The Republican opposition to anything-Obama have marshaled just about every tactic of obstruction in every instance they can manage. They have made up facts and repeated the resulting lies as amplified scare tactics. They have created distractions-- like shouting down people trying to discuss issues in town-hall type meetings, endlessly repeating nonsensical questions about the President's religious beliefs, place of birth, secret racial agenda, secret domestic military agenda... For lack of rational grounding of questions and concerns, they have substituted fear mongering, race baiting, and lies, even to the point where pockets of people across the US have found this atmosphere fertile ground for talk of everything from bringing weapons to political rallies, to contemplating the arrest of the President at West Point, to the assassination of the President himself, to armed insurrection. And to their grave discredit, the Republican leadership fail to call this out as unacceptable, but instead ride it as a tactical wave to drive their negative agenda.
When one "Muslim" group after another claimed responsibility after Sept. 11, 2001 for any and every attack against US interests and allies, many said "Where are the responsible Muslim leaders to disavow and condemn these actions?!" It is time we put the same challenge to "responsible" Republican opponents of the President. Where are your voices to disavow the lies and fear mongering, and to call people to participate responsibly in the political arena? Instead, it seems that the "Republican Tent" has made ample room for liars, fear mongers, and simmering militias. There's no room for the "pro-choice" people, but bring in those who carry signs that paint the President as Hitler, and who speak in not so veiled, fear-fed tones about the President's death.
Yesterday in Congress, Sen. John Kyle from AZ asserted on the floor of the Senate that "polls show American's don't want this bill passed..." Again, all I can say right now is, Stop making things up for your convenience. You and your colleagues have done your best (worst) to put fear into people, with talk of "death panels" and more, to keep the status quo of a disastrous health care system in place that is driven not by health or care but by obscene profit. When you say "American's don't want this bill" I have to think, as someone once said in another context years ago "The wish is father to the thought." You have done your best/worst to try and insure that Americans fear the change that health care reform is meant to bring about.
Stop lying. Stop the fear mongering. Take care not of the interests that keep your pockets lined, but of the average citizen whose pockets are increasingly empty.
Addendum: After writing the above and doing a little "fact checking," I found the following discussion of Sen. Kyle and a number of his own instances of making-up (or ignoring) "facts." Sen. Kyle Makes it Up
Monday, December 7, 2009
Don't Give Me Your Opinion, Give me Facts
I just heard another conversation this a.m. on the radio about the current status of the health care bills in Congress (House and Senate versions), and more than once I heard the people who were talking interject the "of course we have the best system in the world" line in their conversation as if it were a twitch or a tick. It reminded me of how in some conversational styles, people interject "God bless her soul.." almost as a punctuation mark when mentioning the name of a deceased relative or good friend.
But as I have found myself saying repeatedly to my "Contemporary Social Problems" class this semester, and several others, "Don't give me unsubstantiated opinions. Give me the facts."
In fact, one of the commentators slipped in a little qualifier as he used the obligatory "of course we have the best system" tick; "It might be the most expensive, but it is the best..." he said. OK! So now we are opening up one of the cracks in the facade to see what is actually behind our ideological front.
How in fact does anyone come to the conclusion that the health care system in the US is "the best" in the world? I don't ask this as a rhetorical question simply to make the reverse argument that it isn't the best. I actually am trying to understand what are the factors (ah! the "outcomes"!) that make it "the best" in comparison to any others?
We rank, for example, around 33 in infant mortality rate; it is estimated that nearly 42,000 people each year die due to lack of health care; personal bankruptcies in the US are largely due to medical costs, and the majority of these are related to people who actually have health insurance. We are in a system where the simple outpatient care (single visit treatment) for kidney stones costs $16,000-- who knows a comparable figure for delivering a child, vs. delivering a kidney stone?! Thirty to forty million people in the US are not able to get health insurance; many who have it can't have their treatments covered since the insurance industry deems their cases "pre-existing conditions." A single prescription (1 month supply) of medication for someone on chemotherapy can run upwards of $10,000. Many many prescriptions turn out to be more dangerous than the illness they treat and are suddenly pulled from the market after months (if not years) of being touted as wonder drugs (which apparently were not sufficiently scrutinized by the chief regulatory agency).
