Tuesday, December 17, 2013

USA vs State of Texas

Texas congressmen take aim at Affordable Care Act’s navigators (click here)

The State of Texas is obstructing access to The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The State of Texas is endangering lives, especially those of children.
The legislators in Texas are incompetent.

Who Are the Uninsured in Texas? (click here for Texas Medical Association)


According to a summary of national data by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), groups with a high likelihood of lacking health insurance include:

  • People in families with income below 200 percent of the poverty level;

  • Hispanics;

  • Young adults, age 19 to 34;

  • People in families in which the adults worked either part-time or only part of the year; or

  • Individuals in fair or poor health status who are significantly more likely 
  • than others to be uninsured for longer periods.

Texas workers are less likely to have employment-based health insurance coverage than those in other states. 60 percent of all companies in the US offer health coverage for their employees.  In 2009, Texas ranked 49th in the nation, with only 50 percent of Texans having employment-based health insurance coverage. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports 78 percent of the uninsured have at least one family member who works either full-time or part-time in 2009 to 2010....

Between 25 to 29.9 percent of the Texas Poor populous is Hispanic. This issue is racial as well as incompetent. 

When nearly a third of the Poor in Texas are of one race and the State refuses to act in their best interest, that is bigotry. It just is.

In the graph below from 2007, it is noted Texas has the largest number of impoverished and the second largest percentage. 

How is it that a state with so many wealthy oil and gas companies have so many poor? I thought Texas was touting an economy above all others. It would seem to be a lie.

I just find it really odd that Texas has a high poverty rate while it continues to victimize them in so many ways, I would think it would be the opposite and the wealthy of Texas would be working hard at improving those in poverty. Odd. It touts so much religion as the backbone of the morality of the state. Strange. It must be incompetency because nothing else makes sense, unless of course it is greed.

2.  Poverty in Texas (click here) 

2007Mississippi22.60%2,921,030660,153
Texas16.50%23,843,4323,934,166
Louisiana16.10%4,373,310704,103
Kentucky15.50%4,236,308656,628
North Carolina15.50%9,041,5941,401,447
Tennessee14.80%6,149,116910,069
Alabama14.50%4,626,595670,856
New York14.50%19,429,3162,817,251
Arizona14.30%6,353,421908,539
South Carolina14.10%4,404,914621,093



Vatican Radio's Latest News

Vatican Radio's Latest News

Just in case the political Right Wing of the Republican Party actually wants to hear the truth.

Pope Francis lives the doctrine. Charity.

A photo released on December 17, 2013 by the Vatican shows Pope Francis (R) speaking with Monsignor Konrad Krajewski (2ndL) and three homeless whom the pontiff invited for breakfast (Osservatore Romano/AFP)

Vatican City — Pope Francis invited four homeless people to mass and breakfast on his 77th birthday Tuesday, said Vatican radio, which played tango tunes by the Argentinian's favourite singer Carlos Gardel in his honour.
The pope hosted the breakfast at St Martha's Residence, the Vatican hotel where he has stayed since his election in March, spurning the more grandiose Apostolic Palace where leaders of the Catholic Church usually live.
The four homeless people were among the dozens who spend every night camped out around St Peter's Square.
Photographs released by the Vatican showed Francis speaking with three homeless men, including one holding a dog.
Vatican staff and their families also attended, including the newly-appointed Secretary of State Pietro Parolin who wished the pope a happy birthday.

The Vatican said the event was "particularly friendly"....
Karl Marx called religion "opium of the people." How crass can anyone get?

They were all told it would be a disaster and it is; they wanted the money.

The Michigan DNR was recently at the Boardman River at Brown Bridge Quiet Area assessing complaints about the lack of fish and flies, which the fish eat. 

This pond that existed was  because of a small dam that needed nothing but some concrete repairs which is true of all the dams on the Boardman River. The ponds behind these dams were sought after over 60 years of records on and off line about how dynamic the fishing was on the Boardman River. It was awarded a designation of "Blue Ribbon Trout Stream" long, long time ago. It brought recognition to the river for tourists and fisherman and people came. 

