I'm Just Wondering... will Healthcare Reform really happen in 2009, or will special interest win again??
Bottom line... NO Public Option for healthcare access, NO reform... period.
If the healthcare insurance industry wins this bit, with the Republicans being the go-to boys for their wishes... it will be same-old-same-old thing... dressed up but "Mission Accomplished" banners over every major healthcare insurance, hospital and Big Pharm location in the country...
and the 60 million + uninsured-underinsured will probably swell to 100 million...
... just watch!!!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Sotomayer and wise Latinas
I'm Just Wondering... what will happen to the Republicans the next time there is a Supreme Court nomination...
They are 'majoring' on her 'wise Latina' comment as a HUGE part of their 'objections' to her judicial wisdom... a comment made in jest at a public dinner...
The current Republican leadership better wake up and smell the coffee, because they are about to self-inflict mortal wounds that can make them the party of extinction. Hatch and Kyle and McConnell need to write better legislation that is about people and not profit corporations, be origional in their insights and comments (and ignore the Republican play-books that we've all seen leaked), and learn to be quiet when faced with the choice of 'say something that elevates trivia to partisan politics' or simply 'defer'.
We all love and respect genuine debate and problem-identification. Hanging your argument on a public, 'off the record' quip at a dinner table shows nothing but desparation on the part of Republicans to make some point...
... and the point then becomes that the Republican party leaders have nothing relavent to say... and next time, their seats may all be vacant...
They are 'majoring' on her 'wise Latina' comment as a HUGE part of their 'objections' to her judicial wisdom... a comment made in jest at a public dinner...
The current Republican leadership better wake up and smell the coffee, because they are about to self-inflict mortal wounds that can make them the party of extinction. Hatch and Kyle and McConnell need to write better legislation that is about people and not profit corporations, be origional in their insights and comments (and ignore the Republican play-books that we've all seen leaked), and learn to be quiet when faced with the choice of 'say something that elevates trivia to partisan politics' or simply 'defer'.
We all love and respect genuine debate and problem-identification. Hanging your argument on a public, 'off the record' quip at a dinner table shows nothing but desparation on the part of Republicans to make some point...
... and the point then becomes that the Republican party leaders have nothing relavent to say... and next time, their seats may all be vacant...
Monday, July 13, 2009
Healthcare Debate 2009... for Profit or Health4All??
I'm Just Wondering... when will the fog that is set over the current healthcare debate clear away, and we will see that the FUNDAMENTAL issus is... healthcare as a for-profit industry, or Health4All Aericans???
Bill Moyers (check out pbs.org, click Bill Moyers) ran the most provocative show last week about healthcare. His guest is a 'wistle-blower' from the Insurance industry. Bottom lines: the industry worked 100 hrs/week to kill reform in the 90's under Clintons, workded hard to discredit Michael Moore and his 'Sicko' project (not hard, becuz Moore is a bit of a crank, but 'Sicko' was alarmingly right-on and a bit of a uncovering investigation on the daily sins of the Health Insurance business)... and are now 100% geared up to defeat any healthcare policy change that includes a public health option... BECAUSE the for-profit healthcare mulit-trillion dollar industry would be closed for business and found out to be the shake-down operation that it is.
Unfortunately, the Republican leadership have become the lackeys for the for-profit healthcare industry. Read Luntz's playbook for the for-profits, then listen to the Republicans. This breaks my heart, as I used to be a Republican, and I accept many Republican ideas of government and taxes... but they have become the front-men for the Industry.
Bottom line, America. For-profit Healthcare at the same price we now have... or Health4All, and the Industry and their Republican front-men lose all their huge cushy profits (and political contributions).
Bill Moyers (check out pbs.org, click Bill Moyers) ran the most provocative show last week about healthcare. His guest is a 'wistle-blower' from the Insurance industry. Bottom lines: the industry worked 100 hrs/week to kill reform in the 90's under Clintons, workded hard to discredit Michael Moore and his 'Sicko' project (not hard, becuz Moore is a bit of a crank, but 'Sicko' was alarmingly right-on and a bit of a uncovering investigation on the daily sins of the Health Insurance business)... and are now 100% geared up to defeat any healthcare policy change that includes a public health option... BECAUSE the for-profit healthcare mulit-trillion dollar industry would be closed for business and found out to be the shake-down operation that it is.
