A very important article on the Venezuelan Single Payer System that you should read.

Please go to http://cotocrew.wordpress.com and read the article by Caitlin McNulty of VenezuelanAnalysis.com.
The more articles I read like this, the more I realize how advanced countries are with single-payer systems and how the AMA and the Insurance Companies and the Pharmaceuticals Companies have been able to use MONEY to keep us pinned against the wall.

Make sure to pass this article on.

I put this up as soon as I got it…

From McClatchy:

clipped from www.mcclatchydc.com

Franken declared winner, giving Dems 60 Senate seats

Comedian Al Franken will take his seat in the U.S. Senate after the Minnesota Supreme Court ordered that he be certified as the winner of last year’s election. That will give Democrats control of 60 Senate seats, a filibuster-proof majority. Franken’s opponent, Norm Coleman, conceded the race and said he would not appeal the state court’s order. » read more

Happy Birthday Bud! Happy Sovereignty Day Iraq!

Today is the date for two important occurances:

1.) The birthday of my son, known to many as Will but to his Mother and me as Buddy, who is now in DC working at the Hyatt and getting ready for Graduate School…

–and–

2.) it has been declared National Sovereignty Day in Iraq, celebrating the plan of the American army to withdraw from the streets and to start leaving the country.

Two good things on the same day!

BTW… I’ve added an entertainment site to the list on the side.

Just because it makes me laugh my head off, I’ve added Sam Hoffman’s brilliant site Old Jews Telling Jokes under the new category “strictly for entertainment.”

This is the Second Season and it will have you rolling on the floor whether you’re Jewish or not (I’m not… but my wife is).

Have a good time.

Bernie Madoff Gets 150 years!

Bernie Madoff, the biggest self-confessed fraudster in US history, will spend the rest of his life in prison, having defrauded his investors to the tune of $65 Billion.

According to the BBC, US District Judge Denny Chin said that Madoff’s crimes were “extraordinarily evil.”

If only some of the other extraordinarily evil criminals of the last decade could get theirs… say, for starting wars without cause where Americans died by the thousands… then I might believe in a just society again.

We’re having too many celebrity deaths lately… Billy Mays was found dead this morning…

He was only 50 years old and was known as the TV Pitchman for OxiClean, Orange Glo and other products. Some thought he was a great salesman with his big voice and black beard (I did)… others didn’t (he made my wife change the channel whenever he came on.)

Apparently he bumped his head yesterday on a rough US Airlines landing… and went to bed last night not feeling very well… this according to his wife who found him at 7:45 this morning at their home in Tampa, FL. Monday there will be an autopsy to find out just what happened. The police,however, do not expect foul play.

This was both a shock and a surprise. After Ed McMahon, Shelley Gross, Farrah Fawcett, Morton Gottlieb and Michael Jackson, we are certainly starting the new week in a dim light.

12 hours of dog chasing is over…

Our two dogs, Nestle and Byron, escaped last night when my daughter, Cassandra, who is in from Connecticut, accidentally left the front door too far ajar when loading her car. That’s when it began.

Three hours later, I found Nestle, the older of the two (10), about a half mile away and across trafficked streets, wandering in an overgrown field. I got him to come to my car and get in… he likes rides and, frankly, he was very tired of running.

Byron, on the other hand, had completely disappeared and I drove the neighborhood and surrounds until it was too dark to see. I left the gate to the back yard open, hoping he might come up on the deck in the morning (it’s where he eats), but he didn’t.

At 6 am I heard barking outside and it was Byron bothering another dog being walked on a leash… When I got to my front door (in my bathrobe) he was standing there… but he wouldn’t come in. I bent down to grab his collar and Nestle rushed between my legs and they were both off again.

I got dressed… got into the car, and drove around until I saw them… but they ignored my calls and kept running in the opposite direction. Finally Nestle, who tires out quicker, appeared alone. He walked toward me, but when I got out of the car he ran the other way. So I got in the car and slowly drove in the opposite direction. He followed at a slow walk. When I stopped the car, he stopped. So I went a little farther, and he walked slowly behind. Then I stopped the car and opened the side door. Nestle got in.

That was one.

I got Nestle back into the house and looked out the windows for Byron again, No sign of him. So Nestle and I had breakfast.

While having coffee, I heard barking outside… and it was Byron bothering a guy walking his dog… so I went outside again, but Byron saw me coming and backed off. I walked back toward the house… but Byron was bothering the walking dog again. I called out to the guy walking his dog that he should try to grab Byron’s collar.

His second attempt succeeded. I walked over and dragged Byron back to the house… he didn’t want to come in. I finally lifted him up and got him into the door.

