Source: http://newamericamedia.org/2011/03/support-for-japan-crosses-ethnic-lines-historical-divides.php
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- The devastation wrought by last week’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan, and the subsequent nuclear threat, has sparked an equally massive outpouring of support and community fundraising both here in the United States and overseas. Recent headlines from the ethnic media convey the extent to which these efforts have cut across ethnic lines and in some cases, deep historical divides.
Nichi Bei Weekly, one of the country’s first non-profit ethnic newspapers, responded to the tragedy by publishing a special edition, in which managing editor Heather Horiuchi observes that the “nikkei”, or people of Japanese descent living outside of Japan, including U.S. immigrants, are again showing solidarity with the Japanese people, as has been the case historically.
“The Japanese-American and Japanese communities have come to one another’s aid for more than a century,” writes Horiuchi, in reference to the Japanese Americans who came together to provide help for war-torn Japan after World War II. Editor-in-Chief Kenji Taguma also points out that one of the founders of Nichi Bei Weekly’s predecessor, Nichi Bei Times, used the newspaper to raise awareness, funds and much needed aid, after being established in 1946.
Forty years earlier, when Japanese Americans needed help after the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Japan provided the largest amount of foreign contributions to the city, according to Paul Osaki, Executive Director of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC), a group that is now at the forefront of fundraising for the Tohoku quake & tsunami victims. JCCCNC has already received more than $150,000 in donations, just days after launching their Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund on March 11, the day the earthquake struck. The fund drive was also reported by the Pan-Asian news site, AsianWeek.
Aside from the multitude of community-based and civic organizations that are either collaborating with this relief fund or doing their own donation drives, small local churches, some in Sacramento, and a host of Facebook causes and community events are providing ways for everyone to give help. Nichi Bei Weekly’s partial list of aid groups across the country primarily within to the Japanese-American community include the Minami Tamaki LLP law firm, who together with other non-profits is aiming to raise $50,000 by this weekend. This year’s Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival to be held on April 9-10 & 16-17 in San Francisco’s Japantown will also keep the focus on supporting the quake & tsunami victims.
Japanese-American community figures have also stepped up, including Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi who pledged $10,000 while actor and community leader George Takei conveyed a message of sympathy on his website saying, “Today, we are all Japanese.”
In Los Angeles, The Rafu Shimpo daily newspaper reported on a relief drive for Japan held outside L.A. City Hall on March 17, a photo showing one of the volunteers clad in full samurai armor. The fundraising effort for the Red Cross was organized by Councilmembers Bernard Parks and Jan Perry, whose district includes Little Tokyo. Consul General Junichi Ihara and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stopped by to express support.
The paper also reported that the Southern California town of Riverside is reaching out to its sister city of Sendai, considered ground zero of the quake. Mayor Ron Loveridge says that Riverside “sends its prayers and thoughts to Japan…and it stands ready to provide any assistance requested by the federal agencies coordinating the earthquake relief and support efforts.”
Another southern California fundraising event is being spearheaded by the Indian American Associations of Southern California, and is scheduled for Saturday, March 19, at the Sanatan Dharma Temple in Norwalk. The event ad is running on the India West news website serving the South Asian community, and aims to discuss a collective effort to help the victims.
Widely reported in the Korean and Korean-American media outlets - such as Korea Times, Korea Daily, Paran and KBS - as well as in Japanese media, was one of the biggest individual donations to date, given by Korean movie actor Bae Yong-joon. The actor’s donation was reportedly in the ballpark of one million dollars. According to the Chosun Ilbo website, the 39-year old actor, who became hugely popular in Japan via the soap opera, “Winter Sonata,” made the decision when he heard there was a shortage of relief and recovery supplies. He says he will continue to look for more ways to help. Aptly, he is considered one of the first “Korean Wave” stars, and now he has inspired a wave of support from his peers. JoonAng Daily reports that other Korean celebrities have followed Bae’s example and are also pledging their own donations.
NAM writer and Korean media monitor, Aruna Lee believes Bae Yong-joon’s contribution is a significant symbol of what many perceive as the setting aside of hostilities between Korea and Japan. The two countries have been locked in bitter disputes for more than 6 decades over history and territory, but those seem to be taking a back seat in the face of this tragedy. Lee cites that Seoul dispatched 100 rescue workers to the disaster area, while civic organizations in Korea have rallied for donations.
