FROM CRONYISM IN GOVERNMENT TO SELLING OUR WATER TO CHINA, YOU NEED TO CHECK THIS SITE OUT. (SELLING OUR PRECIOUS WATER...TO CHINA?)

https://subscribe.ncpa.org/v.aspx?SI=362483&E=inkslinger%40bellsouth.net&S=1&N=6084&ID=6350&NL=976

TP FRIENDS IN MT SENT THIS: YOUR RIGHT TO RESELL YOUR OWN STUFF IS IN PERIL!

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/your-right-to-resell-your-own-stuff-is-in-peril-2012-10-04

Your right to resell your own stuff is in peril!

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother’s antique furniture to your iPhone 4.

At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products.

Under the doctrine, which the Supreme Court has recognized since 1908, you can resell your stuff without worry because the copyright holder only had control over the first sale.

Put simply, though Apple Inc. AAPL -2.13%  has the copyright on the iPhone and Mark Owen has it on the book “No Easy Day,” you can still sell your copies to whomever you please whenever you want without retribution. 

That’s being challenged now for products that are made abroad, and if the Supreme Court upholds an appellate court ruling, it would mean that the copyright holders of anything you own that has been made in China, Japan or Europe, for example, would have to give you permission to sell it.

“It means that it’s harder for consumers to buy used products and harder for them to sell them,” said Jonathan Band, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association for Research Libraries. “This has huge consumer impact on all consumer groups.” 

Another likely result is that it would hit you financially because the copyright holder would now want a piece of that sale.

It could be your personal electronic devices or the family jewels that have been passed down from your great-grandparents who immigrated from Spain. It could be a book that was written by an American writer but printed and bound overseas, or an Italian painter’s artwork.

There are implications for a variety of wide-ranging U.S. entities, including libraries, musicians, museums and even resale juggernauts eBay Inc. EBAY -1.54%  and Craigslist. U.S. libraries, for example, carry some 200 million books from foreign publishers.

“It would be absurd to say anything manufactured abroad can’t be bought or sold here,” said Marvin Ammori, a First Amendment lawyer and Schwartz Fellow at the New American Foundation who specializes in technology issues.

The case stems from Supap Kirtsaeng’s college experience. A native of Thailand, Kirtsaeng came to America in 1997 to study at Cornell University. When he discovered that his textbooks, produced by Wiley, were substantially cheaper to buy in Thailand than they were in Ithaca, N.Y., he rallied his Thai relatives to buy the books and ship them to him in the United States.

Better made in the U.S.A.

While American men's brands once prized European craftsmanship or appreciated low-cost production from the Far East, some of the best fashion now is made right here in the U.S. Martin Marks talks menswear. He then sold them on eBay, making upward of $1.2 million, according to court documents. Wiley, which admitted that it charged less for books sold abroad than it did in the United States, sued him for copyright infringement. Kirtsaeng countered with the first-sale doctrine.

http://www.wheatlandteaparty.com/

US SELLING OUR OIL AND GAS DEPOSITS TO CHINA - BILLIONS OF DOLLARS...WHY

http://www.prisonplanet.com/why-is-the-obama-administration-allowing-the-chinese-government-to-buy-up-u-s-oil-and-gas-deposits-worth-billions-of-dollars.html

Really,


WHY?
TOLL FREE TO CONGRESS:  866-220-0044

CARDINAL GEORGE: CATHOLIC HOSPITALS WILL BE GONE IN TWO LENTS, UNDER OBAMACARE REGULATIONS

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cardinal-george-catholic-hospitals-will-be-gone-two-lents-under-obamacare-regulation

What an extraordinary coincidence. The Sacred Heart System has taken over a public, non-profit hospital here in Panama City, FL and will finalize the negotiations. The contract was negotiated primarily in the dark, with provisions for 40 years and two extensions. It was not necessary to sell/lease this hospital, since there was help available because it was originally built under the Hill-Burton Act.

There were two public hearings, which was attended mostly by BMC employees. I spoke of just this thing, using Allen Keyes' newsletter which warned of the consequences and religious hospitals under Obamacare.

Of course, I was ignored. it was a done deal already.

So now this pops up today.

All of you in Bay and surrounding counties - take heed. This hospital will supply indigent care at a lower level than BMC has in the past. In three years it can be flipped for profit.
Sacred Heart knew what it was doing, no doubt.

Maybe the fat lady hasn't sung her last song.

