Don Surber: L'Act de Patriot
Blogger Thoughts: Surber loses me here, big time.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Amman Bombings: Corporate Media Revises Script
Another Day in the Empire
Amman Bombings: Corporate Media Revises Script
Friday November 11th 2005, 4:44 pm
As more details about the Amman bombings emerge, the corporate media has gone into heavy-duty spin mode to shape events to the liking of the Bushcons and the Israelis. For instance, on the day of the bombing (November 9), Reuters reported that the bombs at the Radisson were “placed in a false ceiling,” a rather difficult operation in a busy hotel and demonstrating the fact the bombers, who we are now told are Iraqi resistance fighters brainwashed by the dead cretin al-Zarqawi, would have obviously required serious cover of the sort enjoyed by a state intelligence service working in tandem with Jordanian intelligence (since Jordan is “a police state with a democratic façade,” according to a former cabinet minister, sneaking explosives into a hotel that caters to affluent foreigners would have been, to say the least, difficult without government complicity and all but impossible for rag-tag Iraqi resistance fighters). In an effort to tighten the story and make it sound more plausible for the al-Zarqawi suicide angle, “police sources” (most likely Jordanian police spokesman Captain Bashir al-Da’jeh) dismissed the ceiling story and introduced the more acceptable suicide bomber explanation later in the day on November 9. Now we are told the ceiling simply “caved in” as a result of “al-Qaeda in Iraq” suicide bombers.
Suddenly everybody was on message. On November 10, the mythical al-Zarqawi, via the internet, claimed responsibility for the bombings in the “moderate Arab nation” that “has fought a long-running battle against Islamic extremists opposed to its 1994 peace deal with Israel,” according to the Bush Ministry of Disinformation, Associated Press division. Of course, in a monarchial police state run by Hashemites, accustomed to wielding dictatorial power through hereditary emirs, there is no such thing as moderate rule, but never mind. On the same day, thousands “of Jordanians rallied in the capital and other cities shouting ‘Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!’” and the corporate media imparts the impression these “protests” were spontaneous when in fact—again in a monarchial police state—such independent action is impossible and is in fact organized by the government (thus the display of “Jordanian flags and posters of King Abdullah II” by citizens we are expected to believe love their corrupt king and his freedom-hating retinue). It is nearly vomit-inducing to witness the length the corporate media has gone to portray average Jordanians as kowtowing citizens of a “moderate” Arab country when in fact they are oppressed subjects ruled under a “semi-constitutional” monarchy installed by British invaders in 1921 as they went about carving up the Middle East after defeating the Ottomans. But then tribal and chieftain-based monarchy (especially the Hashemite version) is precisely what Israel and the United States have in mind for the Arabs and Muslims of the Middle East, so this compliant behavior by the corporate media is to be more or less expected.
Now, with the ceiling story far behind us—and the evacuation of the Israelis prior to the attack story all but extinguished—we are told these al-Zarqawi suicide bombers included a “husband and wife team” and the terrorists “carried out the Amman attacks with explosive belts after carefully staking out the hotels for a month,” according to the Associated Press. Once again, all of this is absurd on its face—Iraqis staking out hotels in a police state as if they were casually walking around Cleveland, Ohio, staking out the local Red Roof Inn—and no doubt the “husband and wife team” bit was thrown in for shock value, a gruesome stick-to-the-wall detail that tells us the Iraqi resistance (under the sway of the dead cretin al-Zarqawi) is brutal, cold-hearted, and above all nihilistic. “It was believed to be the first time a married couple has carried out a suicide attack. The couple bombed the Days Inn after the woman ‘chose to accompany her husband to his martyrdom,’ the statement said.” Of course, we can expect more married couples—soon followed by fraternal and identical twins—to engage in such horrific violence against “filthy Jews” (according to the deceased al-Zarqawi) who are evacuated, leaving behind not only innocent Arabs attending a wedding party but also a number of important Palestinians and Chinese business partners.
“In its latest statement, Al-Qaida said the bombings were carried out in response to ‘the conspiracy against the Sunnis,’ referring to the Muslim Arab group favored under Saddam Hussein’s regime and now believed to form the core of the Iraqi insurgency.” Of course, this makes absolutely no sense—Sunni Muslims comprise a full 92 percent of Jordanians and it makes less than no sense to attack them to defend the honor of Sunnis in Iraq. But then we are expected to believe al-Zarqawi the black op team attacks Shia Muslims in Iraq because it is more important to kill heretics than defeat the American occupation.
