Washblog

Power to you!  Nurses and medical workers take on the corporate Goliath, Community Health Systems Inc (and I do mean incorporated).  The problem was and still is the putting of profit ahead of patient health at Deaconess Hospital, Spokane, Wa, and at Valley Hospital, Spokane Valley, Wa.

Since Community Health Systems Inc. started reducing staffing levels at their hospitals in Spokane and Spokane Valley, patient injuries have increased.  Medical staff is POed, went on strike for one day, and is asking for a bargaining date to discuss a return to staffing levels that can adequately take care of the patient health at Spokane Deaconess Hospital and at Valley Hospital.  

Hospital work is obviously not like manufacturing lawn ornaments.  Human wealth fare is at stake.  Union members at Deaconess Hospital and at Valley Hospital felt a moral obligation to speak up and take a stand about how staffing levels are impacting their ability to take care of patients.  Moreover, union members gave the hospital plenty notice of the strike and plenty time to bring in replacement workers, which they did.  They only went on strike for one day, and then showed up for work.

Kevin Graman reports at SpokaneWatch.net. 

The over all integrity of a nation will most immediately and powerfully be impacted by the models presented by its political parties.

That modeling ought to be a natural attention-grabber.

That modeling ought to present a public affirmation of concern for good of the country rather than political opportunism as the height of its most significant values - or the depth of its apathetic depravity.

Updated 2-10-2013

Unfunny humor about gun control

"There seemed to be no point to the gathering other to give some gun owners an opportunity to show off their toys in public.

What gets me, every time I see black-clad guys and gals strutting around with their weapons, is how little they have to be proud about. It takes zero courage and zero skill to own a gun. All you need is a VISA card. Shooting defenseless animals from long range, or defenseless targets, earns zero "guts points."

I respect people who take risks ... for having the guts to risk getting hurt in the course of developing their skills.

Ditto for combat soldiers who use their guns to fight guys who also have guns. But walking around the Oregon Capitol with an AR-15... that's ridiculously lame."

After a lengthy hiatus and a move to Eastern Washington, I have returned to writing on Washblog

The failed Republican civic behavior is only worsened and made more complicated with the pitiful public relations failures of Flush Limbaugh and Fox News with its stupor stars, Squawk Hannity and The Fracture O' Reilly.

They have all now childishly teamed up to become a significant part of the problem with no relationship to the solution.

The absence of any sense of civic responsibility is overwhelmingly louder than any party or broadcast rhetoric itself.

How would you like it if these kinds of Kindergarten Konservatives were teaching your children civic values?

"I am Sheryl Gordon McCloud, and I am running for the Washington State Supreme Court. In fact, I am the front runner for the Washington State Supreme Court now coming out of the primary election and going into the November general election. I have spent twenty-five years arguing in favor of constitutional rights in front of the Washington Supreme Court and my expertise in that has been recognized by endorsements from the Spokesman Review over to the Seattle Times. I intend to be a justice that is fair and who carries on my practice of creating a level playing field even for those who cannot afford a lawyer: Cheryl Gordon-McCloud for the Washington State Supreme Court." --Filmed and Edited by Eastern Washington Voters in Pullman, Wa, at the 2012 Lentil Festival this last August.

The local papers have published the announcement about DSHS authorities coming to South Bend next Monday evening to discuss the proposed closure of the South Bend Community Service Office.

Closing the local DSHS office is a significant event in the life of this community and the impact cannot be overstated.

The consequence of having no local recourse when a phone call to the agency just will not do - or when the call centers are too busy to answer promptly - will be that local residents can either give up trying to get an issue resolved, or they can pay out of pocket to travel to Aberdeen, Long Beach or Chehalis to speak to a live body.

Note: I write this as a tax-paying citizen with the right of freedom of speech to express my opinions. My opinions are my own and do not reflect in any way any kind of official policy or position of the Department of Social and Health Services.

Locally we've been advised by the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) of an intent to close down the local office in South Bend as soon as possible.

Apparently DSHS managers believe that the higher budgetary good will be served by tossing the residents of North Pacific County under the bus.

The savings?

Well, rent on the office space will decrease a little bit which might take a huge $10,000 bite out of a statewide 6 billion dollar budget deficit.

Utility bills at the space might create a savings of ... oh ... say another $4-5000

I wonder that perhaps the objective is not real budget savings, but more a PR attempt on the part of DSHS to make it appear they are seriously trying to help a spending problem by eliminating "eliminatable" expenses that won't generate much backlash.

Backlash?

Like hell this one won't.

Who was that smiling congenial man who gave the opposition party rebuttal to the State of the Union address by the president?

He's the ranking member, Committee on the Budget. He has published a plan that is his notion of what is best for America during this time of financial crisis. You can find it online at the following website.

