The invitation of rapper Common to the White House this week is drawing the ire of the union representing New Jersey state police.

While even casual hip-hop fans wouldn't characterize him as a controversial rapper, Common found himself under the microscope after First Lady Michelle Obama invited him to the White House for an arts event. In question: the lyrics to "A Song for Assata," about convicted cop-killer and former Black Panther Assata Shakur.

The White House said Wednesday it stood by the decision to invite Common. Press Secretary Jay Carney said the conservative backlash distorts what Common stands for, and added that the president appreciates Common's work with children in Chicago.

FOX News and Sarah Palin condemned the decision after the Daily Caller published some of Common's lyrics, including some that criticize former President George W. Bush.

For New Jersey police, the outrage centers on "A Song for Assata" lyrics like "Your power and pride is beautiful. May God bless your soul."

Latest AP Poll Sample Skews to Democrats by 17 Points May 11, 2011 8:55 A.M. By Jim Geraghty Tags: Barack Obama, Polling Wow! The AP poll has Obama’s approval rating hitting 60 percent! And 53 percent say he deserves to be reelected! And on the economy, 52 percent approve of the way Obama’s handling it, and only 47 percent disapprove! He’s up 54–46 on approval of how he’s handling health care! On unemployment, 52 percent approval, 47 percent disapproval! 57 percent approval on handling Libya! Even on the deficit, he’s at 47 percent approval, 52 percent disapproval! It is a poll of adults, which isn’t surprising; as I mentioned yesterday, you don’t have to be a registered or likely voter to have an opinion on the president. But then you get to the party ID: 46 percent identify as Democrat or leaning Democrat, 29 percent identify as Republican or leaning Republican, 4 percent identify as purely independent leaning towards neither party, and 20 percent answered, “I don’t know.”

Rep. Anthony Weiner said Wednesday he was looking into how a health law waiver might work for New York City.

Weiner, who is likely to run for mayor of New York, said that because of the city’s special health care infrastructure, his office was looking into alternatives that might make more sense. Weiner is one of the health care law’s biggest supporters; during the debate leading up to reform, he was one of the last holdouts in Congress for the public option.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51840.html#ixzz1HTrcS7Dy

Some of the text from the attached article:

Almost half the world's nations were rated not free in 1972, but by last year that proportion had dropped below one-quarter.

Political scientists identify democracy's "first wave" as the revolutionary period of the 18th and 19th centuries, and the second as the post-World War II restoration of traditional democracies.

The third wave, they now see, began in the mid-1970s, when people in Portugal and Spain threw off decades of military dictatorship. That upheaval helped inspire their former Latin American colonies to topple their own authoritarians-in-uniform in the 1980s, when the rhythmic banging of cookware in the Santiago night signaled that Chileans, for one, were fed up.

The wave rolled on to east Asia, to the Philippines' "People Power" revolution, South Korea's embrace of civilian democracy, Taiwan's ending of one-party rule. Then, in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.

Stable democracies "will take a very long time in the Middle East," said Carl Gershman, head since 1984 of the non-governmental U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, whose $100 million in annual congressional appropriations help promote democracy worldwide.

"But now it's clear we're entering a new period for democracy," he said. "There's really no large competing idea."

And what of the biggest democracy vacuum of all, the one-party state of China, where a democracy movement was crushed, with hundreds killed, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989?

"I don't think China will be able to avoid this trend," Gershman said. "It all amounts to a question of human dignity. And that's universal."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110319/ap_on_re_us/at_democracy_s_door

Maher call Palin a nasty name. Civility.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGE3G5kfzps&feature=feedu

Leadership

"The way the U.S. acted was to let the Germans and the Russians block everything, which announced for us an alignment with the Germans as far as we are concerned," one of the diplomats told The Cable.

Clinton's unwillingness to commit the United States to a specific position led many in the room to wonder exactly where the administration stood on the situation in Libya.

"Frankly we are just completely puzzled," the diplomat said. "We are wondering if this is a priority for the United States."

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/16/european_governments_completely_puzzled_about_us_position_on_libya

Here is the catch. DOJ will only investigate bullying cases if the victim is considered protected under the 1964 Civil Rights legislation. In essence, only discrimination against a victim’s race, sex, national origin, disability, or religion will be considered by DOJ. The overweight straight white male who is verbally and/or physically harassed because of his size can consider himself invisible to the Justice Department.

