[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ-m2-b-9Po&w=560&h=315]
By Congressman Steve Austria
Last month, President Obama presented his annual State of the Union address to Congress and the American people. While I appreciate the President’s tough talk on no more bailouts or government handouts, for three years this Administration’s tough talk has not matched its actions. Over the past three years we have heard that if we enact certain policies the economy would improve and that we would see the creation of jobs. However since his major policies, such as the $1 trillion stimulus plan, the health care plan, and the Dodd-Frank plan have been enacted we’ve seen the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression and our deficit has more than doubled. Many of you have expressed your concerns about the same failed policies of more spending, higher taxes, and more government regulations that we have seen from this Administration. Neglecting to rein in the out-of-control spending in Washington and raising taxes on our job creators will not solve our nation’s fiscal crisis but will only create more uncertainty in our financial and business markets.
President Obama closed his State of the Union address with a reference to Abraham Lincoln: “I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That Government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more.” It is time for this Administration and Congress to act on Lincoln’s words, begin working together to limit government and help our job creators produce the long term sustainable jobs needed to turn our economy around. Our nation has always showed resilience in the face of adversity, and I will continue to have strong faith in the American people and their ability to prosper without the need of intrusive policies and government regulations.
As a member the Appropriations Committee, I welcome the opportunity to work with the President in eliminating the wasteful Washington spending and produce a fiscally-responsible budget, something we have not seen from the Senate in over 1,000 days.
The Governor’s Office of Health Transformation announced yesterday that it would partner with Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Partners for Kids to replicate in Southeastern Ohio a Mansfield program that has show great strides in improving the health of at-risk mothers and their babies. (see Mansfield Journal News, DFeb. 3 2012)
Founded in 1999, the Community Health Access Project (CHAP) has achieved a 30-percent reduction in the risk for low-weight births in Richland County. The project uses a Community Pathway Model to improve health and preventative care for high-risk mothers and children in difficult-to-serve areas. It coordinates care for individuals within targeted medical “pathways,” such as medication assessment, smoking cessation and pregnancy and postpartum care.
OHT will join with Partners for Kids to use community liaisons to check on at-risk pregnant women to ensure that they are getting the preventive care they need and also help with non-medical needs such as transportation or housing.
In announcing OHT’s $350,000 investment to replicate the program for Medicaid beneficiaries in Appalachia, Director Greg Moody said the model was selected because it has improved outcomes and reduced costs.
“This initiative fits perfectly with the governor’s objectives to improve care coordination for vulnerable Ohioans and to pay for value, not volume, in health care,” Moody said.
Source: Health Policy Review Feb. 3, 2012
Posted in Governor, health care, news, Ohio
By Austin Ruse
“Last week the Susan G. Komen Foundation made an announcement that appears that they have reversed themselves on funding of Planned Parenthood. While I do not believe they have reversed themselves, it may turn out to be the case. We do not know.
What happened was nothing short of a Mafia shakedown campaign by Planned Parenthood against the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Planned Parenthood told the Komen Foundation ‘either give us money or we will destroy you.’ They were aided and abetted in this hostage taking by the mainstream media.
At this point, pro-lifers should cease their support of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. We should wait and see what happens. We know there are five more Komen grants to Planned Parenthood in the pipeline. If any more come up, we will know we have lost and Planned Parenthood has won.
I do not regret the work I did over the past days on this issue, neither should any pro-lifer. I only regret we could not have done more to make Komen strong and able to fight off the thuggish abortion giant, Planned Parenthood.
What the week has shown is that Planned Parenthood, an organization that is under criminal investigation all over this country, will stop at nothing to maintain their stranglehold on organizations like the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Austin Ruse is president of C-FAM, a New York and Washington DC-based research institute working exclusively on International social policy.
Posted in health care, politics
Tagged abortion, breast cancer, funding, liberal media, Planned Parenthood, Susan G. Komen Foundation
[Xenia, OH] – The Super Bowl is America’s most popular national sporting event. All across the country, millions of people gather to socialize and watch the big game. The U.S. Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), with support from the National Football League (NFL) and Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management (TEAM) Coalition, have joined forces with Greene County’s local highway safety and law enforcement officials to spread an important safety message to the public about designating a sober driver on Super Bowl Sunday – Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk.
“This message is for everyone who will be drinking during the big game. Make the right play and pass your keys to a designated driver so they can get you home safely,” said Laurie Fox, Coordinator for Greene County Safe Communities. “There is no excuse to get flagged for a false start. Our law enforcement men and women of Greene County will be out to stop anyone who decides to drink and drive.”
In 2010, alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities accounted for 31 percent of the total motor vehicle traffic fatalities in the United States.
Driving while impaired could result in a loss of your driver’s license or even possibly the loss of your or someone else’s life. On Super Bowl Sunday, make it a team effort to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. If you plan on driving, plan not to drink alcohol.
If you are hosting a Super Bowl party:
Make sure all of your guests designate their sober drivers before kick-off or help arrange
ride-sharing with sober drivers.
