Mounted police chase rioters Tottenham

The London Riots. Is America on its way to a riot like this? Reply

Over the past several days, people have been rioting in the streets of London, looting, injuring others, and creating complete mayhem.  Why?  Apparently this was incited by the shooting and death of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old resident of Tottenham.  Who is Mark Duggan?  In searching various news stories, blog postings, and the like on the internet, who he is depends upon which site you read.  Those in defense of his shooting portray him as a thug.  Those defending Mark describe him as “a good man.  He was a family man.”  His fiancee has, according to Guardian.co.uk website, admitted he is “known to the police and said he had spent some time on remand, but denied he was ever imprisoned.”  What actually occurred to bring on this shooting?  I doubt we will ever know the true, actual facts.  The police will tell one story, and the witnesses will state another.  Or possibly somewhere in between.  This may have been a justifiable shooting, or it may not have been… I do not know.  I was not there.

Many articles are portraying him as a “gangsta.”  But then, I honestly do not trust a lot of the media.  The images of him online do show a gangster persona, but where are other pictures of him?  Surely he has not had just three or four pictures taken of him in his life.  When possible I prefer to read facts from various viewpoints and usually determine that the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.  A significant percentage of mainstream news sites and channels only tell you what they want you to know, not what is actual.  Or tell you what they think will bring the views, the hits, the attention, and the money. More…

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Facts from the American Health Security Act of 2011 Reply

The Affordable Care Act provides Americans economic and health security with protections against exorbitant premium hikes, better health benefits, and slower growth in health care costs. Conservatives in the Congress are intent on taking these benefits away

(1) While the United States of America spends on average nearly twice as much per capita on health care services as the next most costly nation, the United States ranks 32nd among all nations on life expectancy, and 41st on infant mortality.

(2) The number of uninsured Americans rose by more than 4,000,000 between 2008 and 2009 to a total of 51,000,000, or more than 1 of every 6 Americans.

(3) This rise in the number of uninsured Americans was the largest single-year increase since 1987 and was the result of a continued decline in private health coverage, primarily in employer-sponsored insurance.

(4) Small businesses around the country cannot afford to reinvest in their companies and create new jobs because their health care bills are going up 10 or 15 percent every year.

(5) American businesses are at an economic disadvantage, because their health care costs are so much higher than in other countries. Notably, auto- mobile manufacturers spend more on health care per automobile than on steel.

Though Republicans control the U.S. House and Democrats’ hold on the Senate took a hit in the 2010 election, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is trying once more to pass a Medicare-for-all single payer health care bill — something he tried to do in 2009 as an amendment to his party’s health care overhaul before Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) used a procedural move to force the progressive senator to withdraw his proposal.

The bill proposed by Sanders and McDermott is unlikely to pass; House Republicans have offered a spate of bills aimed at repealing parts of health reform that were viewed as mostly symbolic votes, since Democrats control the Senate and Oval Office.

Click here to view the full bill “American Health Security Act of 2011″