Health insurers take heat for rise in profits - latimes.com

Health insurers take heat for rise in profits - latimes.com

The five biggest companies covered 2.7 million fewer people last year but earned 56% more...

Is there any living, breathing human who doesn't think our health care system is broken?

Basically, these companies kill people to retain a few profit dollars to sink into Wall Street so they can pay their CEOs/board-members/institutiona-investors more. Fewer expenditures to pay to the dropped means more money for the already-wealthy. The already wealthy pay capital gains rates on this largesse instead of the income rate that most of us pay. They reward a few for being wealthy instead of making it possible for more to become secure through their work.

This is the legacy of a corporate coup de etat in the United States, and three decades of people working against their self interest by voting idealogues into office who have destroyed any sense of this country being a meritocracy.

If you fancy yourself a revolutionary tea party libertarian freedom-seeker - look, even superficially into this. We've been had. The corporations are killing you, and have each and every one of your federal legislators in their pocket.

The wars of choice and welfare for the wealthy of the last administration, pumping billions into US and foriegn companies to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, and to give tax breaks to the wealthy few while we are in a deficit situation, are simple examples. And shamefully, many who call our current administration socialist and question our President's citizenship supported these shameful policies.

We already pay for nearly a third of all medical care in the US, and we overpay by up to 30%. Health care is a vital national economic, security, and moral issue, and to not fix this is criminal, and works against the security of each American.

'Miss me yet' billboard shows power of outdoor ads in Internet age / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

'Miss me yet' billboard shows power of outdoor ads in Internet age / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

The billboard showed a picture of former President George W. Bush with the words: "Miss Me Yet?"

By Tuesday, the billboard along Interstate 35 outside Wyoming, Minn., was one of the hottest searches on Google, generating news articles and nationwide attention. It's mystery just added to the allure.

The creators are a "group of small businessmen and individuals who just felt like Washington was against them,"

This is amazing.

Miss George W. Bush as President?

The very president who's administration, and others stretching back to Reagan's, virtually destroyed the ability of small businesses and individuals to prosper?

Think for yourselves people! How many of you are already wealthy, and have a great sense of security? Few small businesses and individuals are, and fewer can hope to be under Republican policies of welfare for the wealthy, corporate control of government, and the Politics of NO.

These administrations have handed us, and President Obama, a shit sandwich of debt, war, and division, and if you look at any objective measure Barack Obama is successfully handling this with intelligence and foresight.

Trust me, nobody but the isolated and extreme miss the policies of the nation-breaking President George W. Bush.

Tell 'The Nation': Voices of the Uninsured

Tell 'The Nation': Voices of the Uninsured

In College and Out of Insurance

I haven't had health insurance since I was 18. I'm 23 now. My health started to take a turn for the worse around two to three years ago. I currently have many conditions--TMJ, tendonitis, spinal problems, poor eyesight, poor dental health, etc., and I almost never see doctors or dentists because they're so hard to afford on a student budget.

I once had insurance for three months but it was cancelled after I had trouble paying the premiums on time. Now I can't get insurance from anyone due to pre-existing conditions, and I've applied multiple times to every carrier on eHealthInsurance. There are no options for me in the US, except to pay out-of-pocket, which is wildly expensive. I can't even move to another country because I'm still in college.

I have been living with these conditions too long and I really don't want to do it anymore. I've been suicidal for a while and my one hope was health insurance reform (specifically the interim high-risk pools, ban on rescission, and the extension of maximum age on a family plan to 27). I've been happier for the past month since the Senate bill was passed, but stunningly, that all went away because of the sudden rise of Brown's support, which virtually no one saw coming. Politicians almost always defend lack of progress by citing how slow Congress moves and how it's not an institution that makes sudden and/or radical changes, but this election at least partially proves them wrong.

So my hope is almost completely gone and I don't want to continue living with these conditions.

J. Travis Rolko, 23
Ohio

A Member of the Country's Invisible Poor

In a letter sent to the White House:

I've been coping with chronic pain and autoimmune dysfunction throughout my life and, as it has with far too many others, it has become debilitating. An ever-increasing number of the population is living with these invisible illnesses. Due to the very nature of these symptoms that are hard to track and harder to see, medical care is seldom pursued or even available until one's quality of life is severely diminished. I reached that point years ago, once I was no longer covered by my parents' health plan. My husband and I live paycheck to paycheck, so insurance has never been an affordable option. Doctors can do little more than guess once the few tests I can afford fail to provide answers. Healthcare clinics and employee benefits are equally outrageous in price and too seldom available.

We are members of this country's invisible poor, hiding in plain sight as job-seekers and rent-payers who look the part of middle-class America but are struggling to buy groceries, much less medical care or insurance. In the current status quo, I am neither recognized as poor nor ill, but am living with the constantly increasing pressures of both. A healthcare system that takes into account not only affordability and availability but allows for the many different circumstances American citizens find themselves in can literally begin giving me, and those like me, our lives back.

My husband is currently laid off, and has been since December. I got significantly sicker during my last job (yet have no diagnosis). We cannot afford a vehicle (but have been consistently just above the poverty line), and have not had health check-ups in years (due to continually rising costs). We deserve, along with every citizen against whom there is a financial bias, to do more than survive; we are ready to thrive.

I've done mostly retail over the years with a stint in theatre as a stage manager. My last job was manager of a Hollywood Video in Fountain Valley, California. My husband is a writer-for-hire whose last job was the manager-on-duty at the Palm Springs Hilton. Finally, allow me to say that I'm very invested in healthcare reform. As frustrating as the process has been, I have to believe we can get something signed that at least gives us a platform to work from. Congress needs to stop buying into rhetoric, allowing things like a sixty-vote requirement, and pay more attention to policy than politics and simply care more about their constituents than their own asses.

Dorian Rhodes and Dave Rhodes, 41 and 50
California

Will You Stop Fighting, and Listen? We're Dying Out Here

Our son has been severely disabled since birth; he is wheelchair bound and cannot sit, stand or walk on his own. He is also developmentally handicapped. We have a $5 million lifetime insurance cap, and are about to hit it. My son is 11, and last Christmas (2008) he had an almost $600,000, thirty-day hospital stay. If that happens again, I'm doomed. Add to that almost $1500 a month in prescription food, $100 a month in diapers, wheelchairs, etc. and the costs are staggering. It is no wonder most bankruptcies are medical, and those folks have insurance.

We're dying out here, and the Congress wants to fight about... what are they fighting about again? I forget. Oh yeah, they're mostly fighting for the folks that pay them to be there: insurance companies. I sent my letter to President Obama and almost every member of the Senate, to no avail. With the announcements from Pelosi and the Supreme Court, I fear I am well and truly screwed.

I am, frankly, disgusted. Not just by the demise, but also by the way the Democratic "leadership" (and in the case of Senator Reid, I use that term quite loosely!) has conducted themselves in this matter. Having, first Joe Lieberman, and then Ben Nelson, and a parade of other Democrats hold the process hostage was disheartening, to say the least. The idea that somehow, we Democrats need a super-majority to fix a mess that a simple majority of Republicans created is just downright stupid. If Lieberman wants to filibuster, make him stand up on C-SPAN and read the phone book make him look like the ass that he is acting like. And start by taking his chairmanship away.

I fight with United Healthcare, and Ceridian (who manages our healthcare spending account) on a weekly basis, and I'm tired of it. Add to that the impending lifetime benefit cap, and the inability of me (and my family) to move from state to state--my Medicaid coverage is not portable!--and I'm trapped. On top of that, there is no consistency of coverage from policy to policy. So, for instance I work (this week) for Sun Microsystems. We have a defined set of benefits, as negotiated, and are actually self-insured (though the program is [mis]-managed by United Healthcare). But next week we are being taken over by Oracle. How will my coverage change? I have no idea. There is no basic level of coverage either mandated or provided by the federal government. So I have no idea what will happen.

I'm not panicked, yet, because Medicaid covers my son. But that's not portable, so should I get transferred to another state? He would fall out of Medicaid coverage, and would have to get on a waiting list for Medicaid waivers. Currently, the state of North Carolina is considering increasing the Medicaid co-pay to 30 percent. If I had to pay 30 percent of $600,000, it would ruin me.

We need single-payer. We need to remove the profit motive. As I've said for over a year now, this has not been correctly framed from the beginning. It is not healthcare reform. It is health insurance reform. Our healthcare is pretty darned good. Our insurance system is shameful. The former CEO of UnitedHealthGroup was paid $129M one year. one year. That's money that could have been spent on medical care. But it was wasted.

Obviously, I could go on and on and on forever. I've tried meeting with my Congressional representatives. Senator Kay Hagan "didn't have time" and Congressman David Price wasn't available until Contessa Brewer wanted to interview me on MSNBC, at which point he was magically available. Obviously last week's Supreme Court ruling will only make our Congressional representatives less available and less responsive to individual constituents so that they can pay better attention to corporate sponsors. We spin further and further out of control.

Have you had enough yet? Believe me, I have. But I have to fight on. I have no choice but to continue this fight until a solution is found that serves the needs of my son, because he cannot fight for himself.

David G. Simmons, 46
North Carolina

Why Couldn't My Tax Dollars Pay to Save My Stepfather's Life?

