I
watched the movie Sicko last Friday, the Michael Moore movie about healthcare and I think Congress should ALL be forced to
watch it before anyone says another thing about healthcare and how Universal Healthcare in other countries such as Canada
and Britain provide poor coverage, because it’s just the opposite...
In fact those that say that Universal healthcare is
a failure in those countries such as Fox News and Right wing talking head spinners are paid to say that, they don’t
want you to know the truth…There is no profit in the truth…
And with the way things are in Congress, we probably
will not get a Government Public health care option for Americans because the healthcare industry lobbyists have taken over
this issue and the f%king Democrats are a bigger problem than the Republicans in Congress...
We are going to end up spending another trillion, let
me rephrase that, we are going to give away another trillion to the healthcare industry and get nothing in return for it...
The NUMBER ONE issue for me the last several years has
been a public health care system to compete with the rip-offs who have everyone bending over and grabbing their ankles when
they need to get permission from HMO’s and bean counters to have some routine or non-routine procedure or test done...
During the Bush regime in 2005 the CBO said that by
2012, 150 million Americans will no longer be able to afford the extortion prices we are forced to pay if we want a health
care plan...During 2007 89 million Americans went without any coverage for part or all of that year...
Universal Health care would be the best possible stimulus
for our economy both for business owners and workers because the competition would lower the premiums that Health Insurance
companies currently extort...
If Obama cannot get this done right ( a Public Health
Care Option) with the numbers the Democrats now have in Congress, in my opinion, even if the
economy has gained back all the losses that we have seen and the loses we are going to have over the next year or so, President
Obama will not win a second term in office…
You know, people lately have been saying that Obama
has been on TV too much, maybe so, but it is time for him to use his bully pulpit and start naming names of those in Congress
who are obstructing Health Care, including Democrats...Obama has got to know that this issue will make or break his chance
for a second term so he will have nothing to lose if he pisses off the Democrats because the Democrats are the problem (and
lobbyists), and they certainly don't seem to care about pissing off the President...
If not now Mr. President, it will never happen…As
you once said; this is the time we all have been waiting for…
Don’t let us down…
First human trials of prostate cancer drug shock doctors
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota announced on Saturday details
surrounding the first human trials of a prostate cancer drug called Ipilimumab.
In their initial results, the doctors said, two men who were expected to die made dramatic recoveries after just a single
dose.
One of the doctors said, according to a report in Saturday's Independent, that the results are akin to the first time a
human broke the sound barrier, calling it "one of the holy grails of prostate cancer research."
The UK paper reported:
Rodger Nelson and Fructuoso Solano-Revuelta were diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and sought
treatment at the Mayo Clinic.
They were told the disease had spread beyond the prostate. Mr Nelson's cancer was encroaching on the
abdomen and Mr Solano-Revuelta's tumour was the size of a golf ball. Patients in such condition are told they may have only
months to live, and are normally only offered palliative care. But after one infusion of the drug ipilimumab, a monoclonal
antibody that stimulates the immune system, given with conventional hormone therapy, their tumours shrank enough to be surgically
removed. Both men have since made a full recovery and returned to their businesses.
The pair were part of a trial involving 108 patients, half of whom received the experimental drug. The
trial is ongoing but the improvement of the two patients was so dramatic and unexpected that they were removed from the study
so they could undergo curative surgery.
Dr Kwon said yesterday: "Halfway through the trial we began seeing remarkable responses. Some patients
had dramatic shrinkage of their tumours so practically all traces had disappeared. We had thought we might get some incremental
delay in the progression of the cancer. It had not dawned on us that we might go from an inoperable tumour to an operable
one. That just doesn't happen."
The doctors said that once surgery began on their first subject, there was a question as to whether they had the right
patient because the cancer was so hard to find. What was once an inoperable tumor shrank so dramatically that doctors were
able to operate and remove the growth.