Byron didn’t want to eat… who knows what he was eating through the night? He went up to our bedroom where Elly was still asleep and curled up on the floor.

That’s where he’s been for the last hour or so… and I’m exhausted.

National Endowment for the Arts Gets a Raise from The House… Now We Need The Senate!

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $15 million increase for both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for FY 2010, as my good friend Cecil Thompson just e-mailed me.

This is Great! The problems with the economy are hurting the performing arts spaces big time… from the Metropolitan Opera down to many of the smaller companies and performance groups in your own regions.

This will bring the NEA’s budget from $155 Million to $170 million (NEH, too!) and many companies and many performing arts jobs will stay in existence because of this increase.

Now we have to get the Senate to go along with this raise. Call or write your Senators now. Go to http://capwiz.com/artsusa/issues/alert/?alertid=13627991 and send the e-mail form. Do it now. DON’T WAIT!

Remember: funding the arts means JOBS. It means income for restaurants, stores, parking lots, subways, buses, costume shops, set contractors, advertising companies, newspapers… and on and on and on. As many of us have known for a long time, money spent on the arts is respent in the community at a much higher percentage than in other industries (the performance you go to see is generally not manufactured in China…Get it?)

According to Americans for the Arts, the nonprofit arts industry generates $166.2 billion annually in economic activity, supports 5.7 million full-time equivalent jobs and returns $12.6 billion to the federal government in income taxes. Who else can show that kind of return?

Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders Supports Single Payer

Commentary: U.S. needs health care vs. sick care

(from United Methodist News Service)
By Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders

June 17, 2009 | LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

The United States has the best “sick care” system in the world, but our “health care” delivery system is lacking. We have the best doctors, the best hospitals, best academic health centers, best nurses, the best drugs, and we are leaders in research.

Our problem is that the system is not available to all of our citizens. In addition, our health care is not equitable, coherent, comprehensive and cost-effective, nor do we have choice. The United States has 5 percent of the people of the world and 25 percent of the world’s wealth. We are the richest country in the world and the only industrialized country that does not provide health care for its entire people.

Health care, which now consumes 17 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, or $2.4 trillion in 2007, continues to grow in its appetite for our economic resources, while the United States continues to fall in overall health care for its citizens in comparison with the remainder of the industrialized world.

We do not have the best health, ranking 46th in life expectancy, 42nd in infant mortality and 57th in overall goodness and fairness as compared to 192 other members of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation.

If the rest of the industrialized world can manage to serve all its citizens on less, why can we not?

Lives at risk

The lack of access to health care for so many is literally bankrupting our people and endangering all our lives.

We have depended upon employers to carry much of the burden of health insurance over the years. However, now we find in this global economy that they are at a disadvantage trying to compete with countries that have a public health care system. Health insurance expenses are the fastest-growing cost component for employers. Unless something changes dramatically, health insurance costs will overtake profits.

“We are the richest country in the world and the only industrialized country that does not provide health care for its entire people.”

President Obama’s desire for a health care plan is one that improves coverage for the 45 million to 50 million uninsured citizens, contains costs, and offers high quality, cost-effective, equitable, portable and affordable care for everyone.

We must simultaneously address, integrate and solve the three major components of health care reform: Financing, organizing the delivery system, and educating patients and community, in order to facilitate behavioral and lifestyle changes.

Quality of care would improve if every patient had access to a medical home and an accountable care organization with electronic medical records where care was patient-centered, coordinated and cost-effective.

Monitoring of many of our procedures, techniques, new technologies and drugs needs to be evaluated. We need to replace our inefficient, inequitable financing system with one that works. It needs to include everybody with subsidies for the young, poor and sick. It must require all to pay their fair share.

Physicians must have the information (electronic medical records), infrastructure and incentives they need to improve quality and control cost.
Physicians, heal this system

Physicians must become involved in population health. Health is influenced by factors in five domains, which are genetic, social circumstances, environmental exposures, and behavioral patterns and health care. The single greatest opportunity to improve health and reduce premature death lies in personal behavior.

On an individual level, we can do more to improve our own health than all the medical discoveries in the past 100 years.

We must dream big; our vision is for healthy people in healthy communities with a health care system that is right for all of our citizens. It needs to be available, affordable, accessible, patient-centered, prevention-focused, purpose-driven and solution-oriented. It must empower individuals to take care of themselves, foster responsibility and human dignity, improve health and enhance quality of life.

Any new health care system must contain a provision for a public health care policy; this is a single-payer system. People who prefer private insurance can always purchase it instead of purchasing a public health care policy. In this public health care policy, we must provide every person with access to basic health care, including physical and cultural access through transportation and language sensitivity.

