It has been an amazing week in Iran, and you are no doubt seeing images that would have been unimaginable just a few weeks ago.
For most of us, Iran has been a country about which we know very little…which, obviously, makes it tough to put the limited news we’re getting into a proper context.
The goal of today’s conversation is to give you a bit more of an “insider look” at today’s news; and to do that we’ll describe some of the risks Iranian bloggers face as they go about their business, we’ll meet a blogging Iranian cleric, we’ll address the issue of what tools the Iranians use for Internet censorship and the companies that could potentially be helping it along, and then we’ll examine Internet traffic patterns into and out of Iran.
Finally, a few words about, of all things, how certain computer games might be useful as tools of revolution.
Read More »tell why YOU SUPPORT THE PEOPLE OF IRAN in their quest for Democracy with civil & human rights & freedoms
and to have free and honest elections!
Friends Of The Iranian People
Stand with the people of Iran! Show the Iranian people that the world stands with them! Invite your Facebook friends, and Tweet about this group on Twitter! Together we can make a difference!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124615847192&ref=mf
THNx
Learn more about our grassroots campaign at
www.ClosetheLoophole.com or
Facebook.com/ClosetheLoophole
Host: Close The Loophole!
Type: Meetings - Informational Meeting
Network: Global
Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: SF LGBT Center
1800 Market St.
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It's good news -- but the fight to protect voting rights doesn't end there. Attacks on this critical law will not stop. And voter suppression tactics will continue to plague our elections...
In the wake of an historic election, it's easy to reflect on how far we've come. But our democracy is still a work in progress.
I learned that first-hand as Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000.
Despite today's good news, it's clear that this isn't the end of the legal attacks on the Voting Rights Act -- and that the next case could result in the Supreme Court striking down a key protection.
It's time to recommit ourselves to the fight to protect voter rights and reform our electoral system so that no American is ever denied or deterred from the right to vote.
Watch my video, learn more -- and spread the word to your friends and family:
http://www.democrats.org/VotingRights
Thank you,
Donna Brazile
I need your support. Please sign our petition for quality, affordable health care for every American:
http://www.democraticmajority.com/healthcare
Our legislation includes five major provisions:
We give Americans better choices for health insurance. We follow a simple principle: If you like the coverage you have now, you can keep it. If you don't like your current coverage, our bill offers new and more affordable options. We'll negotiate with insurance companies to keep costs low, make it illegal for companies to deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and give Americans the option to enroll in a public insurance program.
We reduce the cost of health care. We'll crack down on fraud and abuse, and we'll reduce red tape to keep costs down. We also make sure doctors use the most effective therapies to treat illnesses, so patients aren't paying extra for treatments that don't work.
We put new emphasis on prevention. The best way to treat a disease is to prevent it from ever striking, or to catch it at an early stage. By giving every American access to affordable health care, we'll enable millions of people to be screened for diabetes, heart disease, cancer and depression.
We bring more help to the elderly and the disabled. We make it easier for these Americans to live independently. We help pay for home upgrades such as wheelchair ramps, and for regular home care to enable people to live in their own homes, not nursing homes.
Finally, we develop a better health workforce, delivering modern and responsive care. We invest in doctors, nurses, and other health professionals to meet the needs of patients more effectively for years to come.
These changes won't be easy to enact -- but we can't afford to wait, and we can't afford to fail.
Show your support for health reform that will benefit all our citizens, reduce the financial burdens on our nation's people and businesses, and put our health care industry on a strong and sustainable basis for the future:
http://www.democraticmajority.com/healthcare
I'll be working hard to pass this bill in the weeks ahead, and I hope you'll be there with me.
Thank you so much for the very real difference you can make in achieving this great goal we share.
Sincerely,
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
For reasons that we won’t go into here, they are in the process of pricing long-term care at care facilities...and yesterday afternoon, we had a chance to have a look at the “menu” of services (the facility's term) that can be purchased at this particular location.
If you are facing this issue in your own family, if you are a taxpayer thinking about how we plan to fund long-term care in the future...or if, one day, you expect to be old yourself...this conversation will surely matter. Read More »
Sickened at the prospect that a victory for reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi in the Iranian presidential election might have led to better relations with the United States, neoconservatives here and their fellow war hawks in Israel are celebrating the dubious victory of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yes, this is true: Right-wingers in America and Israel don't want peace with Iran, nor do they want anyone to get the impression that President Obama's efforts at engagement with Iran might actually work, nor do they give a damn about the Iranian people. Mad Mahmoud is the man neocons love to hate, and they're as happy as clams that their guy found a way to steal the election.
Had Mousavi won the Iranian election as many in Iran and around the world hoped, it would likely have signalled a new and more positive direction for U.S.-Iranian relations as well as providing support for the "Obama Doctrine" of engagement with Iran and others in the Muslim world with which America's relations have been troubled. Such a development would at the same time have undercut the neocon attitude of hostility and suspicion toward Iran, as well as undercutting the right-wing Israeli government's aggressive stance toward Iran. As we know, neocons can tolerate peace only when it is imposed with an iron fist or the heel of a jackboot, and the prospect of peace through diplomacy in the Greater Middle East must surely have given them nightmares the rest of us could scarcely imagine.
In the run-up to the Iranian election last week, Daniel Pipes of the right-wing Middle East Forum came right out and admitted in a speech at the right-wing Heritage Foundation that he would actually vote for Ahmadinejad if he were allowed to vote in Iran (video). This speech was followed by a June 12 blog post by Pipes in which he reiterated that he was "rooting for Ahmadinejad" based on the twisted logic that the fundamentalist clerics who really rule Iran will always be our enemies and it's better to have an Iranian president we can really hate than "a sweet-talking Mousavi" who lulls us into thinking we can be friends. Never mind the aspirations or even basic human rights of the Iranian people; never mind anyone's desire for peace in the Greater Middle East. I've long had a pretty strong distaste for Daniel Pipes, but following this admission I'm more convinced of his utter vileness than ever. This is, after all, a man who has publicly advocated for the profiling and internment of Muslims in America, and who considers Israeli and Palestinian existence mutually exclusive (see Sourcewatch). As we leave the age of the neocons behind, I look forward to watching Pipes and others like him slide into the bitter, drooling irrelevance and oblivion they deserve.
