Happy New Year!

Well, 2009 is behind us and what a year it was.  It was a year marked by sone of the most hateful politics in a very long time.  It was a year that many folks lost much of their retirements. Employers laid off many from their jobs, states have trouble balancing their budgets and deep cuts in human services and education will certainly plague us for some time to come.   Even though there is no inflation (says the government) prices of food, energy, clothing and utilities went up.  This makes for hardships for families and seniors.  There are few pay increases, no social security increases but the fat cat bankers and Wall Street management are getting even bigger bonuses than before the crash and on our tax dollars!  Health Care Reform basically went no where.  Let's hope something good comes out of the bill that has now gone to conference.

What will 2010 bring?  I am not too optimistic as I don't see the politics changing either on the local or national level.  This morning on Morning Joe I heard  Mike Barnicle say something to the effect of the people are crying out to Congress hear our voices but Congress is not listening.  He is so right!  People are trying to tell elected officials what they want and need but the powers that be, both on the local and national level are not listening.  Instead they continue to listen to lobbyists, special interests and big corporations who are paying big bucks to get them to listen.  I don't see that changing in 2010.
Since this will be an election year we need to elect people who are not afraid to think outside the box!  I have subscribed to the Smart Growth Network, http://www.smartgrowth.org.  According to their website they state their purpose as "helps create national, regional and local coalitions to support intelligent and sustainable growth."
I have also subscribed to Maine Can Do Better (www.mainecandobetter.org) From their website,

  "Like people throughout Maine, the partners of Maine Can Do Better believe in working together for the common good. We know that Maine's prosperity depends on the strength of our public structure -- our laws, our schools and universities, our public health and safety agencies, our roads and bridges, and our natural resources. Maine's core is the machinery that propels our economy, and must be responsibly managed and maintained to ensure the health and vitality of Maine communities, Maine families, and Maine people, now and into the future."

Both of these organizations have a vision for making the state, the country and the world a better place.  I invite you to subscribe to these also and put pressure on candidates to think differently about how things can be accomplished.  We need to hold them accountable.  We can no longer sit back and let government do things to us but we need to make them do things that we want and need.  We need to be more responsible citizens in 2010 than we were in 2009 and before.

In spite of the somewhat pessimistic posting I do wish all of you a Happy, Healthy and Blessed New Year.

Health Care Reform, Global Warming, Jobs, Wall Street, Banks, etc.

 President Obama,

It is time for you to stand up to Joe Lieberman and say Enough is Enough.  How did he get so much power?
Stand up for the American people.  As it stands now the insurance companies are being given a great Christmas present.  People will be mandated to buy insurance from private companies and those companies will still raise havoc with our health care.  Fining people for not buying health insurance isn't fair when they are struggling just to put food on the table.
The Democrats deserve to lose in the next election as they can't do anything even with a President and a majority in both houses.

My disgust is indescribable.
Above is my most recent communication to President Obama.  The Democrats are worthless!  They can't even pass a health care bill that will help millions of families.  Of course the Republicans will stand in the way of anything progressive.  They will also oppose any bill that improves the environment.
They scream about job creation but will oppose any bill that might help put people back to work.  They don't want any consumer protection laws put in place so that Wall Street and the banks have to act with a moral conscience.
All that being said about the Republicans, it absolutely blows my mind that with 60 votes (Oh I forgot!  Joe Lieberman is one of the sixty and he will also oppose everything and still be allowed to keep his chairmanship)
This whole political process needs to be changed so that elected officials follow the will of their constituents.

Health Care Reform and the Senate

I am wondering when the Senate will get busy and pass some legislation.  The House of Representatives has passed 100 bills and they are all waiting for Senate action.  It is time for the Senate to adopt new rules on how they process legislation and they need to abide by a simple majority.
I am hoping that all Republicans and Democrats will support the Republican amendment to the health care bill that requires all Senators and Representatives and their staffs as well as the President, Cabinet members and staffs to use the public option.  Why should they have anything better than the citizens of this country.  As they said if they are in the plan they will make sure it is well run.  What could be better for us? 
Of course there is a catch here.  When Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio attempted to co-sponsor the amendment he called the office of Senator Coburn and he was rebuffed  9 times.  Also Al Franken and Chris Dodd and Sherrod Brown went on the Senate floor and asked for unanimous consent to be added to the amendment and it was agreed to.  I suspect that this amendment is another blocking measure by the Republicans but I hope it passes and is included in the final legislation.  If it isn't we will all know that the Congress looks out for itself first and the hell with the people.
It absolutely blows my mind that they can ignore the wishes of the majority of the public who support a public option.  I thought they were sent there to represent us and not their quest for power and prestige.  They continue to bow to the lobbyists and forget the people who elected them.
Do you realize that the amount of money being spent daily on TV and Radio commercials, both for and against health care reform, could have helped fund reform for all of those folks who have nothing.  I don't know about you but the ads disgust me and I have stopped watching television during the day.  I listen to the weather report and then shut it off until I watch the evening news and even then I often turn that off.
If there is that much money floating around that continuous ads can be run why do we have so many homeless, hungry and poor?  We could easily feed them all and care for their health needs as well.  I laugh when these folks call themselves Christians.  They surely do not worship the same God that I do or follow Jesus, who cared for everyone.  Who are they trying to kid?