But, rather than taking the inexpensive route of repairing the Brown Bridge Dam, the authorities decided to deconstruction the dam while draining the pond. In doing so they disturbed a lot of sediment in the river containing toxins. The toxins were sequestered at the bottom of the pond for decades. There was virtually no trace of toxins in the water column as per assessments over the years by the Army Corp. 

To make a long story short the local residents demanded the dam to be repaired rather than destroyed and no one listened to them, not even the local government. The dam at Brown Bridge could have been repaired for $1.3 million, it is in the Environmental Assessment. Instead, they spent at least $4.9 million to deconstruct the dam and destroy the river.

In a recent visit by Michigan DNR, the Brown Bridge Advisory Board was told it would be at least two generations before the water would support any fishing.

That isn't the worst of it. The worst of it is that the temporary coffer dam built to dewater the pond fell apart. It sent millions and millions of gallons of water into the lower Boardman carrying toxic sediment along with it. The residents along the Boardman River (Some homes previously assessed at over $300,000.) below where the old dam was doing just fine, now suffer from illness and flooding because of the very faulty choices the governments made all along the way. There are lawsuits, but, those lawsuits don't remove the emotional loss these people feel. Many of them grew up along this river and the land was a family heirloom. 

Snyder doesn't care about the people and I am sure the ones that speak up are considered insurgents. He wants what wants and to allow dams to exist in Michigan would mean the Gas Industry wasn't needed. He ordered all the small dams capable of producing hydroelectric to local cites and towns be deconstructed. 

Now. 

The Gas Industry is in Northern Michigan. Like I said, Snyder is corrupt to the core and doesn't care about anything except money and his Wall Street friends.

FACT. 

FACT.

FACT.

"Oh, yeah, the record keepers haven't caught up with the fact the Boardman River is dead, but, when they do they'll remove that designation of "Blue River Trout Stream." It will prevent fisherman from having a bad day at the river.

And yes, these dams throughout Michigan are/were capable of hydroelectric power.

In the rest of the nation, these small dams are coveted as treasures and provide a vital source of local energy, but, in Michigan they are basically outlawed. This is Snyder's Michigan. He calls this an economy? At what cost?

The Michigan DNR is destroying the waters of northern Michigan. Northern Michigan relies heavily on tourism and fishing is part of that.

Thanks to the ice age (click here) and the incalculable grinding power of glaciers, Michigan has the largest coastline of any state excluding Alaska, more than 11,000 lakes, and over 36,000 miles of streams and rivers. More than 20 percent of the world's fresh water supply flows through Michigan and there is no geographical point in the state that is more than six miles from a stream, river or lake. And it snows and snows and rains - and then it rains some more. We Michiganders are a soggy bunch....

Besides the Au Sable River no endangered by hydrofracking because the surface will be disturbed once the subterranean land are destroyed. But, beside the Au Sable River, the Boardman River is not dead because the government looked the other way when citizens complained about the toxins in the water and the toxins in the sediment with the disturbance of the dams that formed unique ecosystems abundant with fish.


Snyder is corrupt to the core and this is more of the same. Those waters will not remain fishable once the drilling starts. The tourism industry in Northern Michigan was healthy and vital long before Snyder became Governor, they don't gas wells here.

By Cole Waterman | cwaterma@mlive.com 
on December 12, 2013 at 5:30 PM, updated December 13, 2013 at 9:56 AM



LANSING, MI — The controversial leasing of 2,800 (click here) acres near the Au Sable River to a Canadian gas and oil company has been approved, but with the caveat that no above-ground techniques be implemented to access the subterranean resources.

A Thursday, Dec. 12, meeting of the Natural Resources Commission in Lansing saw 
Michigan Department of Natural Resources Director Keith Creagh approve the results of an Oct. 28, oil and gas lease auction to Encana Corp., with the stipulation that the acres along the Au Sable River Holy Waters corridor are nondevelopmental.

