Politics

Not that it would surprise you, but I would sooner die then watch anything Michael Moore does. Hated? Yeah.

Sicko is much less inflamatory on a political level than his other movies. People off all sorts can;'t get proper health care in America, for all sorts of reasons that really have to do with a sick system. In Sicko he is trying to raise awareness that there are many other countries that offer health care to sick people. My friend Patricia who had breast cancer 10 years ago but who is very healthy basically, and the cancer has not returned cannot get insurance because SHE HAD BREAST CANCER!

If she breaks her leg, tough luck.

Yes, that sucks. That happened to my dad. 30 years ago when he became a diabetic his insurance premiums went way up. When my dad retired they couldn't afford to keep a good life insurance policy or supplemental insurance. So they only have Medicare, which has been great, but they have no insurance to cover what Medicare doesn't cover. In the last year alone (when I took over paying their bills for them because my dad's eyes were failing) I have sent 3 different hospitals a total of $11,000 and that doesn't include medicine. That is a full third of their retirement income. But because of my folks health issues the supplemental insurance premiums were outrageous! So they are stuck.

Separate subject.. I am watching the democratic debate on ABC.

Yikes, the moderators have turned on Obama and are trying to kill him.

Maybe they're doing the AI Simon approach. Put him down so he gets more votes due to sympathy?

Ahhh..yes. The "pre-existing condition" KISS OF DEATH. You gotta love it.

I watched about half of the debate last night. I thought Hillary sounded good. I really didn't get a feel about Obama from it. This was my first watching of them sounding off in a debate.

Insomnia tonight.

Thinking back on the debate, and reading all sorts of news articles discussing it:
I think the questions being raised about Obama's attempts to deal with his personal association with people far left of him, or far more black power, or far more Anti-American of him are legit, however sensationalisticlaly they were raised by the moderators in the debate last night.

Being, at heart, pretty radically far-left, but never a joiner of any such group, I wish Obama would not just try to object to ways the press and Clinton treated him last night -- they spent every debate up until now doing the same killing thing to Hillary, so big deal that they finally turned on him (the attacks on Clinton have been the same sort of bullshit that finally got turned on him) -- I STILL have no real idea what Obama will really try to do about issues that matter to ME. (And I hope everybody else ultimately thinks about what will benefit THEM, for real, not ideologically).

I like his ideology. I like who he seems to be as a person. His personality is far less abrasive than Hillary's..but I STILL have no clue whether he will actually do anything to improve the issues that affect me, because all his wonderful orations (which never happen inside debates) never get specific about what he will DO to make the Social Security I have paid so much money into will be there when I need it, or how I will get health insurance under his plan (which I still have not seen him explain, though i spent time at his website).

I do get an idea how Hillary will deal with those issues from things she has said in debates.

Obama's attitude (ATTITUDE) toward theoretically dealing with the global issues still appeals to me (TALK to people). His attitude (ATTITUDE) regarding how separate races and economic groups view each other as enemies when really they are in the same boat, appeal to me.

But, I still, even with Googling and reading stuff on his web site, do not get a sense of what he will really do, or even try to do.

am inching back toward Hillary, outrageously game-playing as she has been in this campaign. And aside from her personality.

I believe my own personal life will improve if she is president.

I believe it might improve if Obama is president, but I wish he would make me know more about what he might actually DO.

I am certain my own personal life will get even worse under McCain.

Here is an article from unbiased source taliking about the differeences in their health plans:

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Obama's Healthcare Plan Versus Hilary's Healthcare Plan
The Big Debate

By Beau Hannah, published Feb 27, 2008
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If you have not been under a rock, thrown away your TV, not picked up a magazine, or have chopped your ears off-- chances are that you have heard about the debates going on between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton on their run for the Democratic nomination for presidency. If you've been watching you would have noticed that many of their plans seems very similar, however, one particular issue that keeps causing dissension between the two are the health care plans of each. So I have given you the one stop shop to find out the differences.

