It's the repugicans that are Gunning for Grandma

It's the repugicans that are out to get Granny.

It was Grassley himself who devised the "Throw Mama From the Train" provision of the repugican's 2001 tax cut.
The estate-tax revision he championed will reduce the estate tax to zero next year.
But when it expires at year's end, the tax will jump back up to its previous level of 55 percent.

Grassley's exploding tax break has an entirely foreseeable, if unintended, consequence: it incentivizes ailing, elderly rich people to end their lives—paging Dr. Kevorkian—before midnight on Dec. 31, 2010. It also gives their children an incentive to sign DNR orders and switch off respirators in time for the deadline.

This would be a great plot for a P. D. James novel if it weren't an actual piece of legislation.

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Money-Driven Medicine

Why Our Health Care is So Expensive, and So Ineffective

DR. DONALD BERWICK: It is, I guess, politically correct, widely believed, that to say that American health care is the best in the world. It's not. There's a much more complicated story there. For some kinds of care my colleague Brent James calls it rescue care. Yes, we're the best in the world. If you need very complex cardiac surgery or very advanced chemotherapy for your cancer or some audacious intervention with organ transplantation, you're pretty lucky to be in America.

You'll get it faster and you'll probably get it better than in at least most other countries. Rescue care we're great. But most health care isn't that. Most health care is getting people with diabetes through their illness over years or controlling the pain of someone with arthritis or just answering a question for someone who is worried or preventing them from getting into trouble in the first place. And on those scores: Chronic disease care, community-based care, primary care, preventive care. No no, we're no where near the best. And it's reflected in our outcomes.

We're something like the ... We're not the best health care system in the world in infant mortality rates. We're like number 23. There is an index that is used in rating health care systems, which is the rate of mortality that could have been prevented by health care. There are at least a dozen countries with lower rates of preventable mortalities than the United States and not one of those countries spends 60 percent of what we do on health care.

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Until Medical Bills Do Us Part

We know just how she feels ...

My friend M. — you’ll understand in a moment why she’s terrified of my using her name — had to make a searing decision a year ago. She was married to a sweet, gentle man whom she loved, but who had become increasingly absent-minded. Finally, he was diagnosed with early-onset dementia.

The disease is degenerative, and he will become steadily less able to care for himself. At some point, as his medical needs multiply, he will probably need to be institutionalized.

The hospital arranged a conference call with a social worker, who outlined how the dementia and its financial toll on the family would progress, and then added, out of the blue: “Maybe you should divorce.”

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Gadhafi won't stay in Englewood, NJ

U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman said late Friday he's been given assurances from a representative of the Libyan government that Moammar Gadhafi won't stay in Englewood, N.J., when he visits the United States next month to address the U.N. General Assembly, a visit that has sparked angry protests.

The Libyan government has been renovating an estate there.

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UAE tells UN it seized ship carrying secret cache of North Korea arms intended for Iran

The United Arab Emirates has seized a cargo ship earlier this month bound for Iran with a cache of banned arms from North Korea, the first such seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up, diplomats and officials said Friday.

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We All Sleep Alone

Cher

Man Shoots Himself in Leg in Road Rage Incident

A man who was a real bad shot in Lancaster, NY ended up shooting himself in the leg after a road rage incident late Wednesday.

Full Story

Is Glenn Beck too much a wing nut even for Faux News?

It may in the end have little impact on the bottom line of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, but a fast-gathering boycott by some of America's best-known conglomerates of Glenn Beck, a wing nut liar on his Faux News channel in the US, is beginning to take on embarrassing proportions.

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Tape recordings from the Nixon White House betray a preoccupation with the Kennedy mystique

Richard Nixon was so preoccupied with the Kennedy family and the possibility of another defeat handed to him by another Kennedy -- Ted -- that he ordered aides to recruit Secret Service agents to spill secrets on the senator's behavior.

The president tried to catch Kennedy cheating on his wife, while at the same time finding the couple to be "crude" in their "super-swingin' jet-set" lifestyle.

In a series of stark Oval Office conversations about Kennedy before the 1972 election, Nixon spoke with aides John Erhlichman, H.R. Haldeman and Ron Ziegler.