Unfortunately, the Republican leadership have become the lackeys for the for-profit healthcare industry. Read Luntz's playbook for the for-profits, then listen to the Republicans. This breaks my heart, as I used to be a Republican, and I accept many Republican ideas of government and taxes... but they have become the front-men for the Industry.
Bottom line, America. For-profit Healthcare at the same price we now have... or Health4All, and the Industry and their Republican front-men lose all their huge cushy profits (and political contributions).
Thursday, July 2, 2009
TLC's Jon & Kate... living in a vaccuum 2009
I'm Just Wondering... how long this totally detached, individualistic, non-community culture can survive on this planet??
OK, yes, been on 'grand-baby watch' at my daughters house near Reno, and watching alot more cable/satalite TV than I normally do... no, we only have local basic service at our house (who needs more? I get to watch every Padre baseball game, and LOST when it's running!)...
... and I became acquainted with the TLC phenom "Jon & Kate", which any cable TV-goer knows is this show about a young couple (Jon and Kate... uhhh...) and their 8 kids... living a pretty lower-upper-class lifestyle in the eastern USA... yeah, they have a Hummer and pretty nice house and clothes... so the $$$ ain't the issue for them... of course, the TLC thing is filmed like a reality show, and I'm sure Jon and Kate get a nice bit of $$ for the gig...
Anyway, the shows I saw were all about two young married people in total angst about their lives and their marriage... Kat e weeping and weeping, "I can't do this anymore..." but a constant "we are keeping it together for the kids" (and there are 8, so they must have had some marrital bliss along the way... )
... and in the last week of June, announced that they have filed for divorce... and TLC is trying to plumb the viewing public if their ratings would be high IF they continue to film the show during the break-up... or will there be a back-lash against TLC for being so shark-ish and continue to film, using the plight of the children to grab for ratings... I vote for shutting off the cameras...
ANYWAY, it made me wonder... what are the root problems with the JON & KATE situation???
Here's what I suspect... during the shows I saw, I viewed a very, very, VERY thin level of relationship outside their little bubble... no significant flow of family around them (they admittedly live away from their families, with the occasional and perfunctory visits annually), no strong social group around them (friendships are very neat and tidy and 'clink wine-glasses'... but not very real or involved)... no church or real faith-based group contact...
For my part, JON & KATE are about the real, 2009-ish couple that have 'everything'... and a totally isolated, non-community, sterile, modern-times nuclear family... and it's all melting down!!!
I'm not suggesting some quick solution to their terrible problem... it is heart-breaking.... but it seems to be a poster-child example of what the 'end result' of our Western culture is heading for... the 'nuclear family' idea of the New Mellinium leads to a smoldering heap of radio-active waste that is toxic to human life!!!
"It takes a village to raise a child" does not mean the American cul-de-sac of a million-dollar home and SUV, and nobody is really relating... or being all nice and PC and civil... but very, very fractured in reality
"It takes a village..." does not mean a quaint little church group that meets on Sunday, shakes hands, listens to some nice sermon and goes off, not to be all intertwined together the rest of the week...
Jon & Kate (and children) are the normal outcome of non-relationship culture.
I'd like to suggest that "It takes a village to raise a child" be grafted together with "We are all in this together" and the proverbial phrase of my fav TV show, "Live together, die alone".
Jon and Kate and kids... I'm praying for you to find a real community of peeps for you. Yes, it's all messy and there are tempers and bad dispositions... but "It takes a village, we are all in this together, and definitely, it's live together, die alone!"
OK, yes, been on 'grand-baby watch' at my daughters house near Reno, and watching alot more cable/satalite TV than I normally do... no, we only have local basic service at our house (who needs more? I get to watch every Padre baseball game, and LOST when it's running!)...
... and I became acquainted with the TLC phenom "Jon & Kate", which any cable TV-goer knows is this show about a young couple (Jon and Kate... uhhh...) and their 8 kids... living a pretty lower-upper-class lifestyle in the eastern USA... yeah, they have a Hummer and pretty nice house and clothes... so the $$$ ain't the issue for them... of course, the TLC thing is filmed like a reality show, and I'm sure Jon and Kate get a nice bit of $$ for the gig...
Anyway, the shows I saw were all about two young married people in total angst about their lives and their marriage... Kat e weeping and weeping, "I can't do this anymore..." but a constant "we are keeping it together for the kids" (and there are 8, so they must have had some marrital bliss along the way... )
... and in the last week of June, announced that they have filed for divorce... and TLC is trying to plumb the viewing public if their ratings would be high IF they continue to film the show during the break-up... or will there be a back-lash against TLC for being so shark-ish and continue to film, using the plight of the children to grab for ratings... I vote for shutting off the cameras...
