Doctor Shortage big Obstacle to President Obama Healthecare Goals

Shortage of Doctors an Obstacle to Obama Goals - NYTimes.com

Obama administration officials, alarmed at doctor shortages, are looking for ways to increase the supply of physicians to meet the needs of an aging population and millions of uninsured people who would gain coverage under legislation championed by the president.

The officials said they were particularly concerned about shortages of primary care providers who are the main source of health care for most Americans.

One proposal — to increase Medicare payments to general practitioners, at the expense of high-paid specialists — has touched off a lobbying fight.

Public Hospital

The need for more doctors comes up at almost every Congressional hearing and White House forum on health care. “We’re not producing enough primary care physicians,” Mr. Obama said at one forum. “The costs of medical education are so high that people feel that they’ve
got to specialize.” New doctors typically owe more than $140,000 in loans when they graduate.

In March of 2005 it was reported that many Americans may soon face: a shortage of physicians that makes it hard to find convenient, quality health care. The shortage will worsen
as 79 million baby boomers reach retirement age and demand more medical care unless the nation starts producing more doctors, according to several new studies.

Unless more medical students begin training soon, the supply of physicians will begin to shrink in about 10 years when doctors from the baby boom generation retire in large numbers. It takes 10 years to train a doctor, the nation will have a shortage of 85,000 to 200,000 doctors in 2020 unless action is taken soon. This was reported in 2005. It takes a long time to train a doctor.

America's rural and inner-city poor already are suffering the most. For example, there are 280 doctors for every 100,000 people in the U.S. But there are only 103 for every 100,000 in the 18-county area of the Mississippi Delta, according to the Mississippi State University Social
Science Research Center.

Is this shortage of doctors only in the United states? No. In Canada a doctor shortage at the Saint John Regional Hospital forced the Sussex Health Centre to close its emergency room over the weekend, and that is prompting anger from the town's mayor.

Doctors weren't able to staff the overnight weekend shifts at the Saint John hospital's emergency room, so the Sussex clinic had to send over its doctor to fill in.That left the Sussex Health Centre without its emergency department during those overnight hours on Friday and Saturday.

Esther Pacione regular doctor suffered a stroke a years ago, and all the local doctors she has contracted say they cannot take new patients, now Pacione, a retired bookkeeper. goes to a walk in clinic whenever she has an emergency. At the clinic, she waits hours and sees a different doctor each time, and no one there is familiar with her medical history and what drugs she has been taking.

During the recent closely fought election campagin, Prime Minister Paul Martin promised to fix Canada's health care system for a generation. Is this the system that President Obama is looking at?

Will President Barack Obama ruin our health care system by making it harder to see your doctor? Will your doctor have so many patients that he or she won't have enought time for you? Oh yes, there is also a shortage of nurses. President Obama this will not work.

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France: 'Best' Health Care?

Attorney General Eric Holder Pleads with Europeans to take Guananamo Terrorist.

Holder Pleads With Europeans to Take Gitmo Detainees - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com

It's more than just a tough sell for Attorney General Eric Holder this week to persuade European allies to accept Guantanamo detainees.
"It's a 'Mission Impossible' for him, I think," one German analyst said ahead of Holder's arrival in London on Sunday.
President Obama has set a goal of closing the U.S. military detention facility in Cuba by this coming January, and his administration is edging toward taking some prisoners to the U.S., most likely to Virginia. They are Muslims from western China known as Uighurs. Their supporters claim say they never should have been at Guantanamo in the first place.

Anti war protesters dressed as poisoned terrorist from Guantanamo

A Pentagon review of conditions at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, which President Obama ordered, was prepared by Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of naval operations, and has been delivered to the White House. It concluded that the treatment of detainees meets the requirements of the Geneva Conventions but that prisoners in the highest-security camp should be allowed more religious and social interaction.

(The video, uploaded on a terrorist Web site, shows the mutilated bodies of two men dressed in Army camouflage uniforms. The video shows the terrorists hoisting the severed head of one of the soldiers and makes the other soldier's identity clearly recognizable.

Terrorists know the value of videos like this, U.S. military officials in Baghdad said. They noted that snipers in Iraq often have videographers taping their murders and that people can buy DVDs of the murders in stores in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.)

Another aspect of the closure of Getmo-- what to do with the approximately 245 detainees. If returned to their homelands, the detainees could face prison or torture. Europe is considering how they would be screened and which countries would take them — and under what conditions.

