US Blood Donations

Like others that watched the May 13, 2012 episode of Harry’s Law I was concerned when I heard that Gay men are not allowed to donate blood so I had to check things out. I’m going to start at the beginning to explain the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule that has been in place since the early 1980s, the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published HIV statistics for 40 states and 5 dependent areas with confidential name-based HIV infection reporting. AIDS statistics include all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the 5 dependent areas. The 2009 data showed the highest percentage of new HIV diagnoses were among those aged 40-44 years and Blacks accounted for half; of new AIDS diagnoses Blacks accounted for just under half. The rest of the information on their site didn’t add up so I went to the Kaiser Family Foundation site of February 2012. Here I found out that the first cases of AIDS reported in the US were in June of 1981; approximately 1.2 million are estimated to be living with the disease today. While the number of new HIV cases is down from its peak in the 1980s, estimates indicate that there have been almost 50,000 new cases annually in recent years.

Ten states account for 71% of AIDS diagnoses reported since the beginning of the epidemic; 9 of the states ranked in the top 10 for new diagnoses and the South accounted for 45% of new AIDS diagnoses and has the greatest number of people estimated to be living with AIDS, followed by the Northeast, West, and Midwest. Diagnosis rates per 100,000 provide a different measure of the epidemic’s impact, since they reflect the concentration of diagnoses after accounting for differences in population size across states; using this method the District of Columbia has the highest AIDS diagnosis rate in the nation; 7 of the top 10 states are in the South and by region the Northeast (14.8) came in first followed by the South (13.9), West (8.2), and Midwest (6.6). AIDS diagnoses are concentrated primarily in large metropolitan areas (more than 80%). A recent analysis of data from 24 cities with high AIDS prevalence found that 2% of heterosexuals were infected with HIV and prevalence was higher among those with less education and lower incomes, and among the unemployed. Prenatal HIV transmission has declined significantly largely due to Antiretroviral drugs which can prevent mother-to-child transmission.

Rapid testing is now much more widely available and routine testing is now recommended for all people ages 13–64, yet 20% of those infected don’t know it and many people with HIV (33%) are diagnosed late in their illness. Not all who need treatment have access to it and treatment is not a cure.

The US Government in FY 2011 spent $27.1 billion to combat HIV; of this, 52% is for care, 10% each for research and cash and housing assistance, 3% for prevention, and 24% for the international epidemic. Key programs that provide health insurance coverage, care, and support to people with HIV include Medicaid, Medicare, the Ryan White Program, and HOPWA (the Housing Opportunities for Persons with HIV/AIDS Program). Social Security’s income programs for those who are disabled (SSI and SSDI) are also important sources of support. A variety of federally and state-supported prevention services are provided by state and local health departments and community organizations. In July 2010, the US Government released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the first comprehensive plan for addressing the epidemic in the US. The strategy has 3 primary goals: reduce new HIV infections; increase access to care and improve health outcomes; and reduce HIV-related health disparities.

Tomorrow I’ll give you the 2009 data that was used in the June 2010 FDA decision against lifting the ban on the policy that prevents Gay men from donating blood in the US.

World Stance of Same-sex Couples

Here’s what the issue of same-sex marriage looks like around the world.

Same-sex marriage is currently legal throughout Argentina (2010), Belgium (2003), Canada (2205), Iceland (2010), the Netherlands(2000), Norway (2009), Portugal (2010), South Africa (2006), Spain (2205), and Sweden (2009). The Brazilian state of Alagoas has same-sex marriages as does Mexico City whose marriage certificates are recognized in all 31 Mexican states. Denmark passed a same-sex union in June 1989 and a same-sex marriage law is being considered in 2012. Following the implantation in Denmark, a series of countries, mostly European, later passed bills that created a various form of same-sex union. Legislation to allow same sex marriage is being considered within the year in Australia, Columbia, Finland, France, Israel (does recognize same-sex marriages), Luxembourg, Nepal, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and  Uruguay. Partnerships or civil unions are pending in Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Switzerland. Numerous other countries and regions do grant some form of recognition to same-sex couples; though do not provide same-sex marriage. Many governments tend to opt for creating a civil union or unregistered cohabitation for same-sex couples; often these laws offer most if not all the rights that marriage offers. Debates over other forms of recognition continue within several other countries.

