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For some reason, the software was not displaying all of the comments or accepting comments, so I am writing here. This post is a perfect example of the reason why neither Hillary's health care plan nor Obama's will work. As long as there is a system of bureaucrats evaluating what income and expenses are allowed and disallowed in determining benefits, people will be left behind without health care. A person who r eceives a few extra dollars by giving blood could lose eligibility for a social services program. Similarly, would the state require a person to donate blood for pay in order to reach an income level that kicks him out of a social services program? Our tax money, federal and state, is paying for enormous social services bureaucracies. But how much of the social work time is devoted to actually providing a service and how much time is spent reviewing applications and denying people benefits for arcane and even false or correctable reasons. Then people are forced into lengthy appeals processes that they may not understand. (When disabled people apply for Social Security, they often get a denial and have to go to a lawyer, so look at all of the Social Security money that goes to paying back the attorney because the agency tries to deny benefits to people.) For HUD to scrutinize something as trivial as a whether a person gave blood is an example of how far these agencies will go to find ways to exclude people. We don't want the same situation to occur in a national health care plan. Instead of health care, we would be paying for offices full of caseworkers deciding massive numbers of appeals cases. (My personal opinion is that the government could also save a great deal of money if every elderly person received the same Social Security payment, rather than keeping track of the wages every person earned throughout one's life and individually determining everyone's benefit amount. The amount could increase with every year of aging, so a person age 90 gets a lot more to help with the nursing care expenses.)
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Sometimes a little reading before writing can be helpful.
Sometimes avoiding a little drinking before writing can be helpful.
universal health care as a basic human right?
Just talked to Thankful, and she can't get online but wanted to wish Happy Birthday to EB4Dean, and to Cat's mom!
Printable version My Lai: Legacy of a massacre By Celina Dunlop 
Forty years on, and "My Lai" is synonymous with "massacre".
504 people were killed by US soldiers in the My Lai massacre
The killing of Iraqi civilians at Haditha has often been referred to as a modern-day My Lai.
The name is shorthand for slaughter of the defenceless, the benchmark of American wartime atrocity.
The murders of 504 men, women, children and babies happened in a northerly province of South Vietnam on 16 March 1968.
"The My Lai Tapes" are a record not only of atrocity writ large but also of heroism.
They are a record of how war can bring out not only the worst but also the best in people.
Above all they are a record of lessons learned 40 years ago, in My Lai, Binh Tay and My Khe - lessons that should not be forgotten.
Celina Dunlop is picture editor of the Economist. The Archive Hour: The My Lai Tapes will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 2000 GMT on Saturday, 15 March, 2008. You can also listen online for seven days after that at Radio 4's Listen again page.
Saturday, March 15, 2008 7:17 PM by Chuck Todd
From NBC's Chuck Todd
We have final delegate allocation estimates directly from the Iowa Democratic Party based on today's 99 county conventions. The results, Obama indeed did gain 7 delegates to up his total from 16 (earned on Jan. 3) to 23 now. Clinton upped her total by 1, from 15 to 16 and Edwards dropped 8 delegates to 6. Those six will be up for grabs, perhaps, at the Iowa Democratic Party state convention in June.
Here's the updated delegate total, counting these new Iowa allocations:
Pledged Count: Obama leads 1,407-1,252
Superdelegates: Clinton leads 253-217
OVERALL TOTAL: Obama leads 1,624-1,505
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2...
Hey Phil - I've been at lacrosse all day (in hail, rain you name it) but I see you helped score another ten delegates for our fellow, Barack. Thank you and all the other Iowans for your efforts.
Edwards supporters by sticking together create the opportunity to send their own people to Denver, just what we need eh?, more super delegates? Edwards earned the right to be represented by winning them in the first place
mary vb
my son is stuck in Chicago at O'Hare waiting for your weather to clear, he was pretty pumped up by the Obama results, kind of made up for being stuck in the airport
lacrosse in hail sounds like a character building expeience for the kids
Obama is building momentum in Iowa.
should be an interesting District Convention here
Michigan could seat delegates at no cost just by releasing all delegates and holding an allocation caucus like we do in Iowa before we actually elect National Delegates if they wanted to on March 31st at their conventions.(but Hillary doesn't do caucuses well enough to go that way it seems)
bbl
my son did all the work for Obama, it was great to see young people fight for the delegate spots at our convention today
and blogger Kevin Powell is new County co-chair
Another great one by kid oakland. He and poblano are two incredible diarists at daily kos.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3...