"The Americans will have to explain what kind of risks these people pose, why they can't be allowed to enter [the] U.S., why they have to go to Europe, why they can't be sent back to their home countries — and the U.S. has to sort of give a, not a guarantee but almost a guarantee, that these people do not pose a threat any more,"

(The video has a logo of a man waving a flag, and a picture of Osama bin Laden, and there is someone ranting in Arabic, while religious chanting fills the background of the soundtrack. Pte Menchaca's body is face down, the backs of his legs have strips taken from them. The body
of Pte Tucker is decapitated, but his blood soaked head is still recognisable. His lower body is virtually naked, what is left of it.

One of his arms has been removed. But his chest has been opened up, so that his ribs are exposed, and organs appear to have been removed. The flesh around the exposed ribs appears to have been burned. The video camera pans around, grotesquely looming in on the profile of Pte Menchaca's pulped face as he lays on his front. A jihadist lifts up Pte Tuckers severed head, then places it down on his corpse. Another jihadist places his foot on Pte Menchaca's shoulder and presses down, crunching the face further into the tarmac, on what appears to be a bridge.)

Of the 245 detainees now at Guantánamo, 21 are accused of war crimes. But it is not clear how many could be charged in the federal court system, a process that could move them out in stages and spread them around the nation. Some analysts have pointed to New York and Virginia as possible locations for federal trials. If found guilty, federal convicts could join other terrorists at a ''supermax'' in Florence, Colo.

If set free where will they go? A Saudi man, sent home from Guantánamo in 2007, had emerged as a leader of an al Qaeda cell with suspected links to a deadly bombing at a U.S.
Embassy in Yemen.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs agreed it should be left to the attorney general to decided about prosecutions. The president has decided it's up to Attorney General Eric Holder, whose former law firm has defended 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees, to determine who -- if anyone -- should be prosecuted for harsh interrogation methods.

Not to prosecute the terrorist but to prosecute our soldiers.

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Guantanamo Guards

President Obama’s national intelligence director harsh techniques worked

NYT: Harsh techniques worked, intel chief says - White House- msnbc.com

President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.

“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.

Staged, fake prisoner photos by the anti war protesters. No terrorist was made to kneel in front of the United States Navy Memorial in Washington D.C. See the shoppers in the back ground?

In March of 2008, the Democrats passed a bill banning harsh interrogation which included water boarding. President Bush vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as water-boarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would work to override Bush's veto next week. "In the final analysis, our ability to lead the world will depend not only on our military might, but on our moral authority," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

The Washington Post reports that Pelosi, who was then a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, was informed by CIA officials at a secret briefing in September 2002, that waterboarding and other forms of torture were being used on suspected al-Queda operatives. That's bad. Even worse is the revelation that Pelosi was apparently supportive of the initiative.

Now two years after this was published in the Washington Post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said congressional leaders were never briefed about the use of an enhanced interrogation practice. "Flat out, they never briefed us that this was happening," she said. Now Nancy, waiting two years to deny this? This might be on film.

Democrat Biden said his bill would end “the administration’s semantic games on what constitutes torture. . . . There is no place for the administration’s bad faith interpretation — of water-boarding and other forms of torture — to gain a toehold.” He also warned that “continuing to equivocate about torture” would weaken the coalitions needed to fight terrorism, fuel terrorist recruitment and place Americans in jeopardy.

In June of 2007 Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, sent supporters and reporters a memorandum on titled “America Is Not Safer Since 9/11,” which cited research from the State Department and other groups that described terrorism as an accelerating threat.

Now what does president Obama believes? As the President has made clear, and as both CIA Director Panetta and I have stated, we will not use those techniques in the future. My question, how are you going to keep us safe, now that your only playing defence?

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Mark Levin talks to a soldier on waterboarding

Ahmadinejad called Israel racist President Obama still wants a relationship.

Ahmadinejad Calls Israel 'Racist' in U.N. Rant - WSJ.com

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel the "most cruel and repressive racist regime" at a racism conference in Geneva, giving a fresh reminder of the challenges the U.S. faces in its effort to improve relations with Tehran.

European diplomats walked out of the room after the comments Monday. The U.S. and a handful of European allies had already boycotted the United Nations event out of concern it would become a platform to criticise Israel, and the Iranian president's planned attendance added fuel to those concerns. Earlier in his term, Mr. Ahmadinejad questioned whether the Holocaust happened and said Israel should be wiped off the map.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Now this just blew a big hold in President Barack Obama's strategy with Iran. No this didn't.