Several regions and countries have passed statutory and constitutional amendments that explicitly prohibit the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, sometimes also barring any form of recognition. Currently, Muslim countries in the Middle East along with 4 African countries sentence same-sex couples to death, 5 world countries sentence them to life in prison, 25 countries (mostly African) have large penalties, 3 countries have minimal penalties and all other nations do not recognize or penalize same-sex couples. (On July 2, 2009 the Delhi High Court decriminalized homosexual intercourse between consenting adults throughout India saying Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code violated the fundamental right to life and liberty and the right to equality as guaranteed by their Constitution.)

The May 13, 2012 MailOnline article said - The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro revealed her father has been working to end sexual discrimination, possibly opening the path to same-sex marriage. Mariela Castro, 50, known for her work as a gay rights advocate and head of Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education, also repeated her praise for President Barack Obama, who had publicly expressed support for same-sex marriage this week. Castro said the American leader’s words ‘have great value because of the influence they might have’ on others, but added that words must be followed by actions. In January, Cuba's Communist Party Congress passed a resolution ‘to fight against all forms of discrimination, including against sexual discrimination, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity.’

The general consensus is that there are 196 independent countries in the world. Many countries like Brazil, Mexico and the United States are addressing same-sex couples at the local level. Although the United States is supposed to be a leader in human rights, by the looks of this information and the fact that the Colorado Governor’s last ditch efforts failed on May 15, many countries will have same-sex equal rights before the US. 

US - Same-sex Marriage

On May 5, 2012 Vice President Biden came out in support of Gay marriages and on May 8 the President spoke with ABC's Robin Roberts regarding them. He said – I’ve been going through an evolution on this issue. I hesitated because I thought civil unions would be sufficient. I’ve always been adamant that Gay and Lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally. And, I was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people the word marriage invokes some powerful traditions, religious beliefs and so forth. But over the course of several years as I talked to friends, family, neighbors and members of my own staff who are in an incredible committed monogamous relationship who are raising kids, and when I think of those military who are out there fighting on my behalf who feel constrained even though ‘Don’t ask, Don’t tell’ is gone because they’re not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point, I just concluded that for me personally it is important to affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married. Malia and Sasha have friends with same sex parents and it wouldn’t occur to them that those parents would be treated differently. Michele agrees, in the end the values they care most deeply about are how you treat other people, they are both Christians and understand that this position will probably put them at odds with others but when they think about their faith the thing at root is not only Christ’s sacrifice but the Golden Rule – treat others the way you want to be treated. He said he continues to believe that it will be worked out at the local level and didn’t think the 30 states with amendments such as North Carolina (goes into effect January 1, 2013) are coming from a mean spirited way. Within 90 minutes of the piece airing Obama got $1 million in campaign contributions.

Mitt Romney said he has the same view he has always had - that marriage is between one man and a woman and the 2 largest religions in the US expressed distress and sadness with the President supporting Gay marriage.

A Washington Post poll showed 52% of Americans are in favor of Gay marriage, 43% are not and 5% undecided; of those under 40 years of age 61% say yes to Gay marriage while 35% no; in the over 65 group 40% said yes, 54% no; among Whites 54% say yes, 43% no; and among Blacks 41% said yes while 55% said no. I can’t believe the Black community. Years ago when the Equal Employment Opportunity law was strong a Black employee told me about her minister promoting prejudice against Gays. I told her that of all the people in the world that should tolerate people’s differences and understand the harm caused by discrimination it should be Blacks. I said it was good that when it was more important to have a quota than a good employee that the practice did not extend to sports as it would have been a shame for Jerry Rice, Emmet Smith and others not to play football because a team needed a White guy. I wonder what it will take for Blacks to know that equality is not just for them.  

The LA Times May 10 article showed that only 3 states (Rhode Island [RI], New Jersey [NJ] and New Mexico) have no statute or amendment banning or approving same-sex marriage (in mid February 2012 the NJ Senate approved Gay marriage but Governor Christie vetoed it and as of 2007 RI does recognize said marriages of other jurisdictions). DC along with 8 states (Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington; California law valid from June-November 2008 is again pending appeal; its domestic partnership law is still valid) have approved Gay marriage (in March New Hampshire rejected a bill that would have repealed their law). I discovered that just because states have bans against same-sex marriages doesn’t mean that they don’t support same-sex relationships. On the March 23 Human Rights Campaign website I learned that 20 states and the District of Columbia provide legal relationship recognition for same-sex partners and their dependents. The laws may influence whether state-regulated insurance must offer spousal benefits equally to same-sex couples, how domestic partner benefits are taxed and may also extend state Family and Medical Leave Act or similar spousal benefits to domestic partners. State laws providing some spousal rights to same-sex couples are in 3 states (Colorado is holding a special session for civil unions, Maine repealed its Gay marriage law in 2009 but is once again scheduled to vote on same-sex marriage in November and Wisconsin). Hawaii does recognize same-sex marriages of other jurisdictions. Minnesota, along with Maryland and Washington who has approved Gay marriage, is voting on same-sex marriage in November. Thirty-one states have defeated legislation that would have legalized same-sex marriage which means there is still concern and hope that people will someday understand what true equality means.

