actions.

Similar posts: metro health

In terms of the issues and problems up for discussion and debate, none are more heated when tackling the challenges faced by a group. Though everyone has good intentions, ultimately, these discussions get reduced down into race/class/political wars where no one wins because the group at need is still losing. In a probable futile attempt to avoid this problem from occurring, again, I have outlined how I intend to approach this discussion and hope others will adopt these same guidelines to maintain a positive and productive atmosphere.

Similar posts: metro health

Is this woman pregnant with Metrobus baby?

Yesterday, I hopped on a 90 Metrobus in the hopes of escaping the downpour. Little did I know that the unsuspecting bus I was boarding was actually an anti-abortion vehicle of shame!
The bus was wallpapered, front to back, on both sides, with this FREE Abortion Alternatives Ad, pictured. The ad, for a local crisis pregnancy center, offers free pregnancy tests, counseling, and to pregnant women at four D.C.-area locations. Also on the menu: A good shaming! The womans numb, downturned face says it all: re lost. Youre confused. Youre thinking about killing a tiny human. We can help.
Go ahead, try to look away: Youll still have to look at another identical forlorn future abortionist.

Similar posts: metro health

by Ron Wall
rwaldron@stny.rr.com

Tax exemption is unfair and needs to end totally. It clearly is said that we should pay our taxes. Why should anyone’s stocks, bonds, and real estate be tax exempt. Charity is to be for the poor, but they rarely see it. Only 10 percent and less ever reaches the needy. But wealth has been made by a large number of greedy persons from contributions. Talk about a fraud system with no audits Though the measure is rarely enforced, the political activism of some conservative Christians over the past two decades has caused religious and political liberals to demand that the tax-exempt status of some conservative ministers be revoked. Fact being that all should be revoked. Any way you slice it, this is a government subsidy of religion. People who may not share a particular faith, or any faith, are thus forced to contribute to ideas with which they might disagree. Thomas Jefferson said of such a practice: "Almighty God has created the mind free. ... to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."


Churches may now hold weeknight political forums at which candidates may speak and answer questions. They are prohibited, however, from endorsing candidates from the pulpit, or actively lobbying for or against legislation. We all know the real reality. We would not be in the serious situation we are in today if it were not for the lobbying and complete support for the actions of the Republican Party, Israel, and AIPAC. There are options to correcting this imbalance in church-state relations. Most effective is for churches and other nonprofits that are engage in political discourse and legislative activism should give up their tax exemptions so that government will have no controlling authority over them. This would be the preference to most because it offers them unfettered opportunity to influence and shape government according to their own beliefs without the fear or favor of government leaders who might support their views today, but after a future election, oppose them. Exactly what the Republican Party has done for decades. When churches become "accepted" and appendages of political parties and politicians they tend to depart from their primary obligations and opportunities and become identified with earthly causes and political kingdom-building.

The mystical exploitation of religion has created a hierarchy of sanctimonious pedagogues who prosper in an environment free of obligation to the society from which they profit immensely. There is no such thing as a non-profit religion. If there were non-profit religions, most established religions would not exist. If a mystical organization cannot prosper or survive because of taxation, it must not have a message or purpose worth sustaining, nor the ability to communicate a concept that appeals to the public. If it requires exemption from taxation as the only way it can exist, then it is a religion based on a superficial concept of Biblical nonsense that eventually the public will ignore. The scheming and manipulation of the frenzied, right wing religious fundamentalists, has proven that religion untaxed, is more dangerous to Liberty than taxation of the same. Why should an institution founded on fantasy and myth, be exonerated from taxation while existing in a society that supports the infrastructure and services that make it possible for that religion to succeed? My freedom, yours, and every other individual that exists in this society, is threatened by the immense influence of organized religion in its massive appeal to legislate laws favorable to its establishment. We, unlike the religionists, do not as individuals, have the use of untaxed funds or Christianized Coalitions that exist to exercise leverage over politicians. What is Democratic, what is justifiable in allowing the churches the extraordinary freedom to exist exempt from taxation? Especially, when the exempted religions pursue as their objectives, the influence of legislation favorable to their continued material advancement.

