What? $100 million a year from the American taxpayers isn't enough? Planned Parenthood has to defraud the government for yet more dough? Good grief.
Jessica Cooley, a reporter for the The Lufkin (Texas) Newshas the scoop.
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast is a defendant in a federal lawsuit after a former Lufkin clinic employee alleged a multi-million-dollar billing scheme. The complaint names Karen Reynolds as the whistle-blower in the allegations brought against her former employer of 10 years.
The updated complaint, filed in October 2011, alleges that while Reynolds was employed as a health center assistant, she was instructed by the organization to maximize billing revenue when the government was fitting the bill through Medicaid and the Women’s Health Program. She claims this was the procedure in all 12 Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast locations across Texas and Louisiana. The suit alleges that, in addition to falsifying patient records, billing the government for unwarranted services and services not covered by Medicaid, Planned Parenthood tacked on services patient did not receive. An example given in the suit is Medicaid being billed for birth control counseling. The suit states almost all Women’s Health Program and Medicaid patients were handed a bag of at least two birth control devices despite the fact the items were not needed or requested by the patient. “Pursuant to corporate policy and instructions from clinical directors, after merely handing the patient a bag of condoms and vaginal film on the way out the door, clinic employees then entered billing codes to be submitted to the government” at an average billed cost of $57.85. If Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast loses the case set for trial in April 2013, Reynolds, the federal government and the state of Texas will be owed a sum of money by the corporation known for family planning and women’s health issues. Reynold’s attorney Mike Love said the case is in its early stage. While he said he was reluctant to comment on the case due to its magnitude, Love said on the behalf of his client, “if an entity is not billing properly, it doesn’t matter if it’s Planned Parenthood, a large hospital facility or a local doctor’s office — fraud is fraud.”
The press thinks, and Democrats hope, the controversy surrounding President Obama’s contraception mandate issue has dissipated. It hasn’t.
Jill Stanek reports on a hopeful meeting today of 50 Congressional representatives who are standing up for legislation that opposes Barack Obama's war on religion. Specifically, the bill would protect the religious liberty and conscience rights of every American who objects to being forced by an immoral Nanny State to pay for abortion drugs and procedures -- abortion drugs and procedures that were recently mandated by the Obama administration's HHS Department.
Among those meeting is the sponsor of the House measure, Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska. Others scheduled to be there include Lee Terry. Way to go, guys.
For the sake of America's security, for the sake of America's international reputation, and for the sake of America's crucial responsibilities to raise the banners of liberty and justice in meaningful ways...we desperately need to elect a new President next November.
Instead of watching CNN or the networks, take a little time to read through some fact-based content about the issues of the day. Here's a few recommendations.
* James Pethokoukis on President Obama's outrageous, unworkable "class warfare" budget.
* Mike Brownfield, "Obama’s Continuing Assault on the Constitution."
* Peter Sprigg, writing for Family Research Council, "Ninth Circuit Marriage Decision: 'Take This Joke -- Please.'"
* Ben Pile's "Climate-Change Alarmism: Fueled by Fantasy."
* Paul Kengor's "Obama's Dupes: The President's Pro-Life Catholic Suckers."
"During the past three years, the wily gonococcus has become less susceptible to our last line of antimicrobial defense, threatening our ability to cure gonorrhea," Gail Bolan, director of the CDC's sexually transmitted disease prevention program, wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine last week.
According to the CDC, gonorrhea has a long history of developing immunity to antibiotics, but doctors have always had a stronger medicine up their sleeves to treat patients. Not anymore—about 1.7 percent of gonorrhea is now resistant to cephalosporins, the last line of defense against gonorrhea. That might not seem like much, but it's a 17-fold increase since 2006, when about one tenth of one percent of gonorrhea was believed to have resistance to cephalosporins.
According to Bolan, the strains are showing up most often in the western states, where 3.6 percent of gonorrhea has shown resistance to cephalosporins, and in men who have sex with men, with nearly 5 percent of gonorrhea showing resistance...