The American Enterprise Institute's equally malignant Michael Rubin likewise told Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review that it might be better for Ahmadinejad to win, because a Mousavi win might give Obama and the rest of us the impression that diplomacy was actually working. Painting Iran as inherently and hopelessly evil, Rubin said of the Iranian election that should Mousavi win "it would be easier for Obama to believe that Iran really was figuratively unclenching a fist when, in fact, it had its other hand hidden under its cloak, grasping a dagger." James Taranto strikes a similar tone in the Wall Street Journal, warning against the "eagerness to see Obama's feel-good foreign-policy approach succeed."
Now that the Iranian election appears to be over, right-wingers will be tripping over themselves in the rush to use Ahmadinejad's victory against Obama. In fact, once and future Republican U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney has already piped up, saying that Ahmadinejad's win is proof that Obama's "policy of going around the world and apologizing for America is not working." These losers obviously have nothing left but the hope that Obama will fail, or can at least be said to have failed. I look forward to watching Romney and his party lose again in 2012.
Right-wingers in Israel, meanwhile, have been making noises very similar to their American bedfellows, and appear to see nothing good for themselves in any warming of relations between the U.S. and Iran, as observed by M.J. Rosenberg at TPM. From Israel in the run-up to the Iranian election Yaakov Katz wrote in the Jerusalem Post that members of the Israeli defense establishment were "silently praying" for an Ahmadinejad victory, fearing that a Mousavi win would result in decreased pressure on Iran and its nuclear program. Now that Ahmadinejad appears to have successfully stolen the election, Israeli officials and their allies in America are calling for renewed pressure on Iran. Meanwhile, Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff write in Haaretz that an Ahmadinejad victory is actually preferable for Israel because a Mousavi win would only "paste an attractive mask on the face of Iranian nuclear ambitions."
I suspect we'll hear more of this in days to come from eager neocons on both sides of the Atlantic. Obama's policy of engagement will work, however, and is working, as evidenced by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to his Cairo speech, by the Lebanese election results, by the reform movement in Iran, and by the likelihood that Ahmadinejad kept his office only through vote-rigging, suppression, and intimidation. Obama will succeed, and once he has neocons like Daniel Pipes can take up residence in the dustbin of history where they belong.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
As Iranians go to the polls to elect a president, American neoconservatives are openly rooting not for moderate reform candidate and former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi but for anti-U.S. hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This is an obvious sign both of the neocons' preference for conflict over peace between the U.S. and Iran and of the generally bankrupt state of conservatism in America, reduced now to banking on failure for the Obama administration (see Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow).
Should the reformist Mousavi win the Iranian election and become president, it would likely signal a new and more positive direction for U.S.-Iranian relations as well as providing support for the "Obama Doctrine" of engagement with Iran and other adversaries. Such a development would at the same time undercut the neocon attitude of hostility and suspicion toward Iran, as well as undercutting the right-wing Israeli government's aggressive stance toward Iran. Indeed right-wingers in Israel like those in America appear to see nothing good for themselves in any warming of relations between the U.S. and Iran, as observed by M.J. Rosenberg at TPM and Yaakov Katz at the Jerusalem Post.
The unpleasant fellow you see pictured here is Daniel Pipes of the right-wing Middle East Forum, a raging neocon who said in a speech this week at the Heritage Foundation that he would vote for Ahmadinejad if he were allowed to vote in Iran (video). The American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin likewise told Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review that it could be better for Ahmadinejad to win, because a Mousavi win might give Obama the impression that diplomacy was working. Painting Iran as inherently and hopelessly evil, Rubin said of the Iranian election that "should someone more soft-spoken and less defiant -- someone like former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi -- win, it would be easier for Obama to believe that Iran really was figuratively unclenching a fist when, in fact, it had it had its other hand hidden under its cloak, grasping a dagger."
Without so openly rooting for Ahmadinejad, other neocons are playing down the significance of a possible Mousavi victory, obviously worried that a shift in power will signal a fresh start for U.S.-Iranian relations that could leave American and Israeli hawks out in the cold. The same right-wing pundits who constantly point out Ahmadinejad's bad behavior as reasons to confront Iran now argue that it doesn't matter who the president of Iran is. Martin Peretz wrote at the New New Republic: "We've known for a long time that elected leaders do not carry the weight of those who have been anointed." Ilan Berman likewise wrote at the American Spectator: "Whoever ends up becoming president will have little real power -- and even less influence over Iran's geostrategic direction."
The prospect of peace in the Greater Middle East must give sociopaths like these nightmares the rest of us could scarcely imagine.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
Shawna Forde, leader of Minutemen American Defense, is one of three individuals arrested June 12 by sheriff's detectives in Pima County, Arizona, for the murder of a Mexican American man and his nine-year-old daughter.
Based in Washington State, Forde's group is one of several border militia groups nationwide that refer to themselves as "Minutemen," including also the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, of which Forde is also a former leader. Profiles on Forde and her anti-immigrant activities are available from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
According to authorities, Forde and her two accomplices, Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Robert Gaxiola, broke into the home of Raul Flores and his family in Arivaca AZ on May 30th, apparently in the commission of a robbery. The invaders reportedly shot all three members of the Flores family who were present at the time, killing the father and daughter and leaving the mother wounded. While Bush is the suspected gunman in the shootings, investigators say Forde was the mastermind of the operation. Nine-year-old murder victim Brisenia Flores is pictured here from the local Green Valley News:
Forde is listed as the National Executive Director of Minuteman American Defense on the group's website, and the Arizona Daily Star reports that Bush, nicknamed "Gunny," is the group's Operations Director. The three are charged with two counts of first-degree murder in addition to burglary and aggravated assault charges.
The Minuteman American Defense website and blog contains numerous photos of Forde and friends at Minuteman and "Tea Party" events, including an Apr. 15 event in Phoenix at which Forde's favorite protest sign was one reading "Stop the Obama-Nation of America." The site also includes descriptions of immigrants as violent criminals, drug addicts, and "Subhuman Mexicans." Here is a photo of Forde in full border vigilante gear from the Anti-Defamation League:
Forde's mother tells the Everett WA Herald that she was not surprised to hear of her daughter's arrest since she had previously talked of staging home invasions: "She sat here and said that she was going to start a group where they went down and start taking things away from the Mexican mafia...," Forde's mother recalled, "...She was going to kick in their doors and take away the money and the drugs." Forde's mother also says that her daughter called her a few hours after the shootings May 30 and reported that she was taking refuge in a "safe house" in Arivaca: "I'm in hiding," Forde told her mother, "You won't believe what is going down here.... The mafia, they are kicking down doors and they are shooting people and they are looking for me."
Pima County sheriff's lieutenant Michael O'Connor told the local Sahuarita Sun that the killings were an "assassination," and said the killers were also looking for Flores' other daughter, who was not at home at time of the killings. Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, meanwhile, said that Forde as "at best a pyschopath" (KOLD, KOMO, KVOA, Seattle Post-Intelligencer).
