Moos Clippings

Feeling like you've missed something lately? Well, you're not alone. I've been surfing the Web and have come across a few stories which you probably haven't heard about. I'm assuming that you haven't heard about them, because, I own a TV (AND a radio in my car) and have NOT heard about them either. I guess the interesting thing is that they have been typically posted after 6pm on weeknights, after most of us are out of our cars and presumably eating dinner with our families.

So what have YOU and I missed in the past 48 hours? Oh brother...

May 5, 2009 6:38pm: WASHINGTON (AP)— The Obama administration wants the United States to spend $63 billion over the next six years to fight global diseases and provide more aid for prenatal and postnatal care, children's health and fighting tropical diseases.

"We cannot fix every problem," Obama said in a written statement Tuesday. "But we have a responsibility to protect the health of our people, while saving lives, reducing suffering, and supporting the health and dignity of people everywhere. America can make a significant difference in meeting these challenges and that is why my administration is committed to act."

Obama plans to release his budget proposal in detail on Thursday. Ahead of the formal announcement, the White House has been detailing pieces of it, including $8.6 billion for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The request is a $460 million increase over this year's budget.

Rock star and anti-poverty activist Bono praised the increase in funding.
"The question is no longer whether we can fight these diseases in the poorest countries, it is how much do we want to do? The president is answering 'a lot,"' the Irish singer said in a statement released from his advocacy group, ONE. "His strategic leadership on these issues is protecting the long-term interests of the people in his own country as well as saving vulnerable lives overseas."

If Obama wins approval of his budget request, the U.S. commitment would constitute more than 70% of global health funding.Last year, Congress passed and Bush signed legislation to triple U.S. spending from $15 billion over the previous five years to $48 billion covering 2009 and the next four years.

For the complete article, please click the link which follows:
Thanks America for providing 70% of the World's Global Health Funding!

May 4th, 2009 6:42pm USA TODAY -- Federal aid is top revenue for statesIn a historic first, Uncle Sam has supplanted sales, property and income taxes as the biggest source of revenue for state and local governments.

The shift shows how deeply the recession is cutting. Federal stimulus money aimed at reviving the economy and a sharp drop in tax collections have altered, at least temporarily, the traditional balance of how states, cities, counties and schools pay for their operations.

The sales tax had been the No. 1 source of state and local revenue since the mid-1970s, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Before that, property taxes were the primary source. That changed in the first three months of 2009.Federal grants — early stimulus money plus conventional federal aid — soared 15% in the first quarter to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $437 billion, eclipsing sales taxes, which fell 2%.

For the complete article, click the link which follows:
Thanks President Obama for Providing More Income to the States Than At Any Other Time In History!

May 5th, 2009 USA TODAY -- Ginsburg: Court needs another woman
WASHINGTON — Three years after Justice Sandra Day O'Connor left the Supreme Court, the impact of having only one woman on the nation's highest bench has become particularly clear to that woman — Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Her status as the court's lone woman was especially poignant during a recent case involving a 13-year-old girl who had been strip-searched by Arizona school officials looking for drugs. During oral arguments, some other justices minimized the girl's lasting humiliation, but Ginsburg stood out in her concern for the teenager.

"They have never been a 13-year-old girl," she told USA TODAY later when asked about her colleagues' comments during the arguments. "It's a very sensitive age for a girl. I didn't think that my colleagues, some of them, quite understood."

As Justice David Souter prepares to retire at the end of the term this summer, the significance of Ginsburg's position as the nine-member court's only woman has become a point of broad discussion. President Obama is under pressure from groups such as the National Women's Law Center to nominate another woman.

In interviews with USA TODAY before Souter's retirement announcement Friday, Ginsburg said the court needs another woman. "Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. I don't say (the split) should be 50-50," Ginsburg said. "It could be 60% men, 40% women, or the other way around. It shouldn't be that women are the exception."

For the complete article, please click the link which follows:
We Need More Women

I thought you may find these recent news events interesting. Well, at least, I did.

I'm not going to comment at length on the above (mostly because I have to go to work), but I'll leave it up to you to form your own opinion of the stories. I'm wondering if you have you heard of any of these stories? What I will leave you with however, is the following questions:

1. Should the United States be paying 70% of the world's Global Health Funding?

2. Should the Federal Government be Funding States to a greater extent than the states are funding themselves? (And, um, if we ARE the 'States' and the States make up the 'United States of America', and the Federal Government represents US... How are we paying ourselves more than we can, you know, afford to pay ourselves out of our normal tax contributions? Where's the money coming from?)

3. Should a Supreme Court Justice be advocating for 'Quotas'? Is that, like, 'Constitutional'?

4. Lastly, if a Supreme Court Justice believes that we should do things just to be 'fair', is she 'fairly' interpreting the Constitution during her regular day job?

Just wondering...