Former principal arrested on rape charges

Rumors have floated around all week of allegations of Whitesville's Saint Mary of The Woods Principle involved in several allegations. Unfortunately, I received a news alert text from the Owensboro Messenger~Inquirer today that reads as follows;
  FRM:txt@messenger-inquirer.com MSG:" Former Saint Mary of The Woods principle charged with rape, sodomy of 15 year old boy."

I regret posting this as I'm acquainted with so many in the Whitesville community, a small town of hard working and honest folks who've done so much to maintain their parochial school. Just recently, I attended their Parrish Social BBQ and enjoyed thier fine burgoo, mutton, prok, and chicken, all of which proceeds went directly to the school. I can't begin to express my saddness of this news.
The following is from channel 14 WFIE.com. I'm sure there's more to come.

WHITESVILLE, KY (WFIE) - A former principal of a Daviess County catholic school is facing rape and sodomy charges.

Authorities tell 14 News that Allison M. Brant, 31, used to be the principal of St. Mary's of the Wood Elementary School in Whitesville, KY.

She resigned from her post in within the last week.

Kentucky State Police are investigating rape and sodomy charges against Brant.

Police say the charges are one count of third degree rape and three counts of sodomy.

Third-degree rape is someone age 21 or older engaging in sexual intercourse with someone under 16.

According to KSP, the victim is a 15-year-old boy.

It is not known if he is a student.

Police say the incident was an eight week affair that started December 2008.

It is alleged that the affair involved sex and oral sex.

The Daviess County Sheriff's Office is also investigating allegations that Brant supplied alcohol to minors at her home.

According to a press release, Brant gave the young men, ages 18,18, 17 and 16, liquor.

Brant is being held at the Daviess County jail on $35,000 cash bond.

It ain't a record many Republicans are likely to point to with pride

I would say it's more deranged than delirious, and definitely not un-American.

Those crackpots on the right praying for Obama to die and be sent to hell — they're the warp and woof of home-grown nuttiness. So is the creature from the Second Amendment who showed up at the President's rally armed to the teeth. He's certainly one of us. Red, white, and blue kooks are as American as apple pie and conspiracy theories.

Bill Maher asked me on his show last week if America is still a great nation. I should have said it's the greatest show on earth. Forget what you learned in civics about the Founding Fathers — we're the children of Barnum and Bailey, our founding con men. Their freak show was the forerunner of today's talk radio.

Speaking of which: we've posted on our website an essay by the media scholar Henry Giroux. He describes the growing domination of hate radio as one of the crucial elements in a "culture of cruelty" increasingly marked by overt racism, hostility and disdain for others, coupled with a simmering threat of mob violence toward any political figure who believes health care reform is the most vital of safety nets, especially now that the central issue of life and politics is no longer about working to get ahead, but struggling simply to survive.

So here we are, wallowing in our dysfunction. Governed — if you listen to the rabble rousers — by a black nationalist from Kenya smuggled into the United States to kill Sarah Palin's baby. And yes, I could almost buy their belief that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, only I think he shipped them to Washington, where they've been recycled as lobbyists and trained in the alchemy of money laundering, which turns an old-fashioned bribe into a First Amendment right.

Only in a fantasy capital like Washington could Sunday morning talk shows become the high church of conventional wisdom, with partisan shills treated as holy men whose gospel of prosperity always seems to boil down to lower taxes for the rich.

Poor Obama. He came to town preaching the religion of nice. But every time he bows politely, the harder the Republicans kick him.

No one's ever conquered Washington politics by constantly saying "pretty please" to the guys trying to cut your throat.

Let's get on with it, Mr. President. We're up the proverbial creek with spaghetti as our paddle. This health care thing could have been the crossing of the Delaware, the turning point in the next American Revolution — the moment we put the mercenaries to rout, as General Washington did the Hessians at Trenton. We could have stamped our victory "Made in the USA." We could have said to the world, "Look what we did!" And we could have turned to each other and said, "Thank you."

As it is, we're about to get health care reform that measures human beings only in corporate terms of a cost-benefit analysis. I mean this is topsy-turvy — we should be treating health as a condition, not a commodity.

As we speak, Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, has been fined a record $2.3 billion dollars as a civil and criminal — yes, that's criminal, as in fraud — penalty for promoting prescription drugs with the subtlety of the Russian mafia. It's the fourth time in a decade Pfizer's been called on the carpet. And these are the people into whose tender mercies Congress and the White House would deliver us?