This, I am sure, just scratches the surface of things. Again, to anyone who says "we're number one in health care" ... tell me what are the actual outcomes on which this opinion is based. I'm trying to understand, and to understand how this system should be improved.
But as I have found myself saying repeatedly to my "Contemporary Social Problems" class this semester, and several others, "Don't give me unsubstantiated opinions. Give me the facts."
In fact, one of the commentators slipped in a little qualifier as he used the obligatory "of course we have the best system" tick; "It might be the most expensive, but it is the best..." he said. OK! So now we are opening up one of the cracks in the facade to see what is actually behind our ideological front.
How in fact does anyone come to the conclusion that the health care system in the US is "the best" in the world? I don't ask this as a rhetorical question simply to make the reverse argument that it isn't the best. I actually am trying to understand what are the factors (ah! the "outcomes"!) that make it "the best" in comparison to any others?
We rank, for example, around 33 in infant mortality rate; it is estimated that nearly 42,000 people each year die due to lack of health care; personal bankruptcies in the US are largely due to medical costs, and the majority of these are related to people who actually have health insurance. We are in a system where the simple outpatient care (single visit treatment) for kidney stones costs $16,000-- who knows a comparable figure for delivering a child, vs. delivering a kidney stone?! Thirty to forty million people in the US are not able to get health insurance; many who have it can't have their treatments covered since the insurance industry deems their cases "pre-existing conditions." A single prescription (1 month supply) of medication for someone on chemotherapy can run upwards of $10,000. Many many prescriptions turn out to be more dangerous than the illness they treat and are suddenly pulled from the market after months (if not years) of being touted as wonder drugs (which apparently were not sufficiently scrutinized by the chief regulatory agency).
This, I am sure, just scratches the surface of things. Again, to anyone who says "we're number one in health care" ... tell me what are the actual outcomes on which this opinion is based. I'm trying to understand, and to understand how this system should be improved.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
An Experiment
This is a first attempt to embed a wave in my blog. If you have a google wave account you should see the wave below.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
William Kristol on Daly Show: Gov. Can Run a High Quality Healtcare System
William Kristol on the Daly show, admitting that 1)the government can in fact run a high quality healthcare system, and 2)the average American citizen doesn't deserve it.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
What are They Dying For?
I wrote the following originally as a response to a friend who had sent me pictures from the recent Washington demonstrations against the President. (I was about to say, against healthcare reform, but I have to say in an effort to be accurate, that much of what was demonstrated was not about the healtcare issue as such, but was simply against anything from the President).
" I'm not sure about the characterization of an "angry mob" that you refer to... but my comments would return in general to the fact that just a year ago we had the culmination of nearly two + years of long and hard campaigning in an election process that we claim is one of the cornerstones of our political system--- the system that we are sending thousands of our children to die for, or so we say, to "protect our country." It was an election, that consumed much time and money, and reflected a broad and deep range of debates around hard and pressing issues. The current President, who promised many things--around, among other things, healthcare reform and the previous abuses of the constitution by the Bush administration-- this President who legitimately won the election last year on a clearly promised platform of change, is now being vilified, shouted down, called a liar, obstructed, called Hitler, questioned in his citizenship, called a socialist/fascist/Nazi/communist/Muslim/atheist etc. all because he is trying to deliver on the things he promised in his campaign.
