The deaf, deranged drug-addict from the radio was allegedly "rushed" (get it -- "rushed") to the hospital in Hawaii yesterday, while on vacation. The official story is that he was suffering from chest pains. I remember one time he got nailed while coming back from "vacation" with a whole bunch of viagra in his suitcase. This is the oxycontin addict who used his housecleaner as a mule, and consumed such large quantities of the drug that it made him go deaf. Of course he has millions of right-wing fascist fans who think he's just swell.
What if it wasn't chest pains? That's one of those cover stories for men. 50s, white male, chest pain, everybody says nice things like gee what a shame. But what if it wasn't chest pains? What if it was a drug overdose? Would they announce that or cover it up? What if he got one of those four-hour erections from Viagra, and had to be taken to the hospital to restore the little prick to its original condition. Or what if he got his dick stuck in a long-neck beer bottle. Do you think the hospital would announce that? I've known doctors who work in emergency rooms, and you wouldn't believe the stories they tell. A dick stuck in a long-neck beer bottle would be just a typical Saturday night for them.
I've been waiting all day to hear that he died. This has been such a crappy year for me personally, what with one thing after the other (not only did I break some bones this summer, but I'm also now having computer problems), I'd like to see something good come out of the year. It wouldn't matter anyway. He's a useless, despicable, ugly, hateful, cowardly, paranoid insane drug addict whose sole purpose in life is to spread racism, sexism, war, hatred and insanity across the land. Good riddance to bad rubbish is all I could say. But beyond that, if old Rush croaked, there's hundreds of young pretty-boys lined up behind him ready to step up to support the Nazi propaganda network in this country. Bottom line: who gives a shit about this miserable useless piece of waste byproduct?
Don't you hate the way that every single thing you learned when you were a kid turned out to have been -- a lie. Even the simple stuff.
It turns out that even December 25, the celebration we call "Christmas," which is supposed to be the day on which Jesus was born, is just a bunch of hooey. (Sorry Christians). Jesus was not born on December 25. Apparently he was born in September. That's not my opinion, that's from religious scholars based upon descriptions in the Bible.
All over this country we've got people proclaiming that December 25 was the day Jesus was born. In a manger. And the 3 wisemen and the camel and gifts -- all a lie. Instead, in 350 a.d. the Pope selected December 25 as an arbitrary date on which to celebrate the birth of Jesus. He chose that day because he was trying to wean people away from their pagan holidays. So he hoped to substitute the "Jesus Birthday" new holiday he was creating for the various pagan holidays which were celebrated in December around the world.
For example, December 25 is the date on which the Feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated in ancient Babylon. On that day, people would have parties, feasts, drink, and exchange gifts.
In Rome, in December and January there were holidays and celebrations long before Jesus was born. These were celebrations of the winter solstice. Among other traditions of the Roman holiday were the singing groups who went from home to home, singing songs for their neighbors. These groups were called Mummers. Just like our caroling groups.
In northern Europe, long before Jesus was born, this period in the end of December was also celebrated for the winter solstice. They called that period "Yule." According to the people in northern Europe, the pagan sun God Mithras was born on the shortest day of the year (December 21), and that birth was celebrated by them. Among other traditions of the northern Europeans, they would kiss under the mistletoe during this time, because mistletoe was thought to be a fertility plant. In northern Europe, the people during this period would also often bring evergreen trees into their homes, as a reminder to them to wish for the crops to grow in the spring.
Now if we can re-examine this whole "Jesus' Birthday" story, maybe it's time to take a second look at the whole "virgin birth" issue. Anyway, if you hear some Bill O'Really fan whining about somebody saying "Happy Holidays," you can use this information to educate them as to the actual multi-cultural and pagan holidays all of which are celebrated at the end of December. Including Jesus' September birthday!
The official first celebration of Christmas (Christ Mass) was in Germany in the 1500s. Of course nowadays the celebration has been moved to the malls where people buy electronic gadgets and expensive clothes with credit cards, hoping that the one day of Christmas can solve all their problems. It usually doesn't, but may be fun anyway.
