What WRAL isn't telling you about BlueprintNC. 'All the news we care to share!'

  Verne Strickland Blogmaster / Feb. 22, 2013

 

 

By Francis De Luca | Posted in Legislative Activity, Politicians & Politicking |

CIVITAS REVIEW Feb. 22, 2013

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While the media is reporting on an important political story, WRAL is leaving out key information about its deep connections to the group at the center of the story . The Charlotte Observer posted a story on BlueprintNC, a liberal group responsible for coordinating activities on the left, after a ”confidential” 38 page strategy memo was leaked. Wral picked up on the story and posted the memo on line. But what has WRAL left out of the story?
The WRAL reporter left out the very deep connections WRAL has with BlueprintNC through its owner Jim Goodmon, donations and former employees. The AJ Fletcher Foundation has given $35,000 to BlueprintNC and $380,000 to the NC Justice Center which initially housed BlueprintNC when it was formed (the foundations 990 IRS reports are not current so there may be more) . The Goodmon family which owns WRAL has 4 family members on the board of the Fletcher Foundation including Barbara the President and Jim the chairman of the board. The Executive Director was formerly the head of the NC center for Voter Education, one of the original members of BlueprintNC. In addition Chris Fitzsimon, former WRAL reporter,  is head of the liberal NC Policy Watch, the original lead attack group in the Blueprint coalition. Fitzsimon is also provided free airtime on Goodmon owned WRAL-FM from which he launches daily attacks on political opponents. The Fletcher Foundation has been a long time funder of Policy Watch is now housed in the Justice Center.
Wral is also actually doing one of the items in the strategy memo. The memo on page 3 calls for tracking McCrory “Campaign Promises” and “slam him when he contradicts his promise.” WRAL appears to have taken that for action by launching their “Promise Tracker“, complete with cute little ”Skull & Crossbones” symbols.
Civitas has previously written about BlueprintNC including this chart back in January 2010 (this contains a handy list for “legislative leaders” who might be interested in groups wishing to “eviscerate” or “cripple” them) . It played a key coordinating role leading up to the 2008 election and its extensive network became evident while investigating the role of ACORN in North Carolina. We also wrote about its role in the news you are getting.
It should also be noted that the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation which has given $425,000 to Blueprint and $2.7 million to the Justice Center which housed Blueprint, was headed succesively by Tom Ross the current UNC system President and Leslie Winner a former Democratic state senator and UNC VP.

• Tags: ACORN, Blueprint NC, Blueprintnc, WRAL

CMS SLASHES MEDICARE ADVANTAGE: 'DISARRAY FOR MANY SENIORS' -- GREAT STORY, BUT MAY MAKE YOUR HAIR TURN GRAY AND FALL OUT.

Verne Strickland / February 21, 2013:

Sure, Mr. President -- go ahead and cut my legs off. It will allow me to be buried in a shorter casket, and save the U.S. government a little cash, freeing up some expenses for your next golf junket.

WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 23: U.S. President Barack Obama signs the payroll tax bill in the Oval Office December 23, 2011 in Washington, DC. Payroll taxes fund Social Security and Medicare. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Though Democrats denied it during the 2012 campaign, Obamacare cut Medicare by $716 billion in order to partially fund $1.9 trillion in new entitlement spending over the next ten years. A big chunk of those Medicare cuts came from the market-oriented Medicare Advantage program. Cleverly, the Obama administration postponed the Medicare Advantage cuts until after the election, so as to persuade seniors that everything would be just fine. But the election is over. On Friday, the administration announced that it would be significantly reducing funding for the popular program. Obama’s proposal, according to one analyst, “would turn almost every plan in the industry unprofitable.”

Democrats have long been hostile to the Medicare Advantage program, which allows seniors to get their Medicare coverage through plans administered by private insurers. Today, more than a quarter of retirees get their coverage through Medicare Advantage, and the program has experienced rapid growth over the past decade. Richard Foster, the recently-retired chief actuary of the Medicare program, has projected that Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare Advantage would force half of its current enrollees to switch back to the old, 1965-vintage Medicare program. Robert Book and James Capretta estimate that this will cost enrollees an average of $3,714 in 2017 alone.

New rates to be ‘enormously disruptive’

 

The Obama Campaign's $8 Billion Taxpayer-Funded Medicare Slush Fund Avik Roy Contributor

Fact-Checking the Obama Campaign's Defense of its $716 Billion Cut to Medicare Avik Roy Contributor

 Obama's Second-Term Agenda: Making Obamacare's Taxes, Spending, and Regulations Permanent  

 

 Why Raising Medicare's Retirement Age Will Help Achieve Universal Coverage Avik Roy Contributor

The new rates proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a.k.a. CMS, will have the net effect of reducing payments to Medicare Advantage plans by 7 to 8 percent in 2014, according to Citi managed care analyst Carl McDonald. “This includes the 2.3% reduction in per capita growth rate announced by CMS on Friday, and estimated 2-3% drop as rates move to parity with fee for service…a 1.5% reduction associated with the change in coding intensity adjustment” and the 2% health insurance premium tax. “These negatives are partially offset by an estimated 1% benefit from improved Star quality ratings, re-basing, better risk scores, and fee for service normalization, resulting in an overall decline of 7-8%,” wrote McDonald yesterday in a note to clients.

