America in the cross hairs: The U.N. housing police

International community organizers come to America

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The United Nations is fretting that the United States might be violating human rights by not providing adequate housing. To get to the bottom of the issue, the U.N. Human Rights Council has dispatched Brazilian architect and urban planner Raquel Rolnik, the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, to our shores. We apologize for being unwelcoming hosts, but she should go back from whence she came.

Miss Rolnik's bureaucratic pity might be better targeted at her native Brazil, where 28.9 percent of the urban population lives in slums, according to the UN-HABITAT Global Urban Indicators database. Or China, where the rate is 32.8 percent. Or Kenya at 54.8 percent, Mozambique at 79.5 percent, or Sierra Leone, where 97 percent of people in cities are slum dwellers.

But instead, the U.N. is expending its limited time and resources on the United States, where the homeless population is a fraction of a percent, three-quarters of people below the poverty line live in homes with two or more bedrooms, and median square feet of living space per person in poverty is 91 percent of the national median, according to the 2007 American Housing Survey. This is not what you would call a human-rights nightmare. More...

House health bill clocks in at 1,990 pages

It runs more pages than War and Peace, has nearly five times as many words as the Torah, and its tables of contents alone run far longer than this story.

The House health care bill unveiled Thursday clocks in at 1,990 pages and about 400,000 words. With an estimated 10-year cost of $894 billion, that comes out to about $2.24 million per word. .

And for some members, that may not be enough.

A “robust” public option can’t be found in the bill. Neither can the word “doctor” – save for a few references to degrees. No “cost curve” is bent. No “blue pill” is dispensed.

“Death” and “taxes” are both in there, but “death panel” is not.

The text defines dozens of words and phrases, including “family” (“an individual and . . . the individual’s dependents”), “health insurance coverage,” “exchange-eligible individual” and “Indian.”

And for those who cry “read the bill,” beware. There are plenty of paragraphs like this one:

“(a) Outpatient Hospitals – (1) In General – Section 1833(t)(3)(C)(iv) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395(t)(3)(C)(iv)) is amended – (A) in the first sentence – (i) by inserting “(which is subject to the productivity adjustment described in subclause (II) of such section)” after “1886(b)(3)(B)(iii); and (ii) by inserting “(but not below 0)” after “reduced”; and (B) in the second sentence, by inserting “and which is subject, beginning with 2010 to the productivity adjustment described in section 1886(b)(3)(B)(iii)(II)”. More: including videos

John-F-Kennedy.net - 16 Questions On The Assassination by Bertrand Russell

by Bertrand Russell

The Minority of One, September 6, 1964, pp. 6-8.

The official version of the assassination of President Kennedy has been so riddled with contradictions that it is been abandoned and rewritten no less than three times. Blatant fabrications have received very widespread coverage by the mass media, but denials of these same lies have gone unpublished. Photographs, evidence and affidavits have been doctored out of recognition. Some of the most important aspects of the case against Lee Harvey Oswald have been completely blacked out. Meanwhile, the F.B.I., the police and the Secret Service have tried to silence key witnesses or instruct them what evidence to give. Others involved have disappeared or died in extraordinary circumstances.

It is facts such as these that demand attention, and which the Warren Commission should have regarded as vital. Although I am writing before the publication of the Warren Commission’s report, leaks to the press have made much of its contents predictable. Because of the high office of its members and the fact of its establishment by President Johnson, the Commission has been widely regarded as a body of holy men appointed to pronounce the truth. An impartial examination of the composition and conduct of the Commission suggests quite otherwise. More...

The Very Busy Politicians in Washington DC by Ron Paul

by Ron Paul

Recently by Ron Paul: The Fed Should Be More Transparent

Listen to Ron Paul. Click the play button below.

With a faltering economy, multiple wars, and the approaching demise of the dollar’s reserve status, there are more than enough problems to keep politicians in Washington working day and night. In between handing out cash for clunkers and nationalizing healthcare, the administration is busy sending more troops overseas, escalating existing wars, and seeking out excuses to start new wars. Congress is working on “urgent” legislation to address crises like healthcare reform and climate change. The reforms are so very urgent that legislation must pass swiftly with no time to read the bills even though the new laws wouldn’t take effect for several years! Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is busy dealing with our dollar crisis by printing up more dollars. More...

Public school nurses give swine flu vaccine to kids without parents' OK, sends child to hospital

BY Ben Chapman and Rachel Monahan
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Originally Published:Friday, October 30th 2009, 12:52 AM
Updated: Friday, October 30th 2009, 10:18 AM

Murray/News

Nikiyah Torres, with her mom Naomi Troy, who received a flu shot without parents permission was taken to a hospital.

