Business Roundtable Shines Light on U.S. Health Care Shortcomings

I imagine the Business Rountable to very similar to depictions of the Knights of the Round Table: Large, well dressed men sitting around a round table (who would have thunk) discussing how powerful and wonderful they are and then getting down to solving the problems of the world. In reality, the Business Roundtable is a group of modern-day powerhouses-the CEO's of America's largest corporations, in fact. The purpose of the Business Roundtable (to be referred to as BT throughout the rest of the article) is to unite these bigwigs and hope they can churn out some good solutions to the world's problems. I mean, who better to address all the poverty and despair in the world then some of the wealthiest folks in America, right? Sarcasm aside, I find myself impressed with a recent study that the BT released, comparing the success/cost of health care in the United States with that of European countries. Considering that the recent economic malaise has sent numbers of former employees to the ranks of the uninsured - or even, gasp, resorting to self-employed health insurance - the findings are grim, a little nauseating. Still, there may be nuggets of wisdom the U.S. Government can take to make some much needed changes. The U.S. Health Disadvantage Here is a little bit on what the BT's study found regarding the United States health care system. It's estimated that the United States spends nearly $643 billion more every year on health care than other industrialized countries like France, Germany and Japan. The BT rounded up 19 different metrics of looking at a method for measuring the impact of health care spending on U.S. global economic competitiveness. What did the BT find? "The United States stands at a 23% disadvantage relative to five leading economic competitors: Canada, France, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom (the so-called G-5 group); and a 46% disadvantage relative to the emerging competitors of Brazil, India and China (BIC).” To continue, the report states “As a group, workers and employers in G-5 countries spend approximately 63 cents for every dollar we (U.S.) spend on health care. The gap is even wider when we look at the BIC (Brazil, India, China) group; they spend just 15 cents for every dollar we spend on health care. These health spending gaps persist after adjustment for our higher per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product).” Take a minute to let all of that sink in. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll recall that a few months prior I wrote a piece about the different health care models in large countries around the globe, how much they cost for the country in a given year and how much they cost consumers. Most industrialized nations have something similar to a universal or nationalized health care system. There are variations, of course, but they all stand in a similar ilk. The United States really stands all alone in it's little corner while those in European countries not only spend less, but get more thorough, easily accessible and affordable care. What is wrong with this picture? One thing I did read that lightened my spirits a bit is this: the study "has had profound influence on the thinking of Obama’s White House staff of economists and analysts." Let's make some changes here people. photo credit: hans s

The Next Great Depression Is Just Around The Corner

U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio Despite signs that the economy has resumed growing, unemployed Americans now confront a job market that is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects are still getting worse. Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. According to the Labor Department’s latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed. And even though the pace of layoffs is slowing, many companies remain anxious about growth prospects in the months ahead, making them reluctant to add to their payrolls. “There’s too much uncertainty out there,” said Thomas A. Kochan, a labor economist at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management. “There’s not going to be an upsurge in job openings for quite a while, not until employers feel confident the economy is really growing.” Duh. What the fuck do people expect? The United States wilingly destroyed its manufacturing base and outsourced most of the jobs. We all can’t be cashiers at WallyWorld. The last I heard, capitalism only works if folks got the money to buy shit. Hey, somebody tell that commie rat Marx to stop laughing. And lately, the only thing a Visa card is good for is cutting your throat. Maybe I’m wrong, but wouldn’t it be a great idea if this country made a serious investment in our infrastructure? Besides creating jobs, it would make me (and a bunch of other people) feel a lot better knowing the bridge I’m driving on ain’t gonna fall down. Fat chance. If the Republicans and the treasonous Blue Dog Democrats are able to kill the public option in Obama’s timid, not-so-ambitious health care plan, did you think they’ll let keep any of his other empty promises? No wonder my father idolized FDR. That was a president who knew how to get things done. As he told opponents of the New Deal, “They hate me, and I welcome their hatred.” Bipartisanship, my ass. In enacting sweeping social reforms, Roosevelt was more of a gangsta than Obama will ever be. Anyway, at least it'll be easy to find the unemployment office. Just follow the long long line over there.

