We Are in Grave Danger...

Kavips is right on with a post about our failing healthcare system. We cannot afford this system one more day, let alone far into the future.

We do have the right to receive preventative health care at other taxpayers expense because over time, IT SAVES US ALL MONEY. It saves each and everyone of us money if we provide government health care as a nation to each of our citizens. That money saved, is sorely needed to bolster our economy right now…. That money saved, does go to creating new jobs.

There are few people in this world with whom I agree without question. Kavips is not always right either, but in this case we see pretty much eye to eye. Why our politicians cannot see the state of affairs and find real solutions escapes me. (Ooops, I forgot. We live under the best Congress money can buy.)

Peace.

Carper on Healthcare Reform

While we await decisions in Congress the situation becomes more serious by the day. Leadership in the Congress makes small talk about vacation time instead of a vote. Our very own Senator Carper says

What we want to do is make sure, whether it's a public option, whether it's a cooperative, whether it's a fallback plan or trigger plan with a public option, we want to make sure that we're going to hold the private sector honest. "e're going to make sure that competitive forces work.

Mr. Free Market is still at it. Competitive forces have failed to date. Since the rapid conversion of healthcare to for-profit beginning in the early 90's we have seen nothing but increased profits and less healthcare.

No bill that fails to contain a public option for every American on day one can be acceptable. We have waited too long. The market force is killing us slowly. The time for real change is here no matter what Senator Carper has to say.

Peace.

Reid Delays Healthcare Bill for Republicans

Republican opposition to any measure of healthcare reform has been steadfast for years. Corporate contributions insure their remaining in opposition for the foreseeable future. The Republican course is intended to insure failure of the Obama administration to effect any real change in our national healtcare system. Every one of us in the nation suffers for that course.

Now Harry Reid admits he is delaying the bill so the Republicans can have more time.

Reid said Republicans, who have shown intense resistance to President Obama’s push for health care reform, had asked for more time to work out a package.

Why on earth did we elect a Democratic administration and give control of Congress to Democrats if we get this sort of treatment? My blood is boiling.

Peace.

Making It In America

Robert Borosage offers an interesting analysis and opinion piece about the economic and political future of America. The first sentence is a real wonder of perspective and accuracy in words.

Washington's special genius is for gridlock.

Holding to the same old course is the DC way. Inertia prevents much in terms of real action as we see every day in the healthcare morass.

Borosage continues to take a look at the future of America in a changing world economy.

We haven't even begun an adult conversation about the fundamental question of America's global economic strategy. What is the economy we will build out of the ashes of the old?

How we begin to face this question will determine the economic future of our nation. We cannot remain isolated and dependent on other world nations for our manufacturing.

President Obama sees the problem.

The fight for American manufacturing is the fight for America's future.

The question becomes one for Congress. Can our elected officials overcome inertia and find real solutions that protect the environment and encourage American manufacturing at the same time?

The future is in our hands in large measures as Borosage sums up.

Little will get done until Americans show politicians that while the lobbies can pay for their campaigns and provide employment in retirement, they can't defend them against the justified anger of a citizenry no longer willing to put up with gridlock.

With barely more than 60 percent of eligible voters going to the polls in the last Presidential election we must get organized and do better if we are to save our future.

Peace.

Serial War as a Way of Life in America

In an impassioned essay, David Bromwich, puts into fine words what many of us have said or thought over the last several years. Bromwich begins by mentioning the casual way Americans discuss war these days. He then points out the difference in today's culture from years past.

For two centuries, Americans were taught to think war itself an aberration, and "wars" in the plural could only have seemed doubly aberrant. Younger generations of Americans, however, are now being taught to expect no end of war - and no end of wars.

The change is monumental.

Bromwich speaks to the morass that was Vietnam saying

So the lesson of Vietnam came to be: never start a war without knowing what you want to accomplish and when you intend to leave.

How very soon we forget those lessons. Neither Afghanistan or Iraq have any real end in sight. There is no plan offered to the public. Meanwhile we continue to lose lives and dollars in the endless spiral of war.

The essay continues with a discussion of American intervention in Kosovo as a "humanitarian war effort." When ever in the course of history has war even had any humanitarian connotations? War kills without reservation. Innocent civilians, women and children, bear the brunt of the damage in any war effort.

The lingo of today in the press and in our culture speaks to wars of the future as though there were a timeline in which there will be no time without war. We seem to seek war instead of looking for peaceful solutions.

Thus the word "wars" - increasingly in the plural - is becoming the common way we identify not just the wars we are fighting now but all the wars we expect to fight.

How much more wrong headed can any society be?

Bromwich ends with consideration of the war which led to the founding of our nation. We fought at the time for liberty, not for domination or control.

You cannot, it said, continue a free people while accepting the fruits of conquest and domination.

