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Health Bill Has Democrats Hunting for Votes

Democratic leaders are putting heavy pressure on about eight to 10 of key party members group who opposed the health-care bill when the House voted last fall.

End in sight, health care battle tilts Obama's way

One by one, House Democratic fence-sitters began choosing sides Friday, and the long, turbulent struggle over landmark health care legislation tilted unmistakably in President Barack Obama's direction.

Obama, Dems Fighting For Health Care Votes

President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders lobbied intensively for historic health care legislation Friday, striving to resolve a last-minute dispute over Medicare while gaining another precious "yes" 48 hours ahead of a climactic vote.

Michael Moore: My Congressman, Bart Stupak, Has Neither a Uterus Nor a Brain

Friends,

I live in Michigan, in one of the 31 counties represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by none other than Mr. Bart Stupak, a Democrat. You've probably never heard of him. He's a pretty quiet guy, a former Michigan State Police trooper who boldly decided to run some 18 years ago as a Democrat in a rural part of Michigan that votes almost exclusively for Republicans (yes, I know -- what am I doing here? I'll save that story for a future letter).

His voting record is pretty conservative for a Democrat, but he's had a few shining moments. In the wake of the Columbine shootings, he voted for some gun control, a not-too-popular position to take here in northern Michigan. The NRA came after him with all they had in 2000.

But the good people of this area knew Bart's story and understood: He's been touched personally by gun violence. In a terrible tragedy, his teenage son, depressed and confused from the medication he'd been prescribed, killed himself with the family's .38 revolver. Despite the NRA's best efforts, Bart was returned to Congress by an overwhelming margin.

Yet, here we are, just days before a weak, simple-minded, but now ultimately necessary health care bill has a chance of making it through Congress -- and Bart Stupak is threatening to derail it because he wants to make sure that no woman who buys her own insurance with her own money is able to have a medically-insured abortion. We're not talkin' about federally-funded abortions -- those were stupidly outlawed long ago.Â Bart Stupak doesn't like that the Democrats' bill doesn't prohibit private insurance programs, set up for those whose employers don't provide it, from providing abortion coverage if they get any federal funding -- even to an individual woman paying without any government help. That's it.

A group representing most of America's 59,000 Catholic nuns has written to Congress and said that Obama's health care plan should be passed. Stupak, instead, has chosen to diss the nuns. Last night he went on TV and dug his heels in -- he said he intended to stop this health care bill and he didn't care what anyone had to say.

Now, it would be easy for some to just pass this attitude off on his Catholicism -- he believes what he believes and you have to respect him for that, even if you don't agree with him. But it's not that simple. It turns out that Stupak has been living in a subsidized room in the "C Street House," run by the infamous right-wing Christian cult "The Family." It was in this former convent that GOP Rep. Chip Pickering (according to his former wife) carried on the affair that ended his marriage. It's where South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford sought refuge as his marriage fell apart thanks to his affair. And then there's C Street roommate Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who cheated on his wife with the wife of one of his top staffers. (The Justice Department is currently investigating whether Ensign committed a felony while paying off his aide to keep him quiet.)

C Street is where power, money, sex and religion meet. So am I led to believe that Bart Stupak lives in a brothel and belongs to a cult? He says he was just renting a room there. But that just doesn't ring true. Something stinks to the high heavens here, and Stupak sees no irony in taking his holier-than-thou position while living in a house that should be dubbed "Hypocrites' Hideaway."

If Stupak were truly pro-life then he'd vote for this bill. Right now, a mother in the U.S. has a ten times greater chance of dying in childbirth than a mother does in Ireland. If you really wanted to reduce abortions, you'd have to ask yourself this question: Why does godless France, where abortion is nearly free (it's covered by their universal health insurance), have 20% fewer abortions per capita than we do? What's even more amazing about that statistic is that you can't even get an abortion in America in 87% of our counties because there isn't one single doctor in those counties who will perform one! 87%!! The Right has scared them to death -- sometimes literally -- out of performing an otherwise legal, safe procedure. So, you can say women have "choice" in this country, but the reality is the "choice" doesn't exist in the majority of the nation. "Right to Life" has essentially won this battle. (My personal position: I don't get to have a position -- I don't have a uterus. If a Senate that was 90% female told me I couldn't have a vasectomy or made it a crime to leave the toilet seat up, I guess I might object.)

What is "life"? An egg is life, a sperm is life. Those sperm aren't running on a battery pack. They are living creatures, as is a fertilized egg. But they're not "human beings." A human being is something that can exist outside the womb of a mother. If you think a fertilized egg is a human being, then I respectfully ask you to go down to the DMV today and have them change your birthday on your driver's license to 9 months older than what you've been telling everybody.

So back to my question. Why do we have an abortion rate 20% higher than France's (and more than twice as high as Germany's), especially considering most doctors here won't perform them? The answer is any country that has universal health care, where contraception is free, where child care is free or inexpensive, where there is less poverty because people don't become bankrupt over medical bills -- those societies are simply going to have fewer unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.

And there the mask gets pulled off the Bart Stupaks and the "Christians." If the statistics show that countries with government-provided universal health care and nearly-free abortions are, in fact, the countries with the fewest abortions, then why on earth wouldn't the Right be the first in line to support universal health care?

Because it isn't about "universal health care." It's about controlling women, period. It's about sticking your nose in other people's business. It's about pushing your religious beliefs on everyone else because voices in your head tell you your Jesus is The One -- even though your Jesus never said one single solitary word in any of the four gospels of the Bible about abortion or fertilized eggs being human. You've just gone and made it up about "life beginning at conception." Jesus never said that. The little voice in your head said that, the same little voice that wants your grubby paws on women's uteruses. You need help. Please get some help and leave the rest of us alone, Mr. Stupak and friends.

After all, isn't it enough that women can't get an abortion in any of the 31 Michigan counties you represent in Congress? There is not one single abortion provider here in the north of the state, according to Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan. Hey, Bart -- you've already won! Women's rights have been stamped out in your entire Congressional district! Woo hoo!

So why don't you leave the rest of the country alone, step out of the way, and let them have the minimal health coverage this bill will give them? You wouldn't really crush the sick and infirm because of your own personal agenda, would you? What would Jesus do?

In the meantime, Bart, my neighbors and I are going to make sure a real Democrat runs against you in August's primary here. One of our religious beliefs in these parts is to never impose our religious beliefs on others.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

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Youth Radio -- Youth Media International: Health Care Reform: A Tale of Two Futures

Originally published on Youthradio.org, the premier source for youth generated news throughout the globe.

By: Emily Beaver

So what will the future look like for young people if health care reform passes -- or if reform doesn't pass?

A future without reform

Millions of Americans (an estimated 49.4 million, to be precise) don't have health insurance. And the number of uninsured Americans will keep growing -- people who get health insurance at work will lose their coverage, because as health care costs increase it becomes harder for employers to provide insurance coverage. Workers who do keep their insurance will pay more out of their own pockets.

That's how Melissa Rodgers, associate director of the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic, and Family Security, describes what could happen if health reform doesn't pass.

And a future without health care reform may not look brighter for people who purchase their own health care. Insurance companies have raised premiums for some people who buy insurance from the individual market, and there's no reason to expect that the trend of increasing health care costs won't continue, Rodgers says.

Rising health care costs are one of the reasons our country is trying to reform health care, says Sam Gibbs, senior vice president, of eHealthInsurance, a company that allows people to search for and buy health insurance plans online. Without reform, Americans will be spending more of the money we make on health care in the future, Gibbs says.