They did add one bit of caution: While the first human trials of Ipilimumab yielded wildly successful results, both men
had undergone hormone therapy which can, in some cases, shrink the tumors by itself. Nevertheless, added Dr. Eugene Kwon,
"These were patients for whom there was no hope. The course of their disease has been altered in a dramatic fashion. ... [But]
we have to complete our studies."
Ipilimumab, being developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Medarex, "is a fully human antibody that binds to CTLA-4
(cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4), a molecule on T-cells that is believed to play a critical role in regulating
natural immune responses," the drug makers said. "The absence or presence of CTLA-4 can augment or suppress the immune system's
T-cell response in fighting disease. Ipilimumab is designed to block the activity of CTLA-4, thereby sustaining an active
immune response in its attack on cancer cells."
The Mayo Clinic plans to launch a larger trial of Ipilimumab this fall. Dr. Kwon's trials are ongoing and will be the subject
of a peer-reviewed study sometime in the future.
But for now, for all the sufferers of prostate cancer and their loved ones, there's new hope.
"Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on
Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from
Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive.
"The hearing on the controversial action known as rescission, which has left thousands of Americans
burdened with costly medical bills despite paying insurance premiums, began a day after President Obama outlined his proposals
for revamping the nation's healthcare system."
"But they would not commit to limiting rescissions to only policyholders who intentionally lie or commit
fraud to obtain coverage, a refusal that met with dismay from legislators on both sides of the political aisle."
"The executives -- Richard A. Collins, chief executive of UnitedHealth's Golden Rule Insurance Co.;
Don Hamm, chief executive of Assurant Health and Brian Sassi, president of consumer business for WellPoint Inc., parent of
Blue Cross of California -- were courteous and matter-of-fact in their testimony."
"The industry has tried very hard in this current effort not to be the bad guy, not to wear the black
hat,' Begala said. 'The trouble is all that hard work and goodwill is at risk if in fact they are pursuing' such practices."
"But rescission victims testified that their policies were canceled for inadvertent omissions or honest
mistakes about medical history on their applications. Rescission, they said, was about improving corporate profits rather
than rooting out fraud."
"Late in the hearing, Stupak, the committee chairman, put the executives on the spot. Stupak asked each
of them whether he would at least commit his company to immediately stop rescissions except where they could show 'intentional
fraud."
The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost.
We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly
and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.
As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge
the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect
the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.
Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The
international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that
truth, and we will continue to bear witness.
Council wants von Brunn Charged with Hate Crimes
An overwhelming majority of D.C. Council members got behind a resolution
today calling on federal prosecutors to charge James W. von Brunn with violating the city's hate crime statue in addition
to his federal charges.
Federal prosecutors have charged von Brunn, the 88-year-old white supremacist accused of killing a security guard at the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial, with first-degree murder and weapons charges. Authorities have not yet decided on whether to also
charge him with a federal hates crimes violation.
At this morning's council meeting, Council members noted there is nothing preventing prosecutors from also charging von
Brunn with local crimes. Council member Michael Brown (I-At large) introduced a resolution calling on prosecutors to charge
him with the violating the District's hate-crimes law.
"We as a country and city cannot and should not tolerate this," Brown said.
In the District, the so-called "bias-related crime" act currently prohibits prejudice based on the "actual or perceived
race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, family responsibility,
physical handicap, matriculation, or political affiliation of a victim." A violator can be charged up to one and half times
the maximum penalty for the crime committed during the act of violence.
The resolution, which the Council will take up a later date, also calls on Congress to approve the Matthew Shepard Hate
Crimes Act adding sexual orientation to the federal hate crimes law "This is an important statement from the Council," said
Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At large), a cosponsor. "One, the federal hate crimes law needs to be expanded. Second, if
we have our own hate crimes law, it ought to be enforced."
However, von Brunn could face harsher justice because he is being charged by federal authorities instead of local prosecutors.
He could be eligible for capital punishment if he is convicted of his federal charges. But capital punishment is banned for
local charges under D.C. law.
