THE REAL PROBLEM IN HEALTHCARE IS PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY USE TOO MUCH OF IT

Great Line ! Unfortunately it's not original - it belongs to California Nurses' Shum (another blog writer). But the point is true - health care is great to have, just don't use it. Sponsored by the American Funeral Home Owners Association.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/6/142819/4629

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0703050148mar05,0,814051,print.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed

WHY DOES THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION ACT LIKE IT JUST CAME INTO OFFICE !

I mean where have they been?

Tony Snow's and Dick Cheney's responses to the continuing problems at Walter Reed Hospital, other DOD hospitals and the DVA hospitals would lead one to believe that the Bush Administration just look office this past January. And the hospital controversy isn't the beginning. They responded this way since November 8, 2006.

And I thought they had been in office since January 2001.

VIETNAM-SYLE COLLAPSE

Or how I spend my six-month tour in Iraq. Even the 'Baghdad brains trust' of senior US militiary officers know they have just six months to get it half together or its on to Plan B. I wonder how many Americans must die or be wounded to show that this Administration didn't have a plan nor a clue, except get the oil.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2023865,00.html

2008 ELECTION WILL NOT BE ABOUT IRAQ

Yes, you hear it from me here - the 2008 elections, nearly 20 months away, will not be about the war in Iraq or the Middle East. It will be about the economy and specifically the condition of the middle class. The issues will revolve around stagnate income and wages, health care coverage and costs, education, and retirement - particularly regarding the baby boomers. Nearly all the candidates have not real platform on these issues. And more tax cuts for the rich and corporations aren't going to cut it.

I AM TIRED OF HEARING . . .

THAT THE WHOLE WORLD WAS WRONG ABOUT IRAQ'S WMDs. Or so the right wing defenders continue to say as cover for their ignorant insistence and blind obedience. THE TRUTH IS . . . many of us could see that IT WAS ALL MADE UP. But did the right wing listen? No! They wanted this war, and demonized those of us who questioned and opposed it from the beginning. Now they want to stay because 'you can't leave it a mess'.
Or is it that the oil legislation is finally reaching a decision point. Once the legislation becomes law and oil contracts are let, look for the US military to begin to disengage.
That's my take.

VOTING REPUBLICAN CONDONES

HATE AND VIOLENCE!

Several recent events have lead me to this conclusion:

The Rep. Don Young (R-AK) misquote of Lincoln. Actually it wasn't a quote from Lincoln at all but the creation of a so called 'journalist' who thought it would be cute to attribute it to Lincoln. Lincoln was opposed to the Mexican-American war, the only parallel to the current Iraq war.

The Catholic League attack on the two bloggers hired by Presidential candidate John Edwards. The League has nothing to do with the Church, it's funded by right wing groups, and opposed the two women because they were feminists.

The Republican Party continuing support for the Iraq War and the likely soon to be Iran war. And their extreme triades during the Iraq war resolution debate in the U.S. House.

What do all of these have in common - the Republican party!

AL QAEDA HAS AN AIR FORCE AND NAVY !

This just in. According to Representative John Boehner of Ohio, Al Qaeda must have a navy or air force or both, because to quote Boehner, "If we leave, they will follow us home. It's that simple." Maybe that's why the United States has three aircraft carrier groups in the region, to attack and sink the Al Qaeda navy. And the Patriot missle batteries smart thinking. Give Bush credit for planning something, like our retreat! Might I suggest, instead of the troops coming back to the United States why not detour them to Europe that way Al Qaeda will attack there.

BUSH / CHENEY GONE BY LABOR DAY

Apparently everyone including Fox News now sees what I saw two years ago, namely that George Bush and Dick Cheney will not be President and Vice-President, respectively come Labor Day. Read the link below to see what I've been saying.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,251565,00.html

I'll have more the say about this later.

