White House Mafia Blog

Another Example of Insurance Companies Screwing Us - Healthcare Must Change - Plus My Rant: We Must Help Each Other - A Look at the French

America, we need to wake up and protest this kind of shit. We need to stick together and stick up for EACH OTHER. It's the only way they -- we're going to force them -- are going to change the current system.

Changes won't happen if we only care about ourselves and only say something when we're personally wronged.

Imagine a system in which, if you were wronged people would rush to your aid, whatever that might be, and if others were wronged you would rush to their aid? Sounds like a fairy tale, but it is possible. Indeed it's happening in some places.

In America the media makes fun of the French people and their system, which of course is not perfect, just like every other system. Did you ever wonder why it is that these fat cat corporate types, politicians, lobbyists and media companies, which are owned and controlled by rich people who benefit from the current system, spend so much time bashing the French? Why they want you to look down on them? Because they're scared that if you open your eyes and think for yourself that you'll see that actually the French have it pretty good... and if you see that then you'll want to make changes to the American system... and if that happens it will cost them money and power... and they like their money and power... they want to keep it... they don't want you to have any of it.... just keep slaving away... That's why.

Do you know that the French economy is more productive than the U.S. economy even though it has higher unemployment, everybody has healthcare, they only have a 35-hour work week, and they get many, many weeks of vacation per year? And they eat and drink lots of great food and drink! How can they have all this? Because they stick together. When the fat cats try to take from one group, the others strike and protest. It works.

Pay attention and think for yourself. Most importantly, stick up for other people, especially those who don't have what you have. This is the system we should work towards. We can do it by expanding the circle one person at a time. Get out there and stick up for someone. Now repeat. Make it your life! Cheers.

Now on to the article, which is just a microcosm of what's going on in the entire corrupt and perversely incentivized system.

State accuses Blue Shield of illegal cancellations
By Lisa Girion
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 13, 2007

What Does This Say About The System?

From the December 13, 2007, New York Times:

Contempt Vote in Panel for Bush Aides
By DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to hold a present and a former aide to President Bush in contempt of Congress, but it is by no means clear that they will be dragged before the lawmakers anytime soon.

By 12 to 7, the committee voted citations against Joshua B. Bolten, the White House chief of staff, and Karl Rove, the president’s former chief political adviser, for refusing to comply with subpoenas in a Congressional inquiry into the firings of nine federal prosecutors.

New York Times Book Review: The Fall of the House of Bush

From the December 7, 2007, New York Times:

Books of The Times
Under a Microscope, Bush and His Presidency
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF BUSH (on Amazon.com)

The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America’s Future

By Craig Unger

437 pages. Scribner. $27 (less on Amazon.com)
The story of how the Bush administration took the United States to war in Iraq is such a complicated tale with so many plots and subplots, so much misinformation and spin, so many missteps and outrageous misjudgments that reporters in countless newspaper and magazine articles, television documentaries and dozens of books have struggled to piece together the narrative. It is a continuing process, as more and more information comes to light and needs to be sifted and weighed and connected.

Draft Gore to Run for Pres. & Vote for Time Person of Year

Here’s the Draft Gore website:
www.draftgore.com

And here’s where you can vote for him on Time's website:
dwarfurl.com/dfe3f

Cheers,
chrisco

PS: If you really want to help spread the word and make this “draft Gore” idea go viral just do something like write about it, blog about it, comment about it, sign the petition, etc. If you don’t know HTML you can just grab the code for this bulletin and repost it on your blog or website. Feel free to edit or whatever. Here is a link to the code (2 KB .txt file): http://www.box.net/shared/8ypp21n0k1

Article: The Coup at Home

From the November 11, 2007, New York Times:

The Coup at Home
By FRANK RICH

AS Gen. Pervez Musharraf arrested judges, lawyers and human-rights activists in Pakistan last week, our Senate was busy demonstrating its own civic mettle. Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, liberal Democrats from America’s two most highly populated blue states, gave the thumbs up to Michael B. Mukasey, ensuring his confirmation as attorney general.

So what if America’s chief law enforcement official won’t say that waterboarding is illegal? A state of emergency is a state of emergency. You’re either willing to sacrifice principles to head off the next ticking bomb, or you’re with the terrorists. Constitutional corners were cut in Washington in impressive synchronicity with General Musharraf’s crackdown in Islamabad.

In the days since, the coup in Pakistan has been almost universally condemned as the climactic death knell for Bush foreign policy, the epitome of White House hypocrisy and incompetence.

Article: Fearing Fear Itself

From the October 29, 2007, New York Times:

Fearing Fear Itself
By PAUL KRUGMAN

In America’s darkest hour, Franklin Delano Roosevelt urged the nation not to succumb to “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.” But that was then.

Today, many of the men who hope to be the next president — including all of the candidates with a significant chance of receiving the Republican nomination — have made unreasoning, unjustified terror the centerpiece of their campaigns.

Consider, for a moment, the implications of the fact that Rudy Giuliani is taking foreign policy advice from Norman Podhoretz, who wants us to start bombing Iran “as soon as it is logistically possible.”

Excellent Article: Pursue Them to The Grave

From Stephen Pizzo at NewsForReal.com:

October 29, 2007

Pursue Them
Pursue Them to The Grave

Those us of a certain age have been here and done this before. And many of us wonder how we could possibly allowed ourselves to be sucked into it again. And then it dawned on me this weekend -- the one critical thing we did not learn from our disastrous Vietnam experience. It's not what we did, but what we failed to do. And that one thing is the reason for nearly everything that's gone so terribly wrong in Iraq and our so-called "war on terror."

Got your pen? Because we can't afford to ever for this again. Okay, here it is:
http://www.newsforreal.com/

Article: What will World War IV cost?

What will World War IV cost?
How about $32,000 each, $5 gas and a military draft for your kids
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
Last Update: 7:19 PM ET Oct 29, 2007

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- First, let's clear the air: Someone please tell the White House we're already fighting World War III. Yes, they're great at picking buzzwords, but the truth is our global "war on terror" has engaged (or enraged) every nation on the planet.

Article: Ich bin ein Berliner

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
-- Justice William O. Douglas

Click through to read the article...

Editorial: Another $200 Billion Down Bush's Bottomless Pit

From the October 25, 2007, New York Times:

Editorial
Another $200 Billion

President Bush waited until he had vetoed a relatively inexpensive children’s health insurance bill before asking for tens of billions of dollars more for his misadventure in Iraq. The cynicism of that maneuver is only slightly less shameful than the president’s distorted priorities. Despite a pretense of fiscal prudence, Mr. Bush keeps throwing money at his war, regardless of the cost in blood, treasure or children’s health care.