TODAY BAY MEDICAL CENTER, PANAMA CITY, FL, WAS STOLEN BY SACRED HEART HOSPITAL NETWORK

Bay Medical Center was organized under the Hill-Burton Act. http://www.nvcc.edu/home/bhays/dogwood/hillburtonact.htm
and here: http://www.needhelppayingbills.com/html/hill-burton_act_free_healthcar.html

You can organize a Hill-Burton Hospital this way:
http://www.hrsa.gov/gethealthcare/affordable/hillburton/

If that's not enough, Google has endless entries that will allow you to understand the word "perpetuity" used in the organization of a Hill-Burton hospital.

Eventually, Hill-Burton evolved into the Public Services Act XVI http://www.hrsa.gov/gethealthcare/affordable/hillburton/compliance.html

There was help for BMC all along. All it would have taken was for the lazy (or corrupt) BMC board to look this up. Ditto for the BOCC lazy (or corrupt) members to read it and act, too. But when I sent it to them; when I spoke to them in public, they did not or would not listen to me. It is my opinion that the transfer of BMC to Sacred Heart was a done deal when Steve Johnson was hired out of Sacred Heart. It would take ten years of focused degradation. Employees of BMC, you should have voted for a union. But I'm betting just like the attempt to unionize more than once, your jobs were threatened if you didn't wear a smile and a big, blue button. You will see jobs evaporate, indigent care diminish and disappear, and the hospital, our jewel created from our own hands without outside interference, be flipped for Sacred Heart's profit.

There would have been NO financial distress. There are provisions for aid for hospitals like BMC. All it took was an application for financial help under the guidelines of the Public Services Act XVI.

In your haste to fast track this the Board and the BOCC forgot to factor in the coming of Obamacare or that if HHS does not relent on the issue of contraception costs, that religious hospitals, specifically the Sacred Heart system because it is Roman Catholic-run, and adheres strictly to the rules of the Catholic church, may go under.

The behind-the-scenes negotiations really were behind closed doors. The sale of BMC should have gone through a binding referendum. We paid for the hospital and you owed us that. And because of financial negligence, whoever was responsible, the Board or the administration, should be fired, but they won't be until they are replaced by Sacred Heart loyalists. Steve Johnson will ride that wave.

The BOCC has given us the airport to nowhere. None of 3,000+ jobs have materialized. We lost a carrier. We can't catch an international flight to anywhere. Pilots on the Atlanta-ECP flight fear the runway that is mushy on hot, summer days. There will be a crash someday. The drive is long and dangerous at night and it's most inconvenient. It gave us the incinerator and all its problems and a sewer line under the bay whose cement pillow band-aid fix will someday erode or meet its demise, perhaps by a storm. Its track record is lousy, and it is a poster child for term limits. One year.

I applaud everyone who spoke at meetings in opposition to the sale of BMC; Dr. Victor Ortega, the County Press who did it excellent expose', the letter writers, the ones who engaged employees in the dialog, the people who made phone calls, the senders of emails - you are the unappreciated and unknown heroes. Time will bear out your honest commentary, your questions, your research and your knowledge, but there is little joy in "I told you so", just a cold bitterness.

As jobs tank, as more homes are foreclosed, as the price of gas and everything else goes up and businesses find they can't do business with people who don't have money, a public, non-profit hospital will just be a memory. You allowed it to happen.

Didn't you realize, you jerks, that this hospital served five counties - it was literally a beating heart - one of the best 50 in the country and a cardiac care specialty hospital...and if anyone dies because of your stupidity and arrogance, the blood will be on your hands?

You don't know what something means to you until you lose it.

We will develop long memories. If we remember nothing else, we will remember this betrayal of the public trust.

The vote was 4 to 1 this morning. Gainer was the only dissenting voice. And I'm not so sure it wasn't lip service to an angry public. He has to sell cars.

If there is a way to get an injunction against this action by the BOCC, I hope some lawyer with guts will step forward and take it on so that the people who paid for this non-profit, special district hospital which provided indigent care can vote in a binding referendum. Only then will this issue be put to rest.

"PERPETUITY" MEANS NOTHING IN BAY COUNTY, FLORIDA

Last night I witnessed a mass brainwashing and a hostile takeover of Bay Medical Center by Sacred Heart Hospital.

