I Agree With What Keith Said!!!!

Television is quite often a river of crap. But every once in a while we get a glimpse of what TV could be.

Keith Olbermann put on one of the most powerful hours of television I have ever seen last night. If you haven't seen it, you should see it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/keith-olbermann-to-delive_n_311125.html

Our president has a reputation as a great orator, but he has not crystallized the basics of why health care is a universal right that any caring nation must provide like Keith did.

The basic human issues are so simple, yet we allow the debate and the policy to be hijacked by pimps and their bodyguards who do not add one single drop of actual care--they just manipulate prices and take larger and larger cuts while excluding more and more people from care. We have the ability as people to deliver fantastic care without bankrupting people. We have the ability. What we do not have is the will.

Watch Keith. He says it so much better than I can.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/keith-olbermann-to-delive_n_311125.html

Al Franken talks to his constituents

For those who can't see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCNs7Zpqo98&feature=player_embedded

This video features health care debate for people who actually have an attention span longer than a 30 seconds. We need more of this and less screaming.
You may not agree with the Senator, but this is how the debate should be taking place.
Unfortunately the media companies like focusing on screaming instead of on ideas.
I would say everyone should watch it, but like I said, many people don't seem capable of maintaining a single train of thought for 10 minutes.
How about this? Everyone should try to watch it. Take it in 30 second segments if you must.

Bill Moyers says Obama Must Fight, Not Finesse

Bill Moyers says Obama Must Fight, Not Finesse
Award-Winning Journalist Disses Dems as 'Spineless'
by Patrick Gavin
PBS's Bill Moyers issued a tough critique of the Democratic Party on Friday night on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher."
Bill Moyers has been a frequent critic of the Republican Party over the years, making his critique of the Democratic Party on 'Real Time' more exceptional. (Photo: AP)Moyers, whose comments focused on the recent health care debate, said that "too many Democrats have had their spines surgically removed."
Moyers, a White House press secretary during the Johnson administration who went on to win over 30 Emmys and countless other awards during his subsequent journalism career, has been a frequent critic of the Republican Party over the years, making his critique of the Democratic Party on "Real Time" more exceptional.
"The problem is the Democratic Party," said Moyers. "This is a party that has told its progressives — who are the most outspoken champions of health care reform — to sit down and shut up. That's what Rahm Emanuel, in effect, the chief of staff of the White House, told progressives when they stood up as a unit in Congress and said, no public insurance option, no health care reforms."
Moyers said that, over the years, the Democratic Party "has become like the Republican party — deeply influenced by corporate money."
"I think Rahm Emanuel, who is a clever politician, understands that the money for Obama's reelection would come primarily from the health industry, the drug industry and Wall Street, and so he is a corporate Democrat who is destined, determined that there would be something in this legislation — if we get it — that will turn off those powerful interests."
Moyers had some advice for President Barack Obama, as well.
"There's a fear that Barack Obama will become the Grover Cleveland of this era," said Moyers. Grover Cleveland was a good man, but he became a conservative Democratic president because he didn't fight the interests. ... I would much rather see Barack Obama be Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt loved to fight. He came into office and railed against the malefactors of great wealth, and he was glad to take them on. ...
"I think if Obama fought, instead of finessed so much, he stood up and declared for what is really the right thing to do and what is really needed instead of negotiating the corners away, instead of talking about bending the curve, and talking about actuarial rates, if he were to stand up and say, 'We need this because we're a decent country', I think it would change the atmosphere."
Moyers said that conservatives have dominated the debate over health care lately. "In the last few weeks, the right wing has been winning the debate. How [Obama] lost control of the narrative, I don't understand. Well, yes, I do. He didn't find the right metaphors, as you were just saying, and he didn't speak in simple powerful moral language. He was speaking like a policy wonk to the world of Washington, not a country of people who are hurting. ...
"Here's the party that lost and the conservative movement that was discredited over the last eight years .... They're setting the agenda for a Democratic Party that controls the White House, the Senate and the House. Something's wrong in that."
© 2009 Politico.com

Healthcare Reason, Not Hysteria

So much of what has been passing for a debate about health care reform has been out and out hysteria (death panels, anyone?) that it was a pleasant suprise to find a reasonable discussion about the topic.

Tom Luce wrote a great article on http://www.crosscut.com/ about Health Care Reform: below are some excerpts. Read the whole thing at: http://crosscut.com/2009/08/20/health-medicine/19170/

"I have lived most of my life in Britain. I have used the British Health Service on and off for over 60 years and the US health care system here in Seattle equally for the last 15. In my main career I worked as a senior Civil Servant in the British Health Department where for a while I was the Under Secretary responsible for negotiating the health care budget with the Treasury. I have used “socialised medicine.” I have observed it at close quarters. And I have helped to run it.
It’s no boast but a statement of fact to say that I can recognize it when I see it and know what’s good and what’s bad about it. I am equally confident that none of the proposals now before the US public amount in any serious sense to “socialized medicine,” and that an informed and rational debate around these proposals should lead to real improvement in the way health care in the US is paid for. "

...