It is fitting that the national nurses unions have been among the first, the most vocal, the most active proponents of this country adopting a national healthcare program that would provide healthcare to all Americans. After all, while the doctors profit from the current for-profit system which allows doctors to charge obscene amounts for their services, most nurses make a yearly salary which is sometimes decent, but certainly not excessive.
In addition, it is the nurses who have the most direct contact with the patients, and who see how patients suffer under our current system. If a patient can't afford the drugs that the doctor has prescribed, for example, the doctor often does not know or care because they receive so many bribes from the drug companies for pushing their drugs that the doctors have a financial incentive to continue the current system.
The National nurses union ("National Nurses United")is opposed to (and appalled by) the Democrats' pending Healthcare Un-Reform Bill. I agree with them. Here is their most recent statement:
National Nurses United Statement 12/21/09
"The 150,000 member National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional organization of registered nurses in the U.S., today criticized the healthcare bill now advancing in the U.S. Senate saying it is deeply flawed and grants too much power to the giant insurers."
“'It is tragic to see the promise from Washington this year for genuine, comprehensive reform ground down to a seriously flawed bill that could actually exacerbate the healthcare crisis and financial insecurity for American families, and that cedes far too much additional power to the tyranny of a callous insurance industry,' said NNU co-president Karen Higgins, RN."
"NNU Co-president Deborah Burger, RN challenged arguments of legislation proponents that the bill should still be passed because of expanded coverage, new regulations on insurers, and the hope that it will be improved in the House-Senate conference committee or future years."
“'Those wishful statements ignore the reality that much of the expanded coverage is based on forced purchase of private insurance without effective controls on industry pricing practices or real competition and gaping loopholes in the insurance reforms,' said Burger."
"Further, said NNU Co-president Jean Ross, RN, 'the bill seems more likely to be eroded, not improved, in future years due to the unchecked influence of the healthcare industry lobbyists and the lessons of this year in which all the compromises have been made to the right.'”
“'Sadly, we have ended up with legislation that fails to meet the test of true healthcare reform, guaranteeing high quality, cost effective care for all Americans, and instead are further locking into place a system that entrenches the chokehold of the profit-making insurance giants on our health. If this bill passes, the industry will become more powerful and could be beyond the reach of reform for generations,' Higgins said."
"NNU cited ten significant problems in the legislation, noting many of the same flaws also exist in the House version and are likely to remain in the bill that emerges from the House-Senate reconciliation process:"
"1. The individual mandate forcing all those without coverage to buy private insurance, with insufficient cost controls on skyrocketing premiums and other insurance costs."
"2. No challenge to insurance company monopolies, especially in the top 94 metropolitan areas where one or two companies dominate, severely limiting choice and competition."
"3. An affordability mirage. Congressional Budget Office estimates say a family of four with a household income of $54,000 would be expected to pay 17 percent of their income, $9,000, on healthcare exposing too many families to grave financial risk."
"4. The excise tax on comprehensive insurance plans which will encourage employers to reduce benefits, shift more costs to employees, promote proliferation of high-deductible plans, and lead to more self-rationing of care and medical bankruptcies, especially as more plans are subject to the tax every year due to the lack of adequate price controls. A Towers-Perrin survey in September found 30 percent of employers said they would reduce employment if their health costs go up, 86 percent said they’d pass the higher costs to their employees."
"5. Major loopholes in the insurance reforms that promise bans on exclusion for pre-existing conditions, and no cancellations for sickness. The loopholes include:
--"Provisions permitting insurers and companies to more than double charges to employees who fail 'wellness' programs because they have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol readings, or other medical conditions."
--"Insurers are permitted to sell policies 'across state lines', exempting patient protections passed in other states. Insurers will thus set up in the least regulated states in a race to the bottom threatening public protections won by consumers in various states."
--"Insurers can charge four times more based on age plus more for certain conditions, and continue to use marketing techniques to cherry-pick healthier, less costly enrollees."
--"Insurers may continue to rescind policies for “fraud or intentional misrepresentation” – the main pretext insurance companies now use to cancel coverage."
