Monthly Archives: July 2009
Chris Dodd has Early Stage Prostate Cancer
… and a VERY GOOD FEDERAL HEALTH PLAN.
The Hartford Courant quoted Dodd on the subject of his condition and how it related to his drive for health care legislation:
“I wanted to let you know that I’ve been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer,” Dodd wrote. “Luckily, a routine test allowed my doctor to catch it at a very early stage, and my prognosis is excellent – we expect a full and speedy recovery. I want to assure you that I am feeling fine.”
“After the Senate adjourns at the end of next week, I’ll have surgery to remove the cancer,” Dodd wrote. “After a week or two of recuperation, I expect to be right back to work. After all, as a member of Congress, I have great health insurance. I was able to get screened, seek the opinions of highly skilled doctors, consider all the available options, and choose the treatment that was right for me.”
He added, in a reference to his current work to pass healthcare legislation, “I know you’ll agree that every American deserves the same ability. We have healthcare legislation to pass – and an election to win. And I can’t thank you enough for your support.”
Let’s be clear: we ALL need a great health care plan. too. I hope Dodd gets it through.
Good Luck, Senator.
Krugman: Government Involvement Is The Only Reason Our Health Care System Works
Paul Krugman’s last column hits the nail on the head
At a recent town hall meeting, a man stood up and told Representative Bob Inglis to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.” The congressman, a Republican from South Carolina, tried to explain that Medicare is already a government program — but the voter, Mr. Inglis said, “wasn’t having any of it.”
It’s a funny story — but it illustrates the extent to which health reform must climb a wall of misinformation. It’s not just that many Americans don’t understand what President Obama is proposing; many people don’t understand the way American health care works right now. They don’t understand, in particular, that getting the government involved in health care wouldn’t be a radical step: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance.
And that government involvement is the only reason our system works at all.
To read it all, go HERE.
Quote of the Day
“Jefferson taught that every government degenerates when it is left to the rulers alone, because rulers–by the very act of ruling–misuse the public trust. The people themselves, he said, are the only prudent repository of power.”
I love Ramona’s writing… and this quote about Jefferson reflects on our own time.
Cartoon of the Week
Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Have a lovely August Recess… don’t worry about taxpayers needing reformed health care.
Today was the Rally in DC to Support Single-Payer Plan
David Swanson gives an ongoing report of the day at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/44852. It also contains the list of all Congressional speakers and supporters and coverage of Press Conferences.
Above is John Conyers addressing the crowd. Swanson’s coverage gives details of this and more.
Why Jon Stewart is America’s #1 Trusted Newsman
Every time I look at this I laugh my head off. It’s great seeing Bill Kristol step on himself.
Quote of the Day
“Democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of [corporate] power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism — ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. Democracy is not safe if its business system cannot provide employment, and produce and distribute goods in such a way, as to sustain an acceptable standard of living.”
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in “Recommendations to the Congress to Curb Monopolies and the Concentration of Economic Power”
Some thoughts on the CATF and Theatre in general..
This has been an interesting summer season. Elly and I have seen all the CATF plays, both of the staged readings (presented at Full Circle), had Breakfast with Ed, attended two lectures, and, in general, have done about as much participation in the Festival as an attendee is allowed. I am left with a couple of thoughts.
1. The Age of the Audience. You can’t help but notice that the great majority of audience members at the CATF are “grayhairs.” This, of course, includes me, a 63-year old. While there are some student attendees and some younger associates of mine who ushered in order to see plays, even the ushers were mostly older folks.
There are two reasons for the audience’s age. The first is the cost of tickets. For working or retired adults, this cost isn’t too bad (compare it with theatre costs in D.C. or – shudder – NYC). For students and kids who work locally for $8.00 an hour (or less), this is not an affordable entertainment… certainly not when compared with films.
The second is marketing. The focus on CATF’s marketing seems to be toward its existing market… mail, e-mail, off-season promotional events… and that market gets older every year. The case is not being made to younger audiences on why they should be saving their pennies for tickets next year. Development of a younger audience requires a serious focus on both youth economics and youth subject matter considerations. While we often see plays by younger writers, we rarely see plays on “younger subjects” (a play like “1001″ two seasons ago was the kind of play that had a really young message, relating to the mideast crisis effecting younger lives.)
