Ok, hope and change, how about this one?
Via McClatchy, this story on surface coal mining. The Feds (more power to them) are considering rescinding the regulation that lets the companies bury streams and valleys under the dirt and rock produced by "mountaintop removal". If you've never seen the aftermath of one of these mining operations, you may have a hard time imagining the terrifying scale of the destruction.
Here hon, let me rewrite that headline for ya
Sex trade is thriving in Costa Rica
Translation:
Economic crisis forces women to sell their bodies in Costa Rica
The happy double entendre talk--"a stimulus effect on Costa Rica's famous sex-tourism industry", "popular prostitution hot spots", "Costa Rica's position as an international hub for prostitution" eventually gives way (perhaps the reporter got his rocks off and decided to do his job) to some harsh realities:
Barry Ritholtz: if you can't say anything nice....
Oh Barry, don't be so mealy-mouthed:
If the Fed is Wall Street’s bitch, than Congress is the Street’s whore.
Read the whole thing. He forgot to mention the criminal "news" media, but it's still good.
[I've spent a lifetime looking past misogyny fossilized in language, so I'm letting this one go too, almost.]
G20 pitchers from Picksburgh
Here it is, Friday morning, the G20 got underway last night a couple of miles from where I sit, and I ain't seen nothing yet except what's on my computer, unless you count the helicopter that hovered over my neighborhood for an unconscionable length of time day before yesterday.
So I went in search of news this morning, partly to prepare myself for this afternoon's march, partly to have something to share with all of you.
First thing that hits me from McClatchy is a cute little paragraph that reminded me of my disgust the other day at hearing the phrase "G20 wives":
G20 events you probably won't see on the teebee
(but if you do, I'll be there waving at ya!)
The Poor People's Economic Campaign has contacted our local single payer activist and invited us to be seen and heard at two G20 events:
1. Sunday, Sept. 20, 2:00 - 3:30 pm: Rally at Monumental Baptist Church (Soho and Wylie Streets, Hill District) with march to Freedom Corner--see here for details and flyer. This event is supported by the USW (steel workers) and UE (electrical workers), as well as other unions. Rev. Bruce Wright says that Cindy Sheehan will be one of the speakers. This is a permitted march. Also, a permitted tent city will be erected on the church grounds to highlight the needs of the homeless and unemployed.
Populist stirrings at The Big Picture
Radio commentator Dylan Ratigan, formerly of Bloomberg among other ultra-respectable outlets:
Last fall was an awakening for me, as it was for many in our country.
And yet, our Congress has yet to open its eyes, much less do anything about it. In fact conditions have never been better for the banks or worse for the rest of us.
Why is this? Who does our Government work for? How much longer will we as Americans tolerate it? And what, if anything, can we do about it?
Congressman Doyle steps up for single payer
From my local single payer activist, the news is that we have a commitment from Congressman Mike Doyle, not only to support Anthony Weiner's single payer amendment, but to speak for it on the house floor.
Meanwhile, last week Congressman Mike Doyle (Pittsburgh) reiterated his pledge to vote YES on the Weiner Amendment when it comes up for a vote on the floor of the House this fall AND HE ADDED THAT HE PLANS TO SPEAK ON THE FLOOR IN SUPPORT OF THE AMENDMENT (in response to our question to him as he was exiting the Organizing for America rally at Schenley Park last week. Doyle also made a point of thanking the single-payer supporters at the beginning of his speech on the rally stage, as we were present there with our signs and leaflets.)
It's heeere (lock up your tomatoes)
I don't see it in my garden (yet) but the local organic farm that delivers to my neighborhood has late blight. Grrrr. I won't be able to report on my preventive efforts since I got too sick to spray with Serenade, and now that I'm well (a) it's raining again (!) and (b) I'm leaving this morning for a week in Brigadoon.
Good luck to all you tomato fanatics out there! I'm hoping against hope that there will be yummy fruit when I return to reality.
Local heroes confront Senator Spector on single payer
This just in from my local single-payer activism source on Thursday's DC trip (which I missed because of illness, isn't it ironic). This just goes to show what what happens when you refuse to be ignored. Names have been removed to protect the heroic from their employers. This is the aftermath of a meeting with Spector's aide:
Comedy Central, still the best TV news organization, will feature single payer tonight
From my local single payer activist:
Dear friends,
On Tuesday, July 21, at 11:30 pm EDT, watch Dr. Aaron Carroll talk about single-payer health reform on The Colbert Report, the Emmy award-winning satirical television program on Comedy Central.
Dr. Carroll is a board member of Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org), an organization of 16,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.
The episode with Dr. Carroll will also be available online about 24 hours after the initial broadcast at www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full... (Episode # is 5097). It will be rebroadcast on the Comedy Central network on Wednesday, July 22, at 2 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 8:30 p.m.
God and guns for single-payer health care
God: the General Synod of the United Church of Christ (the President's denomination) has passed a resolution "Calling for the Support of H.R. 676 – Single Payer National Health Care Reform to Advance Health Equity for All and to Eliminate Health Disparities."
Guns: John Murtha (an opponent of gun control who represents one of those "redneck" rural Pennsylvania districts) has just agreed to cosponsor HR676!
Local single-payer activists are justly proud:
On getting their attention (again)
This is a bit of a follow-up to my recent post on the relative effectiveness of various means of pressuring Congresspersons. I got together with the local movers and shakers on single payer today and want to quickly pass along some things that got said about that, as well as on doing outreach, before I get back to the prevailing insanity of RL.
One very experienced person on the subject of letters to congresspersons: handwritten letters with local, personal details are extremely effective. Send them to the local office, not the DC office, to avoid the screening delay.
