The Blunt Amendment has failed, thankfully. It was a bill, sponsored by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo), to provide for employers to deny their employees healthcare coverage costs based on religious moral objections.
At first, the bill would have only applied to religious based employers, but Republicans later demanded that it be made to apply to any employer, religious or no, who had a moral objection to paying for any medical costs they found objectionable.
The discussion focused mainly on how the bill would allow an employer to deny a woman access to contraception, which was initially how the entire thing got started, when a Catholic employer had objections to paying its employees' medical costs for contraception. Though, while such a topic was justified, it was also just a little but narrow, because technically, the bill would've allowed any employer to deny any kind of medical coverage to any of its employees for any moral objection.
So, now that the bill has been defeated, we can all breath just a little bit easier.
But for any of you out there with strong moral convictions who may be wondering how to resolve the mental conflict, some words of thought for you,
As an employer it is absolutely none-of-your-business to know what an employees medical expenses are going toward. Nor are you accountable for what an employee pays for with their money/medical insurance. Even if the employee chooses to use their medical insurance for something you find objectionable, you cannot be held responsible for what someone else does in their own private life. Furthermore, once the employee has submitted their labor, all that money is now technically theirs and no longer yours because they've earned it. So, in a way, it is really the employee who is paying for the medical insurance, and not you, because the employee has earned that medical insurance with their labor. Ergo, what they do, with their money, and their insurance, is none-of-your-business.
More reading here,
Employment-Based Medical Insurance and Ethical Concerns
3.03.2012
Fuck Israel, it Controls US Politicians, Inbred Leaders, and Monarchy Malarky
All in one video
2.05.2012
One Year On, Egyptian Military Continues to Secure US/Israeli Interests.
"A positive democratic outcome." That means positive for Israel, and the Egyptian Military; last standing institution of the old Mubarak regime.
One year on and the protest is going strong. Something the media can't silence, it's like the voice of the voiceless coming down like a hammer on the stone.
Party line is that the revolution is old hat, black hat, untenable, and loosing favor amongst the masses. If you watch the news you hear the gears grinding they want the factories to start again, the machine of production hasn't been oiled in weeks.
But over one million people have brought their voices to the one-year demonstrations happening in Tahrir square; they realize they've still got work to do.
This time last year, they said the revolution and the Egyptian military were hand in hand; born like the Phoenix, the 'Happiest Little Elf' had come to play. But people aren't fooled any longer, they see the council for what it is.
The Egyptian military controls 25-40% of the Egyptian economy, they're part of the power, switching to the revolution was, if anything, a survival tactic, they knew Mubarak was sinking, drowning in the weight of the innocents murdered by his regime.
As a part of the old Mubarak regime, the Egyptian Military is there to secure the interests of neoliberals in Washington DC who want to see a Zionist Egypt; to turn a blind eye to the people of Gaza eating stone for bread.
The revolution isn't done yet, not by a long shot. Portions of the middle class have lost faith in freedom, and the revolution. The children have been led astray by the Pied Piper, and his flute of magical reform, always tomorrow but never here now. The party has been telling them about Sugar Candy Mountain, and the people have swallowed the bitter candy-cane whole.
But you can see through their lies, once you know where the Military stands. They supported the revolution against Mubarak, only after being dragged in, forced to consent. Now they ralley 'round the family, under the Military banner, there to keep the flag waiving, but once you know, once you realize that they've been dinning with the Zionists of DC you see the connection is clear.
The Pied Piper has been playing political arm of the Military by reigning in the protests, standing in the line of anger between the people and the bourgeois. They came to celebrate, to do a dance and a jig then lead you all off to Sugar Candy Mountain. Don't listen, don't be fooled.
The Revolution isn't finished, it's not yet time to celebrate. The people of Egypt now know they came home too soon, they've taken to the streets, they want reform. It's clear to them know they can't leave it to the bourgeois; to the generals; to the military, to carry out this revolution for them.
The Pied Piper now dominates the recent elections, but the Pied Piper never opposed Mubarak on principal. The Pied Piper plays a tune that sounds just like the old sound. The Pied Piper is a arm of the global Capitalist order. The Egyptian people want reform, freedom, liberty. What does the Pied Piper want? The gears of war, the factories en mass, the god of production demands the sacrifice of the soot-faced children pulled out of school and sent to serve the bourgeois.
The Pied Piper is a servant to the global bourgeois elite. Do not be fooled, they never really opposed Mubarak's privatization programs on the whole. They're not really here to give back to the Egyptian people, but to play the friendlier face of the elite. It's Barack Obama gone international incorporated; the sound of progressive rock, but the melody is a drum-beat march to the factories of private hands.
But again you can't fool all the sheep. The Egyptian people are beginning to see the Pied Piper's game, they know Sugar Candy Mountain is a lie.
If the Pied Piper wants to dress like the best of Egypt, like an honest man come to spread peace to all the land, let 'em, the policies of the Pied Piper which lie underneath their humble attire, are the same neoliberal policies of exploitation.