I lost my job a year ago, and I don't have health insurance. I'm 37. My stepdad did have private health insurance--he was healthy and fit, and paid hundreds of dollars a month. And when he did get sick with a rare cancer, we had to fight for every appointment and wait months for others. His cancer spread quickly and he died within several months, but I believe the insurance companies caused his death. His illness was treatable and he could have beaten it.

It's been a few years and I still miss him.

I actually hope the current version of the healthcare bill fails. I cannot afford insurance right now--and to be put on my husband's insurance will be over $300 a month, and that's with Kaiser Permanente; I haven't had good dealings with them in the past.

In any case, the bill currently punishes people with fines for not having insurance, and it's just wrong. It's a giveaway to the insurance companies, and that makes my blood boil. At the very least, we need a public option, but I'm a single-payer girl. I just refuse to believe that those moronic teabaggers are the majority opinion in this country. I know they aren't, but you'd think they were with all the attention they get. I'm also an "average Joe." I've worked all my life and paid taxes. I'm sickened (pun intended) that my tax dollars pay for war and death, and not saving people's lives, like my stepfather's.

Jennifer M., 37
California

Do the Right Thing--Start Leading, Stop Following Lobbyists

I'm a single mom on the verge of declaring medical bankruptcy. I was forced to sell my home. My son, now 17, and I live with my 89-year-old mother (illegally) in a retirement community. For the past year, we have shared a 10x10 bedroom roughly the size of my old walk-in closet. I have two college degrees and I am now working only fifteen hours a week as a church administrator. Due to a pre-existing chronic medical condition, I am not able to buy insurance (even if I could afford it). As a result, it is being left untreated.

I am absolutely dismayed with the Massachusetts election outcome and its potential ramifications for healthcare reform. Whether on moral/ethical grounds, as a human rights issue or viewed solely on the numbers, I do not understand how anyone could be opposed to healthcare reform in this country. If conservatives want to stay away from the "touchy/feely" views, fine. However, how can they not see the bottom line? The costs of no healthcare reform far outweigh the costs of the status quo. We have a failed system and it is affecting everyone.

I'd like to see Congress actually represent the people and not corporate America. I'd like to see Congress develop a spine, some ethics, locate their hearts and do the right thing. They all know what that is, but are all in bed with Big Pharma and the insurance industry and the fear of not getting re-elected outweighs everything else. We need healthcare reform and not a watered-down version rubber-stamped by the above. We need our elected officials to actually lead and stop following lobbyists.

Suzi Spagenberg, 49
California

We Need Real Protection

I've honestly suspected from the get-go that neither the conservatives nor the liberals really care about healthcare reform, and that both sides have done their best to silence the progressives, who do. Frankly, the more cynical part of me is not the least bit surprised. I find it train wreck level interesting, that at the first little excuse the Democrats start to drop even making an attempt at healthcare reform and run in the opposite direction.

As for my investment in healthcare reform, being working-class poor, it's a bit like asking someone on the Titanic if they feel invested in the ship's sinking. I'm in this boat so there's no way for me not to be invested. Last year my wife and I both came down sick at the same time. We were living in West Virginia at the time, and it was during the weeks of the big freeze, twenty below zero at night and zero during the day, and we both came down sick with what we suspected was a sinus infection. Our solution? Swallow enough symptom suppressors to be able to sleep, and enough to be able to work, and hope that it wouldn't get any worse.

I want Congress to pass the bill that is most likely to pass (sadly, I know that is the Senate version) and then use reconciliation to put the public option back in play, and if it fits within the boundaries to also put the individual mandate on a trigger so it would not kick in for at least ten years. Then they should prepare to be dogged by progressives until they perfect the legislation, so that it offers real protection and access to healthcare that doesn't turn into vaporcare the first time you try to use it.

RFT, 36
Texas

One Pretzel Hit Cost $500--This is Not the American Dream

I have healthcare. However, I recently took legal custody of my 11-year-old cousin, and because it's residential custody and not full, he is unable to be put under my insurance. His mother is on welfare. Before giving him up to my custody, she let his New Jersey Family Care insurance lapse. So right now we're waiting to see if we qualify to cover him. If we make too much money or don't jump through the proper flaming hoop, then my cousin will remain uninsured. He was recently hit in the eye with a pretzel while having lunch at school. It required an ER visit. I now have a bill of over $500.

The demise of healthcare scares me. I am a stay at home mom and paternal caretaker. Besides the 11-year-old, I have a 6-year-old autistic son and an aging, wheelchair-bound mom, who has been diabetic for over thirty-six years and is now on Medicare. One bad illness will bankrupt us for generations, and aid for my son's lifelong autism ends at age 22.

This is not the American dream. This isn't even basic compassion.

Shea Murphy, 35
New Jersey

The "Obscene Meanness" of America

After hearing Senator Jim Webb say that "The American people have spoken," when the Democrats lost the Massachusetts special election, I was so completely incensed that he or anyone could come to that conclusion, when the people of Massachusetts who have healthcare elected an anti-healthcare candidate.

My husband and I are educated, intelligent, unemployed and in our mid-40s. I am a writer and he is in commercial insurance. We used to rely on his employment to cover the entire family. He has been unemployed for more than a year. We could not afford the COBRA, and indeed can barely afford our mortgage. All other creditors are waiting in line until we get back on our feet, and I have several herniated disks. I live in pain and anxiously await a healthcare plan that will provide me with an opportunity to get the surgeries I need. My husband was raised in London and is so discouraged with what he calls the "obscene meanness" of our system. We have contemplated uprooting our entire lives, to move to England, just to get the surgeries I desperately need. It is difficult to understand how the American people can stand for this and how our politicians can come to the insane conclusions that we do not want it. Howard Dean seems to be the only person talking sense on the pop-culture news.

We have three adult children who are struggling for insurance. My 25-year-old son graduated from American University and lives and works full-time in DC and is covered for now, but he is planning to leave work to get his masters. He has had major back surgery (scoliosis) and can never afford to go without insurance. My 23-year-old daughter works part-time at an advertising agency and part-time pursuing her career as an artist (for which she studied at Boston University). My 21-year-old son is in school at American University, covered for now, but also had major back surgery (stenosis) and cannot go without insurance.

Again, we could not afford the COBRA for ourselves, let alone to help the kids, even if we were allowed to cover them. It's killing us.

Angela Combs, 47
California

Beside Myself, Waiting for Change

I was diagnosed with throat cancer on Tuesday, January 12. I am unemployed and have no health insurance. I intend to get the care I need. My doctor has not turned me down, nor has the hospital for treatment. I anticipate the bills will begin soon and I will not be able to pay them. Prognosis is 80/20 for recovery with radiation and chemotherapy. I have a notion I am going to face something nastier than cancer in my life: bill collectors. So it begins.

My occupation used to be an administrative assistant. The last two positions that paid well were transferred to different states so my job was gone with them. At 59, with the tight job market, I am not getting any offers. And now, with this diagnosis, there really isn't going to be a job.

I've been beside myself with the Democrats not coming together at once to pass healthcare, and I am livid that just a few people held it hostage. I've tried to do my share by signing petitions and beating up Evan Bayh. This was before I knew I was ill. I think Congress should pass some scrap of something. I wanted the public option. I also hoped they would lower Medicare eligibility to 55. That was selfish, of course. Still, they must try to do something, if only to have it to build upon. They are crazy to think this will come around again this generation.

Sarah Hurt, 59
Indiana

Get Tough For God's Sake and Ours

My brother is losing his COBRA on February 28. He recently was hospitalized for a heart attack and stroke.

It is difficult for my brother to type since his stroke. I have been researching to find him insurance. There is nothing affordable since he is out of work. Part of the reason he had his stroke/heart attack was because he had cut back on his medication due to finances. His cardiologist told me he keeps seeing this, people who can't afford medication and they stop taking it, which causes dire complications.

Even with health insurance, he owed the hospital over $5,600 and rehabilitation about $2,000. We were able to have the hospital bill "forgiven" after proving my brother had no money. The hospital has a charity fund we applied for; we are applying for the same for rehabilitation. We live in Charlotte, North Carolina, and there are low-cost medical clinics for people who are not more than 20 percent over the poverty level. This is what I have been looking into once COBRA runs out. My brother is not eligible for Medicaid since he is a single male. He lost his job and his house last year so is now living with my husband and I.

I went through a similar instance with my daughter when she graduated college in 2007 and went off our insurance. She had an ultrasound due to menstrual cramps earlier that year and it was inconclusive. Not one insurance carrier would cover her because of the "inconclusive" diagnosis! She took no medications and her doctor wrote a letter to the insurance companies. Eventually she was able to get insurance when she found a job, but the immorality of this made me so angry!

I have been fortunate because I have had good healthcare. However, now that I have someone in my family who has no insurance, it makes me very angry. I have been following healthcare ever since Obama took office.

I want to see the Democrats get tough, for God's sake. I love Obama, but he is too damn nice. Why can't we get fifty-one Senate votes and go for reconciliation? I tell everyone about my brother and tell them that it could happen to them. We elected Obama to be the president who would finally get healthcare done. He needs to get tough and do it. The Republicans only want him to fail for their own selfish political needs. They couldn't care less about the American people. They don't want him to go down in history as the president that got healthcare.

