Hightower Lowdown
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. -M.Twain
In This Issue
Some random thoughts on the 2004 Presidential race
December's Lowdown
The many REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL after Election Day 2008
After casting her ballot for Barack Obama, Amanda Jones said simply, "I feel good about voting for him." Ms. Jones, of Cedar Creek, Texas (a town just south of Austin), is African-American, and what gives her vote some historic punch is that she's 109 years old. Her father was a slave. Her mother was born right after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. She's been through it all--Jim Crow segregation, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, the poll tax, FDR, the civil-rights movement, desegregation, 13 years of George W (five as guv, eight as prez), and now: Barack Obama. This last change fills her with joy, she says.
[read more]
Stay in the Loop
Sign up for email alerts, from breaking news to weekly commentary:
Recent Lowdowns
Subscriber Features
Manage your account by logging in. Don't have an account? Get the Lowdown in the mail every month -- for the unbelievable, ridiculous, low, low price of $15 per year! Save a tree and read it online for just $10 per year!
Dig Deeper
Find more content in these topics: Healthcare
On The Road
No upcoming appearances at this time; check back soon!
[All events] | [Book Jim]
Search
The General Store
Visit Hightower's General Store, to buy high-power Hightower books and other goodies like that.
Home | Contact | RSS | Privacy policy | Copyright Public Intelligence, Inc., all rights reserved 2003-2007
A hospital horror
What is one of the most dangerous things you can do when you get seriously ill? Go to the hospital.
The dark little secret of today's hospitals is that they kill nearly 90,000 Americans a year, mostly from hospital infections, says the Centers for Disease Control. That's more than die from auto accidents and homicides combined. About two million patients a year catch infections from their hospitals- one out of every 20 people who go in.
Infections could be cut by more than half if all medical personnel washed their hands regularly, preferably with alcohol handrubs-but this costs money, which many hospitals are not keen to spend.
How are you to know the good hospitals from the bad? You can't, because hospitals don't have to reveal their infection rates. Now some states are pushing mandatory disclosure laws, but hospital lobbyists are pushing a bill in Congress setting up a voluntary-and secret -reporting system.
The Consumers Union is fighting for full disclosure. Join them at StopHospitalInfections.org.