AND HERE'S A GOOD STORY-MAKE THE INSURANCE COMPANIES PAY UP

UPDATE: I DROPPED THE REST OF THE STORY, I'VE ADDED IT.

This is why health care reform is so desperately needed in the U.S. Please get in touch with your Congressperson for true and real reform...

The South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered an insurance company to pay $10 million for wrongly revoking the insurance policy of a 17-year-old college student after he tested positive for HIV. The court called the 2002 decision by the insurance company "reprehensible."

That appears to be the most an insurance company has ever been ordered to pay in a case involving the practice known as rescission, in which insurance companies retroactively cancel coverage for policyholders based on alleged misstatements - sometimes right after diagnoses of life-threatening diseases.

The ruling emerges from a conservative Southern state with one of the most pro-business climates in the country. And it comes as progressive Democrats on Capitol Hill are pressing for health care reforms, such as a public insurance option, that reflect wariness about the private insurance industry's motives.

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower court's verdict against Fortis Insurance, now known as Assurant. The trial jury had awarded the former college student, Jerome Mitchell, $15 million in punitive damages; the Supreme Court reduced that amount by $5 million.

Mitchell learned that he had HIV when, while heading to college, he donated blood. Fortis then rescinded his coverage, citing what turned out to be an erroneous note from a nurse in his medical records that indicated that he might have been diagnosed prior to his obtaining his insurance policy.

Before the cancellation of the policy, an underwriter working for Fortis wrote to a committee considering whether or not to rescind his policy: "Technically, we do not have the results of the HIV tests. This is the only entry in the medical records regarding HIV status. Is it sufficient?"

The underwriter's concerns were ignored and the rescission went forward.In the ruling, Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal wrote: "We find ample support in the record that Fortis' conduct was reprehensible ... Fortis demonstrated an indifference to Mitchell's life and a reckless disregard to his health and safety."

An investigation this summer by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and earlier ones by state regulators in California, New York and Connecticut, found that thousands of vulnerable and seriously ill policyholders have had their coverage canceled by many of the nation's largest insurance companies without any legal basis. The congressional committee found that three insurance companies alone made at least $300 million over five years from rescission. One of those three companies was Assurant.

In Febuary 2008, a private arbitration judge in Los Angeles ordered Health Net Inc. to pay more than $9 million to a breast cancer patient whose health insurance it revoked shortly after her diagnosis and while she was undergoing chemotherapy. The plaintiff in that case, Patsy Bates, a then-52-year-old grandmother and hair-salon owner, was unable to continue her chemotherapy for several months.

During the case, evidence emerged that Health Net had paid bonuses to employees to reward them based on the number of policyholders they had rescinded. The judge who awarded Bates the $9 million said in his decision: "It's difficult to imagine a policy more reprehensible than tying bonuses to encourage the rescission of health insurance that keeps the public well and alive."

William Shernoff, the attorney who represented Bates, said in an interview Wednesday that he was not unhappy that there was a new verdict larger than the one he won for Bates. "I am glad to see that the courts in other parts of the country are coming down hard on this reprehensible practice of dumping sick patients," he said. "It has been a practice going on decades, is widespread, and ruins lives."

Shernoff currently said he has more than 100 pending cases against California insurance companies on behalf of patients he alleges were wrongly rescinded. He said he has already settled about 90 similar cases over the last three years.

President Obama cited other cases of rescission in his recent speech before a joint session of Congress as a major reason that health reform is necessary.

Obama cited the case of a retired Texas nurse, Robin Beaton, who had her heath insurance canceled by her insurance company as she was about to undergo breast cancer surgery. As a result, Beaton had to delay her surgery for five months. In the interim, the size of the mass of her tumor had grown from 2 centimeters to 7 centimeters, greatly reducing her chances of survival.

A "woman from Texas was about to get a double mastectomy when her insurance company canceled her policy because she forgot to declare a case of acne," the President asserted in his speech, "By the time she had insurance reinstated, her breast cancer more then doubled in size. This is heart breaking. It is wrong. And no one should be treated that way in the United States of America."

Obama wasn't exactly correct in his telling of Beaton's ordeal. Beaton's insurance was canceled because a doctor wrote that she potentially had a precancerous lesion on her face. Further investigation showed that she instead had acne. But even after her physicians pointed out the error, her insurance remained rescinded. Only with the help of her congressman, was she able to pressure her insurance company to pay for her breast cancer surgery--five months later. Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/17/insurance-company-must-pa_n_289841.html


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/17/insurance-company-must-pa_n_289841.html

Shut these bastards down...

Peace-

thanks to the HuffPo for the article.

AND SOME GOOD NEWS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS

I have a friend that has been recently diagnosed with HIV, so the disease has finally touched my life in a personal way. Hillary Clinton has said HIV has become manageable in the United States, but it remains a decimating disease in other parts of the world. It is also still stigmatized in the U.S., and I believe people have become lax about protecting themselves while having sex...these two factors, and others, are contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. among straight people at a rate far higher than most understand. So it's not just a gay disease. I'm looking toward the day when there is a cure for HIV and a vaccine to prevent it. And I have hope for you my friend :) Peace-

From the L.A. Times:

Antibodies found that prevent HIV from causing severe AIDS

Scientists were able to isolate two antibodies responsible for resistance to the disease in an African patient. The discovery could be key to the development of a vaccine.

By Thomas H. Maugh II

After nearly two decades of futile searching for a vaccine against the AIDS virus, researchers are reporting the tantalizing discovery of antibodies that can prevent the virus from multiplying in the body and producing severe disease.

They do not have a vaccine yet, but they may well have a road map toward the production of one.

A team based at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla reports today in the journal Science that they have isolated two so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies that can block the action of many strains of HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS.

Crucial to the discovery is the fact that the antibodies target a portion of HIV that researchers had not considered in their search for a vaccine. Moreover, the target is a relatively stable portion of the virus that does not participate in the extensive mutations that have made HIV able to escape from antiviral drugs and previous experimental vaccines.

"This is opening up a whole new area of science," said Dr. Seth F. Berkley, president and chief executive of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which funded and coordinated the research.At least 33 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, and at least 25 million have died from AIDS, according to the World Health Organization.

Two large trials of experimental vaccines have failed -- the most recent, in 2007, because the vaccine apparently made people more susceptible to infection.