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	Yes, it seems like an effective way to prevent getting the H1N1
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School nurses mistakenly gave the swine flu vaccine to two students who didn't sign up for it - including a Brooklyn girl with epilepsy who wound up in the hospital.

"I was outraged," Naomi Troy, 26, told the Daily News after her 6-year-old daughter, Nikiyah Torres-Pierre, had a possible allergic reaction to the shot.

Officials at Public School 335 in Crown Heights called an ambulance to take Nikiyah to SUNY Downstate Medical Center when she fell ill following the arm jab.

"My stomach was hurting, and I was itching," Nikiyah said after she was released from the hospital.

The snafu and a similar mixup at a Staten Island school came in the first days of the city's in-school H1N1 vaccination program.

City officials have stressed the vaccine is safe and urged parents to sign up for it - though less than half have sent in permission slips.

Troy was waiting for advice from her family doctor on whether Nikiyah should get the shot since she takes medicine to control her epilepsy.

When the nurse called for a student Thursday morning, Nikiyah's teacher misunderstood and sent the wrong student, Troy said.

The error was compounded when the nurse didn't check Nikiyah's name before sticking her in the shoulder, the mother said.

"The school made a horrible mistake," she added. "They never asked for her name. They have no paperwork....How do you make a mistake like this?" More...

Another city student gets flu vaccine by mistake

Gerald Celente: There is NO Economic Recovery - It's a cover-up! Must see survival video! | Ron Paul 2012 | Campaign for Liberty at the Daily Paul

Every person on Daily Paul should watch this carefully.

www.eclipptv.com/viewVide...

If the above link does not work, try this:

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

See also: Gerald Celente: History of the Future: Trends 2012 (.pdf) More...

Lieberman: Public Option Is "Wrong" - Face The Nation - CBS News

Renews Vow to Filibuster Any Health Care Reform Legislation that Includes Gov't-Backed Coverage

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  Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., on "Face the Nation,"
  

• Play CBS Video Video Sen. Lieberman On Public Option

  On "Face The Nation" Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said that those who want a public option are preventing health care reform from getting done.

(CBS) Senator Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said Sunday that anyone supporting a government-backed health insurance plan is not only "wrong," but is jeopardizing the passage of any reform of health care.

"I'm all for health care reform," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "We have a system that needs fixing. But we've got some more urgent problems than that, and the first most urgent is to fix our economy, to get at creating jobs again."

Lieberman told moderator Bob Schieffer that the public option "came out of nowhere," and said it was not necessary to achieve what he described as the two goals of health reform: "Make health insurance more affordable, and to extend it to people who don't have it now.

"The public option I think was raised in the last year by people who really want to have a government-controlled health insurance system. That's their right. I think they're wrong.

"But it's not necessary - as President Obama has said over and over again - to achieve the goals that he has. So I hope it's not in there at the end" he told Schieffer.

The senator said that he would filibuster any legislation including a public option. More...

Ron Paul Questions Why Obama Daughters Haven’t Taken Swine Flu Vaccine

Despite declaring national emergency in response to H1N1 outbreak, President refuses to allow his own children to be inoculated with controversial shot

Congressman Ron Paul has questioned why, despite his efforts to encourage the general public to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus, President Barack Obama has refused to allow his own daughters to take the swine flu shot.

Despite the fact that Obama on Friday declared a national emergency in response to the H1N1 outbreak, he apparently doesn’t deem it enough of a threat to have his two daughters vaccinated against the virus.

Such double standards have led media pundits to call for Obama to get his daughters vaccinated on live television, in an effort to encourage American parents to do the same for their kids. The swine flu vaccination program, which was initially intended to be a “mass” inoculation covering the entire population, has been rejected by a majority of Americans who harbor deep suspicions about dangerous additives contained in the vaccine such as mercury and squalene. More...

Budget Office: Public Option Would Cost More than Private Plans - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

(AP)

The government-run health insurance plan, or "public option," crafted by House Democrats would typically have higher premiums than comparable private insurance plans, according to a new budget estimate. Yet even though the public plan is weaker than liberals initially hoped -- thereby making it more expensive -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview with Politico Thursday that she does not want liberals to attempt to make it more "robust."

The analysis (PDF) submitted yesterday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office bucks the liberal argument that a public plan would be cheaper for consumers than private insurance. While its administrative costs would be lower, the CBO reported, other factors would offset that.

A significant factor for the higher premiums would be the fact that House Democrats included in the legislation unveiled Thursday a public option that would negotiate its payment rates with medical providers. Liberals like Pelosi were inclined to include a public option that tied its payment rates to Medicare -- this would have made it cheaper, but moderate Democrats from rural areas complained that doctors and medical providers in their regions would not be paid enough.

More...