Come on, Mr. President. Show us America is more than a circus or a market. Remind us of our greatness as a democracy. When you speak to Congress next week, just come out and say it. We thought we heard you say during the campaign last year that you want a government run insurance plan alongside private insurance — mostly premium-based, with subsidies for low-and-moderate income people. Open to all individuals and employees who want to join and with everyone free to choose the doctors we want. We thought you said Uncle Sam would sign on as our tough, cost-minded negotiator standing up to the cartel of drug and insurance companies and Wall Street investors whose only interest is a company's share price and profits.

Here's a suggestion, Mr. President: ask Josh Marshall to draft your speech. Josh is the founder of the website talkingpointsmemo.com. He's a journalist and historian, not a politician. He doesn't split things down the middle and call it a victory for the masses. He's offered the simplest and most accurate description yet of a public insurance plan — one that essentially asks people: would you like the option — the voluntary option — of buying into Medicare before you're 65? Check it out, Mr. President.

This health care thing is make or break for your leadership, but for us, it's life and death. No more Mr. Nice Guy, Mr. President. We need a fighter.

That's it for the Journal. I'm Bill Moyers. See you next time.
                                               
                                                                                Bill Moyers

Can there be any room for a centrist at a health care reform town hall meeting

It seems that "government intervention" or anything like that has become an evil concept, suggesting that the corporate CEO's interests are to protect the consumers. 







Is the clip below the GOP's free market strategy?

Click here to see a larger version of the chart.

At this point, all that stands in the way of universal health care in America are the greed of the medical-industrial complex, the lies of the right-wing propaganda machine, and the gullibility of voters who believe those lies.


Paul Krugman

New York Times

UPDATE 8/15/2009  Advertisers gone from Beck:

• Allergan (maker of Restasis): "We reviewed our commercial schedule, and based on your feedback, we've put any programming featuring Glenn Beck on our "do not air" list. This means that you will no longer see any Restasis ads during programming featuring Glenn Beck. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention."
• Ally Bank (a unit of GMAC Financial Services): "Ally advertises on a broad spectrum of programs to reach our potential customers. Our advertising is not an endorsement of editorial content on any program. We have ceased to advertise on the Glenn Beck program."
• Best Buy
• Broadview Security: "Given the considerations, we have requested of Fox News not to include us in the rotation that would have our commercials running on Glenn Beck's show."
• CVS: "While advertising on Fox is part of our communication plan, we had not requested time on Glenn Beck's show specifically. We have instructed our advertising agency to inform Fox to ensure Glenn Beck's program is not part of our advertising plan."
• Re-Bath: "...We are no longer airing our commercials on the Glenn Beck Show..."
• Travelocity: "We did not specifically place our ad on the show. We buy ads in bulk and then they are placed somewhat randomly. However, we have now specifically asked that our ads do not appear during this show."
• Wal-Mart: "Walmart today confirmed the retailer pulled ads from the Glenn Beck show on August 3rd,"

These companies join a growing list of advertisers to pull their ads from Beck's show, including ConAgra, GEICO, Lawyers.com, Men's Wearhouse, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack, Roche, SC Johnson, Sanofi-Aventis, Sargento, and State Farm Insurance.

                                                                                  

The Media's Treatment of Palin's Outrageous "Death Panel" Claims

Howard Dean Post On The Huffington:

GET ANSWERS TO YOUR HEATH REFORM QUESTIONS HERE.


From Salon.com

The "death panels" are already here

^{Sorry, Sarah Palin -- rationing of care? Private companies are already doing it, with sometimes fatal results}

Long before anyone started talking about government "death panels" or warning that Obama would have the government ration care, 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, a leukemia patient from Glendale, Calif., died in December 2007, after her parents battled their insurance company, Cigna, over the surgery. Cigna initially refused to pay for it because the company's analysis showed Sarkisyan was already too sick from her leukemia; the liver transplant wouldn't have saved her life.

That kind of utilitarian rationing, of course, is exactly what Palin and other opponents of the healthcare reform proposals pending before Congress say they want to protect the country from. "Such a system is downright evil," Palin wrote, in the same message posted on Facebook where she raised the "death panel" specter. "Health care by definition involves life and death decisions." ...

