|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 20, 2010 21:07:27 GMT 4
Squeeze Israel by cutting US aid?
Not likelyBy Karoun Demirjian, Associated Press Writer – 33 mins ago
Associated Press
March 20, 2010JERUSALEM – The diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Israel has sent a tremor through their alliance, but one key part of the bond seems virtually untouchable: the roughly $3 billion a year in U.S. military aid (emphasis mine -- I've seen estimates up to $12 billion). Israel's harsher critics often call for aid cuts to twist Israel's arm. Yet amid the uproar of recent days over plans to build 1,600 new homes for a Jewish neighborhood in a disputed part of Jerusalem, there has been no serious talk of using aid as a club. One reason may be the potential backlash from Israel's supporters in the U.S. Another is that the overwhelming part of the money cycles back into the American economy. Israel is the biggest recipient of American aid after Afghanistan. But unlike most other countries, Israel's aid is earmarked entirely for military spending. Under an agreement between the two allies, at least three-quarters of the aid must be spent with U.S. companies. This means that the "close, unshakable bond," as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described it, is also a mutually beneficial one: Israel gets the latest American military technology, and American weapons makers — Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing and others — get a steady stream of income. The U.S. stepped up funding to Israel after the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, at a time when the Soviet Union was arming the Arabs. Following the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Washington guaranteed Israel would continue receiving annual military and civilian aid in a 3:2 ratio with aid given to Egypt. Since then, Israel's share has ranged between $2.1 billion and $3.7 billion a year. Over the last decade, as Israel's economy has grown, the U.S. has converted the whole package to military funding, under an agreement to have it at $3.15 billion a year by fiscal 2013 and keep it at that level until 2018. The package amounts to only about 2 percent of Israel's annual gross domestic product, compared with 14 percent in 1985. But for a country with hostile neighbors, and where military spending ranks sixth in the world proportional to size of economy, that aid is vital. It represents about 20 percent of the country's annual defense budget. Equally important, it gives Israel ready access to advanced and unique hardware. "Israel has developed its own military industry, but there are things you can only get from the United States," said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on Israeli-American relations at Israel's Bar-Ilan University. According to Israeli defense sources and U.S. congressional reports, Israel spends the bulk of its aid on warplanes such as F-15s and F-16s, jet fuel, high-end munitions and missile defense systems — weaponry the Israeli military would find difficult to replace or do without. "If aid were to stop, it would directly affect Israel's security and have an indirect effect on its economy," said Arie Arnon, an economics professor at Ben Gurion University near Beersheba. With that potential influence in mind, advocacy groups such as Amnesty International called on the U.S. to withhold aid dollars from Israel after its offensive in Gaza last year, arguing that the money was paying for weapons that were killing Palestinian civilians. But the divestment effort failed to gain traction in Washington. Still, using the aid for at least temporary leverage wouldn't be unprecedented. The Reagan administration delayed delivery of combat aircraft following Israel's attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981, and of cluster bombs following Israel's siege of Beirut in 1982. The threat of losing military aid played a large role in Israel's decision to disengage from South Africa during the mid-1980s, according to Alon Liel, a retired Israeli diplomat who served in Pretoria. Loan guarantees, which Israel needs to raise capital, also have played a role. President George H.W. Bush withheld $10 billion in loan guarantees to make Israel curb the building of settlements in the West Bank, and didn't restore it until the dovish Yitzhak Rabin was elected in June 1992. The administration of President George W. Bush deducted some $1 billion of a $9 billion loan guarantee package because of continued settlement activity. Earlier this year, U.S. chief negotiator George Mitchell said such deductions could be an option. Liel, an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, said the power of the military aid package as a diplomatic stick depends on how forcefully the U.S. wants to wield it. "If you stop that $3 billion, Israel will not collapse — it's stopping American political support that's the existential problem," he said. "Aid is just an indication that the political link is doing well and is alive." He said that if the U.S. merely signals that it is thinking about cutting aid, it could have an "unbelievable" effect. "If the United States is very determined, I think Israel will change its policies," he said. Before any such move, however, the U.S. would have to weigh its own interests. U.S. jobs are at stake, and several projects, such as the development of the advanced Arrow missile defense system, are joint partnerships "There's integration...so when you're talking about a cutoff, just threatening to do it for a few months doesn't have much impact," said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. "In practical terms, this is a fantasy." ___ Associated Press writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100320/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_us_arming_israel
|
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 21, 2010 23:25:04 GMT 4
Squeeze Israel by cutting US aid?
