Motley Moose – Archive

…so where does that leave us?

We’ve been waiting for Obama to make his decision on what to do with troops going into Afghanistan to attack Al Qaida (who aren’t in Afghanistan any more) after the rerun of the election which was proven to be fraudulent and allowed Karzai to win.

Whew.

I’m really sick of our playing games in the world. With Karzai’s brother accused of being a top Heroin Chief, with General McChrystal calling for more troops (while being criticized for his dealings with the Pat Tillman controversy), with a Civil War going on amid the Afghans that WE CANNOT CORRECT (just ask the Russians)… we are perceived as Occupiers and we should get out.

Did anyone notice their gasoline prices going up in the past week. Ours in the Eastern Panhandle of WV went up around $.20 a gallon… and I’m not sure why (unless the oil and gas industry is trying to get us upset with the current administrations (state and federal) before any elections come up in 2010.

Then I got an e-mail with a petition to Congress in it from a group called “Stop Oil Speculation Now” blaming the increased price on unregulated oil speculators on Wall Street – you know, the guys who got us over $4.00 a gallon before the  2008 elections –  and urging us to tell our elected officials that we are against this and want them regulated.

I was tripping around the web and found this on The Political Carnival:

ATLANTA, Oct. 14 (UPI) — Georgia will stop posting signs along highway construction projects funded by economic stimulus funds, because the signs cost too much money, officials said.

The signs were first considered a nice indication that stimulus funds were putting Georgians to work but they became a target for ridicule and criticism once it was determined that they cost $1,200 apiece, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

I had missed a post by Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D., in HuffPo the other day. It was called President Obama: Get Angry About Health Care Reform.

Here’s a really revealing clip:

The past decade, which allowed the Bush Administration, American corporations and the great financial giants to turn the country into a dispeptic ulcer, which was mostly Bush and some Obama administered, has left us in a slump. It has taken so much energy to try and turn things around that we wonder if we can summon up more just to keep going.

To start with, PhARMA, the big pharmaceuticals lobby, is spending 12 million bucks right now on ads promoting the Baucus bill, and they’ve set aside a total of 150 million bucks for the rest of the campaign. This is part of the 80 billion that the industry has pledged over ten years to reduce pharmaceutical costs ( although how this 12 million reduces costs, I don’t know… surely they will find a way to bill this expense to the consumer.)

As I wait for Obama to give his speech to the joint houses of Congress tonight,  I am seeing ads all over the place pushing every possible view on reforming health care. I’ve seen late-night ads by independent (although obviously right-wingnut) organizations pushing every lie that has been raised on Health Care Reform, from Death Panels to to a statement that the majority of Americans are happy with what they’ve got. I’ve seen the AARP come out pushing reform in Health Care and not to shy away from changes that have to be made.

Today is our celebration of the Labor Movement and the value of the workers who built and continue to maintain America. As a holiday, it has an interesting political history and looking at the 127 years it has been celebrated we see stark changes that have been made in the relationship between the government and labor.

Robert Creamer wrote a really good piece in the HuffPo  called: Why Health Insurance Reform Will Pass This Fall — It’s the High Political Ground.  I direct you to it since it blows a hole… no, four holes… in the stuff Morning Joe and his friends were putting out this morning.

The basic points (read the article for the expansions):

1). Most Americans – including swing voters – can’t stand the health insurance industry.

2). The Obama Administration will use every ounce of its political capital to win this battle.

3). As the vote grows closer, many moderate Democrats will begin to realize the price they will pay personally if health insurance reform fails.

4). Finally, the pundits have ignored a critically important new development : the Obama base has been energized.

I was watching Dr. Robert Ouellet, the President of the Canadian Medical Association, on C-Span’s Morning Edition as he took calls and questions on Canada’s single-payer system. The most important thing he did was blow holes in the myths which are being actively promoted by the Right-wing health opponents. I wish everyone could be watching or listening to this and, if as is the case on Sundays, C-Span reruns this morning’s program on C-Span 3 in the afternoon, then it would be worth catching it and listening.