Don’t get me wrong, the plays and subject matter this year were very fulfilling to me as an audience member. But I will state again that I am 63 and am at the “looking back” point of living. While the Festival satisfies this need, it limits its focus on younger issues.
2. The relationship with Shepherdstown. Elly and I often say that the CATF was one of the reasons we moved to Shepherdstown. It’s true. Part of that is our previous lives as New Yorkers or a Provincetonians… we always like living in communities that support the arts that we went to college for and committed large parts of our working lives to.
This year, however, I noticed much less tightness in the Town/Festival relationship. No big signs in the center of town showing each day’s performances, for instance. Now I realize that these are usually on Shepherd U. property, but downtown is downtown… it is the two blocks that tourists and other visitors always come to, to eat or shop or just walk up and down the street looking at our aging architecture.
And take the presentation of the staged readings at Full Circle Theater, a new, but very active Community Theatre now in its third year. While mentioning the Full Circle location, address and phone number in the program for the CATF productions, there was no press release support, no advertising, no posters… no mention of either the readings or location on the regular web site of CATF OR Full Circle Theater. I took it upon myself to send announcements to the Visitor’s Center and other local agencies, but I can’t help think how much better this would have been if promoted in advance by the producing organization… both as a way of getting MORE community involvement and as a way of attracting a younger audience for whom FREE is a magic word.
I don’t know what the attendance stats are for this season, but given the general economy, I won’t be surprised if there was limited growth over previous seasons. This, of course, is outside the control of both the producing organization and Shepherdstown itself. But it is clearly a time for focus and changes in approach.
CATF and Full Circle Theater Together Again
Last night there was a second CATF staged reading performed at the Full Circle Theater instead of at Shepherd U. Two weeks ago we had one of these as well at Full Circle and it marked a first time that CATF has combined with another theater group during its season to present something.
from the light booth...
I was in the light booth turning the stage lights on and off, and that’s where I viewed the reading. Pretty good seat, actually.
Michael Weller’s new play, SIDE EFFECTS, was the reading and the performers were, for a second time as well, Anderson Matthews and Lee Roy Rogers. Like the play 50 WORDS, which is Weller’s piece in the current group of five plays in the CATF Summer Season, this is a piece that explores the relationship of a married couple whose side affairs change their lives whether they want them changed or not. There was humor and drama both here, and, although this play seems to need a lot more polishing, it was an interesting evening.
This morning, at the Shepherd Wellness Center gym where I go to exercise several times a week, I was sitting in the lobby with my post-exercise cup of coffee, when Lee Roy Rogers came in to use the facility. I had a nice little conversation with her about last night’s performance and the previous one and told her how much it meant to all of us to have this connection between CATF and Full Circle.
We discovered that we were both disappointed at the lack of promotion for the readings (we only had around 45 people last night, about 20 less than 2 weeks ago… we could seat 90). We agreed that it would be nice to have more of these readings… perhaps one every week. Maybe next year.
The CATF has about a week and a half left in it’s season and if you haven’t been to one of the plays, click on their website over in the addresses on the left side of this blog and get a reservation. Full Circle will be getting into it’s Fall Season really soon as well.
Gore Vidal on the Professor Gates/Cambridge Police Incident
I found this article in Truthdig this morning: America the Great … Police State. It’s a long one, but worth reading by one of this country’s leading intellectuals.
Here’s a quote:
Let us accept the facts staring us in the face—that demonstrably we are no longer a republic. We are no longer governed by laws, only by armed men and force. This is just like the days of Billy the Kid. You have an armed man going down a dusty street and that is authority. And it has come to this for us.
I’m curious as to your comments after reading it.
Sotomayor has been approved by the Judiciary Committee… now we’re off to the Floor.
Yesterday morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee , by a vote of 13-6, confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. It will now move to the Senate floor for a vote which will undoubtedly be in her vavor.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (Senator, South Carolina) was the only Republicn to vote yes on Sotomayor.