The Bay County Commission gave public lip service by sitting, staring into space, while some of us (including Dr. Victor Ortega) tried to inform them with facts. The Commission, who gave us incinerator problems, band-aid fix cement pillows to cover up an under-the-Bay sewer line, the airport to nowhere at which three thousand plus jobs never materialized, no international flights as promised, rising flight prices, the loss of a carrier, continuing environmental problems, allied businesses that never came (and if you ask the pilots on the Atlanta-ECP flights, they are terrified of the mushy runway on hot summer days), are stealing a taxpayer-funded public, non-profit hospital, organized under the Hill-Burton Act which was absorbed by the Public Services Act, Title XVI, a federal act providing Hill-Burton services to the indigent and under-insured available “in perpetuity”; meaning, “forever”. There are remedies available for failing public, non-profit hospitals through this act, and whoever is in charge among the Bay County snake oil salesmen, someone dropped the ball, was unaware, or has kept this hidden. This is a serious problem, and because of this, a Grand Jury should be seated to explore why.

Earlier, I picked up a cursory (and in no way complete) printout of some of the capital items in the Radiology Department. Remember, it is “no way complete”; $10 million dollars worth. I stepped into the lobby of the new wing, the baby of the CEO, Steve Johnson (formerly of Sacred Heart), who admittedly spear-headed this disaster despite all economic indicators pointed to a failing economy under the premise like the airport – if you build it they will come. Without a Certificate of Need (CON) rooms were closed in the main hospital, and new, luxury private rooms were made, as well as a new restaurant with a brick pizza oven and a gourmet menu – in Panama City, Florida where any restaurant you choose can be found in within 20 minutes.

I was dyspeptic. The lobby and garden is huge, stunning and something you would see in a high end hotel. Why wasn’t this money put into patient care and more state-of-the-art diagnostic/treatment equipment and/or staff? The opulence is embarrassing and obscene for our depressed community, but not for Sacred Heart to come in and scoop up.

One of the speakers, our County attorney, Mr. Arline, I believe, mentioned questioning Mr. Johnson’s allegiance to Sacred Heart before hiring him. Now I know what my gut told me is true. For the ten years the hospital knew there was trouble looming, Johnson was planning the lease/sale all the time.

We have five Commissioners, all of them businessmen. I questioned why two audits weren’t done by “our” side (the County); a complete financial audit and a physical plant audit, right down to the last staple in the last staple gun and the last gauze pad. I asked the Chairman of the Commission why this wasn’t done and he doesn’t know! Supposedly they have taken the word of Sacred Heart who use a formula to guess at this number.

I wonder at the ex-Sheriff who won his seat on the Commission by 15 votes, to whom this transaction was handed. He has no experience in healthcare, whatsoever.

I wonder at the man sitting in front of me in the first row making notes on a yellow legal pad prior to the meeting. His first entry was “Golden Parachutes”. Golden Parachutes? Who’s getting them?

Most of the audience, I’m guessing by the big, blue buttons, was staff and management. Funny thing about the management at BMC – they have been known to intimidate the staff before when union attempts were made. The threat issued was the firing of any employee who dared try to organize or vote for the union. Manipulation works because the staff is ignorant of the facts.

No one is talking about the current Obamacare/HHS edict concerning birth control and how, if HHS stands firm and does not back down, it will affect religious hospitals. In the literature I have found, Sacred Heart specifically will be forced to close some or all its hospitals because they will not comply on religious grounds. What happens then, to BMC? What happens to our Muslim physicians?

Because of the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, and the changing attitude of the hospital formerly known as BMC, under the control of Monsignor Reed in Tallahassee, your young daughter, in need of a morning after pill or termination of pregnancy because of rape or incest, will be turned away whether or not you have insurance. If you aren’t insured, where will you go?
I guess there's always Planned Parenthood.

Employees of BMC are going to find it very difficult when their own personal religious ideology is challenged by the Church of Rome and the new management of Sacred Heart.

We have only two hospitals. Gulf Coast Hospital is private. BMC today, is public, non-profit, serving five counties. We need proof that all our needs are met, even women’s services. In the Bible Belt, you are going to feel the full impact of the strong hand of Roman Catholicism, and you are going to suffer for it. You have never been exposed; therefore, you are ignorant, and ignorant you will stay until something happens to you.

BMC’s Board and the County Commission are putting their faith into the maze of Sacred Heart spin-offs who handle leases and sales. Take LHP Hospital group for instance, located in Plano, Texas. It is not a Florida corporation, and it has a poor track record.