-- Patricia Reilling opened an art gallery in Louisville, Ky., in 1987, and three years later took out an insurance policy for herself and her employees. Her insurance provider, Anthem Health Plans of Kentucky, wrote to her this June, telling her it was canceling her coverage -- a few days after it sent her a different letter detailing the rates to renew for another year and billing her for July.

Reilling thinks she knows the reason for the cutoff, though -- she was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2008. That kicked off a year-long battle with Anthem. First the company refused to pay for an MRI to locate the tumors, saying her family medical history didn't indicate she was likely to have cancer

From USA TODAY, Pelosi and Hoyer Speak On Health Reform

By Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer

 Americans have been waiting for nearly a century for quality, affordable health care.

Health coverage for all was on the national agenda as early as 1912, thanks to Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose presidential run. Months after World War II came to an end in 1945, President Harry Truman called on Congress to guarantee all Americans the "right to adequate medical care and protection from the economic fears of sickness." From President Lyndon Johnson to President Bill Clinton, to President Obama's winning campaign on the promise of reform, there hasn't been a more debated domestic issue than the promise of affordable health care for all.

(Steny Hoyer)

(Nancy Pelosi/USA TODAY)

While the above clip has sarcasm, it pretty much hits the nail on the head.

Obama's weekly radio address:

On Friday, we received better news than we expected about the state of our economy. We learned that we lost 247,000 jobs in July - some 200,000 fewer jobs lost than in June, and far fewer than the nearly 700,000 a month we were losing at the beginning of the year. Of course, this is little comfort to anyone who saw their job disappear in July, and to the millions of Americans who are looking for work. And I will not rest until anyone who's looking for work can find a job.

Still, this month's jobs numbers are a sign that we've begun to put the brakes on this recession and that the worst may be behind us. But we must do more than rescue our economy from this immediate crisis; we must rebuild it stronger than before. We must lay a new foundation for future growth and prosperity, and a key pillar of a new foundation is health insurance reform - reform that we are now closer to achieving than ever before.

There are still details to be hammered out. There are still differences to be reconciled. But we are moving toward a broad consensus on reform. Four committees in Congress have produced legislation - an unprecedented level of agreement on a difficult and complex challenge. In addition to the ongoing work in Congress, providers have agreed to bring down costs. Drug companies have agreed to make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors. The AARP supports reform because of the better care it will offer seniors. And the American Nurses Association and the American Medical Association, which represent the millions of nurses and doctors who know our health care system best, support reform, as well.

As we draw close to finalizing - and passing - real health insurance reform, the defenders of the status quo and political point-scorers in Washington are growing fiercer in their opposition. In recent days and weeks, some have been using misleading information to defeat what they know is the best chance of reform we have ever had. That is why it is important, especially now, as Senators and Representatives head home and meet with their constituents, for you, the American people, to have all the facts.

So, let me explain what reform will mean for you. And let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid, or bring about a government takeover of health care. That's simply not true. This isn't about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it's about putting you in charge of your health insurance. Under the reforms we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

And while reform is obviously essential for the 46 million Americans who don't have health insurance, it will also provide more stability and security to the hundreds of millions who do. Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn't always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and that insurance companies are held accountable.

We will require insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms, colonoscopies, or eye and foot exams for diabetics, so we can avoid chronic illnesses that cost too many lives and too much money.

We will stop insurance companies from denying coverage because of a person's medical history. I will never forget watching my own mother, as she fought cancer in her final days, worrying about whether her insurer would claim her illness was a preexisting condition. I have met so many Americans who worry about the same thing. That's why, under these reforms, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage because of a previous illness or injury. And insurance companies will no longer be allowed to drop or water down coverage for someone who has become seriously ill. Your health insurance ought to be there for you when it counts - and reform will make sure it is.

With reform, insurance companies will also have to limit how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses. And we will stop insurance companies from placing arbitrary caps on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime because no one in America should go broke because of illness.

In the end, the debate about health insurance reform boils down to a choice between two approaches. The first is almost guaranteed to double health costs over the next decade, make millions more Americans uninsured, leave those with insurance vulnerable to arbitrary denials of coverage, and bankrupt state and federal governments. That's the status quo. That's the health care system we have right now.