"Skinhead", A Poem by Patricia Smith

They call me skinhead, and I got my own beauty. It is knife-scrawled across my back in sore, jagged letters, it’s in the way my eyes snap away from the obvious. I sit in my dim matchbox, on the edge of a bed tousled with my ragged smell, slide razors across my hair, count how many ways I can bring blood closer to the surface of my skin. These are the duties of the righteous, the ways of the anointed. The face that moves in my mirror is huge and pockmarked, scraped pink and brilliant, apple-cheeked, I am filled with my own spit. Two years ago, a machine that slices leather sucked in my hand and held it, whacking off three fingers at the root. I didn’t feel nothing till I looked down and saw one of them on the floor next to my boot heel, and I ain’t worked since then. I sit here and watch niggers take over my TV set, walking like kings up and down the sidewalks in my head, walking like their fat black mamas named them freedom. My shoulders tell me that ain’t right. So I move out into the sun where my beauty makes them lower their heads, or into the night with a lead pipe up my sleeve, a razor tucked in my boot. I was born to make things right. It’s easy now to move my big body into shadows, to move from a place where there was nothing into the stark circle of a streetlight, the pipe raised up high over my head. It’s a kick to watch their eyes get big, round and gleaming like cartoon jungle boys, right in that second when they know the pipe’s gonna come down, and I got this thing I like to say, listen to this, I like to say “Hey, nigger, Abe Lincoln’s been dead a long time.” I get hard listening to their skin burst. I was born to make things right. Then this newspaper guy comes around, seems I was a little sloppy kicking some fag’s ass and he opened his hole and screamed about it. This reporter finds me curled up in my bed, those TV flashes licking my face clean. Same ol’ shit. Ain’t got no job, the coloreds and spics got ’em all. Why ain’t I working? Look at my hand, asshole. No, I ain’t part of no organized group, I’m just a white boy who loves his race, fighting for a pure country. Sometimes it’s just me. Sometimes three. Sometimes 30. AIDS will take care of the faggots, then it’s gon’ be white on black in the streets. Then there’ll be three million. I tell him that. So he writes it up and I come off looking like some kind of freak, like I’m Hitler himself. I ain’t that lucky, but I got my own beauty. It is in my steel-toed boots, in the hard corners of my shaved head. I look in the mirror and hold up my mangled hand, only the baby finger left, sticking straight up, I know it’s the wrong goddamned finger, but fuck you all anyway. I’m riding the top rung of the perfect race, my face scraped pink and brilliant. I’m your baby, America, your boy, drunk on my own spit, I am goddamned fuckin’ beautiful. And I was born and raised right here.

Police taser unarmed, legless black man in a wheelchair

Yes, you read it --- California police in Merced California have used a taser on unarmed, leggless black man in wheelchair. The Huffington Post, The Raw Story, News One and other news outlets and bloggers are reporting on the Tasing of a black male amputee in wheelchair by 2 white officers. Victoria A Patton of the Mercedes Sun Star reports that the man who was Tasered, Gregory Williams, 40, a double-leg amputee, spent six days in jail on suspicion of domestic violence and resisting arrest, but the Merced County District Attorney's office hasn't filed any charges. Watch the video of his tasering/arrest HERE Photo Source: Lisa Jane Merced Sun Star Williams is black, and the two main arresting officers are white, but it's unknown whether race played any role in the incident. Williams, who was released from jail on Friday, said he was manhandled and Tasered by police, even though he said he was never physically aggressive toward the officers and didn't resist arrest. Williams said he was humiliated after his pants fell down during the incident. The officers allegedly left him outdoors in broad daylight, handcuffed on the pavement, nude below the waist. Williams said the Sept. 11 arrest also left him with an injured shoulder, limiting his mobility in his wheelchair. A handful of residents in Williams' apartment complex said they witnessed the incident and supported Williams' charges. A short video clip, shot by a neighbor and obtained by the Sun-Star, shows Williams sitting on the pavement with his pants down, his hands cuffed behind his back. A Merced police report, written by the responding officers, says that police tried to reason with Williams before the arrest, to no avail. The officers wrote that Williams was uncooperative and refused to turn his 2-year-old daughter over to Merced County Child Protective Services, among other allegations. In the report, police also say a hostile crowd gathered as the officers tried to perform their duties. The Merced Police Department spokesman declined to comment on the matter, saying he can't discuss it because the investigation is internal. Both the officers remain on duty. Read the excellent report on how this all happened HERE Tasered While Black publigher says: "Let's see if President Barack Obama says anything about this! Our president was quick to support the black elite from police abuse, lets see if he is as quick to denounce this situation. by-the-way who is runnining the Civil Rights division at the justice department? It time for the U.S. Justice department to take the gloves off and stop the continued pre-trial electrocution of black folks in America. The NAACP has joined the fight against tasers abuse. Black Bloggers have called for 'Congressional Taser Torture Hearings. There are many bloggers who are concerned about the growing taser-happy police state we find ourselves in. It's great to know that some cities are saying 'No' to Taser Guns. Let's get the congressional hearings going. It would be great if you would sign the petition calling for Congressional Hearing on Taser use in our country. Thank You, TWB Publisher African American Political Pundit

NAACP Joins Fight For Federal Taser Standards

The Publisher of Tasered While Black says: Finally the National Office of the NAACP is discussing the issue of Black folks getting Tasered While Black. We salute the fact that Ben Jealous has joined in this fight. I hope that the National office of the NAACP's new involvement is sincere, and is not just another PR effort that they have been famous for in the past. Let's see if the NAACP will join the already established effort of the Afrospear and Tasered While Black to gain a Congressional Taser Hearings or will they go it alone, and establish a new effort for PR purposes... Only time will tell. Benjamin Jealous As reported on the NAACP Website and the Afro Newspaper in Baltimore Maryland, (September 17, 2009) - The NAACP is renewing a push for federal standards on police use of force after the shooting of an unarmed Black man by two White police officers inside a church while day care children watched, the Associated Press reported. According to witnesses, the man was surrendering but officials in Rockford, Ill., deny this description of events, saying Mark Anthony Barmore attempted to grab an officer's gun after they cornered him in the church. However, both sides agree Barmore ran when officers approached him in the church parking lot, highlighting the suspicion and fear that can poison relationships between police and minority communities across the country. "There are no national standards for the use of force (or) training for use of force," Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, said Sept. 11. MORE HERE