ANYWAY, it made me wonder... what are the root problems with the JON & KATE situation???
Here's what I suspect... during the shows I saw, I viewed a very, very, VERY thin level of relationship outside their little bubble... no significant flow of family around them (they admittedly live away from their families, with the occasional and perfunctory visits annually), no strong social group around them (friendships are very neat and tidy and 'clink wine-glasses'... but not very real or involved)... no church or real faith-based group contact...
For my part, JON & KATE are about the real, 2009-ish couple that have 'everything'... and a totally isolated, non-community, sterile, modern-times nuclear family... and it's all melting down!!!
I'm not suggesting some quick solution to their terrible problem... it is heart-breaking.... but it seems to be a poster-child example of what the 'end result' of our Western culture is heading for... the 'nuclear family' idea of the New Mellinium leads to a smoldering heap of radio-active waste that is toxic to human life!!!
"It takes a village to raise a child" does not mean the American cul-de-sac of a million-dollar home and SUV, and nobody is really relating... or being all nice and PC and civil... but very, very fractured in reality
"It takes a village..." does not mean a quaint little church group that meets on Sunday, shakes hands, listens to some nice sermon and goes off, not to be all intertwined together the rest of the week...
Jon & Kate (and children) are the normal outcome of non-relationship culture.
I'd like to suggest that "It takes a village to raise a child" be grafted together with "We are all in this together" and the proverbial phrase of my fav TV show, "Live together, die alone".
Jon and Kate and kids... I'm praying for you to find a real community of peeps for you. Yes, it's all messy and there are tempers and bad dispositions... but "It takes a village, we are all in this together, and definitely, it's live together, die alone!"
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Healthcare Debate 09, the Republicans and Frank Luntz
I'm Just Wondering... when the discerning American public will see through the crafty attempts of rhetoric to steer the Healthcare For All debate towards the master plan of the Republicans and the Healthcare Industry...
In the mid-90's, when the Clintons valiently forwarded an attempt (though faulted) to address the growing healthcare problem of "the rich stay healthy while the sick stay poor" (a quote from Bono, song 'God Part 2')... the Republicans and the Healthcare Industry came up with the burning phrase "socialized medicine" for the Democratic plan. Their polling showed that the term evoked the idea of Socialism in the minds of Americans, and the fear of the recent-fallen Spoviet Union fueled a repulsion of the Clinton attempts.
Move forward to 2009, nearly 14 years into the future. Healthcare in the United States is in a far worse position than the mid-90's, quality of care is decreased, helathy patient outcomes have diminished... while Americans are paying more for healthcare than ever before, the Healthcare industry profit margin is larger than ever before (forget investment banking or big oil...), and over 60 million Americans have NO or essentiall no healthcare access except public emergency rooms.
Yuck!
Enter the Obama Healthcare debate. Enter the Democratic attempts to place a "Public Option" for people who cannot afford the high premiums of the private insurance companies.
The initial volley by the Republicans, who are heavy contribution-recipients from the Healthcare industry, about Socialized Medicine... but with the Soviet threat a distant memory, and many of us read their playbook from the 90's ... well, the 'socialized medicine' sickle - and- hammer scare didn't work during the Presidential campaign of 2008.
Public Option are the words of the Dem leadership... and they are sticking to message. If you have your healthcare plan and you like it... keep it! If you have a doctor (or writ large, if you can AFFORD your own doctor!)... keep him or her!! BUT...If you don't have a plan, or can't afford the high premium, then a Public Option will be created.
(By the way, the ideas of Biblical Justice and responsibility should come into this conversation right about HERE....)
The Republican leadership, like Sen. McConnell and Sen Alexander, however are trying desperately to keep the 'Public Option' off the table... why? Because their contributors, the Healthcare Industry are trying to force legislation that requires ALL Americans to have health insurance, but it is all private, without a Public Option... meaning, they control the table and all the profit potential. Sen McConnell defends that this is sound economically, "let the market regulate the healthcare industry".
Guess he hasn't studied recent history, or is aware of the 60 milliion Americans with little to no healthcare access.
However, the Republican playbook for their message recently leaked. It is a paper written by a very smart word-smith and national message-crafter, Frank Luntz, called "The Language of Healthcare 2009".