State Department Deputy spokesman Robert Wood told a regular news briefing in Washington after Monday's speech that the U.S. still seeks to engage Iran in direct diplomacy. "We certainly hope to be able to engage Iran on a number of issues. There are a number of situations around the world where we need to engage Iran," he said.

I can't believe Robert Wood said this after Mr. Ahmadinejad, in his rambling speech Monday, castigated the U.S. and Europe for acting after World War II to make "an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering,"

France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said it was wrong for President Obama to shun the conference after announcing he was open for negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.


"It's paradoxical -- they don't want to listen to Iran in Geneva but they are ready to talk to them," Kouchner told French radio Europe 1. "More than a paradox, that could really be a mistake."
President Barack Obama reached out to the Iranian people in a new video with Farsi subtitles, saying the US is prepared to end years of strained relations if Tehran tones down its bellicose rhetoric. In his message, Obama had a warning for Tehran: "This process will not be advanced by threats. We seek instead engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect."
This process will not be advanced by threats? Mr. Obama called the comments "appalling and objectionable."But, we will continue to pursue the -- the possibility of improved relations and a resolution to some of the critical issues in which there have been differences, particularly around the nuclear issue,"
So no matter what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says President Obama wants a relationship with him. "Nothing's changed with respect to my belief that strong countries and strong presidents talk to their enemies and talk to their adversaries," Obama said in 2007. “Listening to the views, even of those who we violently disagree with, that sends a signal to the world that we are going to turn the page on the failed diplomacy that the Bush administration has practiced for so long."
Sorry Israel, no matter what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says, President Barack Obama wants to be his friend.


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The President's Message to the Iranian People

Barack Obama asked his Cabinet to save $100 million over time.

SPIN METER: Saving federal money the easy way - Yahoo! Finance

Cut a latte or two out of your annual budget and you've just done as much belt-tightening as President Barack Obama asked of his Cabinet on Monday.

The thrifty measures Obama ordered for federal agencies are the equivalent of asking a family that spends $60,000 in a year to save $6.

Obama made his push for frugality the subject of his first Cabinet meeting, ensuring it would command the capital's attention. It also set off outbursts of mental math and scribbled calculations as political friend and foe tried to figure out its impact.

The bottom line: Not much.

Those who giveth can taketh it away.

Belt-tightening? During a recession, Obama threw a 170 million dollar party for himself.

The federal government estimates that it spent roughly $49 million on the inaugural weekend. Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland had requested another $75 million from the federal government to help pay for their share of police, fire and medical services.


That's more than the $42.3 million in private funds spent by President Bush's committee in 2005 or the $33 million spent for Bill Clinton's first inaugural in 1993.


The president gave his Cabinet 90 days to find $100 million in savings to achieve over time. Obama has promised that his administration will embrace budget reform. He vowed to "bring a long-overdue sense of responsibility and accountability to Washington" and warned that members of Congress won't be allowed to slip earmarks into the economic recovery package.

The Senate approved an $838 billion economic recovery package bill Tuesday, as Democrats held on to the few Republican supporters who helped hammer out a compromise measure.

With one stroke of the pen, President Obama vaulted into the record books , signing what may stand as the largest spending bill ever passed in the history of America. Instead of relieving debt, President Obama’s “stimulus” is expected to add $9,400 more debt to every family in America. According to the Congressional Budget Office. The 10-year cost of this bill will be $3.27 trillion–almost triple the initial amount. Let me put that into perspective. If we spent a dollar every second, it would take 31,688 years to spend one trillion!

Now he gave his cabinet 90 days to find $100 million in savings. This was just a photo-op. President Obama you may fool most of the people some of the time, but you can't fool most of the people all of the time. May I invite you to a tea party?

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Barack Obama reaching out to Chavez our enemy strenthens the United States.

Obama defends greeting Hugo Chavez - Los Angeles Times

Rebuffing criticism of the warm greetings he exchanged with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, President Obama said Sunday that the United States, with its overwhelming military superiority and need to improve its global image, could afford to extend such diplomatic "courtesy."

In a news conference capping a three-day meeting of leaders from the Western Hemisphere, Obama also said the U.S. must engage other countries through humanitarian gestures, not only military intervention.