"If health reform doesn't pass, we will still have a broken system where young people are still the most uninsured group," says Heather Smith, president of Rock the Vote, a youth political advocacy organization.

If health reform happens

Health care reform would bring dramatic changes for many Americans, especially young adults. About 13 million young adults ages 20-29 are uninsured. Many uninsured young Americans would be eligible for Medicaid, the government insurance program for low-income and poor people, Rodgers says.

Other uninsured young adults who don't get insurance through Medicaid have a few other options. they can stay on their parents' insurance plans until age 26, buy an insurance plan through a government health insurance exchange (and many young adults will get subsidies from the government to do this) or buy their own insurance from the individual market.

Young adults who buy their own insurance could see their rates increase after health reform. That's because health reform puts limits on a health insurance industry practice called age rating, charging younger people less for insurance than older people. Health reform legislation will limit how much more insurers can charge older people for insurance, says Gibbs, so while older people's rates may go down, younger people's rates could go up.

However, health care reform will allow people who like their current health insurance to keep their plan, so now is good time for young people who buy their own insurance to find a plan they like, Gibbs says.

Health care reform will also make it easier for young adults who have pre-existing health conditions, like asthma or diabetes, to get insurance or to change insurance plans.

If reform passes, the stereotype of the "Young Invincible," the young, healthy adult who chooses to skip health insurance would also go away -- that's because all Americans would have to get insurance, unless they can prove a hardship that prevents them from getting insured, or pay a penalty.

If health care reform happens, Aaron Smith, a Georgetown University law student, thinks young people will have to undergo a "cultural shift" where getting health insurance is a normal expectation, like buying car insurance. Aaron Smith, who is one of the founders of the Young Invincibles, a group of young adults who support health reform, was uninsured for about six months after he graduated from college. Young people won't have those gaps in coverage any more, he says.

"Think about the millions of young adults without healthcare," he says. "They won't have to worry about health care bankrupting them if they get sick."

An added bonus of health care reform passing? Democrats in Congress want to pass it along with a bill to help students get lower-cost loans for college, through a legislative process called budget reconciliation.

More on Health Care Reform at Youth Radio:

Youth Radio/Youth Media International (YMI) is youth-driven converged media production company that delivers the best youth news, culture and undiscovered talent to a cross section of audiences. To read more youth news from around the globe and explore high quality audio and video features, visit Youthradio.org More on Health Care

LA Thief Steals Truck As 5-Year-Old Sleeps Inside (VIDEO)

LOS ANGELES — (AP) California authorities say a thief in the Hollywood Hills stole a truck with a 5-year-old boy sleeping inside but the child was found safely soon after.

Los Angeles police spokeswoman Sara Faden says the boy's mother stepped out of the truck Friday morning to throw something in a roadside trash can when a suspect stepped into the driver's seat and drove away.

The boy and truck were found unharmed a half-hour later about a mile away.

Police are looking for the suspect but they don't have a description of the person.

The names of the mother and boy were not immediately released.

John L. Esposito: The International Community Concerns and Netanyahu: Falling on Deaf Ears?

In a follow up to uncharacteristically strong statements from the Obama administration critical of, in the words of Hilary Clinton, Israel's "insulting" behavior, today, March 19, the Middle East quartet (the UN, the EU, Russia and the US) has strongly denounced Israeli's "unilateral" construction plans to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem and said the status of Jerusalem could only be resolved through negotiations between both parties. Lady Ashton, EU foreign policy chief, stunned by is her recent visit to Gaza, is reported to have described conditions as "worse than Haiti."
But will all of this fall on deaf ears. Netanyahu and supporters like US syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010031802747.html?wpisrc=nl_pm) opinions would have us think that the announcement during Vice President Joseph Biden's visit to the region of Israel's intention to build new settlements in East Jerusalem was a gaffe due to uncoordinated timing between the prime minister and his Ministry of Interior. The Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, told the Washington Post: "The goal of both sides at this point is to put this behind us and go forward with the proximity talks as quickly as possible."
Why shouldn't the Israeli government go this route? Israeli prime ministers like Netanyahu have all at the end of the day gotten their way, could always be sure that, as seen more recently in Israel's wars with Hizbollah in Lebanon and its invasion and devastation in Gaza, they could ultimately do whatever they wanted to do with impunity. As Henry Siegman, former Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress (1978-1994), director of the US Middle East Project in New York and a visiting research professor at SOAS, University of London has recently observed, described the administration's position on settlements as based on a
bizarre notion that halting Israel's continuing theft of Palestinian territory beyond the Green Line is an Israeli "concession" that deserves to be rewarded by Palestinians and Arab countries with real concessions; indeed, that Arab "gestures" are necessary to justify U.S. demands that this thievery end. It is this perverse characterization of Israel's obligation to cease its illegal confiscations of Palestinian territory as a concession that is responsible for the behavior that finally has outraged Washington.
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/03/18/telling_israel_difficult_truths_by_henry_siegman

Avi Shlaim, prominent Israeli and Professor of International Relations at Oxford described Netanyahu's approach to negotiations and his settlement policy as "like two men negotiating the division of a pizza while one continues to gobble it up." (Avi Shlaim, Blair: Gaza's Great Betrayer, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/03/gaza-tony-blair-betrayal)

In President Obama's Cairo speech, he quite rightly acknowledged America's relationship and support for Israel while also acknowledging the generations of Palestinians that have suffered under the occupation and taking a strong stance regarding the creation of a Palestinian state. Regrettably, the President's outstretched hand to the Muslim world and desire to begin a new way forward has faltered seriously, leaving many wondering whether real change was ever going to occur. Critics charge that US foreign policy under Obama, as with his predecessor, seems to be an extension of Israeli foreign policy, from past American vetoes of 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel, more than the total number of vetoes cast by all other Security Council members, to failure to support UN resolutions that call on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. Will Obama, faced with stiff opposition from the Israel lobby and many members of Congress, a host of commentators with easy access to major media, hardline Evangelical Zionists, seize this opportunity to turn the corner, to bring real pressure on the Netanyahu government,? The Obama administration, with strong leadership from Secretary of State Clinton and a greatly accelerated pace by Sen. George Mitchell, and in consort with the other Quartet members and support from Arab and Muslim allies will have to move quickly and decisively, insisting on clear preconditions regarding the settlements and Netanyahu's claim to all of Jerusalem. They must do more than simply urge Israel to lift its devastating blockade of the Gaza Strip and open it to humanitarian and commercial traffic. They must insist on the Quartet's call for Israel to freeze all settlement activity "including natural growth", to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001, and to "refrain from demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem".

Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater: Global Hunger and Passover

Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat

Here is a normal interaction between a parent and most kids under the age of 18 that happens quite often: "When is dinner ready?" "Just as soon as I cook it, would you like to help?" "No thanks, but I am starving!" "Really, starving?" "Yes, starving! It is like I haven't eaten in days." "Well, you just ate an hour ago, so that is probably a bit of an exaggeration." "Whatever, I am starving--so tell me when dinner is ready." My kids are still pretty young so they snack a great deal and need a lot of food to keep their growing bodies healthy. However, I have been teaching them for some time that in our house, we don't say, "I'm starving." That phrase is something that I have outlawed from our vocabulary because, first, it simply isn't true, and second, it completely degrades the billion or so people in our world who actually are starving, facing the deplorable reality of living with chronic hunger. Language is important and phrases are important; how we speak affects how we live and act. So, in my house, you can say, "I am really hungry!" but we don't say, "I'm starving." And while this might seem like a trivial way of acknowledging the problem, I actually think it is quite valuable. When we articulate truths through words, we can be moved to see the world in a richer and clearer way. When we don't just throw words around, even if we don't actually mean them, we become more sensitized to the realities facing us. Not saying, "I'm starving," can be a small way to recognize the fact that so many in our world are.

