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.

The Progressive Democrat Newsletter grew out of the frustration of the 2004 election. Having organized protests against the Republican Convention, I found I had a core of activists who were looking to me for support after Bush "won" re-"election". My carefully thought out suggestions as to where we could go from that defeat led to this more-or-less weekly newsletter.

This week I discuss a very personal conflict with Homeland Security, which involved first bad news, then, on appeal, excellent news. Sometimes our court system works! I also cover the response our troops have for Rush Limbaugh, responses to Bush's opposition to healthcare for American children, and I discuss the situation in Burma. I also am finally getting back to some more local stuff including local events in NYC, a brilliant plan for winning in Colorado, and some local Virginia and New Jersey stuff. If you go to any of these articles, please click on some advertisements because that helps me keep doing this!

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Milt Freudenheim reports in the New York Times that some employers are finding it more cost effective to give their employees free drugs. His article, illustrates how much attitudes within the business community are changing regarding the rising cost of healthcare. As Freudenheim reports,

Last week I put in a request for someone at Kos Health Care to write something about the plight of Justen Deal. No one took me up on it. So while I'm not the best person to be covering this, I'll give it a shot and request follow up coverage from people who focus on health care.  

Justen is a Kaiser Permanente HMO cheerleader. I've long regarded him as a stooge and a flak - someone who must be getting paid for constantly spewing Kaiser propaganda. Apparently, though, he's willing to risk his job and put himself through a world of hurt to bring up a severe problem. Justen put his concerns in an email last Friday, and by Monday Kaiser's CIO Cliff Dodd had resigned. At the same time Justen was placed on administrative leave while Kaiser HR schmucks comb through policies to try to find a rule he broke. There is no such rule. Kaiser is retaliating against Justen for putting his concerns in writing.

In our constant struggle to ensure that our infinitely wonderful children grow up to be healthy, happy, responsible stewards of themselves, our family, and the world, my wife and I try our darnedest to instill a solid sense of values, moxie, and commonsense. As a bonus, I go a bit further and try to develop in them a deep disgust for those things with which I hope they would be disgusted when they're more mature and calling all the shots on their own. You know, things like lying, violent aggression, drugs, crime, and various self-destructive behaviors such as SMOKING.

Yeah smoking. I have this thing for smoking -- or more accurately AGAINST smoking. It's a truly filthy habit, one that destroys not only the body of the person doing the deed, but also of those forced to be around them. To me, smoking is a particularly foul and invasive, but somehow 'socially acceptable' behavior, differing from other (legal) bad habits in that the destructiveness of other such habits is generally restricted in their purveyor.

Not so with smoking. If I had a nickel for every time I gagged on the cigarette smoke of the person walking down the sidewalk in front of me, or standing next to me at the bus stop... Ughhhhh!

Republicans were quick to jump on reports that a majority of those who signed up for the GOP Medicare plan were satisfied with it.

I guess they had to take advantage of the positive press before the Medicare apocalypse rears its ugly head.

The problem, affectionately dubbed the Medicare Drug Plan "Doughnut Hole", is a critical flaw in the plan's structure.

"once patients spend $2,250 on drugs, their coverage ends, and they must pay for their medicine themselves. Their benefits resume only after they shell out $5,100 -- a $2,850 gap. Although policymakers were aware of the doughnut hole when they passed the law, many seniors are stunned." Many will "stumble into the gap in late summer or early fall -- just before the November elections. This could be bad news for Republicans, who pushed the Medicare drug law."

More dramatically, the issue will be a media darling in pre-election months -- regardless of how many individuals are actually affected.

Strategically, the issue could be used to target specific congressional candidates, for example, in Connecticut, Nancy Johnson, an architect of the Medicare prescription drug plan, could be in trouble if seniors decide it isn't working.

We are fast becoming a bankrupt society in so many ways.   We must realize that the international issues weigh heavily on our ability to survive - as a nation, much less considering social class issues.  This is a look at domestic and foreign issues on several levels with inestimable margin for perspective and debate.

So... Dub takes the snake oil road show today to Dublin, Ohio to the corporate headquarters of Wendy's... arguably the third largest threat to America's public health... to preach upon the virtues of HSA's as preventative healthcare... Mindboggling...