I am fully supportive of the principles laid out by Presidet Obama, but although I totally support him, I do not support what is OMITTED from those principles, therefore I have not signed the pledge. A real public option is not on this list.
I do not want to be forced to buy health insurnace from companies who are fleecing us. I am happy to reimburse the gov't for the cost of a Medicare or Medical program extended to me. But I don't want to be forced to buy from those crooks. This model means we are feeding the sharks. NOT OK.
I am a supporter of Universal Single Payer Healthcare. If we are forced to buy insurance, stoking the bloated insurance companies, then I am not supportive of a reform. I do not support putting everyone into a private program, or even a coop. I would rather be taxed universally and have that money provide universal health care just as our taxes provide court systems, police protection, education, etc.
The only way to provide preventative care, health education, and truely universal care is to do it through the government which does a terrific job with social security, which has a lower overhead that any corporate health program. I don't understand why people aren't fearful of corporate overlords rather.
If we cannot have a single payer program, then I would rather see the present bill take the form of regulations on the insurance industry, and extend a medicare type program to cover low income eligible people, and then let those that don't want any insurance take that risk. If insurance is just a risk program, then we should have the option to take the risk to survive without insurance.
John McCain was stumping in Florida today saying, We need to fight our enemies, get out there help get out the vote, fight! He's still reacting to his Vietnam experience, everything is a fight.
Meanwhile Barack Obama is emphasizing that we need to reach out across this red-blue divide, that we are all Americans, .... what a difference.
I am calling up until the last minute. It keeps me from being to worried and its be a great experience. I have talked to 80 year old women in N. Carolina full of energy and enthusiasm saying, "Let's hope people take the blinders off and vote for the man who will make change and mend this country."
I have spoken to a 23 year old woman with two children 1 and 3 whose husband will be sent to Iraq in January. She is away from home for the first time, way out in a rural area of New York, I told her to call me sometime this winter, if she gets too lonely.
I talked to a father who is taking is kids to the polls to learn the importance of voting. They are all voting for Obama.
One woman answered the phone and said aggressively, "Who's paying you people to do this?" I proudly answered, "No one, I'm volunteering for Obama because I really think it is important for our kids, for jobs, for the environment...etc..." She was impressed.
Americans are fascinating and I am as hopeful about them as Obama is....I just hope that our elections tomorrow are fair, and that everyone gets a chance to vote. The good news, a higher percentage of voting than anytime in recent history.
I still have lots of questions about who McCain really is. He seems to be a very angry maverick. But to me some of the maverick quality suggests that he may not work well with others.
On the other hand he was, before this campaign, fairly sympathetic to immigrants and their humanity, now he is very quiet about that. He also apparently championed the Patient's Bill of Rights, which involves defensive of the individual from corporate America.
Another point is the positive strokes that McCain gets for his military career, while a little bit of investigation shows that McCain was a terrible pilot, crashed 5 planes, the last being the one that resulted in his imprisonment.
My last concern relates to the stability of someone who spent five years as a prisoner of war. Imprisonment is not a recommended condition for developing a balanced, educated, experienced, sober and thoughtful person. Did McCain every get emotional support after being in prison for 5 years? Does this experience explain McCain's bad temper? Should the public know and be concerned? There has been a lot of discussion about trust. I believe we can trush Obama, I am not sure about McCain.
A tribute to Obama from a friend:
"Let's just hope and pray that there really is hope for America. Tuesday will tell the tale. I've never seen the Republicans be this mean-spirited and seemingly getting away with it with no problems. I pray that Americans will step up to the plate and do the right thing. There is no comparison. The man is super intelligent, suave, handsome, stands out in a crowd, is sensitive, gentle and an awesome person who is more than willing, ready and able to lead this country forward on the right paths. All the world is looking at the US and I pray that we will seize this opportunity to turn this country around. It's all in God's hands..." permission to add to my blog...by my friend Wilma, from Maryland......
