September 17, 2009 – Page 2

Sep 17 2009

A Way to Pay for Healthcare You Will Never Hear Debated

By ProgressiveTokyo

Recently we have all heard during the health care debate about the cost of health care reform and its impact on the deficit. Suddenly the right cares about the spending and its impact on the deficit (holy crap where were these deficit hawks during the tax cuts WHILE starting a multi trillion dollar war?).

Well I have looked at the numbers and I want to bring up a way to pay for health care which is as simple as could be, yet you will NEVER hear anyone on either the left or the right bring up…

Ok, so the estimate for the cost of HCR are roughly 900 billion over 10 years. That is roughly 90 Billion a year, so where can we find 90 Billion a year?

I say we take it directly from the US Military’s budget.

Look at the chart below:

We spent over 700 BILLION dollars last year on our military industrial complex. As you can see the closest any country in the world who comes close toour level of spending is China at a bit less than 200 Billion a year. Hell all of Europe combined only spends 289 Billion a year.

So don’t you think we could find in the 700 billion a year (or over 8 trillion over 10 years as the media would explain it if they explained military spending in the same way they are explaining the cost of Health Care reform)a small pittance of only 90 Billion for our Health Care stability and security?

Of course this seems to be a source of funding no one would ever bring up or debate.

And of course we can’t say we weren’t warned:

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Sep 17 2009

We shot and killed a guy throwing a shoe today

By Inky99 in Iraq

Yeah, I know the news is all about the wonderful guy who threw a shoe at Bush. He was released early.

And just in time! Because his release managed to somewhat overshadow the fact that we shot and killed another shoe-thrower, this time in Fallujah.

Only this guy was throwing his shoe at American troops. How dare he.

US troops kill Fallujah ‘shoe-thrower’

FALLUJAH, Iraq – An Iraqi man who witnesses said shouted abuse before throwing a shoe at a US army vehicle was shot dead on Wednesday in what the American military said was a suspected grenade attack.

Residents told an AFP reporter in Fallujah that Ahmed Latif, 32, whom they said was mentally disturbed, insulted the soldiers as they patrolled in the centre of the city, and then hurled a shoe at them.

The US military told AFP that a convoy in Fallujah had been attacked with a suspected grenade.

“Positive identification of the attacker was made, and US forces fired in self-defence wounding the attacker,” the army said in a statement.

“Local Iraqi police secured the scene and transported the wounded attacker to a local hospital for medical care,” it added.

Dr Ali Hatam of Fallujah hospital confirmed that Latif died of gunshot wounds.

Sep 17 2009

If It Isn’t Racist What Is It

Earlier today White House spokesmen Robert Gibbs said that the recent protests against President Obama’s policies and the out burst by Congressman Joe Wilson wasn’t racist.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that Obama – the nation’s first black president – doesn’t think that criticism of his policies is “based on the color of his skin.

If it isn’t racism then what is it? Those signs equating President Obama with among others Stalin and Hitler what is one to thing about the meaning behind it. Or those who had written he should go back to Kenya believing that to be the country of his birth.

Or the pictures that were so offensive one would have thought the Jim Crow era had returned.

Rush Limbaugh’s playing of Barack The Magic Negro isn’t rascist? Who is Robert Gibbs trying to fool here? Himself?

The Repbnlican party is racist party no matter their protestations. It was the Republican Party under the leadership of Richard Nixon which created the Southern Strategy.

Michael Dukakis wasn’t one who ran the Willie Horton ad it was George W. H. Bush and it isn’t the Democratic Party who has a permanent injunction against them for Voter Caging

1980s

In 1981 and 1986 the Republican National Committee (RNC) sent out letters to predominately African-American neighborhoods. When tens of thousands of them were returned undeliverable, the party successfully challenged the voters and had them deleted from voting rolls. Due to the violation of the Voting Rights Act, the RNC was taken to court. Its officials entered a consent decree which prohibited the party from engaging in anti-fraud initiatives that targeted minorities or conducting mail campaigns to “compile voter challenge lists.”