The survival of organized revealed religion is dependent on not only the generosity of its members, but also from a government that is sympathetic to the continued domination of mystical authority in the affairs of state and society. Witness George Bush receiving the blessing from his religious minister for the carpet bombing and resulting mass murder of Iraqi civilians during the Desert Storm exercise in ignorance. The established religions have prospered in an environment that is maintained through the taxation of others for such simple things as street upkeep, courts of law, police and fire protection, or any of the many other services that the public pays for. It is we the people, who are assuring that religious associations can perform their functions, while they are exempted from the same obligation. They have been granted an exclusion, that is based on the erroneous concept, that religion is a non-profit enterprise. Anyone who believes religion is not profitable and exists solely as a distributor of myth and magic, has not looked recently at the vast resources and property that churches have acquired as non-profit organizations. The fact Christian religious leaders accept, and even court, the tax-exemption illustrates without question the non-altruistic, greedy and hypocritical nature which permeates Christianity. Not paying your fair share of anything, including taxes, reveals a non-altruistic and greedy streak. That's exactly what you would think of someone in a group of friends who all go on an outing and all chip-in to pay for expenses with the exception of one individual. And that selfish person is one of the very wealthiest people in the group! It will only be a matter of time until the others catch on and refuse to allow the unfairness.

Christian leaders add the ingredient of hypocrisy to themselves and their mythology by pretending to be followers of Jesus who allegedly believed religions SHOULD pay taxes to existing governments by saying, according to Luke 20:25, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." According to this quote from their holy book, their god would be against tax-exemptions for his followers. As Thomas Paine wrote, "... the Church has set up a system of religion very contradictory to the character of the person whose name it bears. It has set up a religion of pomp and of revenue, in pretended imitation of a person whose life was humility and poverty." The religions of this nation do not contribute, in any way, to my freedom, your Liberty, or the future of civilization. Freed of taxation they exist exclusively as a hierarchy whose interest is the exploitation of others! IS IT NOT TIME THAT WE THE PUBLIC DEMAND THAT THE RELIGIONS OF THIS NATION PAY FOR THEIR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIETY??? Is it not the proper time to cease characterizing religious institutions as a privileged ideology that is more important than other philosophies and concepts?

Why should the labor of a person working eight hours a day be taxed, while a preacher is allowed to avoid taxation in many areas? Why should there be a tax for the general public, but not for those engaged in the production (or fabrication) of a religious ideology? Is the enterprise of corporate religion any better or more useful to society than an individual who thinks about existence from a philosophical and rational perspective? I think not. There is no such thing as an aristocracy of thought or complete agreement on any conception. Religion in all its many forms does not have the exclusive answers to the complexity of existence. Its reliance on mystical incomprehension and the miraculous is rooted in the dreams and desires of primitive man. Taxation of religion is based on fairness and justice. It is a notification to those who represent corporate religion that they are not a special institution or a favored aristocracy. It is telling them they do have an obligation to support society in the form of taxation. Particularly, as the Christian Coalition is doing, using the millions of dollars saved from taxes to pump into the campaigns of politicians who agreed to spread their brand of bigotry and superstition.

NOW! We all face deficits in the federal budget, every state budget, local budgets, a hugh 12 Trillion national debt. That requires that we all should share in its being resolved. William H. Rehnquist spoke for the court: Tax exemption for Church property is a clear violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. It is a form of subsidy; the Tenth Circuit Court addressed and held that “tax exemption is a privilege, a matter of grace rather than a right.” We tax payers demand that TAX EXEMPTIONS SHOULD END: Tax exemption is unfair and needs to end totally. It clearly is said that we should pay our taxes. Why should anyone’s stocks, bonds, and real estate be tax exempt. Charity is to be for the poor, but they rarely see it. Only 10 percent and less ever reaches the needy. But wealth has been made by a large number of greedy persons from contributions. Talk about a fraud system with no audits Though the measure is rarely enforced, the political activism of some conservative Christians over the past two decades has caused religious and political liberals to demand that the tax-exempt status of some conservative ministers be revoked. Fact being that all should be revoked. Any way you slice it, this is a government subsidy of religion.

People who may not share a particular faith, or any faith, are thus forced to contribute to ideas with which they might disagree. Thomas Jefferson said of such a practice: "Almighty God has created the mind free. ... to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." Churches may now hold weeknight political forums at which candidates may speak and answer questions. They are prohibited, however, from endorsing candidates from the pulpit, or actively lobbying for or against legislation. We all know the real reality. We would not be in the serious situation we are in today if it were not for the lobbying and complete support for the actions of the Republican Party, Israel, and AIPAC. There are options to correcting this imbalance in church-state relations. Most effective is for churches and other nonprofits that are engage in political discourse and legislative activism should give up their tax exemptions so that government will have no controlling authority over them. This would be the preference to most because it offers them unfettered opportunity to influence and shape government according to their own beliefs without the fear or favor of government leaders who might support their views today, but after a future election, oppose them.

