Call for HELP

We all know that the cost of health-care is very high. It is especially high if you have an unexpected hospital stay. This is a call for help to everyone and anyone for Aaron Schulz. Aaron is a 22 year old young man that came down with an unexpected serious health problem recently. While at home he became short of breath, felt some chest pain, and became dizzy. His family brought him to the hospital where they realized that the Poplar Bluff Hospital in Missouri could not handle his immediate care needs and flew him by helicopter to St. John's Mercy in St. Louis, MO. Doctors at the hospital at first diagnosed Cushings disease but further tests are pending. All of these tests and the hospital stay are far more expensive than you could ever imagine. Aaron went in for surgery for complications and blood clots. This makes almost three weeks in the hospital and the bills keep getting larger.

Aaron grew up in Poplar Bluff, Missouri and graduated from Poplar Bluff High School. His health has never been a problem and to have it strike him down at such a young age is a serious matter. Aaron could only get part time work with the Department of Agriculture and didn't qualify for health insurance with his employer.

If you can donate to help with the hospital bills it will be greatly appreciated by Aaron and his family. Please give whatever you can afford in these hard times. All donations are going directly to pay for his medical care. Donations are not tax deductible. Well wishes and prayers are also greatly appreciated. Feel free to leave a comment below with your kind thoughts.

The family has arranged an account with a local bank to help pay for Aaron's care. Anything you can donate and send to help pay some of the expenses will be appreciated.

Please mail donations to:

Poplar Bluff Federal Credit Union
C/O Aaron Schulz
2438 Katy Lane
Poplar Bluff, MO 63901

Thank you and God bless from the entire Schulz family.

PLEASE REPOST THIS ON YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE OR PERSONAL BLOG.

Affordable Health Care for America

This is the meat and potato of the new AFFORDABLE health care for America plan according to the Ways and Means of the US Congress. Word for word or you can click here to go to the Committee on Ways and Means to see it for yourself. Nobody is hijacking your health care, and nobody is going to be screwed over anymore because of your age, a pre-existing health condition, or a lifetime cap set by your insurance company. This is the health care bill recently signed by the President and passed by the congress via reconciliation. I like the idea of health care for all but I'm not very comfortable with any legislation when one political party uses special rules to pass any bill. The Republicans jammed garbage down our throats under President Bush and I'm not so sure if tit for tat by the Democrats under President Obama is any better. Castor oil still tastes like crap and it doesn't matter who is holding the spoon as you are forced to take it. The end result is that you are the one left with the bad taste in your mouth. On the surface this looks like a good thing for the American people. According to some polling results people are coming around to liking it now that the truth is coming out as to what real health care reform is.

KEY PROVISIONS THAT TAKE EFFECT IMMEDIATELY UNDER SENATE BILL AS AMENDED BY RECONCILIATION BILL

FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
SMALL BUSINESS TAX CREDITS—Offers tax credits to small businesses to make employee coverage more affordable. Tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums will be immediately available. Effective beginning for calendar year 2010. (Beginning in 2014, small business tax credits will cover 50 percent of premiums.)

FOR SENIORS
BEGINS TO CLOSE THE MEDICARE PART D DONUT HOLE—Provides a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who hit the donut hole in 2010. Effective for calendar year 2010. (Beginning in 2011, institutes a 50% discount on brand‐name drugs in the donut hole; also completely closes the donut hole by 2020.)

FREE PREVENTIVE CARE UNDER MEDICARE—Eliminates co‐payments for preventive services and exempts preventive services from deductibles under the Medicare program. Effective beginning January 1, 2011.

HELP FOR EARLY RETIREES—Creates a temporary re‐insurance program (until the Exchanges are available) to help offset the costs of expensive health claims for employers that provide health benefits for retirees age 55‐64. Effective 90 days after enactment

FOR THOSE PRIVATELY INSURED
NO DISCRIMINATON AGAINST CHILDREN WITH PRE‐EXISTING CONDITIONS—Prohibits health plans from denying coverage to children with pre‐existing conditions. Effective 6 months after enactment. (Beginning in 2014, this prohibition would apply to adults as well.)

IMMEDIATE HELP FOR THE UNINSURED WITH PRE‐EXISTING CONDITIONS (INTERIM HIGH‐RISK POOL)—Provides immediate access to insurance for Americans who are uninsured because of a pre‐existing condition ‐ through a temporary high‐risk pool – until the Exchanges up and running in 2014. Effective 90 days after enactment. (Beginning in 2014, health plans are banned from discriminating against all people with pre‐existing conditions, so high‐risk pools would phase out).

NO RESCISSIONS—Bans health plans from dropping people from coverage when they get sick. Effective 6 months after enactment.

NO LIFETIME LIMITS ON COVERAGE—Prohibits health plans from placing lifetime caps on coverage. Effective 6 months after enactment.

NO RESTRICTIVE ANNUAL LIMITS ON COVERAGE—Tightly restricts new plans’ use of annual limits to ensure access to needed care. These tight restrictions will be defined by HHS. Effective 6 months after enactment. (Beginning in 2014, the use of any annual limits would be prohibited for all plans.)

