What are friends for!

The Clinton Administration tried to pass a health care system based on an employer mandate. That is centered on the principle that employers are required to provide health INS. for their workers. In response 20 Republican Senators ,supported by the conservative Heritage Foundation ,offered their plan based on the an employee mandate. This required all people to be covered by health INS. The Republicans were able to kill the Clinton plan, therefore denying coverage for all Americans, so they let their own plan die on its own.
As the years passed the cost of medical procedures rose at an alarming rate. The insurance industry passed the costs along to their customers. Congress could never get the votes to regulate the high cost of health care. Here is an example. A CAT scan in England cost $120 while the same test cost almost $2,000 in the US. Drugs made in the US are sent to Canada and Europe and sold for under half the cost that they are selling for in the US. It became clear that controls are needed in this industry.

The AMA fought regulations at every turn. Physicians may complain but they charge whatever they want. They are against a National Health Care plan because costs would be held in check just like Medicare does. In fact almost 40% of Doctors are refusing to cover any new Medicare patients.
The Private INS companies in turn are increasing their premiums and deductibles causing many to forgo medical necessary tests and Dr. Visits. Here is an example. My wife pays $6,000 a month in premiums on an 80-20 plan. She has 1,500 co-pay. She must spend $7,500 out of pocket before the ins co. kicks in one dime. Then she pays 20% of the bills for another $1500.
Many Republican Senators say this will lower costs because the insured has some skin In the game. Bullshit. This only caused people to not seek treatment until they feel too sick to worry about the cost.
Soon costs will rise so high that companies will only offer plans with high deductibles. Families will be forced to forgo health care until the last minute. Insurance companies will just keep increasing their profits.

Soon the military will learn of the Republican budget that cuts 30% of their Tri-Care coverage and retirement benefits. It will be too late because they will be the ones that will help elect the same officials that are going to make their life just a little harder.
Soon seniors will be given vouchers to by Ins. Instead of Medicare. They will receive $5-$6 thousand dollars to buy INS that will cost at least double that. Most will die in pain and in debt. I remember when Medicare was passed. It came about because seniors could not afford their medical bills. How soon we forget. Medicare can be fixed but no one seems to care about a group of old easily fooled old sick people.
I can’t wait for these changes to happen. That way maybe Americans will demand a single payer system. Maybe!
In closing I would like to discuss my feelings on the individual mandate that is soon to be struck down by the High Court. I have a neighbor that lives in a house owned by his mother in law. He has a job, a wife and three children. They make payments on a van, a truck and he owns a work car. He also has a Harley and a beautiful ski boat. They also feel no need to buy health coverage. They seem healthy and do not get it through work. I see their point. If he falls off of that Harley and gets stuck with huge medical bills, so what. They can’t take his house (he does not own it) he has no property that he really owns. Everything has loan payments. All he has to do is to walk away from his bills. As a good Christian I would be glad to pay a higher premium and fees to make up the difference. What are friends for

Greed

The Obamacare system will give you a guaranteed Medicare payment when you turn 65, and will guarantee that you will have medical coverage of at least a minimum amount before that age. It guarantees that you will have coverage, that you cannot be turned down and that you will not be bankrupted by the costs. This is what every other advanced nation in the world has.
We are ranked 36th among all industrialized nations in the delivery of health care to our citizens. Before Reagan, we were the envy of the world. No where else could Americans get health care treatment better than here.
When you have a standardized system, like Germany, Switzerland, France, the Scandinavian countries or others, you have lower costs. Health care as Dr. Kenneth Arrow said so many years ago, is not about making money. You cannot have a for-profit business in health care because it is contradictory.
We need to follow the good advice and example of these countries, throw the money changers out of the temple of medicine, and work toward Obamacare…affordable,reliable, health care for all. Do not let the Neocons scare you. It will not work if we are all well versed in the facts about health care reform.
Paul Ryan may be dumber than a garden vegetable, but he serves as an example of what corporate money buys in Washington. The only reason that the Republicans are fighting “Obamacare” is because their owners are pissed and they better be too or they will lose campaign contribution$.
It’s a replay of the same old priorities for the Grand Obstructionists Party, screw the working man so that the trust fund babies can inherit their wealth with as little taxes as possible.Tax wages while cutting taxes for billionaires. It’s all the same old crap. Gamble on Wall Street, the working taxpayers will bail your greedy a$$ out.
Health care reform is just another symptom of the social disease know as “conservatism.”The main reason we don’t have health care like all civilized nations is summed up in one word. GREED. It’s a sad state when the dollar means more to a collection of people in government and their donors than quality of life for those not wealthy enough to afford profit-driven health care.
I hope that the Affordable Care Act fails in the courts. People need to see what a future of high medical costs will do to their lives. Maybe then we can force our Government to treat us like other civilized human beings from other industrialized nations. I for one am tired of being scared of illness and also being scared of paying for it before I die.