Exactly what the Republican Party has done for decades. When churches become "accepted" and appendages of political parties and politicians they tend to depart from their primary obligations and opportunities and become identified with earthly causes and political kingdom-building. The mystical exploitation of religion has created a hierarchy of sanctimonious pedagogues who prosper in an environment free of obligation to the society from which they profit immensely. There is no such thing as a non-profit religion. If there were non-profit religions, most established religions would not exist. If a mystical organization cannot prosper or survive because of taxation, it must not have a message or purpose worth sustaining, nor the ability to communicate a concept that appeals to the public. If it requires exemption from taxation as the only way it can exist, then it is a religion based on a superficial concept of Biblical nonsense that eventually the public will ignore. The scheming and manipulation of the frenzied, right wing religious fundamentalists, has proven that religion untaxed, is more dangerous to Liberty than taxation of the same. Why should an institution founded on fantasy and myth, be exonerated from taxation while existing in a society that supports the infrastructure and services that make it possible for that religion to succeed?

My freedom, yours, and every other individual that exists in this society, is threatened by the immense influence of organized religion in its massive appeal to legislate laws favorable to its establishment. We, unlike the religionists, do not as individuals, have the use of untaxed funds or Christianized Coalitions that exist to exercise leverage over politicians. What is Democratic, what is justifiable in allowing the churches the extraordinary freedom to exist exempt from taxation? Especially, when the exempted religions pursue as their objectives, the influence of legislation favorable to their continued material advancement. The survival of organized revealed religion is dependent on not only the generosity of its members, but also from a government that is sympathetic to the continued domination of mystical authority in the affairs of state and society. Witness George Bush receiving the blessing from his religious minister for the carpet bombing and resulting mass murder of Iraqi civilians during the Desert Storm exercise in ignorance.

The established religions have prospered in an environment that is maintained through the taxation of others for such simple things as street upkeep, courts of law, police and fire protection, or any of the many other services that the public pays for. It is we the people, who are assuring that religious associations can perform their functions, while they are exempted from the same obligation. They have been granted an exclusion, that is based on the erroneous concept, that religion is a non-profit enterprise. Anyone who believes religion is not profitable and exists solely as a distributor of myth and magic, has not looked recently at the vast resources and property that churches have acquired as non-profit organizations. The fact Christian religious leaders accept, and even court, the tax-exemption illustrates without question the non-altruistic, greedy and hypocritical nature which permeates Christianity. Not paying your fair share of anything, including taxes, reveals a non-altruistic and greedy streak. That's exactly what you would think of someone in a group of friends who all go on an outing and all chip-in to pay for expenses with the exception of one individual. And that selfish person is one of the very wealthiest people in the group! It will only be a matter of time until the others catch on and refuse to allow the unfairness.

Christian leaders add the ingredient of hypocrisy to themselves and their mythology by pretending to be followers of Jesus who allegedly believed religions SHOULD pay taxes to existing governments by saying, according to Luke 20:25, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." According to this quote from their holy book, their god would be against tax-exemptions for his followers. As Thomas Paine wrote, "... the Church has set up a system of religion very contradictory to the character of the person whose name it bears. It has set up a religion of pomp and of revenue, in pretended imitation of a person whose life was humility and poverty." The religions of this nation do not contribute, in any way, to my freedom, your Liberty, or the future of civilization. Freed of taxation they exist exclusively as a hierarchy whose interest is the exploitation of others! IS IT NOT TIME THAT WE THE PUBLIC DEMAND THAT THE RELIGIONS OF THIS NATION PAY FOR THEIR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIETY??? Is it not the proper time to cease characterizing religious institutions as a privileged ideology that is more important than other philosophies and concepts?