FREE PREVENTIVE CARE UNDER NEW PLANS—Requires new private plans to cover preventive services with no co‐payments and with preventive services being exempt from deductibles. Effective 6 months after enactment.

NEW, INDEPENDENT APPEALS PROCESS FOR NEW PLANS—Ensures consumers in new plans have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal decisions. Effective 6 months after enactment.

MORE FOR YOUR PREMIUM DOLLAR—Requires plans to put more of your premiums into your care, and less into profits, CEO pay, etc. This medical loss ratio requires plans in the individual and small group market to spend 80 percent of premiums on medical services, and plans in the large group market to spend 85 percent. Insurers that don’t meet these thresholds must provide rebates to policyholders. Effective on January 1, 2011.

NO DISCRIMINATION BASED ON SALARY—Prohibits new group health plans from establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that have the effect of discriminating in favor of higher wage employees. Effective 6 months after enactment.

EXTENDING COVERAGE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE UP TO 26TH BIRTHDAY THROUGH PARENTS’ INSURANCE – Requires health plans to allow young people up to their 26th birthday to remain on their parents’ insurance policy, at the parents’ choice. Effective 6 months after enactment.

GENERAL REFORMS

COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS—Increases funding for Community Health Centers to allow for nearly doubling the number of patients served over the next 5 years. Effective beginning in fiscal year 2010.

MORE PRIMARY CARE DOCTORS—Provides new investment in training programs to increase the number of primary care doctors, nurses, and public health professionals. Effective beginning in fiscal year 2010.

HEALTH INSURANCE CONSUMER ASSISTANCE—Provides aid to states to establish offices of health insurance consumer assistance to help consumers file complaints and appeals. Effective beginning in FY 2010.

CREATES NEW, VOLUNTARY, PUBLIC LONG‐TERM CARE INSURANCE PROGRAM—Creates a long‐term care insurance program to be financed by voluntary payroll deductions to provide benefits to adults who become functionally disabled. Effective on January 1, 2011.

MORE REFORMS THAT BEGIN IN 2014 (WHEN EXCHANGES HAVE FORMED)

NO DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ADULTS WITH PRE‐EXISTING CONDITIONS

BAN ON HIGHER PREMIUMS FOR WOMEN

PREMIUMS BASED ON AGE CAN ONLY VARY BY A MAXIMUM OF 3‐TO‐1 RATIO

CAP ON OUT‐OF‐POCKET EXPENSES for private health plans

OFFICE OF SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI MARCH 22, 2010

Do all of your friends and family a favor and email this post to everyone. There is so much dis-information out there that it isn't even funny anymore. Time to educate the masses that have been getting screwed over by the health care insurers as to what the real deal is under the new deal for affordable health care in America.

Papamoka

*** My twin brutha from anotha mutha at the Gun Toting Liberal has linked in! Thank you GTL!

Mary Magdalene Health Care

When Harry Truman was President he was beside himself thinking that he was so despised by the people he served. History proved the people of the time wrong. It took a few decades for another President, George W. Bush to suffer the same circumstances. As much as I personally disagreed with W, I can’t say what history will tell us what he couldn’t or wouldn’t tell the American people. Tricky Dicky part II is doing his best to let the bird out of the bag but the former President is silent and that speaks volumes. It’s easy to speak from the bleachers as a Vice President when it wasn’t your signature on the orders written as the President. Thirty, forty, or even fifty years from now nobody will know who the hell Dick Cheney even was. Rightfully, I think so.

Test for you political afficianados that read these posts, who was President Gerald Fords Vice President? Don’t cheat! No Google searching allowed for this honest question. Think about it? Do you know who it was?

The country is in the middle of a serious debate when it comes to our healthcare system and rightfully so. Both sides agree that our healthcare system more or less sucks. Businesses can’t keep up with the spiraling out of control costs, workers and employees can’t afford to share more of the cost either. We need to fix it and we need to fix it now. One thing is certain is that there has to be a showdown at Big Sky and we have to fix the problem now!

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(I highly suggest listening to the song while reading the post.)



President Obama may lose some popularity trying to get healthcare for all passed but he ran on and promised the American people that voted him into office that he would fix the healthcare problem. You can’t care for a person with brain cancer by dropping off an apple pie as a neighbor. Or even offering to help out with the laundry or helping out with household chores while a mother cares for a child with Leukemia. It's a nice gesture but it does not pay for the care that a loved one needs to survive or live through a very much curable disease or condition. If the insurance isn’t there to cover your particular illness, you will not get the care you need.

God loved his only son so much that he let him die for our sins and here we are arguing over what is due to Caesar 2009 years later because we forget the words of Jesus Christ. We live in the richest and most powerful land in the entire world and yet we don’t give a rats ass about our own peoples basic healthcare needs. And yet we spend hundreds of billions to care, feed, defend, even shelter people thousands of miles from our own shores. Can we look in our own back yard for just a minute? Can we care for Americans first and then share some of the bounty?