Behrouz Saba believes that the same can be said for China – that despite being “Japan's fiercest detractor since it was occupied by Japanese forces from 1937 to 1945 with a human toll of 20 million, the Chinese government has offered its formal condolences as well as a variety of aid.” Chinese media report that in total, the Chinese government, China’s Red Cross and various groups have pledged millions of dollars in cash and emergency supplies.
For Filipinos, their history with Japan is long and complex, writes columnist Benjamin Pimentel on Filipino news wire Inquirer.net. Pimental hopes this tragedy expands the lens by which Filipinos view the Japanese, which was defined by their experiences during World War II. Filipinos came to see the Japanese primarily as brutal soldiers, but Pimentel also points out that “Filipino war-era bitterness later turned to admiration for the way Japan not only recovered from the devastation of World War II, but also thrived and emerged as an economic powerhouse in the 70s and 80s.”
The Filipino-American community feels deeply for the victims, as they also remember with gratitude the outpouring of international aid in the wake of the devastating Typhoon Ketsana [Ondoy] in the Philippines in 2009, and are exploring various ways to help. Filipino Channel news reporter Henni Espinosa confirmed with NAM that Philippine Consul General to San Francisco, Marciano Paynor Jr. recently met with officials at the Japanese consulate to discuss the most effective ways of extending support. The National Federation of Filipino-American Associations [NaFFAA] is also asking Filipinos to donate to the Red Cross.
Sing Tao Daily reports that the Tzu Chi Foundation, based in Taiwan and with offices in San Francisco and San Jose, held a street fundraiser last weekend. Hundreds of volunteers stood outside Chinese supermarkets and restaurants all over the Bay Area, asking for donations. The foundation also raised awareness of disaster preparedness by holding an earthquake drill at Martin Luther King School in San Francisco’s Portola District.
This concern for California’s vulnerability to earthquakes was echoed in La Opinion’s editorial column last Monday, which called on Californians to prepare for disasters, while also encouraging solidarity and international assistance for Japan.
Meantime, the Arab-American community in Dearborn, Michigan is also organizing relief efforts for Japan led by the Center for Arab American Philanthropy [CAAP], which is encouraging community members to collectively help through CAAP’s donor site. The Anti Arab Discrimination Committee [ADC] also expressed condolences and support for the people of Japan.
Pacific Islander groups are also reaching out to Japan. SF SAMOA founder Manufou Anoai says Bay Area Benefit is planning to partner with Japan Center to hold a fundraiser. At a rally in San Francisco on March 16, speaking out against injustices against the Rapa Nui or native people of Easter Island, demonstrators also took time to remember the victims in Japan. Anoai explains that the ties between Japan and the Pacific Islander community are deeply intertwined: “We are all people of the Ocean…we share the same waves.”
- With reporting inputs from Summer Chiang, Vivian Po, Jin Kim, Andrew Lam, Elena Shore, Viji Sundaram, Suzanne Manneh
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Support for Japan Crosses Ethnic Lines, Historical Divides
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Bachmann Exclusive: Obama, Reid and Pelosi 'Deceitfully' Hid $105 Billion in Obamacare By Jim Meyers and Ashley Martella
Source: http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/michele-bachmann-obama-health/2011/03/05/id/388453
March 5, 2011
Rep. Michele Bachmann tells Newsmax that President Barack Obama, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi should apologize to the American people for the $105 billion appropriation they “deceitfully” hid in the healthcare reform legislation.
The Minnesota Republican declares that the “stunning revelation” of the expenditure points to “one of the biggest lies we have ever seen.”
Bachmann, founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, also asserts that Obama wants $8-a-gallon gasoline to drive America toward green energy, says Republicans should hire their own lawyer to represent the Defense of Marriage Act in court, and warns that a second Obama term would be “even worse” than a second Jimmy Carter term would have been.
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Bachmann expressed her anger over the $105 billion appropriation that has only now come to light in an updated Congressional Research Service report on the Obamacare legislation.
“What we need to do is defund Obamacare,” she says. “The House has the power of the purse.
“But we’ve just found out startling information, and I am calling on President Obama, Majority Leader Harry Reid and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to apologize to the American people and explain why in the bill known as Obamacare they put in over $105 billion in appropriations.
“The funny thing is, they forgot to tell the members of the Senate that there was $105 billion in spending in that bill. They forgot to tell members of the House.
“Since when do we pass a transformative piece of legislation like the government takeover of healthcare and just happen to drop in $105 billion in appropriations, the purpose of which will be to implement this massive new bill? No one knew. We have just found out in the last week or so.
