Life with Socialised medicine

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Monday September 21, 2009 · 2:27 AM PDT

2009/09/21 · 02:27

I just thought that you should know what life is like in a country with socialised medicine. I live in the UK. I have a bit of experience in Germany and I’m sure that others from different countries in Europe and Australia and wherever else can chip in. But as I read the heartbreaking stories on this site, I like, every resident of Europe am open-mouthed that this situation exists and that right-wingers (who, let's face it, are just as likely to get tumours as the rest of us) are able to hoodwink your fellow citizens into thinking that socialised medicine is a bad thing.

There is almost nobody in the entire continent of Europe who would agree. We know it’s good for the individual who can live free of one level of worry. It’s good for industry- which is not crippled by health care costs. It’s good for society, because we realise one of the functions of the state involves looking after one another. It's good Christianity. It's good Judaism, it's good Islam, and it's good sense. Above all it's being a good human being.

What happens in the UK? Take look below the fold.

curiousinlondon

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Sunday February 01, 2009 · 3:19 PM PST

2009/02/01 · 15:19

Steve Kamlish, Human Rights lawyer has just returned from Gaza and has written a report about conditions there.

You can read it here. But it doesn't make pleasant reading.

He describes what happen to the Al Samouni family

29 members of the Al Samouni family were slaughtered, including over 10 children and seven women

Inside their command post the Israelis have scrawled graffiti on some walls which says things like ‘1 Arab down, 999,999 to go’, alongside Stars of David, slogans such as ‘make war not peace’ and a chilling drawing of a tombstone on which it is written Arabs 1948-2008. When they exited the house they started fires in the remaining rooms and left human shit in many of the rooms.

This man is a highly respected lawyer. A QC (Queens Counsel, though chosen by legal peers not Elizabeth) and the website it's posted on Jews for Justice for Palestinians is not anti-semitic.

curiousinlondon

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Saturday January 17, 2009 · 3:12 AM PST

2009/01/17 · 03:12

I'm writing from London. And support for Israel is ebbing away here. And by that I mean not just support for Israel in this conflict but support for Israel at all.

I sincerely believe that if Israel does not show a readiness to really engage with peace and realise that the Bush-funded party is over, than the future of Israel is threatened. With every comment by Mark Regev. With every threadbare justification of yet more killings of children. Israel is pissing away all the goodwill it has earned.

The neocon project is over- and that should go for Israel too.

Poll

67 votes Show Results

Should Diaries about Israel-Palestine be allowed on the Front page

67 votes Vote Now!

Should Diaries about Israel-Palestine be allowed on the Front page

Yes - it's one of the most important issues in the world.

62 votes

No- if we don't discuss it, it will go away.

5 votes

Two Israelis on Israel/Palestine and Gaza

curiousinlondon

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Wednesday January 07, 2009 · 1:35 AM PST

2009/01/07 · 01:35

Before I begin I feel I have to say that I have many relatives in israel, and that my father fled the holocaust in Germany and was himself in a concentration camp after the pogroms of Kristallnacht.

I feel I have to say it because of the waves of people on his site who seem to have nothing better to do with their time than repeat Israeli government talking points.

Something snapped for me last night, watching the Israeli spokesman on the BBC. A smart good looking well-educated guy, Mark Regev he's called. Born in Australia, educated in the US.
Calmly repeating the same talking points that are being produced here in comments on diary after diary. Blaming the victims. Lying and spinning about the deaths of children in Gaza.

And I am furious and heartbroken.

curiousinlondon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 03, 2008 · 5:14 PM PST

2008/11/03 · 17:14

I've never known so much excitement about a US election. Senator Barack Obama is already an inspiration to people throughout Europe. Black students at the University where I teach, soccer fans on a message board I visit, strangers on the street wearing Obama buttons and baseball caps - I have never felt an American election impinge on our consciousness in the way that this one has. The whole world is looking to the New World tomorrow, looking for leadership in the current crisis, looking for a moral centre that puts ordinary people and their needs at the heart of the hard decisions that we will face over the coming years.