Off to spend time with the visiting uncles. The kid was lucky to have a full cheering section for him today - he was on cloud nine and his teammates were a tad starstruck. LOL
mary vb, I've always loved kid oakland's diaries, also.
puddle, are you saying that you think Barack should not have condemned their actions? Also, do you think that the Chinese gvmt has not oppressed the Tibetans?
I respect your opinion and I know you've lived there so that's why I'm asking.
Phil, you'd be surprised how many JE supporters are here. We're very loyal.
Okay,
anybody ready to step back from the political scene for a moment
here is diversion:
If Bill Clinton was the a black president
Let's try again
If Bill Clinton was the a black president
does that mean I'm black?
If he didn't have sex with that woman
does that mean I didn't either?
After I saw that cute photo of Barack with his mother
how could I not vote for him?
Can't wait for Hillary to release her photo with her mother.
I wonder if it will be as cute~
Howard is first, don't forget!
More skullduggery from the voodoo lady.......
Clinton Tries to Delay County ConventionsThe Associated Press is reporting that the Clinton campaign has asked the Texas Democratic Party to postpone the county conventions scheduled for Saturday, March 29. The conventions are the next stage in Texas’ convoluted caucus process.
In a letter to the party late Friday, the Clinton campaign stated it had received more than 2,000 complaints of violations during the caucus process, in which a million Texans came out. The campaign wants the eligibility of the caucus-goers double checked before the process continues.
With about 41 percent of precinct caucuses reported, rival Barack Obama was ahead with 56 percent to Clinton’s 44 percent.
If Bill Clinton was the a black president
does that mean I'm black?
It's a demonstrable fact that Bill Clinton would never have become president if he weren't black.
Phil, you'd be surprised how many JE supporters are here. We're very loyal.
Never mind their previous comments which trashed him.
It's a demonstrable fact that Bill Clinton would never have become president if he weren't black.
LOL~
Howard is first, don't forget!
How can Howard be first when your post keeps being on the bottom?
Unless you go biblical and cite: The last will be first.
Howard is first no matter where I am :)
"B*tch may be the new Black, but Black is the new President, B*tch."
--Tracy Morgan, SNL.
...and he was hiiiiilaaaarrriiious!
seashell
often late in the process here in Iowa supporters stick together to elect a particular individual as a delegate to the national convention, and as this is playing out would mean the creation of another super delegate, in effect, and has nothing to do with Edwards as President and more to do with platform fights. Edwards gathered a band that wants to take on the status quo directly in a fight.
Oregon would have a harder time to do that from scratch, so a vote for Edwards favors Hillary, even though his positions are closer to Obama's.
Good morning, everybody
What did we do to commemorate that it's now five years since we invaded
i didn't do anything since i'm not into memorials and left all my old shoes in DC
this guy sounds a lot like subway... Obama Boy, sung to the tune of O Danny Boy
Well, there's an innovation, but it doesn't seem to help. my comment box in opera now has a scroll bar at the bottom when i get close to the right margin and the line just goes on and on, but it doesn't register and show up as text.
Anyway, i left all my shoes in D.C. last year. One of our members reports from the evenit in Concord;
Over 400 shoes and boots all lined up to make three paths leading to the capital with tags of NH servicemen's names and Iraq people killed in this Invasion. This made a huge statement to the public and was very effective. As did, the many signs along the shoes that spoke of issues of truth about this country and what we have done in Iraq.. More young people's faces were present again today as between 300-400 people showed up to march in the parade and listened to speeches about the five year anniversary of the Invasion in Iraq. Loud Cheers were heard whenever Impeachment was mentioned. Media as usual were very scarce and afraid to tell the public the real unrest in this country.. WMUR made a quick presence..in and out in no time..Individuals did take time to film there and are going to put it on utube we hope.. Many wore pink masking tape with the number of US soldiers killed and Iraq people. It was a very successful day despite the weather early on..Gail
Obama won Texas and Iowa (they can make the call now). We have the same process for the election of the actual delegates as most states, it is multi-step.
Florida missed the chance for an easy do-over but I get the sense that if Hillary lost a second contest, she would say the rules unfair and try to have the first vote count.
I think as this process is playing out it gives the party a great group of new activists, everywhere the contest goes, and it is a good thing Hillary is willing to hang around and give Obama a run. Two young women who organized our biggest precinct for Obama first were elected delegates yesterday,and then went on to volunteer to serve on one of the District convention committees ( there is a vote but they ran unopposed).
We have a real head start on electing local candidates in the fall. and our State Legislator is running unopposed the Republicans are so demoralized.