LR and BT, 55 and 51
North Carolina

Is Congress the Opposite of Progress? I Hope Not

I used to be covered by my mom's insurance, but I couldn't afford this semester of school and they cut her, so now both of us are uninsured.

She's 56, works in retail as a salesperson. She's been there for almost twelve years. I'm 21 and currently work a few hours a week as a homemaker. They started cutting her hours in September, but I was in college at the time so we somewhat had coverage.

It bothers me greatly that there's the possibility but no progress with the healthcare bill. I tore the ligaments in my shoulder a few years ago and had I not been under my mother's insurance I'd have to pay $1,500 per MRI. Hospital bills have prevented me from going on with education. I was supposed to have surgery, but couldn't afford it. So now we're sort of at the edge. We can't get sick or anything. Honestly, the Senate bill does bother me. But I can't expect a huge change right away. In my opinion, it would be a baby step toward progress. A friend once told me "If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?" I hope not. I wish Democrats would unite. There are worse cases than mine.

Bisera Rozic, 21
Illinois

California's outsize problems won't be easy for Schwarzenegger to solve - washingtonpost.com

California's outsize problems won't be easy for Schwarzenegger to solve - washingtonpost.com

All this blather about California and no mention of Prop 13, or of the corporate and out-of-state takeover of our initiative process?

Prop 13 was not a populist tax revolt, it was a corporate and big-state governemnt money grab.

From the initiative that brought in the CA state lottery to Prop 8, wealthy and powerful out of state interests have flooded money into the legislative process of our state, the world's sixth largest economy. It's time to take back control of our governor's mansion, and of our state legislature.

We need to repeal or significantly modify Prop 13. Commercial real estate has to be subject to the same regulations and local governments must be given back the power to set their own revenue through their own political process, while keeping reasonable property tax controls for homeowners to provide stability in an always volatile CA home real estate market.

It's time to ban paid signature takers, ban out of state money from our initiative process, and provide for constitutionality review before any intiative becomes law.

Impeach Alito!

Justice Alito mouths 'not true' - POLITICO Live - POLITICO.com

This man is not fit to judge a dog show.

Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words "not true" when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision.

"Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections," Obama said. "Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong."

The shot of the black-robed Supreme Court justices, stone-faced, was priceless.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stood up behind the justices and clapped vigorously while Alito shook his head and quietly mouthed his discontent.

Days after striking a blow to our Representative Democracy so strong it will take generations to regain our freedoms lost with this arrogant ruling from an activist Supreme Court, Justice Alito strikes a blow against decorum and respect by taking his plutocratic sociopathy to President Obama's State of the Union address.

This man, Justice Roberts and this activist Supreme Court must be stopped before decimating what is left of our great nation.

Barack Obama is our best Republican President since Bill Clinton

Impeach Justice Roberts!

Supreme Court Rolls Back Campaign Spending Limits On Corporations : NPR

An activist Supreme Court delivered a stunning blow to the core of Democracy today.

Corporations are not persons, and money is not speech.

Every one of us, Democrat and Republican, rich and poor, Liberal and Conservative, has been dealt a blow today by powerful corporate interests who have taken over our representative Democracy and turned it into a way to transparently funnel every available bit of wealth and powerful to the already wealthy and powerful.

This is the stuff that all of should be marching on Washington D. C. to protest.

Instead, the disaffected on all sides of the political and economic fight point fingers at each other while the corporate takeover of our government destroys our society.

Stand up! Socialists, Teabaggers, moderates, and party faithfuls. You, unless you are already part of the wealthiest 1%, have had your representation stolen!

Republican Murdering Obstructionists Lose Divisive Health Insurance Vote

Democrats win the historic but divisive vote, 60 to 39

With every member of the House and Senate firmly in the pocket of corporate interests, the Republican members of the Senate still failed to stop the passage of a long overdue federal health care bill.

Every year tens of thousands of us in the United States die simply because we don't have access to medical care. Most bankruptcies are caused by medical bills, with costs inflated from the insane pressure to feed ever increasing profit dollars to an ever decreasing number of C-Level executives, board members, and institutional investors.

Next stop - a divided Republican party will sink deeper into irrelevancy in upcoming elections as they face the fact that voters know, despite the onslaught of partisan bullshit from a complicit media, that these reforms are needed.

Republicans to pay at polls in 2010 for Health Care Obstructionism

A deeply divided Republican party will lose significant votes in 2010 with its role as opposition to meaningful health care reform in 2009.

Split between extremest right wing influences and mainstream party supporters, the schism can't be repaired to unite a Republican party that represents nothing but building a framework for the next election. Support for significant change in our health care system in America by a large majority is obscured by an obstructionist Republican minority in the House and Senate and a complicit media. As both lie and misdirect the public, saying that opposition to health care reform is overwhelming, they dig a deep political hole.

In the meantime, tens of thousands are being murdered by corporatists of every stripe yearly, in support of a failed health care system that serves only to support fat cat politicians, C-Level executives, board members, and institutional investors in ever-profitable health care corporations.

November 2010 will prove a watershed for non-presidential-year elections. The repercussions of a Congressional minority that only knows one word - "NO" - and a majority that finally comes to a realization that they won will bring as many voters to reject the Republican obstructionists and political terrorists as happened in 2008.

Health Care Reform NOW! Today's Letter to President Obama and my Congressional Representatives

Now more than ever, we need to fix our broken health care system.

We speak, yet the federal government doesn't listen. A large majority of us know that the system is broken, that a single payer system is the only way to truly fix it. Yet, our legislators are paid by corporate interests not to represent our wishes, and are delivering to their corporate constituents reform that isn't reform.

Other than knowing that our Congress is bought and paid for by the already wealthy and powerful, I am not an expert in the ways of Washington. I do know that with enough will in your office, the passage of true health care reform can be influenced.

True reform in the shape of a single payer system can cut the average medical provider's administrative cost by at least half. Independent physicians know this, and they support this type of reform so insead of dozens of vendors with different practices and rates they have one. Yet a bribed Congress refuses to consider the simple system that could save lives and our fragile economy, simply so each member has to think no further than their next election.

If a single payer system isn't to be, a strong bill with a public option, gurantees of no rescission, no yearly or lifetime caps, no corporate panels denying service, no individuals going bankrupt from medical bills, no small business mandated out of business because they are forced into the role of health care provider, etc., *must* be passed. And it must be passed soon. And it must take effect immediately, not 2010, not 2012.

Our lives and our economy demand this.

The Weekend Interview with John Mackey: The Conscience of a Capitalist - WSJ.com

The Weekend Interview with John Mackey: The Conscience of a Capitalist - WSJ.com

"I honestly don't know why the article became such a lightning rod," says John Mackey, CEO and founder of Whole Foods Market

He's not that studpid. His store either provides a needed service or exploits a willing market, I'm not sure which, but his average customer is better educated than most, more successful in life than most, cares more about their own health than most (or at least acts in the interest of their health with some sense of global sustainablility)...and most of them voted for Barack Obama to lead our nation to needed healthcare reform.

His piece advised that "the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us closer to a complete government takeover of our health-care system."

The proposals currently being hammered-out in Congress will not significantly add to the deficit, and as hard as I look, I can't see a Soviet style government-owned-and-run healthcare system in any of the proposals.

Saying this stuff makes you look like an idiot, Mackey, and it makes Stephen Moore look like a fascist. I suspect that neither is an idiot or a fascist. I see that in each, they are supporting an ignorant, rabid minority that will exert any political pressure it can to defeat a President and party that are currently in power trying to do the right thing - the thing that a significant majority of us voted them in to accomplish. This is deliberate political terrorism.

more health savings accounts (HSAs), more low-premium, high-deductible plans, more incentives for wellness, and medical malpractice reform. None of these initiatives are in any of the Democratic bills winding their way through Congress

These are great things. The majority of jobs in the US are supplied by small businesses. Care to tell me what percentage of small businesses supply this type of benefits, or plan to? Care to tell me how many could possibly afford this, without commanding the bulk of revenues in a niche market (sorry to say that fresh fruits and vegetables, etc., are a niche market, but it's a fact) as you do with WF?

WF, called Whole Paycheck even by many who continue to shop there, simply adds a 20-30% markup on most of their products over conventional retailers - in return for this premium, some of us consumers shop there in hopes of better quality foods, sustainable products, and we hope that our extra $$$ help pay for a well-compensated workforce.

HSAs can be great, as long as the money can roll over from one year to the next. And guess what, this money is kept in banks that make a lot of profit from this task of maintaining our savings, while we receive little or no interest for the privilege of letting them use our money - and these are the very same banks still paying their C-Level execs 300 times their average worker while receiving government bailouts (this is the kind of crap the WSJ and Mackey should be railing about, but their limited worlds, never having left the corporate farm, and extremist political agenda, do not allow them to see this). And the average worker at a Whole Foods doesn't earn very much money, certainly not enough to be a living wage in more expensive areas like L. A., Boston, etc., (and no more than a union worker at conventional markets, based on total compensation). The average employer in the US can't possibly afford to fund their employees' HSAs, and the employer can't afford to pay the employee enough so they can fund their own. The vast majority of prosperous larger employers can afford to do this...which brings us back to the hideous rise in CEO compensation.