Obviously, the attack in Amman was carried out by seasoned experts—almost certainly Mossad (the attacks fit their modus operandi)—with the complicity of Jordanian and U.S. military intelligence. It was engineered to reverse the support of average Sunni Jordanians for the Sunni-led resistance in Iraq, kill important Palestinians (and send a message to the Chinese, who support the Palestinians), and also dovetail with Bush’s desperate speech in western Pennsylvania earlier today. “We must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war against the terrorists,” said Bush. No doubt Bush and his neocon handlers believe the images from Amman of blown up hotels—very westernized hotels and thus striking a cord with mostly somnolent Americans—add the appropriate spin to his speech, which is in fact a act of desperation as the Bushcons circle the wagons to fend off growing criticism of the obvious fact Bush lied as he prepared to attack a sovereign and defenseless nation.
Amman Bombings: Corporate Media Revises Script
Friday November 11th 2005, 4:44 pm
As more details about the Amman bombings emerge, the corporate media has gone into heavy-duty spin mode to shape events to the liking of the Bushcons and the Israelis. For instance, on the day of the bombing (November 9), Reuters reported that the bombs at the Radisson were “placed in a false ceiling,” a rather difficult operation in a busy hotel and demonstrating the fact the bombers, who we are now told are Iraqi resistance fighters brainwashed by the dead cretin al-Zarqawi, would have obviously required serious cover of the sort enjoyed by a state intelligence service working in tandem with Jordanian intelligence (since Jordan is “a police state with a democratic façade,” according to a former cabinet minister, sneaking explosives into a hotel that caters to affluent foreigners would have been, to say the least, difficult without government complicity and all but impossible for rag-tag Iraqi resistance fighters). In an effort to tighten the story and make it sound more plausible for the al-Zarqawi suicide angle, “police sources” (most likely Jordanian police spokesman Captain Bashir al-Da’jeh) dismissed the ceiling story and introduced the more acceptable suicide bomber explanation later in the day on November 9. Now we are told the ceiling simply “caved in” as a result of “al-Qaeda in Iraq” suicide bombers.
Suddenly everybody was on message. On November 10, the mythical al-Zarqawi, via the internet, claimed responsibility for the bombings in the “moderate Arab nation” that “has fought a long-running battle against Islamic extremists opposed to its 1994 peace deal with Israel,” according to the Bush Ministry of Disinformation, Associated Press division. Of course, in a monarchial police state run by Hashemites, accustomed to wielding dictatorial power through hereditary emirs, there is no such thing as moderate rule, but never mind. On the same day, thousands “of Jordanians rallied in the capital and other cities shouting ‘Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!’” and the corporate media imparts the impression these “protests” were spontaneous when in fact—again in a monarchial police state—such independent action is impossible and is in fact organized by the government (thus the display of “Jordanian flags and posters of King Abdullah II” by citizens we are expected to believe love their corrupt king and his freedom-hating retinue). It is nearly vomit-inducing to witness the length the corporate media has gone to portray average Jordanians as kowtowing citizens of a “moderate” Arab country when in fact they are oppressed subjects ruled under a “semi-constitutional” monarchy installed by British invaders in 1921 as they went about carving up the Middle East after defeating the Ottomans. But then tribal and chieftain-based monarchy (especially the Hashemite version) is precisely what Israel and the United States have in mind for the Arabs and Muslims of the Middle East, so this compliant behavior by the corporate media is to be more or less expected.
Now, with the ceiling story far behind us—and the evacuation of the Israelis prior to the attack story all but extinguished—we are told these al-Zarqawi suicide bombers included a “husband and wife team” and the terrorists “carried out the Amman attacks with explosive belts after carefully staking out the hotels for a month,” according to the Associated Press. Once again, all of this is absurd on its face—Iraqis staking out hotels in a police state as if they were casually walking around Cleveland, Ohio, staking out the local Red Roof Inn—and no doubt the “husband and wife team” bit was thrown in for shock value, a gruesome stick-to-the-wall detail that tells us the Iraqi resistance (under the sway of the dead cretin al-Zarqawi) is brutal, cold-hearted, and above all nihilistic. “It was believed to be the first time a married couple has carried out a suicide attack. The couple bombed the Days Inn after the woman ‘chose to accompany her husband to his martyrdom,’ the statement said.” Of course, we can expect more married couples—soon followed by fraternal and identical twins—to engage in such horrific violence against “filthy Jews” (according to the deceased al-Zarqawi) who are evacuated, leaving behind not only innocent Arabs attending a wedding party but also a number of important Palestinians and Chinese business partners.
“In its latest statement, Al-Qaida said the bombings were carried out in response to ‘the conspiracy against the Sunnis,’ referring to the Muslim Arab group favored under Saddam Hussein’s regime and now believed to form the core of the Iraqi insurgency.” Of course, this makes absolutely no sense—Sunni Muslims comprise a full 92 percent of Jordanians and it makes less than no sense to attack them to defend the honor of Sunnis in Iraq. But then we are expected to believe al-Zarqawi the black op team attacks Shia Muslims in Iraq because it is more important to kill heretics than defeat the American occupation.