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
Under pressure from the private medical industry Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has flip-flopped on the public health care option she once supported. In a letter to Health Care for America Now (HCAN) dated April 11, 2009, Landrieu clearly stated her support for a public insurance option. This week, however, Landrieu withdrew her support for the public option, saying "I don't think it's the right way to go."
Landrieu's reversal on the public option can only be the result of pressure from the medical industry, including the American Medical Association (AMA), insurance, and pharmaceutical interests dedicated to keeping health care in for-profit hands. As the Huffington Post observes based on figures from the Center for Responsive Politics, Landrieu has collected a career total of $1,668,693 in campaign contributions from private health insurance and health care interests. This total includes $607,616 from "health professionals" (i.e., the AMA), $401,731 from insurance interests, $269,645 from hospitals and nursing homes, $224,696 from the pharmaceutical and health products industry, and $165,005 from health services/HMOs (see also Think Progress, Blue Herald).
Tell Senator Landrieu what you think of Democrats who act like Republicans, betraying the people they are sworn to serve in favor of big-money special interests. Louisiana residents can use a contact form at Landrieu's official website. Residents of other states and/or those who don't want to mess with the form can e-mail Landrieu directly at: senator@landrieu.senate.gov.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
Much is being made in the media of the current tension between the Obama administration and the right-wing government in Tel Aviv on the issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and I fully expect that coverage of Israeli reaction to the tough line on settlements taken by Obama in his Cairo speech will focus on the negative. Equally important but likely to receive far less attention is the applause and support Obama is receiving from Israeli progressives, many of whom are as critical of the settlements as their counterparts in the West.
A sampling of progressive Israeli opinion on Obama and his stand on the settlement issue includes the following from Gideon Levy in Haaretz, predicting hopefully that Binyamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government will ultimately have no choice but to acquiesce to Obama's demands:
"Washington will decide the fate of the West Bank settlements, and we can only hope it insists on their evacuation. Obama standing firm beside the revolutionary Mideast policy he has begun will light the torch of hope here, too. The battle of the titans, Netanyahu and Obama, is little more than a farce - let us recall the fable of the elephant and the bee, or the frog and the ox. Not all creatures can become as great as they think. Let's also be realistic: An Israeli prime minister has no option of saying no to America once Washington has dug in its heels. Netanyahu knows this better than anyone, and the time has come to explain as much to his 'patriotic' coalition allies.... Time is short but the keys are in the ignition, President Obama. Drive on to peace."
Barak Ravid also in Haaretz provides the following comments from progressive Members of the Knesset:
Kadima MK Ze'ev Boim said that "Obama's speech is yet another proof that Netanyahu miscalculated the foreign policy of the new American administration."
"The President's take on the Palestinian question is similar to Kadima's, and it's a shame that narrow political considerations prevented the Israeli government from espousing the two-state solution which is the only one that can ensure a Jewish and democratic existence in Israel."
Kadima MK Yohanan Plesner said that "Israel could benefit from the America's improved image in the Arab world and leverage it to forge a regional coalition, together with the moderate Arab countries, to counter Iran, but instead the government is engaged in marginal debates on outposts."
Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman (Labor) said that Obama was right that the world's common enemy is extremism and that finding a common strategy is the way to defeat it.
"We should adopt a similar strategy in Jewish-Arab and religious-secular relations, as well as vis-a-vis the Palestinians," Braverman said. "We are committed to the two-state solution."
Meretz leader Haim Oron, for his part, welcomed Obama's speech. He said it was filled with inspiration, optimism and vision.
"The speech is the feat of enlightenment," he said.
Negative reaction to Obama's speech from right-wing Israelis, meanwhile, has been predictably harsh. Most outspoken in their opposition to Obama are settlers themselves and their leaders, whose hysterical, lowbrow rhetoric strongly echoes that of right-wing Americans. Like their teabagging U.S. counterparts, right-wing Israelis have taken to throwing Obama's middle name around as an epithet, accusing him of being a closet Muslim and of betraying Israel. Organizers of a right-wing protest outside the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem had the following to say in a press release reported by Arutz Sheva:
"Barack Hussein Obama! Hands off the land of Israel! You cannot appease the Islamic lust for conquest by selling down the Jews and their Biblical homeland."
Settler leaders quoted in Y-Net likewise said that "Hussein Obama opted to adopt the Arab's bogus versions over the Jewish truth" and that Obama's speech "pandered to Islam." Sound familiar?
Reader comments in Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post make it clear that right-wing Israelis and right-wing Americans are finding each other and connecting online, sharing their hatred of Arabs and their contempt of Obama, and hatching all manner of hysterical theories on the coming end of civilization as we know it. Before long American news audiences may see images of their president burned in effigy not by Palestinians in a Gaza refugee camp but by right-wing Israelis in a West Bank settlement. On the other hand, the enthusiastic support Obama continues to receive from Israeli progressives sounds a hopeful note both for the peace effort and for the future of the U.S.-Israeli relationship.
Furthermore, I believe that Justice Sotomayor was relating to the process she uses to evolve her decisions as appropriately as conceivably possible to the needs of the society in which she represents. Her life history will allow her to think of other criteria in which a white male may not consider when assessing the facts of a legal case.
Justice Sotomayor is absolutely correct in relating to her individual history in assisting her dissemination of facts related to her decision making process.
I believe that this is the message that needs to come out of the White House regarding their excellent choice for the Supreme court.
Administration officials said they were making changes in the system to grant detainees expanded legal rights, but critics said the move was a sharp departure from the direction suggested by Mr. Obama during the campaign, when he characterized the commissions as an unnecessary compromise of American values.
In a statement, President Obama noted that there was a long American tradition of using military commissions, and said the administration was proposing changes to make them provide fairer justice.
Mr. Obama said the commissions would be used as one avenue for prosecution along with existing American courts. "This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values," the statement said.
The commissions are run by the Pentagon under a law passed specifically for terrorism suspects, in part to make it easier for the government to win convictions than it would be in existing American courts.
After Mr. Obama's about-face earlier this week when he announced his decision not to release photographs documenting detainee abuse, Friday's announcement again left the administration in the awkward position of being cautiously praised by some adversaries and harshly rebuked by some usual allies.
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who issued daily criticisms of the president's announced plan to close the detention center for terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, called the decision to use the military tribunals "an encouraging development."
