Protest 29 March 2012
Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Spain.79 comments
Madrid: protesters at Atocha train station | Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
Barcelona 2 March 2012
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Spain.43 comments
Photos Of Austerity Riots In Barcelona – Protestors had been protesting cuts to education that they saw as disrupting their studies. | Expatica
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Nutty 20 August 2011
Posted by marisacat in Abortion Rights, Culture of Death, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Sex / Reproductive Health, Spain, Total fucking lunatics, Viva La Revolucion!.51 comments
.
A protester shows a pilgrim a condom who in turn shows him a cross during a demonstration in Madrid REUTERS/Susana Vera
Nutty as fruitcakes, fruit loops… face off in Madrid, between the weeping, swooning pilgrims… and the anti-Papist protesters…
If you hurry you can confess your abortion(s)!! Looks inviting doesn’t it?
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Priests listen to confessions at temporary confessionals set up at Madrid’s Buen Retiro park, ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Spain PEDRO ARMESTRE/AFP/Getty Images
Carry on!
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Context 29 March 2010
Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Spain.56 comments
Hooded penitents take part in hundreds of processions throughout Spain in celebration of Holy week: Penitents take part in the procession of La Borriquita brotherhood during Holy Week in Cordoba [REUTERS]
I’ve always enjoyed the bizarre and archaic dress of the various Spanish brotherhoods, during Holy Week.
But it sure can look menacing, in a heart beat. ‘Specially as what can be called secret child sex cabals are in view, again.
Round and round it goes…
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More protest… [update] 28 December 2008
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, Beirut, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Divertissements, Europe, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Israel/AIPAC, Spain, WAR!.72 comments
David Bates: ‘I took this picture in a car park in Spain. A very imaginative use of a hole in a wall. Maybe it is a scream for help or just a clever piece of graffiti’ [Photograph: David Bates – Reader Photographs – Guardian]
I hardly go to HuffWuffMuffPo anymore.. and I am sure i miss a lot.. but it became too much like a tabloid during the primaries and the GE. Just too devoid of anything near reality.
But I dropped in and see this from Sam Stein, who I think has operated as a factoid, quote and whatever else upchucker for Obster… and is still at it…
One of Barack Obama’s chief spokesmen repeated on Sunday that it would be counterproductive for the president-elect to weigh too deeply into the crisis between Israel and Hamas while another commander-in-chief occupied the Oval Office.
But David Axelrod, appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, did reaffirm Obama’s commitment to the “special relationship between the United States and Israel” in a way that suggested general sympathy for the Jewish state’s actions.
Speaking a day after Israeli airstrikes, targeting and destroying Hamas facilities in Gaza, killed more than 275, Axelrod said the president-elect, from on-the-ground experience, understood the urge for retaliatory action.
Last July, Obama visited Sderot, a southern Israel town on the border of the Gaza Strip that has taken the brunt of Hamas attacks, Axelrod reminded host Chip Reid. “He said then that when bombs are raining down on your citizens, there is an urge to respond and act to try to put an end to that. That’s what he said then. I think that’s what he believes.”
OH too funny… if Axelrod does not know what Ob believes then no one does.
And:
But the ascension of Hamas to political power has complicated not just regional politics but Obama’s approach to the matter. During the course of the election, his view on the organization seemed to harden. And when it was reported that his former church had reprinted a pro-Hamas op-ed in its bulletin, Obama offered deliberately strong lines of disapproval.
Hamas is a “terrorist organization,” he opined, “responsible for the deaths of many innocents, and dedicated to Israel’s destruction, as evidenced by their bombarding of Sderot in recent months. I support requiring Hamas to meet the international community’s conditions of recognizing Israel, renouncing violence, and abiding by past agreements before they are treated as a legitimate actor.”
He’s so fucking boxed in. If he does that… he’s a secret muslim! Or if he does this, then he really did listen to the Wright epistles, newsletters (given out at the services) and the various essays…
I think that suits Ob. And in the end, it all comes back to status quo.