The problem is that currently there are over 45 million Americans who do not have health care. Of that large number 9 million or more are children.

I will start with Senator Obama: (So that Hilary is not upset again for having to "go first" again as she expressed in the Ohio debate)

Obama's Healthcare Plan

1. Senator Obama has a vision for a universal healthcare plan where every American will be covered.
2. For the Americans that are already insured, there will be no change except in the cost of premiums which Obama says will be less.
3. There will be guaranteed eligibility meaning that no one will be turned away because of pre-existing conditions or illness
4. Obama says that his plan will have comprehensive benefits which means the plan should cover all essential medical services: preventative, maternity and mental (These are plans similar to that of those offered to members of Congress)

5. People who do not qualify for programs such as Medicaid but still are in need of financial assistance will get an income related federal subsidy in order to buy into the new public plan or purchase some private insurance

6. The plans should be easily portable. This means that those who are participating in the new public plan will be able to change employment or jobs and not put health care coverage in jeopardy.

7. For those employers who either don't offer a large contribution to the cost of health coverage for employees or don't offer at all will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the cost of the national plan. Small employers meeting certain revenue criteria will not have to

8. Obama intends to lower costs of insurance by modernizing the US Health Care System: All of this will be done by reducing the cost of catastrophic illnesses; supporting disease management programs; requiring full transparency in quality and costs; requiring providers to report medical errors

9. Obama intends to fight for new initiatives by: supporting AMericans with Disabilities; fighting AIDS worldwide and advancing Biomedical Research

There is a host of other information to consider in the plan and I suggest you read it here: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/pdf/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

Hilary's Health Care Plan

1. Senator Clinton also has a vision for universal health care.
2. Her plan will reduce cost and improve quality.
3. If you have a plan and like you, you don't have to change... however you can change and choose from plans that are offered to members of Congress, or you can opt out for the public plan.

4. Families that aren't able to afford it can get tax credits to help pay for it.
5.Hillary plans to give tax credits to small businesses that provide health care to workers to help lower coverage costs.
6. Insurance companies will not be able to drop you based on a risk model in the system

There is a host of other information to consider in the plan and I suggest you read it here: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/healthcareplan/americanhealthchoicesplan.pdf

There are no major differences that I can see in the plans right off, but I am sure there are some small, yet important differences when you read the links provided.

Please consider this comment not from me BTW Although I have been preaching the Same thing for months.

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Health insurance is not health care. Hillary's plan is mandatory, because it needs young healthy people to buy it so it will cover older people or unhealthy people. Her plan will be enforced with government penalty of anyone that does not buy health insurance. She has not stated who her outside agency is that will administer her plan. Because she is 'in bed' with pharmaceutical lobbyists and her and Bill's past history of favortism in creating laws that benefit their friends, I am quite sure it will bring more $$$ back to them, such as Bill benefits by his involvement in Dubai and Dubai hires lobbyists that contribute to her campaign which makes everything she does suspect. Her plan discriminates against people of certain religions and people who prefer alternative forms of health care that is not covered by health insurance companies. She also does not address the issue of war vets being denied their earned health care benefits by the VA.
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Posted on 02/28/2008 at 8:02:45 PM

I have read the same things. Maybe it is just the wording of obama's Health Care plan that makes it not understandable to me. Lots of "there will be" phrases. HOW will there be?

