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POPSThe Health Bill Is Scary My 25 years as a practicing physician have shown me what happens when government attempts to practice medicine: Doctors respond to government coercion instead of patient cues, and patients die prematurely. Even if the public option is eliminated from the bill, these onerous rationing provisions will remain intact. For instance, the Reid bill (in sections 3403 and 2021) explicitly empowers Medicare to deny treatment based on cost. An Independent Medicare Advisory Board created by the bill"composed of permanent, unelected and, therefore, unaccountable members"will greatly expand the rationing practices that already occur in the program. Medicare, for example, has limited cancer patients' access to Epogen, a costly but vital drug that stimulates red blood cell production. It has limited the use of virtual, and safer, colonoscopies due to cost concerns. And Medicare refuses medical claims at twice the rate of the largest private insurers.
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POPSMorning Must Reads -- Chinese Won't Bow to Obama 
that Democrats haven’t reached a deal. The Senate is moving on to a year-end defense appropriations bill until Saturday as Majority Leader Harry Reid tries to whip his caucus into shape. We don’t know who is objecting behind closed doors, but Nebraska’s Ben Nelson, who opposes abortion and some tax increases, is the most public of the skeptics right now. Reid is trying to spur action by imposing a hideous, around-the-clock schedule on the Senate through Christmas, but few believe right now that Reid can make his year-end deadline. “With Mr. Nelson's vote in doubt, President Barack Obama met with Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, the lone Republican to show interest in supporting the package, to see if she would back the bill. Sen. Snowe is an abortion-rights supporter. ‘He'd prefer to get this moving,’ Sen. Snowe said. She added that she urged the president to postpone action and use ‘part of January’ to deal with her concerns, which include a proposal to establish a new long-term
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POPSIndependent commission led by former lawmakers, economists releases plan to control federal debt 
The rest of the plan includes an enforcement mechanism to stay on track (featuring automatic triggers to raise taxes and cut spending if targets aren’t met), then actually stabilizing the debt in 2018, followed by continued debt reductions toward the nation’s 50-year average of below 40%. The nation’s public debt is now 53% of U.S. gross domestic product — up from 41% a year ago — and on track to become 85% of GDP by 2018, 100% by 2022 and 200% by 2038, under the commission’s projections. The group says before those levels are reached, the U.S. would likely face a debt-driven crisis in which interest rates spiral higher and squeeze out other priorities. “The tipping point is impossible to predict, but the United States is already hearing concerns about its fiscal management from some of its largest creditors, and the country is uncomfortably vulnerable to shifts in confidence around the world,” the report stated.
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POPSThe Taliban Letters Until recently Leah Farrall was a senior Counter Terrorism Intelligence Analyst with the Australian Federal Police and the organization’s al Qaeda subject matter expert. During her time at the AFP Leah worked on a range of international and domestic counter terrorism investigations as well as serving as the senior Intelligence Analyst in the AFP’s Jakarta Regional Cooperation Team (JRCT) in Indonesia and at the AFP’s Forward Operating Post in response to the second Bali bombings.
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POPSPhotography - Not A Crime Increasing concerns about terrorism, paedophilia, health and safety, personal privacy and plain old paranoia about pretty much anything Her Majesty’s subjects get up to has resulted in a deep mistrust of photographers.
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POPSWhy We Find it so Hard to Act Against Climate Change (2) Be the change. Jump out of the industrial mindset, first. The rest becomes an adventure with no certain outcome. In my experience, the journey is fun and rewarding. See www.worldwidewood.wordpress.com to see an example. Updates coming soon on Amplify.
