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Comments Posted By choicelady

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Will Abortion Debate be Democrats Civil War?

I am totally pro=choice but REFUSE to let the Stupak amendment be the death of health care reform. Why? Because we can fix a lousy amendment but cannot get another solid bill that covers 98 % of Ameircans. It may not come to this – he is losing ground especially now that it is revealed he lives at C Street with The Family so his motives are far less than pure. WORK hard to get Congress in both houses to adopt the Capps Amendment and let conservative Dems know that they cannot take us for granted.

» Posted By choicelady On November 17, 2009 @ 7:08 pm

How it is that the Teabagger Movement is bogus

The sorrow and the pity is that a lot of these folks are genuinely scared. They’ve been lied to, manipulated, shoved into these roles, but they are, indeed, scared. They are old enough to want Sinatra back, Doris Day, abundance in goods and services, to have a personal doc who comes to the house, and a world of people just like them, working hard, living decently, retiring with loving family. Yes – they want the fiction that often enough was fact of the 1950s when the US reigned supreme and all was therefore right with the world.

Having the second Great Depression (in many states it is) coupled with terror from forces they don’t understand, and a Black president to whom they cannot possibly relate all compounds the loss of jobs, the insecurity of their economic lives, the apparent abandonment of them to Wall Street.

A century ago they would have been the founders of the Grange movement, the anti-railroad forces, maybe even union organizers – but we’ve destroyed the heavy industries, the farms, the very roots of what once made us prosperous and relatively self-sufficient. What ELSE can they rail against since they haven’t a clue who runs the behemoth multinational that took their land, tore down their mill, threw out their jobs. There is no figure like J.P. Morgan anymore – there are only faceless, nameless hedge fund and derivative sellers.

If we want to stop this racialist, anti-government hype from them, this Congress and Administration needs to understand they are NOT just crazy. They’re terrified. We must make investments in secure pensions and health care for our retirees and bring back manufacturing types of jobs for the working people. Does anyone remember the LIFE magazine cover with the four blast furnaces being blown down in Youngstown OH? What you did not see – cropped out of the photo – were the TEN THOUSAND men, women and children standing at the chain link fence watching their lives go to hell.

Only today have we destroyed productive industries and the jobs that go with them. People claim it was always true – the buggy whip makers died when the car came in. Yeah – but the buggy whip was replaced with the gear shift. Never before in human history have we destroyed entire industries – because it paid more money (government payouts) than staying in business. But what we also threw away were these people and their families.

So, detest them as I do (I’ve been in their midst at rallies) for their ignorance and massive gullibility, I also pity them – I know their ilk nationwide. Good people distorted and warped by a society and economy that has no use for them.

We have to regain America for everyone, even – or even especially – for them. They once were the salt of the earth, but now they are nothing but pawns of anger and hate. It’s up to us to give them hope and bring them back some measure of security. We have to remember them in our plans and goals for change. We need a new kind of civil rights movement today – civil rights and economic rights for the ordinary working citizen, regardless of race or ethnicity. If we can show them the commonality so many people have, across color and ethnic lines, because of giant corporate pillaging of our nation, maybe we can begin to rebuild a nation for all of us. We have to try.

» Posted By choicelady On November 24, 2009 @ 10:59 am

Voting on civil rights

As one in the progressive faith community who wanted to be in the thick of the No on 8 position in 2008, may I say that both CA and ME made precisely the same mistake – no one trusted that there were lots of people of faith on the side of marriage equality and equality in general. When we tried to do our best work serving our denominations that total 6.5 MILLION in CA alone, we were told “the faith community has nothing to say.” That was a disaster. With the religious right telling such LIES, how incredible could it have been to have our large numbers of clergy in ads refuting all that garbage? How might things have been different when our amazing clergy of color spoke to their own communities and told them the truth? ME did the same damned thing – did NOT work with people of faith and certainly did not use them in ads – and there you are. If the religious right is going to spew garbage, the religious progressives HAVE to be involved.

If you want to see what we could have done – the educational work that could have been transformative on the voting results – go to our web site and get the PDF of our marriage equality study guide:
http://www.calchurches.org/marriage/ When we got a few dollars to use it in some key areas about three months before the 2008 election, there was major movement against the YES position and gain on the NO position. We could have been and would have been the keys to success. Let’s NOT make that mistake again!

