Archive for the ‘Human Rights’ Category

Well, we are down to the final weeks until election Day November 6. I am still awaiting to hear Romney’s healthcare plan. From what I’ve read Romney’s medical plan would leave about 72 million Americans uninsured. So far, we read that the Romney plan would cost families, nearly double what Obama care would cost them. I am very concerned about health care. I am lucky that I am a veteran and through them I received free healthcare. However, my wife and children have no insurance, because we cannot afford it. I still feel that no one in this country should have to do with out basic health care, because they cannot afford it. Approximately 62% of all the bankruptcy filed each year are due to medical costs and approximately 72% of them did have healthcare. As far as I’m concerned, this is     not acceptable.

Now, I do agree that the budget needs work on it and we cannot go on spending money like it’s water. Look at the mess we are in now and compare it to what it was like. When Obama was sworn in to office. Bush dug us into deep water and it’s going to take a while to get out of this hole we are in. I hear all these people say that we cannot survive four more years of Pres. Obama in office. Personally I doubt that statement even more so after looking at eight years we had with President Bush in office. In those eight years, we went from a budget surplus to the huge deficit we are in now. We need to quit pandering to insurance companies and other special interests and take care of the citizens in the United States. As far as I’m concerned, taking care of the citizens is the number one job we need by the president and our lawmakers.

I have been very lax about posting and posting something interesting lately. I’ve have had some very nasty days with my fibromyalgia. I have been reading up on the so-called Obama care. While I do see parts of a Obama Care that should be repaired. Overall it is better in the long run than anything I’ve heard out of the Republican camp. I do disagree with charging minimums that require you to purchase health care insurance. I would set a final price $100,000, and anyone making more than that would need to get their own insurance policy they could self pay or employer pay. However, if you make less a $100,000, (150,000 or more for married filing jointly) you would be eligible for Medicaid. Medicaid requirements should be paid by the  federal government. Romney has already stated that he would drop Medicaid altogether. Back in the 60′sRepublicans fought tooth and nail attempting to block Medicaid and Medicare. If not for Pres. Johnson, we would not have Medicaid or Medicare. Well that and equal rights. Republicans, including our longtime senator Strom Thurmond were against equal rights. If I remember correctly, Thurmond, holds the record for longest filibuster of all time in the USA and that he was for speaking out against the Civil Rights Bill. That is the truth behind the Republicans legacy.

If we can retain”Obama Care”starting January 1, 2014, medicaid expansion will now have a new limit. Anyone making 113% of poverty the level will be eligible for Medicaid. This is a step in the right direction. That part is good. The bad part is that it will impose a filing minimum of $95 or a 1% of the filing income minimum, depending upon which one of the two is the highest This is where I think there are problems. By 2016, they are starting to create tax credits or charges or not having insurance. More on that later.

I have discovered how to receive free health care for all of us. There is one hitch though. We need to move to a third world country that has a deep water port. Our Navy, (the best in the world) will provide health care for the needy in these foreign ports. I know it is a good thing to help these people who might otherwise suffer or worse, die in their humanitarian and friend building efforts. However I feel if they can do this for non citizens of our country why can’t they do the same for us? As I have stated before I am a vet so I am eligible for some of the best health care anywhere in the world. I can not say that for the rest of my family though. Our easiest way to provide basic health care for all of our citizens is to expand the medicare and medicaid roles. I know this does not fix everything and that they will have to limit some procedures but it would be a huge step in the right direction. I also know that there would be a huge outcry against the government controlling what could and could not be done for us. However those same healthcare insurance companies who would fight a move like that tooth and nail would still be able to offer health care to anyone who wanted more coverage for themselves and their family. I know that this is not the complete fix for our healthcare but we need more than is going to be supplied by “ObamaCare” as they call it but we need more not less as the Republicans are poised to do if they win the elections this year. It was them who fought so hard against Medicare and Medicaid during President Johnson reign. Now it is so basic and important we wonder how we made it before it was instated.

