Tuesday, November 03, 2009

If you believe in the Public Option. If you believe in Single Payer. Go Lobby Washington while they are in session.


There are members of the House that are under attack. Representative Kucinich is one of them. It doesn't matter if you an individual or represent a group, go to Washington to lobby the offices of your Representative (click here) and Senators. (click here)

Dress in the best business attire you have and go. Bring any and all petitions or other documents that support what you represent. Don't wait for effective legislation to happen because it will not happen the way you are seeking to achieve the best reform for all Americans.

If at a loss for documents to back your point of view, find 'opinion' papers from the AMA, Nurse Organizations and any other proponent for the right to have freedom from the Health Care Insurance lobbyists. We have come a long way, but, we need to take it further. Don't underestimate what is occurring within the House or Senate. Get the attention of the people that represent you and make your rights known.

American Medical AssociationOctober 2008 (click here)
Q: What are the basic principles of the AMA proposal?
A: The American Medical Association (AMA) proposes that individuals and families receive financial assistance to purchase a health plan of their choice, with more generous assistance to those with lower incomes. The financial assistance could take the form of tax credits or vouchers and must be earmarked for health insurance coverage. Health insurance market regulations should be reformed to establish fair “rules of the game” that protect vulnerable individuals, without unduly driving up premiums for the rest of the population.



Health System Reform (click here)
The American Nurses Association has been advocating for 20 years for health care reforms that would guarantee access to high-quality health care for all. Now, rising healthcare costs, increasing numbers of uninsured and underinsured individuals, and disparities in healthcare access and quality have created an emerging national consensus that the health care system is broken and must be fixed now. Any solution must involve ensuring that the supply of nurses is adequate to make universal access to care a reality.



Health Insurance Industry Overrules House Committee on Single-Payer (click title to entry - thank you)
Monday, November 02, 2009
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) was incensed on Friday upon learning that House Democratic leaders had quietly dropped his provision for allowing states to create their own single-payer health insurance program as part of the federal health reform plan. Kucinich’s amendment passed the House Committee on Labor and Education with bipartisan support in July, but was not included in the larger health care plan unveiled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late last week.

Calling the House plan “a bailout for insurance companies,” Kucinich said none of his colleagues gave him any rational explanation for eliminating his opt-in public option for states. “I can only assume the insurance company interests brought pressure to take it out. Otherwise I would have heard from someone,” he said.
-Noel Brinkerhoff

The USA elections of 2009 ain't all that.

While every election is important, the governor elections and any federal seat being filled will be in response to the ability of the Right Wing Republicans to successfuly lie to the electorate of the USA.

We know the TARP monies were a mistake. Recently in an article in The Miami Herald there was a story about the corrupt mechanisms of Goldman Sachs. They would say they are allowed 'corporate privacy' while in reality it is far easier to act in corrupt ways if there is no solid way for the public to identify it. Is this really corruption or a 'spanking new way of making money.' Both. That is what corruption is and when Goldman decided to lump the American Dream into a 'Goldman Sachs Bond Fund' it is corruption. Plain and simple.

The 2009 elections are in 'reaction' to 'government spending' that the electorate is made to believe they have to fear. There should not be improvements to roads and bridges as dying due to their collapse is simply part of living after all.

The public is lead to believe any government intervention with the health care insurance industry will cast them into the Third World and they should fear that.

The idea that appropriating monies through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that 'props up' unemployment benefits and COBRA benefits is fiscally irresponsible while dropping billions into the laps of Goldman Sachs is prudent. Really?

The people of the electorate actually believe the investment banks they bailed out will actually reimburse the USA Treasury with a windfall profit at 7%. Not likely.

The electorate of 2009 believes creating credit for small businesses should be left up to the capitalists of Wall Street. Right.

The electorate of 2009 has been propagandized and will likely NOT be a reflection of the electorate of 2010.

Happy voting everyone.

How Goldman secretly bet on the housing crash (click here)
By GREG GORDON
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.
Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.
Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk....