Quote of the Day
“The public intuitively understands — way better than some people here — that a public option will keep the insurance companies honest.”
- Senator Sherrod Brown (D – Ohio)
Getting ready to run lights on a reading…
It’s quarter to six ad I’m sitting over in the Lost Dog Coffee House finishing an iced tea before I go over to Full Circle to run lights tonite. We have the CATF staged reading of a new play, marking the second time CATF has used our facility for such an event.
No one from Full Circle showed up to open the space for rehearsal, so I have’t seen tonite’s presentation… but the lights are pretty much house out and stage up, so I’m not too worried about pulling it off.
I’ll be invisible up in the booth again. Wish I was more involved in CATF than I am (Elly and I bought full season tickets and we’ve been to the lectures and to one of the breakfasts with Ed Herendeen), but I’m thankful for whatever I get.
Tonite should be interesting. If you are around Shepherdstown come on over before 7:00 PM… house opens around 6:30 and it is FREE.
Quote of the Day
“You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”
– Merce Cunningham
Senate Finance Committee Kisses PhRMA’s Ass – cuts Public Option from Health Care Bill
Let’s congratulate Max Baucus and Charles Grassley who have knuckled under to Big Pharmaceuticals and kept any Public Option out of the Senate Finance Committee’s bill. They can join the applause brought to the measure by the rich and make the United States remain outrageously stupid when compared with EVERY OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED NATION.
It’s really incredible that they can ignore the President, the majority of Americans and those who see the absolute logic in making health care a reformed institution as opposed to a guaranteed moneymaker for the employers of lobbyists.
Merce Cunningham dies at 90
In 1944, Merce Cunningham, then a dancer in the Martha Graham Company, left to start creating his own dance ideas and never looked back. In 1953 he established the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and, teaming with composer John Cage and artists like Robert Rauschenberg, he completely changed our ideas about dance and staged movement.
Cunningham and Cage, aside from becoming the kind of committed couple that was not discussed in the fifties or sixties, developed a commitment to concepts like chance procedures and the creation of “events.”
Cunningham stopped performing himself after Cage’s death in 1992, but went on to explore dance in technology and animation among other things.
These are the Top 10 Reasons we Need a Single-Payer System
This is from the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee.
Top 10 Reasons For Enacting a Single Payer Healthcare System
1. Everybody in, nobody out. Universal means access to healthcare for everyone, period — the desire of 81% of all Californians, as reported in a January, 2007 Field Poll.
2. Portability. Even if you are unemployed, or lose or change your job, your health coverage goes with you.
3. Uniform benefits. No Cadillac plans for the wealthy and Moped plans for everyone else, with high deductibles, limited services, caps on payments for care, and no protection in the event of a catastrophe. One level of comprehensive care no matter what size your wallet.
4. Prevention. By removing financial roadblocks, a single payer system encourages preventive care that lowers an individual’s ultimate cost and pain and suffering when problems are neglected, and societal cost in the over utilization of emergency rooms or the spread of communicable diseases.
5. Choice of physician. Most private plans restrict what doctors, other caregivers, or hospital you can use. Under a single payer system, patients have a choice, and the provider is assured a fair reimbursement.
6. Ending insurance industry interference with care. Caregivers and patients regain the autonomy to make decisions on what’s best for a patient’s health, not what’s dictated by the billing department or the bean counters. No denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions or cancellation of policies for “unreported” minor health problems.
7. Reducing administrative waste. One third of every health care dollar in California goes for paperwork, such as denying care, and profits, compared to about 3% under Medicare, a single-payer, universal system.
8. Cost savings. A single payer system would produce the savings needed to cover everyone, largely by using existing resources without the waste. Taiwan, shifting from a U.S. healthcare model, adopted a single-payer system in 1995, boosting health coverage from 57% to 97% with little if any increase in overall healthcare spending.
9. Common sense budgeting. The public system sets fair reimbursements applied equally to all providers while assuring all comprehensive and appropriate health care is delivered, and uses its clout to negotiate volume discounts for prescription drugs and medical equipment.