Don't watch the news !

The ability, or the will, of the news to report the news is in serious trouble. The more I watch the less I learn. Their main objective is to not report the facts but to confuse people and present the side of the corporation or group that gives them the most money.
Integrity seems to be a lost art in the field of journalism. The main focus of reporting today is to dupe the American public. It really does not seem that hard now a days. People seem to be locked in some ideology warp where they just believe what their particular Religion, party or employer tells them.
I am at a loss for words in this situation. I believe hardly anything I hear. People lie as easy as they smile. Everyone seems interested in things like new phones,TV's and money. No one seems to care about anything that matters. If I wrote a post on FB that my stomach hurt I would get 23 comments. If I wrote a post that said there was a severe food shortage in Texas, no one would comment.
Everyone owns a gun and no one seems to care that it is legal to sell almost any kind of weapon or ammunition. More and more people walk around armed. The whole situation is nuts. Health care is way too expensive and no one cares! Our children read at a 5th. Gr. Level and no one cares. Most of our major cities are overrun with gangs and no one cares. TV programs are filthy and so are reality TV shows. No one seems to care. Food prices are on the rise and clean drinking water is becoming scarce. Our leaders are worried about birth control and killing some half assed health care law. What a country! We ignore the real problems and bitch about the unimportant ones. We have lost the moral high ground to tell any country or culture how to behave or act.

I don't give a shit.

Health care reform prevents insurers from discriminating against patients with pre-existing conditions and caps premiums that can be charged. The only way to accomplish such reform is to require healthy people to insure themselves, rather than wait until they get sick. The truth is that I just don’t give a shit.
If Republican leaders can’t back a plan that would make few changes to a broken system then I just don’t give a shit.
If 70% of Americans do not want to see an improvement to Health care coverage then I just don’t give a shit.
If employers are threatening to cancel coverage if this law passes then I just don’t give a shit.
If teachers and other Government workers, who have subsidized INS. Do not want it extended to low income workers then I don’t give a shit.
If young people who have a job but no ins. don’t care then I just don’t give a shit.
I Americans can sit by and watch costs skyrocket then I don’t give a shit.
I really hope the High Court strikes down this law just to spite the public.
What is the point anyway? This Republican plan is what they were asking for just a couple of years ago but now they just want to bring down a President. God forbid that they work together to improve the lives of sick Americans. I just don’t give a shit anymore. Americans are a big disappointment to me. Most people can’t read past a 5th grade level. They carry and quote a bible that they can barely read and understand. They all own guns and walk around with small guns hidden to protect themselves. You can order porn from your TV provider. People vote against their own interests. They never demand the kind of Government they deserve. They are easily led around by fake news programs that muddle all the facts. They allow their Government to attack and kill people around the world. The great American experiment has turned into a mess and to be honest I really don’t give a shit.

Tired and worn out.