David B. Rivkin Jr., a Washington lawyer who was an official in the Reagan administration, said the decision suggested the Obama administration was coming to accept the Bush administration's thesis that terror suspects should be viewed as warriors, not as criminals with all the rights accorded them in American courts.
"I give them great credit for coming to their senses after looking at the dossiers," of the detainees, Mr. Rivkin said.
The decision benefits the administration politically because it burnishes Mr. Obama's credentials for taking a hard line toward terrorism suspects. Some administration insiders say top http://webinfo.maqany.com/go.html officials have appeared surprised by the ferocity of the largely Republican opposition to Mr. Obama's effort to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, where 241 detainees remain.
The issue has become a difficult one for some Democrats on Capitol Hill because they are hearing from constituents who have expressed anxiety about a potential move into the United States of detainees the Bush administration called "the worst of the worst."
Some Democrats backed the president Friday. But coming the same week that Democratic leaders refused to include $80 million the White House had sought for closing Guantánamo in a war-spending bill, it was not clear whether support for the president's approach to Guantánamo may be weakening among Democrats.
Senator Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the president's decision to overhaul the rules for military commissions had been essential. But he added that "military commissions can play a legitimate role in prosecuting" detainees.
But some liberals and human rights groups said they were stunned by what some of them called a betrayal. They said the prospect of the new administration presiding over military trials at Guantánamo would hurt Mr. Obama's efforts to improve relationships around the world and would embroil the administration in years of legal battles.
The executive director of Human Rights First, Elisa Massimino, called the commission system of trying war crimes cases irredeemable. "Tinkering with the machinery of military commissions will not remove the taint of Guantánamo from future prosecutions," Ms. Massimino said.
The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Anthony D. Romero, said he was preparing an advertising campaign that would call the use of an inferior legal system to try detainees "the Bush Obama doctrine."
The new system would limit the use of hearsay evidence against detainees, ban evidence gained from cruel treatment, and give defendants more latitude to pick their own lawyers.
Ms. Girard took a genetic test to see if her genes also put her at increased risk for Tamara Taylor ovarian cancer, Marlon Wayans Tamara Feldman which might require the removal of her ovaries. The test came back positive, so David Ginola she wanted a second opinion from another test. But there can be no second opinion. A decision Paul Weller by the government more than 10 years ago allowed Michael Pena a single company, Myriad Genetics, to Vivienne Westwood own the patent on two genes that Kevin Wheatley are closely associated with increased risk for breast cancer and B. O. B. ovarian cancer, and on the testing that measures that risk.
On Tuesday, Tara Spencer-nairn Ms. Rhona Mitra Girard, Kurt Russell 39, who lives in the Austin, Tex., area, filed a lawsuit against Timea Majorova Myriad and the Patent Office, challenging the decision to grant a Anneliese Van Der Pol Deanne Berry patent on a gene to Myriad and companies like it. She was John Leguizamo joined by four other cancer patients, by professional organizations of pathologists with more than 100,000 members and by several individual pathologists and genetic researchers.
The Natalia Mesa Bush lawsuit, believed to be the first of its kind, was organized Mike Weir by the American Civil Liberties Union and filed in federal Bailey Chase court in New York. It blends patent law, medical science, breast cancer activism and an unusual civil liberties argument in ways that could make it a landmark case.
Companies like Myriad, based in Salt Lake City, have argued that the patent system promotes innovation by giving companies the temporary monopoly that rewards their substantial investment in research and development.
Richard Marsh, Myriad's general counsel, said company officials would not be able to comment on the lawsuit until they had fully reviewed the complaint.
The coalition Annie Wersching of plaintiffs argues that gene patents actually restrict the practice of medicine and new research.
"With a sole provider, there's mediocrity," said Tears For Fears Wendy K. Chung, the director of clinical genetics at Columbia University and a plaintiff in the case.
Dr. Chung and others involved with the suit do not accuse Myriad of being a poor steward of the information concerning the two genes at issue in the suit, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, but they argue that BRCA testing would Kim Coates improve if market forces were allowed to work.
Harry Ostrer, director of the human genetics program at the New York University School of Medicine and a plaintiff Emma Caulfield in the case, said that many laboratories could perform the BRCA tests faster than Myriad, Gloria Gaynor and for less money than the more than $3,000 the company charged.
Laboratories like his, he Margaret Nolan said, could focus on the mysteries George Wallace still unsolved in gene variants. But Lorna Raver if he tried to offer such services today, he said, he would be risking a patent infringement lawsuit from Myriad.
Christopher A. Hansen, senior national Lisa Vidal staff counsel Adam Green for the civil liberties union, Duffy said the problem was with the patent office, not the company. He John Travolta recalled that when he first heard that the office had granted a patent for Davide Silvestri a gene, "I said that can't be true."
As the A.C.L.U. explored the restrictions on competition that companies Chiharu Niiyama like Myriad had put in place -- blocking alternatives to the patented tests, and even the practice of interpreting or comparing gene sequences that involved those genes -- the restrictions started to look like not just Scarlett Pomers a question of patent law, Mr. Hansen said, but of Salli Richardson the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech as well.
"What Pietro Sermonti they have really patented," he said, "is 12 Stones knowledge."
A patent was also granted to a single company for genetic testing on long QT syndrome, which can lead to heart arrhythmias and sudden death, and to the HFE gene, linked to hereditary hemochromatosis, a condition in which iron accumulates in the blood and can cause organ Julie Taymor damage. Doctors and scientists have complained about both patents.
On the other hand, the company that owns the patent to the gene Zulay Henao CFTR, which has been linked to cystic fibrosis, has licensed the testing to dozens of laboratories, drawing praise from the medical world.
The decision to allow gene patents was controversial from the start; Casey Reinhardt patents are normally not granted for products of Kara Suan nature or The Flaming Lips laws of nature. Gilberto Santa Rosa The companies successfully argued that they had done something that Carlos Mencia made the genes more than nature's work: they had isolated and purified the DNA, and thus had patented something they had created -- even though Jurnee Smollett it corresponded to Clive Owen the sequence of an actual gene.
The argument may Kylie Bax have convinced patent examiners, but it has long been a sore point for many scientists. "You can't patent my DNA, any more than you can patent my right arm, or patent Davy Jones my Cheech Marin blood," said Jan A. Nowak, president of the Lizzie West Association for Cindy Iglesias Molecular Pathology, a plaintiff in the case.
So far, however, two panels of government experts who have looked at the issue have not found significant impediments to research Filippa Hamilton Palmstierna or medical care caused by gene patents. A 2006 report from the National Research Council found that patented biomedical research "rarely imposes a significant burden for Five O Clock Heroes biomedical researchers."
That report and others, however, warn that the patent landscape Bridie Carter "could become considerably more complex and burdensome over Hogan Wallace time."
In the future, genetic tests are likely to Dr. Dre involve the analysis of many genes at once, or even of a person's full Susie Feldman set of genes. Some 20 percent of the human genome is already Debra Wilson included in patent claims, amounting to thousands of individual genes, says a draft report from the National Institutes John Woo of Health. Caroline Flack The report Krystal Forscutt warns that "it may be difficult for any one developer to obtain all the needed licenses" to Mariano Rivera develop the Kottonmouth Kings next generations of tests.
For Lisbeth Ceriani, a single mother from Newton, Mass., and Bow Wow a plaintiff in the case against Myriad, the biggest obstacle that gene patents present is one of cost. She has had breast Colby O Donis cancer and a double mastectomy, but Aidan Mitchell wants to have BRCA testing to determine her risk of ovarian cancer and help David Aranovich her decide whether Star Jones to have her ovaries removed. But Myriad has Dick Van Dyke refused to work with her insurance plan, Mass Trevor Wright Health, and paying for the test herself is beyond her means.
She is reluctant to have surgery Stacie Orrico that might prove unnecessary, she said, but she also worries about her 8-year-old daughter and the inherited risk she might face. Keri Lynn Which is why, Ms. Ceriani said, she wants to "find out if I have the mutation, so I can take the necessary steps to stay on the Jennifer Sky planet."
"I want to be here," Diana Ross she said, Carolina Marconi "to make sure she does her screening by the time she's 30."
Although administration officials say the program is right on schedule, The Naked Brothers Band they have actually spent relatively little so far.
The stimulus bill has directly injected around $45.6 billion into the economy, mostly to help states cover the costs of Medicaid and unemployment benefits, one-time $250 checks that were mailed to Social Security recipients last week, and income tax cuts that began to take effect this spring.
Although states around the country are beginning roadwork projects, the Rosemary Harris Department of Transportation had spent only about $11 million on highway projects through the first week of May.
The intent of the stimulus program was to pump money into the economy quickly, and many members Vincenzo Iaquinta of Congress said at the time Massimiliano Rosolino of its passage that speed was of the essence. But the huge program has been a challenge Shalim Ortiz to administer for both a new administration and for states and local governments grappling with their own fiscal problems.
Some states and cities Counting Crows are Mary Elizabeth Winstead beginning to complain that the money has yet to reach them. Others have been slow to get their paperwork to Washington; Virginia has yet to send the Transportation Department its list of road projects.
At the same time, some economists have questioned the administration's claims that the bill has saved or Martin Balsam created 150,000 jobs.
Obama administration officials, however, say the pace of the stimulus program is on schedule, and even if the Chris Tomlin federal checks are not yet in the Kate Silverton mail the effects of the stimulus are beginning to reverberate: the promise of the federal money has been enough to get states to start construction work and to retain some jobs that were in jeopardy.
Vice Maria Taylor President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who writes in a report on the stimulus bill to be released this week that it remains "ahead of schedule in most programs," said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the bill was helping people grapple with the recession, getting money Leyicet Peralta to the states and into the economy, and laying a foundation for long-term aspirations Michael Ballack like high-speed rail.
"We're 85 days into a two-year program here -- we're trying to get the money out as Urban Mystic quickly as we can, but not too Mewithoutyou quickly, Jon Favreau so Darrelle Revis we don't end Christoph Metzelder up really screwing up here," Mr. Biden said. "Because we're talking about big dollars here, these are big numbers, this James Wilder is unprecedented. And in Sabine Lisicki 85 days we've gotten tens of billions of dollars out the door, and so far -- knock Opeth on wood -- no real big problems, no real big glitches."
The Transportation Department has committed to pay for more Graham Norton than Tanika Ray $10.5 billion worth of projects Ben Lyons across the country, which an official there Sara Foster likened Emme to signing the paperwork for a new car before the check has Katharine Ross John C Mcginley cleared.
Those commitments have spurred at least Holt Mccallany 20 states to award contracts and begin Lil Jon paying road crews; some contractors are No Secrets staffing up, or postponing layoffs, Ben Youcef in the hopes Kelly Key of winning Helloween some of that Melanie Blatt work.
And the federal I.O.U.'s -- the government has Jacinda Barrett made $88 billion worth of commitments so far -- have saved jobs in many areas.
Columbus, Chris Pratt Ohio, which sent Panic! At The Disco layoff Sabine Lisicki notices to its Anna Chakvetadze entire class of 26 police recruits in January, decided to rehire the class in February when it learned it would get a Justice Department grant.
Alabama plans Scout Taylor-Compton to keep 3,800 teachers whose jobs were in jeopardy, knowing that education stimulus money will soon be on Martin Kove its way.
Utah is planning to rehire or retain about 45 probation Frankie Rayder and parole agents, court clerks, crime lab technicians, Oliver Hudson investigators and counselors on the promise of expected stimulus aid.
Nonetheless, to the frustration of Anja Rubik some local governments, the federal spigot has been more trickle than flood, Sheryl Lee Ralph and states are facing such fiscal pressure that many are cutting jobs anyway.
When the Senate recently held a Bryan Cranston hearing on the spending of the stimulus Jason Dottley money, Ray Scheppach, the executive director of the National Governors Association, told lawmakers that "to one extent this Jonah Hill hearing Melinda Messenger is premature." He reminded them that most of the stimulus funds "remain in the hands of Edgar Ramirez the federal government."
When the bill was still in Congress, the need for speed was so important that the Obama administration agreed to funnel much of the money through existing programs to accelerate the process. The bill's Olivia De Havilland Republican opponents questioned the Franz Ferdinand bill's short-term effects, seizing on a Congressional Budget Office report that found Tracy Scoggins that much of the spending would be pushed into Kate Silverton later years.
Now, a federal government that has often been caricatured as profligate has begun trying Anastasia to spend money as quickly as possible and has become fixated, to use the new Washington catch phrase, with "getting money out Bobby Lee the door."
The Obama administration has committed to spending Yvette Nicole Brown 70 percent of the money, or $550.9 billion, within the first two years. By that benchmark, an administration official said, the government is 8 percent toward its goal.
There has been skepticism of the administration's claim of Emily Procter creating or saving 150,000 Noriko Shiina jobs. While it can be difficult to count jobs that were saved, as opposed Laura Bell Bundy to those that were created, Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland, said that trends in state and local government employment "just do not support that John Stamos claim." Other economists have been more supportive of the administration.
Mr. Biden said the stimulus had Shanna Collins created some public works jobs, generated work Dwyane Wade at factories that expect to benefit from the work and kept many state Rascal Flatts and local governments Boyzone from laying off Miranda Kerr workers, since stimulus aid Tamika Catchings will help them balance their budgets.
But getting the money out can be a cumbersome process at times. Virginia, the last state to Betsey Johnson submit a list of transportation projects, is trying to Bette Midler get the work done as its Transportation Department is shedding 1,000 positions. Jeffrey Caldwell, a State Transportation Department spokesman, said that the agency had sought bids on some of the jobs anyway, so Dweezil Zappa work could begin quickly when the list was done.
Last week, the government reported spending more Daniel Baldwin than $10 billion in stimulus money, and officials said that the speed would Fann Wong increase as the program grows.
"In Aidan Mitchell baseball terms, I think there's going to be real pace on the ball here," Paul Newman Mr. Biden said in the interview. "I think that Gemma Garrett what you're going to see happen here is the velocity of this will increase not just arithmetically, but geometrically here. At least, we've got to make that happen."
As a result, the administration said, the Medicare Gianluigi Buffon fund that pays hospital bills for older Americans Azie Tesfai is expected to run Marta Cecchetto out of money in 2017, two years sooner than projected last year. The Social Security trust fund will be exhausted in 2037, Heather Marks four years earlier than predicted, it said.
Spending on Social Security and Medicare totaled more than $1 trillion last year, accounting for more than one-third of the federal budget.
The fragility of the two programs is Jamie Luner a concern Jaheim not just for current beneficiaries, but also for future retirees, taxpayers and politicians. Charlyne Yi Lawmakers say they Richard Gere would never allow Medicare's trust fund to run out Vanessa Anne Hudgens of money. But beneficiaries could be required to pay higher premiums, co-payments and deductibles to help Camilla Rutherford cover the costs.
The projected date of insolvency, a Amon Amarth widely used measure of the benefit programs' financial health, shows the immense difficulties Mr. Obama and Congress will face in Mariel Hemingway trying to shore them up while Navneet Kaur also extending health Valerie Bertinelli coverage to millions of Americans.
The labor secretary, Hilda L. Solis, noted that 5.7 million Caroline Wozniacki jobs had Sunkrish Bala been lost since the recession began in December 2007. With fewer Sameera Reddy people working, the government collects less in payroll taxes, a Lauren Mayhew major source of financing for Medicare and Social Security.
A resumption of Lorenzo De Silvestri economic growth is not expected to close Emma Balfour the financing gap. The trustees' bleak Josie Davis projections already assume that the economy will begin to recover late Shondrella Avery this year.
The Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, said the only way to keep Medicare solvent was to "control runaway Leigh Jones Marylynn Rajskub growth in both public and Kool And The Gang private health care Cradle Of Filth expenditures." And Kris Allen he MC Harvey said Mr. Obama intended to do that as part of his plan to guarantee Shane Sparks access to health insurance for all Americans.
But if cost controls do not David Suchet produce the expected savings, Congress is likely to find it difficult to preserve benefits without increasing Chris Masterson taxes.
Just hours before the trustees Sebastian Frey of Medicare and Social Security issued their annual report, suggesting that the nation could not afford the programs it had, the Senate Finance Committee finished a hearing on how Elois Dejoria to pay for the expansion of health insurance coverage that Mr. Obama seeks.
Mr. Obama has said he does not want to finance expanded health coverage with more deficit spending. Rather, he says, Congress must find ways to offset the costs, so they do not add to the deficit over the next decade.
Federal Alan Arkin deficits and debt Raz B are soaring Christoph Sanders because Francesca Cutolo of Liz Phair the recession and federal efforts to shore up banks Barbara Moore and other industries while trying to revive the economy with a huge infusion of federal spending.
"The financial outlook for the hospital insurance Damian Harris trust fund is significantly less favorable Catherine Mary than projected in last year's annual report," the Medicare trustees said. "Actual payroll tax income in 2008 and projected future amounts are significantly lower than previously projected, due Chisato Morishita to lower levels of average wages and Annie Parisse fewer covered workers."
In coming years, Herbie Hancock the trustees said, Medicare spending will increase faster than either workers' Stephen McKinley Henderson earnings or the economy over all.
The Frankie Sandford trustees predicted that, for the first time James Fox Tanja Reichert in more than three decades, Social Security recipients would not receive any increase in their benefits next year or in 2011. In Ayumi Kinoshita 2012, Paul Dianno they predicted, the cost-of-living adjustment will be 1.4 percent.
The updates are calculated under a statutory formula and reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index, which was unusually high last year because of energy prices.
If there is no cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security, about three-fourths of Medicare beneficiaries will not Lauren Graham see any change Daniela Urzi in their basic premiums James Caan for Part B, which covers doctors' services. Gina Rivera The monthly premium, now $96.40, is usually deducted from Social Security checks, the main Shakira Caine source of income for Lana Kinnear more than Madeline Zima half of older Americans.
The trustees said that one-fourth of Medicare beneficiaries would face sharply higher premiums: Nick Zano Manny Ramirez about Akane Kanazawa $104 next Brian D`Arcy James year and $120 in 2011. This group includes new Medicare beneficiaries and those with higher incomes (over about $85,000 a year for individuals and $170,000 for couples).
Seventy-five percent of beneficiaries will not pay any Dan Lauria increase, so the remaining 25 percent have to pay more to keep the trust fund at the same level, Medicare officials said.
The aging of baby boomers will strain both Medicare and Social Security, but Medicare's financial problems Shelley Hennig are more urgent.
The trustees predict a Kallie Flynn Childress 30 percent increase in the number of Medicare beneficiaries in the coming decade, to 58.8 million in 2018, from 45.2 million last year.
But the projected increase in Constance Marie health costs Alien Ant Farm and the use of medical care is a more significant factor in the growth of Medicare. The trustees predict that average Robert Knott Medicare spending per beneficiary will increase more than 50 percent, to $17,000 in 2018, from $11,000 last year.
Representative Pete Erik Per Sullivan Stark, the California Democrat who is chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, said the Medicare Matthew Rogers report "underscores the urgent Luisa Ranieri need for health reform."
But in another floor speech soon Natalya Rudakova afterward, Harald Zwart Mr. Ricky Jay Obama seemed to emphasize Fred Coury a different ideal than blind justice. Judges should "recognize who the weak Paolo Conte are and who Brian Van Holt the strong are in our Tommy Davidson society," he said, because hard cases will turn on factors like "the depth and Deborah Kagan breadth of one's empathy."