I went back to that spineless, legless, armless post of Clemons’… to the thread … snipped from a comment:
[I] was in Israel in November listening to various Cabinet members assure the settlers on the status of peace negotiations.
Here is the deal – the Palestinians get about 75% of the west bank with Israel getting 25 years to remove the settlements that will ultimately give them about 91.7%. Israel retains control of the West Bank aquifers and all water resources in Palestinian territory. In addition, Israel controls the Jordan border and ALL ingress and egrees from the West Bank is forever under Israel control. Jerusalem for the Palestinians was a dead issue with the expansion of Har Homa meaning East Jerusalem is forever cut off from the rest of the West Bank. …
This peace crap has been going on for 40 years including the intensive Annapolis talks. If Israel really wants peace they could have had at any time over the past couple decades if they would be fair. Meanwhile the settlements expand and new ones crop up and within 10 years a two state solution will be impossible. Do you realize there are 500,000 Jews on the other side of the Green Line? Do you really think Israel would move them? That’s why the peace talks always remain talk – Israel could not move these people. That is why we get delays and subject changes(like the Gaza bombing) to indefinitely delay the time when Israel has to make serious decisions.
There’s not a lot of newer noooz around (we are in one of those holding pens of war) but down in the guts of an AFP article there is this…………. restating what’s been stated but also what is apparent to anyone sane:
[A]nd the UN envoy to the Middle East Robert Serry called for a new truce with international backing, telling AFP in an interview that there was no military solution to the conflict.
But a senior Israeli official insisted: “We have our goals and our timetable, and we don’t seek mediation.”
Israel in the meanwhile announced it would allow 100 truck-loads of humanitarian aid into Gaza on Monday but said it would maintain its crippling blockade on the impoverished territory. […]
The beat goes on in the abattoir…
[T]he Israeli offensive sparked protests across the world. In the occupied West Bank, two demonstrators were killed in clashes with police.
Israel unleashed “Operation Cast Lead” against Hamas in the middle of Saturday morning, with some 60 warplanes hitting more than 50 targets in just a few minutes.
By Sunday, some 230 targets had been hit, the military said.
Hamas has responded by firing more than 90 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, killing one man and wounding some 20 people.
The Israeli blitz came after days of spiralling violence since the expiry of the Gaza truce. It comes less than two months before snap parliamentary elections in Israel called for February 10.
Whenever anything big breaks out, Electronic Intifada starts running eyewitness diaries from those on the ground:
[E]yewitnesses said two Israeli missiles had destroyed the station. One had soared through a children’s playground and a busy fruit and vegetable market before striking its target.
Civilians dead
There was blood on a broken plastic yellow slide, and a crippled, dead donkey with an upturned vegetable cart beside it. Aubergines and splattered blood covered the ground. A market trader present during the attack began to explain in broken English what happened: “It was full here, full, three people dead, many, many injured.” An elderly man with a white kuffiyeh scarf around his head threw his hands down to his blood-drenched trousers and cried, “Look! Look at this! Shame on all governments, shame on Israel, look how they kill us, they are killing us and what does the world do? Where is the world, where are they, we are being killed here, hell upon them!” …snip…
It will be something, at least, of we don’t get a repeat of the silencio across the aligned blogs, like we had during the war against Lebanon in 2006.
SHAME ON THOSE WHO CHOOSE THE PARTY OVER JUST SPEAKING OUT AGAINST WAR.
Not like it requires courage, ffs.
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UPDATE, 2:02 am PT
While I was at Press TV, saw this – full text –
Mystery surrounds Gaza port condition
Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:58:57 GMT
Israel may have bombed the Gaza seaport amid Iranian plans to send a ship to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged coastal strip.
It seems that the Gaza seaport was the latest target of Israeli attacks, Press TV’s Gaza correspondent, Yousef al-Helou, reported after explosions were heard around the port.
It is no longer clear whether aid ships will be able to dock at the port as Tel Aviv has also bombed the area late Sunday.
The news comes amid plans for aid deliveries to the coastal area to begin via the sea.