I have to think PA wil have the same experience if Clinton takes the high road. After seeing in Iowa that old Edwards supporters tended towards Obama or would not go to her she might just forget about Florida since it is about who can pick up his supporters there too.
that kid oakland diary at kos is a winner! well done! thanks for the link, Mary.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/15/214439/564/325/477667
good morning, Phil. sounds like you've been busy, as always! thanks again for all you do for democracy - and thank your son for me too, please.
The Fed providing liquidity to a third party to save Bear Stearns was last done in the depression, providing the final proof that Hoover is no longer in the running with Bush for worst President ever.
I'm sure many have seen these, but I love the contrast!
John:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gwqEneBKUs&NR=1
Barack:
Good morning, BFA!
Had a nice lie-in this am, which was greatly needed after yesterday. Today is not nearly as spectacular, btz, but may be as busy.
*********
From my quick skim through the back threads.
Susan, your *descent* remark brought a chuckle ... I managed to figure it out even before Monica did.
********
BobNJ: I don't believe that the *facts* you presented about Rachel Corrie are correct. But even if they were, is that a reason to prevent her story from being told? Not doing so is censorship, in any other society but ours. Israel is apparently allowing the show to be staged and good for them. What are WE afraid of?
And why should inflammatory anti-Arab comments be tolerated here? Trying to speaking of *balance* in this situation gets me the same reaction that it got Howard. Think about it.
For those who would like to know, here is a fairly comprehensive wiki article about Rachel Corrie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Corr...
*********
rdorgan: that was a delightful photo of Obama with his mother. Thanks for posting it.
btz = btw ... close, but no cigar.
**********
Where there's a will, there's way.
============
Iran's young women find private path to freedom
A headscarf pushed back to show off a new haircut, a tight jacket worn over traditional dress, expensive make-up ... the challenge to the hardline clerics is taking place in bars and cafes, not in the polling booth, as the youth of Tehran push the boundaries of self-expression
Peter Beaumont in Tehran
The Observer, Sunday March 16 2008
On the wall of the Nadiri coffee house in Jumhoori Avenue, Tehran, a place where the young congregate, a sign reads: 'Our respected customers are kindly requested to take care of their hijab.'
Shareh Beik, 27, a travel agent, sitting with her boyfriend, Mehdi Sayed, is struggling with hers. The pretty Venetian wool wrap that she wears as her headscarf - bought by Mehdi as a Valentine's Day present - is slipping off her short, fashionable feather cut and on to her shoulders. She tugs it back but it slips down again and then again.
The problem is that she likes to wear her headscarf far back on her head to show as much of her hair as possible.
For the men who drive the green and white vans of the gascht ershad - who police what women wear on the streets - her dress in this coffee shop, like many of the other young women, would be 'bad hijab'.
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar...
kid oakland nailed it
It is the middle of the night here in Iowa but the cows are now switched over to daylight savings so I can't go back, I have dropped one of my night visits to the maternity pen and start my day earlier instead, hope things are OK
time to check, bbl
Why is it that the States with whom putzCo seem to have the closest ties are among the most violent in the world?
===============
Foreigners target of fatal Pakistan blastWoman killed and British envoy among injured
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
A bomb ripped through an Italian restaurant in Islamabad last night, killing a Turkish woman and injuring 10 other people in an attack that signalled a new departure in Pakistan's escalating campaign of militant violence.
A British diplomat and several Americans were among the injured at Luna Caprese, a restaurant in a busy shopping area popular with western diplomats, journalists and aid workers. It was the biggest attack on foreigners in the capital since 2002, when extremists hurled grenades into a Christian church in the diplomatic enclave, killing five.
But as a string of attacks, mostly suicide bombings, hit Pakistan over the past year, many thought a fresh attack inevitable. Last year a suicide bomber killed a security guard outside a nearby five star hotel.
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar...
More global warming news, unfortunately.
===============
Glaciers melt 'at fastest rate in past 5,000 years'
Juliette Jowit and Robin McKie
The Observer, Sunday March 16 2008
The world's glaciers are melting faster than at any time since records began, threatening catastrophe for hundreds of millions of people and their eco-systems.
The details are revealed in the latest report from the World Glacier Monitoring Service and will add to growing alarm about the rise in sea levels and increased instances of flooding, avalanches and drought.
Based on historical records and other evidence, the rate at which the glaciers are melting is also thought to be faster that at any time in the past 5,000 years, said Professor Wilfried Haeberli, director of the monitoring service. 'There's no absolute proof, but nevertheless the evidence is strong: this is really extraordinary.'
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20...