David Welna of npr.org reported today on this playbook, and how the major Republicans are staying on-message, directly out of that document. Check out the Morning Edition text from 16 June.
Luntz did extensive market research with two key terms that he found made Americans cringe or repulse in the healthcare debate:
"Government Plan" and "Washington Takeover".
His playbook: use these terms, never let 'Public Option' stand up in the debate... and the Republican-Healthcare Industry will win, as they did in the mid 90's.
If you want to test the accuracy of this blog, just Google Senator McConnell or Senator Alexander, and look at the transcripts from their recent speeches or interviews about the healthcare bill. They are tripping over themselves to say "Govt Plan" and "Washington Takeover" at least three times in each sentence, and trying to get on every political show and Sunday morning "Meet the Press" they can to get their message out.
I am hoping that Americans will not be fooled by this rhetorical attempt to scare us.
Let the Republicans debate the facts and reality of modern healthcare, not play the 'good ole' boy' game and try to protect their vested campaign contributors.
cbaj
In the mid-90's, when the Clintons valiently forwarded an attempt (though faulted) to address the growing healthcare problem of "the rich stay healthy while the sick stay poor" (a quote from Bono, song 'God Part 2')... the Republicans and the Healthcare Industry came up with the burning phrase "socialized medicine" for the Democratic plan. Their polling showed that the term evoked the idea of Socialism in the minds of Americans, and the fear of the recent-fallen Spoviet Union fueled a repulsion of the Clinton attempts.
Move forward to 2009, nearly 14 years into the future. Healthcare in the United States is in a far worse position than the mid-90's, quality of care is decreased, helathy patient outcomes have diminished... while Americans are paying more for healthcare than ever before, the Healthcare industry profit margin is larger than ever before (forget investment banking or big oil...), and over 60 million Americans have NO or essentiall no healthcare access except public emergency rooms.
Yuck!
Enter the Obama Healthcare debate. Enter the Democratic attempts to place a "Public Option" for people who cannot afford the high premiums of the private insurance companies.
The initial volley by the Republicans, who are heavy contribution-recipients from the Healthcare industry, about Socialized Medicine... but with the Soviet threat a distant memory, and many of us read their playbook from the 90's ... well, the 'socialized medicine' sickle - and- hammer scare didn't work during the Presidential campaign of 2008.
Public Option are the words of the Dem leadership... and they are sticking to message. If you have your healthcare plan and you like it... keep it! If you have a doctor (or writ large, if you can AFFORD your own doctor!)... keep him or her!! BUT...If you don't have a plan, or can't afford the high premium, then a Public Option will be created.
(By the way, the ideas of Biblical Justice and responsibility should come into this conversation right about HERE....)
The Republican leadership, like Sen. McConnell and Sen Alexander, however are trying desperately to keep the 'Public Option' off the table... why? Because their contributors, the Healthcare Industry are trying to force legislation that requires ALL Americans to have health insurance, but it is all private, without a Public Option... meaning, they control the table and all the profit potential. Sen McConnell defends that this is sound economically, "let the market regulate the healthcare industry".
Guess he hasn't studied recent history, or is aware of the 60 milliion Americans with little to no healthcare access.
However, the Republican playbook for their message recently leaked. It is a paper written by a very smart word-smith and national message-crafter, Frank Luntz, called "The Language of Healthcare 2009".
David Welna of npr.org reported today on this playbook, and how the major Republicans are staying on-message, directly out of that document. Check out the Morning Edition text from 16 June.
Luntz did extensive market research with two key terms that he found made Americans cringe or repulse in the healthcare debate:
"Government Plan" and "Washington Takeover".
His playbook: use these terms, never let 'Public Option' stand up in the debate... and the Republican-Healthcare Industry will win, as they did in the mid 90's.
If you want to test the accuracy of this blog, just Google Senator McConnell or Senator Alexander, and look at the transcripts from their recent speeches or interviews about the healthcare bill. They are tripping over themselves to say "Govt Plan" and "Washington Takeover" at least three times in each sentence, and trying to get on every political show and Sunday morning "Meet the Press" they can to get their message out.
I am hoping that Americans will not be fooled by this rhetorical attempt to scare us.
Let the Republicans debate the facts and reality of modern healthcare, not play the 'good ole' boy' game and try to protect their vested campaign contributors.
cbaj
Friday, June 12, 2009
Biblical References in U2 Lyrics
I'm Just Wondering... how do they do it??