Voters stream to polls in municipal election (click title to entry - thank you)
November 3, 2009 02:40 PM
(Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe)
By Andrew Ryan, Noah Bierman, David Abel, and Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff
A steady stream of voters trekked to the polls today to vote in Boston's most competitive mayor’s race in 16 years. Precincts were particularly busy in the Neponset section of Dorchester, West Roxbury, Mattapan, and Jamaica Plain....

...People walked with dogs and baby strollers to the polling place inside Cathedral High School Gym in the South End, one of Boston's most diverse neighborhoods where the words "vote here" were posted in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese. One voter, Richard Shibley, cast his ballot for the incumbent.
"The city works," said Shibley, a 50-year-old computer consultant. "If someone's doing a bad job, four years is too long. If someone's doing a good job, keep them in the job."...

President Obama's Administration defines the fight against corruption in USA policy both domestic and abroad.

A country can't act in corruption domestically and be respected internationally. It can't preach human rights internationally if it doesn't practice it domestically. It can't develop responsible fiscal policy by favoring the rich over the poor or call it morality when those earning 95% of American income is concentrated in 1% of the populous.


The myth of Fox News' ratings spike (click here)
5 hours and 47 minutes ago
Fact: The breathless claim that Fox News' ratings recently spiked thanks to the White House's public critique is bogus hype -- hype that Fox News and the Beltway press have relentlessly pushed.
It's just not true.
No matter how many times reporters and pundits made the claim, a detailed analysis of Nielsen ratings numbers clearly indicates that in the two weeks after the White House in mid-October sparked a media controversy by claiming Rupert Murdoch's channel was not a legitimate news organization, Fox News' ratings did not soar or go "through the roof." In fact, not only did Fox News' overall ratings not soar, they experienced no significant increase at all. Instead, in the two weeks following the initial verbal jousts with the White House, Fox News' total day ratings virtually flatlined....


For JFK it was whether or nor to pull out of Vietnam, investigate and fight 'the mob,' and further the cause of civil rights.

When President Obama took office the USA had been sapped of its Treasury, used for crony politics, had its icons and reputation exploited, gambled with its citizen's health for profit and deprived of the Middle Class's American dream.

He more than has his hands full. He has declared corruption as a priority to his administration whether he wanted it or not. He is more than correct to give Attorney General Holder the right to proceed with any and all investigations and prosecutions because a large part of ridding the country of corruption is holding everyone accountable under the law of the USA.

He is a prince of a man. He has lent us his life to bring our democracy back to its roots and reinstate the power of the Middle Class and the back bone of our economy. He is a minority. He knows the injustice of this country and has dedicated himself to public service when he never had to. He also achieved perfection in his pursuit of his values. Being the first minority President of the Harvard Law Review was a crowning achievement for him when in his heart of hearts he never intended to profit from the status. It is an amazing reality when one actually devotes themselves to 'knowing' him (And I have never met the man in person, even on the campaign trail.)


To say he is admired is an understatement because there is no word to describe President Obama to sum up the love he has for his countrymen, his devotion to Civil Rights and the esteem he brings to the office of President of the United States of America. He openly embraces his fellow Americans and their priorites that have been left out in the cold by 30 years of Republican exploitation.


To thank him and feel grateful for him seems empty to me, but, it is all we have to realize our best interest lies at the base of all his decisions. He needs to work unafraid. He is loved by this country and will continue to be embraced by all those that affiliate with his values.




Hamid Karzai reaches out to 'Taliban brothers' in Afghanistan (click title to entry - thank you)
Hamid Karzai offered an olive branch to his "Taliban brothers" in a victory speech a day after he was declared president.

By Ben Farmer in Kabul
Published: 6:47PM GMT 03 Nov 2009
He promised an inclusive government and said he would "eradicate the stain of corruption" as his foreign backers pressured him to clean up his regime.
In a televised speech he said: "We call on our Taliban brothers to come home and embrace their land"....