Nixon wanted to find a way to keep an eye on Kennedy.

"Do you have anybody in the Secret Service that you can get to?" he asked. "Yeah, yeah," Ehrlichman replied.

"Plant one," Nixon said. "Plant two guys on him. This could be very useful."

Nixon made clear that the Secret Service protection afforded Kennedy before the 1972 election would be rescinded after. Then, said the president, "If he gets shot, it's too damn bad."

Tape recordings from the Nixon White House betray a preoccupation with the Kennedy mystique and how that might be used against the Republican president by the last surviving brother, who died Tuesday at age 77.

Nixon's men had investigators tail Ted Kennedy on a Hawaii vacation and when he was at his Martha's Vineyard haunts.

"He was in Hawaii on his own. He was staying in some guy's villa. He was just as nice as could be the whole time," Ehrlichman reported.

On the night of July 18, 1969, Kennedy had driven off a bridge into the water at Chappaquiddick, Mass., swimming to safety while the woman with him, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and a judge said his actions probably contributed to her death. He got a suspended sentence and probation.

Nixon wanted a sharp and private eye kept on Kennedy's movements after Chappaquiddick, hoping to expose another misstep with a woman other than his wife, Joan.

"The thing to do is watch him," Nixon said.

During that talk, Nixon's aides spoke in mortified language about how Joan Kennedy wanted to wear "hot pants" to a White House function until her husband talked her out of it. The talk also drifted into his Joan's eye-popping outfit at a White House luncheon.

One exchange:

Haldeman: "Did you see his wife came here at the White House again � crazy outfit...."

Nixon: "What did she wear?"

Haldeman: "Some leather gaucho, with a bare midriff or something."

Ziegler: "Well, no, they put on a body stocking which is flesh tone."

Haldeman: "Oh, is that it?"

Ziegler: "And then they wrap the leather gaucho type thing around it. So you look at it from a distance, and you think my God, there she is."

Haldeman: "She was going to wear hot pants but Teddy told her she couldn't."

Ziegler: "They're weird people, they really are. I mean, even the _"

Nixon: "It's crude. What the hell's the matter with them? What's she trying to prove?"

Haldeman: "Whatever it is, she ain't gaining many votes, because they've got � the super-swinger, jet-set types are going to be for them and not for you no matter what happens."

Ziegler: "The super-swingin' jet-set types don't even relate to that type thing. It's a very, very small group."

Haldeman: "Middle American folk, that's desecration of the White House to most Americans ..."

Ziegler: "She has to have some sort of hang-up herself personally. She knows what Teddy was doing out there with that girl, running her into the water, you know, and what he's been doing."

Haldeman: "But that family's used to that."

Nixon: "They do it all the time."

But in the aftermath of the Chappaquiddick scandal, Kennedy was careful not to step out of line, the tapes suggest.

"Does he do anything?" Nixon asked in a September 1971 meeting. "No, no, he's very clean," Ehrlichman replied.

"President Nixon never forgot his humiliating defeat in the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy," said Luke A. Nichter, a leading authority on the Nixon White House recordings and assistant history professor at Texas A&M University. "Nixon did not intend to simply win in 1972; he wanted to destroy his opponent."

"If that opponent was a Kennedy, Nixon cautiously welcomed that opportunity but left nothing to chance," Nichter said. "That is what these long-obscured recordings show us."

Nichter features and analyzes the recordings at his Web site, nixontapes.org. The material has been released by the government over the years.

By April 1971, when the first of these exchanges was captured by the White House taping system, Kennedy was a damaged political figure.

Despite the Chappaquiddick episode, Nixon was plainly worried about Kennedy's political potency yet confident the Democrat could not restrain a philandering impulse. "I predict something more is going to happen," he said. "The reason I would cover him is from a personal standpoint -- you're likely to find something."

Nixon pressed for more wiretaps and a combing of tax records, not only on Kennedy but other leading Democrats. "I could only hope that we are, frankly, doing a little persecuting," he said.

At one point, he expressed hesitation about whether his actions were proper.

The moment quickly passed.