To find the neutralizing antibodies, researchers collected blood samples from more than 1,800 people in Thailand, Australia and Africa who had been infected with HIV for at least three years without the infection proceeding to severe disease. Such individuals are most likely to produce antibodies that interfere with the replication of the virus.

Researchers at Monogram Biosciences in South San Francisco studied the samples most resistant to infection, then a team from Theraclone Sciences in Seattle isolated the antibodies responsible for the resistance.

They ultimately isolated two antibodies, called PG9 and PG16, from one African patient. The antibodies were able to block the activity of about three-quarters of the 162 separate strains of HIV they tested it against.

Immunologist Dennis Burton of Scripps and his colleagues then showed that the antibodies bind to regions of two proteins on the surface of the virus, called gp120 and gp41, that help the virus invade cells. These regions had never before been considered as targets for vaccines.

Researchers still have a long way to go to produce a vaccine, however.

The antibodies themselves could potentially be used as a treatment for infected patients who develop severe disease.But the long-term hope is to find molecules, either synthetic or natural, that can stimulate the body to produce the broadly neutralizing antibodies. Such molecules could potentially be the basis for a successful vaccine.

BACHMANN 'HEARING VOICES' OTHER THAN GOD'S, SAYS TOP DEMOCRAT

By Chris Steller 9/2/09 1:38 PM, Of the Minnesota Independent

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s talk of stopping health care reform by fasting, praying and wrist-slitting has prompted not only lefty pundits but a top Democratic colleague to question what’s going on between her ears. Jim Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, remarked Tuesday: “I don’t think God’s talking to her anymore. I think she’s hearing other voices.”

Bachmann said in 2006 that she was running for Congress on God’s recommendation (video), and last month said she would run for president if she “felt that’s what the Lord was calling me to do.”

It wasn’t a one-off gag line for Oberstar, who earlier called Bachmann “a sweet woman” but had this advice for elderly health care reform advocates in Duluth who were planning to visit her: ”Tell her that there are voices other than God that are informing her.” [Via Tom Elko]

It wasn’t immediately clear whether one of those voices is that of Rep. Ron Paul, who has Bachmann’s ear on financial policy and will appear with her at a town hall in her district this month.

Oberstar’s comments are of the sort more commonly heard from cable TV yakkers like Ed Schultz, whose show featured her “psycho talk” two days in a row, and Dan Savage, who linked God-inspired politics to hate rhetoric of the worst sort:

"When you have a party that claims to speak for God or says God is on its side, the rhetoric heats up and the anger heats up, because it’s not just a battle about ideas and positions and what’s good for the country and bad for the country. It’s a battle about what God wants and what God doesn’t want. And it’s easier to demagogue about your enemies and to despise them and to dehumanize them in this really personal and vicious way. And the religious right is fomenting this kind of hatred in this country at our peril. I really do think that the Michele Bachmanns of the world and the Glenn Becks of the world are actively and consciously, or subconsciously, trying to get — I’m just going to say it — trying to get the president killed. This kind of rhetoric — this paranoid style on the religious right, from Birchers to birthers — doesn’t usually end well. And somebody’s got to put the brakes on it. Unfortunately in the Republican Party, there’s no adults left in the room. There are only the Michele Bachmanns and the Glenn Becks and the Rush Limbaughs running the show."

Thanks to The Minnesota Independent.

A bit of commentary: the Republican Party does not have a corner of Religious Stupidity, Mrs. Searcher's father Pat the deadbeat Flanagin (and S. Chris Flanagin of Thurman and Bishop law firm, violent criminal extraordinaire) has a "bible fund" and can't keep his dick in his pants. Oh yeah, he also was in office as a Democrat. Pat Flanagin and the ever nuts Dora F. Hughes, Mrs. Searcher's aunt were part of my inspiration to vote for Bush, and until we got out of the south for a length of time, I learned that liberal democrats have a different, a better and less hateful ideology than the Christian Conservative Arkansas Democrat and his sister that have contempt for the poor, supports violent crime and hates his daughter (and she her niece) while hiding behind religion as an excuse for their abhorrent behavior. Shout out to this Democrat that has the balls to say what everyone else is thinking-these right wing bible bangers are nuts, but I know plenty of Dems that are right wing bible thumping psychos, and it's time to push them all into the sea.

Peace

image

RACHEL MADDOW SHOW: 77% OF AMERICANS SUPPORT A PUBLIC OPTION HEALTH-CARE OPTION

Chillin watching Rachel, she is on the game, and exposing the foolishness of the Consevadems as well as the right wing politicians and gun toting Conservative citizens and elected officials.

She played a clip from the Sarah Palin twin Michelle Bachmann, member of the Great White Right and pseudo-christian extraordinaire, and rabid anti-abortionist, and she declared she did not want the government telling her what to do with her body... but she's very content to tell other women what to do with their bodies, largely because she is "enlightened by God."

What a doofus, a prime example of Right wing Christianity, much like some people we know, the Flanagins, Dora F. Flanagin, and Chris Flanagin, Hank Flanagin, and the ever-compromised career politician-Pat Flanagin, Arkansas State Representative.

It is time for systemic change in America, health care for all...and remember these faces: compromised politicians and violent criminals: Pat Flanagin and Chris Flanagin...soon to be posted, Hank Flanagin, the brother in law that wants his 6 year old nephew killed by a bus, and Dora Flanagin Hughes, employee of the Arkansas Employment Security Office, (and she uses her computer to hack into Mrs. Searchers personal employment records, and mine as well.) It is time to expose hate for what it is: Hate, that is fueled by contempt by these well-off elitists that hate the poor and people with skin color other than Caucasian...this is reality and these people are haters.

REPRESENTATIVE BARNEY FRANK (D-MA) LAYS THE SMACK DOWN ON A DELUDED RIGHT WINGER

A Right Wing woman with virtually no sense asks Rep. Frank a question regarding Obama in the context of Nazism and Adolph Hitler. People such as this woman are welcome to their speech, but the lack of education and research by most of the screaming right, the Great White Right is astounding.

This psycho woman with her psycho talk reminds me of Mrs. Searchers aunt, Dora Flanagin Hughes, (not to be confused with Dora Hughes the counselor to Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services Secretary, an accomplished woman with education.) No, this Dora Hughes is a bible banging, hate-filled right wing nut. She is the sister of the clown Pat Flanagin, the dipshit with the moustache pictured below. An uneducated classless adulteress in her own right, she believes people that see through her bullshit and stupidity are demon possessed. Life in the Bible Belt, go figure.