“This is a stunning revelation. It’s shocking. We’ve been fighting to cut $100 billion out of the budget and then we find out that the Democrats led by President Obama have already spent $105 billion and didn’t bother to tell Congress.
“This is unbelievable. I don’t think anyone has ever heard of anything like this before. That’s why the president needs to answer to the American people. What an insult to the American people to not tell us this was in the bill. That amount of money could fund the whole state government in Minnesota for over three years.
“And I think the reason President Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi did this is because they knew this bill would be unpopular and they wanted to make sure that the whole bill could be implemented because they provided the implementation money through 2019.
“So unless we rescind this money, it will be spent.”
Bachmann proposes this course of action to deal with the appropriation: “The government runs out of money on March 18 of 2011. Before we Republicans agree to fund the government one day further, we need to get an agreement from Barack Obama and Harry Reid that they will give back the $105 billion that they deceitfully put into that bill. They need to give that money back and then we need to defund Obamacare after the next election.
“No Republican voted for Obamacare. If I was a Democrat who voted for this bill, I would be furious at Nancy Pelosi, President Obama and Harry Reid. This is one of the biggest lies we have ever seen.
“This is why Speaker Pelosi said we need to pass the bill to know what’s in it. Truer words were never spoken. But this shows why it’s absolutely wrong. They wouldn’t let us read the bill. They put it on our desks and said, vote. Harry Reid did the same thing in the Senate on Christmas Eve 2009.
“It’s reprehensible. Republicans have to draw a line in the sand and say we will refuse to give you one red cent to fund this government until you give back the $105 billion that you deceitfully spent and put in the Obamacare bill.”
With gasoline prices skyrocketing, Bachmann was asked her view of President Obama’s handling of the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East.
“I don’t think the president has handled this well at all,” she responds.
“There is incredible instability in the Middle East. President Obama’s policies have made us more vulnerable than ever due to our dependence on foreign oil. And what is he doing? He’s approved only one [oil drilling] lease — and that one was in the last week — since he’s come into office.
“As soon as he took office his new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled 77 leases. And now that oil is trading at over $100 a barrel, it is time that we open up American energy interests. We need to go for shale oil or natural gas. We have 25 percent of the world’s coal. So we need to access our own energy so we can become less dependent on these unstable regions.
“Remember the president’s current energy secretary, Steven Chu, said that we want the United States to have the same price of gasoline as Europe has. When he made that comment, Europe had gas at $8 a gallon. This is exactly what the ambition of the Obama administration is, because they want to move people toward green energy.
“Well, I’m for all energy. Let’s access all energy in the United States. No one is helped by having gasoline at $8 a gallon. I think that’s a very unwise strategy on the part of the Obama administration.”
Bachmann is sharply critical of Obama’s decision not to defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
“I think what Congress should do is defend the law that it passed,” she tells Newsmax.
“We need to hire a super lawyer and if the president of the United States won’t defend our laws, then the House of Representatives should defend our laws. So we need to hire a lawyer to represent DOMA in court.”
Bachmann opposes raising debt ceiling, noting that the federal government has raised the ceiling 10 times in the last 10 years and equating that with people continually having their credit card maximum raised even though they can’t afford to pay the bills.
“I think we need to put pressure on Congress to actually do some real cutting because we cannot continue to spend this money,” she adds. “We’re absolutely broke, and we can’t just run the printing presses because that will induce inflation.”
Turning to Iran, Bachmann says the Obama administration should have gotten involved in the Green movement back in 2009 “when there was more of a chance for the United States to have a positive involvement.
“Now with the instability we’re seeing across the Middle East region, we see a rise in the influence of Iran in that area,” she observes, warning that the Middle East turmoil could ultimately lead to Islamic fundamentalist regimes.
Bachmann says she has not decided whether or not she will run for president in 2012.
“Right now I’m involved in the narrative of why we cannot have a second term for Barack Obama. Your viewers remember Jimmy Carter and they remember that was not a good time for our country. Imagine if we’d had a second term for Jimmy Carter. A second Barack Obama term would be even worse.
“We need to have a candidate who understands the times that we live in and who has the political courage to make really tough decisions, even if that means they will serve only one term. We are at a turning point in our nation’s history.”
Finally, Bachmann — who has five children and has raised 23 foster children in her home — says she is “very concerned that they have a vital future available for them.
“We are the indispensable nation of the world and it’s important that we maintain not only our economic might, our military might, but also remain a force for good in the world.”