The show down is coming in the Congress and it is up to the people that voted for this President to speak up loud and clear. It is up to the business owners that know full well that they can’t or will not be able to offer health insurance even five years from now if it is growing at 20% per year to their employees to speak up. This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue, it is a simple American issue. Employers can’t afford to offer the benefit if the cost of health insurance doubles every four or five years. That is the common sense of this entire issue. Small businesses just starting out need the public option just to survive. People working at minimum wage need the public option. Single mothers with dead beat fathers need the public option. Divorced wives with husbands in mid life crisis need the public option. Unemployed and forgotten heroes families from past wars need the public option. And yes the Mary Magdalene’s of this nation need the public option to get off the drug addiction that drives them to their only source of income to feed their addiction. This is unforgivable that this nation is even arguing about healthcare for all when we have so much that has been granted and blessed on us. Some people call America a Christian nation but if it comes time to put your money where your mouth is then the churches empty. Jesus would cry or should cry that his sacrafice was for not. I guess the Bible is only good for Sunday services. Monday through Saturday are discretionary as to how the money changers will work best to your personal advantage.

We need to get our act together America or the next declined healthcare need may just be yours. Don’t worry about the Congressional politicians declaring doom and gloom, they have healthcare for life just because they were elected. Even if they serve just one term. Fully paid, no deductibles and free prescriptions. Speaking from the congressional pulpit is easy if the issue will never have any effect on your life.

“Lepers in our midst need not fear care of the body in this life but your soul may just be lost if you ignore the care of your brother or sister.” That isn’t a bible quote, just my thoughts and my personal belief.

Papamoka

Moving Healthcare Forward

Things in the healthcare debate are fired up and finally the left side of the aisle is coming back from summer vacation. It’s a given that the right wing attack on healthcare is in the last gasps for breath when Joe Lieberman comes out begging that the congress tackle this whole scenario in smaller bites. Wait till the economy recovers, or the recession is over, or till pigs fly. Well jumping parties Joe, Swine Flu is here and that meets one of the criteria for me to get it all done NOW!

Now is the time for all you vacationing Dem’s, and Liberal’s, and self declared whacko Leftie’s, to get on board the peace train and contact your elected leaders in the congress.

I noticed over the past few weeks that many of the people against healthcare have showed up for these town halls with some pretty anti American slogans. All the power to them, matter of fact, please keep it up. Left leaning blogs like this one can always use material of someone declaring themselves right wing with a swastika poster in hand. It doesn’t matter how you carry it or the message you wanted it to send, it still is an abomination to democracy no matter how loud you yell or scream.

We on the left side of the aisle can do better and just buy a ticket on the peace train. Call, email, or even write a letter to your congressional members in the house and senate. All aboard!

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Papamoka

Are Republican’s Goose Cooked on Healthcare

Now that Democrats are willing to go it alone without the help from their respected colleagues from the Republican Party in the house and senate it is not a surprise to see the minority political party begging for a super majority on any healthcare legislation. Translation, they can’t stop the progress of the current congress no matter how many antics they pull against healthcare reform. I personally think that some of the elected officials on the right are bought and paid for by the people that donated so much to their campaigns over the years of public service. But we need to redefine public service in their cases as servants to the folks that wrote the mega checks.

For the purpose of explaining Calvin Ball in the link below, that is from the now defunct Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip where Calvin made up all the rules and they changed every time he played the game to please himself and win the game. Something the political right is trying to do now with the current debate on health care reform. Matthew Yglesias has a great piece on this game of legislative Calvin chess over at Think Progress…

Republicans Calling for Super-Supermajority for Health Care

In order to become law, a health care bill needs to secure a majority on the House Ways & Means Committee and also the House Energy & Commerce Committee and also the House Education & Labor Committee and, of course, the full United States House of Representatives. It also needs a majority on the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health Education Labor & Pensions Committee. And, of course, it needs a majority in the full United States Senate. Then thanks to the calvinball rules we’ve been playing with for the past 25 years, it actually needs a sixty vote supermajority to pass then Senate. After that, it would be subjected to presidential veto.

That’s a number of legislative hurdles that goes far beyond anything else found in major democracies. Naturally, key Republican Senators have decided that what’s needed is more calvinball. - Think Progress

There is just one thing that all politics comes down to and that is money. Political donations come into political campaigns from every cause imaginable and some of those donations just might influence a candidate, a congressman, a senator, or even a president. The insurance and pharmaceutical industry has their butt cheeks puckering in fear over this health care debate and their check books are wide open to defeat any healthcare reform. Money is no object to throw up in opposition to common sense when it comes to the billions in profits they see every single year.

This debate isn’t entirely about gutting health care as much as it is about tossing the Robber Baron’s out of health care. If competition is the basis of capitalism then the health insurer providers should be able to compete with the government with a public option. Everyone on the political right side of this debate claims that the government is bloated with fat and bureaucracy, which in turn makes one think that the government couldn’t even come close to competing with a private insurer and that nullifies their argument against a public option.

Or we could just do nothing and let the CEO’s of every private health insurance company buy another yacht, another vacation home, or just jet off to some distant land where they will be out of ear shot to hear the screams of millions of Americans without any health care plan other than the emergency room. And for the record, because you didn’t check the box where your mom or dad died from some form of cancer, the procedures you need now to save your life are no longer covered by your HMO. Deal with it!