The good peeps from the huge U2 fansite "@ U2 dot com"... and good peeps they are, I got to know many of them during the Vertigo tour opener in San Diego... they have an over-the-top web page that has all the (found) Biblical references in U2 lyrics... including the latest album "No Line On The Horizon"
Here's the website:
www.atu2.com/lyrics/biblerefs.html
Enjoy!
(ps, the upcoming U2-360 tour, with it's 'in the round' center stage is going to be mind-numbing!)
The good peeps from the huge U2 fansite "@ U2 dot com"... and good peeps they are, I got to know many of them during the Vertigo tour opener in San Diego... they have an over-the-top web page that has all the (found) Biblical references in U2 lyrics... including the latest album "No Line On The Horizon"
Here's the website:
www.atu2.com/lyrics/biblerefs.html
Enjoy!
(ps, the upcoming U2-360 tour, with it's 'in the round' center stage is going to be mind-numbing!)
Deconstructing the Harmful Society
I'm Just Wondering... when we will all appreciate the power of the 'fallen nature' that is inherent in Free Market economics?
A couple decades ago, I took a course in Biblical Economics from the philosopher and theologen John Peck from Brittian... one of the original fathers of the modern Christina movement in the UK... and he really fronted the case that free market economics is based in a non-Biblical assumption, and is inherently filled with the potential for evil.
He went on to lay out the economic structures that God built into the Old Testament Hebrew nation, all of which was to bring a Divine factor of grace and correction into play against free market economies. The kicker is the year of Jubilee, where every 50 years everything was given back...
OK... anybody notice all the things on the current political storefront? Big tobaccoo is about to be regulated by the FDA like Vicodin, USA HealthCare Inc is about to be choked away from huge profits on the broken backs of the sick and infirm, the massive industrial-military complex is going to be tied up and unable to play Jack Bauer-Rambo in their torture techniques, and the industries that had cushy 6-figure plans for putting 3 screws in a floorboard are going to find out that they can't make the same wages as brain surgeons. Then the oil industry had their wonderful last-minute sweetheart deal to drill on every lovely bit of American public land reversed and put on hold...
The 'Harmful Society' of the West has run out of credit, and the bill just arrived via a very large Gorilla who wants to collect - and re-arrange all the furniture at the same time.
The theme seems to be... sensible economics, as best as can be had in a fallen system. No, you can't sell cigarettes to kids. No, you can't make billions on the suffering of the sick and young children. No, you can't torture, even if that means your gov't contract goes away. No, you can't drill anywhere you want to make windfall profits. Hey, de-facto socialism in 6-figure incomes for whatever work you do (or don't do) cannot be sustained.
Time for across-the-board adjustment.
This is going to be painful.
A couple decades ago, I took a course in Biblical Economics from the philosopher and theologen John Peck from Brittian... one of the original fathers of the modern Christina movement in the UK... and he really fronted the case that free market economics is based in a non-Biblical assumption, and is inherently filled with the potential for evil.
He went on to lay out the economic structures that God built into the Old Testament Hebrew nation, all of which was to bring a Divine factor of grace and correction into play against free market economies. The kicker is the year of Jubilee, where every 50 years everything was given back...
OK... anybody notice all the things on the current political storefront? Big tobaccoo is about to be regulated by the FDA like Vicodin, USA HealthCare Inc is about to be choked away from huge profits on the broken backs of the sick and infirm, the massive industrial-military complex is going to be tied up and unable to play Jack Bauer-Rambo in their torture techniques, and the industries that had cushy 6-figure plans for putting 3 screws in a floorboard are going to find out that they can't make the same wages as brain surgeons. Then the oil industry had their wonderful last-minute sweetheart deal to drill on every lovely bit of American public land reversed and put on hold...
The 'Harmful Society' of the West has run out of credit, and the bill just arrived via a very large Gorilla who wants to collect - and re-arrange all the furniture at the same time.
The theme seems to be... sensible economics, as best as can be had in a fallen system. No, you can't sell cigarettes to kids. No, you can't make billions on the suffering of the sick and young children. No, you can't torture, even if that means your gov't contract goes away. No, you can't drill anywhere you want to make windfall profits. Hey, de-facto socialism in 6-figure incomes for whatever work you do (or don't do) cannot be sustained.
Time for across-the-board adjustment.
This is going to be painful.
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