June Week Four

Invasion of Iraq: Agree or disagree with the policy, the Bush-Cheney administration had achieved a major objective when Saddam Hussein allowed the U.N. weapons inspectors complete access to all of Iraq. The inspections were well underway to prove or disprove Iraqi claims that Iraq had no nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. The inspectors had found nothing. Then, the Bush-Cheney administration decided to invade Iraq anyway. This week's  Rasmussen Poll  says American opinion is this: "49% Say Bush Responsible for Provoking Iraq War; 44% Say Hussein."

If the goal was to discover the banned weapons in Iraq, then it was as good as done without war. Now the result is a continual barrage of ugly stories and even more bizarre government actions.

• Italy seeks 'CIA kidnap agents'
• Recruiters Sink to New Lows
• The US war with Iran has already begun
• The Real News in the Downing Street Memos
• "The Empire of Good"
• Patience Running Short on Iraq
• Blinded by the Light at the End of the Tunnel

Invasion of America: A BBC  report  says: "The most popular destination countries for migrants include the US - which alone is home to more than 20% of the world's migrants . . ." Look at any major coastal city. For instance, in Miami, Florida and San Francisco, California, most residents were not born in the United States.

Concerned about being a victim of electronic theft? A Guardian report says, ". . .The call centre worker told the Sun that he could sell as many as 200,000 account details a month."  See Indian call centre fraud. It also notes, "More than 75% of IT services outside the US are now sourced from India." No one will be surprised when our personal financial data is being sold in the bazaars of the Middle East.

The New York Times reports on the wave of foreigners in the universities: "The issue is particularly acute in subjects like engineering, where 50 percent of graduate students are foreign born, and math and the physical sciences, where 41 percent of graduate students are, according to a survey by the Council of Graduate Schools, an association of 450 schools." Students complain that they cannot understand the instructors due to their language deficiencies. Then, again, what happened to the Americans whose seats and jobs went to the foreigners?

The New York Times reports: "Even as it proceeds with layoffs of up to 13,000 workers in Europe and the United States, I.B.M. plans to increase its payroll in India this year by more than 14,000 workers, according to an internal company document." Here's an earlier BBC report. Marcus Courtney observed: "The winners are the richest corporations in the world, and American workers lose." India is said to have as many as 250 million workers with a college degree. If globalization is going to proceed at the direction of global corporations, then here's the logical result: Replace the entire U.S. workforce with better-educated people from India.

One Solution: When in doubt, vote'em out!

Humor from a Chinese Factory:  Chen said, "That is probably so the Americans can return to buy more. Not even the badly translated assembly instructions deter them. If I bought a kitchen item that came with such poor Mandarin instructions, I would return the item immediately." See the complete item in the The Onion.

June Week Three

Paul Krugman made a great find this week in his column. In sum, it's this:

• 1945: 75% of Americans want national health insurance.
• 2003: 72% of Americans want national health insurance.

For a full explanation of how the Congress turns their backs on us to please the special money interests, see Jill Quadagno's book One Nation Uninsured: Why the U.S. Has No National Health Insurance.    A review.

With the Countdown Clock  to the midterm elections showing just 16 months, only 19 percent of Americans say Congress shares their priorities. That's according to this week's New York Times/CBS News poll. If American citizens were united on health care as the ONLY issue, then the poll would be a kind of predictor that sincere support for universal national health care is the secret for political winners in 2006. This "19 percent" Congress rating makes it easy to picture a landslide ballot-box revolution with most Democrats and Republicans being thrown out of office. By that "19%" rating, the American people seem to be in the mood to take no prisoners.

Off the Radar: Here is just a short list of scary information about causes of so much illness:

Four leading health care groups, representing more than 300,000 public health professionals, filed a challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) power plant mercury rule. Read more in  Silent, Irreversible Brain Injuries to Children.

Hazardous phthalate content in plastics is a scientific wake-up call to parents and other living creatures to shun needless synthetic products and choose non-toxic alternatives. Read more in  New studies on plastics bode ill for human race.

The Health and Energy web site  has an easy-to-read summary of many of the causes of our rising costs of treating increasing rates of serious illness. It says, "Since 1950, the overall cancer incidence has increased by 44 percent; the incidence of breast cancer and male colon cancer by about 60 percent; testis, prostate and kidney by 100 percent; and other cancers, such as malignant melanoma, multiple myeloma and some lymphomas, by over 100 percent." Its source is  The Cancer Prevention Coalition.

As always, the solution is reached through information and direct cooperation and action in your neck of the woods. Think and act!

June Week Two

"He's a fool that makes his doctor his heir." (Ben Franklin said that.) Like the doctor who would be an heir, there is an enormous conflict of interest between a corporation and its employees. Is a society that lets corporations control their benefits a fool? The corporation's job is to make sales and reduce expenses. The incentive for CEO's to dump health insurance and pensions is a conflict of interest of the first order. The  Fair Deal  solution is to dump employer-based benefits completely. Then, every person can have a secure financial foundation. The benefits should be completely separate from the employer. The employer and employee both contribute, but the citizens control the benefits and the assets backing them up.

Look at a few of the problems we have now:

• 50 people die each day for lack of medical insurance. That's 18,000 Americans per year, every year, with no end in sight!
• Employers offer no health insurance at all.
• Employers offer no pension whatsoever.
• CEO decides to shift the costs to you.
• Anyone over 45 looking for a job may be rejected due to severe extra cost of health insurance for that person.
• Lose a job and lose your insurance.
• Promised pension goes up in smoke when company fails.
• 401-K is a failure as company does not offer one.
• Only 5% of employees make maximum use of 401-K.
• Health insurers refuse to insure your condition.
• Most people do not or cannot save enough money.
• People cannot afford health insurance.
• People who can afford health insurance don't buy it.