Obviously, the attack in Amman was carried out by seasoned experts—almost certainly Mossad (the attacks fit their modus operandi)—with the complicity of Jordanian and U.S. military intelligence. It was engineered to reverse the support of average Sunni Jordanians for the Sunni-led resistance in Iraq, kill important Palestinians (and send a message to the Chinese, who support the Palestinians), and also dovetail with Bush’s desperate speech in western Pennsylvania earlier today. “We must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war against the terrorists,” said Bush. No doubt Bush and his neocon handlers believe the images from Amman of blown up hotels—very westernized hotels and thus striking a cord with mostly somnolent Americans—add the appropriate spin to his speech, which is in fact a act of desperation as the Bushcons circle the wagons to fend off growing criticism of the obvious fact Bush lied as he prepared to attack a sovereign and defenseless nation.
Frist, Hastert go to bat for secret war, secret government
Frist, Hastert go to bat for secret war, secret government
Frist, Hastert go to bat for secret war, secret government
document.write ("" www.opednews.com http:>
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by Don Williams
http://www.opednews.com
Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist wants to get to the bottom of something. He’s so worked up he’s calling for joint congressional hearings on the scale of the 9/11 Commission. He said as much in a letter to colleagues, a letter signed by him and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Good for them. It’s time they got to the bottom of something.In case you missed the story, I'll excuse you in advance for speculating about just what has Frist and Hastert so riled. In fact, I’d be speculating too. I’d be thinking, Hey, maybe they want to know whose bright idea it was to establish dozens of hell-hole prisons in at least eight foreign countries. If the Washington Post got it right, shady elements of our government concocted such prisons in order to get away with torture—or something like it.Or could it be Frist and Hastert want Dick Cheney to come clean about who blew Valerie Plame’s cover? Or why our government relied on forged documents from Italy when making its case for war. Or how top al-Qaida operatives—possibly including Osama bin Laden—were allowed to slip the noose at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, early in the war. (Google Tora Bora and Seymour Hersch for interesting reading). Maybe Hastert is hot to examine stock market anomalies related to World Trade Center companies just prior to 9/11. Could be Frist wants to learn how Halliburton lost track of billions in Iraq at the same time its stock began to soar. Is war profiteering still a crime?Those legislators could be hot under the collar for any number of reasons. Just who profited from the UN oil-for-food scandal, they might ask How many lawmakers have fed at the trough of exploited Native American gaming interests? Who sat in on those secret energy sessions with Cheney? Maybe Frist and Hastert want to learn more about reports from Europe and the Middle East alleging that Americans used banned weapons at Fallujah one year ago. If such reporting ISN’T true, then who concocted those wrenching videos on the Internet showing naked children and young mothers running down the streets of Fallujah? Who faked those shots of caramelized and leathery corpses? Maybe they’d like to know who paid to bring Ahmad Chalabi to Washington for toasts and teas this past Wednesday. Given his blood-and-oil stained hands, why isn’t Chalbi undergoing tough questioning in some Third World prison? Or could it be Frist and Hastert want to understand how Bush can say, “We do not engage in torture,” when photographs proving otherwise stare us in the face?Looking at the sad body-pile of naked scandal chronicled in the above paragraphs, I realize I've only panned the knobby surface. And I must admit I didn't include the answer to the question I raised about just what has our senior senator and his pal from Illinois so worked up. For instance, if you jumped on the first idea mentioned there in the second paragraph, about prisons in foreign countries, for your answer, you’d be in the ballpark but you’d be running the bases in reverse, so to speak. Frist and Hastert are not worried about who had the poor taste to taint America’s good name by placing torture within our embrace. No, they’re coming at it from a quite different angle. What they want to spend your tax dollars on is to learn just WHO BLEW THE WHISTLE on our government. You see, they apparently don’t believe in the Golden Rule—not when it comes to torture. Neither do they believe in Kant’s Categorical Imperative. They probably regard such ideas as quaint. It’s not clear the good Doctor Frist even believes “First, do no harm.” What he manifestly does believe in is Secret Government and Secret War. It’s no mystery why trained dogs and other tools and techniques leapt from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib and thence into hell-holes around the globe. Just look at a map. Our government seeded torture in Central America decades ago, as I can show you--most notably during the days of Iran-Contra--when the Reagan-Bush administration, against the will of Congress, funded secret armies. Bush-Cheney apparently thought the season was right for cloning torture and other secret practices from Central America to nearby Guantanamo, then on to the Middle East. That’s why so many disgraced Iran-Contra figures have made new careers under Bush-Cheney. Secret War requires Secret Government. Can’t have one without the other, not on this scale. But don’t worry your pretty little heads about it. We sleepy masses don’t need to know what Uncle Sam’s darker half does. Go back to sleep, child, it’s all a bad dream. Rest assured your Secret Government is conducting Secret Wars to make the world safe for democracy--or something like it.
http://www.mach2.com/williams/
Don Williams is a prize-winning columnist for the Knoxville News-Sentinel and the founding editor and publisher of New Millennium Writings, an annual anthology of literary writing. His awards include a National Endowment for the Humanities Michigan Journalism Fellowship, a Golden Presscard Award and the Malcolm Law Journalism Prize. He is finishing a novel, RED STATE BLUES, set in his native Tennessee and Iraq. His book of selected journalism, “Heroes, Sheroes and Zeroes, the Best Writings About People” by Don Williams, is now available for ordering. For more information, email him at donwilliams7@charter.net. Or visit the NMW website at www.mach2.com/williams/.