We also must provide education to promote health maintenance, preventive measures in order to thwart disease, basic dental health care, mental health care, emergency services and necessary medicines.

A public option

Ask Medicare patients if they would like to give up their insurance and I think few would answer in the affirmative. Public health care is well liked in the United States. People who do not receive Medicare may not know that each person pays almost $100 per month for the insurance, which is deducted from Social Security checks automatically. After a yearly deductible, Medicare pays 80 percent of most medical care but not dental care. There is a prescription Medicare (Part D) that is separate from other Medicare and has a variety of plans.

“ The lack of access to health care for so many is literally bankrupting our people and endangering all our lives. ”

A public health care policy would likely be similar to purchasing Medicare. With Medicare, about 98 cents of every dollar paid in payroll taxes are spent on actually providing health care. When you look at the private insurance companies, it is more like 80 cents. The rest goes to administrative expenses and profits. There are many additional costs imposed on the doctors and health care providers themselves, who have to deal with a fragmented, complex system in which they have to negotiate, amend, or cajole payment from many different insurers.

Both business and individuals are breaking under the strain of our very expensive health care system. We must overhaul our system now; its condition is beyond tweaking to make it function for our people. We have tried to tweak the way we perform health care for many decades with disastrous results. We have tried HMOs, PPOs, indemnity with an assortment of public health systems to catch some of our people who fall between the cracks. It has failed while costing us precious lives, health and money of our people along the way.

We need an overhaul of the health care system to save lives, money and American business.

Shepherdstown Streetfest

We just returned from this year’s Shepherdstown Streetfest. It was about 25% smaller than last year… I assume due to the dismal economy… but it still was a nice walk up and down German Street.

Hot dogs for lunch… stopped to listen to a Jazz Concert while we ate lunch…looked at several booths and remarked on the nice weather. All in all, we were there a little over an hour, which is a long time for us at this kind of affair.

Mayor Gavin Newsome on San Francisco’s Public Health Plan…

When people on the right tell you that a public health care option will be a.) more expensive and b.) inadequate, show them Mayor Newsome’s comments and ask how it is possible that this is actually the better alternative.

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com President Obama is right — the only way we are going to have real health care reform in the United States is by providing a public plan. But right now, special interests in Washington, D.C. are doing everything they can to stop public health care from materializing. They say it is too expensive, will limit choice and diminish the quality of care. This is simply not true and we need to fight back. In San Francisco, we are proving the special interests wrong. Two years, after we launched the United States’ first universal health care program, Healthy San Francisco, almost 70% of previously uninsured San Franciscans are now enrolled in our public program. Our experience in San Francisco is proving what most Americans already know — it is much less expensive to keep people well than it is to treat their sickness. We are providing health care at a cheaper rate than similar private care options and we are doing this in the middle of one of the worst recessions in history.

Another Broadway Producer Dies— Morton Gottlieb is gone at 88

“The Broadway theater is the only place in the world where the easiest way to break in is by starting at the top.” That was the word of Morton Gottlieb, a Broadway producer I had immense respect for.

The biggest hit he produced was “Sleuth”. I had a friendship at the time with one of his big investors, which got me a chance to see the show and visit with the leads in their dressing rooms after.

Gottlieb produced “The Killing of Sister George, Enter Laughing, Same Time Next Year and others. He was famous for early repayment to his investors.

It was close!

The vote for the American Clean Energy Security Act on the House floor came to an ultimate margin of a mere seven votes, 219-212. Despite the Republican leader Boehner’s over an hour “minibuster” on the 300 page Manager’s Amendment, despite 44 Democrats who sided with the Minority…and with 7 Republicans joining the Majority… the House has now passed the first step in attacking global warming and reducing pollution.

Now Obama’s Cap and Trade bill goes to the Senate, where it is likely to be equally as close. This will require more e-mails and calls from voters like us to our Senators. Everybody ready?

A Canadian Corrects Mitch McConnell (and sooo politely!)

Response to the Senator accusing Canada of having “staggering” wait times from Canadian Surgeon and Hospital Executive Dr. David Zelt

Dr. David Zelt, chief of staff and vice-president, medical administration, at Kingston General Hospital, sent the following reply to McConnell:

I am writing with reference to remarks you made in an address this past week to the United States Senate.

As a surgeon and hospital executive in Canada, I am well aware of the debate now taking place in your country over the role of government in making medical services more widely available to the millions of your fellow U. S. citizens who are now without such vital protection.

