Ok, this is crazy!

We have around 200,000 private contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan. By law the companies must provide each employee a from of workman's comp insurance. very few insurance companies offer such insurance for war zones.

AIG provides 85% of these policies and they charge a rate of 1 to 1 based on the employees salary so someone making $100,000 in a year (an average salary for the work) would cost $100,000 to insure. This cost is paid for by the American Taxpayer through the Pentagon which is who pays for these contracts.

Now the craziest part is that there is another law that requires the American government to reimburse an insurance company 100% of medical costs incurred by someone in a combat zone. So we pay AIG $100,000 a year per person for insurance and then reimburse AIG for all their medical costs!!!!!

The Pentagon has actually suggested cutting AIG out of the equation which would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions but as of yet there is noone in Congress who wants to try and get rid of this crazy law that lines the pockets of the insurance industry who intern keeps the politicians on their payrole via campaign contributions and lobbying jobs (which pay millions). Piss off the corporations and you piss off your future employer and cash cow .once you are out of office.

This info was from T. Christian Miller who wrote the book : "Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq" and who's new book focuses on the lives of those contractors who take the jobs supporting our military and what happens to them once they are injured by war. It is called somthing like "our throw away army".

Check out his Defense Act Compensation Blog

How obama is making us less safe

OK Things are looking worse, I feel like this is de ja vu from the Bush years.

So we had an attempted terrorist attack. Airport security failed to stop it but passengers did stop it.

So what to do? Obama talks about this huge failure. What about all the people who smuggle drugs into this country every day. The war on drugs is a failure just as the war on terror is and forever will be.

So let's stop fighting it!!!

Improve security when possible. But it will always be possible to blow up a plane. Militants have already put bombs inside their bodies that were remotely activated. We should not waste too much money and energy freaking out about airport security. What we need to do is stop doing the things that make the world hate us.

And Obama is doing the opposite. Escalation in Afghanistan, drone attacks in Pakistan, now talk of military action in Yemen where this latest terrorist may have trained.

We cannot kill all the terrorists! For every militant our drones kill in Pakistan we kill 10 civilians. The Taliban show up after a drone attack and recruit the brothers,etc of the civilians killed - increasing their numbers far beyond the one militant we may have killed.

We give military aide to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, they intern buy weapons we make here in the US (our only last export) and then we go around killing people over there, supporting Israel as they kill people, and all this makes the world more dangerous and makes the Christmas day attempt more and more likely.

If we want to be safe, airport scanners (that may give us cancer) are not the answer!!! Ending US led violence abroad and the militarization of the world for profit are what we need to focus on.

Obama said change doesn't come from Washington it comes to Washington. Well he is Washington %100 and he is going for the same old "smoke em out and kill 'em all" strategy that will not work. The anti war movement better stop celebrating their victory over McCain/Palin and start bringing some of that change TO Washington.

Stop the War on Terror. War IS Terror!

post script

Now I must ad a little post script. As disapointed I am in the Democratic Leadership running our country I must point out that the Republicans are still worse so no matter how much the Dems suck we must keep the Republicans from regaining control

This terrorist incident has illustrated that fact once again. While we have this breach in airline security, Obama's nominee to run the department in charge of Airline security is being held up right now by the Republicans because they fear he will unionize airport security workers. Their fight against unions (the working class) is so deep rooted it trumps their concern for national security. Of course they use twisted logic to say unions will make us less safe but that is a shallow argument.

Thank you Joe Lieberman (will Obama learn his lesson)

So after campaigning on universal health care, Lieberman (the second largest recipient in the senate of money from the insurance and medical industries), Lieberman insisted the public option be taken out of the Senate Bill. The Dems went along with him.

In its place they put in a provision that would lower the eligible age for Medicare to 55, something Joe was also in favor of. Now he has killed that provision as well.

Thank you Joe Lieberman for showing the voters of America your true colors (obstructionist lying Republican). Now that the Health Care Bill is completely gutted of anything that will lower costs for consumers the Republicans in the Senate are STILL united against it! Once again, thanks, this also allows the voters of America to see where the Republican party stands - against the American public.

So if Joe Lieberman or any Republicans still have their jobs after they come up for re-election, well then the voters are to blame, for it can not be more clear that they are not interested in helping the American people. This also applies to the "blue dog" democrats that have been working on behalf of the insurance industry throughout this process.

I agree with Howard Dean that this bill should now be killed. It, in fact, requires people to buy private insurance (with tax payer subsidies for the poor) while refusing to offer any option. This, in fact, will drive up costs and actually benefits the insurance companies that were the problem in the first place!!!

Now for Obama. He of course is proving to be quite a corporatist (unlike the socialist the Right tries to make him out to be) so maybe he is happy with this bill. But with that being said he needs to learn his lesson from Joe Lieberman! Joe campaigned against Obama in support of McCain. Then when there was talk of stripping Joe of his committee chairmanship Obama stepped in and said, we need to work together and not hold grudges. Obama has gone out of his way to get Republican support for this Health Bill and other legislation. Even though the Republicans went on record as saying they want this issue to fail in order to take out Obama.

