Monthly Archives: March 2017

New York Times

The Fake Freedom of American Health Care New York Times Such is the cost of freedom. As House Speaker Paul Ryan put it in a tweet: Freedom is the ability to buy what you want to fit what you need. Vice President Mike Pence picked up that baton: Obamacare will be replaced with something that actually ...

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The Fake Freedom of American Health Care - New York Times

Fox News host Chris Wallace pointed out to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Sunday that his plan to reform the health care system would crush older Americans by forcing them to either drop insurance coverage or pay thousands more.

During a Sunday interview, Wallace said that 24 million fewer Americans overall would have insurance under the Ryan plan in 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

You said that part of that is that this is what freedom looks like, Wallace recalled. But is the major decrease in the number of people according to the CBO who will have health insurance, is it freedom or is it that some people will no longer be able to afford health insurance under your plan?

Wallace noted a CBO estimate which said that a 64 year old making less than $27,000 a year will pay $14,600 a year for health insurance instead of the $1,700 they pay now under President Barack Obamas law.

What theyre saying is that this isnt freedom, this isnt people voluntarily deciding not to have health insurance, Wallace remarked. Its that your plan makes it unaffordable for people.

Ryan argued that Obamacare was not going to last, and he agreed that older people were not getting enough assistance under his plan.

Were not going to make people buy something thats so expensive that they cant afford, that the market is not going to offer, the Speaker insisted. And so where I dispute that comparison is it suggests that were going to have the same kinds of plans being offered in 10 years that Obamacare would otherwise offer.

The person in their 50s or 60s does have additional health care costs than, say, a person in their 20s and 30s, Ryan continued. Youre right in saying and we agree we believe we should have even more assistance and thats one of the things were looking at for that person in their 50s and 60s.

So, youre going to change the plan? Wallace pressed.

That is among the things were looking at doing, yes, Ryan replied cagily. And the point I would say is, were going to let people buy what they want to buy. Were going to have more plans being offered, more choice and competition.

Watch the video below from Fox News Sunday, broadcast March 19, 2017.

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'This isn't freedom': Chris Wallace grills Paul Ryan for plan to crush seniors with health care costs - Raw Story

George W. Bush said: Helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable and free country will require our sustained commitment. | AP Photo

On this day in 2003, President George W. Bush announced the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The U.S.-led invasion was, according to Bush, aimed at ridding Iraq of its dictator, Saddam Hussein, and eliminating its ability to store, develop and deploy its stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

In a nationwide televised address, Bush said: Helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable and free country will require our sustained commitment. He acknowledged the substantial domestic opposition to the war and said that he had only reluctantly authorized the invasion. At the same time, the president noted his administrations refusal to live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.

Story Continued Below

Within six weeks, the pre-emptive strike morphed into an occupation. Saddam's eventual capture by U.S. troops led to his trial in an Iraqi court, which sentenced him to death by hanging.

A post-invasion investigation by the Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs in 1991 but that it intended to resume production if sanctions were lifted. Some investigators concluded Saddam, when it came to the offending weapons, was engaged in a big bluff.

Although Bush announced on May 1, 2003, that the U.S. mission had been accomplished, violence against coalition forces and among sectarian groups soon escalated into a full-fledged insurgency. Strife between Sunni and Shiite Iraqis continued, and the violent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, which used suicide bombers, emerged.

During the wars most intense phase, which lasted more than four years, U.S. casualties climbed to more than 3,000, with more than 23,000 wounded. Iraqi civilian fatalities were estimated at more than 50,000.

In February 2009, President Barack Obama announced an 18-month withdrawal window for combat forces, with some 50,000 troops remaining to advise and train Iraqi security forces and to provide intelligence.

After the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by December 2011, a violent insurgency of mainly Sunni Islamic Islamist fighters targeting the Iraqi government gained force. By June 2014, Sunni Islamic, jihadist and ISIS militants, already having achieved territorial successes in the Syrian civil war, had conquered the Iraqi cities of Samarra, Mosul and Tikrit, and threatened the Mosul Dam and Kirkuk, where Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga troops took control from the Iraqi government in Baghdad.

An Iraqi counterinsurgency effort, supported by U.S. airstrikes and an ever-increasing number of combat advisers, remains underway. President Donald Trump has pledged that ISIS will be eradicated under his watch.

SOURCE: FIASCO: THE AMERICAN MILITARY ADVENTURE IN IRAQ, BY THOMAS E. RICKS (2006)

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Bush announces launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, March 19, 2003 - Politico

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From his hateful tweets and provocative rhetoric to his new (and now failed) executive order banning Muslims and refugees all over again, President Donald Trump is driven by the idea that Islam is a threat to what makes us American.

Trump has declared that Islam hates us. There is, he says, an unbelievable hatred. Stephen K. Bannon, one of his chief advisers, claims that we are in an outright war against ... Islam and doubts whether Muslims that are shariah-adherent can actually be part of a society where you have the rule of law and ... are a democratic republic. He believes Islam is much darker than Nazism and seems to agree with HUD Secretary Ben Carson that Islam is a religion of domination.

