Asshole of the Week = CIGNA

RN's Statement on Death of Nataline Sarkisyan: 'CIGNA Should Have Listened to Her Doctors And Approved the Transplant a Week Ago'

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee today blasted insurance giant CIGNA for failing to approve a liver transplant one week earlier for 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, who tragically died last night just hours after CIGNA relented and agreed to the procedure following a massive national outcry.

On Dec. 11, four leading physicians, including the surgical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program at UCLA, wrote to CIGNA urging the company to reverse its denial. The physicians said that Nataline “currently meets criteria to be listed as Status 1A” for a transplant. They also challenged CIGNA’s denial which the company said occurred because their benefit plan “does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services,” to which the doctors replied, “Nataline’s case is in fact none of the above.”

“So what happened between December 11, when CIGNA denied the transplant, and December 20 when they approved? A huge outpouring of protest and CIGNA’s public humiliation. Why didn’t they just listen to the medical professionals at the bedside in the first place?” asked Geri Jenkins, RN, a member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents who works in a transplant unit at the University of California San Diego Medical Center.

On Thursday, CIGNA was bombarded with phone calls to its offices across the country while a rally sponsored by CNA/NNOC, with the substantial help of the local Armenian community, drew 150 people to the Glendale offices of CIGNA – all of which produced the turnaround by CIGNA to finally reverse its prior denial of care.

CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro called the final outcome "a horrific tragedy that demonstrates what is so fundamentally wrong with our health care system today. Insurance companies have a stranglehold on our health. Their first priority is to make profits for their shareholders – and the way they do that is by denying care."

"It is simply not possible to organize major protests every time a multi-billion corporation like CIGNA denies care that has been recommended by a physician," DeMoro said. “Having insurance is not the same as receiving needed care. We need a fundamental change in our healthcare system that takes control away from the insurance giants and places it where it belongs – in the hands of the medical professionals, the patients, and their families."

Political Cartoon of the Week

A vigil for the homeless, past and present

Timothy Lynn attends Operation Safety Net's memorial service for the six individuals who died while living on the streets of Pittsburgh in 2007. Mr. Lynn has lived on the streets of the North Side for four years. The service is part of the National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day on the first day of winter. Operation Safety Net honors those who have died with plaques on the Monroeville Exit overpass on Grant Street.

By Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Photo Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette

The cold wind blowing under the highway ramp last night made it hard for those taking part in the vigil for the homeless to keep their flickering candles lit. But the 30 people attending were not inclined to give up.

The candles were part of Operation Safety Net's service remembering the six homeless people who died on the streets of Pittsburgh in 2007.

It's a disheartening number, but it's five fewer deaths than the city's homeless community experienced last year. The people with Operation Safety Net, which offers medical and social services to the approximately 1,200 homeless individuals in Pittsburgh, take comfort in that.

"It's very difficult to be there all the time," said Dr. James S. Withers, founder and medical director of Operation Safety Net. "Some of the folks, I get a very strong sense that they're going to die. Sometimes it's medical. But there's also a spiritual component. I can just tell, looking into [their] eyes, that they're giving up and that we're probably going to lose them."

The beginning of winter is recognized across the country as National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day. Those gathered last night at the intersection of Grant Street and Fort Pitt Boulevard, under a highway ramp leading out of town, included staff members, volunteers, church representatives, children, some homeless people and a relative of one of those remembered. They spoke about those who died, offered prayers and sang "Amazing Grace."

Hanging on the concrete wall were 88 plaques -- including one that reads "unknown" -- in commemoration of the homeless people who died in Pittsburgh and the years in which they passed, dating back to 1989.

"This is a meaningful location because I've known a lot of the people who slept on these stones," said Dr. Withers, who founded Operation Safety Net in 1992. "We remember these folks. But I really celebrate the ones that are able to courageously get their lives together and get off the streets."

In 2006, the program helped 53 people to housing. This year's total, though not final, probably will be higher, he said.

The six homeless people remembered last night were:

• James Singletary (He is incorrectly listed as "John" on the plaque.) He was a quiet man who would volunteer to help others out.

• Sonya Thomas had a cat and loved to sing. She was remembered as "a people person" who gave of herself.

• Gerald Tokar was an intelligent man who once worked with NASA's Apollo program. Jerry tried to make those around him better off.

• Larry Mays used a wheelchair and had a great sense of humor. An educated man, he had a healthy appetite and always had a smile on his face.

• Dirk Payne struggled to lead a normal life, losing battles against forces he could not control. He was trying, and that's what counted.

• Vernon Howard was a mystery man, whose remains were found.

"Maybe it's appropriate," Dr. Withers said, "that we end with a man who otherwise would be forgotten. We pray that he is at peace."