Frist, Hastert go to bat for secret war, secret government
document.write ("" www.opednews.com http:>
document.write ("")
by Don Williams
http://www.opednews.com
Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist wants to get to the bottom of something. He’s so worked up he’s calling for joint congressional hearings on the scale of the 9/11 Commission. He said as much in a letter to colleagues, a letter signed by him and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Good for them. It’s time they got to the bottom of something.In case you missed the story, I'll excuse you in advance for speculating about just what has Frist and Hastert so riled. In fact, I’d be speculating too. I’d be thinking, Hey, maybe they want to know whose bright idea it was to establish dozens of hell-hole prisons in at least eight foreign countries. If the Washington Post got it right, shady elements of our government concocted such prisons in order to get away with torture—or something like it.Or could it be Frist and Hastert want Dick Cheney to come clean about who blew Valerie Plame’s cover? Or why our government relied on forged documents from Italy when making its case for war. Or how top al-Qaida operatives—possibly including Osama bin Laden—were allowed to slip the noose at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, early in the war. (Google Tora Bora and Seymour Hersch for interesting reading). Maybe Hastert is hot to examine stock market anomalies related to World Trade Center companies just prior to 9/11. Could be Frist wants to learn how Halliburton lost track of billions in Iraq at the same time its stock began to soar. Is war profiteering still a crime?Those legislators could be hot under the collar for any number of reasons. Just who profited from the UN oil-for-food scandal, they might ask How many lawmakers have fed at the trough of exploited Native American gaming interests? Who sat in on those secret energy sessions with Cheney? Maybe Frist and Hastert want to learn more about reports from Europe and the Middle East alleging that Americans used banned weapons at Fallujah one year ago. If such reporting ISN’T true, then who concocted those wrenching videos on the Internet showing naked children and young mothers running down the streets of Fallujah? Who faked those shots of caramelized and leathery corpses? Maybe they’d like to know who paid to bring Ahmad Chalabi to Washington for toasts and teas this past Wednesday. Given his blood-and-oil stained hands, why isn’t Chalbi undergoing tough questioning in some Third World prison? Or could it be Frist and Hastert want to understand how Bush can say, “We do not engage in torture,” when photographs proving otherwise stare us in the face?Looking at the sad body-pile of naked scandal chronicled in the above paragraphs, I realize I've only panned the knobby surface. And I must admit I didn't include the answer to the question I raised about just what has our senior senator and his pal from Illinois so worked up. For instance, if you jumped on the first idea mentioned there in the second paragraph, about prisons in foreign countries, for your answer, you’d be in the ballpark but you’d be running the bases in reverse, so to speak. Frist and Hastert are not worried about who had the poor taste to taint America’s good name by placing torture within our embrace. No, they’re coming at it from a quite different angle. What they want to spend your tax dollars on is to learn just WHO BLEW THE WHISTLE on our government. You see, they apparently don’t believe in the Golden Rule—not when it comes to torture. Neither do they believe in Kant’s Categorical Imperative. They probably regard such ideas as quaint. It’s not clear the good Doctor Frist even believes “First, do no harm.” What he manifestly does believe in is Secret Government and Secret War. It’s no mystery why trained dogs and other tools and techniques leapt from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib and thence into hell-holes around the globe. Just look at a map. Our government seeded torture in Central America decades ago, as I can show you--most notably during the days of Iran-Contra--when the Reagan-Bush administration, against the will of Congress, funded secret armies. Bush-Cheney apparently thought the season was right for cloning torture and other secret practices from Central America to nearby Guantanamo, then on to the Middle East. That’s why so many disgraced Iran-Contra figures have made new careers under Bush-Cheney. Secret War requires Secret Government. Can’t have one without the other, not on this scale. But don’t worry your pretty little heads about it. We sleepy masses don’t need to know what Uncle Sam’s darker half does. Go back to sleep, child, it’s all a bad dream. Rest assured your Secret Government is conducting Secret Wars to make the world safe for democracy--or something like it.
http://www.mach2.com/williams/
Don Williams is a prize-winning columnist for the Knoxville News-Sentinel and the founding editor and publisher of New Millennium Writings, an annual anthology of literary writing. His awards include a National Endowment for the Humanities Michigan Journalism Fellowship, a Golden Presscard Award and the Malcolm Law Journalism Prize. He is finishing a novel, RED STATE BLUES, set in his native Tennessee and Iraq. His book of selected journalism, “Heroes, Sheroes and Zeroes, the Best Writings About People” by Don Williams, is now available for ordering. For more information, email him at donwilliams7@charter.net. Or visit the NMW website at www.mach2.com/williams/.
