Today, just in time for the release of Michael Moore's spectacular documentary film, SiCKO, Business Week greets us with this headline:

Despite spending lots more per capita on health care, the U.S. is often as bad or worse than other industrialized nations in wait times.

Yep, another Rush Limbaugh talking point smashed!

One of the most repeated truisms about the U.S. health-care system is that, for all its other problems, American patients at least don't have to endure the long waits for medical care that are considered endemic under single-payer systems such as those in Canada and Britain. But as several surveys and numerous anecdotes show, waiting times in the U.S. are often as bad or worse as those in other industrialized nations—despite the fact that the U.S. spends considerably more per capita on health care than any other country.

Originally posted at My Left Wing

It occurred to me, while protesting this optional war, that we leftists really aren't that good at these kind of fights. I mean it's all too clear that the Democrats we just helped elect don't want to challenge the Empire, they just want to manage it better. At some far of future date they might stop the killing, if we're lucky. Right-wingers would not be so patient.

"What would the Christian conservatives do, if they were fighting against this war?", I asked myself.

Answer: They would stage an "Operation Rescue" in front of every military recruitment office in the country, and every Blackwater building where they hire our mercenaries. They would bring pictures of corpses. Iraqi corpses. American corpses. Wounded veterans missing half their bodies. Little blown up children. They would challenge the footsoldiers in the war to think about what they're signing up to do. And they would make bumper stickers. Like these:

Bombing An Iraqi Stops a Beating Heart

Killing a person is forever. Think hard before you go.

HR 676, John Conyers' Universal Healthcare proposal, has been reintroduced.

http://thomas.loc.gov/...

H.R.676

Title: To provide for comprehensive health insurance coverage for all United States residents, and for other purposes

Sponsor: Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14] (introduced 1/24/2007)      Cosponsors (42)

Latest Major Action: 1/24/2007 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

U.S. to lift ban on Latin American military training

"Concern about leftist victories in Latin America has prompted President Bush to quietly grant a waiver that allows the United States to resume training militaries from 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries," USA TODAY's Barbara Slavin reports today. "The administration hopes the training will forge links with countries in the region and blunt a leftward trend."

The training ban, "originally designed to pressure countries into exempting U.S. soldiers from war crimes trials," has caused the United States to lose influence in the region, military officials tell Slavin. Read the full story to learn which countries will get the waiver; Venezuela and Cuba aren't among them.

Here's a reminder of past educational "successes":

Man arrested for failing to carry ID, San Salvador

(warning, less pleasant reminder under the fold)

Iraqi Official: 150,000 Civilians Dead

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A stunning new death count emerged Thursday, as Iraq's health minister estimated 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war - about three times previously accepted estimates.

...

Health Minister Ali al-Shemari gave his new estimate of 150,000 to reporters during a visit to Vienna, Austria. He later told The Associated Press that he based the figure on an estimate of 100 bodies per day brought to morgues and hospitals - though such a calculation would come out closer to 130,000 in total.

...

As al-Shemari issued the startling new estimate, the head of the Baghdad central morgue said Thursday he was receiving as many as 60 violent death victims each day at his facility alone. Dr. Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaidi said those deaths did not include victims of violence whose bodies were taken to the city's many hospital morgues or those who were removed from attack scenes by relatives and quickly buried according to Muslim custom.

Ward Connerly, the Former University of California Regent best known for fighting against affirmative action, is at it again. This time he's backing Michigan's Proposition 2, an anti-affirmative action initiative. Which the KKK likes a lot.

Ward Connerly (clip on You-Tube here): If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right -- God Bless Them! Thank them for finally reaching the point where logic and reason are being applied, instead of hate.

Logic? Reason? Two things which Ward Connerly isn't acquainted with, if he thinks the KKK is backing the initiative because of "logic" and "reason" instead of hate, which is their whole organizational purpose.

The former Iraqi dictator and six subordinates were convicted and sentenced for the 1982 killings of 148 people in a single Shiite town after an attempt on his life there.

How about those who helped?

Video link. Don Rumsfeld shakes hands with our ally. December 20, 1983.

This is a clickable link. It's more impressive and sad side-by-side if you click here.

I'm a little verklempt.

Talk amongst yourselves... I'll give you a topic:

The United States' alternative energy plan is neither an alternative nor a plan. Discuss.

My answer: This is delusional.

One reason that springs to mind is that the value of a college degree goes down if everyone around you has one. Competition, remember? I see this everyday in high tech, where I am surrounded by workers who come from other countries to work for a very large high-tech company down the street that apparently hasn't given raises to many of them, in years. I've heard of others laid off and offered the opportunity to move back to India, where they can get their old job back.

So I sat down to read The Nation this week, and I find that the indispensible Barbara Ehrenreich said it much better than I can, in "Downsized but Not Out".

She's helped start an organization called United Professionals, to be part of the broader movement for economic justice.

My doctor's letter says that won't be good enough any more.