A nondevelopment lease does not allow the use of the surface for oil and gas exploration or development, DNR officials explained.


The Holy Waters corridor is an 8.7-mile stretch of land  that begins just east of the city of Grayling in Crawford County and meanders east from Burton's Landing to Wakeley Bridge. It's known for its wadable water, dependable insect hatches and quality trout fishing, according to the DNR....

Will the World Courts act on this information?

I appreciate the statement from Former Senator Bob Graham (click here) , but, the likelihood of a change in the relationship with Saudi Arabia will change soon is unclear. 

Saudi Arabia purchases huge amounts of military equipment from the USA.(click here)

I do believe Secretary Kerry has his hands full with this addition to the Mideast instability. I am confident the Senate will take this up and the House Democrats will seek to understand this issue better, but, the immediate chance things will change between Saudi Arabia and the USA is remote. 

Not that this isn't significant and the American people won't simply allow this to disappear as if gossip, there are many dead including our soldiers; but, the way forward with Saudi Arabia at this point is murky. It is a major power in the Mideast and a declared ally of Israel.

The transfers of Saad Muhammad Hufsayn Qahtani and Hamood Abdulla Hamood lower the prisoner population to 160 and follow the repatriation of two prisoners to Algeria this month....

Logistically, if the relationship changes radically between the USA and Saudi Arabia the operational base of the USA will be limited and cause concern to other nations.

The Red Sea, Suez Canal and Persian Gulf to say the least. The USA has an operational base in Qatar and it isn't as though that nation can simply thumb their nose at Saudi Arabia.

Things are heating up in Africa as well. The Central African Republic has the promise of being the next Rwanda. 

Dec. 15, 2013
...One vignette (click here) from a recent report by Human Rights Watch: In April, a funeral procession crossed the Ngaragba Bridge toward a local cemetery. A unit of Seleka soldiers fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the crowd and began cutting down those who tried to flee. A priest appealing for calm was killed. “After the Seleka convoy started shooting at the crowd,” reported an eyewitness, “a woman with a baby on her back was on the street past the bridge when she was shot by a Seleka fighter and left dead in the street with the baby crying on her back.”...



WASHINGTON — The United States military (click here) is preparing to establish a drone base in northwest Africa so that it can increase surveillance missions on the local affiliate of Al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups that American and other Western officials say pose a growing menace to the region....

Now, whether or not the USA military knew all this information while proceeding as though it didn't exist is still yet another question. If the USA military does not demand accountability by the Executive Branch when there is very wrongful use of it's purpose; ie: Iraq; then the USA has to decide how autonomous the military is acting without the permission of the people. 

There is a huge military industrial complex that feeds off the idea the USA has enormous responsibilities globally that cannot be interrupted. That level of spending leading to enormous power and more than any other nation on Earth has created a military that is basically unstoppable. It is unstoppable at the level of the UN and now it would seem as though it is unstoppable when lies and deceptions are known to exist. 

The American people don't lend their young men and women (average age in military under 35 years old) to a military purpose without it being a sovereign national interest. So, besides the lies of the Bush/Cheney Administration and the cover up, there is the culpability of the USA military itself.

If the military is confronted with some sincere reduction in it's current status in the USA and it's global reach, will they move forward with their robotic army? The American people need to rein in this military machine; the question is can it? I believe the Sequester cuts to the military needs to stand while allowing the Joint Chiefs the ability to reduce spending without completely eroding it's mission to protect the nation. In other words, don't use an ax to the military budget so much as remove hideous projects and spending that are completely unnecessary or unwisely spent. We certainly don't need to escalate the spending, but, return to a military that actually works without projects such as the F-35. This entire robotic mission is ridiculous and dangerous and needs to be abandoned.

Will this Congress have the guts to take this on or simply attempt to sweep it under the rug to prevent controversy? This can't occur again. Ignoring it will assure it will.