Not likelyBy Karoun Demirjian, Associated Press Writer – 33 mins ago
Associated Press
March 20, 2010JERUSALEM – The diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Israel has sent a tremor through their alliance, but one key part of the bond seems virtually untouchable: the roughly $3 billion a year in U.S. military aid (emphasis mine -- I've seen estimates up to $12 billion). Israel's harsher critics often call for aid cuts to twist Israel's arm. Yet amid the uproar of recent days over plans to build 1,600 new homes for a Jewish neighborhood in a disputed part of Jerusalem, there has been no serious talk of using aid as a club. >>edited for lengthnews.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100320/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_us_arming_israel
Posted Sunday, March 21, 2010 9:37 AM
NewsweekThe latest feud between the U.S. and Israel, over the latter's plans (announced during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden) to build 1,600 new settlements in East Jerusalem, makes one thing clear: Washington has a hard time controlling its headstrong ally. Successive U.S. administrations have pressed Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank but looked the other way when it went on building. As a result, Israel simply doesn't take American demands seriously. At U.S. urging, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a temporary settlement freeze in November. But he also authorized hundreds of new homes just before the measure went into effect. The result: housing starts in the settlements during the fourth quarter of 2009 were up 31 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. When this kind of maneuvering is overlooked by Washington, says Daniel Kurtzer, U.S. ambassador to the country from 2001 to 2005, Israel learns it can safely ignore its big friend. Yet the United States has a number of potent tools it could use to pressure Israel if it chose to--without resorting to cutting military aid or security cooperation, both of which are sacrosanct in Washington (and Jerusalem). Diplomacy is a subtle art. It might be enough to just signal to Israel, which enjoys almost unparalleled access to officials in Washington, that the government's doors will no longer fly open every time an Israeli cabinet minister comes to town. Recalling the U.S. ambassador or signaling that the prime minister is not welcome at the White House are more extreme possibilities. Groups critical of Israel's West Bank policies have put forward other ideas, including denying tax-exempt status to U.S. nonprofits that help fund settlements. blog.newsweek.com/blogs/wealthofnations/archive/2010/03/21/how-to-stop-new-settlements-in-israel.aspx |
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 21, 2010 23:50:21 GMT 4
UN Chief Blames Israeli Blockade for
Suffering in Gaza
As a result of the blockade, residents have been unable to rebuild the
thousands of homes that were destroyed by Israel during the three-week
Israeli war on Gaza in 2008 and 2009.Louis Ramirez | Jerusalem 21 March 2010
Voice of America UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, centre, visits a destroyed house in
Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, March 21, 2010. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon
has entered the blockaded Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million people have been
under lockdown by Israel and Egypt for nearly three years.Related Articles
* UN Secretary-General Visits West Bank, Declares Settlements Illegal
* Israel Tightens Security as Quartet Demands Settlement Freeze
* Israel's Netanyahu: No Concession on East Jerusalem
* Mauritania Affirms Break with Israel U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has made a visit to the Gaza Strip and repeated his condemnation of the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. Meanwhile, international efforts to get Israelis and Palestinians back to negotiations are stepping up. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came the region to press Israelis and Palestinians to return to negotiations. On Sunday, while visiting the Gaza Strip, he condemned Israel for the blockade it and Egypt have on the enclave. "I have repeatedly made it quite clear to Israel's leaders that the Israeli policy of closure is not sustainable and that it is wrong," Mr. Bn said. "It poses unacceptable suffering of human beings. This policy is also counterproductive. It undercuts moderates and empowers extremists." Israel has imposed a blockade since the 2007 violent takeover of the Strip by the militant group Hamas. Israeli officials say their restrictions on cement and other construction materials are meant to prevent Hamas from building bunkers to attack Israel. As a result of the blockade, residents have been unable to rebuild the thousands of homes that were destroyed during Israel's war on militants in 2008 and 2009. While in the region, Ban has criticized Israel's construction of settlements on lands it occupies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. On Sunday, he appealed for Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a prisoner exchange that would result the in the release of Palestinian prisoners and the liberation by Hamas of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government will not restrict building in East Jerusalem. The move puts Mr. Netanyahu further at odds with the United States, just before he is due to leave for a visit to Washington this week. The prime minister said that from Israel's point of view, building in Jerusalem is like building in Tel Aviv. He said he has made this clear to the U.S. administration. Mr. Netanyahu said that in upcoming indirect talks with the Palestinians, each side can present its position. He said he will make Israel's position clear during his visit to the American capital. Israel has not complied with U.S. calls for it to cancel the approval of 1,600 new housing units in a Jewish settlement of East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of their future state. The Palestinians have said they will not return to talks until Israel stops all settlement activity. Special U.S. envoy George Mitchell is returning the region to push along efforts for both sides to start indirect negotiations. www1.voanews.com/english/news/UN-Chief-In-Gaza-Strip-To-Express-Solidarity-With-Palestinians-88759057.html
|
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 22, 2010 1:06:42 GMT 4
Ban meets evicted Sheikh Jarrah familiesPublished today (updated) 21/03/2010 15:26
Maan News AgencyJerusalem – Ma'an – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met on Saturday with two Palestinian families who were forcibly expelled from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. UN Middle East special coordinator Robert Serry attended the meeting at the Notre Dame Hotel, as well as UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi and Barbara Shenstone, the director of UNRWA's operations in the West Bank. The UN delegation met with Maher Hanoun and his daughter Jana, as well as Nabil Al-Kurd, whose homes Israeli settlers occupied by force in August 2009. "We briefed the UN delegation on the Sheikh Jarrah troubles and demanded that the UN make serious efforts to stop home evacuations and demolition by Israeli settlers in Jerusalem," said Maher Hanoun. "We also asked the UN support to help evicted families regain their homes, and to protect other residents from eviction." He added: "We briefed Ban Ki-moon on our daily suffering after my own family, my brothers' families, the Abdul-Fattah and Al-Ghawi families, were evicted in August 2009. We told [Ban] that we live on the street, and we updated him on the daily assaults by Israeli settlers against Sheikh Jarrah, in general." Ban vowed to follow up with the families and do his best to stop settlement activities in Jerusalem. www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=270292..................... background -- Israel evicts Palestinian familieswww.youtube.com/watch?v=kdFVHlcxDGM2 August 2009
Israeli security forces have forcibily evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem after a court rejected an appeal against their eviction.
The al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun families who were evicted on Sunday have been living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood since 1956.
Israel has reportedly set aside the land their houses were built on for a planned hotel project.
The eviction comes amid international calls for Israel to halt settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land.
A large police force was involved in the operation in Sheikh Jarrah, one of the most sensitive and upmarket Arab neighbourhoods closest to the so-called Green Line which separates east and west Jerusalem.
Violent scuffles
Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeeras correspondent in East Jerusalem, said: According to the Hanoun family, the members that I have spoken to, at about 6am as they were sleeping inside the house, Israeli police officers broke in and we can see the shattered glass all over the floor outside.
They say that the police were armed and they forcibly evicted both the international activists that were staying at the house and members of the family themselves.
Members of the family say the police officers beat them with batons and children as young as six were man-handled scuffles were seen and heard between the police and the two families trying to get back into their houses, she said.