As Jews get ready for our Passover seder, remembering and telling the story of our own plight from slavery to freedom, from oppression to self-determination, we are commanded to see ourselves as those slaves coming into freedom. And, as we begin our seder, we recite the ancient words, in the original Aramaic, "Let all who are hungry come and eat." What does this mean for us today? Who will be at our seder that is truly hungry? Who will be invited to a seder for which that meal is their only meal of the day? Of the week? I would imagine that for the majority of us, the answer is nobody. And that is not because we don't care, but simply because the hungry amongst us are segregated from us, kept apart so that we can live our lives in peace and harmony. But invisibility is a stain on our society. Invisible doesn't mean they don't exist. Perhaps they are the poor of our city, folks cared for by the likes of Union Station Foundation in Pasadena and other amazing shelters. Perhaps they are the poor of our country, folks who can't make ends meet, some for circumstances they brought on themselves, but many who are working 2-3 jobs and still put their kids to bed hungry more nights than not. And perhaps, sadly, they are the poor of the world, the over one billion human souls who live with chronic hunger, subsisting on less than $2 a day. These are people who seem light years away, far from our consciousness. Yet the Haggadah, the book Jews use for the seder, calls us to say, "Let all who are hungry come and eat." How will we fulfill this call?

I want to share a few stories of communities around the globe that are facing chronic hunger and what they are doing about it. I am grateful to my friend Ruth Messinger, and her organization American Jewish World Service, for leading the way on this issue and spearheading this national initiative, Global Hunger Shabbat, that my synagogue is participating in along with over 100 other synagogues across the country. The stories I am sharing come from their resources. In Kenya, there is a farmer responsible for feeding her large extended family from the earnings of a small farm. For decades, the crops she grew were enough to pay for food, clothing, medicine and other basic needs. But in recent years, it has grown harder and harder. And, in the past year, it was made worse by drought. However, small farms like hers are failing in Kenya because of an intangible threat: free trade agreements between Kenya and countries like our own. Free trade brought an influx of cheap imports into developing countries, and with our government subsidies for staples like wheat and corn, we can sell them at rock bottom prices to places like Kenya. While this might seem like a good idea on the surface, cheap goods for poor countries, it actually has the opposite affect. This woman's farm and her crops cannot compete with the cheap imports and so she is forced out of business. Yet, when imports are no longer cheap, like in 2008, it is disastrous because there are no farms left to support the locals and so chronic hunger ensues. Luckily, this farmer became a part of an AJWS-funded program called Kilili Self-Help Project, a local community effort to reduce dependence on foreign imports. These farmers have been working to maintain their farms, plant with ecological and sustainable methods that improve the soil and help them grow more food. The woman in our story is now able to once again feed her family, earning $100 a month from her farm. This is one way that we are helping to overcome chronic hunger in our world.

"Let all who are hungry come and eat." As we say these words at our seder, let us discuss this story and how it makes us feel. The seder is a time for deep conversation, meaningful engagement and hopefully inspired action. Adding modern stories of slavery, hunger, oppression and other aspects of our world that are in need of attention make the seder come alive and keep the meaning of the ritual relevant for today. "This is the bread of affliction," is how the section of the Haggadah that we are taking about begins. The matzah is taken up and then, interestingly, the first thing we do with it is break it! What is the symbolism of this broken matzah in relationship to global hunger? Rabbi Kerry Olitzsky has a pertinent teaching on this when he writes, "We ritualize this process of becoming whole concretely through the mending of the imperfect and broken that takes place...Only when we embrace the broken part of ourselves and claim it as our own--rather than pushing it away--can we be fully free ourselves once again. Only when all are free, only when all are fed and taken care of, only when we can fully be ourselves, can Redemption and a completeness of Creation occur--what is often referred to as tikkun olam, repairing the world." (Preparing Your Heart for Passover, pg. 25) "Let all who are hungry come and eat" reminds us that the brokenness in our own lives, and the acknowledgement of that, is the only way to move forward towards dealing with the brokenness in the world, including global hunger.

One more story. The Embera-Katio people have lived along the Sinu River in Northern Columbia for generations. It provided them with a way to travel, a source of irrigation and drinking water, and plentiful food. But the construction of a huge megaproject, the Urra Dam, shattered this fragile ecosystem. Built in 2000 by a consortium of foreign companies and supported by wealthy local landowners, the dam flooded over 7400 hectares of indigenous-occupied land, engulfing crops, homes and scared sites, and displaced over 2800 people. The impact was devastating. The local fish population, unable to swim upriver to spawn, died out, eliminating the primary protein source. Severe flooding and drought caused by the river's new course impeded traditional farming methods. As a result, tens of thousands of people were at risk of extreme hunger and starvation. Jamison Pitalua was among the people displaced by the dam. He is now a member of the Association for Community Development of the Cienaga Grande, a local community-based organization working alongside farmers and fisherfolk to rebuild their livelihoods. To defend what they call an "alternative rural development," this organization uses proven local traditional practices to conserve the remaining natural resources. They work with locals to install drainage and irrigation systems to reintroduce plants and fish that have disappeared. They have built over 100 new farming systems just this year. AJWS is a proud supported of this project.

What is meant to happen at our seder table? What is the transformation that can take place from the opening lines to the closing songs? The main aspect of the seder, and its longest part, is the Maggid section, which is where we tell the story. We must tell the story of our ancestors, and our own, flight from slavery to freedom. We must recount the ancient tales of our people, teaching our children how we came to be Jews and live the lives we do today. These are crucial and amazing parts of the seder. And, in the midst of these stories, in the midst of recounting our own journey, let us this year talk about some of the stories I shared and how our world remains broken and in need of deep healing. Donate the cost of your seder meal to Mazon, an amazing organization that fights hunger right here in our local communities. Most of all, talk about this issue, see where the brokenness in our own lives can lead us to caring about and acting on the brokenness of hunger in our world. "Let all who are hungry come and eat." This year, may this phrase inspire us to remember the teaching from the Jewish tradition that says, "To save a single life is to save the whole world." (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5) Working to end global hunger will save many lives around the world; this is a goal that is reachable and worthy of attaining. One day, I pray that the phrase "Let all who are hungry come and eat" will be only a symbol, a reminder of a time when we didn't share the resources of the world with each other, a reminder of a time when children went to bed hungry, millions of them, a reminder of a time when so few of us had so much and so many of us had so little, a reminder of a time that we can be proud to say, like our enslavement in Egypt, no longer exists.

For more information about the American Jewish World Service, visit www.ajws.org.

Lisa Guerrero: This Bud's For You

Jonathan Greenblatt: World Water Day - Party Like It's 2010

A stroll in New York City only 150 years ago would have left your shoes covered with human waste.

This was feces literally thrown into the streets from the windows of mansions and middle and working class homes alike. Cities grew dense amidst the industrial revolution and waterborne diseases such as cholera were rampant. Only in the 19th century did people begin to understand germ theory. They soon discovered the link between water, sanitation and disease. And as society began to view such conditions as signs of poor social and environmental conditions, things started to change.

We have forgotten, but March 22 is our chance to remember. Clean water is worth celebrating. When you eliminate preventable death and disease, a whole new world is possible. This is why people all over the world are joining together to celebrate World Water Day (WWD) on March 22.

