Improving Care for People with Medicare | The White House

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today released proposed new rules to help doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers better coordinate care for Medicare patients through Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). ACOs are designed to create and support a team of health care providers who treat individual patients by working together across care settings.


Improving Care for People with Medicare | The White House

NATO - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NATO - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Time for a Little Education - Truthdig

I’m a retired teacher and I’m pissed. No matter what form of media I look at, I’m confronted with constant references to the various budget crises. The federal government has a deficit. States have budget problems. Cities face massive shortfalls. And school districts are on the edge of bankruptcy. The crises are real, but the search for culprits has degenerated into a hypocritical attempt to score political points.





Time for a Little Education - Truthdig

Tribes With Flags - NYTimes.com

Is the battle for Libya the clash of a brutal dictator against a democratic opposition, or is it fundamentally a tribal civil war?”

This is the question because there are two kinds of states in the Middle East: “real countries” with long histories in their territory and strong national identities (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Iran); and those that might be called “tribes with flags,” or more artificial states with boundaries drawn in sharp straight lines by pens of colonial powers that have trapped inside their borders myriad tribes and sects who not only never volunteered to live together but have never fully melded into a unified family of citizens. They are Libya, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The tribes and sects that make up these more artificial states have long been held together by the iron fist of colonial powers, kings or military dictators. They have no real “citizens” in the modern sense. Democratic rotations in power are impossible because each tribe lives by the motto “rule or die” — either my tribe or sect is in power or we’re dead



Tribes With Flags - NYTimes.com

G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether - NYTimes.com

The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.

Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

That may be hard to fathom for the millions of American business owners and households now preparing their own returns, but low taxes are nothing new for G.E. The company has been cutting the percentage of its American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies





G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether - NYTimes.com

Five myths about why the South seceded - The Washington Post

One hundred fifty years after the Civil War began, we’re still fighting it — or at least fighting over its history. I’ve polled thousands of high school history teachers and spoken about the war to audiences across the country, and there is little agreement even about why the South seceded. Was it over slavery? States’ rights? Tariffs and taxes

Five myths about why the South seceded - The Washington Post

Today's Social Security Propaganda Rebuttal Post | OurFuture.org

Marketing works. If you put a lot of money into repeating a marketing message over and over and over, eventually people's brains absorb the message. Conservatives have put a lot of money and effort into convincing people that there is something wrong with Social Security, and that effort is paying off.



Today's Social Security Propaganda Rebuttal Post | OurFuture.org

Kill Public-Employee Unions; Erase the Middle Class

But there is something more sophisticated at work here than merely the efforts of talk-show hosts, demagogues and right-wing politicians to stir up or even just reflect, an angry, agitated and hostile populace. That is, there is a plan at work here - let's call it, "the Plan" - and that plan is designed to accomplish the following goals:



Kill Public-Employee Unions; Erase the Middle Class

Crushing the Democrats' Base

Put simply, Republicans are conducting a radical attack on the Democratic Party, aimed at the roots of Democratic power and sustenance. The battle is occurring in Washington and around the country, and even if the right doesn't succeed completely, the fight will almost certainly leave Democrats weakened and defensive.

Look at the targets conservatives have taken aim at in the last couple of years: access to the ballot box, unions, organizations representing the poor, organizations protecting reproductive rights, and more. The assault is not just on ideas or policies (though there's plenty of that, too) but on the institutions that undergird the Democratic Party and the progressive movement.



Crushing the Democrats' Base

Debt, Austerity and How to Fight Back

Editor's note: On Tuesday, April 5, hundreds of schools and community groups will participate in a teach-in on debt, austerity and how people are fighting back. From 2–3:30 pm (EST) a national teach-in will be streamed live from New York City, followed by local teach-ins and strategy discussions around the country. Read the call to action by Frances Fox Piven and Cornel West, check out the organizing guide and join the movement by attending or hosting a teach-in near you. Please see http://www.fightbackteachin.org for more information.
 
Wall Street Banks, American corporations and their political allies have declared a one-sided war on the American people. This war is being waged at our schools and colleges, the workplace and in our communities.
 
Today, Americans are working harder and earning less while corporate profits soar. As homeowners, consumers and students we see our wealth being stripped away by banks. Our government plunges into debt waging trillion-dollar wars. Meanwhile, our infrastructure erodes and climate change proceeds unchecked. Schools, daycare centers, senior citizen facilities, clinics, parks and firehouses are starved for funds so that corporations and the rich can get billions in tax breaks!





Debt, Austerity and How to Fight Back

The $110 Billion Question - NYTimes.com

When one looks across the Arab world today at the stunning spontaneous democracy uprisings, it is impossible to not ask: What are we doing spending $110 billion this year supporting corrupt and unpopular regimes in Afghanistan and Pakistan that are almost identical to the governments we’re applauding the Arab people for overthrowing?





