the president cuts millions in childrens health care. again.

first s-chip for the middle class kids, now medicaid for poor and disabled kids is being targeted by the bush administration...and this time, it impacts education, too, and likely will cause local school disrits to find the money elsewhere for speech and physical therapy for kids...so school tax will ilkey be raised, thus meaning the president both cut health care for poor kids and raised taxes. merry christmas, indeed:

President Bush drew criticism this fall for his refusal to fund a children’s health insurance program. On Friday, his healthcare slashing continued.

According to the Washington Post, “the Bush administration eliminated about $700 million a year in Medicaid reimbursements to schools, sidestepping an attempt by Congress to block such a move.”

Issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the new rule is projected to save the federal government $3.6 billion over five years, transferring those costs to school districts. Many school principals and superintendents said that the loss of the funding could force districts to cut other programs.

take that, weimar republic inflation!

100,000 percent?!?! donde los yikes...via bbc news:

Zimbabwe's chief statistician has said it is impossible to work out the country's latest inflation rate because of the lack of goods in shops.

"There are too many data gaps," the Central Statistical Office's Moffat Nyoni told state media.

Many staple goods are often absent from shop shelves after the government ordered prices to be halved or frozen in a bid to stem galloping inflation.

September's inflation rate was put at almost 8,000%, the world's highest.

Other reports suggest the rate could be at near 15,000% and the International Monetary Fund had warned it could reach 100,000% by the end of the year.

south africa's rape trap

ok...i give law and order: svu three weeks until they do a story about this where elliot tries to decode if he would want his dautgher to wear one:

Anti-rape campaigners in South Africa are outraged about a new invention intended to catch rapists.
The device, designed for a woman to insert, attaches itself to a rapist and has to be surgically removed.

Its inventor says this will help in the prosecution of the rapist. Critics say the invention represents a return to the days of the chastity belt.

Some 1.5 million rapes occur in South Africa each year - one of the highest rates in the world.

"This is a medieval instrument, based on male-hating notions and fundamentally misunderstands the nature of rape and violence against women in this society," said Charlene Smith, one of South Africa's most prominent campaigners against rape.

"It is vengeful, horrible, and disgusting. The woman who invented this needs help."

'Something must be done'

The inventor of the device, Sonette Ehlers insisted she did not hate men.

"Something needs to be done, and women are crying out for me to go ahead," she told the BBC's World Today programme.

Ms Ehlers has patented the tampon-sized device, and expects it to go on sale next month.

Lisa Vetten, of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) said it was "a terrifying thought that women are being made to adapt to rape by wearing these devices".

Ms Ehlers's critics argue that it would be better to educate men not to rape in the first place, rather than just to catch them after the deed.

But the inventor insisted: "I'm not an educator - I will go for those they can't educate.

president bush hates children...or at least insured ones

from today new york times editorial:

President Bush is threatening to veto any substantial increase in spending for a highly successful children’s health program on the bizarre theory that expanding it would be the “beginning salvo” in establishing a government-run health care system. His shortsighted ideological opposition would leave millions of children without health insurance at a time when medical costs are soaring.

The president’s ire was provoked by a bipartisan bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee last week that would expand the so-called State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a joint federal-state effort that, over the last decade, has substantially reduced the number of uninsured children in the country. The program, known as S-chip, seeks to cover children whose family income is too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to afford costly private coverage. It is due to expire on Sept. 30 unless Congress reauthorizes it....

justice waaaaaaaaaaaaay delayed

with a quick scan of CNN and MSNBC, you may think that the only news has to do with paris hilon or a missing white pregnant lady in ohio, but it's funny when you look at what's making headlines in britain:

Next month James Fowler is expected to be charged in Alabama with the 1965 killing of Jimmie Jackson - which triggered the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march famously attacked by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma...Federal authorities in the US are under pressure to make a final effort to bring unsolved race crimes from the civil rights era to trial after a 71-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman was found guilty of charges over the 1964 deaths of two black teenagers.