As a point of interest, the Cherokee banned same-sex marriage in 2004 (prior to this date such a marriage required that the marriage certificate be filed for the marriage to become lega)l. Although Oregon voters approved an amendment in 2004 to prohibit same-sex marriages, the Coquille are a federally recognized sovereign nation and not bound by the Oregon Constitution; on May 24, 2009 the first same-sex marriage under the Coquille jurisdiction was performed. The Suquamish tribe of Washington legalized same-sex marriage on August 1, 2011.

I’ll tell you about the world-wide stance on this issue tomorrow. 

Republican Rhetoric

On January 23, 2012 it was reported in the Atlanta Business Chronicle that a Georgia judge ordered President Obama to appear in court on January 26 in Atlanta for a hearing on a complaint filed with the Secretary of State’s office by a Georgia resident that he isn’t a natural-born citizen and should not be on the state’s ballot in November. The complaint is one of many made across the country; so far, none of the complaints have been successful. According to the Ledger-Enquirer an Obama campaign aide said any attempts to involve the President personally will fail and that such complaints have no merit. However, Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi on January 20 denied a motion by the President’s lawyer to quash a subpoena that requires him to show up.

On February 2 WLTZ, 38 News, reported the President did not attend but that didn't stop the hearing. Attorney Orly Taitz said, "Mr. Obama had an opportunity to appeal here and show valid certified documents with an embossed seal of his birth certificate." President Obama has long made his birth certificate and other documents proving his citizenship available to the public. 

Thinkprogress.org on February 6, 2012 said - On February 3 the Georgia judge finally decided to end this charade holding that President Obama is indeed eligible to hold his current office. In 2009 the Indiana Court of Appeals addressed facts and issues similar to those before this Court. In Ankeny v Governor of Indiana the plaintiffs sought to prevent certification of Mr. Obama as an eligible candidate for President because his is not a natural born citizen. The plaintiffs argued that “there is a very clear distinction between a ‘citizen of the United States’ and a ‘natural born Citizen’ and the difference involves having [two] parents of US citizenship, owning no foreign allegiance.” The Indiana Court rejected the argument that Mr. Obama was ineligible, stating that children born within the United States are natural born citizens regardless of the citizenship of their parents. The Court did find the decision and analysis of Ankeny persuasive. But even if this Georgia administrative law judge had traveled even further down the rabbit hole and held that President Obama cannot be President, it is exceedingly unlikely that his decision would not have been rejected by a higher authority. Nevertheless, it is important that this judge decided to back away from his earlier decision. There is no good reason that one outlier judge should breathe new life into an attack on Obama’s presidency that is widely viewed as frivolous.

Thinkprogress.org on February 6, 2012 also said - 2 years ago conservative activists uncovered 2 judges who were willing to ignore nearly 200 years of precedent and the text of the Constitution itself in order to hold the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. One of these judges was a longtime Republican activist who was best known for producing “a miasma (mist) of misplaced morality and prudishness masquerading as social science” when he lead the Reagan administration’s anti-pornography commission. The other produced an opinion containing nearly 4 dozen errors of fact or law and which also included an explicit shout out to the Tea Party. Nevertheless these 2 deeply erroneous opinions were enough to confuse reporters who lack a background in constitutional law into believing that the utterly frivolous case against health reform might have merit. Worse, it emboldened conservative lawyers who knew better into pretending that the 2 judges were right. It remains very unlikely that the Supreme Court will strike the law down but it is at least as likely that the case would have died more than a year ago if these two judges hadn’t so emboldened the law’s opponents. Nevertheless, the fact that the case against the Affordable Care Act is viewed today as anything other than a joke is proof of the power outlier judges have to transform the ridiculous into the possible. (On March 26 we heard the Supreme Court’s decision to determine whether or not the government has the power to require every American purchase health insurance would come in June. Some argue it’s about freedom of choice while others say health care is a right. Because of the law 2.5 million under the age of 26 have already been added to their parents insurance and children under 19 cannot be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions. It’s being said that without the law 16 million Americans would not have health insurance.)