Peace, healthcare for all, and let's work for systemic change in the United States.
Onward!

Thanks to CNN, YouTube and HuffPo...

WRITE UP REGARDING RIGHT WING GOD LOVING LUNATICS AND HEALTH CARE

The writer makes some good points regarding the right wing nutbags, and gets a good dig in on Sarah Palin. His wrting is dead on, so listen up you god fearing righties that hate people of color and don't want health care for everyone: Would Jesus deprive us of healthcare for all? Of course not you schmucks, furthermore, the right wing has devolved into nothing more than a Facsist movement. For those of you with Provincial thinking (I'm talking about you midsouth) who do not understand the difference between Fascsim and Socialism, look it up.

From the New York Daily News Mike Lupica, writer:

President Obama is the real target of health care protesters, not policy

The woman went to an airplane hangar in Belgrade, Mont., the other day, prepared to actually listen to President Obama talk about health care reform in America.
She has watched, the way the rest of us have watched, as the debate about health care has turned into a sideshow and in some cases even more of a freak show than Glenn Beck's. Now she wanted to see for herself, along with more than 1,000 others, if it would happen this way in Montana.

This is what she said about the event when it was over:
"Yes, there were a few protesters en route. But the Montanans who were excited to hear the President far outnumbered the fringe groups."
Then she said this about Obama: "He was smart, fair, funny."

So this wasn't an occasion when people with legitimate concerns and legitimate points to make were overwhelmed by the wing nuts and screamers who take their marching orders from right-wing radio and television and the Internet.

Those idiots come to these town hall meetings more to be seen than heard, and think creating chaos makes them great Americans.

Those people have been convinced by the current culture that we are dying to hear from them, and the louder the better. People who think that all they need to star in their own reality series is a couple of TV crews. But then this is Twitter America now, where no thought is supposed to go unspoken.

We hear that all of this is democracy in action. It's not. It's boom-box democracy, people thinking that if they somehow make enough noise on this subject, they can make Obama into a one-term President.

The most violent opposition isn't directed at his ideas about health care reform. It is directed at him. It is about him. They couldn't make enough of a majority to beat the Harvard-educated black guy out of the White House, so they will beat him on an issue where they see him as being most vulnerable.

In the process, they'll come after him on health care the way Kenneth Starr went after Bill Clinton on oral sex in the Oval Office.

With that kind of zealotry, screaming about government programs as if Medicare isn't one. It is why so many of them, all these wild-eyed red faces in the crowd, look completely certifiable, screaming about how Obama wants to kill Grandma, as if he's suddenly turned into Jack Kevorkian.

And by the way, if Sarah Palin is involved - Palin as uninformed as ever about these so-called "death panels" - the debate just got dumber, if that's possible. No kidding. If foreign policy was a brain-buster for Palin, something as truly complex as health care will make her feel as dizzy as if she just rolled down a hill.

So much of this comes from people who get all their information from right-wing media, or their cheerleading from political has-beens like Betsy McCaughey, people who don't see this as a fight for better and more inclusive health care, but who now see it as something grander and more noble, a fight to reclaim America from Obama.

They couldn't win the fight last November, when he laid out John McCain and Palin and a whole party with one election, so they try to do it now, with lies and rather amazing distortions. They want everybody to believe that if Obama gets his way, he'll eventually be in charge of insurance and doctors and whether you use CVS or Duane Reade. He's a Socialist selling socialized medicine. He'll kill Grandma. Come on. The notion that this is all honest dissent is just one more lie.

Even in Montana, the Swift Boaters who would line up against any health care plan endorsed by Barack Obama ran one television ad 115 times over a day and a half before the President arrived.

"Every time we are in sight of health insurance reform, the special interests fight back with everything they've got," the President said outside Bozeman. "They use their influence and run their ads. They use their political allies to scare the American people."

He is right about that. But the special interests aren't fighting the reform, in a system that cries out for reform, as much as they are fighting him. They see their first real good opening and they go for it.

They don't just want to hijack this debate, they want to hijack his presidency. The rest of it, about your coverage and everything else, is just the cover story.

Peace-

BRITAIN REBUTS REPUBLICAN B.S. REGARDING HEALTH CARE

FROM HUFF PO:
LONDON — Britain's health care service says it is sick of being lied about.
Pilloried by right-wing critics of President Barack Obama's health care plan, Britain's National Health Service, known here as the NHS, is fighting back.

"People have been saying some untruths in the States," a spokesman for Britain Department of Health said in a telephone interview. "There's been all these ridiculous claims made by the American health lobby about Obama's health care plan ... and they've used the NHS as an example. A lot of it has been untrue."

He spoke anonymously in line with department policy.

A particularly outlandish example of a U.S. editorial, printed in the Investor's Business Daily, claimed that renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who is disabled, "wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."
Hawking, who was born and lives in Britain, personally debunked the claim. "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told The Guardian newspaper. Investor's Business Daily has since corrected the editorial.

As the debate over how best to look after American patients rages on, Britain's socialized health care system has increasingly found itself being drawn into the argument. Critics of the Obama administration's plan to overhaul US health care say the president is seeking to model the U.S. system on that of Britain or Canada – places they paint as countries where patients linger for months on waiting lists and are forbidden from paying for their own medication.

A Republican National Committee ad said that in the U.K. "individuals lose their right to make their own health care choices." Another ad launched earlier this month by the anti-tax group Club for Growth claimed that government bureaucrats in Britain had calculated six months of life to be worth $22,750. "Under their socialized system, if your treatment costs more, you're out of luck," the ad says, as footage of an elderly man weeping at a woman's bedside alternate with clips of the Union Jack and Big Ben.

The online attacks on Britain's health care system have been paired with strident criticism from Republican lawmakers.

In an interview widely interpreted here as an attack on the U.K., Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa told a local radio station last week that "countries that have government-run health care" would not have given Sen. Edward Kennedy, who suffers from a brain tumor, the same standard of care as in the U.S. because he is too old. Another Republican, Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia, said that the U.K. and Canada "don't have the appreciation of life as we do in our society, evidently."

The criticism, widely covered in the U.K. media, has clearly stung Britain's left-leaning Labour government. The Department of Health took the unusual step of contacting The Associated Press and e-mailing it a three-page rebuttal to what it said were misconceptions about the NHS being bandied about in the U.S. media – each one followed with the words: "Not true."

