Mooncat over at Leftinalabama has put together a good synopsis of McCain's 'non-solutions' to providing equitable and adequate health care for all Americans. Y'all go check it out.

In an exclusive to PB readers, I reveal McCain's current plan ^o^ here and now, with a h/t to Liz:

A young man joined the National Guard because he couldn't get a job with a good healthcare plan for him and his wife.  He ended up having to serve 15 months in Iraq.

CNN has a story today titled "Clinton, Obama Take on Big Oil" It's good to see the kids playing nicely for a change. Like their playground counterparts, they have reached an accord by finding a common enemy.

So, who's the enemy? Big Oil, and its tax subsidies. (drumroll, please). The rising gas prices we are experiencing in this county are fueling what many say is a recession-to-be, and what others say is a 'recession-that-is, only-nobody-acknowledges-it. The writing is on the wall, anyway, for anyone to read. We don't want to read it, because we don't have a ready solution at hand. We don't even have a ten-year solution at hand.

Only Big Oil isn't really the enemy. That's right. That's what I said. Big Oil is just a corporate shark. It is what it is, and the real stupidity has come from the American People, via Congress, all these years. It's been a regular feeding frenzy as of late, with politicians feeding the sharks, and sharks feeding the politicians. Problem is, everybody else starves when this gets out of control. 

So, when is a shark not a shark? So far, the answer has been, "When we pretend it isn't, and feed it a little". As anyone with a grain of sense can see, that's a collossally stupid answer. If that answer were viable, we wouldn't have people exploring the Great Barrier Reef in steel cages, now would we?

Congress is full of people who have to get reelected every few years, and they get elected by people who Don't Like Bad News. Short term, those tax subsidies have been good value for money. Almost all industrialized nations subsidize their energy prices in order to keep their economy stable. In other words, we take collective action to protect ourselves from a 'free' market at the national level. No one wants a national economy at the mercy of anything as volatile as a futures market.  While Europeans pay almost ten dollars a gallon, we are crying out when it rises above three.

I think the Democrats have the right idea. Stop calling the shark a teddy bear! Let it be a shark. It's a necessary part of the food chain. The sane approach is to start letting other fish breed, like Green Energy fish. Start feeding them. Start using some of the petro dollars to fund something positive, for a change. We are technologically stuck in the late 19th century as we enter the 21st due to a fondness for short term, bandaid solutions to problems which will require our best minds to work overtime well into the rest of this century.

So far, the Republican solution to every problem is to feed the sharks some more. Collectively, America is now missing a leg as a result of following that philosophy. Let's turn this thing around while we've got one left.. Let's elect Democrats in 2008.

It's a fact.  For example we have the DLC to thank for Joe, Republican, Lieberman.

Bill Clinton himself, another DLC member was quoted in 2006 as saying that said he “wasn't too concerned about who won the election between Ned and Joe.” 

The DLC as you know is not an “official” group that is sanctioned by the Democratic party so please don’t misunderstand that I’m criticizing the Democratic Party because I am not.  The DLC are arrogant, self-proclaimed leaders of the Democratic Party whose membership is made up of approximately 37% of Democrats in Congress.  Bill and Hillary count among the membership of the DLC.  Those who do not are among the great Democratic stalwarts like Barbara Boxer, Patrick Leahy, Russ Feingold, Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy.

How appropriate considering the events over the past two weeks.

March is the 40th anniversary of the release of the Kerner Commission Report.

I can't help but wonder how many people reading this even know what the Kerner Commission Report is--judging from some of the posts, I would say that there are quite a few who do not.

If you don't, and you would like to know, I suggest that you watch the latest Bill Moyers video on the topic.  It was presented to night on PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03282008/profile.html

This is a detailed proposal for a workable, universal plan being backed by the AFL-CIO, and sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute.

Health care for AmericaA proposal for guaranteed, affordable health care for all Americans building on Medicare and employment-based insurance    by Jacob S. Hacker

The latest AFL-CIO newsletter is pushing this agenda in the health care forum. It's actually very similar in concept to Romney's plan, which was implemented in Massachusetts a few years back with the blessings of Ted Kennedy. Under Romney's plan, people are required to produce 'proof of insurance' within a mandated time frame, or be subject to increasing tax penalties. The Mass. plan is capped at $200/ per month for individual coverage.

It's also very similar to Hillary's health care plan, which includes mandated coverage as well. Obama's plan follows the same line, but without forcing anyone to purchase the coverage.

Basically, the idea is to keep status quo for people who have good coverage, and to keep the Insurance Lobby happy and unopposed, while bringing in a lower-cost option for the currently uninsured. It hits everyone a little bit. Small businesses, who may not offer any coverage at all, will be forced to contribute about 6% payroll tax to the'America' plan. Large  businesses, who currently get away without contributing anything as long as they classify an employee as 'part time', will also have to contribute based on a percentage of those employees' earnings. To my mind, that's a good move. The main reason people are now working two and three jobs is because of large corporate employers who decided that 2 people working 20 hours a week is much cheaper than one person working 40. A plan like this would 'disincentivize' that little ploy.

