Main

Health Care Archives

September 18, 2006

Right-Wing + Right "Cross" = Right Turn To Hell!

[BREAK] BCP logo I've liked to think that by keeping myself "aware," by keeping well informed, by reading voraciously, I and a large portion of the beings on this great nation with me have kept ourselves way above the fawning wackos who so eagerly fell for the Anti-Christ, Rapture and Second Coming crowd of fear mongers. We aware ones had no need to even acknowledge, let alone confront, those who so yearned for strict moral leadership that even sanctimonious evil (albeit evil that is poorly camouflaged by a covering cloak manufactured from a hodgepodge of misused religious phraseology and symbols) commanded their adoration and sacrifice. The fact that instead of debating how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, these priests of evil debate how much torture the masses would allow and pretended to care about the Constitution and Geneva Convention protections for detainees. We aware ones just shook our heads while observing how pseudo-moralistic fascist's who spout anti-fascist and oxymoronic rhetoric (Islamo-Fascists!, the Bushies cry) were allowed to confidently order the waste the lives of their most ardent worshiper's sons and daughters by using them as cannon fodder for artificially conceived wars, as the modern day corporate-government sock puppets knew colorful yellow-ribbons, red meat speeches and material carrying a red,white and blue pattern would suffice as reason for the ill informed worshipers. Today's Washington Post story, Corruption That Shook Capitol Isn't Rattling Elections, shows that we forget/forgive so quickly, it's a wonder more politicians don't cross the line. And, yes. Corporatist's have infiltrated both sides of the political spectrum, but there's still some difference between the Repugnants and the Dems.) That miraculous anxiety-numbing salve, of arrogant super-ego mixed with a dollop of disinterested sophistication, that kept many of us sated has been steadily and progressively weakened in the past few years, as more and more people fell under the spell of the war criminals who currently lead much of the Earth's human population. The ability to see right through the smoke and mirrors that Karl Rove and his ilk used to stupefy the masses no longer brings any relief or comfort, as the US is losing two wars, suffering the deaths of thousands of young troops, causing the deaths of a multitude of innocents and making preparations to add a third country to George Bush's death march to a bankrupt Empire. Now that we have placed war, war anytime/anywhere/anyone, above all other priorities, we can not handle any domestic crisis. Ask a homeless Katrina victim, an uninsured sick child, a veteran from Afghanistan/Iraq needing treatment or a 9/11 Ground Zero rescue worker who can't get medical care for his/her scorched lungs or decrepit kidney. Domestic security is in shambles, from poor port security, through flawed flight security to failed programs to protect us from bio-terrorism. And, while America is certainly leading the civilized world in deconstructing back to a more primitive state, it ain't just us yanks going crazy. While some sociopaths use their own warped interpretation on the Koran to try and justify mass murder, we have a Pope who decided to pick at scabs covering centuries of wounds from Christian and Muslim battles, then offended many Jews with his belated apology to the Muslim faithful. In England, our partner in crime and an exhausted ally in Iraq/Afghanistan, the now centrist Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, is holding on by its fingertips, while the Conservatives are salivating over polls that show them taking over Britain. In Germany, neo-Nazism is on the rise, to the point that swastikas are near to becoming a common fashion accessory. In France, escalating discrimination has led to bloody riots. In Darfur, where tens of thousands have died and over 200,000 have fled their country, and in other Hell-On-Earth spots that dot the globe, killing on a scale that could make Hitler envious is proceeding on a daily basis. And the march of right-wing governments are increasing as if contagious. [/BREAK]

Continue reading "Right-Wing + Right "Cross" = Right Turn To Hell!" »

September 27, 2006

Sometimes, Humans Seem Worthwhile!

BCP logo Looking for a news story that doesn't leave you wondering if humans are really a deadly planetary infestation rather than the globe's caretaker and dominant species.
Try this, from the NY Times:

A Rare Kind of Food Bank, and Just Maybe the Hippest, Flourishes

By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
Published: September 26, 2006

FORESTVILLE, Calif. — For most gardeners, spending a gorgeous Saturday morning harvesting basil and organic heirloom tomatoes is a life-enhancing experience. But for green thumbs at one particular garden — an innovative addition to a food bank for people with H.I.V. and AIDS — the life-embracing quality of a bountiful harvest is quite literal.

“I’m not a California effete kind of person; it’s important to get the nutrition,” said Andrew Eckers, a 51-year-old volunteer gardener with a fondness for sorrel and pea shoots who, when the disease had him fully in its grip, spent eight years in a wheelchair. “But this is also pleasurable.”

Founded in 1999 to provide produce for people living with AIDS, the garden is part of what may well be the country’s hippest food bank, a place where the Alice Waters grow-your-own organic food ethic supplants gloomy institutional staples like American cheese and day-old bread.

scissor.gif - - - SNIP

The garden, run by Food for Thought, a nonprofit organization, is overseen by horticulturalists from the nearby Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and many of its volunteers are H.I.V. patients who benefit from it. It brims with green beans and scallions but also obscure varieties of amaranth, an ancient Andean grain with flowing Rapunzel-like purple stalks. The fresh produce harvested by the volunteers is the food bank’s mainstay, though it also dispenses other groceries as well as vitamins.