No matter how much Robbert Gibbs or the White House dismiss the issue race and racism is involved in fomenting the rage against America’s first African American President.

America, Race
2 comments

Sep 17 2009

CIA Experiments on U.S. Soldiers Linked to Torture Program

By Valtin

Originally posted at The Public Record and Truthout

A number of new articles have been published recently that have highlighted evidence of illegal human experimentation on U.S.-held “terrorism” prisoners undergoing torture. These articles followed the release of a “white paper” by Physicians for Human Rights [PHR], Aiding Torture: Health Professionals’ Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the May 2004 Inspector General’s Report.

This report looks at those recent charges, and reveals that experiments by a CIA researcher on human subjects undergoing SERE training went unreported in the legal memos the Bush administration drafted to approve their torture program. It will also connect major military and intelligence figures to the SERE experiments, and tie some of them to major science and “experimental” directorates at the CIA and Special Operations Command.

Sep 17 2009

No Divorce Today 20090916

By Translator in Personal

Today was the court date for the hearing regarding the divorce. All details have been covered, the property, the money, the retirement, ad infinitum.

Mrs. Translator took a big chunk of her morning to appear before the judge, costing her leave time and the extra money that she makes for running the early morning detention hall at her school. I did my part (although I did not have to appear, since I contested nothing) by signing, having notarized, and mailing back critical documents the same day that I received them without fail.

divorce, Heartbreak, incompetence, Pain, Translator
10 comments

Sep 17 2009

Rage Against the Machine

By Underdog in Iraq

The American people, from left to right, are forced to work for change within a culture of money, power and greed. In my mid-fifties now, I’ve never seen a higher overall agreement level among the masses concerning the power corporations and special interests have over our politicians, our “representative” government. The steady transfer of wealth to the elite 1%, the loss of millions of jobs, reduced wages and hours, increased health insurance and health care costs, the hegemonic march through the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and the erosion of civil liberties have most of the population in a daze and not liking it.

We want health care reform so we work within the system to convince our politicians to do the right thing. The corporations fight back and use their money to convince politicians and gullible citizens to do the right thing for the corporations. The corporations will most likely win again and health care reform will go the way of torture prosecutions, indefinite detention, and the Patriot Act, absorbed and accepted with tails between legs. On to the next issue dujour and the next corporate or special interest controlled political process. All while the politicians continue their 20 day a month fund raising schedules.

Sep 17 2009

Political Influence Peddling… and Buying

By Edger

Spending eye-popping sums of money, deploying armies of lobbyists, dispatching grassroots foot soldiers as agents of disruption, the special interests have fought fiercely to derail the White House reform agenda. It’s now apparent that Obama and his advisers, including Rahm Emanuel, underestimated their strength. Even if Congress were to move in all four areas targeted for reform, the concessions already made, the softening of prospective regulations and restrictions, would likely signal a series of genuine victories for those special interests.

What does it mean when an intelligent, ambitious, and well-liked president, who broke through one of the nation’s most glaring racial barriers and enjoys majorities in both houses of Congress, can’t overcome the deeply rooted interests that now seem thoroughly embedded in the American political system? A look at the unprecedented opposition to Obama’s plans reveals why Rahm Emanuel might want to pocket that scorecard.

An Opposition That Knows No Limit

The sheer presence of lobbyists cannot be underestimated. Case in point: the legislative battle over health-care reform. As of mid-August, there were six lobbyists trying to influence health-care legislation for every single member of the House and Senate, Bloomberg News reported.

That’s 3,300 lobbyists working on a single issue (three times the number of defense lobbyists) with nearly three new lobbyists joining the fray each day. So far this year, $263 million (or more than one million dollars a day) has been shelled out just for lobbying health-related issues, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Industry players have waged war to sway public opinion, spending $75 million on TV ads. Lawmakers up for election in 2010 have already seen $23 million flow into their nascent campaign coffers.