"6. Minimal oversight on insurance denials of care; a report by the California Nurses Association/NNOC in September found that six of California’s largest insurers have rejected more than one-fifth of all claims since 2002."
"7. Inadequate limits on drug prices, especially after Senate rejection of an amendment, to protect a White House deal with pharmaceutical giants, allowing pharmacies and wholesalers to import lower-cost drugs."
"8. New burdens for our public safety net. With a shortage of primary care physicians and a continuing fiscal crisis at the state and local level, public hospitals and clinics will be a dumping ground for those the private system doesn’t want."
"9. Reduced reproductive rights for women."
"10. No single standard of care. Our multi-tiered system remains with access to care still determined by ability to pay. Nothing changes in basic structure of the system; healthcare remains a privilege, not a right."
“'Desperation to pass a bill, regardless of its flaws, has made the White House and Congress subject to the worst political extortion and new, crippling concessions every day,'” Burger said.
“'NNU and nurses will continue to work with the thousands of grassroots activists across the nation to campaign for the best reform, which would be to expand Medicare to cover everyone, the same type of system working more effectively in every other industrial country. The day of that reform will come,' said Ross."
(Underline added for emphasis by NABNYC).
Among the most horrifying aspects of this bill is that Congress is giving legal permission to insurance companies to immediately begin raising the rates for many Americans. They can increase "older" Americans' insurance by four times. And remember, citizens are legally compelled to buy the insurance, spending approximately 20% or more of their household income on health insurance.
The provision that will allow insurance companies to sell out of state eviscerates the ability of citizens to get their state government to provide them with protections. The insurance companies will presumably gather in the most corrupt states of the country, the states willing to make sure there are no restrictions on insurance company practices, and those states' rules will govern. If Mississippi, for example, is the chosen state, then residents of California will be subject to the lowest standards that the state of Mississippi is willing to enact for their citizens. The reason for this provision? To let the health insurance companies do what they want, and take away from citizens the power to legally restrict them. What a disgrace this is. This is not democracy. This is just corruption.
The last line in this beautiful and amazing song is "Dreams die young." It seems so appropriate. A year ago many of us were so elated at the election of Barack Obama. Today, I can only ask: What Change?
The Democrats continue to give away the treasury to the criminals on Wall Street who have bankrupt our nation. The wars are being escalated and new ones started. Unemployment has ravished the meager savings of working Americans, and many states have exhausted their unemployment compensation fund.
Now the promise of healthcare reform turns out to be just another corporate give-away. Everytime a Democrat says this bill will "expand" or "provide" healthcare to millions more Americans, remember this: it does no such thing. It orders people to buy health insurance even if they cannot afford it. There are very few benefits to the people in this bill. It mostly is just another corporate give-away.
Last week, somebody proposed in the Senate that at least they include a provision that would allow Americans to buy their drugs from Canada, import them from licensed pharmacists in Canada, because the exact same drugs that we buy here are sold in Canada for a fraction of what we pay. President Obama, through one of his agencies, sent a stern note to Congress telling them this would not be acceptable. That must be part of the deal he negotiated in his secret meetings with the drug companies, to make sure they continue to earn obscene profits off of Americans. In exchange, of course, for their very generous "contributions" to the Democrats. Back-room deals, secret meetings, absurd laws, and Democrats sounding more like Republicans every day. Dreams die young, indeed.
Below is a great visual from an article at Counterpunch. The article can be found at this link: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts12142009.html. In general, the green is the Palestinian land, and white is Jewish or Israel land. The entire colored chunk was Palestine, belonging to the Palestinians, but with Jewish neighborhoods and Jewish people living alongside the Palestinians. The Palestinians themselves are members of various religions, some Muslim and some Christian. The zionists are a fanatical group that decided they would change Judaism from a religion, and turn it into a militaristic, nationalistic, armed and deadly ideology, much like that of the Nazis. The zionists decided they would try to convince Jewish people from around the world to move to Palestine. Then when there were enough of them, they would smuggle in guns, attack the Palestinians and steal their land, and declare that they were now a Jewish Nation, from which all non-Jewish people would be expelled. Actually the zionists were also big supporters of ethnic cleansing, which is now one of the weapons used by Israel in its efforts to commit genocide against the Palestinian people. Zionists are just a militaristic, nationalistic, racist, murderous bunch of thieves, criminals, and thugs who, much like the German nazis, like to wear uniforms, carry weapons, bully others, and proclaim that they are superior to all other people on the earth.
