Still Fighting has moved! Check us out at
www.stillfighting.com!
December 29, 2005
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Thursday's Links
Activism
Without DeLay. Hopefully you've been following along with glee as the accusations against Tom DeLay pile up. The man has no integrity; there's no depth to which he will not stoop to maintain his hold on power. If we want to restore common decency to Congress, there's no better place to start than getting rid of DeLay. Sign the petition, and send an email to your Congressman demanding they investigate DeLay and demand his resignation.
News
You Say You Want No Evolution? 19 states are discussing proposals that question the science of evolution. These proposals aren't so in-your-face as to discuss the biblical version of Creation in the classroom, but rather skirt the edges by introducing "intelligent design," or exposing students to the idea of a "creator." Every day we're seeing the lines of Church and State blur more and more, and we don't like it. Public schools have no responsibility to teach religion to students who don't care to learn it. In fact, as government-run entities, they have a responsibility to not endorse any specific religious viewpoint. We don't have anything against voluntary religion classes, but placing intelligent design into required curricula is going to drive more students out of public school and into private or charter schools. Even worse, it's going to drive science out of our children's minds.
You Scratch My Back... This should be Bush's slogan, as he rewards every loyalist that he's surrounded himself with, whether or not they are qualified for their appointment. It's as if these jobs are prizes to be won, not responsbilities to be upheld. Exhibit A: Condi. Exhibit B: Gonzales. Exhibit C: Bolton. Now, Exhibit D: Paul Wolfowitz. The former Deputy Defense Secretary has been nominated by Bush to be the next head of the World Bank. Unofficially, the U.S. nominates the head of the World Bank, but that nominee can be vetoed by the other 24 countries. And with the European response mixed, to say the least, we're just frustrated that Bush's yes-men keep getting the nod.
Corzine On Top. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) holds a commanding lead in the New Jersey Governor's race. Corzine not only has a tremendous amount of money, his approval rating has been consistently strong for the last four years. While you can never say an election is over a year and a half before the votes, this is nothing but good news for Democrats. Hopefully, they will be able to retain the Senate seat they will lose with Corzine's election to Governor.
Editorials
Abortion's elusive middle ground. Ellen Goodman outlines how post-election, those in favor of abortion rights were encouraged to move towards finding "middle ground". In the meantime, though, abortion rights foes have moved further and further left. She hits on some of the scarier instances of anti-abortion zealots run amuck, such as new Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), who believes in the death penalty for abortion doctors, or the crazy attorney general in Kansas, Phill Kline, who is going through old medical records of women who had abortions. In the meantime, the pro-choice movement has been searching for practical means to reduce the need for abortions, through family planning and education about contraception. The right-wing moves further to the right, while the left adopts a common-sense plan that embraces responsibility and individual rights, but somehow we're out of the mainstream?
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, discusses National Security, China, and where our debt is being financed. Friedman shows why we seem to always engage China from a position of weakness, and why it matters to you. With so much going on both here at home and in the world, it's sometimes hard to see everything in the big picture, and why it's important. Did you know China owns $200 billion of our debt, in the form of T-bills? Sounds dry, sure. But if China decided to start selling off those T-bills, the dollar would take a huge hit, and THAT impacts your wallet.
Gouging, numbers belie medical malpractice 'crisis' claims. You know how Bush has been clamoring for "tort reform"? (Unlike his social security overhaul, tort reform is something that he actually discussed during the election.) Remember, he was basically proposing it as a panacea - whenever the issue of rising medical costs came up, he blamed it on the cost of malpractice insurance, due to frivolous lawsuits and activist judges. Well, in Washington, the state's largest medical malpractice insurer was ordered to refund over $1.3 million in excess premiums. Furthermore, a detailed study of 10,000 malpractice claims over 10 years showed that just 50 cases resulted in jury awards for the plaintiffs. Only about 27% of all claims resulted in any payment to the patient, and only 200 resulted in compensation of over $1 million to the patient. Basically, malpractice claims aren't exploding, and if you really want to look at the cause of rising medical costs, maybe looking at the insurance companies themselves would be a nice start.
|
December 29, 2005
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Thursday's Links
Activism
Without DeLay. Hopefully you've been following along with glee as the accusations against Tom DeLay pile up. The man has no integrity; there's no depth to which he will not stoop to maintain his hold on power. If we want to restore common decency to Congress, there's no better place to start than getting rid of DeLay. Sign the petition, and send an email to your Congressman demanding they investigate DeLay and demand his resignation.
