Tag: Poverty

The President gave a compelling prime time Press Conference last week mostly about Health Care Reform — the most pressing Issue of our time, and what was the lead story for the next several days?

The merits of Public Option competition?

The plight of 14,000 citizens losing their Health Insurance each day?

No, the lead story was the President’s take on the arrest of his friend — on the emotionally charged “wedge issue” of Racial Profiling. A worthy discussion, no doubt —

But what about the issues of Health Care Reform?  What about that Debate?

Of course the Media has been failing to have a Real Health Care Debate for some time now …

ABC Censors Obama’s Longtime Doctor, Dr. Scheiner

A new study has been released by Lancet, The public health effect of economic crises and alternative policy responses in Europe: an empirical analysis, written by Dr. David Stuckler PhD et. al., which contends that the current economic crisis is having an adverse effect on public health. The findings from their research show that increased unemployment rates correlate to “significant short term increases in premature deaths from intentional violence.” The study also shows that labor market protection through government programs can reverse this terrible trend.

This scope of this study was the European Union nations. A brief google search didn’t reveal any similar recent studies conducted in the US, though there was an informal study conducted by a Doctor from Johns Hopkins, who reported his findings at a “After Peak Oil” Conference in the spring of this year.

More detail below  

I have been feeling lately that the entire country has been hit by a storm,  that people are drowning or are standing on their roofs waving their arms, but that the most other people are ignoring them, their eyes set on some different horizon, looking for golden pots beneath rainbows.

The President and his family this week have been sampling the fine wines of Northern Italy with the worthless G-8, visiting an earthquake stricken town there. He has pontificated with the evil Santa that is the Pope and now having a delightful visit, no doubt, in Ghana.

The mainstream media has been preoccupied with sex, politics and celebrity death.  Huge numbers of television watching Americans have been fueling those Networks’ ad revenue, distracted by these baubles of the macabre.  The blogosphere seems more fragmented than ever, either being enraptured with its own meta,  or having its sights set on foreign revolutions  and  wargames. Quite a number too have been focused on the macroeconomy, noting the incredible hypocrisy and corruption of the big houses on Wall Street.  There are those too who are completely focused on healthcare legislation, which does get closer to the core issue. That issue is that people are hurting badly in this country and are slipping through its cracks.

Cross-posted from www.Progressive-Independence.org

I was perusing a certain kind of ideological web site when I came upon the following article by Nicole Colson.

ONE AFTER another over the last month, the reports of terrible incidents of violence kept coming:

— A Vietnamese immigrant in Binghamton, N.Y., increasingly paranoid about police and upset after losing his job, kills 13 people at a center for immigrants before committing suicide.

— An Alabama man who had struggled to keep a job kills 10 people in a shooting spree before committing suicide.

— A Pittsburgh man, recently unemployed and afraid that the government would ban guns, opens fire on police responding to a domestic disturbance call, killing three.

These are just some of the recent eruptions of violence to make the headlines in U.S. newspapers. In the 30-day period between March 10 and April 10, there were at least nine multiple shootings across the U.S., claiming the lives of at least 58 people.

The individual motives and stories differ widely, but there’s a common thread among these incidents–the worsening economic crisis is becoming a factor in pushing some people who are already on the edge over it.

It seems nearly everyone is concerned with the ever-shrinking middle class, but almost no one is willing to discuss the social class those middlings are being tossed into: the POOR.  The platform, speaking for the poor, that John Edwards ran on during last year’s presidential election primaries resulted in his marginalization and eventual banishment from the public discourse as the elite weeded out those candidates who dare point out the disease of poverty.  But just because the messengers were silenced does not mean the larger problem went away; it continues to fester, with disastrous social consequences.

Sirens ring, shots ring out,

A stranger cries, he screams out loud.

He’s scared.  He has reason to be.  This economy was Dead on Arrival when Obama took office, and no matter how many tubes he sticks into it, it’s going to stay dead.  We need a new economy, a new economy based on worker’s rights, on economic justice, we need an economy that rewards the middle class for its contributions, an economy that cannot be exploited by Wall Street criminals and corporate magnates who don’t give a fuck about anyone but themselves.  

And the same black line that was drawn on you,

Was drawn on me

That black line of consequences is getting blacker, it’s getting longer, it’s tightening around the necks of unemployed Americans like a noose.  More job losses, more home foreclosures, more evictions.  The consequences of Wall Street greed, the consequences of corporate media deceit, the consequences of Beltway arrogance and conceit, the arrogance and conceit of America’s political ruling class, America’s corporate masters, America’s war industry tycoons and oil barons and criminal bankers.   That black line of consequences has drawn me in, it’s drawn you in, it’s drawn everyone in . . .

Good evening, and welcome to a semi-retro version of the EENR: the Edwards Evening News Round-up.

My friends, family, and acquaintances have all thought John and Elizabeth disappeared into the sunset since they are not on the MSM nightly news or in national newspapers.  Not so!  John and Elizabeth have been traveling and speaking at venues this past week about the issues Democrats care about.   Included are video clips from TV and radio appearances (courtesy of NCDem and other outlets).

Top stories:

1. John Edwards Interview in Rolling Stone

2. John Edwards Speaks at USW Conference

3. John Edwards Talks to Campus Progress and NPR in DC

4. Elizabeth Edwards Jumpstarts Healthcare for America Now

5. John Edwards Travels the Northeast for Half in Ten

6. Elizabeth Edwards Discusses about living with cancer on NPR

7. Is John Edwards on the Short List for VP?

More after the jump..