James Seale was convicted on Thursday of kidnapping and conspiracy in the killings of Henry Dee and Charles Moore, who were found dead in the Mississippi river after they went missing while hitchhiking. The federal jury heard that the teenagers had been brutally beaten before being dropped into the river tied to heavy weights. Seale now faces a life sentence.

meanwhile, at gonzo's justice department:

Bradley J. Schlozman is systematically attempting to purge all Civil Rights appellate attorneys hired under Democratic administrations...he appeared to be "targeting minority women lawyers" in the section and was replacing them with "white, invariably Christian men"...Schlozman told one recently hired attorney that it was his intention to drive these attorneys out of the Appellate Section so that he could replace them with 'good Americans.'

for every long delayed step forward we get two steps backward...and these are the same folks who don't think we need the voting rights act anymore.

civil rights lacking at the doj civil rights division

as if gonzo wasn't screwing up the doj enough, a new report has come out displaying the utter lack of diversity at the justice department's civil rights division. in the civil rights division's criminal section, only 2 of 50 lawyers are black...the same number as in 1978, when the total staff was less than half what it is now. the department's records across several divisions show few or no african-americans or hispanics being hired at all. minorities are more than twice as likely to leave or be passed over for management position. and on top of all that is this staggering statistic:

One Justice Department chart revealed that over a six-year period the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had referred 3,200 individual complaints of discrimination to the civil rights division for action. They have resulted in only six lawsuits for race discrimination.

6 out of 3200...that 0.1875% for y'all keeping score at home.

d.c. a step closer to full voting rights!

and who said congress never does anything worthwhile? it only took them 200 plus years to get around to it. score one for pelosi. it will surely not be signed into law by the president, but at least it's a fight worth having. all in all, this is great news, especially if it means i get to see more of eleanor holmes norton on tv (esp. the colbert report); she's fantastic.

The people of the District of Columbia moved a step closer Thursday to gaining
voting rights they have been denied for more than 200 years.

But the legislation passed by the House on a 241-177 vote faced a veto threat from the White House, which said it was unconstitutional.

The bill would permanently increase full House membership to 437, giving the largely Democratic half-million residents of the district a seat and adding a temporary at-large seat for Republican-leaning Utah. The House has consisted of 435 seats since 1960.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., echoing the position of the Bush administration, said it was unconstitutional and he would oppose it.

``This legislation corrects a serious flaw in our democracy,'' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. ``We will not rest until full voting representation in the House is granted to the District of Columbia.''

Democrats had to pull a nearly identical bill from the floor a month ago after Republicans surprised them by proposing language, with a good chance of
passing, that would have lifted the district's ban on semiautomatic weapons and
other tough gun restrictions. This time, over strong protests from Republicans,
Democrats came prepared with a floor procedure blocking a gun vote.

it's official: ny's primary will matter this time

yep, after all those years of being an electoral afterthought, our presidential primary here in the empire state will be happening far earlier next year (feb. 5th), and thus will not be happening after the nominee is all but officially chosen.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed legislation Monday moving New York's presidential primary to Feb. 5, further setting the stage for a mid-winter political showdown that could leave Americans with the longest general election campaign ever. Parochially, the change could also benefit the Democratic and Republican front-runners, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, both New Yorkers. Nearly a dozen other states, including California and New Jersey, have already moved their primaries or caucuses to Feb. 5. A dozen more are considering such moves, setting the stage for what is quickly becoming known as "Super-Duper Tuesday" just 22 days after the leadoff Iowa caucuses. "Moving the primary date to February, we will help secure New York's large and diverse population an influential voice in selecting the 2008 presidential nominees," said Spitzer. In New York, the shift could mean a big early haul of national convention delegates for Clinton, a New York senator, and for Giuliani, a former New York City mayor. The state had been scheduled to hold its primary on March 4 until Giuliani allies began pressing for the earlier date. The Clinton camp quickly gave its blessing and the measure won overwhelming approval from New York's Republican-led state Senate and Democratic-controlled Assembly last month.

"was there a spread on this in 'republican vogue'?"

the top ten % of u.s. income earners have reached a level of income not seen since 1928? oh, so we have nothing to worry about. it's not like there were any huge financial disasters anytime soon after 1928...

The income gap between rich and poor in the United States has increased significantly, The New York Times online edition reported Thursday. According to the report, new analyses of 2005 tax data shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans.

Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980....

While total reported income in the US increased almost 9 per cent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90 per cent dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping 172 dollars, or 0.6 percent.

According to the report, the gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to an average of more than 1.1 million dollars each, an increase of more than 139,000 dollars, or about 14 percent.

The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than 100,000 dollars, also reached a level of income share not seen since 1928, according to the report.