– Find unique ways to recognize the designated drivers at your party
– Give them a great spot to watch the game.
– Whatever non-alcoholic beverage they are drinking, make sure their glass is always full.
– Let them have the first pass at the buffet table.
– Make sure their cars are easy to access when it is time to start driving people home.
Offer a variety of non-alcoholic choices like soft drinks, juice, and water.
Serve one drink at a time and serve measured drinks.
Only serve alcohol to guests over 21 years of age.
Determine ahead of time when you’ll stop serving alcohol, such as one hour before the party ends or at the end of the third quarter (just like NFL stadiums) and begin serving coffee and dessert.
Add the numbers of local cab companies into your phone so they are just one touch away.
Take appropriate steps to prevent anyone from drinking and driving.
Be prepared for guests to spend the night if an alternative way home is not available.
Remember, you can be held liable and prosecuted if someone you served ends up in a
drunk-driving crash.
If you are attending a Super Bowl party or watching at a sports bar or restaurant, please follow these guidelines to make sure you enjoy Super Bowl XLVI responsibly:
Designate your sober driver before the party begins.
Avoid drinking too much alcohol too fast. Pace yourself—eat enough food, take breaks, and alternate with non-alcoholic drinks.
If you don’t have a designated driver, ask a sober friend for a ride home; call a cab, friend, or family member to come and get you; or just stay where you are and sleep it off until you are sober.
Always buckle up – it’s the best defense against other drunk driving.
Take appropriate steps to prevent anyone from driving while impaired. Remember
For more information, please visit www.trafficsafetymarketing.com.
Posted in Greene County
Tagged designated driver, safety tips, Super Bowl Sunday, traffic safety
An agreed preliminary and permanent injunction was approved yesterday between the Division of Securities and Wayne T. Essex and his companies (Essex and Associates, Inc. in Dayton, Essex HR & Associates, Inc. in Beavercreek, and HR Reconciliation, LLC in Dayton.) The injunction prohibits Essex and his companies from:
Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Wiseman signed the injunction. In December 2011, Judge Wiseman issued a temporary restraining order against Essex and his companies. The judge also appointed as receiver James Swaim of the Dayton law firm of Flanagan, Lieberman, Hoffman & Swaim. The receiver is working to recover Essex’s business assets for distribution as approved by the court.
The Division of Securities initiated the action based on allegations that Essex sold promissory notes in the Dayton Small Business Capital Fund, which he told investors would be invested in Dayton-area small businesses. Twenty investors purchased approximately $1.1 million in the fraudulent investment from July 6, 2010 – November 23, 2011. Essex never made loans to or investments in small businesses with the money, the State charged.
The Division’s investigation found that Essex sold securities without a license, sold unregistered securities and engaged in securities fraud. The Division also found that Essex commingled investor funds with his business and were used to support his personal lifestyle, including out-of-state travel.
Essex did not tell investors that he was not licensed to sell securities and that the securities were not properly registered. Essex told investors that their funds were guaranteed and that they would receive annual returns of five, seven or 10 percent – with higher rates to those who invested larger dollar amounts.
Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) issued the following statement regarding the vicious and malignant attack by the New York Times and the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) on the NYPD and Chief Raymond Kelly:
“The American Islamic Forum for Democracy unequivocally supports the efforts of the New York Police Department and its Commissioner Raymond Kelly to fight the insidious ideology of militant Islamism. The NYPD has been an international leader in this fight and has paid a heavy price for being at the forefront of the ideological war that must be waged. Lost in the shoddy and biased reporting was the most basic fact that NYPD’s counter-terrorism programs have protected New Yorkers and Americans from a vast number of increasing threats like Faisal Shahzad, the Time Square Bomber, who embodies the radicalization described in the Third Jihad.
This week’s attacks on the NYPD and now Chief Kelly are yet another example of the depths of deception that groups such as CAIR are willing to go in order to suppress any criticism of the organization. This attack has nothing to do with the rights of American Muslims and everything to do with the efforts of CAIR to use American Muslims as a tool to suppress dissent and frame our communities as victims of American society.
The editorial board and reporter Michael Powell of The New York Times should be ashamed of themselves. They have abandoned any journalistic standards in their factless regurgitation of the CAIR mantra. The New York Times seems to care little about genuine Muslim diversity or addressing the root causes of terrorism. This latest attack is simply part of a systematic attempt to dismantle the efforts of NYPD to address the root causes of radicalization within American Muslim communities.
In 2007 the NYPD released a landmark report entitled Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat. This report was a seminal piece of research now used around the world on how radicalization occurs. As an American Muslim I embraced this research as a blueprint which Muslims should have initiated to confront the threat knocking on the door of our communities every day. Groups like CAIR saw it as an opportunity to drive a wedge between American Muslims and law enforcement and to preach a victim mindset within our community. Interestingly the behaviors that CAIR is illustrating are eerily similar to the models laid out in the NYPD report.
