In watching the scene unfold regarding healthcare debate, it seems to me that we are in a real pickle having to contend with corporate media coverage of this. THE IGNORANCE IS APPALING!

What have we become? I think it is only human to love a perfect stranger and want her to get healthcare if she is sick. I would much rather my taxes go to her than anything else.

Hey Thom, following your lead, I sent the following email to a half dozen Democratic Senators this morning regarding healthcare reform:
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Dear Senator,

Sometimes, the simplest solution is the most elegant. Here is how to solve the healthcare debate in one simple step:

Expand Medicare to cover more than it currently does (plain Medicare only covers "pre-existing" ailments such as disabilities and old age), then allow anyone to "buy in" (helping to explain how it will be paid for). The infrastructure is already in place, it's a system people already know and love, and I dare any Republican to come out against Medicare.

It would allay the fears of Seniors being told their Medicare is going to be "cut" to pay for the new system, and reminds people that Medicare is *already* a government system that has been working well for years.

Call the new system "MedicarePLUS", *NOT* something like "Medicare for All" (which implies it's the same old Medicare, leaving an opening for critics to attack the *existing* system).

It seems like such a simple solution that answers just about every nonsense argument I hear coming out of Town Hall protesters. And as you see here, it can be summed up in just two simple sentences.

(I am writing you from Texas, a state with two Republican senators and NO interest in providing a Public Option. I received a generalized form-letter back from one, and a "thank you for your concern about nuclear weapons" from the other), so I come to you for a more receptive audience.

Thank you.

I thought AARP was working against healthcare reform. Then, I saw this: http://aarp.convio.net/site/PageNavigator/Myths_vs_Facts. Have they changed their tune? Or were they always for reform?

Regarding the Cato Institute gentleman's outrage at USPMG Potter's salary + bonus given the 7 Billion Loss. What does he think of the airlines? And the airline's answer is to further cut wages, gut benefits, and delay maintenance while the executives have lined their pockets with enormous salaries and bonuses. Their incomes make Potter's of USPS look like chump change.

I read the editorial from Investor's Business Daily that was linked to in the newsletter. The writer (name not given) says, "People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless." The writer is apparently unaware that Stephen Hawking is English, and has lived in England all his life. This is as dumb as that senator (I forget who, exactly) saying, "If Ted Kennedy had government health care, he'd be allowed to die."

I thought I’d provide a summary of my observations at the ShoWare Center town hall event in Kent, WA this past weekend. It didn’t take long for me to come to the conclusion that this really wasn’t my scene; while I was standing in line to enter the building, a couple of flunkies from the radio station were going down the line soliciting comments about why they were there. The person in front of me had a microphone poked in her face, as did the person behind me. I guessed they missed me, because I’m short—and “brown”—not a “real” American who had no right to have an opinion, let alone capable of one. If I wasn’t standing in line, these guys would be checking to see if their car doors were locked.

The show began with Kent’s Republican mayor Suzette Cooke pitching hockey to the assemblage, and a fair number of people in the crowd shouted their approval of an all-white sport where arbitrary violence is not only tolerated, but expected. Then they Arrived. Mike Malloy was his usual hammy self, and Stephanie Miller “performed” in front of Thom in a manner which I won’t describe, since this site is strictly PG. I thought things started a bit slow, until Ron Reagan started shouting into his mike.

One has to admit that the personalities of these folks made conversation somewhat awkward at first, as everyone tried to settle into their familiar routine. A woman sitting near me complained that Miller was joking about serious subjects, but that’s her shtick. Miller did make one interesting observation that seemed to go completely over most listeners’ heads, although Malloy tried to compensate by over-doing the laugh track: Rather than assassinating Hitler, someone should have bought his art. Hitler always saw himself as an “artist,” and perhaps if he had been convinced that his proper role in society was painting bad water colors before he joined the Nazi Party, then maybe 50 million people would not have died.

Thom initially seemed a fish-out-water, the “professor” trying to make the intellectual argument amidst the general hamming, yucking and loud exhortations, but eventually he succumbed. Thom “rose” to occasion when pointing out that people need to become the levers of power, and darkly hinting at an expected Supreme Court decision in the fall could lead to a Mussolini-like merger between government and corporations. Another great point was the mistake of not framing the public healthcare option as an extension of Medicare, although I still think that single-payer (perhaps framed as an extension of Medicare) should have been the first line option, and the public option as the back-up plan.