Papamoka

Living Will or Advance Directive

One of the biggest issues that is coming under fire with the proposed healthcare reform legislation is the living will or advance directive for all citizens of the United States. Mind you, this has been backed by the US Government for twenty plus years and surprisingly by many folks on the right side of the political spectrum.

Currently, we have Rush Limbaugh of EIB fame ranting on and on against “Death Panels” which is how he defines a living will or advance directive. Then we have Newt Gingrich declaring that Americans will be euthanized because some states allow it. And then there is former Governor Sarah Palin going on her soap box to declare that “Death Panels” will ration medicine or kill Grammy and Grandpa.

What makes no sense is that each one of these same folks was for it before it became part of the discussion to fix America’s healthcare system. Each one of them is pulling a John Kerry “I was for it before I was against it” sort of move.

Where you have a living will to give medical directions aka advance directions on steps to be taken to care for you in your last days on this earth. Things like, don’t feed me through a tube, don’t let machines keep me alive, and by all means, do not resuscitate (DNR) if you go into cardiac arrest.

Check out the “I was for it before I was against it” video from MSNBC and Rachel Maddow…

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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

It’s very interesting how quickly politics plays into this healthcare issue. I can understand Rush Limbaugh flipping opinion for a dollar but you know that Gingrich and Palin are towing party politics to stir up the base even though they were “For It before they were against It”.

Papamoka

Health Care Debate Violence

It doesn’t surprise me that this simple discussion about healthcare for all Americans has become violence prone. All sides of the debate are getting pissed, miffed, angry, and riotous and it makes no sense. Is it not fair to say that the argument on the right is being fed misinformation from organizations that just don’t want healthcare for everyone? There isn’t a Republican I know that would walk away from someone that was injured or bleeding on the street. Same goes for any Democrat, Green, or Independent that I know. Democrats are not being told the whole truth either given the White House’s recent backing off of a deal with the pharmaceutical companies that would have negotiated prescription drug pricing for people on Medicare.

I find it stupefying when you see people estimate healthcare for all Americans at one trillion dollars but leave out the fact that that is a Washington budgetary term that is in fact spread out over ten years. So the discussion should move to what can be cut in the federal budget to pay for health care for everyone? Can we cut tax subsidies for oil companies that are basically having a freebie on oil leases on public land and seas? Or can we even go so far as to cut the spending for maintaining a military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our troops all home and hopefully in one piece?

One thing is certain, America needs to fix its health care system and it will not get fixed when everyone is yelling and screaming at one another. It certainly won’t fix itself or even remotely heal with violence breaking out at Town Hall meetings to discuss health care. It’s one thing to discuss an issue, it is entirely another when violence becomes the high point of any political reporting on what the changes of our health care system are or can be.

When you really look at America, we have a diverse culture and collection of people. We can be best of friends on Facebook or Myspace and yet not recognize one another and become violent with one another over healthcare? Does that make sense to you? In the end, if the violence wins the day and kills healthcare for all Americans, what has the political movement on the right really won? David Frum has his opinion on that…

Makes me wonder if outside influences and special interests on both sides are pushing the buttons to force matters and discussions regarding healthcare into a violent end. Otherwise, I think we can all agree that Kate Smith had it right with her inspirational rendition of God Bless America. At the end of the day, we are all still Americans and we can not and should not ever forget that.

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Papamoka

Healthcare Boiled Over Debate

Anyone with a heartbeat has something to say on healthcare for all Americans or they damn sure as hell should have an opinion. From business owners that have seen the gross profiteering from their health care insurance providers to the employees of those same businesses that have seen their own cost rise but services cut. The only people winning are the mega structures built to provide a new home to the next generation of Robber Barons. And yet an industry that claims that they can police themselves is recording record profits while the rest of America is losing its shirt? Does that make any sense to you?

Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican bastard to industry and that is a political and historical fact. He saw a wrong, it was un-American for the times and he sure as hell fixed it. He carried his big stick and broke up the Robber Barons for a reason, they were killing the American economy. When any industry Robber Baron thinks that they are so powerful that the laws and the liberty of all Americans is no longer of their concern because they believe to have omnipotent power, then it is up to a strong President and Federal Government to protect the American people from them.

Capitalism in America is a funny business, sometimes it serves the many but often it serves the few. There is nothing wrong with any company making a profit to survive. If I were a CEO then that would be my objective one hundred and ten percent. We are talking health care though, not gas, not steel, not oil and things that could be commodity driven. Just health care is being discussed here and frankly I have to agree with Teddy Roosevelt that it is time to take out the federal government big stick and knock the sons of bitches down a notch. As the system stands now, you would have to work for your employer and forsake all of your wages twenty years from now just to see your doctor for the sniffles. Pay your soul to the company store for anything worse than that.

Reality is simple, do the math yourself. The more people without health care means that the cost to you will rise further and higher than it has in the past. People will look back kindly when co-pays only increased twenty percent per year. Health Care CEO’s will take hundred million dollar plus bonuses and wonder how they will increase their pay the next year?