As for his post-SOTU rebuttal speech, I also noted the following as written in the Washington Post Business section:

Ryan managed to get through the speech without mentioning, or even alluding to, his Roadmap. Nor did the words "Medicare" or "Social Security" pass his lips. It was like watching Colonel Sanders give a speech that never mentioned chicken.

The Shameful Attack on Public Employees -  Robert Reich
Reich is not an amateur self-styled political partisan who got his ideas and talking points from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow.

Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written thirteen books, including The Work of Nations, Locked in the Cabinet, Supercapitalism, and his most recent book,

When it comes to labor issues, he is one of those who knows more than most what he is talking about.

And as a public employee whose pay never compared to private sector employment equal to my GI-Bill-obtained education, I agree with Reich, am offended by the assertions of conservatives who vilify public employees and challenge the honesty and integrity of those who assume they can bamboozle a gullible public.

Are you suffering from EDS: Eternal Damnation Syndrome

Folks, have you been saved? Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior?

Accepting Jesus as your personal savior is an important moment in the life of God's children. As the late Reverend Jerry Falwell told us, "if you are not a born again Christian you are a failure as a human being."

If you fail as a human being you will miss out on the eternal reward that is part of God's plan for you. Worse, you will be eternally unforgiven and left to the dungeons of Satan who shows no mercy.

Friends, until you come to understand God's patriarchal order of things, you will remain festered with the EDS infections. As America's premier televangelist Pat Robertson has declared solemnly,

eschew:  -verb (used with object) ... to abstain or keep away from; shun; avoid: ... to eschew evil.

I know  ... I know ... recently I have declared myself to have become an eschewer of political activism.

However ... in view of recent catastrophic failures on the part of the two biggie parties alongside the success of the Joe Pesci third or "tea" party contenders ... my upcoming retirement in 2011 may very well devolve to a case of "you gotta eat and I gotta eat."

So come  08/31/11 when I stop mumbling excuses for the state and federal welfare system, things for my wife and me will be what passes for Medicare and VA benefits for me and nothing for my beautiful sweetheart until she finally grows old and reaches SS eligibility. My out of pocket COBRA expense for Lietta looks to be about half my state retirement.

So I'm going to need another source of income and if history is any sign of future trends, the refusal of Americans to buy the quality printed or downloaded literature of the sharpest intellectual knife in the Bay Center drawer leaves me no choice.

On failed American leadership

I don't know why of the few who know me so many believe I am still a card-carrying defender of all things Democrat. Perhaps it's because I've found so little positive to say about any Republicans or Tea Baggers so you won't find an endorsement of mine for either of those parties.

However, neither have I endorsed any Democrats whose tired old campaign tactics reflect (I suspect more than most of the Democratic leadership realize) how tired and unimaginative their election campaigns come across.

In the 3rd District, Denny Heck's campaign and fund-raising methods are principal examples. Heck is no old man but his campaign comes across like he has modeled himself on Dino Rossi, whose campaign is so generic Rossi could run for Sen or Rep in any number of states and change absolutely nothing in the ad's he runs here (except for Murray's name and picture.)

...in Obama land.

Not much more to say on the subject; except maybe

DRILL BABY DRILL!

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

Originally posted at The Left Shue

By now everyone here knows that I am not riding the same train as my friends in the Democratic Party over the recently passed Health Care "Reform" bill. I am not pleased with the fact that the new law is based on a Republican premise of funneling public funds to private industry. I definitely am not pleased with the lack of a public option or government option to compliment the mandates to individuals who will be required to purchase health insurance. And I am absolutely pissed with the blatant disrespect toward Progressives in the process. However, there is another aspect of this law that really is doing its best to fly under the radar - the total misrepresentation of this law as somehow being "universal healthcare".  Take into consideration this from Kaiser Health News:
 

"When President Obama signed health care overhaul into law Tuesday, did he fulfill a campaign promise to "bring health care to all?"

The short answer is no. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the overhaul law, as it expected to be amended by House fixes, would eventually cover 32 million more Americans. But that would leave 23 million that would still be uninsured by 2019."

Originally posted at The Left Shue

Update [2010-3-26 12:46:29 by The Left Shue]: - And so with not so much as a glance over their shoulders, what passes for Democratic leadership yesterday completed their betrayal of the Progressive base by allowing the reconciliation package for their so-called health care "reform" bill to swing though both houses of congress without adding any reference to the public option that they all said they favored. Sad but not expected.
**************

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and President Obama:

We deserve a vote!

After watching you all throw any hopes for a Single Payer System under the bus and then slowly drag a "robust" public option under there as well, Progressives were somewhat placated by the consolation prize of a much watered down version of the public option in the Health Care Insurance Reform bill passed in November by the US House. Then your games began anew with the dance around "Medicare for More" being waved under our noses in the Senate; only to watch that exercise fall to the objections of former Democratic Vice-presidential candidate Joe LIEberman. And so, it became a bitter pill that despite claims that more members supported a public option than opposed it, there would be no public option in the final bill to go to the Whitehouse. But wait----