Why should the labor of a person working eight hours a day be taxed, while a preacher is allowed to avoid taxation in many areas? Why should there be a tax for the general public, but not for those engaged in the production (or fabrication) of a religious ideology? Is the enterprise of corporate religion any better or more useful to society than an individual who thinks about existence from a philosophical and rational perspective? I think not. There is no such thing as an aristocracy of thought or complete agreement on any conception. Religion in all its many forms does not have the exclusive answers to the complexity of existence. Its reliance on mystical incomprehension and the miraculous is rooted in the dreams and desires of primitive man. Taxation of religion is based on fairness and justice. It is a notification to those who represent corporate religion that they are not a special institution or a favored aristocracy. It is telling them they do have an obligation to support society in the form of taxation. Particularly, as the Christian Coalition is doing, using the millions of dollars saved from taxes to pump into the campaigns of politicians who agreed to spread their brand of bigotry and superstition. NOW! We all face deficits in the federal budget, every state budget, local budgets, a hugh 12 Trillion national debt. That requires that we all should share in its being resolved. William H. Rehnquist spoke for the court: Tax exemption for Church property is a clear violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. It is a form of subsidy; the Tenth Circuit Court addressed and held that “tax exemption is a privilege, a matter of grace rather than a right.” We tax payers demand that Churches pay their “Fair-Share”…

President Obama is ready to fight the lobbyists to pass his bold agenda. And the fight is officially on. Yesterday a top lobbyist called Obama's plan to transform our economy What we must understand is that we have only one real enemy, our OWN defeatism, for that is all that stands between us and generating policy moving numbers.

One need only observe how quickly Congress can move when there is real public outrage, like over the AIG bonus scandal, to realize that all we need to do is speak out in sufficient numbers to instantly have any policy change we want.

"devastating." If Obama's going to win this fight, he's going to need all of us fighting with him.

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation calls on all of its member groups and individual supporters to join marches protesting U.S. spending on wars and occupations and calling for a new economy based on our country's unmet domestic needs.

Over the next ten years, the United States is scheduled to provide Israel with $30 billion in military aid to maintain its illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, and to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians living under this military occupation. During the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 3,000 innocent Palestinian civilians who took no part in hostilities, often with U.S. weapons.

Cut off military aid to Israel, in fact Boycott Israel.

Similar posts: metro health

CHARDON A Parma police commander accused of sucker-punching a teen driver in a burst of road rage was found guilty of disorderly conduct this morning in Chardon Municipal Court. Capt. Kim Cornachio was ordered to pay the maximum fine, $150, after pleading no contest to the misdemeanor. Cornachio and his attorney, Kevin Spellacy, declined to comment after the two-minute hearing in front of Judge Mark Hassett.
The officer received less of a punishment than the Geauga County boy's family wanted.
The teen's mother said she wanted Cornachio charged with assault, a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,500 fine. She accused prosecutors of minimizing the charge and going easy on a law enforcement officer. She called it blatant favoritism.
Bob Zahn, 17, told Geauga sheriff's investigators that an off-duty Cornachio slugged him in the side of the head as he sat in his stopped car Nov. 15, leaving him with a black eye. Zahn said the encounter occurred after Cornachio passed him on Auburn Township's Taylor May Road and then blocked the street.
Cornachio, 55, of Auburn, denied striking the teen but admitted to halting Zahn. The 25-year police veteran said he acted because he witnessed Zahn driving erratically.
Cornachio has a history of problems while in the driver's seat.

Similar posts: metro health

ELYRIA A 20-year-old Elyria woman was shot Tuesday evening during a fight among about 20 people at 13th Street and Middle Avenue. A 19-year-old man was charged with the shooting. Police said Asti Cannon was taken to EMH Regional Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the buttocks.
Police arrested Marquel Brown of Elyria and charged him with felonious assault in connection with the shooting. In addition, police cited three people at the scene for disorderly conduct.
Lt. A.D. Eichenlaub said police were called to the area at 5:22 p.m. for a report of shots fired. When they arrived, they found the shooting victim among a group of about 20 people arguing and creating a disturbance.
Police said the incident began with an argument between several people on the porch and several other people on the sidewalk. Police found a bullet hole in a car parked in the driveway and another in a pillar of the porch. Police did not comment on what the argument was about and have asked any witnesses to contact the station at 440-322-3302.
Shanese Jackson, 19, Nathaniel Sims, 23, and a 17-year-old girl, all of Elyria, were cited for disorderly conduct at the scene.