As well, Press TV had “Breaking News”:
Medical sources have confirmed to a Press TV reporter at the scene that at least 1550 Gazans have been injured and 310 have been killed.
An earlier shipment of Iranian aid supplies has gone to Cairo by plane..
Link to Press TV’s Palestine page.
Street action… 13 November 2008
Posted by marisacat in California / Pacific Coast, DC Politics, Democrats, Europe, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Lie Down Fall Down Dems, Spain, U.S. House, U.S. Senate.73 comments
Meanwhile, further north in the town of Gijón, employees of a shipyard took to the streets in protest over threatened job losses [REUTERS]
A few days ago workers in Spain took to the streets to protest job lay-offs, about 1,600 jobs at a Nissan plant and to protest job losses at a shipyard, Gijon… Homemade rockets. Ok! These people do not fool around. The photos from Telegraph UK…
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This is riding at the top of Clusterstock, from Henry Blodget… the dust bunnies sheltering in place in this house are stiffer, with greater intestinal fortitude, than the Democratic congressional pack.
Weak:
Republicans are putting their feet down and refusing to throw another $50 billion into Detroit’s black hole. Democrats, meanwhile, don’t think they have the votes to ram the bailout home.
Has Bailout Nation finally drawn a line in the sand? We’re on the edge of our seats.
Even I, who thinks the Democrats are still nearly dead (but multiplying, it’s a mutation), did not quite buy it (this is Blodget after all) but then this extract he links to in the WSJ:
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said he knew of no Republicans who would support the Democrats’ $25 billion proposal and said he was disinclined to move a bill without bipartisan support.
“I’d want to be careful about bringing up a proposition that might fail,” given that a rescue plan would likely fare better under a President-elect Barack Obama administration, Sen. Dodd (D., Conn.) told reporters on Capitol Hill. “There’s some political considerations that need to be made over the next few days.”
eh. Things will be better in the 111th no doubt…
…and, frankly, speaking from the peanut gallery, I think Detroit car business, their lending business, all of it, should be forced into business bankruptcy, reorganisation.
I so enjoy reading the news and seeing (hearing, frankly) GE giggling at the sheer cash coming their way.
From today:
Today feels like one of the quieter days in awhile. The market has been trading with in a relatively narrow range, but GE and Citigroup are sticking out like a sore thumb. Citi, which got headlines for breaking $10 yesterday is now struggling to hang on to $9, down about 9% today. And GE, which just last night got some help from the FDIC is off another 8%, falling below $15.
Somehow or other, it gets wearing… and if one wishes to hold on to the morning’s bran flakes, don’t think about Jack Welch. Or his face. He may not be in charge today, but all those years… not worth thinking about — ’til The Bail Outs.
And, I am begging for better spin… I just cannot believe that Ob & co would consider Hillary for State. Please, better spin. I am begging.
There is good news: seems Stevens, Uncle Ted who wore a Hulk Hogan tie, is going down. Hail Senator Begich. With luck, Franken keeps finding votes and Chambliss loses his run off in Georgia.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Control of the US Senate hangs in the balance with three races still too close to call. Democrats picked up six seats on November 4th, building up a commanding advantage to currently control fifty-seven Senate seats to forty for the Republicans. But three key races—in Minnesota, Alaska and Georgia—are still not certain, and they could open the door to a filibuster-proof, sixty-seat “supermajority” for the Democrats.
In Georgia, incumbent Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss fell short of winning the 50 percent of the vote required for election under Georgia law. He faces a runoff against former Democratic state legislator Jim Martin on December 2nd.
In Alaska, Senator Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, leads former Anchorage mayor, Democrat Mark Begich, by just over 3,000 votes, with about 30 percent of the ballots remaining to be counted. Stevens faces potential expulsion proceedings after his conviction last month of seven felonies connected to lies on financial disclosure forms. A final vote count is expected next Wednesday.
And in Minnesota, the race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken is the closest in the country. As of Monday, Coleman leads Franken by a razor-thin 206 votes out of 2.9 million ballots cast. When certified, the result will lead to an automatic recount, which state law says is triggered if the margin of victory is less than half of one percent.
