Health Care: I Ain't Feelin' Too Good Myself, Now
People, I guess we don't have to remind y'all that the suicide rate among our troops, whom we all support more than god or corned beef, or whatever the Republicans are flapping their gums about this week, has, like, seriously increased? We're talkin' this is the highest it's been in thirty years. (Thanks to nunya at ThePolitickyBitch for the ears-up on this. She has some good questions, so treat yourself to a worthwhile read.)
What, you thought Georgie Porgie was guilty of ordering some 200,000 troops into the field based on lies, and that's where it all ended?
It hasn't ended yet. Dumbya knocked the shit out of this country nine ways to Sunday. He destroyed it, as we all have been saying since, oh, about 2003 and Hurricane Katrina. Some of us were saying it way before, but most of us tried to rally behind the little shit for the sake of national unity. It wasn't until we say the bloated, floating corpses of Katrina that we finally lost all faith in the fucker.
Over at OOIBC, Anti-War, and other such sites, people with more energy and dedication than I have been keeping track of the numbers. Over 4,000 American troops dead, over 150,000 injured, some of them grievously maimed. Over 1 million Iraqis dead, uncounted numbers wounded and maimed (one assumes the injuries are proportionate to those of our troops). Between 3 and 5 million Iraqi refugees, internal and external. Entire neighbourhoods "ethnically cleansed," or to put it more accurately, relieved of any ethnic variety by open, genocidal killings. "Ethnically cleansed" sounds too much like a sanitary procedure, and there's nothing sanitary about pools of blood rotting in the hot desert sun.
We don't know how many Iraqis and Afghanis have committed suicide, other than by blowing themselves up. We don't know how many might be suffering from mental and emotional problems due to the stresses of living in a war zone. What we do know is that our own troops, upon returning home, are not doing so well. In fact, they're doing rather badly. Has anyone heard of anything that our bold Republican leaders and legislators, so quick to approve this war and to threaten anyone who argued against it, have done to take care of our suffering people?
Frankly, I'm feeling pretty shitty myself, today, and it's not just the depressing news. Did you know that certain kinds of medication can eat holes in your gut? That aside. This is a foodie household and when the chief Foodie In Charge can't eat none of that smackalicious pasta sauce with meatballs and sausage and all kinds of tasty stuff, ain't no one here gonna be happy. Not if I can help it. Two days of chicken soup is fucking enough.
So, people are killing themselves. No news there, you say. We're in a recession, you say. It's to be expected, you say. Yeah, I guess. I wish it weren't happening, I wish there was something I could do, or you could do, or we could all do, to fix it, but if there's one thing we learned surviving the mendacious Bushistas, it's that everything takes lots of hard work and the results are never immediate.
Here's a little gratuitous depressionism for those of you as are having just too fucking good a day. Please watch it right through to the end.
We need to do something about this. I can't do anything today. My body is on strike, and I get that. (I'm not as look as I dumb, OK?) But I can resolve to do something tomorrow, and hopefully, the day after, and the day after. One foot after another.
I found this story over at DailyKos, courtesy of nyceve, who has done more to enlighten me (and many others, I'm sure) about the state of health care in the US. We don't need more or better or diferent health insurance. We need health care.
In the interim, if time is weighing heavy on your hands, consider oozing on over to Care2's petition site, and signing a petition to have a special prosecutor appointed to investigate the Bushifarious crimes of the recent era. I'm not sure petitions are entirely helpful but it's a throwaway gesture that does help assess the current mood of the populace.
I'm gonna have to create a torches-and-pitchforks icon for various action items, yaknow?
Finally, a little humour to leaven the endless depression of this post. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully in better shape. The fight goes on!
Obama Reads Bush's Letter - watch more funny videos
He may not look like Our President, but he sure has the voice and mannerisms down, don't he?
Labels: activism, anti-war, Bushies, entertainment, health care, iraq, military, President Obama, republican "family" values, war
Stumble It!
posted by ThePoliticalCat @ 2:03 PM
6 Comments:
"Over 1 million Iraqis dead, uncounted numbers wounded and maimed (one assumes the injuries are proportionate to those of our troops)."
Actually, the proportion is probably lower than troop injuries, since the troops get medical care in fairly quick order. The Iraqis, on the other hand, get the usual medical care provided in any system set up by Republicans, i.e., whatever they can afford, which in the case of Iraqis, probably isnt much. So I'd expect the ratio of dead to wounded to be lower simply because more Iraqis didnt survive their injuries, compared to the U.S. soldiers.
I think a way of promoting the idea of National Healthcare across to the average American is to present the idea that insurance premiums are already a kind of a privatized system of taxation (for instance, the subject of your video pays $7200 a year in the "taxes", which doesnt include things such as deductables, co-pays, and prescriptions). Admittedly, this tactic may not work well, since technically health insurance is "voluntary".