Tadros said the international activists were arrested and personal items belonging to the families such as cameras, laptops and computers have all been confiscated.
|
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 22, 2010 21:36:25 GMT 4
Op-Ed Columnist Divorced Before PubertyBy NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: March 3, 2010It’s hard to imagine that there have been many younger divorcées — or braver ones — than a pint-size third grader named Nujood Ali.
>>edited for lengthwww.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/opinion/04kristof.html
ban on child bridesBy Ahmed Al-haj And Hadeel Al-shalchi, Associated Press Writers – 34 mins agoSAN'A, Yemen – Some of Yemen's most influential Islamic leaders, including one the U.S. says mentored Osama bin Laden, have declared supporters of a ban on child brides to be apostates. The religious decree, issued Sunday, deeply imperils efforts to salvage legislation that would make it illegal for those under the age of 17 to marry. The practice is widespread in Yemen and has been particularly hard to discourage in part because of the country's gripping poverty — bride-prices in the hundreds of dollars are especially difficult for poor families to pass up. More than a quarter of Yemen's females marry before age 15, according to a report last year by the Social Affairs Ministry. Tribal custom also plays a role, including the belief that a young bride can be shaped into an obedient wife, bear more children and be kept away from temptation. A February 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed and sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for review after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic. The committee is expected to make a final decision on the legislation next month. Some of the clerics who signed Sunday's decree sit on the committee. The group behind the declaration also includes Yemen's most influential cleric, Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, whom the United States has branded a spiritual mentor of bin Laden. Al-Zindani denies being a member of al-Qaida. In a further challenge to the rights groups pushing for a ban, government officials are reluctant to challenge al-Zindani and other conservative tribal and religious figures whose support they need to hold onto power in the fragile nation. The religious leaders organized a protest against the legislation on Sunday by a group of women. Hidden behind black face veils and robes, the women carried signs that read "Yes to the Islamic rights of Women." "I was married at 15 and have many children now," said one of the women, Umm Abdul-Rahman. "And I will marry my daughter at the same age if I decide she is ready for it." The issue of Yemen's child brides vaulted into the headlines three years ago when an 8-year-old girl boldly went by herself to a courtroom and demanded a judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s. She eventually won a divorce, and legislators began looking at ways to curb the practice. In September, a 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after struggling for three days in labor to give birth, a local human rights organization said. A rights group pushing for a ban planned a protest for Tuesday. "The government has two options: to give girls in Yemen a chance at life or to condemn them to a death sentence," said Amal Basha, chairwoman of the group, Sisters Arab Forum in Yemen. Yemen once set 15 as the minimum age for marriage, but parliament annulled that law in the 1990s, saying parents should decide when a daughter marries. ___ Al-Shalchi reported from Cairo.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100322/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_child_brides |
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 23, 2010 17:14:30 GMT 4
World Water Day:
Thirsty Gaza residents battle salt, sewage
Untreated pools of sewage, some as large as 100 acres, seep back into
the sole aquifer that provides freshwater for Gaza’s 1.5 million people.
Aid workers are looking at new ways to replenish the aquifer, this
World Water Day.By Erin Cunningham, Correspondent
Christian Science Monitor
March 22, 2010Gaza City, Gaza — Activists around the world are marking World Water Day today with school campaigns, films, and concerts – all designed to draw attention to the fact that access to safe drinking water is something 1 in 5 people don't enjoy, while 40 percent of the world's population doesn't have adequate sanitation. An acute example of the human cost can be found in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where experts say a potent mix of politics and geography are pointing toward the onset of a full-blown water crisis. In the small coastal territory, resources are either scarce or contaminated, sewage goes largely untreated, and already ailing infrastructure buckles under an Israeli economic blockade in place since Hamas took over in 2007. According to the United Nations (UN), the current environmental damage could “take centuries to reverse.”“If the situation continues like this any longer, we’ll be faced with a very serious water crisis in the Gaza Strip,” Stéphane Beytrison, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza, told the Monitor recently. “And any real efforts at developing the water and sanitation system, whether by the local authorities or by aid agencies, are hampered completely by the closure. It’s a real and very crucial problem.” Sewage seeping into key aquiferIsrael and Egypt keep Gaza under a tight economic blockade to weaken the Islamist movement Hamas, which it and the US consider a terrorist organization. But the blockade also keeps out key construction materials and spare parts used for developing and repairing local infrastructure. “The pollution, the poor wastewater treatment, the lack of pipes and cement for repairs – all of this is more a result of the blockade than anything else,” says Muralee Thummurkady, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) coordinator in Gaza. “There are environmental and geographic concerns, but there also political problems.” In large part due to the closure, the UN says, nearly half of Gaza’s population relies on septic tanks or cesspools to dispose of its raw sewage, with only three wastewater treatment plants for the entire territory. The sewage in the cesspools, one of them larger than 100 acres, seep back into the coastal aquifer, the sole source of freshwater for Gaza’s 1.5 million people. Aquifer also becoming salty, contaminatedOnce a vehicle for Gaza’s historical position as a major agricultural export hub for neighboring empires, the aquifer is now at the crux of its twin problems of water scarcity and pollution. The more the aquifer is used, the more salty and contaminated it becomes, says Mr. Thummarukudy. At least 90 percent of the water sampled from the aquifer is unsuitable for drinking as a result. “More water is currently extracted from the aquifer than is flowing back into it,” Thummarukudy says. “The contaminated salthingyer from the sea then fills that gap – and the people are left with no choice but to drink it.” Gaza’s drinking water, according to rights group Amnesty International, contains dangerously high levels of both saline, or salt, and nitrate, an organic compound often used in fertilizer and