Bachmann Exposes $105 Billion Secret By Phyllis Schlafly
Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/2011/03/15/bachmann_exposes_$105_billion_secret/page/full/
March 15, 2011
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has again demonstrated her extraordinary leadership in the U.S. House. She discovered $105 billion of taxpayers' money that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi had hidden in ObamaCare.
Now, Bachmann wants her colleagues to refuse to pass must-pass bills, such as the Continuing Resolution or raising the debt limit, unless they include recapturing that secret money. What a great idea!
After all, the new Congress was elected last November to cut spending and put the federal government back within the bounds of the Constitution. The new members of Congress promised not only to cut overall spending but specifically to repeal and defund ObamaCare, so thank you, Michele, for showing the new Congress where to start.
When ObamaCare was passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve of 2009, senators had less than 72 hours to compare a 383-page package of amendments to the 2,074-page bill. Public outrage over backroom deals (such as the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase) led to the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts.
Democrats then cooked up a plan to link the now-2,409-page Senate-passed ObamaCare bill to dozens of amendments contained in a separate 150-page Budget Reconciliation bill that could pass both houses by a simple majority. That's when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously told the then-Democratic majority, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."
When President Obama signed ObamaCare into law, that set in motion a series of funding triggers and money transfers that add up to $105,464,000,000 in pre-authorized appropriations that are scheduled to be paid up through FY2019. In laymen's language, that means writing postdated checks that are guaranteed to be paid out over the next eight years.
This money was divided into dozens of smaller amounts so the big total would not be apparent. For example, Section 2953 of ObamaCare included a pre-funded appropriation of $75 million a year for five years to "educate adolescents" in "adult preparation subjects" such as "stress management" and "the development of healthy attitudes and values about adolescent growth and development, body image, racial and ethnic diversity, and other related subjects."
Section 4101(a) of ObamaCare prefunded $200 million a year over four years for the construction of school-based health centers. In Section 4002, a total of $17,750,000,000 will be deposited over 10 years to a discretionary account controlled by the HHS secretary (currently Kathleen Sebelius), who may spend that money "to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention" and to "help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs."
At a hearing last week before the House Health Subcommittee, former Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., likened ObamaCare to a 2,700-page haystack in which a lot of needles are still being discovered. He urged Congress to place a stop-payment order on the massive postdated checks hidden in ObamaCare.
The Pelosi bunch's strategy was devious and highhanded. They bypassed the customary appropriations process and prefunded ObamaCare on passage, knowing that House Rules would restrict a future Congress from defunding an already enacted law.
This makes it more difficult for Congress to deal with, but not impossible. Congress will both have to include the defunding language in the FY2011 Continuing Resolution and also pass a rule that makes this defunding language OK under House Rules.
There is not only adequate precedent for this procedure, but it also is common sense. Congress, in its constitutional role, can completely stop this secret funding of discretionary funds.
What Pelosi did was like setting up online a way to pay your monthly utility bills out of your bank checking account. Each new date triggers the bank to pay the bill out of your bank account.
ObamaCare is very similar. The law Congress passed without reading it lists the dates up to 2019 on which payments totaling $105 billion are to be paid out of the U.S. Treasury.
Bachmann and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. are asking their colleagues to join them in signing a letter to the House leadership stating that the $105 billion in postdated checks drawn on the U.S. Treasury must be stopped, and stopped now, by including the necessary language in the continuing resolution.
It is an insult to the U.S. Constitution, which gives the House the power to originate all revenue bills, and to current and future Congresses, for ObamaCare to try to handcuff Congress in regard to future appropriations up through 2019.
We are fortunate that Bachmann is smart enough to figure out the cost of the secret money in ObamaCare. One of the smartest members of Congess, she was a tax attorney before being elected to Congress.
Phyllis Schlafly is a national leader of the pro-family movement, a nationally syndicated columnist and author of Feminist Fantasies.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Why I'm Fighting in Wisconsin: We can avoid mass teacher layoffs and reward our best performers. But we have to act now. By Scott Walker
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576190260787805984.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_opinion
MARCH 10, 2011
In 2010, Megan Sampson was named an Outstanding First Year Teacher in Wisconsin. A week later, she got a layoff notice from the Milwaukee Public Schools. Why would one of the best new teachers in the state be one of the first let go? Because her collective-bargaining contract requires staffing decisions to be made based on seniority.
