By Donna Smith, American SiCKO, communications specialist for CNA/NNOC
Well, well... It’s America’s birthday. I love the 4th of July and the fireworks and the hot dogs and the summer sun.
And it is my hubby’s birthday on July 7, so this is a great time of the year for us. But imagine my surprise and disgust when I opened an early birthday card he received just yesterday from, guess who? Humana. The health insurance giant that currently holds Larry’s Medicare "advantage" plan and is helping dismantle Medicare one private policy at a time.
The company wants Larry to have a happy and healthy birthday. You bet they do. And they send those pretty, glossy cards to one helluva lot of Medicare folks.
The New York Times reported in April 2008, "Two companies, UnitedHealth Group and Humana, have captured nearly half of the vast new market for prescription drug insurance under Medicare, according to new data issued Friday by the Bush administration." That’s 2.4 million Humana held Medicare drug plans and another 792,500 in Humana-Medicare "advantage" policies.
Would Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin have been in church on Sunday? The short answer is yes, no, and maybe.
During that hot summer of 1776 in Philadelphia, when you try to imagine the core leadership of that Continental Congress, without whom the Declaration of Independence might not have been written and approved unanimously by the delegations from the thirteen colonies, what names come to mind? I know that we and historians could debate this for a long time without consensus, but I suspect few would leave out these three: John Adams from Massachusetts; Thomas Jefferson from Virginia; and Benjamin Franklin from Pennsylvania. Would you agree?
This takes us back to the question I asked at the outset: would these three patriots have been in church when Independence Day fell on a Sunday? There is much made of "the faith of our founding fathers" that is much more a myth of how some folks wish it had been with these giants in our history than how it actually was.
Two days ago FOX News responded to some reporting on their dive in the ratings. They did it by attacking the reporter and his producer, but they did it in a way that was, quite simply, blatantly anti-Semitic.
The reporter in question is named Jacques Steinberg. Yup, "Steinberg." He might as well have been named "Jacques the Jew." And FOX, looking for a way to attack him, knew exactly what to do. Here is a picture of Mr. Steinberg, next to the picture FOX showed on their show:
Do you see anything different? Did you notice the grossly enlarged nose and the lowered hairline? Does it ring any bells? It should. ...
Most of us don't really need any more examples to know how far our media has strayed from it's traditional role of informing the public and acting as the public's watchdog because we've already seen far too many examples of that fact. But for me, A Media Tale of Two Generals is about a subject far too important for me to let it go without comment.
Back in a day not too long ago, Bob Schieffer was one of two remaining television journalists with a hint of spine (the other being Keith Olberman). Every other TV news head in America was afraid of making Condoleezza Rice cry on camera and was just plain afraid of Donald Rumsfeld, but not Schieffer. Schieffer once snapped "let me just ask you to answer the question" at Condi and growled at Rummy, "Well, you really have not directly answered that question, if I may say so, Mr. Secretary."
I don't know what ever happened to that Bob Schieffer, but he was nowhere to be found on last Sunday's Face the Nation McCain campaign ad featuring Joe Lieberman. Last Sunday's Bob Schieffer was Tim Russert reincarnate.
Patriotism over these past 8 years seemed so inappropriate. Well, first there was the loss of a balanced budget - I mean like that! He no sooner had picked up the hammer and the little glass piggy was in shards all over the place.
(This is my 9/11 Story and what I did on Thursday, September 13th 2001)
I have never in my life seen such an outpouring of love and humanity.
We arrived at 10:30am, today, (September 13th 2001), 1/2 Mile North of the WTC, on the West Side Highway, Rich, Jose and I. There were 8 people making and packing sandwiches and fruits and cookies. There were several dozen more people passing out water and food to the passing emergency vehicles. We asked what they needed, and they said, "cold cuts." My friend, Jose, jokingly sticks his hands in his pockets and says, "Sorry, all outta cold cuts." We all laugh. And then we say, "Is that what you need?" And they say, "yes." And we say, "What else do you need?" They give us a list of items and we leave.
I have spent more years than I can tell you being an active volunteer. My folks instilled in us as very young children the need to do for others. They also instilled in us that no matter how bad you think you've got it that things are worse for someone else. I'm going to introduce you to my 'journey' through volunteering and tell you some of the wonderful things I have discovered as a volunteer.
