President Obama's Health Care Commitment
As I watched President Obama walk into the House chamber last night, I was once again filled with the hope and excitement I felt so often during the 2008 campaign -- recognizing that our country is on the brink of a new era in which we will rise to meet great challenges and ensure that the American dream is a reality shared by all.
I was especially heartened to hear the President say that health care reform can not wait for a later day and that providing affordable health care to all Americans is critical to ending the current economic crisis. But as President Obama gathers business leaders and doctors, and Democrats and Republicans, to begin working on a comprehensive solution to the health care crisis, I urge him to include the millions of voices asking for a single-payer plan.
My bill for single-payer health care reform, H.R. 676, had the most cosponsors of any health care bill during the 110th Congress, a number we're sure to exceed in the 111th. It has the support of labor unions, thousands of doctors and nurses, civil rights groups and religious organizations. Most importantly, it has the support of millions of Americans like you who are fed-up with the failures of for-profit health insurance. The single-payer movement needs a seat at every health care dicussion the President hosts.
Perhaps it should not go unstated
That Health and Life are very closely linked. As the one goes, so tends to go the other.
To say that less gently : Opposing universal health care is very similar to saying the wealthy should live longer. As if they somehow deserve Life more. Which is absurd and obscene. And might be a retorical device, effective at a certian point...perhaps.
Off topic, not really : Kossacks make interesting observations.
Jindal Learned a Lesson Before It Was Taught
BarbinMD references record, says Gov. Jindal way off on Katrina Boat rescue. In another world. A world where Katrina was NOT AS BAD as it actually was in this one. Sort of a "Beutiful Mind" sorta thing...which, if it became prevelant, would sorta set us up for more...
On the "Truth Commission" proposal
KagroX notes important point by Justice Frankfurter in Youngstown Sheet and Tube, regarding section one artical two, which causes strange feeling in pit of stomach. Worth a look.
I appreciate this forum.
FF
Sec of State Clintons' new Advisor on Iran.
Dennis Ross is exactly the wrong man for this Important post.
That is, unless you are hoping for war. Meaning, of course, "Yet another pointless war"
Frosted Flake
Credability.
And the supposition of competance.
28 Feb 2009
Binyam Mohamed: the lawyer's story
It was when Lt Col Yvonne Bradley, an experienced military lawyer, received a faxed copy of Binyam Mohamed's charge sheet that she first realised something was amiss.
11 Feb 2009
Guantanamo Bay 'torture' prisoner will leave detention centre 'insane or in a coffin'
Binyam Mohamed, the British resident being held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will only leave the detention centre 'insane or in a coffin' unless freed immediately, says his lawyer
February 23, 2009
My Role in the Torture of Binyam Mohamed
I like to think that some of the things I write cause discomfort in those readers who deserve to feel it. Ideally, they should squirm, they should flinch, they might even experience fleeting gastrointestinal symptoms. But I have always drawn the line at torture. It may be unpleasant to read some of my writings, especially if they have been assigned by a professor, but it should not result in uncontrollable screaming, genital mutilation or significant blood loss.
With such stringent journalistic ethics in place, I was shocked to read in the February 14th Daily Mail Online a brief article headed "Food writer's online guide to building an H-bomb...the 'evidence' that put this man in Guantanamo." The "food writer" was identified as me, and the story began:
This is one of the "worst of the worst" that We have been "PROTECTED FROM" by preventing our Courts fullfilling thier Constitutional function of checking to see the Executive is not just lieing to us about who is a badguy.
I don't want to interfere with the story. It tells itself very well. But I would like to point out that, If We cannot Impeach, if We cannot prosecute, if We cannot have a Truth Commission, then We can expect this sort of thing to happen over and over ad infinitem.
We have Courts for a reason. We have been denied use of them for a reason. This is that reason.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to post these remarks here.
Frosted Flake
Single-Payer Advocates Ignored In Obama's Health Summit?
Physicians For A National Health Program (PHNP), points out what many of us have been asking about the odd exclusion of single-payer advocates from any of the health reform discussions held by the White House in their press release:
The president wants this process to be open and transparent, with the goal of achieving universal coverage. However, groups representing physicians, nurses, and consumers who advocate for a single-payer system of national health insurance have thus far been excluded from the summit.
The Clinton task force on health reform made a similar mistake of excluding the voices of those who support a single-payer system, and the result was a complicated, inadequate reform proposal that catered to the interests of insurance companies and failed to garner public support. At a time when public support for single-payer is greater than ever - more than 60 percent in recent polls - we urge President Obama not to make the same mistake. He must include single-payer advocates in the health care summit next week.
Single-Payer Advocates Ignored In Obama's Health Summit?
Physicians for a National Health Program
President Obama Must Include Single-Payer Advocates In National Health Care Debate
Congressman Conyers, glad to see this
Conyers gets a seat at the table, he'll be at White House Health Summit tomorrow
I just got off the telephone with Cynthia Martin the phenomenal chief of staff for Congressman John Conyers. She told me that Chairman Conyers was issued an invitation by the White House to the Health Care Summit at around 8PM last night.
Cynthia asked me to relay the following. First, she wants to thank every one who spoke out and delivered a message to President Obama.
Second, she also wants you to know, and I would say this is worth keeping in mind as we move forward, that the White House is listening. At long last, we have friends, real friends in the White House. There are people on President Obama's staff hard at work behind the scenes insuring that publically financed and privately delivered healthcare (single payer), will have a voice at the summit and a seat at the table.
The calls you made yesterday, may have tipped the scales and insured that our concerns would be aired. But finally, after eight tortured years, Cynthia confirmed that there are good and decent people working tirelessly on our behalf.
We are blessed that a champion like John Conyers will have a seat at the table. Just as President Obama pledged in the campaign. AHIP gets one seat, they don't get to buy them all, and so does Conyers.
Yesterday, you quite literally answered the call. This is a war, and you stepped up for service.
Dear friends, we have power. We will need to use this power and flex our muscles repeatedly in order to get authentic healthcare reform.
We will come back to you over and over and over. We will ask you to turn on a dime, to call, to write and to email. And perhaps, ultimately, to mobilize in Washington, D.C. But the good news is they are listening.
This is a really good day. Please pat yourselves on the back.
Your children and grandchildren thank you and so do I.