The current system, for too many people, assumes that welfare and charity are a fact of life. Universal health insurance and universal savings are a fabulous solution to today's system in America. It's based on sharing risk through insurance. For instance, check out the  retirement savings formula. 

William Greider discusses one strategy for us to take control of our financial security. That can include both health insurance and retirement income: " 'Voluntary' is a loser, as the past twenty years amply demonstrated, because it gives companies controlling leverage over what is possible. And even well-intentioned executives will always have to choose between the company's self-interest and its employees (guess who usually loses). Only the government has the reach and power to design and oversee a pension system that truly serves all."

Take a look at Greider's article . . .  Riding Into the Sunset. Greider makes numerous references to Robert Fogel's book,  The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism.

Ben Franklin also gets credit for the timely phrase, "God helps them that help themselves." The above Franklin quotes are from the Walter Isaacson biography,   Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.

Off the Radar: By just looking at the daily headlines, we can miss wide-spread, systemic problems. The New York Times' Joel Brinkley reports:  "The government also estimates that about 15,000 people are trafficked to the United States each year." Read more in  U.S. Faults 4 Allies Over Forced Labor.

Here's a shocking quote: "Indeed, as many as 55,000 patients may have died as a result of taking Vioxx, which Merck continued to advertise even while in possession of studies that showed that it greatly increased the risk of heart attacks." That loss of life is the equivalent of one major airplane crashing each week for the past four years! Where IS the protection of the government? The Congress? Huffington's answer . . . "We are indeed governed by the most corrupt, irresponsible, and unaccountable Congress."  Read more in  The Speech.

The Instant Runoff Solution:  By just looking at the daily headlines, you will miss some highly significant ideas for solutions. The Hundred Network Fair Deal promotes Instant Runoff voting. Voters may rank candidates on the ballot according to the order of preference In a 3-way race, each voter gets to vote for their top choice as well as a "second" choice. If no single candidate wins a majority outright, the candidate with the least votes is set aside. Then, the "second choice" votes of the losing candidate are counted. The "runoff" is instant to determine the winner. Think of the money that is saved by not having to hold a special second election between the top two vote-getters. Fair Vote highlights how the instant runoff system could be implemented. Read more in: Voter Choice Act. TITLE II--INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING FOR FEDERAL ELECTIONS

Here are two additional endorsements of Instant Runoff voting. See "Step 6" of the Sierra Club article:  10 Steps to Better Elections.

John McCain and Howard Dean are two of a legion of supporters. Jesse Jackson says: "Adopt instant-runoff voting to invite more participation and candidates, and encourage the development of a richer democracy." Read the entire section:  Spread democracy in the United States first.

While we're on the subject of voting . . . Greg Palast says: "There's a nasty little secret of American democracy where 2 to 3 million votes are chucked out, you know, simply not counted after they're cast." Read more in  The Last Iconoclast.

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June Week One

Everything old is new again. And sometimes it's also totally modern. Here's the story. Imagine that one or both of our major parties fell apart in 2006 and was no more within 4 years. Democratic Party? Poof. Republican Party? Poof. That's what happened in the 1850's. The Know Nothing movement put Know Nothing candidates on the ballots of multiple parties, endorsed them, and voted on principle, not party. The Whig Party went poof. The non-partisan issue that lit the fuse was immigration. Today immigration is a hot topic cutting across all party lines. The Know Nothings knew a lot . . .  Click and go . . .

Speaking of immigration . . . there was one fact-based review of the different estimates of the size of the problem. This writer thought the number was 12 million illegal aliens in the U.S. And, a thousand more enter the country illegally each day. This L.A. Times piece estimates as many as 20 million illegals today!   Click and go . . .

And that brings us back to The Hundred formula. You find 10 people who want to act together to fix one or more shared problems. You know you've got a recruit when your ten recruits each recruit 10 people. Now you've got a Hundred. Here's a nonpartisan, nonconfrontational starting project. Register voters in your bailiwick. What a great public service! Let's say a hundred citizens, your Hundred, register a hundred new voters. Voila! That's 10,000 new voters. Your Hundred could do that in one day! And, you're providing a great service. It's also called getting to know your neighbors. Just remember, the Countdown Clock is running.

Did you know that Ben Franklin published the first political cartoon in America? You'll recognize its caption:  Join, or Die. That was found in Walter Isaacson's biography titled   Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.

It will be interesting to see whether this week's OAS meeting gets much coverage compared with the car chase of the week. The Organization of American States story is really two stories. The Miami Herald says, "The last time the OAS General Assembly met in the United States, Richard Nixon was president, dictators and military juntas ruled in many of the member countries, the Panama Canal was ''owned'' by the United States, and spring breakers still reveled during wet T-shirt nights at the Button Lounge on the beach in Fort Lauderdale." Read the  national news version.

The second story on the ground is the opposition movement to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). If you loved NAFTA, you'll love CAFTA. Ask people in Indiana how they felt about losing 120,000 good manufacturing jobs because of NAFTA. Here are web sites that inform you about the second story of protests over this OAS meeting:

Florida Fair Trade Coalition.
Public Citizen.
Sierra Club.

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