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State should protect the basics
Today, a sense of security does not mean knowing we are safe from an attack by an outside force. In our current times, a sense of security means simply the basics. It means a roof over one's head, even if you do not actually own the home. It means enough to pay for utilities and food.
Basic security should mean our children have a proper education in K-12, and the opportunity for an advanced degree. In addition, basic security should mean knowing you have the security of health care and do not risk losing everything because of lack of insurance coverage.
It is simply counterintuitive for our elected officials to cut education across the board, and to curtail our state health insurance ["Hunt is on for $4B in cuts," NW Wednesday, April 1]. All of us are reeling from the economy on every level; our expectation of the future is uncertain; our concentration focused on the basics.
A message to our elected officials should include a strong suggestion that now is not the time to undermine basic security. Now is the time to put aside all the things beyond basics for the sake of our security, and the future of our ability to exist as individuals within a community.
-- Marcia Landry, Bainbridge Island
Sacred cows should be sacrificed
Why is our educational system, which is currently just above Mississippi in student funding, being further sacrificed to balance the budget? Why are years of referendums undone in one fell swoop by the ad hoc Legislature? Why do our elected government officials at all levels not take a look at these sacred cows in solving the current budget as longer term remedies?:
Liquor Control Board: Why not dismantle this entire archaic apparatus? Why can we not buy liquor at the grocery store like most other states?
Monopolistic workers' compensation: Why is this state in the insurance business? Why are we one of the few remaining states where you can only get workers' compensation from the state? Why are not the billions of dollars of reserve funds that are terribly redundant held for injured workers' available to help bail out the state now? What are their investment returns and have they been mismanaged so that we have lost money in the stock market? Let's join the rest of the country and dismantle another expensive and archaic system.
Government-employee-defined benefit pension plans: When the private sector has moved to 401(k) and 403(b) retirement programs, why are the deputy sheriffs and bus drivers working big overtime-accruing defined-benefit expenses in bloated pensions? They have made the change in California and elsewhere in the nation; why not here? Let's level the playing field and dismantle another out-of-date and expensive system.
Why are these sacred cows not on the radar screen to be sacrificed before our teachers and our children's education? Where is the debate? What are our priorities?
I, for one, am sick of the lack of public discourse on these sacred cows. The emperor has no clothes, who is that man behind the screen and what is the pink elephant doing here? Where is the public outrage?
-- Scott and Maria Strickland, Seattle
Iraq, Afghanistan wars caused economic crisis
The predictions and prognosis from many experts is that we are spiraling into a downturn that is reminiscent of the worst days of the Great Depression. Jobs are lost and eliminated nationwide at a clip that can only be described as tragic. And coupled with this are the Draconian state cuts that will impact and harm the most vulnerable among us -- children and the elderly.
As we head into this heart of economic darkness, it is stunning that one huge causal factor is consistently overlooked and minimized. It is hard, if not impossible, to find any political leader or corporate spokesperson to address the United States military budget -- more than $600 billion in fiscal 2009 and climbing -- or the catastrophic impact that two ongoing and endless wars in the Middle East have cost this great nation.
And maybe it is immoral to cast light on the economic havoc these wars have wrought on the United States without mentioning the incalculable death, destruction and genocide these military slaughters have brought to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iraq alone has seen more than 1.2 million people killed since March 2003. And this number does not even factor the 5 million Iraqis displaced and the hundreds of thousands maimed or ruined for life by smart bombs and other weapons of mass death. These achievements in death have come at a cost that is slowly draining the economic lifeblood of the United States. And the future does not bode well when we have a newly elected and still-popular president who sees the benefit and virtue of expanding military operations in Afghanistan.
Unchecked militarism is indeed the Siamese twin of imperialism and these unleashed juggernauts need to be brought to account if the United States is ever to return to a position of respect, admiration and economic health. By ignoring the primary culprit in our economic meltdown and focusing instead on Ponzi-scheme con men and greedy insurance executives who foolishly squander bailout support, we do ourselves, our children and the planet a grave disservice that may well lead to incalculable disaster.

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Every single paper along the I4 corridor is losing reporters, editorial staff, and positions from every other department. Are Central Florida readers turning away from the news, or did newspapers lose a quality relationship with their news organizations?
That stems from a question asked 14 years ago during a panel on The New Economics of Journalism. Seated at the head table were Esther Dyson (Forbes columnist), Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. (New York Times, Publisher), Walter Isaacson (Time, New Media Editor), and Frank Daniels III (Nando.net publisher).