Apparently, the Justice Department is going by George Orwell’s famous Animal Farm ending: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

“We can only take action where we have legal authority,” wrote DOJ spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa in a December 2010 e-mail to The Washington Times Water Cooler.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2011/mar/18/doj-white-male-bullying-victims-tough-luck/

Posted on drudge

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/city-agrees-to-lower-test-scores-for-police-exam-1103409.html

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/03/13/taking_a_chance_making_a_choice/?p1=News_links

Waiting for Superman.

Jesse Jackson, Jr wants to change the Constitution and put an ipod in every pocket. For some reason, he's not aware that Democrats have figured out a way to pervert our system of government without bothering making changes to our founding document.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhdPrA0b1UM&feature=player_embedded

http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/08/npr-executives-caught-on-tape-bashing-conservatives-and-tea-party-touting-liberals/

A man who appears to be a National Public Radio senior executive, Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement.

“The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in people’s personal lives and very fundamental Christian – I wouldn’t even call it Christian. It’s this weird evangelical kind of move,” declared Schiller, the head of NPR’s nonprofit foundation, who last week announced his departure for the Aspen Institute.

In a new video released Tuesday morning by conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe, Schiller and Betsy Liley, NPR’s director of institutional giving, are seen meeting with two men who, unbeknownst to the NPR executives, are posing as members of a Muslim Brotherhood front group. The men, who identified themselves as Ibrahim Kasaam and Amir Malik from the fictitious Muslim Education Action Center (MEAC) Trust, met with Schiller and Liley at Café Milano, a well-known Georgetown restaurant, and explained their desire to give up to $5 million to NPR because, “the Zionist coverage is quite substantial elsewhere.”

On the tapes, Schiller wastes little time before attacking conservatives. The Republican Party, Schiller says, has been “hijacked by this group.” The man posing as Malik finishes the sentence by adding, “the radical, racist, Islamaphobic, Tea Party people.” Schiller agrees and intensifies the criticism, saying that the Tea Party people aren’t “just Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it’s scary. They’re seriously racist, racist people.”

Schiller goes on to describe liberals as more intelligent and informed than conservatives. “In my personal opinion, liberals today might be more educated, fair and balanced than conservatives,” he said...

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/08/npr-executives-caught-on-tape-bashing-conservatives-and-tea-party-touting-liberals/#ixzz1G474AInS

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/08/us-cuba-reform-idUSTRE7275PC20110308?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Cuba's program to slash 500,000 state jobs nationwide has barely gotten off the ground in the provinces, as officials scramble to provide alternatives and deal with unease and anger over the layoffs.

Confusion about how to implement the cuts, a lack of alternative jobs and worker resistance have led President Raul Castro to drop a deadline to carry out the plan by March.

The layoffs, aimed at cutting expenditures by the debt-ridden government and increasing productivity on the Caribbean's biggest island, are a key part of economic reforms Castro says are critical to the survival of Cuban communism.

Some 3,000 jobs have been cut in eastern Granma province since the program started in October, a similar number in adjacent Santiago de Cuba and 1,000 in central Camaguey, local officials told Reuters last week.

But that is just 10 percent of the 70,000 jobs they said were slated to go by March in the three provinces and already the experience has proved wrenching for a society where a secure job had been guaranteed for decades under a centrally run socialist economy.

"We never know now if tomorrow we will wake up with a job or not and it was never like that before," said a middle-aged woman in Santiago de Cuba, asking that her name not be used...

'Day of Rage' Hits Wisconsin over state unions...
Madison schools closed; 1,100 teachers call in 'sick'...
Obama: 'Assault on Unions'...
Obama-founded OFA spearheading effort to defeat bill...
Boehner: 'Suspend these tactics'...
SENATE DEMOCRATS FOUND -- AT A RESORT IN ILLINOIS!
Gov. Walker calls on Dems to return, vote...
Protesters, supporters clash in Ohio over union bill...