Anything to reach the ‘no excuses’ congressional numbers. Then, their only out is to claim to be the Three Blind Mice. And Moe, Curly and whoever the other one was….
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UPDATE, 12:24 am Friday…
Tea Fire in Montecito hills: Witnesses watch a home burn burn in the hills above Montecito, Calif. November 13, 2008 [Phil Klein – Assocated Press via LAT]
For a few hours, a couple, they were calling it a brush fire. Not quite. 800 acres as of an hour ago, over a hundred homes or structures… a comment left at a TV news site said the gas lines were exploding… along with other things, the usual, the cars and propane tanks. A hot, fast moving fire, the kind that lashes a range of land to a post and just whips away. We got thru October, thru Hallowe’en, without a fire to mark it.. Some years we seem to be an exploding Jack-o-Lantern.
Several fire departments were battling the flames as thick plumes of smoke hovered overhead.
“It looked like lava coming down a volcano,” Leslie Hollis Lopez told The Associated Press as she gathered belongings from her house in Montecito.
“It’s very tenuous. We’re hoping the winds are favorable.”
The Tea Fire, this one is, in Montecito, San Ysidro Ranch and lapping at the outskirts of Santa Barabara. Tonight, for whatever reason, they are calling the winds driving the fires the Diablo winds… and they will continue thru tomorrow.
Year after year, our cycle of wildfire, leaving the land scraped to the nub, the rains, mudslide and landslide… the fires are always apocalyptic. Grabbing the children, the pets, the photos. Fleeing.
In the hills of Montecito, residents of the darkened streets lighted only by the glow from the burning brush could be seen packing up cars. Horse trailers and Porsches snaked their way down narrow, winding mountain roads.
I think we are afraid the year will come when we grab the precious things and simply turn back and run into the fire.
Sunday Afternoon… in the ever expanding war zone with George 15 July 2007
Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, Afghanistan War, Pakistan, Spain, WAR!.141 comments
Islamabad, Pakistan: Pakistani soldiers stand under the bullet-riddled roof of the Red Mosque [Photograph: Aamir QURESHI/AFP]
JJB and catnip have been posting great comments on Pakistan… thru two threads..
This Asia Times from Friday may be, most likely is, a repeat… nevertheless a look at a great open valley in the North West Frontier Province where the battle soon will be:
…the second phase in the battle against an “Islamic revolution” has began many kilometers away in the picturesque Swat district in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Reaction to the events at the Lal Masjid has been the strongest here, as it is home to the banned pro-Taliban Tehrik-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM – Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws).
The Pakistan Army has mobilized thousands of troops in the area, and on Friday it was declared “highly sensitive” and parts of it placed under an unofficial curfew. Over the past few days there have been incidents in which several security personnel have been killed.
Unlike the Lal Masjid’s small complex, this new battlefield will be a huge valley where militants will be able to trap soldiers at sites of their choice, and the army will be free to bomb their hideouts in the high mountains.
A peat-lined tributary of the Yarghoon River near Lashkargahaz, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan [Ramsar Photo Gallery]
And a fast slip to the close:
Thousands of people – young and old – are part of the TNSM. Fazalullah calls it a peaceful movement in favor of virtue and against vice. The Western alliance in Afghanistan calls it a Taliban asset in Pakistan that distributes huge dividends to the Taliban movement. Pakistan calls it a serious threat to its national security.
Whatever the perspective, once the showdown starts between the Pakistan Army and the TNSM, one thing is sure: the conflict will transcend any borders.
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Just for contrast, Sunday afternoon on the boardwalk in San Sebastian Spain:
San Sebastian, Spain: Tourists and citizens take a walk along Zurriola avenue were 23 sculptures created by Polish artist Igor Mitoraj are being exhibited [Photograph: Juan Herrero/EPA]
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Last, it is from broken down boring Shrum, but he got it said this am on MPT:
MR. NOVAK: Thomas Eagleton. His—the—Mr. McGovern’s brief running mate. He was picked for—as his vice presidential nominee, later resigned from the ticket. But he—that was a secret that was kept until his, his death, and people are—a lot of—a lot of people said I had made up the name. I had gone to Tom Eagleton and asked him if I could clear myself, since the campaign was long over, use his name. He said “Oh, he had to run for re-election. The McGovernites would kill him if they knew he had said that.” But it was Tom Eagleton.