particularly harmful to infants. How Gaza residents are copingMany of the enclave’s residents, however, are finding ways to cope, says the head of the government-run Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU), Ibrahim Alejla. According to Mr. Alejla, those that can afford it are purchasing locally bottled water or installing filters and small desalinization units at home. Others travel far distances, often on rudimentary mule-drawn carts, to fetch cleaner, safer water from wells outside their villages. Israel in January also approved the import of its own bottled water. Mineral water bottled locally in Gaza, according to the UNEP, contains “dangerous and volatile compounds.” But Mr. Beytrison of the ICRC says none of these coping mechanisms can be viewed as acceptable solutions to Gaza’s growing water crisis. “In the long-term, these minor ways of dealing with things, they are nothing,” he says. “They are like drops of water in the ocean.” A new plan to resolve the crisisMr. Beytrison says the ICRC is looking at new ways to replenish Gaza’s aquifer, including the construction of a treated sewage lagoon that would allow the filtered water to seep back into the ground. He says right now a small number of Gaza farmers are diverting the treated sewage water from the ICRC’s two wastewater plants in the southern strip towns of Rafah and Khan Younis, rather than digging private wells that only access the contaminated aquifer. Thummakudury says the only real solution for Gaza’s water woes is to “develop an alternative water supply” in order to allow the territory’s aquifer to rest and replenish. He proposes the construction of a massive desalinization plant that, along with sewage repair and environmental clean-up over the next twenty years, would cost international donors some $1.2 billion “if the political will is there.” Water pipe from Israel to Gaza never completedUnder the Oslo Accords, a declaration of principles signed by both Israel and Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1995, Israel is required to provide the Gaza Strip with five cubic meters, approximately 1,300 gallons, of desalinized drinking water each year. But the Palestinian Authority (PA) never completed the construction of the pipe on the Gaza side of the border, citing the outbreak of the second intifada (uprising) and subsequent closure of Gaza. And while the Oslo Accords also state that Gaza and the West Bank are one territorial entity, and that water is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority (PA), there are no provisions for shared water between the two Palestinian enclaves. Gaza and the West Bank are now divided both geographically and politically between the US-backed PA in the West Bank and the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Martha Myer, the Israel-Palestine country director for CARE International, a US-based development organization that carries out water and sanitation projects in the Gaza Strip, says the poor state of Gaza’s water needs to be viewed in a wider regional and even decades-long context. “As the population increases and infrastructure keeps collapsing,” she says, “we – the international community and Gaza’s neighbors – need to be cognizant of the fact that, ecologically, Gaza is simply not sustainable.” www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0322/World-Water-Day-Thirsty-Gaza-residents-battle-salt-sewage
|
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 24, 2010 19:59:32 GMT 4
Anne Greig & Robert Green — Sexual Abuse of Hollie Greig,
The Scottish Establishment Peadophile Ring & Case Cover UpMarch 18, 2010
RedIceCreations.com
Don't miss this important but disturbing two-hour program with Robert Green and Anne Grieg as we discuss the sexual abuse of Anne's daughter Hollie Greig and how it connects with the Scottish Establishment Peadophile Ring and their efforts to suppress exposure of this case. Robert is the spokes person for Anne and for Hollie Greig who got arrested and gagged not too long ago because of his involvement in this case. Topics Discussed: Lee Ann Davidson, Hollie's Story, Aberdeen, State sponsored attack on children, Elitist Cabal, Anne's husband, Angiolini, News of the World, Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), Dennis Mackey, Aberdeen South, Dr Carter, Lord Actions, Crown Office, George Galloway, The murder and cover up of Anne's brother Roy Greig, Control of the media, Levy & MCrae, Peter Watson, Katherine Harper and much more.www.redicecreations.com/radio/2010/03mar/RIR-100318.php............ download hour one: www.redicecreations.com/radio/2010/03mar/RIR-100318-greiggreen-pt1.mp3download hour two: www.redicecreations.com/radio/2010/03mar/RIR-100318-greiggreen-pt2.mp3
|
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 24, 2010 21:38:50 GMT 4
Hamas to execute suspected Israeli spies in Gaza(AFP) – 6 hours agoGAZA CITY — The Islamist Hamas movement which rules Gaza said on Wednesday it would soon begin executing people convicted of spying for Israel despite objections from human rights groups. "The death penalty will be implemented for (Israeli) agents who have been sentenced to death, regardless of the position of rights groups that reject these kinds of sentences," Hamas interior minister Fathi Hammad said. "The near future will witness the carrying out of the death sentences," he said in a statement. The Hamas-run government said the sentences had been handed down in the last two months, with some alleged informers given prison time. Hamas has approved the death penalty for informers, murderers and drug dealers but has not officially executed anyone since it seized power in Gaza in June 2007 after driving out forces loyal to president Mahmud Abbas. However, several alleged informers were killed by armed groups during the Gaza war at the turn of last year, according to rights groups. Last August, the New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Hamas of killing at least 32 political opponents and suspected informers during and after the war, and of maiming dozens of others. Palestinian law says the president must approve all execution orders before they can be carried out, but Hamas is likely to bypass this as it no longer recognises the legitimacy of Abbas, whose four-year term ended in 2009. Israeli security forces routinely use Palestinian informers in the occupied territories, who play a key role in thwarting attacks and assassinating top militants. Palestinian human rights organisations have condemned the extra-judicial killings and demanded that suspected collaborators be prosecuted in accordance with the law.Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j3VzMOiEUSugr0hMAcdyJA3XBr5w
|
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 24, 2010 22:21:21 GMT 4