Low premium/high deductible plans work great for people who don't get sick, but might get run over by a car, or some of the other catastrophic events that are much more likely to kill a young person than the things that older people typically die from. You know full well, Mackey, that your workforce is very young compared to most companies your size, and that LP/HD plans wouldn't be acceptable for an older workforce, and that most companies will pay their CEO, board members, etc., before they will pay their average worker enough to be able to afford the high deductibles and maintain a high level of security and health.

Incentives for wellness? Who's talking nanny, now? My gut feeling is that yes, somehow we should charge fat people, smokers, etc., more than the more-sane among us, but how do we go about doing this? And how do we reward people for eating more fresh fruits and vegetables? First we need to end all farm subsidies, since these are typically paid to corporate farmers to grow the stuff that is killing us. Second, we need to pay all of our workers more, so they can afford to choose better foods, instead of the fast cheap crap that is often the only available or obvious choice. This too goes back to the CEO pay issue, and good luck getting our bribed-Congress to take any action on that.

Medical malpractice reform? You mean that scarecrow hauled up in front of the ignorant, whether they write for the WSJ or rant at townhall meetings, that at best would save us 1-2% and not result in one more person having access to healthcare? Just stop it, bringing this up makes you look STUPID.

combining "our high deductible plan (patients pay for the first $2,500 of medical expenses) with personal wellness accounts or health savings accounts works extremely well for us." He estimates the plan's premiums plus other costs at $2,100 per employee, and about $7,000 for a family. This is about half what other companies typically pay. "And," he is quick to add, "we do cover pre-existing conditions after one year of service."

Again, you overcharge your customers so you can afford to compensate your employees in ways most employers can't, and in ways that those employers who can, don't, so their executives can have the right corporate jet and their progeny can attend the right private schools.

This type of plan does not excite proponents of a single-payer system, who think that individuals can't make wise health-care choices

How stupid are you, and how stupid do you think your readers are? A single payer system is the only way to truly simplify our healthcare system. Most medical practices pay at least half of their revenues simply to plow into the mess of an insurance system that they have to contend with, Between all of the private and public systems. This is many, many times what they spend on total insurance (malpractice, etc.). The labor cost to a medical practice to account for our haphazard corporatist medical care system can be staggering. Imagine having one price, and one entity to receive payment from. Every medical practice in the country, separated from extremist politics, is for single payer.

unions

Right, the unions...straw man of the ignorant, extremist right.

Stephen Moore: Mackey says that he probably won't write another op-ed piece for a long, long time. Of course you want to push your, and your paper's, corporatist agenda, but why regurgitate this?

Presidential Legitimacy - crazies stirred!

Where Did ‘We’ Go?

Let's sum this:

Politics has always been a dangerous game, and seeking political office is never for the thin skinned.

Legitimacy? Every president in my 53-year-long life has been legitimate, since the bar to entry is set pretty low - age and citizenship - and the Electoral College system is badly in need of revision.

Nixon? An angry, bitter man who wasn't a bad president but got no love when he was caught associating with common criminals, and he deserved what he got.

Ford? Probably a decent man, but when the criminal steps aside for you, and then you pardon him, you probably do not deserve re-election.

Carter? Still paying for the mistakes of his predecessors, and you know it.

Reagan? Held aloft as a muscled, tanned God above God by Republicans...he was reviled in his time yet legitimate evil stuff like Iran-Contra slid off his hide as if it were...teflon. I have in my posession a souvenier of the times which molds Reagan's head into a, well I won't say but it is not complementary. If rational, thinking humans don't finally see how his presidency, legitimate or not, led to today's ecomonic situation, I see little hope for this great experiment we call the United States. But even with a massive US and global opposition to his policies, he achieved re-election and got his VP, a wealthy WWII vet who had a couple of kids, elected to replace him.

When GHWB's presidency, again legitimate, floundered, things were ripe for, what's the word, change. The Republican politicians, already drooling over the prospect of a permanant Republican majority and an inflation of Executive powers heretofore unimagined, fueled by their bitter rage that Nixon was screwed simply because he was caught, were complacent, and saw Bill Clinton get elected.

The Republican overseers whipped their minions into a froth, and within a few years for the first time legitimized and institutionalized into our lawmaking process the means to slur and slander a president, with the end simply being a few more seats in congress. Led by a man named Newt, they publicly took every opportunity to obstruct any good work this legitimately elected administration wanted to pass, hogtying them to Don't Ask Don't Tell, shamefully defeating healthcare reform which would have transformed our country to one where we showed the world that we respect and love our people, instead of the one where the world sees that we let corporations steer our polititians to do whatever it takes to gain political power, instead of doing what's right.

Nothing short of convicting President Clinton of murdering Vince Foster with his bare hands on the steps of the White House would have satisfied these goons. Instead, we had taxpayer-robbing investigations that led nowhere, and a president who was not convicted of anything, even though articles of impeachment were passed. Every move this president made especially in his second term was open for labeling by an evil Republican machine and complicit media. When middle eastern terrorists were showing their intent to harm us, for example, every move by the President was called not-enough, Wag-the-dog, etc., - the very same acts that if the demigod Reagan had done them, they would have been held up as a shining example of strategic brilliance and our American superiority. Gingrich, the blood of 9/11 victims is on your hands for establishing a system where you can discredit an American presidency simply to elect more Republicans, hampering an existing president's ability to lead in the process.

GWB? Legitimately elected, but not by a majority of us. Put in office essentially by an activist Supreme Court, no wonder his actions were questioned. Even most in the US who didn't vote for him rallied around after 9/11, and GWB simply blew it going into Iraq, wanting to turn Social Security over to Wall Street, etc. Comparisons to Nazis were wrong, but in our quiet, sane, moments, we can see how a Bush steamrolling over Iraq might be held up on a banner by some as being like a Hitler steamrolling over Poland.

Yet, the Republicans, continue to argue that GWB was a legitimate - and infathomably, good - president, and that Obama is not. this is where Friedman is right, that against sanity itself, these Republicans continue to argue these things, and yes, it would be supremely ironic if GWB were to be considered in history books to be a legitimate president, and Obama not.

Friedman's point, obviously that idiot Grover Norquist in Politico's Arena never actually read it, is right, that percieved legitimacy can be very different from actuality, and that legitimacy can be used by nasty people to stir others to very nasty action, is right.

Fiscal Responsibility Requires Higher Taxes - Forbes.com

Fiscal Responsibility Requires Higher Taxes - Forbes.com

At some point, taxes have to be back on the table as the price that must be paid for profligate spending. Only then will the American people realize that they can't have their cake and eat it too, as Republicans have preached for the last decade. Only when the American people go back to believing that spending must be paid for will they stop demanding something for nothing and put the country back on the path to fiscal sanity.

I rarely agree with Bartlett, but thanks to him, and it should be obvious to all that cutting taxes for a few already-wealthy people during a deficit situation and passing the Medicare drug benefit without a means to pay for it - both simply to curry votes - were not conservative and just about the worst things that government could do for the economy. Yes, smash the tax code and rebuild it so corporations actually pay tax - a reasonable one, and rebuild it so everyone has the chance to benefit from itemized deductions - not just the already-wealthy.

This won't happen until we abolish the notion of corporate personhood, and stop deluding ourselves to believe that money is speech.

Daniel Henninger: From Bismarck to Obama - WSJ.com

Daniel Henninger: From Bismarck to Obama - WSJ.com

ObamaCare

Every time a reader or listener hears this term, he or she should run screaming. It is equivalent to "death panel." It doesn't exist, and hasn't been used by a sentient being to label this initiative. It shows how dull, misleading, and manipulative a publication like WSJ is.

the country has been waiting for "national health reform" for 70 years

Dude, try 97 years:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1447696 in 1912 Theodore Roosevelt’s insurgent Progressive Party included a health insurance plank in its campaign platform

Every time the state assumes an additional function such as health insurance, child care or benefits for the aged, the need for close family ties becomes weaker

Where to begin on support for such a stupid, inflammatory, and outrageous remark? Let's sum it up by saying that keeping your and my family healthy is right up there with keeping them housed and fed. Unfortunately, the deck is stacked against many of us. We can't win in the game - and the already-wealthy-and-powerful have made this a game, and a deadly one - to make enough money to afford even basic health care in some cases. And the rest of us who can afford it pay, and overpay, for those who can not afford it, it many, many egregious ways. And the tiny sliver of us who are among the wealthy overpay, but don't feel a thing from the inflation.

ACORN Obsession Kills GOP Chances in '10

News in November '10.

ACORN, socialist, Hitler...just posters on the crazy train.

I'm a Values Voter!

Let's start with Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness as values.

I value life. War of choice, started for the monetary and political profit of a tiny minority of wealthy white men, is murder. Capital Punishment, which doesn't act as a deterrent, is an egregious example of Big Government intrusion into our lives, and does not right a wrong, is murder. Having the best healthcare system in the world, yet denying it to many or making it so costly that even the insured can't afford it, is murder.

I value Liberty. Calling the president a socialist (when you are too ignorant to comprehend what socialism is) or a Nazi is political terrorism - it stirs the Reptilian Brain and causes the blind, outrageous outbursts we see, reported by a complacent and complicit media, and denies all of us the right to decent political discourse. Giving the previous president carte blanche to shred the constitution and allow public access to our private conversations is a sword through our rightful humanity. Getting your news strictly from radio and TV shriekers who invent facts and reinvent history to support a disloyal opposition keeps us as citizens of the United States from living freely.