One more thing :

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The problem is more than just the uninsured. The root of the problem is, and always has been, that you can't put a for-profit entity (insurance company) in between the consumer and the provider and expect anything other than profit to be well-served. We need a National Health-Care Plan as outlined in House Bill HR-676, and we need to get the profit mongering insurance companies out of the business of making medical decisions that inflate their profits. Michigan Representative Conyers outlines how to pay for it here: http://www.house.gov/conyers/news_hr676_2.htm

I agree with this statement 100% . Like Fc stated previously,if you have a pre existing condition you are screwed.And like in the movie Sicko the man that was diagnosed with lukemia ? I think that HAD insurance was denied payment. I cannot tell you how many people I have spoken with that this happens to them . That pratice is so unerhanded I don't know what to say. You are at the mercy of the insurance company. If they decide not to pay so be it. Then you are stuck with a huge bill more than likely have to declare bankruptcy and drain on the economy. I know what kind of lying shysters they are. I had to FIGHT with them last year to pay bills they were obligated to pay.

frazzle wrote:

I have read the same things. Maybe it is just the wording of obama's Health Care plan that makes it not understandable to me. Lots of "there will be" phrases. HOW will there be?

The only way there will be an anyone can correct me here if I am wrong is the upper incomes in this country will be taxed and he has said he is not going to lie that taxes will go up for the upper income levels. Then a bill will have to be mandated and passed by the House and Senate. so still all the promises the candidates are making there is still no guarantee. The big difference to be is Hilary's plan is mandated and I don't like that. You should be able to choose.

Believe me, if Obama is the nominee I will campaign like crazy for him, because i think it is vital that McCain not win...

That said, here is something from Hillary's site that delights me. You can calculate how much less you, as a woman, are earning, compared to men of your location, age, and education level:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/coalitions/womenforhillary/?sc=8

When I first saw this video it made me laugh hilariously at the performer's impeccable comic timing. Giving the finger to somebody while pretending not to do it is one of my favorite old jokes. Then, after a while it depressed me that this is supposed to be the change and the hope icon, not a child painting the older woman as the hated mother we will all agree needs to have passive-aggressive stuff done in her direction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n31VwNbTIVI

He hit a home run on a comic level, and now he is issuing statement that he was merely scratching his cheek, not giving Hillary the finger. LIAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even lying in that circumstance would be fine if he didn't keep pretending he is holier than thou.

Nonetheless, i will campaign for him once he gets the nomination.

On boards like the Huffington Post the Obama supporters are so vicious to everybody else that it does nudge me back to Hillary. Obama takes money from lobbyists and special interests, too, even if not as much as hillary, so that argument makes me find him a hypocrite, too.

Nonetheless, i will campaign for him once he gets the nomination.

Nonetheless, i will campaign for him once he gets the nomination.

Nonetheless, i will campaign for him once he gets the nomination.

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8. Obama intends to lower costs of insurance by modernizing the US Health Care System: All of this will be done by reducing the cost of catastrophic illnesses; supporting disease management programs; requiring full transparency in quality and costs; requiring providers to report medical errors

This is absolute BS and is just political gobblety gook. Reducing the costs of catastrophic illness? How when our medical system allows families and doctors to choose to continue agressively treating hopeless cases where the person is never going to have any quality of life and all it does is to rack up a horrific hospital bill that noone can pay for. Supporting disease management programs? Oh really...is that another way to say putting some dollars into preventative medicine? I doubt it. Requiring full transparency in quality and costs? WTF does that mean? Transparent quality indeed....that sounds like something I don't think I want or that will lower healthcare costs one iota. Requiring providers to report medical errors? That has been mandated forever and has'nt gotten us anywhere.

I'm about ready to go seek out what McCain has to say about Healthcare because what Hilary and Obama are offering lacks substance and I just don't see how it is going to get paid for. Although, if we get the troops out of Iraq...that will save some money...but, with the debt situation we are already in that money is already spoken for. Oy...it all just makes my head want to explode.

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We need a National Health-Care Plan as outlined in House Bill HR-676, and we need to get the profit mongering insurance companies out of the business of making medical decisions that inflate their profits.

I think I agree with this statement, but honestly need to look into this further before I will stake my life or vote on it.

