"I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa."
~Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Global Exchange has tons of info on what we can do, and a list of US Companies that operate there.

Money talks -- loudly. If we can't affect our government funding them, we can stop our own funding of it.

American families have long felt squeezed, if not choked, by housing expenses (emphasis mine):

Specifically, between 1996 and 2006, all the major categories of homeowner expenses increased faster than incomes. Mortgage payments increased 46 percent, utilities 43 percent, property taxes 66 percent, and property insurance 83 percent. By contrast, homeowner incomes increased by 36.3 percent. Rental costs also increased faster than incomes. Rents increased by 51 percent between 1996 and 2006, while renter incomes increased only 31.4 percent over the same period. Read more…

Posing as a Bidder, Utah Student Disrupts Government Auction of 150,000 Acres of Wilderness for Oil & Gas Drilling --

... While many environmental groups launched campaigns to oppose the sale of the land, one student in Salt Lake City attempted to block the sale by disrupting the auction itself. Twenty-seven-year-old Tim DeChristopher posed as a potential bidder and bid hundreds of thousands of dollars on parcels of the land, driving up prices and winning some 22,000 acres for himself, without any intention of paying for them. Read more…

it's not too late to turn the corner on one aspect.
Between 1895 and 1910, ELECTRIC CARS made up nearly a third of the vehicles on the roads.

It's possible that Spindletop is to blame for the decline in electric cars. Between that and the Gingrich/Clinton budget stopping the SSC in its tracks, much that has worked against the public good is often blamed on my home state. Read more…

Monroe/Seattle Healthcare House Party
The Raw Story

We promptly start later than anticipated because one participant wanted cocoa.

The Participant noted: “This really is like a Tupperware party. It seems like it’s a party because there are little wieners with toothpicks in them, but really, it’s about selling you Tupperware.”

The Host went through the goals as stated in the Moderator’s packet: Read more…

We'll be picking up the discussion

Today, Saturday, Dec. 27 at 8EST

Lambert will be rolling out the survey so we can spread the word.

Amberglow linked to an excellent article on why single payer opponents fear the single payer option. Basically, peons like us would like public insurance so much, we would choose it instead of more expensive private health insurance plans. Read more…

Hope all of you are enjoying your holidays.

Some business...

We'll be picking up the discussion

Saturday, Dec. 27 at 8EST

after the fab GF and I have our house party, which comprises me, her, and the cats. We have two feet of snow and no one in their right mind she drive up here.

Also, we may lose power, so if I disappear, that may be why. Or I spilled my cocktail, which happens, you know.

Moving on...

Continuing from the last virtual house party on healthcare, lambert asked me separately if anyone else wanted to discuss why healthcare is an issue for them. Read more…

Our Festivus healthcare discussion rollicked along at a good pace.

Before jumping in, thanks to all for participating. And may everyone find the joy of the season.

And join us

Friday, Dec. 26, 8pm EST for more ideas and agitating

Please add as you see fit.

In response to the question, “Why is healthcare an issue for you?”, the answers ranged from rage (that would be me, lambert, and gqmartinez), not being a bully (vastleft), personal experience with the system as patient or provider (DCBlogger, hipparchia, and oceansandmountains) creating equitable healthcare system as a foundation on which to build a more just society (lambert), the basic need for healthcare, and so on. Read more…

Hello and welcome. First a little business...

Thanks, lambert for the place and the constant support.

Thanks DCB and hipparchia for yeo-woman work on the issue of single payer. You are why I got involved. Well, that and I got really pissed off.

Next virtual house parties:

All 8pm EST
Friday, Dec. 26
Saturday, Dec. 27 (fab Gf and ohio report)
Tuesday, Dec. 30 (Paul L's report)
Possibly a wrap-up on the 31st.

Spread the word.

Here's the list of questions we gathered.