Of the six homeless people who died, Dr. Withers said, two were killed. One died from infection and one from alcoholism. Two died of unknown causes.

Joe Edwards, 44, one of the homeless men at the ceremony, spoke of the "community" of homeless people in Pittsburgh, who "stick together."

"They help each other out," said Mr. Edwards, who used to live in the Turtle Creek area but now spends his nights in a doorway off a driveway Downtown. "If there's a new person, they'll show them where to go."

"This is an opportunity for us to acknowledge that we're all connected, that we're all brothers and sisters, and that the folks that passed away are not forgotten," Dr. Withers said. "This is not just about the people who have died, but also people that are still out there. People that are cold, that are hungry, that feel that they're alone. We remember them and we dedicate ourselves to making sure that they know that there's love and there's hope, if we work together.

"Unfortunately, I know we'll be here again next year."

Homeless Memorial Day

I made this slide show awhile ago, dedicated to the people I work with and the homeless folks of Pittsburgh. Today is National Homeless Memorial Day remembering all those who died on the streets. There are many names on the memorial wall downtown of street people who have died here. I wonder if other towns have a wall like ours? Rest In Peace my Friends

Lakota group pushes for new nation

Activist and actor Russell Means speaks at a news conference Wednesday in Washington on the Lakota Sioux Indian withdrawal from all treaties with the U.S. government.

WASHINGTON - A group of "freedom-loving" Lakota activists announced a plan Wednesday for their people to withdraw from treaties their forefathers signed with the U.S. government.

Headed by leaders of the American Indian Movement, including activist, actor and Porcupine resident Russell Means, the group dropped in on the State Department and the embassies of Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and South Africa this week seeking recognition for their effort to form a free and independent Lakota nation. The group plans to visit more embassies in the coming months.

The new nation is needed because Indians have been "dismissed" by the United States and are tired of living under a colonial apartheid system, Means said during a news conference held at Plymouth Congregational Church in northeast Washington. He was accompanied by a bodyguard and three other Lakota activists - Gary Rowland, Duane Martin and Phyllis Young, all of South Dakota.

"I want to emphasize, we do not represent the collaborators, the Vichy Indians and those tribal governments set up by the United States of America to ensure our poverty, to ensure the theft of our land and resources," Means said, comparing elected tribal governments to Nazi collaborators in France during World War II.

Rodney Bordeaux, chairman of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said his community has no desire to join the breakaway nation. Means and his group, which call themselves the Lakota Freedom Delegation, have never officially pitched their views to the Rosebud community, Bordeaux said.

"Our position on that is we need to uphold the treaties, and we're constantly reminding Congress of that message," Bordeaux said. "We're pushing to maintain and to keep the treaties there because they're the basis of our relationship with the federal government."

Nation's proposals

Members of the new nation would not pay any taxes, and leaders would be informally chosen by community elders, Means said. Non-Indians could continue to live in the new nation's territory, which would consist of the western parts of North and South Dakota and Nebraska and eastern parts of Wyoming and Montana. The new government would issue its own passports and drivers licenses, Means said.

"Our withdrawal (from the treaties) is fully thought out," Means said, referring to peace treaties the Lakota people signed with the government in 1851 and 1868. "We were mandated by our elders in 1974 to do two things. First, to establish relationships with the international community... and the second mandate, of course, was to reestablish our independence."

Bolivian Ambassador Gustavo Guzman, who attended the press conference out of solidarity, said he takes the Lakotas' declaration of independence seriously.

"We are here because the demands of indigenous people of America are our demands," Guzman said. "We have sent all the documents they presented to the embassy to our ministry of foreign affairs in Bolivia and they'll analyze everything."

Lakota Indians Withdraw Treaties Signed With U.S. 150 Years Ago

WASHINGTON — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means said.

A delegation of Lakota leaders has delivered a message to the State Department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the U.S., some of them more than 150 years old.

The group also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.

Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free - provided residents renounce their U.S. citizenship, Mr Means said.

The treaties signed with the U.S. were merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists said.

Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said.

"This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution,'' which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.

"It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent,'' said Means.

The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence — an overt play on the title of the United States' Declaration of Independence from England.

Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row,'' Means said.

One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples — despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws.

"We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children,'' Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977, told the news conference.

The U.S. "annexation'' of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people,'' said Means.

Oppression at the hands of the U.S. government has taken its toll on the Lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies - less than 44 years - in the world.

Lakota teen suicides are 150 per cent above the norm for the U.S.; infant mortality is five times higher than the U.S. average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.