HOUSE RESOLUTION

According to John Boehner (House Minority Leader) on Sunday's Meet The Press, he doesn't see many Republican (defections) members voting for the Democratic party's Iraq war resolution. In John's words . . . he kind of mumbled, "I don't look at the numbers" to Tim Russert's question.

Well let's see, there are presently 202 Republican members of the U.S. House. So a 10% defection would be 20 members. The media talking heads are saying 30, maybe 60, definitely 'dozens likely to join vote'. That's . . . well it's a whole lot!

What do you think? I'll publish the defection numbers after the voting, it will tell us who's afraid.
Meanwhile, John Boehner is either (a) a bad liar, (b) poor at math, (c) doesn't know his own members (d) doesn't talk to anyone except Bush.

AN OLD WARRIOR PASSES ON

I was sadden to learn Sunday night that an old acquaintance passed on to the promised land. Coleman Persily and I, among others, worked together some 25 years ago organizing our neighbors around the issue of tenant rights. While we were unsuccessful in our goal - legislating tenant protections - it was remarkable time and learning experience.

Coleman was a colorful, down-to-earth character. A social causes warrior from the old school, Coleman was an unpolished, a get-in-your face kind of activist who never heard of the word nuance. He was more about fighting the fight because the fight needed fought than doing it to win.
Coleman never let his own ego interfere and always displayed a genuine concern for others.

His obituary from the Marin Independent-Journal is below: A special thanks to Gianna Easson for the link.

http://www.marinij.com/sanrafael/ci_5187022

'JOBS AMERICANS WON'T DO'

Does this phase get your goat like it does mine! There's not many jobs I can imagine that Americans will not do or haven't. Probably the worse job I can imagine is working with nuclear waste - radiation exposure - yet this job attracts people. Why? Maybe it's the pay.

IRAN WAR STARTING SOON !

By my reckoning the Iran War will start sometime in March. I'd guess, if I was a betting man, about the 19th. It's the new moon (dark nights) and the 21st is the spring equinox (equal days/nights). The Bushco machine is thinking a 20-30 day air war can do the trick.

The propaganda machine is almost operating at full capacity. Suddenly Iran is behind/responsible for everything including the mysterious death of Anna Nicole Smith. It seems all bobble-heads, the 'liberal' media and the neighbor's dog is in a hurry to accuse Iran of meddling. More every hour.

What do you think?

PUT A NAME TO THE NUMBERS

As of Sunday evening, February 11, 2007, the United States has lost 3123 of our fellow country people in the Iraq theater of war. In addition 23,417 Americans have been casualties.

Care to see their names?

http://icasualties.org/oif/US_NAMES.aspx

PROCEED QUICKLY . . .

TO THE EXITS BEFORE THE SIREN GOES OFF . . . B.L. DANCER

"IT'S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT THE OIL" -

As B. (Buddy) L. Dancer always says. Well I just came across this excellent article on Iraq, Afghanistan and oil. Long but to the point.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/47489/?comments=view&cID=516984&pID=516280#c516984

It's part of the peak oil story:
http://www.countercurrents.org/po-brandvik260106.htm

More on peak oil & other oil industry lies:
http://www.theoildrum.com/

IT'S OK TO DIE JUST DON'T GET WOUNDED

I guess this really pissed me off - I mean the death toll is bad enough (though by earlier war standards its quite low) but the wounded casualty numbers are outrageous. Modern military medicine has reduced the death toll from war but increased the wounded casualty numbers! And then to see that the Bush administration and the Republicans don't want to adequately fund the veterans administration and its looming health care demands. Many of these veterans of this war will require health care (24/7) for the rest of their lives. Well its just enough to make an average American cry. And to think it was all about oil.