Meanwhile, ten of millions of our fellow Americans will go without regular care, never see a doctor till the cost of care goes into the millions and the sun will shine the next day regardless of political opinion one way or the other. Just make sure you wear your sunglasses as you pass the conglomerate skyscraper HMO built to make sure you get your health care bill emailed, faxed, debited from your checking account, or sent to your cell phone before you even get home from your doctor.

The health care industry is broken. It isn’t the nurses and doctors that give the care fault. It’s the white shirts in a huge glass building hundreds or thousands of miles away from the table that you sit on where they ask you to roll up your sleeve or stick out your tongue. It’s not even the emergency room hospitals fault either. Most hospitals according to some reports have to waive the bills and eat the cost of caring for people without health insurance. Where do you think that cost gets passed on to? That two dollar treatment such as Aspirin or other medication of equal cost ends up costing $250 on an insurance form from the ER.

It is time for a Teddy Roosevelt big stick. Hell yes! President Obama needs to speak softly and carry a big stick when it comes to healthcare reform. Is that not one of the biggest reasons we voted to elect President Obama and a Democrat controlled Congress? I believe we have the votes to get it done so what is the problem? Just get the job done and lets move on to the next issue!

Papamoka

Do You Value Life

My father was a decorated veteran of WWII and Korea. He raised seven kids and loved them all to no end. Dad died from Alzheimer’s disease and the only one that cared for him for the last eight or nine years of his life was me. The only person that knew of his last wishes was me. All of the burden from seven children was on me to sign a DNR which is a Do Not Resuscitate should he go into a medical condition that could end in his death. I spent the last night with him holding his hand and he had no clue as to who I was. And yet I knew who he was. That was all that mattered.

There is a ton of controversy over the current health care legislation in Washington and there should be. I don’t want a blanket Gestapo health care plan but we all know that the system is broken. Nobody in America would drive by an accident with people, children, babies, bleeding and dying on the side of the road and yet that is what the current system does. Our health care system only cares for the people that can afford it and if you don’t have a job, you have an emergency room health care system. The costliest system there is. That means it is broken. Our health care system sucks! It’s one of the worst health care systems in all of the industrialized nations of the world.

I have Parkinson’s or some form of it according to doctors and the director of Neurology at UMASS Medical hospital in Worcester. I haven’t had insurance to treat it for a year and a half. I lost my job. I don’t bitch about it, I deal with it. I don’t have medication for it, I don’t bitch about it either. I do however have a living will.

I don’t want my children visiting a vegetable in a hospital or nursing home for a decade. I don’t want machines keeping me alive for one more second than God intended. That is my right and my decision to decide. I have made my peace with my God and I am not afraid. My path is not easy but my words for now are the truth. I am one of the people lost in the health care system that is broken beyond belief. I have my faith in God but I would like a few more years with my children. Could a health care system for all do that?

Nobody is proposing to kill the elderly. That would be idiotic just as it sounds. Matter of fact, the person putting in that addendum to the health care plan is a Republican doctor in the Congress. All he is asking for is a living will for all. I don't have a problem with that but I do have a problem with his political party selling it as a fear factor even though it came from their own political party as an addendum!

Thought for the process of the discussion for you to think about. Don’t you think you have a right in the discussion as to how you want to be treated in the end of your days? I know for a fact that I sure as hell do! Whatever organs I have that are of use, take em, use them, do whatever you want with them. My time in this vessel is or will be done. Anyone mocking this life changing legislation has never read the current wording by Senators Dodd and Kennedy. What has been added to it is not of their ownership.

Life is what it is, love it while you have it to enjoy! Go out of your way to make someone smile while you can.

Papamoka

Virginia Foxx Nut Job on Healthcare

I should first start off by offering this little piece of information about the Republican nut job from North Carolina, she claims that every American has health care. I can’t make this stuff up! She said it, believes it, and is freakin’ delusional! I wonder what her net worth is to be able to boast this lie about our healthcare system? “All Americans have healthcare”. Raise your hand if you know of someone that does not have health care? Email Congressmen Foxx if you do not have health care insurance. Check out her statement, you have health care…

(No video, just a sound bite)



Is she right? I hate to say it but she is correct. It’s called an emergency room! That’s the problem Virginia! DUH IS YOU Virginia. That is what is busting our health insurance system. Yes you can go to the ER if you have a medical emergency, and yes you will get patched up and sent home. The issue Mrs. Foxx, God that is ironic (she gets and extra X in her name to differentiate the filth and lies Fox News reports as almost the truth), is that emergency rooms do not and will not treat long term health care problems like cancer, leukemia, muscle disorders like MS or can I go through a plethora of other life threatening medical problems that millions of Americans face every single day. Emergency rooms are not for long term treatment that could save lives!

I’m an American citizen, born here, raised in Worcester County my entire life. I don’t have health insurance. I more or less work for myself now and I can’t get affordable health insurance even from the state of Massachusetts because my parents didn’t have a name for me before they left the hospital that I was born in. My birth certificate reads pure and simple “--- O’Keefe” and the fact that I was a baby boy born to Jack and Louise O‘Keefe. Feel free to call me Dash. The kids are covered but I’m screwed no matter how many times I tried to prove that I am and have been an American citizen.

