Blessed Are The Poor --- But...NIMBY

Vicar Speaks Out On Behalf of the Poor

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ost everyone was outraged when the Vicar made a case for Christians to show compassion to poor people who shoplift. Little does the Vicar understand that property is sacred beyond church or anything. And at no time does this clinging to material goods and selfishness show itself than when a Vicar, the conscience of the community, reminds his congregation that all of life is actually illusion. And besides your greed is showing, people.

Why They Danced In The Streets On 9/11

American Hegemony

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ancing in the streets. Hearing the news that America had been attacked on its' own soil, we all focused our eyes on the TVs in our living rooms and saw the rest of the world celebrating the take down and indignity of America. There was no compassion for the 3000 innocents who died in the World Trade Center. There was only rejoicing that now America had been paid back for the appalling foriegn Policies of deceipt, murder and interference with the rest of the world governments for the past sixty or seventy years.

Back in the Fifties and Sixties, I was too young and stupid to pay attention to the way American Foreign Policies seemed to invade other countries around the world and set up it's own puppet regimes whose function, really, was to play potsy with Big Old Uncle Sam. And if they stepped out of line they got stepped on.

I did not know that the Shah of Iran was setup and enthroned by the CIA, who had arranged for the coup and eventual murder of the previous and freely elected president of Iran.

Well, I thought in my naive way, it isn't as if we went into that country and meddled with their politics and economics and their whole way of life, is it? But a terrible answer comes back. You mean that we were responsible for putting that monster Pinochet into office, and again murdering the freely elected people's choice.

Nyah.

This is America!

We believe in Motherhood, America and a Hot Lunch for Orphans.

Don't we?

Well, some of us do, and some of us, who are deluded, greed filled oligarchs, don't. Take a look at these videos and begin to understand, in the words of Harry Truman, that, "The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know."

Senate's Xmas Gift To Health Care Insurers

And Now Some Well Deserved Grandstanding

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f you thought that the insurance companies were going to clean up their act and, for once, do something right, or, at least be what they say they are, and do what they say they do, you might want to rethink that illusion. They are, instead, stepping right up for an outright gift from the U.S. Senate. The US Congress has pulled off some sleazy legislation in the past decade; like the way they gave away the store to the Credit Card industry; allowing for the banks to raise their percentages to well above and beyond usurious rates. Then there's that delightful little $800,000,000,000B give-away to the banks, so they could have a nice retreat for their execs at some neat little luxe spa resort in Saint Bart's and talk about all the fun foreclosures they intend to get even richer on. All the small business loans they can deny. After all, it costs a lot of taxpayer money to say "NO!"

And these lavish gifts to those crooks slapped the faces of vast majorities of their constituents. But they knew one thing the public did not know: the public merely would groan and roll over, forget and forgive when the little tempest in a teapot blew over.

It takes real panache to stand up and take bows for the truly heroic act of sticking a standard size meat-hook up the collective bum of the American public and then of course, shaking it around up there and telling your constituents that what they are feeling is love. And all this without a kiss or benefit of KY Jelly.

I agree with Michael Moore when he says, on Larry King's show, that we are watching the end of Capitalism. Well, I have been calling it dog-eat-dog, end-game, Crony Capitalism for a few years now. And nobody, so far, has fired a shot! Well, except for the Crony Capitalists who have shot themselves in the foot and the American Economy in the heart and the head.

Harry Reid and Max Baucus have a lot of nerve to pose for photo ops for the Associated Press for a job so very poorly done. Your health Insurance rates are going to soar; sooner rather than later; and if the whopping new deductibles don't kill you first,(there is no provision for regulation) perhaps the co-pay rate hike will.

Here is Wendel Potter, perhaps the only insurance exec in the United States who has a conscience. He tells us exactly how crooked the insurance industry is, but does Congress listen to him. Well, they would be happy to listen to Wendel, just as soon as they can get their fingers out of their ears.

