Murmur, Instigate, CLAMOR!!
Am I better off? No.
I'm better off right now than I was before I had my cereal.
Anyone checking out Crooks and Liars or Hullabaloo might be aware of the plan to run ads in Arkansas about Blanche Lincoln's opposition to the public option. Suddenly, after I think one day of the ads being run, she seems to be in favor now--though of course her words allow her wiggle room.
What works against Lincoln, who's up for reelection, btw, might now work on Nelson, and what works where health insurance is concerned might not work where other issues are concerned, but yes, screws need to be screwed into a lot of the Democrats.
Are we really anywhere different than this point from last June? I say "No, we're not." Do you?
I say, "of course we are." Am I disappointed with Obama on many issues? Of course I am. But in foreign policy and the environment, he seems to be doing well - as well as anyone can do in 6.5 months. And it does appear that we will be pulling out of Iraq.
Regarding his handling of FISA and other 'abuses of power' and the economy, he has been huge disappointment.
As for health care and civil rights for LGBTs, the jury is still out.
But what do we do now?
This is EASY: Every time we have collectively attacked the Obama administration for LGBT issues, they respond. Sometimes with 'crumbs' and other times with something more. So the answer is that because this administration is predictable in responding to our prodding we need to prod.
We need to keep the pressure up on Obama AND others (he really doesn't have a magic wand).
Also, we need to own the fact that we have a sick and twisted culture. Obama cannot change that and he'd be foolish to attempt to try. For example, we had a funeral for a child molester that cost the city of Los Angeles $1.4 million, all the while services for the most vulnerable among us are being eliminated. So Michael Jackson's ability to screw children has transcended life itself.
But seriously, excepting the flip-flops on FISA and the backtracking on a few other issues, I don't see President Obama any different than I saw candidate Obama.
Getting back to what we can do: We need to be clever and thoughtful in our 'campaigns' to move Obama and Congress to do the right thing. Sometimes they seem to respond to thoughtful discourse, other times we need to add a component of shame or drama. But they do respond. What we shouldn't do is resort to name calling, unless it is really needed for catharsis.
Unevolved single-cell organism Tom Coburn of Oklahoma knew that John Ensign was fornicating and committing adultery in 2008. How does that jibe with his public stances on moral issues? What has he said in the meanwhile about same-sex marriage, for example?
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009...-ensign-affair/
tireiron chef | Homepage | 07.09.09 - 9:18 am | #
Hey, stop maligning single-cell organisms! I know single-cell organisms. Single-cell organisms are friends of mine. Coburn is no single-cell organism.
Glennzilla's most recent on the Obama Justice System may well define the line of whether the current administration is significantly different from the last. You still have a government that goes against every principle that the country was founded on. You still have virtually the same DoJ that Bush put in place carrying out the wishes of the Repukes and the Multinational Corporations. You still have an ideological and partisan Supreme Court that take these grievous policies and harden them into legal precedent. And, as most evident in the case of the fight over health care, you have a government that can openly defy the wishes of a very large majority of its electorate in order to appease a community of lobbyists.
I really don't know what action to propose. Withdrawing support from the Dems will only make things worse, putting the Repugnants back in power. Your electoral college and other aspects of your voting process make the success of a third party highly unlikely (read impossible.) Your only option is to tear the whole thing down and start over, and the public doesn't even seem capable of contemplating such an extreme measure.
Today marks two weeks since Jacko died, and CNN is still running 24/7 coverage on that to the exclusion of everything else. Well, there was a dribble on Saracudda's quitting and a drabble on Obama going to Russia. But the really important things that affect the American public are being ignored.
Just sayin'
(/rant)
In terms of language usage, we need to drop the term health insurance, and in every instance say health care.
For a growing majority of people the term insurance in regard to the provision of health care is a negative one.
It harkens skyrocketing premiums, bureaucracy, adverse decisions, exclusions, pre-existing conditions, denial of reimbursement/care, etc. Even the rare good health insurance policy fraught with difficulties for consumers and providers.
Health CARE is what we must have. The same as the rest of the "civilized" (and non) world has, where their citizens don't have to CONSTANTLY worry about accessing health care, and what that might cost, and what fucking BS they may have to go thru in order to get it.
Hi peeps. Nice post.
Still on vaca. May stay off for a while. It's all too depressing for my blood.
Regarding the post: the definition of insanity comes to mind here; Continuing to do the same thing over and over and hoping for different results.
You will never get different results with the same people. They're already owned. Pawns and tools of the Fascist Plutocracy.
["....There was simply no choice last summer/fall. There is no way I or anyone I know or trust would have voted McCain/Palin....."]
By saying there was no choice, you took the bait. you've bought into the media's hypnosis. Keep clinging to the old 'red/blue' facade. Keep taking the placebo. Keep drinking the kool aid. But don't complain. You won't get anywhere in the current system. You placed your hand over the fire of your own free will. You were warned. Now you're informed.
