Compassion

Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital did not allow the partner and children of a fatal aneurysm sufferer to visit the victim while she lay dying, despite the partner holding proper medical power of attorney.

Neither the Dade County medical examiner’s office (Dr. Bruce A. Hyma, Director, Chief Medical Examiner, 1 Bob Hope Road, Miami, FL 33136,  Phone: 305-545-2400) nor the State of Florida allowed the partner to receive a death certificate, so that life insurance and survivor’s benefits could be made available to the partner and their children.

Here’s an advertisement for Jackson Memorial Hospital:

Here are the phone numbers for Jackson Memorial Hospital:

Jackson Memorial Hospital Main Line
305-585-1111

Jackson Memorial Hospital Administration
305-585-6086

Jackson Memorial Hospital Customer Service
305-585-5300

Jackson Memorial Hospital Human Resources
786-466-8333

Jackson Memorial Hospital Patient Relations
305-585-7341

Jackson Memorial Hospital Public Relations/Media
305-585-7213

Why don’t you give these fine folks a call and ask why they wouldn’t allow the morally and legally correct thing to be done?

Could it be that the victim and the spouse are both women, and the hospital informed the spouse (and the children) that “they were in an anti-gay city and state” and that the power of attorney would not be recognized?

Remind me why anyone would want to live in that pesthole.

Published in: on 30 September 2009 at 19:30  Comments (1)  

Now, a quiet word for William Safire

William Safire

William Safire

Former New York Times columnist William Safire died of pancreatic cancer on Sunday.

Safire spent  30 years writing material dealing with words–their usages, their meanings, and their evolution. His work was fun to read, intelligent, and very informative.

It’s not often that a newspaper column consistently performs as an educational experience. I fondly remember finding and reading his column first when I would pick up a copy of the Times.

I’ve missed his regular column since he retired, and I will miss him as well.

Published in: on 29 September 2009 at 16:14  Leave a Comment  

News item, no comment

Harper Publishing has announced that Sarah Palin’s memoir is to be released on November 16.

Its title? “Going Rogue–An American Life”.

***headdeskheaddeskheaddeskheaddesk***

Published in: on 28 September 2009 at 16:36  Comments (1)  

Your weekly morning cry

In 1997 the city of New London, Connecticut, decided that it wanted to increase its tax base to generate revenue.

They decided that the best way to do this is to take people’s property from them.

The city’s Development Corporation spearheaded an effort to steal 90 acres of land from its owners in order to offer the land to private development, including a $390 million Pfizer research facility. The estimated increase of taxes generated by this development was over $1 million.

The original owners took the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming that eminent domain didn’t entitle the city of New London to steal their land and then give it to others for private development. The eminent domain argument forwarded by the city didn’t apply in this case, it was argued, because the land was settled with people’s homes and not just empty unused land.

The Supreme Court disagreed, 5-4.

John Brooks, executive director of the New London Development Corp., the group responsible for 90 acres of state-sponsored theft

This is John Brooks, executive director of the New London Development Corp., the group responsible for 90 acres of state-sponsored theft. Smile, you bastard.

Now, 12 years later?

No development. The financing never came through. Mr. Brooks, pictured above, blames the prolonged litigation that prevented the development from moving forward for years. So landowners and homesteaders lost their property for absofuckinglutely no reason at all.

So in America, where this isn’t supposed to happen, we have no habeus corpus and confiscation of private property by the government. What’s next?

Published in: on 26 September 2009 at 6:55  Leave a Comment  

Who does he think he is? Abraham Lincoln?

President Barack Obama has decided to extend America’s suspension of habeus corpus indefinitely.

Let me say that again, because (in the words of George Carlin) that sounds moderately important.

Habeus corpus continues to be suspended. A legal writ that is considered one of the bedrocks of western law, habeus corpus requires that a prisoner detained by a lawful authority appear before an impartial judge, and requires that authority to produce legal proof that the prisoner is not being detained illegally.

It has not been in force in America, the so-called “land of liberty”, since President Shrub Bush suspended it post-9/11. The Patriot Act continued the suspension, and now President Obama (remember “Change”? “Hope”?) intends to continue that suspension despite Congressional objection.

Abraham Lincoln suspended habeus corpus in Maryland and portions of other states to “fight sedition against the union” (although it was mostly used to arrest and hold newspaper editors who wrote editorials critical of the Union), and Ulysses Grant used it in South Carolina to fight the KKK.

Those suspensions were for limited times and in limited areas. Obama’s suspension affects the entire country.

So, if you piss off the feds, you could be held in a prison indefinitely. Without counsel. Without visitors. Without access to the outside world. Without access to a judge or jury. In America.

Think about that. And reflect on a bit of history.

P.S. Oh, and thank you, New York Times, for running this horrifying story on page 23 while its front page was graced with the pressing news about a rich Russian wanting to buy an NBA team. Ben Bradlee is likely spinning rapidly in his grave right now.
Published in: on 25 September 2009 at 8:07  Leave a Comment  

“…and now for some good…news?”

