I watched an HBO special last night called "Right America" it was quite an insight on the beliefs and reasons as to why certain people especially from the south didn't vote correctly on Nov. 4th (namley voted republican) here are some of the reasons given.
1) He's not a man of God he believes in murder. And will ellect all new supreme court judges to support him.
(obviosly the "God Squad" that don't believe in "free will" and dosen't know how the judical system works)
2) I don't like the fact that our taxes are going to go up.
(this was a school teacher, she must be REALLY rich or just watches fox news)
3) He's not an American, he's going to be sworn in using the Qur'an and since those were Muslims that attacked us on 9/11 I think he's in bed with terrorists.
(I think everyone in the south should be sent a version of the Constitution, then when they get past 3rd grade be made to read it, especially the part about only a natural born citizen can become president!)
4) America isn't ready for a black president.
(notably these were NAS-CAR enthusiasts that think going in circles really fast is cool and they also wanted to repeel the woman's right to vote, nuff said)
5) He'll turn this country Socialist just like Hitler and Marx did to Europe!
(What the ...... BLEEP!)
At this point my interest then laughter turned into utter shock. First, Hitler was a fascist and Marx was a communist, which by the way wasn't even living at the world war two stage, I think the name they were grasping for was Stalin! That would be about as far left and far right as you could politically get. Second, The "Evil" word of "Socialism", thanks to the republicans most people in the US think it means communism, it dosen't, it just means "ecconomic equality".
We have a socialist police force & fire service because it's considered good for everyone, why not a socialist health care system. Basic human rights should be covered by the government, my favorite quote, "A government FOR the people BY the people" should include taking CARE of the people.
Now i'm not saying that ALL socialist things are good, we don't need ALL electric power handled by the government but an option might lower some electric bills and maybe water and gas as an option. It would sure stop some summer price hikes when your air is running or winter gas hikes when you need to be warm. Just a thought.
Back to healthcare, my sister-in-law is a republican and my wife and I democrat, last year my wife was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, it took the administration more than two hours to get her to her room and most of that time was filling out paperwork and waiting around for return phone calls from our insurance provider. I asked my sister-in-law, "wouldn't you like to see a free health care system?", she said, "Hell no we have much better healthcare than other countries", lets see. My cousin in England is doctor, i asked him how long it takes, he sent me the form needed to enter an NHS (National Heath Service) hospital.
Name: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Address: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date of Birth: xxxxxxxxxxx
NIN: xxxxxxxxxxxxx (stands for National Insurance Number, same as SSN)
Ok, the Dr will be right with you, that's it, done, no phone calls, not more waiting, off to your room.
Everything is on a central database (which no-one has ever hacked by the way, just like a bank, totally secure)
My wife has had her opperation and is now on her chemo and her radiation ($3000 per session, total with insuance $36,000, our insurance paid thank god, total in England $0) She's now taking four perscription drugs everyday one of them costs $105 per pill, thankfully the insuance covers them. I told my cousin what the medication was and he told me, "it doesn't matter what the drug is it's $10.00 per perscription". I asked him what about the $105 pill what if she need 30 of them, he said, "$10.00 per perscription no matter what, 10 pills, 100 pills same price".
"The taxes must be really high to have such a socalist healthcare system?"
5% extra tax and everyone is covered, not even perscription charges for children under 16 and people over 65, they pay nothing at all. I can hear people saying "5%" that's a huge chunk of my money, is it? is it really? think about it, if your employed you pay for a medical plan, A chunk comes out of your pay check each month and your employer pays the difference. Look at your pay stub next time you get paid and calculate how much your paying, it's about on average 2% of your income and your boss foots another 5%, that's 7%, 2% more than what you would pay, 1% on your side plus your employer could pay you more as they save money by not having to insure you!
Just do the math, if you paid a little more your employer could save money and maybe not offshore your job!
Unemployed people pay nothing, small business people get a tax rebate.
I lived and was born in England for more than 30 years, I think the longest i waited was about an hour without an appointment. As for long waiting lists, not true, if you have elective surgery then sure you might need to wait a while but for serious medical needs your seen right away, do Americans really think a heart attack victim has to wait a month before he gets treated?
Don't get me wrong I love this country and England is far from perfect, England is rated 18th best in the world for healthcare but America is listed at 37th?
Most Americans couldn't name 36 countries, Africa isn't a country by the way and neither is Europe:-)
Are we as Americans really sure we wouldn't want to have some free healthcare, sooner or later everyone gets sick, do you want to have to sell your house to pay for it?
Back to the five questions I heard above, one thing sticks out more than anything I heard, dis-information & lies. Any well educated person knows that there are two parties, not people but parties, there was Bush and then McCain, just because McCain is a likable fellow does not mean he thinks different, his "Party", is the same. Most of the people interviewed didn't like Bush alot but thought McCain could be trusted. Now i'm no magical wizz on politics but isn't republican being replaced by republican the same policy? Education, Education, Education. It's not the man/woman it's the policy then the person. If Joe the Plummer was running and won the nomination for the democrates I'd still vote democrat. I must admit though voting for someone that came from nothing make me tingle a little, least he knows how many houses he owns (the words silver & spoon spring to mind for McCain and wife).
A very smart man by the name of "Tony Benn" once said a very profound statment and it's happening right now in America, he said. "There are only two ways to control the people if your in government, fear and lack of education, scare the people and they will let you do anything even if it infringes on there civil liberties. Don't educate the people so they believe what you say"
Think about it, wire taps, getmo, people not knowing the facts, people not asking questions, people looking for WMD, wars started, terror, terror, terror. and the last thing the republicans wanted removed from the stimulus package, less on education. We have become a nation of sheep looking for a leader I hope we have found one, the fat cats in washington have raped this country enough, the private companies have transfered the public funds via a war not needed, American lives have been wasted in the name of corperate greed and the world has become more unstable than ever. Unless we realise that our government is broken we can never fix it. The french did just that several hundred years ago now they are ranked number one in human rights including healthcare. There government is afriad of it's people, Americans seem afriad of it's politicians. I hope we have the right person, I personally think so but like i said the fat cats want to keep there wealth, it's going to be hard to take it from them.
The Power is Yours.
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