Day: December 18, 2012

Three Presidents In Same Calendar Year Twice In American History

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Twice in American history, we have had three Presidents in the same calendar year, due to the inauguration of a new President, and the death of that new President the same year.

The years involved are 1841 and 1881.

In 1841, losing President Martin Van Buren left office on March 4, was succeeded by his winning opponent William Henry Harrison, who died a month later precisely (April 4) of pneumonia, and was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler, the first unelected President.

in 1881, retiring President Rutherford B. Hayes was succeeded on March 4 by incoming President James A. Garfield, who was shot four months later, and after two and a half months of suffering, died on September 19, and was succeeded by Vice President Chester Alan Arthur, the fourth of five Presidents never elected to the Presidency.

The odds of such an event happening another time seems highly unlikely, but it managed to happen twice in forty years!

Ways To Cut Medicare Costs, But Keep The Program Solvent Without Raising The Retirement Age

Ronald 3 Comments

With all of the discussion of raising the retirement age for Medicare from 65 to 67, a totally unacceptable idea, there is a way to cut Medicare costs, and still keep the program solvent.

That is to address the issue of hospital infections, which can endanger lives, prolong hospitalizations, and lead to readmissions that raise costs dramatically!

Hospitals need to be held accountable for high infection rates, by penalizing such hospitals with decreased reimbursement from Medicare, to force them to change their practices.

The Centers For Disease Control estimates there are about 1.7 million hospital-associated infections each year, leading to 99,000 unnecessary deaths on the average per year!

Thorough washing of hands in hospitals and nursing homes is an urgent emergency, and the record of hospitals as to infection rate and death rate needs to be exposed for all to see, and that will force hospitals and nursing homes to stop being reckless and careless in their treatment of patients!

Fraud and waste need to be addressed, but also infection rates which will allow more patients to go to a hospital or nursing home, and feel confidence that their medical treatment will be far better than it has been.

And these matters, along with allowing pharmaceutical goods from Canada, taking the power out of the hands of American pharmaceutical companies that wish a monopoly, will also keep the Medicare program alive, well, and prosperous!

These ideas came from a good friend of mine, and a fan of my blog, Maggie Mitchell of Maryland, and I thank her for this blog entry idea! I could not have produced this without her cooperation! She is an advanced practice nurse, Margaret Mitchell, RN, CNS, CHPN!

Westboro Baptist Church Should Lose Its Tax Exempt Status And Be Labeled A Hate Group!

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The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, a truly right wing nut group, mostly of an extended family headed by the Reverend Fred Phelps, which promotes hate of gays and lesbians, and was given the right by the Supreme Court to picket funerals of veterans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, because of the fact that gays are allowed to “exist” in America, is now planning to picket and make noise at the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook Massacre in Connecticut.

Barriers are planned to keep these despicable people far away from the actual funerals,and pickets will counter demonstrate as well, but what needs to be done is to label this whacko group as a hate group by the US Government, and their tax exempt status as a so called “religious” group needs to be revoked!

These are ways to undermine this group, which is the epitome of what is wrong in this country, that such hate filled and extremist groups are allowed to abuse the rights of others, and the serenity of funerals!

Hopefully, this group’s members will get their just punishment in the next world beyond this lifetime on earth!

Paul Krugman And Robert Reich: Sages On The Economy Too Much Ignored!

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We have two brilliant, courageous educators who have promoted the understanding that the only way to get out of the economic downturn we have been in, is to do more stimulus spending, and have proved by what is going on in Europe that austerity is a disastrous policy, but they are too much ignored by many people, who choose to believe the conservative and Republican mantra on the economy, which is to do more of the same economic policies that have failed, those of George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan before him.

Paul Krugman of Princeton University, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and columnist for the New York Times, is a brilliant economist, and has called for a budget package that does not destroy the middle class any more than it is already!

So has Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, and Professor of Political Economy at the University of California, Berkeley, who has advised policies that make sense, but is also ridiculed by those who do not understand our history, and the economic cycle!

To promote austerity is seen as wrong headed, and would lead to a disastrous downturn in the economy, something Great Britain’s government has discovered, and both men advise us NOT to follow the same course!

The future of the middle class and the poor is at stake, and we would be wise to respect and follow the advice and counsel of both Krugman and Reich at this delicate time!

Educators Should NOT Be Responsible For Security, Or To Carry Guns!

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As an educator, it is clear to this author that it is totally insane to expect or suggest that educators, whether teachers or administrators, should have as part of their responsibility, to carry guns, and be ready to use them against someone who is violent in a school situation!

Educators are not paid enough, and are mistreated and disrespected enough as it is, and particularly in Republican controlled states, and now they should become security guards as well?

Many educators would object to the concept that students would be aware that they have deadly weapons on their person or nearby, as that is NOT the proper educational environment, whether elementary school, middle school, high school or a college or university!

Education is designed to reach reason, humanity, thoughtfulness, consideration of the value of human life, It is not designed to act as police officers or military personnel. And many teachers and administrators might over react in a crisis, and lead to the death of more people as a result, including themselves!

Under no circumstances would I ever consider learning about guns, as I have no desire to do so, and no educator should be expected to do so!

Hire uniformed police officers, full time, and military veterans as well, as long as they have been fully investigated as to whether they might have psychological problems, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from combat!

The job of educators is to educate, not be a crime fighting force!

So Texas Congressman, Republican Louie Gohmert, himself a certifiable whacko lunatic, should be totally dismissed as reckless and dangerous, with his ridiculous suggestion of the arming of educators!

Gun Supporters Joe Scarborough, Harry Reid, Joe Manchin, Mark Warner Have Second Thoughts

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In a sign of potential significance, we have seen in the past two days that a number of gun supporters, backers of the Second Amendment, finally realize that something needs to be done to promote regulation in the public interest.

This includes MORNING JOE host Joe Scarborough of MSNBC, former Florida Republican Congressman; and three Democrats–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia.

But except for Scarborough, who has been out of office for a decade, the Republicans in Congress, particularly in the Senate, have remained silent, as has the leadership of the National Rifle Association, which makes too much money out of being in the leadership, to have the guts and the ethics and morality to recognize that they are wrong, and that there needs to be regulation to prevent future Sandy Hook Massacres.

So the Republican Party is again on the wrong side of another issue, and this just makes them move closer to extinction as a major party with a chance to hold national power in the White House and in the US Senate, and only able to keep the House of Representatives by gerrymandering of Republican state legislatures!