The first block in the visual below, on the left, shows Palestine, the land of the Palestinians, as it existed in 1946. The green parts are the land owned by Palestinians. There are small areas in white which were the parts of land primarily owned by Jewish people. Jewish neighborhoods, as it were, inside Palestine. Jewish and Palestinian people living alongside each other in Palestine.
Total approximate number of Jewish residents in the land formerly known as Palestine (mostly European, either descendents of the post-war immigrants or more recent arrivals enticed to move to Israel in exchange for valuable consideration): 5 million. Total approximate number of Palestinians living in the area: 5 million. Equal numbers, approximately. Yet there is no equality in land, or rights.
If the Palestinians who were run off of their land by the Europeans were allowed to return, given the legal right to return to their land, they would represent the majority of the people in the former Palestine and presumably would vote not to have a Jewish-run and Jewish-law based government. That is why Israel ran out the Palestinians and stole their land. If the Palestinians' demand for a right to return ever succeeds, the former Palestine will become a majority Palestinian state, and the Jewish residents would have to learn how to get along with their non-Jewish neighbors under a civil government. In order to prevent this from happening, Israel continues stealing more Palestinian land and killing more of their people.
The Palestinians are treated worse than dogs. They are murdered by Israel with no consequences. In fact, a few years ago an American working with a peace group, a young woman named Rachel Corrie, went to stand in front of the homes of some Palestinians, homes that Israel had threatened to knock down so they could force the Palestinians off the land. The Israeli bulldozer ran right over Rachel Corrie and killed her. Murdered her. Even for murdering an American, there were no consequences.
What is the special tie between Israel and the U.S.? Money. A corrupt criminal enterprise. Congress votes to send money to Israel, Israel takes a chunk off the top, launders it back into the U.S., and pays kick-backs and bribes to "our" politicians. It's been going on for a long time. Even when Israel plants spies inside the U.S. government and steals classified and top secret information, the U.S. governments gives them a walk. That is what money can buy: the right to commit treason.
The goal of the Europeans is to steal all of the land and drive all the Palestinians away. The Israelis say the Palestinians should go somewhere else -- move to Jordan or Lebanon, for example. The Palestinians want their land back. Despite the on-going organized effort of Israel to collect money as "reparations" for Jewish people killed during World War II, nothing has ever been paid to the Palestinians for the land and resources Israel has stolen from them or the thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered by Israel. Not one penny.
Israel has no right to any of the land of Palestine. It doesn't really seem to matter. They didn't buy it, it belonged to someone else, they have stolen it by use of force, violence and murder. Their "claim" is that thousands of years ago, God wanted the Jewish people to own this land. Not my God.
The Final Solution being implemented by Israel is to put all Palestinians essentially in a prison by building a concrete block wall around all areas occupied by Palestinians, putting in only a few points of access, and generally refusing to allow the Palestinians to leave the "prison" for any purpose, even to get healthcare. This is exactly like the Nazis did in Poland, squeezing the surviving Jewish residents of Warsaw into the infamous Warsaw ghetto, starving them, denying them healthcare, and just waiting for them all to die. The Jewish survivors learned well from their German tormentors, and now use the same brutal and inhumane tactics in their efforts to kill every single remaining Palestinian.
For over a year now, Israel has imposed collective punishment on the Palestinians living in the Gaza strip. Their conditions are inhumane, the conduct by Israel is illegal, and of course it is funded by the U.S. Although our country continues to support the murder of Palestinians, the individual citizens have the ability to take a stand against Israel.
On December 31, 2009, there will be a Gaza Freedom March in which people from all over the world will stand and speak and march in support of the people of Gaza, and demand that Israel end its war crimes. You can go to this link below and sign a petition to support this organization, and find out what else you can do to help. Among other things, demand that the U.S. completely cut off all money given to Israel. U.S. Out of Israel. The U.S. should take that money and give it to the Palestinians, since the U.S. is ultimately responsible for the murder and devastation done to their land by Israel, which we fund and support. http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/9750/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2055
Joe the Ho Lieberman wants Americans to die.