Let us all hope one day we find a course toward true freedom and away from the present direction for our nation. Peace.

Healthcare Lobbying

It may be no wonder if healthcare reform is beaten this year. In the first quarter of this year the healthcare industry spent $127 million on lobbying efforts.

In the second quarter of 2008, 28 health care concerns reported spending at least $1 million lobbying.

The final second quarter reports are not yet available, but the numbers are staggering.

What chance do we, the American public, have against these dollars? We see the effects of the best Congress money can buy these days. I fear for the health of our nation on many fronts.

Peace.

The Bloodiest Month Yet

In spite of assurances from on high about Afghanistan, July is already the worst month on record for both American and Foreign casualties. The month is not yet over and already 30 Americans are dead as a result of ongoing violence in the nation.
Secretary of State Clinton says this loss is "regrettable and tragic." I'd say this is not acceptable on any level.

When will this all end? We have no more children to lose.

Peace.

The Race to Ever Greater Weapons Systems Contines in the US Today

In spite of a threatened veto, the F-22 fighter jet program looks to be on the way to approval in the Senate. One more case of the big dog getting a bigger stick so all the other dogs will compete for the same.

When will humankind ever learn the answer to our problems does not lie in weaponry? Militarism breeds militarism. Peace will not be found at the business end of a club. As an author whose name I have lost just this moment once said, "Peace will not be built on the bones of dead women and children." Fighter jets such as the F-22 have only one purpose--killing. That innocent civilians are often on the receiving end is not taken into account.

Let us hope the Senate finds the good sense to forego this program. Otherwise we must hope the veto stands. If the bill passes we will watch many millions of needed dollars going to more military force which we clearly do not need if protection of our nation is our only goal. We have enough firepower available already to turn the entire globe into a cinder. Why more?

Peace.

This Day In History--July 20, 1969

Forty years ago today Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. At the time he spoke the famous words heard live by billions around the globe.

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

There were five more successful moon missions ending in 1972. At the time the impetus was to beat the Russians to the punch in space. Once the goal was accomplished the program lost much of its attraction for reasons that are difficult to understand.

Maybe with the advent of an administration more focused on science we can return to the days of major space exploration. The fallout from those days improves all our lives on a daily basis. The funding for basic and applied sciences in those days supported projects that may not otherwise have seen the light of day. If we pursue the appropriate course the entire world stands to benefit over the course of time.

Peace.

More Fallout From the War In Iraq

Poverty is rampant around the world these days with many people forced to live on less than $2.20 per day. In Iraq (and other nations as well) the abject poverty drives a trade in organs for transplant. Donors with the ability to pay find dealers who buy organs from impoverished donors.

Hundreds of people are believed to have sold kidneys and other organs through dealers in the capital, Baghdad, over the last year.

In Iraq estimates of unemployment run as high as 32 percent with about 18 percent living in poverty. The degree of need drives people to seek any possible source of revenue. Speaking of the organ dealers

one of their customers said that he had paid more than $15,000 to one of the dealers outside the hospital.

About one-third of the fee went to the donor. The rest remained in the pockets of the dealer. With the growing demand for organs and an apparent supply in Iraq there are beginning to be stories of people traveling into the country to buy an organ for transplant. The entire situation is out of hand.

Why does our world allow these situations to continue? Why cannot we find ways to help our fellow man rather than continuing the downward spiral for so many? The course we take today will set our future for many generations to come. If we fail to change our direction I fear for our descendants.

Peace.

New Jobs But At What Cost???

Today's NJ has an article about a local company excited about the prospect of new jobs within the next very few years. The news of job creation is good but the cost of those jobs needs careful consideration. The company

makes replacement parts for existing nuclear power plants and new parts he ships overseas

The excitement reported in the article is all about the potential of new nuclear plants here in the U.S.

At what cost are we willing to let this happen? The economic costs to the nation may be measured in trillions of dollars above the costs of generating the same amount of power by other means. The costs to future generations in terms of waste storage and potential exposure to radiation cannot be measured. And there is the risk of accident or even of meltdown. In spite of the industry's arguments about safety we have seen the results of the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island incidents. The economic impact let alone the health impact are gigantic.

We as a nation cannot afford nuclear power generation using today's technology. If at some point in the future a new process is developed allowed cheaper and cleaner power generation maybe we should reconsider. Until that time continued opposition to any new nuclear power plants is the only rational course. We as a nation cannot pay the bills for those plants.

Peace.

R.I.P. Walter Cronkite, 1916-2009

Journalist Walter Cronkite has died. The world lost a major influence.



May he rest in eternal peace.

Cronkite was the epitome of journalism, the face of real news for many years through so many trying times. He shall be missed.

Peace.

On War

In 1917 a short book written by Harry Emerson Fosdick entitled, The Challenge of the Present Crisis, was published. Fosdick crafted an impassioned argument written with a very Christian perspective of his time.