In India, lives have changed so dramatically that over 20,000 women spend an entire day coming together from slums and villages in Tamil Nadu to make a statement. Because it's not just water -- it's increased income, it's time free from collecting water, it's the chance for children to attend school, it's improved health, safety, privacy, and security. It's a life saved. It's a family preserved. Its an entirely simple act -- some might say, a human right -- that triggers a restoration of dignity and a triumph of possibility.

In the U.S., a remarkable group of U.S.-based organizations have joined forces to raise awareness and call for stronger commitments from governments, the private sector, and US citizens for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) initiatives in low-income countries. It's an exciting development because WWD has been under the radar for years, lacking the profile of its big brother, Earth Day. This group has the potential to elevate its stature. Indeed, several important events are planned for March 22 and 23 in Washington, D.C.

In the online world, the ONE Campaign and water.org (full disclosure: I serve on the board of directors of water.org) are inviting people to donate their online voice in celebration of water at oneWEEKforWATER.org. The site celebrates the 200 million people who have gained access to safe water in the past ten years.

The United Nation's Millennium Development Goals, includes the target to "halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation." In 2000, 1.1 billion people lacked access to safe water. Today, approximately 900 million people, about one in eight, still lack access. At a time when the world population continues to grow, its a meaningful achievement, one whose pace hopefully will quicken in the coming years -- especially as public attention increases and political pressure grows.

Some of this momentum is generated through increased political pressure. However, I personally find greater inspiration in the innovations coming out of the citizen sector. For example, I was blown away by the results of a recent design competition focused on water access hosted at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Earlier this month, Imagine H20 successfully concluded their first worldwide competition to find the best water-related startups -- the winner was an exciting French startup, Fruition Sciences. Kenna, the Ethiopian-born artist and activist, led a delegation up Mount Kilimanjaro for a "Summit on the Summit" to call attention to the world water crisis. charity: water continues to grow, recruiting more celebrities to the cause of clean water and using the web to engage new converts. When seen on their own, these might seem like disconnected events, but I believe these incidents augur a larger trend of public creativity and entrepreneurial energy cohering around this issue.

Indeed, although there are hopeful signs and progress has been made, the World Health Organization reported in 2008 that the water and sanitation crisis claimed more lives through disease than any ongoing armed conflicts currently underway around the world. At a time when attention is focused on the unending tragedies in Darfur or the DRC, we should pause to reflect on this ongoing heartbreak. In fact, over one week's time, nearly 40,000 people die due to preventable waterborne diseases. This is the equivalent to the entire student population of New York University. In one week.

If we can make enough noise for WWD, if we can continue to join together and continue to raise awareness for this cause, if we're successful in getting "water" on the long-term, international agenda, we instead could be saving 40,000 lives a week.

Our progress, opportunities, and growth in the US would not have been possible without our sustained access to clean water and safe sanitation. Water is the essential foundation to healthy societies and functioning markets. We have forgotten, but this is our chance to remember, to take action, and to make a difference in our world today.

So, you're invited to the party. It starts Monday. How will you celebrate water on World Water Day? Moreover, how will you make every day World Water Day?

Lisa Napoli: Bye bye cable TV

Yesterday, I called to cancel the cable.

Today, the same guy who installed it seven months ago showed up to take away the box.

"You're the person who hadn't had TV," he said. "I remember you!"

"Yes," I said. "I decided I didn't want it anymore."

That was only half-true. For now, I downgraded service to broadcast. Just in case.

But in case what? I'm already wondering. The set's only been turned on a dozen times since I got it, and then, usually for college football on Saturdays. Maybe for 60 Minutes a couple of times. And that one-time 10pm Leno debut. After that, like everyone else, I never bothered.

I feel confident that anything I need to see or know about, I'll see or learn about without Time-Warner. And I'll be saving forty bucks a month in the process.

Now, time to rid myself of the Netflix subscription I never use.....

But I've answered the raison d'etre behind this blog: TV or Not TV. Not is the answer.

Rosie O'Donnell Talk Show Returning To Daytime TV In 2011: Reports

Rosie O'Donnell is set to return to syndicated daytime television, according to two reports Friday.

Early Friday, Showbiz411's Roger Friedman began reporting that Rosie — who has both hosted a syndicated talk show and co-hosted ABC's "The View" — would return to daytime TV:

My sources say that Rosie will fill the void left by Oprah Winfrey starting in the fall of 2011.

Rosie was overheard telling pals at Joe Allen's restaurant in New York last night that deal is almost done to restore her to her place as Queen of DaytimeTalk.

Later, GossipCop reported that Rosie's return to TV was a done deal, and that she would host a syndicated show beginning with the 2011-2012 season:

Rosie O'Donnell has signed a deal to bring a new talk show to TV syndication for the 2011-2012 season, Gossip Cop has learned exclusively.

Dick Robertson, former president of Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, is one of the driving forces behind the show.

Rosie hosted a variety show on NBC over Thanksgiving 2008 that flopped in the ratings.

With Oprah's show ending in 2011, there will be a huge void in the daytime TV landscape; it has been reported that ABC-owned "The View" is considering a move to syndication and could move to Oprah's time slot. Ellen DeGeneres recently extended her deal with NBC-owned stations.

Michelle Bombshell McGee SPEAKS: Watch Her At Tattoo Contest Talk Amish Background, Forehead Ink (VIDEO)

Michelle McGee, the self-proclaimed sex buddy of Jesse James, spoke to cameras as a contestant at Miss Ink in Las Vegas, a competition for ladies with tattoos, and the undated video is below.

Watch McGee talk about how she was raised Amish and left the church at 16, is estranged from her parents, and got her first tattoo at 15.

"I love my forehead. It was a really big step for me to do it," she says of the scrolling "pray for us sinners."

McGee also calls her armpit tattoos "really, really painful."

She does not the mention the controversial "WP" tattoo on her legs.

WATCH:

Javier Corrales: Latin American Gays: Post-Left Leftists

When most straight people are forced to think about gay people, they usually think of one thing first, sex. A political scientist might focus instead on a different question: how do gays perform in politics? Judged from their political achievements this past decade, the answer is, at least for Latin American gays: they're pretty good.

The political achievements of LGBT groups in Latin America in the 2000s are remarkable. Examples include: decriminalization of homosexuality (now complete in all Spanish-speaking countries and Brazil); laws against sexual-orientation discrimination (Brazil 2000, Mexico 2003, Peru in 2004); extending the same rights and obligations to same-sex couples as heterosexual couples (e.g., Buenos Aires 2002, Colombia in 2009); granting access to health benefits, inheritance, parenting and pension rights to all couples who have cohabited for at least five years (Uruguay); and constitutional bans against discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual identity or HIV status (Ecuador 2008). In the last two years alone the speed of change picked up, with most countries witnessing a significant legal change in the direction of more gay-friendliness, including the now famous Mexico City law recognizing gay marriage and adoption rights. [Please see index of chronology attached.]

What is remarkable is not that change has happened, but that it has happened against such formidable odds. As Moreno Morales and Mitchell Seligson make clear in the current issue of Americas Quarterly, Latin America is still homophobia-land. Their poll shows that between half and three-quarters of the population in most Latin American countries exhibit disturbing levels of intolerance toward homosexuals. This attitudinal intolerance is by no means the only barrier that LGBT groups face in politics, but it alone is reason enough to be awed by the political victories that LGBT groups have achieved.

