PROTEST HR 3962

PROTEST HR 3962, Or Be Stuck With Corporate Medical Insurance Racket For The Rest Of Our Lives


Who Else Wants To Get SERIOUS About Real Health Care Reform??

We need the help of every one of our participants who has a website
(if not please read on because there is an individual action page as
well). We have created a simple and small sized (182x228 pixels) web
page module, perfect for the side bar of your web page, where people
can watch the latest of the "I'm A Democrat, And I'm A Republican"
videos. To get this feature for your website just put the following
code anywhere on your web page.



If you are on MySpace or Facebook or another site that disallows
javascript, you can copy the alternate code from this page.

http://www.peaceteam.net/mfa.htm

We have already shot six of these incredibly professional looking
videos, making the point (with wit and humor) that NEITHER the
Democrats, NOR the Republicans, are actually interested in real
health care reform. The Democrats are forcing consideration of only
plans that further empower the medical insurance corporations that
are ripping us off now. The Republican are only interested in
derelict non-regulation, achieving the same end result by default.

By getting more and more people to watch these videos, we will
mobilize people to submit this fax action page, which sends a
strongly worded but even tempered petition (which you can read on the
page), stating in essence that we the people are demanding real
reform and will not be fooled again. And you can add your own
personal comments as well. WATCH the video also on this page.

Medicare For All FREE Fax Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1020.php

There will be a new video release in the "I'm A Democrat, I'm A
Republican" series once a week, and the web page module will
automatically update with the latest video. And we are asking you,
our participants to submit the petition yourself ALSO once a week. We
need to speak out and keep speaking out, until Congress finally gets
the message, to stop fooling around and do what should have been done
in the first place, pass economical and efficient Medicare for All.

Folks, we are dedicating the next couple months of our lives to
stopping the phony reform, and forcing Congress to get real about
good public policy. The bill that passed the House last week, HR
3962, represents one of the most profound betrayals in American
political history. Forget the fact that the Republicans oppose it as
well, they would oppose anything coming out of a Congress where they
did not have majority control. WE must oppose HR 3962 because it is a
transparent sham, a total sellout to the medical insurance industry.

You don't have to believe us. Believe the corporate analysts
themselves gloating about the additional windfall profits they are
predicting from this fatally corrupt bill, that purports to FORCE all
Americans to buy a plan from a lobbyist designed restrictive
"market", where at least 90% of the American people would be excluded
from participating in the feeble non-competitive "public" option
provided, even if we wanted to. They might as well now call it the
"welfare" option, because all it really represents is welfare FOR the
insurance companies.

The Republicans condemn the bill because they demagogue that it does
too much. The truth is that it does so LITTLE, that by the time the
Senate gets through with it we expect there will be nothing left that
any progressive could cheer about. The ultimate Benedict Arnold, Joe
Lieberman says HR 3962 is dead on arrival. So we might as well throw
it in the medical waste bin where it belongs and start from scratch,
then let him try to filibuster what the American people REALLY want.

And we are especially ashamed of the Congressional so-called
"Progressive" Caucus which, except for Kucinich and Massa, have
demonstrated once again how utterly worthless they are as
representatives for the people of their districts.

From time to time we will get email from some of you arguing that
there is no point in emailing hardcore Republicans, for those of you
who live in such districts where that is your current representation.
We disagree about that of course. Never should we let the worst
members of Congress think that even people in their own districts are
just going to roll over and take just keep taking it in silence.

But for crying out loud, at least the liberals ought to be listening
to us. And for the presumptive liberals to wave through a bill that
as a bottom line makes exploitive and overpriced corporate insurance
MANDATORY, under threat of the police power of the IRS, is so
outrageous it defies belief. Each and every one of these gutless
wonders needs to hear our protests now.

Medicare For All FREE Fax Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1020.php

And if that wasn't bad enough, the Stupak amendment, forbidding a
woman to even use her own money to pay for an abortion, because no
plan in the new market will be allowed to provide such a service,
even if the plan that woman was forced to buy was paid for with 100%
of her own money, is so far out into reactionist wowee-wowee land, it
is incredulous that any so-called progressive could have voted for
final passage with such a provision in there, especially as they had
already SWORN not to support a bill with such a weak joke of a public
plan.

So now, and only in response to our outrage, some of them are
backtracking, SAYING that draconian anti-choice provision needs to
come out of the final bill. Have you ever heard such worthless lip
service in your life (apart from their lip service of last week, last
month, the year before that, etc.)? Where were the voices of these
miserable cowards in Congress, trying to pass themselves off as our
progressive representatives, when they voted for FINAL passage in the
first place? Who can count on them to put up a fight even one time
any time in the future, if they could and would not do so last week?

And the ultimate answer remains what it has always been. IF AND WHEN
enough of us speak out at ONCE, and declare that we will no longer
support their perpetual shinola, then and only then will we get real
policy change. We live for the day when we can build such a base to
make it so. That day can be today! So please submit the fax action
page once a week, encourage everyone you know to do the same, put the
video module on all of your websites so we can get hundreds of
thousands of views, and like numbers of action page submissions. Then
we will have a real movement for real policy change.

And here is the one click Facebook page for this same fax action.

Single Payer Amendments Action:
http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum1020

And the Twitter reply to send, to send this message to all your
members of Congress that way, is

@cxs #p1020

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.peaceteam.net/in.htm

9/12 and the 912ers

9/12 and the 912ers
By Andrew Kashmer

On this, the day after September 11th, we still remember the tragic terror attacks on our home soil. But one group remembers the national rage we felt on September 12th, 2001. They call themselves the 912ers, and their leader is Glenn Beck. And their latest public demonstrations are not at tea party protests, but town hall events. They are not at every town hall protest, but when the insurance industry incited mobs quiet, you can hear the 912ers speak. “I want us to go back to the Constitution!”, “The Founding Fathers didn’t want this!”, and “I want my country back!” are their cries. My question to them is, “Do you know what that means?”


We would have to throw out the Bill of Rights. Even Hamilton objected to the Bill of Rights in the Federalists papers. Although, his argument was not against the rights themselves, but that the bill suggested they were the only rights. Further, they were not ratified until four years after the Constitution. That means no freedom of the press, assembly, speech, or religion. No right to a trial by a jury of your peers or to protect you from unlawful searches or seizures. However, the 912ers do make one exception for the Bill of Rights. The only amendment to the Constitution that the 912er’s website supports is the second (the right to bear arms).

Minorities and women were not given the right to vote until decades later. African Americans would still be considered property, and even if they had managed to obtain their own emancipation they wouldn’t be able to share the same drinking fountains, restrooms, schools, office spaces, or platoons with their white countrymen. We would be left with a slave-owning state where the vast majority of the population had no right to vote.


There would be no more five day, 40 hour work weeks, which gave birth to the concept of a “weekend”. There would be no minimum wage, unemployment insurance, or overtime rights. No protections against prejudice, harassment, or wrongful dismissal. Not to mention we would still have child labor.


Write off our national parks and national highways. Those were part of a vast socialist agenda, as were your local police and fire departments, public schools, public transportation (including Amtrak), Social Security, and Medicaid/Medicare. For good measure let’s imagine a country without the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, which forced power companies to deliver electricity to all of those flyover states. And in 1949, they extended that law to include phone lines. Don’t forget an Act passed in 1933 that encouraged the federal government to “Buy American” whenever possible. And there goes the United States Postal Service, whose roots were passed into law in 1792 and remains largely intact today because private contractors will not deliver a letter to rural Wyoming for 44 cents.


The spiritual aspect of our nation that we take for granted would be lost. We would no longer be “one nation under God” as the Pledge of Allegiance wasn’t written until 1892, and we would not trust God either. “In God We Trust” was not made into the national motto until 1956.


We would eliminate the CIA and the FBI. The Defense of Marriage Act would disappear and Idaho would be forced to acknowledge legally wed gay couples from other states. The PATRIOT Act would be gone and we could go back to checking out books at our local libraries without worrying about the FBI tracking our reading history, but then again public libraries weren’t in the Constitution either. Telemarketers would love to see the Do Not Call Implementation Act of 2003 repealed. And we would be one step closer to Beck’s fear of marital law, because the Posse Comitatus Act, which prevents the military from carrying out police actions, would also disappear.


I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the 912ers would probably support the repeal of the 16th Amendment, the right of the federal government to tax income. And it would also mean the repeal of NAFTA, CAFTA, and all other regulations against business and industry.


Which of these laws are the 912ers really after eliminating? Are they upset that we have a half black President, and wish the 15th Amendment was repealed? Are they striving to hit the reset button after what they see as a corrupt system spiraling out of the control of the people? Or is it more of a case that after eight years of the Bush Administration, the American voters have put the Democrats in charge of 59% of the House, 60% of the Senate, and the Presidency? Thankfully, the Founding Fathers were smart enough to put an amendment process into the Constitution because they knew that the document they drafted was not perfect. Instead, they were trying to seek a “more perfect union”. Furthermore, they wanted an organic system of laws that would grow as the country and the world changed. So, on September 12, 2009, let us remember those we lost, fight to keep the system honest, and continue to grow as a nation.


***** Reproduction and distribution of this blog is authorized and encouraged by the author. *****

2009 Labor Day Parade in Fremont, OH

My video production of the Labor Day Parade is on my website at http://www.everydayproductions.biz/Parades.html

Please let me know what you think.

Dan Henning

The Work, The Cause, The Hope and the Dream

The Work, The Cause, The Hope and the Dream
By Shari L. Veleba

Late last Tuesday night in Massachusetts, U.S. Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy passed from this life into the next. It was a transition that was not unexpected due to his terminal illness, but it was sad nonetheless to hear the news during the waking hours of early morning Wednesday reports. He was 77 years old, and served in the Senate for nearly 50 years.

Today – Saturday – in Boston, he was eulogized by family and friends and even by President Barack Obama, at the Mission Church. This evening, he was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, near the graves of his brothers John, and Robert. The night before, his body lay in repose at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, also located in Boston. Colleagues from Congress and family spoke about his life.

Five years ago, I stood in that very same presidential museum, perused the history within its walls and embraced the outside view of the harbor and the ocean. I tried to see as far as I could that day, because I had never before set my eyes on the Atlantic. I remember the short, white painted posts connected by links of painted white chain hanging in scallops. It was as close as I had ever been to the ocean. Up until then, my only references to large bodies of water had been the Great Lakes, and Lake Erie in particular, various rivers and streams, and the rare crossing of the Mississippi.

I recall that poignant quotes are etched into the marble walls of the museum. It is almost a sacred space, and those who tour it do so in quiet reflection upon the instances in time when the Kennedy family history and the history of the United States merged into one narrative. That, of course, happened on more than one occasion, and twice at the hands of an assassin.

I was reminded, through the news coverage, of a speech delivered by Senator Kennedy at the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York City. While he did not receive the nomination for the presidency as he had hoped, his speech lives on as a reminder that fighting for the poor and the issues that beset them would remain his calling in the Senate.

He said:
“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

People need to hear things like that, and I believe we need to hear them even more than we think we do. It’s good for a nation to know that people in high level leadership positions are aware of the plight of the poor, because more often than not, the voice of the poor does not have a megaphone, or microphone. The spotlight, instead, is tilted toward the rich, and the needs of conglomerates that gain time with legislators through hefty monetary donations that the poor can never equal or afford.

Not only do people need to hear and read that legislators understand and care, but average citizens need to be able to believe what they hear and read from their elected leaders. Not just on a superficial level, but on a personal, real level.

When that happens, the wheels of democracy more easily move forward. People wake up on Election Day, go to the polls and vote. They call a legislative office and leave a message either for or against pieces of proposed legislation. They testify before legislative committees. The people participate, and feel that they matter, that they count. Communication and collaboration improves. The seed of inclusion is planted and grows, and tells everyone that government really is of, by and for the people.

Setting one’s sights on the streams, rivers and Great Lakes is wonderful. Those territories need to be watched over. But once a person has seen the ocean, horizons broaden. I believe that Senator Kennedy, in his decades of service to the country, helped us to see in a new light the oceans of problems that plague our country and the oceans of possibilities that exist to solve them. He helped set the course toward solutions that have the potential to help everyone stay afloat rather than flounder.

Because we have lost the voice of one senator who was extraordinarily passionate and vocal about social justice and other issues, we have a task before us. It is important that we, the people, find that same passion within each of our lives and rededicate our efforts toward being a help, and not a hindrance to a better and more inclusive nation. In doing that, we will move forward and progress. And what shall be our guiding light? The eternal flame, of course. It illuminates and keeps alive the work, the cause, the hope and the dream.