Do I have long term health problems? You betcha I do and I can’t see the specialty doctors at UMASS Hospital that I had when I was gainfully employed. So I deal with it and live with it. I’m not important in this battle simply because there are so many more people that DO NOT HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE that are important to this countries future. He or she may be sitting right next to you at this very moment. Without health insurance for all of our people then only the silent voices of the sick and poor will pass out of our range of hearing. That works fine for those of us with tons of cash in the bank and have a voice and pulpit to preach from. It doesn’t work for those of us hoping that the symptoms and progression of our medical issue that grows worse daily will not or does not take us one step closer to the casket. We have so much to offer and Virginia Foxx is lying for the sake of the almighty dollar and whatever connections she has financially to her political office. How do you sleep at night Virginia? Follow the money is always the rule of thumb. I dare to wonder how many skeletons are in the Foxx closet.

Life is precious and anyone that comes out with a statement as moronic as Virginia Foxx’s, that declares all Americans have health insurance should be questioned and that statement vilified. I personally find it more than stupefying that she is so anti abortion and yet she has no problem with letting millions of Americans die each year simply because they have no health insurance. What is the difference Virginia? What is the difference?

This fight for healthcare for all Americans isn’t a right verse left issue. It is a fight for life. Defend your argument against life from the right side of the political spectrum. If you can’t your stance against health care for all, then why is the right side of politics so much against healthcare for all Americans?

Papamoka

The Two McCain's

By request of my eighteen year old daughter I just had to put up this video that she found gut wrenching funny. After watching this video I'm wondering if John McCain asks himself these very questions?

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Hope you got a laugh out of it...

Papamoka

Rove Calls it Dirty Politics on McCain?

For Karl Rove, the number one former GOP campaign operative of the Bush White House, to call John McCain on the carpet for dirty politics in his political ad’s against Barack Obama as going to far it wreaks of a rat. That would be like the Devil telling people that Hitler has gone too far? It just does not make sense from a die hard operative for the Republican Party.

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Even as a commentator on political events for CNN I just don’t believe these words came out of his mouth. The McCain campaign has gone so negative since the RNC Convention that it isn’t even funny and most of the negativity has been debunked on every political website out there. Is Karl Rove ahead of the curve in seeing that the strategy is not working? He has something he isn’t telling the media other than this little tid bit from his appearance on CNN…

updated 4:39 p.m. EDT, Sun September 14, 2008
Rove: McCain went 'too far' in ads

(CNN) -- Former Bush adviser Karl Rove said Sunday that Sen. John McCain had gone "one step too far" in some of his recent ads attacking Sen. Barack Obama.

Rove has leveled similar criticism against Obama.

"McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far," he told Fox News, "and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the '100 percent truth' test."

The Obama campaign immediately leaped on the quote.

"In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove -- the man who held the previous record -- said McCain's ads have gone too far," said campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor, in a statement sent to reporters minutes after Rove's on-air comments. Rove masterminded both of President Bush's successful White House bids.

Rove said both candidates need to "be careful" about their attacks on each other.
"They ought to -- there ought to be an adult who says, 'Do we really need to go that far in this ad? Don't we make our point and won't we get broader acceptance and deny the opposition an opportunity to attack us if we don't include that one little last tweak in the ad?' " he said.

Obama on Saturday accused McCain and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin of avoiding the issues to "distort" his record. - CNN

Karl Rove is the new Teflon Don of politics and nothing sticks to him. I give him credit for a well timed comment on the facts that negative advertisements from both campaigns is not the way to go. I just wonder where the hell he and the divide and conquer politics of the GOP are going next. One fact is certain, they are not going to be talking about the issues. That is a path they can not win on and the Obama campaign would be wise to point that fact out.

Granted Rove is also calling on the Obama camp on the carpet for doing the same thing but his opinion in Democrat circles isn’t valued much when his boy is tossing tons of mud at the wall and hoping that just a few pounds stick to it. McCain tosses it, Obama has to scrape it off the wall as just mud. In the meantime, the McCain campaign is not forced to talk about the issues facing America and that is the intended goal. More of saying nothing and doing nothing that effects the common voter.

Papamoka

Health Care McCain and Obama

Hillary Clinton had no problem presenting a Health Care Plan for all Americans and so did Barack Obama. John McCain has nothing other than the same old same ideology of a free market manipulation where the Pharmaceutical industry writes our senior citizens health care plans. Begging of more corruption. It makes me wonder why he signed onto this legislations but signed off of every single bill designed to help veterans.

Two words, Doesn’t Care! Voting Democrat or Republican does not mean a single thing. Voting what is best for America more than ever is important not just to you but to the damage that has been done to your elderly parents Social Security benefits that you too will one day have to tap into but the bigger picture is that of being an American and looking out for those that can not or do not have a voice. Take out the right and left side of the political arguments, take out the flag waving and talking points. Toss it all aside and look at what the politicians have done in the last eight years to America. Do your own research. Do Not base your judgment on who you will elect as your next President of the United States of America on a campaign television advertisement or You Tube video from any political organization or for that matter from my comments on this election.

