News & Politics  

AlterNet / By Alex Kane

8 COMMENTS

Texas to Deny Poor Residents Medicaid Coverage, While Paying for It Anyway

Texas lawmakers have passed a bill that would deny over a million low-income residents Medicaid coverage.

May 28, 2013  |  

 

 

State lawmakers in Texas have passed a bill that would deny over a million low-income residents Medicaid coverage they would have received as a result of President Obama’s healthcare plan. 

The bill states that health officials can only provide medical assistance to those who would have been “otherwise eligible” under the criteria in effect December 31, 2013. The Affordable Care Act mandates that Medicaid be expanded starting in 2014. But the Supreme Court ruling on the act said that the federal government could not require states to expand the low-income health program.
Governor Rick Perry had stated his strident opposition to expanding Medicaid last summer.

If the bill becomes law, Texas will be contributing taxes that pays for the Medicaid expansion in other states while residents won’t be able to access the same program.

The Texas bill was passed despite the fact that “the federal government fully funds Medicaid expansion until 2016 and gradually reduces its contribution to 90 percent in 2020 and subsequent years,” as Think Progress’ Igor Volsky notes. Texas, which has the highest percentage of uninsured people, would not have to pay more than 7 percent of the cost of the Medicaid expansion.

The legislation was passed as state officials across the country continue to take varied steps on the issue of Medicaid expansion. In Arizona, Republican governor Jan Brewer has said she will continue to veto bills passed by the Republican legislature until they expand Medicaid. Other Republican governors have taken steps similar to Perry’s.

 

Alex Kane is AlterNet's New York-based World editor, and an assistant editor for Mondoweiss. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.

Only in America it is a Crime if you are Hungry when Homeless and Poor

Other Words / By Jim Hightower

The New Crime of Eating While Homeless (Hard Times, USA)

 

By outlawing dumpster diving, Houston is making life impossible for the most vulnerable.

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Larry Powell/ Shutterstock.com

 

 

 

May 23, 2013  |  

 

 

Whenever one of our cities gets a star turn as host of some super-sparkly event, such as a national political gathering or the Super Bowl, its first move is to tidy up — by having the police sweep homeless people into jail, out of town, or under some rug.

But Houston’s tidy-uppers aren’t waiting for a world-class event to rationalize going after homeless down-and-outers. They’ve preemptively outlawed the “crime” of dumpster diving in the Texan city.

“I was just basically looking for something to eat,” he told the  Houston Chronicle. But, unbeknownst to both this indigent tourist and the great majority of Houston’s generally generous citizens, an ordinance dating way back to 1942 says that “molesting garbage containers” is illegal. In March, James Kelly, a 44-year-old Navy veteran, was passing through Houston on his way to connect with family in California. Homeless, destitute, and hungry, he chose to check out the dining delicacies in a trash bin near City Hall. Spotted by police, Kelly was promptly charged with “disturbing the contents of a garbage can in the [central] business district.” Seriously.

Also, in 2012, city officials made it a crime for any group to hand out food to the needy in the downtown area without first getting a permit. It’s a cold use of legal authority to chase the homeless away to…well, anywhere else.

Such laws are part of an effort throughout the country to criminalize what some call “homeless behavior.” And, sure enough, when hungry, the behavioral tendency of a homeless human is to seek a bite of nourishment, often in such dining spots as dumpsters. The homeless behavior that Houston has outlawed, then, is eating.

The good news is that when Houstonians learned of Kelly’s situation, many reached out to help him get through his hard times. Now they need to reach out to local politicos and get the city to stop cracking down on this abuse of homeless people.

Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the new book, "Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow." (Wiley, March 2008) He publishes the monthly "Hightower Lowdown," co-edited by Phillip Frazer.

SALON

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 3:12 PM UTC

Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid

Sen. James Inhofe, a Republican, voted against federal funding for Hurricane Sandy victims VIDEO

By Jillian Rayfield

Topics: Video, Hurricane Sandy, James Inhofe, Oklahoma, Republicans, Oklahoma tornado, Politics News

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. (Credit: AP/Susan Walsh)

Sen. James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, argued that there is no comparison between Hurricane Sandy relief, which he voted against last fall, and aid for his state in the wake of Monday’s devastating tornado because the two are “totally different.”