Nikki Mayes, a spokesperson for the CDC, wrote in an email that by using a combination of cephalosporins and other antibiotics, American doctors have been able to prevent anyone from getting a completely untreatable case of gonorrhea. But she says it's only a matter of time.
"The trends in decreased susceptibility that we're seeing, coupled with the history of emerging resistance and reported treatment failures in other countries point to the likelihood of treatment failures on the horizon," she writes.
Not much help is on the way, according to both Mayes and Nicole Mahoney, senior officer of the antibiotics and innovation project at PEW Charitable Trusts.
"As far as gonorrhea goes, I'm not aware of any new drugs in the pipeline," says Mahoney. "This is just one more example of a bigger problem—bacteria are developing resistance faster than we're inventing new medicines to fight them."
A Facebook comment from Live Action's Lila Rose --
"Lizz Winstead is such a big Planned Parenthood fan that she did a comedy tour for them. Apparently though she doesn't know much about what Planned Parenthood actually does as she tweeted: "I'm going to get this years mammogram at Planned Parenthood and photograph it."
The problem? Planned Parenthood doesn't do mammograms. This shows how they have tricked even some of their biggest supporters into thinking so."
"If a dirty old man showed these things to a 10-year old kid in a park, he'd be arrested. But when Planned Parenthood shows them to kids in a classroom, it gets government money." (Michael Hichborn)
Be forewarned. The latest video clip created by American Life League contains a lot of graphic sexual material that you will undoubtedly find highly offensive. But that's the point. Because all of that immoral material comes from Planned Parenthood, the mega-abortion corporation that has open access to your tax money -- and your kids. ALL is trying to awaken the American public to just what Planned Parenthood is all about.
And this clip will certainly do that.
So, this isn't a clip to pass along to your kids. But it should be viewed by your pastor and youth director, your school board members and those friends and family members who still think of Planned Parenthood as an innocent charity.
...Anyway, his budget increases spending, and there are only two areas where there are spending cuts in Obama's budget, which is DOA. It's a total fantasy. It isn't going anywhere. You wonder why he even put this thing out 'cause it's just gonna get slapped down. Even Democrats are slapping it down today.
But the two areas where the Obama budget has real spending cuts are in defense and just found another cut, that's the postal service. Obama's budget proposes cutting back mail delivery to five days a week. You may think, "Big deal, Rush, that's not a big thing. Nobody gets real mail anyway." Wait a minute. That's not gonna be a very popular budget cut. How many Americans rely on government checks? How many of Obama's constituents rely on government checks? It's a big number...
According to the new Obama budget, the national debt will be $1 trillion higher in a decade than previously forecast. Now, he usually gives his budget some kinda name. His first budget was called "The New Era of Fiscal Responsibility." I kid you not. I don't know what he's calling this one, maybe Occupy America. Maybe this budget is Greece 2...
Reading through the "Quirkies" section of Orange, the news organization out of Great Britain, I've been reminded again (as if I could ever forget) that I live in a very strange culture -- a culture that, in it's headlong dive into hedonism, is determined to ditch decency, rationality and any vestige of Christian civilization.
Case in point? Well, how about the bed and breakfast up in the Lakes District that now caters to threesomes? Or the excited buzz being created at the New York Fashion Week over the gender-bending supermodel who will strut the catwalk as both a man and a woman? Then, of course, there's the updates of how to obtain a divorce in less than 24 hours, the transgendered person who boasts over a thousand sex partners, or the Chinese zoo that is celebrating Valentine's Day with a forced mating of a sheep with a deer.
There's also a report there at Orange about how progressive parents are rejecting traditional fairy tales for their kids, choosing instead stories that are less frightening. They believe the old tales are too graphic, too violent, too sexist and otherwise laced with too many antiquated moral themes.
But when it comes down to really scary stories, let's face it. Compared to what our modern culture is producing daily for the newspapers, TV and internet, those old fairy tales seem downright cuddly.
Quite a picture, huh? It's an aerial shot of Lambeau Field last November showing just part of the elaborate (and noble) demonstration created by the Green Bay Packers, veteran's organizations and thousands of football fans in honor of Veteran's Day.
