WOOHOOO!!!! We're NUMBER 41(CORRECTION) in HealthCare in the WORLD!!!

The World Health Organization came out with their yearly rankings of countries a few weeks ago. Which is why I corrected the above number. This number is based on longevity, infant and child mortality, cancer cure rates-and a few other factors.
(Please see below for explanation of "cancer cure rate")
Forget that "Piece of paper" as George Bush told us, "LIFE, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness"??!!!
Heck, that's in the PAST!!!!
RIGHT??!!




DON'T SETTLE FOR ANYTHING LESS THAN SINGLE PAYER!! EXPAND MEDICARE FOR ALL!!!

On Facebook, PLEASE Join:
1 Million who say SINGLE PAYER is the ONLY PUBLIC OPTION
How dedicated are you to HR676? How dedicated are you to the representatives who have endorsed this bill? How dedicated are you to the eradication of the health insurance industries?
WATCH THIS!!
Then go to their site and dispel the myths that the insurance industry is perpetrating!!


*I* WON'T Give Up, Will You??!!
(according to an article published in Journal of the American Medical Association, and reprinted in the New York Times-as well as other publications:
"Data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that death rates over the past 60 years -- the number of deaths adjusted for the age and size of the population -- plummeted for heart disease, stroke, and influenza and pneumonia. But for cancer, they barely budged." This is due primarily to two factors: Extremely small cancers being found so early, and cancer basically being cured by our own bodies-naturally.)

FOX NOOZ ACTUALLY SUPPORTS MEDICAL CANNABIS!!!

OK folks, FIRST: I DO realize there are other pressing issues-I've just been busy doing what I Love to do most, (well, besides playing with Sita and going to doctors offices.. ;), researching FACTS-and I PROMISE to write an update soon-heck, I have enough notes and material to write a book, but I'll stick to emails, commentaries, and an occasional blog for now. I was reading through some news tonight and came across yet more disturbing examples of the breakdown of our society and culture in this Country. BUT-I'll do something on that later, because right now, I am THRILLED to present a surprising video, from Fox nooz of all places, that is VERY supportive and informational on one of my pet subjects. This article speaks for itself as presented on the NORML website. I always wondered WHY conservatives were SO opposed to medical cannabis when they are constantly bitching about personal choices and rights. While I strongly doubt this one interview will change the minds of so many Republicans who seem convinced that those of us that want and need medical cannabis for justifiable reasons, "ONLY want to get high", you never know with these folks. I plan on sending this to my own local congress people, hopefully in time for them to think about it, and MAYBE even read some of the research studies I've tried to send them over the past 6 months. PLEASE READ and WATCH this article and video in their entirety!!

When the producer of the FoxNews program ‘Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano‘ asked me to appear on air last week to discuss the issue of marijuana law reform, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.
Fortunately it became clear from the host’s opening monologue that Judge Andrew Napolitano is a powerful and articulate friend of cannabis liberalization.

“The War on Drugs that the federal government has waged, and on which it has spent billions and billions of taxpayer dollars, has been a complete waste of time, money, and effort.

Take marijuana, for instance. It’s been grouped together and enforced by the Drug Enforcement Administration with real hardcore drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. But states like California and soon New Jersey have pretty much legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes. While the federal government contends that … marijuana has the potential to promote cancer, patients of cancer and other similar ailments actually use marijuana to fight these deadly diseases.

So wouldn’t the federal government be better off creating the incentive to empower people to make the right choice, to make their own free choice, rather than persecuting them and prosecuting them for what the feds consider to be the wrong choice?”

Tribute to Teddy by Nicole Sandler (AirAmerica)

TRIBUTE TO TEDDY (Click here Dad)
http://cdn4.libsyn.com/radioornot/Ted_Kennedy_RIP_tribute.mp3?nvb=20090827054646&nva=20090828055646&t=01387a3cea662d44c433f

Enjoy Nicoles tribute!! ALSO, PLEASE go to Sick for Profit. They have a GREAT satire they posted on Facebook-about how we need to band together and PROTEST Fire Departments!! They even created a Facebook GROUP!! After all, this is a capitalistic society and Fire protection is a PRIVILEGE, NOT a "Right"!! Right??!! I mean; the Fire Depts, Police, Schools, Military, Post Office, VA, DEA, FBI,..they should ALL be privatized!! PROFITS, NOT people matter!! Right??!!
(PS YES, I'm FULLY aware how the Bush Admin. tried their damnedest to privatize the military. After all, God Forbid that Cheney lose his profits from Blackwater aka XE, and his "reconstruction" contractors who've done a GREAT job of screwing the poor Iraqi's. Why stop at invading and occupying when you can OWN them??)