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Four members of Richland County Council made it clear Tuesday that Councilman Norman Jackson hadn’t done his homework when he resurrected debate on buying $2.8 million in land for a park in Lower Richland.
But they were called out by Councilwoman Gwendolyn Davis Kennedy, who said they looked silly and were wasting time.
The topic: Whether to buy nearly 129 acres of land owned by residential homebuilder Stewart Mungo for a park along Lower Richland Boulevard.
In December, the council killed the purchase on a tie vote.
But the make-up of the council has since changed. One of the new members is Kennedy.
Tuesday, with both Mungo and former councilwoman Bernice Scott in the audience, council members agreed to study the best kind of park for Mungo’s land.
But not before members Val Hutchinson, Bill Manliowski and Kit Smith said they hadn’t realized Jackson was talking about buying the Mungo tract.
Jackson did not name the property he wanted to purchase either during a Feb. 24 committee meeting nor in documents he prepared for Tuesday’s session. Instead, he simply referred to spending $2.8 million in restaurant-tax revenues for “property in Lower Richland.”
During Tuesday’s debate, in fact, Jackson insisted on calling the Lower Richland property “Laurinton Farms.” He even corrected Hutchinson when she finally spoke the words “the Mungo property.”
But Kennedy said “something’s wrong with that picture” if council members didn’t realize what land Jackson had been talking about.
“It makes you look very ridiculous. It really makes you look like — there’s a name for it; I’m just too much of a lady to say it,” Kennedy said.
Smith responded that she had assumed Jackson wanted to search for the best deal on property because to suggest buying a piece of land without knowing “how much land we need, for what purpose” made no sense.
“Forgive my ignorance,” she said to Kennedy.
Smith said the county needs data on what would bring tourists to Lower Richland.
Hutchinson said county staff should go looking for the best deal on land in Lower Richland if the council wants a park there.
“I’m sure other land is available. Just because somebody wants to sell their land doesn’t mean we have to buy their land,” she said.
But Councilman Kelvin Washington said “the original draw” for Mungo’s land was a rare Carolina bay located there.
Smith shook her head. “If you really want to protect the Caroolina bay, you buy the three-quarters of it that’s for sale next door rather than the one-quarter of it here.”
Malinowski agreed. “The majority of the bay is not what’s been offered to us in this particular deal.”
Besides, Hutchinson said, she couldn’t see the potential for the bay, which she described as “kinda swampy.”
“I was expecting an oasis because I’d read all about the Carolina bay,” she said. “It was not that at all.”
Kennedy joined the discussion again, saying to send the issue back to a committee was a waste of taxpayer money.
“What you’re doing now is back-tracking,” she said. “You need to get this act together. We’re going back and forth, back and forth. Wasting time. This is not the way to do business.”
Jackson and Washington said no further land-use studies were needed, since two already had been done.
Then Councilman Greg Pearce piped up: “If there was a second study on this property, I never got a copy of it.”
The first study, by the Genesis Consulting Group of Columbia, found not enough tourists would visit the site to justify the use of public money collected from the restaurant tax.
Jackson called the study “insulting” to residents of Lower Richland.
At the end of a lengthy debate, the land purchase was sent back to the Development and Services Committee, which Jackson chairs.
In favor: Greg Pearce, Bill Malinowski, Damon Jeter, Paul Livingston, Joyce Dickerson, Gwendolyn Davis Kennedy, Kelvin Washington and Kit Smith
Against: Norman Jackson, Val Hutchinson and Jim Manning.

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I wanted to share this note with you all from Dick Jacobs, Gifts for the Unborn. This organization makes gift packets for pregnancy centers at no cost to us. The packets include a pair of hand-knit booties, sometimes a handcrafted picture frame, and a small baby care item. These packets are given out to women who have positive pregnancy tests as a "first baby gift" to honor the new life growing inside.

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The development of the electronic medical record seems like a good idea...on the surface: availability across different clinics; quicker access to your information; more accurate billing and more accurate prescriptions. Most people I know don't do this but, I've been requesting my own copy of my medical records from my doctors for about 10 years now. I bring my folder to my appointments and can show my tests and exams to every new doctor I meet. With the health insurance merry-go-round I've been on for the last decade, my copies have really come in handy. For shit's sake, I keep all my maintenance records for my truck, why would I rely on some anonymous admin or DBA to keep track of my health records?
Now that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R.1) was passed by Congress and signed by our President, we are falling headlong into a government database of all our health records. A lot has been written about how scary that will be for us healthcare consumers. I already had lots of reasons why I didn't want my government keeping track of my health: privacy; inefficiency; rationing; higher costs and mandates.
Sandy, at Junkfood Science, presents a number of issues I hadn't considered. I think her's are way more scary than the ones I had. Here are some snippets.

