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US slips down development index, Citizens live shorter lives

I ran across this story this morning on BBC News.  The story revolves around a study conducted by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Conrad Hilton Foundation and Oxfam America.  In the report they completed, these groups state that Americans rank 42nd among developed countries for life expecentancy, even though we spend more money per person on healthcare than any other country in the world.

It would seem that our healthcare dollar isn’t quite stretching as far as those other 41 countries, wouldn’t it?

From BBC:

Americans live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed nation, according to a report from several US charities.

The report found that the US ranked 42nd in the world for life expectancy despite spending more on health care per person than any other country.

Overall, the American Human Development Report ranked the world’s richest country 12th for human development.

US slips down development index

Bush, as Profiteer in Chief Won’t Call for Conservation

You have to love despise a leader of a country that has their priorities straight on a their own personal front.  Taking care of the citizens of their country is a leader’s first and foremost mission, right?

A leader that feels that out of one side of his mouth he can drawl about protecting the citizens of his country from Terrarists and Mooslem bad guys, all the while making sure that war’s are fought to bring Democracy PROFIT to other countries to himself and his corporate whore cronies and being an all around bad ass while doing it?

Not our Profiteer in Chief!

In the United States of America, we have an leader that IS an ass and he is definately bad.  Once again, OUR President and Fearless Leader Profit Coordinator has opened his big mouth and out of it pours idocy and bullshit on a level never before seen in the history of our planet.

From Politico:

President Bush said Tuesday that he will not call on Americans to conserve gasoline despite the rising price of oil, saying consumers are “smart enough” to figure out for themselves that they should drive less.

Not only American Soldiers are dying in Bush’s Wars

We, as a nation have gone through one of the most ridiculous and ill-constructed “regimes” in world history when considering the Bush-Cheney Administration.

Their inability to do anything but invoke the Reverse Midas Touch to anything and everything they touch has to be one of the most incredulous stories in written history.  Their ability to come out smelling like roses in the media must also be one of the most incredulous stories in written history.  

Unfortunately, for those soldiers that have fought Bush’s wars, the smell of death permeates this story.  Their inability to have anything more on their side but a bunch of Profits-Above-ANYTHING Neo-Con’s and a group of Citizens that are not listened to by their Governments has been to their serious detriment.  A lack of necessary equipment, food, clean water and a goddamned PLAN has all come together to cause much more death and destruction for not only those soldiers from “our side”, but the civilians and families in the coutries that Bush determined were to be brought under control.  (See Oil, Natural Gas Pipelines and Profit).

It is not just American Soldiers dying in Bush’s wars.  Soldiers from other countries, who joined the with Bush on his quest for profit and retribution are dying as well.

Dead soldier Sean McCarthy’s body returns to Australia

Hey Congress? You could do this TOO you know

Standing up to President Bush and his administration, the Iraqi Government did not give into pressure to sign the Security Agreement that BushCo had been trying to force upon them.  This “Status-Of-Forces” agreement was being pushed hard by the Bush Administraion before they left office next January, as Bush and his cronies wanted to make absolutely sure they had tied the hands of the next Administration when it came to the troops in Iraq question.  

Unlike our Congress, Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki has learned to say “NO” to President Bush and has bucked the whole Bush Regime just recently when al-Malaki stated that it was getting close to time for all Foreign troops to leave his country.  

Of course, as soon as he stated this, the Bush Administration bumper sticker motto of “When they stand up, we will stand down” became “We aren’t standing down, thar’s OIL in them thar sands,” or something to that effect.

From The Washington Post:

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have abandoned efforts to conclude a comprehensive agreement governing the long-term status of U.S troops in Iraq before the end of the Bush presidency, according to senior U.S. officials, effectively leaving talks over an extended U.S. military presence there to the next administration.