Dramatic visuals. Emotionally moving. Absolutely great TV.
Except that the television audience of ESPN's Monday Night Football didn't see it.
Komen for the Cure's partnership with the mega-abortion corporation, Planned Parenthood, is so inexplicably bizarre that it clearly hurts the Komen image every time it comes up in the news. And negative image means fewer dollars for care and research. Therefore, for an organization that insists it is only concerned about women's health, Komen's ongoing involvement with Planned Parenthood is shameful.
But Komen's primary defense of this counter-productive partnership has always been that Komen's national headquarters had nothing to do with the matter. Komen leaders insisted that they were in the clear -- that the money collected from well-meaning Komen donors and then given to Planned Parenthood reflected the decisions of local branches only.
The latest flap has proven that was a lie. Protests of Komen's irresponsible donations to the nation's #1 abortion-promotion, abortion-providing business had become loud and frequent enough that Komen's national leaders finally took action. They announced that Komen would no longer allow such grants -- only to reverse their decision almost immediately as the leftist press began to howl.
But, by then, the truth had become clear to all America. Komen officials had been active co-conspirators in the mess all along the way.
Back in December I posted an item ("Komen & Planned Parenthood Still Partners? One Christian Business Acts Appropriately. You Can Too.") in which there are links to breast cancer care and research organizations that one can support without surrendering their pro-life conscience. I urge you to check out those important alternatives to Komen and to urge friends, family, church members and local businesses to do the same.
And one other thing, read the latest tale of lavish spending and irresponsible leadership being demonstrated at Komen for the Cure. The article entitled, "Komen Founder Nancy Brinker’s Mysterious Expense Report," is at the Daily Beast.
It's a busy weekend coming up but an exciting one. And to be ready for it requires a lot of work today.
Claire had a doctor's appointment this morning and there was blogging to be done. But with these tasks completed, we now turn to the early part of the afternoon where Claire will be getting things ready for our participation at the Walk for Life down in Lincoln tomorrow morning. That means Claire getting together the material for a Vital Signs Ministries table AND baking cookies for the Nebraska Right to Life bake sale. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to get a few more chapters read in Jeff Shaara's WWII novel "The Final Storm" in order to be finished by our book club meeting Saturday night.
Then later this afternoon, we will head down to Brookstone Retirement Center to set things up for a 4 o'clock presentation of the January edition of "When Swing Was King."
Early tomorrow morning we will head down to Lincoln; pick up our niece Danni who wanted to come with us to the Walk for Life; go set up our literature table at the N.U. Student Union; and then walk up to the State Capitol building where the program gets underway promptly at 10 o'clock. There will be a few short speeches (almost always inspiring), a compelling ceremony where balloons representing the lives lost through abortion are released, and then the Walk for Life begins. Through the cordoned off streets of Lincoln (not very far really), we make our way back to the Student Union where the booths and bake sale tables are -- and where the incomparable Ryan Bomberger will address the gathering.
Come join us, won't you?
After the festivities end, we usually go out to dinner there in Lincoln with the people who come to the Walk from our Omaha church, Faith Bible Church. And, in recent years, that's been quite a gang. Sure, our church is a small one but when you get more than a third of the adult congregation to drive down to Lincoln for such an activity, then you know you've got quite a pro-life church!
I'm really honored to be part of such a team.
The rest of Saturday afternoon (not much is left after getting back to Omaha) will be spent in finishing the Shaara book and in preparing for Sunday's sermon on Galatians, Chapter 5. Then the Notting Hill Napoleons' book discussion Saturday night; church on Sunday morning; and a bit of relaxing "down time" after that.
Put quite simply, the new Meryl Streep movie purporting to tell the story of Margaret Thatcher fails miserably to do that.
But merely tilting the script and portrayal in favor of liberal politics and philosophy isn't what is proving disgusting to audiences. After all, The Iron Lady is a Hollywood production -- what else would one expect?
No; as bad as the distortion of history is in the film (and it's pretty bad), it is something else entirely that has deeply offended so many viewers, even liberals who hated Thatcher's policies. The gravest offense is the film's concentration on the anguishing dementia Mrs. Thatcher has been experiencing in her old age.
