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"Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it."

- Mark Twain


Where's the Obama stimulus package for creating jobs aside from feeding the beast - the MIC?  At his "economic summit" Barack in a "Clintonesque" move said job creation is the private sector's responsibility.  I didn't realize we voted for "Reaganomics" last November.

http://www.jimhightower.com//node/700

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091221/scheer

 

CANADA INVESTS IN TRAINS!

    The above picture is a Via RR skier train at Jasper Station in the Canadian Rockies in Alberta.  The Canadian government and private sector are making major long term investments updating rail equipment and infrastructure for metro mass transit, long haul freight and transcontinental passenger service.  This is a strategy to produce high wage jobs, wise land use and economic and environmental sustainability. 

    The Obama administration has targeted money in this direction. However, when economic stimulus money has been spent what happens then?  If we insist on being the policeman of the Middle East we know the answer.  As in the Vietnam War era we will see home land investments diminish as the insatiable demands from the Pentagon continue as happened to LBJ's Great Society programs in the '60s.  We can't have both guns and butter.  We must make a choice. 

https://docs.google.com/a/easystreet.net/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=1248c7ad8766a225&mt=application%2Fpdf&url=http


HEADLINE COMMENTARY: 

Paul Krugman - "The Defining Moment" - in the health care debate

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/opinion/30krugman.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1257012515-VF6MS5T1Z4P5UjkOoRGyS

 

Bill Moyers on bringing back the draft!


http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10302009/watch3.html

 

Not again?  Can this generation's "best & brightest" win a four front war against the evils of terrorism?  Be careful what you wish for!  We might end up with a loss in Afghanistan, the breakup of Iraq, the destablization of Pakistan & the erosion of civil liberties on the home front.  After all no president, especially a Dem, wants to be considered "soft" on "evil doers" - commies in the '50s, terrorists now! 

 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/schell

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/in-iraq-security-is-only-surface-deep/article1328566

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091102/sanchez

 

 

MD's for Health Care Reform at the White House

Sign the petition below:

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/obama_up_or_down_vote/?r_by=-2276355-tquYRrx&rc=confemail1


    Garrison Keillor on the health care reform debate:  "...The Founding Fathers intended the Senate to be a fount of wisdom flowing, but when you consider Saxby Chambliss and Jim Bunning, John Ensign, Jim DeMint, James Inhofe, who look as if they've been banged on the head too many times, and the moon-faced Mitch McConnell, your faith in democracy is challenged severely. Any legislative body in which 41 senators from rural states that together represent 10 percent of the population can filibuster you to death is going to be flat-footed, on the verge of paralysis, no matter what. Any time 10 percent of the people can stop 90 percent, it's like driving a bus with a brake pedal for each passenger. That's why Congress has a public approval rating of 25 percent...."

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/garrison_keillor/2009/11/10/republicans

 

 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/10/06/public_option/?source=newsletter

 

Big Lies about ACCORN, Socialized Medicine & Poor Little Rich People

 

 

    Forest Grove High School regarded as an "outstanding" high school now listed by the latest NCLB Report Card having "repeatedly missed targets" is on the federal government - "troubled list." 

    Except for math trend lines on reading, science and writing are either flat or down especially on writing the most important indicator for success in college.  Don't buy the "edu spin" that Oregon schools are succeding - they are not: 

    Please note that the measuring index used by NCLB inflates the test results for underachieving students so that the report card biases the results inflating test scores.  For more information go to the following link: 

http://schools.oregonlive.com

 

    Oregonian columnist Susan Nielsen's Sunday's op ed column "What tired Oregon teachers say" underscores the stress and strains classroom teachers face trying to teach children who come to them with parents who undermine their children's education, with increasingly larger classrooms and with a system focused on testing not teaching.  

    "...educators face huge pressures to get their school ratings up.  This worthy goal has a few unintended consequences.  Teachers feel like they spend half the year on testing and the other half on test prep.  And many teachers say administrators discourage them from holding students accountable for major disruptions, tardiness, absenteeism or late work.  Too many suspensions or failing grades can make a school look bad on paper..."   

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/susan_nielsen/index.ssf/2009/11/what_tired_oregon_teachers_say.html

 

    

    Why does the richest nation in the world have the moral blight of homeless people?  If we can put a man on the moon, we ought to be able to help every American to have a "home of their own."


http://www.ahomeoftheirown.com/  


    Connecting the dots between homelessness, hunger & health care disparities in Oregon and Washington County: 

Homelessness:  

•    The faces of the homeless are families with children, single men and women, vets, and many who are impaired. It is estimated that in Washington County up to 56% of homelessness occurs to families.

Hunger:

•    Hunger is highest among single mother households (10%) and poor families (15%) as well as renters, unemployed workers and minority households. 

Heath Care Disparities: 

•    Adults in Oregon without insurance represent 22.3% of the state’s population compared to 19.7% of the nation.  In Washington County approximately 73,000 county residents have no health care insurance. 

 

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RAD note - given the contributions of my Canadian Connection to this blog I want to acknowledge his intrepid skills of sourcing many of the articles I post to support my analysis.  So - WM you are officially now an "Assistant Editor" for article searches and syntax control.  


              

 

 

   

   

      

 

 




 

 

 

RAD Lines

Deja Vu, all over again!  The Afghan campaign is NOT a "just war" but an unnecessary "political" war.  As RAD & WM find them, I'm adding linked articles which show the problematic nature of "Obama's" war. 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/think-this-surge-will-make-a-difference/article1397856/?service=email.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091221/parenti

http://www.jimhightower.com//node/7003

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091221/shank2

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/struggling+against+franchised+enemy/2303934/story.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/distrust-poisons-canadian-training-of-afghan-police/article1389980/?service=email.

