Free Republic

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THE BLOG TUESDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2009 AT 6:55 AM Facts Are Stubborn Things Posted by Macon Phillips Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things." Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions. In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to...

Just as the Obama administration continues to reel from three major scandals, Republicans are zeroing in on yet one more — this one involving Obamacare as it nears implementation. GOP legislators are targeting Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the solicitations she made to some of the nation’s top insurance companies and other groups for donations to Enroll America, the nonprofit group charged with selling Obamacare to the public. “Our guys on the Hill think this is the fourth scandal,” Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak told Reuters this week. “It fits into that narrative Republicans are building not only about incompetence...

The Project on Death in America Summarised from an article by William Shawcross, entitled 'Turning dollars into change', in Time magazine (Sept 1st '97) monitored for the Natural Death Centre by Roger Knights.

How a handful of progressive foundations and quasi-government agencies set out to provide equitable distribution of health care, and in the process, created a duty to die and a culture of death. And how they hope to secure their legacy . . . Featuring the collaboration of: the Hastings Center, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), George Soros's Project on Death in America (PDIA), Institute of Medicine (IOM), AARP, Choice in Dying, and a number of prestigious universities, to name only a few.

As you start to read all this, you'll laugh at how incestuous it all gets. Let's start with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which as I've noted in the past is tied in with the Soros foundation. Together, the two worked on something called The Project on Death in America.(PDIA) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2341083/posts And speaking of Mr Soros, he himself(his foundations) have given directly to NPR. Compared to some of the other numbers I'm seeing, it's a small amount of $250,000. But it doesn't matter. Soros money is soros money in my book. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2396058/posts Additional information about RWJF can be found here....

On their web site they brag that they are "the nation's largest philanthropy devoted to improving health and health care." On NPR their slogan is "committed to helping Americans lead healthy lives and get the care they need." In reality they are a front group for the pharmaceutical industry, specifically for the giant Johnson & Johnson corporation. If Johnson & Johnson were to get directly involved in the politics of health most people would be very suspicious of their motives and critical of their claims. So one of the founders did something very clever - he set up the Robert...

Imagine - people posing as doctors and inspectors, just walking into a hospital and demanding information and patient records. Now the Department of Homeland Security is taking action. The last two hospitals where it happened were in Newton and New Brunswick, New Jersey. This really has federal authorities puzzled - intruders masquerading as doctors and inspectors probing hospital security. But there is no evidence the cases are connected, including two in New Jersey. Hospital officials and security experts say the similarities are disturbing. It happened on Easter Sunday. Three men of middle-eastern descent entered a Sussex County hospital posing as...

RALEIGH -- For three years now, I've been hearing a lot of complaints from civil libertarians in North Carolina about the Patriot Act, lengthy imprisonments of enemy noncombatants, and other abuses of government power in the war on terrorism. On occasion, I've agreed with them. Now, it's time for all people of good faith who've worried about such abuses to come out against a bundle of similarly questionable proposals to fight the war against drunk driving. Earlier in the year, media reports showed that a surprisingly large number of North Carolinians charged with driving while impaired (DWI) were acquitted at...

<p>Researchers presented more evidence yesterday blaming spread-out suburban development for America's obesity epidemic and for a variety of other public and mental health woes, allowing antisprawl activists to argue that new, compact forms of development would be better for the environment and also healthier for individuals.</p>

Concurrent treatment for alcohol and tobacco dependence: are patients ready to quit both? Stotts AL, Schmitz JM, Grabowski J. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, U.T. Mental Sciences Institute, Substance Abuse Research Center, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, 1300 Moursund Avenue, 77030, Houston, TX, USA The prevalence of smoking among alcohol abusers is high, yet little is known about this dual-dependency. This study examines mechanisms involved in changing both alcohol and tobacco use concurrently using the transtheoretical model (TTM) measures of change. Alcohol and tobacco dependent outpatients (N=115) entering a dual-substance dependence program were compared on baseline measures...

Opponents of the suspended smoking ban say it was brought to Pueblo by outside groups, including one partly funded by a company that sells products to help people quit smoking. That's only half true, say backers of the ban. The antismoking ordinance is something a lot of Pueblo residents want, they say. The ban was suspended Wednesday after city officials certified petitions submitted by members of Puebloans for Common Sense in Government. According to the city charter, the ban now must be reviewed by City Council and either repealed or put on the ballot for city voters to decide. Bar...

Bishop's fury gets McGreevey to flip-flop Metuchen cleric wins review of hospital rule Friday, November 22, 2002 BY JEFF WHELAN Star-Ledger Staff [New Brunswick, NJ] -- Earlier this fall, Gov. James E. McGreevey waded into a bitter, highly charged dispute between two New Brunswick hospitals by hosting a private meeting with the major players at the governor's mansion in Princeton. Metuchen Bishop Paul Bootkoski wanted McGreevey to halt a proposed state regulation allowing Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital to establish a regional perinatal center, which would care for high-risk pregnant women and very ill premature infants. Bootkoski argued the move...