The $110 Billion Question - NYTimes.com

Governors are Proposing Further Deep Cuts in Services, Likely Harming Their Economies — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Forty-two states have released their initial budget proposals for fiscal year 2012 (which begins July 1 in most states), and, for the fourth year in a row, these budgets propose deep cuts in education, health care, and other important public services — in many cases, deeper than previous cuts. [1] These cuts will delay the nation’s economic recovery and undermine efforts to create jobs

Governors are Proposing Further Deep Cuts in Services, Likely Harming Their Economies — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

200 years that changed the world - Gapminder.org

200 years that changed the world - Gapminder.org

Reality Check: Who's Afraid of Reforming Wall Street? - TIME

Joe Klein --a way to dramatize the complicated issues at the heart of regulatory reform. The President should appoint Warren. The Senate should be forced to vote on her, so the public will know who really wants to clean up Wall Street and who doesn't.


Reality Check: Who's Afraid of Reforming Wall Street? - TIME

Jon Stewart Calls Out Fox News' Hypocrisy Comparing Teachers, Wall Street (VIDEO)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/04/jon-stewart-teachers-walls-street-fox_n_831243.html

Richard (RJ) Eskow: The United States Isn't a Company and It Isn't a Family -- It's a Country.

Let's begin with a multiple choice test. The United States of America is:

a) a for-profit corporation;

b) a family, like the typical American family in a 1960's sitcom;

c) a nation -- with a national economy and nation-sized problems.

If you answered "c," there's good news and bad news. The good news is that you answered the question correctly. The bad news is that you probably have no future as a pundit, where recycling bad metaphors is an essential job skill. (On second thought, that's probably good news too. You undoubtedly have better things to do with your time.)







Richard (RJ) Eskow: The United States Isn't a Company and It Isn't a Family -- It's a Country.

War, debt and democracy - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Moreover, the US is paying for these wars with debt. The government funded World War II partly with war bonds, but it also instituted the first general income tax in American history, increasing tax revenue from $8.7bn in 1941 to $45bn in 1945. This would have been impossible for an unpopular war. To finance today’s wars, by contrast, the US government has not only avoided raising taxes, but has actually cut them on an enormous scale, with the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 now extended at least through 2012.





War, debt and democracy - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

George F. Will - Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and the spotlight-chasing candidates of 2012

If pessimism is not creeping on little cat's feet into Republicans' thinking about their 2012 presidential prospects, that is another reason for pessimism. This is because it indicates they do not understand that sensible Americans, who pay scant attention to presidential politics at this point in the electoral cycle, must nevertheless be detecting vibrations of weirdness emanating from people associated with the party.




George F. Will - Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and the spotlight-chasing candidates of 2012

ThinkProgress » REPORT: Five Things Unions Have Done For All Americans

Over the past few weeks, right-wing legislators have unleashed a torrent of radical legislation upon the American electorate designed to gut collective bargaining rights and attack the middle class. As these conservatives have launched their assault, a Main Street Movement consisting of ordinary Americans fed up with living in such an unequal country has fought back.

Conservatives have sought to malign this movement by claiming that it is simply defending the parochial interests of labor unions, who they claim are imposing huge costs on taxpayers with little benefit. Yet the truth is that America’s public and private unions have been one of the major forces in building a robust and vibrant middle class and have fought over the past century to improve the lives of all Americans in a variety of ways. ThinkProgress has assembled just five of the many things that Americans can thank the nation’s unions for giving us all:




ThinkProgress » REPORT: Five Things Unions Have Done For All Americans

gulfnews : Yemeni describes bloody siege on Al Qaida

A doctor who treated wounded Al Qaida fighters in Afghanistan's Tora Bora has said Osama Bin Laden was at the mountain as coalition troops attacked.



gulfnews : Yemeni describes bloody siege on Al Qaida

Federal Eye - Government overlap costs taxpayers billions, GAO reports

"The president has made it a priority to reform government and make it more effective and efficient for the American people, which is why his budget reflects a commitment to streamlining government and saving taxpayer dollars," White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in response to the report.

Upon taking office, Obama quickly appointed a chief performance officer, a new position meant to tackle government organizational issues.




Federal Eye - Government overlap costs taxpayers billions, GAO reports

The Liberal Media Strikes Again

If I hear one more person talk about the "liberal media" in America, I will probably vomit on them. It was a stupid and ridiculous thing to say last week - take a long look at which mega-corporations own which news networks, and you won't find a "liberal" entity anywhere on the list - but the events in Wisconsin have further underscored the absurdity of the statement.


The Liberal Media Strikes Again