cross posted from General News: the-goldenthread.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=33&page=17#9981Hillary sticks her foot in it in speech at AIPACMladen Andrijasevic March 23, 2010Yesterday at the AIPAC conference Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "When a Hamas-controlled municipality glorifies violence and renames a square after a terrorist who murdered innocent Israelis, it insults the families on both sides who have lost loves ones over the years in this conflict. (Applause.)" The importance of Hillary Clinton's speech is that now, thanks to her, it can be easily proven by simply looking at where Ramallah is situated on the map, that the whole US peace process policy in the Middle East is based on fiction that Fatah is moderate.The square renamed after a terrorist is in Ramallah and Ramallah is in the West Bank and controlled by Fatah. If Secretary Clinton did not know that Fatah was responsible , her own words accidentally finally exposed what Fatah's mindset is, something the administration was trying to hide. If Secretary Clinton did know that Fatah was responsible, then she was explicitly lying. She had to change the geography to fit the fantasy. This reminds me of the days when Soviet cities on Soviet maps changed their positions every few years in respect to nearby rivers and mountains so as to 'fool'' the CIA. This time, however, the US is fooling itself. Then they will be surprised why things do not work as they expected Either way, the truth has finally come out. Now what remains to be seen is will there be a single journalist who will ask Secretary Clinton if she knew that the square named after a terrorist was under Fatah control. Is there? www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/03/hillary_sticks_her_foot_in_it.html....... www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xSqDCuOtYU.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at AIPAC (March 2010)
part one of fiveAs a side note, here are photos of the results of "rocket attacks on Israel"images.google.com/images?q=rocket%20damage%2C%20israelHere are photos of "missile damage on Gaza"images.google.com/images?q=missile+damage%2C+Gaza"bulldozer damage on Gaza"images.google.com/images?q=bulldozer damage%2C gaza "tank damage on Gaza"images.google.com/images?q=tank damage on Gaza "white phosphorous, Gaza"images.google.com/images?q=white phosporous%2C Gaza "shells, Gaza"images.google.com/images?q=shells%2C Gaza I could go on and on but you get the idea. MRS. CLINTON, I CAN NOT EVEN BEGIN TO VOICE MY DISGUST at the one-sided views of your speech. YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR ALL AMERICANS while you grovel in front of the members of AIPAC. Israel is NOT the United States. Israel is a FOREIGN POWER and you embarrass all Americans by groveling before its representatives and supporters. (and I apologize to everyone here for this outburst but I can not believe my eyes as I watch our Secretary of State pandering to a foreign nation which commits WAR CRIMES and CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY with U.S. tax dollars. Sorry.) ................. Norman Finkelstein on AIPAC (1)www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkVzh3D0AbwNorman Finkelstein Responds to Clinton, Netanyahu AIPAC Comments
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told attendees at the AIPAC onference on Monday that the US commitment to Israel is rock-solid but Clinton did criticize Israel for continuing to build settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. In a defiant speech hours after Clintons address, Netanyahu rejected US criticism and vowed to continue building settlements. We speak with Norman Finkelstein, author of the new book, This Time We Went Too Far: Truth & Consequences of the Gaza Invasion.After viewing Dr. Finkelstein's interview, I've seen fit to cross-post this in the Humanitarian Thread. (cross-posted from General News) the-goldenthread.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=33&page=17#9981 |
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 25, 2010 2:32:43 GMT 4
Israeli media claims leader
bowed to US pressurePublished yesterday (updated) 24/03/2010 20:37
Ma'an News AgencyBethlehem - Ma'an - Israeli news sources said the country's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ceded to American demands to halt settlement construction and ease the siege on Gaza in Tuesday's closed-door meeting in Washington. According to the Hebrew-language daily Inyan Merkazi on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama was explicit in his directives to Israel. "The US will not use its veto at the UN Security Council if you do not agree to American demands. We will let you face the international outcry alone."The daily further reported that Netanyahu swore to meet the following list of demands to: - Noticably ease the siege on Gaza - Remove several military checkpoints in the West Bank - Release hundreds of Fatah-affiliated prisoners - Allow construction material into Gaza - Freeze settlement construction in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, for an indefinite period. The sources noted there were several other American demands that were also met. www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=271241For more information about UN Resolutions against Israel vetoed by the United States -- www.google.com/search?q=United+nations+resolutions+against+Israel+vetoed+by+the+US
|
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 26, 2010 0:37:46 GMT 4
Binyamin Netanyahu humiliated after
Barack Obama 'dumped him for dinner'  From Times Online
March 25, 2010For a head of state to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip seen in Jerusalem tonight as a disastrous humiliation. After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on Jewish settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisors and “let me know if there is anything new”, a US congressman who spoke to the Prime Minister said today. “It was awful,” the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages”, poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House phone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received “the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea”. Related Links
* Netanyahu flies home amid media blackout
* New Israeli construction plan undermines talks
* Israel threatens to block peace talks for year Left to talk among themselves, Mr Netanyahu and his aides retreated to the Roosevelt Room. He later spent a further half-hour with Mr Obama and extended his stay for a day of emergency talks aimed at restarting peace negotiations, but left last night with no official statement from either side. He returns to Israel dangerously isolated after what Israeli media have called a White House ambush for which he is largely to blame. Sources said that Mr Netanyahu failed to impress Mr Obama with a flow chart purporting to show that he was not be responsible for the timing of announcements of new settlement projects in east Jerusalem. Mr Obama was said to be livid when such an announcement derailed Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel this month, and his anger towards Israel does not appear to have cooled. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, cast doubt on minor details in Israeli accounts of the meeting but did not deny claims that it amounted to a dressing down for the Prime Minister, whose refusal to freeze settlements is seen in Washington as the main barrier to resuming peace talks. The Likud leader now has to try to square the demands of the Obama Administration with his nationalist, ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, who want him to stand up to Washington, even though Israel desperately needs US backing in confronting the looming threat of a nuclear Iran. “The Prime Minister leaves America disgraced, isolated and altogether weaker than when he came,” the Israeli daily Ha'aretz said. In their meeting Mr Obama set out a number of expectations that Israel was to satisfy if it wanted to end the crisis, Israeli sources said. These included an extension of the freeze on Jewish settlement growth beyond the 10-month deadline next September, an end to Israeli building projects in east Jerusalem, and even a withdrawal of Israeli forces to positions that they held before the Second Intifada in September 2000, after which they re-occupied most of the West Bank. Newspaper reports recounted how Mr Netanyahu looked “excessively concerned and upset” as he pulled out a flow chart to show Mr Obama how Jerusalem planning permission worked and how he could not have known of the announcement that hundreds more homes were to be built just as Mr Biden arrived in Jerusalem. Mr Obama then suggested that Mr Netanyahu and his staff stay on at the White House to consider his proposals, so that if he changed his mind he could inform the President right away. “I’m still around,” the Yediot Ahronot daily quoted Mr Obama saying. “Let me know if there is anything new.” With the atmosphere so soured by the end of the evening, the Israelis decided that they could not trust the phone line they had been lent. Mr Netanyahu retired with his defence minister, Ehud Barak, to the Israeli Embassy to ensure the Americans were not listening in. The meeting came barely a day after Mr Obama’s landmark health reform victory. Israel had calculated that he would be too tied up with domestic issues ahead of the mid-term elections to focus seriously on the Middle East. www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7076431.eceTHANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 26, 2010 1:37:16 GMT 4
Silence that speaks volumes: blackout as
Israel’s leader leaves White House From The Times
March 25, 2010
Giles Whittell, Washington Two separate meetings between President Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, failed to produce so much as an official photograph as a chill settled over US-Israeli relations and secrecy shrouded any efforts to repair them. The Israeli Prime Minister was due to fly home from Washington after three days marked by Israeli defiance on the issue of settlements and an extraordinary silence maintained by both sides after his three-and-a-half-hour visit to the White House. The meeting was overshadowed by Israeli approval for 20 homes built for Jews in Arab east Jerusalem — a move denounced by one senior US official as “exactly what we expect Prime Minister Netanyahu to get control of”. White House staff denied Mr Netanyahu the usual photo opportunities afforded to a visiting leader, issued only the vaguest summary of their talks — let alone a joint statement — and reversed a decision to release an official photo of their meetings.Related Links
* Wrong fight, wrong time
* Israel fears others may follow Britain's lead
* New Israeli construction plan undermines talks It was speculated that the talks may have moved beyond the quarrel over Israeli construction in east Jerusalem to final status issues such as the borders of a Palestinian state, as well as Iran and its nuclear programme. However, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, would say only that Mr Obama had asked Mr Netanyahu for confidence-building gestures and clarification of his position on settlements. He described the talks as “honest and straightforward”. Mr Obama also held telephone talks yesterday with Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and President Sarkozy on Iran, the Middle East peace process and global economic issues, Mr Gibbs said. Before departing, Mr Netanyahu met with Mr Obama’s envoy George Mitchell, who worked for months to get the Palestinians to take part in indirect negotiations with Israel, only to see them balk when Israel revealed plans for 1,600 new homes in east Jerusalem. The announcement came on March 9, during Vice-President Joe Biden’s latest trip to Jerusalem. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said she wanted peace talks to resume as soon as possible, a sentiment echoed by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, who said he will urge Arab leaders to support indirect talks. In Jerusalem the government press office issued a terse statement saying that the talks had been held in a good atmosphere. They went on longer than expected with the leaders meeting for 90 minutes, then again for half an hour after a long private discussion between Mr Netanyahu and his advisers in the White House Roosevelt Room. The choreography of the evening suggested that the talks covered substantive proposals, possibly including an undertaking from Mr Netanyahu to prevent ill-timed announcements of Israeli construction. Yet there is little doubt that Mr Netanyahu’s stance on settlements has left him struggling to persuade a newly confident US President of his willingness to compromise for peace. White House sources said that observers were right to infer from the news blackout that relations between the two sides were not good but later hinted that some Israeli proposals had been favourably received. Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been shelved since 2008. Palestinian leaders have said that they will not join any peace talks unless all Israeli construction east of the 1949 armistice line is stopped. Before Tuesday’s meeting Israeli experts expected Mr Netanyahu to agree to a secret freeze on building. However, the announcement of new apartments in a development funded by Irving Moskowitz, the Jewish-American billionaire, raised tempers again. “Israel is digging itself into a hole that it will have to climb out of if it is serious about peace,” Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said. “There is overwhelming international consensus on the illegality of Israel’s settlements, including in east Jerusalem, and the damage they are doing to the two-state solution.” Mr Netanyahu’s efforts to persuade Congress that his office had no oversight of the many construction projects in east Jerusalem were greeted with scepticism even within the Prime Minister’s coalition. “Netanyahu decided to spit into Obama’s eye, this time from up close,” said Eitan Cabel, an MP from the Labour Party, a coalition ally of Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party. “He and his pyromaniac ministers insist on setting the Middle East ablaze.” www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7074832.ece
|
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 26, 2010 2:01:08 GMT 4
Human Rights Council Adopts Follow-Up Resolution on
Goldstone Report: Climate of Impunity Must be CombatedThursday, 25 March 2010 12:40Ref: 21/2010On Thursday, 25 March 2010, the UN Human Rights Council adopted Resolution A/HRC/13/L.30 in the context of the follow up to the Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (the Goldstone Report). Significantly, this Resolution calls for the High Commission for Human Rights to:
explore and determine the appropriate modalities for the establishment of an escrow fund for the provision of reparations to the Palestinians who suffered loss and damage as a result of unlawful acts attributable to the State of Israel during the military operations conducted from December 2008 to January 2009.