So when will Obama learn the lesson that these Republicans (Joe included) are not to be worked with, much less catered to. Obama and the Democrats need to push for strong legislation, allow the Republicans to filibuster it if that is what they choose, and then make the point to the voters that the Republicans are obstructing progress and they need to go.

I want to see a strong, principled Obama, not a weak compromising Obama. I do realize that the latter is probably his true political self but it is proving ineffective against the united Republican front against the American People.

two good developments in health care reform!

OK, I am feeling a bit optimistic about the progress of the health care reform in congress. Two items of news made me happy:

first the senate voted down the anti abortion ammendment and that was just a horrible attack on poor women. It is still in the House Bill and must be defeated. It says women cannot buy insurance that covers abortion. This means only women who can pay out of their own pocket can afford abortions. This would be most hurtful to those who have complications late in a wanted pregnancy and must pay for an EXPENSIVE emergancy abortion that is already something they do not really want to do. BAD. And for the poor it will return folks to back alley abortions.

second the senate says they may scrap the public option and hire a private insurance company to run the "public option". I just love this irony!!!! BUT there are two good things that I like about this plan.

First the public option was going to be so shitty that it would discredit the who idea of a public option. This way in the future there will still be the desire for a public option and we just may get a stronger one.

Second, they said instead they may lower the enrollment age for medicare to 55 years old. THIS is a brilliant plan! The infrastructure is already there. If that works out then perhaps we can lower it even further in the future, and then further, and then finally have the OPTION of medicare for anyone who would like it. GREAT IDEA, didn't I say that a long time ago. Me and many others, I can't take credit for the idea.

the only MORAL choice: leave Afghanistan NOW

[I wrote this before Obama's speech, a brief reaction to his speech will soon follow]

First there should be no surprise that Obama is sending more troops to Afghanistan. He said when he was running for President that he thought we did not send enough and that Afghanistan was the war we should be fighting. He was against the Iraq war which is why he seemed the peace candidate to many. He was really the candidate of less war. Dennis Kucinich was the Peace candidate. And Ron Paul I suppose. And Ralph Nader. And Cynthia McKinney.

Many of my smartest friends and family seem to agree with Obama and the conventional wisdom that we need to stay in Afghanistan. End what we started. Protect the Afghan people from the horrible Taliban. Prevent creating a safe haven for Al Qaida. A 'you break it, you buy it' sort of attitude.

These arguments might hold some water if we were putting a good government in charge of the country. But the truth is we have been fighting what will be the longest war in US history to put War Lords, Drug Lords, War Criminals, Corrupt Urban Elite, Mass Murderers, and Misogynists in charge of the country.

We were giving the Taliban money just months before we invaded. We helped them get in power to throw out the Russians and now we are supporting equally bad people to get rid of them. The government we are propping up just legalized the rape of women, to give just one example.

Look at the recent election - both candidates were involved in wide spread fraud. One is a War Lord from the Northern Alliance and one (the current president) is corrupt and his brother is a drug Lord. Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries on Earth, is a decade of war going to make it a peaceful democracy?

The people we are fighting may call themselves the Taliban. But they are mostly tribal people who do not want to be ruled by the Urban Elite and they are fighting the foreign occupation. When we leave they will most likely fight any outsiders who try to control them. We are taking sides in an ethnic civil war, much like Iraq. What are we going to do? Train one ethnic group to go into rural villages and kill another, that is genocide.

As long as we are there they will fight us.

When we leave they will fight each other. This is just as likely if we leave now or later. There very may well be a civil war, but that was guaranteed when our government (R and D) went into the country and destabilized it. Barbara Lee was the only person in the House or Senate who voted the way I would have voted: against the war in Afghanistan in the first place. I think it is about time to replace my "surfers for obama" sticker with a 'barbara lee speaks for me' sticker.

OTHER REASONS:

The Al Qaida excuse is now mute as there are only 100 left in the country according to our own government. But this was never a good reason to invade the entire country. 9/11 was planned in Spain and Germany and the terrorists got their flight training in the United States. They do not need any particular country to operate from. The war on terror is a recruiting gold mine for anti American militants.

Many are complaining in this country because we are running up deficits and we can't afford health care reform. Ah, but there is endless money for war. It costs $1 million dollars per soldier per year. Much of this expense is due to the privatization of many services that were one run by the military. Privatization means profit. War for profit.

$1 million dollars will build 20 school in Afghanistan.

One of my students raises money to send wheel chairs to Iraqi kids. The program is privately funded but supported by the military. A wheel chair costs the organization $350. They have raised half a million dollars so far. The pictures of the people who get those wheel chairs are of happy, grateful people. Why does it take kids playing guitars on street corners in America to win the hearts and minds of those in the middle east? Why can't our government learn from such examples?