Because the typical for-profit managed care plan targets profit margins of only 5 percent, and non-profits even less, the net consequence would “turn almost every plan in the industry unprofitable,” according to McDonald, unless CMS changes its proposal. “If implemented, these rates and the program changes CMS is suggesting would be enormously disruptive to Medicare Advantage, likely forcing a number of smaller plans out of the business and creating disarray for many seniors.”

Could CMS bend the rules again?
CMS didn’t issue these rates because they’re mean. Obamacare requires these rate cuts; indeed, as I noted above, they were supposed to have been implemented before the election. “We appreciate that plans are facing several legislatively mandated changes affecting payment for 2014,” CMS’ Jonathan Blum and Paul Spitalnic write in their 199-page report. “We solicit comment on suggestions to address these challenges within the parameters of current law.” The final rates are to be issued on April 1.

CMS is likely to come under pressure to once again postpone the cuts, by engaging in rule-bending or accounting gimmicks. If CMS assumes that Congress passes a “doc fix” by the end of the year, in order to avoid a 25 percent reduction in physician reimbursement rates, plans could benefit from a 4 percent increase in government reimbursements. Understandably, CMS normally doesn’t incorporate the “doc fix” into its calculations unless one has been actually passed by Congress. CMS could also decline to implement a recalibration of its risk adjustment formula, something that would ease the pressure on insurers.
2014 will be the year when reality hits

It’s important to reduce the amount that the government spends on Medicare, and to do so in a way that minimally affects the care that seniors receive. The simplest way to do this is to gradually raise Medicare’s eligibility age by three months each year. Now that we have Obamacare’s insurance exchanges to support lower- to middle-income seniors, it’s not necessary to force Americans to pay taxes in order to subsidize health insurance for wealthy seniors like Warren Buffett and Mitt Romney.

But Obamacare chose a different path, one that will force more Americans into creaky, out-of-date programs like Medicaid and Sixties-era fee-for-service Medicare. The law will dramatically increase the cost of privately-purchased health insurance, something that Obamacare supporters are only now starting to admit.

There will be much more to talk about as the Obama administration issues the rates, regulations, and mandates that the “Affordable Care Act” requires. Stay tuned.

Follow Avik on Facebook and on Twitter at @aviksaroy.
INVESTORS’ NOTE: Among publicly-traded insurers, Universal American (UAM), Humana (HUM), WellCare (WCG), Cigna (CI), and UnitedHealth (UNH) garner the largest proportion of their revenue from Medicare Advantage.

USA Dot Com: Brent Bozell: Your news is being censored in an outrageous way!

USA Dot Com: Brent Bozell: Your news is being censored in an outrageous way!

Brent Bozell: Your news is being censored in an outrageous way!

Dear Verne, Your news is being censored in an outrageous way. Just look at what happened (yet wasn't reported!) last December in Michigan. The pro-union broadcast networks deliberately censored footage of thuggish union violence directed at conservatives. Union thugs, enraged over passage of a right-to-work law, physically attacked a Fox News contributor and destroyed a massive tent erected by a conservative group at the rally. This was all captured on videotape, but neither ABC, CBS, nor NBC covered the story or showed the documented violence. What hypocrites! If a Tea Party activist had punched a network reporter and trampled on a news tent, it would be headline news 24/7. ABC, CBS, and NBC have a responsibility to the American people to expose what's really happening in our country. Their double standard is absolutely outrageous. Furthermore, now that these thugs have been caught on tape perpetrating vicious physical assaults, President Obama has an even greater responsibility to denounce them swiftly, publicly, and severely. But President Obama didn't say a word. ABC, CBS, and NBC stayed silent. Do you see what's happening? The American media have adopted the tyrannical tactics of leftist nations where the public is shielded from actual news stories through censorship. It's a gross manipulation of the First Amendment. BUT—the Media Research Center has the strategy to put a stop to journalistic censorship. Learn more here, and find out what you can do. Americans cannot allow this extreme liberal bias to continue. It's dangerous to our country, and it must be stopped. Find out how you can help the MRC put an end to media censorship once and for all. We can't do it without you. Thank you for standing up for the truth. Sincerely, L. Brent Bozell III Founder and President Media Research Center

New York City advances mentally ill "roundup plan". Gonna be trouble.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / February 18, 2013

I don't have the solution, and I don't know who does. But if New York expects to reduce lawsuits by what they are calling "Scoop Up the Nuts", they are going to be sadly disappointed. Ever try dealing with blacks and illegal immigrants miffed by the practice of rounding up drivers who "look suspicious"? Can you spell "RIOT"? Although this is somewhat different, it's close enough to "profiling" to be a very touchy and problematic subject. By the way, with an insensitive slogan like that, they're off to a poor start. Under the right circumstances, this idea has been floated as a way to keep guns out of the hands of troubled individuals. I could buy into that. But walk softly, fellas. You'll still be on shaky ground.