Use the gift that you have in front of you while reading this post to search Google, Yahoo, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Alta Vista, and every other search engine available to you.

You don’t need the questions to ask from me on your search engine exploration of who the real John McCain is. Veteran’s in need of serious care already know who he is. John McCain has voted against Veteran benefits over and over again. The Maverick is not who we all think he is. When McCain claims his POW status he is in fact slapping all of them in the face but you can do your own research on how he voted on Veteran issues.

Just because he wore the uniform, served our nation, was imprisoned in horrible means, does not mean that he is in the tank for veterans from any battle. His record as a U.S. Senator reflects just the opposite.

A good friend of mine at Bring It ON! reminded me of how much more Obama has done for change in America and the facts don't lie. Johnny McCain can not boast this kind of enthusiasm for Americans in all of his Congressional career.

Red state, Blue State, do your own Google Search on it or whatever means you like. One candidate cares about those of us under the five million dollar pay grade and the other has no clue. Last time I checked, I won't earn five million in my lifetime but I'm just a smuck with five daughters eaking out an existence in the middle class.

I'll let you know when the campaign gets back to real issues like Health Care for all Americans or actually caring about our nations Veterans! Education for the next generation that will provide our next leaders in govermnent. Real reform that makes sense in politics as it is today and not sound bites repeated over and over again till it becomes believable.

Papamoka

*****Reuters has picked up this entire post. Thank You!
*****The Wall Street Journal has picked up this post. Thank you!

McCain and Change Does Not Add Up!

When John McCain tells you he is the agent of change then you know you are screwed. How can a Senator that voted 90% of the time with President Bush be an agent of change?

When John McCain talks about change, is he talking about what he will leave us in our paychecks so the mega millionaires like his wife can keep their tax cuts? When he talks about changing health care, no wait, he doesn’t want to really do that. When John McCain talks about changing the way things work in Washington does that mean he is going to fire all of the formerly well paid lobbyist on his campaign staff? No, he isn’t about that kind of change at all. When John McCain mentions the word change in any of his speeches he has the poker tell face that lets us all know that he is bluffing. John McCain is not about change. John McCain is for four more years of screw you Bushenomics!

Barack Obama was in Flint Michigan today he is on message pointing out who John McCain really is in this video…

Video Link



If you are the type of person that is looking at this election on who is really for change then you need to look closer to what Obama has been saying for the last nineteen months. Not what John McCain has been saying for only the last two weeks!

This election for President is John McCain’s last chance at the golden ring and he will tell you whatever you want to hear to get the keys to the oval office. Only once he has those keys will you understand his full intent and message of change. John McCain’s definition of change is getting new locks on the White House doors and further separating Americans from our government.

Papamoka

Wal-Mart Anti American Invasion of America

Picture courtesy of BattleMart

Across America small town leaders drool whenever Wal-Mart comes knocking on their doors in regards to placing a store in their community. In the real world if it were any other retailer it would be like hitting the lottery for the small towns. Potential future tax dollar revenue from the store could ultimately fund the towns schools, police and fire departments. That is the dream situation for many small town leaders. The reality of what actually happens is very different.

Corporate Wal-Mart sends in the specialty teams to negotiate local tax breaks for the new store that can run into the millions of dollars for the small communities. Common sense, you would hope would have your elected leaders thinking pro and con during the negotiation process but the con part of the equation gets stuffed under the table while the wheel of pro’s is loaded up and spun.

All the while the corporate negotiators have already won no matter what the small town leaders think because the double edge sword of the process is that the same offer is on the table for surrounding cities and towns. Pitting one community against the other is the Wal-Mart way and time after time they ultimately walk into the community with the small towns paying millions for the privilege.

That it seems is just the beginning of the Wal-Mart small town of America invasion process. Once the mega retailer has opened their doors, many of the family owned business will close within months. Family run businesses that have been a part of the small town’s success for decades can not compete and are forced to close. Mind you, not one of the closing businesses had ever received tax incentives to open, expand or simply stay.

As the communities that Wal-Mart sets foot in find themselves embraced by the corporation, the jobs that they offer come with yet an even higher price. Low wages and little help with health care costs traps the workers and many of those employees of Wal-Mart have to apply for public assistance like WIC, Medicaid, State health care and more. It reminds me of the old song from the old days of coal mining where you owe your soul to the company store.

There is a great movie out that has been around since 2005 that is a must see for anyone that thinks that Wal-Mart is just another store to shop at. You can check the link to it by clicking here. It’s called “Wal-Mart, The high cost of low prices”. While the billions of dollars go into Wal-Mart’s profit statement, billions are coming out of the local, state and federal governments to pay for Wal-Mart’s practices as the nation’s largest retailer.



My condolences to the family of Harvey Ball of Worcester, MA who was the original creator of the Smiley Face that has now become synonymous with Wal-Mart.

Papamoka

The best resource for becoming active and informed about a Wal-Mart invasion near you is to join BattleMart.

Let me know what you think about Wal-Mart!