Ms. Sampson got a layoff notice because the union leadership would not accept reasonable changes to their contract. Instead, they hid behind a collective-bargaining agreement that costs the taxpayers $101,091 per year for each teacher, protects a 0% contribution for health-insurance premiums, and forces schools to hire and fire based on seniority and union rules.
My state's budget-repair bill, which passed the Assembly on Feb. 25 and awaits a vote in the Senate, reforms this union-controlled hiring and firing process by allowing school districts to assign staff based on merit and performance. That keeps great teachers like Ms. Sampson in the classroom.
Most states in the country are facing a major budget deficit. Many are cutting billions of dollars of aid to schools and local governments. These cuts lead to massive layoffs or increases in property taxes—or both.
In Wisconsin, we have a better approach to tackling our $3.6 billion deficit. We are reforming the way government works, as well as balancing our budget. Our reform plan gives state and local governments the tools to balance the budget through reasonable benefit contributions. In total, our budget-repair bill saves local governments almost $1.5 billion, outweighing the reductions in state aid in our budget.
While it might be a bold political move, the changes are modest. We ask government workers to make a 5.8% contribution to their pensions and a 12.6% contribution to their health-insurance premium, both of which are well below what other workers pay for benefits. Our plan calls for Wisconsin state workers to contribute half of what federal employees pay for their health-insurance premiums. (It's also worth noting that most federal workers don't have collective bargaining for wages and benefits.)
For example, my brother works as a banquet manager at a hotel and occasionally works as a bartender. My sister-in-law works at a department store. They have two beautiful kids. They are a typical middle-class Wisconsin family. At the start of this debate, David reminded me that he pays nearly $800 per month for his family's health-insurance premium and a modest 401(k) contribution. He said most workers in Wisconsin would love a deal like the one we are proposing.
The unions say they are ready to accept concessions, yet their actions speak louder than words. Over the past three weeks, local unions across the state have pursued contracts without new pension or health-insurance contributions. Their rhetoric does not match their record on this issue.
Local governments can't pass budgets on a hope and a prayer. Beyond balancing budgets, our reforms give schools—as well as state and local governments—the tools to reward productive workers and improve their operations. Most crucially, our reforms confront the barriers of collective bargaining that currently block innovation and reform.
When Gov. Mitch Daniels repealed collective bargaining in Indiana six years ago, it helped government become more efficient and responsive. The average pay for Indiana state employees has actually increased, and high-performing employees are rewarded with pay increases or bonuses when they do something exceptional.
Passing our budget-repair bill will help put similar reforms into place in Wisconsin. This will be good for the Badger State's hard-working taxpayers. It will also be good for state and local government employees who overwhelmingly want to do their jobs well.
In Wisconsin, we can avoid the massive teacher layoffs that schools are facing across America. Our budget-repair bill is a commitment to the future so our children won't face even more dire consequences than we face today, and teachers like Ms. Sampson are rewarded—not laid off.
Taking on the status quo is no easy task. Each day, there are protesters in and around our state Capitol. They have every right to be heard. But their voices cannot drown out the voices of the countless taxpayers who want us to balance our budgets and, more importantly, to make government work for each of them.
Mr. Walker, a Republican, is the governor of Wisconsin.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Democrats In The Pocket Of Big Labor
Source: http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/2011/03/democrats-in-pocket-of-big-labor.html
There is nothing like using their own words to condemn them.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Coolidge-Reagan-Walker? By Cal Thomas
Source: http://www.calthomas.com/index.php?news=3183
February 22, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Colon cancer before 50 By Christina Mitchell
Source: http://blogs.courierpostonline.com/middleground/2010/02/26/colon-cancer-before-50/
February 26, 2010
Jamie Romano’s death from colon cancer at the age of 31 was a tragedy and an anomaly. But such “anomalies” have become more frequent, according to Dr. Brian Kann, an assistant professor of colorectal surgery at Cooper Hospital, who treated Jamie during her three-and-a-half-year battle with Stage 4 cancer. Kann says he sees increasing numbers of people in their 20s and 30s developing the disease.
“The majority of cases I see are still people in their early 60s,” he adds. “But I’ve had at least a dozen patients in their late 20s with colon cancer. And a lot of times it’s diagnosed at an advanced stage in young people, because systems get attributed to other things … and by the time it gets looked into a little further, it’s pretty advanced.”
Jamie Romano was scanned for kidney stones shortly after the premature birth of her youngest son, Hayden. He still was in the hospital when his mother began treatment for her cancer, which had spread to her liver.