» Posted By choicelady On November 23, 2009 @ 4:01 pm

Plouffe Responds to Queen Huffington

I was one of the supporters and got ONE comment through. Where would she be if she were not naysaying? I am very troubled by her willingness to report UNATTRIBUTED “insider” comments about what Obama does or does not want to do, all of which have been wrong. Obama has snakes in the WH – I know two of them, one personally – and am pretty sure they are the sources. Why would she give aid and comfort to two pretty conservative people with agendas of their own? Well – it makes headlines, right? She never retracts any of it either. In CA she is entirely responsible for Schwarzenegger’s win – when he finally agreed to a debate, he was asked what HE would do to clean up the state’s mess, Arianna broke in, and he never EVER had to say anything at all so no one realized what a buffoon he was. She’s a headline grabber, and nothing more.

» Posted By choicelady On November 4, 2009 @ 11:06 am

McCainCare: The Alternative GOP Healthcare “Plan”

Good post. I agree with everyone – what’s “reform” got to do with this “plan”? It changes only one thing – it allows medical providers to turn away undocumented people. Lovely. Visions of post-Katrina-style streets with dead bodies should warm the cockles of their GOP cold hearts.

We are mobilizing our members in the progressive, mainstream Protestant communities of faith (6.5 MILLION in California) to speak up for the Kucinich amendment, a robust public option, and the preservation of women’s right to choose via the Capps Amendment that offers real choices. The GOP have nothing to offer at all. Nothing. And that’s just how they like it, especially the congressional people who live with single payer health care but don’t want KQuark or anyone else to share the bounty. They really are thugs, aren’t they?

» Posted By choicelady On November 3, 2009 @ 3:19 pm

Proud to be a Scientist

Very good observations. As the director of public policy for a very large, progressive faith organization, it is my job to move people to speak out, but it is MORE my job to give them correct information so that stupid policy such as abstinence-only for dealing with unwanted teen pregnancy is not the outcome. I cannot do that well without really solid information. As far as your experience with conservatives, I do think there is a huge gap between science and engineering. I posited this conundrum above in response to KQuark’s outstanding observations. It will always be at the boundary between science and its uses that policy MUST intervene. The old “just ’cause you CAN, doesn’t mean you SHOULD’ – fill in the blank. Because you CAN split an atom, does this mean you should do so over Hiroshima? It’s where morality does come into the picture. And we in the progressive community must be there to counteract the engineers and other conservatives who always want to do the worst things possible. It is the foundational part of democracy to be thus involved I think.

» Posted By choicelady On November 2, 2009 @ 2:05 pm

Hi KQuark – long a fan on HuffPo and led here by you. I totally agree with one caveat. Science can produce outcomes that ought to be mulled over quite seriously by all people. I have the A-bomb in mind. Very little of “pure” science exists anymore, and we need to unpack the applied aspects very carefully. I agree that policy should not drive science (nor faith – 400 years to “pardon” Gallileo is absurd) but we all are part of the mind of public policy and should have a voice in the fundamental morality of science applications. Would you agree that this is a proper place for our voices?

» Posted By choicelady On November 2, 2009 @ 1:59 pm

The Failed History of Conservatism in America

GREAT! Thank you!

» Posted By choicelady On November 2, 2009 @ 4:54 pm

George Lakoff would say these are shared values. Conservatives, however, pretend it is only they who abide by them. If we all value family self-sufficiency, say, then – why have the conservatives made rules for the poor and working people that make family self-sufficiency IMPOSSIBLE? The older conservatives really did dislike welfare for its dependence. They favored programs that helped people stand up on their own. But for virtually ALL my adult life, those ideals have been squelched in favor of shifting risk to the lower income groups and eliminating opportunity. The RW today is a party of aristocratic privilege NOT conservative values.

» Posted By choicelady On November 2, 2009 @ 4:53 pm

Fight the intrusion of quackery and religious woo in health care reform

Love you though I do, KQuark, you’re being thugged by the religious right. I represent the progressive Protestants most ALL of whom support single payer. Why? Because you’re right – Jesus did support totally free health care for all and made it a mandate BEFORE faith work. A friend of mine noted that pre-existing conditions kinda were his specialty, too… Churches do an amazing amount of health care provision and other acts of both justice and charity. Don’t be brainwashed by the MSM that focuses on the RW churches that never met a poor person they couldn’t rob or grind under their heels. Most Protestant (meaning social justice churches NOT evangelicals) believe their WORK for justice and aid to those in harm’s way is what they are called to do, and that is vastly supported by their tax-exempt status like that of any other non-profit.

» Posted By choicelady On November 2, 2009 @ 4:19 pm

Spirtually-based health is for adults only. Most Christian Science practice does not deny children western medicine. Only real fanatics do that, and the courts have ruled against them time and again – you have to provide minors with science-based care. Period. Funding such care does NOT undermine the Constitution because you are NOT funding it – the individual is, just as with abortion rights.