So it now appears quite clear that those who opposed him in that election, and did not win through our fundamental political process of voting and campaigning, are now calling for "revolution" ; some are even openly talking about bringing guns to rallies. In that context, when members of congress call the President a liar as he is addressing a joint session, when talk radio voices and TV personalities denigrtate the President based on his race, when responsible leadership voices of "resonable opposition" are deafeningly silent on this swirlling atmosphere of beligerence and fear--it appears that those who are now "mad" about something are riding a wave of generalized "fear"...stirred at root by those who have most to lose--- the huge medical companies (insurance, pharmaceuticals, medical-delivery) to derail any significant change for which we voted in last year's election.
The other day the President finally responded to the issue of race in all of this-- by noting that he did not think race was a primary factor in the opposition to his and other Democrats' political proposals. This was a shrewd and probably very accurate reading of things-- as it is not primarily about racism; instead, race, (fear of "strangers," Blacks, Muslims, Mexicans, undocumented aliens, non-Christians, dark-skinned people etc.) is but one factor that is being used among many to stir people into a miasma of fear and animosity against the President and any policies he attempts to forward. At the same time, the President can not afford to be baited into further side-tracking by stepping into tthis discussion. But it is a reality of racism that is woven still so insidiously into our culture and reflected in much of the loudest public discourse of Talk Radio, TV opinion shows, and even many of the public displays of protest that are being highlighted by the same.
I don't agree with many of the things President Obama is doing currently--I was even a reluctant supporter early in the election last year; I am disappointed in fact by many of the compromises and apparent concessions he seems to be making in his efforts to bring our economy back from the brink of collapse (again, something that was a shocking reality just a year ago), in his continuation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his reluctance to hold the highest officials of our government to accountability under the same laws that you and I would be held to as private citizens...even his watering down of possible solutions to the near disaster that is our health care financing system. At the same time, it is appalling that those who lost last year's elections (Presidential and Congressional) now are not willing to accept the results of that election and are stirred to reject and obstruct the results at every turn.
The average person in all of this is being used by those whose profits would be put at risk by serious justice in our healthcare system. You and I have already lost much of our economic securty to these profiteers (for the remainder of our lives it seems); the average person as well is at the very edge of security (if not beyond it) only one or two medical problems away from bankruptcy while insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and medical delivery companies make record profits. And here, ---after investing so many lives and so much money and time into the "democratic process" that culminated in last year's elections, those whose candidates did not win are going to sabotage it all by calls for revolution (armed or otherwise). It is simply amazing.
We are coming dangerously close it seems to the image by which we have often seen "Third World" ("Banana Republic") countries caricatured, where elections are not abided by but rather dismissed when louder, more beligerant interests can muster counter forces to overthrow their results. I have to ask, then, for anyone who is asking us to send our loved ones somewhere in the world to "defend our country," what on earth is that sacrifice for, if it ever was justifiable in the first place, if at home we no longer live up to the compact of the electoral process that is suppose to be at the heart of our governance?"
The people without healthcare, those denied coverage, those unable to afford healthcare even though they are insured, those bankrupted by the same, those being sent of to Iraq and Afghanistan.... my question is.... What are they dying for?
Brian
" I'm not sure about the characterization of an "angry mob" that you refer to... but my comments would return in general to the fact that just a year ago we had the culmination of nearly two + years of long and hard campaigning in an election process that we claim is one of the cornerstones of our political system--- the system that we are sending thousands of our children to die for, or so we say, to "protect our country." It was an election, that consumed much time and money, and reflected a broad and deep range of debates around hard and pressing issues. The current President, who promised many things--around, among other things, healthcare reform and the previous abuses of the constitution by the Bush administration-- this President who legitimately won the election last year on a clearly promised platform of change, is now being vilified, shouted down, called a liar, obstructed, called Hitler, questioned in his citizenship, called a socialist/fascist/Nazi/
So it now appears quite clear that those who opposed him in that election, and did not win through our fundamental political process of voting and campaigning, are now calling for "revolution" ; some are even openly talking about bringing guns to rallies. In that context, when members of congress call the President a liar as he is addressing a joint session, when talk radio voices and TV personalities denigrtate the President based on his race, when responsible leadership voices of "resonable opposition" are deafeningly silent on this swirlling atmosphere of beligerence and fear--it appears that those who are now "mad" about something are riding a wave of generalized "fear"...stirred at root by those who have most to lose--- the huge medical companies (insurance, pharmaceuticals, medical-delivery) to derail any significant change for which we voted in last year's election.