Touted as a for-profit private health care investment corporation, whose management team doesn’t have much prior experience in health care how can they be trusted? LHP remains unproven in successes. What it really is, is a hedge fund. You can read more about this in Rosalie Schaeffer’s expose’ on the Sacred Heart acquisition in the two-part article she wrote in the “County Press”, located in Bay County, FL and you can find it in the paper’s archives.

To add a little fat to the fire, the public is unaware of a Florida bill on Sen. Rene Garcia’s website dealing with the acquisition of hospitals. The original legislation states that a public referendum be held prior to a sale/lease of any hospital. It was handed over to Sen. Don Gaetz with another number (on his website). He changed the wording and deleted the public referendum, so that only the Board of the hospital and the County Commission can vote on the issue. Why did Gaetz strike the language that gave the public a vote? The timing is suspiciously coincidental; January, 2012. What makes it more so is that Sen. Gaetz lives about 15 miles from Sacred Heart.

I see a lot of room for corruption here. It is unreasonable to sell or lease BMC for 40 years if audits aren’t done. It is unreasonable to fast track such a vital decision because the Public Services Act, Title XVI should have been consulted by these seasoned healthcare professionals. The information is there to help failing public, non-profit hospitals with financial help. And it is unreasonable not to have the sale/lease available for bid.

It is important that we take our blinders off and see this as it really is. It is a theft of a very high-tech, superior hospital with a great reputation that gives care to everyone in need by a private, for-profit religious hospital who is giving us literally pennies on the dollar when the silver bullet to its financial woes is available by federal law!

The current administration and the Board of BMC who by design or by ignorance have run BMC aground must put this decision on hold, and the Bay County Commission and a Grand Jury investigate the missing audits and the options under the Public Services Act Title XVI. The Public Services Act XVI, the explanation of a Florida Special District and the Hill-Burton Act are found on the internet. They are in plain English and you can easily understand them.

Shands in Jacksonville supports my understanding of mismanaged indigent care costs.
Call them and find out for yourself. They spend less in indigent care than BMC does and they are profiting. It’s a huge hospital with almost 700 beds. Is there a problem here? You betcha.

I suggested when I spoke last night, the possibility of making BMC a teaching hospital under Florida State University or Gulf Coast State College. The grants would pour in and the financial ills would be a thing of the past. We would grow as a community, the economy would improve, BMC would grow and provide jobs and exceptional healthcare for many and those jobs would keep our children here.

As it stands, I believe again that the public and the employees of BMC have been duped. Law is being ignored or hidden from public view. This looks like fraud to me.

Why are we accepting this?

http://m.news-gazette.com/news/health/health-care/2011-09-04/hospitals-fear-loss-tax-exemption-illinois.html

http://archive.chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/03/illinois-supreme-court-rules-provena-must-pay-tax.html

http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/03/19/should-catholic-hospitals-remain-tax-exempt/

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&search=search#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=catholic+for+profit+hospitals+and+tax+exemptions&pbx=1&oq=catholic+for+profit+hospitals+and+tax+exemptions&aq=f&aqi=&aql=1&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=1645l19232l0l19769l62l52l7l1l1l0l546l9160l0.39.4.2.1.2l56l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=f2444c621718a756&biw=1116&bih=584

I'D LIKE TO TELL YOU ABOUT A NEW BOOK FOR CHILDREN, JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS. IT'S CALLED "SAM, THE GROUCHY AS USUAL BEAR", ..

A STORY OF LOVE, LOSS AND MAGIC". And I'm happy to say, I wrote it.

A while back I was thinking of all our brave and heroic servicemen and women who in combat situations have left their children with one parent.

My writer thing kicked in - I am not organized, don't write outlines, character descriptions, timelines or anything else. A phrase will come and tickle me, compel me and a few days later, my hands hit the keyboard and out comes a story. The phrase was "Sam, The Grouchy As Usual Bear".

So "Sam" was born. A Christmas story for young and old.

I promise it will touch you. And if you have a grieving child in your life who has suffered any loss, but particularly the loss of a parent, this is the perfect gift.

It is delightfully illustrated by my favorite Panama City, Florida artist, the same talented lady who did the artwork for my first book, "Waltz on the Wild Side ~ An Animal Lover's Journal".

"Sam" will be delivered to you in several versions, including perfect bound, audio, ebooks...
For all your choices, please visit this link to pre-order in any of its versions at this lovely children's literary site: http://irishstoryplayhouse.com/IrishBookStore.html

It is the just-right Christmas gift for the children in your life.

Have you been to my Red Bubble photography sales site lately?