More Here

October 20, 2006

The NY Times Suffers From Political Amnesia?

[BREAK] BCP logoGee, with a supposed "Liberal-media" icon like the NY Times cheering us on, what more encouragement could we need . . . to blow our frigging brains out maybe? Editor & Publisher gives us an advance peek at an article in this Sunday's NY Times Magazine section by Noah Feldman. It is headed: "The Mere Midterms." The deck: "Even if voters send President Bush a strong message, he is not likely to listen." Somehow, this reporter, with the supposed premiere news media outlet on the planet, totally forgets or purposely deflates the powers of Congress.
"Nor," he points out, "can a Democratic Congress do much to make the Bush administration more competent," or block "hack" appointees to lower positions.
Well, I've worked in government, and blocking the top appointees is THE power you want, as the top sets the tone, direction AND politics of the body. (Yes, Virginia, there is politics in government agencies.) The competence is also influenced throughout by the team at the top. And, with Bush having instituted high bonuses for Federal employees, DECIDED BY THE GUY/GAL AT THE TOP, greed is also a factor. But the Times reporter really misses the forest by concentrating on what he believes is the sole tree standing, with this:
Finally: "What that leaves the Democrats is oversight--an idea that right now gets their hearts racing but whose limits will eventually become apparent....Government in the sunshine is a good thing--but a brightly lit Washington will still, mostly, be George W. Bush's Washington."
Oversight??? Can Noah Feldman have forgotten how lone Ken Star tied up our government for years, just because the Republican "majority" in Congress didn't like the President hiding his extramarital affair? Now, I would NOT advocate any impeachment hearing for GW Bush even if he were caught having sex with Condi AND Hastert.
More of this post here!
[/BREAK]

Continue reading "The NY Times Suffers From Political Amnesia?" »

October 22, 2006

Support The Troops!

[BREAK] BCP logo No matter your politics, Doonesbury's War in today's Washington Post is a must read. [/BREAK] ==========
Doonesbury's War - washingtonpost.com By Gene Weingarten Sunday, October 22, 2006; Page W14 IN THE BANQUET ROOM WERE MEN WHO WERE BLIND, men with burns, men with gouges, men missing an arm, men missing a leg, men missing an arm and a leg, men missing an arm and both legs, men missing parts of their faces, and a cartoonist from the funny pages. We were just a few blocks from the White House, at Fran O'Brien's Steak House. Fran's was hosting a night out for casualties of the current war, visiting from their hospital wards. It's hard to know what to say to a grievously injured person, and it's easy to be wrong . You could do what I did, for example. Scrounging for the positive, I cheerfully informed a young man who had lost both legs and his left forearm that at least he's lucky he's a righty. Then he wordlessly showed me his right hand, which is missing fingertips and has limited motion -- an articulated claw. That shut things right up, for both of us, and it would have stayed that way, except the cartoonist showed up. scissor.gif - - - SNIP This was April 25. On the comics pages that day, Dagwood fixed himself an absolutely ENORMOUS sandwich; Garfield kicked Odie off the table again; and in Beetle Bailey, the only military-themed comic strip, Lt. Fuzz accidentally dropped a glass of water and cussed in funny cartoon hieroglyphics. In Doonesbury, this was the story: B.D., the football coach and Vietnam vet who went to Iraq with the National Guard and lost a leg in a rocket-grenade attack near Fallujah, has been shamed into entering therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder because he overheard his little girl, Sam, tell a friend that she'd become afraid of her daddy. On this day, B.D. will begin to relive the battlefield event he has repressed, the one that made him a moody, alcoholic paranoiac and that torments him with guilt and shame that he does not understand. Through the rest of the week, B.D. will retell what happened when his armored vehicle came under attack from insurgents and -- desperate to escape and save himself and his men -- he gave the order to flee through a crowded marketplace, mowing down civilians. Not many of the injured vets in Fran O'Brien's were where B.D. was yet. Their deepest wounds, like the dots, had not yet surfaced. On that day they were jovial, mostly, and indomitable, all of them, stolid and impervious, more so than the moms, wives and girlfriends who hovered at their elbows, lovingly kneading shoulders, patting thighs, holding on, looking bravely upbeat and just a little overwhelmed. Trudeau bellied up to another vet. "So, when were you hit?" scissor.gif - - - End of SNIPPET
Read more from Doonesbury's War here!