DEMS FLEE STATE HOUSE

Brotherhood's 'spiritual leader' to preach in Tahrir Square Friday.... Offended Mubarak refuses calls from Obama... Saudi prince warns of uprising threat... Arab capitals braced for violence as unrest spreads... Iran Says It's Sending Two Ships to Suez... Bahrain crushes protest camp, locks down capital... Palestinian youth demand unity... Teen Finds Looted Pharaoh Statue In Trash... CLAIM: CBS complicit in news coverup of attack on Lara Logan... REPORT: Deposed Tunisian president in coma... Huge solar flare jams radio, satellite signals... Troops set for longer Afghan stay; Petraeus warns against early exit... Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid: 57% of Budget, 0% Cuts... World's first-ever robot marathon! Japan may send chatty humanoid tweet-bot to space... Anna Nicole lover weighs legal move on 'trashy' opera... Advertisement AP WORLD AP NATIONAL AP WASHINGTON AP BUSINESS AP ENTERTAINMENT AP ON THE HOUR AP RAW AP BREAKING AP/REUTERS PHOTO WIRE AP AUDIO SEARCH Date Range: Within 14 Days Within 13 Days Within 12 Days Within 11 Days Within 10 Days Within 9 Days Within 8 Days Within 7 Days Within 6 Days Within 5 Days Within 4 Days Within 3 Days Within 2 Days Within 1 Day Any word(s) in article: Date Range: Within 14 Days Within 13 Days Within 12 Days Within 11 Days Within 10 Days Within 9 Days Within 8 Days Within 7 Days Within 6 Days Within 5 Days Within 4 Days Within 3 Days Within 2 Days Within 1 Day Any word(s) in article: ANANOVA BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WIRE DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR DOW JONES EFE INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE INTERFAX ISLAMIC REPUBLIC WIRE ITAR-TASS KYODO MCCLATCHY [DC] PRAVDA PRESS ASSOCIATION PRESS TRUST INDIA PR NEWSWIRE [SHOWBIZ] PR WIRE SCRIPPS HOWARD US INFO WIRE WENN SHOWBIZ XINHUA YONHAP WORLD FRONT PAGES LOCAL NEWS BY ZIPCODE TV RATINGS MOVIE BOXOFFICE RESULTS ABCNEWS ACCESS HOLLYWOOD AD AGE DEADLINE ADWEEK BBC BBC AUDIO BILD BLAZE BILLBOARD BOSTON GLOBE BOSTON HERALD BREITBART BROADCASTING & CABLE CBS NEWS C-SPAN CHICAGO SUN-TIMES CHICAGO TRIB CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CNBC CNN CNN POLITICAL TICKER DAILY BEAST DAILY CALLER DAILY KOS DAILY SWARM DAILY VARIETY DATELINE HOLLYWOOD DER SPIEGEL E! ECONOMIST EDITOR & PUBLISHER EMIRATES TODAY ENT WEEKLY FINANCIAL TIMES FORBES FOXNEWS FOXNEWS NATION FRANCE 24 FREE REPUBLIC GAWKER HOT AIR HELLO! HILL H'WOOD REPORTER HUFFINGTON POST HUMAN EVENTS IAFRICA INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIB INFOWARS INVEST BUS DAILY JERUSALEM POST LA DAILY NEWS LA TIMES LUCIANNE.COM MEDIA WEEK MSNBC NATION NATIONAL ENQUIRER NATIONAL JOURNAL NATIONAL REVIEW NEW REPUBLIC NEW YORK NY DAILY NEWS NY OBSERVER NY POST NY TIMES NEW YORKER NEWSBUSTERS NEWSBYTES NEWSMAX NEWSWEEK NKOREAN NEWS PEOPLE PHILLY INQUIRER PHILLY DAILY NEWS POLITICO RADAR REAL CLEAR POLITICS REASON RED STATE ROLL CALL ROLLING STONE SALON SAN FRAN CHRON SEATTLE TIMES SKY NEWS SLATE SMOKING GUN SPLASH STAR SYDNEY MORNING HERALD TALKING POINTS MEMO TIME MAG TMZ [U.K.] DAILY MAIL [U.K.] DAILY MIRROR DAILY RECORD [U.K.] EVENING STANDARD [U.K.] EXPRESS [U.K.] GUARDIAN [U.K.] INDEPENDENT [U.K.] NEWS OF THE WORLD [U.K.] SUN [U.K.] TELEGRAPH US NEWS USA TODAY VANITY FAIR VILLAGE VOICE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASH EXAMINER WASH POST WASH TIMES WEEKLY STANDARD WORLDNETDAILY WOWOWOW X17