just the thoughts of the ringleader

As per normal with me nowadays I am once again posting something late. This is still as important today as it was 4 days ago. November 11th is Veterans in the United States. Some may still call it by the name it once has as Armistice Day. That was when the guns fell silent in the war to end all wars, WW I. The agreement lasted a little over two decades and once more the world was at war again. That is all in the past and we need to remember the past. I was reading the Freedom Alert that my Senator, Jim DeMint uses as the title of all his emails to me. I intentionally left out the honorable part ’cause I am not so certain he is that honorable. The way I look at it pretty much all politicians are out to grab all they can and not worry about what will happen after we are dead and gone. The VHP a project  of the Library Of Congress’s American Folklore Center. We are losing approximately one thousand vets a day. Once they have passed there is no way to get their side of the story.

But I transgress. What I want to do is try and get everyone involved in the Veterans History Project. You can visit the Library of Congress and download the VHP field kit. Visit their home page and in the upper right there is a search box and you can simply type Veterans History Project. Your results should right on top. Visit the appropriate link then download the ebook that explains what they need and can use. There is an address inside of the papers that gives you the physical location to forward all of the information you have gotten. We need top remember the past and the sacrifices that they made so that we can live our life without the fear that could have happened if not for their bravery. I say thank you to all our veterans and try to speak to each and everyone that I see wearing caps and colors from their units and branch of our military. Try it. Next time you see one our vets proudly (and rightfully so) displaying what branch of the military their were in or a unit patch. I try speaking to each and every vet that I see and express my gratitude for their sacrifices and heroism all for us back at home. I am proud to say I am a veteran as was my father one brother and my sister also served. Us children were too young to go to war in Vietnam and I tried but they found my lie about my age. The next time you see a vet, young or old you should look them in the eyes and tell them “Thank You” for everything you did for us at home. I feel blessed knowing our family had so many vets. I feel lucky to have gotten to talk to WWI, WWII, Korean and Vietnam  vets. I felt I was in the presence of heroes every time we would go to the VA medical center in Asheville NC. I listened to many tales, but one really stands out in my memories. I was joking around with a elderly black man in the visitors area when grandpa was a patient. I told him he looked a little too old to be from WWII and asked him if he was a WWI vet to which he told me he was not a WWI vet. He told me he served in the Spanish American war. This excited me as I had never spoke to a vet that old. I was very surprised as that meant he was nearly a hundred years old. After he told when and where he served I was really excited. So I asked him did he charge up the hill with Teddy Roosevelt. That is when he told me that they only let him take care of the mules. It brought that ugly “race issue” to the front. We never talked about that but I later learned about the race card as they would not let a black man and a white man serve together. He did have an extremely important job but it was such a shame that he could not charge the hill and serve with the other men. Either man could actually get killed doing his duty but they had to segregate the races even on the battlefield where all men were equally killed.

I am glad to report that race no longer plays as a reason for rank, pay grade or units. That is the way it should be. No man is better than another simply because the color of their skin is different.

Today I site here feeling very privileged. I just got through a private screening of a movie that is to be released later this year. It was a documentary about our failing health care in the United States. The working title is “The Health Care Movie” and is narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. It compares our health care system to Canada’s health care system. Seeing it made the plan we have here in the good ol’ USA pale in comparison to theirs. They believe in taking care of their citizens and not favoring huge corporations over the masses. They also see it as a basic human right. Something we agreed to, and ratified when we signed the “The Declaration of Human Rights”. If you look it up and start reading go down to article 25.  There you will find us agreeing that health care is a human right. But I am off topic here somewhat.