MR. SHRUM: Boy, do I wish he would have let you publish his name. Then he never would have been picked as vice president. Because the two things, the two things that happened to George McGovern—two of the things that happened to him—were the label you put on him, number one, and number two, the Eagleton disaster. We had a messy convention, but he could have, I think in the end, carried eight or 10 states, remained politically viable. And Eagleton was one of the great train wrecks of all time. You know, he had his 85th birthday here yesterday, and a big celebration…
MR. RUSSERT: McGovern.
MR. SHRUM: …and 35th anniversary of the nomination, and I’m glad I was in the McGovern campaign.
I didn’t get to walk the corridors of the White House, but I didn’t have to walk into a federal prison either.
MR. RUSSERT: And happy birthday to George McGovern, turning 85.
MR. NOVAK: Happy birthday.
Of course, as Fein pointed out on Moyers Journal, and anyone iwth half a brain has known for 34 years, proceedings against Nixon did not go far enough. Not by a long shot. He lived to boast of what he did (as Fein said), for decades, boast as does Bush that the president has a get out of jail free card. It is not illegal if the president does it.
Nixon should have gone to jail.
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UPDATE, 6:52 pm
I remembered I had posted a John Dean article about Nixon boasting of acts as president… so went hunting, from January 2 2006
From John Dean:
Presidential Powers Regarding National Security: A Nixonian View
Nixon famously claimed, after resigning from office, that when the president undertook an action in the name of national security, even if he broke the law, it was not illegal.
Nixon’s thinking (and he was learned in the law) relied on the precedent established by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Nixon, quoting Lincoln, said in an interview, “Actions which otherwise would be unconstitutional, could become lawful if undertaken for the purpose of preserving the Constitution and the Nation.”
David Frost, the interviewer, immediately countered by pointing out that the anti-war demonstrators upon whom Nixon focused illegal surveillance, were hardly the equivalent of the rebel South. Nixon responded, “This nation was torn apart in an ideological way by the war in Vietnam, as much as the Civil War tore apart the nation when Lincoln was president.” It was a weak rejoinder, but the best he had.
Nixon took the same stance when he responded to interrogatories proffered by the Senate Select Committee on Government Operations To Study Intelligence Operations (best know as the “Church Committee,” after its chairman Senator Frank Church).
In particular, he told the committee,
“In 1969, during my Administration, warrantless wiretapping, even by the government, was unlawful, but if undertaken because of a presidential determination that it was in the interest of national security was lawful. Support for the legality of such action is found, for example, in the concurring opinion of Justice White in Katz v. United States.”
(Katz is the opinion that established that a wiretap constitutes a “search and seizure” under the Fourth Amendment, just as surely as a search of one’s living room does – and thus that the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirements apply to wiretapping.)
Nixon rather presciently anticipated – and provided a rationalization for – Bush:
He wrote, “there have been — and will be in the future — circumstances in which presidents may lawfully authorize actions in the interest of security of this country, which if undertaken by other persons, even by the president under different circumstances, would be illegal.”
Even if we accept Nixon’s logic for purposes of argument, were the circumstances that faced Bush the kind of “circumstances” that justify warrantless wiretapping? I believe the answer is no.
So skrewed.
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Fire fight 10 March 2007
Posted by marisacat in Europe, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Spain, WAR!.105 comments
This was Photo of the Day yesterday at IraqSlogger… “Fire in Baghdad” March 9 ’07. Fire fight on the ground, between unidentified groups…
Fire on the ground.. the Atocha bombs in Spain, 11 Marzo. A still coherent people pulled together in less than 3 days, knew Aznar was lying to them that the bombs had been ETA separatists, voted Zapatero in… and the benefits, rooted in the democracy that followed Franco, broadened… Immediately Zapatero had a short date for withdrawal of Spanish forces from Iraq. Within a brief few weeks Abu Ghraib broke, the country rose up in the spring with insurgents, native fighters, it does not matter who it was, the fighting was intense, in 80 towns and cities across Iraq (Martha Raddatz / ABC News).