I really do not like the Affordable Care act. I do not trust private Ins. Companies .This bill just gives them more money and business. This so called Obama Care is really just the Republican plan during the Clinton years. I would much rather see a single payer plan just like Medicare or Tri Care the military gets.
That being said, I still don't understand how some Americans can Protest the Affordable Care Act? With this Law We can no longer get kicked off our Insurance if we get sick. Americans won't go Bankrupt if they get Sick, unlike more than 3/4's of all current Bankruptcies. Children are covered until they are 26 and you can't be denied if you have a Pre-existing Condition like diabetes or high blood pressure.
This Law helps all Americans (for the RWer's, you don't have to pay for someone else's care with your Premiums) but I must say, the Health Insurance Lobbyists and Corporations sure have done a great job of miss-information. It doesn't hurt when you have Fox tooting your horn either.
I really get tired of reading that the Majority of Americans are against this act. I find it hard to believe that few, if any, even took the time to read the features of the nine sections of this act. I have and wrote a post about it a couple of months ago that no one read.
Most Americans talk about God and prayer but seem kind of quiet when it comes to really doing something to help their fellow man. I am asked to join prayer lists all the time. I always say yes. I will pray for you. The truth though is that I never asked God to heal me of any malady or illness. I always asked for the strength to give me courage not to be scared. It always seemed silly to ask the Lord to cure me while so many young children are sick and need help. I would rather save my prayers for them.
I do worry about people that are sick and can’t pay their bills. Why can’t we just have a nonprofit medical system like the rest of the civilized world? Are we just too busy buying cell phones and guns? I think I will cancel my cable TV this summer and only keep my internet connection. I just can’t take the ignorant stories and people with their half-assed facts any more. I am just bone tired. If I was younger I would flee to Canada. At my age they would not want me

Paul Ryan's Budget

The unemployment rate when bush left office was ~8%. Because of bush and republican failed economics and tax breaks and two unfunded wars and $11 trillion debt and $1.3 trillion deficit and all their deregulation and the housing market crashed ( caused by republican deregulation) right as bush was leaving, the country went to a recession. That is why in in late 2008 and early 2009 the unemployment rose to over 11% (because of the policies of bush and the republicans). Then Obama passed his stimuli packages (with much GOP pessimism) resulting in an over 2.3% unemployment reduction from 2010 -2011. So here we are today still alive and the world has not come to an end. We are no longer in a recession and certainly not in a depression in which Bush and republicans were taking us.

THE MATH:
The debt now is at $15 trillion because of the $1.3 trillion deficits George Bush left Obama. Multiply $1.3 trillion by three years (republicans not cooperating and filibustering and purposeful ruining of the country) and you get $4 trillion more debt as of 2008-2011.
So if you add $11 trillion Bush left Obama +++++ $4 trillion due to the $1.3 trillion multiplied by three years of republican obstruction and not want ting to raise taxes on their rich donors (like it already was under Clinton best economy ever) you get the magic number $15 trillion.

CONCLUSION:

Conclusion: Obama paid the bills republican failed economics left him. So he is the responsible one and the republicans are the cause of our debt problems.
The country is getting better but not fast enough due to republicans and republicans voting in more of the same bad people. If Americans want a depression then vote republican. If progress is desired then democrat should be your vote. REPUBLICAN = DEPRESSION, DEMOCRAT = PROGRESs.
I know this is an over simplication. It was meant to be. Sometimes things need to be explained in a simple manner because of their complexity.
This morning on Morning know it all, I mean Morning Joe, an economist compared charts to explain both Obama’s and Paul Ryan’s deficit reduction plans. Ryan plans on reducing taxes on the wealthy more while cutting Government and veteran’s retirement. He also wants to reduce food stamps and both Medicare and Medicaid payments. His plan will reduce the deficit by 5.4 trillion over 10 years.
Obama’s plan will get rid of the Bush tax plans while cutting much less from programs that hurt veterans and the poor. The expert pointed out that President Obama’s plan actually reduced the debt a little more than Ryan’s while hurting the poor much less while Ryan’s plan would hurt only the poor. Joe just laughed and laughed and called his presentation spin. He would not allow the economist speak anymore and moved onto a new segment. I remember when Mika’s father was on and after listening to one of Joe’s rants said “You know you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you

Sorry Dad,we blew it !

If you had told me, when Obama was elected that the GOP would double down on LESS regulation of the banking industry, I would not have believed you.
If , after the biggest economic crash since 1929, you had told me that just 2 1/2 months AFTER the new government was sworn in, that the people who LOST the election would be in the streets screaming, "We've had enough!!! " and that the media would take them seriously, I would have been stunned.
If you had told me that someone like Evan Byah would threaten to FILIBUSTER his party's signature legislation, the public option, even as it was popular in HIS state and nationally, I would have thought you were wacko.
Ronald Reagan, George 41, and Bill Clinton took us to the edge while George 43 pushed us over. I thought President Obama would have thrown us a rope but I was wrong. He sends some supplies down to us but makes no move to save us. He is not the right man to be the President to bring this country into the 21st century. Mitt Romney is not that man either. Both parties serve wealth and money. They have made no plans or proposals to reduce health care or shore up the middle class. I fear we are headed backwards to the good olds 30’s where women, people of color, and the poor will be required to do the bidding and work for the upper class. I see no white knight on the horizon to help us.
We are to blame because we are too occupied with our TVs, smart tablets and phones to know what is going on. We truly are a sorry excuse for an electorate and deserve what is coming. The sad thing is that our children and grandchildren don’t.
All the work and strides made by the working man during the last half of the 20th century is going down the drain. My father and others from the greatest generation must be rolling over in their graves. Sorry Dad, we blew it.