The purpose of this letter is not to interfere in that debate, although I would be remiss if I did not declare that I am a proud participant in our public healthcare system in Canada and value its ability to guarantee quality and accessible care to all our citizens regardless of their financial circumstances. Is our system perfect? Definitely not. Are costs and ever-increasing demand a challenge? Definitely yes.

I am writing to you at this time to correct and update information that you provided to the U. S. Senate this week about Kingston General Hospital (KGH), where I am chief of staff and vice-president, medical administration. I am confident that you, as someone playing a major role in the current health-care debate in your country, would want to make your arguments based on material that is both correct and current.

You chose our hospital to provide “a glimpse of the effect that government-run health care has on everyday Canadians and the long waits they routinely endure for necessary care.”

At KGH we are proud of our reputation as a medium-size regional health science centre providing excellence in research, academic and patient care standards. I respectfully submit that the information you supplied to the U. S. Senate is not an accurate or fair “glimpse” of either our institution or our national health-care system.

For example, you state that at KGH wait times can be

“staggering.” This is simply not true. Our average and median wait times exceed provincial targets. Your researchers have taken data and interpreted it incorrectly, with the result that your information is inaccurate.

Your statement to the Senate: “Today, the average wait time for (hip replacement) surgery at KGH is about 196 days.” In fact, our actual average hip replacement wait time is 91 days — less than half of what you stated.

Your statement to the Senate: “What about knee replacements? Well, at Kingston General, the average wait time is 340 days, or almost a year from the moment that the doctor says you need a new knee.” In fact, our average wait time for knee replacements is 109 days.

Your statement to the Senate: “What about brain cancer? In Ontario the target wait time for brain cancer surgery is nearly three months; same for breast cancer and prostate cancer.” These are simply that, targets. In fact, at KGH our average overall wait times for surgical treatment of all forms of cancer is 31 days (16 days for breast cancer, 49 for prostate and eight for neurosurgical cancer).

Your statement to the Senate: “And for cardiac bypass surgery, patients in Ontario are told they may have to wait six months for a surgery that Americans can often get right away.” In fact, the median wait time for cardiac surgery in Ontario is 16 days (32 days at KGH).

In summary, Senator McConnell, in an effort to advance your position opposing public health care, you have maligned a very proud institution whose service to our community dates back some 170 years. The “glimpse” you have provided of our national healthcare system neglects to mention that at its very base is Canadians’ fundamental right to accessible and quality health care regardless of their financial circumstances.

In closing, Senator, I thank you for this opportunity to bring this information to your attention. We have an excellent data collection system at our hospital and I would invite you or a member of your staff to contact me or other officials of this institution for accurate and current information that would be helpful in keeping the American public correctly informed during your important and ongoing debate on health care.

And nowhere in his letter did Dr. Zelt point out what an asshole Mitch McConnell is!

Robert Reich is Right! It’s Up To Us.

This was Reich’s blog yesterday… I reproduce it in full:

“What Can I Do?”

Someone recently approached me at the cheese counter of a local supermarket, asking “what can I do?” At first I thought the person was seeking advice about a choice of cheese. But I soon realized the question was larger than that. It was: what can I do about the way things are going in Washington?

People who voted for Barack Obama tend to fall into one of two camps: Trusters, who believe he’s a good man with the right values and he’s doing everything he can; and cynics, who have become disillusioned with his bailouts of Wall Street, flimsy proposals for taming the Street, willingness to give away 85 percent of cap-and-trade pollution permits, seeming reversals on eavesdropping and torture, and squishiness on a public option for health care.

In my view, both positions are wrong. A new president — even one as talented and well-motivated as Obama — can’t get a thing done in Washington unless the public is actively behind him. As FDR said in the reelection campaign of 1936 when a lady insisted that if she were to vote for him he must commit to a long list of objectives, “Maam, I want to do those things, but you must make me.”

We must make Obama do the right things. Email, write, and phone the White House. Do the same with your members of Congress. Round up others to do so. Also: Find friends and family members in red states who agree with you, and get them fired up to do the same. For example, if you happen to have a good friend or family member in Montana, you might ask him or her to write Max Baucus and tell him they want a public option included in any healthcare bill.

Ok… let’s get at it.

Cartoon of the Week

Pat Oliphant in the Washington Post:

This sums it up pretty well. With 70 – 85% of Americans wanting a Public Option (and most of these wanting a Single Payer system), the Congress has kow-towed to the Lobbyists of the Insurance Companies and Pharmaceutical Companies… and they have done it visibly!

Where does that leave us as voters?

Michael Jackson Dead at 50 in L.A.

I’m not even sure why I’m listing him, he’s not someone whose career I follow… but it’s taking up the news on MSNBC.