From Facebook:
Name: 1 Million Strong Against our SOCIALIST Fire Departments
Type: Organizations - Community Organizations
Description: For too long now, fire departments across the United States have been socialist organizations, resulting in taxes on the American people.

FACT: Most Americans never use the socialized services of the fire department. The Obama administration has been very clear about keeping the status quo when it comes to taxpayer-funded fire departments.

It is time to open the fire department up to private industry. We have the best fire departments in the world in the US, but that doesn't mean that anyone (even non-US citizens) should be able to dial up and have fires put out, etc. There are private companies (Halliburtion, Etc.) who could step in tomorrow and take over every fire department in America and charge the consumer directly.

This is AMERICA. NO FREE FIRE SAFETY.

"Better DEAD than fire truck RED."
-member D.J. Hostettler

Please tell everyone you know about this group!


Contact InfoEmail:
Website: https://twitter.com/angrytownhall
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Believe it or not, some nuts actually are taking this seriously!!!

MUST WATCH VIDEOS!!

Watch in tribute to "Uncle Teddy"
BOTH of these videos NEED to be seen by EVERYONE-especially anti-reform people. (I'm TRYING to be nice here...) The second video PROVES that these "screamers" in the audience are mostly PAID sheep for the health insurance companies-over just anti-Obama EVERYTHING. What this lady goes through is indicative of what MILLIONS of us have had to deal with-and still do on a daily basis. I HAVE to wonder what these "screamers" are going to have to say when THEY have an accident, or get sick; and lose EVERYTHING trying to pay medical bills??!! Despite what Sen. Coburn said at his Town Hall the other day, (when that poor lady who's husband had a traumatic brain injury, began crying, saying she couldn't afford proper treatment for him), people in todays society are unlikely to offer to help. I can personally attest to that.


I wish I had this lady's courage-but of what I've experienced in my small town already, I've had to decline the request to speak at a local vigil/rally here next week. The "haters" in the audience yelling for this lady to "get a job" and calling her a "Liar" are sadly indicative of todays society. Since the majority of these conservatives identify themselves as "Christians"-can someone please tell me which Bible THEY are reading??

REFORM? Or, RUCKUS?

The Absolute INSANITY Grows!! Well, ConservaNUTS got what they wanted. Their best buddies in the healthcare industry and Big Pharma had been telling them they HAD to procrastinate long enough that they'd have this free-for-all 4 week "break" in committee hearings and votes to completely barrage the public with their foreboding, haunting, and downright SCARY "predictions" as to what will happen with ANY version of HealthCare Reform. The problem with this strategy is that it's based on complete LIES!! AND, instead of countering Democratic leaders with alternative SOLUTIONS..they've chosen pure harassment, disruption, and supporting a chaotic confusion with life-threatening overtones instead.
I told everyone when Obama was campaigning on HealthCare reform that it wasn't going to happen. (and NO, I haven't run off with Glenn Becks crystal ball :). The health insurance companies and big pharma have budgeted literally hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure it DOESN'T happen. Even as their ConservaNUT pundits confess, ON TV, that the Govt already provides 1st rate medical care for it's employees and military, (actually, it's a version of that dreaded "socialized medicine" that's proving the "First Rate Care"), and the "rest of us" DON'T "deserve the best"; His RePUGlican Congressmen go to their well-funded, (by those little insignificant health insurance companies and Big Pharma executives), August "Vacations".

Kristol on healthcare we don't deserve: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa69puS7J0Q

Oh, and include the "Blue Dog Democrats" in on all this August FUN!! http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/06/blue-dog-bark-backed-by-insure.html

Heck, THEY don't have to worry about anything!! Lobbyist groups for the trillion-dollar industries have armed their SERFS with a step-by-step guide to use at ANY venue where someone is TRYING to educate people on the FACTS. FACTS?? Oh geez,...must be losing my mind here thinking anyone in congress gives a damn about FACTS these days... Take a look at their handiwork:
Memo: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/31/recess-harassment-memo/
Right-Wing Harassment Strategy Against Dems Detailed In Memo: ‘Yell,’ ‘Stand Up And Shout Out,’ ‘Rattle Him’

This morning, Politico reported that Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being harassed by “angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior” at local town halls. For example, in one incident, right-wing protesters surrounded Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and forced police officers to have to escort him to his car for safety.