So again I invite you to join me and write and call Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and President Obama and urge them to support the public option.

Another Letter to our Senators

Again I am writing to our Senators in the hopes that they will do the right thing and support meaningful health care reform that covers all people. In this country of riches and bounty it is disgusting that we cannot care for all of our people. To have over 40,000 people die just because they cannot get health care makes this government akin to murderers. It is time to bite the bullet and pass meaningful legislation not something that will satisfy the insurance industry.
Dear Senators, Snow and Collins,
I am urging you to support meaningful health care reform with a strong public option and no Stupak amendment. Every American deserves to have as good health care as you enjoy and the majority of Americans support the so-called public option. You have government run health care and so do I through Medicare. Let's give everyone the choice.
This Sunday Bill Nemitz had a wonderful and very moving though very depressing article on the poverty in Washington and Hancock counties. These are your constituents! They have to choose between food and medicine, whether or not to heat their homes so they surely don't have the money to pay for health care.
We can afford to fund two wars that were started with lies but we cannot afford to feed and care for our own people. Something is terribly wrong with this picture. So forget about the insurance companies who are playing politics with our health care for their own greed and profit and vote for the people this time.

Somehow I doubt that you will do the right thing. I hope you prove me wrong.

What's going on in Windham Politics?????

I have rarely ever seen such a turn in local politics as I have observed in this current election in the Town of Windham. It is amazing that some folks are so eager for revenge and power that they take out ads that present false information and accuse good citizens falsely.
What's up with lighted signs all over town? Someone is spending a great deal of money just to get elected to a seat on the Town Council. Are all of these candidates willing to faithfully attend meetings and do their homework on all the issues. Being a member of the council is a huge responsibility and requires an investment of time not only for meetings but doing the research and studying before the meetings so that one is prepared for intelligent discussion and decision making. It also requires building meaningful partnerships with other council members so that the town is well served. This is not a "shoot from the hip" type of job.
It is very sad to see revenge, bitterness and anger introduced into local politics. I hope most of the folks here in Windham are as disgusted with the antics of some of the candidates as I am. If I was running for office I would be very careful who I associated with.

My WTF Moment!

As I read the news that the Securities Exchange Commission has appointed a 29 year old former Goldman Sachs employee to chief of its enforcement division, my temper boiled over. Now I have no problem with his age but it seems to me that the Treasury department and the SEC is increasingly becoming a place for Goldman Sachs employees.
When the Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner talks to his select friends on Wall Street more often than he does other banks and investment houses it just shows the control firms like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup have on Washington and on the Treasury Department itself.
What we really need is someone like Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren who oversees the TARP program. She is a voice for the middle class and the consumer. She is for Consumer Protection and is not afraid to speak out. Why can't the people in power recognize the need to have someone like Warren in a position of power who will represent the people. Instead we hire more and more of the employees of firms like Goldman Sachs who surely are tainted by that association and will not truly serve the people.

Baucus, Squawkus

Can you believe the bill that came out of the Senate Finance Committee which is chaired by Senator Max Baucus. Our senator Olympia Snowe was part of the "gang of six" who supposedly negotiated the terms of the bill. Whatever were they thinking? This is just a gift to the health insurance industry. It does nothing to help the people of this country. Baucus is owned by the health care industry as they have given him over 3 million dollars.

Wendell Potter, who used to be the Vice President of Communications for Cigna, testified before the House Steering and Policy Committee this past Tuesday and made this statement. He warned that if Congress "fails to create a public insurance option to compete with private insurers, the bill it sends to the president might as well be called the Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act."

I hope that you will go to the following link to read more of Potter's testimony at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/wendell-potter-public-opt_n_287733.html

I called both Senators Collins and Snowe's offices today and told them that it is time to stop pandering to the lobbyists and the health care industry and begin thinking about the people they represent.
There is story after story about people having their policies canceled after being diagnosed with a life threatening disease. Just recently the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to award 10 million to a man who policy was canceled, when he was a teenager, after being diagnosed with HIV. It is reported that bonuses were paid to health insurance workers based on the number of policies they canceled. Now this is criminal and unethical.
I am sure that I will be writing more on this subject as I am so disgusted with our elected leaders in the Congress who think more about reelection and campaign funds than they do about the people they represent.