I appreciated Malloy pointing out the “holes” in the history being taught in school—and that includes college as well; people leave school with no knowledge of how bigotry, xenophobia, mass murder and other lesser human qualities of the past have shaped the present just as much as flag-waving and jingoism. One question from the moderator was bound to anger me, but Malloy made a brief comment about NAFTA before rightly detouring toward the country that has the U.S. by the nuts, China. The U.S. exports more goods to Mexico than to China, but imports four times the amount from China. It also should be pointed out that jobs that initially were “exported” to Mexico were soon re-exported to Asia, because labor costs are even cheaper there. Of course, if “renegotiating” NAFTA means the further destabilizing of Mexico, then I hope these progressives can keep their consciences clear.

I also could not help but feel that there was something that didn’t feel quite right, even as the proceedings became a little less chaotic: no one in the audience was allowed to ask questions directly (at least not up to 8:30, when I had to leave). Perhaps there were just too many people to accommodate, or perhaps the sponsors didn’t think people could ask cogent questions. Being afraid that people might ask “difficult” questionsshouldn’t have been an issue, since the group was fairly well-mannered. Perhaps I just don’t know how these functions are supposed to operate.

Overall I wasn’t disappointed by the show; at least I was able to see in the flesh the people I have been listening to (Bill Press not as much, and Malloy has to compete with Coast-to-Coast, although I must say he does hold his own up against UFOs, ghouls and Mothmen). But I couldn’t shake the feeling I didn’t belong there, not with these people; it has been my experience that only difference what these people think of my “group” is only different from right-wing racists is a matter of shading. I have to look after myself, within the group confines I have been placed. On Sunday, I was standing at a bus stop when a Kent cop drove very slowly past me, smirking; he assumed I was either an illegal alien or had an outstanding warrant, and thought it would be funny to see me act afraid. I gave him a “salute” as he passed by. I am under no illusions about the world I live in, and it is a world those people in the ShoWare Center help create for me. For me, life is a two-front war.

You called it Andrew - that one caller was rude, condescending and completely uninformed. And he wouldn't even _listen_. That's my problem with the right...they always assume they ARE right and can't listen to another point of view...since that might involve having their worldview changed.

Re: Privatizing is more efficient, and more cost effective.

That dog don't hunt!

I still say that big business gets very inefficient as well. The only difference is that these folks want to privatize everything because they want to make a profit off of everything! A for profit corporation is always going to charge more for their services than a non profit government entity.

Hi All,

I think that what's missing, and maybe all that's missing, is people taking charge. We're all fairly resigned, feel beaten down, and think that nothing will make a difference.

What needs to happen is that WE need to create an activist culture again. I'm ready. I've just joined my local Democratic Club, and will be not only attending, but whipping up the energy. There is a lackadaisical attitude, at least here in LA. I had to really dig to even find these people- two websites down, no returned calls, the one website that was functional, I had to swim through pages just to find out how to contact them.

I've had it with this. I am going to take this on and transform the complacency here in LA into activism. It is critical, and there is no more important task right now, so far as I can see.

We're suffering from complacency. Everyone who has their head a little bit above the water needs to reach down and help the others to see what's possible if we would all speak and stand for our passions. One person maybe does nothing, but a whole bunch of "one persons" can do a lot.

I commend Thom, and Randi, Ron, Mike, and all the rest for doing what they do. I think a concerted and coordinated effort needs to be made on the part of all the Progressive talk show hosts, TV hosts, etc., to get us organized.

We can do it! It is the time. The world teeters on so many precarious edges and it won't take a lot to push it in any direction. Let's take charge of this once and for all and push it in the RIGHT direction (right=correct, not rightwing), and we can have a world that works for everyone, our children's children especially.

I have listened to these conservatives for a long time calling in on your show and working with them. I have come to the conclusion the vast majority of them cannot be reached. They have child like minds that are in gotcha mode or wanting to prove how we were protected by the republicans because there is so much to fear. Everything you say they turn around and don't realize they have turned themselves into the very thing our fore fathers warned against. They have moved the conversation so far right the democrats are nowhere near liberal. The individual that called in during the second hour talking about the post office was a perfect example, he was in gotcha mode and an obvious hardened right wing zealot. He had a child like mind that would never under any circumstance admit he was wrong or someone that didn't share his beliefs was right.

Re: Have we reached a point where politicians can’t do anything without the approval and support of corporations.

YES!

Drug Industry Payback For White House Surrender: $150 Million In TV Advertising

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