The GOP (Republican Party) Heathcare Plan

GOP healthcare plan, including the elimination of Medicare is a redistribution of wealth plan. Seniors will use whatever they had, including selling homes for healthcare. Their children and grandchildren lose their inheritance, and place to live in some cases. GOP corporate sponsors win, they get what should've belonged to families as more personal wealth and income is spent for healthcare.

$10,000.00 is the cost of one chemotherapy treatment.

Families and businesses will pay higher costs for healthcare as more uninsured flock to the ER for routine healthcare.

Corporations, if Obama's healthcare law id repealed, will jack up costs to employees, or eliminate their healthcare plans altogether.

Way to go Republicans. You should change the name of you party to Death Party.

Dear Senator DeMint - Personal Responsibility

When the GOP speaks of personal responsibility during discussions on healthcare, they cleverly omit one fact. The biggest drain on our healthcare system is not people over the age of 65. It is the alarming number of Americans who are overweight or obese.

Blaming those over 65 is a convenient way to excuse those under 65 who fall into the category of obesity. Yet obesity is paid for by all Americans who have insurance, and in some cases, perhaps most, the additional cost may by as high as one hundred dollars per month.

The GOP, which includes their spokespeople like Rush and Glen, know blaming the elderly will win them backers. The elderly rarely fight back. Many of the GOP and their spokespeople, family and supporters, are overweight and or obese. Most of the GOP take large contributions from the healthcare industry.

Obesity has been declared the number one cause of deadly disease from diabetes to cancer. Yet no one in congress has addressed the issue with the dogged persistence they use to attack over-65 Americans.

When the discussion turns to social security, they play the same tune. The problem is Americans over 65. They ignore one fact, which is that Social Security was and is the equivalent of a trust fund overseen by the government. In the 1980s, they created the Social Security Lockbox to protect the fund, but congress did as congress does, found a way in and used these funds for projects that should’ve been funded through tax revenues.

When private trust funds are robbed, fund managers face criminal charges. It is time to do the same with congress. All members of the Senate and House of Representatives who were in office from 2000 through 2010 and approved using monies from the Social Security Trust Fund for anything other than social security, should face criminal charges including grand larceny. This should have a mandatory jail sentence with community service added once the offenders are released.

All members of government work for all Americans. We pay their salaries, and their benefits, including those that are applied to their families. If they are convicted of taking money from the Social Security Trust Fund, they must repay the American people all the money they’ve been paid, salaries and benefits.

As far as healthcare is concerned, congress should enact a Healthcare Personal Responsibility Law requiring all Americans to pay a monthly healthcare fee based on how much over the acceptable BMI they are. For example if your maximum BMI is 164 and you weigh 165, you pay an additional 1.00 per month personal responsibility fee. For each additional pound, add 1.00. The only exceptions are those with chronic disease such as thyroid disorder, age-related diseases and others that make weight control nearly impossible.

Once this is done, all the rest of us will have our monthly premium reduced accordingly, so that way we no longer pay for those who until now, were not personally responsible for their health and the health of their underage children.

So, if you want to eat yourself to death, you take personal responsibility for the consequences beginning the day you are one pound overweight.

Lastly, to show that they are personally responsible, all government officials, elected and otherwise, should report their BMI to the American people.

Members of congress should show their willingness to help out during this ongoing recession, caused in large part by their actions during the previous 10 years. They should take an immediate 50% pay cut, and lay off all staff except for one secretary.

Now, let’s see how many members of the GOP stand up and state to all Americans “I am personally responsible. Here is my BMI, I took a pay cut, I’ve laid off staff, I support investigating members of congress who raided the Social Security Trust Fund; I will write personal responsibility legislation for healthcare reform.”

I’ll tell you what to expect; 0.

The GOP is personally beholding to the corporations that write checks on their behalf.

Oh, the one thing people over 65 did wrong? Voted for Republicans.

Save the Red Heifer

We need your support.

Down in Texas and elsewhere, ranchers breed and raise Red Heifers, ship them to Israel, and slaughter them for their ashes. That's right, their ashes. The Heifers do not become hamburger, sirloin, pot roast, hot dogs, or anything else to eat. No one uses their hides for shoes, wallets, or purses.

This is why.

Members of the extreme right wing of Evangelical Christianity (they don't have a left wing) believe in the End Time, the Rapture (not the same as anything erotic), and the Second Coming.