Romney has recently said that he deserves the credit for the auto industry being revived; the President said he thinks this is one of Romney’s etch-a-sketch moments (Romney didn’t want them to be bailed out). How much deceit the American people will ignore is yet to be seen. 

Student Loans

May 7, 2012 the Chicago Tribune said - One way or another Congress seems certain to prevent a low interest rate for federal student loans from doubling (to 6.8%) on July 1, aides and analysts say, largely because lawmakers do not want to rile young voters before the November 6 elections. Yet it remains unclear how - or even if - Congress will pay for a one-year-renewal of the 3.4 percent rate for about 7.4 million students which would cost about $6 billion. A senior Democratic aide predicted that bipartisan talks would begin on May 8. A top Republican aide agreed, adding, "We have time. I fully expect us to reach a deal." US Education Secretary Arne Duncan on MSNBC's "Morning Joe Show," said on May 7, "We have to make sure that the chance to go to college remains a critical American dream. What we need to do is work in a bipartisan way, the general public is tired of the disfunctionality of Congress. If there's anything that Congress can unite and do in a bipartisan way it has to be around education." Greg Valliere of the Potomac Research Group, a private firm that tracks Congress for investors, said, "Congress will get a deal because the political consequences of not getting a deal would be huge with younger voters." Strong support from young voters helped propel Obama to victory when he ran for president in 2008. He is hoping to mobilize that block of voters again this year. Valliere said Congress may decide to renew the rate without paying for it, noting many in Washington have become weary of government spending cuts. "The anti-austerity mood is growing in Washington-not just in Europe. The path of least resistance is to extend the student loan program without offsets." A senior aide said any possibility of a refusal by Republicans to go along with renewing the low-rate ended two weeks ago when Obama's presumptive Republican presidential challenger, Mitt Romney, came out in favor of renewal.

Despite claims to the contrary by Republicans, Democrats argue that Republicans had little, if any interest, in extending the 3.4 percent rate until Obama hammered them on it with campaign-style speeches on college campuses in recent weeks. Obama took his effort to Twitter on Monday with a tweet saying "The Senate votes tomorrow on student loan rates-tell them to help keep college affordable" with the hash tag #DontDoubleMyRate. House Speaker John Boehner accused Obama of political grandstanding but has also said that a way must be found to renew the low-rate, given that half of all recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed because of Obama's economic policies. Not all members of Boehner's party agree that the rate should be renewed; 30 Republicans broke ranks and voted against the House bill last month after the Club for Growth, an influential conservative advocacy group, came out against it. "The government should not be in the business of subsidizing student loans," the organization said.

The interest rate on student loans is not the only issue here. On January 31, 2012 I heard that the tuition at California’s (CA) Claremont-McKenna college was $55,000+ per year so I just checked the internet to find out what’s going on. On October 26, 2011 the LA Times reported that funding cuts to higher education in CA and elsewhere were factors in pushing average tuition and fees up 8.3% at four-year public colleges and universities nationwide per a report by the nonprofit College Board. An annual study found CA's public universities enacted the highest average tuition increase (21%) of any state and CA enrolls a tenth of the nation's public four-year college students. On March 12 the LA Times reported that Berkeley ($12,835) may be more expensive than the University of Texas at Austin ($9,794) but costs less than the University of Michigan ($13,961). They also reported the tuitions for the University of Colorado, Boulder ($10,098), University of Connecticut ($10,670), University of Oregon ($8,789) and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill ($7,008). I also found that students all over the world are protesting tuition hikes but the only one to hit our news was the April 4 Santa Monica, CA incident where students protested a quadruple tuition hike on some classes and were pepper sprayed by police and at least 25 were injured.  

Senate Democrats are expected to reject a bill passed two weeks ago by the Republican led House of Representatives to fund it by taking money away from Obama's healthcare overhaul and per the New York Times "Senate Republicans on May 8 did block the Democratic bill...Republicans say they want to extend the legislation passed in 2007 that temporarily reduced interest rates for low and middle income undergraduates who receive subsidized Stafford loans but the Republicans would not accept the Senate Democrats’ proposal to pay for a one-year extension by changing a law that allows some wealthy taxpayers to avoid paying Social Security (SS) and Medicare taxes by classifying their pay as dividends, not cash income."

