Ken Burns: The War: talks about the parallels
between Iraq and WWII

post from Crooks and Liars on 23 September 2007 05:05:21 PM. © Crooks and Liars

His new documentary on World War II starts tonight on PBS: “The War.” He talked about the similarities between both wars and tried to break a long time myth.Burns: Every thing sort of becomes draped in this bloodless gallant myth and what I think we have to remember is this is the worst war, [...]

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els-between-iraq-and-wwii/

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FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dan Gilgoff and The Jesus
Machine

post from Firedoglake on 23 September 2007 05:00:38 PM. © Firedoglake

(We are pleased to welcome Dan Gilgoff, author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War. Dan Gilgoff is a contributing editor at US News and World Report, where he writes often about[...]

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-jesus-machine/

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Moveon and the Democratically Controlled Congress

post from MyDD on 23 September 2007 04:42:40 PM. © MyDD

I'm a bit behind in writing about the Senate's voting to condemn Moveon, partly because it's been a busy couple of days but mostly because I find the vote so disheartening. Three days later and I'm still upset. Last week was a culmination of[...]

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Scientists Discover the Key to Five Distinct
Races of Human Eyeballs

post from The Francis L. Holland Blog on 23 September 2007 04:41:00 PM. © The Francis L. Holland Blog

Scientists working at the Renselauer Polytechnical Institute's Madison Ocular Laboratory have discovered that there are five separate races of human eyeballs: the brown eyeball race, the green eyeball race, the blue eyeball race and the hazel eyeball race. After many years of study to determine what the difference was between the races of eyeballs, researchers have discovered the following: Regardless of eye color, eye function is identical in every respect, with biological and physiological properties that are indistinguishable across eye-color groups. It is even possible to transplant the corneas from any race of eyeballs to any other while improving rather than diminishing visual acuity.

The difference between these ocular groups is in the way people with these eye colors perceive each other. Although Madison Lab researchers were able to discern no physiological difference between the eyeballs themselves, aside from their color, they nonetheless discovered that people with blue eyes believe there is a significant differences between eye color groups and people with brown and green eyes mostly agree. And, having discovered this, they were able to issue the press release of today, announcing that there are five races of eyeballs - the brown eyeball race, the green eyeball race, the blue eyeball race and the hazel eyeball race.

When asked how this information would be useful, scientists acknowledged that the discovery would have no medical benefits but it would would create jobs by increasing the complexity of the US Census and it would also be useful to politicians in rallying and targeting voters at election time.

And the pervasive believe in eye "racial" groups will also create new jobs for psychiatrists, because this belief constitutes a form of delusional insanity.

However, they did acknowledge a one significant downside to their discovery: If it becomes pervasive, the belief in the existence of eyeball "racial" groups will inevitably lead to an increase in eyball "racism."

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http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2007/09/scientists-discover-key-to-five.html

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Propaganda Poll

post from Eschaton on 23 September 2007 04:31:00 PM. © Eschaton

Over at Matt's place a bunch of commenters are saying we're stupid for calling it a push poll. They're sort of right, but I just called it that because it didn't really fit any of the categories neatly. It isn't really a push poll, but nor is it a "message testing" poll as suggested. It's a "conduct a badly worded poll designed to get a specific answer in order to get your willing pals at the Washington Post to get the result you want out into the press" poll. So, fine, not a push poll. A propaganda poll.

I say it isn't really a message testing poll because it's along the lines of "Some people claim Barack Obama is a child molesting terrorist lover..." The impact of the question wording on the response is rather obvious.

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Kirkuk Hospital Staff Soldiers On

post from IraqSlogger.com on 23 September 2007 04:17:09 PM. © IraqSlogger.com

Kirkuk's public hospital, built under the British mandate in the 1940s, resembles a decrepit castle.

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Leaf Raking

post from Eschaton on 23 September 2007 04:09:00 PM. © Eschaton

The joys of being yardless.

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Go Inside Green Zone ER

post from IraqSlogger.com on 23 September 2007 04:05:18 PM. © IraqSlogger.com

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The Chris Matthews Show: Bloggers Influence on
Politics

post from Crooks and Liars on 23 September 2007 04:02:45 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Download (213) | Play (260) Download (125) | Play (140) (h/t David for vids)Welcome to the big time, bloggers. According to Chris Matthews–taking cues from Bush, natch–we’re in charge of the Democratic Party. Andrew Sullivan and John Heilemann ratchet down Tweety’s hyperbole. SULLIVAN: I wish he (Bush) just had as much focus [...]