"I don't know," Nixon mused to Haldeman, his chief of staff. "Maybe it's the wrong thing to do. But I have a feeling that if you're going to start, better start now."

Because Kennedy was not a presidential candidate in 1972, he did not qualify for full-time Secret Service protection. But Nixon offered it to Ted Kennedy, given the assassinations of his brothers, President John Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, and right after Alabama Gov. George Wallace was shot in May 1972.

The offer was conveyed by Treasury Secretary John Connally, who was in charge of the Secret Service, in a phone call with Kennedy. The former Texas governor was riding in the car with JKF and was wounded when the president was assassinated in Dallas.

"Very frankly," Connally said, "I don't know that they could save you but there's a damn good chance they could if some nut came up. And you ought not to be reluctant about it. I know you're not a candidate but you're exposed."

Ted Kennedy expressed thanks and asked for protection at his home, to start.

But Nixon's motives for the offer were not pure. He worried that if a third Kennedy were shot, and while not having Secret Service protection, he'd be blamed.

Plus, he wanted dirt. And the best way to get it was to have a Secret Service agent rat on the senator. There is no evidence an agent turned into such an informer.

"You understand what the problem is," Nixon told Haldeman and Ehrlichman on Sept. 7, 1972. "If the (SOB) gets shot they'll say we didn't furnish it (protection). So you just buy his insurance.

"After the election, he doesn't get a ... thing. If he gets shot, it's too damn bad. Do it under the basis, though, that we pick the Secret Service men.

"Understand what I'm talking about?"

An Internet Czar?

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, [pictured] a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

"I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness," said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. "It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill."

Representatives of other large Internet and telecommunications companies expressed concerns about the bill in a teleconference with Rockefeller's aides this week, but were not immediately available for interviews on Thursday.

A spokesman for Rockefeller also declined to comment on the record Thursday, saying that many people were unavailable because of the summer recess. A Senate source familiar with the bill compared the president's power to take control of portions of the Internet to what President Bush did when grounding all aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001. The source said that one primary concern was the electrical grid, and what would happen if it were attacked from a broadband connection.

When Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced the original bill in April, they claimed it was vital to protect national cybersecurity. "We must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs--from our water to our electricity, to banking, traffic lights and electronic health records," Rockefeller said.

The Rockefeller proposal plays out against a broader concern in Washington, D.C., about the government's role in cybersecurity. In May, President Obama acknowledged that the government is "not as prepared" as it should be to respond to disruptions and announced that a new cybersecurity coordinator position would be created inside the White House staff. Three months later, that post remains empty, one top cybersecurity aide has quit, and some wags have begun to wonder why a government that receives failing marks on cybersecurity should be trusted to instruct the private sector what to do.

Rockefeller's revised legislation seeks to reshuffle the way the federal government addresses the topic. It requires a "cybersecurity workforce plan" from every federal agency, a "dashboard" pilot project, measurements of hiring effectiveness, and the implementation of a "comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy" in six months--even though its mandatory legal review will take a year to complete.

The privacy implications of sweeping changes implemented before the legal review is finished worry Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "As soon as you're saying that the federal government is going to be exercising this kind of power over private networks, it's going to be a really big issue," he says.

Probably the most controversial language begins in Section 201, which permits the president to "direct the national response to the cyber threat" if necessary for "the national defense and security." The White House is supposed to engage in "periodic mapping" of private networks deemed to be critical, and those companies "shall share" requested information with the federal government. ("Cyber" is defined as anything having to do with the Internet, telecommunications, computers, or computer networks.)

"The language has changed but it doesn't contain any real additional limits," EFF's Tien says. "It simply switches the more direct and obvious language they had originally to the more ambiguous (version)...The designation of what is a critical infrastructure system or network as far as I can tell has no specific process. There's no provision for any administrative process or review. That's where the problems seem to start. And then you have the amorphous powers that go along with it."

Translation: If your company is deemed "critical," a new set of regulations kick in involving who you can hire, what information you must disclose, and when the government would exercise control over your computers or network.