News
You Say You Want No Evolution? 19 states are discussing proposals that question the science of evolution. These proposals aren't so in-your-face as to discuss the biblical version of Creation in the classroom, but rather skirt the edges by introducing "intelligent design," or exposing students to the idea of a "creator." Every day we're seeing the lines of Church and State blur more and more, and we don't like it. Public schools have no responsibility to teach religion to students who don't care to learn it. In fact, as government-run entities, they have a responsibility to not endorse any specific religious viewpoint. We don't have anything against voluntary religion classes, but placing intelligent design into required curricula is going to drive more students out of public school and into private or charter schools. Even worse, it's going to drive science out of our children's minds.
You Scratch My Back... This should be Bush's slogan, as he rewards every loyalist that he's surrounded himself with, whether or not they are qualified for their appointment. It's as if these jobs are prizes to be won, not responsbilities to be upheld. Exhibit A: Condi. Exhibit B: Gonzales. Exhibit C: Bolton. Now, Exhibit D: Paul Wolfowitz. The former Deputy Defense Secretary has been nominated by Bush to be the next head of the World Bank. Unofficially, the U.S. nominates the head of the World Bank, but that nominee can be vetoed by the other 24 countries. And with the European response mixed, to say the least, we're just frustrated that Bush's yes-men keep getting the nod.
Corzine On Top. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) holds a commanding lead in the New Jersey Governor's race. Corzine not only has a tremendous amount of money, his approval rating has been consistently strong for the last four years. While you can never say an election is over a year and a half before the votes, this is nothing but good news for Democrats. Hopefully, they will be able to retain the Senate seat they will lose with Corzine's election to Governor.
Editorials
Abortion's elusive middle ground. Ellen Goodman outlines how post-election, those in favor of abortion rights were encouraged to move towards finding "middle ground". In the meantime, though, abortion rights foes have moved further and further left. She hits on some of the scarier instances of anti-abortion zealots run amuck, such as new Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), who believes in the death penalty for abortion doctors, or the crazy attorney general in Kansas, Phill Kline, who is going through old medical records of women who had abortions. In the meantime, the pro-choice movement has been searching for practical means to reduce the need for abortions, through family planning and education about contraception. The right-wing moves further to the right, while the left adopts a common-sense plan that embraces responsibility and individual rights, but somehow we're out of the mainstream?
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, discusses National Security, China, and where our debt is being financed. Friedman shows why we seem to always engage China from a position of weakness, and why it matters to you. With so much going on both here at home and in the world, it's sometimes hard to see everything in the big picture, and why it's important. Did you know China owns $200 billion of our debt, in the form of T-bills? Sounds dry, sure. But if China decided to start selling off those T-bills, the dollar would take a huge hit, and THAT impacts your wallet.
Gouging, numbers belie medical malpractice 'crisis' claims. You know how Bush has been clamoring for "tort reform"? (Unlike his social security overhaul, tort reform is something that he actually discussed during the election.) Remember, he was basically proposing it as a panacea - whenever the issue of rising medical costs came up, he blamed it on the cost of malpractice insurance, due to frivolous lawsuits and activist judges. Well, in Washington, the state's largest medical malpractice insurer was ordered to refund over $1.3 million in excess premiums. Furthermore, a detailed study of 10,000 malpractice claims over 10 years showed that just 50 cases resulted in jury awards for the plaintiffs. Only about 27% of all claims resulted in any payment to the patient, and only 200 resulted in compensation of over $1 million to the patient. Basically, malpractice claims aren't exploding, and if you really want to look at the cause of rising medical costs, maybe looking at the insurance companies themselves would be a nice start.
|
December 29, 2005
Without DeLay. Hopefully you've been following along with glee as the accusations against Tom DeLay pile up. The man has no integrity; there's no depth to which he will not stoop to maintain his hold on power. If we want to restore common decency to Congress, there's no better place to start than getting rid of DeLay. Sign the petition, and send an email to your Congressman demanding they investigate DeLay and demand his resignation.