At the top of the list was the idea that a patient in his late 70s would not be treated for a brain tumor because he was too old – a transparent reference to Grassley's comments about Kennedy.
And what of Republicans' claim that British patients are robbed of their medical choices? False again, the department said.

"Everyone who is cared for by the NHS in England has formal rights to make choices about the service that they receive," it said in its rebuttal.
Then followed a fact sheet comparing selected statistics such as health spending per capita, infant mortality, life expectancy, and more. Each one showed England outperforming its trans-Atlantic counterpart.

The British government offers health care for free at the point of need, a service pioneered by Labour in 1948. In the six decades since, its promise of universal medical care, from cradle to grave, is taken for granted by Britons to such an extent that politicians – even fiscal conservatives – are loath to attack it.

But the NHS faces significant challenges, not least a multibillion pound (dollar) deficit predicted to open up over the next five years. It has its critics too, particularly cancer patients who complain that the government refuses to cover costlier drugs, leaving those who need expensive treatments to pay for them out of pocket.

Nevertheless, many in the British press bristled at the criticism from America's right wing.
"How dare the Republicans bad-mouth our free health care system?" Guardian columnist Michele Hanson wrote Wednesday. "If I'd been born in the U.S., I'd probably be dead by now."

Good for them, it's about time people start refuting the right wing.

Peace-

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Note: This is a long post, please take time to read it. In it I bring up the tragic case of Nataline Sarkisyan, the girl killed by insurance giant CIGNA, and I remind the recipients of the ridiculous Billy Tauzin (R, Louisiana), the fraud that went to work for PhRMA after he left congress. I am in the process of emailing it to my respective electeds in Washington as well as Arkansas. I am also snail mailing it. We have to make changes in our system, people are dying as a result of policies that our Lobby-Owned Congress refuse to change. Peace-

My Dear Elected Officials- Monday, June 8,

I am writing to request a full explanation regarding the "single payer" option being taken off the table in reference to health care reform.

As you are well aware, scare tactics abound when this subject is broached, as in the early 1990's when insurance lobbies spent upwards of 100 million dollars to kill health care reform when President Clinton first entered office.

I am confident you aware of at least one of the tactics used by Republicans, neocons, skinheads, and some Conservadems, the usual worn-out statement meant to scare people that goes something like this: your sick mother or grandmother will not be able to get treatment because of a government bureaucrat as a result of "socialized medicine." I have noticed some on the right beginning to use catch words such as “rationing of care” “long lines” “you may have to wait six months to see a dentist.” And other nonsense. There have been times I wished I could wait six months to see a dentist because as our current system is designed now, NEVER was how long I would have to wait to receive dental or medical treatment.

Let me remind you of W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, Republican, of Louisiana proclaiming over and over again how he "loves his Mama, I love that woman" while on a "family values" crusade and then went to work for PhRMA at a reported salary of 2.5 million dollars a year after he left office. So much for all of the love for Mamas everywhere.

I am confident you are aware of the current for-profit health industry, in which insurance companies such as Aetna, Blue-Cross, and Kaiser Permanente, companies that make billions of dollars profiting from people's misery, have the ability to deny claims.

Perhaps you recall the infamous case of Nataline Sarkisyan, the 17 year old girl that died at the UCLA Medical Center on December 20, 2007 as a result of CIGNA denying her a liver transplant. Unfortunately, Nataline was one of approximately 20,000 American that are killed yearly, one could argue murdered, by the insurance companies they pay premiums to. Premiums that are paid by Americans for the express purpose of the insurance company paying up in the event of a claim being filed.

If you have seen the movie "Sicko," you will recall a scene in which a doctor is testifying before committee on Capitol Hill, and she recounts a particular case in which she had to deny a claim by a man that was dying because of the denial quotas she was expected to adhere to. She testified that had the man received the necessary care he paid for he would not have died. I do not understand why this woman was not immediately detained and charged with this man's death.

Please include an explanation of the lack of detention of this woman in your response. Be advised any references to any sort of immunity deal should be included, but as a taxpayer, I am uninterested in this. Had this scenario played out during a robbery anywhere else, the individual responsible would be imprisoned. In this case the CEO's of these companies are directly responsible, and they have blood of Americans on their hands. When health insurance companies take money for premiums from individuals and do not deliver, that is robbery. Furthermore, if that robbery results in an individual’s death, one could argue a murder occurred.

The current state of our health care system is in shambles. As you are well aware, the United States spends more money on health care than any other Western Nation, and we have less to show than most for our efforts.

I would like to include more statistics for you, but I am confident you already know the numbers.

Here is what I require from you, my dear elected officials: A full explanation of why my elected officials are bowing to the insurance companies by denying a single payer system for the American People. As members of my Congress, you are individuals that enjoy the benefits of health care funded by the American Peoples’ tax dollars. Armed with the knowledge that the paycheck you cash as a result of your elected position is drawn on my Treasury, I will need an explanation for the lack of Congressional regard for the American People, especially our children.

I will also require a detailed explanation as to why my government cannot negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for medication prices as is the practice in other countries. An explanation of the law as it is currently written is unnecessary. I am well aware of the legislation, what I require is detailed explanation of what you are doing to repeal this reckless legislation.

What must not be included in your detailed explanation is any defense of the current for-profit insurance nightmare that has been developed in the United States, which has been as successful as Milton Friedman's economic policies adopted by Ronald Reagan in 1981. We have learned that "trickle down" economics does not work, nor does our health care system. There is no reason to cling to either of these failed policies.

Let me reiterate: under no circumstances are you to defend the current system, it does not need to be defended, it needs to be dismantled completely and redone.

Even Margaret Thatcher, the Ronald Reagan counterpart that turned thousands of police officers and military against her own countrymen and women to break the labor unions, much like Reagan with the Air Traffic Controllers, said of the National Health Service "It is safe with us." Even Thatcher knew the U.K. National Health Service worked, and as one prominent Labour leader stated, "If they touched it there would have been revolution."

Perhaps that is what we need in the United States. Perhaps not, perhaps all we as constituents need to do is vote out politicians that live off the government dole, while they slash education, health, food programs, school lunch programs, while at the same time ensuring their own children and families are well cared for.

