My neighborhood v. the "big boys"

If you read this blog regularly you know I have no great admiration for king george or his cronies....

And now we in our neighborhood are being treated to repug tactics by the local drainage district.

Long story made short - our road is a levee - and someone or some entity has demanded all trees be removed. We can't get a truthful statement from the powers-that-be...[sound familiar?] At first we were told it was FEMA - I guess in it's post Katrina CYA mode.....but it's not FEMA..

The drainage district started leveling trees and the neighborhood got an injunction....
The hearing is set for Friday where our side is presenting current science and their side is using propaganda and threats.

One person told the big businesses that the neighbors were going to be responsible for the levee failing due to our trying to keep the trees and the big boys have threatened law suits against the neighborhood if damage occurs... One big boy was asked if he would he sue the drainage district if the trees were cut and that caused the levee to breach? No response.

Stay tuned for another people v. the powers-that-be saga from one small, very small, portion of Portland Oregon - a stretch of road that is less than 2 miles in length - but the road is a levee - hence the issues.

Check out more at my neighborhood blog: by clicking here

How sad that we allow greed to run nursing homes!

I'm cross posting this from grow older better, my blog on healthy aging.

How terrible - but how American.

Corporate bottom lines take precedence over care for the least able to care for themselves - children and the elderly! MONEY is the prime mover in our country thee days....and id you are not among the millionaires - forget getting help! You just don't count...well except for the money the corporations can make off you...

And ask yourself - why do we continue to allow this?

From the New York Times

September 23, 2007
More Profit and Less Nursing at Many Homes
By CHARLES DUHIGG

Habana Health Care Center, a 150-bed nursing home in Tampa, Fla., was struggling when a group of large private investment firms purchased it and 48 other nursing homes in 2002.

The facility’s managers quickly cut costs. Within months, the number of clinical registered nurses at the home was half what it had been a year earlier, records collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicate. Budgets for nursing supplies, resident activities and other services also fell, according to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.

The investors and operators were soon earning millions of dollars a year from their 49 homes.

Residents fared less well. Over three years, 15 at Habana died from what their families contend was negligent care in lawsuits filed in state court. Regulators repeatedly warned the home that staff levels were below mandatory minimums. When regulators visited, they found malfunctioning fire doors, unhygienic kitchens and a resident using a leg brace that was broken.

“They’ve created a hellhole,” said Vivian Hewitt, who sued Habana in 2004 when her mother died after a large bedsore became infected by feces.

Habana is one of thousands of nursing homes across the nation that large Wall Street investment companies have bought or agreed to acquire in recent years.

Those investors include prominent private equity firms like Warburg Pincus and the Carlyle Group, better known for buying companies like Dunkin’ Donuts.

As such investors have acquired nursing homes, they have often reduced costs, increased profits and quickly resold facilities for significant gains.

But by many regulatory benchmarks, residents at those nursing homes are worse off, on average, than they were under previous owners, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data collected by government agencies from 2000 to 2006.

Full article HERE

Yea for MoveOn

Look at this!

Dear MoveOn member,

Yesterday, an amazing thing happened. After the Senate's shameful vote, and after President Bush called MoveOn "disgusting,"1 our email started to fill up with messages like this one:

I'm currently in Iraq. I do not agree with this war, and if I did support this war, it would not matter. You have the RIGHT to speak the truth. We KNOW that you support us. Thank you for speaking out for being our voice. We do not have a voice. We are overshooted by those who say that we soldiers do not support organizations like MoveOn. WE DO.

YOU ARE OUR voice.

And then came the donations. By midnight, over 12,000 people had donated $500,000—more than we've raised any day this year—for our new ad calling out the Republicans who blocked adequate rest for troops headed back to Iraq.

The message from MoveOn members was loud and clear: Don't back down. Take the fight back to the issues that matter.

So today we're shooting for a very ambitious goal: Reach $1 million so we can dramatically expand the campaign we launched yesterday going after politicians who support this awful war. Can you chip in $25 toward our goal?

You can contribute to MoveOn by clicking HERE

All day, messages from vets and military family members kept pouring into our email, many of them aimed at the Senate:

I have given a son to this country. My brother, my father, my uncle have all served honorably and bravely. I am a loyal American. I am outraged and sick to death of the tactics this administration uses to try to silence dissent to a war that is unjust, built and maintained on lies, political power, and greed. I was content to let others fight more loudly, but no more.
–Sharyn W., NC

I am a prior soldier who served in Iraq for 13 months, and am now an expecting mom with a husband who is deployed in Baghdad. I don't think I can ever forgive the Bush administration for the lies that tricked America into this war and hurt my family so badly. I am ashamed of those American politicians who would condemn an organization for practicing the Freedom of Speech that so many soldiers have died for.
–Danielle B., OH

As a US Navy veteran and an Iraq war veteran of over a year I want to ask, What has happened to us? What has happened to our voice? Where is this country going with stopping free speech and free press? ... Every time I think of the long nights I had in Anbar remembering what I was fighting for, well here it is....
–Ahmad H., LA

These folks have made sacrifices many of us can't imagine. Their charge to us was clear: keep speaking the truth about how President Bush and the Republicans have betrayed our trust.