So how did they do it? How has a movement comprising such a tiny and often invisible minority managed to introduce major changes in a region where homophobia--at home, at school, at work, and at church--is so entrenched? The answer is--innovative politics. LGBT groups have adopted some of the most innovative political strategies--in action and thinking--among social movements in contemporary democracies. Although LGBT groups are decidedly on the left, many of their strategies depart substantially from conventional leftist strategies. These strategies are worth highlighting and maybe even emulating. Here is a sampling.

1. Embrace, not hate, globalization. Whereas the traditional left in Latin America has never quite come to terms with globalization, always responding to it with various forms of negativity ranging from suspicion to extreme repulsion--LGBT movements have adopted a more relaxed response: leverage globalization. LGBT groups systematically use resources provided by globalization and markets to enhance their bargaining leverage. For instance, they use traditional and new media such as the Internet to actively monitor -- and adapt to local circumstances -- the strategies adopted by LGBT movements elsewhere on the planet. They welcome tourism as an economic force that can turn both the state and the business sector more LGBT friendly (ilga.org, spartacusworld.com, damron.com, rainbowtourism.com, hotelinteractive.com). LGBT groups have learned that demonstrating (even exaggerating) the spending power of LGBT voters and consumers allows them to earn allies in government and business. LBGT folks specialize in buycotts (more so than boycotts) and this makes them debit-card pressure groups par excellence. LGBT groups also consume international cultural products voraciously and guiltlessly. A lesbian group in Colombia even named itself after Ellen DeGeneres. In short, LGBT groups are globalization users rather than globalization bashers, and this allows them to win allies across different sectors and to learn about best practices from multiple sources.

2. Party hard. A major mistake made by Latin American leftist social movements in the late 1990s was to disdain all things partisan. This generated a lot of unnecessary bad blood between parties and social movements that resulted in too much misallocated energy that helped neither group. LGBTs don't seem to display this hostility toward parties. Yes, they recognize that parties are inefficient, corrupt, and frequently anti-gay. But whenever they see the chance to work with a party--in a legislature, a ministry, or a mayor's office--they seize that opportunity without hesitation. They of course gravitate toward leftist parties, but not dogmatically, so that collaborations with non-leftist politicians do happen. In Argentina, for instance, LGBT groups have worked with the non-leftist mayor of Buenos Aires on behalf of civil unions. This pragmatism toward party life opens political opportunities for LGBT groups that more antiparty and dogmatic leftist movements often miss.

3. March hard. Like good old leftists, LGBT groups understand the power of a massive protest, especially in the streets. But their approach to taking the streets is not to go on strike, interrupt traffic during rush hour, shut down schools and hospitals, or vandalize private property, but rather, throw an annual gay pride march. A gay pride march achieves all the empowering feats that any protest is meant to achieve, with almost none of the inconveniences. For anyone who has ever missed a flight, a school day, an appointment, or a medical procedure due to a street protest or a strike in Latin America, there is no question that street protests can be pretty annoying, even if the cause is endearing. Protests have serious negative externalities, but gay pride marches minimize them. They occurred only once a year. They are even scheduled on weekends so as to minimize disruptions. Furthermore, gay pride marches have a different tone than your traditional protest marches. Gay pride parades do express angry demands, empower the weak to feel strong, and raise visibility--as do all protests--but they are essentially festive affairs. Marchers wear flamboyant costumes or very little costumes, thus providing entertainment for all tastes. Local fashions and international trends are on full display. This festiveness and showiness gives Gay pride marches an intrinsic popular appeal that other leftist marches lack. Gay pride marches are a show of muscle, in every sense of the word. In Brazil, the Sao Paulo Gay Pride parade, certified by Guinness as one of the largest on earth, is now a global, not just a local, tourist attraction. According to the parade's website, you can buy a 4-night package to attend this year's event for $428. Converting protest into a crowd-pleasing, trouble-minimizing, tourist affair is politically brilliant, not to mention unique.

4. Wage wars peacefully. LGBT groups are engaged in an epic battle against homophobia. Like good old feminists, they are in a life-long struggle on behalf of gender and sexuality rights, and like good old human rights groups, they want equal treatment for all. But LGBT groups avoid two excesses associated with die-hard feminist and human-rights groups. They avoid launching wars against men in general, a problem that besets many feminist claims, and they avoid adopting too punitive an agenda, an excess that many human rights groups often commit. Yes, LGBT groups are at war against homophobia, but they avoid converting this into a battle against a male-dominated order. This applies more to gay men than to lesbians, but most lesbians recognize that a non-homophobic man is a precious ally to cultivate rather than a patriarch figure to attack. Likewise, LGBT groups are involved in a fight against human rights abuses, especially hate-based violence, but they don't exactly concentrate on punishment and retribution, but rather in developing deterrents. Avoiding a battle of the sexes and showing restraint toward wrongdoers saves LGBT groups from spreading unnecessary panic.

5. Think anti-establishment; act intra-establishment. Like good old radicals, LGBT groups are motivated by anti-establishment, even utopian goals. To hope for a world free of homophobia has got to be one of the most idealistic goals of our times, and yet, all LGBT groups are committed to nothing less. LGBT political groups are thus as radical as they come. But their approach to changing the status quo is not exactly all that radical. Rather than destroy the status quo, they seek to work the status quo. Every time they encounter an institutional barrier, they search for openings elsewhere in the system. If the executive branch is impenetrable (as in Colombia), they work the national courts. If the national courts are impenetrable (as in Brazil and Chile), they work the bureaucracy. And if both are impenetrable, they shift locations. Sometimes, LGBT go abroad to lobby international organizations such as the United Nations, hoping this lobbying will have a boomerang effect. Other times they simply shift their target toward a new province, as occurred in Argentina in 2009, when a gay couple facing a legal challenge to marry found a province that would marry them. LGBT are not so much institution killers as they are institutional loophole-searchers, which is a rare trait in the category of anti-establishment politics.

6. In battling conservatives, be fiercely conservative. The most significant development of LGBT politics in the Americas in the 2000s was the eruption of the marriage issue. This was never the top preference of LGBT groups, neither in the United States, where this issue began, nor in Latin America, where this issue has since become quite central in some of the larger countries. In terms of things for which to fight, LBGT across the Americas in the early 2000s would have preferred different battles, such as workplace discrimination. But LGBT groups immediately discovered the political advantage of embracing the marriage issue. It gave them a conservative argument to use against their conservative foes. Fighting conservatism with conservatism has proven to be a real coup. It pushed conservatives into the odd position of opposing a conservative stand (the desire to stabilize monogamy). It also disarmed conservatives by ridiculing their claim that the gay agenda is all about promoting sexual licentiousness. And it revealed loudly that conservatives, in denying gay rights, are in reality defending separate legalities, which most reasonable people find awkward, or even inherently contradictory. LGBT groups excel like few other groups in changing ideological colors depending on the ideology of their foes, which a type of artistic creativity put to work in politics.

7. Draw business lessons. LGBT groups are succeeding in politics also because they are drawing lessons from the business world. From the ad industry, to give one example, LGBT groups have drawn the lesson that nothing sells like the creation of status symbols. Thus, LGBT groups have created the notion that being pro gay is a symbol of being modern, cosmopolitan, and hip. The notion that gay is chic does not always catch on, but every once in a while, it produces a knock out. A good example occurred in the 2009 electoral race in Chile when, to everyone's amazement, the center-right candidate SebastiÃ¡n PiÃ±era appeared in a TV ad standing next to a gay couple. Whether this ad was sincere or not is an important question, but it is also important that this ad illustrates the status symbol strategy at work. For PiÃ±era, appearing pro-gay proved to be a useful device to convey that he was a new, superior, modern type of conservative.