As a young man of 40, I have many years left, and while I am sinking myself into thousands of dollars of debt, (my wife as well) because of our abysmally planned higher education system, eventually I will be out of school armed with an education in Public Policy and Poli Sci from Washington State University, Vancouver. My wife will eventually be finished with her second Bachelor of Science, this one in Biology, from WSU Vancouver as well, her first a B.S. in Psychology from Portland State, and she will eventually be in and out of Medical School, with a mere $200,000 dollars in debt, and together we will work to ensure the current system in the United States is turned on it head.

An interesting side note, at this point in time, due to the failed policies of the past 30 years, we are considered poor enough to qualify for the State of Washington health care system. Thank you Washington. My primary care physician is a remarkable woman from India, where, when she trained there 15 years ago, related to me just today in conversation that India has programs that put women into Medical Schools for free. She also related to me the appalling amount of waste in the United States in relation to health care. You see, the Indians are interested in investing in their people; they approach government as government and not as a corporation that only thinks about the P&L Sheet. It is time to once again wake up and realize the U.S. government is not a business; it is a government, one that must invest in its people, not its lobbyists, and the CEO's of massive financial firms on Wall Street.

Ms. Patty Murray, Ms. Maria Cantwell, and Mr. Brian Baird, my wife, son and I are constituents in Washington State.
Mr. Mark Pryor and Ms. Blanche Lincoln, I have two children of voting age in your state, and two more that will soon be of voting age.
I am including some of our Republican elected officials in my request, so be assured I hold all Members of my Congress fully responsible for the paralysis on this and many other extraordinarily important issues.

Mid-terms are just around the corner, and 2012 will be here soon. As a former Conservative that voted Republican for 22 years, (for Heaven's sake I voted for Mike Huckabee of Arkansas; sorry about that, my wife proudly proclaims she did not) I have fully embraced the Democratic Party's principle of people over profit. Please do not disappoint me.

Thank you for your time, I realize you are in session, and I will be patient. However, please understand paralysis in D.C. is trying most Americans' patience. I will be following up with each of you, and I will post this letter and your responses on my blog, www.mikesearches.blogspot.com.

Sincerely,

It is time for systemic change in the United States.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS UNVEIL NEW BUDGET, NO IT'S NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE

Unfortunately it's real. Some of the points:

Cutting taxes for the rich.
Cutting corporate taxes.
Manipulating medicare with a program that sounds suspiciously like Reagan's "block grants."

More of the same from the party that has failed utterly. More of the rehash from the Reagan era, policies that have given the United States the current economic, social, health, and welfare crisis we are currently in.

More of the same from the party that has brought the United States to the brink of being a Failed State, one that is neither capable nor willing to provide for its citizens.

More of the same from the party that starts wars that cannot possibly be won.

More of the same from the party that wants to round up brown people and keep blacks and the poor in economic shackles, while ensuring CEO's and the already-wealthy remain that way.

More of the same from the party that wants to take away food for children, healthcare for children, food and medical benefits and education for the needy in the United States.

More of the same.

Isn't it time to shut the right wing down for good?
Vote against the past and look toward the future.

Onward!

INSPIRATION CONTINUED...BERNIE SANDERS SENATOR FROM VERMONT

Posting a video from the Colbert Report, Stephen interviews Bernie Sanders from Vermont. Very good interview, we need more people like Bernie Sanders. He discusses health care, education and the sorry state of affairs the Republicans and conservatives have left the nation. Thank goodness that is over. ...Enjoy, Searchers...

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Bernie Sanders

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Paul McCartney Appearance

Funny Political Videos
More Funny Videos

LINKS: WIKIPEDIA

SENATE WEB PAGE

MICHAEL MOORE

His movies infuriated me during the early 2000's and the 2004 Bush/Kerry campaign. He is an inspiration to me now, I have included several links to wikipedia pages. All of his movies should be studied. Chels, I will send you SICKO, and Momma you need to watch it too. Holler Trent-This is a momentous time to be alive,and if we are vigilant, we can effect change, we must effect change in the United States. Here's a clip from Real Time with Bill Maher:

Links:
Fahrenheit 9/11
Bowling for Columbine
Roger and Me
Sicko
michaelmoore.com

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Well it is Christmas Day in Vancouver. So another is here and almost gone. I'm sitting in my living room in our little apartment looking out the back door, and it is so still and white and frozen.



In this Christmas Season and Chanukah season there are still people on the streets begging for money and a place to live. As I ponder the entire reason for Christmas, I can't help but realize the irony of the richest country on the culturally richest day for Christendom the poor are just trying to catch a break. What would Jesus do? He would make sure the poor were taken care of, he would make sure education was a priority, and he would make damn sure people did not go hungry. I am thankful I live in Washington. People here are far more conscious on the poor, far more focused on education, and far more conscious of the need for a social safety net for its most vulnerable citizens.



Far more than the Christian South. I cannot help but rail against the bullshit in the religious south, as it has proven itself to me to be time and again unconcerned with the real tenants of what Jesus taught, it is a region in the country that is poverty stricken, but ironically, hates the poor. Go figure.

Another thought: Regardless of your religious affiliation, or your beliefs regarding God, or Jesus, or any other religious figure, Buddha, Mohammed, etc., one has to admit, when his life is studied, when his teachings are studied, that Jesus had some great ideas regarding society. Whether one chooses to follow Jesus is their own business, and as I grow as a person, and question, question, question, I realize that Jesus' teachings and the church in the United States couldn't be further apart.



We need a systemic change in the US, one that focuses our resources not on hate and war, but on the people, on education, on well-health management rather than the colonizing aspirations that we have focused on in a post empire, post colonial world.



For all of my concerns, I am grateful for several things:



Chelsea and I have been in contact, my beautiful little dark haired baby girl, a woman now, (I remember when she was just three months old, and she contracted a viral pneumonia, with her little bitty self in a croup tent, and her little self when she was a little older and toddling around, with her long hair and beautiful voice and eyes...*sniff*) I've missed her so much, conversations with her are going very well, and her mother and I have lain to rest old animosities, and we are speaking too. We are going to go down there when Chels has the baby, (I am so excited to be a Granpa, Kell is too), and will probably stay with her and Chels and Lace. I never thought I would have April as one of my T-Mobile My Faves, but there you go.



I have been talking to Lacey, which is also a miracle in its own right.



Although he has not been back in contact, dialogue between my oldest son and me have been opened, I cannot wait to discuss varying social philosophies with Trent, as well as religion, health welfare, etc. It appears he and I would have plenty to discuss, quite a bit in common, and if I may be so bold, we'd have a damn good time discussing such issues.