"There is no question of moving to a government-run system for the generality of U.S. health care. None of the proposals emanating from the House or the Senate would lead to a single monolithic health care service or increase the federal government’s role in the direct provision and management of health care. There is good reason for this. The U.S. consumer’s expectation of promptness and choice of access and the American voters' traditional dislike of government combine with extremely powerful and well entrenched health care and insurance provider interests to mean that any efforts to recreate a British-style health care system in the US would be politically insane. Whatever its virtues and defects in its own context, the British system is not a viable export. "

...

"In the US we tend to think that the health care system is based on the private sector. So it is, on the delivery side. But on the financing side, federal and state governments are already massive players. In only a few years, without any of the present reforms being adopted, one dollar in every five spent in the U.S. will go for health care, and nearly 50 cents in each of those dollars will be channeled through government. Given the size of the U.S. population, and its very high spending on health care, the federal government must already be the largest source of money for health care in the world. If channeling money for health through government agencies is “socialized medicine,” then the USA is already, and irrevocably, its global capital. "

Mr. Kim Becomes a Statistic

Mr. Kim runs my favorite lunch spot, Café Haru, a modest Sushi and Teriyaki restaurant near my office in Lynnwood, WA. I have been eating lunch there for over 8 years. The food has always been good. The place is clean. And even though Mr. Kim’s English is not the best, he always made me feel welcome and appreciated. And he and his wife served the best Nabi Yaki Udon in the world (that’s noodle soup with seafood, chicken and vegetables for the unlucky few who have never tried the nabi).

Lately business has been slowing down at the cafe. Several large office buildings near by have closed or laid off large numbers of workers. But I kept hoping Mr. Kim could hang on until this “recession” ended. Just like I keep hoping that my company will hang on until this “economic downturn” has corrected. Just like millions of Americans are hoping and praying for a couple more pay checks during this “slowdown”.

Mr. Kim just informed me today that Friday is his last day. The rent is due and he can’t pay it. The Café is closing down. He came out from behind the counter and hugged me and my friend Mike. He asked us to convey his thanks to our wives. And he wished us well. We wish Mr. Kim and his family well and hope they find some way to make it in this “tough economic climate.”

Mr. Kim became a statistic today. He and his small business will show up as debits and credits in a number of ledger books and quarterly statements. He is one of the nearly half a million people also suddenly out of work this week in our country. His retail space will get tallied up as under utilized. His mortgage will go into forclosure. But none of those numbers really tell the tale. None of the statistics paint the human picture and the upset and upheaval these good natured, hard working people will have to endure because of this “recession”. I don't feel the loss of Mr. Kim and his restaurant in my checkbook, I feel it in my heart.

I’m sure every one out there has a Mr. Kim or two or twenty in their lives right now. Things are pretty unsettled in the economic world right now. And it is hard to feel every unemployment number personally, but every time the news talks about down sizing, or jobless claims, or whatever the Wall Street Journal approved terminology is, behind those sanitized business terms and statistics there are real people getting their lives turned upside down.

So I wish a hardy Good Luck and pray a mighty prayer for all the Mr. Kims out there and for all of us. And I say that this is exactly why we need Single Payer Healthcare in this country. This is exactly why we need bankruptcy reforms. And this is why we need better regulations on Corporations who are willing to ignore human measures of happiness and wellness as long as their “economic” measures indicate a short-term profit in the next quarter. This is why we need to reclaim our society and map out what falls within the commons of our society and keep the profit motive and the profit margin out of those areas of our lives. If we do not, we will continue to give over our lives and our communities to Corporations who only see us as resources at best and expenses at worst. And we will continue to lose good members of our communities, people like the Kims.

Good Luck Mr. Kim. Good Luck to all of us. I think we are going to need it, because the statistics seem to indicate that we are all in for a bumpy ride. Thanks for the great soup, Mr. Kim! Many thanks!

No Man is a Rainbow

Collage by Jay Larsen

Ironic Ad

If the Vice President were a typical working American, his health problems, compounded by the obstructions imposed by most insurance companies, probably would have killed him by now. I'm sure he had a preexisting condition.

And I still think universal single-payer health care is a good idea because everybody deserves access to health care, even the Dicks.

Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Or go to www.guaranteedhealthcare.org