Frome the standpoint of every high ideal, war is unchristian--essentially, hideously uncrhistian.

Perhaps some of today's leaders would do well to listen to Fosdick's words.

Fosdick argued against all are responsible for support the war effort if such an effort is undertaken but he saw the end result as failing to bring final resolution.

War, like all use of physical compulsion, is at its best a surgical operation. By surgery you may restrain an alien growth, but surgery never cures...Its work is all negative, eliminative.

Right he was. War eliminates people, cultures, nations, and wealth.

While he argued people were obligated to support the nation in its inevitable war course, he also put the Christian perspective in place telling all to pray for the enemy, the Germans. Fosdick seemed at heart a pacifist but he was not wholly in the pacifistic mode as he saw the need for war as a surgical exercise at times in the face of overwhelming evil.

Even though he did not apparently experience war firsthand, Fosdick got the gist of the situation very well indeed.

War now is dropping bombs from aeroplanes and killing women and children in their beds; it is shooting by telephonic orders, at an unseen place miles away and slaughtering invisible men; it is murdering innocent travelers on merchant ships with torpedoes from unknown submarines; it is launching clouds of poisonous gas and killing men with their own breath. War means...men with jaws gone, eyes gone, limbs gone, minds gone...it means mothers who look for letters they will never see and wives who wait for voices they will never hear and children who listen for footsteps that will never come.

We would all do well to keep in mind the vision of horror that is the reality of war. To that end may we all seek peaceful ways in the future. War will never bring solutions to the problems of humanity. The sooner humankind comes to that realization the better for all.

Peace.

Feeding the World

How to go about increasing global food security (preventing hunger around the world) is a growing issue today. A presentation in the foreign press in recent days suggests maybe the current U.S. approach is not correct at least in our approach to Africa. Africa has many problems including governance issues which are difficult to resolve. The issue the author takes on has to do with the specifics of food security and agricultural sustainability.

Remember the old Chinese proverb

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Today the U.S. approach to world hunger is more often through food subsidies and gifts of U.S. grown products such as rice and corn. Rice is a particular problem with the subsidies given U.S. and European farmers by their governments.

"Food security" will never lead to African food sovereignty and independence until Europe and America do something about their own agricultural subsidies, which they pour on their own farmers.

These subsidies out-compete and ravage Africa's agriculture.

As a leader nation in the world today we must examine our policies to insure we bring the best possible course to all peoples of the globe. We must teach people to be self-sufficient rather than forcing dependency upon them. Self-sufficiency brings increased confidence and breeds content in nations. Dependency leads to unrest in too many instances and breeds resentment which may lead to resistance among impoverished peoples.

We as a nation can do better than we manage today, but we will need to review our practices and perhaps make some major changes to our current course. The Obama administration has made and will continue to make needed changes. The supply of food around the world is one more arena which must be taken into account and given full consideration over the course of time.

Peace.

John Yoo--Wrong Then and Still Wrong Today

John Yoo served in the Justice Department during the Bush administration. He was the author of some of the most infamous of the torture memos and is now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today Yoo defends the Bush administration actions which uprooted Constitutional protections for citizens across the nation.

Yoo begins by describing the failure of our intelligence organizations.

t was instantly clear after Sept. 11, 2001, that our security agencies knew little about al Qaeda's inner workings, could not detect its operatives' entry into the country, nor predict where it might strike next.

The failure was one of mostly administrative dysfunction with failed communications between organizations. In addition there was too much information to be analyzed by the agencies which were short of Arabic translators.

Warrantless wiretapping is justified in Yoo's mind since the FISA rules of the day forced too much time lag or too many restrictions. Since a warrant is required under the law before any wiretapping is undertaken and the FISA Court has denied only a handful of requests his ideas are tough to swallow. In addition the government is allowed to put the wiretap in place for several days while the request for a warrant is considered. Only an administration steeped in its own quest for power would consider moving outside the Constitutional balance of power and protections of civil rights.

Yoo goes on to call FISA an "obsolete law" and claims the President should be unlimited in his powers.

To limit the president's constitutional power to protect the nation from foreign threats is simply foolhardy.

The Founding Fathers knew the risks of just such power and installed a balance of power arrangement to prevent the sorts of abuse unlimited power is likely to bring about.

In conclusion Yoo wants the nation to continue the same course as under Bush.

As we confront terrorists who remain intent on attacking the U.S., using weapons we cannot anticipate, we should be skeptical of those who insist that we radically change the way this country has always made war.

The way our nation has always made war has brought little credit to us over the course of history. We need to be very careful to reexamine the issues on which we base war. Too many times our nation has invaded sovereign nations without adequate justification.