And I am grateful and thankful to April for letting me into her and the kids lives...





I have been in contact with my son Hunter, at least I think it is him, and from the contact back from him via MySpace, I can only assume it is him, as it sounds like me at a very pissed off 13 years old. And I'm not mad about that!



And, of course, I have my beautiful Lady Kelli, my precious son Jakob, a warm place, food to eat, Mosey, Eden and the Cat, and the prospect and possibilities of success before me.

I have missed all of the kids through the years, and this is another motivating factor for me to see reform in the colossal fuck up called Child Support Enforcement. I do hope some people go to jail over this incredible debacle, and you can rest assured that I will do my part to hold individuals accountable for any corruption, theft, or other chicanery that has resulted in harm to my children, to me, and to all the other families that have been used as economic pawns to line the pockets of private collection companies, as well as attorneys, judges and legislators. I wanna see some bodies twisting in the wind. I'm angry, and I have awakened.


I have many things to be thankful for, and they are all duly noted. I do believe, however, that the work in the United States is far from over, the election of Barack Obama is perhaps just the beginning. The trickle down economic theory which has brought this country nearly to ruins, (and ruined other nations) is still being preached as gospel from the meeting rooms of Congress and state legislatures to the corporate boardrooms, to the pulpits. One of the solutions? Tax the shit out of the rich.



I currently do not have but a small voice. However, it is gaining in depth, breadth, and resonance. So listen up corporations! You can bet your ass companies like Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Kaiser Permanente, Pfizer, and ExxonMobil would be paying about 80 percent and they would not be making billions off of the backs of the poor without giving back, and giving till it hurts. I pay an enormous percentage of any disposable income of mine in taxes at the check out line at the store, at the gas pump, and restaurants, etc. As do all of the people in the United States that currently have a low income. Taxes that are not refunded, and I want a fucking return on MY investment. Change must be made in this country, I'm going to see to it. Peace and love, Searchers, blessings in this coming new year, Hasta Siempre-



Mike

ON EDUCATION, HEALTH AND SOULS, PART 1

Trying to put the anger aside that has motivated me on several of my previous posts, I am exploring how I feel about this country, and its people.

There is something to be said about the soul of a country when that country makes taking care of one another a priority.

It seems to me that priorities of a nation reveals its true nature; its soul.

What does it say about the US that children don't have health coverage and we twice elected a President that doesn't want health care for a certain group of children?

What would Jesus do?

What does it say about the US when young college students enter the workforce thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and older college students those that are in their late 20's, early 30's and beyond to have to start sinking themselves into massive debt at a later age?

And from the perspective of a student/worker with his wife still in school and struggling to make ends meet, to have to go begging for help, feeling demeaned, with all of the resources in the US, instead of that help and support already there as a basic right.
I believe healthcare and education are basic rights. And the United Nation agrees:

Article 25 of the United Nation Declaration of Human Rights:

1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control

And from Article 26:

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit

Why do I care what the UN has to think? Because the United States signed it.

A single woman in Arkansas shouldn't have to worry about losing her home, working two or three crappy jobs to support herself, all the while wanting to go school (in a state with almost no services, or sympathy) to improve herself any more than a father in Washington should have to worry about milk for his son, or tuition for his wife or himself. To have to choose between groceries and electricity or rent/housepayment and education in the United States of America in 2008 is obscene.

Equally obscene is the tendency of some to label the woman in Arkansas, or the man in Washington as lazy, or dumb, or deserving.

What would Jesus do?

The right wing has done a great job in feeding the nation the idea that the poor are fully responsible for their plight.
Ditto for the brainwashing that cutting social services and education is somehow going to magically force the poor into the middle class.

What does it say about a country when you look at a map of the states red/blue, states like Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, these states of the Bible Belt where Obama is getting hammered, yet McCain and Palin have proven themselves to be frauds and liars, and people are still supporting them.
Even if it goes against their personal interests.

Amazing.

We need people in office that have the interests of the people at heart. It is time to bring back our social programs, shore up our infrastructure, and provide education for all. The only way to remain strong as a nation is to invest in the people.

Period.

We need a systemic change in the United States.
Peace-
Mike

WRITE YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE

According to the HuffPo, on wednesday, the 24th, the House of Reps voted to give a $25 billion to struggling automakers.
In light of the current situation brought on by the free market neocons, I decided to write my Congressman Brian Baird to ask some questions. I posted the letter. I suggest all U.S. citizens write their congressman/woman to tell them NO BAILOUT!

The freemarket deregulation policies of Ronald Reagan and Milton Freidman are coming back to bite the US in the ass.

Wall Street is the absolute epitome of Capitalism. The right wing economic conservative has pushed policies that has encouraged this financial meltdown, this is what they have worked for, that is free, unfettered "Capitalism."

This is one reason why Congress should send Wall Street, AIG, etc., packing and give that money to the people.

Here's the email:
Feel free to copy it and send it to Baird in your name...

Mr. Baird-

You voted in favor of the 25 billion for automakers. Passed on Wednesday, Sept. 24. News reports relate how heavily the top people in the big three in Detroit lobbied for the loan. This is separated from the 700 billion Congress will most likely approve.

Here are my questions-

When is Congress going to stop bailing out the irresponsible people in big business and start giving aid again to the people who sent them to D.C.?

When is Congress going to allocate funds to keep my family in food, shelter, utilities, while we better ourselves through obtaining a college education?

When is Congress going to wake up and make higher education available to all?

When is Congress going to abandon the failed economic policies of Ronald Reagan and Milton Freidman?

Pay attention to the people Mr. Baird.

We want money for education. Money for doctor visits. We want money for food when we are struggling.

We want education and the support structure to succeed.

Enough with Congress's generation-long experiment with Milton Freidman's horrible economic theories that have thrown this nation into turmoil and is giving us an economy in shambles and discontent with our public officials akin to Pinochet's Chile.
I have made a concerted effort to discuss issues with you, yet I keep getting passed off to your aides.
I am a constituent, as is my wife and son, Mr. Baird, and we expect to be treated with respect.
My address is on the form and my phone number is: (deleted for obvious reasons)Have an aide call me to set up a face to face with me, my wife and my son.
I will be expecting a return call as well as an email.
Sincerely,

Mike

I have plenty to say, and plenty of comments to make. It's things like this that fires me up and gets me to class.

It is time for a systemic change in the United States.

Peace-

LET'S PLAY 20 QUESTIONS!!!!