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8800 Woodland Ave. on Cleveland's East Side.
Police were called to the bar after shots were fired about 3:10 a.m. Patrol officers found a large crowd and Benford lying dead in the parking lot. Police were told he was shot during a dispute between two groups of people. The argument started inside the club right before it closed, police spokeswoman Nancy Dominik said.
"Big Rob" was shot multiple times in the head and torso. He had a 6-year-old stepdaughter, a brother and two sisters. His 59-year-old mother, Florence Spence, died Jan. 31 unaware that police had arrested Elmore the day before, a family friend said today.
Family and community activists held a vigil Jan. 6 at East 89th Street and Woodland Avenue. About 50 people turned out; several provided the family with leads that were given to detectives. The family was told that Benford was shot for trying to break up the fight. Police would not say what the motive was in the killing.
"No words can say how wonderful he was. A genuine guy," said Benford's sister, Veronica. "He loved to cook and feed people. He watched the neighborhood kids. Anything he had, he shared. Everyone loved him."
Elmore's juvenile criminal history here began in August 2007 with drug possession. In March, he was arrested for having marijuana. In September, he was charged with unauthorized use of a car, according to Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court records. Elmore used to live in the 24400 block of Lakeshore Boulevard and attended Euclid High School.

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Dave Levinthal and his colleague Rudolph Bush started The Dallas City Hall Blog after seeing the success of blogs like the Dallas Independent School District Blog and various political blogs on the Internet.
We saw that and saw the benefits of them having a blog, and wanted to go ahead and do it ourselves, Levinthal said.
But there was another reason for starting it too.
We have a need for this, Levinthal said.
There was news not being reported because of a lack of a dedicated online presence for the city hall beat, while other news was simply not being reported in a timely manner. 
[We started the blog] to give ourselves a medium where we could grab in all those snippets of news that fell to the floor, he said. Those are little inside baseball nuggets, those are the sort of light hardhearted side of politics, breaking news that often would have to wait until the next day or be buried somewhere else on the Web site.
Now Levinthal and Bush can even beat their broadcast counterparts to the punch with their beat blog and live blogging efforts. Before the beat blog was established, Levinthal worried if a news item would show up on the 6:00 or 10:00 news, before The Dallas Morning News came out the next day. Levinthal never worries about that anymore. 
Levinthal and Bush have also benefited from going niche on the Web. Before they had their own blog, they used to post to a general news blog for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. That may have been okay for the occasional breaking news item, but it wasnt a good way to cultivate a beat online.
The Dallas City Hall Blog is a haven for political and government news junkies. Its the place to go for both in-depth features and up-to-the-second tidbits. 
You can talk about the decline of circulation for newspapers all you want, but I think the fact of the matter is that more people are reading about Dallas city news and Dallas political news than they ever have been, he said.
Before the beat blog, Levinthal relied on a much smaller group of sources. These were proactive sources that would contact him when they wanted to get something out. Levinthal also had to work the phones a lot, trying to find information.
The fact of the matter is, most people are not going to take the time or want to make the effort to pick up the phone and call you, unless they are a regular, trusted source of yours, he said. Now people who may care about a specific esoteric issue they have no qualms about firing an e-mail off to you saying, hey I have information about this, that or the other thing. All the sudden youre a conduit for information and tips. Some of our better stories this year have come from that kind of interaction.
Levinthal has had stories that he originally imagined would be blog only published in the print edition. He did a blog post critiquing and rating each Dallas city council members Web site and digital presence. The Web sites ranged from very basic with an about page and some contact information to very elaborate with information on online contributions, blogs, video, audio, etc.
Levinthal gave each council member a letter grade and tried to see who had the best digital presence. It was a fun little feature.
Editors at the paper ended up really taking a liking to it, he said. We ended up doing a whole big spread in print. Thats one example where the blog is driving the print product, as opposed to the print product driving the blog.
Why should a beat reporting start a beat blog? Levinthal thinks its a necessity in this day and age. 
It gives you the opportunity to get more depth, more breadth and, again, more immediacy to the news that youre writing, he said. Frankly, although thats more work for us and you find yourself up at all hours updating the blog and what not, it has really helped our beat reporting, and I think we simply do a better job of covering our beat.