I can’t believe ordinary Americans pay SS and Medicare taxes that some of the rich do not. The brunt of the student interest rate argument is that Republicans want to take health care from those that need it so that the rich can continue not to pay their fair share into programs that the rest of us do pay in to. We need to show our anger at this reverse Robin Hood action and replace Republican members of Congress with Democrats.  

Political Sugar Daddies

In the April 30, 2012 New York Magazine there is an article called Sugar Daddies – The old white rich men who are buying this election. The article said – if you want to appreciate what Obama is up against in 2012 forget about the front man who is his opponent and look instead at the Republican billionaires buying the ammunition for the battles ahead. A representative example is Harold Simmons, an 80 year old Texan who told the Wall Street Journal “If we had run more ads we could have killed Obama”. It is not a mistake he intends to make a second time.

When the Supreme Court handed down its 5 to 4 Citizens United decision in 2010, pre-vetting Romney’s credo that “corporations are people”, it allowed sugar daddies to give as much as they want to newfangled super-PACs. (The court’s decision held that portions of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act §203 violated the first amendment-it reversed those provisions that prohibited corporations and unions from spending on ‘electioneering communications”; it overruled the 1990 Austin v Michigan Chamber of Commerce decision and partially overruled the 2003 McConnell v Federal Election Commission decision; the case did not involve the federal ban on direct contributions to campaigns or political parties which remain illegal in races for federal office.) 

The article said that Karl Rove’s Crossroads report to IRS last week reported that nearly 90% of its first $76.8 million haul from June 2010 through December 2011 had come from 2 dozen donors giving $1 million or more. I didn’t know who Rove was so I looked him up. Rove has been in politics for a long time and more recently was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until he resigned on August 31, 2007; he headed the Office of Political Affairs, Office of Public Liaison and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. Since leaving the White House, Rove has worked as a political analyst and contributor for Fox News, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. Because of all the money flowing into Republican super-PACs, on February 7, 2012 Obama reversed his decision and urged fundraisers to support a Democratic super-PAC.

The article said that what these sugar daddies specifically want from Mitt and his party, besides the usual conservative bullet points codified in Paul Ryan’s tax-cutting government shredding budget, is clear enough; the widest possible regulation-free berth for any vulture businesses they have a hand in, from nuclear waste to ‘health’ nostrums (quack remedies), from new houses to financial products created from those homes’ subprime mortgages. It defies rationality that the current crop of sugar daddies is in such a rage at the country that has done so well by them. The Wall Street Journal this month summarized the lay of the land “Big US companies have emerged from the deepest recession since World War II more productive, more profitable, flush with cash and less burdened by debt.” It is workers whose jobs were shed by those companies and remain unemployed who have a right to be enraged, not the sugar daddies. Economic inequality remains at nearly pre-recession levels as 99%ers struggle to hold their ground, let alone move up the economic ladder.

Much of the government is on the sugar daddies’ side - not just the radical Republican House. A 2010 Times study of some 1,450 modern Supreme Court decisions prepared by scholars at the University of Chicago and Northwestern, among them the federal appeals judge Richard Posner, found that the Roberts court has ruled for business interests 61% of the time - up from 46% in the last 5 years of the Rehnquist court and 42% for all courts since 1953. The notion that Obama is anti-business remains a canard (a piece of false information put out as a hoax). The administration has approved fewer rules proposed by federal regulatory agencies than its predecessor did; Obama’s Security Exchange Commission has been lax in policing Wall Street; his health-care bill, like Romney’s in Massachusetts, was in part modeled on principles originally proposed by Koch-backed Heritage Foundation; the surviving too-big-to-fail banks are all bigger than they were before the crash and the bailout; and the so-called Jobs act with ample Republican support that was signed this month was a deregulatory bill further loosening already weak protections for investors. Yet to sugar daddies like Simmons the president is “the most dangerous American alive” because “he would eliminate free enterprise in this country.” Obama arouses this kind of violent emotion because of who he is, emphatically not one of them, and what he says. In December 2011 in Osawatomie, Kansas he attacked those who practice the philosophy that “we are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules” which is the vulture capitalism evident in both the careers and public pronouncements of many of the sugar daddies. In talking with the Associated Press in Washington this month Obama said they “legitimize their success and confirm their virtues” which likened their ethos (character) to the Gilded Age creed of social Darwinism that appealed to late 19^th century corporate buccaneers because its vulgar application to the market-place – that the fittest are destined to survive and flourish. It also eased their guilt about the plight of the poor since the poor had only themselves to blame for “their own laziness, stupidity or carelessness” – sentiments regularly echoed today by Chris Christie and Paul Ryan. As Mark Twain summed up their credo “What is the chief end of man - To get rich. In what way - Dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must.”      

