Is it right that people are trying to make money off taking care of our most vulnerable population.

Should Nursing Homes Be for Profit?
By Emily Udell

In late 2007, the investment firm The Carlyle Group purchased one of the country’s largest nursing home chains despite the concerns of regulators, lawmakers and workers’ groups that the acquisition would lead to staffing cuts and cause a decline in quality of care for residents. The $6.3 billion purchase of Toledo, Ohio-based Manor Care Inc. closed after a Michigan judge lifted a restraining order that temporarily halted the sale.

“The problem is, in the nursing home industry, making money means cutting care,” says Julie Eisenhardt, a spokeswoman for Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents employees at about 15 Manor Care homes and which spearheaded a campaign to raise awareness about the buyout.

In 2006, Manor Care, which operates more than 500 nursing, rehabilitation and assisted living facilities in 32 states, posted $167 million in profits and $3.6 billion in revenues. Manor Care shareholders were slated to get $67 for each share as part of the deal.

The Carlyle Group has holdings in several industries, including healthcare, defense and energy. Former President George H.W. Bush was one of its advisers until 2003.

Officials from both firms have denied plans to reduce staffing or slash services following the takeover, and have said Manor Care will continue to be run as it was before the buyout. “There’s not going to be a cut in staff and there’s no reason for quality to go down,” says Rick Rump, a spokesman for Manor Care. “Carlyle is going to realize a return in investment by our company growing and becoming a better provider of healthcare.”

The deal’s critics also say investment companies create Byzantine ownership structures that impede regulation and shield the firms from accountability for negligent care or wrongful death accusations

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Yahoo! Cutting Jobs

Yahoo!, the popular internet portal site, plans to trim its workforce by 10 to 20 percent at the end of the month. What do you think?

Marcia Wolstencroft,
Systems Analyst
“The exclamation point they insist on putting at the end of the company name seems so hollow and disingenuous now.”

Simon Bush,
Cabinet Installer
“With my luck, they’ll probably get rid of the guy who could tell me how to get rid of that goddamn toolbar from my browser.”

Dave Schofield,
Wardrobe Consultant
“Oh no! Does this mean that dot-com bubble of the ’90s is about to burst?”

TheOnion.com

Today’s photo of the day shows the legendary Ruby Dee, who received a Screen Actors Guild award for her performance in American Gangster. Congrats!!!!!!!!!

Today’s video of the day is “Ms. Fat Booty” by Mos Def. This is one of the best love stories in hip-hop history!!!!

I’m not a hunter but i am told, that in places like in the Arctic, where indigenous people sometimes might hunt a wolf, they’ll take a double edged blade. And they’ll put blood on the blade, and they’ll melt the ice and stick the handle in the ice,
so that only the blade is protruding. And that a wolf will smell the blood and wants to eat, and it will come and lick the blade trying to eat. And what happens is when the wolf licks the blade, of course, he cuts his tongue, and he bleeds, and he thinks he’s really having a good thing. And he drinks and he licks and he licks, and of course he is drinking his own blood and he kills himself. Thats what the Imperialists did with us with crack cocaine. You have these young brothers out there who think they are getting something they gonna make a living with… They  getting something [so] they can buy a car, like “the white people have cars, why can’t i have a car?” They getting something [so] they can get a piece of gold, “White people have gold, why can’t i have gold?” They getting something to get a house, “White people have a house, why can’t i have a house?” And they actually think that there’s something that’s bringing resources to them, but they’re killing themselves just like the wolf was licking the blade. And they’re slowly dying without knowing it.That’s whats happening to the community, you with me on that? That’s exactly, precisely what happens to the community. And instead of blaming the hunter who put the damn handle and blade in the ice for the wolf, what happens is the wolf gets the blame. Gets the blame for trying to live. That’s what happens in our community. You don’t blame the person, the victim. You blame the oppressor. Imperialism, white power is the enemy, was the enemy when it first came to Africa and snatched up the first African brothers here against our will. [It] is the enemy today, and thats the thing that we have to understand.