--Tim Craig
Ayatollah Warns Iranians: ‘I am Following You All on Twitter' Aims to Stifle Opposition
Tweets By: Andy Borowitz
In a nationally televised speech in Iran last week, Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Khamenei ordered his countrymen not to stage further protests, warning the nation, "I am following you all on Twitter."
To back up his words, the Supreme Leader then displayed his Twitter account page, showing that he was indeed following
65,875,224 people, but had only one follower, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Ayatollah's announcement sent a chill up the spines of opposition leaders, most of whom assumed that the Supreme Leader
did not have a Twitter account.
"You mean he's been reading all my tweets?" said opposition organizer Mohsen Sobhi. "Oh, shit."
The Leadership of the GOP
Billo being the Mad Fool and Bully he has become Infamous for
It's back-to-school time! Parents are starting to shop for their children's school supplies: notebooks, pencils, crayons,
and of course, Bill O'Reilly's book, "The O'Reilly Factor for Kids." Talk about one of these things being NOT like the others!
O'Reilly thinks he can teach our children proper behavior, and we can't think of a worse father figure than an angry, hate-filled
shock jock notorious for telling guests to "Shut up!" We wondered what would happen if kids read O'Reilly's book and then
saw the real O'Reilly for themselves. So we put together a video to illustrate O'Reilly's duplicity.
O'Reilly's bullying antics show he never learned the lessons the rest of us were taught in school. Send this video to all
the teachers, parents, parents-to-be, and anyone who has contact with kids, and don't forget to Digg it! Tell us what your
teachers taught you that O'Reilly should have learned about how to be a responsible grown-up, or what your kids' teachers
have taught them. We'll put all your suggestions together and send the list to O'Reilly at FOX News.
It's bad enough O'Reilly spews hate-filled lies on his shows to grown-up audiences, do we really want our children to be
exposed to the same behavior? Do we really want this angry adult influencing our kids? While we only subjected the kids in
our video to a few minutes of O'Reilly in order to prevent permanent damage, imagine the harm his children's book could do!
A Fox News writer who allegedly dragged a cyclist for four blocks through
New York’s Central Park faces up to a year in jail after being charged with fleeing the scene of an accident.
According to Gawker, Don Broderick was arrested on June 12 for an incident that happened two weeks ago, in which a Brooklyn
man cycling through Central Park was cut off by an SUV, and then dragged under the car for four blocks after confronting the
driver.
Evidently, Broderick is blaming the cyclist, claiming that the two-wheeled commuter was a traffic "vigilante."
As you may have heard, there's new intelligence that North Korea is planning on celebrating the Fourth of July by firing long-range ballistic missiles at Hawaii, which will
truly suck, unless the missiles a) explode into Mickey Mouse shapes or b) land in the ocean instead.
The U.S. military is planning to intercept a flagged North Korean ship suspected of proliferating weapons material in violation
of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last Friday, FOX News has learned.
The USS John McCain, a navy destroyer, will intercept the ship Kang Nam as soon as it leaves the vicinity off the coast
of China, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
AHHHHH! Why didn't we think of this sooner? Just launch "USS" (United States Superhero??) navy destroyer John McCain at
North Korea's warships so he can blow them to smithereens using nothing but his bare hands and his famous temper!
And if he needs backup, why, we'll just send the USS Meghan McCain over there and make them listen to her talk about her
blog, and then they will surrender voluntarily.
Clerk Antics By Madeleine Begun Kane
There once was a government clerk Who tended to act like a jerk. When someone asked why, He’d
often reply: “It’s a wonderful perk of my work.”
THIS WEEKS FEATURED MUSIC VIDEO
The Great 1923 Jazz hit by Billy Jones, Arthur Hall & Irving Kaufman - Yes!
We Have No Bananas was also featured in 1954 film "Sabrina" featuring Audrey Hepburn & Humphrey Boughart.
As Energy Secretary Dr. Chu explains in the above video, the optimal
way to reduce greenhouse emissions is to waste less energy, by investing in energy efficiency. He demolished the myth that
we can’t reduce our use of energy without reducing our wealth by offering numerous counterexamples, or, in his scientist’s
jargon, “existence proofs.” Applause broke out when he described how companies, after claiming efficiency gains
and lowered costs were impossible, “miraculously” achieved them once they “had to assign the jobs from the
lobbyists to the engineers.”