Inhofe contended on Tuesday that the Hurricane Sandy relief bill was different because it was filled with pork. “They were getting things, for instance, that was supposed to be in New Jersey,” he said on MSNBC. “They had things in the Virgin Islands. They were fixing roads there, they were putting roofs on houses in Washington, D.C. Everybody was getting in and exploiting the tragedy that took place. That won’t happen in Oklahoma.”

In the past, Inhofe has also voted against additional funding for FEMA, though in 2008 he praised relief from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to Oklahoma counties affected by “severe weather.”

Inhofe’s senate colleague, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, also a Republican, said he would push for federal aid to Oklahoma to be offset by cuts elsewhere. Coburn also voted against the relief package for Hurricane Sandy.


Watch:

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com. More Jillian Rayfield.

Anyone regret slashing National Weather Service budget now?

SALON

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 3:15 PM UTC

Anyone regret slashing National Weather Service budget now?

 

With GOP-backed cuts to forecasting agency, experts warn future storms will go undetected and more lives lost

By David Sirota

Topics: Editor's Picks, Oklahoma tornado, Moore, sequester, Climate Change, Global Warming, Politics News

 

A child is pulled from the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., May 20, 2013. (Credit: AP/Sue Ogrocki)

 

 

 

Was the severe weather system culminating in yesterday’s Oklahoma City tornado intensified — or even created — by climate change? That question will almost certainly be batted back and forth in the media over the next few days. After all, there is plenty of scientific evidence that climate change intensifies weather in general, but there remain legitimate questions about how — and even if — it intensifies tornadoes in specific.

One thing, however, that shouldn’t be up for debate is whether or not we should be as prepared as possible for inevitable weather events like tornadoes. We obviously should be — but there’s an increasing chance that we will not be, thanks to the manufactured crisis known as sequestration.

As the Federal Times recently reported, sequestration includes an 8.2 percent cut to the National Weather Service. According to the organization representing weather service employees, that means there is “no way for the agency to maintain around-the-clock operations at its 122 forecasting offices” and also means “people are going to be overworked, they’re going to be tired, they’re going to miss warnings.”

Summarizing the problem, the American Institute of Physics put it bluntly: “The government runs the risk of significantly increasing forecast error, and the government’s ability to warn Americans across the country about high impact weather events, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, will be compromised.”

The good news is that the National Weather Service station in Norman, Okla., had a warning in effect for 16 minutes before the most recent Oklahoma City tornado hit. That’s better than the 13 minute average so, thankfully, more people probably had more time than usual to evacuate or find safe shelter.

But what about the next time around? Will we be as ready as we can and should be? The answer is maybe not.

Though the past few years saw a record number of billion-dollar weather cataclysms, the weather service remains a perennial target for budget cuts and already has nearly a 10 percent employment vacancy rate — and those realities may be damaging its long-term ability to warn the public about severe weather events. As the Washington Post reports:

The cash-strapped National Weather Service is facing increasing scrutiny over its inferior computer modeling power compared to international peers and is anticipating a likely gap in weather satellite coverage. Last week, the Government Accountability Office ranked the pending satellite gap among the top 30 threats facing the Federal government.
The Department of Commerce warned that not only will the loss of satellite data and imagery diminish the quality of forecasts, but so will other important weather data surrendered by spending cuts.

Before you dismiss that as esoteric, nerdy, overly technical and therefore just abstract, check out what the president of the American Meteorological Society says it means in practice:

The public may take for granted a tornado warning or satellite loop of an approaching hurricane. Likewise, the public probably just assumes that they will have 5- to 9-day warning of storms like Sandy; 15 to 60 minutes lead time for tornadic storms approaching their home; an airline with appropriate data for safe air travel; or a military with reliable information to avoid hazardous weather on a mission protecting our freedom. However, these capabilities “can” and “will” worsen/degrade if we cut weather balloon launches, cut investments in the latest computing technology for our models, reduce Doppler radar maintenance, delay satellite launches, or shatter employee morale … I am honestly concerned that we will regress in capability and this will jeopardize lives, property, and our security.