There WAS a choice but you and most others ignored it because you were told to ignore it by Red/Blue, Inc. You took the bait. You were duped once again. How many more times will you repeat this insanity? 2008? 2012?
I voted "outside the box" for Cynthia McKinney - a 6 term congresswoman and presidential candidate - who was recently kidnapped by Israeli terrorist pirates in international waters along with several other notables, all of which met with a deafening silence by the media and even most blogs. An intentional, complicit silence.
But I have no regrets. I'm proud to have done my part to try to bring about change; to bring about an end to all this though i never had any delusions she could overcome the machine.
I took the "real" option. I was told it was foolish and counterproductive. But I was right.
I'm enjoying hiatus from politics. I really have nothing to contribute but complaints and snide comments anyway. I miss kibitzing here but I've been busy with real life. Daily, the news confirms my suspicions and predictions. The destruction of the US as we knew it is the real goal and It's coming to fruition through the current process of Red/Blue.
But really, it's dishonest to say there was no choice and complain about the current situation in the next breath. There was a choice: inside the box or outside. You voted inside. You voted for a lie and you got one. How many other people can honestly say got exactly what they voted for? Count your blessings.
Okay back to my solitude and summer. Hugs and kisses to all here. Smell the roses...before Mosanto gets' hold of them.
[-green libertarian | 07.09.09 - 12:18 pm-]
Yeah, I would say most people with any kind of medical problem are more concerned with having it seen to rather than how it gets paid for.
Here in Canada the system is MUCH more concerned with treatment than with where the money comes from. Many years ago I was living in Vancouver after having spent a few years flitting from province to province - my old Ontario health card was long expired and I had never bothered to apply for one from BC. I was young and healthy, what did it matter?
It came to matter one day when I broke a window in my house and while pulling the shards out of the frame I badly gashed my thumb. So, without any 'insurance' whatsoever I headed to the nearest emergency ward, where I was given a shot of antibiotic, a shot of novocaine, and half a dozen sutures were put in. A prescription was issued for more antibiotics and I was sent on my way within an hour or so. I. Never. Got. A. Bill. but I was given some pamphlets with contact numbers and info on it about how to apply for a BC health card.
Look at it from the perspective of a hospital whose mission is to provide treatment, not make a profit. Their direct costs were;
- the cost of materials; sutures, gauze, a couple of hypos and one shot each of antibiotics and novocaine - all these purchased in bulk by the government at barely above cost - maybe $20 -25 tops.
- the services of a doctor for less than 15 minutes while he inserted some stitches and wrote up a scrip. He was in the hospital anyway, already being paid to be there, and by definition available to take care of little bumps and scrapes like this. To fill out forms in order to bill me would have taken longer than the procedure, and if working under the American system he probably would have devoted more time over the money ( a decidedly non-medical issue) further down the road.
Since I was a legitimate resident of Vancouver who would have qualified for free healthcare anyway, where was there any incentive to charge me? You can say what you want about Canada's 'dysfunctional' health care system, in my experience it just plain works.
Gettin' good.
Wow, This May Rival Sanford
We've known for a while that Sen. Ensign (R-NV) gave a 'severance' payment of at least $25,000 to his ex-mistress and her husband. Now it turns out it was $96,000. But it gets better. Ensign's lawyer is pointing out that he didn't pay any money -- his parents paid them off. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com...d.php?
ref=fpblg
SBT, the only thing I would quibble with you there is the cost of materials.
Hopefully Canada doesn't have the same outrageously priced medical supplies.
I had a similar laceration to yours once. Was sans insurance and broke. So I filled out a bunch of paperwork and the good Sisters Of Providence wrote it off, but I did see the bill, no drugs, just an RN cleaning out the laceration, and an MD who offered me the choice of sutures (3 or 4) or the medical type of superglue.
The medical superglue was billed at $59. At the time, I asked the Doc, is this same as off-the-shelf superglue, and he said yes.
That was about 33 cents worth of superglue (3 tubes for a dollar).
The entire bill was over $400, for minimal supplies, 10 minutes of an RN's time, and 10 minutes of and MD's time.
I'm grateful that I got good care, and the donors to Catholic Social Services paid for it, but the system here is so completely broken, it's a sick tragedy.
Well I say good care, it did take three hours to get out of there, and I wouldn't choose superglue again for even a small laceration, had to superglue it up my self the next day, and for several days thereafter.
The Amos & Andy Show is back, this time in a gay format. Brüno. This is not a good sign for a loving tomorrow. Let me rephrase that, anti-gay sentiment through ridicule is unacceptable. It's something like using the n-word in reference to our first negro president, if you will. Offended? Me too! Boycott Brüno!
I saw Borat on DVD and often didn't think much of SBC's approach, but I suppose I didn't see it in the theater's in the first place because of how it looked like he was going to perpetuate stereotypes. So anyway, it's not surprising that he's really doing the same thing with Brüno.
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