So, we can either continue this approach, or we can choose another one - one that will protect people against unfair insurance practices; provide quality, affordable insurance to every American; and bring down rising costs that are swamping families, businesses, and our budgets. That's the health care system we can bring about with reform.

There are those who are focused on the so-called politics of health care; who are trying to exploit differences or concerns for political gain. That's to be expected. That's Washington. But let's never forget that this isn't about politics. This is about people's lives. This is about people's businesses. This is about America's future. That's what is at stake. That's why health insurance reform is so important. And that's why we must get this done - and why we will get this done - by the end of this year.

Thank you.

Sarah Palin spins the truth on her Facebook to not only promote the outright lie about killing grandma but once again exploits her own children for political gain:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

A few links from Crooks and Liars:

Reasic: Debunking health care misinformation

Shakesville: Crazy, angry, and without a trace of irony.

A Tiny Revolution: To pay or not to pay.

Scholars and Rogues: Why the American media has such a signal-to-noise problem.

BAGnewsNotes: Michelle Malkin with the sound off.

Good Math, Bad Math: "I am the antichrist. No, really!"

Below is from Nancy Pelosi's bog, The Gavel.

Industry and Extremists Generate Astroturf Campaign to Disrupt Public Meetings on Health Insurance Reform

August 4th, 2009 by Karina

During the August district work period, Democrats are meeting with their constituents about the health insurance reform and America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. Unfortunately, those not interested in health insurance reform are disrupting public meetings and not allowing concerned constituents to ask questions and express their views. Many of these opponents who are shutting down civil discussion are organized by out-of-district, extremist political groups, and industry-supported lobbying firms.

Opposing Medicare and Social Security
New York Times

So-called astroturf (fake grassroots) protestors “expressed opposition not only to the health care plan but also to all government programs, including Medicare and Social Security.”

Threatening Messages
New York Times:

Texas protestors bring sign that displays a tombstone with the name of Rep. Lloyd Doggett.

Politico:

… much like those angry crowds that populated McCain and Palin rallies last fall (recall ‘he’s an Arab’), there is danger in such raw passion… Go to about… the 2:00 minute mark [of the much-watched Lloyd Doggett video] and you’ll find a guy carrying a kid on his shoulders and hoisting a sign with the Nazi ‘SS’ lettering.

Politico:

… the GOP has a serious problem… [after the] hanging freshman Maryland Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil in effigy [note the creepily expert knotted noose] with a placard ‘Congress Traitors The American [and a word that looks like ‘idol’]… The event — a rally in Salisbury, Md. on the Eastern Shore — was attended by members of the business-funded Americans for Prosperity…

Disruptions Supported by Special Interests
Washington Post’s Plum Line:

Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, the operation that’s running a national campaign against a public health care option, is now publicly taking credit for helping gin up the sometimes-rowdy outbursts targeting House Dems at town hall meetings around the country, raising questions about their spontaneity…“CPR is the group headed by controversial former hospitals exec Rick Scott that’s spending millions on ads attacking reform in all sorts of lurid ways, a campaign that’s being handled by the same P.R. mavens behind the Swift Boat Vets.

Wall Street Journal:

Insurers continue to wage an aggressive campaign against Democrats’ proposals to create a public health-insurance plan. America’s Health Insurance Plans has stationed employees in 30 states who are tracking where local lawmakers hold town-hall meetings.

Politico’s Playbook:

America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP — the national association representing nearly 1,300 member companies providing health insurance coverage to more than 200 million Americans) is urging the industry’s hundreds of thousands of employees to GO TO TOWN MEETINGS WITH MEMBERS OF CONGRESS IN AUGUST TO CONFRONT THEM…

Think Progress has found corporate lobbying money behind the astroturf groups:

The leader of FreedomWorks, Dick Armey…is a corporate lobbyist with a history of directing FreedomWorks to support the goals of his lobbying clients… Armey’s lobbying firm represents pharmaceutical companies, such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, that oppose comparative effectiveness research in the health reform plan because such a program may cut into revenue for branded drugs.

Opposing Real Debate
Talking Points Memo and Think Progress report on a memo outlining tactics to disrupt meetings rather than debate:

You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation. Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early… The goal is to rattle [the representative]…stand up and shout out… Look for these opportunities before [the representative] even takes questions.

Republican Leader Encouraging Disruptions
The website of Republican Leader John Boehner applauds and links to clips of disruptions and promises “a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress.”