Some even suggest that it is a calculated cruelty.
Max Pemberton is just one of those who found the film tasteless and mean. Writing in the Telegraph, Pemberton emphasizes that he is far from being a fan of Mrs. Thatcher. Indeed, she represents to him "a pantomime-ish villain of my childhood." Nevertheless, he describes his sense of pain and powerlessness after viewing The Iron Lady.
The film ended and I sat motionless while the credits rolled. Slowly I got up and walked out into the cold January air, sickened by what I’d been party to, so acutely aware that the scenes presented as entertainment and edification – scenes I’d paid to see – were, at that very moment, possibly taking place in a grand house somewhere in central London. I had partaken of cruel, thoughtless voyeurism, the subject of which was powerless to protest at her exploitation...
My anger at the film has nothing to do with politics. I don’t object to the artistic licence exercised over certain events or the way Lady Thatcher’s political life is portrayed. My issue is with the portrayal of how she is now. And I suspect that those who have seen the film will feel the same.
While Meryl Streep’s performance is mesmerising, it is impossible not to be disturbed by her depiction of Lady Thatcher’s decline into dementia. Columnists and commentators such as Charles Moore, Norman Tebbit and Douglas Hurd have opined in this newspaper and elsewhere about this distasteful approach. And David Cameron has similarly questioned the morality of making the film while she is still alive. I did not expect to agree with them. But now I am even more vehement in my condemnation, because, as a doctor, I have direct experience of the reality of dementia for the sufferer and their family...
But to show someone in the throes of an illness while they are actually experiencing it and in terminal decline is chillingly insensitive. Can you imagine an unauthorised film being made about the life of a public figure who was dying of cancer, for example – Christopher Hitchens, say – before his death? Can you imagine watching scenes that his family opposed – showing him writhing in agony, weak and vulnerable? Of course not. There would be a furious outcry. It would rightly be considered a terrible violation of that person’s privacy, and in appalling poor taste...
Watch this film without knowledge of the background and you’d assume Margaret Thatcher had already died. This is what angered me most about The Iron Lady. It is representative of how society largely views elderly people, particularly those with dementia. They are ignored. They are considered to be dead long before they actually are. Those with dementia experience a loss, not just of their memory and cognition, but of respect and dignity.
Sociologists talk of “social death” and “biological death”. Ideally, the two coincide, but in dementia, there is discordance. As people with dementia decline, they are no longer deemed worthy of attention or thought. As far as society is concerned, they are already history. This film gets away with treating Lady Thatcher as though she were already dead, because that’s precisely how society behaves towards the old and infirm. This is lamentable, vile and shameful – and it should anger every one of us.
So save your money. Don't let Hollywood distort your understanding (or even your image) of one of the genuine political heroes of our time. And don't encourage the cruel attitudes towards the elderly and infirm which Pemberton has described above. Make a deliberate decision to stay away from The Iron Lady and encourage your friends to do likewise.
Instead, I suggest that you watch this quick video and then sort through the many terrific offerings for further investigation of Mrs. Thatcher's real life and legacy here at The Margaret Thatcher Foundation.
The future is not bright for the U.S. military. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave America a glimpse of the half-trillion dollars in defense spending cuts requested by the Obama Administration and detailed how the U.S. military’s capabilities would be affected in practical terms. The result is a slashed and burned military that woefully lacks the forces it needs to meet America’s security challenges on a global scale.
Mike Brownfield, writing for The Morning Bell over at Heritage Foundation has a lot more to say. On the ground, in the sea, and in the air, American forces will shrink drastically — the Army will shrink by 72,000 people, the active Marine Corps will be reduced by 20,000, the Air Force will see six tactical fighter squadrons de-established while an additional training fighter squadron will be eliminated, the next-generation F-35 Join Strike Fighter procurement will be slowed, and the Navy will retire seven cruisers and two amphibious ships at an early juncture while delaying the procurements of new ships. To put these cuts in context, we are returning to ground forces levels we had under President Bill Clinton when the Army strained and scrambled to execute smaller missions like Kosovo and Bosnia–let alone significant ground force operations.