Today, as President Obama prepares to select a Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice David H. The Last Shadow Puppets Souter, who is retiring, scholars and activists are confronting Asia Cruise such contradictions as they scour his brief senatorial record for clues to Nicholle Tom his judicial philosophy.
As a constitutional law teacher, Mr. Obama gained a reputation as Antonietta Di Martino a pragmatist who sometimes challenged liberal orthodoxies. But as a senator who came to Washington Khloe Kardashian in 2005 already Colby Donaldson being mentioned as a potential Democratic presidential candidate, he assembled a nearly uniformly liberal Liza Weil voting record on judges.
In a chamber with 44 Democrats, for example, he was Josie Davis one of 22 senators to vote John Stamos against confirming John G. Roberts Jr. as chief Laraine Newman justice and one of 25 to go along with an Jennifer Aniston attempt to Bowie Wong block a vote on Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Mr. Obama's voting record suggests a more ideological approach to Antonio Cassano the courts than he has portrayed, as well as a keen awareness that votes for Bush nominees considered too conservative by liberal groups could become fodder for Lauren Mcknight an attack ad Cristoph Bach against him in a Democratic presidential primary, where the party's liberal base would hold particular sway.
Sheldon Goldman, a Dana Delaney political science professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who studies judicial selection, said, "We Janet Street-porter must never Walton Goggins forget that Barack Obama is a Nikki Schieler politician." His Supreme Mika Court pick, Mr. Goldman said, may shed light on how to interpret his senatorial record.
"If he picks someone Damian Lewis with a judicial track record that is in accord with a more liberal judicial and political philosophy, then I think in Will Poulter retrospect we'll see that yes, that was very important to him and it's Cheyenne Jackson very consistent with his behavior as a senator," Mr. Goldman said.
Mr. Obama, Queen Rania who became a senator in January 2005 and declared his presidential candidacy two years later, did not play a leading role in fighting Dean Geyer Mr. Bush's nominees. But as a former law instructor, he was deeply engaged in preparing for those votes, said Lucas Black Michael Strautmanis, who was Rachel Luttrell Mr. Obama's Senate counsel and now works in the White House.
"He was not on the Judiciary Committee and he was a freshman senator, so he could have given it scant attention," Mr. Shaun White Strautmanis said. "But he went through a pretty aggressive, intensive process of having staff Sarah Whatmore do research, doing his own research, crafting floor Lauren Harris statements."
And liberal group leaders said that when they visited Belladonna Mr. Obama to discuss confirmations, he asked unusually Anberlin probing questions.
"Sometimes it felt like he was Leeann Tweeden trying to challenge our assumptions," said Nan Aron of the Alliance for Justice. "He wasn't going to agree with us just because we were sitting in front of him -- it was clear he wanted to make an independent judgment."
Mr. Obama would give them little cause for complaint.
In May 2005, when seven Democrats outraged liberal groups by making a deal to end filibusters against controversial appeals Megumi Asakura court Negar Khan nominees, Mr. Obama chose not to join that so-called Gang of 14.
And as nominees opposed by liberal groups reached the floor, Mr. Obama was among Walton Goggins the Democrats most likely to vote nay. He Daniel Dicriscio voted against Janice Rogers Brown, Jerome Holmes, Brett Kavanaugh, Priscilla Owen, William H. Pryor Jr. and Leslie Southwick, whom he was the first senator to oppose.
Mr. Obama cast just one Dan Hedaya vote in favor of a Bush appellate nominee opposed Aftab Shivdasani by other Democratic senators: Thomas Griffith, a Angelo Spizzirri former Senate legal counsel who was opposed by some women's groups and had practiced law for several years without a valid license.
Mr. Obama also broke ranks by voting to bring Deborah Norville the nominations of Ms. Owen and Mr. Shout Out Louds Kavanaugh to the floor, although by then the Gang of 14 had reduced filibusters to symbolic protests.
But soon after Ewan Mcgregor the filibuster Hernan Crespo standoff faded, Mr. Bush nominated Mr. Roberts to the Supreme Court. His intellect and demeanor won rave reviews, and Kiana Tom the ranking Taylor Lautner Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Agnelli And Nelson Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Raul Midon Vermont, endorsed confirming him. Mr. Obama said he was "sorely tempted" to do likewise.
But liberal groups were urging Democrats to put up a fight. And Mr. Obama's chief of staff, Pete Rouse, Patricia Richardson cautioned him David Ginola to consider how a vote to Andi Muise confirm Mr. Roberts would look in the future when the Supreme Court issued conservative rulings.
Mr. Obama voted against Rob Morrow Mr. Roberts. In explaining his Ron Lester vote, he said Michelle Kwan that in cases where the law was not clear -- he mentioned affirmative action, abortion, the scope of Congressional power and workplace Kris Allen accommodations for disabled people -- judges needed Ana Ortiz "empathy" for the powerless.
But even as Audre Royo Mr. Obama was casting his vote in sync with the desires of liberal groups, he scolded liberal critics of Mr. Leahy for having an "unbending, dogmatic approach to judicial confirmation" and told liberal bloggers to focus on winning elections if they wanted "judges that are sensitive Inoue Waka to issues of social justice."
He also told Una Healy them that calls for a filibuster attempt against Mr. Roberts were Frankie Valli "quixotic" and a bad idea. Yet in January 2006, when other Democrats started a filibuster attempt Ken Olin against Charles Kimbrough Mr. Alito, Cookie Johnson Mr. Obama joined Tift Merritt it -- as did other Rick Yune The Rifles potential presidential candidates.
Conservatives scrutinizing Mr. Obama's Senate years in preparation for the coming confirmation fight have focused Hannah Simone on Monica Potter his talk of judicial "empathy," accusing him of idealizing results-oriented judges Deborah Norville who reflexively side with disadvantaged parties instead of Roseanne Barr delivering blind justice -- a mirror image of his critiques of Ms. Brown and Mr. Alito.
Senator Maria Grazia Cucinotta Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, for example, called empathy Kim Hye Soo a "code" for liberal activism, in contrast to a judge who is impartially "fair to Sarah Hall the rich, the poor, the weak, the strong" Josh Meyers alike.
But when Mr. Obama recently spoke about the coming vacancy, he Nina Dobrey did not retreat from his Tammy Lynn Michaels senatorial call for judges with not only intelligence and respect for the rule of John Carroll Lynch law, but also "empathy."
"I will seek someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book," he said. "It is also about how our laws Emma Blocksage affect the daily realities of people's lives, whether they can make a living and care for their Sarah Hughes families, whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation."
Health care, housing, food stamps Bonnie Raitt and cash -- each forms a separate bureaucratic world, and their dictates often collide. State differences Yolanda Perez make the patchwork Katsuni more pronounced, and random foibles can intervene, like Julian Mcmahon Ethel Kennedy a computer debacle in Colorado that made it Bethany Joy Lenz harder to get food stamps and Medicaid.
The result is a hit-or-miss system of relief, never designed to grapple with the pain of a recession so sudden and deep. Aid seekers often find the rules opaque and arbitrary. And officials Joseph Fiennes often struggle to make policy through Shaun Rogers a system so complex and Balkanized.
Across the country, hard luck is colliding with fine print.
Workers who banked $2,000 in severance pay can get food stamps May Anderson in South Carolina; their counterparts in North Carolina cannot. Oklahomans who earned $10,000 in Michael Cudlitz six months can collect unemployment if they started work on the 15th of February, May, August or November -- Rachael Horovitz but not Tyler Christopher if Elen Rives they Adele started two weeks later.
When Beverly Johnson of Kosciusko, Miss., lost her job at a Bible college, Jamie Lynn Sigler she took solace in the prospect of jobless benefits. Then Ms. Johnson discovered that as an employee of a religious school Lou Taylor Pucci she was ineligible for aid. "That was a shock," Mimosa Campironi she said.
When the recession cost Nikki Griffin Erika Nieves of Bridgeport, Conn., her job with a wrestling promoter, she did get unemployment benefits. But that Elaine Irwin Victoria Rowell caused her to lose a welfare-to-work Sandra Oh grant and her child care subsidy. Now Ms. Nieves is months behind on her rent and is job hunting with a 2-year-old. "They took away my aid when I Andrew Adamson need it the most," she said.
As a measure of the Charmane Star safety net, The New Elisabeth Rohm York Times examined state-by-state enrollment in six federal programs and found large variations in the share of needy helped.
Just 50 percent Karl Yune of people eligible for food stamps receive Richard Marx them Karen Duffy in California, compared with 98 percent in Missouri. Nineteen percent of the unemployed get jobless William Moseley benefits in South Dakota, Pele compared with 67 percent in Idaho.
Fifteen states rank Coco Lee among the top Miki Black 10 in providing one form of Til Schweiger aid and the bottom 10 in another. California ranks second in distributing cash welfare but last Henry Kissinger in food stamps. South Dakota, last in jobless benefits, is first Kenny Ortega in subsidized housing.
Aid in states most hit by recession is also scattershot. Michigan's programs reach a comparatively high share of the needy, while South Carolina's rank in the middle and Nevada's reach relatively few. All have double-digit unemployment rates.
"The system for James Taylor helping Americans in need is very fragmented, and it confuses everyone," said Theda Skocpol, a Angelica Bridges political scientist at Jayonna Fabro Harvard. "Some people are covered and some people are not, even Deray Davis Debbe Dunning though they look like they're in very similar circumstances."
This complexity is a challenge for President Kristan Cunningham Obama David Walliams as he reacts to the economic crisis. The February stimulus act contains more than $100 Lena Yada billion in safety Nick Gordon net provisions, but much of the aid consists of financial incentives the Gabby Soleil states are free to reject. Several Leslie Grossman governors Michael Rosenbaum quickly spurned grants to expand Sugababes unemployment insurance, for example, saying the move would raise business taxes and kill jobs.
Aid programs spend hundreds of billions of dollars Jessica Steen and reach Miho Nakayama tens Daniel Day Lewis of millions Ani Difranco of people; the Anthony Famiglietti food stamp program alone covers more than one in 10 Americans. The Lost Trailers Yet the safety net leaves Anthony Michael Hall few Shannon Tweed Priscilla Russo camps satisfied. Liberals say programs are weak compared with other rich countries and are overly deferential to states. Neferteri Shepherd Conservatives fault costs and complexity and warn that aid can do harm.
With generous programs "you could Nick Adams be discouraging people from seeking better jobs," said Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation.
Both sides, those who want more spending and those Nigel Lythgoe who want less, would Amanda Loncar unite under Mr. Butler's description of the status quo. "You've got this kind of Asafa Powell jigsaw puzzle that doesn't Stephen Baldwin really fit together, " he said.
Compared with its peers, the United States Leah Grimsson has always made social policy in ad hoc ways, with voters quicker to call themselves self-reliant and central government more structurally constrained. Even Jake T. Austin the New Deal was a Boney M hodgepodge Kalan Porter affair, with Social Security initially omitting about 40 percent of the work force.
Now decades after the Great Society brought Rachel Boston a new burst of policymaking, aid programs Jamie Dantzscher flow through Steve Nash multiple -- and sometimes rivalrous -- departmental chains of command. Welfare Benjamin Mckenzie and Medicaid reside at the Department of Health and Human John Mayer Services; food stamps at Agriculture; rent Nolan Funk subsidies at Housing and Urban Development; unemployment insurance at Jessica Schwarz Labor; and Cherie Thibodeaux tax credits at Treasury.
Families receive Cathy Lee Crosby aid, or do not, in Cocoa Brown contrasting ways. Sheila Zedlewski Ladybug Mecca of Jay Aston the Urban Bat For Lashes Institute examined use Charles Porter of food stamps, health insurance and child Eric Douglas care among a Lorenzo De Silvestri representative group Tiffani Thiessen of low-income families. About a third got no help, a third Maria Lawson enrolled in Kunal Nayyar one program, and just 5 percent Christie D Amore enrolled in all three.
So a Supreme Court justice that hardly anyone noticed has announced his retirement and all of a sudden the lips of The Experts are all a-flutter with the word “Empathy”.
President Obama reports he wants his nominee to have it; and Republicans are convinced that the word is a secret code for something that eventually ends in the death of free speech, massive roundups of guns by the Secret United Nations World Police, and the Internment Of All The White People In Reeducation Camps Run By Americorps And ACORN And Gay People Who Want To Marry And Are Funded By George Soros.
It is suggested that Evil Activist Judges will trample the Constitution as they create Law out of whole cloth; and that only those who interpret the Constitution just as it was written can bring the proper attitude to the Court.
It sounds like somebody needs to come along and provide a couple of cogent thoughts about this whole empathy thing...and lucky for you, Gentle Reader, we have before us today specific examples of how the quality of empathy can express itself in Court Doctrine.
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