Actually, he doesn't care much one way or the other as long as he keeps getting the big bribes and kick-backs from corporate America for selling his vote and betraying the people of this country.
In case you hadn't heard, Joe the Ho Lieberman just put the final nail in the coffin for any hope of even the tiniest shred of help for Americans, coming out strongly against allowing Americans over the age of 55 to buy into Medicare. No, Joe the Ho says, those Americans must die. If they can't afford to pay the insurance companies they should sell their houses and cars, sleep in the gutter, or otherwise they can just die.
Rahm Emanuel, the apparent President, Israel's plant inside the White House, reportedly instructed Harry Reid that the Democrats in Congress should do everything Joe the Ho Lieberman wants on health care, and on any other issue.
Remember, after Joe the Ho Lieberman campaigned with McCain and Palin, many of us gleefully awaited his being thrown out of all his Democratic chairman positions, thrown out of the Democratic cacuses, sent to live among the dog Republicans with whom he chose to sleep. But one of the first acts of Obama upon taking office was to directly instruct every Democrat in Congress that they must be nice to Joe the Ho Lieberman, must leave him in all his positions, must allow him to attend confidential Democratic strategy meetings even knowing he would immediately run across the aisle and tell his Republican co-conspirators everything he learned. But why?
Who is the big money, the sugar daddy backing Joe the Ho Lieberman that every Democrat in Congress must bow down and kiss his corrupt little ass? I think it's Israel. When Rahm Emanuel first got elected to Congress, he reportedly waltzed in and announced to the other Representatives that he controlled all the "Jewish" money, and nobody would get a penny unless they did what he told them to. I think Rahm has bequeathed that position to Joe the Ho Lieberman.
So ask yourself this: is this it? Isn't this really the end? Obama is escalating the wars, he's given away the public purse to Wall Street and appointed the criminals to run the treasury, he's betrayed the public in all respects, refuses to do anything to create jobs or help people. And now Congress fails to do anything to reform healthcare. And they all bow down to Joe the Ho Lieberman.
Even Sherrod Brown, who is otherwise a nice guy, is out backpeddling tonight, saying that even without Medicare for over-55, even without any public option at all, this piece of sh*t bill is still IMPORTANT. He says it contains IMPORTANT consumer protections. Don't believe it for a minute. The so-called IMPORTANT consumer protections are things Congress should have passed in 10 minutes, then gone on to other important issues.
What Brown claims are the IMPORTANT consumer protections are that the insurance companies can't charge more just because you're female (that law should have passed in 2 minutes) and they can't exclude people based on pre-existing conditions, or drop them once they get sick. No Sherrod, but the insurance companies can do exactly what they do right now, which is raise people's premiums so high that they can no longer afford to pay for it.
This is it. The end. The Democrats will do nothing for the people. What can we do?
First, if you are a registered Democrat, as soon as they vote in this piece of sh*t bill, change your registration to Independent, then send an e-mail to both your Senators and to Reid and to Obama telling them what you have done. And tell them you're not voting for any Democrat at least in the next 2 elections, under any circumstances.
Second, we need an issues-based progressive movement. Forget about the elections, don't donate to campaigns. Just get out and organize around the demand to end the wars, create jobs, and create a national healthcare program by which all Americans have free health and dental. Of course the cost of that will be paid from taxes, and we can all pay something based upon our ability to do so. This whole silly line that we can't do something if it would raise taxes must be shown up for the b.s. it is. I say let's raise taxes now, on the rich people.
But forget about the Democrats. Let's make them pay for this sell-out. And whoever runs against Joe the Ho Lieberman in Connecticut, support them.
(These marchers in the funeral are holding signs up that say "Truth and Justice" -- "Verdad y Justicia." Let's have some of that in this country, starting with an official inquiry into the Bush administration's wars of aggression, then moving onto the thieves on Wall Street who have bankrupt the world, finally focusing on the politicians in Congress who are in this up to their elbows).