Move on. This is about human choices not about you. You are not paying, so get over it. The Public Option is NOT welfare. It’s like Medicare for which each individual pays for his or her choices. What’s it to you?

» Posted By choicelady On November 2, 2009 @ 3:43 pm

I never have been, but even surgeons are now saying you should investigate chiropractic FIRST before surgery on your back. Holistic touching and massage are HUGE helps in alleviating pain. There is no suggestion that they cure diseases but that they use the natural need for human touch and soothing to alleviate distress, tension, pain. We live in a world of such stress that they are very useful media for helping us turn down the pain and muscle tension that contribute mightily to being MORE sick than one needs to be. We know herbal remedies do a lot that “western” meds cannot or do so with many fewer side effects. There is a place for it all. The big problem – sorting out the good from the quackery! I do agree that, ironically, HuffPo is promoting public option health care AND pushing for-profit “alternative medicine” at the same time. Look I took some of the free advice – I’ve been massively harmed by being given an antibiotic I did not need – and after years of needless pain, I’ve radically changed my diet which has helped me SO much. But I’m not paying for anyone’s off the web $29.95 a month – who KNOW what. I resent Arianna’s touting of affordable health care on one hand and slipping us the mickey on the other. She is not reliable, and HuffPo has yet to do anything about this (and my comment about that got excised – surprise!) But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. There is some good stuff out there that lies outside the parameters of western medicine – it’s worth the time to read up and find out what works. And to read up and find out what does NOT work! Oprah is NOT my doc!

» Posted By choicelady On November 2, 2009 @ 3:36 pm

I’ll take the other side here – who cares? If you rule out Christian Science, then you have to rule out acupuncture and other traditional healing that have yet to be “scientifically” proven. The mind-body connection is pretty much unknown. It offends me not at all to have those incorporated. In CA the single payer bill still moving (hoping for the Kucinich Amendment to revive itself please!) incorporates traditional medicine including Christian Science. Since this is NOT paid for by your tax dollars – everyone in even the public plan will pay something – then it’s no skin off anyone else’s nose. Your choices do NOT impact me. The Capps’ Amendment did the same around abortion – every plan will have to have a choice of coverage, and women choosing reproductive rights coverage will pay for it with her own money. So – this is not worth getting exercised over. If you do not believe in prayerful healing, don’t have it. If someone else does, let them. That IS choice and honoring our massive differences. Hey – I refused Lipitor, took Benecol instead, lowered my cholesterol 60 points, and my doctor is FURIOUS because I’m taken over my own life without meds. Not much science, but it works (I’m not alone BTW) So here’s my mantra – “to each.” Who CARES?

» Posted By choicelady On November 2, 2009 @ 3:26 pm

The Huffington Hypocrisy Strikes Again!

KQuark – I agree about the bad advice. I agree MORE about the lousy reporting.

» Posted By choicelady On November 2, 2009 @ 3:19 pm

I agree with your analysis, and it’s lovely to read. I think patience is in very short supply, but if Obama had come in like gangbusters, the opposition would have been even more fierce, and since the RW has guns, it could easily have turned deadly. Not for him but for those around the disaffected. I monitor hate crimes, and it’s already off the charts now. More to the point, Obama has done what he promised – he has de-escalated the “imperial presidency” and moved to restore a real balance of powers. He is putting a lot of control back in Congress while guiding outcomes well. HuffPo is part of the “flapping outrage” group – we’ve been so angry for so long, we have no idea how to participate in democracy. KQuark is also right – you do NOT restore the chaos of the past 30 years overnight. I work with anti-torture groups that are saying Obama is “as bad as Bush” for entering the Bush doctrinal court pleas – every ONE of which is being struck down. That’s bloody brilliant! He’s moving the nation forward and getting rulings against the Bush Doctrine all in one fell swoop. And my allies are furious that he did not pull every case and enter it in ideologically pleasant language! We are a nation that does not seem to want to grow up, be a democracy, and stop being “outraged victims” of something. Nice to meet you all – I’ve not had such rational reading in many, many years.

» Posted By choicelady On November 2, 2009 @ 3:16 pm

Is any of this health care reform?

The 1/3 we waste (you are accurate) is in the disgusting tangle of administrative overhead with hundreds of different codes just to bill out an aspirin to various health insurance corporations. Each one has a unique code, and the money spent on billing is outrageous. Add in profits, advertising, etc., and there you have it. The need for a public option is huge if only to eliminate that. Medicare has 3% overhead. Private insurance corporations – 30-35%. And if you think the mandated 85% spending on “health” will change much, think again since the corporations will find a way to bill the same stuff and call it health care.

» Posted By choicelady On November 23, 2009 @ 4:05 pm