I say pull out our guns and build schools. Stop dropping bombs and drop wheel chairs. Build hospitals. Ask the people what they need and want. Show the world there is another way to deal with a country like Afghanistan. Then get out and let the people who live there deal with each other how they chose. Use the United Nations to pressure the government to abide by international standards like they do with every other awful regime.

The Taliban control half the country. What happens even if we put in a government. How many years before it is overthrown? Look at Honduras. We cannot control the world. The Northern Allience are no better than the Taliban. What about working with all the Ethnic groups in Afghanistan, including those who comprise the Taliban, to come together with eachother in peace. We are arming one side against the other, fueling war. Where is the deplomacy?


The ONLY moral choice: GET ( OUR MILITARY) OUT OF AFGHANISTAN, get our military out of Iraq, get our military out of Pakistan.

More citizens of this country die every year (way more) due to lack of health insurance than were killed by Al Qaida. The countries of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Iran have never attacked us.

OK, you get the point.

health care debate, the latest

Well the health care debate is now allowed to continue in the Senate as the Democrats joined unanamously to break the Republican Fillubister against debate.

Now this was just a vote to allow debate on the bill. Every single republican was against even allowing debate on the bill.

One of the most important issues to the American people, one that has dominated politics for years, and the Republicans don't even want to debate it.

Now the Republicans say they will filibuster every single amendment that is to be debated. This means for every amendment all 60 Democrats need to agree and vote on each amendment.

They are doing everything they can to stop this legislation from passing. This includes putting in anti abortion amendments and even amendments regarding gun laws as a strategy to sink the reform ship.


What good are the Republicans if they do not even want to debate important issues and fight with all their might to prevent any reform for the American people. They are so pro corporate and anti American it is crazy.

And the political wisdom is that if the Dems don't deliver they will suffer in the next election. Harry Reed for example, may not get re-elected if he cannot get all 60 Dems to agree on a Bill. How utterly idiotic is this! With our two party system if the Dems lose, the Republicans win. So if the Dems try and fail to provide Health Care Reform the party that did every thing they could to prevent it from passing will come out on top?

Clearly if we fail at health care reform now we need to elect MORE democrats and MORE PROGRESSIVE Democrats so they can actually get stuff done.

Ironically the conservative Dems and Republicans say cost is a big problem but they are the ones that are adamantly against all the reform that would reduce cost! A strong public option for instance (stronger than the one in the bill now), but to go even further, single payer.

They insist that if we have reform it must be in a way that still allows private insurers to profit, which is the reason health care is so expensive, and then they complain about the cost. Dumb. The bill we are going to end up with is going to use tax payer money to pay private insurers to insure people. Of course it is going to cost a lot, that is why we are having this debate in the first place.

I am actually thinking it would be best if this bill passes without the public option. The public option they are proposing is so awful that it will not effect most of us nor will it bring down the costs for anyone. It is designed to be expensive and uncompetitive. Better to get no public option and then to come back with a real one someday - medicare for all, or perhaps states will start with single payer systems and serve as models. Not that we don't have plenty of models with all the other countries out there doing better than us.

I wish they had done it in parts from the start. Started with Health Care Insurance Reform and get rid of the pre-existing conditions,etc. Then later they could work on expanding coverage through expanding and improving Medi-care.

Right now it looks like we have 2,000 pages of crap that will do a few good things but will not provide the reform needed.

It makes me laugh when I get emails from the Democrats and Dem leaning groups like Move-on saying we are on the verge of HISTORIC legislation addressing the biggest moral issue of all time. I don't think this bill is something to be so proud of as a progressive or liberal. I am glad I am not in congress, I would have a hard time voting for the bill the way it is. My vote is with Bernie Sanders - he is right on the issue, we'll see what he thinks of the final bill.

health care reform, a sick democracy and a cure - public financing!

OK I gotta rant a little about the health care reform situation.

After all this debate we have 2,000 pages in the house up for a vote in a matter of days, no Republicans are expected to vote for it and no one knows if enough Dems will vote for it.

We are the only industrialized nation in the world that has this level of dysfunction regarding health care and insurance companies. The fact is our democracy is sick and until we make it better we will never solve problems like health care.

Money controls our politics. The health care industry has spent 400,000,000 dollars lobbying to prevent real health care reform. Corporate profits are in the way of affordable health care for all. And our government officials have drafted a 2,000 page bill that benefits the corporations more than the citizens of this country.

This bill, according to Nancy Pelosi is going to provide 50 million new costumers to the insurance companies, many of which will be subsidized by tax payer dollars while the public option will only have an anticipated 6 million people who will qualify and sign up by 2019!

This whole situation is proving that our democracy is deathly ill.

Another example: every single Republican boycotted the mark up of a Climate Change Bill and our government just may destroy the chance of the world coming together successfully in Denmark in December in what many say is the last chance for a real international protocol to be effective.

The cure: PUBLIC FINANCING for campaigns. If we want politicians who are answerable to US and not the drug companies, wall street banks, oil and coal companies and military contractors then we need to have publicly financed election campaigns. Take the money out of politics. Most democracies in the world do it this way and we must if we want our government back!!!!!