Laws that deal with women's health

I know everyone has different opinions on issues. I also know that everyone has different religious beliefs. I have listened and read all of the proposed laws regarding the reproductive rights .and lack of rights of women in this country. I have read all of the new proposed laws in different states and laws already on the books. Although I am not a woman and far from an expert I do have an opinion on this subject and would like to comment on some of these issues and proposed laws. This is just an opinion from my prospective and life experiences. I believe all women have some basic rights:
The right to life.
The right to privacy.
The right to freedom.
The right to bodily integrity.
The right to decide when and how I reproduce.
Here are laws and proposed laws now under consideration in many states.
1. Making women carry still-born fetuses to full term because cows and pigs do.
2. Consigning women to death to save a fetus. Abortions save women's lives. "Let women die" bills are happening all over the country. There is no simple or pretty way to put this. Every day, all over the world, women die because they do not have access to safe abortions. Yet, here we are, returning to the dark ages of maternal sacrifice. Do really have to type this sentence: this is a violation of women's fundamental right to life
3. Criminalizing pregnancy and miscarriages and arresting, imprisoning and charging women who miscarry with murder, like Rennie Gibbs in Mississippi or at least 40 other similar cases in Alabama or like Bei Bei Shuai, a woman who is now imprisoned, is charged with murder after trying to commit suicide while pregnant. Pregnant women are becoming a special class subject to "special" laws that infringe on their fundamental rights.
4. Forcing women to undergo involuntary vaginal penetration (otherwise called rape) who are considering an abortion.
5. Disabling women or sacrificing their lives by either withholding medical treatment or forcing women to undergo involuntary medical procedures. We impose an unequal obligation on women to sacrifice their bodily integrity for another. For example, as in Tysiac v. Poland, in which a mother of two, became blind after her doctor refused to perform an abortion that she wanted that would have halted the course of a degenerative eye disease.
6. Giving zygotes "personhood" rights while systematically stripping women of their fundamental rights.
7. Inhibiting, humiliating and punishing women for their choices to have an abortion for any reason by levying taxes specifically on abortion, including abortions sought by rape victims to end their involuntary insemination, imposing restrictive requirements like 24 hour wait periods and empowering doctors to lie to female patients about their fetuses in order to avoid prosecution. In Arizona, Kansas, Texas, Virginia, Colorado, Arkansas and other states around the country bills that make women "pay" for their choices are abounding.
8. Allowing employers to delve into women's private lives and only pay for insurance when they agree, for religious reasons, with how she chooses to use birth control.
9. Sacrificing women's overall health and the well-being of their families in order to stop them from exercising their fundamental human right to control their own bodies and reproduction. Texas just did that when it turned down $35million dollars in federal funds thereby ensuring that 300,000 low-income and uninsured Texas women will have no or greatly-reduced access to basic preventive and reproductive health care.
10. Depriving women of their ability to earn a living and support themselves and their families. Bills, like this one in Arizona, allow employers to fire women for using contraception. Women like these are being fired for not.

This is not a religious issue. We have freedom of religion in this country. I am against abortion myself but will not and do not agree with laws that tell women they have to go through with a pregnancy they do not want. I am not a woman and do not want to make or support laws affecting their health and wellbeing

I vote yes !