I came across this on AfterDowningStreet.org. It is an excellent tool to relate how fucked up the United States and its capitalistic greed is. Capitalism is a horrible route that the US has, by and large, embraced. Regarding all of these government bailout in the past few days, that ole pile of crap Milton Freidman must be spinning in his grave. Read and be outraged. Print it off and distribute it on the streets. This is the meaning of a Searcher: seek out truth and truth in history.


Twenty Questions: Social Justice Quiz 2008
by Bill Quigley / September 11th, 2008

1. How many deaths are there world-wide each year due to acts of terrorism?

2. How many deaths are there world-wide each day due to poverty and malnutrition?

3. 1n 1965, CEOs in major companies made 24 times more than the average worker. In 1980, CEOs made 40 times more than the average worker. In 2007, CEOs earned how many times more than the average worker?

4. In how many of the over 3000 cities and counties in the US can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford to pay rent and utilities on a one-bedroom apartment?
5. In 1968, the minimum wage was $1.65 per hour. How much would the minimum wage be
today if it had kept pace with inflation since 1968?

6. True or false? People in the United States spend nearly twice as much on pet food as the US government spends on aid to help foreign countries.

7. How many people in the world live on $2 a day or less?

8. How many people in the world do not have electricity?

9. People in the US consume 42 kilograms of meat per person per year. How much meat and grain do people in India and China eat?

10. How many cars does China have for every 1000 drivers? India? The U.S.?

11. How much grain is needed to fill a SUV tank with ethanol?

12. According to the Wall Street Journal, the richest 1% of Americans earns what percent of the nation’s adjusted gross income? 5%? 10%? 15%? 20%?

13. How many people does our government say are homeless in the US on any given day?

14. What percentage of people in homeless shelters are children?

15. How many veterans are homeless on any given night?

16. The military budget of the United States in 2008 is the largest in the world at $623 billion per year. How much larger is the US military budget than that of China, the second largest in the world?

17. The US military budget is larger than how many of the countries of the rest of the world combined?

18. Over the 28 year history of the Berlin Wall, 287 people perished trying to cross it. How many people have died in the last 4 years trying to cross the border between Arizona and Mexico?

19. India is ranked second in the world in gun ownership with 4 guns per 100 people. China is third with 3 firearms per 100 people. Which country is first and how many guns do they own?

20. What country leads the world in the incarceration of its citizens?

Answers to Social Justice Quiz 2008

1. 22,000. The U.S. State Department reported there were more than 22,000 deaths from terrorism last year. Over half of those killed or injured were Muslims. Source: Voice of America, May 2, 2008. “Terrorism Deaths Rose in 2007.”

2. About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. Poverty.com – Hunger and World Poverty. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds. Bread for the World. Hunger Facts: International.

3. Today’s average CEO from a Fortune 500 company makes 364 times an average worker’s pay and over 70 times the pay of a four-star Army general. Executive Excess 2007, page 7, jointly published by Institute for Policy Studies and United for Fair Economy, August 29, 2007. 1965 numbers from State of Working America 2004-2005, Economic Policy Institute.

4. In no city or county in the entire USA can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford even a one bedroom rental. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urges renters not to pay more than 30% of their income in rent. HUD also reports the fair market rent for each of the counties and cities in the US. Nationally, in order to rent a 2 bedroom apartment, one full-time worker in 2008 must earn $17.32 per hour. In fact, 81% of renters live in cities where the Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom rental is not even affordable with two minimum wage jobs. Source: Out of Reach 2007-2008, April 7, 2008, National Low-Income Housing Coalition.

5. Calculated in real (inflation adjusted) dollars, the 1968 minimum wage would have been worth $9.83 in 2007 dollars. Andrew Tobias, January 16, 2008. The federal minimum wage is $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008 and $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.

6. True. The USA spends $43.4 billion on pet food annually. Source: American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, Inc. The USA spent $23.5 billion in official foreign aid in 2006. The government of the USA gave the most of any country in the world in actual dollars. As a percentage of gross national income, the USA came in second to last among OECD donor countries and ranked number 20 at 0.18 percent behind Sweden at 1.02 percent and other countries such as Norway, Netherlands, Ireland, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and others. This does not count private donations which, if included, may move the USA up as high as 6th. The Index of Global Philanthropy 2008, page 15, 19.

7. The World Bank reported in August 2008 that 2.6 billion people consume less than $2 a day.

8. World-wide, 1.6 billion people do not have electricity. 2.5 billion people use wood, charcoal or animal dung for cooking. United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008, pages 44-45.

9. People in the US lead the world in meat consumption at 42 kg per person per year compared to 1.6 kg in India and 5.9 kg in China. People in the US consume five times the grain (wheat, rice, rye, barley, etc.) as people in India, three times as much as people in China, and twice as much as people in Europe. “THE BLAME GAME: Who is behind the world food price crisis,” Oakland Institute, July 2008.

10. China has 9 cars for every 1000 drivers. India has 11 cars for every 1000 drivers. The US has 1114 cars for every 1000 drivers. Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future (2007).

11. The grain needed to fill up a SUV tank with ethanol could feed a hungry person for a year. Lester Brown, CNN.Money.com, August 16, 2006


12. “According to the figures, the richest 1% reported 22% of the nation’s total adjusted gross income in 2006. That is up from 21.2% a year earlier, and is the highest in the 19 years that the IRS has kept strictly comparable figures. The 1988 level was 15.2%. Earlier IRS data show the last year the share of income belonging to the top 1% was at such a high level as it was in 2006 was in 1929, but changes in measuring income make a precise comparison difficult.” Jesse Drucker, “Richest Americans See Their Income Share Grow,” Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2008, page A3.

13. 754,000 are homeless. About 338,000 homeless people are not in shelters (live on the streets, in cars, or in abandoned buildings) and 415,000 are in shelters on any given night. 2007 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Annual Homeless Report to Congress, page iii and 23. The population of San Francisco is about 739,000.

14. HUD reports nearly 1 in 4 people in homeless shelters are children 17 or younger. Page iv – 2007 HUD Annual Homeless Report to Congress.

15. Over 100,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. About 18 percent of the adult homeless population is veterans. Page 32, 2007 HUD Homeless Report. This is about the same population as Green Bay Wisconsin.