Perhaps a better way would be to work up a budget and a set of tax tables letting the average American know exactly what they might be paying. Right now while people are doing their taxes and so quite aware of how much money they are sending out could be a good time to do such a thing. I dont know what the rates would be, but I would suspect that they will be lower than many people's current insurance costs (I figured mine to be about $8000 plus for a family of four - surely my tax rate for "socialized medicine" wouldnt be over 10%). Make sure that when people figure their tax rate, they consider it compared to (or rather, instead of) to their current insurance premiums, otherwise it just looks like an additional expense, rather than a savings.
I hope you ci=onsider this on topic Cat. I was talking with a poor deluded right wing fool who made the ridiculous claim about Bush "keeping us safe." I reminded him that nearly 6,000 men and women died in Iraq and Afghanistan with over 100, 000 wounded. Paralyzed. Blinded. Mentally destroyed. They are victims of Bush stupidity and pathetic leadership. He said they don't count because they volunteered. We argued about improper armored vehicles and lack of body armor. But that blind mentality is what we're fighting. While we agree that those who volunteer to serve deserve our respect, the right does not feel we owe them proper equipment. Top notch planning and leadership. Or top notch care. They only care about "lower taxes and less regulation." This lib will gladly pay a few more bucks a week to see that our Troops are treated with the respect they deserve and our government provides the services we need without drowning us in debt.
Thanks, y'all, for some excellent suggestions which I definitely intend to incorporate in my next post. It infuriates me to think that we can send people to be wounded or maimed or die without at least TRYING to ensure that they meet none of those fates. Those Rethugs are the same bloodsuckers who, when the wounded troops come home, want to cut the VA budget for healthcare and let those poor guys bleed to death in a pool of their own piss.
5 1/2 years down the road, some souls finally realize that the country has been led down the garden path.
The kids in the social online communities are right : the real truth is so much worse as to be unbelievable.
Oh well. Where to start.
I've compiled links to correlate some of what I've found on my links page and in subfiles listed under utilities. Let's run a few nasties so you want no more.
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0808-07.htm
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB207/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy
If those don't scare you off, here are a couple more real hummers
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/New_World_Order/BloodMoney_PNAC_WRPitt.html
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m49768&hd=&size=1&l=e
It's getting hard to pick - so I ran on impulse. I wonder what kind of reaction people have to these. Depression cure ? Not so much.
Oh. Right.http://my.opera.com/oldephartte/links/
Do try Current sometime. The gang is definitely waking up. I'll never miss conversation being dominated by trolls.
Now, I've studied economics, and honestly, we've been a recession in the making. The economy is a rollar coaster in that if the economy is incredibly successful, it will go up to a point where it can't go anywhere but down. Hence, the recession. America is such a developed nation, that our economy is not stable an unchanging, as you can tell by the price changes of milk and bread over the past 100 years. And when you're economy is at the top of the world, when it goes down, it goes DOWN. And a lot of people are suffering, but an economy can get back on track on its own. Now, this "stimulus" bill that's sitting in Congress is not going to answer our problem. The bill is packs with so much pork barrel spending, that it oinks. And it provides so many earmarks that will do nothing for the economy including "funding towards renovating tennis courts" and "money for the creation of AV trails. IT seems with a new President, the liberals have decided to ignore the trillion dollar debt that was constantly on topic when Bush was President. When the government messes with the economy through government spending, it's like picking at a scab that's healing. Things are bad and the government feels an obligations to the American people, and I understand where they're coming from, but if so, they should leave it alone. OTOH I am a capitalist. Free market is something the Democrats used to believe in.
Contrarymary, I do believe you are what I would call a contrarian, that is, one who takes a viewpoint contrary to others for no reason but to be contrary. Your understanding of economic theory is fairly threadbare for a self-confessed capitalist. Moreover, your labeling of the parties involved in debate over the stimulus bill reveals a shallow level of thought tied to a black-and-white paradigm.
No self-respecting economist - and here I cite Paul Krugman, Nobelist, and Joseph Stiglitz, both highly respected economists - has opined that we do not need a stimulus. If you knew anything at all about economic theory, you would realize that without massive government intervention, the American economy would grind slowly to a halt taking with it the economies of the rest of the world. Europe, Asia, and Russia have already begun their stimulus, pouring massive amounts of money into their financial systems. This will force liquidity and commercial paper will begin to move again. Once it does, it will propel private sector expansion. You seem to be unaware of the measures taken to combat the Great Depression of the '30s, when precisely such a combination of economic factors occurred.
Your vaunted "free market" is anything but. For decades, corporations and big business have been subsidised by the US government - tobacco growers, agribusiness, the petroleum industry (despite record profits year over year), and the like. From your commentary about the current stimulus bill, it is clear that you don't have the first clue about the bill's provisions. I suggest you read it before commenting further.
Thank you for your comment. It is hard to believe that the human herd comprises such disingenuous or ill-informed members, but always bracing to be confronted with proof of their existence.
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