I value the freedom to pursue happiness - no matter what skin color, gender, sexual orientation, or ability we are born with, we have a fundamental right to live that to the fullest. My activities, unless they are against our laws, can't be regulated or outlawed by inbred morons and shriekers who put their own cafeteria-Christianity above my life.

We have an Idiocracy who values usury over monetary responsibility, winning-at-any-cost over the support of the value of life, and extremist political and religious claptrap over the centerist nation that we truly are.

Yes, I vote, and I will never vote for anyone who transparently wants to destroy our right to a free life.

Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance | Reuters

Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance | Reuters

Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.

"We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction ... than drunk driving and homicide combined

You bloggers and shriekers who prophesy with your pen...

Every one of you obstructing health care reform is a murderer.

Dear Senator!

Please stand up to the bill that Sen. Baucus has presented.

The current system murders people (and no, that's not too strong of a word), and this bill does nothing to address the needs of anyone but already wealthy and powerful insurance companies.

There is not enough regulation in this bill to fundamentally change how these companies work. Few people currently uninsured - including my two college-age sons, regretfully - will find a way to afford the ever-increasing costs to by fundamentally-flawed coverage. These insurance companies will continue to have clear ways to deny service paid-for by existing companies, and to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

The only way to relieve this horrible tax on small employers and the self-employed, the only way to keep people out of the clutches of corporate bureaucrats, the only way to return medical caregivers to the art of healing from the task of accounting, the only way to make our exceptional health care available to all regardless of wealth, is a single payer system.

You know this and I know this.

Cowardice and avarice are the only things keeping the status quo. Politicians' immediate political needs are murdering people. Politicians' immediate needs to feed from lobbyists' troughs are murdering people.

A single payer system is the only way to get the indemnity pool large enough to bring costs down, coverage broad, and to deliver quality care.

Please stand up to this bill.

Please do what you can to deliver a bill to the President's desk by the end of the year that sets in stone immediate, meaningful fundamental change in our healthcare.

Real Life 'Norma Rae' Murdered by Her Insurance Company to Get Chemo | Crooks and Liars

'Norma Rae' Dead at 68 After Struggle With Her Insurance Company to Get Chemo | Crooks and Liars

The woman whose life inspired the 1979 film Norma Rae has died of cancer after struggling with her health insurance company, which had delayed her treatment.

Crystal Lee Sutton was 68. She had struggled for several years with meningioma, a form of brain cancer.

Name the company.

Charge their CEO, each and every Board member, and each bureaucrat who delayed and denied coverage with murder.

Commentary: Don't cut our (public) health care - CNN.com

Commentary: Don't cut our (public) health care - CNN.com

"We worked hard to get it and we're going to keep it," said Nancy Snyder, one of the protesters attending this summer's health care town meetings.... she was interviewed by Michel Martin on National Public Radio's "Tell Me More."

When asked how she had insurance coverage, Nancy explained that because her husband was a retired coal miner, they received insurance and care through the United Mine Workers. She attended the town hall because she said she had "had enough of the government interfering with our lives, after working hard all of our lives, especially to get the health care."

As employment declined and mining families struggled in the 1960s, mineworkers launched widespread protest demonstrations and traveled to Washington to lobby for federal support of UMW hospitals. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson responded with the Area Redevelopment Administration, the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act, the Appalachian Redevelopment Act, and of course, Medicare.

Government stabilized and expanded the miners' health system. Miners were proud beneficiaries of Johnson's Great Society -- today so much maligned by the conservative talk show hosts. Miners continued their pressure, leading to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, marshalling public force to protect their health in the private workplace.

If Nancy Snyder "did not pay one penny" for her husband's cancer treatment or her surgeries, it's because government subsidized that care since Robert's early days as a miner.

This is the story of thousands, if not millions (sorry idiot Michelle Malkin, it wasn't even close to millions who marched on Washington last weekend, and the ones who did represent a constituency not large enough to elect a small-town city council seat) who's lives depend on the balance of public and private programs. They are renentive enough to hold onto words shrieked by radio entertainers, yet don't apply critical thinking and accept the conclusions of these media shriekers as fact.

Let's help each other build a strong foundation of fact, so we can all understand the current situation with our healthcare system in the United States. Only from there can we together make a bold step towards high quality affordable healthcare for all.

How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? - NYTimes.com

How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? - NYTimes.com

Economists got it wrong by:

Believing their own bullshit. Economy, as a science, is really a belief system. These mere mortals think that they are masters of the universe.

Politicizing their beliefs. Economists used the political tactic "if you repeat a lie (or a belief) often enough, people will start to believe it.

They forgot the definition of insanity - doing something repeatedly and expecting the results to change. Every strong Republican/supply-side/trickle-down administration has plunged the country into recession. Standing this ground on idealogical feet makes no sense, except to a complicit media and a public willing to accept lies.

Shreiking, Panicing, Pathetic Poster Boy: Rep. Joe Wilson!

(R) SC

Healthcare Reform - Now More Than Ever!

Universally available
No recsission
Coverage with pre-existing conditions
Highest Quality
Lowest cost
No Bankruptcy from high medical bills
Transportability

We can't afford not to!

Students - take responsibility for your education, set goals and do everything you can to succeed.

Today is a great day for students, parents, and educators to start to take education seriously.

Republicans to offer rebuttal of President Obama's Message to Students

Republicans plan to urge students to take no responsibility for their own education, to set no goals, and to not stay in school and never make the most of it.

No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick

Corporations are not Persons! Money is not speech!

Constitutional amendment! Outlaw corporate personhood and pay-for-politics forever!

U. S. Healthcare is Broken! Let's Fix It! 2

Here are some more:

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-321175.html

5. Doctors are rewarded for prescribing drugs. Big pharmaceutical companies are known to hand out “consulting agreements” worth more than your annual salary to doctors who prescribe their drugs like candy. And unlike contributions to political candidates, there is no way to track what doctors are considered “top-performers” and receiving the most lavish gifts. This is one of the worst practices I can think of that drives a stake right through the heart of healthcare’s credibility.

4. Big Healthcare, i.e. pharmaceutical companies, hospital networks, insurers and their support industries, spend hundreds of millions each year lobbying Congress to make sure there are not major changes to the business structure we call healthcare. They have a vested interest in keeping things the same (again, see #1) which is good for some and bad for many.

3. Tens of millions of healthy people choose not to pay for health insurance, putting the financial solvency of the system at risk. This leaves those that do pay into the insurance system paying more. The concept of insurance is to spread the cost so that when you need help, you are not buried under steep bills that you could not possibly afford to pay back. So those who opt out are cheating everyone else. Including, probably, their own family and friends.

2. We are killing ourselves. Our choices bring on diabetes, heart-attack-inducing high blood pressure and cholesterol, obesity, chronic illness, and the like. We eat crap. We supersize it. We consider the walk from the parking lot to our office exercise. We only see the doctor when we get sick. Even then, we only listen to the prescribed advice about half the time. And we’re totally aghast at the increasing costs of care when we get really sick.

And the #1 reason healthcare in America is broken...

1. The current system is set up to reward sickness. Doctors get paid when you see them. And you only see them when something’s wrong, right? Hospitals get paid when someone gets injured or is sick. Pharmaceutical companies make outrageous profits when their drugs are prescribed (and they lavish gifts worth more than your annual salary to the doctors who prescribe the most…see #5). Insurance companies take in more money when there are more sick people to cover. Everything revolves around us being sick.

U. S. Healthcare is Broken! Let's Fix It! 1

-We pay more per-capita for healthcare than other industrialized nations, and this is growing far faster than inflation
-We receive low quality care, ranking 37th in the world according to the WHO
-appx. 47 million people in the US lack healthcare insurance. These people can get medical treatment from free clinics, emergency rooms, and other sources, but these costs are socialized
-the cost of treating the uninsured is paid by the insured, from higher hospital/doctor fees and socialized costs
-among the insured, most bankruptcies are caused by healthcare expenses
-among the insured, treatment is often denied by corporate bureaucrats
-among the insured, coverage is often denied if you want to buy insurance and have a pre-existing condition
-nearly 30% of us are covered by socialized medicine
-the insured pay from 5-30% more than the socialized programs, from higher administrative costs at private insurers
-employers are laying off workers, taking less profit, and going bankrupt from increased group medical insurance costs
-our manufacturing industries are globally uncompetitive without socialized healthcare
-for-profit medical providers often choose procedures and treatments based on how much revenue they can derive, not on the best outcome for the patient
-standards for medical practice are different and not portable between states
-we have the best-quality treatment in the world available, yet often these treatments are available only based on the ability to pay, not on need or potential outcome
-dental care is expensive and not covered in many cases, yet it has a direct effect on patients' overall health: inflammation from gum disease is often a major contributor or cause of cardiovascular disease
-more, more, more

60,000 More California Children Without Healthcare

Are you happy now California Republicans?

Giving internet access to seniors is like giving whiskey to Indians...

(to paraphrase P. J. O'Rourke)

healthcare is tyranny, and war is peace

Do you think healthcare for all is not for our greater good?

