GOP Alaska - Daily News of Interest to Alaskan Conservatives: ANWR debate continues in Washington

Sunday, July 20, 2008

ANWR debate continues in Washington

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
July 20, 2008
By R. A. Dillon

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lisa Murkowski joined her Republican colleagues last week in denouncing Democrats’ efforts to block proposals to allow oil and natural gas drilling in areas now off limits.

The pitched partisan battle about what to do about soaring energy prices continues in both the Senate and the House as Republicans’ “all of the above” strategy shows signs of gaining ground with centrist Democrats but continues to be opposed by the Democratic Party’s leadership.

Editorial

This is legislation worth pursuing Health Care – One Small Fix at a Time
By Bonnie Williams

At the annual spring lunch with US Senator Lisa Murkowski, a number of questions were submitted involving health care. Lisa focused on a single aspect, the issue of access. A recent study had revealed that senior citizens have fewer and fewer choices for access to health care. In Anchorage, for example, only one in ten providers (doctors) would accept Medicare patients.
Why? Because Medicare doesn’t pay the actual cost. In addition to needing to make a living, physicians must pay for their office space, employee salaries and benefits, and other expenses. Yet Medicare has made wholly arbitrary determinations of how much it will allow any doctor to charge for each specific medical event – an amount way below what doctors charge non-Medicare patients. Further, Medicare prohibits, by law, anyone paying above that amount.
This prohibits the patient for making up the difference out of their own pocket, and also prohibits the patient’s other insurance coverage from paying a penny more.
In order to stay financially whole, more and more doctors are taking the logical self-defense precaution of refusing to accept Medicare patients.
The fix here is quite simple: eliminate the prohibition against anyone else paying over and above the amount paid by Medicare.
For example, as a PERS retiree, I have an excellent health insurance coverage from the State of Alaska. Medicare could pay its measly $10, Premera Insurance could pay another $50, and I could be billed and pay the remaining $15. In this way, the doctor would receive the correct amount, Medicare wouldn’t be paying a penny more than currently, and my access to health care wouldn’t be curtailed or eliminated.
Another senior citizen, one without personal health insurance, might nonetheless be able to pay the missing $65. A third senior, also without insurance, but with less resources, might be able to pay $50, or $30. A fourth, unable to pay anything, would still get the access, and most doctors would give access, secure in the knowledge that the great majority of Medicare patients aren’t in this impoverished boat. Physicians can and will provide medical care to a few, each year, who are unable to pay. What physicians can’t, won’t and shouldn’t be expected to do is provide free health care to hundreds of patients each year.
A small piece of legislation could make this simple change, drastically changing access to medical care for millions of Americans.
In turn, in actual fact, health care costs will drop by some small amount. Why? Because for too many seniors who lack access, the only way they can get health care any more is to go to the Emergency room at their local hospital – and that costs a lot more than a $75 office visit.
This is legislation worth pursuing.

It's Our Land

By: Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin Netanyahu gave an interview and was asked about Israel's occupation of Arab lands. His response was "It's our land". The reporter (CNN or the like) was stunned

"Crash Course on the Arab Israeli Conflict."

Here are overlooked facts in the current Middle East situation. These were compiled by a Christian university professor:

BRIEF FACTS ON THE ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY.... It makes sense and it's not slanted. Jew and non-Jew -- it doesn't matter.

1. Nationhood and Jerusalem. Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, Two thousand years before the rise of Islam.

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BCE, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.

4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 CE lasted no more than 22 years.

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: in 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.

10 The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.

11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.

12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey .

13. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.

14. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.

15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.

16. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.

17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.

18. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians.

19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians en forced an apartheid-like a policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. These are incredible times. We have to ask what our role should be. What will we tell our grandchildren about we did when there was a turning point in Jewish destiny, an opportunity to make a difference?

Sunday, July 20, 2008

ANWR debate continues in Washington

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