America the Beautiful (and its own third world absurdities)

Efforts to crack down on lead paint thwarted by China, Bush Administration
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and China have both undermined efforts to tighten rules designed to ensure that lead paint isn't used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products. . .
The Bush administration has hindered regulation on two fronts. . . to press for greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach.

Who are the people in this country who would vote for this republican neo-con corpo-fascist pack of dogs?

U.S. poverty rate declines significantly
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The nation's poverty rate dropped last year, the first significant decline since President Bush took office.
The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that 36.5 million Americans, or 12.3 percent — were living in poverty last year. That's down from 12.6 percent in 2005.

Wow, 0.3% decline. I wonder what manipulative number crunching led to that figure. These numbers are all put out by the government.

Let’s put these numbers into perspective. . . “12%” doesn’t sound like much, does it? Well, that’s more than one person of every ten in the United States of America is living in poverty.

In 2006, the poverty rate for those under the age of 18 was 21.9%. That means more than one of every five children lived in poverty. That is the highest figure for children living in poverty in the developed world. The rate for African-American children was far higher and closer to 40% which translates into more than one of every three black children living in poverty. How does that make you feel about your country all you flag waving, uber patriotic, twisted nationalist slack jawed morons?

How about this figure: The infant mortality rate in the United States of America is about 6.5 deaths per 1,000 births. That means, for every 1,000 children are born in this country, 6.5 die in the process. That’s by far the worse infant mortality rate in the developed world. Every single western nation has a better record than that. Japan is 2.8, Spain is 4.3, Canada, 4.6 Portugal, 4.9. With all our technology and billions of dollars spent on wars and corporate welfare, more babies die at birth here than in any developed country in the world. WTF?

Shall we talk about health care? 45 million Americans don’t have any health insurance. They depend upon free clinics and emergency rooms that bill them later ruining their credit and future earnings. That’s about one of every six Americans without insurance. The amazing thing is that these numbers are getting bigger because the federal government is covering less people because they are cutting the edges off coverage. . . they’ve gotta fund the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq somehow. . . while employers, and we’re not talking mom and pop shops here, are cutting coverage for their employers.
Guess what, it’s not like that in other developed countries. They HAVE universal health care.
Meanwhile, insurance companies are fighting every claim they receive in the hopes that you, the covered ones, will give up and pay it yourself. Let’s face it, insurance company policy makers have become the low life scum suckers of this society. These folks have become monsters making record profits while cutting payouts. . . and we thought the sludge sucking oil company execs were bad. . . these guys are directly taking big fat chunks of change out of YOUR pocket. Hey, you paid the premiums for all these years and now, you’ve STILL got to pay the bills. WTF?
Next time you get a bill that your insurance company refuses to pay, fight them on it. Fight them tooth and nail. Send them copies of your bills, call them every day about it. EVERYONE needs to do that and not roll over for these recreant pieces of shit who want to screw you and your children.

What have we covered here? Consumer protection, infant mortality, poverty and health care and they all pretty much suck in this country compared to other countries.

Yea, “America, love it or leave it.” I happen to love it here. Wide open spaces, still certain freedoms not available in a lot of other places and I can afford to enjoy those things, but next time somebody tells you, “this is the greatest country in the whole wide world,” laugh at them. They’re stupid and willfully ignorant. It’s not really, by many standards of human existence. In fact, it sucks here for a lot of people. . . a lot of poor, uneducated, uninsured people.

So fuck all you flag waving nationalist bullshiters. Stick your patriotic cheerleading pom-poms sideways up your proletariat ass. When you get off your ass and begin demanding that your politicians do something about poverty and healthcare instead of worrying about non-issues like “gun control” and “abortion” (WTF is the matter with you simpletons?!?!) then I’ll listen to your simplistic propaganda bullshit, until then, fuck you mother fucking right wing bozos.