The Internet Security Alliance's Clinton adds that his group is "supportive of increased federal involvement to enhance cyber security, but we believe that the wrong approach, as embodied in this bill as introduced, will be counterproductive both from an national economic and national secuity perspective."

Jena Longo, deputy communications director for the Senate Commerce committee issued this statement:

The president of the United States has always had the constitutional authority, and duty, to protect the American people and direct the national response to any emergency that threatens the security and safety of the United States. The Rockefeller-Snowe Cybersecurity bill makes it clear that the president's authority includes securing our national cyber infrastructure from attack. The section of the bill that addresses this issue, applies specifically to the national response to a severe attack or natural disaster. This particular legislative language is based on longstanding statutory authorities for wartime use of communications networks. To be very clear, the Rockefeller-Snowe bill will not empower a "government shutdown or takeover of the Internet" and any suggestion otherwise is misleading and false. The purpose of this language is to clarify how the president directs the public-private response to a crisis, secure our economy and safeguard our financial networks, protect the American people, their privacy and civil liberties, and coordinate the government's response.

Why banks are still struggling

Why banks are still struggling

Many banks are still floundering even though the economy is starting to turn around.

'How bad is it?'

Also:

• Is your bank safe?
• $100k call-center jobs

Expenses that are keeping you in debt

Expenses that are keeping you in debt

Here are 7 spending habits that could be keeping you from living debt-free.

Easy changes to make

Also:

• U.S. consumer mood dips
• The best-paying cities

Conversation pitfalls to avoid

Conversation pitfalls to avoid

Comments like "You look tired" and "You look good for your age" can be misconstrued.

What to say instead

Also:

• Etiquette mistakes
• Stress-free work tips

How to open hard plastic packaging

How to open hard plastic packaging

A common kitchen tool can open rigid, sealed plastic that encases electronics.

Surprisingly easy

Also:

• Guide to recycling plastic
• Get free stuff online

'Shoe thrower' freed early

'Shoe thrower' freed early

The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at the shrub wins an early release from jail.

(He should have never been jailed in the first place)

Court's rationale

Also:

• Iraq's legal system
• U.S. pullout in danger?

Soccer Tournament

We spent the entire day on the football pitch watching our grandson playing in a soccer tournament today.
The 8am game was warm and wet (a very heavy dew) - the 2:45pm game was Bloody Hot but at least it was dry.

The officiating in both game left something to be desired.
However, the early game official has no business trying to claim to be a referee - he was atrocious and completely biased in favor of one particular team.
The afternoon game's official let some things go but called many penalties (more than were warranted but he did so more or less evenly).

As a former player and official I was appalled by the first official's total lack of knowledge of the game and bias and tried four separate times to lodge a formal complaint with the tournament body only to have them run off in another direction or try to pawn off my concerns onto some 'non-existent' person 'in charge' of officials who never seemed to be on the pitch the entire day.

So if you or your child ever have occasion to be at the Akien South Carolina Soccer Tournament be aware it is poorly run all around and the officials -if you can call them that - are not going to call a fair (or any resemblance of fair) game should your child play on a team not of their liking.

As to the grandson's team - having only played one game prior to the tournament together as a team they did considerably well against their early opponent and the referee. Although play that appeared to be 'forced and nervous' at the outset of the match wasn't helped by the illegal play of their opponents (such as handling the ball -literally, pulling players down from behind by grabbing their shirts, and so on) and bogus calls from the official they still managed to keep their opponents to two goals despite the best efforts of the official to run up the score.

In their later game the nervousness disappeared but play digressed for both teams as fatigue and the heat took it's toll to where the match ended as nothing more than everyone clustering around the ball and kicking - an ugly sight to any player, especially those on the pitch at the time but with temperatures above 90F and having played all day it was bound to occur.

And I Quote

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

~ Edgar Allan Poe

Welcome new readers

The staff here at Carolina Naturally would like to welcome our newest readers in our 174th country: Angola

Angola

Saturday Jam

Saturday's Jam today includes:

Imagine

John Lennon (live-acoustic guitar version)

Let's Live For Today

The Grass Roots

President Obama's Weekly Address

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, August 29, 2009

This weekend marks the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of the Gulf Coast. As we remember all that was lost, we must take stock of the work being done on recovery, while preparing for future disasters. And that is what I want to speak with you about today.