I think it is funny that so many people think Ronald Reagan was such a good President. Did you know that when he was President of the Screen Actors Guild he was also an FBI informant? He and his wife turned over names of union members that they though had Communist leaning. The accepted money from union member’s ant in turn ruined some careers. As President this, so called great President, really did his damage to the American dream.
Reagan took a lot of the tax money we used for our benefit and dumped it in to investment opportunities for the wealthy. A la "Star Wars" etc. . . . The funding we agreed to spend on our "not-for-profit health care facilities" and the "national education systems" was blatantly taken away and used in his "trickle down" wealth enhancements for the wealthy. That put millions of Americans from mental institutions on the streets homeless and without a means to earn a living. American were eating out of garbage cans and sleeping on park and other public benches. To hide what he had done to the most needy he had the benches removed and had the media harass the local governments for allowing poverty to be seen.
Our economy has been on a downhill slide since Reagan as more and more of our tax dollars have been used for "wars on" and other programs to enhance the wealthy. Reagan introduced disdain and cruelty toward the needy and the conservatives have perpetuated it. We now have the most expensive government to operate in our history .as the wealthy get wealthier.
An agreement between the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans, reached during all-night negotiations which concluded in the early hours of October 22, sets the stage for passage of the most sweeping banking deregulation bill in American history, lifting virtually all restraints on the operation of the giant monopolies which dominate the financial system.
The proposed Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 would do away with restrictions on the integration of banking, insurance and stock trading imposed by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, one of the central pillars of Roosevelt's New Deal. Under the old law, banks, brokerages and insurance companies were effectively barred from entering each other’s industries, and investment banking and commercial banking were separated. This was a big mistake, Why should your bank lend money to an expanding small business today when the can cash in on oil futures and reap bigger rewards. The end result is that the wealthy get more wealth and the middle class gets squeezed more and more.
I find it incredible that the leading Republican candidates for President are ousting a more regressive tax system that taxes the poor and middle class at a higher rate while giving the wealthy a slightly lower tax rate. The sad thing is that these candidates may win with this one-sided proposal. This brings me to the Question “do most Americans have their head up their ass? I vote yes.

Why gas is so high .

The rise in gas prices has almost nothing to do with energy policy. It has everything to do with America's continuing failure to adequately regulate Wall Street. But don't hold your breath waiting for Republicans to tell the truth.

Over 80 percent of America's energy needs are now being satisfied by domestic supplies. In fact, we're starting to become an energy exporter. Demand for oil isn't rising in any event. Demand is down in the U.S. compared to last year at this time, and global demand is still moderate given the economic slowdowns in Europe and China.

Wall Street is betting on higher oil prices in the future -- and that betting is causing prices to rise. The Street is laying odds that unrest in Syria will spill over into other countries or that tensions with Iran will affect the Persian Gulf, and that global demand will pick up as American consumers bounce back to life.

These bets are pushing up oil prices because Wall Street firms and other big financial players now dominate oil trading.

This is the thing.

Our 10%-approval-rating congress and our judicial system can put a stop to the rising gas prices.
They have that power, not President Obama... and they all know it.
 Below is a link to contact your congressman/woman.

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

 Our broken judicial system and our broken congress know that Wall Street needs to be regulated and they know that it is Wall Street speculators that are driving up the prices at the gas pumps.
Our do-nothing congress has the power to stop it with a vote.
They choose not to because they are the 1% that profit from Wall Street.
Our congress does not represent the people of this country. They represent themselves and their 1% richy-rich buddies. Our 10%-approval-rating congress is broken. We need a government that represents the people. http://www.the99declaration.org/

Why else would they ignore the facts?

The republicans used to try and hide what their agenda was.  Now that they are dealing with a majority of the electric that does not know their ass from a hole in the ground they can go forward with their plans to reach their coveted goals.  The have followers that think the President is a Muslim or a Socialist.  They think that the affordable care act is intended to give people free health care using their taxes.

Republican politicians are determined to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act in order to address their concerns that some undeserving person will be able to afford health care. To insure that no undeserving senior is likely to be able to afford health care, the same people intend to transfer the risk and burden of Medicare cost increases from government to the individual, thus stripping the entire population of any semblance of health security, except for the deserving few. The great mystery is how the tea parties who supposedly demand that they do this to America will survive

The truth is just the opposite.  The Affordable Care Act is working. 2.5 million More young adults ages 19 to 26 now have health insurance. The shrinking of the Medicare "donut hole" allowed 3.6 million seniors to save $2.1 billion on their prescription drugs last year. And the ban on insurers refusing to cover pre-existing conditions is saving lives (even among those who opposed so-called "Obama care"). And even though most of its provisions don't go into effect until 2014, the data from Oregon and Massachusetts strongly suggest the 30 million people who will gain coverage will be much healthier and more financially secure.