If so, you're a self-hating idiot.

Impeach Clarence Thomas!

Supreme Court makes age-bias suits harder to win - Los Angeles Times

...if a worker could show age was one of the factors in a layoff or demotion, then the employer was required to prove it had a legitimate reason for its action apart from age...

Supreme Court rules DNA tests for prisoners not a constitutional right
The court's conservative majority, led by Justice Clarence Thomas, threw out this two-step approach. Instead, the court said, workers bear the full burden of proving that age was the deciding factor in their dismissal or demotion.

This is the most egregious example of an activist Supreme Court legislating from the bench in a generation.

Federal and State law, long-standing court decisions, and just-plain common sense tell us that this decision is very very wrong. Yet, the tyranny of a few politically motivated Supreme Court justices is threatening protections that should be common to all of us as a matter of human rights, in so many ways including this decision.

Let's hope that Congress can correct this soon.

Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich - WSJ.com

Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich - WSJ.com

Laffer and Moore are idiots. Or treasonists.

America was at its strongest when our tax rates on the top earners (and on capital gains) were at their highest.

Nothing in history suggests a downturn or negative effect by reasonable progressive taxation in times of need. Nothing in history shows any significant improvement in the lives of the vast majority of our citizens when we game the system to let the extremely wealthy retain more of their extreme wealth.

Yet, politicians and jerks like Laffer and Moore have repeatedly been able to con a significant percentage of voters into supporting economic policies clearly against our self-interest.

Time to build a strong middle class - this is the only way America can survive and prosper.

California Reckoning - WSJ.com

California Reckoning - WSJ.com

Fundamental misunderstanding of the political and economic situation in California leads to ignorant editorials like this.

Repeal Prop 13! 13 Was not a populist tax revolt. No grandmothers were being kicked to the curb as their property taxes increased with their property value. 13 was simply a power and money grab by state politicians and already-wealthy interests, and led to fundamental changes in both residential real estate and local government.

The boom and bust cycles that followed 13 in CA, although not unprecedented, have simply led to exclusion - the majority of residents of much of CA can't afford to buy a home here, something people from out of state or insanely out of the middle-class, like Murdoch's minions. When your neighbor, simply by staying put, pays 1/10 of what you do in property taxes for the same 1959 tract home, something's fundamentally wrong.

When CA goes from the top of the heap in education and other hallmarks of society to nearly the bottom, something's fundamentally wrong.

It's the state's voters who have voted away local power and local jobs. When we give this to a state legislature but also tie their hands with restrictive proposition after restrictive proposition, it is us who drove into this gridlock.

Yes, vote down these initiatives, except for 1F as a symbolic gesture (in my opinion, legislators should work for no pay until they get the state working reasonably again). But we will all need to suffer , and pay more, for our shortsighted devotion to the insane Jarvis extremists.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124199933659205011.html#mod=djemEditorialPage

Copyright Critics Rationalize Theft - WSJ.com#mod=djemEditorialPage

they
repeatedly assert, copyright is an unjustifiable tax, a monopoly, and a bar to
creativity, why wouldn't they or anyone else be against it, as in fact they are?

Copyright is no more a tax than the price a merchant charges for an item in his shop or what a laborer receives for his labor. Nor is it a monopoly any more than you have a monopoly on the sale of a watermelon you might grow in your garden


Mark Helprin is an idiot, and shouldn't be allowed to write about a subject which he obviously does not understand.

Who suggests copyright is a tax? No one. It is an exclusive Right to Copy, on par with other rights established in our constitution. It is a Right with exclusions. These exclusions limit who owns the right, how long the right is, what can be protected, etc.

These exclusions have always been designed to be the balance between monopoly and chaos, and our congress, imbued with the power to regulate copyright, has a tough task to enforce a position of balance between the free creation of works and the free commerce of works.

The Statutes of Queen Anne wouldn't work anymore, since the technology to distribute is not concentrated to a wealthy and powerful few, but freely available to each creative artist.

Calling infringement theft and infringers pirates do nothing to encourage more, and better, works of the creative arts. The theives and pirates are in-fact the best customer of the creative artists - every distribution entity knows this, yet won't address it because they have an infantile need to hold on to how they have done things in the past.

Us vs. Them arguments simply serve to secure a hierarchical distribution system rooted in past technology and a revenue distribution system clearly benefitting the already-wealthy few. We need to protect more-firmly the ability of each creative artist to derive direct revenue from his or her work.

Helprin, read copyright law and the constitution, and grow a creative heart, and get back to us.

Recall Schwarzenegger!

Budget deal would include steeper car fees

Motorists' annual license fees would rise from 0.65% of the value of their vehicles to 2%. For a car or truck valued at $25,000, the increase would be $336. ... The last governor to triple the license fee was his predecessor, Gray Davis. Voter anger soared, and the increase played a large role in Davis' removal from office. Schwarzenegger crusaded against the hike throughout the recall campaign, and in his first act in office he cut the fee -- the "car tax," as he and some others call it -- back to its current rate...

Davis did not increase any "car tax."

Previous Governor Republican Pete Wilson signed a Vehicle License Fee offset as an idealogical tax break. It reduced the tax paid by purchasers of new cars paid by consumers to the state, and included a sunset clause intended to rescind the break when the state's budget required it.

At some point in Davis' term, the VLF offset went away. The powerful energy lobby, car dealerships, and Congressman Darrell Issa exploited this as a primary tool to get behind Schwarzenegger in the recall of Davis. Schwarzenegger said little during the campaign other that "car tax" "car tax" and replaced Davis with an ineffective state administration in a recall election based on misinformation that never should have happened.

The car dealerships, the biggest contributors to Schwarzenegger's campaign, won big. Schwarzenegger's first act as Governor was famously at a car dealership, rescinding the VLF offset, as Quid Pro Quo for their support in the recall effort.

With this recall, corporate influence on the California state government and election process reached a new level.

Recall the fascist.

U. S. Auto Industry - FIXED!

This is tougher than SS.

After all, the US auto industry is older than Social Security, and people unused to any lifestyle other than that of the rich and famous stand to lose with the collapse of the auto industry.

First, go Total Commie. Sit down hard on the Medium Three. Tell the bourgeoisie and the proletariat that until they fix their problems, they all earn the same wage. To bring wage expenditures down to the point where they don't threaten to destabilize the company, industry, and nation, a few janitors might get a raise but everyone else might get a cut. Mandate this for three years. Go ahead, I dare you.

Few employees would be able to afford the very product that they labor to make - this would be good experience, especially for management.

Few employees would be able to afford reasonable health care. Who pays for that? We do! If Hillary Clinton would have had her way in 1993 (and Newt "He's not my president" Gingrich would have been righteously called out as a treasonist), the US auto industry might very well not be in its present predicament (although I won't underestimate such an industry's ability to shit their own bed). What's the number - $1,500 per US car is in health care benefits? This is a major component of our cars' lack of competitiveness with foreign cars.

Few employees would be able to contribute much to the faltering consumer economy. Good - maybe some enterprising individuals will jump right in and lead us out of the Consumer Spending Wasteland created by the faux-conservative neocons in Government until January 20, 2009. As far back as Prop 13 in California - on the surface a populist tax revolt to protect grannies from being property-taxed out of their homes, but in reality a power-and-money grab by Sacramento that led smart localities to replace their manufacturing industry with big-box retailers - as a nation we've been relying on more and more purchases of cheap shiny Chinese trinkets and more and more McJobs created to support the consumerist economy. The grand shining centerpiece of this, presented with bipartisan support, is our current real estate bust, formerly a boom. Perhaps the upper-management class at our car companies doesn't need that second home, perhaps they can drink Two Buck Chuck, perhaps they can keep their American Made care for eleven years instead of trading it in every three years. As the economy rights itself, perhaps more of us could get by with less, and maybe save more and more.

Renegotiate a few mortgages so that the middle-class employees could keep their homes. Make the C-level execs sell theirs and downsize until the economy right-sizes.

Suspend board member compensation.

Suspend stock dividends.

What do these car companies do with their leaner, more stable structures? Build more McEighteenWheelers? The whole SUV thing should never have happened - the tax break for 3-ton vehicles was just plain evil. Going Total Commie means that for the duration, we tell these companies what to build. California got it wrong when they mandated a certain percentage of sales be of electric cars, but not much wrong; you can't dictate what consumers will buy. We can tell the car companies to junk their entire lineup for one that provides a variety of sizes, prices, and luxury levels, but with a few new things in common: they all use half the gasoline, and they all are made of largely recyclable components. We have already pledged $25B to the car companies to help them go in this direction - increase this to a $100B pot to be split evenly between the Medium Three at the end of three years when they have reached this goal. Give them a total, 100% tax write-off for all Research and Development costs. Put a similar pot on the stove for non-Medium-Three entrepreneurs who come up with viable technologies and practices.

What do we get in three years? A viable US auto industry. As many as 1-in-10 of all US jobs would have been stable through the worst time of this economic downturn. Each of the Medium Three will have a viable lineup of cars, and can compete freely with each other, and most importantly with foreign manufacturers. We hopefully will have technology then that is unique to the US, with us having a limited exclusive right to use it and then license it to any foreign manufacturers who want it.