[R]eligion in Spain is mostly becoming tradition. People marry in churches because they are beautiful and full of history, not because they actually practice. Sunday church attendance is in the single digits. In this country, they still teach religion in most schools, but to most it is as if they were teaching Spanish history, the history of a country that used to be religious but it is not anymore. Paradoxically, the only religious group in Spain now are Muslim immigrants, whose views on society are similar to those of the Franco. Nudity for example was a big no no at that time and it continues to be so for Spanish Muslims. For others nudity is accepted. Spain´s leading newspapers and magazines frequently show nudity in a way that would not be acceptable in US publications. Nudist beaches and regular beaches are mostly mixed, and most people don´t mind.
In the meantime, Spain´s abandonment of religion has been accompanied by decades of tremendous economic and social development. Spain is now 10 times richer per capita than it was 3 decades ago. Cultural production is thriving and science which was mostly non existence after centuries of a tough ban on scientific research by the Catholic Church is now beginning to develop with the number of papers written and patents filed growing every year. During the last decade Spain has been the growth engine of the large countries in Europe. Indeed the economy grew so fast that Spain accepted 6% of its population in the form of immigrants in the last 5 years in order to cope with the labor shortages. [snip]
For horror – and counterpoint, this from Madman:
Here in America, a “Christian” land … you know, the faith that preaches about forgiveness and love … we have one of the most brutal and large, highly populated prison systems on the planet. We cram them in, provide minimal security, maybe use them to pick vegetables after we tire of exploiting migrant workers and lock THEM up. Hell, maybe even using convicted sex offenders to pick fruit (madman: and who, I ask, knows more about picking it when it’s ripe? Shame on me!).
With this snip from the extracted text from WRAL.com for Raleigh – Durham – Fayettevile NC:
The proposal approved by the Senate Corrections and Penology Subcommittee would set up a volunteer donor program in prisons to teach inmates about the need for donors. But lawmakers want legal advice before acting on a bill that would shave up to 180 days off a prison sentence for inmates who donate.
South Carolina advocates for organ donations said the incentive policy would be the first of its kind in the nation.
Federal law makes it illegal to give organ donors “valuable consideration.” Lawmakers want to know whether the term could apply to time off of prison sentences.
“We want to make this work, we really do,” said Republican Sen. John Hawkins. “But I want to make sure no one goes to jail for good intentions.”
Mary Jo Cagle, chief medical officer of Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in Greenville, urged senators to find an allowable incentive.
“We have a huge need for organs and bone marrow,” Cagle said. [snip]
hmmm when Madman sent his post to me, I stared at the name of Cagle’s hospital. Surely a Catholic facility?
Why yes! Indeedy! From an update Madman posted… I am thinking perhaps some free person, not incarcerated, not under desperate distress, can leave Dr Cagle a heart in the will… maybe some good Catholic could oblige…
Dr. Cagle WORKS AT A CATHOLIC HOSPITAL!!!
“At Bon Secours St. Francis Health System, our mission as a community of caregivers is to bring compassion to health care and to be good help to those in need, especially the poor and dying. We commit ourselves to bringing people and communities to health and wholeness through the healing ministry of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church.”
Good thing that inmates aren’t fetuses supplying stem cells, hmmmmmm?
Fuckers.