1. Have you or anyone in your family ever failed to seek medical attention because you couldn’t afford it? (h/t a little night…)

2. Have you or anyone in your family ever failed to seek medical attention because you couldn’t afford treatment though you had health insurance? (h/t a little night…) Read more…

[We're having the first virtual House Party tonight at 8PM -- Because it's festivus!]

Suggestions for virtual house party healthcare topics? We can take some of the questions from the list we developed---see below.

Lambert, do you have times that work best for people all over the country? And even some of our foreign friends (hiya, Mandos) to join in? Also, is there anyway to let people who aren't registered to take that survey you created? Or do you want it limited to registrants? Read more…

Edited to correct spelling of "bugaloo." And to add Paul L's info.

Our responses (Monroe/Seattle):

Date and time:
December 27, 2pm

Please describe your event:
Lunch and discussion in support of single payer national health insurance.

What are the major areas you want to discuss?
Making single payer national health insurance a reality now.

Why should the health policy team send Senator Daschle to your event?
Please don't. But any co-sponsor of HR676 will be welcomed and well fed.

From Paul_Luckasiak (outside Philly):

Date and Time of Event
Monday Dec 29, 6:30PM

Please describe your event
Potluck dinner with health care as the topic

What are the major areas you want to discuss?
Best way to fund health care for all Read more…

Revise, replace, rewrite, do your on as you see fit---okay, just fix it. It sucks. trying to get a one-pager that cracks the whip a little. Our goal is to get press to the house party and to write a story about how single payer/healthcare for all/whatever you want to call it is a real solution and not some half-assed attempt.

(I am pleased with the last quote, I will say.)

Edited based on comments...

Don't stop now.

====

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR PHONE NUMBER]
[YOUR EMAIL]

Headline: Locals Agree with Obama: Healthcare Is A Right Read more…

There was a lot of eyerolling with this---I mean, honestly, the original is all sleazy and weasel-y, no offense to weasels.

Anyway, revise, replace, and add your own as necessary.

====
1. What do you perceive is the biggest problem in the health system?
a. Cost of health insurance
b. Cost of health care services
c. Difficulty finding health insurance due to a pre-existing condition
d. Lack of emphasis on prevention
e. An emphasis on health insurance and not on healthcare for all as the solution to our healthcare crisis

2. What do you think is the best way for policy makers to develop a plan to address the health system problems?
a. Community meetings like these
b. Traditional town hall meetings
c. Surveys that solicit ideas on reform
d. A White House Health Care Summit Read more…

Questions to get us started. Revise, replace, add your own as necessary. We'll compile and you can choose the ones you want to use at house parties or online as you go.

Edited based on comments. Sorry if I missed tipping a hat to anyone.

The list is getting long. Damn, good questions though.

=====

1. Have you or anyone in your family ever failed to seek medical attention because you couldn’t afford it? (h/t a little night…)

2. Have you or anyone in your family ever failed to seek medical attention because you couldn’t afford treatment though you had health insurance? (h/t a little night…)

3. Have you ever lost your health insurance? If so, why?

4. Have you ever been refused health insurance? If so, why? Read more…

via Historiann: several Correntians have already written about the disproportionate impact the current economic apocalypse is having on women's jobs as compared to men's and how the economic stimulus proposals do little to address that. At the Center for Research for Women and Social Justice, a group of feminist historians who study the New Deal has issued an open letter to Obama asking that a New "New Deal" address those inequities:

FEMINIST HISTORIANS FOR A NEW NEW DEAL

Open Letter to President-elect Obama

December 18, 2008

Dear President-elect Obama, Read more…

Anybody know how to darn socks, turn cuffs and collars, or make a rag rug?
Backpackers, particularly those interested in very lightweight gear (and those interested in very low-cost gear) have developed ways to take (empty) cans and build camp stoves, cookpots with lids and stands and windscreens -- you can carry nearly no-cost-but-labor gear that, for under 4 oz mass, will provide hot water, tea, cocoa, coffee, soup and noodles, rice or oatmeal for one or two hikers for a weekend if you frequent WhiteBlaze or similar forums.