October 23, 2006

Newsweek Weak On Fairness, Strong On Republicans

[BREAK] BCP logo Okay, we're all aware of many stories that actually show signs of encouragement for Democrats (or, God forbid, Liberals) being forced through the old corporate-media distortion filter until they are either smoothed to a bland "looks like it's a political wash for both sides" consistency, or, worse. Such as when the corporate-media picks and chooses story element (or "facts", as they were once labelled by respectable journalism outlets) to come up with something that leans so far to the right that it must be shored up with non-relative and often distorted quotes from other disingenuous stories. In the excerpt below, poll numbers that give me great hope are packaged by Newsweek's reporter, Marcus Mabry, in a manner that changes a welcome present itnto something looking like political trash for the Dems:
Other parts of a potential Democratic agenda receive less support, especially calls to impeach Bush: 47 percent of Democrats say that should be a “top priority,” but only 28 percent of all Americans say it should be, 23 percent say it should be a lower priority and nearly half, 44 percent, say it should not be done. (Five percent of Republicans say it should be a top priority and 15 percent of Republicans say it should be a lower priority; 78 percent oppose impeachment.)
Forgetting Newsweek's disingenuous slanting of the poll in their reporting of its findings, I find the actual polling data quite startling and overwhelmingly heartening. Any fair reading of the data lets one conclude that Americans are steadily turning to the Democrats for more than just a way out of the Iraq mess. Health Care, Tex Reform and other Democratic initiatives are suddenly supported by a majority. (The pharmaceutical corps. will be writing huge checks to the Repugnant candidates as soon as they see this poll.) Before any of the expected investigations of mis/mal/non-feasance of the current administration by a new Congress, investigations that will certainly shed new light on the scandals of which we in the "reality community" are already aware, and the near certain new horrors of abuse of power by the Bush crime family that will surface after subpoena's testimony begins to flow, the majority of Americans support the impeachment of the well-armed village idiot! WOW! Democrats are more trusted, and believed to have the moral values issue on their side, according to those polled. 66% think rolling back the Bush tax cuts should be a priority. (38% say it should be a top priority, and 28% also think it should be a lower priority, but still, a "priority.") Further, as of now (again, this is before we have even more damaging info on the Bush/Cheney regime), Newsweek's finds that 20% of Republicans think that impeaching Bush should be a priority!!! I don't have the figures, but I'm almost sure that, before any Congressional committee investigations found how awful the Nixon administration was handling the reigns of power, 20% of the Republicans weren't looking for an impeachment. [/BREAK] ==========

Continue reading "Newsweek Weak On Fairness, Strong On Republicans" »

November 6, 2006

Raising America While Razing Amerika!

[BREAK] BCP logo So, in England, finding that, for large cash transfers, someone gets to put a few letters after their name (OBE) causes an uproar that could unseat and/or jail, the leader of their government. Meanwhile, back in the former colony that fought a revolution with England over the partnership of England's government with a powerful corrupt corporation that was in bed with the rulers, large cash transfers lets corporations raid the treasury and steal billions from the taxpayers through fraud and corrupt contracting processes. AND NOBODY WORRIES ABOUT LOSING THEIR JOBS, LET ALONE EVER GOING TO JAIL! Maybe it's time we started a system with "Honours", whereby instead of stealing the billions that will need to come from our kids, we hold auctions to let the heads of huge corporation's call themselves Marquis of Manhattan, Duke of Detroit, Baron of Boston, Lord of LA or some such? In return, when caught stealing public funds through contract finagling/war profiteering, instead of allowing Repugnants to fire the person who finds the fraud, we send the white-collar theives to a CIA secret prison where they are subjected to the latest in the Bush administration's definition of (non-torture???) "aggressive interrogation, without access to family, lawyer or court . . . forever and a day! When it is a defense contractor, and their finagling has led to the deaths of our troops from inferior products or shortages caused by the stealing of allocated funds, we offer them either the same deal as above, or a trial we guarantee to run as well/fairly as that of the dictator Hussein. (Their lawyers will be subjected to assassination, we'll change the judge any time we feel he isn't as biased as possible against the defendant and the prosecution chooses what evidence the defense can present.) Or, we have a much easier method available to help throttle back the razing of America's future by our loss of moral authority, the theft of the treasury and the tax-breaks for the wealthy that is making certain the treasury remains insolvent for decades so things like universal health care and improvements in public education are just impossible dreams.
Kick the bums out!
VOTE!
If you've never voted, or have been a Republican who feels shame at what the Repugnants have done to your party/country, tomorrow is the day you can look for some absolution, while placing America back on life support. Despite some predictions, every vote does count and the outcome can come down to very few ballots (remember Florida!)
Vote for Democratic candidates as if the future of America depended upon it.

Because it very well might!

[/BREAK] ==========
Killer e-mail sends Blair into panic over cash for honours row | News | This is London Tony Blair is in a blind panic over the looming threat of being arrested in the police inquiry into the cash-for-peerages scandal, Cabinet sources have revealed. A senior Minister said a 'black cloud' had descended over Downing Street at the growing realisation that the Prime Minister and his closest allies face the risk of being prosecuted over the affair.
More on this story, here.

About Health Care

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Blue Collar Politics in the Health Care category. They are listed from oldest to newest.

Faith is the previous category.

International Affairs is the next category.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

Creative Commons License
This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Powered by
Movable Type 4.1