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POPSClimateGate: Follow The Money -- facts that were laid bare by last week's disclosure of thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, or CRU. But the deeper question is why the scientists behaved this way to begin with, especially since the science behind man-made global warming is said to be firmly settled. To answer the question, it helps to turn the alarmists' follow-the-money methods right back at them. Consider the case of Phil Jones, the director of the CRU and the man at the heart of climategate. According to one of the documents hacked from his center, between 2000 and 2006 Mr. Jones was the recipient (or co-recipient) of some $19 million worth of research grants, a sixfold increase over what he'd been awarded in the 1990s. Why did the money pour in so quickly? Because the climate alarm kept ringing so loudly: The louder the alarm, the greater the sums.
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POPSBob Ainsworth Criticises Barack Obama Over Afghanistan Senior British Government sources have become increasingly frustrated with Mr Obama’s “dithering” on Afghanistan, the Daily Telegraph disclosed earlier this month, with several former British defence chiefs echoing the concerns. But Mr Ainsworth is the first Government minister to express in public what amounts to personal criticism of the US president’s leadership over the conflict which has so far cost 235 British lives.
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POPSWorker Advocate Files Lawsuit to Force Disclosure of Administration’s Big Labor Ties The FOIA submission cited concerns about Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who previously held a key leadership position at the Big Labor-front group “American Rights at Work,” and Deborah Greenfield, a DOL appointee who previously worked with the AFL-CIO to overturn the same union disclosure guidelines she now oversees. As of today, the DOL has refused to honor President Obama’s widely touted promise of transparency and has failed to follow federal laws requiring the timely disclosure of public information. As a result, Right to Work attorneys concluded that a federal lawsuit was the only way to compel the level of transparency promised by President Obama and guaranteed under the Freedom of Information Act. “It’s absolutely vital that this information is made available to the public to dispel real concerns about conflicts of interest at the Department of Labor,” continued Mix.
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POPSModern Day "Caveman" Lives Without $$ Daniel Suelo lives in a cave. Unlike the average American—wallowing in credit-card debt, clinging to a mortgage, terrified of the next downsizing at the office—he isn't worried about the economic crisis. That's because he figured out that the best way to stay solvent is to never be solvent in the first place. Nine years ago, in the autumn of 2000, Suelo decided to stop using money. He just quit it, like a bad drug habit. His dwelling, hidden high in a canyon lined with waterfalls, is an hour by foot from the desert town of Moab, Utah, where people who know him are of two minds: He's either a latter-day prophet or an irredeemable hobo. Suelo's blog, which he maintains free at the Moab Public Library, suggests that he's both. "When I lived with money, I was always lacking," he writes. "Money represents lack. Money represents things in the past (debt) and things in the future (credit), but money never represents what is present.
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POPSConrad on the Senate Health Care Bill Not sure what to think. I want to know how it will affect my Mother's Medicare Advantage. I'm glad to see it prohibits illegals and the paid abortion option. However, when he said Reid did a good job....well, that makes me nervous.
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POPSDocumentary Film Highlights Child Trafficking American actress Lucy Liu speaks at a press conference to promote the film "Red Light" which she co-produced and narrated and which concerns children abused in the sex trade in Cambodia, at a hotel in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009. A UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Lucy Liu is in Cairo for the 33rd Cairo International Film Festival, and visited UNICEF-funded anti-human trafficking programs specifically dealing with women and children.
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POPS"One term" Obama's credibility SHOT!!!! Republicans and Democrats saw opportunities to create new sources of campaign contributions by privatizing as many military functions as possible. There are now a large number of private companies that have never made a dollar in the market, feeding instead at the public trough that drains taxpayers of dollars while loading Americans with debt service obligations.
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POPSDon't Portray Obama or Global Governance in a 'Negative Light' Obama's media liaison meets with Fox News (Satire) . Pardon, it just fits so well. Proof of appropriateness of this from this article here in Dec. 2008 It's a record-setting press honeymoon. President-elect Barack Obama has received the most positive campaign news coverage on the main network news shows in the 20-year history of such studies by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA). Wonder when the media, other than Fox, will end the love fest and start reporting people's fears and concerns about the Agenda , and without similar V tactics from the White House .