Project Censored has released their list of the top 25 poorly-covered major news items of 2010 (for 2009)–and it isn’t even October yet!

The top five?

While I have my doubts about the validity of some of the items in the Project Censored list, I’m glad as hell such a thing exists.

My favorite item from my favorite of the list (#2) was

“The Civil Rights Study shows that most severe segregation in public schools is in the Western states, including California—not in the South, as many people believe.”

The city of Boston was the last major school district in America to officially and legally embrace desegregation of its public schools in the late ’70s–long after every school system in the South had (reluctantly) embraced busing and other methods to achieve desegregation.

UPDATE: Story #3 stems from a few blog posts made by a single person who quotes a single story published by al-Jazeerah. For those of you unfamiliar with a-J, they’re the lovely Middle Eastern folk that act as a mouthpiece for the terrorist de jure. I’m not very sanguine that the story is legitimate without some sort of corroboration.

Published in: on 24 September 2009 at 12:33  Leave a Comment  

Bless you, Molly Ivins

My favorite (ironic) quote from the finest political reporter of her/our generation:

“You want moral leadership? Try the clergy. It’s their job.”

Published in: on 23 September 2009 at 11:44  Comments (1)  

Excuuuuuse me!

I have a bone to pick with Mackenzie Phillips and her so-called “confession” that she led a years-long incestuous relationship with her father John Phillips.

Funny how this all just now comes up.

John Phillips has been dead since 2001, and Mackenzie has (gasp of surprise!) a new book coming out, an interview on Oprah, AND an exclusive interview in People Magazine, and who knows what else. And her half-sister Chynna is telling “her side of the story” in Us Magazine.

I must look at this with a jaundiced eye. Ms. Phillips is a repeat junkie and thief, and there is a rule-of-thumb that the police and social systems have with such folk: they are inveterate liars, and will do almost anything for attention. Her timing assures that John has no chance to rebut, and Chynna claims to have known nothing about the matter at the time; Mackenzie supposedly called her out of the blue one day to tell the tale.

Anyway, the money will now be rolling in from interviews and book deals, and (I strongly suspect) the public is getting lied to while they excrete out the usual “oh, gee, honey, we’re SO sorry this happened to you”.

Again.

UPDATE: Now Ms. Phillips is playing the abortion card in this sordid little tale. I’m waiting for the violins to break out into sorrowful song any moment now.

Published in: on 23 September 2009 at 11:15  Comments (1)  

Darwin = Hitler?? Grade-A, pure, unadulterated wingnuttery at work

Kirk Cameron, that cute kid who did way too much sit-com in the ’80s (as bad as heroin, from the evidence) is now an evangelical asshat who’s planning the sort of disinformation that would make Adolf Schickelgruber proud.

There is a plan for Kirk and his cohorts to distribute 50,000 copies of an altered, distorted version of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” to school, universities, and other fundie groups. Here is the YouTube video describing the plan:

kirkc

Ah, disinformation–the liars’ choice of tactics.

Yes, Darwin was not fond of women, and yes, Hitler (really more his cronies actually) justified what was done to the sick, mentally ill, and other “undesirables” by using active eugenics–a “scientific” movement as akin to Darwin’s notions of evolution as Michael Vick is to the ASPCA. Making the “Darwin leads to Hitler” connection is like directly blaming Jesus for the Crusades.

Here is a funny, smart, and savvy response to Cameron’s despicable attempt to spread lies and distort the truth.

UPDATE 1: They’re asking for money, too. For an all-powerful being, God sure seems unable to keep his checkbook balanced.)

UPDATE 2: If you want a free copy of an unaltered edition of Origin of Species, here ya go. (There’s an audio book version of it at Project Gutenberg as well.)

kirkc_rebuttal
(P.S. Darwin called it his “theory of evolution” because at the time it was a theory and needed corroboration and proof. The notion has since received countless thousands of corroborations, confirmed through observation and through research. If creationists  have one single bit of objective, factual evidence to support creationism, I’ve yet to hear it. Oh, and waving a Bible about and declaring scriptural “proof” doesn’t cut it.)
Published in: on 22 September 2009 at 11:06  Leave a Comment  

Cart. Before. Horse

Mr. Obama has recently gone on the record as saying

“Journalistic integrity, you know, fact-based reporting, serious investigative reporting, how to retain those ethics in all these different new media and how to make sure that it’s paid for, is really a challenge…but it’s something that I think is absolutely critical to the health of our democracy.”

Granted. He goes on to imply that the blogosphere is as a whole not a serious “checker of facts”, which is of course exquisite bullshit. Anyway, the White House is now saying that it’s open to a bailout for the American newspaper industry.

Wrong.

Such a bailout, much like the recent bailout of the American automobile industry, is wrong, for a similar reason.

Newspapers consistently ignored the opportunities the internet was offering. Up-to-date content, varied content based on personal tastes and wants, and rich multimedia offerings didn’t make a dent in the calcified, in-the-19th-century minds of most newspapers’ management.

Its the internet, bitches

Click on cartoon to read the entire thing. (Damned margins.)

And now newspapers are whining that the inturtubz is stealing their content and stealing readers. They want government bailout money, and many are pushing for pay portals to force internet users to pay for content they have come to expect for free. (And we all know how badly that works, and what sort of copyright nonsense up with which that will crop.)

Just as the American Big Three auto makers ignored people’s tastes (and their safety, and their continuance as customers), newspapers were throwing it all away.

Welcome to evolution, baby.

The internet has forced many industries to rethink their business models and find or develop one that gives them internet presence and insures continued revenues. (See Amazon for a prime example of this.) The newspaper business is going to have to do that as well, and the less government intervention in the matter, the faster and healthier that transition will be.

UPDATE: A new survey confirms that 5% of users would make use of a pay site for news if they have previously been getting the news free.

Published in: on 21 September 2009 at 7:45  Comments (2)  

“But…we’re *part* of the news!”

Fox News associate producer Heidi Noonan was caught rallying a crowd of 9/12 teabaggers for the sake of a news broadcast.

William Randolph Hurst award winner

William Randolph Hearst award winner

For this, Ms. Noonan wins the 2009 William Randolph Hearst “you-supply-the-war-I’ll-supply-the-pictures” Award.

Published in: on 20 September 2009 at 10:06  Leave a Comment  

“I see stupid people everywhere, and they don’t even know they’re stupid”

Just one in a long line of illiterate wingnut oafs

A lovely breath of fresh air. (See my last post for more stoopid peepul crap.)

Thank you, Nonny Mouse. It’s nice to know there are people like you out there.

Published in: on 14 September 2009 at 11:33  Leave a Comment  

What the everloving fuck???

British filmmaker Jon Amiel cannot find an American distributor for his latest film Creation.

Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin in Creation

Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin in Creation

Why? Because it deals with Darwin’s formulation of his theory of evolution.

Why is this a problem? Only 39% of Americans reportedly believe that evolution is a established scientific fact, and the producer feels the subject is “too controversial for American audiences.”

**headdeskheaddeskheaddesk**

Published in: on 13 September 2009 at 20:45  Comments (2)  

Simony at its best

The post of U. S. ambassador is a tricky thing. On the one hand, America’s self-appointed role as world cop requires communication with ally and foe alike be handled with diplomacy and skill. On the other hand, the office of U. S. President often considers ambassadorships to be pretty, shiny rewards for those who helped get a given candidate into office.

Witness the choices made by the Obama administration for major ambassadorships:

Japan: John Roos, a Bay Area lawyer who was a major fund raiser for Obama. The man has no diplomatic experience and speaks no Japanese.

France: Charles Rivkin, an entertainment executive who was also a major fund raiser

England: Louis Susman, a lawyer who worked at the center of the Obama campaign in Chicago

Belgium: Howard Gutman, a major Democratic money man

Switzerland: Don Beyer, a car dealership hotshot who raised a lot of money for Obama

To be fair, there were a few rational appointments. Miguel Diaz, a theologian who attempted to draw Catholics into the Obama fold during the 2008 campaign, was given the ambassadorship to the Vatican.

But you’re getting the drift here, I suspect.

Published in: on 11 September 2009 at 8:10  Leave a Comment  

A modest proposal

What with Congresscritters attending fundraisers instead of meeting their Congressional committee obligations and dealing with the business of making laws, and Joe Wilson making a video simultaneously apologizing for his outburst during President Obama’s health reform speech and then asking for reelection money, I got to pondering about an old cause I’ve advocated for years–an idea that would set aside the entire issue of campaign funding reform forever:

Do not allow any candidate to spend one thin dime on getting reelected.

Nothing. Nada. Zip. No personal money, no donations, not a damned penny. No “under the table” money, no “soft” money, no PAC money, no nothing.

How do candidates pay for a campaign? What do they do for paid staffers? How do they get the word out to the faithful for rallies and meetings? How does platform material get published and distributed?

That’s what the internet is for.

YouTube videos, email, online interviews, exposure from MSM, tweeting, and publishing platform stances via blogs can get the word out much more effectively than by traditional methods.

If a national candidate cannot generate 100,000 unpaid volunteers who are willing to work without pay, the wrong candidate is running. If a local candidate cannot get 100, the same deal applies, and 100 people can spread the word by using online resources far faster than they could the old-fashioned way.

There would be no voluntary “donations” or paid efforts from well-wishers and lobbyists either. Under this plan, anyone who spends money to promote a candidate would be required to be publicly and thoroughly repudiated by said candidate, and fined as well.

No one will go for this, of course. Doing so would eviscerate the lobby and PAC systems in Washington and state capitols, and render the campaign playing field so level that established, rich politicians would risk losing their cushy jobs. It would also render the national party organizations powerless. (Darn.)

Is this idea absurd? Consider it for a moment, and then ask yourself this:

Over the years South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson has taken almost half a million dollars in campaign funds from health care corporations. Do you want someone like this, who doesn’t even bother to read the details of the most important bill coming through Congress this session (what other bills has he passed without reading them?), representing you?

Published in: on 10 September 2009 at 21:57  Leave a Comment  
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