But Trump and his administration could learn a thing or two about American values such as freedom and equality from the religion and people they so hate.

In Islams founding story, after Muhammads death, it was unclear who would lead the nascent Muslim community. Typically, succession disputes make for great drama. This one, however, was more C-SPAN than Game of Thrones.

Rather than intrigue or bloodshed, believers pursued democracy. Only by the peoples consent, they reckoned, could a ruler justly be named and a community freely governed. They chose Abu Bakr, one of Muhammads companions. His inauguration speech, according to one of Muhammads earliest biographers Ibn Ishaq, was brief (though were not sure how big the crowd was). It went something like this: Im no better than any of you. Only obey me if I do right. Otherwise, resist me. Loyalty means speaking truth. Flattery is treason. No human, but God alone is your lord.

Abu Bakr sought to guard the people against domination by making himself accountable to them. The people obliged, securing their liberty. They could call him out at any time, and he had to listen. He even had to ask permission for new clothes.

His successor, Umar, carried the legacy forward. Publicly rebuked by a woman for overstepping the law, Umar responded: That woman is right, and I am wrong! It seems that all people have deeper wisdom and insight than me.

This spirit of accountability and liberty would become enshrined as a religious duty in Islam, though as with any tradition, these values are not always upheld. Nonetheless, every Muslim has the obligation to command right and forbid wrong, correcting and resisting any who betray justice, rulers included. That Abu Bakr and Umar are paradigms of good Islamic rule for well over 1 billion Sunni Muslims tells us something about this traditions love for freedom, whether or not its followers always live up to their ideals.

So does the 12th-century theologian al-Ghazali, one of Islams most beloved figures. In his most famous political work, an open letter to a young sultan, Ghazali famously defends a golden rule of liberty: The fundamental principle is ... treat people in a way in which, if you were subject and another were Sultan, you would deem right that you yourself be treated. Nothing a ruler would not himself endure has any place in politics. While sin against God can be forgiven, violation of this rule cannot: Anything involving injustice to mankind will not in any circumstance be overlooked at the resurrection.

Ghazali tells rulers that on judgment day, not God but the people will determine their fate: The harshest torment will be for those who rule arbitrarily. He sounds striking similar to James Madison writing in Federalist 57, for whom rulers will be compelled to anticipate the moment when their exercise of power is reviewed, and they must descend to the level from which they were raised. Only in Ghazalis vision, the tyrant descends to hell.

Of course, like their Western counterparts, many Muslim regimes fail to honor this vision of liberty. But it is women and men like Malala Yousafzai, Humayun Khan and the hopeful youths who filled Tahrir Square who are faithful to the best of Islam, not the likes of the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and Saudi princes.

For Islam and the American founders alike, freedom is about protection from arbitrary power and rule by law, not the caprices of men. Theirs is a vision where citizens stand not in slavish deference to masters but on equal terms with all. This vision animates our whole system of governance. It was this vision Lincoln endorsed when he wrote, in words that echo Ghazali: As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. And it was this vision Sojourner Truth, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Harvey Milk invoked when they each demanded that equality before the law be still further expanded so that it would eventually include not just straight white men but everyone.

This vision is under threat in a way it rarely has been in our history. But it is under threat not by Islam, but by Trump and his administration.

Trumps first Muslim ban was an act of brazen, unconstrained power and barely concealed animus. The second ban is more of the same. The blessing of the first was just how blatantly it betrayed our deepest values. The danger of the second is its attempt to conceal its dominating and bigoted aims. No serious observer thinks these bans make us any safer. Instead, they seek to circumvent rule of law, roll back libertys benefit and wage Bannons war with Islam. They give Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security and other agents discretionary power to decide on a whim whether to sever families, deport refugees and detain Muslims. And they make Trump and his cronies unaccountable arbiters of who really loves the very American values the administration is busy betraying.

Trump wants to return America to its former greatness. But when it comes to freedom, Ghazali and Abu Bakr have far more in common with Madison and Lincoln than with terrorists and tyrants who claim Islams mantle. For that matter, they have far more in common with this countrys great lovers of liberty than does the current president.

So, instead of banning Muslims, Trump should listen to them: He might learn something about liberty and equality, two values he seems not to have learned to love from our own nations history or the Constitution he swore to uphold.

Decosimo teaches religion, ethics and politics at Boston University and is writing a book on freedom and domination in Christianity and Islam.

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Islam's lessons on freedom and democracy - WatertownDailyTimes.com

It's a Program That Started in the Civil Rights Movement Era

DULUTH, Minn.- The Family Freedom center opened up registrations for the Family Freedom school, a 12 week program designed to engage and empower black families and community members.

The program addresses internalized racism, economic isolation, and structural racism that can affect black families. The program also helps educate people on the civil rights movement, cultural values, and youth development. A talent show showcasing the communitys young talents was also held at the registration.