The Pipeline & Jobs

On May 4, 2012 ABCNews.go.com it was said the Republicans have been pounding President Barack Obama for rejecting the controversial Keystone XL pipeline which would stretch from Canada to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. And then in March (March 22 we heard that the President fast tracked the oil pipeline between Oklahoma and Texas and the Republicans said it’s too little, too late) Obama drew fire from environmentalists for approving the southern part of the project.

The State Department announced in a statement that the Canadian company behind the effort, TransCanada, had submitted (reported April 19) a new permit application for a pipeline running from the Canadian border to an existing pipeline in Nebraska. (This new pipeline is a necessary segment of the overall Keystone XL.) The Obama administration had blocked the project amid environmental concerns in Nebraska which led TransCanada to devise an alternate route. The state is expected to take six to nine months to review that new path. "The Department is committed to conducting a rigorous, transparent and thorough review," it said in the statement. "We will consider this new application on its merits ... this involves consideration of many factors, including energy security, health, environmental, cultural, economic, and foreign policy concerns." The State Department noted in its statement that "previously when we announced review of alternate routes through Nebraska this past fall, our best estimate on when we would complete the national interest determination was the first quarter of 2013." "We will conduct our review efficiently, using existing analysis as appropriate," it said.

Republicans pounced on the news, urging the President to cut off the State Department review. "Today there is just one person standing in the way of tens of thousands of new American jobs: President Obama," Republican House Speaker John Boehner charged in a statement. "After nearly four years of review, delay and politics, he is out of excuses for blocking this job-creating energy project any longer." Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said "At a moment when tensions are rising in the Middle East, millions of Americans are struggling to find work and millions more are struggling with the rising cost of gas, the Obama administration's opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline shows how deeply out of touch they are with the concerns of middle-class Americans. When it comes to delays over Keystone, anyone looking for a culprit should look no further than the Oval Office".

How many jobs the $7 billion pipeline would actually create—and for how long—is hotly debated. The project would require hiring thousands of construction workers while it is being built. But a top TransCanada executive told CNN in an interview late last year that the number of permanent jobs would be "in the hundreds, certainly not in the thousands."

The project faced fresh criticism from environmentalists. "The Keystone XL would have tremendous environmental impact from the expansion of destructive tar sands extraction, the risk of tar sands spills across US rivers and aquifers and increased refinery and greenhouse gas emissions," said Anthony Swift, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Here’s what I got out of this – the Republicans continue to exaggerate the number of jobs and don’t care about the environment or people’s safety. On May 1 it was reported that ExxonMobil is cleaning up 80,000 gallons of oil that spilled from a Louisiana pipeline. I looked at other websites and found it interesting that the Indian Country website said the Canadian Indians have a lawsuit pending against TransCanada and the Canadian government for ripping them off and that the Canadians said they will go ahead with production with or without the US and use an alternate route for getting oil to Asia. It is not expected that the administration will approve the pipeline before the election. There are other ways to create jobs than this pipeline. On February 23 we heard that during the 1980s and 1990s 600,000 call center jobs went overseas and the CEO of NOVO 1 now has 5 centers in the US and is teaming up with other call centers to bring back 100,000. On May 2 Donny McCall a North Carolina contractor who created Invis-A-Rack was told by Shark Tank to take his business to China and he wouldn’t so they all turned him down; after the show all of what he had on hand was sold out, an Iowa manufacturer has contacted him to produce the product here and Home Depot called him because they love the product. On May 3 a South Carolina baker got support from Shark Tank to start up Daisy Cakes; they created 240 baker jobs and make 5,000 cakes a day; they use dry ice to ship cakes. On May 4 the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported unemployment dropped to 8.1% and among those hit the hardest were construction (2 million jobs lost), teachers and principals (281,000) and public safety workers (123,000). (A Georgia teacher has had 57 students in her class; I’m all for larger class sizes but this is ridiculous.) It was also said that the millions of workers hired have reached their plateau (they’re working at maximum capacity) and companies may be forced to start hiring. Republicans need to tell their rich cronies to dig into their profits and start hiring; they also need to approve infrastructure projects instead of continuing to force the pipeline on us.