In place of the formal status-of-forces agreement negotiators had hoped to complete by July 31, the two governments are now working on a “bridge” document, more limited in both time and scope, that would allow basic U.S. military operations to continue beyond the expiration of a U.N. mandate at the end of the year.

The failure of months of negotiations over the more detailed accord — blamed on both the Iraqi refusal to accept U.S. terms and the complexity of the task — deals a blow to the Bush administration’s plans to leave in place a formal military architecture in Iraq that could last for years.

My emphasis

Life Not Worth As Much As 5 Years Ago – WTF?

Your Government is at work.  It’s HARD WORK to put a value on an American life, but by gosh, Your Government is willing to do it.  Not only are they willing to do it, but in the past five years, Your Government has downgraded the WORTH of your life by $900,000.00.

Let’s take a peek into this piece of unsavory news.

From AP:

It’s not just the American dollar that’s losing value. A government agency has decided that an American life isn’t worth what it used to be.

The “value of a statistical life” is $6.9 million in today’s dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reckoned in May – a drop of nearly $1 million from just five years ago.

The Associated Press discovered the change after a review of cost-benefit analyses over more than a dozen years.

Though it may seem like a harmless bureaucratic recalculation, the devaluation has real consequences.

When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule. The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation, such as tighter restrictions on pollution.

 

Integrity

What is integrity?  It is a word that has been bandied about a lot recently during our National process of choosing leaders to be elected to the highest Political Offices of our Country.  Who has integrity?  Who does not have integrity?  Is integrity in our Politicians a good trait?  A bad trait?  An impossible trait?  Who is to say whether any certain Candidate or any person, for that matter, has integrity or not?  Can a person have integrity on one issue and not have integrity on another issue and still have Integrity?

So many questions.  Not such easy answers.

Let’s have a look at the word Integrity.

In discussions on behavior and morality, one view of the property of integrity sees it as the virtue of basing actions on an internally-consistent framework of principles.

This scenario may emphasize depth of principles and adherence of each level to the next. One can describe a person as having integrity to the extent that everything that that person does derives from the same core set of values. While those values may change, their consistency with each other and with the person’s actions determine the person’s degree of integrity.

Considering this description of Integrity, an Internally-consistant framework of principles would have to be viewed as a trait belonging to an individual.  Therefore, MY degree of integrity to MYSELF may be close too 100% if I stick to my internal principles at all times.  However, someone other than myself might see me as not having integrity because they do not understand my internal set of principles and therefore only have the ability to judge me by my words and actions.

Here’s a Friggin’ Surprise! Cheney’s office tried to alter greenhouse gas testimony

Scooter Libby.

We all know the name.  (BTW, a grown man named Scooter really is kinda creepy, don’t you think)?  Anyway.  Ol’ Scooter stepped on his crank pretty good when he deliberatly outed a CIA covert agent, Valarie Plame-Wilson on what we expect were orders from Vlad Cheney when Ms. Plame-Wilson’s husband, Joe Wilson, told everyone that the Niger – Iraqi “Yellow Cake” nuclear weapons-of-mass-destruction information that the Bush Administration was throwing around was bunk.  After Mr. Wilson published his article “What I Didn’t Find in Africa” in the New York Times, BushCo went after Wilson and his wife with a full court press.

Well, Scooter was tried and convicted of lying to the Fed’s about his and the Bush Administrations role in all of this, and subsequently had his sentence commuted by Presnit-wit Bush for his troubles.

It looks as though V.P. Vlad was at it once again when it came to altering evidence in another case where the Administration didn’t like the scientific answers

that were forthcoming and they once again tried to alter the scientific reality into a corporate-friendly reality.

The Height of Hubris Reached! Iraq wants US troops out. Bush sez NO!

(h/t to mishima for tipping me off on this story and providing the link)

Amazing!

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants the U.S. to begin a timetable for removing our military from their country, and yet our Stubborn-Profits-Over-American-Lives-Or-The-Wishes-Of-A-Soverign-Nation Decider doesn’t want to do that.  He doesn’t AGREE!  