Starting January 1, 2007, we will be changing our practice to an exclusive, "concierge" style practice. This means that, for a monthly fee, you will have 24-hour, seven day per week access to me at my office, the hospital, or by cell phone. After January 1, I will no longer be affiliated with any PPO. Within a few months, I will no longer be affiliated with any HMO.
...
If you join my new practice, you will still need to maintain your present health coverage for specialists, labs, hospitalization, and vaccinations. You may find it advantageous to open a Health Savings Account, which will allow you to pay for this new level of care with pre-tax dollars.
The cost of joining the new practice will be $300 (or $500 per couple, and $100 per high school or college age child), charged to a credit card at the beginning of each month.

The principles of this world beyond terror can be found in the very first sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document declares that, "The equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom and justice and peace in the world.

-- President Bush at the United Nations, Sept 19, 2006

COMPLETE list of states NOT YET RATIFYING the CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (CEDAW), one of the enabling conventions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Holy See
Montenegro
United States of America
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Nauru
Palau
Qatar
Tonga
Somalia
Sudan

Latest to ratify: Cook Islands, August 11, 2006

Note: This treaty was signed by Jimmy Carter and has gone unratified by the United States of America for 27 years.

Nazi Germany had millions of soldiers and during World War II built 50,000 Panzer tanks.

Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them.
-- George W Bush

It's time for the Democrats to speak the truth : a competent American President who really wanted to capture or kill Osama bin Laden could easily have done so with the massive resources of this nation. If Bin Laden really is a threat the size of Hitler and Stalin, then massive resources should have been devoted to his destruction, and we are forced to conclude that he would already have been destroyed.

Bush as a War President(tm) is the very definition of failure.

Tonight it struck me -- while listening to Alberto Gonzalez describe how especially in a time of war the President has all these powers to urinate all over the Constitution of the United States of America --

It is time for the Democratic Party to DECLARE WAR on the Global War on Terror

From this day forward, the phrase "war on terror" should only be used in this context:

1. The War on Terror(tm) does not have clearly defined objectives or a criteria of "winning."

2. The War on Terror(tm) lumps literally a half dozen political movements together, only the least sophisticated person would think that explains anything.

3. The War on Terror(tm) has already been used as an excuse for FLAGRANTLY VIOLATING THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.

4. The War on Terror(tm), as so many have pointed out, is a war against a tactic.

5. Terrorism, as a tactic, is best fought by good police work -- with warrants! It is best fought by understanding the political causes of the many terrorist movements and defusing those causes.

We must call off the "war on terror" before there is little left to fight for.

A bill creating universal healthcare through a publicly financed administration in California, authored by Senator Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, was introduced in February, 2005.

So far it has won votes in State Senate Committees on Health and Appropriations, a floor vote in the State Senate, and one Assembly Committee vote.

The next Governator Governor of Kahlifoania California could sign this bill.

In polls, Democrats overwhelmingly favor government sponsored Universal Health Insurance, in some polls by an 8-to-1 margin.

We know that Arnold the Enronator will veto this bill. I have been listening for a Democratic candidate for governor to loudly say he will sign SB840, if given the chance...








[... sound of crickets chirping... ]


Are candidates for governor legally prohibited from mentioning one of the most important bills ever to be considered by any state legislature?

Come on Phil or Steve, I double dog dare you to promise you will sign SB840 !!

In the midst of her usual hate-filled screed, she wrote:

The mass violence by Muslims over some cartoons reminds us why we have to worry when countries like Iran start talking about having nukes. Iran is led by a lunatic who makes a big point of denying the Holocaust. Indeed, in response to the Muhammad cartoons, one Iranian newspaper is soliciting cartoons about the Holocaust. (So far the only submissions have come from Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau and The New York Times.)

Is that libel?

Rall writes:

As far as I can tell, no one has ever sued Coulter for slander or libel. That may change. My attorney tells me I have an actionable claim on two counts, for both the CPAC speech and the column. It wouldn't be an open-and-shut case, but there are precedents in my favor.

Nobody could have imagined they'd use planes to attack buildings.

I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.

Nobody could have imagined Iraq would break out into civil war.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!

Now, conservatives have no defense against those Bush critics who have argued (for years) that Bush is not serious—not about the issues, not about meeting the responsibilities of governing, not about telling the truth. -- David Corn

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

I think ya'll can figure out what to do here.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

Provided that link works.

Others:
http://www.impeachbush.org/...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -     Iraq's Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into claims that a police death squad has been operating in the country, a top official said Thursday...

The bodies of Sunni Arabs, bound and gagged and shot in the head, have been turning up in Baghdad for months, fueling allegations of sectarian killings, which Sunni Arab leaders say are often carried out by Shiites in army or police uniforms...

"Since a very long time, we have been talking about such violations and we have been telling the Interior Ministry officials that there are squads that raid houses and arrest people who are found later executed in different parts of the capital," said party member Nasser al-Ani..."

But not 13 months ago there were stories saying that Americans were planning a "Salvador Option" (The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq)