Stafford Hospital caused ‘unimaginable suffering’

Patients were routinely neglected or left “sobbing and humiliated” by staff at an NHS trust where at least 400 deaths have been linked to appalling care.

An independent inquiry found that managers at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust stopped providing safe care because they were preoccupied with government targets and cutting costs.

The inquiry report, published yesterday by Robert Francis, QC, included proposals for tough new regulations that could lead to managers at failing NHS trusts being struck off.

Staff shortages at Stafford Hospital meant that patients went unwashed for weeks, were left without food or drink and were even unable to get to the lavatory. Some lay in soiled sheets that relatives had to take home to wash, others developed infections or had falls, occasionally fatal. Many staff did their best but the attitude of some nurses “left a lot to be desired”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article7039285.ece

Patients 'routinely neglected' at NHS hospital where hundreds died in squalor

By Fay Schlesinger, Andy Dolan and Tim Shipman
Last updated at 2:16 AM on 25th February 2010

• Up to 1,200 patients died unnecessarily because of appalling care

• Labour's obsession with targets and box ticking blamed for scandal

• Patients were 'routinely neglected' at hospital

• Report calls for FOURTH investigation into scandal

Not a single official has been disciplined over the worst-ever NHS hospital scandal, it emerged last night.

Up to 1,200 people lost their lives needlessly because Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust put government targets and cost-cutting ahead of patient care.

But none of the doctors, nurses and managers who failed them has suffered any formal sanction.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1253438/Mid-Staffordshire-NHS-hospital-routinely-neglected-patients.html

Leading article: The real lessons of this NHS disaster

The Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, yesterday described the appalling treatment of patients at Stafford hospital as "ultimately a local failure". This misses the point. For one thing, Stafford is not the only NHS hospital that has put patients' lives at risk in recent years. Basildon and Colchester hospitals were also discovered to have jeopardised safety in 2009.

What is more, Mr Burnham's efforts to quarantine this disaster suggest an unwillingness to face up to the scale of the problem that has been revealed. The failure in Stafford is not just the tale of one badly run hospital, but the failure of a regulatory system that did little to sound the alarm until very late in the day. From 2005 to 2008 Stafford hospital was judged by regulators and the Government to be performing well. It passed many inspections and the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust even achieved foundation status, supposedly the benchmark of excellence.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-real-lessons-of-this-nhs-disaster-1909596.html

Questions of Influence in Abuse Case of Paterson Aide

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM, DANNY HAKIM, DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI and SERGE F. KOVALESKI

Published: February 24, 2010

Last fall, a woman went to court in the Bronx to testify that she had been violently assaulted by a top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson, and to seek a protective order against the man.

In the ensuing months, she returned to court twice to press her case, complaining that the State Police had been harassing her to drop it. The State Police, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, confirmed that the woman was visited by a member of the governor’s personal security detail.

Then, just before she was due to return to court to seek a final protective order, the woman got a phone call from the governor, according to her lawyer. She failed to appear for her next hearing on Feb. 8, and as a result her case was dismissed.

Many details of the governor’s role in this episode are unclear, but the accounts presented in court and police records and interviews with the woman’s lawyer and others portray a brutal encounter, a frightened woman and an effort to make a potential political embarrassment go away.

The case involved David W. Johnson, 37, who had risen from working as Mr. Paterson’s driver and scheduler to serving in the most senior ranks of the administration, but who also had a history of altercations with women.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/nyregion/25paterson.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

Senator Turns Down White House Invite to Health Care Summit

Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe turned down an invitation from the White House to attend Thursday's bipartisan health care summit.  A spokesman for the Senator says "Republican leadership had long since selected their team and therefore, it would have been inappropriate for Senator Snowe, under those circumstances, to accept the invitation."

http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/02/24/senator-turns-down-white-house-invite-to-health-care-summit/

There are 15-20 House Democrats who are withholding their support for President Barack Obama's healthcare proposal, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said Wednesday.

Stupak led a broad coalition of anti-abortion rights Democrats in November, demanding that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) include tough abortion restrictions in the lower chamber's legislation lest she lose a chance of passing the bill.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/83461-stupak-15-20-dems-withholding-support-for-white-house-health-plan

TEA Party folds when economy revives

So says the Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger

The "TEA Party,'' that anti-tax, anti big-government movement of people intent on turning out incumbents this year, will "disappear'' as the economy improves.

So says Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California whom some in his own party view as a RINO. Whatever his own situation may be, "Ahnold'' suggests that a movement without a leader, such as the leaderless TEA Party, which offers no apparent agenda, will dissolve as underlying economic unrest yields to recovery. With midterm elections looming, that still could be a question of timing, however.

Support for Israel in U.S. at 63%, Near Record High

Near-record-low 30% optimistic about Arab-Israeli peace

PRINCETON, NJ -- For the first time since 1991, more than 6 in 10 Americans -- 63% -- say their sympathies in the Middle East situation lie more with the Israelis than with the Palestinians. Fifteen percent side more with the Palestinians, down slightly from recent years, while a combined 23% favor both sides, favor neither side, or have no opinion.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/126155/Support-Israel-Near-Record-High.aspx

By Lucy Moore
Sex Columnist

So, here goes my knowledge collected from interviewing men and women, and my observations (including those drawn from porn), which I will organize into a list of tips to be used at one’s own discretion. Remember: all men—and their penises—are different. These are not rules. Also, remember, STDs are transmitted from oral sex, too!