Irish Physician
A doctor in Ireland wanted to take off work and go hunting, so He approached his assistant."Garge, I am going hunting tomorrow and don't want to close the Clinic. I want you to take care of the clinic and take care of all me patients".
"Yes, sir!" answers Garge.
The doctor goes hunting and returns the following day and asks: "So, Garge, how was your day?"
Garge told him that he took care of three patients.
"The first one had a headache so I gave him TYLENOL.""Bravo, Mate, and the second one?" asks the doctor."The second one had stomach burning and I gave him MAALOX, sir," Says Garge."Bravo, bravo! You're good at this, and what about the third one?" Asks the doctor.
"Sir, I was sitting here and suddenly the door opens and a woman Enters. Like a flame, she undresses herself, taking off everything Including her bra and her panties and lies down on the table. She Shouts: "HELP ME!! For five years I have not seen any man!""Tunderin'' Lard Jayzus, Garge,what did you do?" asks the doctor.
"I put drops in her eyes."
mornin' jo
Thanks for the link to "Obama Boy" I archived it on Hannah.
I keep having to resist comment on the self-referential aspect of KOS. So many of the posters seem more concerned about form rather than content and how they relate to each other. Of course, it's hard to discuss Clinton's policies since her campaign works so hard at keeping control of the media coverage by throwing out one outrageous topic after another.
I sure hope that eventually they run out.
Of course, with the Rev Wright thing they're playing into an authentic Republican angst. That's what those people have been terrified of for years--that African Americans will catch on to how they've been marginalized again and rise up in even greater numbers than they did before. It's actually a similar angst to the one they now feel about the Muslims in Iraq. The knowledge that they've been horrid to them and expect them to seek revenge. It doesn't occur to them that people should want to just be left alone to enjoy a dignified existence.
Ironically, those who survive the attrocities being committed actually do have their existence dignified.
Speaking of historical records, yesterday's local paper had an interesting story about the visit of Julius Caesar to this area around 58 BC, based on a reference to his passage in his own account of his Gallic war campaigns.
There is evidence of settlements in this area from 4500 BC on, primarily Celtic tribes (the Helvetii), which may be one reason that part-Irish me feels so *centered* here. The Romans left substantial imprints here; some sites are still being discovered and excavated even now.
The tribes on the other side of Lac Leman had the audacity to allow Hannibal and his Carthaginians, elephants and all, passage through on their way to attack Rome via the Alps, which, although this had happened many years before Caesar's arrival, had not endeared them to the Romans, who had long memories.
In Geneva city, St Peter's Cathedral, Protestant since the days of Jean Calvin, Catholic before that, and sacred to the old Celtic tribes before that, also has a full Roman bath underneath.
It does help to give one a perspective on history and empire, unless global warming cuts our remaining time all too short.
LOL, Jo, that's a great one ... and one that I've never heard.
The dangers of old arms can come back to haunt us all.
And did yesterday for some.
===============
Scores of civilians and US military staff feared dead as huge Albanian arms dump explodes
By David Randall
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Scores of people, including US military staff, are feared to have died after a Soviet-era munitions dump exploded at an Albanian army base yesterday. The blast injured more than 240 people, including many children – and the country's Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, said he believed the death toll could be considerable.
The initial blast at the depot at Gerdec village, about six miles north of the capital, Tirana, set off a series of explosions, and ammunition continued to detonate for hours. The blast was felt 12 miles away and was heard at a distance of more than 30 miles. Many of the injured are civilians hurt by the enormous shockwaves that hit nearby villages and cars passing by on a nearby highway. Terrorism is not suspected.
[...]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe...
on topic--
No, phil, I wouldn't say that health care is a right. Rights adhere to individuals. Keeping the population healthy is a social concern--i.e. genetic variability is an almost certain guarantee that some individual humans will survive any epidemic or other situation that kills off the majority of a population, but the social organization will be destroyed. It's our society and culture that's at risk if we don't take preventive action to minimize pre-mature deaths. Predatory subsistence is IMHO the default condition of man. Predation does not produce superior creatures, even if we refer to the lion as the king of beasts.
You can "call me a taxi" or "a king" but that won't turn me into either. LOL
Bad joke, I know.
I'm not sure whether any in the US have been following the recent suicide of a UK police chief, which prompted this comment in today's Independent. Probably not ... and there's really no reason why you should be.
Ironically, the UK, from where many of us who are descended from European stock have origins (I am a mixture of English, Irish & Danish), has almost as many problems with gender in historically *male* professions as the US seems to, while the Continent generally has moved to equalize the situation somewhat better. For example, the police chief in Geneva is a woman, Monica Bonfanti, and she is generally getting rave reviews.
