How much is democracy worth?

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Sunday June 24, 2012 · 7:43 AM PDT

2012/06/24 · 07:43

Weeks after the failed Wisconsin recall election people are still wondering what went wrong. One theory is that there were many people who just did not like the idea of a recall that was not based on criminal misconduct in office, that such a recall was not worth the money it costs. I have problems with that theory on two counts.

First, the turnout for the election was incredible. I believe that people that are against an election even happening will sit it out. I do not believe they will actually go out and vote for someone they do not like just to spite the election they believe is too costly, adding the cost of counting their vote to the expense of it.

Second I have a problem with people thinking the democratic process is too expensive. However I do believe that many people think that. And that is a huge problem.

The problem is one sided as well. When recall elections have been held in the past there was no ranting and raving about the cost. In fact there is a recount going on in Racine county right now that is going to cost taxpayers money but no grumblings about that. The cost will be minimal, and a small portion of it picked up by the Republican challenger but that is not the reason there is no grumbling. The reason is the media of course. The side asking for the recount is conservative. And the media is conservative.

When the media goes on about how much an election is going to cost people think about the cost. They think about the cost to them as taxpayers. And to them the cost is just too darn high.

I have a huge problem with this as well. I have a problem because it is not too costly for men and women to die for democracy in any war the media claims to be for the sake of democracy. Neither is the money spent on these wars too much.

It is also not a problem for them that the rich and the corporate are spending huge amounts of money on democracy (or the crushing of it). The same people who think that if we tax or regulate these entities we will be punished in the form of higher costs passed down to us. But it never occurs to them that we fund their political activities with higher product costs (among other costs).

That people do not want 'we the people' to participate in the election process through taxpayer money and leave the paying for politics to the rich and the corporate alone is scary. The people who want to own our government like they own the media must see this as some kind of sick game. They have nothing to lose if Social Security goes away.
They treat the elecorate like pawns, brainwashing them with unbelievable propaganda they push through the airwaves they own.

And for this kind of democracy people have died. Because people are brainwashed sheep who believe that any democracy that benefits the 99% is a waste of money.

A Farewell to Ice

tinwi

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Saturday March 10, 2012 · 8:14 PM PST

2012/03/10 · 20:14

To those of you familiar with my family's tragedy please bear with me as I share further thoughts on what this has cost us.

Months ago we purchased tickets to Disney on Ice. It was a different timeline, in a different world, the world before my husband's stroke.

The world where my daughter was headed for a synchronized figure skating team and my son a hockey class. In a world where we knew there would be money for these things, and health insurance too. The world where fun happened more often than doctor visits.

We decided to go today since we had purchased the tickets and friends had been invited. But I woke up today not knowing if I should, thinking it would just be a painful reminder of what was lost.

We are going, because I am determined to try to give my kids as normal a life as possible. And because it may actually do everyone some good.

So in the grand politcal arena, figure skating rates a big zero (although some hockey players want to have their beliefs aired). There is nothing political and also nothing that is green or in any way earth and country saving about figure skating.

You just have to love it for the beauty of it. Some things are so beautiful they need do nothing more than be just that.

And my son, the wonder boy of five years, the boy that turned everyone's head when he skated, amazed at what he could do at his age, the boy who could have been a real contender (and I am not leaving this option out forever) in either figure skating or hockey, accepted without complaint that this year he would be involved in the much cheaper sport of T-ball. He is great at it.

My daughter had come a long way at figure skating but truthfully was never going to be Olympic material, the girl who had tried and hated many sports but settled on skating opted out of softball. She wants to skate. And of course, saying no to her is her cue to reach into her arsenal of weapons to break me down-whining, threatening, crying, etc. But it is what it is. No more skating. Maybe soccer?

So for today we watch the beauty on ice, the world we are saying goodbye to for now, but we can still enjoy watching.

I know we have so many larger things to worry about now than the end of our skating, but for me it really brings home how different our world is now. I am sure there are many people out there that through job loss or illness find themselves in a very different world. For my husband, it is his inability to communicate like he used to. I cannot imagine what it is like for him to not know how to read anymore. I know this ice skating thing seems so petty in the larger scheme of things but it is really just one more thing that has changed in our lives.

My husband's doctor was rather flippant about him possibly losing his career, "Oh well, one door closes many more open". Yeah, right, for a 47 year old police officer. Just plenty of opportunities out there when public servants are being treated like welfare recipients (which ironically we soon will be). But for my kids, there will be other opportunites.

tinwi

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Saturday March 03, 2012 · 6:36 AM PST

2012/03/03 · 06:36

I grew up in the 70's and was proud of my country. We had great schools, we went to the moon, we had RIGHTS. More than any other country in the world we had rights.

I had not realized until recently how much those rights had eroded.

My husband and I adopted a daughter from Russia and a son from Guatemala hoping to give them a bettter life than they would have had, and of course to enjoy the dream of having a family. His income was solid enough almost 10 years ago for me to be a stay at home mom.

But then everything crashed. The costs of everything went up while our home value plummetted. And then he had a stoke putting our ability to ever have health insurace in question, and whether of not we can keep our underwater home.