First, a brief aside about the Rapture. Say you're walking down the street. You've been sinless one way or another for years (just be patient now) and then you are Raptured.

That's right, Raptured. I envision a sparkly little cloud of particles settling slowly to the filthy sidewalk, piling up into a small mound of what is left of you. Some clumsy non-Raptured human steps in your remains, and says, "Damn them, why don't these idiots Rapture in the privacy of their own homes?" and uses a stick to scrap you off his sole.

(Sorry, got distracted).

I want to get Left Behind! Yea! Think of it. All of the Limbaugh, Palin, Coulter, Beck, Bachmann, et al lovers will be gone along with the five clowns mentioned at the start of the paragraph, well maybe them.

World peace will be possible without those lovely Evangelicals who hate the thought of peace in the Middle East. Hell, they hate the thought of peace anywhere. Why do you think Evangelicals wanted to invade Iraq? Oil? Nope to fire off the first salvo of Armageddon.

However, this is about those poor little red Heifers.

See, Evangelicals like Sarah Palin think (and I do use the word loosely in this context) that if and or when Jesus Christ returns, you know The Second Coming, all of the Jews around the world will convert to Christianity. They will flock (no pun intended, yeah right) to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Then before any of you, the Chosen Ones (sorry, Rush, druggies need not apply) enter the new and improved, air-conditioned Temple (Evangelicals hate physical discomfort) you must be anointed with the ashes from a red Heifer (comes in a tiny plastic Ziploc packet with a price tag of $50.00 for each admittance).

What? The world's Arab population will protest the rebuilding of the Temple? Let them speak with Jesus, and get their own plastic baggy of dead red Heifer ashes, if they dare.

How many red Heifers will it take to provide ashes for what several hundred million or more? Hundreds of thousands of innocent red Heifers must die may have already died, for the satisfaction of a minority of humankind who live in the illusion they call the End Times.

Of course, many will become rich raising and selling red Heifers just like a few have writing books about the Big Event, or shouting words that spew every day to promote fear and hatred while they hawk their favorite political candidates to promote war and profit.

Maybe we can save the red Heifers and look for something else to burn.

What is The Rapture?

Synonyms for Rapture - ecstasy, delight, joy, bliss, Seventh Heaven, Cloud Nine.

None of the above comes close to what I'm interested in discussing. For me, The Rapture is about people disappearing off the streets in the blink of an eye. Not just one person, but dozens, hundreds, thousands, maybe tens of millions. Before you know it, every Evangelical Baptist on the planet Earth is gone. Or are they?

Maybe, it will be Catholics, or Quakers, Presbyterians, Episcopalians (oops, no, not them, they accepted gays into the clergy). Perhaps Jews can go along for the ride, take Muslims too.

To me the concept of The Rapture seems a bit too science fiction. It's as if aliens will invade with Star Trek hand weapons, or laser guns. Alternatively, some mythical creatures from the lost annals of history will fly silently overhead, emitting a thin stream of superheated gas that annihilates living atoms on contact, but only human atoms of course.

If I think about it long enough, casting aside my character flaws, which pile up around me to about shoulder height, I know I would rather skip it. I mean watching might be a thrill, in a voyeuristic kind of way, but otherwise forget about it.

Listen, I've lived many years as a kid and as an adult. If I'm going to be whisked away in the blink of a divine eye, what was the purpose of those years I lived, and why was I not allowed to live the rest of my time first? Hell, I'm not done. I know I'm going to screw up anyway, so why not let me finish? I might get lucky near the end and do something really cool that erases my jagged past.

Oh, yeah, The Rapture equals End of Time. Please, end of human time is not even close to the end of time. In addition, we do not need God to end it for us, we're doing fine on our own, thank you very much!

Oh, that's right, I forgot, there is no climate change. Why it snowed in the Deep South this past winter. Moreover, Canada just went through its warmest winter in recorded history, hmmm.

So what if come 12/21/2012 at twelve noon exactly, a massive rock drops from space and cracks open the surface of the Earth? Will that be The Rapture? Or The End of Time? Damn sure will hurt like hell.

Do try to keep in mind that The Rapture, i.e. The Ecstasy, The Delight, The Bliss is meant to feel good, extreme pleasure, spiritually orgasmic even. Why else chose a name such as The Rapture? It's not even close to The Eternal Lullaby. We'll be dancing on clouds with harps and wings to the tune of Tiptoe through the Angelic Tulips.

Oh, and yup, The Rapture will be a bad event for those of us Left Behind. There will be nothing blissful about it, rarely a shudder of ecstasy for them. They'll go on living just as they always have, except there will be no extremist Right Wing Evangelical Christians dictating how you can and cannot live your life.

Oh, wait a minute.

All of them along with their media dictators, authors, song writers, human rights hating, corporate loving, discriminating, screaming illiterates, and too the hidden-in-the-wilderness militiamen will be gone forever.

Why, those of us Left Behind will be stuck with nothing but thinking caring intellectuals, humanists, equal rights supporters, earth loving environmentalists, and promoters of justice and peace over profits.

Well, my God, seems I got distracted, or did I? After all, what exactly is The Rapture?

According to what I've heard and read, the Chosen are plucked off the Earth and given their well deserved Eternal Reward.

Okay, I get that, but if there are tens of millions, or hundreds of millions, where will all of those people live, or stay? Do they remain physical, or will their bodies be converted to ashes? Then what? We who get Left Behind sweep up the remains? Okay, will make good fertilizer I suppose.

Moreover, what happens to whatever part of the "SAVED" that is whisked off or sucked into heaven? Is it non-corporeal? Does he or she transform into a ghost-like creature floating helplessly through space? Is deep space heaven? Will feathered wings help?

Maybe the galaxy's black hole center is Hell. Cool, or not.

Um, distracted again, I see. I suppose I don't get it, so that means I'm destined to be Left Behind. Well thank God!

That must also mean I am not a right wing Evangelical Christian who believes he has the right-- no, the obligation to dictate how others must live, and die. As if any Christian has personally spoken to God for such instruction.

A burning bush does not a God make.

You see, I do not believe any human can receive real power over others without it corrupting him. In addition, if God really did create humanity, for whatever entertaining reason, then God knew that too. Therefore, God would not ever, if it were possible, speak to any human, period. Why give a lowly human that kind of power? I mean really, just look at Papal history.

Damn, why do I get into these dead end debates?

Let me say this and I will quit what I should never have begun. If there really will be a Rapture and only the chosen few -- such as those lovely Evangelicals who think healthcare is a privilege, that women have no right to control their own destinies, that gay men and women are unequal the way those same people once thought black Americans were, that selected men can speak for all of humanity ordering its future, that poverty is right for anyone but them -- I truly want to be Left Behind.

No, I demand to be Left Behind. Life on Earth without radical religion would be heaven on Earth, a thousand years of peace finally. Every war for the last four thousand years was fought for or because of God, or religion.

Good grief, let The Rapture begin, please, if there is a God, I beg you.

Better than Term Limits or Campaign Finance Laws

Here is a method to fix what is wrong with federal elections in America without term limits or campaign finance laws.

Using computer generated randomization, select a state to elect the United States Senators and Congressional Representatives from a different state. Let me cite an example.

The computer program runs 45 days before the November election. Say the outcome selects Vermont voters to vote for the candidates running for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from the state of South Carolina. The state of New York votes for the candidates running in Arizona, etc., until all fifty states are matched up. The program runs each federal election cycle.

Exactly 30 days before the election, a nationwide announcement alerts citizens of, say Vermont, that the state's U.S. Senators and Congressional Representatives they will be voting for is South Carolina.

Then, all of the candidates are required to go to the state that will choose who wins the election after balloting on Election Day. The candidates must run statewide in-person debates for thirty days concerning only the topics important to pressing issues of the time leaving out issues such as flag burning, gay rights, and any other "hot button" topic.

As the debates begin, federal law prohibits political advertising nationwide on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the internet. There will be no talking heads commentary, or talk show discussion of candidates, their personal lives, families, etc., and issues.

Violators will be fined severely and if they violate the law twice, receive a minimum sentence of no less than five years in prison without parole.

This may seem lopsided at the outset, but I believe the result will be fair. Each state will go through the candidate selection process as is done now, six months or one year before the computer selection process picks which state will vote for the chosen candidates.

With this method, the extreme left or right will not be able to pollute the process at the "last minute." Democrats, Republicans, and Independents will vote in primaries as is done now and select whom they want to send to the debates.

The process should gradually weed out extremism on both sides and focus the election on what is important not on who gains or maintains power.

The screaming anger that pollutes the process now to the point of total dysfunction ends. The manipulation and influence by corporate donors and K Street lobbyists, Special Interest Organizations, and PACs who ignite the screaming anger ends, or is severely muted during the thirty days leading up to Election Day. Meaning they can talk amongst themselves while in the seclusion of their offices or homes, but not broadcast any of what is said.