News
You Say You Want No Evolution? 19 states are discussing proposals that question the science of evolution. These proposals aren't so in-your-face as to discuss the biblical version of Creation in the classroom, but rather skirt the edges by introducing "intelligent design," or exposing students to the idea of a "creator." Every day we're seeing the lines of Church and State blur more and more, and we don't like it. Public schools have no responsibility to teach religion to students who don't care to learn it. In fact, as government-run entities, they have a responsibility to not endorse any specific religious viewpoint. We don't have anything against voluntary religion classes, but placing intelligent design into required curricula is going to drive more students out of public school and into private or charter schools. Even worse, it's going to drive science out of our children's minds.
You Scratch My Back... This should be Bush's slogan, as he rewards every loyalist that he's surrounded himself with, whether or not they are qualified for their appointment. It's as if these jobs are prizes to be won, not responsbilities to be upheld. Exhibit A: Condi. Exhibit B: Gonzales. Exhibit C: Bolton. Now, Exhibit D: Paul Wolfowitz. The former Deputy Defense Secretary has been nominated by Bush to be the next head of the World Bank. Unofficially, the U.S. nominates the head of the World Bank, but that nominee can be vetoed by the other 24 countries. And with the European response mixed, to say the least, we're just frustrated that Bush's yes-men keep getting the nod.
Corzine On Top. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) holds a commanding lead in the New Jersey Governor's race. Corzine not only has a tremendous amount of money, his approval rating has been consistently strong for the last four years. While you can never say an election is over a year and a half before the votes, this is nothing but good news for Democrats. Hopefully, they will be able to retain the Senate seat they will lose with Corzine's election to Governor.
Editorials
Abortion's elusive middle ground. Ellen Goodman outlines how post-election, those in favor of abortion rights were encouraged to move towards finding "middle ground". In the meantime, though, abortion rights foes have moved further and further left. She hits on some of the scarier instances of anti-abortion zealots run amuck, such as new Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), who believes in the death penalty for abortion doctors, or the crazy attorney general in Kansas, Phill Kline, who is going through old medical records of women who had abortions. In the meantime, the pro-choice movement has been searching for practical means to reduce the need for abortions, through family planning and education about contraception. The right-wing moves further to the right, while the left adopts a common-sense plan that embraces responsibility and individual rights, but somehow we're out of the mainstream?
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, discusses National Security, China, and where our debt is being financed. Friedman shows why we seem to always engage China from a position of weakness, and why it matters to you. With so much going on both here at home and in the world, it's sometimes hard to see everything in the big picture, and why it's important. Did you know China owns $200 billion of our debt, in the form of T-bills? Sounds dry, sure. But if China decided to start selling off those T-bills, the dollar would take a huge hit, and THAT impacts your wallet.
Gouging, numbers belie medical malpractice 'crisis' claims. You know how Bush has been clamoring for "tort reform"? (Unlike his social security overhaul, tort reform is something that he actually discussed during the election.) Remember, he was basically proposing it as a panacea - whenever the issue of rising medical costs came up, he blamed it on the cost of malpractice insurance, due to frivolous lawsuits and activist judges. Well, in Washington, the state's largest medical malpractice insurer was ordered to refund over $1.3 million in excess premiums. Furthermore, a detailed study of 10,000 malpractice claims over 10 years showed that just 50 cases resulted in jury awards for the plaintiffs. Only about 27% of all claims resulted in any payment to the patient, and only 200 resulted in compensation of over $1 million to the patient. Basically, malpractice claims aren't exploding, and if you really want to look at the cause of rising medical costs, maybe looking at the insurance companies themselves would be a nice start.
