USA Sevens 2008

Last year the women's final between the US & Canada was played at Petco Park in front of 15,000 spectators. This is a tremendous opportunity for women's rugby, not only here in the states, but internationally as well.
Both the USA Senior Side and USA A squads are set to compete in the International Women's portion of the tournament with Samoa, South Africa, Canada, Canada A and Canadian Collegiate squad ("the Pandas").
USA Senior Squad:
Tyshawn Henry (New York), Amy Daniels (Beantown), Kelly White (Belmont Shore), Kitt Wagner (Beantown), Pam Kosanke (Chicago North Shore), Alison Price (New York), Teena Maestrangelo (Chicago North Shore), Donna Thomas (Kansas City Jazz), Christy Ringgenberg (Minnesota Valkyries), Ellie Karvoski (New York), Jen Starkey (NOVA), JoAnne Ward (Albany)

In two states Obama won, the signs of 'change'

Given Barack Obama's big victory Saturday in South Carolina -- and the real possibility that he might win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination -- I think it's time to put into perspective his talk of change. In speeches after his victories in South Carolina and in Iowa on Jan. 3, the senator from Illinois held up "change" as the driving force of his White House campaign.
"We are choosing hope over fear. We're choosing unity over division and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America," he said during his rousing victory address in Iowa. After his win in South Carolina was assured, Obama said this: "We are looking for more than just a change of party in the White House. We're looking to fundamentally change the status quo in Washington."
But what exactly is Obama talking about when he speaks of change? We got a hint of an answer last year, when during a debate among Democratic presidential candidates he rejected a lingering Cold War orthodoxy.

Americans Pay For Iraq’s Universal Healthcare Coverage

I did a google search for “which countries in the world have universal healthcare” and came upon a Wikipedia result. The entry states that the USA is the only wealthy, industrialized nation who does not have healthcare. As a matter of fact, we have over 47 million out of 300 million citizens with no healthcare coverage according to the National Coalition on Healthcare. It appears however that the USA is funding healthcare coverage for Iraqis and Afghanistan. According to the site:
” The number of uninsured children in 2005 was 8.3 million – or 11.2 percent of all children in the U.S. (1). The number of children who are uninsured increased by nearly 400,000 in 2005, breaking a trend of steady declines over the last five years. “
However, the good news is that Americans are helping every Iraqis get healthcare. Now, I do believe that this is a noble act and with all the sanctions placed on Iraq since the early 90s, there has been a lot of needless suffering by Iraqi children. However, should we not fix our own healthcare system before helping foreign countries get Universal Coverage?
In fact, USAID.gov states that over 97% of IRAQI children have been immunized against MMR and Polio. Again, let me stress that only 91% of Amercian kids have healthcare so it can be assumed that our vaccination rates are not as high as Iraq since the USA government won’t generally pay to have our children immunized. The report also states the the USA help renovate over 110 healthcare centers while our inner city hospitals are being closed for lack of funding.

Asylum in the USA for Lionheart?

Now that the information is publicly available, I can reveal what Dymphna and I have known for a while: Lionheart is currently here in the USA.
He’s in good hands. People are looking after him, and he’s considering the possibility of asking for asylum in this country, since he faces arrest for political reasons (i.e. for “stirring up racial hatred”) if he returns to England. It’s possible that a legal fund will be set up to help him, but I don’t have any definite word on that yet.