A Health Threat We're Not Treating
A Health Threat We're Not Treating
A Health Threat We're Not TreatingDon't Let Doctors Rig the Market for Specialty Hospitals
By Newt GingrichSaturday, November 12, 2005; A25
A growing number of hospitals in America are setting themselves up to deal with just one particular area of medicine, such as cardiovascular procedures or orthopedics. The spread of these specialty hospitals, as they are called, demands our attention. They could be a force for good, providing better health care at lower cost for consumers. Or they could end up distorting the health care system in ways that impose heavier costs on taxpayers.
The rules that define legitimate behavior by specialty hospitals will play a decisive role in determining whether they become primarily instruments of high profits -- profits produced by clever schemes to minimize risk and leave all the expensive cases to community hospitals and taxpayers.
I'm strongly in favor of legitimately designed specialty hospitals in which a focus on a specific set of skills and procedures enables doctors and staffs to maximize their efficiency. But I am just as strongly opposed to the emergence of specialty hospitals that create special relationships with doctors designed to cherry-pick only the easy cases for certain hospitals.
The greatest dangers arise when doctors have a direct financial interest in a specialty hospital. It's just human nature for them to increase their own income by the simple act of giving the specialty hospital -- with which they are associated and from which they draw compensation -- all the easy and inexpensive cases, while sending everything risky and expensive to the larger community hospital. It's not hard to see the financial damage this could do to community hospitals.
Congress recognized years ago that there are certain hazards in situations where there is an economic relationship between a hospital and a doctor. Hospitals that provide economic rewards and incentives to doctors could distort medical decisions. As a result, Congress passed what is known as the Stark anti-kickback legislation to protect the integrity of medical decision making by preventing hospitals from influencing the distribution of patients through economic inducements.
But Congress has not taken account of the fact that a direct doctor investment in a specialty hospital gives the physician a greater economic incentive to distort medical decisions for economic self-interest than anything ever envisioned by Stark. Some doctors are making as much or more money out of their ownership of stock in specialty hospitals as they make practicing medicine.
Clearly the danger of community hospitals being undermined and economically crippled while specialty hospitals realize profits not through greater efficiency and effectiveness (which would be good) but through more clever cherry-picking of low-risk, high-profit cases is a real threat to the integrity of the health system. It is also a threat to individuals who might find themselves with complex illnesses and no appropriately specialized hospital willing to take them in for treatment.
Congress should insist on hospital ownership rules that allow doctors to invest in specialty hospitals in which they do not practice but that forbid doctors from having ownership in a hospital in which they do practice.
Alternatively Congress should consider establishing a law requiring that specialty hospitals take all the cases in their area of specialization, the difficult and complex (and expensive) as well as the simple and profitable. What Congress should not do is allow the current market-distorting and community hospital-destroying system to continue unchecked.
As a free-market conservative I strongly favor competition. In fact, I think Adam Smith's description of markets creating more choices of higher quality at lower cost was one of the great breakthroughs in human productivity. His publication of "The Wealth of Nations" in 1776 was as liberating as our own Declaration of Independence the same year.
Yet Smith recognized that sellers often try to create phony markets. He warned that when businesses get together they are often conspiring against the consumer. Businesses can see a financial interest in rigging the market so that it minimizes competition or sets prices. This same temptation to conspire against the consumer can be found in the emerging specialty hospital movement.
Congress should act now to protect our health system by establishing the right rules for fair competition.
A Health Threat We're Not TreatingDon't Let Doctors Rig the Market for Specialty Hospitals
By Newt GingrichSaturday, November 12, 2005; A25
A growing number of hospitals in America are setting themselves up to deal with just one particular area of medicine, such as cardiovascular procedures or orthopedics. The spread of these specialty hospitals, as they are called, demands our attention. They could be a force for good, providing better health care at lower cost for consumers. Or they could end up distorting the health care system in ways that impose heavier costs on taxpayers.
The rules that define legitimate behavior by specialty hospitals will play a decisive role in determining whether they become primarily instruments of high profits -- profits produced by clever schemes to minimize risk and leave all the expensive cases to community hospitals and taxpayers.
I'm strongly in favor of legitimately designed specialty hospitals in which a focus on a specific set of skills and procedures enables doctors and staffs to maximize their efficiency. But I am just as strongly opposed to the emergence of specialty hospitals that create special relationships with doctors designed to cherry-pick only the easy cases for certain hospitals.