Activists swarm Boehner's Capitol Hill home; Chant 'don't tread on DC'.. House votes to overthrow 'czars'... WIKILEAKS: China Flexes Muscles With USA As Biggest Creditor... Pakistani court delays case of detained American... Supreme Court schedules 'conference' on Obama's eligibility... USA TO REBUKE ISRAEL AT UN... Alaska Governor Shuns Health Law... Woman Falls Ill In Philly Airport Terminal, Dies After Waiting 40 Minutes For Help... Outrage over China magician's synchronized fish... VIDEO... Arkansas towns feel unexplained surge in earthquakes... West Side Residents Say 'Fashion Week 'Generators Pollute Air, Make Life 'Miserable'... TWITTER BREAKING NEWS FEED... ABCNEWS NOTE MIKE ALLEN PLAYBOOK MSNBC FIRST READ WASH POST RUNDOWN... MATT DRUDGE 3 AM GIRLS CINDY ADAMS BAZ BAMIGBOYE DAVE BARRY MICHAEL BARONE GLENN BECK BIZARRE [SUN] GLORIA BORGER BRENT BOZELL DAVID BRODER DAVID BROOKS PAT BUCHANAN HOWIE CARR MONA CHAREN CHRIS CILLIZZA ELEANOR CLIFT RICHARD COHEN JOE CONASON DAVID CORN ANN COULTER JIM CRAMER STANLEY CROUCH LOU DOBBS DE BORCHGRAVE MAUREEN DOWD ROGER EBERT LARRY ELDER SUSAN ESTRICH JOSEPH FARAH SUZANNE FIELDS NIKKI FINKE FIRST DRAFT [REUTERS] FISHBOWL, DC FISHBOWL, NYC ROGER FRIEDMAN JOHN FUND GATECRASHER BILL GERTZ GEORGIE GEYER JONAH GOLDBERG ELLEN GOODMAN LLOYD GROVE MARTIN GROVE MARK HALPERIN CARL HIAASEN NAT HENTOFF PEREZ HILTON CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS HUGH HEWITT INSIDE BELTWAY INSIDE THE RING ALEX JONES AL KAMEN MICKEY KAUS KEITH J. KELLY MICHAEL KINSLEY JOE KLEIN HARRY KNOWLES KRAUTHAMMER NICHOLAS KRISTOF PAUL KRUGMAN LARRY KUDLOW HOWIE KURTZ DAVID LIMBAUGH RUSH LIMBAUGH HAL LINDSEY RICH LOWRY MICHELLE MALKIN DICK MORRIS PEGGY NOONAN MARVIN OLASKY BILL O'REILLY PAGE SIX ANDREA PEYSER JIM PINKERTON BILL PRESS WES PRUDEN FRANK RICH REX REED RICHARD REEVES RELIABLE SOURCE RICHARD ROEPER SCHLAFLY TOM SHALES LIZ SMITH MICHAEL SNEED THOMAS SOWELL MARK STEYN ANDREW SULLIVAN CAL THOMAS TV COLUMN TV NEWSER TV PROGRAMMING INSIDER VEGAS CONFIDENTIAL JEFFREY WELLS WASHINGTON WHISPERS GEORGE WILL WALTER WILLIAMS JAMES WOLCOTT MORT ZUCKERMAN BILL ZWECKER

