I'm scared.
Today my health insurance ceased _ after getting laid off in yet another large downsizing by a major U.S. metropolitan newspaper.
My choices are extremely limited. Sign up for COBRA, which even with a government subsidy is cost-prohibitive when you only have an unemployment check and must pay rent and a car loan, feed your family and pay bills. Try to find cheaper insurance. Or join the 47 million other Americans who have no insurance.
The United States is supposed to be the greatest country in the world, and yet we cannot guarantee health care for our people. Our health care system is bloated, hijacked by the "for profit" insurance companies and Big Pharma and their legions of lobbyists handing out campaign cash and freebies like it's Halloween to the very people entrusted by us to reform the system.
We have a system of competing interests with obscene advertising and marketing budgets designed to persuade you to choose their health care system over their rivals. Big Pharma spends zillions of dollars on advertising their products and on greasing the hands of the doctors who prescribe their medicines. When you get really, really sick, your insurer will probably deny you the best treatment as well as the expensive medicine that will keep you alive. God forbid you get diagnosed with a catastrophic illness, because your first call should be to a bankruptcy specialist, not a health care provider.
We can spend trillions of dollars on feeding the war machine and for policing the world, when a small portion of that could guarantee universal health care in the U.S. But no, we cannot dial back our bloodlust and empire-building to take care of our very own people. There's too much money to be made by the Halliburtons of the world.
We can bail out the crooks on Wall Street with billions of dollars, on the premise that to do nothing would lead to another Great Depression. We watch them dole out millions of dollars in bonuses to executives whose incompetence and greed led to this economic crisis in the first place. But we can't spend a dime on universal health care.
The Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats are threatening to water down any possible health care reform. They don't offer an alternative, but are spreading blatant lies and misinformation. For example, conservatives are spreading the "Kill Granny" myth to scare seniors into thinking that health care reform will lead to euthanasia for our elderly. Poppycock!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32247482/ns/politics/
Why shouldn't everyone in this great country have the same health care coverage as members of Congress? Why do we deserve less?
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Raised By Wolves
The smearing of politicians is a time-honored thing, as ancient as mankind. But sometimes the lies and the falsehoods go beyond belief.
A cult cottage industry is being built by the "Birthers," an anonymous bunch of (white) people who reject all documentation and all evidence* that President Obama is an American and, thus, are perpetuating the myth that Obama is illegally in office. They seem to be outraged that a black man can become president in the United States. And now they have their own Web site, spewing more venom than a rattlesnake.
They are being helped along by the right wingers of a dying, out-of-touch political party that is desperate to find anybody, even nutjobs, to support their failing cause and by the Wingnut Network Controlled By A Billionaire Buffoon.
But who would have thought that CNN _ "The Most Trusted Name in News" _ would help the Birthers get a national platform? Their patron saint is Lou Dobbs, CNN's version of Howard Beale in "Network." The smug, xenophobic Dobbs plays to the same crowd as the Birthers, who are scared of people who don't look like themselves or share their same beliefs.
Who are the Birthers? Who is sponsoring them? What are their motives? Inquiring minds would love to know! Come out, come out, wherever you are.
It is clear that the financiers behind these conspiracy theorists are trying to damage the president and his credibility and legitimacy, and they certainly are trying to undermine the Democratic Party. They have the same motives as the Swift Boat crowd.
The Birthers have gone too far. They cannot believe the facts. They are becoming a danger to democracy in America.
*
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
A cult cottage industry is being built by the "Birthers," an anonymous bunch of (white) people who reject all documentation and all evidence* that President Obama is an American and, thus, are perpetuating the myth that Obama is illegally in office. They seem to be outraged that a black man can become president in the United States. And now they have their own Web site, spewing more venom than a rattlesnake.
They are being helped along by the right wingers of a dying, out-of-touch political party that is desperate to find anybody, even nutjobs, to support their failing cause and by the Wingnut Network Controlled By A Billionaire Buffoon.
But who would have thought that CNN _ "The Most Trusted Name in News" _ would help the Birthers get a national platform? Their patron saint is Lou Dobbs, CNN's version of Howard Beale in "Network." The smug, xenophobic Dobbs plays to the same crowd as the Birthers, who are scared of people who don't look like themselves or share their same beliefs.
Who are the Birthers? Who is sponsoring them? What are their motives? Inquiring minds would love to know! Come out, come out, wherever you are.