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PARMA The death of a 17-year-old who suffocated while being restrained at a center for troubled children was ruled a homicide Monday.
Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller's ruling said Faith Finley was suffocating while she was restrained by workers at Parmadale Family Services in parma and also choked on vomit.
The workers said she was being disruptive before she was restrained.
Coroner's spokesman Powell Caesar said the ruling, however, does not imply "sinister" intent. He said a homicide is a "death of an individual at the hands of another individual."
Parma police spokesman Marty Compton said that the investigation into Finley's death is ongoing and that ultimately the prosecutor will decide whether anyone will be charged in the teen's death.
The teen's mother, Antoinette Finley, said she was not shocked at all by the ruling and thinks authorities need to take a closer look at Parmadale it its training and procedures.
"They killed my baby," Finley said. "They got a healthy, vibrant child who through no fault of her own had a lot of pressure in her life. She was a teenager and she was rebellious but she was very much alive, and they were supposed to protect her.

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Administrator Milton Pope got his first evaluation by Richland County Council on Tuesday night, including a raise and a three-month contract extension. Council members then released this statement:
The members of Richland County Council are committed to providing their constituents with a local government that is responsive, provides high quality services and does so in an economically responsible way.  The Council is committed to ensuring that both it and the County Administration are accountable to the Public.  Hiring, directing and evaluating the County Administrator is an important aspect of governing the County in line with those principles. In fulfilling these roles, the Council met in Executive Session during November and December 2008 meetings, for the purpose of completing and discussing Milton Pope’s performance evaluation for 2007 and 2008.
The Council has worked with Mr. Pope to implement an evaluation process which is designed to ensure the adoption and achievement of goals designed to improve Richland County.  This is being done in conjunction with the implementation of the County’s Strategic Plan.  During the evaluation process, each Council member met individually with the Administrator and discussed his performance with him on a matrix which included ten areas.  These areas included Strategic Leadership, Personnel Management, Fiscal and Procurement Management, Planning, Organizing and Goal Setting, Team Leadership, Analytical Thinking, Continuous Improvement, Initiative, Professionalism, Problem Solving and Problem Solving and Decision Making.  At this time, we are pleased to report that Mr. Pope received an overall average score of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for his performance as County Administrator During 2007 and 2008.
Every Council member expressed confidence in Mr. Pope’s Fiscal Management, Analytical Thinking, Initiative, Professionalism and Problem Solving Skills.  The Council has discussed suggestions for improvement in areas providing customer service in several County Departments.  The Council further expressed confidence in Mr. Pope’s leadership and professionalism.  The Council is pleased with Mr. Pope’s leadership in the Council’s efforts to manage County services in a period of unusual growth and fiscal circumstances coupled with problems relating to incomplete implementation by the Legislature of Home Rule.  The Council shares Mr. Pope’s desire that Richland County continue to improve its operations and service to residents in a number of areas. We are confident that the administration has an effective plan to address existing issues.  We believe Mr. Pope to be a hands-on Administrator who has an established record and reputation of high personal integrity.  We know that he is committed to the success of Richland County.
Accordingly, the Council commends Mr. Pope on a good evaluation and a job well done.  While both the Council and Mr. Pope recognize that excellence is a journey requiring continued improvement; the Council is pleased with his performance to date and with the current direction of his leadership.
Presently, Mr. Pope has one and a half years remaining on his employment contract with the County.  His current salary is $150,000.  In an effort to recognize his performance and the fact that he has not had any increases in salary in almost two years, the Council has authorized an amendment to the Administrator’s employment contract as follows:  increasing his annual compensation by 5.00%, an amount less than that received by County Employees over the tenure of his employment. This amount is at the request of the Administrator who has expressed his desire to “share the burden” personally where economic times are tough. This will raise his annual salary to $157,500.  The approved amendment also  extends his contract for an additional two years, through June 30, 2012.  The Council also passed a motion to allow a salary comparison to be conducted prior to his next annual evaluation.
The Council regrets that current budgetary constraints prohibit additional compensation at this time which would allow Mr. Pope and many of our other high-performing employees’ compensation at a level commensurate with their demonstrated abilities and the market value of those abilities.

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