8. Pop! Pop Culture is the new Populism. Like good political strategists, LGBT movements understand the advantages of appealing to all sectors of the population, and specifically, to both the privileged and the underprivileged. The old left in Latin America tries to create this cross-sectoral political alliance by promising too much from the state, a strategy that often flops and disappoints. LGBT groups have developed a less error-prone approach. They use pop culture as the new populism. Like few other groups involved in contentious politics, they understand that nothing unites the nation more than a catchy pop song, video, movie, film festival, novela, scandal, or comedy sketch on prime-time TV, especially if there is a covert or overt LGBT subplot. In Cuba, a soap opera with a gay theme was a huge hit in 2006. Critics call this attention to pop culture, or farandulerÃa, by LGBT folks a sign of frivolity. But politically, there is nothing frivolous about its results. Pop culture has proven time and again to be an effective way to transform cultural norms, and LGBT groups have continued to prove that they have a distinctive flair for this political art form.

9. This revolution will be YouTubized. LGBTs not only do well as shapers of pop culture, but also as users of the latest medium to transmit pop culture: YouTube. Anytime there is an LGTB-related video out there, LGBT groups share it with hurricane force. Thus, a video about a hate crime in San Juan, or a video of a gay wedding in Argentina, or a video of a homophobic declaration by a bishop in Mexico is instantly watched and deconstructed in the LGBT cyber world. If the slogan of the twentieth century was a picture is worth a 1000 word, LGBT groups understand that, in the twenty-first century, the new slogan is, a Youtube video is worth a thousand mÃtines polÃticos. And one reason that LGBT groups are so good at exploiting this new medium is that they are flooded with young people, who are competent users of new technologies. In terms of membership and message, there is no question that LGBT groups target the young directly, and this youth-orientation is another distinctive asset that they bring to politics.

10. The next gay revolution: LibertÃ©, egalitÃ©, (p)maternitÃ©. The next LGBT revolution will not only be YouTubized, but it will also involve another remix of traditional and non-traditional icons of the Western world. LGBT groups know that their ideological fortÃ© is to focus on old-fashioned principles of the Enlightment--liberty and equality. Much of their success stems from their refusal to privilege one principle over the other, as the hard left and hard right often do, but rather, to always portray the fight for LGBT rights as a struggle for freedom and equality simultaneously. LGBT in the Americas are now launching their next struggle--the fight for p/maternal rights. Once again, they will use iconic emblems (liberty and equality) to transform a traditional aspiration of humans (the desire to raise a family) into a new democratic right: the right of LGBT people to adopt children. As with other battles, the fight for LGBT parental rights will be tough, because homophobia remains entrenched everywhere, starting with one's own household and sometimes going all the way to the presidential palace. At times, this homophobia manifests itself proactively rather than behind the scenes, as when the president of El Salvador, Antonio Saca, endorsed a proposal to outlaw gay marriage and adoptions in 2006. But the success thus far of LGBT groups, and the proven effectiveness of this time-tested ideological-branding scheme, there is no reason to be excessively pessimistic. Even in El Salvador, Saca's initiative got defeated.

In sum, what we have here is more than just amateurish politics. Like few other leftist social movements, LGBT groups have developed ingenious responses to some of the most pressing issues of our time: unrestrainable globalization (exploit it), strained political parties (respect them), unevenly-performing democratic institutions (fix them and work with the fixed ones), rising religiosity (talk the language), political cynicism (mobilize the young), attention deficit disorder for the written word (YouTubize everything), machismo and homophobia (rebrand the concept of gayness), increasing corporatization of citylife (buycotts). Most members of LGBT groups started out feeling ostracized, but they responded by working the system and building alliances with the system's untouchables. Because they are ideologically on the left and yet their responses to these challenges depart from traditional leftist responses, LGBT groups could very well be considered the first post-left leftists of the twenty-first century.

The strategies of LGBT groups, as with all innovations, are neither infallible nor immune to criticism. There is an inherent contradiction, for instance, in a movement that fights for equality by simultaneously relying on status categories of hipness and cosmopolitanism, to mention just one problem. It is not entirely clear either that all these strategies are especially impactful or appropriate for low-income communities. No doubt, philosophers have ample material here for debate in the years to come.

But there is no question that LGBT groups are emerging as the superstars of politics. Their approaches are succeeding in unexpected ways, especially considering the odds against them. LGBT groups will not win all their battles, but they have already revolutionized the way we ought to think about effective contestation in twenty-first-century democracies. As in so many other domains, LGBT folks in politics have proven to be, yet again, epochal trend-setters.

Originally published in:

http://www.americasquarterly.org/gay-rights-Latin-America

APPENDIX
LGBT Victories in Latin America 2008-2009

- February 2008 - Venezuela. The Constitutional Branch of the Supreme Court issues a ruling that, on the one hand, recognizes that discrimination against sexual orientation is unconstitutional, but on the other hand, states that there does not exist constitutional protection for same-sex partnerships; only the legislature can confer such protections.
- March, 2008 - Nicaragua. A reform of the Penal Code legalizes same-sex relations and ends an anti-sodomy law.
- March 2008 - Brazil. Police estimate that more 3 million people participated in the 12th annual Gay Pride March; both the Sao Paulo government and Petrobras sponsor the march.
- June 2008 - Brazil. President Lula launches the "First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Trasnsexuals in Brasilia.
- June 2008 - Cuba. New president, RaÃºl Castro, authorizes offering free sex-change operations for qualifying citizens, a policy change advocated by Cuba's National Center for Sex Education (presided over by President RaÃºl Castro's daughter, Mariela Castro).
- August 2008 - Panama. Government repeals a 1949 law criminalizing gay sex.
- September 2008 - Ecuador. Voters approve the country's 20th constitution. Article 11 bans discrimination on the basis of "gender identity," "sexual orientation," and "HIV status" (but still defines marriage as the "union between man and woman," Art. 68).
- December 2009 - United Nations. The United Nations General Assembly affirms that international human rights protections include sexual orientation and gender identity. The statement is read to the Assembly by Argentina; 12 of the 66 countries that signed on were Latin American.
- January 2009 - Mexico. In a unanimous vote, the Supreme Court rules in favor of a man-to-woman transsexual requesting the reissuing of a new birth certificate that would not reveal the change in her sexual identity.
- January 2009 - Colombia. The Constitutional Court upholds a lower court opinion that same-sex couples must be accorded the same benefits as heterosexual couples in common-law marriages. This ruling grants same-sex couples equal pension, survivor, immigration and property rights.
- February 2009 - Bolivia. New constitution bans discrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" (but only recognizes "marriage" and "free unions" as occurring "between a woman and a man").
- February 2009 - Chile. The Unified Movement for Sexual Minorities (MUMS) organizes the first-ever mass wedding for sexual minorities in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral.
- September 2009 - Uruguay. With a 17-6 vote the legislature approved a bill that ends restricting adoptions to married couples, what many interpreted as paving the way for adoptions by same-sex couples. Earlier, Archbishop NicolÃ¡s Cotugno of Montevideo condemned the bill as going "against human nature itself, and consequently, ... against the fundamental rights of the human being as a person."
- November 2009 - Argentina. A Buenos Aires judge ruled that it was unconstitutional for civil law to stipulate that a marriage can exist only between a man and a woman. A marriage licence was then granted to Alex Freyre and JosÃ© MarÃa Di Bello. This became the most controversial marriage in modern Argentine history, with debates on TV, marches, and hostile posters on billboards across the city. The archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio, publicly criticized the city's mayor, Mauricio Macri, for not appealing the judge's decision to grant the marriage licence.
- December 2009 - Mexico. In a 39-to-20 vote with five abstentions, Mexico City's Legislative Assembly approved marriage rights for same-sex couples. In a separate vote, the Assembly also approved adoption rights by a vote of 31 to 24 with nine abstentions.