Following in the footsteps of former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, conservatives faced with these self-evident facts have taken to Fox News to cite the problems previous flat budgets have already created to call for a wholesale elimination of the National Weather Service. It’s a classic self-fulfilling sophistry of the right: Ignore the positive work an agency does, keep the agency’s budget flat so that its capabilities do not keep up with the times, then cite the agency’s reduced capabilities as justification to keep cutting it.

Perhaps, though, the devastation in Oklahoma City will serve as a reminder of why that’s the wrong path. After all, the wreckage is an explicit commentary on how bad things can be even when our weather forecasting system works — and, thus, an implicit reminder of how much worse things could be if it doesn’t. It is also a reminder that we shouldn’t think of weather forecasting as the insignificant television arena of dim-witted Brick Tamlands, but instead as an integral part of homeland security infrastructure.

When the ideology of austerity and Congress’s manufactured crises like the sequestration collectively jeopardize that infrastructure, we are needlessly inviting unnecessary and tragic consequences.

David Sirota is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, magazine journalist and the best-selling author of the books "Hostile Takeover," "The Uprising" and "Back to Our Future." E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com. More David Sirota.

Is There A Global Depopulation Agenda Being Played Out?

Alternative News

Is There A Global Depopulation Agenda Being Played Out?

April 24, 2013 by Jeff Roberts

 

 

 

There is still a large portion of the population that would deny the idea that our government is ethically corrupt and that events such as 9/11 were strategically planned out beforehand. It is difficult to comprehend the fact that the people in power would plan such a devastating attack, for the aftermath has resulted in a decade long war which has thwarted humanity’s path in such a destructive and unsustainable direction. In theory, an elected leader is someone a group gives power in trust that they will make the best decisions for the population’s survival, so trying to grasp the idea that our government is doing the opposite of this role is perplexing. However, time and time again we are seeing the powers that be make decisions which promote more separation, more fear, and more destruction to our planet. There is even disconcerting evidence which reveals that our government has a sinister agenda for the population which is incomprehensible for most to fathom, and that is a plan has been set out to purposely decrease our population down to an unsettling percentage over the coming years.

Considering the amount of the genetically modified foods that are being forcefully pumped onto our grocery store shelves, the chemicals that are put into our cosmetics and clothes, the chem-trails being sprayed from the skies above our homes, and the harmful toxins mixed into vaccines, one can only consider the idea that someone is trying to cause harm to the public. Recently, the U.S. National Cancer Agency was exposed for manipulating cancer statistics, stating that there has been a decrease in the number of cancer cases over the past decades when in fact cancer cases have significantly increased over the years [1]. The FDA is known for their corruption, having approved harmful chemicals such as brominated vegetable oil (BVO) in Gatorade, a chemical which has been banned in over 7 countries. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has approved many harmful chemicals such as mercury containing compounds in scheduled vaccines. All of these organizations were created for the purpose of protecting the people, and in reality it seems like they are doing the opposite by poisoning people. So what would be the intention behind the pollution of our environment? Some argue that the global elite (New World Order, Illuminati, etc.) have had an agenda of decreasing the world’s population drastically in the next couple of years, and that they have infiltrated all of our main systems to ensure it unravels as they have planned. This may seem like a ludicrous conspiracy theory, but there is disturbing evidence to support this claim.

The Georgia Guidestones, considered the Stonehenge of America, are a group of standing granite slabs which were ordered to be built in 1979 in Elbert County, Georgia, supposedly by members of the New World Order. The slabs stand 20 feet tall and weigh a total of 240 000 lbs. The mystery behind the slabs lies in the messages inscribed into the granite, which dictate ten commandments for a “new age of reason”.  The commandments are as follows:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.

The commandments call for a drastic reduction of the population, and the formation of an alternate human society in which there is only one language and in which there are bizarre protocols for how society will be run. This reduction would be a 93% decrease in population. Since its construction, no one has come forward to explain the intent behind the monument, and the true author(s) have been left anonymous. Oddly enough, the messages inscribed in the stones are written multiple times in 8 different languages, with an additional message inscribed on the top of the slabs written in 4 additional ancient languages. One has to wonder why such a mysterious monument was created. Considering the difficulty any normal person or group would go through trying to construct such a wonder, it is clear that the monument was not created by some conspiracy junkie trying to promote fear. There is obviously something stranger going on.