Veterans Say '08 Budget Flawed
While nearly providing adequate funding for veterans health care and other programs, the DAV finds shortcomings in the President's proposed budget more...
http://www.dav.org/news/news_20070207.html

And this from Sen. Akaka of Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs:
The budget requests approximately $34.2 billion for veterans health care, a mere 6 percent increase over the 2007 funding level of $32.3 billion in the Joint Funding Resolution expected to pass the Senate. Once inflationary costs are subtracted from the Administration’s budget, the real increase is far from adequate. This budget will not allow for any new initiatives, including enhancements to mental health services desperately needed for our returning servicemembers. Without adequate funding, the VA health care system will find it more difficult to provide quality care for Hawaii’s 117,000 veterans and troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senator Akaka said today he’s especially concerned about out-of-pocket expenses veterans would be forced to pay under the Administration’s new budget proposal. “The doubling of drug copayments for veterans – who make as little as $28,000 a year – seems particularly cruel. Take the example of a veteran living on Oahu, where the cost of living is so high, who takes seven different prescriptions each month: his out of pocket cost goes up by $600 a year.

“Why are we asking veterans to suffer in order to finance a war? This Administration consistently fails to consider the cost of caring for veterans as part of the cost of war,” Akaka said.

Or this, from the Cneter for Budget and Policy Priorities:
Hospital and Medical Care for Veterans: The President proposes to increase funding for these programs by nearly $1.4 billion (or 4 percent) in 2008. But the increase would only be temporary. The President proposes to cut the programs in this subfunction in each subsequent year, from 2009 through 2012; in each of those years, the programs would be funded at levels below the amount provided for 2007, adjusted for inflation. In 2012, the cut would be $2.7 billion, or 7 percent.[iii]

Well, I remember three things from my youth about veterans: As a Boy Scout and it being the fifties/early sixties I was in a lot of Memorial Day/ Veterans Day parades. Most of those men who got being 'into the parades and marches' never left the states. In the late sixties, my father was in the veterans hospital in Pittsburgh and I can remember seeing many a kid not much older than myself in a hospital bed missing a limb. Lastly, my father had a history book of his infantry regiment's service during WWII. In it were marks my father had made next to names of men in his company (that didn't come home). He never once talked about it.

We ask people to serve their country - we owe them the best, regardless.

INSPIRATION

Politics is like driving. To go backward, put it in R. To go forward, put it in D.

TrueBlueMajority

363 TONS OF CASH

Yes probably like you I was surprised to hear that so much cash was just thrown in Iraq by the Provisional Authority. So this morning I was determined to get up and write a blog about this story only to find that others already have and there was no need to re-invent it. Attached are several good articles about this story. The first was written two years ago - when Congress should have been looking into it but the Republican majority did nothing.

http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2005/february/9_billion_missing.htm

This article provides a lot more detail into the whole story. Especially interesting are all the comments - particularly - 363 tons of cash requires 18 tractor trailers to move that much at one time.

http://http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/6/205743/7035

And, finally here is an article from ALL SPIN ZONE Progressive Politics Writ Large

"How much does $4,000,000,000 (in $100 bills) weigh? About 363 tons. That’s the rough total of the booty that was transfered from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York to Baghdad in 2003 and 2004. Think about that for a moment."

"My profession is (partly) logistics. A tractor trailer can legally carry about 45,000 pounds - for the sake of argument, we’ll call it 20 tons. Our government transfered the equivalent of 18 tractor trailer loads of $100 bills into a wild west war zone over a period of 6 months. No one has ever been able to account for the money, and let’s be clear that $4 billion is just the tip of the iceberg."

"Where’d the money go?"

"I’ve heard some lame-assed excuses for shit before, but former Iraq proconsul L. Paul Bremer’s testimony today on Capitol Hill pretty much takes the cake. Bremer should have been arrested and put in leg irons immediately after the hearing. This is friggin’ unbelievable."

"What’s even more unbelievable is one GOP representative’s response:"

“We are in a war against terrorists, to have a blame meeting isn’t, in my opinion, constructive,” said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican."

Demand Change!

