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Posts published in September 2010

The Emperor’s New Doctor

When Clinton accepted the Democrats’ nomination in 1992, he promised the party faithful that getting health care for all U.S. citizens would be his number one priority. He gave the impression that he’d come up with a plan and if that got knocked down by the evil doctors and Republicans he’d come up with another plan, and if that got knocked down he’d come up with yet another plan until it was a done deal.

He wouldn’t rest until the United States had a health care system in place that was on par with the rest of the developed world. If necessary, he would twist every congressperson’s arm or do battle with any lobbyist or special interest group, including the all powerful AMA. If elected, we could sleep well in the knowledge that before he left the White House, Americans from rich to poor would have equal access to health care.

Today’s Video: Clinton on Health Care Reform

This clip, taken from Clinton’s State of the Union address in 1993, only serves to illustrate today’s blog by Christine Hall. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5y-XXJPUjU&start=36

The FDA & Genetically Engineered Salmon

This is an old story, but it needs mention every couple of weeks. The FDA is failing the U.S. consumer badly. Not only does it continue to approve genetically engineered foods for public consumption, without fully understanding the risks these foods might wreck on public health and the environment, it protects the producers of these foods by failing to require genetically engineered products be labeled as such.

According to The Good Human, if you eat processed foods, genetically engineered products are probably entering your body every day:

Obama goes to School

I live in North Carolina, and although we voted for Obama in 2008, it would be a mistake to consider this Obama Country. He still has a lot of support in the cities, but in working class neighborhoods and rural areas he’s seen with the same disdain as Jimmy Carter. Probably worse, since Carter had the good graces to be a southerner.

This morning Obama spoke to school kids across the country via television from Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia. The address was about what you’d expect from any president on such an occasion, nonpartisan and motivational. He urged students to “dream big” and “stay focused” on their education. Pretty harmless stuff, which maybe a few students found moving and probably many more found boring, school kids being who they are.

The Rich & Taxes: A Post-Modern Myth

To hear the conservatives tell it, our economy will nosedive if the rich are required to pay an iota in taxes more than they do now. Indeed, we are led to understand the rich already pay more than their fair share, that their taxes need to be lowered so the middle class and the poor can shoulder more of the burden.

It’s understandable why folks under 30 might believe this argument. If the tax rate on the rich, defined by the Obama administration as those earning more than $250,000, is rolled back to nearly 40%, the rich just might not have the money to invest in businesses and create the jobs our country so badly needs. Never mind the fact that the rich aren’t investing in businesses and creating jobs anyway, even though the tax rate for high rollers is historically low.

The Government We Deserve

Lincoln didn’t tell us the whole truth when he said, “…you cannot fool all of the people all the time.” What he didn’t say, perhaps because it didn’t occur to him, was that you can fool a majority of the people all of the time, especially in the age of television and now, the Internet. Unfortunately, a majority is all that matters in a democracy. Democratically speaking, four sane people and six psychotic sickos means rule by the insane. Governments in the United States have been operating on this principle for quite a while now.

Over the last six decades, since the onset of the post World War II economic boom and the beginning of television on a mass scale, we’ve become a nation in which six out of ten of us believes we can find happiness through owning things. We’ve become materialistic on a scale never before seen in human history. All of our inner turmoils are solvable through ownership. Happiness comes from purchasing a new car, a new set of clothes, or the newest most cutting edge technological item.

The Politics of Corruption

Obama can’t succeed. No matter how clear his vision, he can’t overcome the corruption that’s been woven into the fabric of politics in America.

We’ve legitimized corruption. We’ve legalized it and given it constitutional protection. In the United States, identifying the true sources of governmental corruption is a treasonous act, for corruption is now built-in to the bricks and mortar of our system of government. To identify corruption here is to identify our governments, both local and federal. To call for corruption’s end is a call to bring down these governments, for governmental corruption is now such a cancer that it seemingly can’t be removed from our legal institutions without dismantling the government.

A Call to Prayer in Lower Manhattan

If I’d died when the World Trade Center fell nine years ago, right about now I’d be rising from my grave in anger. I’d descend on followers of the Tea Party and the other Islamaphobes who’re making an issue of the “Mosque” that isn’t a mosque, but is planned to be a cultural center open to all faiths. I would raise my voice, if I still had one after lying nine years dead, and I would shout at the top of my lungs, making sure that all who heard me understood my anger and wrath.

If This Be Treason is an AlternativeApproaches Media website.