None of us can forget how we felt when those winds battered the shore, the floodwaters began to rise, and Americans were stranded on rooftops and in stadiums. Over a thousand people would lose their lives. Over a million people were displaced. Whole neighborhoods of a great American city were left in ruins. Communities across the Gulf Coast were forever changed. And many Americans questioned whether government could fulfill its responsibility to respond in a crisis, or contribute to a recovery that covered parts of four states.

Since taking office in January, my Administration has focused on helping citizens finish the work of rebuilding their lives and communities, while taking steps to prevent similar catastrophes going forward. Our approach is simple: government must keep its responsibility to the people, so that Americans have the opportunity to take responsibility for their future.

That is the work that we are doing. To date, eleven members of my Cabinet have visited the Gulf Coast, and I’m looking forward to going to New Orleans later this year. To complete a complex recovery that addresses nearly every sector of society, we have prioritized coordination among different federal agencies, and with state and local governments. No more turf wars – all of us need to move forward together, because there is much more work to be done.

I have also made it clear that we will not tolerate red tape that stands in the way of progress, or the waste that can drive up the bill. Government must be a partner – not an opponent – in getting things done. That is why we have put in place innovative review and dispute resolution programs to expedite recovery efforts, and have freed up hundreds of millions of dollars of federal assistance that had not been distributed. This is allowing us to move forward with stalled projects across the Gulf Coast – building and improving schools; investing in public health and safety; and repairing broken roads, bridges and homes. And this effort has been dramatically amplified by the Recovery Act, which has put thousands of Gulf Coast residents to work.

As we complete this effort, we see countless stories of citizens holding up their end of the bargain. In New Orleans, hundreds of kids just started the school year at Langston Hughes elementary, the first school built from scratch since Katrina. The St. Bernard Project has drawn together volunteers to rebuild hundreds of homes, where people can live with dignity and security. To cite just one hopeful indicator, New Orleans is the fastest growing city in America, as many who had been displaced are now coming home.

As we rebuild and recover, we must also learn the lessons of Katrina, so that our nation is more protected and resilient in the face of disaster. That means continuing to rebuild hundreds of miles of levees and floodwalls around New Orleans, and working to strengthen the wetlands and barrier islands that are the Gulf Coast’s first line of defense. In Washington, that means a focus on competence and accountability – and I’m proud that my FEMA Administrator has 25 years of experience in disaster management in Florida, a state that has known its share of hurricanes. And across the country, that means improving coordination among different agencies, modernizing our emergency communications, and helping families plan for a crisis.

On this anniversary, we are focused on the threat from hurricanes. But we must also be prepared for a broad range of dangers – from wildfires and earthquakes, to terrorist attacks and pandemic disease. In particular, my Administration is working aggressively with state and local governments – and with partners around the world – to prepare for the risk posed by the H1N1 virus. To learn more about the simple steps that you can take to keep you and your family safe from all of these dangers, please visit www.ready.gov.

So on this day, we commemorate a tragedy that befell our people. But we also remember that with every tragedy comes the chance of renewal. It is a quintessentially American notion – that adversity can give birth to hope, and that the lessons of the past hold the key to a better future. From the streets of New Orleans to the Mississippi Coast, folks are beginning the next chapter in their American stories. And together, we can ensure that the legacy of a terrible storm is a country that is safer and more prepared for the challenges that may come. Thank you.

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Today is More Herbs, Less Salt Day.

Daily Almanac

Today is Saturday, Aug. 29, the 241st day of 2009.

There are 124 days left in the year.

Today in History, August 29.

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
Bucharest, Bucuresti, Romania

as well as Scotland, and the United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You're unstoppable right now.
To-do lists disappear in the blink of an eye.
Mountains get moved with the simple touch of a finger.
The stars have taken your natural industriousness and multiplied it, so if there's been anything exceptionally big on your agenda that you've put off tackling, now is definitely the time to address it.
You have so much energy that needs to be put to use!

Been doing it.