I was talking about the movie I was allowed to see. It gives some shocking facts and numbers about our nonexistent health care. I hope that everyone will see this and be mad as hell. Writing their congressman  or senator mad. Everyone needs health care at some point in their lives. That is a fact no one  can dispute. The question is can you afford it? Is your insurance going to cover it. How much money comes out of my pocket? None of us can deny it. Even if you have health care you will have a co-pay and how large does that go? What if my bill becomes so large that my out of pocket money is too high for me? Will I have to sell the house to pay? Will I have to file bankruptcy because of an illness or accident? In our system all of these scenarios are not only possible but happen. A lot of times this is the story. Even a wealthy family can be bankrupted by a prolonged illness. I feel like this is a travesty that we allow for profit, private insurance companies run our health care system. They arbitrarily dictate what treatments we can or can’t have and we let them have their way in the name of democracy. If you were to remember your history you will find that Lyndon Johnson pushed medicare and medicaid through the halls of Congress. That was in direct apposition with insurance companies and their lackeys in Congress. Back then it was painted as an end to democracy and the beginning of socialism. Now it is considered essential. It is a sure fired method of losing votes if you voice a plan on cutting medicare and medicaid. It took some wrangling and over the objections of insurance companies they were passed into law. That is what we need now. someone to push expanding medicare and medicaid to cover everyone in the USA. But that is my simple plan. No need for all these tax credits and vouchers.

Anyhow that is my opinion. I have good health care from the VA but not everyone has served their country.

I was able to view the movie early because they used my sons song part of the movie. The title is Silence
Is Consent
It was really great to see my sons name in the credits. It brought tears to my eyes for him to be so honored. The song fits this movie perfectly as my son feels very strongly that everyone should have access to health care regardless of whether they have money or not. I made the song title a link to his website joshua121.   You can hear the song there on the site. I recommend that you listen to it then write your congressman or woman. Don’t forget that you have a senator that needs to know that we need health care. That is the only thing that matters to a politician, votes and how much money he can gather from corporations and others for his next reelection campaign.

I received an email today that has absolutely pissed me off to no end. It said that our President Obama wants to give Jane Fonda an award as one of the top women in the last hundred years. That makes me livid. I can still remember when she visited Hanoi during the heart of the Viet Nam war and actually fired anti aircraft shells at our planes as they flew over on their missions. That should have earned her a bullet in the base of her skull as far as I am concerned but I did not know everything and  this email described even more atrocities. I am going to copy and paste the entire email at the end of my rant. Please copy and email this link to everyone you know. Or at least copy and paste the text into your own emails. This makes me sick to my gut.

Barbara Walters comments on Jane Fonda

She can lead her present life the way she wants and perhaps SHE can forget the past, but we DO NOT have to stand by without comment to see that she is “honored” as a “Woman of the Century”.
( I remember this well)
Never Forgive A Traitor

For those of you too young to remember Hanoi Jane is a bad person and did some terrible things during the Vietnam war.  Things that cannot be
forgiven!!!!

For those who served and/or died. . .

NEVER FORGIVE A TRAITOR. SHE REALLY WAS A TRAITOR!!

and now OBAMA wants to honor her……!!!!

In Memory of LT. C.Thomsen Wieland  who spent 100 days at the Hanoi Hilton

IF YOU NEVER FORWARDED ANYTHING IN YOUR LIFE FORWARD THIS SO THAT EVERYONE WILL KNOW!!!!!!

She really is a traitor.

A TRAITOR IS ABOUT TO BE HONORED.  KEEP THIS MOVING ACROSS AMERICA

This is for all the kids born in the 70′s and after who do not remember, and didn’t have to bear the burden that our fathers, mothers and older brothers and sisters had to bear.

Jane Fonda is being honored as one of the ’100 Women of the Century.’

BARBRA WALTERS WRITES:

Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still countless others have never
known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only the idea of our country, but specific men who served and sacrificed during Vietnam

The first part of this is from an F-4E pilot. The pilot’s name is Jerry
Driscoll, a River Rat.

In 1968, the former Commandant of the USAF Survival School was a POW in Ho Lo Prison the ‘ Hanoi Hilton.’