Feel free to link to or steal this post!

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Mitt Romney and Health Care is an Oxymoron

Health care for all of our nations citizens is just as important as a roof over every citizens head. Mitt Romney the former Governor of Mass a Two Sticks is proposing a scam in his latest “Health Care Plan”. Just like W he is proposing to push even more back on the plates of the states and the dinner table is already overcrowded. What scares me the most about Mitt is that he was a Governor and had more pushed back onto his plate by his patron saint George W and he is proposing more of the same? If that doesn’t make you shake your head and go “Hmmm” then I don’t know what will.

I’m a Liberal and I don’t hide that fact at all in any of my pieces. I simply believe that healthcare for all of our citizens should be a right and not a hypocritical oath obligation by over stressed hospitals with full emergency rooms. While Mitt and George think it is okay to pass the buck I do not.

Our nations treasury is a hot bead for privileged projects and waste by people that dare to call themselves statesman. Let us just accept that for a fact. I don’t think Social Security is busted. Medicare is not busted and some reports actually state that Medicare is run far more efficiently than any HMO in America.

Our nations health care is busted and just like the poor houses and Potter’s graves of pre Social Security should be the path of the HMO corporations of America.

Over at the Boston Herald they have this to say about Mitt’s version of NOT health care…

Romney proposes market-based health care changes
By Associated Press
Friday, August 24, 2007 - Updated: 05:24 PM EST

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -The nation’s health care system should be overhauled through plans tailored to individual states, not through a federal government takeover, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Friday.

As Massachusetts governor, he signed a law aimed at helping people who lacked health insurance. He is trying to take an issue popular among Democrats and put a conservative spin on it.

"A one-size-fits-all national health care system is bound to fail. It ignores the sharp difference between states and it relies on Washington bureaucracy to manage," Romney said. "I don’t want the people who ran the Katrina cleanup to manage our health care system."

Snip A Rooooo

"The problem of the uninsured is a problem for all Americans," he said, because those who can pay for health insurance help foot the bill for those who cannot.

Instead of using federal money to reimburse hospitals for treating people without insurance, that money should be used to help low-income people buy insurance at a lower cost, Romney said.

"No more free rides," he said. "Everybody pays what they can afford." - Boston Herald

Everybody pays what they can afford? That’s a nice sentiment if you are sitting on a couple hundred million Mitt!

Mitt Romney and his idea for healthcare is to blame the poor for not being able to afford to pay for health care. If that doesn’t work the plan that he and the Democrat lead legislature enacted penalized the poor for not paying for health insurance via a tax penalty. Umm, I tend to think that the poor amongst us will feed their families first and secondly provide a roof over their heads. Mitt’s saving grace health care plan in this state slapped the poorest amongst us just for the sake of being poor.

Every legal American has a Social Security card, why can we not have a national health care right? Beside the fact that HMO’s across America would fold like a deck of cards and all that political graft would go bye bye? That is a line of thought to think about.

All of the people of our nation that work pay into Medicare already so why not take the next step and just expand Medicare for all? HMO’s are a bottomless pit for profit and the medical and health care system is broken. If all employers and all employees are on the same paying field then is that not a fair and balanced way to go? If Mitt Romney’s logic is right that we are all paying for the poor of America and their health care then lets just make it an American right! Just like Social Security this is an issue that once enacted needs to be the third rail of politicians.

Mitt lives in an imaginary world because money is not a problem for him because one hundred or two hundred dollars is nothing to him. Millionaires tend to think that way while they are bitching out the $7.50 an hour minimum wage (Mass Min. Wage) landscaping worker for trimming the hibiscus just a little too much.

Our nation needs healthcare for all and rather than building the private HMO mansions and office buildings that pop up everywhere we need to insure all Americans and their healthcare needs. Look around your city or town and the best of money is spent on magnificent office buildings with an even grander moniker stating what HMO lives there. Yet each year the HMO hikes the rates through the roof to employers who can not pass all the added cost onto their employees. One of the largest budget items in any business no matter what size is healthcare and that cost is paid by the employees and the employer for most companies. If you are lucky then your employer picks up the bulk of the cost. This line of thought would lead me to think that Conservatives would be spear heading a national health care plan but they are not.

Mitt’s plan is more of W and his smoke and mirrors team. Nope, not biting the bait Mitt. John Kerry was a flip flopper but he did not have the shoe collection you have Mitt. What is going to be Mitt’s position next week? I’ll tell you what it is… what you want to hear to vote for him.

Stuffed shirt political award goes to Mitt Romney for pushing health care for all Americans back on the states. Health care for all of America will only be fixed when it is made a right as an American citizen.

Till that happens, promises from political pulpits will be made and broken and campaign contributions will be deposited to protect private HMO and prescription drug companies interests. Somebody point out the Roosevelt in this crowd of money for nothing politicians. It took guts to change America back then, today it takes cash to pocket your convictions in the form of contributions to political campaigns.

My worst fear for America is that she has been totally taken over by the money changers in the temple so to speak. No laws to fix the wrongs will be passed unless the correct amount of silver passes through the temple that is our Congress.

Papamoka

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