If we do not do something as drastic as this, or if we simply bail them out and keep throwing good money after bad, this economic downturn stands a much better chance of careening from recession to depression.

Social Security - FIXED!

Lower the rate.

Remove the cap.

Means test.

Done!

SS is not a retirement program. It is a safety net.

SS was conceived during the Great Depression as a means to insure that Grandma wouldn't end her life in the street or in a dismal bed in an institution. She could be 48 years old and her children or grandchildren could no longer care for her because over a third of them were out of work. It was right, and noble, for all to contribute so that these relative few could live out their last few years in dignity.

Now, lives last longer. Women are much more likely to have worked during their lives and to have contributed to SS. The chasm between rich and poor is ever widening, with a sharp dividing line between those who can retire comfortably at 59 1/2, 65, or 70, and those who can't. The sky isn't falling today on SS, but clouds are gathering.

We must return SS to a state where it can continue to run in perpetual motion as machine that sustains us as we grow old, fueled by a little contribution from each of us.

That contribution can be small, much smaller than it is today, in fact, if we remove the cap, allowing those most-able to contribute give a small percentage of their taxable income. This might allow us to eliminate the contribution by employers entirely, and to decrease the contribution by us, the employed, to perhaps 5%.

Means test? Of course. John McCain receives a SS check each month equal to that of many, many soldiers, sailors, and marines who served just as admirably but did not marry into fabulous wealth. He receives this fairly and legally under the current system, but would not notice if this check didn't arrive. Similar money pooled for others who do not need it for survival can make the difference between destitution and prosperity for many on Social Security.

This could be done tomorrow, or on January 21, 2009 by a clear-thinking President.

Bush Recession Rocks the World

Make no mistake about it, eight years of the Cheney/Bush administration - in fact, twenty five years of selling the middle class an economic system designed simply to destroy the middle class - is what brought us to the current economic crisis.

You make volatile, precarious financial products available to billionaires, and the billionaires bite.

A free market can't flourish unless a majority of us can participate.

McCain Campaign Violates Voters' Privacy!

I'm not a D or an R, so I signed up for both Obama's email list and McCain's list.

Today - election day - I received this email message:

Two Things You Can Do Today

If you haven't already voted, VOTE!
Click here to find your polling location.

Make at least 10 calls for McCain-Palin to help get out the vote!
Use the script below to call the ten voters listed in this email.
Call Script - Use this to call the 10 voters listed below

Hello, my name is YOUR NAME and I am a volunteer calling on behalf of the McCain-Palin campaign. Today is Election Day, and John McCain is the only candidate with the experience we can trust to bring real change to Washington and get our economy back on track. The race is shaping up to be extremely close, and your vote will make a difference. Can we count on your vote?

Thank you for your time. This call was paid for by McCain/Palin 2008 at 703-418-2008.

First Name Last Name Phone Number City State
LAVERNE HAAS 717 665-3628 MANHEIM PA
PATRICIA GARMAN 717 394-3147 LANCASTER PA
EILEEN DAVIS 717 285-1451 COLUMBIA PA
DALE DISSINGER 717 733-3663 EPHRATA PA
BETTY MURPHY 717 786-4788 QUARRYVILLE PA
ADRA JESBERG 717 529-1167 KIRKWOOD PA
D BURKHART 717 285-4820 MOUNTVILLE PA
EDNA VICKERS 717 872-7040 CONESTOGA PA
LEAH SCHAUREN 717 684-6293 COLUMBIA PA
HERBERT IMHOFF 717 733-8920 EPHRATA PA
Answering Machine Message

Hello, my name is YOUR NAME and I am a volunteer calling on behalf of the McCain-Palin campaign. Today is Election Day, and John McCain is the only candidate with the experience we can trust to bring real change to Washington and get our economy back on track. The race is shaping up to be extremely close, and your vote will make a difference.

Thank you for your time. This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 at 703-418-2008.





Please visit this page if you want to remove yourself from the email list.

Paid for by McCain-Palin 2008

Would you like it if either campaign violated your right to privacy in this way?

The Maverick - New for 2008!

*Warranty disclaimer: 220V version not guaranteed for use in countries that don't like us very much.*

Deserter McCain McBails on Debate

Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.

I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.

McCain is the defacto leader of the Republican party - they should come to him! I'm sure that, even if he's not comfortable with email, that he knows how to use a phone. He is not on any committees relevant to the Bailout for Billionaires. McCain is not considered by his peers or the public as an expert in finance and the economy. Why is his presence needed desparately in Washington?

Washington doesn't need McCain right now, but McCain needs to change the focus of the presidential campaign from the issues. His poll numbers have slipped below where they were before the conventions. The economy is considered the number one issue by most voters and they consider him the weak alternative on the economy. McCain campaign manager Rick Davis's ties to Freddie Mac are making news, gluing McCain to the number one issue.

The campaign suspension and debate desertion is pure Steve Schmidt, though. There will be one dirty trick after another, misdirection followed by misdirection, improbably hail mary pass following improbably hail mary pass. These people have no floor, no limit on how low they will stoop to get their candidate elected.

John McCain didn't work as a 2008 presidential candidate, as John McCain, so he was made over as a circus pony in maverick's clothes, and his campaign took off toward the nomination.

His choice of Vice Presidential candidate didn't fit the mold (or his second choice, or his third) so he chose Gov. Palin to excite the far right wing of the Republican party. This worked for about two weeks, as actual issues reared their heads again and people looked away. Palin has to be veiled from the press, she has to have cram courses in things that should be already deeply understood by any VP candidate...her star has faded. Talk has been heard of putting the first presidential debate on the night the one and only Vice Presidential debate is scheduled to happen - wouldn't cancelling her only debate be perfect for an under-skilled under-prepared VP candidate like Palin?

The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is reportedly upon us, and the plans of the Party in Power are being derided by most Americans and the world, while Wall Street seems to continue to function. Even this conjured calamity isn't giving the raving Republicans a boost for their candidate.

What's next from the Party in Power? What October Surprise is being prepped? War with Iran - don't be surprised if bombs start flying before November 4th. These people will stoop to nothing.

Barack Obama made the first move to issue a joint statement supporting a solution to the finacial crisis, and moments later John McCain lit that on fire and threw out in the yard. While both are reportedly at a White House meeting today, Obama is rightly insisting that the debate scheduled for tomorrow night proceed.

This postponment is pure politics, make no mistake about that. A leader can lead from anywhere these days. A leader must multitask - a two-hour debate with an opponent over national security issues while also considering solutions to economic problems is not too much to ask. If McCain is a coward or if McCain is just too tired to do both, a potential McCain presidency should scare each and every one of us.

The Trillion Dollar Treason

McCainBush - all the way back to Reagan - should be in jail, executed, or discredited for their sellout of our grandchildrens' security.

Supply Side economics and fascistic corporate governance of America has got to stop!

Obama: "We cannot only have a plan for Wall Street. We must also help Main Street"

"John McCain and I can continue to argue about our different economic agendas for next year, but we should come together now to work on what this country urgently needs this year," he said.

"It is critical at this point that the markets and the public have confidence that their work will be unimpeded by partisan wrangling, and that leaders in both parties work in concert to solve the problem at hand."

Don't Bailout the Bank Billionaires!

Help the homeowners:

Point the legislative gun to the bankers' heads - make them renegotiate loans that are in trouble.

Give the Billionaire Bailout money to the homeowners, to save or squander. It was theirs to start with - the Billionaires paid a small fraction of their disposable income as taxes compared to the homeowners.

Done.

Ready! Fire! Aim! - Which Billionaire gets Bailed Out Next?

OK oh wise Bush one - who's next?

Moral Failure! Impeach Bush, Take Reagan off the Pedestal, and for God's Sake, Don't Elect McCain!

25 Years of supply side economics, after worshiping at the crumbling alters of Norquist and Laffer, should make it clear to all of us that we've been had.

Congress today is making plans to nationalize our banking industry. This socialist program of desperate welfare for the wealthy will make the misdeeds of the last 25 years look like a picnic compared to what we are leaving for our grandchildren.

No, we are not doing fine - the majority of us are working longer hours for less. Wealth is consciously being redistributed upward, while the morally weak supply siders warn about welfare mothers driving Cadillacs, brown-skinned people in emergency rooms, and helping homeowners keep their exploitative mortgages would void them of their personal responsibility.

It's time for the electorate to wake up and realize that Washington and each of the state legislatures are not working for you - they are working for the already wealthy and powerful.

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should resign over the current national banking scandal, or be impeached - no matter what your political view, we are a representative democracy, and our representatives in each of the tripartate federal government are fundamentally changing our government unconstitutionally, without our consent. High crimes and misdemeanors, clearly.

The current state of government goes back to Nixon, and there are a lot of angles, but was crystallized with the election of Reagan - hailed as a taxcutter, who instead raised taxes more than he lowered them, hailed as a man who single-handedly stared-down the Soviet bear and tore down the wall, who instead negotiated with the terrorists...he was not what you thought he was. His administration should be viewed as one of the worst in history.

McCain - simply more of the same, evidenced by the reversal of virtually everything he claimed to stand for in his pathetic attempt to be elected a one-term president to continue the crimes of the elite administration. Don't let him fool you. Vote for anyone but McCain.

Desparate McCainBush/Palin Ticket Sinks

The president can't fire the SEC chairman.