By JAMIE SCHRAM and LARRY CELONA
Posted: 2:12 AM, February 18, 2013

The city is making a major push to sweep the streets of dangerous, mentally ill New Yorkers — and has even compiled a most-wanted list, The Post has learned.
The measure follows a pair of high-profile subway-shove fatalities from December allegedly involving mentally ill individuals.
The city has already drawn up a list of 25 targets, sources said.
“After the Queens subway attack [of immigrant Sunando Sen], the [city] decided to take a proactive approach to track down the most dangerous mental-health patients that currently have mental-hygiene warrants” out for them, a law-enforcement source said.

Paul Martinka

TRACKING ’EM: The city, fearing liability following splashy front-page subway-shove tragedies — like those involving suspects Erika Menendez (above) and Naeem Davis — is looking to get the mentally ill off the streets.

Steven Hirsch

Naeem Davis

Those warrants mean that the patients are not wanted for a crime but instead are being sought because they are not getting their court-ordered treatment.
There are a handful of cops assigned to the detail, which began working in the past few weeks, the source said.
Cops in the NYPD’s Real Time Crime Center are using high-tech methods to first track down the individuals, and detectives on the street have been assigned to then go after them and take them to hospitals, law-enforcement sources said.
In the past, the city Department of Health would ask cops for help finding mentally ill people who aren’t taking their court-mandated meds so they could be taken to clinics. But that only applied to those who had known addresses — and patients who went off the grid were rarely pursued, the sources said.
The city is now concerned it could be liable if one of those people goes off the rails and hurts someone — or themselves, the sources said.
And that’s prompted the Health Department to seek more help from the NYPD. These patients could, of course, be dangerous, health officials noted.
Now, “you have a family member who goes to the Department of Health and gives them the information. Then they go to the Police Department, and together, the DOH person and the police go out and try to track down these people,” said a city official. “They’re just trying to get these people help.”
“All of these patients are receiving treatment for mental-health conditions,” said Department of Health spokesman Sam Miller. “If they do not receive sustained treatment . . . they could pose some risk to themselves, family members or others.”
But tracking them down won’t be easy. “There’s no rhyme or reason to their craziness,” said a law-enforcement source.
“You might find yourself looking all over the place for one of these kooks who rides the subway back and forth.”Such craziness includes homeless man Naeem Davis’ alleged Dec. 3 fatal subway push of a Queens father — Davis has claimed voices guided his deadly act — and the horrifying shove of Sen allegedly by accused Muslim-hating maniac Erika Menendez.
Menendez told The Post in a rambling jailhouse interview that she likely would not have killed the hard-working man had she smoked weed that day — she uses it to self-medicate for bipolar disorder.
She also has allegedly told authorities that she killed Sen, a Hindu, because of 9/11 — not because so many people died, but because of the destruction of the buildings.
She has been found fit to stand trial.

John McCain: Background checks will get broad support in Senate.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / February 18, 2013

The Huffington Post  |  By Mollie Reilly Posted: 02/17/2013 12:32 pm EST  |  Updated: 02/17/2013 12:47 pm EST

John McCain, Gun Control, Video, Politics News, Background Check Bill, Background Checks, Second Amendment, Second Amendment, Gun Violence, John Mccain Background Checks, John Mccain Gun Control, John Mccain Guns, Universal Background Checks, Politics News

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that he expects bipartisan legislation expanding background checks on gun purchases to have broad support in the Senate.
"There's some senators, bipartisan, again, Senator Coburn and Senator Manchin and some others who are working on a package that I think that most of us will be able to support," McCain said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I applaud their efforts."
McCain continued, "Obviously, we want to do everything we can to prevent guns from falling into the hands of people who are mentally unbalanced or criminals."
The bipartisan plan touted by McCain is currently under negotiation. Senators Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) have met to discuss the proposed legislation, which would close loopholes in the current background check system.
"It's coming along pretty well," Schumer said after a meeting on the plan last Wednesday. "We're hopeful."
Recent surveys have shown overwhelming public support for expanding background checks. A Quinnipiac poll released earlier this month found that 92 percent of voters are in favor of universal checks on gun buyers.
McCain has previously signaled his support for strengthening background checks for gun purchases. However, he has criticized other gun control proposals, including bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“I’ve not seen how that would improve the situation at all,” McCain said on CNN last month. “I think the burden of proof has to be on those who want such a thing.”

