I heard this on the weekend.

There are 2,500,000 people in California who don't have health insurance. If they were a city, it would be the fourth largest city in the U.S.. I just checked and Houston, Texas, is the 4th largest city with population of a little under 2,500,000.

Time for a little escapist break, then political activism:

http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a250aae22c0eb170122c25665a0000f

Obama admin won't rule out raising taxes on middle class
2 Obama officials: No guarantee taxes won't go up
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/08/obama-admin-wont-rule-out-raising-taxes...

Why do the democrats always play into the republican's hands? Who says the Federal government has to balance it's budget? All the Democrats do is save up the money for the republicans to spend! The democrats should due away with all federal taxes, and then they would be everybody's hero!

ooooops.. I forgot to include the link to the "Go Ahead And Die!" Here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNuCfD5bICQ

I once heard an old gentleman refer to the HMO Group Health as "Group Death,” for reasons one might easily surmise. All these false stories disseminated by the right that a public option invites involuntary euthanasia of the elderly is already being practiced by the private sector, particularly if you are not a celebrity, a politician or rich. But our morality should be no different than any other civilized country; younger people should not feel their taxes or insurance premiums are being misused on older people—for when they themselves grow old, they will be dependent on a younger generation to help them through their latter years. The elderly should also keep in mind that it is Republicans who opposed and consistently tried to disrupt or destroy Social Security and Medicare.

In any case, the health care industry seems to be diseased with a strange kind of schizophrenia. For instance, stories have been told of how a person may complain of a dull pain of unknown origin or purpose, but suspects that maybe a prescription of an appropriate pain medication may be a sufficient cure. The doctor, however, has other ideas. He may know that this is a pedestrian case, but merely prescribing pills seems “too easy” and not very profitable. So, perhaps against the wishes of the patient, orders a battery of tests, just to “make sure.” When it is all over, the cure is a $5 bottle of Ibropropin—and a bill for $2,000. If the insurance company determines that the tests were unnecessary, then the patient foots the cost. The patient probably would have been better served if he or she had stopped by the drug store instead.

Yet on the other hand are the cases where—particularly for the elderly or poor—the doctor, recognizing the serious nature of an illness, orders tests, treatments and various therapies, only to be denied by the insurance company. Some clerical flunky who has no personal knowledge of the case, and couldn’t care less, makes life and death decisions. Patients who clearly need additional treatment are simply thrown out onto the street, or if allowed to remain in a hospital, become sicker, or acquire new diseases, because they did not receiving the treatment they needed because it is being denied by an insurer.

All this indicates a health care system out-of-whack and in desperate need of reform. But instead of focusing on reforming the system, the right and blue-dogs (who call themselves Democrats because somebody else was already the Republican candidate) are promoting fear and engaging in personal attacks on Obama to mask their own incompetence and inhumanity.

Loretta,

I think you can listen to any of the shows you miss from KPOJ's podcast page

http://www.620kpoj.com/cc-common/podcast/single_podcast.html?podcast=har...

Hope the workshop goes well.

I'm sad. I'm a workshop and won't get to listen to the show for ten days. During meals I'll be sure to talk with folks about health care, though, to do my karma work. Hope everyone has a great week. Next month I must sign up for the podcast!

golly gee, we're mighty lucky that you've got an American living in CANADA who can explain Canadian healthcare for you!

I mean, with over 30 million Canadians from which to fucking choose, it must have been a daunting task to find a genuine American who can do the explaining for us!

yet again, Americans are myopic & self-centred... talking about healthcare reforms, without EVER UTTERING A FUCKING WORD ABOUT HOW AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS ARE SPENDING A FORTUNE TO KILL HEALTHCARE IN CANADA.

gee, I guess its because Canadians are the fucking Missing Link or something... to white to invade... just friendly enough to give us your pestilence-riddled corrupt HealthCare Lobbyists...

gee, thanks for caring.

yet again, if its about Americans... who fucking cares about anybody else?

The Rest of the World is just the background players in your narcissistic little dramas, aren't we?

Hi Greg-

Why re invent the wheel, there are plenty of groups out there- have you tried to convince them of your idea? IT is a good one- I am just thinking efficiency. Firedog, PDAmerica,, DFA many more are all good groups - However, too- I have learned that I sort of like just grabbing the ball sometimes event by event - Create an event on barackobama.com- they will let you do it there, too

I am interested in knowing if anyone is interested in becoming a progressive lobby group? My proposal is to set up an pledge account for the Democratic National Party. HOWEVER, they will only get the money (via your own pledge) if they will stop supporting any democratic who opposes SINGLE-PAYER health care. Maybe there aren't enough of us out there, but maybe there are! I will pledge $100 right now? Anyone else? If I even see a little response in the chat room; I will set up a website to facilitate the plan. I will also investigate other ways to bypass the big corporations to get what we need to survive, i.e. put your money into a credit union instead of a big bank.

Here is a beautiful link picturing children of Gaza flying beuatiful homemade kites amidst the terror of Israeli destruction. They are going for the world record in kite flying! It's a lovely image.

http://current.com/items/90567149...
Return to: http://current.com/items/90567149...

From Jeremy Bird, Deputy Director, OFA

And here are five highlights that I wanted to share re Health Care Reform Campaign sign up at barackobama.com:

The newspaper in Exeter, NH is reporting that local supporters are canvassing everywhere to build support for reform: door-to-door, at farmers' markets, and at state fairs. The article quotes volunteer Dave Munsey as saying that 2008 "was probably the most important election of my lifetime. This is just an extension of that."
Supporters in Florida held simultaneous press conferences outside of nine local Senate offices with doctors, small-business owners, and others, all telling their personal health care stories about why reform is so important to them.
After a huge event in Wisconsin, hundreds of the participants headed to a nearby town hall event hosted by Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner to share their stories and urge him to stand with voters in support of reform.
A host in Minnesota organized a barbeque for supporters to hear from speakers and write letters to their members of Congress. 1200 people joined in!
Volunteer community organizers have participated in trainings in more than 13 states -- and 17 more are scheduled for the upcoming weeks.