Month: February 2011

Virtually Speaking today

~ susie

SATURDAY FEB 26 – 2pm pacific | 5pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING LIBERALLY: WHAT WE BELIEVE – Jay Ackroyd and Stuart Zechman present the voices of liberal values: individual citizens speaking out about what American liberalism (or progressivism) means to them, and to our country’s future. Featuring recorded and live voices of members of the VSS media panel, citizen activists and electeds.

Last time in this time slot: Jay Ackroyd and Stuart Zechman present voices of liberal values: individual citizens speaking out about the meaning of American liberalism (or progressivism) to them, and to our country’s future.

Listen on or after 2pm pacific | 5pm eastern

Wheee

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

Well, there goes what’s left of my health care! Oh, wait, I just know the Senate Democrats will stand up for this, right? RIGHT?

The proposed federal budget in the U.S. House of Representatives would cut $1.3 billion in funding for community health centers from President Obama’s budget proposal.

According to the National Association of Community Health Centers, the measure would deny health centers the ability to serve at least 3.3 million patients within the next few months and 11 million over the next year. The budget is less likely to pass the Senate, where Democrats are the majority, and then would be subject to negotiations between the chambers.

“Fiscal responsibility may be the intent of the proposed costs, but what they will accomplish is precisely the opposite,” said Tom Van Coverden, president and CEO of NACHC. “This shortsighted proposal will force millions of Americans to seek non-emergency care at already frequently overcrowded hospital ERs.

“Thousands more will have to put off primary and preventive care and management of chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease — with the end result being much higher healthcare costs to our overall system. These substantial costs will be passed on to taxpayers, employers and employees alike through increased premiums.”

According to an analysis by a collaborative at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, affected patients will include: 10 million patients with incomes less than 200% of the federal poverty level, 7.4 million racial/ethnic minority patients, 1.4 million low-income children under age 6, 2.3 million low-income patients with cardiovascular disease, 2 million low-income uninsured patients who will likely forgo care, and nearly 1 million uninsured patients whose spending on essential healthcare services will require them to spend less on food and other basic needs.

The policy research brief also notes that the affected patient population is at elevated risk for serious and chronic health conditions, which can result in higher national healthcare costs.

“Health centers provide cost-effective care for high-risk patients,” said co-author Peter Shin, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy. “Reducing health center funding impedes improvements in population health and limits the potential for significant savings in healthcare costs.”

Coming to a PA community near you

~ susie

This story’s about Texas, but I know that soon this will be even more parts of Pennsylvania, thanks to the political payoffs the gas industry invested in our new governor Tom Corbett, who is so firmly in their pocket, he might as well be lint. If we know there’s one thing Republicans cherish, it’s their right to allow their corporate patrons to fuck up the environment and then blame the Democrats who have to come in and clean it up!

Fearing for his children’s health, Mayor Calvin Tillman is leaving behind his government position and getting out of Dodge… or rather, Dish.

Dish, Texas is a town consisting of 200 residents and 60 gas wells. When Tillman’s sons repeatedly woke up in the middle of the night with mysterious nosebleeds, he knew it was time to move — even if it meant leaving his community behind. In an exclusive interview with The Huffington Post, Mayor Tillman reveals that when it came down to family or politics, the choice wasn’t a tough one to make.

Tillman, first elected mayor of Dish, Texas in 2007, has spent his time in office fighting to regulate natural gas companies that are drilling into the Barnett shale, which holds up to 735 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

According to the Associated Press, residents of Dish have complained of nosebleeds, pain, and poor circulation since the first compressor station was built in their town in 2005, though there is no hard proof linking the health problems to the natural gas drilling. The air over the Barnett Shale near Dish was found to contain high levels of the toxic chemical benzene, shown to cause cancer. The town’s mayor is leaving it all behind.

Last Memorial Day was the final straw. Tillman’s 5-year-old son awoke in the middle of the night with a severe nosebleed. As Tillman describes to HuffPost, “He had blood all over his hands, blood on the walls — our house looked somewhat like a murder scene.” In the weeks prior, both of Tillman’s sons had experienced severe nosebleeds. At the same time, the town was surrounded by a strong odor from their natural gas facilities.

While Mayor Tillman acknowledges there could be other explanations, he feels, “It’s one thing if I’m exposing myself to something… but with our children, it’s just a completely different story. We just couldn’t take the chance after that.” Around the country, similar reports of nosebleeds can be found among residents living near hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” sites, though the energy companies insist that their methods are safe.

“Safe” as in, nobody can pin it to us quickly enough to keep us from drilling until it’s too late.

Trenton rally

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

I wasn’t there because of the heavy rain, but lots of other people were:

TRENTON — In front of a crowd of thousands of protesters, the president of the state’s largest teachers union accused Gov. Chris Christie of trying to foment a civil war within the middle-class.

“All of New Jersey’s middle-class is hurting, but this governor and his right-wing supporters are trying to start a middle-class civil war,” said New Jersey Education Association President Barbara Keshishian.

As she spoke, thousands of public workers filled the street in front of the Statehouse, wearing ponchos and holding umbrellas to keep as dry as possible in the pouring rain. State Police estimated the crowd at 3,100.

The rally, organized by the state AFL-CIO, was both aimed at pushing back against benefit concessions demanded by Christie, and in support of Wisconsin public unions, who are fighting Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to roll back their collective bargaining rights.

In his budget address earlier this week, Christie said private sector workers “support the rich benefits of public employees.” He’s pushing for major givebacks from the workforce, including paying more towards their health premiums and downgrading future pension benefits.

Local union officials spoke one after another at today’s rally, each handing over checks to Wisconsin AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Stephanie Bloomingdale, who told the crowd “our fight is your fight, and our fight is for the middle-class.”

The featured speaker, national AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, compared Christie to Walker and other Republican governors, saying “they were not elected to dictate.”

“They were elected to solve problems, not create conflict,” Trumka said.

About half a block away from the rally was a counter-protest led by Americans for Prosperity New Jersey Director Steve Lonegan.

“Here’s our message to our friends down the block: Go back to work. We’re paying you,” said Lonegan, who told the crowd that “the battle that you’re seeing today is a war against the taxpayers.”