House Passes Amendment to Block Funds for 'Net Neutrality' Order... Carney: Stimulus 'Goals Have Been Met'... GALLUP: Unemployment hits 10%... Feds Borrow Additional $29,660/Household Since Obama Signed Stimulus... Ratings Downgrades Loom for Cash-Strapped States... Baghdad wants USA to pay $1 billion for damage to city... 'Watson' the computer creams human 'JEOPARDY!' champs... IBM program steps out... KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND CIRCLE: Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg, Immelt to Meet With Obama Thursday... APPLE's Jobs to attend... Beck: Three Reasons to Be Wary of GOOGLE, Part 1 Texas scrutinizes GOOGLE search tactics... Lawmakers urge FCC to investigate WiFi Spying... Man faces 20 Year prison sentence for video filmed in 1st grade classroom... ...'just a prank' Calif. Neighborhood May Hire Armed Guards To Cut Down On Crime... Russian police raid office of richest woman... Boy wrestler forfeits match to female opponent... DR: Reporter's on-air gibberish was due to migraine... TWITTER: @DRUDGE NEW IPAD APP DRUDGEREPORT... REFRESH DRUDGE REPORT FOR LATEST... Advertisement AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE AFP NEWS WRAP REUTERS WORLD NEWS HIGHLIGHTS REUTERS DIGEST REUTERS WORLD REUTERS POLITICS REUTERS ODD UPI Advertisement GOOGLE NEWS RECENT DRUDGE HEADLINES... ALEXA LIVE: HOTTEST PAGES ON INTERNET... WEATHER ACTION USA RADAR ROLL QUAKE SHEET SEND NEWS TIPS TO DRUDGE [ANONYMITY GUARANTEED] THE LIST... VISITS TO DRUDGE 02/18/11 029,796,594 IN PAST 24 HOURS 823,341,380 IN PAST 31 DAYS 9,359,013,596 IN PAST YEAR DRUDGE ARCHIVES DRUDGE REFERENCE DESK EMAIL: DRUDGE@DRUDGEREPORT.COM BE SEEN! RUN ADS ON DRUDGE REPORT... PRIVACY POLICY...

Muslim Brotherhood text reveals scope of radical creed

By OREN KESSLER
02/09/2011 02:09

Translated by Palestinian Media Watch, book details group’s goal of global Islamic conquest.

One of the greatest beneficiaries of the unrest in Egypt has been the Muslim Brotherhood.

Banned but tolerated for decades by successive Egyptian regimes, the Islamist movement is now emerging as a central player in the country’s resurgent opposition.

RELATED:
Playing chess with the Muslim Brotherhood
The Region: Rulers by proxy
Analysis: Dangerously underestimating the Muslim Brotherhood

On Tuesday, two Brotherhood representatives participated in an opposition delegation that met with Vice President Omar Suleiman for the first set of talks over implementing political reforms.

Pundits have portrayed the Brotherhood as uncompromising zealots or beneficent providers of social services that long-deprived Egyptians desperately need.

But a translation released Tuesday of a 1995 book by the movement’s fifth official leader sheds light on just how Egypt’s Brotherhood views itself and its mission. Jihad is the Way is the last of a five-volume work, The Laws of Da’wa by Mustafa Mashhur, who headed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from 1996-2002.



The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday saw excerpts of the text, compiled by Palestinian Media Watch found Itamar Marcus and analyst Nan Jacques Zilberdik.

They detail the Brotherhood’s objectives of advancing the global conquest of Islam and reestablishing the Islamic Caliphate, the public and private duties of jihad and the struggle Muslims must wage against Israel.

The full text, translated by PMW, will be posted Wednesday on the organization’s website, Palwatch.org.

“The Islamic ummah,” it says, referring to the supranational community of Muslims, “can regain its power and be liberated and assume its rightful position which was intended by Allah, as the most exalted nation among men, as the leaders of humanity.”

Elsewhere, it exhorts Muslims, “Know your status, and believe firmly that you are the masters of the world, even if your enemies desire your degradation.”

Marcus spoke to the Post about what he views as the danger of downplaying the Brotherhood’s ideology, or expecting it to moderate its objectives after being allowed into the political process. The movement differs from international terror groups like Al-Qaida, he said, only in tactics, not in its goals.

Marcus cited passages in the text that urge Muslims to wage jihad only when circumstances are ripe.

“The Brotherhood is not rushed by youth’s enthusiasm into immature and unplanned action which will not alter the bad reality and may even harm the Islamic activity, and will benefit the people of falsehood,” Mashhur wrote.

“One should know that it is not necessary that the Muslims repel every attack or damage caused by the enemies of Allah immediately, but [only] when ability and the circumstances are fit to it.”

Jihad is the Way explicitly endorses the reinstatement of a worldwide Islamic regime.

“It should be known that jihad and preparation towards jihad are not only for the purpose of fending off assaults and attacks of Allah’s enemies from Muslims, but are also for the purpose of realizing the great task of establishing an Islamic state and strengthening the religion and spreading it around the world.”

“Jihad for Allah,” Mashhur wrote, “is not limited to the specific region of the Islamic countries, since the Muslim homeland is one and is not divided, and the banner of Jihad has already been raised in some of its parts, and shall continue to be raised, with the help of Allah, until every inch of the land of Islam will be liberated, and the State of Islam established.”