It is clear that the financiers behind these conspiracy theorists are trying to damage the president and his credibility and legitimacy, and they certainly are trying to undermine the Democratic Party. They have the same motives as the Swift Boat crowd.
The Birthers have gone too far. They cannot believe the facts. They are becoming a danger to democracy in America.
*
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Doublespeak
The verbal assault and battery on Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor continues, but her confirmation by the Senate is all but certain. Finally, the nation's high court will get its first-ever Hispanic justice.
At long last. And in a country that looks more like the judge than the 100 members of the Senate.
It is absurd having to listen to all the blather and bluster from the conservatives over Sotomayor's "wise Latina" remark. Why did that upset the old white men, the likes of whom have dominated the Senate since the nation's founding in 1776? Have any of them met a Latino person other than someone who takes care of their children and their lawns?
Or is this the last, desperate act of fear at the changing face of America? Probably, since the U.S. Senate is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world and largely insulated from the real world. The Senate is where 83 men and 17 women lord over a nation of more than 300 million people. Since our nation's founding, the Senate has been the domain of white men. Only 37 women have graced the hallowed chambers, and 13 of those were appointed to the job.
Such partisan crap spews from the mouths of desperate old white men.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, said he is opposed the Sotomayor nomination because of the judge’s “liberal, pro-government ideology.”
Sessions, in an Op-Ed piece in USA Today, wrote: “I don’t believe that Judge Sotomayor has the deep-rooted convictions necessary to resist the siren call of judicial activism. She has evoked its mantra too often. As someone who cares deeply about our great heritage of law, I must withhold my consent.”
Hockey pucks!
Sessions, of course, expressed none of that sentiment toward Judge John G. Roberts Jr. when he was nominated _ and confirmed _ as chief justice. Could it be that Justice Roberts was on the same ideology page as Sen. Sessions? Naturally. I guess it is OK if the judicial activism has a conservative bent.
At long last. And in a country that looks more like the judge than the 100 members of the Senate.
It is absurd having to listen to all the blather and bluster from the conservatives over Sotomayor's "wise Latina" remark. Why did that upset the old white men, the likes of whom have dominated the Senate since the nation's founding in 1776? Have any of them met a Latino person other than someone who takes care of their children and their lawns?
Or is this the last, desperate act of fear at the changing face of America? Probably, since the U.S. Senate is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world and largely insulated from the real world. The Senate is where 83 men and 17 women lord over a nation of more than 300 million people. Since our nation's founding, the Senate has been the domain of white men. Only 37 women have graced the hallowed chambers, and 13 of those were appointed to the job.
Such partisan crap spews from the mouths of desperate old white men.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, said he is opposed the Sotomayor nomination because of the judge’s “liberal, pro-government ideology.”
Sessions, in an Op-Ed piece in USA Today, wrote: “I don’t believe that Judge Sotomayor has the deep-rooted convictions necessary to resist the siren call of judicial activism. She has evoked its mantra too often. As someone who cares deeply about our great heritage of law, I must withhold my consent.”
Hockey pucks!
Sessions, of course, expressed none of that sentiment toward Judge John G. Roberts Jr. when he was nominated _ and confirmed _ as chief justice. Could it be that Justice Roberts was on the same ideology page as Sen. Sessions? Naturally. I guess it is OK if the judicial activism has a conservative bent.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Orwellian to the max
Big Business sells certain e-books to Kindle owners. Then Big Business sneaks into Kindles and mysteriously DELETES certain purchases without warning. Like a thief in the night.
George Orwell must be smirking in the afterlife. "Told you so."
The delicious irony here is that Amazon.com had mysteriously deleted all of Orwell's books, first the MobileReference edition of the classic "1984", purchased for that pricey Kindle, then all those other Orwell novels offered for sale online. Talk about Big Business acting like Big Brother!
After the news leaked, it took days of widespread criticism and buckets of irony before Amazon issued a mea culpa. All that corporate tap dancing is almost amusing to watch.
George Orwell must be smirking in the afterlife. "Told you so."
The delicious irony here is that Amazon.com had mysteriously deleted all of Orwell's books, first the MobileReference edition of the classic "1984", purchased for that pricey Kindle, then all those other Orwell novels offered for sale online. Talk about Big Business acting like Big Brother!
After the news leaked, it took days of widespread criticism and buckets of irony before Amazon issued a mea culpa. All that corporate tap dancing is almost amusing to watch.
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