The story that the New York Times ran this week is over a year old. It didn’t gain momentum last year primarily because it is an insignificant story and its merits paled in comparison to world-wide attention brought to bear on the revolutions in Egypt which erupted shortly thereafter. America’s attention span for the Middle East has worn thin and when a new kernel of information was released CAIR seized that opportunity to reignite the furor. The “shocking” evidence was that 1,500 NYPD officers saw a film that is readily available to the general public and probably already viewed by millions.
This effort by CAIR is a blatant attempt to punish the NYPD and Chief Kelly for doing their job and to strike fear in the heart of anyone that does legitimate work in exposing their lifeblood of Islamism. Political correctness has made mere claims of discrimination and racial bias irrefutable and removed the ability for Americans to have honest discourse on religious issues. The Third Jihad is not anti-Islam or anti-Muslim. If it were I would not have been a part of it.
“It was an opportunity for me, said Jasser, “to speak with co-religionists about the threat that exists to our children and our very way of life. It is a wake-up call for our community to accept our responsibility to fight against an ideology within our communities that seeks to strip us of our Constitutional freedoms. CAIR’s victimization of American Muslims emboldens that sinister ideology.”
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The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org.
Two separate groups have been given the go-ahead by the state ballot board to begin collecting the signatures needed to put a constitutional amendment that would legalize medical marijuana on the November ballot.
The Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment of 2012 is backed primarily by patients, advocates and business people and would leave most decisions on regulating the drug to a state commission.
The Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment is backed primarily by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which advocates nationally for the complete legalization of the drug, and includes much more detail about regulations on how much marijuana could be obtained, who could grow it and where it could be distributed.
Supporters of both amendments have indicated that they expect the two versions to be reconciled into a single amendment before being placed on the ballot.
originally published in the Ohio Health Policy Review, January 27, 2012.
Posted in health care, news, Ohio, politics
By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.
(New York – C-FAM) Hungarian leaders have passed a law protecting the traditional family, defying ongoing criticism that their new constitution would curtail abortion and homosexuality.
The new law says the family, based upon marriage of a man and a woman whose mission is fulfilled by raising children, is an “autonomous community…established before the emergence of law and the State” and that the State must respect it as a matter of national survival. It says “Embryonic and foetal life shall be entitled to protection and respect from the moment of conception,” and the state should encourage “homely circumstances” for child care. It obliges the media to respect marriage and parenting and assigns parents, rather than the State, primary responsibility for protecting the rights of the child. The law enumerates responsibilities for minors, including respect and care for elderly parents.
The purpose of the law is “to create a predictable and safe regulatory environment for family protection and the promotion of family welfare, and to enforce the Fundamental Law,” the nation’s new constitution, which came into force on January 1st and was passed by a vote of 262-44 last April.
The Fundamental Law nullified Hungary’s communist-era constitution and dates its democracy from the revolution against the Soviet Union in 1956 and Soviet collapse in 1990. Hungary is the last Central European nation to pass a post-communist constitution.
The constitution calls for the protection of life from conception and bans torture, human trafficking, eugenics, and human cloning. It recognizes marriage as the “conjugal union of a man and a woman.”
Amnesty International said the article protecting life from conception could “undermine the rights of women and girls” that are “enshrined in several treaties signed and ratified by the Republic of Hungary such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).” The group said the article defining marriage “may pave the way to the introduction of an explicit ban on same-sex marriages which contravenes international and European anti-discrimination standards…enshrined by Article 23 of the ICCPR [the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights].”
Human Rights Watch likewise invoked UN human rights treaties in a letter urging Hungary’s president to “amend the constitution to ensure respect for women’s reproductive rights.” The human rights goliath expressed concern that the non-discrimination clause for “race, color, sex, disability, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, wealth, birth or any other circumstance whatsoever” excludes reference to sexual orientation or gender identity which they said was guaranteed in the ICCPR.
International legal experts have dismissed the claims of the human rights groups saying Hungary has the right to pass a constitution without interference. They point out that no UN treaty even mentions abortion, sexual orientation, or gender identity and that the UN General Assembly has never accepted such redefinitions.
European legal expert Roger Kiska sees the new Hungarian laws as part of a growing trend among European states to push back at such interpretations and protect human life and the family. Former US ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer said the expulsion of Hungary from the EU is “now no longer unthinkable,” but Hungarian analyst Julia Lakatos downplayed the controversy, telling CSMonitor, “Much of the criticism from abroad is exaggerated.”
Susan Yoshihara is Senior Vice President for Research at the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). This article first appeared in the Friday Fax, an internet report published weekly by C-FAM, a New York and Washington DC-based research institute (http://www.c-fam.org/). This article appears with permission.
Posted in news
Tagged abortion politics, fetal protection, gay politics, humanist vs natural values, Hungary, law, pro-life, traditional family
Just This Side of Hell (Video Commentary)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faWUANkilho?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
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Posted in government, politics
Tagged civil liberties, commentary, economy, Election 2012, military