Hassan al-Banna, the movement’s founder, “felt the grave danger overshadowing the Muslims and the urgent need and obligation which Islam places on every Muslim, man and woman, to act in order to restore the Islamic Caliphate and to reestablish the Islamic state on strong foundations.”

Despite its universal message, the book attaches particular significance to the Holy Land.

“Honorable brothers have achieved shahada [martyrdom] on the soil of beloved Palestine, during the years ’47 and ’48, in their jihad against the criminal, thieving, gangs of Zion,” it says.

“Still today, memory of them horrifies the Jews and the name of the Muslim Brotherhood terrifies them.”

Elsewhere, Mushhar wrote, “The imam and shahid Hassan Al-Banna is considered as a martyr of Palestine, even if he was not killed on its soil ... in all his writings and conversations, he always urged towards jihad and aroused the desire for seeking martyrdom ... he did not content himself only with speech and writing, and when the opportunity arrived for jihad in Palestine, he hurried and seized it.”

Wielding a broader brush, Mashhur wrote, “The problems of the Islamic world – such as in Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea or the Philippines – are not issues of territoriesand nations, but of faith and religion.

They are the problems of Islam and all Muslims, and their resolution cannot be negotiated and bargained by recognizing the enemy’s right to the Islamic land he stole, and therefore there is no other option but jihad for Allah, and this is why jihad is the way.”

LONDON January 17, 2011 (AP)

Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday waded into
terrain where past British governments have
foundered, promising fundamental changes to the
country's expensive and over-stressed public health
care system.

Cameron said the reforms would cut red tape and
improve treatment, but critics claim they will cause
chaos and could lead to backdoor privatization of the
much-criticized but widely popular National Health
Service.

The British leader, whose Conservative Party heads
the country's coalition government, said he would
save money and cut red tape by giving control over
management to family practitioners rather than
bureaucrats, and allow private companies, charities
and social enterprises to bid for contracts within the
public health service.

Making health care more efficient has proved an
elusive goal for successive British governments. The
previous Labour administration vowed to reduce
waiting times for treatment, and succeeded — but at
the cost, say critics, of wasteful bureaucracy.

In a speech outlining the government's plans to
overhaul public services, Cameron promised to get
rid of "topdown, command-and-control bureaucracy
and targets." He said that with an aging population
and growing demand for new medical treatments,
"pretending that there is some easy option of sticking
with the status quo and hoping that a little bit of extra
money will smooth over the challenges is a complete
fiction."

The government is due to publish details of its
reforms in a Health and Social Care Bill on
Wednesday.

Socialized medicine is as much an article of faith in
Britain as it is a divisive flashpoint in the United
States.

The health service is Britain's biggest employer, costs

more than 100 billion pounds ($158 billion) a year —
and is a political football, reformed and criticized by
governments since it was established in 1948.

Despite the constant tinkering, no major political
party proposes privatizing the health service, and
even free-market politicians like Cameron go out of
their way to praise it.

Cameron's Conservative-led coalition government has
said health care will be spared the cuts imposed on
other departments as part of a 80 billion pound
($128 billion) reduction in public spending through
2015 designed to reduce Britain's huge budget deficit
— and bring the biggest overhaul in decades to
public services.

On Monday Cameron said "a free NHS at the point of
use, for everybody" was "part of Britain, part of
Britishness."

He spoke of the care received by his son Ivan, who
died in 2009 from cerebral palsy and a rare and
severe epileptic condition, and the medical staff who
delivered his baby daughter Florence last year.

"All of them have touched my life and my family's life
in an extraordinary way, and I want to do right by
them," he said.

advertisement

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press

UK Government Plans Major Health Care Reform
British government plans major health care overhaul, but critics say changes could cause chaos

But while some doctors welcome the government's
changes, others claim the scale of the reforms —
which will see consortia of doctors take over
management from local health care trusts — could
cause chaos.

In a letter published Monday in The Times of London
newspaper, groups including doctors' body the
British Medical Association, the Royal College of
Nursing and trade unions — which together represent
many of the more than 1 million NHS employees —
warned that the scale and pace of reform made the
changes "extremely risky and potentially disastrous."

The letter said increasing internal competition meant
that "with scarce resources there is a serious danger
that the focus will be on cost, not quality."