Colorectal cancer (of the colon or rectum) is the third most common cancer in the U.S. in men and women, according to the American Cancer Society. Overall, rates of colorectal cancer have declined in the U.S. for more than a decade, with the majority of cases in people 50 and up. But the June, 2009, issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention showed that based on data from 1992 to 2005, rates of colorectal cancer per 100,000 people ages 20 to 49 increased 1.5 percent per year in men and 1.6 percent per year in women.
Dr. Kann says the main risk factor for colorectal cancer is a family history. If, for instance, an immediate family member developed colon cancer at 40, you should begin getting screened 10 years earlier, at 30. Any symptoms such as blood in the stool or a change in bowel habits should be investigated further. It may mean the dreaded colonoscopy; it may also mean catching the cancer early, when it is highly treatable. Colonoscopy still is the gold standard of tests, Kann says.
Of Jamie Romano, the doctor adds, ”She was one of a growing number of patients we’re seeing without family history (of the disease). And she was one tough cookie.”
That “tough cookie” would want you to know colon cancer is no longer an old person’s disease.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. The Colon Cancer Alliance recognizes March 5 as National Dress in Blue Day to bring attention to the disease. Find out more at www.ccalliance.org or www.coloncancerfoundation.org
The Jamie Romano Beef and Beer for Colon Cancer, begun by Jamie herself in 2007, is March 6 at Columbus Manor in Williamstown. For information, call (856) 498-2992 or e-mail cpearce@comcast.net.
Image from Cooper University Hospital 2008 Annual Report PDF (Page 20)
Love and Concern inspire ill mom's cancer benefit
February 27, 2008
Courier Post
Source: http://sambikarto.blogspot.com/2008/02/concern-inspire-ill-moms-cancer-benefit.html
"I want to help find a cure someday, or at least something better than chemotherapy to treat colon cancer," said Jamie Romano, 29, the event organizer.
A 1997 graduate of Williamstown High School, Romano has been fighting colon cancer and stage four liver cancer -- the most severe form -- since February 2006.
Proceeds from her beef and beer benefit will support CCI's research of colon and gastrointestinal cancers.
Last year's event generated $5,000 for research. Romano hopes the March 8 beef and beer will double that figure. A few tickets remain available for the event, to be held in Gibbstown.
Romano said she is motivated to support cancer research out of love for her children and concern for their future. She is the mother of three children, sons Avery and Hayden, and stepdaughter Desiree. Her husband is Len Romano.
"I'm scared to death for them. I wouldn't want to see anyone else go through this," said Romano, who discovered her cancer two weeks after giving birth to Hayden, now 2.
During a CT scan for kidney stones, doctors detected a cancerous mass on Romano's colon and lesions on her liver. Twelve inches of her colon were removed.
"My liver is not in too great a shape. They told me that I would be on chemo forever, so I go to chemo every other week. Afterward, I'm sick for five days -- and I'm badly sick, like throwing up," she said.
Her physicians include oncologist Alex Hageboutros of the Cooper Cancer Institute and colorectal surgeon Brian Kann.
The fundraiser gives Romano a positive outlet.
Last week, Romano took a breather from chemotherapy to prepare for the big party. The event will include a DJ, 50/50 drawings, T-shirt sales and a Chinese auction.
"Last year, we danced, so it was a lot of fun," she said.
"I have a lot of people helping me -- my mom, my aunts and the girls in Dr. Kann's office."
She said she is grateful to businesses supporting the event: the Italian Kitchen, Bringhurst Brothers, Berlin Borough; Bellone's Nursery, Vineland; RMJ Mechanical of Atco; Superior Mortgage, Hammonton; Wawa, Frito-Lay and Tastykake.
People like Romano help to make ongoing cancer research at Cooper possible, said Beth Ann Rachkis, director of marketing and communications at CCI.
In addition, "Jamie's a great spokesperson for young people with cancer," she said.
CCI cares for thousands of New Jersey residents battling cancer each year.
"Thanks to the support of our community, we have been able to expand services and provide access to world-class medical care," Rachkis said.
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Obituary - Smith
Alice H. Smith
February 4, 2011
Burlington County Times
Alice H. Smith of Cinnaminson departed this life at home surrounded by her family on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011. She was 84.
She was the beloved mother of former Senator Bradford S. Smith (Janet) and Susan James (Stephen); grandmother of Kristin Puzak (David), Bradford Scott Jr. (Jackie), Vanessa and Juliet Smith and Stephen and Luke James; great-grandmother of Leilani Smith, and mother-in-law of Juliet Headley Smith.
