Imagine a nonpartisan presidential candidate who lives in a modest house, walks or bicycles around town, mows his own lawn, travels in a 1990s motorhome, and does without air conditioning and TV. Meet "Average Joe" Schriner. Joe explains that his age (52), his height (5'10"), his weight (180 pounds), his yearly income (five digits), his home state (Ohio) and his overall political outlook represent the average American.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama say they believe in giving Americans universal health care.  I don't believe them.  Anyone who takes the time to understand universal health care should conclude that only a simple single payer system will reform the current outrageous system that benefits the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Based on falling congressional approval ratings, Republicans have been publicly implying that Americans don't like Congress since the Democrats gained control in January. In fact, congressional Republicans have far lower approval ratings than Democrats.

Given the recent polling data, Republicans should stop speciously pointing fingers and start asking: 1) why do most Americans view us negatively, and 2) what can we actually do to change that?

Last week's Gallup poll found that more American's trusted Democrats over Republicans to do a better overall job and to handle national security and prosperity. The new Washington Post/ABC poll results contain similarly bad news for Republicans.

We can't afford as a nation to be stupid about paying for health care anymore. alizard, 6 May 2007

I have had several interesting discussions recently about global warming. Of course sometimes I run into denial lobby drones who yammer "it's a myth" despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, and I merely deal with them with a slap down, fools that they are. But there also are legitimate discussion of what can we do---as a society, as individuals. We have a 10 year window according to top scientific and economic experts coming at the question from different angles. We have a 10 year window.

It has recently struck me that those who will be most affected by our choices regarding global warming will be too young during that critical 10 years to have any say whatsoever in our choices. We decide but our children will feel the brunt of the consequences.

 

Some  of you have asked me,  how I write my health care catastrophe diaries?

I explained that I get up in the morning and search. My job is to find and describe the outrage or the assault of the day. Some days there are so many, I have a hard time deciding among the worst.

Yesterday morning it was easy. The outrage of the day is smack on the cover of the New York Times Magazine.

And it's a bad one.

The cover story is called, Contra-Contraception you can read it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/...

Take a breath and read on.

The New York Times today published an article on the topic of outsourcing. Steve Lohr, the author of the article, contends that outsourcing is climbing the skills ladder. What he means by this is that the jobs that were originally outsourced were simple assembly tasks. After these jobs were outsourced, companies began to outsource higher skill jobs, such as computer programmers. Now, outsourcing has progressed up the skills ladder to include such highly skilled jobs as engineers and scientists.

A horrifying example of our broken health care system gone wrong took place in Yelm, Washington recently. A man on Wellbutrin, an antidepressant, attacked and nearly killed his wife of 60 years after being diagnosed for depression and being placed on Wellbutrin. This is one more example of our health care system gone horribly wrong and a graphic example of how the Bush administration places a price on human life. This forces me to rethink my support of laws against the so-called hard drugs like meth and cocaine.

In what would be a horrifying nightmare for anybody in this community, Eric Attwood, in the middle of the night, took a knife and tried to stab his wife. He stabbed her once, but then she got away and got help. Now, Attwood and his wife are separated by court order and he is charged with attempted first-degree murder.

Broken-hearted.  Bewildered.  Betrayed.  Bereft.

That's the emotional state of much of the Union.

Contrast that with the Bush view, recently expressed on his junket in Kansas City:

"You can't lead the nation, you can't make good decisions, unless you're optimistic about the future."

Two views, or two Americas?

Think things are bad in Iraq?  What with hundreds of kidnappings, a thousand or so reprisal killings each month, an infrastructure still in ruins, and, oh yeah, that whole war and occupation thing, you might be forgiven for thinking that Iraq has had a rough go.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Because right now, up in the Kurdish area of Iraq, a story is brewing that brings all of our worst fears together.  It looks like bird flu may have spread to Iraq.

So far, the flu may have killed a teenage girl

The girl suspected of having the disease was from the town of Raniya, in a border region of Kurdish northern Iraq.  She died shortly after arriving at a hospital in the main city of Suleymaniyah.

...

It is not yet clear when the results of the tests for bird flu will be known.

Let's hope those tests come back soon, and pray that they are negative.  Otherwise, the danger goes far beyond Iraq.

Cross posted on Daily Kos, My Left Wing and Booman Tribune

Tue Dec 20, 2005 at 08:35:06 AM PDT

I've read quite a few diaries about the NYC transit strike.  Seems there's not a lot of sympathy or support for the transit workers among some progressives.

Funny how my nine year old friend understands the national ramifications of the strike.

He was understandably elated that he would be going to school two hours late. He also understands the significance of the strike.

Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.

It all started with a cough.  Then a choking sound, prolonged coughing, then wheezing, then more coughing.  Other than a few bouts with bronchitis, my husband is a very healthy man.  One of those who doesn't go to physicians' offices unless he's accompanying someone else. Descended from a Cherokee grandmother on his father's side and Daniel Boone on his mother's, he comes from sturdy stock. Although I did finally manage to convince him to have a colonoscopy last year, that was the first time he'd been in a hospital in more than twenty years, since his appendix almost burst when we were newlyweds in graduate school. I guess that was my first indication that this was a man I'd have to watch carefully.

The Republican Party is killing us by peddling the "free market" as a cure-all.