 

 

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war

John Adams

2nd President of the USA


http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091214/scheer2

 
  

 Oregon

 Alis Volat Propriius

[She flies with

her own wings]

 

"...Let's cut to the chase.  Oregon is boxed in by a devastated economy, a vacuous impotent governor and a self-defeating tax system..."  Steve Duin, Oregonian, Sunday, May 24, 2009. 

RAD:  Some very powerful interest groups in Oregon believe that taxing big business and the rich is bad public policy while at the same time they claim to support K-12 and higher ed funding.  They bankrolled the initiative effort to put the $733 million in new taxes on the rich on a January 26th ballot, Meassure 66 & 67.

If this well financed effort succeeds the legislature in February will be faced with redoing the '07-09 budget.  It will mean cuts across the board not unlike what happened this year in California.  If you want schools to close early, a reduction in police and fire protection and criminals on the streets sign the petition.  If not vote YES for Measures 66 & 67! 

 



For the those who think single payer is not the way to health care reform read this account:  

My Canadian friend played golf with a fellow and his wife from Edmonton, Alberta Canada.  The husband had a case of the flesh-eating disease, but they caught it early enough that despite two surgeries, etc he lived, even though it was close. 

Five months of paid leave from his company, two serious surgeries, intensive care unit for a week, home care to change dressings and all the rest and it didn't cost him a penny because of Canadian health care.  He was treated immediately because it was serious. 

RAD:  In the US who knows what would happen to this fellow and his family? 

  

 

You see things; and you say, 'Why?'

But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" 

George Bernard Shaw,

"Back to Methuselah" (1921)

 

Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.


Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everwhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity

William Butler Yeats


Why … should we have government? Why not each individual take to himself the whole fruit of his labor, without having any of it taxed away?”  

“The legitimate object of government, is to do for the people whatever they need to have done, but which they can not do, at all, or can not do, so well, for themselves – in their separate and individual capacities … There are many such things … roads, bridges and the like; providing for the helpless young and afflicted; common schools … the criminal and civil [justice] departments. 

Abraham Lincoln

 

Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates, but Parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole... 

Edmund Burke


“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

George Santayana (1863–1952)

 

 “It is a maxim among these lawyers that whatever hath been done before may legally be done again, and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind.  These, under the name of precedents, they produce as authorities, to justify the most iniquitous opinions.” 

Jonathan Swift 


 

 

 


 

 

  

 


  

 

« IS HISTORY GOING TO BE REPEATED? | Main | LINE OF THE DAY »
Friday
30Oct2009

THE WONDERS OF CHOICE

DateFriday, October 30, 2009 at 04:41PM

    This is the time of the year when we "senior citizen" types get to either stick with our current health care plan, Medicare only or a Medicare advantage plan.  Oh joy - the wonders of the market and choice.  If health care reform passes everyone who doesn't have an employer based or their own personal insurance will get this dubious choice via the "exchange" system as opposed to the simple concept the Canadians have of single payer.
    I'm reasonably content with my Medicare advantage plan.  But  you have so many choices it makes your head spin.  You have to navigate your way through complex terminology - co-pay, deductibles, forumulary, non-formulary, in network and out of network.  You wonder how many seniors end up getting taken to the cleaners in this health care "poker game" joining plans which cost lots but cover little.  
    And in Oregon the insurance giants are increasing their monthly fees next year. So much for controlling costs.  Got to maintain those profit margins to keep their CEOs and share holders fat and happy, right?  If you want to read more about it I've posted the article from today's Oregonian for your reading pleasure.  I spent my afternoon checking my plan out and after some hot flashes I've decided to stand pat with what I've got.
    As the saying goes - be careful what you wish for - you might get it.  In the USA we don't take the path best travelled we take the path with all the hair pin curves.  Don't you love freedom, individual choice and the lure of the market?  Give me liberty or give me death!  Well in the USA we get both - and we get to pay for both.  Now about that long term health care insurance I've got to check into when my kids are ready to put me in "the home." 

    PS:  The packet of info I got from my insurance provider today included 8 booklets, together the size of a big city phone book!  Must be some kind of invidious "high stakes" literacy test for senior citizens.  Glad I got new glasses.  This is another exhibit why a public option plan is necessary for us all - something akin to a Medicare Plus plan! 

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/10/seniors_looking_at_big_changes.html

AuthorR.A.D. | Comment4 Comments |

Reader Comments (4)

This old cynic thinks they make it complicated on purpose. You are "free" to be as confused as they can possibly make you.
October 30, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterWard N. Mowry
Russ,

I hate to dillusion you, but all of that confusion is available to those of us not quite old enough to retire as well. I was relieved to learn in reading The Oregonian today that it isn't just healthcare that's raising it's rates. PGE is also going to apply for a rate increase. It seems demand has gone down so much that they can't guarantee 8% to 9% returns on investments to their shareholders.

My thought is you can't have it both ways. You can't tell people to take better care of themselves, not go to the doctor for the sniffles, save energy by buying smarter appliances and turn off light bulbs and then raise rates to insure a profit. Isn't that punishing us for doing the very thing we were told to do? ARGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!
October 31, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterCarol
Stop it, Carol, you are making too much sense! Profits before anything else.
October 31, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterWard N. Mowry
Sorry. It's Halloween. Time for some scary truths!
October 31, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterCarol

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