SUPER BOWL XLI COMMERCIALS

Too Bad About the Bears! Hopefully They can get back there next year.
I don't think it was Rex's fault. Study the game film and you will see the offensive line has been breaking down since mid-way through the season. My other problems - offensive and defensive game plans/calling.

My favorite commercials:
Bud Lite - auction marriage
Bud Lite - English as second language
Dave Letterman-Opray Winfrey Tonight Show (real quite)
Best Your Risk
The GM Robot
Bud Lite - Axe/ Chain-saw

Terre's favorites, also included -
Happliness factory
Fake Dalmatian
Blockbuster Mouse (the best by far, rates A++++)

SURGE WASN'T SURGED ENOUGH!

Latest news circulating - apparently the 21,500 soldiers and marines being surged into Iraq wasn't the actual number of military personnel being surged into Iraq! Gee, that doesn't make sense. Well then nothing related to this war makes any sense. The 21,500 number represents the actual number of combat troops and marines. The difference is the support personnel needed to maintain that size of force. I'm sure their will be more on this later.

REMEMBER TO PAY YOUR PARKING TICKETS

The other day I saw a story on the internet about the use of SWAT teams to deliver arrest warrants. What concerned me the most was there liberal use - I mean they were being used to serve warrants for about every charge one can imagine. So my advice to my friends and enemies alike - make sure you pay your parking tickets.

The article was written by Paul Craig Roberts who has fairly conservative credentials, worked in Reagan Administration, but of late seems to be into conspiracty theories - 9/11 and opposed to the Iraq/Iran War. Here is the link: http://tyrannyalert.com/800.html

Some interesting excerpts:

- American police forces have called out SWAT teams 40,000 or more times annually.
- They were serving routine warrants to people who posed no danger to the police or to the public.
- In the U.S. today, 75-80 percent of SWAT deployments are for warrant service.
- Today 17,000 local police forces are equipped with military equipment .
- Idle SWAT teams due to a paucity of hostage or other dangerous situations
- SWAT teams serve warrants by breaking into homes and apartments at night while people are sleeping, often using stun grenades and other devices to disorient the occupants.

So friends remember to pay your parking tickets immediately!

TROOPS GO INTO BATTLE WITH ONLY THEIR BOOTS

Not since Valley Forge as the American army been in such pityful shape. From the beginning, the American people have heard from the media and from letters send home by our troops serving in Iraq that they are without essential equipment necessary to preform their role. While Donald Rumsfield, Secreatary of Defense dismissed such concerns with his famous quote, the American army hasn't faced this type of crisis since the American Revolution.

THIS POST FROM 'THINK PROGRESS' - JANUARY 31 BY PAYSON

The Bush administration claims that any congressional resolution opposing escalation would hurt the morale of U.S. troops. “It would be, I think, detrimental from the standpoint of the troops,” Vice President Cheney said last week.

Cheney should spend less time on non-binding resolutions and more on equipping our forces. An audit by the Pentagon’s Inspector General released to Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) shows that U.S. soldiers have had to go without the necessary weapons, armor, vehicles, and equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan:

The Inspector General found that the Pentagon hasn’t been able to properly equip the soldiers it already has. Many have gone without enough guns, ammunition, and other necessary supplies to “effectively complete their missions” and have had to cancel or postpone some assignments while waiting for the proper gear, according to the report from auditors with the Defense Dept. Inspector General’s office. Soldiers have also found themselves short on body armor, armored vehicles, and communications equipment, among other things, auditors found.

“As a result, service members performed missions without the proper equipment, used informal procedures to obtain equipment and sustainment support, and canceled or postponed missions while waiting to receive equipment,” reads the executive summary dated Jan. 25. Service members often borrowed or traded with each other to get the needed supplies, according to the summary.

More bombshells are likely to come soon. Following a letter last year from Slaughter to the Pentagon, the Inspector General’s office reported two ongoing audits into the procurement of armored vehicles and body armor for American soldiers. “The results of those studies will be available in July and October of 2007, respectively,” Slaughter’s office says.

The following articles offer further information:

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/01/30/humvees/index.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012901584.html

http://www.businessweek.com/print/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jan2007/db20070130_624241.htm

HEALTH CARE 7.1

I plan this to be the first in a running series on health care and health care insurance.

The Shrub SOTU Plan.

The Bush health care plan is DOA and all of us know it but the problem is horseshit like this is often taken seriously and typically frames further discussion.

Inherent problems that I see immediately:

- A set tax deduction regardless of the actual cost of health insurance - can anyone in their right mind imagine the price being less? And like you're going to be able to pocket the difference (holy welfare queens!). This reminds me of energy deregulation and all of its promises. I would expect costs to go through the roof because we will all be buying insurance as individuals - not groups.

- What's to stop every employer from dropping health insurance all together. Most want to now. I mean the cost of insurance is suddenly pure profit. They wouldn't be required to raise wages/salaries accordingly.

- I don't believe insurers are going to step in to serve this new market. Think - Excessively high administrative costs! And if they do premiums will go through the roof as costs surge.

I'll deal with Bush's mindset later.

We need health care, not health care insurance . . . B.L.Dancer

I can't take you to lunch or let you fly . . .

on my plane , but here's $50,000 for your vote on my $5 billion tax cut.

Most of us are really tired of the corruption and the corporate ownership of our political process. After all the Constitution of the United States doesn't mention corporation/company anywhere. Their rights descend from judicial decisions in the 19th Century (talk about activist courts!), leading to the foundation of the modern corporate economic system.

So what's my solution? Simple.

Only those eligible to vote may contribute to political candidates and parties. A company, a corporation, trade association, interest group doesn't have a vote so no campaign contributions.

Yes I support lots of interest groups that finance candidates I support and who share my interests. But in all fairness if you want to end corporate ownership of politics there can be no exceptions. Exceptions have gotten us into this mess.

An eligible voter can only contribute financially to a candidate who is their representative or elected official. Too many candidates/politicians are owned by special interests. Often its a politican from a district where the special interest has no business activity.

I'm sure there's a loop-hole I haven't covered. But collectively we can arrive at campaign finance reform and, most importantly, accountability from our politicians to the voters.

A MESS BY ANY OTHER NAME

This country has became just one huge mess or so it seems. I mean during my lifetime the decision making structure of the US has avoided dealing with one problem after another or applied a series of bandaids to postpone the day of reconning until someone else's watch. Well it seems we are on the verge of having to make a number of major decisions soon or face the consequences from a falling house of cards.

Here in Obviousland the solutions always seemed, well pretty obvious. What I couldn't understand growing up was why was there such an inherent, underlying resistance to making and implementing true, realistic solutions to the problems we collectively confront in the United States. It always seemed most of the people wanted a certain outcome but a small group would block any significant change. So we typically ended up with a piss poor half measure that didn't satisfy the majority.

It was a paradigm shift that started in my teens that made me see that activism was the difference. Those who understood that they had a stake in the game were very active and/or had the resources to make the outcome favorable to them. So throughout my life I went through periods of activism - trying in my own way to change things around me, with so-so success.

Following a period of inactivity regarding activism, the events here at the start of the 21st Century have raised my blood pressure enough to realize I have to get back in the game if things are going to change. So I have come to three simple conclusions:

- Change doesn't happen unless one is part of the change. So you have to get active.

- The internet is one of the greatest tools to come along to promote change.

- Got to change the mind set. Typically the common people are either poorly informed until its too late or feel they have no stake in the game. Yes, I believe that's simple.

So as 2007 gets underway I have decided to become the 'decider'. Yes we all are the 'deciders'.
The past year was another watershed year. After significant health problems I'm still here and I'm not going anywhere soon. The time has come to implement the plan. More on this later.