I'm probably on my second paragraph while a lot of you are on your second REM.

I did just finish my nap but two hours, come on! I never miss your stuff Gregor!!!! hahahhahaha
I am having delay problems with pc. I just cleaned temp files..same as yesterday at this time.

use the web, many bigger sites, and it might show up on cable or radio.

I liked CM's and I told him: profits on spread sheets should not trump the health of a country

my shorter take anyway

I still think "Death by Spreadsheet" is one of the best slogans I have seen on any page, so far. Just those words with "Health Care Reform NOW!" would fit on a bumper sticker.

Greg Sargent blogged on his new wapo blog about an independent group that is going to launch ad campaigns targetting gop senators. It seems to me that would be a very direct way to frame the arguments for our side. I'm thinking of donating once I recover financially from the elections.

Inspired by this: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/tmcpac/2009/01/how-many-people-do-you-know-th.php

I sent this into my local newspaper --

I have a suggestion that would provide an enormous stimulus to our economy. It would do more than any other proposal I have heard to get our economy moving because it doesn’t depend on anyone getting a wad of cash rushing out to spend it in a particular way (which didn’t work last time), nor would it reward companies with bad ideas and absurd spending habits. It would encourage innovation, and the kind of creative risk-taking that would get our country going again.

This is it: Single Payer, Universal Health Care, unrelated to one’s employment.

How many people have an innovative idea, or a genuine talent that they would love to package and sell, except they can’t take the risk to develop it because they would lose their employer-provided health insurance? How many people have something to offer towards energy conservation that could be turned into a small business – except for the daunting task of insuring people? If you disagree, consider this:

Many people seem to believe that reducing taxes on the very wealthiest will “trickle down” to everyone else by increasing job creation, and boosting investment in the workplace. That is not borne out by an objective look at the last several decades. True, in the early 20th century when railroad, steel, automotive, and airline industries were just beginning, those wealthy entrepreneurs did invest in the infrastructure needed to get their industries going, and jobs came along with them. That is what created the Middle Class. Those days are gone. The middle class is threatened.

This recent batch of multi-millionaires does not share the history of building industries. They are business school graduates who may or may not have ever even held a job in the industry they are now running. Their companies’ proftits often go to pay for mergers with other companies with the goal of downsizing to make the industry leaner, but with the result of many thousands of people losing jobs, rather than creating new ones. They also seem to have a hard time resisting the urge of out-sourcing, because it is so much cheaper (so why are their companies still failing? Because these “managers” don’t understand the very industries they are ‘running.’) Exceptions are those such as Bill Gates and T Boone Pickens, who either created their industries, or rose up through them, and know what makes them work. (Even Microsoft is laying people off, however)

What do these MBA’s do with their million-dollar bonuses? They do not personally re-invest in their companies; they buy toys such as expensive cars and jewelry, airplanes, vacations, and multiple houses. They use their companies’ dwindling resources to fund ostentatious events as they lay off more workers and ask for government money.

The only “trickling down” seems to be the sludge of despair of the many who are left out.

I believe it is time to allow creative, independent, and innovative people to rise to the top again, and an essential underpinning of that is to take away the crippling effect of our current health care system. It is time to let “Family Farms” provide local produce, which they can only do now if one of the family works somewhere else for insurance benefits.

Who can argue with this: Every dollar spent on health care should go to health care -- not to advertising, not wasteful bureaucratic paper-chasing, and not for profits to companies who provide absolutely no service whatsoever, and function only as gatekeepers. But argue they will – they attempt to scare people with loaded phrases such as “socialized medicine,” but the same fear is never mentioned regarding our “socialized fire departments, school systems, or police departments.” Those seem to be working pretty well. Does anyone want to pay a company that will decide if we are entitled to a fire engine to come to a burning house?

The best investment we can make as a country is Single Payer, Universal Health Care, with reasonable premiums, co-pays, and oversight (the latter with the goal of providing appropriate treatment to those who can benefit from it – not with the goal of making a profit).

To those who say we can’t afford to do it, I say we cannot afford not to!

.

Oh... and one more thing . . .

Warning Warning Warning . . .

For the faint of heart, or those without a sense of humor, beware.


Tasteless humor ahead...


I'm not lying . . .


Here it come . . .

My Health Coverage Should Cure My Piles -- Not Enflame Them