The greatest dangers arise when doctors have a direct financial interest in a specialty hospital. It's just human nature for them to increase their own income by the simple act of giving the specialty hospital -- with which they are associated and from which they draw compensation -- all the easy and inexpensive cases, while sending everything risky and expensive to the larger community hospital. It's not hard to see the financial damage this could do to community hospitals.
Congress recognized years ago that there are certain hazards in situations where there is an economic relationship between a hospital and a doctor. Hospitals that provide economic rewards and incentives to doctors could distort medical decisions. As a result, Congress passed what is known as the Stark anti-kickback legislation to protect the integrity of medical decision making by preventing hospitals from influencing the distribution of patients through economic inducements.
But Congress has not taken account of the fact that a direct doctor investment in a specialty hospital gives the physician a greater economic incentive to distort medical decisions for economic self-interest than anything ever envisioned by Stark. Some doctors are making as much or more money out of their ownership of stock in specialty hospitals as they make practicing medicine.
Clearly the danger of community hospitals being undermined and economically crippled while specialty hospitals realize profits not through greater efficiency and effectiveness (which would be good) but through more clever cherry-picking of low-risk, high-profit cases is a real threat to the integrity of the health system. It is also a threat to individuals who might find themselves with complex illnesses and no appropriately specialized hospital willing to take them in for treatment.
Congress should insist on hospital ownership rules that allow doctors to invest in specialty hospitals in which they do not practice but that forbid doctors from having ownership in a hospital in which they do practice.
Alternatively Congress should consider establishing a law requiring that specialty hospitals take all the cases in their area of specialization, the difficult and complex (and expensive) as well as the simple and profitable. What Congress should not do is allow the current market-distorting and community hospital-destroying system to continue unchecked.
As a free-market conservative I strongly favor competition. In fact, I think Adam Smith's description of markets creating more choices of higher quality at lower cost was one of the great breakthroughs in human productivity. His publication of "The Wealth of Nations" in 1776 was as liberating as our own Declaration of Independence the same year.
Yet Smith recognized that sellers often try to create phony markets. He warned that when businesses get together they are often conspiring against the consumer. Businesses can see a financial interest in rigging the market so that it minimizes competition or sets prices. This same temptation to conspire against the consumer can be found in the emerging specialty hospital movement.
Congress should act now to protect our health system by establishing the right rules for fair competition.
False Flag Violence and the French Connection
Another Day in the Empire
False Flag Violence and the French Connection
Saturday November 12th 2005, 12:16 pm
It’s interesting how the Israeli media often reports things you’d never see in the corporate U.S. media. For instance, Itamar Eichner, who writes for the leading Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, tells us “American officials demand Israel provide explanations for how U.S.-made choppers sold to Israel ended up in service of Columbian drug cartel.” It appears “the military copters currently serve the drug mafia in the South American country.” Eichner believes the story is “dubious” and the IDF sold five helicopters to an Israeli company and this company in turn sold the helicopters to “either to the Mexican federal police, or to the Spain firefighters department. However, contrary to the terms of the license, the copters ended up in Columbia, by way of Canadian mediators.” In other words, it is all a mistake.
A bit of research turns up a few interesting connections. “A key figure in Colombia’s fight against the drugs trade says one of the biggest problems facing Latin America’s anti-drugs squads is the Russian Mafia,” reported the BBC on March 25, 1998. “[Colombia General Rosso Jose Serrano] also warned that drug traffickers planned to increase shipments of drugs to France.” Considering current events in France, this is interesting. More on this in a moment. It appears a large contingent of the Russian Mafia is based in Israel. “Many Russian gangsters claim to be of Jewish origin,” reports the BBC. “There are alarming signs that the Russian mafia has taken over the Israeli underworld and is using the country to launder its vast profits,” the BBC reports elsewhere. It is no secret Ariel Sharon, his son Omri, and Sharon lawyer Dov Weisglass had shady dealings with the Russian Mafia in Israel. Avigdor Lieberman, a big wig in the Likud Party and former Netanyahu chief of staff, was caught red-handed (via wiretap) dealing with the Russians. It is also known that Sharon’s sons Gilad and Omri received $1.5 million from South African Cyril Kern, an investor in casinos on illegally occupied Palestinian land. Cyril is often described as integral to the “Sharon-Weisglass casino mafia.”
Anatoli “Natan” Sharansky, the Russian Jew who was until recently an Israeli Minister without portfolio and founder of the reactionary Yisrael Ba’aliyah political party, is connected to the Russian Mafia, according to Michael C. Desch of the American Conservative (Desch cites a Scotsman story). In fact, it appears Yisrael Ba’aliyah is nothing short of a front for Russian Mafia criminal operations. It was Sharansky who introduced the Russian Mafia criminal Grigory Luchansky (sent to jail for six years for various mafia-related crimes) to Likud Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyhu. “The London Times called Luchansky ‘the most dangerous non-convicted person in the world’ and the British government barred him from the country,” writes Desch.