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POPSA New Meaning to "Freedom of the Press" "I think it is a compromise we can live with and it seems to be a compromise the White House can live with. It's certainly better than the status quo," Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
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POPSAmerica a Rude Nation? Debating Public Decency Experts point to a variety of reasons for the apparent fall in civil standards: 1) The recession has placed many under heavy stress 2) The rise of the internet has fostered confrontational and provocative communications in which people get used to saying things they may never once have dared to utter face-to-face. These may be conditions that allow rudeness to rear its ugly head, but they are not excuses for it. Rudeness is rooted in lack of civility. If you don’t respect other people’s ideas, opinions, equality as compared to yourself, or simply their right to exist, it will be easy for you to resort to rudeness towards that person and you will be considered uncivil. We have been losing our civility for a long time now and I believe it is due to a lack of respect for others and ourselves.
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POPSObama's Tax-Payer Funded Propaganda Campaign The President's website starts from the premise of public option--that is what the Left has long desired. Government run health care, aka Single Payer (the government) is what they covet. They know that they'll likely lose seats in 2010, so this is their last, best, and probably only hope of getting the prize. "Reform will stop 'rationing' not increase it": Right now, when a person needs a procedure that is not covered by his insurance company, the individual complains to the doctor and to the insurance company. The doctor asks the insurance company for a review, writes a letter of medical necessity and the insurance company either approves or denies coverage. If the evidence is compelling, they approve. Sometimes this needs to be appeal. Sometimes, yelling on the phone is involved. If the insurance company doesn't approve, the patient can pay for the procedure himself. If the withholding of the procedure harms the patient, the patient sues the insurance company.
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POPSLouisiana JP: Inter-Racial Marriage "Confusing".
A few more quotes from the article follow.. I find this astounding, especially that Bardwell has been permitted by the state, at taxpayer expense, to continue as a public servant. "Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell has refused to grant a marriage license to an interracial couple over supposed concerns as to the difficulties the couple's future children might face due to their parents' differing ethnicity. "Bardwell says his main concern is that, in his opinion, interracial marriages do not last long. He insists he is not racist*, telling local paper the Hammond Daily Star: "I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves... in my heart, I feel the children will later suffer." "According to an AP article, which can be found here, Beth Humphrey phoned Bardwell to inquire about signing their marriage license on Oct. 6, but was told by his wife that Bardwell did not sign interracial marriage licens
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POPSSF piers being invaded by sea lions More: There are specific authorized measures, and Hyde Street covered all bases, consulting nearly a dozen agencies and marinas, and gaining federal approval for action. At last month's meeting of the Fisherman's Wharf Waterfront Advisory Group, Dolphin Club President Ken Coren was encouraged by the port's plans: "These are formidable animals. ... Once they are established, they are not going away." Marine Mammal Center Executive Director Jeff Boehm confirms that sea lion populations are up statewide. The causes are uncertain, but he says Hyde Street is going about controlling the situation "as they should be, with appropriate passive and obstructive tools." Even with federal approval, Prince is mildly apprehensive about the growing attention. One comment he got last week was that "the problem isn't sea lions, but that the planet is infested with humans."
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POPSSchroedinger's Rapist Rape culture hurts women and decent men as well. More: So when you, a stranger, approach me, I have to ask myself: Will this man rape me? Do you think I’m overreacting? One in every six American women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime… While you may assume that none of the men you know are rapists, I can assure you that at least one is. Consider: if every rapist commits an average of ten rapes (a horrifying number, isn’t it?) then the concentration of rapists in the population is still a little over one in sixty… How do I know that you, the nice guy who wants nothing more than companionship and True Love, are not this rapist? I don’t. When you approach me in public, you are Schrödinger’s Rapist. You may or may not be a man who would commit rape. I won’t know for sure unless you start sexually assaulting me. I can’t see inside your head, and I don’t know your intentions.
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