In order to compensate for the drastically reduced military capabilities, the Administration plans to increase reliance on unmanned drones and special-operations teams based around the globe. But special operations are a scalpel, not a Swiss army knife. They are not an “easy-button” substitute for the many security missions the United States undertakes worldwide. And they rely on a strong backbone of conventional forces in order to succeed...
Read on...and I guarentee you will pledge yourself to work towards electing a new Commander in Chief in November.
* Ah, another moment of high pride for the NEA and the government schools it runs. A middle school teacher is caught napping in class by a kid quick enough to whip out his cell phone and capture the slipshod sleeper on film. The result? The 9th grade kid is suspended.
* "Only a president long shielded from criticism and accountability could make the kind of State of the Union speech President Obama did Tuesday night. It's hard to know where to begin, given his repetition of tired ideas from his previous SOTUs, his taking credit for successful policies he resisted and omitting failed ones he promoted, his numerous misrepresentations on issues big and small, and his glaring refusal to address the main issues that threaten the nation." (David Limbaugh, "Obama's Misstatements on the Union.")
* From an Associated Press report -- An increased scrutiny of
Illinois abortion clinics in the wake of revelations about a "house of
horrors" in Philadelphia revealed that some facilities had gone up to 15
years without inspections, and two now have closed after regulators
found health and safety violations...
One of those facilities — the Women's Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood — closed
when the owner decided to surrender its license rather than pay a
$36,000 fine or endure an expensive legal fight with the state. The fine
was for violations including the clinic's failure to perform CPR on a
patient who died after a procedure. Its owner told the AP her clinic was
safe and she felt victimized by the surprise inspection after 15 years.
* "While the president spoke about the economic frustrations of average Americans in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, his wife, Michelle Obama appeared at the event in a sapphire blue dress from designer Barbara Tfank’s 2012 Resort collection, estimated to cost over $2,000."
* "The amount of money the federal government hands out in direct payments to individuals steadily increased over the past four decades, but shot up under Obama, climbing by almost $600 billion — a 32% increase — in his first three years. And Obama's last budget called for these payments to climb another $500 billion by 2016, at which point they would account for fully two-thirds of all federal spending." (John Merline, "Is President Obama Creating A Nation Of Dependents?"-- Investor's Business Daily)
* "How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their "fair share" of taxes...A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven't paid any share, let alone their fair share."
Just to make sure you remain rightly incensed about Planned Parenthood, I wanted to repeat a few items about the mega-abortion corporation that have shown up in previous Vital Signs posts. I begin with the 8 major reasons that I oppose Planned Parenthood but I then post a few links to VS posts that deal with some of the most maddening of Planned Parenthood's recent shenanigans.
1) Planned Parenthood kills preborn babies for profit. Hundreds of thousands of babies. And by payments to surgical abortionists and sales of chemical abortifacients, Planned Parenthood is raking in millions of dollars every year. They are the largest abortion providing, abortion promoting business in the world.
2) Planned Parenthood is the most aggressive promoter of abortion rights in the U.S. and abroad. It's influence in Congress, the United Nations, in state governments, in social service agencies, and among government educators is huge.
3) Planned Parenthood promotes (and enables) sexual promiscuity, even among very young teenagers.
4) Planned Parenthood promotes sexual perversion and does so with obscene and blasphemous materials.
5) Planned Parenthood holds firm to the racism and elitism of its eugenics founders.
6) Planned Parenthood has been caught on many occasions in criminal cover-ups of statutory rape.
7) Planned Parenthood operates many unsafe, unsanitary abortion clinics. It has had several abortionists who have killed adult women through botched abortion. It dispenses very dangerous abortifacient drugs in an unprofessional manner like over the phone and through "at home abortion kits." It works continually against parental rights and control. It works continually against any and all limitations on abortion.
And, oh yeah...Number 8) Planned Parenthood makes about $100,000,000 every year from American taxpayers.