I entered the world of surgery with a desire to help those in need. Kings County Hospital is one of my hospitals, and a place where I thought I could do the most good. It is, after all, a public hospital smack in the middle of one of the poorest, most violent neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Therefore, the events of the last several days have been especially gut-wrenching for me.
The low point came when I was watching "Countdown" last night. Keith Olbermann came on television and called the psychiatric staff involved runner-up to the "worst person in the world," and this right next to Karl Rove of all people. As I stared at the screen in shock and disbelief, I thought to myself, can this hospital sink any lower?
But I should not be surprised. The problems at King's County Hospital have been festering for years.
With July 4 quickly approaching, a number of old assumptions, half-truths and outright lies are being sold and eagerly gobbled up by Americans from sea to shining sea.
The biggest lie is that we declared our independence from Britain on July 4:
Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.
That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.
The economic slowdown & rising gas prices were expected to take their toll on car sales, and it did. With people either losing their jobs or losing a chunk of their disposable income to $4 gas, sales of automobiles in the United States showed their worst half-year performance since 1993, including a more than 18% sales plunge for the month of June compared to the same time last year, and June 2007 wasn't exactly a good month for the auto industry either. It's also double the sales drop experienced in the wake of the September 11th attacks.
Detroit automakers were hit hard. Ford Motor was down 28 percent in June, General Motors was off 18 percent, and Chrysler dropped 36 percent.
Despite its sharp decline, G.M’s results were better than expected, which industry analysts attributed to a sales blitz with offers of zero-interest, long-term financing deals. The cut-rate loans helped G.M. retain its historic position as the top-selling United States automaker over Toyota, whose sales fell 21 percent.
Jack is maybe one of the bravest people I never met. Jack's father was a veteran in World War II. When he returned to the United States after the war, he became a coal miner and later died of Black Lung. Jack's family was not wealthy and there were few options for him. As many people do in his circumstances, he volunteered for the United States Army.
The war in Vietnam was just beginning to ramp up, and Jack was sent there almost immediately.
Quite a few articles were written last week about speculative McCain VP pick, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, many focusing on Jindal's signing into law a bill that will allow the teaching of creationism, through "supplemental materials," in Louisiana's public schools. Some of last week's articles mentioned Jindal's association with former Texas Republican Party co-chair and pseudo-historian David Barton, a name all too familiar to those of us who closely follow the religious right, but largely unrecognized by just about everyone else on the left, in spite of the impact he managed to have on evangelical voters in the last two presidential elections.
I am fired up about the Constitution, and perhaps my reverence for it qualifies as a secular religion, and as such might cast haze over my eyes when it comes to more immediate, pressing considerations in the realpolitik of American politics in general and advancing the progressive agenda in detail.
I have, sometimes nicely, received this hint from quite a few persons the past few weeks.
The short form: CSK, you need to look at the big picture.
I answered, not always nicely, that what was bigger than the Constitution?
Let me be up front and apologize for that belligerence. Sorry, guys.
So I took the advice and revisited my thoughts on this election for the past several months...and here is what I came up with.
Well Granny calls us purity trolls, PsiFighter says we should just grow up, Olberman is telling Obama how to do his job, to read this blog lately you'd think the entire progressive movement is about to crumble to dust because our latest patron saint of progress has declared a measure of independence from us, the "righteous" left, or perhaps the "self righteous" left is apropos.
From the perspective of a generational researcher it all comes off like some kind of self indulgent comedy, like so many brilliantly argued theses on how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. We become trapped by our own ideology, shouting into the echo chamber that is our own little corner of the blogosphere.
We wring our hands in fret, some because our once saintly anointed leader has spurned us, and others because now that we have entered meltdown mode he is surely to crumble amidst the loss of our once united support.
Yeah, I'm always a day late on these things, and god knows I'm no Granny Doc, but here goes.
From the front page to the lowliest diary comments, it is impossible not to encounter somebody's grave, disheartened disappointment at something the Democratic nominee did or didn't do in his quest to gain office.
You're shocked. You're hurt. You're going to take your $25 and go home. You're going to give up on the big ticket and concentrate on state races.