Another shady criminal is Marc Rich, the billionaire international commodities trader who fled the United States in order to evade prosecution on tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran charges (he was eventually pardoned by Bill Clinton). It is claimed Rich finances Mossad operations through his Marc Rich Foundation in Israel and has connections to Russian Mafia in Africa (probably related to the gold and silver trade). Rich “brokered the sale of North Korean arms to Iran and did several deals involving gold, grain, nickel and tin with the Russian Mafia and henchmen of the former Soviet Union,” writes Niles Lathem of the New York Post. Although unverified, it is reported “Clinton operatives have been calling journalists with a message: ‘The ex-President didn’t really want to pardon Marc Rich. The Israelis or the Mossad or the Jews made him do it’.”
Of course, all of these connections between high-roller Zionists and the Russian Mafia are not conclusive proof the two groups work together. However, when it is reported (in Israel, not the United States) that the Israeli government is in the business of selling military aircraft to drug lords in Colombia (even though we are told this is a mistake, as are of course intelligence and military front businesses mistakes) and the Russian Mafia is deeply entrenched in the Colombian drug trade.
And here’s the French connection, so to speak. Naturally, drug distribution in France, and elsewhere, is controlled by the boss of the business, in this instance the Russian Mafia, according to General Rosso Jose Serrano, and this includes local drug traffickers. “With every night that France’s rundown suburbs burn, officials grow increasingly convinced that drug traffickers and Islamist militants are using frustrated youths to challenge law and order here,” reports Reuters. “Finding ‘hidden hands’ behind the unrest seems like trying to catch the rioters as they rampage through the night. Some may get caught, but far more slip away in the darkness.” It is perhaps predictable that Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy believes drug dealers and Islamists are behind the violence. Who “would give the orders? The mafias and the fundamentalists.” Sarkozy told Reuters. “I’m sure there are drug dealers and Islamic radicals at work,” a middle-aged woman who requested anonymity added. “Drugs are everywhere. They’ve arrested Islamic radicals nearby here.”
But then Muslims are vehemently opposed to drugs. Muslims who are not intelligence operatives or patsies are opposed to drugs. Our glorious corporate media tells us Mohamed Atta was a pious Muslim—and yet he was spotted in strip bars, is reported to have been a cokehead, and dated a prostitute (described as a “stripper/lingerie model”). “Mossad knew about Muhammad Atta and his gang long before they let U.S. law enforcement in on the secret,” writes Justin Raimondo. “In the months before September 11, the Mossad had launched a major covert operation in the United States, involving hundreds of agents who not only kept a close watch on the terrorists but may have effectively blinded U.S. antiterrorism investigators to the activities of Al Qaeda in the United States. The evidence can be found in the U.S. government’s own documents, leaked by its own employees, and in its public pronouncements before the decision was made to quash this story at any cost.”
Is there a reason for the Mossad, operating through the Russian Mafia (actually the Israeli Mafia), would want to cause trouble for the French? Well, probably not for the French per se (although the neocons, closely aligned with the Likudites in Israel, would like to give the French hell for their vacillation in regard to the attack against Iraq). Instead, Mossad and the Likudites are determined to create back-to-back situations portraying Muslims as murderous and violent and thus—before they arrive here and convert us to Islam by way of sword or at least torch our cars—we must “invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity,” as Ann Coulter admonishes.
False Flag Violence and the French Connection
Saturday November 12th 2005, 12:16 pm
It’s interesting how the Israeli media often reports things you’d never see in the corporate U.S. media. For instance, Itamar Eichner, who writes for the leading Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, tells us “American officials demand Israel provide explanations for how U.S.-made choppers sold to Israel ended up in service of Columbian drug cartel.” It appears “the military copters currently serve the drug mafia in the South American country.” Eichner believes the story is “dubious” and the IDF sold five helicopters to an Israeli company and this company in turn sold the helicopters to “either to the Mexican federal police, or to the Spain firefighters department. However, contrary to the terms of the license, the copters ended up in Columbia, by way of Canadian mediators.” In other words, it is all a mistake.
A bit of research turns up a few interesting connections. “A key figure in Colombia’s fight against the drugs trade says one of the biggest problems facing Latin America’s anti-drugs squads is the Russian Mafia,” reported the BBC on March 25, 1998. “[Colombia General Rosso Jose Serrano] also warned that drug traffickers planned to increase shipments of drugs to France.” Considering current events in France, this is interesting. More on this in a moment. It appears a large contingent of the Russian Mafia is based in Israel. “Many Russian gangsters claim to be of Jewish origin,” reports the BBC. “There are alarming signs that the Russian mafia has taken over the Israeli underworld and is using the country to launder its vast profits,” the BBC reports elsewhere. It is no secret Ariel Sharon, his son Omri, and Sharon lawyer Dov Weisglass had shady dealings with the Russian Mafia in Israel. Avigdor Lieberman, a big wig in the Likud Party and former Netanyahu chief of staff, was caught red-handed (via wiretap) dealing with the Russians. It is also known that Sharon’s sons Gilad and Omri received $1.5 million from South African Cyril Kern, an investor in casinos on illegally occupied Palestinian land. Cyril is often described as integral to the “Sharon-Weisglass casino mafia.”