In Massachusetts, the 2006 health care reform Governor Mitt Romney signed into law lowered the insured rate from 10 percent to a national low of two percent. Even with its individual mandate, "Romneycare" is extremely popular, enjoying a 3 to 1 margin of support from Bay State residents. Now, a new study by Charles J. Courtemanche and Daniela Zapata published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBR) shows that universal coverage in Massachusetts is indeed making people there healthier.

It is unfortunate that Mitt Romney cannot even mention his work on the Health Care bill he instigated for Mass. the same Bill that Barack Obama used for the country. It was the one good thing he did and he can't use it for his nomination speeches because the Lunatic Fringe would ostracize him on the spot.

I find it amazing that after passing the Medicare prescription drug plan, a proposal of George W. when he was president, the republicans now want to kill Medicare. Their claim of the costs being too great is in large part the way the drug coverage plan was structured. No bargaining on drug price and no funding identified. Anyone surprised at the results?

I have no Idea why I keep posting on this subject. I sadden me to watch my fellow Americans turn their back on common sense and vote for policies that are against their own interests just because they are ignorant and bigots. Why else would they ignore the facts?

Attacks on the President

I have been listening and reading the latest attacks of the Right on Our first Black President.  They continue to spread lies and disinformation about this man. They have called him a Socialist and a hater of white people, they are looking at every speech or comment he ever made and are trying to paint him as a dangerous un-American poser that does not belong in the White House. They cannot bring themselves to admit that the man is a good and honest person who has done everything in his life the correct way.

 I think there is an opinion in liberal circles that this issue should not be addressed because it is so ridiculous. I do not want to be naive or gullible...but I believe that the context that this "tape" has been shown within is significant...and TOXIC.

A few weeks ago FOX"s Sean Hannity, "radical" HATER of President Obama started saying on his show that he would introduce "tapes" that would seriously affect the '12 election. These are the same tapes that Andrew Breitbart bragged of having at the C-Pac gathering.

Never under estimate the base hatred of Hannity and his ilk. The tape was a dud. It was nothing....but the spirit of racism in which it has been presented is breathtakingly nefarious. It is a deliberate call to racists for "action". It is DANGEROUS. Considering whom Hannity's audience IS....I fear for the safety of our President

Another Keystone Post.

I have been listening to this shit all day and my head is about to explode.

Let's get a few facts straight about Keystone XL.

First, we won't get the oil. TransCanada wants to run Keystone XL to Port Arthur Texas, for only one reason. They want to export all the oil to other countries.

Second, Keystone Oil requires high gasoline prices. The oil in Alberta cannot be extracted unless gasoline prices are high. Otherwise, the whole project is unprofitable.

Third, Keystone uses a lot of fossil fuel, since it requires massive convoys running supplies and equipment to the drilling site.

Fourth, Keystone will put a tremendous strain on our infrastructure. We will have to spend billions on the infrastructure to facilitate the Keystone project. Who will the bill, that state, the federal government, or Keystone oil? Fifth, the existing Keystone Pipelines have a lousy safety record. Spills have occurred. Creating a safer more spill-proof pipeline will raise the cost of Keystone Oil, again making it unprofitable.

The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is a vast yet shallow underground water table aquifer located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. One of the world's largest aquifers, it covers an area of approximately 174,000 mi² (450,000 km²) in portions of the eight states of South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas.

About 27 percent of the irrigated land in the United States overlies this aquifer system, which yields about 30 percent of the nation's ground water used for irrigation. In addition, the aquifer system provides drinking water to 82 percent of the people who live within the aquifer boundary.

If this pipeline leaks and spoils this water we are in big trouble. Millions of people will be faced with food shortages. This oil is not intended for use in the United States and the only reason Canada wants the pipeline built is because their own Government will not grant the permits to build on to the Pacific ocean. This type of oil needs a huge amount of pressure to move the oil and is prone to major leaks.

The Speaker and many other Congressmen own stock in companies that will make millions if this pipeline goes through. The truth is that this pipeline will not benefit our country beyond a few temporary jobs.