Call everyone you know, make sure they get out and vote.
Sarah Palin is an attractive, witty, quick-witted, tough politician. She is also extreme and unethical. She has proven to be ruthless in her will to get what she wants, be it huge earmarks for Alaska, contracts and perks for her friends, or getting rid of someone who has crossed her (or her family). Sarah will not be stopped. Now apparently even John McCain is getting in her way, and he is having a hard time controlling her. Will Sarah Palin’s behavior force John McCain to rethink the recent unethical positions he has taken under her influence? Maybe. Maybe not?
We are hearing a lot of discussion on national news about the Bradley Effect: the percentage of voters who state they support a black candidate, but in fact vote against that candidate at the polls. This number has been estimated to be as much as 6%.
The Rove Effect is the unknown percentage of voters: a) who will not vote due to misleading information about voting location, dates and times, or b) whose vote will be ‘lost’ or reassigned on electronic voting machines, or c) who will not be permitted to vote due to the purging of voter rolls based on incorrect criteria, inaccurate data, or intentional elimination of voter groups.
This total is referred to (by me) as the Rove Effect. It is just as insidious, and possibly more statistically significant than the Bradley Effect. Worse, this deprivation of voting rights has the perfect ready made cover up. If the elections don’t go as polls predict, then Rove’s manipulations can be blamed on the Bradley Effect!
The only cure is a landslide!
Got a chance to set up a voter registration table at an event for first year college students. We registered 27 new voters in 2 hours and sent more home with registration materials. They had lots of questions, and need help with the form...it can be confusing. Also, rules about change of address and getting an absentee ballot are not too clear, and if you can tell them where they will vote, it helps.
I told the kids what I was told....that 80% of 80 year olds vote, but only 20% of 20 year olds vote, so if you want your issues heard, if you want politicians to see the young as a voting block, you have to vote.
VOTE and carry registration forms with you and ask everyone whether they are registered.
Bring about Change…
Change has now become the theme of both parties. The problem that this is the same old Rove strategy that we saw in 2000 and in 2004. Rove’s strategy is twofold. First is to attack the opponent on his strengths, second is to co-opt their platform…so if you want to know what the recognized strengths of Obama are, look at the what the Republicans say about him. Insider (he does know how Washington operates), elite (yes, he was lucky, smart and hard-working enough to earn scholarships to the best university and graduate schools in the country), if that makes you elite.
Carl Rove’s deceptive and destructive campaign strategies are at work again. The most frustrating to me is the strategy of stealing the opponent’s platform. I writhed in frustration watching the Gore/Bush debates in 2000 when Bush stated that he would follow virtually the same environmental plan that Gore had outlined. Instead when in office, he dismembered the Environmental Protection Agency, putting it in the hands of those who opposed its mission.
Now, McCain is taking up the Rove script…saying he is for change (after supporting Bush’s bankrupting policies and running his campaign with Bush men and lobbyists), that he is for tax cuts for the middle class (although the specifics of his proposal benefit continued low taxes for the rich and cost the middle class more, despite slight tax cuts, due to additional taxes on health care). Lastly, McCain says he supports energy independence, but it is by giving more tax breaks to big oil, and opening more domestic oil (giving more tax breaks to oil companies for exploration).
And McCain ignores the point that we can’t afford to continue to burn oil and pollute and warm our earth, in fact his Trophy Veep doesn’t believe in global warming or climate change.
I worry everytime news commentators talk trash about the value of exit polls. My understanding is that exit polls are pretty reliable, and when they don't match up we should be asking a lot of questions about the voting process. In a recent talk on voter security by Paul Letho, we were encouraged to volunteer at polling places, ask questions about the security of the votes, and the validity of voting machines, and generally make it very clear to all parties that lots of people are watching and asking questions about the voting process.
The most secure method of counting votes is on site and by hand....this is what we should promote locally, and nationally.