I do happen to think that preventative medicine will do a ton to reduce healthcare costs. I don't want to be mean here at all but obesity is an epic porportion in this country and therefore that creates medical conditions. I do think oesity is one thing that could be controlled by preventative medicine. I'm still going with Obama. I tell you what noithing would make me happier than to see the insurance companies put out of business. It won't happen but as far as I am concerned they are all a bunch of unherhanded liars.

I think one of the main things that has troubled me about Obama from the beginning, is that he says he was against the war in Iraq from the beginning and Clinton voted for it.

Obama says, "Who do you want answering that 3 am call -- the one who got Iraq right, or the one who got Iraq wrong."

But Obama was only an Illinois State Senator who gave a speech against it early on. Lots of people not actually IN the US Senate were against the Iraq invasion. So, so what? None of them, including Obama, were in a position to do anything to have any influence.

Having an opinion, which was all he had, was really no different from ME having an opinion that it was a bad idea.

He wasn't in the US Senate. He did not vote. He has no legit claim to "getting it right".

Him having given an anti-war speech is really misleading, because once he did become a US Senator, he voted the same as Clinton.

And, of course he gets money from lobbyists. The records are out there about all of them, and all three remaining candidates have received over a million from lobbyists, and even more from PACS.

One article about it, from the Boston Globe.

A place that has stats, called factcheck.org

I do not begrudge him the money, but it just seems so underhanded to me that he presents himself as different from the other politicians that way.

He is a much better orator than pretty much anybody since Kennedy, but when it finally comes down to it, I want somebody who will actually DO things regarding money, health care, social security, what to do with all us baby boomers who are going to be forced out of the work force due to age, and who have no savings (most because of the mortgage gouging, or medical bills..me because ..just because it is all gone.)

If lovely peaceful assisted suicide was available I would absolutely go for it once my body hurt too much (hopefully not for a decade or two), but I certainly do not wanna kill myself so as to avoid being a bag lady as I live out those couple of decades.

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He is a much better orator than pretty much anybody since Kennedy, but when it finally comes down to it, I want somebody who will actually DO things regarding money, health care, social security, what to do with all us baby boomers who are going to be forced out of the work force due to age, and who have no savings (most because of the mortgage gouging, or medical bills..me because ..just because it is all gone.)

If lovely peaceful assisted suicide was available I would absolutely go for it once my body hurt too much (hopefully not for a decade or two), but I certainly do not wanna kill myself so as to avoid being a bag lady as I live out those couple of decades.

Someone definitely needs to do something to address all the issues you mention. All we have to go on are campaign promises from any of the candidates. Some are more convincing than others...and I agree that in some ways Hilary is looking like the one that actually could get the job done as much as I hate to admit it. Unfortunately, I don't think any of the candidates can fix all of it though.

Well Obama's tax cuts still do the most for the middle class and that is me. I feel he is the only candidate that will do anything about the underhanded pratices of insurance corporations. I have been researching all of them since last summer and have a notebook filled with notes and articles. BTW the liberalist of the liberals Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair refuse to endorse her. That gives me a clue right there. Obama Still has not taken as much money from WASHINGTON lobbyists as she has. No one has. So it sincerely makes me doubt she will do anything at all about healthcare. None of the candidates are saints , but I don't trust her or her husband. I really wish I could find a copy of the Vanity Fair article about how her and Bill deliberately sabotaged Al Gore's presidental campaign. That made me dislike them even more.

She'll win today in Penn. though.

At the time Al Gore was running, most people kept saying it was Al Gore's choice to distance himself and many felt it hurt him, since Clinton was a popular president.

I think our current president beats them all for untrustworthiness. I don't believe one single word that comes out of that man's mouth.

Here's the thing: It's really sad because if I was purely looking for a candidate for the job of president, I'd choose Hillary. I think she has the most experience and has a distinct advantage in that she was actually there by her husband's side during his presidency, and she wasn't just a "stand by your man" kind of wife. I mean, she did, but I guess she wasn't just the "stand there and look pretty next to your husband" kind of wife.