When time comes to elect a president, the process remains as it is now until ninety days before Election Day. At that time, the rules in paragraphs 6 and 7 above apply.

There it is, simple as pie.
_____

Copyright March 11, 2010 all rights reserved.
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Christian Right's "Cold" Civil War

In spite of what the American conservative right desires we believe, their rhetoric has become clear. The truth of their deception is vastly different from their professed goals.

Led by an obese drug abuser, and Holy men who condemn in others the behavior they practice, corporation CEOs, U.S. senators and congresspersons who channel their political lust for power and personal gain, threaten national security, and sound economic recovery.

How long before they succeed depends on the number of Americans who listen and believe while these abhorrent men and women cleverly work their hidden agenda, a silent civil war, and a true regional division of the Union.

I believe this plan began with the introduction of Rush Limbaugh and the rampaging lies of Newt Gingrich, building to a mouth foaming crescendo when good Americans, those "Got Damned Yankees" had the audacity to elect a black man as president.

As proof think about this: never before in this nation's history has so many "Leaders" social, religious, political, and business, expended so much time and resources condemning and striving to destroy a president during his first year in office. This president broke no laws, morally, ethically, or legally. This president "inherited" the worst economic crisis in more than 70 years, a nation divided over the invasion of Iraq, a housing and employment disaster, runaway healthcare costs, and never once lost his sense of direction or expressed anger at those fighting bitterly to tear him down.

Moreover, the men and women "leaders" predominantly from the "Deep South," the very deep dank swamp mentality south, will not stop until they either succeed or are driven from office. They do not care how many American lives are destroyed or how many Americans die. They feed on the hidden racism that festers in the under-educated, the fear-filled tea-partiers, and the gullible led by rabidly religious Old Testament Christian ministers, pastors, and priests.

The latter solution, driving these bitterly hate-filled conservatives from office, will likely never happen. Therefore, the verbal civil war is shoved along like the proverbial boulder an ancient god rolled uphill. If they and their agenda are not stopped, they may end the American dream once and for all. Of course, there is the possibility that the gravity of commonsense will respond and roll down hill crushing them all.

New GOP Plan to Fight Terrorism

BREAKING NEWS!

A Southern Republican U.S. Senator has devised a plan to make certain no other Underwear Bomber ever again boards a commercial airliner traveling to or within the United States of America.

His original bill stated that no person male or female, young or old, be allowed to board any plane destined for any United States airport while wearing any underwear. He considered this an idea of extreme brilliance. No underwear, no place to hide a bomb.

However, his Christian Right Tea Bagger constituents immediately rejected his plan. Their leaders proclaimed that not wearing underwear would, well, undermine the support they needed to hold aloft the fifty or more pounds of jelly-like body fat they earned by just being God-fearing Americans who hated the poor and labor unions.

Furthermore, they screamed in his face, "Jesus in His Sermon on the Etiquette stated that by not wearing underwear one would be condemned in the eyes of God Himself to eternal damnation and forced to shovel feces for Satan in the Pits of Hell."

Once confronted by this viral opposition, the noble southern U.S. Senator declared that a better and more acceptable solution would be that all airline passengers be required to don glitter string thongs before boarding.

Dressing rooms would be set aside for those who could not afford this luxury. There they could don the thong provided for them by the TSA, which they would be required to turn in at their destination.

The Chinese Corporations, backed by Corporate America's finest, manufacturers of most of the world's heavily cadmium laced glitter thongs, praised and exalted the senator's bill.

Immediately, the Chinese pumped millions of Yen into the senator's reelection war chest through dummy corporations they'd previously established while struggling to block Google from spreading the lies of Freedom of Speech.

The Southern U.S. Senator's homeboy corporate sponsors, well aware that a string thong could not, would not hold back their seventy plus pounds of jiggle -- per person -- were stymied and threw their weight, err support, behind their Guru, the senior Walton of Walmart, demanding that the great Walton family do something, anything to fix their dilemma.

Seeing the glitter of new opportunity, the board of directors dropped the prices on all styles of underwear, except, of course, glitter thongs, which they purchased as quickly as the cadmium poisoned Chinese nine-dollars-a-day workers mass produced them.

Next, thought the Southern U.S. Senator, the White House. Oh, Glory Be to God!