WalMart decided to expand into Washington D.C. with three stores actually building, and three more underway. This expansion had been negotiated by many Council operatives, as well as others, who wished to get a major employer into the D.C. zone, no doubt well aware that voters will remember the guys who pulled a reluctant giant into their neighbourhood.

But the same Council has now, by proposing and publishing a Super-Minimum-Wage-Proposal which would mandate any retailer who operates above a $1 billion-turnover from premises greater than 75,000 sq. feet to pay a minimum wage of $12.50-per-hour, an increase  of some 50% above the Washington DC legal minimum wage.

So the very much non-unionised WalMart has told the Council, politely but firmly, that if this legislation is passed, WalMart will immediately cease any further negotiations on the three proposed stores, and think very, very hard about actually operating the three major builds underway right now.

The question is, does any  operation have the moral right to state that, if the game’s rules are changed after play starts, they will pack up and leave, as it is, after all, their ball?

In the area of possible and credible controls on guns, gun owners, sizes of magazines, etc.; along with all the other issues raised by this truly delicate subject, one man and his very well-funded organization has become a true stumbling block to any progress at all. The man is of course Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York, and his organization is ‘Mayors against illegal guns’.

I have my own view on ‘gun control’ as well as the Second Amendment, and I accept that there are probably as many views as there are Americans. But I have a small question for Mayor Bloomberg, and it is this:-

“If you wish to disarm all Americans, or even only just a few, will you start by confirming that none of your bodyguards and security men will be armed from the day that you succeed in passing any of your authoritarian ideas into law?”

Sometime back I wrote of the largest and possibly the most important (then) leak of secret and confidential documentation in over forty years; and of the man responsible for that leak, Daniel Ellsberg. Many may disagree with my strong admiration for this man, his motives and his beliefs, but I continue to state that this is what America was built upon; a man whose belief and actions may have been seen to be against the Law, but that same law, in the form of the Supreme Court of the United States, stated that he was he was in the right to expose lies, deceit and Government treachery.

So who better to comment upon the release of information which, although sketchy, seems to point straight at an egregious breach of that same Constitution which Ellsberg strove to defend against the unscrupulous actions of the soon-to-be-impeached President Nixon and his gang of thieves, bullies and liars?

If you believe this is Bush’s fault, or none of this is a problem…. your a Schmuck !

Limbaugh: 'We are in the midst of a coup'...
NSA, FBI secretly mining data from Internet firms...
'THEY QUITE LITERALLY CAN WATCH YOUR IDEAS AS YOU TYPE'...
MICROSOFTYAHOOGOOGLEYOUTUBEFACEBOOKSKYPEAPPLE...
Top-secret PRISM program...
Vast Data Trove...
Billions of Phone Calls...
Justice Dept Fights Release of Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional Surveillance...
USA spends $80 billion year on secret information gathering...
Postal service photographs front and back of EVERY piece of mail it processes...

The Gestapo and the KGB only dreamed of being able to do what is being done.

And the Truth shall set you free!

Abolish insurance

Dr. Michael Ciampi took a step this spring that many of his fellow physicians would describe as radical.

The family physician stopped accepting all forms of health insurance […]

But the decision to do away with insurance allows Ciampi to practice medicine the way he sees fit, he said. Insurance companies no longer dictate how much he charges. He can offer discounts to patients struggling with their medical bills. He can make house calls.

“I’m freed up to do what I think is right for the patients,” Ciampi said. “If I’m providing them a service that they value, they can pay me, and we cut the insurance out as the middleman and cut out a lot of the expense.” […]

…“I’ve been able to cut my prices in half because my overhead will be so much less,” he said […]

Before, Ciampi charged $160 for an office visit with an existing patient facing one or more complicated health problems. Now, he charges $75.

Patients with an earache or strep throat can spend $300 at their local hospital emergency room, or promptly get an appointment at his office and pay $50, he said.[…]

“If more doctors were able to do this, that would be real health care reform,” he said. “That’s when we’d see the cost of medicine truly go down.”

Read the rest of this entry »

I note that the IRS is under fire for targeting (surprise!) political opponents who sought tax-exempt status, especially ones with ‘Tea Party’, with rigorous challenges and requests for donor lists (illegal). Also under scrutiny were groups who chose to educate Americans about their Constitution.

Reminds me of a previous era, under a slightly different political colour and President. One hopes that the present attempt to subvert any opposition to the words of the Great One will come to the same sticky end!

I can now state that the actual number of people who responded to the calls for help from the house on Seymour Avenue is presently catalogued at 735, and counting.

It should be noted that the vast majority of claimants also state that publicity or financial reward is the last thing on their mind; and that justice against the Castro brother who held these women is all they are interested in.

This, by the way, Hilary, is the difference it makes!