Victor Jara was a Chilean singer, songwriter, activist, theatrical performer, one of the founders of Nueva Cancion, who was murdered in the Chilean coup of September 11, 1973, in which the democratically-elected President Salvador Allende was overthrown and the fascist dictator Pinochet, chosen by the United States to rule, took control of the country and murdered thousands, including Victor Jara.
This summer, the body of Victor Jara was exumed to determine an official cause of death. The determination is final: he was murdered, tortured and then shot over 40 times by the fascist military and police.
Victor Jara's official funeral took place yesterday, following a two-day wake, thirty-six years after he was murdered. He and his life and works are once again being celebrated by thousands of people in Chile who are again marching in the streets, inspired by Victor Jara, people still standing up for freedom.
The odd thing is that this gets so little coverage in the U.S., the country that created and directed the coup, but is widely covered in the rest of the world where Victor Jara's is considered a brilliant man, his death a terrible loss to the world.
(From the CBC News - Canadian):
"Chileans mourn singer Victor Jara, Pinochet victim"
"Thousands of mourners turned out in Santiago [yesterday] for the funeral of Chilean folksinger Victor Jara, who was given a formal burial 36 years after he was tortured and killed during the regime of Augusto Pinochet."
"Jara was a popular singer and theatre director when he was shot dead by the military, barely a week after Pinochet led a coup against the government of Salvador Allende in 1973. At the time, the singer's widow, Joan, had to arrange a quick, secret burial before escaping the country into exile. Jara soon became a symbol of the opposition to Pinochet's brutal rule."
...
"'Finally, after 36 years, Víctor can rest in peace,' said Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet, who herself was a victim of the Pinochet regime and also spent many years in exile. Thousands of Chileans filed past Jara's coffin during a two-day wake for the singer prior to his official burial on Saturday."
...
"The singer is having a second burial because his body was exhumed in June so investigators could find out more about how he was murdered and who might be held accountable. [The singer was tortured and shot]. Soldiers pumped some 40 bullets into [Victor Jara's] body. ".... http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/12/06/chile-jara-funeral.html?ref=rss
If they want somebody to hold accountable for the death, I'd suggest they start with an inquiry into the role of Henry Kissinger.
(Fred Hampton)
Forty years ago today, December 4, 1969, Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were murdered by the United States Government through the F.B.I., using their local agents in the Chicago Police Department, in a pre-dawn raid.
(Fred Hampton: "You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution.")
Many groups were inspired by the courage and theory of the black civil rights movement in the U.S. Soon, for example, native Americans were also organizing to demand better treatment. Mexican-Americans (La Raza, hispanics, latinos) began organizing themselves to demand their rights. Women began organizing to demand equal rights and opportunity. Gays followed, demanding the right to live in peace. All of this flowed from the original courage of the black civil rights movements of the 1950s. And of course the Anti-War and Environmental movements came from the same source.
They also invested in organizing at the community level, creating programs to help the people such as pre-school for the children, food banks for the poor. They were trying to create a movement for the long-run, one based on principles of independence, equality, self-determination, and dignity for black people. They were a serious threat because they refused to lay down under the policeman's baton, refused to sit by quietly while their young people were brutalized, murdered, and imprisoned by the state. At the time of his murder, the FBI had a 12-volume, 4000 page dossier or secret file they had accumulated on Fred Hampton, and they wanted to bring him down.
Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was murdered. He was a high school graduate and had attended a local two-year college. He started doing organizing and political work with the NAACP, but later joined the Black Panther Party, working with its Illinois chapter.
(Bobby Seale, 1968)
(Bobby Hutton's funeral. Bobby Hutton was another young member of the Black Panther Party who was murdered by the police. That's Marlon Brando on the right.)
There was a documentary being made of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party right at the time that Hampton and Clark were murdered. It is titled "The Murder Of Fred Hampton." You can watch it below, and can buy the DVD on-line. The first part of the documentary is simply a record of speeches and other activities of the Party. The second part of the documentary is a reaction to the police pre-dawn raid and the murders, and the controversy that followed. 