We wanna create resources and gates for our own children to have a path to their own future. We want them to know who they are, where they come from, which is so important, and we want them to direct their own future and where they wanna go, said Alina Baines, the facilitator for Family Freedom School.

Historically, freedom schools were organized in the southern United States during the Civil Rights Movement.

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Registrations Opened for Family Freedom School - Fox21Online - FOX 21 Online

MATT SHAND

Last updated08:25, March 20 2017

RICKY WILSON/FAIRFAX NZ

Taupo's mayor is about to hit the road in his own caravan.

Freedom camping caravans are commonplace in Taupo but Taupo District Council is sending out one of its own.

Taupo District Council staff will be taking a caravan on an informative road trip around the district to let residents know how they can have their say on the future of freedom camping in the district.

Policy manager Nick Carroll said the road trip was part of two months of public consultation on a draftfreedomcampingbylaw for theTaupoDistrict.

"We've recentlyprepared a draftfreedomcampingbylaw thatrecommends movingfreedomcampingsites away from the shores of Lake Taupoand proposes 15 sites around the TaupoDistrict wherefreedomcamping could beallowed," he said.

"The road trip will stop at five sites around the district where people will be able to talk to staff about the consultation process and can then submit their viewson the draft bylaw."

The caravan will be in the following locations over the next three weeks:

Submissions on the draft bylaw can be made until April 18by visitingtaupo.govt.nz/consultation.

-Stuff.co.nz

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Council sends out freedom camping caravan - Waikato Times

Imagine a life where every part of your day is defined, regimented, controlled by someone other than you. Where even basic decisions, like what to eat, where to go, or who to spend time with are denied you. For people with disabilities living in many residential facilities, this is the reality. Basic choices, from decisions about where to live to the opportunity to be intimate with your partner, are denied people with disabilities across the nation.

Many Americans are aware of these sorts of problems and the resulting loss of freedom faced by people with disabilities who are forced into nursing homes and other types of institutions. To address this, disability rights advocates have worked over the last 50 years to bring people out of institutional settings and into the community, fighting to expand Medicaid-funded home and community-based services, also known as HCBS.

In 2013, after decades of effort by activists and federal policymakers, the percentage of Medicaid funding spent on community-based services finally exceeded that spent on institutional care. Many states have succeeded in serving people with developmental disabilities entirely in the community, no longer relegating people with Down syndrome, intellectual disability, and other similar diagnoses to institutions. Others are working towards similar outcomes.

Unfortunately, the mindset of institutionalization still exists, even in community-based settings. A growing body of research indicates that, particularly in larger settings where people with disabilities are clustered together for provider convenience, residents are deprived control over basic choices. To address this, the Obama administration issued a groundbreaking rule in 2014, requiring every state to upgrade its home and community services to ensure that those receiving them had their basic rights respected by 2019.

The HCBS settings rule included requirements that people get a choice of where they live, including the opportunity to pick residences other than group homes and other disability-specific settings. It also instructed states to ensure people living in residential facilities were afforded the right to choose what to do during the day, who they invited into their homes, when they ate, and whom they shared a bedroom with. These are the kinds of basic rights that most Americans take for granted but for people with disabilities, federal intervention was necessary to protect them.

Imagine a life where every part of your day is defined, regimented, controlled by someone other than you.

The settings rule gave every state five years to work with providers and people with disabilities to reach compliance unfortunately, it looks like thats not going to happen. This week, President Trumps Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Seema Verma issued a letter to state governments indicating their intent to delay the rules implementation deadline, making the full realization of the rights of people with disabilities a dream deferred.

Whats worse, the letter indicated their intent to rollback federal oversight, deferring to state governments as to whether or not particular providers and settings were respecting the rights of people with disabilities trying to live their lives on their own terms. Thats a problem. Basic freedoms like choice, autonomy, and privacy in ones own home shouldnt be subject to the whims of state legislators.

This delay by Secretary Price and Administrator Verma threatens the fundamental rights of people with disabilities. It means that peoples freedom is determined based on what state they live in. In 2011, four states Kentucky, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New Mexico supported more than 90 percent of all people with developmental disabilities receiving community-based residential services in settings of three or fewer people. In the same year, five states Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and South Carolina supported fewer than 30 percent of their residents in such settings, relying predominantly on more congregate group home models that restrict the freedoms of their residents.

Tom Price and Seema Verma should realize that the right to live in the community and make basic choices about ones own body, time, and home should be available to every American. This weeks letter sends a message that for people with disabilities those rights are conditional. Americans with disabilities have too much experience having our freedom subject to other peoples whims.

We deserve a full and speedy implementation of the HCBS settings rule. Nothing less than our basic civil liberties is at stake.

Ari Neeman runs MySupport.com, an online platform connecting people with disabilities to support workers. He previously served as one of President Obamas appointees to the National Council on Disability and as the President of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. He currently advises the ACLU on disability policy and Medicaid.

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Secretary Price, Don't Mess With People With Disabilities' Freedom - ACLU (blog)