===================
Editor-At-Large: Women are rarely welcome in the police chaps' club
Machismo is still the norm in the force, as Michael Todd's case shows. Even in trouble, he was still 'one of the boys'
Janet Street-Porter
Sunday, 16 March 2008
The Chief Constable of Manchester, Michael Todd, was found dead near the summit of Snowdon last week, face-down and reeking of gin. He'd climbed the mountain in appalling weather, sending a series of increasingly frantic text messages to his family and colleagues.
[...]
Why should we care about what senior police officers do in their private lives? Todd's bonking passed without comment because he was the kind of guy the establishment feel comfortable with. And that is why, after all these years there are hardly any women at the top.
In 1990, Alison Halford was the most senior female police officer in England and Wales. In 1983, she became assistant chief constable in Merseyside, the first woman ever to do so. She unsuccessfully applied to be deputy chief constable and failed nine times to be promoted. Eventually, she brought a case alleging sexual discrimination, naming her boss and the Home Secretary.
As if that wasn't traumatic enough – can you imagine what happened next? She was suspended on charges of neglect of duty and discreditable conduct, said to have jumped in a pool at a party in her underwear and been drunk on duty. A local councillor alleged she was a lesbian "who should not be a senior police officer". Her boss kept a file on her private life. She eventually settled the sexual discrimination case and (not surprisingly) retired. The disciplinary hearing was then dropped. Halford later won a European Court case over her office phone being tapped.
[...]
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/com...
Here's a good article about Iraq ... and so true.
No surprises here.
The *Winners* are listed at the bottom of the article and prick tops the list by far.
And still ... no serious efforts on impeachment. If only to be able to hold up our heads in the world, we have to make the effort.
==============
Iraq: Who won the war?
Not the 90,000 Iraqi civilians or the 4,200 US and UK troops killed since 2003. The big winners are the money men who have made billions. Raymond Whitaker and Stephen Foley report
[...]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...
Terrorism is not suspected.
I suppose that would depend on how one defines terrorism, whether by the intent or the effect. The American presence in Albania would terrify me if I lived there though it's not their overt intent. Why is it that we consider what's done on purpose more significant that what results from negligence? Surely the detonnation of a munitions warehouse is evidence of negligence. Just setting up such a facility within six miles of a town is evidence of negligence.
Remember all the bad press Iraq earned for storing weapons and munitions in schools? I thought that valid, even though it was probably done because schools were less likely to be bombed during the decade leading up to the invasion.
One of the ills of globalization* is that human trafficking ... an obscene abscess on humanity in general ... has become one of the world's most flourishing and lucrative trades.
This is a story about Bangladesh, but one could substitute almost any developing or Eastern European country for Bangladesh, so widespread has human trafficking, particularly that of children for sex, become.
*********
And this is the last.
==================
Inside the slave trade
They are promised a better life. But every year, countless boys and girls in Bangladesh are spirited away to brothels where they have to prostitute themselves with no hope of freedom
Special investigation by Johann Hari
Saturday, 15 March 2008
This is the story of the 21st century’s trade in slave-children. My journey into their underworld took place where its alleys and brothels are most dense - Asia, where the United Nations calculates 1 million children are being traded every day. It took me to places I did not think existed, today, now. To a dungeon in the lawless Bangladeshi borderlands where children are padlocked and prison-barred in transit to Indian brothels; to an iron whore-house where grown women have spent their entire lives being raped; to a clinic that treat syphilitic 11-year-olds.
[...]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...
Unless someone can demonstrate to me that women are selling their daughters, I am going to conclude that human males do not like other people's children, including their own which they don't recognize.
Why is the message that your father in heaven loves you so attractive? Because it's clear that your earthly father hates your guts.
There are, of course, exceptions to every generalization. Fathers who love their children should not get their noses out of joint (whatever that means).
THE SEQUENCE IS ALL OFF--very annoying
March 7, 2008
One of the key questions in the U.S. presidential race is what will happen if U.S. troops leave Iraq. Of course nobody knows for sure. But I can say this: Al Qaeda will not take power and establish an Islamic state.
Too many in the West persist in seeing Al Qaeda as a territorialized Middle East organization bent on expelling the Christians and Jews from the region in order to create a "Dar al-Islam" (land of Islam) under the umbrella of a caliphate. Al Qaeda is not a continuation of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas or Hezbollah. It is a non-territorial global entity which has never tried
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By David Reed on Mar 15, 2008 4:00 PM EDTPlease click on to my name at the top of my "Hucksterteeth?" post for your answers!