Anatoli “Natan” Sharansky, the Russian Jew who was until recently an Israeli Minister without portfolio and founder of the reactionary Yisrael Ba’aliyah political party, is connected to the Russian Mafia, according to Michael C. Desch of the American Conservative (Desch cites a Scotsman story). In fact, it appears Yisrael Ba’aliyah is nothing short of a front for Russian Mafia criminal operations. It was Sharansky who introduced the Russian Mafia criminal Grigory Luchansky (sent to jail for six years for various mafia-related crimes) to Likud Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyhu. “The London Times called Luchansky ‘the most dangerous non-convicted person in the world’ and the British government barred him from the country,” writes Desch.
Another shady criminal is Marc Rich, the billionaire international commodities trader who fled the United States in order to evade prosecution on tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran charges (he was eventually pardoned by Bill Clinton). It is claimed Rich finances Mossad operations through his Marc Rich Foundation in Israel and has connections to Russian Mafia in Africa (probably related to the gold and silver trade). Rich “brokered the sale of North Korean arms to Iran and did several deals involving gold, grain, nickel and tin with the Russian Mafia and henchmen of the former Soviet Union,” writes Niles Lathem of the New York Post. Although unverified, it is reported “Clinton operatives have been calling journalists with a message: ‘The ex-President didn’t really want to pardon Marc Rich. The Israelis or the Mossad or the Jews made him do it’.”
Of course, all of these connections between high-roller Zionists and the Russian Mafia are not conclusive proof the two groups work together. However, when it is reported (in Israel, not the United States) that the Israeli government is in the business of selling military aircraft to drug lords in Colombia (even though we are told this is a mistake, as are of course intelligence and military front businesses mistakes) and the Russian Mafia is deeply entrenched in the Colombian drug trade.
And here’s the French connection, so to speak. Naturally, drug distribution in France, and elsewhere, is controlled by the boss of the business, in this instance the Russian Mafia, according to General Rosso Jose Serrano, and this includes local drug traffickers. “With every night that France’s rundown suburbs burn, officials grow increasingly convinced that drug traffickers and Islamist militants are using frustrated youths to challenge law and order here,” reports Reuters. “Finding ‘hidden hands’ behind the unrest seems like trying to catch the rioters as they rampage through the night. Some may get caught, but far more slip away in the darkness.” It is perhaps predictable that Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy believes drug dealers and Islamists are behind the violence. Who “would give the orders? The mafias and the fundamentalists.” Sarkozy told Reuters. “I’m sure there are drug dealers and Islamic radicals at work,” a middle-aged woman who requested anonymity added. “Drugs are everywhere. They’ve arrested Islamic radicals nearby here.”
But then Muslims are vehemently opposed to drugs. Muslims who are not intelligence operatives or patsies are opposed to drugs. Our glorious corporate media tells us Mohamed Atta was a pious Muslim—and yet he was spotted in strip bars, is reported to have been a cokehead, and dated a prostitute (described as a “stripper/lingerie model”). “Mossad knew about Muhammad Atta and his gang long before they let U.S. law enforcement in on the secret,” writes Justin Raimondo. “In the months before September 11, the Mossad had launched a major covert operation in the United States, involving hundreds of agents who not only kept a close watch on the terrorists but may have effectively blinded U.S. antiterrorism investigators to the activities of Al Qaeda in the United States. The evidence can be found in the U.S. government’s own documents, leaked by its own employees, and in its public pronouncements before the decision was made to quash this story at any cost.”
Is there a reason for the Mossad, operating through the Russian Mafia (actually the Israeli Mafia), would want to cause trouble for the French? Well, probably not for the French per se (although the neocons, closely aligned with the Likudites in Israel, would like to give the French hell for their vacillation in regard to the attack against Iraq). Instead, Mossad and the Likudites are determined to create back-to-back situations portraying Muslims as murderous and violent and thus—before they arrive here and convert us to Islam by way of sword or at least torch our cars—we must “invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity,” as Ann Coulter admonishes.
The Political Prosecution of Rush Limbaugh
The Political Prosecution of Rush Limbaugh: "The Political Prosecution of Rush Limbaugh"
Blogger Thoughts: Poor baby... can't get a break.....
Blogger Thoughts: Poor baby... can't get a break.....
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