Obama and the White Supremacists

Here's a story you won't see on the evening news:

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Universal Healthcare or Universal Healthinsurance?

I just entered my opinion into the discussion on Health Care that's being conducted by President-elect Obama's transition team. As promised Mr. Obama is opening the many processes that go into a presidential transition up to the light of day and the eyes of an interested electorate. It's up to us to share our opinions, to add our unique points-of-view and find common ground from which to start reforming the way we do business in the USA. It's time for our ideals to match up with our actions. Join the Healthcare Discussion HERE. Or just share where you think the country should be going and in what ways it should be changing HERE.

Here's a discussion starter I posted on the Healthcare discussion:

One of the challenges we face with this issue is the vocabulary which we use to talk about it. I respect Senator Daschle and Ms. Erinson but even in this video we see part of the problem. We have come to use the phrase "Health Care" improperly. It has unfortunately become synonymous with "Health Insurance." Health care is what we get when we go to the doctor. He or She checks us out, makes a diagnosis and prescribes a treatment. In other words doctors cares for our health.

In this video we hear about a CEO of a small non-profit that is providing "health care" to her full-time employees. This usage means something entirely different. Her company is not providing its employees "health care" in the way a doctor does. The company is providing access to "health insurance." It may sound like splitting hairs, but I think it's a hair worth splitting. This is why:

In the current discussion, when we talk about providing "Universal Health Care," are we saying that people should have universal access to doctors that will care for their health? Probably not. More likely we mean universal access to health insurance.

The proposals I hear from most elected officials (including President-elect Obama) include expanding Health Insurance to those that don't already have it through a system of mandates and subsidies, covering everybody with insurance through Medicare, Medicaid and/or Private Insurance (both employer based and federally subsidized). Are we really getting any closer to true Universal Health Care? I would argue "No." Anyone that's ever dealt with a Health Insurance company knows that they don't really Care about your Health. The bottom line is always the bottom line. It makes no sense to support the broken system that is Health Insurance by expanding it to everybody with Tax Payer money.

If we are striving for Universal Health Care, why are we still talking about Universal Health Insurance?

My Story as Told to the Obama Website

It's strange how giving a little more money to a political campaign can bring out such sentimental thoughts, but it did. I just donated my last of the election and was provided an outlet to tell my story of why I became involved in Obama's campaign and this is what came out:

I have long thought that my story set me apart and somehow kept me from experiencing the "normal life." I was raised by a single mom and didn't know my dad until I was 26. As the youngest of three, I was an only child after my brother and sister moved out. In some ways, they were lucky to leave before my mom's alcoholism began to consume her. I took a trip to Australia after graduating high school. When I returned, my mom told me the news that she had moved from the our home of 11 years and was now living in a one bedroom apartment. If ever I was growing up faster than my peers, it was then. Four years ago, I lost my mom. She spent the last two years of her life bumming her way down the Eastern seaboard. From Virginia to Florida, she was incommunicado and relying on homeless shelters and the kindness of strangers. When she returned we were able to get her into city housing and on SSI due to debilitating mental illness gradually made worse through years of denial on her parents part and decades of alcohol and drug abuse. On Tuesday November 2, 2004 we lost her to liver failure. The same day, I watched as John Kerry failed to beat Bush. Since February, I have volunteered for this campaign because I believe in our candidate. I know he will change the direction in which this country is going and help improve the lives of many people like my mom that are caught up in circumstances beyond their control in a society that is rigged against them. I am truly inspired by his story and his presence and am convinced that if my fellow momma's boy can do so much starting out from so little I can as well.

I'M SORRY!!!

I'm Sick with This

It breaks my heart that so many people are losing their houses and livelihoods because of the foolishness of a few. I have no doubt that the huge bill passed recently was a needed measure, but the way in which it was presented, explained and crammed down our throats was awful. The leadership that Bush has shown leading up to this was reprehensible much like what he offered in the lead up to the Iraq war. This is especially so given the real cost of both in human life and American livelihood.

I teared up a little when I watched this:

I don't much like William (Bill) Kristol either.

Here you go:

I don't much like David Brooks

It's good to hear someone point out that David Brooks is a conservative and a backer of John McCain. He and Bill Kristol are trotted out all over the place and put forward as unbiased commentators without even a mention of the ideological leanings. I tried to call in to Talk of the Nation when Mr. Kristal was on there commenting about the presidential race. I wanted to point out that he is an informal adviser to the McCain campaign (which should be disclosed). The producer said she had no way to check that fact. "Thanks for calling, Good Bye."

In this clip Tom Brokaw continues to suck on those marbels in his mouth and reads from Brooks' op-ed in the NYTimes about Obama's Berlin speech. It is too bad that nobody in the MSM will point these things out. Here Brokaw pulls him out and Obama has to do it for himself. Of course he does it well.