The kids have been so resilient. Our daughter had been in school throughout most of the hospitalization, but my five year old son squeezed into my husband's hospital bed, trying to help him pronounce the words the speech therapist was showing him on flash cards as I stood catotonically unbelieving that he could not say such simple things anymore.

Our son used to follow my husband around with his play lawnmower when my husband was healthy enough to mow the lawn, and helped him with shoveling. Now he follows him around with a writing pad trying to mimic my husbands attemps to regain what his brain had lost in the horrible stroke that had happened to him that I strongly believe was due to medical malpractice.

My son is a precious gift. My daughter, too in her own way but I am amazed at how precious our sweet Guatemalan boy is. He never ceases to amaze me with his resilience, his sensitivity, and his practical way of knowing what is needed and doing it.

So I tink he deserves better. This may not be Guatemala but it is pretty close to a third world country at this point, with the income inequality and the lack of universal health care. My children deserve to live in a country where they can get medical care when they are sick even if they are in between jobs. My children deserve for that care to be quality care because doctors should be able to be held accountable for their negligence.

They also deserve the right to protest, the right to have a decent education and the right to be free of prejudice. One is brown, the other female. Two groups under attack in this country now.

I do not know if we will be able to leave this country, but I will try to get my children in a foreign exchange student program if we are not. Maybe they will be able to escape America.

Yes, I said it. While countless immigrants are trying to get into this country I want to escape it. I want to escape the Rush Limbaughs, the ALECs, the Palins, the propaganda media, (my daughter's friend cannot even watch Spongebob her mom is such a republican).

Originally I thought this was a fight I wanted to have becasue this is MY country too and I loved the America that was. But I realize now the right wing has been waging this war for a decade and they are never going to back down. There is a mean hateful greedy group that holds power here that will neve stop until they win everything.

The fact that we are even discusising whether or not women should have the right to use birth control sickens me. Ths is not going to end soon, at least not peacefully

This is what health care looks like in America

tinwi

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Monday February 27, 2012 · 7:27 PM PST

2012/02/27 · 19:27

I could dig up some statistics, tell it from a purely numerical, clinical POV but that is not what this diary is. This diary is my family's story of medical malpractice and pending financial disaster.

I have been away for a while. A little over a month ago I joined this group in the hopes I could develop some writing skills and maybe start a new career pushing fifty because after eight years of being a stay at home mom my youngest would be in school full times.

A little over a month ago we were concerned about what Scott Walker was trying to take away from our family, helping with the recall efforts and promising my children we would somehow find the money for my son's hockey and my daughter's synchronized figure skating club.

But it was not Walker that took all that away from us. It was the doctor who performed a heart surgery on my husband that messed things up so bad he was in and out of the hospital since last May for developing an irregular heartbeat, a staph infection, not having his sternum sewn up correctly, and finally a massive stroke.

Now most of the complications were inconvenient (especially to his boss, a municipality who did not want to waste money on a police officer who could only do desk work for half a year because of the hack job this doctor did), but also to us, the many visits to emergency rooms and doctors. But always, there was the expectancy that he would recover and life would eventually go on as normal. Not this time.

Now in the alternate reality that Republicans like to talk about there would be a lawsuit, we would be getting incredibly obscence amounts of money that would drive up the costs of medicine for everyone. But in the real world, the doctors know the states that give them the most immunity from lawsuits and the worst of them flock to it.

Or, in the case of my husband's surgery the doctor had a good rep but just took on too many surgeries in one day, treating patients like assembly line products. Oops, guess I made a mistake there, so sad.

So in the USA, where we pay the most money (I know we are behing Costa Rica as far as quality of care) we can expect substandard care. When my husband had the staph infection we actually had to buy our our supplies-little plastic bags that attached to tubes to 'suck' the infection out of him-direct from the supplier because they could make more money that way. At least they disposed of it, which is surprising because think of the money they could make by having us by Biohaz bags to use.

So this is health care in America. One major illness and you are tumbling down into the safety net, the net some would rail if we are dare able to afford cable TV. If we make enough money to pay bills, we may not qualify for health care. And if we have to buy health care insurace we will not make enough to pay bills. How dare my lazy husband get himself stroked? It's not the doctor's fault. We would not want to scare horrible doctors away any more than we would sweat shops.

How much changes in a month. From hockey plans, to trying to teach my husband how to read. From spending days volunteering for the recall effort to spending every free hour at the speech and physical therapists' offices.

Sorry for the rant, but I cannot stand another discussion on the stupidity of trying to do away with contraception when the very real matter of health care has not been sufficiently addressed in this country.

I hope to be able to write more. I hope to keep our home and computer. Thanks for reading

Ya we need tort reform

tinwi

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Thursday February 02, 2012 · 11:10 AM PST

2012/02/02 · 11:10

But not the fucking tort reform touted by rethugs that make it even more unlikely that a doctor has to have some personal responsibility for his/her work.

We need to have reform which holds doctors to the same standard of performance as say, car manufacturerers.