While it seems a good compromise in a lot of respects, I also find it a little scary, especially the 'mandated coverage' aspect and its enforcement proposals. Those in favor of a mandate say that we can't get the best rates without everyone doing their bit, and those against make the excellent point that the private premium would put such a plan out of reach for the very people it's designed to help.

To my mind, it's all part and parcel of the 'service economy'. The person (like a doctor, a nurse, or a chemist) who has actual knowledge, and a marketable skill, gets eaten alive by the eight middlemen who are basically making a living by marketing his skill, and adding on a profit for themselves. He slips lower and lower down the food chain, as the money boys reduce him to utter dependence on their 'system', which system the Federal Government is bravely tring to 'buck' by forcing the entire population  to pay them ransom for health care...sigh..

It's like letting the pilot fish to steer the shark.

Still, it's a start. 

With the headline: Photo of Bill Clinton and Rev. Wright Surfaces

There is now a blog devoted to Trinity Church of Christ, where this photo probably originated, and another of the Rev. Wright in the O.R. at Bethesda Naval Hospital during the surgery of President Lyndon B. Johnson.  

Check it out. The Truth About Trinity. 

Here is the link to the video of Obama's talk this morning.  March 18, 2008

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBbKG

sorry, PB formatting strikes again. go read!

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/mccain.cfm

Check it out for your selves.

Peace,

Democrats '08

Spitzer and his antics have been the top story today, but the one with perhaps more far-reaching implications is that of Adm. 'Fox' Fallon's resignation. As Barnett's now-famous Esquire article leads with the statement, " If, in the dying light of the Bush administration, we go to war with Iran, it'll all come down to one man. If we do not go to war with Iran, it'll come down to the same man." it's easy to see why his resignation has provoked such consternation.  

``Congress needs to determine immediately whether Admiral Fallon's resignation is another example of truth tellers being forced to the sidelines in the Bush administration,'' said Senator John Kerry,  ``His departure must not clear the way for a rush to war with Iran.''

NPR and the AP are emphasizing the statement in which Adm. Fallon cited the article in Esquire magazine as the catalyst for his resignation. While not the only reason, 'the public perception of differences with the Administration' has seemingly led him to believe that his mission there was compromised. At least, that's the official Washington line at the moment.

 AP:WASHINGTON March 12, 2008, 01:36 am ET · The Navy admiral in charge of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan announced Tuesday that he is resigning over press reports portraying him as opposed to President Bush's Iran policy.

...Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Pentagon news conference that he accepted Fallon's request to resign and retire from the Navy, agreeing that the Iran issue had become a distraction. But Gates said repeatedly that he believed talk of Fallon opposing Bush on Iran was mistaken.

 The Esquire article seems to have been written with a crystal ball nearby. Several prophecies were made in the article, all of which were dead accurate. Why then should the article in question be presumed inaccurate? Here are a few quotes predictions it made:

...But still, well-placed observers now say that it will come as no surprise if Fallon is relieved of his command before his time is up next spring 

[Fallon on Musharraf] 
As for Washington's notion that Benazir Bhutto's return to the country would fix all that, Fallon is pessimistic. He slowly shakes his head. "Better forget that."

The author of the Esquire article is Thomas P.M. Barnett  

From 1998 through 2004, Barnett was a Senior Strategic Researcher and Professor in the Warfare Analysis & Research Department, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.

At the Naval War College, Barnett served as Director of the New Rule Sets Project an effort designed to explore how the spread of globalization alters the basic "rules of the road" in the international security environment, with special reference to how these changes redefine the U.S. Military's historic role as "security enabler" of America's commercial network ties with the world.

 On his personal weblog, Barnett has only this to say about the Admiral's resignation:

I don't have any comment on it.

I reported the story as I found it, because I thought it was crucial for readers to understand this officer and his thinking within the context of his incredibly important and high-profile position.

As readers of my blog know, I have expressed a lot of admiration for the admiral over the years. In my 18 years of working for and with military commands, I have met few with the same capacity for strategic vision. I wish him well on whatever he chooses to do next.

But lest we start thinking that Admiral Fallon is some sort of peacenik, let's remember another of his quotes about Iran when asked about the looming threat of nuclear proliferation, "These guys are ants. When the time comes, you crush them.".

Montana Governor Urges REAL ID Rebellion In a letter (pdf) to the governors of 17 states, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer asked them to band together to reject the REAL ID national identification system. "Today, I am asking you to join with me in resisting the DHS coercion to comply with the provisions of REAL ID," Gov. Schweitzer wrote. "I would like us to speak with one, unified voice and demand the Congress step in and fix this mess." On January 11, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff released the agency's final regulations for REAL ID. The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from state governments, members of Congress, civil liberties advocates, and security experts (pdf). EPIC has called the scheme "a real danger to security and civil rights." See EPIC's National ID Cards and REAL ID Act page. (Jan. 21)

 Here's the list of honor. I salute the following states: their governors, legislatures, and people. Uncle Sam would be proud of you. 

 Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington state.