16. Ten times. China’s military budget is $65 billion. The US military budget is nearly 10 times larger than the second leading military spender. GlobalSecurity.org

17. The US military budget of $623 billion is larger than the budgets of all the countries in the rest of the world put together. The total global military budget of the rest of the world is $500 billion. Russia’s military budget is $50 billion, South Korea’s is $21 billion, and Iran’s is $4.3 billion. GlobalSecurity.org

18. 1268. At least 1268 people have died along the border of Arizona and Mexico since 2004. The Arizona Daily Star keeps track of the reported deaths along the state border and reports 214 died in 2004, 241 in 2005, 216 in 2006, 237 in 2007, and 116 as of July 31, 2008. These numbers do not include the deaths along the California or Texas border. The Border Patrol reported that 400 people died in fiscal 2206-2007, 453 died in 2004-2005, and 494 died in 2004-2005. Source Associated Press, November 8, 2007.

19. The US is first in gun ownership world-wide with 90 guns for every 100 citizens. Laura MacInnis, “US most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people.” Reuters, August 28, 2007.

20. The US jails 751 inmates per 100,000 people, the highest rate in the world. Russia is second with 627 per 100,000. England’s rate is 151, Germany is 88, and Japan is 63. The US has 2.3 million people behind bars, more than any country in the world. Adam Liptak, “Inmate Count in US Dwarfs Other Nations,” NYT, April 23, 2008.


Thanks to Bill Quigley, a human rights lawyer and a Professor at Loyola University New Orleans...peace-

Mike

P.S. Reading this makesme just my shake my head in wonder...when will it end?

WHITE PRIVILEGE-REPOST FROM FIELD-NEGRO

Again a post from The Field-Negro:


~By Tim Wise ~ "For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because 'every family has challenges,' even as black and Latino families with similar 'challenges' are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a 'fuckin' redneck,' like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll 'kick their fuckin' ass,' and talk about how you like to 'shoot shit' for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're 'untested.'

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words 'under God' in the pledge of allegiance because 'if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me,' and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the 'under God' part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was 'Alaska first,' and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community ogrganizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or > an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.


White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a 'second look.'

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a 'trick question,' while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a 'light' burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole 'change' thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem. "

I would like to add:

White privilege is AIG getting an 85 billion dollar bailout when the average person in the US is having trouble putting gas in their tanks.

White privilege is vetoing health care for children and cutting education for the masses because your rich white family has always had a doctor and your daddy and grandpa can pull strings to get you in top-notch universities.

White privilege is the president of the United States saying to a roomful of million/billionaires: "Some people call you the elite. I call you my base."

We need a systemic change in the United States.

Peace-

Mike

KATRINA AID ARRIVES IN NEW ORLEANS

How long has it been since Katrina? According to CNN, trucks began to arrive in N.O. with aid that has been locked in a warehouse for two years. This is another sign of the United States being a failed state as described by Noam Chomsky.

This is just one of the many reasons I am not voting Republican this time. Every citizen of the US should read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine.

I bought it just after it came out and I am on my second read of the book. Ms. Klein does an exceptional job at researching Milton Friedman's economics, and the linking of his Chicago School of Economics to individuals such as Pinochet of Chile, Ronald Reagan, Bush's 1&2 and others.

The free marketers used the disaster after Katrina while the populace was still in shock to wipe out social programs and privatize a number of different things such as the school system. This was also used in the aftermath of the Tsunami of 2004. The fishing villages that had been on the beaches for generations are now in the hands of a few hoteliers and the people that made their living fishing are now ejected off of their land and their land given to another.

Sound familiar?

Let's face it: Kanye West was right. George Bush does not like Black people. The poor Black people of the Lower Ninth Ward in N.O. will never see their homes rebuilt. They are not welcome there any longer, and this was a perfect opportunity to commandeer their land and hand it over to someone else.

It is time for change in the US. The trickle down economics of the Reagan era DO NOT WORK. I agree with John Keynes. There can be a balance of social programs, and private ventures. In fact there has to be. Let's face it. There are people out there that need a helping hand up, yet the federal and state legistatures for the past 28 years has made a concerted effort to oppress the oppressed even more. The cutting of social programs, the laughable focus on education-primary, secondary, and higher-and the specific targeting of the people of color (individuals can deny that it is racially motivated but it is) the turning of backs on the urban centers of the US has done nothing but create a bigger gap between the haves and have nots. I believe it is time to make that gap smaller.

The Federal government must make higher education a priority. The US must provide free higher education for all individuals that want to take advantage of it. We must provide housing for the poor, food for the hungry, clothes for the naked. We must provide health care for all, that is medical, dental, vision. It is time to stop the elite corporations and corporate America from running this country. It is time to stop Corporate welfare.

The American society vilifies the individual that needs subsidized yet the Feds pump billions of dollars worth of subsidies into massive corporations while these corps make record profit.

Did you know in the State of Washington the income cap for a family of three to receive food stamps is a mere $1861? This may seem like a lot to someone outside of the US in some countries, however, it is a pittance here. I am going on a crusade to change the attitude of people in the Untied States regarding taking care of our fellow man. For children to go hungry in the US is outrageous. For men and women to go hungry or be homeless is shameful. I know I have my work cut out for me when I hear people as young as 24 say things like: "The homeless are homeless because they're lazy." What a joke. Most homeless people are people that suffer from mental illness, that can be treated if the US had a reasonable medical system that was not based on profit, but was based on care. Which brings me to another statement.

People employed by insurance companies that deny services to a customer that pays premiums for health coverage that results in the death or permanent disability of the individual or individual covered by the policy issued b that company must be brought up on criminal charges. Have you ever seen Michael Moore's Sicko? There is a scene in which a woman while testifying before Congress is describing how, as a physician, she stamped "DENIED" on perhaps hundreds of claims that resulted in peoples' deaths. Why is this woman not being held accountable for these peoples' deaths? If I knowingly withheld medical treatment from my child while having the financial means to provide for my child and my baby died, I would be charged with a crime. The same ought to apply to individuals that work for Aetna, or Kaiser, Or Blue Cross, etc. Start holding the companies accountable and charging the individuals, that deny, better yet charge the CEO with murder and this will stop.

I will work to ensure that insurance companies are held accountable for their actions.

It is time to think about each other, to tap into a desire to build each other up instead of tearing one another down, and it is time for the self-centeredness and the "I'm gonna get mine" attitude in the US to change.

Peace to you and let's work together for change.

Images courtesy of ebooknetworking.com and sicko-movie.com