Source: Corrales, Javier and Mario Pecheny, eds. 2010. The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America: a Reader on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights. University of Pittsburgh Press.

Sandra Bullock & Jesse James At The Oscars: Signs Of Trouble (PHOTOS)

Sandra Bullock and Jesse James looked the happy couple at the Oscars, where Sandra Bullock picked up her Best Actress award a couple of weeks ago, but might she have had some idea about her husband's infidelity? She failed to thank him in her otherwise effusive acceptance speech, but later on at the Vanity Fair party they were snapped looking playful and loving.

You can watch Sandra's Oscar acceptance speech here.

Sandra did not leave the family home until Monday, People reports, just two days before In Touch published a tell-all about Michelle 'Bombshell' Mcgee's sordid affair with her husband. Michelle claims Jesse was still texting her this week.

PHOTOS:

Richard Chin: Water Is Life - World Water Day 2010

WORLD WATER DAY, MARCH 22, 2010
Water is Life

In many parts of the world, especially here in San Francisco, people take for granted the ability to turn on a tap for safe and clean water to drink, to cook, to wash. Yet, each year more than 1 billion of our fellow human beings have little choice but to resort to using potentially harmful sources of water. The deadly impact of using unclean water is staggering.
â¢ 1.8 million people die every year from diarrheal diseases, 90% are children under 5, mostly in developing countries.
â¢ 88% of diarrheal diseases are attributed to unsafe water supply.
â¢ 1.3 million people die of malaria each year, 90% are children under 5. Better management of water resources reduces transmission of malaria and other vector-borne diseases.

Monday, March 22 is World Water Day. At The Institute for OneWorld Health, a non-profit working to develop new medicines to treat diseases like diarrhea and malaria, we are marking this day by advocating for clean water and saluting those who work hard to bring safe drinking water to communities in the developing world.

The root of this underlying catastrophe lies in these plain, grim facts: 4 of every 10 people in the world do not have access to even a simple pit latrine and nearly 2 in 10 have no source of safe drinking-water.

This perpetuates a silent humanitarian crisis that kills some 3900 children every day and continues a cycle of disease and poverty.

We, at OneWorld Health, hope you will join us this World Water Day in bringing attention to the importance of fresh water and the need for safe, effective and affordable medicines to address diseases such as malaria and diarrhea. Water is life.

Richard Chin, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Institute for OneWorld Health
50 California St. Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94111

Deborah De Santis: The Good News Within the President's Health Reform Proposal

While there has been much debate in Congress and in the media about health care reform, the administration's proposal contains good news for those of us engaged in preventing and ending homelessness.

The proposal would provide that nearly all people experiencing homelessness would become eligible for health insurance through the federal Medicaid program. It is a common misconception that all homeless or even low-income people are already eligible for Medicaid. In fact, homeless single adults, youth who have "aged out" of the foster care system and people who battle addictions are rarely eligible for Medicaid. This means that hospitals, behavioral health clinics and community health centers who serve these populations are frequently uncompensated for their services.

The administration's proposal includes expanding Medicaid to everyone who earns below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, permanent supportive housing projects across the country are constantly trying to find funding to pay for mental health services, substance abuse treatment, primary health care and intensive case management services. Expanded Medicaid insurance coverage will allow supportive housing providers to focus on providing services, rather than chasing after funding.

It is important that legislation also include provisions that would allow for better coordination of care for people with multiple disabilities. If the Senate bill is passed by the House, states will be encouraged to create Medicaid benefit plans that focus on serving people who have multiple, chronic conditions. The federal government would even provide states with 90 percent of the costs of serving these high-needs patients. The Senate bill also establishes the Community-based Collaborative Care Network program which would support creation of teams of health providers to coordinate and integrate health care services, manage chronic conditions and reduce expensive emergency department use.

The 'team approach' to health care management is especially important for people living on the street, who frequently receive most, if not all, of their health care in emergency rooms. People who overuse emergency department services because they lack better health care alternatives are often referred to as "frequent users." Health reform would improve our systems' capacity to serve frequent users by improving coordination of services and ensuring Medicaid reimbursement for the health care specialists, mental health and addiction services providers, housing providers and other service providers whose services are essential to many homeless people.

This 'team approach' is already making a difference for people like Melissa (not her real name), who is currently being served within a program specifically designed for frequent users. Last week, she shared with us:

"I was homeless for about five years and was a frequent user of the emergency department. ... I have a daughter, but she wasn't living with me because I was homeless. I ended up going to the emergency department all the time to get medication for high blood pressure, asthma and my arthritis.

One day, one of the nurses at the emergency department recognized that I was coming in on a regular basis and she gave me a card with the phone number to the project for frequent users. ... I called and the case manager ... she told me that I needed to see a doctor because of all my health problems. ... The doctor I saw was very patient, really listened to me and took the time to explain everything to me. ... [but] even though I was keeping my doctor appointments, I still wasn't taking my medication regularly because of my addiction to drugs and because I was still homeless and didn't have a safe place to keep it.

But my case manager stuck with me and kept encouraging me to go into recovery. It took me about a year before I finally decided I was ready. ... I went to a residential recovery program ... on April 3rd, I will have been in recovery for a whole year.

I still go to the clinic to get medical care and I see a psychiatrist and a social worker there, too. Being able to get all my services at one location has been an incredible blessing -- medical, support, being linked to housing, a pleasant smile, and to be accepted with open arms and in a loving way. Everyone works together to make sure I get great care and they give me the push to make sure I keep moving forward.

Now ... I'm going to be moving into my own apartment. I know I won't have to go back to the streets. I'm hoping my teenage daughter will be able to come and stay with me and that my life will get back to normal."

When we pass health reform, we'll be able to provide comprehensive, coordinated supportive services to many, many more homeless people with multiple disabilities, like Melissa. That's good news worth talking about.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.: Ahimsa Eating Re-Considered

Zero-sum" is when one's needs cancel out another's needs. I learned the meaning of this violent doctrine as a Russian kid playing "nozhichki." Nozhichki ("little knives") is a game of divide-and-conquer. First, with the point of your pocketknife you draw a sizeable circle on hard ground. Then, you divide it in half - one side for you, the other side is for your playing opponent. Then you take turns flinging the knife into your opponent's turf: if the knife "stands" (i.e. if the blade jams into the ground), then, following the line of the blade, you carve out a piece of your enemy's territory and add it to your own domain. And you continue the onslaught like this until you win over the entire circle or your knife falls flat, in which case it's your enemy's turn. Either my pocketknife needed a better blade or my throwing hand wasn't good or the ground in the Arbat neighborhood of Moscow (just a block away from the Spaso-House, the residence of US ambassador to USSR) was too hard, but the games would often find me on the losing side.

