Xenophobia Breaks Out Across Colorado

Speaking of Greeley students understanding mathematical relationships, it gets really depressing spending a Saturday afternoon reading the commentaries around the state on health care. Obama is in Grand Junction trying to raise the quality of debate amongst the provincials. Below the BBC has made an easy visual to chart the comparisons between the US system and three others. I thought I'd try a more mathematical approach to help squelch the xenophobes as everything I am writing comes up screaming my disenchantment with the perceptions people are willing to show they believe as fact. You can still dispute numbers but it gets less emotional. The arguments are limited.

Note that the day you are born in Singapore you have a better life expectancy. As a child I remember Singapore being a place my dad wouldn't buy things from because the quality was questionable. Now Singapore leads a comparison on certain health statistics.



I understand, being American, that we like to think we have the greatest, most magnificent, tremendous, biggest, bestest, most significant," everything in the world. But then again it isn't only my ego that participates in this society. The reality is that excluding better ideas that have better performance for more people is, well, a major risk factor behind the disease called xenophobia.

It is a horrid, horrid, horrid disease. Did I say horrid? Make that deadly.

I am growing weary of the health care debate and the tactics deployed. How you re-educate the over-forty crowd on doing the basic math? On unwinding the political complexities? How do you reeducate the over-forty crowd on the dangers of twisted perceptions of ideology? I have noted the young are not turning out for these rallies in any significant numbers so I focus on my own generation. The generation fed buzz words like socialism, McCarthyism, videos on nuclear explosions, and liberalism to fuel the power of the political elite. Now those words, these labels, taken out of context, have come back to haunt us all.

I fear the slippery slope if Congress does not include a public option. It will be difficult, at least for me, to have any faith in a system of government which has shown that it has compromised the throat of America by allowing the fangs of monster insurance industries and accompanying profiteers to thrive permanently embedded in American citizens' pockets. Insurance isn't an option any longer. It has been made a legal necessity to survive and operate in a manner expected by civilized society. The only option not to participate in having your blood sucked through the insurance tube is to be wealthy enough to cover all catastrophic events or poor enough to live under a bridge and own nothing at all. In essence the Lord of the Realm owns all the means of production and the Lord of the Realm isn't government.

If Congress fails in its duty to protect its people, all of its people, then the Insurance Industry will be known as the Lord of the Realm. Congress will be proven to be the jesters who dress up and dance for the Lord when called upon. The foolish plebeians will be, and are, the citizens with the pitchforks and hayforks who believe they will be saving something special for themselves by undermining the public option.

Legislative power should not be bought and sold to the highest more powerful bidder. This era of Congress should be known as the Blagoveckian Era.

This nation belongs to the people. All of the people. All of the time. We need to remind Congress who is in power here. Write. Call. Speak out. The mob can't win this one or we all lose.

BBC NEWS | Health | Healthcare around the world

Healthcare around the world

Healthcare figures

A Handy Dandy New Tool for Greeley Citizens

Here is a handy dandy new tool. Thank you to the Denver Post for helping roll this out. I am just getting into looking at Greeley District 6 data and the usefulness of the stats. This system has much more recent statistics. But it is less user friendly to make quick comparisons across years. One has to look up what the term "developing" means, etc. One particular area to note other than reading is math. Math dropped. Science isn't included. So much for the high tech jobs coming to Greeley any time soon. Schoolview.org

The Greeley Tribune has all the positive stuff from the District interpretation of the data. So I'll post a few of the not so nice indicators from the site just to keep them all "transparent".

Professional Development and School Support (PDSSP):

• District did not make AYP for Reading: Use this link to access Reading Resources - pdf
• District did not make AYP for Math: Use this link to access Math Resources - pdf
• Visit the PDSSP web site for additional resources

One thing I'd already like to ask is if the administration only makes 84% of their targets then can we give them just 84% of their pay? There are some debates ongoing about having teacher bonuses paid on progress over time rather than hitting a stationary target performance on each year's testing. Hence the State's new tool is a great idea in that regard. It makes much more sense to assess a teacher on progress made than on having to bring students up to grade level in one year who perhaps haven't been performing during the past five years.

My guess is that the concept of rationing out administrative pay on a similar measurable basis wouldn't be well received. No doubt.

I read statements made by the District Administration glorifying the achievements gained. These should be acknowledged. Perhaps not with the open arms the District Superintendent would like but nonetheless she is correct that steady gains are a step in the right direction. I guess she is overlooking the areas, like math, that suffer. The new strategy they are calling implemented may need some additional tweaking.

And I'd still like to see the District expenses and the strategic plan.

New CSAP data tool gauges student achievement - The Denver Post

No other state has a data cruncher quite like it, and at least two states — Massachusetts and Indiana — have expressed interest in using the model for their own.

Beginning at 11 a.m., the public will be able to click on a new website, schoolview.org, to delve into how well their school, district and state are doing at pushing achievement and growth.

It Is Time, Colorado! We Need Health Insurance Reform Today

These are the fellow local businesses endorsing the Op-Ed piece in the Denver Post written by Hollis Berendt and Brian Bacak. While I endorse a single payer system and a stronger public option it is good to see prominent businesses and citizens coming out against the mouthpieces serious reform. Bravo! I'll frequent these businesses whenever I have the opportunity.

It Is Time, Colorado! We Need Health Insurance Reform Today

The Denver Post and the JBS Wash

Well this could be a clue why there hasn't been any ongoing press repair kits being tossed out to reporters by JBS.  What is poignant though is that it is not about a ground hamburger problem (read the comments ongoing in a previous post).  It is about internal practices if I am making correct assumptions about where that wash process occurs.  I wonder what JBS stockholders are thinking now...  "Do we have enough contingency funds?"  I don't think insurance is going to want to cover this oversight.  I could be wrong.  Any one else have ideas?


Addendum: There is more discussion in the original article on how the E. coli could have gotten into the system. Although I do not understand the potential reasoning between "the machine was broken and it didn't get done" and it is the consumer's job to cook the meat to 160 degrees plus it is the USDA's role to expand their testing? Huh? Why isn't the company's feet being baked over the coals? They left out a safety step. I'm either missing a concept here or someone has slept with someone in the chain of power (that's a metaphor by the way not a serious accusation we all know journalists don't really get those kind of offers except in the movies. They don't make enough money).
N.M. teen sues Swift over E. coli - The Denver Post

The first of what might be several lawsuits by people sickened by E. coli-tainted beef was filed Monday in Denver federal court against the Greeley slaughterhouse that produced the meat and later recalled it.

The suit by 13-year-old Alex Roerick of Albuquerque alleges that he was sickened and hospitalized after eating meat that had been produced at the JBS Swift & Co. packing plant in late April.

The youth suffered flulike symptoms shortly after eating shish kebab at his grandmother's house May 10. Doctors later determined he had hemolytic uremic syndrome, a complication from ingesting E. coli 0157:H7, which derives from cattle feces.

Roerick's family ate the same meat, but he had more than the others, said his attorney, William Marler.

Of concern is that Roerick was sicked by whole muscle meat, not ground beef, as is typically the case with E. coli.

"It just shows how virulent the bacteria is," Marler said. "This is more than just a hamburger problem."

Swift refused to comment on the suit but said contamination might have come from the absence of an organic acid wash the meat is supposed to get before packaging, spokesman Chandler Keys said.

"We found that on April 21, pieces of meat mainly used for sirloin steaks were diverted from the spray because it was under repair," Keys said.