For example, for one surgery to have five different complications result from it, one of them being life altering would surely fall under a lemon law for a car. Doctors, not so much. Im told complications can arise. Sure, and I can hit someone with my car and everyone's body is going to react differently. So sad that your loved one couldn't withstand it.

And then there are some laws requiring air traffic controllers and semi truck drivers to get a certain amount of sleep and/or time off. Now I know a life and death situation may require more time on the part of a doctor, but to work over 16 hours doing elective surgeries? This is okay, especially when someone becomes permanently disabled because of it?

What fucking nimrod thinks there are way too many lawsuits against doctors? Tell me one person who has successfully sued a doctor. i want to know. I want their lawyer's number.

Happy New Year

tinwi

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Saturday December 31, 2011 · 8:44 PM PST

2011/12/31 · 20:44

May we see many many changes in this year. I live in a state divided with each other and separate from the rest of the nation. I feel that federal laws have no meaning here, federal money being turned away like it was an offering from Satan hiself.

In Wisconsin the United States laws only apply if Scott Walker agrees to them. Hence we are going to pretend the Affordable Care Act does not exist and forgo compliance with them. To his credit (not as much credit, however that he takes for it) he did comply with lifting caps on long term care. Because he was forced to by the federal government.

But there is no guessing what rights you actually have (first amendment?) anymore. And that unfortunately is true across most of the country right now.

So although I did write that I hope that everyone has a happy new year I do not mean the kind of happy, go to work, come home and pretend everything is okay kind of happy. I mean happy that they know something is really terribly wrong with our country but they feel empowered that it can be fixed. Even if it takes a lot of work.

And we sometimes do not know the pot is boiling until we are dead frogs. But thankfully Scott Walker and people like him woke us up before we boiled. Confession-I used to be a homophobe. Unbelievable, a fundamentalist church cured me of that. It took being rocked by the blatant sexism and other hate there that drove me to another church where I met gay people who at that time (late 1990's) were still fighting an uphill battle against discrimination. Being a feminist at a fundamentalist church is like being black at a KKK meeting, or being gay at a fundie church, I guess.

But sometimes it is not until the hate is directed specifically at you do you wake up. So now we are awake, and a lot of damage done while we were sleeping. I hope nobody snoozes in 2012. I hope the the whole country gets Occupied with democracy.

Fighting for Democracy

tinwi

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Monday December 19, 2011 · 12:33 PM PST

2011/12/19 · 12:33

In Wisconsin the battle is raging
against tyranny again
The same cold and greedy forces
that saw the need to begin

This thing that's called democracy
for which a queen once lost her head
and we fought against an English king
So "we the people" could rule instead

But that was only the beginning
it put us on the right track
Its urgent we take action now
or plutocrats will take us back

Back to the days before unions
Before voting, free speech, wow look!
These things are already fading
Complacency was all it took

We did not know is was "use it or lose it'
Look at all the damage that has been done
To all the righteous amendments
And all the freedoms we have since won

America is known as the land of the free and the home of the brave
but is now becoming wire-tapped, silenced, propagandanized and enslaved
We have traded trying to ensure equality and doing what is right
For people killing budget cuts and people killing military might

But we still have the brave working
from Wisconsin to New York
Who take it to the streets
cause the banks have bought the courts

So Occupy, petition, fight in every way you still can
I want to see our children believe in the Dream again

Crazy in Wisconsin

tinwi

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Friday December 02, 2011 · 11:40 AM PST

2011/12/02 · 11:40

So I am at my son's school trying to get few recall signatures-after all schools have been decimated by Walker's budget.

I do nothing except pull out a sign and stand there quietly when this raving Walker minion starts harrassing me. She wants to know if I have permission to be there and tries to scare me off. I pull out my camcorder because I want proof if things start getting violent the way they have been (stupid me, I should have known not to be alone).

Being recorded further insences this lady who then gets on the phone (police?) and starts claiming that she is trying to drop her daughter off at school and for some reason I am stopping her (don't know-she cant walk past a petition without exploding?)
Nobody appeared to her "rescue" so she stomps into the schools and brings out the principal. Apparantly the superintendent of Racine Unified has told him I must stop.
After some discussion of my first amendment rights, and that the principal was actually sympathetic I put my dangerous sign away.

After the kids have been taken into the school the crazy rips into me for taping her and for bringing such craziness to the school. It never of course occurs to her that SHE was the one who created the crazy, I was merely holding a sign and some papers.

I meet up with other petition circulators who tell me their favorite business who allowed them to use his parking lot has caved to the many lunatic calls he received.

So that iis how it is here in what is a much redder county than I thought. I would not even ask any business owner I liked to subject themselves to the onslaught of right wing bull&&) that they would take in order to allow me to collect signatures there. Apparently "public places" are defined as only being open to one politically inclined sector of the public, as evidenced by Walker's arresting anyone who disagrees with him in his palace (the state capitol).

I will continue to collect signatures when and where I can but it would sure be nice to see the police actually ARREST the people who are attacking circulators so we do not have to be afraid. Not to say the crazy lady at the school was going to attack me, its just the fact I feel the need to carry a camcorder because you never know. The attacker is out there, and if he is not arrested what is to keep others from doing this?

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