This growing phenomenon is often marked by violence and absurdity. Recently, right-wing demonstrators hung Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) in effigy outside of his office. Missing from the reporting of these stories is the fact that much of these protests are coordinated by public relations firms and lobbyists who have a stake in opposing President Obama’s reforms.

The lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, which orchestrated the anti-Obama tea parties earlier this year, are now pursuing an aggressive strategy to create an image of mass public opposition to health care and clean energy reform. A leaked memo from Bob MacGuffie, a volunteer with the FreedomWorks website Tea Party Patriots, details how members should be infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress:




– Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: “Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington.”

– Be Disruptive Early And Often: “You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early.”

– Try To “Rattle Him,” Not Have An Intelligent Debate: “The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions.”

The memo above also resembles the talking points being distributed by FreedomWorks for pushing an anti-health reform assault all summer. Patients United, a front group maintained by Americans for Prosperity, is currently busing people all over the country for more protests against Democratic members. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), chairman of the NRCC, has endorsed the strategy, telling the Politico the days of civil town halls are now “over.”

Meanwhile, AHIP, the trade group and lobbying juggernaut representing the health insurance industry is sending staffers to monitor town hallsstepping up their ad campaign to smear reform efforts. The strategy for defeating reform — recently outlined by an influential lobbyist to the Hill newspaper as “delay” then “kill” — is becoming apparent. By delaying a vote until after the August recess, lobbyists are now seizing upon recess town halls as opportunities to ambush lawmakers and fool them into believing there is wide opposition to reform. and other right-wing front groups are
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READ THIS NEXT ARTICLE!!
ANSWERS-AKA TRUTHS to combat the LIES:
http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/

This total disregard and disrespect of the public, authority figures using their stature to come out and support BLATANT LIES to the American people...with their ONLY PURPOSE being to line their own pockets with profits from an industry that has, for many years now, put their PROFITS way above the lives of the patients they supposedly protect...is UNFORGIVABLE. WHEN are the American People going to WAKE UP and see that ALL positive change in this Country has been supported by Progressives and fully OPPOSED by Republicans..a few little things like:

"Their arguments are next to identical to the kinds of arguments Lux points out in his book that conservatives have made since they first argued against the Declaration of Independence. In fact, conservatives have been on the wrong side of every crucial argument that has uplifted America right from the beginning. Had we listened to their siren songs of the status quo which emphasize "adhering to tradition, empowering elites, and championing individualism" over public purpose, this is what would be missing from American history today, each of which was opposed by conservatives as hysterically as they are opposing gay equality today:

* The American Revolution

* The Bill of Rights

* Universal white male suffrage

* Public education

* The emancipation of the slaves

* The national park system

* Food safety

* The breakup of monopolies

* The Homestead Act

* Land grant universities

* Rural electrification

* Women's suffrage

*The abolition of child labor

* The eight-hour workday

* The minimum wage

* Civil rights for minorities and women

* Voting rights for minorities and the poor

* Cleaning up our air, our water, and toxic dump sites

* Consumer product safety

*Medicare and Medicaid

The battle between reactionaries and progressives is ongoing. The arguments are largely unchanging. It's nice that Patrick Murphy is on the right side of history in this case. It remains to be seen if he can bring some of his Blue Dogs cronies over with him." This info is from Mike Lux's brilliant new book The Progressive Revolution-- How The Best In America Came To Be. The Quote, however, is from www.DownWithTyranny.com should be on EVERYONE's blog list!!

What do *I* want?? Well, under the circumstances with my health, I have no choice but to stay on the underfunded medicaid/medicare system.
I AM, however, worried about my children. I'll also stay active in my fight to legalize medical marijuana-something that appears to be one of my ONLY options as far as the glaucoma, severe muscle spasms..and sleeping for more than an hour would be nothing short of a miracle. If the Congress people here in PA can agree on a budget sometime soon, we expect the hearings to begin in the next month or so. What makes MUCH more sense, to me anyways, is passage of a Federal Law legalizing medical cannabis. After 2 years of research, I've come to the conclusion that it's criminal NOT to make it available to patients who so desperately need it. Maybe the healthcare industry will spend so much money fighting healthcare reform that they won't have enough to fight us on this issue??? OK, momentary lapse of wishful thinking...sorry. When it comes to profits, these folks aren't going to give up another dime of their precious, tax-sheltered, trillions..... Maybe my next life will actually see some sanity?

e

In Memoriam: The Invincible, (well, almost), Michael Jackson

LATE EDIT: Someone sent me the link to this and HAD to add it. Michael Jackson sings the Beatles, "Come Together"!!