"Exceptional" Blue Cross employee helps avoid paying for nearly $10 million of medical care
Here's a story I missed at the time (June 17th), brought up by a local activist in our meeting today: three health insurance CEOs refused, in a Congressional hearing, to limit rescissions to cases of fraud ("rescission" is the health care parasites' term for retroactively canceling your policy, nominally on the grounds that you failed to disclose a material fact about your health history):
Be there for single payer July 30th!
I hope and expect many single payer activists will be in DC for the HCAN event this week, but even better, the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care is organizing a DC rally on Thursday, July 30th. And I can go! If nobody else in my family decides to go to the hospital! We're organizing a bus - if you live in a largish city not too far from DC someone is almost surely doing the same for you.
Celebrate Medicare’s 44th Birthday by showing Congress and President Obama the people, unions, doctors, nurses, seniors, faith groups, and Americans of every stripe support a single-payer system.
Which method of contacting your congress critter is best?
A Google poll: I entered the search terms "congress letter email fax phone effective". All right, it's mostly boring, but if you're trying to avoid activist's remorse, it may be worth a look. Also, see if you can find the hidden snark cookie! Here's a summary from the top links; the short version seems to be that the more effort a contact costs you, the more likely the Congressperson's staff is to take it seriously:
Office visits: this is the gold standard of constituent influence. A well-prepared group meeting with the legislator or the staffer responsible for your issue is said to be the most effective contact.
How not to kick yourself for insufficient single payer activism (part two of ?)
Thank you for sharing (ugh) says DHHS after I post my single payer screed at the Dept. of Health and Human Services request for comments web site. True to form, the Administration solicits my "story or idea", doing its bit to stamp out the last vestiges of political analysis or independently organized activism in the populace. But they can't stop us writing for single payer, so there, nyah nyah.
Sebelius (nominally) writes:
Friends,
A crack in the Senate's wall of silence on single payer
My local single-payer activist sends some happy news: Dr. Margaret Flowers of PNHP has been invited by Sen. Kennedy's office to testify at the Senate Hearing on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) on Thursday, June 11 at 3:00.
So, as she says, we can update the latest Healthcare-NOW! action alert: contact Sen. Kennedy's office (Phone: 202-224-4543 - Fax: 202-224-2417) and let them know we are glad to hear Dr. Margaret Flowers has been invited to testify on behalf of national single-payer healthcare reform and that we expect single-payer advocates to continue to have a seat at the table in meetings and senate hearings on health care reform.
How not to kick yourself for insufficient single payer activism (part one of ?)
Be active!
Writing a letter to the editor and getting it published turned out to be easier than I thought. The important points seem to include [UPDATE: I just found PNHP's LTE guidelines, with many sample letters]:
1. Respond to something recently published (so watch your local paper carefully for an opening).
"We're not robots!" (OFA health care meeting trip report)
[Welcome, OFA readers! (The OFA page has no links for individual comments that I can find, so I can't cite back to the link. Therefore, I've included a screen dump of the thread below. -- lambert]
There were quite a few Organizing for America (OFA) health care organizing "kickoff" meetings in my area today. I chose to go to the one listed as sponsored by a slew of "your-organization-here for Obama" groups in order to do some outreach.
Single payer silence will be broken in the House, 6/10 at 10:30 AM
My local single payer activist sends the following:
The Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing titled “Examining the Single Payer Health Care Option” on Wednesday, June 10th at 10:30am in 2175 Rayburn House Office Building.
You may be able to watch via webcast.
She adds:
Contact C-SPAN and let them know we would like them to carry it. C-SPAN's Main Number is: (202) 737-3220.
The forgotten people of the forgotten city of New Orleans
Glen Ford at BAR reminds us that the only "change" coming to New Orleans under "our" new President is the erasure of poor black people from the city's future.
Not a single one of 500 planned “Katrina cottages” has been made ready for occupancy. Elderly people squat in abandoned buildings. There are no credible plans to repair or create an infrastructure that could accommodate the poor who still remain, much less the New Orleans diaspora, scattered to the four winds three and a half years ago.
The President sets my hair on fire
The President sends me email and informs me that time is running out for single payer advocates to make ourselves heard:
The Vice President and I just met with leaders from the House of Representatives and received their commitment to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill by July 31.
You'll also be thrilled to know, I'm sure, that
...on Tuesday, leaders from some of America's top companies came to the White House to showcase innovative ways to reduce health care costs by improving the health of their workers.
Don't worry, things really have changed, and we can be "involved":
Get single payer a seat at the table
--or at least, get your advocacy into the Senate Finance Committee's permanent record.
In my email today I find this Single Payer Action Page:, which enables you to send single payer advocacy to your Congresscritters and the President, and " ALSO turns your comments into an actual pdf file and sends it as an attachment DIRECT to the Senate Finance Committee, meeting all their *restrictive requirements to make it part of the permanent record."
Single-payer FREE fax blast round 2 is here
The intrepid Clark Newhall has set up another single-payer fax blast, this time to the Senate Finance Committee, plus the White House.
There is also an 800 number you can call (I haven't tried that yet) to leave a message for the President or for Baucus - 800-578-4171.
You can donate here to support these efforts.
As Mr. Newhall says:
It's free. It's easy. it's free and easy. Do it once. Do it twice. Do it until they drop.
Izvestia: the middle ground in health care reform is a public option that's public in name only
Izvestia-on-the-Hudson "reports" today that Senator Schumer, "scorched by Republican opposition to the idea of a new public program like Medicare," (scorched? what're they gonna do, take away his birthday?) offers a "middle ground": a public plan based on a set of principles, the first of which is that it won't be supported by public funds:
The public plan must be self-sustaining. It should pay claims with money raised from premiums and co-payments. It should not receive tax revenue or appropriations from the government.
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