Because the movement that you have created and the leadership that Senator Obama has shown has put the US at the centre of the radical movement again. We need your community activism, we need your energy. Most of all we need your hope.

curiousinlondon

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Sunday November 02, 2008 · 2:23 AM PST

2008/11/02 · 02:23

Interviewed on BBC news yesterday morning Republican poster Frank Luntz says very clearly and unequivocally "I cannot foresee a scenario in which John McCain is elected president of the United States".

the clip is here, from about two minutes in.

curiousinlondon

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Tuesday November 28, 2006 · 2:44 PM PST

2006/11/28 · 14:44

Yes Welcome to the London Tea Party and don't be surprised if a couple of diplomat's vehicles end in the Thames.

Except this time you're using our facilities without paying and we're the ones who are getting mightily angry.

London (under populist leftist mayor Ken Livingstone) has introduced a very successful Road Pricing scheme which has reduced pollution and made London a much more pleasant place to be,

But the US Government isn't playing- or paying. Already the American Emabassy owes nearly a Million quid- that's two million dollars even though the US is studying the way the charge works in London and proposing to introduce it back in the States.

Of coruse there's an easy way for the US embassy to avoid paying-completley legally. Dump the gas-guzzlers and switch to electric vehicles. They can use the City roads toll free.

Poll

27 votes Show Results

Should the US Embassy in London

27 votes Vote Now!

Should the US Embassy in London

pay the Congestion Charge - it's the decent thing to do, old bean.

15 votes

hell no it's an illegal tax prohibited by the Vienna Convention

3 votes

Switch to electric vehicles?

5 votes

Cycle everywhere?

4 votes

British Judge condemns US torture:

curiousinlondon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday February 16, 2006 · 4:48 PM PST

2006/02/16 · 16:48

The US view of torture "Doesn't appear to coincide with that of most civilised countries." said Mr Justice Collins.

It's the lead item on the BBC news and also on the BBC website that because of torture the British Govenment can be compelled to demand the return of those British citizens still held at the torture camp of Guantanamo Bay, where people havee been held without trial or access to basic human rights for over 4 years in the name of the "War against terror".

How despicable are the clique who have seized control of your country that they consider torture as an acceptable practice. That men there on who-knows what evidence, can be kept forever without trial and treated like animals.

The full story is here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/...

Swiss paper confirms existence of Torture camps in Europe

curiousinlondon

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Sunday January 08, 2006 · 4:43 PM PST

2006/01/08 · 16:43

Swiss paper Sonntagsblick has printed an intercepted fax from the Egyptian Foreign minister to its London embassy which confirms the existence of US torture camps in Eastern Europe

http://www.blick.ch/...

"The Embassy can confirm from its own sources that there are 23 iraqi and Afghani Citizens were interrogated on the base at Mihail Kogalniceanu near the [romanian]; city of Constanza on the Black Sea. Similar Interrogation centres exist in the Ukraine, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria." (my translation)

This is the first confirmation from government sources of the camps. One sign of how seriously the Swiss authorities take the report is that they have threatened the paper with legal action for publishing confiential secret service intercepts. There are questions being asked in the Swiss parliament about the extent of Swiss government knowledge and complicity in the US action

The Swiss are particularly concerned about this issue since "rendition" using Swiss airports and airspace is violation of Swiss neutrality as well as a breach of international law and international convenetions on Human rights. Read More

Wilkerson accuses Cheney of war crimes

curiousinlondon

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Tuesday November 29, 2005 · 2:48 AM PST

2005/11/29 · 02:48

On the BBC this morning Lawrence Wilkerson continued his diatribe against Cheney and US policy in Iraq.

When asked if he considered Cheney was guilty of war crimes he replied

"It's an interesting question."

"Certainly it is a domestic crime to advocate terror," he added.

"And I would suspect, for whatever it's worth, it's an international crime as well."

Full report is here

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Life with Socialised medicine

Reports from Gaza

Get Israel Out of Gaza, tell Obama - make the call!

Two Israelis on Israel/Palestine and Gaza

London is agog

Republican pollster on BBC-"No Way McCain can Win"

US Embassy Dodging eco-friendly road-pricing

British Judge condemns US torture:

Swiss paper confirms existence of Torture camps in Europe

Wilkerson accuses Cheney of war crimes