Another suspicious piece of evidence to back up the depopulation agenda theory takes us to the international airport in Denver, Colorado. Taking up over 34 000 acres of land, the airport was built in 1995 costing a total of 4.8 billion dollars, almost 3.5 billion dollars over budget. There are numerous irregularities and unexplained facets of the airport, leading some to argue that it was built for an alternative purpose. For one, there has been no consistent contractors hired for the entire project, but rather different contractors were hired for portions of the construction and then fired once it were completed, leaving some to suspect that the people in power wanted to make sure that someone never had a complete picture of what was really going on. Furthermore, millions of excess cubic Earth was removed for the construction, leaving some to wonder if top secret construction is taking place. There is also a massive underground tunnel system stretching miles in length which has been unused since the airport was built.

Now let us take a look inside the airport (this is where it gets weird). Welcoming guests upon the airport`s main entrance is an ominous looking 30 ft. tall blue horse, strangely resembling the “horse of the apocalypse“ from the Book of Revelation. The horse has glowing eyes and pulsating veins popping out from its skin. What relevance does a menacing blue horse have to airport travel?

In the main hall of the airport is a capstone monument which contains the infamous masonic symbol on its face. The message inscribed in the capstone says it was created by the “New World Airport Commission”, which is a nonexistent commission. Could the false commission really be an allusion to the New World Order?

Even more eerie are the large mural paintings hung on the walls of the airport, which were said to depict world peace and the coming together of all nations and races. However when one really studies the murals, it is easy to notice the disturbing imagery being displayed. Cities burning, children in coffins and mass genocide are just a few of the images that were portrayed on the murals. One would think that an airport would contain peaceful images to ease any anxiety travelers might already have about flying.

One mural also contains an image of a Nazi-like soldier holding a gun and a masonic looking sword and is wearing a gas mask. There seems to be some sort of grey gas that is harming the people in the mural as well. Considering there are pictures and video’s released of secret underground bunkers at the airport which contain unexplained sprinkler systems all throughout, and sleeping quarters which resemble the concentration camps of WWII, we are left to wonder what the true intention behind the construction of the Denver airport might be.

Looking down from an aerial view of the airport, we see that the entire complex is shaped like the Nazi swastika. The perimeter of the airport acreage is surrounded by a barbed wire fence, with the barbed wire facing inwards as opposed to outwards, suggesting that the intent of the fence is to keep people from getting out rather than from getting in. Could the Denver airport be a possible holding headquarters for events about to take place in the near future? Is there a connection between the mysterious Georgia Guidestone commandments and the Denver airport?

With all of the strange evidence previously mentioned, we are naturally lead to believe some sort of mass holocaust is about to take place. Could this be a possible reason why the US government is passing bills to take away weapons from the public, or why the government has passed bills that have given them complete monopoly over personal privacy and surveillance?

Even Bill Gates, one the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people, has been quoted as supporting the depopulation agenda in one of his seminars.

…[] “The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s heading up to about nine billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent”

From the toxins in our food and water, to the chemicals in our cosmetics and atmosphere, there is clearly an agenda being played out right in front of our eyes. The people in power know exactly what they are doing, having infiltrated organizations such as the FDA, CDC, and even The National Cancer Agency, not to mention the political, media, health care, and law systems. However, the good news is that the power of these establishments is only as strong as we allow it to be. There are billions of us on the planet, and put into perspective there is really only a useless amount of the “elite” in comparison. People all around the world have begun taking the power back into their hands, taking a stand against unnecessary poisoning such as GMO’s and other disease causing agents. Awareness is the mantra of our times, as humanity is reconnecting in so many ways, coming together as a collective to say “enough is enough”. The curtain that has been placed over the truth for so long is being lifted, and as this is happening the people in power are losing their control. It truly is a glorious and interesting time to be alive.

References:

1.)    http://www.preventcancer.com/losing/nci/manipulates.htm
2.)    http://vigilantcitizen.com/sinistersites/sinister-sites-the-denver-international-airport/
3.)    http://www.presstv.com/usdetail/285233.html
4.)    http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-05/ff_guidestones?currentPage=all
5.)    http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=a155d113455fac882a3290536575c723