Of course, you always had a choice to surrender but then, as now, I enjoyed this strange challenge: with practically no footprint to call my own, with barely enough Russian soil underneath a single tippy toe, I'd have to stabilize my balance and then fling a knife into my opponent's turf. That's right: you had to be grounded on your own turf to play and as your life-space diminished, it'd be harder and harder to balance yourself to play. But that wasn't the end of the challenge: even if you managed to balance yourself on your tiny bit of turf, and even if you managed to "stand" the knife, you still had to be able to reach over well into the enemy territory to carefully carve out the turf you won (from wherever the knife "stands" to the edge of the circle) - all without ever stepping onto your opponent's turf until it has officially became yours. Bottom-line: you had to make sure not to over-reach with your throws. If, in desperation to win back, you over-reached and "stood" your knife too far for you to reach, you got penalized by a loss of turn.

"Nozhichki" taught me that satisfaction of our needs has a cost to others ("zero-sum"), the importance of balancing appetite, and not to wear sandals. Speaking of appetite and zero-sum...

Ahimsa, a Sanskrit term that means "avoidance of violence," is an ancient doctrine of compassion, a pre-Christian "thou shall not kill" commandment that dates back to Vedic teachings and applies to all living beings. Ahimsa is not a do-no-harm philosophy; there is no such thing as a free lunch or a free breath. If you have a lung, if you are living, you are consuming resources, consuming other life. Ahimsa is a harm-reduction philosophy that aims to minimize your footprint in the eco-system to a bare minimum.

In Jain tradition, an Indian worldview that predates Buddhism, the doctrine of ahimsa took the form of vegetarianism and veganism. Ahimsa-eating is ethical eating, a way of eating that doesn't monopolize the circle of life. Jains quite rationally reasoned that to eat is to take life, i.e. to kill, i.e. to start a chain of karmic vendetta, a cause-and-effect boomerang.

In formulating their life-stance, Jains drew arguably an arbitrary line of division: they looked around and basically decided not to eat anything that looks like them or, rather, looks at them. A simple way to draw a visual line of distinction between flora and fauna is whether you have eyes or not. I know I am oversimplifying (but it's a blog, after all, not a dissertation): Jains basically decided not to eat what they can identify with, not to kill-to-eat animals or insects, their bio-kin, and went vegetarian and/or vegan. They figured that since a banana, doesn't look/yell back at you in pain when torn off the stem, then it must not hurt and, therefore, it must not be all that karmically bad to consume it. This makes sense. Compassion is, indeed, based on identification: the more you can identify with, the more you can forgive; if you can't identify with something, it's easier to be violent with it. Bottom-line is that Jains voted against eating animals both out of compassion for animals and in a self-serving attempt to minimize their own karmic/moral footprint. So, they stopped playing "nozhichki" with their kin, put away their hunting swords and switched to farming sickles.

So, ahimsa-style eating, non-violent eating, has come to be synonymous with vegetarianism and veganism, i.e. with what you eat and don't eat. Unfortunately, I think this misses the point: the point of conscious moderation. Ahimsa-style eating - as I understand it - isn't about what you eat and don't eat but about how you eat. If you eat mindlessly, you over-consume, no matter what you eat. Whether your eating kills more cows then necessary or mows down more rice fields than necessary, mindless eating is violent overconsumption. Mindful eating, on the other hand, allows you to curb your over-consumption and, consequently, to minimize your zero-sum footprint to a functional minimum.

I've been eating vegetarian for the last ten years, with at least five (not necessarily consecutive) of these years, eating vegan. I've also had a few sticks of beef jerky while motoring up and down on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on a couple of occasions. I don't care how you conceptualize my eating style nor do I care what you yourself eat, as long as you consciously balance your foot-print to a co-existing minimum. To over-eat is to over-consume, i.e. to trespass on the life-turf you really don't need to carve up and conquer, i.e. to engage in unnecessary violence. You don't have to be a vegetarian or a vegan to eat with compassion, you just have to be mindful. So, unless you find a way to sustain yourself on blue packets of synthetic Equal, recognize that anything that moves and breathes underneath the azure sky is equally alive. Reconsider moderation as compassion. Enough said lest I over-kill the point.

Four Footnote Knife-Throws re: Jaina System into the Informational Circle of Your Mind

"The Jainas were the first to make ahimsa, non-violence, into a rule of life."

"Its scheme of the universe is said to be grounded in logic and experience. Its central features are its realistic classification of being, its theory of knowledge with its celebrated doctrines of syadvada and saptabhangi, and its ascetic ethics."

"Jainism holds that all knowledge is only probable or partial. It gives us a "somehow," or a "perhaps," or a "maybe" (syad). This is the doctrine of syadvada."

"Consciousness is the essence of the self (or soul)."

References:
Indian Philosophy, S. Radhakrishnan & C. Moore, pp. 250-251.

Resources:
Mindful Eating Tracker

360 Degrees of Compassion

Syadvada

360 Degrees of Mindful Eating Workshops in PA, MD, NJ, VA in April-May 2010

Dems sweating Quigley vote

One current target for nervous Democrats and their labor allies seeking to lock down support for health care legislation: Illinois freshman Mike Qui

Political Skills Assist Spymaster Panetta

CIA Director Leon Panetta, a former congressman and White House chief of staff, has brought to the spy agency a politician's focus on repairing strained relationships.

New Israeli air strike hits Gaza

At least 11 people are reported injured in fresh Israeli air strikes in Gaza, as the Mid-East Quartet calls for a freeze on settlements.

CBO says health bill increases deficits under Rep. Ryan's assumptions

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the healthcare bill would add billions to the country's debt if lawmakers ignore the bill's cost constraints, as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) expects them to do.

Under the scenario painted by Ryan, CBO said the healthcare bill's $138 billion in savings over 10 years would disappear because the government would: extend the current Medicare doctor payment rate instead of allowing it to expire; allow health insurance subsidies to grow at a sustained rate; and fail to implement a tax on high-cost health plans and an independent Medicare advisory board, two measures aimed at constraining federal health costs.

The CBO made those estimates, released Friday, at the request of Ryan.

Ryan and Republicans argue that such a pessimistic scenario will become a reality because it's the politically easier course.

They note that House Democratic leaders plan to extend the current level of doctor payments in legislation separate from the healthcare reform bill instead of allowing the payments to fall by 21 percent in April, as they're scheduled to. Democrats pushing for the so-called "doc fix" noted Republicans also enacted an extension of the higher payment level last decade without paying for them.

The Medicare physician payment rate extension, which costs $208 billion over 10 years, would be enough by itself to wipe out the deficit reduction.

The CBO said that if Ryan's other assumptions become reality, the deficit would increase by $260 billion over 10 years and likely by a greater amount in the bill's second decade -- a level equal to 0.25 percent of gross domestic product.

The CBO estimated Thursday the healthcare bill and a reconciliation package of fixes to it would result in savings equivalent to a half-percent of gross domestic product in the legislation's second decade. In nominal dollars, that number would likely exceed $1 trillion if the economy continued to grow at a steady pace.

Dodd Requests Investigation Of Lehman Brothers

A Lehman Brothers whistleblower warned his bosses that accounting gimmicks the bank used before its collapse may have been illegal, his lawyer said Friday. Matthew Lee, a former Lehman senior vice president, was fired days after questioning the accounting tricks in a letter to his superiors, attorney Erwin Shustak said. Shustak gave a copy of the letter to The Associated Press.

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A new biography of Joseph Pulitzer charts his unlikely beginnings and revolutionary impact on American media. Steve Weinberg salutes the man whose name stands for excellence in journalism. "Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable" is...

My Pal Paul Newman

The legendary actor loved playing practical jokes on everyone from Robert Redford to Robert Altman. In an exclusive excerpt from his new memoir, A.E. Hotchner shares some hilarious memoirs from his half-century friendship with Newman. One of the...