Chu continued by discussing what he has done to develop “new technologies to transform the landscape.” He discussed
the Helios Project, the research initiative Berkeley Lab launched for breakthrough renewable energy and efficiency technology.
In addition to research into energy conservation, Berkeley Lab researchers are pursuing nanotech photovoltaics, microbial
and cellulosic biofuels, and chemical photosynthesis.
-Thinkprogress.org
Jeff Goldblum demands an apology from Obama for killing a fly...Colbert
show
PETA Says No More Fly-Killing, Sends Obama a Humane Fly Catcher ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports:
PETA has a few words for President Obama: Brush, don’t kill.
After the President very publically swatted and then killed a fly during
an interview with CNBC yesterday, the outspoken animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) said
they wished Obama had served a better example.
“We support compassion for the even the smallest animals," says Bruce Friedrich, VP for Policy at PETA. “We
support giving insects the benefit of the doubt."
Friedrich says PETA supports "brushing flies away rather than killing them" and was disappointed that the President had
gone ahead and squashed the pesky fly.
This afternoon PETA sent a Katcha Bug, a device which traps bugs and allows their safe release back into nature to the
White House.
PETA hopes the President will use the catcher but has no far not received communication back from the White House, although
they did not ask for specific correspondence.
Friedrich admits that despite his fly-swatting ways, the President has been a champion for animal rights in the past. PETA
claims to be pleased by Obama’s denouncement of factory farming, Canadian seal hunting andMichelle Obama’s stance
against wearing fur.
VARIOUS LATE NIGHT QUOTES
"This is crazy. You probably saw this. Former President George Bush Sr. celebrated his 85th
birthday today by skydiving with CNN anchor Robin Meade. Fox News reported the story as, 'Liberal media pushes old man out
of airplane.'" --Conan O'Brien
"Television, tonight, has finally gone completely digital in the United States of America
... Analog TV signals are no longer being beamed through the air, and yet monologue jokes will still be flying over Sarah
Palin's head." --Bill Maher
"My family is taking me out to brunch on Father's Day. I'm looking forward to the
picketing." --David Letterman
"But my son, God bless him. In school, he made me a very special Father's Day gift. It's
a huge in-box for all my hate mail." --David Letterman
"And by the way, if you haven't bought dad a gift for Father's Day, you can't go wrong with
the new book by Rush Limbaugh. You know the one I'm talking about? 'Too Fat to Fish.'" --David Letterman
"They're having a lot of trouble over there in Iran. They had the presidential election.
And Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- it was controversial, they were tied, and now he's claiming that he won by a landslide. So his
opposition, they're out on the streets. And you know, when you're out in Iran, you're not supposed to be -- public displays,
no, you can't do that. And it's like hundreds of thousands of people in the streets now protesting this election. And the
government is going crazy. And they're saying, 'No, no, no, no. It's not a -- no, that, that's not a protest. Those are folks
just lining up to get their new iPhones.'" --David Letterman
"But this guy, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I mean, he claims victory and he is very unpopular.
And the danger politically of this, he could ruin the political career of his brother, Jeb Ahmadinejad." --David Letterman
"But the Iranian supreme leader will be speaking about the presidential election tomorrow.
And if he does well, Al Jazeera will give him the 10:00 p.m. spot." --David Letterman
"Here's some wacky news. Last week, Sonia Sotomayor busted up her leg and I guess yesterday
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broke her elbow. It's crazy. And I was thinking, what a coincidence. I have a bad elbow
myself. I really do. It's from all the drinking I've been doing the last couple of weeks. Hello!" --David Letterman
"But I thought this was nice. When he heard she broke her elbow, Rush Limbaugh sent over
some painkillers. So she's going to be fine." --David Letterman
"But she — here's what happened. This was sad. Hillary apparently broke her elbow
when she slipped and fell bursting into Bill's office unannounced." --David Letterman
"Here's fascinating news. Dick Cheney, do you remember Dick Cheney? Dick 'Boom Boom' Cheney.
