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Reasons to be pissed about the health insurance bill
by Joshua Fulton
The health insurance bill passed, and it's one more triumph of the federal government over individual rights. All statists, rejoice! You've managed to succeed in having Big Brother intrude into one more aspect of your life. I, for one, am not happy about it, not only because I don't like living under the watchful eye of Big Brother, but also because I know that American health care used to be run in a very different way.
The government originally got involved in the health insurance industry in the 1920's, because health insurance was originally too inexpensive. That's right: too inexpensive. At the time, "fraternal societies," of which one-fourth of Americans were a part, contracted with individual doctors to provide health coverage for lodge members. This was such a good deal for the lodge members that lodge members only paid $2 for an entire year's worth of coverage. This is while non-lodge members paid $2 per visit to a doctor.
Well, that didn't last too long. The American Medical Association lobbied Congress to make it so that in order for a doctor to practice medicine in a state the doctor had to be licensed by the AMA. Congress agreed, and that was the end of the fraternal lodge insurance practice. The AMA made sure that its members did not contract with any more lodges. After all, the medical profession had its image and profits to protect.
WHO IS THE BRITISH DOG?
BY GILAD ATZMON
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Israeli officials and politicians sharply criticized the intention of the UK government to expel an ‘unnamed’ Israeli ‘diplomat’ in response to its passports being used in the Dubai assassination of Hamas Freedom Fighter Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
MK Aryeh Eldad (Israel National Union) doesn’t show much respect to the Brits whom he compares to dogs: "I think [the] British are behaving hypocritically and I don't want to offend dogs on this issue, since some dogs are utterly loyal," Eldad told Sky News.
MK Michael Ben-Ari took it one step further. "The British may be dogs, but they are not loyal to us, but rather to an anti-Semitic system.”
Attempted Arrest of war criminal - Cronin to Blair in Brussels
Re-reported with comment by Carolyn Bennett
"You are guilty of war crimes, a war of aggression, military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense, in breach of customary international law specifically the Nuremberg Principles under the rubric of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court the legal body exercising jurisdiction over the crime of aggression..."
Irish journalist, Citizen David Cronin attempted to arrest former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and escort him to the nearest Brussels police station to be charged formally with these crimes.
If successful and "found to be eligible for the bounty," Cronin said, "he would prefer that the money go to a Palestinian human rights charity in the Gaza Strip."
Health Care Reform bill Dooms America to Pharma-dominated Sickness and Suffering
By Mike Adams
Today the medical mafia struck another devastating blow to the health and freedom of all Americans. With the support of an inarguably corrupt Congress that has simply abandoned the real needs of the American people, the sick-care industry has locked in a high-profit scheme of disease and monopoly-priced pharmaceuticals in a nation that can ill afford either one.
And this Pharma-funded betrayal, it turns out, was led by the Democrats. Passed on a 219-212 vote that was only accomplished thanks to closed-door, last-minute secret meetings among the last holdouts, this new legislation puts America under the stranglehold of the medical mafia while doing absolutely nothing to address real health care reform. There is no mention in the bill, for example, of vitamin D for preventing cancer, or orthomolecular medicine for preventing degenerative disease. There’s not even a word about protecting health freedom or ending the century of oppression that has been waged against naturopathic practitioners by the AMA, FDA and FTC.
The far-right fringe: Armed, bigoted, and dangerous
Mary Shaw
Things have gotten really ugly in the tea party world.
It was scary enough when some people showed up at town hall meetings last summer with loaded guns. But those seemed like isolated incidents. Now, however, even the unarmed tea partiers are resorting to more and more extreme displays of bigotry and hate.
Over the weekend, tea partiers gathered outside the Capitol to protest the health care reform bill. Only this time they weren't just hurling ill-informed talking points. This time they were hurling hate speech -- and worse.
In the Huffington Post, Sam Stein described the scene as follows:
Preceding the president's speech to a gathering of House Democrats, thousands of protesters descended around the Capitol to protest the passage of health care reform. The gathering quickly turned into abusive heckling, as members of Congress passing through Longworth House office building were subjected to epithets and even mild physical abuse.
Venezuela in Washington's Crosshairs
by Stephen Lendman
Washington fears Hugo Chavez for good reason. His "good example" threat raises concerns that other regional leaders may follow. As a result, throughout his tenure, he's been targeted and vilified - to discredit, weaken and undermine his government to destroy Bolivarian benefits millions of Venezuelans now enjoy, won't easily give up, nor should they.
Several failed coup attempts included:
-- April 2002 for two days, an effort aborted by mass street protests and support from many in Venezuela's military, especially from the middle-ranking officer corp;
The Death and Life of Oscar Romero
By Gary G. Kohls, MD
This coming Wednesday will be the 30th anniversary of the assassination of El Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero, a pivotal moment in the modern history of Central America and a moment that deserves reflection among U.S. citizens regarding the role their own government played in the ghastly bloodshed that surrounded Romero's death.
Gunned down while saying Mass on March 24, 1980, Romero died because of his outspoken condemnation of militarism and injustice. He had emerged as the highest-profile defender of impoverished campesinos and idealistic members of the Catholic clergy who were demanding an end to centuries of inequality and repression in El Salvador.
Romero's murder also demonstrated how far Salvadoran rightists were prepared to go in stopping the growing movement for social and economic reform. The brazenness reflected, too, how confident the anti-communist security forces were in their eventual support from the U.S. government.
Keep the Change...
By Sheila Samples
Change is the process by which the future invades our lives~~ Alvin Toffler, "Future Shock"
Each time it appears that Republicans can't get any nastier, any more bereft of morality, they wrap themselves in the flag, grab their guns and Bibles, and manage once again to hit the bottom of the ethical barrel. A good example is Ben Smith's recent startling revelation in Politico.com, which exposed the dirty tricks Republican National Committee (RNC) operatives were planning to play, not only on Democrats in the upcoming elections -- but on their own donors. Smith writes...
Greece: The Curse of Three Generations of Papandreou’s
James Petras
In each of the three decisive moments of recent history, Greece has been pulled backwards from a chance for social transformation, political independence and freedom from external tutelage by one and another of the Papandreou family.
The three periods promising new vistas for the Greek popular movements include:
- The period following the defeat of the Nazi occupation army and its collaborator puppet regime by the Greek partisan resistance, backed by its liberation army (ELAS-EAM) and its civilian allies. (1944-1945)
- The decisive electoral defeat of the rightwing New Democratic Party in 1981. The majoritarian vote for the Panhellenic Socialist Party (PASOK) together with the Communist Party controlled nearly two-thirds of Parliament. Inheriting a “broken and bankrupt and non-viable” capitalist economy from a discredited and crushed Right, PASOK received a popular mandate to socialize the economy.
- The world capitalist crises of 2007 –2010 and in particular, the bankrupt and highly indebted Greek capitalist state-led to the election of George Papandreou (Junior) in 2010 on a platform of “social change” and increased social welfare. He attracted working class and trade union support on the bases of creating a new modern and more just society.
Cubans Wear A Moral Vest
June C. Terpstra, Ph.D.
In the film, Fidel, The Untold Story, there is an interview with Fidel Castro where he says he does not need a Kevlar vest to protect him from countless CIA assassination attempts because he wears a moral vest. I am back in Havana, Cuba today after visiting a natural medicine clinic in Santa Clara, Cuba; an agricultural cooperative in Matanzas, Cuba; a teacher training arts school in Matanzas; and ELAM, the incredible Latin American Medical School that trains and sends doctors to work all over the world. With each program or institution visited I wonder what it would be like to live in a country with values of social justice instead of values of profit and plunder. There are countless examples of those who wear a moral vest here in Cuba.
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