From the New York Times

Aged, Frail and Denied Care by Their Insurers
Anne Sherwood for The New York Times
By CHARLES DUHIGG
Published: March 26, 2007

CONRAD, Mont. — Mary Rose Derks was a 65-year-old widow in 1990, when she began preparing for the day she could no longer care for herself. Every month, out of her grocery fund, she scrimped together about $100 for an insurance policy that promised to pay eventually for a room in an assisted living home.

Conseco denied long-term-care payments for Mary Derks, who has early-stage dementia, hypertension and diabetes. She bought the policy to avoid burdening her family, but it sold part of its farm-equipment dealership to pay for her care.

On a May afternoon in 2002, after bouts of hypertension and diabetes had hospitalized her dozens of times, Mrs. Derks reluctantly agreed that it was time. She shed a few tears, watched her family pack her favorite blankets and rode to Beehive Homes, five blocks from her daughter’s farm equipment dealership.

At least, Mrs. Derks said at the time, she would not be a financial burden on her family.

But when she filed a claim with her insurer, Conseco, it said she had waited too long. Then it said Beehive Homes was not an approved facility, despite its state license. Eventually, Conseco argued that Mrs. Derks was not sufficiently infirm, despite her early-stage dementia and the 37 pills she takes each day. 

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Gus: in a country that allows bad and dishonest treatment of its people like that, what can we expect from it in regard to Hicks? More tragedy of rampant exploitation and denial of basic care, and injustice... Welcome to Bush's America bathed in greed, war... and corruption of principles beyond belief.  

From the BBC

....If the Lancet survey is right, then 2.5% of the Iraqi population - an average of more than 500 people a day - have been killed since the start of the war.

The BBC World Service made a Freedom of Information Request on 28 November 2006. The information was released on 14 March 2007.

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Gus: as "the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the survey's methods were "close to best practice" and the study design was "robust" and "Another expert agreed the method was "tried and tested", one an see that the lancet report — of more than 600,000 Iraqi deaths in the stupid Iraq war — was correct.

At the moment has any one seen in ANY paper or news report, the number of US troops being killed or the number of attempts against US troops daily.

Every day the US loses about 3 soldiers with about 10 being maimed for life.. everyday they sustain more than 100 attacks. 50 per cent of the Iraqi population think the US soldiers are fair game to shoot at and about 80 per cent resent the occupation... Most (all) reporters in Iraq cannot venture beyond the safety of central Baghdad... But according to our Rattus-in-Kirribilatus "the job has to be done". Whot job?... Smiffing petrol?

 

 

From the ABC

Hicks enters guilty plea

Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks has agreed to plead guilty before a United States military tribunal to a charge of providing material support to terrorists.

His American military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, entered the plea for him.

Hicks had earlier refused to enter a plea, but his lawyers approached the presiding judge with the change of plans in a reconvened session of his preliminary military commission.

Hicks answered, "Yes, sir," when the judge asked if that was in fact his plea.

Hicks would have faced possible life imprisonment if he had pleaded not guilty.

The judge ordered the prosecutors and defence lawyers to draw up a plea agreement by 4:00pm local time, which is expected to spell out what sentence he would serve.

It is expected there will now be a lighter prison sentence for Hicks, which he will serve in an Australian jail.

The plea came at a hastily arranged hearing a day after defence lawyers said Hicks was weighing a possible plea deal that could get him out of Guantanamo Bay, where he has been imprisoned for more than five years.

The chief prosecutor for the tribunals had said previously that a 20-year sentence would be a "reasonable" benchmark for Hicks.

It was not clear if the military authorities would take into account his time served at the Guantanamo prison.

The plea followed a three-hour hearing, which was supposed to clear the way for a trial against Hicks before a special US military tribunal.

The hearing began in sensational circumstances earlier with two of Hicks's civilian lawyers barred from representing him.

The presiding judge, Marine Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Coleman, questioned the eligibility of two of Hicks's lawyers to appear before the commission.

One of them, United States civilian lawyer Joshua Draytel, launched a withering attack on Colonel Coleman, accusing him of making up the rules as he went along, before leaving the courtroom.

 

From the ABC

Govt welcomes Hicks guilty plea

The Federal Government has welcomed David Hicks's decision to plead guilty to a charge of providing material support for terrorism.

Hicks's plea in front of a United States military tribunal came after defence lawyers said he was weighing a plea deal that could get him out of Guantanamo Bay, where he has spent the past five years.

Hicks had earlier refused to enter a plea, but his lawyers approached the presiding judge with the change of the plans in a reconvened session.

Hicks answered "Yes, sir," when the judge asked if that was in fact his plea.

He is now likely to be sentenced by the end of the week and back in Australia to serve any prison term shortly after that.

"I'm pleased for everybody's sake that this saga has come to a conclusion," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.

He said Hicks could be back on home soil soon, under a prisoner exchange deal with the United States.

"We have an arrangement with the Americans whereby he can serve any residue of his sentence in an Australian prison," Mr Downer said.

"He will be able to get out of Guantanamo Bay before too long."

Mr Downer admitted that the US legal process took too long.

"First of all there was the view that Hicks clearly couldn't have done anything wrong, and we hate the Americans and all of that," he said.

"There were people who thought David Hicks should just be strung up, he was obviously a horror.

"And there were people in the middle, which is where I was, really. My view was always that the legal process had just taken far too long."

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Gus: the long-suffering now murdered lingo from the Minister for Aliens and Arranged Horror Residue with the Americans shows that the only way out of Guano Bay is to plead guilty to anything that pleases his majesty Bushaiola the Minus in a bargain basement deal since the charges have been fabricated and the decided final result the lesser fraud of an outcome since the prisoner is not allowed to challenge the "evidence" against him, especially that obtained by coercion and torture —which of course was painted in a different colour to make it look like genuine coercion — no matter whether one can prove or disprove it — prisoner that would be retained at Guano Bay for another indefinite period of time as an incentive to genuflect and stop the declared-felon-before-trial-or-justice to have the gall to challenge the authority of the illegal military court who would find him guilty no matter what. Amen... The Lord Clown of the Murdered Syntax can now go and spew his acidic words to his own kind... as our Valiant Barnaby Joyce, sums up the process to give the government side an illusion of a heart: "The only thing that is guilty here is the judicial process under which he [Hicks] was being tried..." Angelic advocate on behalf of the Rattus Devilus team of righteous rats...

Hicks repatriation a farce, Brown says

The Australian Greens leader has described as "high farce" the repatriation of convicted terrorism supporter David Hicks.

Bob Brown says the transfer of Hicks from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to Adelaide on a chartered flight will cost taxpayers up to $500,000.

Hicks is being moved to Yatala prison to serve the remainder of a nine-month sentence for providing material support for terrorism.

Senator Brown says the process is absurd.