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Private Capital Groups Buying Up Nursing Homes,
Reducing Care

The New York Times has a long expose today on how private capital groups are buying up the large chains of nursing home and cutting staff and care. If you have a loved one in a nursing, you should read it. It's very frightenting. First, what the Times did:

The Times examined more than 1,200 nursing homes purchased by large private investment groups since 2000, and more than 14,000 other homes. The analysis compared investor-owned homes against national averages in multiple categories, including complaints received by regulators, health and safety violations cited by regulators, fines levied by state and federal authorities, the performance of homes as reported in a national database known as the Minimum Data Set Repository and the performance of homes as reported in the Online Survey, Certification and Reporting database.

What it found:

As such investors have acquired nursing homes, they have often reduced costs, increased profits and quickly resold facilities for significant gains. But by many regulatory benchmarks, residents at those nursing homes are worse off, on average, than they were under previous owners, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data collected by government agencies from 2000 to 2006.

More...

....The typical nursing home acquired by a large investment company before 2006 scored worse than national rates in 12 of 14 indicators that regulators use to track ailments of long-term residents. Those ailments include bedsores and easily preventable infections, as well as the need to be restrained. Before they were acquired by private investors, many of those homes scored at or above national averages in similar measurements.

The Times found that after the acquisitions, the nursing homes cut expenses and staff, "sometimes below minimum legal requirements."

Regulators say residents at these homes have suffered. At facilities owned by private investment firms, residents on average have fared more poorly than occupants of other homes in common problems like depression, loss of mobility and loss of ability to dress and bathe themselves, according to data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Because of the way the deals are structured, it's difficult to determine the actual investors and to sue, and almost impossible to win a suit when brought.

private investment companies have made it very difficult for plaintiffs to succeed in court and for regulators to levy chainwide fines by creating complex corporate structures that obscure who controls their nursing homes.

By contrast, publicly owned nursing home chains are essentially required to disclose who controls their facilities in securities filings and other regulatory documents.

The latest buyout is the Carlyle Group which is paying $6.3 billion for Manor Care. The deal is expected to close this quarter. The FTC has already appoved it.

On Wednesday, the the Service Employees International Union held a protest of Carlyle's takeover of Manor Care.

The SEIU, which wants to organize Manor Care's 60,000 health-care workers, expressed concern that the $6.3 billion buyout could lead to layoffs and cuts in benefits for employees, and to a reduction in the quality of care for patients. The union has also begun an initiative to draw attention to what it calls the growing concentration of wealth in a few private-equity companies such as Carlyle.

Manor Care is huge.

Manor Care, which traces its roots to a single nursing home in Wheaton 48 years ago, has grown into one of the largest providers of long-term care and services in the country, with more than 500 facilities under the Heartland, ManorCare Health Services and Arden Courts brands.

It employs 60,000 workers.

On the subject of "the growing concentration of wealth in a few private-equity companies such as Carlyle", Carlyle announced this week it had sold a 7.5% stake in its company to an investment company named Mubadala Development Company in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Those protesting the buy-out are calling on Carlyle to:

1. Ensure that its nursing homes are in compliance with federal minimum resident care regulations at all times.
2. Ensure that its nursing homes are staffed at levels recommended by the Federal Government.

3. Disclose the impact of its Manor Care buyout to the nursing home residents, workers and taxpayers in each state.

4. Structure its buyout so that Manor Care staff has a role in the reorganization and benefit from its outcome.
5. Create a Quality Care Fund and a new advisory committee comprised of Manor Care staff, resident advocacy groups and other stakeholders to improve patient care in all Manor Care homes.

Why am I writing about this? Because the care of the elderly is a huge social justice issue. Elder abuse is a crime. It hits particularly close to home for me because as I've mentioned a few times on TalkLeft, the TL mom resides in a "skilled nursing facility." It happens to be a Manor Care facility.

So, I'll be following this and future articles on changing conditions at nursing homes around the country following buyouts by private equity companies, and in particular, the Carlyle takeover of Manor Care.

I also want to know what provisions the Democratic candidates are making for the elderly in their new health care plans.

Nursing homes costs are exhorbitant ($6,000 a month and more is common for room and board) and Medicare doesn't cover it except for 100 days following release from a hospital. While private medical insurance helps with the associated costs (prescriptions, doctor visits, etc.) it doesn't pay for the room and board.

As boomers age, the number of Americans needing assisted living and nursing home care is going to exponentially increase.

These capital groups buy the nursing homes for one reason: profit. Who has the authority to investigate and hold them accountable if they slide on care? Stay tuned.