Free Republic

"A looming doctor shortage threatens to create a national healthcare crisis by further limiting access to physicians, jeopardizing quality and accelerating cost increases. Twelve states — including California, Texas and Florida — report some physician shortages now or expect them within a few years. Across the country, patients are experiencing or soon will face shortages in at least a dozen physician specialties, including cardiology and radiology and several pediatric and surgical subspecialties."

... The first failure laid at the feet of the agency was the inability to prevent the surprise attacks of 9/11. In fact, the C.I.A. (and others) warned the White House often during the first eight months of 2001 that an attack was coming and where it was coming from, but the Bush administration did nothing. For reasons of broad national psychology, the White House's failure to stir itself was simultaneously overlooked and forgiven by the public, while the C.I.A. (and others) got held to strict account for failing to predict the day and the hour.

Imaging discovering that your older brother has been reading your IMs and listening to your phone calls for months. Now he knows about everything from your secret crush to the time you blamed the dog for breaking your mom's vase. How would you feel? Angry, probably. That's how many people felt last December when the New York Times reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been eavesdropping on some Americans without legal permission. The NSA had been monitoring the overseas phone calls and e-mails of certain U.S. residents since 2001.

"The renovation of the United Nations' aging East Side headquarters could cost $1.9 billion — more than a third above previous estimates, U.N. officials said yesterday. Secretary-General Kofi Annan blamed skyrocketing Manhattan real estate and construction costs, expensive security and the balky state Legislature for pricey revisions in previous plans." ______________ One of my favorite all-time finds on the Internet was Donald Trump riiiiiipping the UN for this whole sordid affair. And I mean ... he riiiiiips them. Follow the links on Powerline ... http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011113.php#011113

While insiders at HCA Inc. were selling millions of dollars of their own stock this year, they were also painting a sunny picture of the company's outlook for investors. Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the sale of HCA stock by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., whose family founded the company that grew into the nation's largest for-profit health care chain. The SEC turned its initial inquiry into a formal investigation of the company, HCA announced Thursday. The company said it is cooperating with investigators.