Finally, it will take years to complete the Keystone Pipeline so it will not lower the price on the pump. The GOP is not telling you the whole truth. By pushing the Keystone Project, they are proving they are unfit to govern the country

Keystone Pipeline Facts.

A new extension of the pipeline, called the Keystone XL pipeline, would expand the reach of the Keystone pipeline network by adding a segment from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast of Texas. The Keystone XL pipeline would also carve out a new route from Alberta to Nebraska. This extension would total over 1,700 miles of new pipeline. This pipeline is the one that the Media should be talking about.  These facts are never conveyed to the public in a clear way.

In fact, Canada is the single largest supplier of crude oil for the United States, providing more oil than even Saudi Arabia. Much of that oil, however, is known as "tar sands oil," a combination of clay, sand and bitumen. Bitumen is thick, heavy black oil that needs to be heavily processed and refined to get the oil to a useable state. Much of this kind of oil never becomes Gasoline. It is made into diesel fuel or kerosene.

Because tar sands -- also called oil sands -- aren't in liquid form, they can't be pumped out of the ground like other sources of oil. Instead, tar sands are mined using open-pit or strip-mining techniques. Getting the oil out of the tar sands is a more complex process, too, requiring extensive extraction, separation and refining before it can even be moved through a pipeline. This is where the biggest problem lies. This oil can only be transported under high pressure that often causes the pipeline to burst or leak quite often.

That's just one problem. A larger issue is the proposed route of the new Keystone XL pipeline, which travels directly over the Ogallala Aquifer, an enormous -- and enormously important -- underground lake of water that extends from South Dakota to Texas. The Ogallala Aquifer provides drinking water for millions of people and irrigates a whopping 20 percent of America's agricultural harvest. An oil leak into the Ogallala would have devastating effects on residents, businesses and farmland in the Great Plains. This is the part of the pipeline that environmentalists and the President are having problems with. They are seeking an alternate route.

Please remember that this oil is Canadian and most will be sent to India or China. The United States may
gain a few jobs but at a price that may not make this project worth it. The President has kicked the can down the road on this issue while more study is done to ensure the safety of the pipeline rout. Please also know that this oil will not lead to lower prices at the pump. This President actually has approved more new oil leases than the last one. The Republicans are trying to make a campaign issue out of this and the media either won’t or can’t tell the public the whole story.  I will though

Packing Heat !

The Republican-controlled Arizona House of Representatives has voted to repeal the state's gun-free school zone laws, setting up a potential battle that only Gov. Jan Brewer (R) may be able to stop.

Just a few stories on gun accidents.

Just some random headlines of tragic accidents. They are called accidents because they are not "planned". How many kids will die before people stop thinking they need to carry guns everywhere...like schools...and bars...

A 12-year-old boy accidently shot and killed another 12-year-old boy in a Wilton home on Wednesday, the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office announced.

This week, an 8-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister in California.

Gun Accidents Kill 500 Kids Each Year.

Boy, 10, accidentally kills brother with father's gun.

8 year old boy accidentally shoots and kills himself.

A Placer County Deputy Sheriff's is dead after being shot with her father's gun. 3- year-old Kalli Skogen died Tuesday from a gunshot to the head.

Royersford boy, 4, killed self with father's gun, coroner says.

Boy, 8, accidentally kills self at gun show.

A four-year-old boy was playing with his father's gun and killed a young woman.

Child Kills Father.

I tried to find some stories about how a person with a gun saved a person’s life or prevented a death. I tried but failed. I know that they must exist but how often does a gun prevent a death? I honestly don’t know.

It seems ludicrous to me not to equate gun deaths and gun violence, in America, with the number of guns we have.  If school children are in danger than we need to pay for an officer to be on patrol in our schools. There is no need to allow the untrained average person to carry a weapon to a school, school function, or a sporting event. My niece had to testify in a murder case that happened in a Cleveland parking lot. Two men were arguing over a parking space and retrieved guns from their car. One man shot and killed the attendant. My niece had her 12 yr. old son in the car.  Do we really want to live in a country that allows people to carry dangerous weapons wherever they go?

Sad but all too true.