OPEC cut production by 2 million barrels a day during their session today.
What with the Madoff scheme and the bailout failure, Read more…

I want to elevate this to a blog post.

People are feeling frustrated and ineffectual. Me too. That's a moxie trap. (My extension of the concept of a gumption trap.)

You've got the moxie. You've just got to use it.

One-on-one talk is very effective. The effect can be exponential. Do it! Talk up single payer every time an opening presents itself.

Good resources:

Here is a good flyer from Physicians For a National Health Plan NY [pdf, link fixed]: and see also SickoCure.org.
—

From Mark Thoma, writing about Robert Reich's piece Are We Courting A Populist Backlash?: [my emphasis]

There are lots of reasons, but if we had better social insurance, good enough so that the health and welfare of workers and their families was not threatened by the failure of the automakers, it would be a lot easier to avoid a bailout.

I'm so damned tired of our UAW workers taking so much flack from so-called Progressives. The small UAW caravan to Washington is going not just to support the loans for the Big Three, but to push liberal and progressive causes. I don't see any of the Kos kids putting their money where their mouths are. You want to help liberal and progressive causes? Remember Detroit: Read more…

Not.

Michael Dukakis runs down the list of the market-oriented -- Go Shopping! -- solutions we've tried, or have proposed, for containing healthcare costs. HMOs. Managed care. Consumer-driven health care. Pay for performance. Electronic health records.

Then he asks: How do all those other advanced, industrialized countries have health care that's better than ours for about half the cost? Answer: They treat healthcare as a public utility, and regulate its prices, with a fraction of the overhead and bureaucracy that plague our system. Read more…

quoted today:
War is inevitably tragic, inefficient, and uncertain, and it is important to be skeptical of systems analyses, computer models, game theories, or doctrines that suggest otherwise. We should look askance at idealistic, triumphalist, or ethnocentric notions of future conflict that aspire to transcend the immutable principles and ugly realities of war, that imagine it is possible to cow, shock, or awe an enemy into submission, instead of tracking enemies down hilltop by hilltop, house by house, block by bloody block. As General William Tecumseh Sherman said, "Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster." Read more…

Joe Stiglitz in the NY Times:

A $1 Trillion Answer
By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ
Published: November 29, 2008

WHAT President-elect Barack Obama will need to do is horribly complicated but also very clear.

First, he must stop the economy from going deeper into recession. Then he needs to bring about a robust recovery, preferably in ways that support the long-term needs of the United States: by repairing our neglected public works, invigorating our technological leadership, making our society greener, fixing our health care problems, healing our social and economic divide, and restoring our social compact. Read more…

Just ask Steny Hoyer and his Blue Dogs.

"Conservatives in the congressional Blue Dog Coalition were among the first Democrats to applaud his calls for fiscal discipline.

Tennessee Rep. Jim Cooper (D), an outspoken budget hawk, congratulated Obama for “making good on his campaign promise to change the way Washington does business by reforming the budget process and cutting wasteful spending.

“He has my full support in this effort,” Cooper continued.

“Streamlining the federal budget and eliminating wasteful spending,” said South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, “will jump-start efforts to restore fiscal responsibility and accountability to the federal government.” Read more…

Posted on the run: no time to summarize. But Go! Read!

Radical Solutions for a Crazy Crisis by Nouriel Roubini [Forbes].

Yes, he used the R-word. In Forbes!

The President (or the President-Elect) won't think you don't love him if you get out in the streets and demonstrate. Sometimes he needs that "pressure" to get Congress's attention and action. When the AFL and CIO asked Roosevelt for what became the Wagner Act, he said "Go in the streets and make me do it." And they did. When Martin Luther King asked Kennedy for the Civil Rights Act, JFK said "I have an election coming up. I can't initiate this Act. Make me do it." So King and his people went to Birmingham and got busy. We all love Obama to pieces, but he might appreciate a little heat from us now and then. Walter Ebmeyer. www.richaredifferent.wordpress.com.