The establishment of such a fund, a key recommendation of the Goldstone Report, is an appropriate and essential measure. As recognised in Article 31 of the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, in this context, reparation is a legal obligation incumbent on the State of Israel. However, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) emphasize that restitution is only one component in the pursuit of accountability and the attainment of victims’ rights. There can be no substitute for criminal investigation and prosecution. This reality, is explicitly recognised in, inter alia, Articles 2 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, while the obligation to investigate serious violations of international law constitutes an obligation under customary international law. It is also a long-standing principle of international law that if genuine domestic investigations into suspected international crimes – such as grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, torture, or crimes against humanity – are not forthcoming, then recourse must be had to mechanisms of international justice. As published previously (see Genuinely Unwilling) PCHR believe Israel’s investigative and judicial system is fundamentally incapable of conducting genuine investigations with respect to alleged violations committed against civilians; a conclusion also reached by national courts in Spain and the Netherlands. Israel’s unwillingness to conduct genuine investigations into the events surrounding last year’s offensive on the Gaza Strip confirm that recourse must be had to mechanisms of international justice via the International Criminal Court and the exercise of universal jurisdiction. The UN General Assembly has requested that the Secretary-General report to the General Assembly on the status of Israeli and Palestinian investigations in July 2010. PCHR believe that it is imperative that the Committee of Experts established by the Human Rights Council report back prior to this date, in order that their findings may contribute to the Secretary-General’s decision. As it stands, the Committee of Experts is required to report back in September 2010. PCHR remind all concerned parties that – as confirmed by, inter alia, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights – investigations which persist for a long period of time without those responsible being identified, constitute “a situation of serious impunity and ... a breach of the State’s duty.” Further delays in the process of ensuring victims’ legitimate rights to an effective judicial remedy cannot be allowed; individuals suspected of committing international crimes cannot be allowed to continue living in impunity. The UN must not contribute to the perpetuation of a system of impunity, and the violation of individual’s legitimate rights to the equal protection of the law. The Human Rights Council Committee of Experts must act in conjunction with the Secretary-General as mandated by the General Assembly. www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6323:human-rights-council-adopts-follow-up-resolution-on-goldstone-report-climate-of-impunity-must-be-combated-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194
|
|
|
|
Post by ninathedog on Mar 26, 2010 2:11:44 GMT 4
Why Are So Many Moms Dying?by Danielle Friedman – Wed Mar 24, 11:47 pm ETNEW YORK – New reports reveal an alarming rise in the number of mothers dying during childbirth. From C-sections to the obesity epidemic, Danielle Friedman investigates what’s causing the problem.After more than a decade leading outdoor expeditions across the mountains of Montana and Utah, Karen Sclafani prepared to face a new challenge: pregnancy and parenthood. Vibrant and fit, the 37-year-old vegan had originally planned for a natural delivery. A few days before her due date in February 2004, however, she was diagnosed with preeclampsia—a type of pregnancy-induced hypertension—and checked into a hospital near her home in southwest Montana, where nurses gave her medicine to control her blood pressure and induce delivery. “There are guys like me all over the place who become these widowed fathers of infants, who are too grief-stricken to raise a big stink,” Maffly said. After only four hours of labor, Sclafani delivered a healthy baby girl. Over the next day, however, her condition took a horrific turn. When she didn’t deliver her placenta, her doctors performed surgery to remove it; shortly after, her heart stopped beating. Doctors realized she had suffered a hemorrhage, and despite their efforts to save her, two days later Sclafani was dead. What began as the happiest week of her husband’s life quickly deteriorated into the worst, as he became a widower and a new parent all at once. “I went into survival mode,” Brian Maffly told The Daily Beast. “I tried to pull as much joy as I could out of parenting this tiny baby, this amazing child,” he said, all the while grieving his wife and grappling with his belief that, if doctors had paid closer attention to her condition, she might have been saved. Sclafani’s story is part of a troubling trend: Over the past decade, the U.S. maternal mortality rate has nearly doubled, with about 500 women dying of pregnancy-related complications each year. That’s a tiny percentage of the 4 million American women who give birth annually. But what’s shocking is that among industrialized countries, the U.S. ranks an abysmal 41st on the World Health Organization’s list of maternal death rates, behind South Korea and Bosnia—yet we spend more money on maternity care than any other nation. “There are guys like me all over the place who become these widowed fathers of infants, who are too grief-stricken to raise a big stink,” Maffly said. “I just wanted to get on with life. But I think a lot of these deaths are avoidable.” Over the past three months, alarms have begun to sound: On Jan. 26, the Joint Commission, the country’s top health-care standards group, issued a “Sentinel Event Alert” to hospitals about the trend. Amnesty International has designated the U.S. maternal mortality rate a human-rights concern. This month, the organization called on President Barack Obama to address the crisis, noting that two to three women die of pregnancy-related complications in this country every day, as we move further away from the government’s goal of 3.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. The health-care reform bill signed into law by Obama Tuesday could help, as it requires insurance companies, for the first time, to cover prenatal care and some childbirth costs.Skeptics attribute the rise in the maternal mortality rate to better reporting of maternal deaths — and it's true that over the past decade, states have revised death certificates to better flag pregnancy-related mortalities. Yet review committees estimate that better reporting only accounts for about 30 to 40 percent of the rise. More likely, the maternal death rate is going up due to a complex cocktail of factors—causes that reflect a changing population, disparities in poor women’s access to health care, and even Americans’ reliance on cutting-edge medicine. As the public health and medical fields mobilize to reverse the trend, The Daily Beast looks at seven explanations for the unsettling rise. 1. A Skyrocketing Caesarean RateBefore C-sections became as safe and standard as they are today, pregnant women had few options if they found themselves in an emergency situation; aside from metal forceps, doctors lacked tools to get babies out quickly, which often led to tragedy. Yet as lifesaving as C-sections can be, an astounding one in three American women now give birth surgically, up from one in five a decade ago. The World Health Organization says that the country’s rate shouldn’t be above 15 percent, which suggests that more than half of U.S. C-sections are medically unnecessary. “When you see that C-section rates have increased, you have to consider [the correlation to the maternal death rate],” Maureen Corry, president of the advocacy group Childbirth Connection, told The Daily Beast. “There are good indicators that there’s some connection between the two.” That’s because C-sections are major surgery. Healthy women who give birth surgically are 80 percent more likely to be re-hospitalized than healthy women who give birth vaginally; they’re also four times more likely to die. Hemorrhage, infection, and pulmonary embolism are all more common following a surgical birth. 2. More Obese MomsAs the obesity epidemic swept the country, more overweight women have gotten pregnant and given birth, despite serious risks. One in five women in the U.S. are now obese at the beginning of their pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Obese women are more likely to develop hypertension, high blood pressure, and diabetes during pregnancy, which can lead to preeclampsia and other fatal conditions. Preeclampsia is responsible for about 18 percent of maternal deaths in the U.S., and over the past decade, the incidence of the condition rose by 40 percent. Labor can also be more difficult for obese women, as soft tissue can impede delivery. Obese women are also at greater risk for delivering bigger babies, needing C-sections, and developing postpartum infections and heart problems. 3. Disparities in Access to CareAs economic disparities in the U.S. health-care system grew wider over the past several decades, fewer women got the family planning, prenatal, and postpartum care they needed. Currently, one in five women of childbearing age are uninsured, Amnesty International reports. In most states, poor women do qualify for Medicaid once they become pregnant; the problem is, six weeks after giving birth, most of these women are dropped. “Medicaid’s job is to deliver a baby,” said Gene Declercq, a maternal-health expert at Boston University’s School of Public Health. “These women are just vessels for delivering babies.” From there, a dangerous cycle can begin: If a woman has risk factors going into her first pregnancy—say, diabetes or hypertension—the conditions often get worse through the process. She can’t afford the medical care to treat her conditions. Nor can she afford contraceptives, so she often ends up getting pregnant again, this time facing even greater risks. By the time she’s back on Medicaid for her next pregnancy, she’s in big trouble. The good news is that the new health-care reform legislation will expand access to Medicaid for about 15 million people, and will include prenatal and maternal care in the basic package of services private insurers must cover. 4. Unnecessary Medical InterventionsLike C-sections, medical innovations such as drugs to induce labor and devices to monitor fetal heart rates can be lifesaving, but they can also lead to complications in healthy women. When an intervention is unnecessary—performed out of convenience or protocol—the harms can outweigh the benefits. “We’re doing more and accomplishing less,” Corry said. In many developed countries, induction is used as a last resort, but in the U.S., hospitals induce or accelerate roughly 40 percent of labors. These drugs, in turn, can create more aggressive contractions, which increase the risk of uterine rupture. A woman who is induced is also more likely to end up needing a C-section. 5. Older MomsAs the rate of childbearing women over 40 has risen, so has the maternal mortality rate. Moms over 35 are more likely to develop gestational diabetes and other complications; they’re also more likely to have twins or other multiples, thanks both to biology and the wonders of fertility treatment—and multiple births are far riskier than single births, for both mother and babies. But Elliott Main, a San Francisco-based OB/GYN and principal investigator of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, warned against pegging the rising maternal mortality rate solely to changing demographics: Mothers over 40 have a higher death rate than younger mothers, he told The Daily Beast, but most American women who die in childbirth are in their twenties or thirties. 6. Poor Birth EducationMaternity-care advocates stress that as birth has become increasingly medicalized, American women have become surprisingly uneducated on the topic. “I don’t believe that women have all the information they need to make truly informed decisions,” said Corry of Childbirth Connection. In particular, low-income women with limited access to health care may not be aware of the risks of taking certain medications or engaging in certain behaviors during pregnancy. Similarly, advocates point out that with C-sections and interventions on the rise, women feel less empowered to take control of their birth experience—they don’t always know their options or trust their instincts. They must rely completely on hospital staff, who are often overworked, exhausted, and juggling many births at once. 7. ComplacencyDespite the rising maternal mortality rate, pregnancy-related deaths in this country are still rare. Most doctors and nurses will go their entire career without encountering one. Yet as a result, many hospitals have become “complacent that mothers just don’t die anymore,” said OB/GYN Main. “There’s been a little relaxation,” and women’s lives are sometimes lost as a result. Most pregnant women are healthy, Main explained. But “rather than saying, we can get away with a lot because women are basically young and healthy and can withstand a lot before they get into trouble,” hospitals need to act proactively, paying closer attention to changes in women’s vital signs. Although Karen Sclafani was deemed high-risk because of her preeclampsia, her widower believes that because she appeared fit and healthy, physicians did not heed potential warning signs as they should have. “They weren’t really looking at this patient, they were looking at a series of interventions,” said Maffly, who received a settlement from Karen’s doctors and has since remarried. “If they had been treating her more as a human being, they would have seen that something was wrong.”
Plus: Check out more from Giving Beast, featuring news, video, and amazing photographs of people, places, and issues that need our support.
Danielle Friedman has worked as a nonfiction book editor for Hudson Street Press and Plume, two imprints of Penguin Group. Her writing has been published in the Miami Herald, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and on CNN.com. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
For more of The Daily Beast, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/20100325/ts_dailybeast/7294_whyaresomanymomsdying
|
|
|
|
Post by emeraldsun on Mar 26, 2010 23:48:08 GMT 4
Tax $$ for Viagra; for Rapists and Pedophiles - Dems Reject amendment to ban VIAGRA for Sex offenders Senate Democrats:Tax $$ for Viagra for Sex Offenders Written by CA Political News on March 25, 2010, 02:02 PM Dems reject amendment to ban Viagra for sex offenders Politico.com, 3/24/10 Democrats killed an amendment by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to prevent the newly created insurance exchanges from using federal money to cover Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs for rapists, pedophiles and other sex offenders. The amendment failed 57-42 "The vast majority of Americans don't want their taxpayer dollars paying for this kind of drug for those kind of people," Coburn said. Democratic Sen. Max Baucus urged his colleagues to defeat the amendment. "This is a serious bill. This is a serious debate. The amendment offered by the senator from Oklahoma makes a mockery of the Senate, the debate and the American people. It is not a serious amendment. It is a crass political stunt aimed at making 30-second commercials, not public policy," he said. Democrats have defeated every amendment offered by Republicans so far, arguing that any change will kill the bill. Link here: capoliticalnews.com/blog_post/show/4643 
|
|