Michael Jackson will, hopefully, be remembered for his music and not for his relationships with children and various other things that made up his wierd life.

GEE! Farrah Fawcett is Dead!

She was 62 years old and it was just the other day that we were reading that Ryan O’Neal was had gotten back together with Fawcett… to marry her… and stay by her side as she suffered from anal cancer.

I just didn’t expect her to go so soon.

Her diagnosis was in 2006 and she traveled the  world looking for a cure. While she was known for her one big success in Charlie’s Angels, guys in my generation think of the famous poster of her at the time which adorned dorm rooms across the country.

This from the BBC:

It’s hard getting accurate information out of Iran today. The BBC has squeezed this out… this is a sample, go in and read the whole article.

clipped from newsvote.bbc.co.uk Iran’s Mousavi defies crackdown Iran protest leader Mir Hossein Mousavi says he holds those behind alleged “rigged” elections responsible for bloodshed during recent protests. In a defiant statement on his website, he called for future protests to be in a way which would not “create tension.” He complained of “complete” restrictions on his access to people and a crackdown on his media group. A BBC correspondent in Tehran says the statement is a direct challenge to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. “I won’t refrain from securing the rights of the Iranian people… because of personal interests and the fear of threats,” Mr Mousavi said on the website of his newspaper, Kalameh. Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated on Wednesday that he would “not yield” over the election result. Severe reporting restrictions imposed on foreign media in Iran mean the BBC cannot verify the reports.

Shelley Gross is dead at 88

Sheldon (Shelley) Gross, partner of the late Lee Guber, has died in Florida at age 88. Guber and Gross were the kind of theatrical producers I really admired when growing up in the theatre of the sixties and seventies. They developed the tent theatre idea in the suburbs, produced on Broadway (shows like Man of La Mancha and the revival of King and I with Brynner) and brought so much entertainment to people living far away from new York.

He should be remembered.

What? Is North Korea not getting enough news coverage?

“If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will … wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all,” says the North Korean Central News Agency on reports that a US destroyer was following the Kang Nam, a N. Korean vessel transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar, against United Nations sanctions. Interestingly, the ship following the Kang Nam is the USS John S. McCain.

One of the accusations that North Korea is throwing out at the US is that wenintend to start another Korean War. In fact, if the McCain stops to inspect the Kang Nam, according to the recent Security Council resolution for all members, the N. K.’s have said that they will consider that act a declaration of war.

It is expected that the North Koreans are going to test short to medium missiles, which could cover from 100 to 350 miles… certainly enough to do some destruction around allies like Japan and, of course, South Korea. They will also be trading with Myanmar’s military government, which has bought weapons from them in the past.

Meanwhile, China, Russia and South Korea are trying to get North Korea back to the diplomatic table for talks on disarming. These broke up some time ago and Kim Jong Il doesn’t seem interested in rejoining them.

This from AfterDowningStreet.org:

Thursday, June 25, 2009, has been designated Torture Accountability Action Day by a large coalition of human rights groups planning rallies and marches in major U.S. cities, including a rally in Washington, D.C.’s John Marshall Park at 11 a.m. followed by a noon march to the Justice Department where some participants will risk arrest in nonviolent protest if a special prosecutor for torture is not appointed.
http://accountability4torture.com

Want to keep the Government from Reforming Health Care?

Then visit HAARM (Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine.)

Check out the Video. Read the articles. Sign the mailing list.

(And you should realize that this is a JOKE which is exposing the Right, the Insurance Companies, and the Republicans who are going to keep us from getting a Public health care system. It was created by the SEIU.)

Ed McMahon Has Died

He was 85 years old and suffering from pneumonia and bone cancer. Ed McMahon will be remembered as Johnny Carson’s sidekick for years and as the announcer on Jerry Lewis’ annual MDA telethon.

At one time the Carson show was 30% of NBC’s revenue and it wouldn’t have been the same without Ed.

McMahon made “second banana” a first class job.

It’s time to let our reps know…

…both Senators and Congressmen and women, that the majority of us favor a public health plan and are opposed to the way insurance companies suck our money out of health care. If they don’t understand this, then they shouldn’t be reelected, neither Republicans nor Democrats.

If you haven’t contacted your representatives, or participated in the many polls and petitions on the web (like Dr.Howard Dean’s which I think is very important to support: http://www.standwithdrdean.com/LastChance), then it is time to get active. Let them know what you think.

I know that my Rep., Shelly Moore Capito (R), is a lost cause… and hopefully it will help get her replaced next election. That’s the one thing we can hold over their heads, the possibility of massive vote attacks.