So…

Washington, Feb 24 -

            House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today announced the House Republican participants for the White House health summit on Thursday, as well as members of the House GOP’s Health Care “Truth Squad” – a team of Republicans ready to fact-check misstatements from Washington Democrats and highlight Republicans’ better solutions to lower health care costs – while the Republican summit team participates at the Blair House.  Boehner issued the following statement:

            “The American people want Washington to scrap this job-killing health care bill and start over with a step-by-step approach that will lower health care costs.  That is not the ‘Republican’ view; it is the view of the American people.  We’ve assembled a team of individuals who understand this, because they’ve been listening to the people they were sent to Washington to represent.  We’ll be ready to remind our Democratic colleagues of this and discuss the alternative, step-by-step approach Republicans have offered when we go to the White House summit on Thursday.”

            Following are House GOP members participating in the White House summit:

• Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
• Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)
• Energy & Commerce Committee Ranking Republican Joe Barton (R-TX)
• Ways & Means Committee Ranking Republican Dave Camp (R-MI)
• Education & Labor Committee Ranking Republican John Kline (R-MN)
• Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
• Dr. Charles Boustany (R-LA)
• Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL)
• Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

           Following are members of the House GOP’s Health Care “Truth Squad”: 

• Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN)
• Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
• Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX)
• Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL)
• Dr. Paul Broun (R-GA)
• Dr. Michael Burgess (R-TX)
• Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
• Dr. John Fleming (R-LA)
• Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
• Dr. Phil Gingrey (R-GA)
• Dr. Parker Griffith (R-AL)
• Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
• Dr. Tim Murphy (R-PA)
• Dr. Tom Price (R-GA)
• Dr. Phil Roe (R-TN)
• Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI)
• Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ)

http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=173278

Va. Republican Leader Takes on Boucher

For the first time since 1984, Representative Rick Boucher of Virginia will face a serious Republican challenge, possibly jeopardizing his 28-year Democratic stronghold on the Appalachian district and sending his office into campaign mode earlier than ever before.

Republican Morgan Griffith, the majority leader of the state House of Delegates, made his campaign official Tuesday as state Republicans went live with RetireRick.com, a Web site highlighting Mr. Boucher’s early support for President Obama and the administration’s policies. Already, two Web advertisements slam Mr. Boucher for his support of the auto bailouts and the House cap-and trade-bill.

Exclusive: Ex-Bush adviser Dan Senor weighing run against Gillibrand as Republican

Dan Senor, the husband of CNN's Campbell Brown and a former Bush administration foreign policy adviser, is eyeing a run as a Republican against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, The Knickerbocker has learned.

Senor has been meeting with people recent weeks around the state - including "political people and money types," said one source.

Senor has already spoken with state GOP chairman Ed Cox, The Knickerbocker confirmed.

Senor is the founder of Rosemont Capital LLC, and brings to his resume the fact that he was among the civilian officials who served the longest in Iraq as the post-Saddam Hussein government was being established.

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/knickerbocker/exclusive_republican_bush_adviser_T930L2paj5grGJUA0dKRdK

Ft. Hood Attack Publicly Called “Terrorism”

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has become the first Obama Administration official to publicly describe last year's deadly shootings at Ft. Hood, Tex., as a terrorist act, according to a search of news clips and transcripts.

"Violent Islamic terrorism ... was part and parcel of the Ft. Hood killings," Napolitano told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday morning. "There is violent Islamic terrorism, be it Al Qaeda in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen or anywhere else, [and] that is indeed a major focus of this department and its efforts."

In the months since an Army psychiatrist -- who had been in contact with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen -- opened fired inside the Army base, many on Capitol Hill have urged administration officials to publicly identify the attack as terrorism.

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/02/24/ft-hood-attack-publicly-called-terrorism/

Kucinich: Obama's Plan Makes "Unacceptable" Senate Bill Even Worse

"It's a much better bill for insurance company investors than it is for the American people."

BY John McCormack

Conrad: Reform "dead" unless House passes Senate bill first

If congressional Democrats decide to pass fixes to the Senate health care bill through reconciliation, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) is one of the most important people to bring on board with the plan.

But Conrad threw some doubt Wednesday on the plan that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been pushing, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated he could accept -- to pass the sidecar reconciliation bill with the fixes before the House takes up the Senate bill, as a way to mollify House members who strongly oppose the more conservative Senate measure.

Conrad, who has been open to reconciliation as long as the fixes are limited, said the order must be reversed. The House must pass the Senate bill first -- before either chamber considers the reconciliation package, he said.

"I don't know of any way, I don't know of any way where you can have a reconciliation bill pass before the bill that it is meant to reconcile passes," said Conrad, who would be a central figure on the Senate floor if Democrats embark on the complicated process. "I don't know how you would deal with the scoring. I don't know how I could look you in the eye and say this package reduces the deficit. It's kind of got the cart before the horse."

When reminded that House Democrats don't want to do health care in that order, Conrad said bluntly: "Fine, then it's dead."

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0210/Conrad_Reform_dead_unless_House_passes_Senate_bill_first.html?showall

Equal Protection Is for Flakes   [Peter Kirsanow]

As noted by Kathryn, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, a.k.a., the Akaka Bill, passed the House last night, 245–164. The more intriguing vote, perhaps, was the vote on an amendment to the Akaka bill proposed by Rep. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.).

The Flake amendment would've clarified that nothing in the Akaka bill could be interpreted to exempt the Native Hawaiian Governmental Authority from complying with the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Flake amendment failed 177–233 (Democrats voted 18 for 225 against; Republicans voted 159 for 8 against).

The salient portion of the Fourteenth Amendment as pertains to the Akaka bill is as follows: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Constituents of those congressmen who voted against the Flake amendment may wish to ask their respective representatives to identify with particularity the clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment they believe should have no application to the Native Hawaiian Governmental Authority.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODM3M2UyMTgyMTFjOWFiZjJkNTdlYWFkYjAwN2MzZDg=