She was preceded in death by her husband and former Senator, Walter L. Smith Jr. and her son, Walter L. Smith III.
Alice was a pillar of strength, knowledge and experience for over 60 years at the family law firm of Smith & Smith where she worked as secretary, paralegal and office manager with a 'get it done' attitude which she practiced daily. She was a talented artist and craft person having presented her family and friends with numerous paintings, handmade gifts, and other artwork, which will be appreciated and treasured for many years to come. Above all, Alice cared for her family.
Her mother, her brothers and sister, her husband, her children and their spouses, her grandchildren and great-grandchild were foremost in her thoughts throughout her life. No task was too great, no challenge was too difficult in bringing happiness to those she loved. She always found time to do the wonderful things that made her the person that all who knew her should hope to emulate and will fondly remember.
Visitation with Alice's family will be at Christ Church, Main and 4th Streets, Riverton, on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2011 from 12:30 to 2 p.m., followed by a service at the Church and interment at Lakeview Cemetery in Cinnaminson.
In lieu of flowers, donations in her name may be made to Christ Church, 305 Main St., Riverton, NJ 08077.
Weber Funeral Home, 112 Broad Street, Riverton
Source: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/obits_detail/article/151/2011/february/04/alice-h-smith.html
Walter L. Smith Jr., Former N.j. Legislator
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150919014005/http://articles.philly.com/1994-07-14/news/25845398_1_income-tax-sales-tax-state-scholarshipsBy S. Joseph Hagenmayer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: July 14, 1994Walter L. Smith Jr., 76, an anti-tax conservative and a maverick Burlington County Republican state assemblyman and senator in the 1960s and early 1970s, died Sunday at his Cinnaminson home.
Mr. Smith was elected to the state Assembly in 1963. He served until 1971, when he won a special election to the state Senate, but he then lost an election battle for the seat when the district was reapportioned. He also served as a commissioner on the Delaware River Port Authority from 1984 to 1990.
"He was an honest man, and what he believed in, he believed in," said Burlington County Surrogate Elton Conda, who had known Mr. Smith since the 1950s. "He fought unnecessary taxes and spending throughout his career. He was a watchdog for taxpayers."
Mr. Smith first opposed broad-based state taxes proposed by then-Gov. Richard J. Hughes, a Democrat, and he later took on the leaders of his own party and opposed then-Gov. William T. Cahill's taxation proposals in 1969. Cahill eventually got his sales tax, but another proposal, the state income tax, didn't come about until 1976.
When Cahill sought the Republican nomination for the govenorship, Mr. Smith supported another candidate, although he supported Cahill in the fall election.
A member of the Assembly's Appropriations Committee, Mr. Smith was the powerful committee's vice chairman. But his opposition to Cahill's taxes caused party leaders to pass over him when naming a new chairman. The slight did little to change his position.
A 1970 Inquirer story quoted then-Assemblyman Smith as saying, "I have enough votes in the lower house to block any income tax until the end of my term, and I intend to vote against the proposed 2 percent increase in the sales tax."
He once proposed an amendment to the state constitution banning an income tax in New Jersey.
Mr. Smith led the fight to prevent 18-year-olds in the state from gaining the right to vote. And he proposed and found considerable support for legislation to take state scholarships away from college students who were found to be engaging in illegal demonstrations and otherwise disrupting college activities during the tumultuous '60s.
In 1976, when a governor finally got an income tax adopted, Mr. Smith held fast to his positions and ran once again - this time unsuccessfully - for an Assembly seat on the single issue of opposing the new income tax.
His son, Bradford S. Smith, also a former state senator, said his father ''always chose the honest and straightforward way to go. He always asked himself the question: Is it good for the people? And it was a good question to ask."
Mr. Smith was born in the East Riverton section of Cinnaminson and lived in Riverton for most of his life. He was a 1935 graduate of Palmyra High School, and attended the American Institute of Banking and Drexel Institute of Technology before enrolling in Rutgers Law School's night division. He worked his way through school and received his law degree in 1949. He was an Army veteran of World War II.
Mr. Smith was a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Riverton, where he once served as a church school superintendent and was a vestryman.
In addition to his son Bradford, Mr. Smith is survived by his wife, Alice Hinchman Smith; a daughter, Susan Smith James of Maple Shade, and five grandchildren.
