Florida Speaks: December 2008

Monday, December 29, 2008

Tell Obama to Push for Single-Payer Health Care

Dear PNHP Members and Friends,

Please use the Obama web site to vote your support for the
single-payer position. The Obama transition team is soliciting
questions from the public via their web site. Visitors may "vote" for
the best questions, which will then be responded to by the Obama team.

As of this writing, single-payer questions have been voted #2 and #3
under the "health care" section. Please help us vote them to the top
and send a strong message to the Obama team and the new Congress that
the American public favors single payer, not incremental band-aids.

http://change.gov/openforquestions

In addition, we encourage you to submit your own questions which will
highlight the inadequacies of the Obama proposal. Sample questions are
reprinted below the instructions which follow:

________________________________

Instructions for Voting / Submitting Questions

1. Visit http://change.gov/openforquestions

2. Click the small "Sign In" text on the right-hand side of the
screen. Sign-in with your email and password on the right. (If you
haven't signed-in before, just fill out the short form on the left.)

3. Under "pick a topic" on the left-hand side of the screen, click
"health care."

4. Questions will appear in a box in the middle. Skip the large
question in the blue box and scroll down. Immediate below the large
blue question will be leading questions. Two excellent ones should be
near the top:

"We all recognize the insurance industry is the problem, not lack of
insurance--what are you going to do about getting single payer
(government) health care, as other progressive countries throughout
the industrialized world have done?"

"What are the obstacles to implementing the single-payer health care
used in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia? With a growing
number of unemployed or underemployed in 2009, will your
administration work towards single-payer as a goal?"

(Note: More good questions may have appeared by the time you read
this. You may want to examine others if you have time)

5. To vote for these questions, click the small "check" box beside it.

6. To Submit a question, click the "submit a question" box at the
bottom of the screen and type it in. Here are some example questions:

Employer-based coverage continues to steadily deteriorate, leaving
millions without access to care due to costs and hundreds of thousands
facing medical bankruptcy even though they're insured. Why should we
use this defective system as the as the foundation of reform when
research shows single-payer national health insurance could provide
comprehensive, universal care for no more than we're paying now?

Subsidy and individual mandate schemes have failed to achieve
universal coverage anywhere they've been tried…including most recently
in Massachusetts. Rather than reprising these mistakes, wouldn't it be
better to move to a proven system - single-payer national health
insurance - which has already afforded other industrialized countries
healthier populations at lower costs?

Sincerely,

Quentin Young, MD
National Coordinator
Physicians for a National Health Program

(h/t to Brent Miller via e-mail)

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Important Reading

Good stuff you all should read from bloggers in other states...

techPresident: David Plouffe: The Obama Campaign Used Grassroots Data and Computer Modeling to Allocate Resources in Real Time

Down With Tyranny: In Tennessee, the myth of "clean" coal meets the reality of crumbling infrastructure

Open Left: Maddow: Did America Get Punked On the Bailout? Yes...Now Here's What to Do.

Open Left: The Best Public Policies of 2008: Broadcasting Successes

Open Left: In a Recession, Should States Raise Taxes Or Slash Spending?

Open Left: "You Have An Ideology; I Have An Idea."

Open Left: Experts, Citizens, and Democracy (Core Dilemmas of Community Organizing)

Daily Kos: Our Broken Health System: It's Not Just about Insurance

Open Left: The End Of Racism? Not Exactly...

Pam's House Blend: Time to stop the gay v. black competition

Why Now?: Assumed Knowledge

Open Left: America Not Very Ideological As A Nation

MyDD: Dems Have Majority of Congressional Seats in 2/3 of States

Open Left: The Case Against Dear-Leaderism and For Pressure

Resources

Presidential Transition Resources

Open Congress announces Battle Royale, where you can vote on the popularity of bills before Congress.

Statistical Abstract of the United States

Skewed Science

Latest Report on Communicating with Congress: Listen and Play Nice

Planning Ahead for Democratic Victory in 2010 - Setting Initial Goals and Objectives.

How Democrats Can Keep and Expand the Support of the Younger White Working-Class Voters who Voted for Obama in 2008.

Did My Vote Count?

Blogging Coverage of the Harvard Internet & Politics Conference

Ammunition

The latest links to the information you need to counter right-wing spin...

Bank Execs Have Personally Pocketed $1.6 Bil from Bailout - So Far

Soldiers Accuse KBR Of Knowingly Exposing Troops To Deadly Toxin In Iraq

New Gore ad shines a light on coal’s dirty lies.

Why Conservative Ideas CAN'T Work

GOP vs. UAW, USA Part I and Part II

What $73 Per Hour?

A Quick N’ Handy Guide For Confronting AHIP Reps At Obama’s Health Care Meetings

A Brief Peek At UCLA's Anti-FDR Propaganda

Fox News: "Historians Pretty Much Agree" That FDR Prolonged the Great Depression

Report: New Public Plan Will Control Health Care Costs

The Family Research Council and the Disappearing Studies on Homosexuality

It’s The Market That Got Us Here In The First Place

The Myths Republicans Spread About An Auto Rescue

The 'non-lethal' Taser: 400 dead since 2001

National Politics Round-up

What are Florida bloggers saying about national politics...

1. boiling mad (Revinem): Republicans baselessly shift blame for their recessions

2. Bark Bark Woof Woof: Brooks: Don't Know Much About Education

3. Pensito Review (Trish): Why There Are So Few Black Republicans

4. BlueHerald 2.0: You May Need To Sit Down For This

5. BlueHerald 2.0: Pardon Me!

Good Castor

I think Kathy Castor is right on this one:

As Americans, we can not allow our policies to bring more hardship to those we intend to help. As Floridians, we can not expect the Cuban people, many of whom are family to us, to endure more pain. Therefore, I urge you to lift current restrictions on family travel to Cuban and remittances. Doing so will not only provide relife to thousands of people, but will show our commitment to the Cuban people and their families here in America. Then, I encourage you to review and develop a renewed modern plan for Latin America and Caribbean basin.

I echo Michael Hussey's comments on this one:

The current Bush policy is not getting Cuba closer to a democratic society. The best PR campaign is American Cuban coming home and telling their relative how great their lives our in the states. It is hard for the Castro regine to say communism is better when American-Cubans are coming to Cuba with new clothes and iPods.

The time has come for change.