And beyond that war is no reason to deny Constitutional protections to one and all. Our Constitution has stood tall for more than 200 years. We have no reason whatsoever to abuse the protections offered in those fine words. If we are to continue another 200 years into the future as a leader nation we had best return to our Constitutional roots and hold to the principles of our founding.

Peace.

Palin Watch--Have Mercy on Us All

Sarah Palin is at it again with an op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post. In classic Palin style she spouts on and on about how bad the new energy bill is to consumers and to the energy supply without providing the facts of the matter. As usual Palin is all about Palin and not much about the truth. One statement holds much truth.

We must move in a new direction.

We cannot afford to continue the current path of carbon fuel dependence. On that Palin and I agree.

But her drill, drill, drill policies and the suggestions that coal can be our energy savior is beyond comprehension. Climate change is upon us. If we fail to develop alternative energy sources we may lose our world sooner than any of us wish to see.

We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.

How much more need be said? There is not now and has never been a "safe" way to drill for oil. The environmental destruction is huge. Then the contribution to climate change generated by our dependence on oil increases the damage.

Palin and all her supporters need to find a real life in which facts and truth reign. The more these misleading statements are put forth in the name of truth the more we as a nation are harmed. We must be sure people hear the facts and learn to distinguish between fiction and fact. The course may not be easy but will be very important to all our future generations.

Peace.

House Bill Would Make Health Care a Right

According to AP News reports this morning the House is set to consider a bill which if passed would

make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans

This is the beginning of good news as House leaders promise to make healthcare a major issue this year.

The legislation calls for a 5.4 percent tax increase on individuals making more than $1 million a year, with a gradual tax beginning at $280,000 for individuals. Employers who don't provide coverage would be hit with a penalty equal to 8 percent of workers' wages, with an exemption for small businesses. Individuals who decline an offer of affordable coverage would pay 2.5 percent of their incomes as a penalty, up to the average cost of a health insurance plan.

Now we shall where our elected officials stand on this one. With Republican opposition to any such plan we may expect Congressman Castle to vote against the bill in accordance with his recent track record, but in the Senate there is much yet to determine.

Any progress toward a healthcare system that allows full coverage for every American is important. The opposition is steadfast and foaming at the mouth about every possible solution. Yet we continue to hear the horror stories of today's failing system. We must find a new way if we are to begin to restore the health of our nation.

Peace.

Fallout from the Vietnam War Remains In Country Today

During my time in Vietnam I saw both the beauty of the nation and the destruction brought on by the continuing war effort.Regions like the one pictured here in today's world were often the scene of marvelous farming. Rice paddies were abundant in the regions we traveled. Barren areas such as this one were also in abundance.

Today the search for unexploded munitions continues day by day. War waste hunters are driven by the need to make money and ordinance is a sale item. But the occupational hazards are many.

War waste hunters don’t want to talk or be questioned about their job because they are afraid of bad luck. Each time one leaves home to look for war waste, their family members are very worried at home.

Le Quang Thanh, Hai Thai commune’s official in charge of social affairs, said over 100 people have died and 32 injured so far this year due to bombs and explosives.

The horror of war is neverending. If humankind fails to learn the lessons of the past how can we have any real hope of a future?

Peace.

Jane Hamsher Gets It Right, Too

Blogger Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake suggests health care as the next stimulus package. Given the millions of dollars people spend every month for poor health insurance and the talk about the need for a second stimulus package, why not consider healthcare as the stimulus? The reasoning works for me. Health people work more and spend more contributing to economic recovery. If people have healthcare options that don't cost the amounts spent today, the extra money will find its way into the economy.

If so many get healthcare right why cannot our Congress do the same? Is industry pressure so great that our elected officials will bend and leave their constituents out in the cold? No need to answer that question. We all know the answer is the same as always. Money talks. People walk.

Peace.

Senator Sanders Gets Healthcare Right

In a posting today, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT)has the right thinking about healthcare as opposed to our Senator Carper who still supports the industry approach. From Senator Sanders:

I am sure that you will agree with me that it is unacceptable that:

* 46 million Americans lack any health insurance and that even more are underinsured.

* More than 18,000 Americans die every year because they don’t have access to a doctor of their own.

* One million Americans will go bankrupt this year because of medically-related debt.

* Despite spending almost twice as much per person we lag far behind many other nations in such health care outcomes as life expectancy, infant mortality and preventable deaths.

* While we have a major shortage in primary care physicians, nurses and dentists, almost one in every three dollars spent in this country on health care goes for administration, bureaucracy and profiteering.

I could not agree more.

Sanders concludes saying

In my view, the fight for universal and comprehensive health care is the civil rights battle of our time. Like the other great struggles in our history that have made us a more democratic and just society, victory will require a strong and united grassroots movement that is prepared to take on the very powerful and wealthy special interests that benefit from this failing health care system.

Let the fight be enjoined. Many or us are in for the long haul. This battle is far too important to be lost.

Peace.