Spain is in Europe, not South America.

A subpoena is a subpoena, and the VP candidate's spouse has no particular immunity.

Yesterday the economy was fundamentally strong, and today it's horrible.

McCain invented the Blackberry.

McCain isn't qualified to run a major corporation.

This ticket is seriously a close contender for the White House?

McCainBush - Leave No Billionaire Behind

...would probably still put your Social Security money in the stock market...if they could.

Leave no billionaire behind.

McCain/Bush Yemen Embassy attacked by Terrorists

The McCain/Bush administration's claims of quelling terrorist attacks on the US have been attributed to their so-called war on terror.

Today, the US Embassy in Yemen was attacked by terrorists.

The McCain/Bush war on terror is an abject failure, and we can't afford four more years of a McCain/Bush administration.

Obama - I Don't Need a Commission to Know How to Fix the Economy

``We need to set up a 9/11 Commission in order to get to the bottom of this and get it fixed and act to clean up this corruption,'' McCain said on CBS's ``Early Show.''

The Elite Bush/McCain administration ignored the advice of the 9/11 commission.

Why should we believe that McCain will adopt good advice?

Fiorina Fallout

Carly Fiorina in her days at Hewlett Packard led the company in a bold expansion, using mergers and acquisitions as her main strategy. During her tenure, the market halved HP’s value and the company incurred heavy job losses.

Today, the effects of Hurricane Carly remain.

HP is announcing the layoff of nearly 25,000 workers, mostly due to the post-Fiorina acquisition of EDS.

Serving as chief financial consultant to Presidential candidate John McCain, Fiorina paints a rosy picture of the economy, and probably works daily to bring John McCain up to snuff on economic issues. McCain has publicly stated “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.”

Nearly every economic expert, of all political stripe, agree that we are in the most challenging economic time since the Great Depression.

Surely the influence of Fiorina and Phil Gramm will influence John McCain in a way that could lead to catastrophic results for our Country. With McCain and Barack Obama essentially tied in the race for the presidency, we need to look carefully at the state of the economy now, consider what eight years of Bush economics have done to most of us (and 25 years of Reaganomics), and vote appropriately.

Elite McCain Protects Child Molesters

While an Illinois State Senator, Barack Obama voted for a voluntary program (parents are given the choice to opt out) in Illinois to teach kindergardeners to report adults who touch them inappropriately.

In the new McCain spot, an announcer says "Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach "comprehensive sex education" to kindergartners. Learning about sex before learning to read?"

This is a great notion, and one that, if it is not in place, protects teachers who molest their students. Without this specific, age-appropriate education, students often do not feel empowered to report those in authority for even unspeakable acts. Without this knowledge, the students' future can be impaired.

Elite McCain, in wrongfully characterizing this bill and Obama's involvement with it, shows just how out of touch he is, and how corrupt his campaign is.

Even Karl Rove says that McCain is a liar.

Obama's Plan to catch Bin Laden Adopted by Bush

Pakistan Raid Start Of Concerted Bid To Hit Al-Qaida

the raid by helicopter-borne U.S. Special Operations forces in Pakistan last week was not an isolated incident but part of a three-phase plan, approved by President Bush, to strike at Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaida leadership.

The plan calls for a much more aggressive military campaign, said one source, familiar with the presidential order, which gives the green light for the military to take part in the operations. The plan represents an 11th-hour effort by the Bush administration to hammer al-Qaida before the November election

The October surprise will be the American people understanding that Obama has been right all along on Iraq.

Elite McCain Campaign Stumbles

Born into rank and privilege, legacy-admitted into post-secondary education, elected to national office with the largess of Corporate America, exonerated from obvious involvement in banking scandal, married into money and corporate influence - John McCain does not know, and never has know, how most of us live.

John McCain is part of the tiny minority that run this country Elite First.

In picking a person clearly unfit to lead the free world as his second-in-command, John McCain has failed in his first executive decision.

The elites of the Republican party want those in the South, the Midwest, and small towns across America to think that someone on the Republican ticket is just like us, but they have failed. We are smarter than her, and them.

Since the Dixiecrat turnaround from Democratic to Republican of the parents and grandparents of this diverse block of voters, the Republicans have misdirected the voters into voting against their self interest. Now, the Republican party rejoices at the opportunity to raise the flag of race and even a lying flag of religion against their opponent.

The Republican party and the complicit, non-challenging Conservative Media have had a good unopposed run since the naming of the Governor of Alaska to the Republican presidential ticket, but they have received all the bump they will get.

On a level playing field, intelligence, reason, and competence will win, and Barack Obama will be president.

Bush 9/11 Memorial: 7 Minutes of Silence

McCain+Palin=$10/GAL

McCain Paves way for Minerals Management Service

Drill here, drill now:

McCain's visit came a day ahead of the Minerals Management Service's lease sale in New Orleans to auction off 18 million acres of the western Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling. The tracts could potentially yield as much as 400 million barrels of oil, but that amount would only meet the nation's oil needs for about 19 days, and it would be at least seven to 10 years until oil started flowing.

McCain Sex, Drugs, and Oil

Drill Here, Drill Now, get your buddies at the Denver Minerals Management Service laid.

According to the Friends of John McCain, McCain is knee-deep to authorize:

At least $1.4 billion over ten years - For a provision that would give the Secretary of Interior the right to expand the royalty-in-kind program to all oil and gas development. This would allow oil companies, which drill on public lands to pay for the royalties owed to taxpayers in barrels of oil instead of cash.

Obama - Right on Iraq, Right on Afghanistan

Barack Obama

A Responsible, Phased Withdrawal
Barack Obama believes we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. Immediately upon taking office, Obama will give his Secretary of Defense and military commanders a new mission in Iraq: ending the war. The removal of our troops will be responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 – more than 7 years after the war began.
Under the Obama plan, a residual force will remain in Iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and to protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. He will not build permanent bases in Iraq, but will continue efforts to train and support the Iraqi security forces as long as Iraqi leaders move toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism.

Resurgent Al Qaeda in Afghanistan: The decision to invade Iraq diverted resources from the war in Afghanistan, making it harder for us to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden and others involved in the 9/11 attacks. Nearly seven years later, the Taliban has reemerged in southern Afghanistan while Al Qaeda has used the space provided by the Iraq war to regroup, train and plan for another attack on the United States. 2007 was the most violent year in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001. The scale of our deployments in Iraq continues to set back our ability to finish the fight in Afghanistan, producing unacceptable strategic risks.

Bush Decides to Withdraw 8,000 Troops From Iraq By February

The White House says President George Bush has decided to withdraw about 8.000 U.S. troops from Iraq by next February and that he will announce the plan in a speech Tuesday in Washington.

A transcript of that speech was released on Monday.

In the prepared remarks, Mr. Bush says the U.S. military will bring home 3,400 combat support forces from Iraq in the next few months.

He also says a Marine battalion will leave Iraq's Anbar province by November and an army combat brigade will withdraw from Iraq in February.

Mr. Bush says a Marine battalion that was due to be sent to Iraq in November will instead go to Afghanistan and an army combat brigade will follow in January.

Obama Leads after Conventions

Polls on Monday, September 8 show Barack Obama with a substantial lead in Electoral College results based on state-by-state polling, as a cumulative of major polls.

McCain's First Three Years Representing Arizona

-no significant legislation
-no opposition to the Republican party
-no independence from lobbyists, laying the groundwork for the Keating scandal
-no trips to any war zone

nothing zero zip nada

Oh, he was a P.O.W.

McCain/Bush Army Trains Georgia for war with Russia

US military trained Georgian commandos

The US military provided combat training to 80 Georgian special forces commandos only months prior to Georgia's army assault in South Ossetia in August.

The revelation, based on recruitment documents and interviews with US military trainers obtained by the Financial Times, could add fuel to accusations by Vlad-imir Putin, Russian prime minister, last month that the US had "orchestrated" the war in the Georgian enclave.

The training was provided by senior US soldiers and two military contractors. There is no evidence that the contractors or the Pentagon, which hired them, knew that the commandos they were training were likely be used in the assault on South Ossetia.

The conservative Global Security organisation in their article Georgia - Oil & Gas Politics describes how vital the Georgia section of the Caucasus oil pipeline is to the world oil supply.

Roughly 150 miles of the pipeline corridor extending from Baku, Azerbaijan to Turkey will pass through Georgia. This corridor includes the $3.9 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which began linefill in May 2005 and opened 13 July 2006, and the $1 billion South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) natural gas pipeline, completed in late 2006. Regional governments and international investors expect these pipelines to become two of the primary conduits for Caspian Sea region oil and natural gas exports over the next decade. Georgia is paid transit tariffs by the pipeline’s operators, and will be allotted a small percentage of fuel passing through the Republic

The oil barons in the White House must not be allowed to take us into another world conflagration over their insane love affair with oil dollars.

A McCain administration would almost certainly lead us here, with his blind devotion and insiders affection for Georgia - not Country First, but Oil Dollars First. We can support the autonomy of this former-Soviet nation in other ways that will be positive to the security and survival of the United States.

Gov. Palin: Obama's Best Fundraiser!

Now that the conventions have finished, Obama has raised $8-10M, and McCain has raised $1-2M.

Thanks, Sarah!