HOWEVER, I feel that if she were to become president, she'd have to fight to get anything done and every time she opens her mouth, people would just think she was a bitch. Like, everytime Bush opens his mouth, I know he'll say or do something incredibly assinine.

Being the president is a lot about image, and Hillary sunk herself a long time ago in that regard, which is really too too bad.

Very cool for Hillary pulling it out last night in PA. I'm in dire need of inspiration these days, so that was a nice boost for me, too!

I found a full sermon (one of the ones that contained the ludicrous remark that the government created AIDS to kill black people).

I listened to the whole thing.

It is about confusing god with government.

While the bible and Jesus and the mainstream Christian notion of God are not what I believe to be reality, I do think there is such a thing, whatever you call it, as the highest truth. And I think that is what Wright , even if he visualizes it differently, and I are in agreement, there.

I wish Reverend Wright was the candidate.

Is him claiming the government created AIDS ludicrous? Yes. But everything else he said makes perfect sense to me. And he is human, not the personification of the highest truth, so some of his opinions are bullshit...BUT, an ounce of bullshit in a ton of truth are proportions that work for me.

Oddly, it seems to be available only on Fox (links to the videos are here):

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352661,00.html

Here is a much shorter version (the very fact that it is shorter makes it less true, but at least this is something:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw

Part of the reason I find politics so much more compelling than AI or pretty much anything else, is that it ultimate affects me personally.

So I keep up with all the details as AI fans do for the contestants.

Rev. Wright has now gone way off the deep end, this past weekend.

I still basically agree with him (and do not agree with any of the candidates) about the USA and it's terrorist tactics being at least poetically responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and that until the US gets that, we will continue to be subject to terrorist attacks.

But he is still on the AIDS is a US government conspiracy against blacks. If he only said that once, I could view it as a preposterous one time thing. But he said it again this weekend. He believes it, and is as pround of believing that as any main stream opinion maker is for labeling Hillary as a monstrous bitch hag whore. Her husband is an asshole these days, and she allows that on her behalf, but her femaleness has nothing to do with it.

The fact that Wright is a media seeking flamboyant asshole doesn't bother me particularly.

The fact that he has destroyed Obama, which seems true to me today, (I may change my mind tomorrow) does bug me.

Nobody, not Hillary, not McCain,not the media, could destroy him. His father figure, combined with some naive complicity from Obama, has betrayed and also destroyed him.

As of today, I do see him as destroyed.

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Part of the reason I find politics so much more compelling than AI or pretty much anything else, is that it ultimate affects me personally.

AI really does'nt really interest me that much anymore either. It gets so monotonous, predictable and contrived. Boring except for a few stellar
performances every now and then.

Thank you for keeping up on the political details, it is such a worthwhile endeavor, and I will be here to read it!

It does seem like the Rev. Wright affiliation and Obama's own complicity (well said!) have brought Obama down. He is trying to be a mainstream candidate and that is just not the case.

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As of today, I do see him as destroyed.

I disagree . I'm sure there are millions of people who have sat in church and disagreed with their minister. Rev wright is Wacko . As much as I like to blame the governmaent I do not believe that they are responsible for AIDS in this country. I am thrilled that Obama has distanced himself from him. It seems to me Rev wright is doing everything he can to undermine Obama. I still believe he is right man for this country We are in mess here people. Groceries , gas and the cost of living is out of reach for many nowadays. we need a DRASTIC change. None of the old guard in Wahington. we've tried it and clearly it is not working.

Personally, I get passionate about so many things. I can be totally passionate about AI one minute, politics the next. I'm just a passionate person. It's probably why I'm exhausted all the time.

I agree with aerwin. Just because the rev is acting like an ass, does not reflect on Obama for me. I guess I see him as the embarassing relative (of which there are presidents who have had one of those).

If Obama was out there defending this guy, saying his views are the same and backing him up, then he might as well pack his bags, but that's not what I see.