The US Senate's Health Care Reform Bill

As Crooked As They Wanna Be

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hat is most difficult to understand, is why the Republicans, who do not have even enough votes to fillibuster this bill, have so much clout. If this situation had arisen five years ago when there was a Republican majority in the Senate and the House, as well as in the Whitehouse, we all know that the Repulicans would have ridden rough shod over the Dems and laughed in the face of anybody stupid enough to object to any of their provisions at all. But what we are witnessing now, is a Democratic Congress unwilling to so much as whisper that the Republicans need to get on board with what the vast majority of Americans have expressly demanded of Congress, or else, you Repukes go to Hell and we will take it from here and for once, do our jobs--- which the voters sent us here to do.

I received a letter from Charles Schumer D-New York, in this morning's e-mail and was rather put off by Schumer's claims that this is a great Health Care Reform Bill as hammered out by the Senate. I did not have to check any other newsletters to know that old Charlie Schumer is lying through his political teeth. He wants the voters to believe that he and others worked so hard and achieved so much. But achieved so much for whom, Charlie? It's for damn sure you did nothing admirable for the voters! What he really wanted in the letter is money. After lying like a snake in the grass he included a DONATE button at the bottom of the page.

Whassamatter, Charlie? The Big Bad Insurance Lobbyists lurking under your desk didn't slip enough schekels into your pocket?

No Charles, this bill is not even vaguely acceptable. You and your lying cronies need to go back to the drawing board and do big revisions. And you already know that.

And you knew it last summer.

It is for certain that Max Baucus was not just whistlin' Dixie when he told Ralph Nader that the Health Care Reform Bill was a Done Deal. Right now, this bill is a massive gift to Wall Street and the insurance companies and at the massive expense of the tax payers on Main Street. Merry Christmas from the Senate Santa--- to Cigna and all the other big Health Insurers.

So what, specifically, is wrong with the bill as it stands at this moment? Well, thanks to MoveOn.org, here are a few highlights that, even at first glance, just look wrong:

• Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations -- whether you want to or not
  
• If you refuse to buy the insurance, you'll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS
  
• After being forced to pay thousands in premiums for junk insurance, you can still be on the hook for up to $11,900 a year in out-of-pocket medical expenses
  
• Massive restriction on a woman's right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court
  
• Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays.
  

Five Critical Flaws in the Senate Health Care Bill
The Senate bill would:

1. —Deny Americans the choice of a public option. In contrast, the House bill contains a national public option, the key to real competition, greater choice, and lower costs.
   
2. —Leave insurance unaffordable for some lower income and working people. Both bills require virtually all Americans to buy insurance. But even with the subsidies provided, some families could have to pay up to 20% of their income on health care expenses.
   
3. —Impose dangerous restrictions on women's reproductive health care. Unfortunately, both bills do this and the House provision is worse. Both versions would be a dangerous step and neither should be in the final bill.
   
4. —Tax American workers' health coverage to pay for reform. The Senate would pay for part of reform by taxing the hard-won benefits packages of some working Americans. The House, on the other hand, pays for reform with a small surcharge on only the wealthiest Americans—a far better approach.
   
5. —Allow insurance companies to remain exempt from anti-trust laws. Under current law, insurance companies are actually exempt from laws designed to prevent monopolies and price-gouging. The House bill would fix this, but the Senate bill leaves it in place.
   
6. --Of course, these aren't the only problems with the bill. Most glaringly, both the Senate and House bill would leave millions uninsured, a far cry from the vision of universal coverage so many of us have fought for. That remains a long-term goal.
   
   

But these five things need to be fixed immediately—and we need to spread the word to make sure House and Senate leadership and the White House get the message we're counting on them to craft a final bill with these key fixes.

If the American people don't cry out loud and ugly on this one, then they are just too stupid to care about and I quit. They have been totally shafted by the Democratic Party and the US Senate.