Friends may call from 7 to 9 p.m. today at Weber Funeral Home, 112 Broad St., Riverton. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Christ Episcopal Church, Fourth and Main Streets, Riverton. Burial will be in Lakeview Memorial Park in Cinnaminson.
The family requests that memorial donations in his memory be made to Christ Episcopal Church, 305 Main St., Riverton, N.J. 08077.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Dems Now Try Quiet Defiance Via Regulation By Charles Krauthammer
Source: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/558258/201012301905/Dems-Now-Try-Quiet-Defiance-Via-Regulation.aspx
12/30/2010
Most people don't remember Obama-Care's notorious Section 1233, mandating government payments for end-of-life counseling. It aroused so much anxiety as a possible first slippery step on the road to state-mandated late-life rationing that the Senate never included it in the final health care law.
Well, it's back — by administrative fiat. A month ago, Medicare issued a regulation providing for end-of-life counseling during annual "wellness" visits. It was all nicely buried amid the simultaneous release of hundreds of new Medicare rules.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., author of Section 1233, was delighted. "Mr. Blumenauer's office celebrated 'a quiet victory,' but urged supporters not to crow about it," reports the New York Times. Deathly quiet.
In early November, his office sent an e-mail plea to supporters: "We would ask that you not broadcast this accomplishment out to any of your lists ... e-mails can too easily be forwarded." They had been lucky that "thus far, it seems that no press or blogs have discovered it. ... The longer this (regulation) goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it."
So much for Democratic transparency — and for their repeated claim that the more people learn what is in the health care law, the more they will like it. Turns out ignorance is the Democrats' best hope. And regulation is their perfect vehicle — so much quieter than legislation.
Consider two other regulatory usurpations in just the last few days:
On Dec. 23, the Interior Department issued Secretarial Order 3310 reversing a 2003 decision and giving itself the authority to designate public lands as "Wild Lands." A clever twofer: (1) a bureaucratic power grab — for seven years up through Dec. 22, wilderness designation had been the exclusive province of Congress, and (2) a leftward lurch — more land to be "protected" from such nefarious uses as domestic oil exploration in a country disastrously dependent on foreign sources.
The very same day, the president's Environmental Protection Agency declared that in 2011 it would begin drawing up anti-carbon regulations on oil refineries and power plants, another power grab effectively enacting what Congress had firmly rejected when presented as cap-and-trade legislation.
For an Obama bureaucrat, however, the will of Congress is a mere speed bump. Hence this regulatory trifecta, each one moving smartly left — and nicely clarifying what the spirit of bipartisan compromise that President Obama heralded in his post-lame-duck Dec. 22 news conference was really about: a shift to the center for public consumption and political appearance only.
On that day, Obama finally embraced the tax-cut compromise he had initially excoriated, but only to avoid forfeiting its obvious political benefit — its appeal to independent voters who demand bipartisanship and are the key to Obama's re-election.
But make no mistake: Obama's initial excoriation in his angry Dec. 7 news conference was the authentic Obama. He hated the deal.
Now as always, Obama's heart lies left. For those fooled into thinking otherwise by the new Obama of Dec. 22, his administration's defiantly liberal regulatory moves — on the environment, energy and health care — should disabuse even the most beguiled.
These regulatory power plays make political sense. Because Obama needs to appear to reclaim the center, he will stage his more ideological fights in yawn-inducing regulatory hearings rather than in the dramatic spotlight of congressional debate. How better to impose a liberal agenda on a center-right nation than regulatory stealth?
It's Obama's only way forward during the next two years. He will never get past the half-Republican 112th what he could not get past the overwhelmingly Democratic 111th. He doesn't have the votes and he surely doesn't want the publicity. Hence the quiet resurrection, as it were, of end-of-life counseling.
Obama knows he has only so many years to change the country. In his first two, he achieved much: the first stimulus, Obama-Care and financial regulation. For the next two, however, the Republican House will prevent any repetition of that. Obama's agenda will therefore have to be advanced by the more subterranean means of rule-by-regulation.
But this must simultaneously be mixed with ostentatious displays of legislative bipartisanship (e.g., the lame-duck tax-cut deal) in order to pull off the (apparent) centrist repositioning required for re-election. This, in turn, would grant Obama four more years when, freed from the need for pretense, he can reassert himself ideologically and complete the social-democratic transformation — begun Jan. 20, 2009; derailed Nov. 2, 2010 — that is the mission of his presidency.