There have been a lot of articles and discussions on Climate Change during this political season. Unfortunately, people are basically sheep,95% of society is easily persuaded by any idiot who can charm them. It is no surprise that during the last 300 years when the majority of political figures, educators, news reporters, and authors were college educated that the sheep could be made to understand science and facts. Our founding fathers were educated and enlightened men. Most of our President's and elected officials up until very recently have been educated. Until the late 20th century our sources for news, propaganda, and facts were very limited. Up until recently there were only 3 news channels. Broadcasters were educated and for the most part practiced ethical objective news reporting. News was not entertainment. There was no internet for crackpots and wingnuts to push suds-science and garbage to millions of sheep. We now live in a media world where any idiot with a blog can make absurd and misleading claims while sharing the same stage as a PhD. The average citizen seems incapable of making a distinction between ideologues like Hannity, Limbaugh, , Beck and trained scientists like James Hansen of NASA. Additionally, with lax campaign financing rules it is easy now for corporations to purchase their very own politicians who either knowingly distort the truth or like Santorum are really stupid enough to believe what he says. I'm afraid that science is no longer distinguishable from religion or opinion for most Americans. Sad but all too true.

Now that's a good thing !

"In the end, I think the Bush tax cuts were one of the two most catastrophic policy decisions of this century (the other was the Iraq War). They were a terrible idea then and they are a terrible idea now."

Way back in 2003, there emerged one Democratic presidential candidate who made opposition to these two "catastrophic policy decisions" the central planks of his campaign (along with universal health care). Howard Dean announced his candidacy just three months after the start of the Iraq war and one month after passage of JGTRRA. Gov. Dean was right then, and was put in his place by members of both parties.

 If Howard Dean had become king on the date that he announced his candidacy (6/23/03), what would be our nation's current debt, deficit, and projected deficits if Dean had immediately instituted one or more of his three major campaign planks?

1) Repealed all of the Bush tax cuts?

2) Repealed all of the Bush tax cuts, and ended the Iraq war promptly?

3) Repealed the Bush tax cuts, ended the Iraq war, and instituted his brand of universal health care?

The sad truth is that both Republican and Democrats are to blame for the economic problems of the country.  Will we ever truly get out of Iraq?  No, because of their oil. Will we ever have universal health? No because of the insurance lobby. The Court's decision in Citizens vs. United has seen to the destruction of our country as we knew it.  The middle class life of the past half century is over my friends. The only hope we have is the continued growing of the OWS movement. It has made its way onto the college campuses and that's a good thing.

EVERYBODY, SOMEBODY, ANYBODY and NOBODY !

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done. The best way to create hope is to create opportunity.

WE the people are EVERYBODY, SOMEBODY, ANYBODY and NOBODY. This short film says it all SIMPLY. It was made by Matthew Modine . We can't wait for politicians to solve the economic and environmental problems we face and are leaving for generations to come. It's up to each of us. If we have to DEMONSTRATE to be heard and for our government to take action so be it. OCCUPY,EVERYWHERE,NOW, I support the movement and wish I was younger so I could take part and do some good.

UN frigging believable.

Liberalism has always been about the same things. People, facts and environmental stewardship. The quest is always to find the social equilibrium that makes them all work together. Conservatism essentially has always been about one thing with little or no regard for anything else. That would be to keep the “haves” in place. Whether that be the wealthy, A Religion or the forces in society that can keep them in their place, like armies and security forces or a political apparatus.

Intellectual development is typically not a conservative trait as it is seen as always being a threat to their mission of “keeping the Haves in place”. Some say that “facts have a liberal bias”. This is far more than just a saying. It should be no surprise given the differences between Conservatives and Progressives.  Take for example, global climate change; the evidence that it is occurring and becoming dangerous to us is based on solid science, but to believe that this is so, one's view of science cannot be that it is something you either 'believe' in or not, but that it is a description of the physical world based on that which can be objectively quantified, or as educated people call it; truth. Some ignorant people might call it indoctrination,

It saddens me to listen to political discourse today in the Republican Primaries. These candidates are all talking dribble and trying to obtain the votes of the most ignorant, uneducated, and the most indoctrinated among us. I cannot believe that we are even discussing birth control or labor laws for our children let alone basic health care for our sick while at the same time turning a blind eye at the tax rate and loop holes for the haves. UN frigging believable.