A book that inspired a generation of Latin American leftists given to President Obama

When a reporter asked Obama what he thought of the book, the president replied: "I thought it was one of Chavez's books. I was going to give him one of mine." White House advisers said they didn't know if Obama would read it or not.
Later, during a group photo, Obama reached behind several leaders at the summit to shake Chavez' hand for the third time. Obama summoned atranslator and the two smiled and spoke briefly.

"Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of aContinent," a manifesto decrying centuries of imperialism in the region by the United States. Now no 2 on Amazon.com.

This is what President Barack Obama had to say about Hugo Chavez on January 19, 2009.
The Post reported that Obama told Univision: "We need to be firm when we see this news, that Venezuela is exporting terrorist activities or supporting malicious entities like the FARC." Now did it look like President Obama was firm with President Hugo Chavez?

At that time U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said that Venezuela's firebrand president, Hugo Chávez, has hindered progress in Latin America, and he expressed concern that Chávez's leftist government has assisted Colombia's biggest guerrilla movement, a group the United States considers a terrorist organization. Chávez responded this weekend by saying that Obama had "the same stench" as President Bush, a frequent target of Chávez's remarks.

Chavez, who once called former President George W. Bush the "devil" and who last month dismissed Obama as an "ignoramus." The two were photographed smiling and clasping hands.

To outline the "Obama doctrine": the principles by which he will be conducting foreign policy. Obama stressed the importance of acting in collaborative, ass kissing, fashion, rejecting the more unilateral approach taken by his Republican predecessor.

At this meeting, Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua's leader denounced capitalism. Bolivian President Evo Morales alleged that the U.S. had been complicit in attempts to overthrow him. President Barack Obama said Sunday that he "strengthens our hand" by reaching out to enemies of the United States. "The whole notion was that if we showed courtesy or opened up dialogue with governments that had previously been hostile to us, that that somehow would be a sign of weakness," Obama said, recalling his race for the White House and challenging his critics today.

Sorry President Obama but you did look weak. It looked like Presiden Hugo Chavez was in controll along with his friends and you where just there for the ride. Or better yet, a sounding board.

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Chavez's gesture turns obscure book into bestseller

Holbrooke 2 minute meeting with Iran deputy Minister, Clinton happy.

Iran denies US reports of warm talks at conference - Yahoo! Malaysia News

Iran dismissed American government reports that senior U.S. and Iran envoys had a cordial _ and promising _ face-to-face exchange at an international conference, saying Wednesday that no "talks" took place. The competing accounts of Tuesday's encounter in the Netherlands appeared to reflect the different approaches to overtures to end the United States' and Iran's nearly 30-year diplomat stand off.

Washington has seemed eager to build on President Barack Obama's surprise video message last month to seek engagement with Iran's ruling clerics. Iran has _ in public, at least _ been far cooler to making immediate contacts, but has not fully rejected some openings in the future.

They agreed to stay in touch.

I would like to be your friend.

Here is what the Barack Obama's administration calls a meeting with leaders of Iran.

It was brief, it was unscheduled and it was not substantive, but a meeting on Tuesday between Richard C Holbrooke, US presidential envoy, and an Iranian diplomat marked the first face-to-face encounter between the Obama administration and the Government of Iran. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied any such meeting had taken place.

So now the Barack Obama administration calls bumping into someone at a conference ,a brief, unscheduled, not substantive, meeting. So now the United States has had open talks with Iran

“It was cordial, unplanned and they agreed to stay in touch,” Hillary said to reporters at the end of the conference. “I myself did not have any direct contact with the Iranian delegation.”

They agreed to stay in touch. But now Iran dismissed Iran envoys had a cordial _ and promising _ face-to-face exchange at an international conference. Hillary, Iran doesn't call bumping into someone in the hall "face to face talks. I can see it now, Richard Holbrooke yells out "Let's stay in touch" and the Iran envoy says "ya ya."

This is how the meeting happened. Mr. Holbrooke attributed the rendezvous to geographic happenstance: he was seated at a table next to Mr. Akhondzadeh’s and was able to table-hop for a two-minute chat about Persian architecture. Iran’s representative, Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh, is only a deputy foreign minister.

Is it just me but does it looks like the Barack administration is begging Iran for a meeting. Is Hillary Clinton, the immature little girl hidding behind the legs of Mr. Holbrooke? If this is how we are running our foreign policy God help us.

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Hillary Clinton - 'Would Obliterate Iran'Technorati Tags: Iran. Holbrooke