A Winter Soldier Speech on Healthcare
http://www.democracynow.org /2004/2/20/john_kerry_then_ hear_kerrys_historic
A New Winter Soldier Speech Regarding Healthcare
By Tom Wieliczka
I've revised Senator John Kerry's 1971 Winter Soldier Speech to Congress, from being about The Vietnam War to being about Healthcare.
I simply took Senator Kerry's words:
"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake."
and converted that portion of his speech into one concerning healthcare and and people that get red-flagged or go through rescission with their health claims.
These are the revised last five paragraphs of that original speech.....
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Don't Sacrifice the Public Option
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Democrats Beat Republicans in Yet Another Poll
Given the recent polling data, Republicans should stop speciously pointing fingers and start asking: 1) why do most Americans view us negatively, and 2) what can we actually do to change that?
Last week's Gallup poll found that more American's trusted Democrats over Republicans to do a better overall job and to handle national security and prosperity. The new Washington Post/ABC poll results contain similarly bad news for Republicans.
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Progressive Democrat Newsletter Issue 136
This week I discuss a very personal conflict with Homeland Security, which involved first bad news, then, on appeal, excellent news. Sometimes our court system works! I also cover the response our troops have for Rush Limbaugh, responses to Bush's opposition to healthcare for American children, and I discuss the situation in Burma. I also am finally getting back to some more local stuff including local events in NYC, a brilliant plan for winning in Colorado, and some local Virginia and New Jersey stuff. If you go to any of these articles, please click on some advertisements because that helps me keep doing this!
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No More Honeymoon
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Ask Your Boss For Free Drugs
The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.
Milt Freudenheim reports in the New York Times that some employers are finding it more cost effective to give their employees free drugs. His article, illustrates how much attitudes within the business community are changing regarding the rising cost of healthcare. As Freudenheim reports,
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Fired For Putting the Bad News in Writing
Justen is a Kaiser Permanente HMO cheerleader. I've long regarded him as a stooge and a flak - someone who must be getting paid for constantly spewing Kaiser propaganda. Apparently, though, he's willing to risk his job and put himself through a world of hurt to bring up a severe problem. Justen put his concerns in an email last Friday, and by Monday Kaiser's CIO Cliff Dodd had resigned. At the same time Justen was placed on administrative leave while Kaiser HR schmucks comb through policies to try to find a rule he broke. There is no such rule. Kaiser is retaliating against Justen for putting his concerns in writing.
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My 4-Year-Old Genius : "Dad, why do they make this stuff?"
Yeah smoking. I have this thing for smoking -- or more accurately AGAINST smoking. It's a truly filthy habit, one that destroys not only the body of the person doing the deed, but also of those forced to be around them. To me, smoking is a particularly foul and invasive, but somehow 'socially acceptable' behavior, differing from other (legal) bad habits in that the destructiveness of other such habits is generally restricted in their purveyor.
Not so with smoking. If I had a nickel for every time I gagged on the cigarette smoke of the person walking down the sidewalk in front of me, or standing next to me at the bus stop... Ughhhhh!
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Medicare Plan 'Doughnut Hole' Could be Trouble for Republicans in November
I guess they had to take advantage of the positive press before the Medicare apocalypse rears its ugly head.
The problem, affectionately dubbed the Medicare Drug Plan "Doughnut Hole", is a critical flaw in the plan's structure.
"once patients spend $2,250 on drugs, their coverage ends, and they must pay for their medicine themselves. Their benefits resume only after they shell out $5,100 -- a $2,850 gap. Although policymakers were aware of the doughnut hole when they passed the law, many seniors are stunned." Many will "stumble into the gap in late summer or early fall -- just before the November elections. This could be bad news for Republicans, who pushed the Medicare drug law."
More dramatically, the issue will be a media darling in pre-election months -- regardless of how many individuals are actually affected.
Strategically, the issue could be used to target specific congressional candidates, for example, in Connecticut, Nancy Johnson, an architect of the Medicare prescription drug plan, could be in trouble if seniors decide it isn't working.
Snuffed Out
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Refrying Health Care
So... Dub takes the snake oil road show today to Dublin, Ohio to the corporate headquarters of Wendy's... arguably the third largest threat to America's public health... to preach upon the virtues of HSA's as preventative healthcare... Mindboggling...
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