10. Public oversight. The public sets the policies and administers the system, not high priced CEOs meeting in secret and making decisions based on what inflates their compensation packages or stock wealth or company profits.
Print it out… send it around. Use the reasons when you call your Representative.
Robert Reich on The Future of Universal Healthcare
In his Sunday blog, Reich pointed out that if the House goes on vacation without passing ANYTHING on the health care front (the Senate has already said it won’t) then we’ll end up stuck with something called “universal health insurance” as opposed to Universal Health Care.
Check it out HERE.
At the end of the article, Reich gives us this MUST DO statement:
Finally, you, dear reader, must contact your senators and representatives and explain why you want genuine reform… Mobilize and energize others to do the same, especially residents of Blue Dog states, including Montana where Senate Finance Chief Max Baucus resides. And if you’re able and willing I’d urge you to descend on Washington the moment Congress returns from recess. There is nothing quite as persuasive to a member of Congress as real live constituent demanding real reform.
This is the kind of statement that makes me really like Reich!
Tomorrow Night (July 28) is another Free Staged Reading from the CATF at Full Circle Theater.
I can’t tell you how frustrated I am that neither the Contemporary American Theater Festival nor Full Circle Theater have put the information up on their web sites (the only place it is listed is in the current CATF season program), but tomorrow night at 7:00 PM there is another FREE staged reading of a new play at Full Circle’s theater at 113 S. Princess Street.
Two weeks ago there was another similarly unpublicized reading of a Steve Dietz play that was just wonderful (and played to a pretty good sized house). I believe tomorrow they are reading from a new Michael Weller play. Weller is the author of FIFTY WORDS, a great script at this year’s festival, and I would look forward to a reading of one of his pieces.
Get to the theater at least 15 minutes early if you want a good seat.
For information you can call the Contemporary American Theater Festival at 800-999-CATF (2283). Full Circle’s phone number is 304-268-7798. Tell them you read about it in Under The LobsterScope!
Harry Truman looks down from above…
…where he is laughing himself silly. It has taken 60 years or so to get as far as we have, and we still don’t have the universal health care that would put us among advanced nations.
Repiglicans and Blue Dogs dance and sing the crap that slows down this musical review… and we sit in the audience hoping that intermission will come soon.
Quote of the Day
“It was just way too much trouble so I gave it up.”
– Bill Gates commenting on Facebook.
Krugman: Overwhelming evidence that the Free Market is not the solution for Health Care
Krugman’s last piece in the NY Times yesterday makes a crucial point concerning the Insurance Industry’s push for a free market solution for health care.
An edited quote (I recommend reading the whole thing in its original format):
There are two strongly distinctive aspects of health care. One is that you don’t know when or whether you’ll need care — but if you do, the care can be extremely expensive. The big bucks are in triple coronary bypass surgery, not routine visits to the doctor’s office; and very, very few people can afford to pay major medical costs out of pocket.
This tells you right away that health care can’t be sold like bread. It must be largely paid for by some kind of insurance. And this in turn means that someone other than the patient ends up making decisions about what to buy. Consumer choice is nonsense when it comes to health care. And you can’t just trust insurance companies either — they’re not in business for their health, or yours.
—–
The second thing about health care is that it’s complicated, and you can’t rely on experience or comparison shopping. (”I hear they’ve got a real deal on stents over at St. Mary’s!”) That’s why doctors are supposed to follow an ethical code, why we expect more from them than from bakers or grocery store owners.
—-
Between those two factors, health care just doesn’t work as a standard market story.
Krugman points out that this doesn’t mean “socialized medicine” is the solution. Nor is “single-payer” the only way to go. But,
…(t)here are, however, no examples of successful health care based on the principles of the free market, for one simple reason: in health care, the free market just doesn’t work.
There are, however, obscenely profitable Insurance Companies based on the free market, and it would seem that they will do anything to stay that way.
Quote of the Day
MSNBC President Phil Griffin commenting on the claims of The Birthers about Obama’s citizenship:
“It’s racist. Just call it for what it is.”
