We definitely need health care reform with a public option but there are some items that need to be part of a final bill including (1) common sense tort reform (2) freedom to offer higher deductible options (3) privacy protection in smart cards, computerization, etc. (4) maximum competition across state lines, (5) real built-in incentives for cost savings, etc. We are well aware of extreme right wing lunatics shouting people down and spouting lies at town hall meetings but we do need to listen to common sense ideas from all sides in the debate.
Health care reform needs a true single-payer public health care option. This is the only way we will reduce health care costs and achieve universal coverage. Huge savings can be achieved through prevention, computerization, standardization of records, smart cards, full access to generics, etc. A single-payer public health care option should not have to be subsidized by taxpayers. The United States spends far more per capita on health care than any other country in the world but we are lagging far behind in the health of our people. Doing nothing about health care reform is inexcusable since doing nothing will further decrease our competitive advantage in the world and health care cost increases will continue to far exceed our ability to pay. We must get health care reform done now!
Insurance companies make enormous profits from health problems of the American people by charging more, cherrypicking and denying claims. They have devastated the American people with bankruptcy in record numbers. Special interests such as insurance companies, hospitals, drug companies have made obscenely large contributions to corrupt Republicans (and even a few influential Democrats) to maintain the current dysfunctional system that will soon destroy our country. We cannot trust the insurance industry to cut costs without a public health care option providing some honest competition.
See http://Democracy-Now.us
Health care reform needs a true single-payer public health care option. This is the only way we will reduce health care costs and achieve universal coverage. Huge savings can be achieved through prevention, computerization, standardization of records, smart cards, full access to generics, etc. A single-payer public health care option should not necessarily have to be subsidized by taxpayers.
Insurance companies make money by charging more and denying claims. They have devastated the American people with bankruptcy in record numbers. Special interests such as insurance companies, hospitals, drug companies have made huge contributions to corrupt Republicans to maintain the current dysfunctional system. We cannot trust the insurance industry to cut costs without an optional single-payer health care plan providing some honest competition.
We gathered 13,400 pounds of food -- with more to come tomorrow -- the second largest amount for a single drive for the year!
We brought in $4300 in cash and checks -- the largest amount of any drive for the year!
To put that in context, the Food Bank serves an average of 200 households each, three days a week. The food we brought in in one afternoon, including the bulk food that can be bought with those donations, is almost enough to feed the community for an entire month!
We call ourselves a democracy but still have shameful voter suppression by corrupt Republicans. If voters have to stand in ridiculously long lines, especially in battleground states, many citizens can't wait that long and will be disenfranchised from voting.
Oregon has 100% mail-in voting and Washington State will soon have 100% mail-in voting too. This is much better than the current mess we see in other states. First you can complete your ballot at your leisure with all the information in front of you. Second there is a paper backup which can be independently scanned in close elections to verify the winner. This proved very valuable in Washington State's 2004 governors race where less than 200 votes separated the winner from the loser.
We desperately need voting reform in the United States so citizens are not disenfranchised from voting.
There are still LARGE numbers of people who have not yet turned in their vote by mail ballots. It's not too late to benefit from this.
Watch the video that shows how to vote by mail. http://wa-democrats.org/vote
or for the same video on vimeo:
http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/voting/absentee/howtoabsentee.aspx
Chinese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF1M2Mn75nE&fmt=18
Hearing impaired: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JnFoeZgwOA
I doorbelled a precinct for a fellow PCO today - she had to fly back East to visit an ailing parent.
Fall in Olympia is beautiful. The leaves are turning and many yards are still filled with blooming flowers. Today was no exception. What a great day to pitch in and help elect Democrats!
I started doorbelling about 1 pm. The morning had started like any other Saturday of late. I fixed coffee for Marrial and I. We watched a bit of CNN. I took Mikey and Molly for a walk in nearby Pioneer Park. We had a bit of breakfast. I puttered a bit. Then I headed off to doorbell.
The neighborhood I was in was pretty typical of Southeast Olympia - a mixture of middle class and upper middle class homes, with a few modest duplexes thrown in for good measure.
Obama signs were plentiful, perhaps twenty-five in the precinct. I think I saw two lonely McCain signs. The support for Barack was impressive, even by Olympia standards. Gregoire signs outnumbered Rossi (the snake) by at least a six to one margin.
The main task in this type of precinct is to make sure Democrats vote. Doorbelling is a good way to remind folks.
Folks were very friendly. Many told me they had already voted for Barack, we're a vote by mail area, or were going to. I only had two folks refuse lit - one sharing he was a Republican. Four or five folks actually thanked me for doorbelling.
I finished in four hours, including a break for a bottle of cold green tea at a nearby store.
Doorbelling is a great way to get a bit of exercise and make a contribution to a campaign. I've been doing it for twenty-five years and have had many wonderful experiences. I recommend it highly.
This has got to be the dirtiest, most dishonest Republican campaign yet. John McCain and other corrupt Republicans caused the savings and loan crash in the early 1990's and now McCain is part of the Republican Culture of Corruption responsible for the current crash. They are now running a disgustingly negative campaign throwing all the mud they can. This is dangerous for our country because it brings out the crazy people seen at recent McCain-Palin rallies.
John McCain is confused, erratic, showing signs of dementia, is not looking healthy, likely to have his melanoma cancer return and is mindlessly spouting lies from his sleazy, dishonest campaign. John McCain has been in lockstep with George W Bush over 90% of the time. Another four years of Bush policies would totally destroy our country and that is what we would get with John McCain. If you believe John McCain's recent campaign lies that suddenly he would be different, then I have a Bridge to Nowhere to sell you.
Sarah Palin is clearly unqualified to be President, is a religious fundamentalist extremist who would take away a women's right to choose and would create an American Taliban reversing all the gains in civil rights. For the sake of our country, we must make sure that Barack Obama is elected President.
Having said that, Obama as President would be smart to have some moderate Republicans on his team because we are all Americans and need to work together in bipartisan fashion to solve our problems.
15 years ago, Roberta Riley found out that she had cancer. While she was fighting to live, her health insurance company decided to drop her from coverage. 15 years later, Roberta talks about her support for Senator Obama and his plan to make health care accessible and affordable for all Americans regardless of preexisting conditions. Watch her story here:
1%, or 1 vote out of 100There have been 12 Presidential elections that were decided by less than a 1% margin; meaning if less than 1% of the voters in certain states had changed their mind to the other candidate the outcome of the entire election would have been different. More than half were decided by less than a 2% margin.
In 2004, 57,787 votes would have given us President Kerry.In 2000, 269 votes would have given us President GoreIn 1996, 575,515 votes would have given us President Dole.
From ABC News:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2008/09/squeakers.html
=========="Squeakers"Ned PotterABC NewsSeptember 29, 2008How close have Presidential elections been? Closer, perhaps, than we ever guessed. Mike Sheppard, a grad student in statistics at Michigan State, has done a mathematical exercise that shows it.He ran a computer program to answer this question: "What is the smallest number of total votes that need to be switched from one candidate to another, and from which states, to affect the outcome of the election?"The answer: in some years, very, very few. Take a look at his analysis HERE. It shows the powerful interaction between the popular vote and the electoral college.[...]==========
Full article here:http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2008/09/squeakers.html
Detailed analysis here, including colored maps:https://www.msu.edu/~sheppa28/elections.html-Mike Sheppard
Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies."
It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89755688