Democrats Prepared for a Real Conversation
As opposed to astroturf reform opponents, Democratic Members of Congress will continue to talk about the benefits about health insurance reform. Successful, informative constituent meetings are being headlined by Democrats across the country:

Northwest Indiana Times, 8/4/09:
Inside the Westchester Library Service Center it was standing-room only as more than 100 people packed in to hear U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky’s public forum on health care reform… Visclosky said the attendance was promising and the energy refreshing. “I’m pleased with the turnout. Too often people don’t turn out for public debate, whether we’re all going to agree or not,” Visclosky said. “It’s great to see such interest, and the apathy I saw five years ago is gone.”

Orange County Register, 8/2/09:
About 300 people from throughout the county got together Sunday and prayed for affordable health care in a… prayer vigil, held at St. Callistus Catholic Church… about the national health-care reform package that is being debated now… Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, the guest of honor, said she supports universal health care…

Mid-Hudson News Network, 8/4/09:
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Rep. John Hall (D-NY) repeatedly used one phrase in common: “Get it right”… [at a] roundtable of St. Francis Hospital officials, chamber of commerce officials, business owners and citizens.

Get more information on the facts of health reform legislation>>

The White House took on the nonsense sponsor by the Insurance companies today.

The below is from Crooks and Liars:

Maddow: This is orchestrated outrage. There is a script for this stuff that was written before these events happened and that appears to be instructions to people to shut down these efforts at civic discourse. The web site Think Progress obtained a leaked memo from a group that calls itself Right Principles. The three page memo details how protesters should behave at town hall events.

Under the heading "Inside the Hall" it says:

You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early. If he blames Bush for something or offers other excuses -- call him on it, yell back and have someone else tallow-up with a shout-out. The goal is to rattle him.

When the formal Q&A session begins get all your hands up and keep them up.... The balance of the group should applaud when the question is asked, further putting the Rep on the defensive.

Who's giving these rent-a-mob instructions like this? Well that memo was written by a man named Bob MacGuffie. Bob McGuffie is associated with an organization called Freedom Works. Freedom Works is a Washington DC lobbying firm, run by former Republican Majority leader Dick Armey.

Corporate lobbyists are organizing far right hooligan tactics to disrupt civic meetings about health care reform. This is the organized use of intimidation as a political tool in the United States, and I don't mean intimidation euphemistically. I mean literal intimidation.

New York Congressman Tim Bishop who we showed you earlier. He ended up having to be escorted to his car by five police officers for his own safety after his town hall event was over.

And this type of harassment is not just reserved for elected officials.

[.....]

This type of tactic, this type of intimidation is a deliberate choice. And it appears to be stoked and organized by corporate lobbyists. And it is not something that is happening in a vacuum.

[.....]

This is well paid lobbyists doing this as a strategy. It's the same thing with the deathers. These scare your grandmother myths that the whole point of health care reform is secretly to kill old people. This patently, patently false rumor about health care reform as we talked about earlier on this show was started by a woman who sits on the board of directors of one of the nations biggest medical device companies.

Everybody says well politics ain't beanbags. Right. Obviously this is not beanbags. But this isn't hardball either, no offense to Chris. This just isn't even politics. This is orchestrated, mob mentality intimidation. This is called hooliganism.

And below is from ThinkProgress.org

Doggett undeterred by unruly right-wing mob, says he remains ‘more committed than ever’ to health reform.

In a recent interview with blogger-activist Mike Stark, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) pledged to vote against any health care bill that does not have a meaningful public plan. As ThinkProgress noted, Doggett is now being confronted by “angry, sign-carrying mobs” back home in his district which are being orchestrated by well-heeled lobbyists. Doggett released a statement yesterday explaining that he won’t be deterred by the mob:

This mob, sent by the local Republican and Libertarian parties, did not come just to be heard, but to deny others the right to be heard. And this appears to be part of a coordinated, nationwide effort. What could be more appropriate for the “party of no” than having its stalwarts drowning out the voices of their neighbors by screaming “just say no!” Their fanatical insistence on repealing Social Security and Medicare is not just about halting health care reform but rolling back 75 years of progress. I am more committed than ever to win approval of legislation to offer more individual choice to access affordable health care. An effective public plan is essential to achieve that goal.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett responds on CNN