*****
Shari L. Veleba is a writer based in Columbus, OH and is a former, long-time resident of Fremont, OH.

Obama Wins Video (speech)

OBAMA WINS!!!!

ABC News reports that Obama has won the Presidential election and will be the 44th President of the United States.

Fremont Schools levy passes - local results

Fremont Schools levy passes
News-Messenger reports • November 4, 2008

FREMONT -- The Fremont City School District will get a new middle school after its bond issue and levy passed, according to unofficial election results.

The bond issue passed by more than 1,000 votes -- 7,671 to 6,665, according to the unofficial results from the Sandusky County Board of Elections.

The levy, which was needed for the project to go forward, passed by 35 votes -- 992 to 957.

In the county commissioners races, incumbent Republican Terry Thatcher kept his seat by beating Democrat Glenn Baker. Thatcher had 14,757 votes to Baker’s 13,193 votes.

Republican Danny Polter won the other commissioner’s race after beating Michael Hetrick. He had 15,498 votes to Hetrick’s 12,358.

Barbara Ansted and John Dewey won the two common pleas court judge races.
Sandusky County Commissioner Brad Smith ousted incumbent juvenile/probate court Judge Brad Culbert for his seat on the bench.

County Treasurer Irma Celestino kept her job after beating challenger Don Nalley Jr. Celestino had 15,513 votes to Nalley’s 12,367.

In state races, Republican Karen Gillmor won the 26th District Senate seat, and Republican incumbent Jeff Wagner kept his seat in the Ohio House as representative for the 81st District.

And U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, is leading Democratic challenger George Mays in Sandusky County. Latta received 17,083 votes to Mays’ 11,340.

Latest Electoral Vote results

As of 10:15pm:

Several news networks are reporting
Obama: Electoral: 207 Popular: 25,772,734 (50%)
McCain: Electoral: 135 Popular: 24,827,338 (49%)

With Democrats leading for Senate and House.

Sandusky Co. Judge results

The Toledo Blade reports:

Long-time judge Sandusky County judge defeated

FREMONT -- Two Sandusky County elected officials managed to fend off challengers during Tuesday's election while two others will be looking for new jobs next year.

County Commissioner President Brad Smith defeated long-time incumbent Brad Culbert for county probate and juvenile court judge.

Incumbent County Commissioner Terry Thatcher, a Republican, beat Democratic challenger Glenn Baker, while Republican County Treasurer Irma Celestino defeated Democratic Challenger Don Nalley Jr.

Republican Danny L. Polter defeated Democrat Michael Hetrick to replace retiring commissioner Dan Liskai.

In one county common pleas judge race, Republican challenger Barbara Ansted beat incumbent Judge Roger Hafford and independent candidate David Dorobek.

John Dewey defeated Norman Solze to replace retiring Common Pleas Judge Harry Sergeant.

Vote totals from the Sandusky County Board of Elections include all 72 count precincts. They do not include all absentee ballots.

State issue results

As of 10:00pm, NBC24.com reports:

Issues - RESULTS

Statewide

State Issue 1: To provide for earlier filing deadlines for statewide ballots

479 of 11,156 precincts - 4 percent

x-Yes, 584,789 - 72 percent

No, 230,422 - 28 percent



State Issue 2: To authorize the state to issue bonds to continue the Clean Ohio program for environmental revitalization and conservation.

479 of 11,156 precincts - 4 percent

x-Yes, 619,902 - 72 percent

No, 239,405 - 28 percent



State Issue 3: To amend the constitution to protest private property rights in ground water, lakes and other watercourses.

479 of 11,156 precincts - 4 percent

x-Yes, 603,693 - 72 percent

No, 229,403 - 28 percent



State Issue 5: Referendum on legislation making changes to check cash lending (sometimes know as payday lending), fees, interest rates and practices.

461 of 11,156 precincts - 4 percent

x-Yes, 623,009 - 70 percent

No, 268,424 - 30 percent



State Issue 6: To amend the constitution by initiative petition for a casino near Wilmington in southwest Ohio and distribute to all Ohio counties a tax on the casino.

425 of 11,156 precincts - 4 percent

Yes, 356,346 - 39 percent

x-No, 546,807 - 61 percent