The organ donation scheme, worthy as it is for recipients, is an often ruthless, cut throat, for-profit-business. Link is to a recent program on California Connected, carried on PBS here…
Just the two comments from viewers are a horror snapshot… then factor in the plan above proposes to use prisoners:
2 Responses to “The Wait for Life”
The present system for cadaver organ donation is unethical, corrupt, and unfair. Organs coming from deceased “donors” are donated to no one. They are sold. See the Denver Post expose`, 10/19/04. Organ Procurement Organizations (OPO) such as OneLegacy, Lifesharing, and Golden State Donor Services sell those organs. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) operates the OPO system. The UNOS – Organ Procurement Transplantation Network make more than $700 million annually selling “DONATED ORGANS”. UNOS/OPTN is a private government contractor with a national monopoly. This group has blocked every major effort to increase other legal alternative forms of organ donation. They run a sham non-profit which makes hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
In April, 2004 a new law was signed into effect by George W. Bush which mandated national distribution of available cadaver organs to the patients most in need across the US. UNOS/OPTN and transplant centers have ignored this hence the unfair organ distribution of organs in California. Organ transplant centers make huge amounts of money doing organ transplant surgery. The do not want that Golden Goose to slip away. Some centers will lie, cheat, and steal to maintain that cah flow. Just look at UC – Irvine and St. Vincent’s in L.A. for the most recent examples.
I am the first person to have received a kidney transplant from a living donor I met via the Internet. UNOS/OPTN attempted to stop my transplant because this unethical, immoral, and corrupt organization received no payment due to the fact my organ came from a living donor.
There are other ways to get a needed organ transplant legally here in the U.S. Go to www.matchingdonors.com or www.lifesharers.org.
- Marie Avery says:
February 11th, 2007 at 5:47 pmThat was a terrific story on Liver Transplants.There was an important omission and that was the after-care of those with Liver Transplants. The cost of anti-rejection medication, which must be taken by the individuals entire life, costs approximately $35,000/year. Of course, if someone has insurance, they only need to pay a deductable for 4-5 medications. Who pays for the surgery and the medication for those who do not have Health Insurance? Universal Health Care may be able to address this and make transplants and the required mediccations available / appropriate for all those who need it.
Meanwhile, back in Spain:
Presently other than euthanasia there´s nothing left for the Catholic Church to oppose.
All battles were lost including the one for the hearts and minds of the Spanish people. While 95% of the Spanish youth declared in the 60’s that religion played some role in their life now only a third do. And that is only “some” role.
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UPDATE, 5:53 am on the Pacific Ocean…
Stand back! Take prophylactic penicillin! Have Cipro at the ready! Hazmat suit! Goggles! I slapped my wrists before and after I read IOZ who spears the political not-so-secret sauce, Hunter, of “Daily Dross”. Those are IOZ’s words… not mine!
However, nowhere is Martin’s attorney mentioned in the IOZ post, so perhaps I can avoid the threat of sackcloth, ashes and public thumb screw in the square routine. Not that I ever knuckled under for the bullshit.
A World of Pert
Over at DailyDross, something called Hunter inveighs mightily against congressional do-nothingism on Iraq:
Let me try and make something clear to the Democratic members of the House and Senate. There’s a world of hurt coming your way, and time is running out.
You’ll pardon me while I remove my soiled culottes.
What “world of hurt” this could be is beyond my ken. Here you have a Democratic partisan on a Democratic party blog dedicated to electing Democrats at all levels of government. Come, children, let us remember together:
This is a Democratic blog, a partisan blog. One that recognizes that Democrats run from left to right on the ideological spectrum, and yet we’re all still in this fight together. [snip – and aren’t you just flat out relieved?]
Oh have a laugh at the small island where they all went fucking bonkers. The Blahg Mutaween, they travel in packs hunting the slightest bit of dissent.
The religious police, known as the Muttawa, have the role of enforcing Saudi Arabia’s strict Islamic code. Its members prowl streets and malls, ensuring unmarried men and women do not mix, confronting women they feel are not properly covered or urging men to go to prayers.
But the government also gives the Muttawa wide leeway to enforce any rules they deem necessary to uphold the social order
Lest some fucking Bloo Dog (or worse, a Bloo Dog supporter! Fundraiser!) be openly discussed…
Did I mention Martin’s atty? Surely not!
To go back to IOZ’S post there are some excellent comments as well… 😉 One from Alan Smithee… 😉
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Marisacat 
September 30th, 2006 at 8:43 am