Not only does he NOT want to do what they want him to do, I assure you he WILL NOT do it.

Politically it would kill what remains of the Republican Party smokescreen if Bush agreed to a “TIMETABLE” for withdrawl of our Military in an election year, as the opposition Democratic Party has been calling for all along.

From AP:

Iraqis want US pullout timeline

Broken Record Bush: The Same Hit’s Just Keep on Playin’ Over and Over

In talks with the Japanese Prime Minister prior to the G8 Summit next week on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, our National Embarassment and all around Shameless President, George W. Bush is either:

A.)  Having constructive talks with the Japanese P.M. on how to make positive economic and environmental changes for the betterment of the world population

B.)  Having destructive talks with the Japanese P.M. on how to shirk positive economic and environmental changes for the betterment of the world population

C.)  Saying the same ol’ shit over and over like a broken record

Now, I know there are a couple of choices there that are tempting, and one that is completely ridiculous on many levels.  However, the MOST correct answer is the one we are looking for here today.

The correct answer is C !!  Saying the same ol’ shit over and over like a broken record

For those of you who may or may not have been not fooled by the “shirk” question (which by the way is MOSTLY right), we will discuss this more in just a bit.

See me below.

G8 Leaders Face A Series of Crises

Let’s pretend for a moment that you are a country.  Well, the seminal head of a country, so to speak.  

As the mouthpiece and the conveyor of all information that the people of YOUR country would like YOU to communicate to the rest of the world, your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to make sure you truly speak for your fellow countrymen and countrywomen with one voice that soars the virtues of YOUR country and it’s ideals and passions!

OK, Hold that thought.  

G8 Crisis

From BBC News:

Rising food and oil costs, an uncertain global economy, climate change and Zimbabwe’s political crisis face the G8 leaders who are gathering in Japan.

The summit is being held at a secluded resort on the northern island of Hokkaido guarded by some 20,000 police.

Protesters have been gathering ahead of the three-day forum starting on Monday.

A US official said the gathering was likely to “strongly condemn” Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe over a disputed presidential election run-off vote.

The Group of Eight (G8) consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

July 4, 1776

How did July 4 become such an important date for all the Peoples of the United States of America?

What is the known history behind this day, and what are the not so well knowns, as well?

Lets have a look, shall we?

In the United States, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Congress approved the wording of the Declaration on July 4 and then sent it to the printer. Whether John Hancock, as the elected President of the Second Continental Congress, or anyone else signed the document that day is unknown, because that document has been lost – presumably destroyed in the printing process. Hancock’s name and that of a witness do appear on the typeset broadside that was published within a few days. On August 2 in the following month, an engrossed document in script form was signed by Hancock and other delegates.

Hancock’s name and that of a witness do appear on the typeset broadside that was published within a few days. On August 2 in the following month, an engrossed document in script form was signed by Hancock and other delegates.

Why is the Polar Ice melting? Fox News has the Answer!

No, Virginia.  There is no global warming!

Do you know how I know this, Virginia?  Because those well known and highly decorated Scientists, Rush Limpbaugh,PhV (Physician, Viagara), Sean Hannity,WnGnT (Wingnut), and Neal Boortz, LnC (Libertarian Nutcase) have told me in no uncertain terms that it is SO.

Who, in their Right(wing) Mind could possibly have the expertise in this field to actually stand up to these “Keepers of the Truth and the American Way” and offer a different opinion?

Certainly not Fox News!  That bastion of the Fair and Balanced coverage of all things great and small would never give in to the temptation to try their hand at discouraging their viewers from not believing any single word uttered by the above mentioned “brilliant scientists of hate radio.”

In fact, Fox News has their very own theory that they pulled directly out of their collective asses regarding why global warming is not the cause for the melting of Planet Earth’s Arctic ice.  

Let’s see what they have to say on this issue, below.

 

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