So we're going to expand our ad campaign—keep it on the air longer and run it against other politicians who helped block adequate rest time for our troops. Can you chip in $25 to do it?

You can contribute to MoveOn by clicking HERE

And still the messages kept coming ...

I've had three nephews serve since 2002, one of whom was killed in Anbar Province. I have a fourth nephew at Quantico training. I want this war over before he is deployed and before any more of our soldiers are sacrificed.
–Michele R., NE
Three members of my family are military. Two Marines have served in Iraq and an Army Lt. is deploying in November. If we had all spoken out when the administration used General Powell perhaps we would not be in this mess.
–Carol B., PA

As a Marine I served for many reasons but one of them was to allow people the freedom of speech, whether I agreed with it or not. Wearing a uniform does not mean someone isn't a shill, is spewing propaganda, and downright lies. MoveOn has every right to buy an ad and say what they want about a public figure. This administration has lied to us, deceived us, misled us and when posed with a challenge this is how they respond?
–Keith G., VA

The Senate won't pass a policy to end the war or even to make sure our troops in the field have enough rest time between deployments, but they hold votes to crack down on millions of Americans who are upset about the war?

Well—it isn't going to work. We put together a hard-hitting ad that highlights how Republicans failed our troops and if we can raise enough money today, we'll air it across the country. Please help if you can:

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/mcconnell.html?id=11275-4096028-JCXnBf&t=4

For all of us on the MoveOn staff, this week was a bit of a rollercoaster—MoveOn was attacked by nearly the entire Republican party, while too many Democrats ran for the hills. But what kept us going were messages like these—and the incredible privilege we feel to serve all 3.2 million Americans in MoveOn.org.

When the story is written of how the Iraq war ended, you will be the heroes. Thank you.

–Eli, Adam G., Adam R., Anna, Carrie, Daniel, Erik, Ilyse, Jennifer, Joan, Justin, Karin, Laura, Marika, Matt, Natalie, Nita, Noah, Tanya, Tom & Wes
MoveOn.org Political Action
Friday, September 21st, 2007

Sources

1. "Bush: MoveOn.org ad on Petraeus 'disgusting'," CNN, September 20, 2007.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2990&id=11275-4096028-JCXnBf&t=5



You can contribute to MoveOn by clicking HERE

Outrage at Democrats

We would all like the Democrats to stop enabling mad king george...but it's not going to happen

Very few of our elected officials in D.C. are there to represent us...once they get to D.C. they love the power and they want to get along with everyone and stay there. Hence a Lieberman who felt entitled to his Senate seat and the Democrats who joined in the farcical vote on MoveOn's ad.

They want to be seen by repugs in their states as "nice" and "easy-to-get-along-with" and assume the Democrats in their state will vote for them solely because they have a D and not an R attached to them.

Sorry - if you vote keep voting against your constituents - you do not deserve to stay in D.C. You work for us, the public - not mad king george.

If you continue on this path that takes you to repug-lite, strong candidates will contest your election - and they will be <<<<DEMOCRATS>>>> not repug-lites or I's pretending to be D's but are really R's.

Ads and idiocy

Remember MoveOn's Betray-Us ad? Well the Senate, which has low ratings and presumable nothing else to do except talk about newspaper ads voted - yes actually voted - to condemn MoveOn.

Here are the Democrats who voted to condemn! Idiocy..sheer idiocy - guess they forgot we still have a 1st Amendment - but they kowtow to the repugs on issues like this:

Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Cardin (D-MD), Carper (D-DE), Casey (D-PA), Conrad (D-ND), Dorgan (D-ND), Feinstein (D-CA), Johnson (D-SD), Klobuchar (D-MN), Kohl (D-WI), Landrieu (D-LA), Leahy (D-VT), Lincoln (D-AR), McCaskill (D-MO), Mikulski (D-MD), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Pryor (D-AR), Salazar (D-CO), Tester (D-MT), Webb (D-VA)

No wonder the alleged Democrat-led Congress gets a higher ranking among Repugs than among Democrats!!

Think about it Congress.

And if you are so inclined - MoveOn now has a petition to deliver to Congress about this stifling of free speech:

Here is the full text of the petition:

"I will not be quiet, I will fight back, and I will keep speaking out until Congress forces an exit plan for this awful war."

You can sign the petition here:
http://pol.moveon.org/pac/fightback/