Public Option Still Alive and Well

Remarkable what the progressive push-back has managed to accomplish in the health reform arena. Looks like we might actually get a decent bill passed after all.

Kudos to Obama for Winning the Nobel Peace Prize

Ok, I have recently been grousing about the incrementalism of the Obama administration and worried about the continuing wars, but this is clearly a positive thing for both Obama himself and the country. Right-wing pundits who are saying this is embarassing or undeserved are misguided as usual. This is about the Nobel Committee encouraging peace overtures and saying that the war and fear mongering of the Bush administration will no longer be held against the USA. Obama does seem overly cautious at times, but he is so far from Dubya and his horrible thugs like Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al it is no surprise the world is celebrating this. Good for our President, and here's hoping this will encourage him to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and pursue genuine peace in the Middle East and all over the world. That would really be change we can believe in!

Fall Blahs and Swine Flu

My household and some of those with whom I share children have suffered bouts of swine flu already. It seems to me the CDC is sometwhat behind the eight ball on this epidemic. My son still has not received his promised vaccinations through his school. Nobody in Santa Fe appears to even have the vaccine which is supposed to protect against swine flu available as of this week. Younger people are documented to be at greater risk of serious complications and even death from this strain of the flu. Why wasn't the US more prepared to deal with this in a timely fashion?

Harvest Festival in La Cineguilla

My neighbors and I got together this weekend for a lovely feast from our community garden. The green tomato pie was divine! There was lively discussion of the continuing need to "act locally" when it comes to food, water, and energy. There are a number of initiatives in our beautiful little rural area near Santa Fe which aim to accomplish that so we can become truly sustainable. Relying on the government in these perilous times is probably not too smart. I still hope for the best with regard to universal health care, but if they are just going to charge us money to put in the pockets of insurance companies, I would prefer to opt out. Taking care of each other in our local areas is the wave of the future. No doubt about it.

Get Out of Afghanistan and Iraq Now!

It has become increasingly clear that the "missions" in both these disasterous war zones are muddled and unclear. There is no genuine defense being mounted in either arena. Instead we are now told that "nation building" is the new goal. (Before it was regime change, WMD and a dozen other murky excuses.) Billions of our tax dollars continue to be spent for what now appears to simply be a political purpose, i.e. that we cannot afford to "lose" these pointless wars (reference Vietnam where we stayed a decade after it was clear there was no way to "win" there.) Our young soldiers continue to die for no reason that has anything to do with defense of the nation. Healthcare could be funded many times over with the money we are wasting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wake up and smell the coffee, Obama. Don't become another Lyndon Johnson with the albatross of these failed wars tainting the legacy of your presidency. There is still time to change course before it is too late.

Justice Sotomayor Questions Corporate Personhood

In a brave move for a new Justice, Sonya Sotomayer pointed out that the legal precedent for the "Corporations are people too" doctrine, which was added by a court reporter to the opinion in the 1886 case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad based on an off the record comment made by the Chief Justice in the case, should possibly be examined more closely. The Roberts Court is all set to expand the power of corporations even further by allowing them to pour money into political campaigns in the name of their supposed First Amendment right to "free speech." If the court goes the wrong way on this, there is no hope that the voices of ordinary citizens can be heard over the clank of cash being dumped into the political process. At issue in the current case is the "documentary film" which was a whole- sale trashing of Hillary Clinton funded by a corporate group opposed to her candidacy for President. It was not widely aired in the last election due to the Feingold FCC regulation prohibiting corporate money from being directly funneled into campaign troughs. If the conservatives on the Court prevail, our political system will be overwhelmed even further by corporate money than it is now. It is some comfort that Sotomayor looks as though she will exercise some independent judgment and perhaps earn the respect of progressives who were worried she might prove to be a reliable centrist or even conservative jurist.

The Baucus Bill is a Slap in the Face to Citizens

With its Max Tax and large scale giveaway to the insurance industry, the Baucus bill coming out of Senate Finance is the worst bill on the table of all the others out there (four others which include a public option). If passed it would force Americans to mainline their paychecks directly to the insurance companies. Call your Senators and demand that they use the reconcilation process in the Senate which only requires 51 votes. We need to completely cut these Republicans and Democrats-in-name-only OUT of the equation entirely.