The other day the President finally responded to the issue of race in all of this-- by noting that he did not think race was a primary factor in the opposition to his and other Democrats' political proposals. This was a shrewd and probably very accurate reading of things-- as it is not primarily about racism; instead, race, (fear of "strangers," Blacks, Muslims, Mexicans, undocumented aliens, non-Christians, dark-skinned people etc.) is but one factor that is being used among many to stir people into a miasma of fear and animosity against the President and any policies he attempts to forward. At the same time, the President can not afford to be baited into further side-tracking by stepping into tthis discussion. But it is a reality of racism that is woven still so insidiously into our culture and reflected in much of the loudest public discourse of Talk Radio, TV opinion shows, and even many of the public displays of protest that are being highlighted by the same.
I don't agree with many of the things President Obama is doing currently--I was even a reluctant supporter early in the election last year; I am disappointed in fact by many of the compromises and apparent concessions he seems to be making in his efforts to bring our economy back from the brink of collapse (again, something that was a shocking reality just a year ago), in his continuation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his reluctance to hold the highest officials of our government to accountability under the same laws that you and I would be held to as private citizens...even his watering down of possible solutions to the near disaster that is our health care financing system. At the same time, it is appalling that those who lost last year's elections (Presidential and Congressional) now are not willing to accept the results of that election and are stirred to reject and obstruct the results at every turn.
The average person in all of this is being used by those whose profits would be put at risk by serious justice in our healthcare system. You and I have already lost much of our economic securty to these profiteers (for the remainder of our lives it seems); the average person as well is at the very edge of security (if not beyond it) only one or two medical problems away from bankruptcy while insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and medical delivery companies make record profits. And here, ---after investing so many lives and so much money and time into the "democratic process" that culminated in last year's elections, those whose candidates did not win are going to sabotage it all by calls for revolution (armed or otherwise). It is simply amazing.
We are coming dangerously close it seems to the image by which we have often seen "Third World" ("Banana Republic") countries caricatured, where elections are not abided by but rather dismissed when louder, more beligerant interests can muster counter forces to overthrow their results. I have to ask, then, for anyone who is asking us to send our loved ones somewhere in the world to "defend our country," what on earth is that sacrifice for, if it ever was justifiable in the first place, if at home we no longer live up to the compact of the electoral process that is suppose to be at the heart of our governance?"
The people without healthcare, those denied coverage, those unable to afford healthcare even though they are insured, those bankrupted by the same, those being sent of to Iraq and Afghanistan.... my question is.... What are they dying for?
Brian
Friday, September 18, 2009
Govt Healthcare, For Me, Not For You
Con. Joseph Wilson, who shouted "Liar" at the President during a joint session of congress, wants to protect and have his own personal government run health care policy but doesn't think that everyone else should have the same. Amazing!
Premium, Government Run Health Care Plan for Me, but Not For You!
Premium, Government Run Health Care Plan for Me, but Not For You!
Bill Moyers on The Person Behind The Anti-Healthcare Reform March
The following is an interesting video by Bill Moyers about one of the leading organizers behind the recent demonstration in Wash. against health care reform.
He also was one of the original members of Congress to derail healthcare reform in the Clinton administration; as well, he was an architect of the "Contract with America," one of the first principles of which is that all laws that apply to citizens, should equally apply to all members of Congress. (Except maybe regarding health care?)
He also was one of the original members of Congress to derail healthcare reform in the Clinton administration; as well, he was an architect of the "Contract with America," one of the first principles of which is that all laws that apply to citizens, should equally apply to all members of Congress. (Except maybe regarding health care?)
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