Yea, I know-more neglect and now here I am over a week after the fact. I COULD say that I've 1. Been in mourning 2. Been too busy dancing and singing 3. Health Reasons
Or any number of other excuses-but I won't. :) I WILL say, that with any luck, maybe I'll even have lost a pound or two by my appointment tomorrow. Yea, OK, so I've been reminiscing a bit. You have to understand; at my *age*, I literally grew up with MJ-following his career and music since I saw him the first time at about age 11 or 12. In other words, about the same time that "ABC" and, most especially, the song "Ben", were at their height of popularity. LOL, ask my parents!! Especially about the time that "Ben", got out of his cage and climbed into bed with my mother!! ;) (At LEAST she DID come to accept "Sammy" a few years later. Sammy, a BIT bigger than Ben and Samantha, was my pet squirrel. The first of quite a few. ;) Anyhow, by the time Sissy came into my life, (my 3-legged squirrel that Chrissy's Dad, Marty, had helped amputate her leg because of a nasty infection-she'd been brought to us by the ASCPA.), MJ had come out with his Off the Wall album, then my beautiful eldest daughter was born, (and yes, Sissy often shared her bassinet with Sissy :), and a year or two later-Thriller and MTV. Maybe that's why I only weighed 89lbs? Oh, no, nevermind-just remembered; it was the "tiiitiii". Ms. Sissy's primary focus for the first 2 years of her life. (My daughter, not the squirrel;) But THEN-her focus turned to something different. And MS Chrissy began an early, but incredibly talented road to becoming the beautiful singer she still is today.
Was it MJ? Well, his music and videos were definitely part of it. But so was Maddona, Cyndi Lauper, Tina Turner, Broadway hits, and SOO many more!!!
Unfortunately, Michael didn't give us any new music for awhile-but I STILL get chills watching him in many of his 80-something Videos. And Michael was SO much larger than his music. His philanthropy-something that MANY blame his financial troubles on, (rather than the "legal fee's and drugs that seem to be leading the headlines this week)-was also known world-wide and often overlooked by his detractors. MJ was no more guilty of what he was accused of, than Sarah Palin will make it to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He WAS a "Child". Combine the loss of his childhood innocence at such an early age, the abuse, and being elevated to the most well-known celebrity status before age 22 than anyone in history. It's a combination of these and other factors that contributed to his gentle, giving, and always polite and compassionate nature. His musical Gift, was like no one before or after him. Unlike most musicians, Michael wrote his own music, and wrote and produced all of his own videos and colossal shows. As I wrote Lionel this morning, I just hope that MJ's legend and image, don't become the ostentatious embarrassment that Elvis's have become.
Lionel has posted this first video on Facebook. I hadn't seen it since it was first done. It's the same song that is now being played, worldwide, as his "last rehearsal". This was yet another of Michael's OH so powerful pieces of music-the video done in a prison system. I could only find the following lyrics-there's obviously more. If I can find them, I'll post them. The other video's speak for themselves as classics in their own rights. SO..put on your dancing shoes, and boogie along.... (Well,for a few anyways :)

They don't really care about us......
Written and composed by michael jackson


Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Situation, aggravation
Everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dog food
Bang bang, shock dead
Everybodys gone mad

All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us

Beat me, hate me
You can never break me
Will me, thrill me
You can never kill me
Do me, sue me
Everybody do me
Kick me, strike me
Dont you black or white me

All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us

Tell me what has become of my life
I have a wife and two children who love me
I am the victim of police brutality, now
Im tired of bein the victim of hate
Youre rapin me of my pride
Oh, for gods sake
I look to heaven to fulfill its prophecy...
Set me free

Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Trepidation, speculation
Everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dog food
Black man, black mail
Throw your brother in jail

All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us

Tell me what has become of my rights
Am I invisible because you ignore me?
Your proclamation promised me free liberty, now
Im tired of bein the victim of shame
Theyre throwing me in a class with a bad name
I cant believe this is the land from which I came
You know I do really hate to say it
The government dont wanna see
But if roosevelt was livin
He wouldnt let this be, no, no

Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Situation, speculation
Everybody litigation
Beat me, bash me
You can never trash me
Hit me, kick me
You can never get me

All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us

Some things in life they just dont wanna see
But if martin luther was livin
He wouldnt let this be

Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Situation, segregation
Everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dog food
Kick me, strike me
Dont you wrong or right me

All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us

All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us

All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They dont really care about us

Michael Jackson - New Music - More Music Videos

Michael Jackson - New Music - More Music Videos