His approval rating is up to 26%, up to 26%. Yeah, crazy, isn't it? He's been upgraded from hated to unpopular." --David Letterman
"I'm not surprised that Dick Cheney's approval rating has really soared, really skyrocketed,
up to 26%. Because you know, he gave people what they wanted. He left office." --David Letterman
"A lot of people worried about the situation in Iran now. And I mean everybody's worried.
This is a true story. Ashton Kutcher is urging the U.S. government not to intervene in the crisis in Iran because he fears
that Iran will end up just like Iraq. President Obama thanked Kutcher for his advice, said he'd get back to him after running
it by the Jonas Brothers." --Conan O'Brien
"The animal rights group PETA is criticizing President Obama after seeing footage of Obama
killing a fly. Meanwhile, today, a fly buzzing around Joe Biden took its own life." --Conan O'Brien
"Not such a great day for Hillary Clinton. She fell down, broke her elbow. You know, Fox
News is going to be all over this story. This proves the Democrats are weak. Reagan fell over 10 times, didn't even break
his hair." --Craig Ferguson
"Now the official report said that Hillary fell while she was walking to her car in the
parking lot of the State Department. But Hillary likes to exaggerate, so she's telling everybody it was sniper fire." --Craig
Ferguson
"The Secret Service performed beautifully but they had to use the Jaws of Life to cut Hillary
out of her pantsuit." --Craig Ferguson
"In his speech yesterday, former President George W. Bush attacked President Obama's policies
on anti-terrorism, healthcare, and the economy. Then Bush spent the next 20 minutes trying to kill a fly." --Jimmy Fallon
"Big election news from Iran. A British newspaper reported that Mir Hossein Mousavi actually
won the election and Ahmadinejad came in third. And coming in second, Al Gore. The guy can't win anything." --Jimmy Fallon
"Here's some good news. President Obama just appointed Tom Brokaw to his Commission on White
House Fellowships, mostly because he loves to hear Brokaw try to pronounce fellowship." --Jimmy Fallon
This Week in God!!!
Catholics Are Effective Outdoor Advertisers FITSNEWS.COM
Nothing gives us greater pleasure than making fun of Catholics, who
as far as we can tell need to “lighten up” across the board … although not as much as Episcopalians, obviously.
Because that would make them too light … in the loafers (ba-doom-ching)!
Anyway, in spite of our ongoing beef with the Vatican, we can’t fault the Padres in San Jose County for their expert
placement of this billboard.
Seriously, if that’s not reaching your “target demographic,” we don’t know what is.
Wait … a couple “Hail Mary’s” later all is forgiven, right?
YodasWorld.org is updated each Monday. Some of the items from
the previous week are added to the various topic links on the left side of the main page. Links embedded should be good
for at least the date posted. After the posting date, link reliability depends on the policy of the linked sites. Some sites
require visitors to register before allowing access to articles. Material presented on this page represent the opinion's of
YodasWorld.org.
Copyright 2000-2009 YodasWorld.org. All rights reserved
on original works. Material copyrighted by others is used either with permission or under a claim of "fair use."
YodasWorld.org is updated each Monday. Some of
the items from the previous week are added to the various topic links on the left side of the main page. Links embedded
should be good for at least the date posted. After the posting date, link reliability depends on the policy of the linked
sites. Some sites require visitors to register before allowing access to articles. Material presented on this page represent
the opinion's of YodasWorld.org.
Copyright 2000-2011 YodasWorld.org. All rights
reserved on original works. Material copyrighted by others is used either with permission or under a claim of "fair use."
As you may have heard, there's new intelligence that North Korea is planning on celebrating the Fourth of July by firing long-range ballistic missiles at Hawaii, which will
truly suck, unless the missiles a) explode into Mickey Mouse shapes or b) land in the ocean instead.