Weapons of Mass Deception

I find it very strange that there are people that still believe that Saddam had WMD's

CountDown: Tales Of The Tapes

John Lee Hooker & Santana - The Healer

"When Democracy Failed by Thom Hartmann"

Election? What Election?

Bob Dylan once Sang

Now, the man on the stand he wants my vote
He's a-runnin' for office on a ballot note
He's out there preachin' in' front of the steeple
Tellin' me he loves all kinds of people.
He's eatin' bagels, he's eatin' pizzas, he's eatin' chitlins.

I say

There isn't anyone running that I give a dam about
Someone please tell me the difference

Dylan Sang

well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody's having them dreams.
Everybody sees themselves walkin' around with no one else.
Half of the people can be part right all of the time,
Some of the people can be all right part of the time.
But all the people can't be all right all the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that.
"I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours,"
I said that.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut

Ridley Scott's cyberpunk masterpiece is out in a 4 DVD set.

PPA Ad: "Bad Beat"

I play poker online for play money, last count over 17G worth, I still support and I am a member of The Poker Players Alliance

Army Times' Article Describes U.S. Troop 'Mutiny' in Iraq

By E&P Staff


Published: December 16, 2007 8:20 PM ET


NEW YORK While violence is down in Iraq, Americans continue to die and fall badly wounded, and suffer severe stress and trauma caused by 15-month tours of duty. A remarkable article on Friday in the Army Times is titled: "Not us. We’re not going: Soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Charlie 1-26 stage a ‘mutiny’ that pulls the unit apart."


Here are two excerpts. The first describes only one of several incidents that drove many soldiers to "stand down." The second looks at how some responded. The entire lengthy piece by staff writer Kelly Kennedy can be found at:


http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/bloodbrothers3/



Lt. Col. John Reynolds replaced Lt. Col. Eric Schacht as battalion commander July 8. Schacht left after his son died of a heart condition in Germany, the same day Charlie Company lost five men in the Bradley. Even with the high operations tempo and the loss of so many men, Reynolds called the changeover “easy.”


“It was the best transition you could get,” he said.


But within days, he would lose five men, including a respected senior non-commissioned officer. Master Sgt. Jeffrey McKinney, Alpha Company’s first sergeant, was known as a family man and as a good leader because he was intelligent and could explain things well. But Staff Sgt. Jeremy Rausch of Charlie Company’s 1st Platoon, a good friend of McKinney’s, said McKinney told him he felt he was letting his men down in Adhamiya.


“First Sergeant McKinney was kind of a perfectionist and this was bothering him very much,” Rausch said. On July 11, McKinney was ordered to lead his men on a foot patrol to clear the roads of IEDs. Everyone at Apache heard the call come in from Adhamiya, where Alpha Company had picked up the same streets Charlie had left. Charlie’s 1st Platoon had also remained behind, and Rausch said he would never forget the fear he heard in McKinney’s driver’s voice:


“This is Apache seven delta,” McKinney’s driver said in a panicked voice over the radio. “Apache seven just shot himself. He just shot himself. Apache seven shot himself.”


Rausch said there was no misunderstanding what had happened.


According to Charlie Company soldiers, McKinney said, “I can’t take it anymore,” and fired a round. Then he pointed his M4 under his chin and killed himself in front of three of his men.


At Old Mod, Charlie Company was called back in for weapons training, DeNardi said. They were told it was an accident. Then they were told it was under investigation. And then they were told it was a suicide. Reynolds confirmed that McKinney took his own life.



.... 2nd Platoon had gathered for a meeting and determined they could no longer function professionally in Adhamiya — that several platoon members were afraid their anger could set loose a massacre.


“We said, ‘No.’ If you make us go there, we’re going to light up everything,” DeNardi said. “There’s a thousand platoons. Not us. We’re not going.”


They decided as a platoon that they were done, DeNardi and Cardenas said, as did several other members of 2nd Platoon. At mental health, guys had told the therapist, “I’m going to murder someone.” And the therapist said, “There comes a time when you have to stand up,” 2nd Platoon members remembered. For the sake of not going to jail, the platoon decided they had to be “unplugged.”


Ybay had gone to battalion to speak up for his guys and ask for more time. But when he came back, it was with orders to report to Old Mod.


Ybay said he tried to persuade his men to go out, but he could see they were not ready.


“It was like a scab that wouldn’t heal up,” Ybay said. “I couldn’t force them to go out. Listening to them in the mental health session, I could hear they’re not ready.”


At 2 a.m, Ybay said, he’d found his men sitting outside smoking cigarettes. They could not sleep. Some of them were taking as many as 10 sleeping pills and still could not rest. The images of their dead friends haunted them. The need for revenge ravaged them.

Winter Morning in the Burgh