The people of Egypt must realize, they have joined the age old struggle, to throw off the shackles of the old ruling class and enter a new era, and that their desires are the same as the desires of the workers in Gaza, Syria, Libia...etc. The desire for peace does not know boarders.
Egyptians, you have joined the ranks of the works of the world. You must unite to create a new world, by the people, for the people. Egypt does not belong to the private hands of the money changers, or the god of industry who feasts on the souls of dreamless men. You are not alone in your struggle, so make alliances and reach out. Make a new Egypt, for Egypt. Pass out fliers of the Communist Manifesto and start working for yourselves.
Workers of the world unite!
Labels:
Anniversary,
Egypt,
Muslim Brotherhood,
revolution
1.25.2012
The World Marches To Jerusalem, Support Palestine
Press Release
The situation in the Middle East is grim.
- More Palestinian homes demolished. More illegal settlements. The ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem is not just continuing; it is escalating.
- Both Democrats and Republicans are spineless before the "Israel Lobby".
- Scientists in Iran are murdered while the same neo-cons who promoted the invasion of Iraq are now threatening war against Iran. North American, European and Arab League governments have failed to bring justice or positive change. The United Nations has been unable to match its words and goals with action. It seems to be up to the everyday people of the world to demand a change in policies, a reversal of direction away from illegal occupations and invasions and toward cooperation and the rule of law. The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements have shown the power of direct nonviolent action. Following their lead, and in the tradition of Ghandi's March to the Sea and ML King's March to Selma for Civil Rights, we are rapidly organizing to participate in the Global March to Jerusalem. The march is committed to nonviolence with tens of thousands of people marching from border countries, from the Occupied Territories, from Gaza and from within Israel. Please see the video link below which contains an invitation from Dr Mustafa Barghouthi. The march will culiminate on Land Day, March 30, in Jerusalem. This is a Palestinian project with international support. Themes of the march are the demand that Israel STOP its occupation and apartheid policies and START implementing UN resolutions and international law. For many reasons it is important that we have a strong contingent from North America. After all, Israeli occupation and apartheid policies would not last long without US support. For more information visit www.gmj-na.org Contact us by email at organize@gmj-na.org or call +1 510-244-3518. To support the effort through financial donation visit www.gmj-na.org/donate.html Please join us or help out as best you can! For Peace & Justice, GMJ North America
1.13.2012
A Global March To Jerusalem; World Civilian Coalition
March for Palestine
Press Release
World Civilian Coalition Gathers for Global March to Jerusalem
Beirut -The International Executive Committee of the Global March to Jerusalem announces the completion of the preparations for the Second International Conference where the representatives of the International Committees involved in the organization of the Global March to Jerusalem will meet. The conference will be held in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday 17th-18th January, 2012.
This meeting will be held to implement the decisions of the previous meeting, held in Amman last month, in which there was a consensus to form an International Central Committee representing all regions of the world and an International Advisory Board of eminent international figures for the march. The date for the onset of the March was agreed to be on the 30th of March, 2012, which marks the 36th anniversary of Palestinian Land Day, when peaceful protest against massive expropriation of Palestinian land was brutally met with deadly force by Zionist troops. About 40 delegates representing the International Committees throughout the seven continents of the world will be attending the meeting in Beirut.
The conference will adopt a structural process for the March, and its committee structure will be filled with appointees. The general policies for the international actions will be mandated in Beirut to ensure their success. The conference will also discuss the national events and actions that will be launched in all countries starting from mid January, 2012 and until the date of the march towards Jerusalem or the nearest possible point to it, from inside Palestine and the neighbouring Arab countries, as well as the convoys from Asia, Africa and Europe that will converge on the march date. In addition to that it will coordinate international activities that will coincide with the March in different countries.
The committee would like to confirm that the Global March to Jerusalem and all the accompanying local events and actions aim to shed light on the issue of Jerusalem (the City of Peace) as the key to peace and war in the region and the world. The racist Judaisation policies of the occupation and its ethnic cleansing practices against Jerusalem, its people and holy sites threaten this peace. Such practices are internationally recognized not only as crimes against Palestinians but as crimes against the whole of humanity.
The International Executive Committee also emphasized that through this peaceful march they envisage to mobilize Arab and Muslim nations alongside all freedom loving peoples of the world to put an end to Israeli violations of international law through its continuous occupation of Jerusalem and the rest of Palestinian Land. Israel's persistence in continuing its racist and ethnic cleansing practices through the construction of the Apartheid wall, the expansion of settlements and the escalation of killing, destruction, displacement and Judaisation reveals the extent of its crime. This kind of behaviour demands an international rally to support the right of Palestinians to freedom, independence, self-determination and the right of return. This peaceful march is inspired by our belief and the belief of those who support our cause throughout the world that the massive participation of the people of the world is a practical, nonviolent way to achieve justice and preserve peace by ending the Israeli occupation in Palestine and its capital Jerusalem.
The International Executive Committee of the Global March to Jerusalem GMJ-ICC
Jan. 10th 2012
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For more information, please contact:
Zaher Birawi: +44 7850 896 057 OR Dr. Paul Larudee +1 510 224 3518.
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