Verne Strickland's CANCER WALK -- Taming bone cancer and depression -- maybe now I can re-set my life clock

I've been saved. I've been blessed. Now I'm being healed.
























 













By Verne Strickland 021613
First published March 5, 2012

My walk with cancer began when I found that I was actually losing the ability to walk. Pain froze my hips, hobbled my legs, and forced me to shuffle along, barely lifting my feet. I was suddenly old and infirm. I looked it.

I turned 75 in 2012, but have enjoyed very good health most of my life. I've tried to watch my diet to curb cholesterol. I do light weight training, and stay off the smokes, which I quit over thirty years ago.

But then this "thing" happened. I had to curtail all my activities. I was grounded. My energy plummeted. I had no appetite, and my weight dropped markedly. Before I knew it, I was down to within five pounds of what I scaled in at when I was in boot camp at Fort Jackson fifty years ago.

I dropped out of sight. I could not function. Early onset of Alzheimer's worsened, and I was often confused and inarticulate. I couldn't think. To my family the change was evident, and alarming. We were all concerned. I didn't announce to friends until later what was going on. At the time, I didn't know.

Foolishly, I cut down on and then stopped altogether the dozen or more prescription medicines which glued me together, regulating my heart, breathing, digestive and circulatory systems, and my brain. As a result, I crashed, and dove into a depression so deep I didn't think I would get out. I questioned how long I could tolerate it. It was a desperate time.

I didn't know I would talk about this, but it's a part of the story. I entered a recommended mental rehab facility, which helped me get emotionally stable again. I needed that. While there for a brief period, I lived with unfortunates more desperately ill than I.

There is no shame in this for me. Quite the contrary. It was a priceless and touching opportunity to see the other side. Even to be on the other side for a time. It broadened my horizons. I can even liken the experience in a way to the crushing emotional burden and depression that many combat veterans feel, although to liken my own sickness to theirs would be disrespectful.

My fleeting passage through that dark world fed the kinship I feel with our soldiers and Marines like my dear friend Ilario Pantano, whose campaign I took pride in supporting. He has talked about the horrors of PTSD, which has beset so many veterans, and talks frankly about his own bout with these demons. I think perhaps I may understand that a bit better now.

It was a profound experience. We had nothing but the staff and each other. They helped me. I helped them. They were all good people with bad problems. I'm sure many of them are still there. I will never forget them.

With that fixed, I undertook the next step -- to find out what was physically wrong with me. We had only begun our search. My loving, caring family gathered around me. This was so important. We prayed for direction, courage and resolve. It all came, of course. Faith is wonderful when you have it, and a lifesaver when you need it.

We gave God the reins of our lives. He guided us to the man who took charge of our medical dilemma -- Dr. William McNulty, a board-certified Wilmington oncologist and internist of national reputation, a brilliant and cheerful physician who changed my life and gave me a new sense of hope. He is a founding partner of  Cape Fear Cancer Specialists in Wilmington

I surrendered myself to a procession of tests and probes -- bone biopsies, CT scans, MRIs, countless blood tests. The problems seemed to have originated in my pelvic structure, which seemed reasonable, because my ability to walk had been most seriously compromised.

Dr. McNulty early on suspected multiple myeloma, a type of cancer which starts in plasma cells. It's the most common type of plasma cell cancer -- intimidating, but treatable with what my oncologist described as "modern medicine" -- radiation, and creative chemotherapy -- utilizing an "old" drug enjoying a resurgence in popularity due to new creative techniques in IV usage. In my case it had attacked bone tissues -- primarily in my hips. It can metastasize if not properly diagnosed and promptly treated.

First came radiation therapy, which most often refers to external beam radiation therapy. During this type of radiation, the high-energy beams come from a machine outside of your body that aims the beams at a precise point on your body.

Radiation therapy damages cells by destroying the genetic material that controls how cells grow and divide. While both healthy and cancerous cells are damaged by radiation therapy, the goal of radiation therapy is to destroy as few normal, healthy cells as possible.

This critical role in my treatment was undertaken by Board-Certified Radiation Oncologist Dr. Michael Papagikos at Coastal Carolina Radiation Oncology Center in Wilmington. He is one of the most knowledgeable, caring and inspiring physicians I have ever met.

Dr. Papagikos says: "My goal is to treat my patients with technologically advanced radiation therapy in an expert, compassionate, and respectful manner with the goal of improving and extending their life." 

It was after several weeks of intensive radiation treatment that I entered the unique world of chemotherapy with Dr. McNulty at Cape Fear Cancer Specialists. 

This is where we'll go next in this special medical series on USA DOT COM --

I've been saved. I've been blessed. And now I'm being healed.