"This is not a reaction to any new developments; it's a proactive step, a useful tool going forward," White House spokesman Reid Cherlin says.

Anne Schuchat, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, agrees. "It's really more a continuation of our preparedness steps," she told USA TODAY on Sunday. The declaration will help with flexibility in case hospitals see a greater influx of flu cases in coming months, she said.

According to White House documents, the proclamation will allow the government to grant waivers that will enable health care facilities to set up alternate care sites if needed, as well as to modify patient screening protocols and transfer procedures, among other actions that make up hospital disaster plans.

"It will help save time and resources for those of us taking care of patients," says Dan Hanfling, special adviser for emergency preparedness and response for Inova Health System and an emergency physician at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va. If the staff needs to set up a remote area for large flu screenings, for example, he says they could now bypass some protocols to get the job done.

"The public ought to take some solace, some relief in this. It's not a suggestion that things have deteriorated in any way. In no way is the virus more severe or more difficult to manage," says infectious-disease expert P.J. Brennan, chief medical officer for the Penn Health System at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Both Hanfling and Brennan say their emergency rooms have seen a noticeable climb in H1N1 cases in the past two weeks.

The president's declaration comes on the heels of Friday's report that swine flu is still on the rise in schools, forcing many to temporarily close. The Department of Education on Friday reported 351 school closings in 19 states, but 45 schools in seven states have reopened, says department spokesman Justin Hamilton.

"We don't know if all those school dismissals were for administrative reasons, like not enough staff," says Schuchat. Closing decisions are made locally. But she says CDC's advice remains the same: "The best thing is to keep healthy kids in schools."

Not all Snowe flakes are the same

By: David Phillips

Yoda’s World

President Obama said the other day that he would settle for a Public Option with a "trigger" which would kick in sometime in the future if the health insurance companies don't tow the line.

In some parallel universe that might happen, but in the reality we live in, it will never happen and insurance companies will continue to increase premiums where in a couple of years most everyone will be without insurance.

So why is President Obama willing to agree to this knowing that it's a bad idea?

Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) has an "R" next to her name and President Obama wants to be able to say it's a bipartisan bill, even though he knows that there is a good chance to get something better with a public option without her.

Why should American's be put off just so the President can say that it was bipartisan, and why would he think he could spin ONE republican vote as bipartisan.

It's time for President Obama to give up on the party of NO and it's time for the democrats in Congress to support their party leader

New bill to make seizure of US companies easier: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A bill to be introduced in Congress by a key ally of President Barack Obama would make it easier for the US government to seize control of troubled financial institutions that are considered too big to be allowed to fail, The New York Times reported.

Citing a senior administration official, the newspaper said the measure would be proposed this week by Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, after extensive consultations with Treasury Department officials.

The legislation would make it easier for the government to throw out the financial company’s management, wipe out the shareholders and change the terms of existing loans held by the institution, the report said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was planning to endorse the changes in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday, the paper noted.

The White House plan as outlined so far would make the existence of a large financial company whose failure would put the US financial system and the economy at risk much costlier, the report said.

It would force such institutions to hold more money in reserve and make it harder for them to borrow too heavily against their assets, The Times said.

Setting up the equivalent of living wills for corporations, the plan would also require that companies come up with their own procedure to be disentangled in the event of a crisis, the paper said.

This plan, according to administration officials, ought to be made public in advance, said The Times.

"These changes will impose market discipline on the largest and most interconnected companies, " the paper quotes Michael Barr, assistant treasury secretary for financial institutions, as saying.

One of the biggest changes the plan would make, he said, is that instead of being controlled by creditors, the process will be controlled by the government.

Some regulators and economists in recent weeks have suggested that the administration’s plan does not go far enough, The Times noted. They say that the government should consider breaking up the biggest banks and investment firms long before they fail, or at least impose strict limits on their trading activities -- steps that the administration continues to reject.

US troops killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash
Four American troops have been killed and two injured when two helicopters collided in midair in southern Afghanistan.
26 Oct 2009

Hostile fire has been ruled out as the cause of the crash, a military statement said.

US military spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said he did not have any other details yet about the cause of the collision.

Col Shanks said the injured had been evacuated to hospitals inside Afghanistan.

In an unrelated incident, another helicopter went down during an operation by international forces against insurgents in western Afghanistan in which a dozen militants were killed.

The US said military casualties were reported and a recovery operation is under way. Casualties could refer to either dead or injured.

This has been the deadliest year for international and US forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban. Fighting peaked around the presidential vote in August, and 51 US soldiers died that month – the deadliest for American forces in the eight-year war.

So far in October, more than 30 American troops

This quote comes from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.):

“What do congressmen hope for when they wave to a constituent? That they wave back with all five fingers, and that’s not just in New Jersey..”

Drudge Report, just another right wing LIE machine

Matt Drudge’s headline for Barack Obama’s U.N. speech is ominous: "WORLD ORDER." Here’s the sole occurrence of that phrase in Obama’s speech: "No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed."

DOJ shifts medical marijuana strategy
By: Nia-Malika Henderson

The Obama administration was accused of being soft on drugs Monday after the Justice Department released new guidelines telling federal prosecutors not to target people involved in the medical use of marijuana where state laws permit it.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the new guidelines would allow prosecutors to focus more of their efforts and resources on combating hard-core drug trafficking — a reprioritization that some advocacy groups hailed as sensible and long overdue. But critics accused the administration of tacitly condoning drug use and surrendering without a fight in a key front of the war on drugs.

“The administration’s new guidelines directing federal prosecutors to ignore local medical marijuana dispensaries that allegedly operate in compliance with state laws fly in the face of Supreme Court precedent and undermine federal laws that prohibit the distribution and use of marijuana,” said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), a member of the House Judiciary Committee. He cited a 2005 Supreme Court ruling that said the federal government had the discretion to enforce drug laws, even in medical marijuana states.

“By directing federal law enforcement officers to ignore federal drug laws, the administration is tacitly condoning the use of marijuana in the U.S.,” Smith said. “If we want to win the war on drugs, federal prosecutors have a responsibility to investigate and prosecute all medical marijuana dispensaries and not just those that are merely fronts for illegal marijuana distribution.”

But Holder said in a statement that the new policy reflected a more common-sense approach.

“It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal,” he said. “This balanced policy formalizes a sensible approach that the department has been following since January: Effectively focus our resources on serious drug traffickers while taking into account state and local laws.”

Fourteen states have laws on the books addressing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, among them California, Michigan, Hawaii and Colorado. There have been several raids on California dispensaries recently, and there are dozens of pending cases involving medical marijuana