Dragged from a stinking cesspit of a cell, cleaned, fed, and dressed in
clean PJ’s, he was ordered to describe for a visiting American ‘Peace
Activist’ the ‘lenient and humane treatment’ he’d received.

He spat at Ms. Fonda, was clubbed, and was dragged away.  During the
subsequent beating, he fell forward on to the camp Commandant ‘s feet, which sent that officer berserk.

In 1978, the Air Force Colonel still suffered from double vision (which
permanently ended his flying career) from the Commandant’s frenzied
application of a wooden baton.

>From 1963-65, Col. Larry Carrigan was in the 47FW/DO (F-4E’s). He spent 6 years in the ‘ Hanoi Hilton’,,, the first three of which his family only knew he was ‘missing in action’. His wife lived on faith that he was still alive.  His group, too, got the cleaned-up, fed and clothed routine in preparation for a ‘peace delegation’ visit.

They, however, had time and devised a plan to get word to the world that
they were alive and still survived. Each man secreted a tiny piece of paper,
with his Social Security Number on it, in the palm of his hand.

When paraded before Ms. Fonda and a cameraman, she walked the line, shaking each man’s hand and asking little encouraging snippets like: ‘Aren’t you sorry you bombed babies?’ and ‘Are you grateful for the humane treatment from your benevolent captors?’ Believing this HAD to be an act, they each palmed her their sliver of paper.

She took them all without missing a beat.. At the end of the line and once
the camera stopped rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the POWs, she turned to the officer in charge and handed him all the little pieces of paper..

Three men died from the subsequent beatings. Colonel Carrigan was almost number four but he survived, which is the only reason we know of her actions that day.

I was a civilian economic development advisor in Vietnam , and was captured by the North Vietnamese communists in South Vietnam in 1968, and held prisoner for over 5 years.

I spent 27 months in solitary confinement; one year in a cage in Cambodia; and one year in a ‘black box’ in Hanoi . My North Vietnamese captors deliberately poisoned and murdered a female missionary, a nurse in a leprosarium in Banme Thuot , South Vietnam , whom I buried in the jungle near the Cambodian border. At one time, I weighed only about 90 lbs. (My normal weight is 170 lbs)

We were Jane Fonda’s ‘war criminals….’

When Jane Fonda was in Hanoi , I was asked by the camp communist political officer if I would be willing to meet with her..

I said yes, for I wanted to tell her about the real treatment we POWs
received… and how different it was from the treatment purported by the
North Vietnamese, and parroted by her as ‘humane and lenient.’

Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky floor on my knees, with my
arms outstretched with a large steel weight placed on my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane.

I had the opportunity to meet with Jane Fonda soon after I was released. I
asked her if she would be willing to debate me on TV. She never did answer me.

These first-hand experiences do not exemplify someone who should be honored as part of ’100 Years of Great Women.’ Lest we forget….’ 100 Years of Great Women’ should never include a traitor whose hands are covered with the blood of so many patriots.

There are few things I have strong visceral reactions to, but Hanoi Jane’s
participation in blatant treason, is one of them. Please take the time to
forward to as many people as you possibly can.. It will eventually end up on her computer and she needs to know that we will never forget.

RONALD D. SAMPSON, CMSgt,
USAF 716 Maintenance Squadron,
Chief of Maintenance DSN: 875-6431 COMM: 883-6343

PLEASE HELP BY SENDING THIS TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK.

IF ENOUGH PEOPLE SEE THIS MAYBE HER STATUS WILL CHANGE

Our so called representative are busy trying to figure out how to keep the Bush tax breaks that had been scheduled to run out are about ready to let the payroll tax break expire. What this means is that if the GOP gets their way the wealthy will receive tax breaks while increasing the tax on the working poor. Many do not know or understand that their is a payroll tax that all employed citizens pay out of every check they receive.   The payroll tax normally was 6.2% of their wages that was matched by their employer for a total of 12.4%. Last year they Congress approved Obama’s request to drop the workers share to 4.2%. Therefor saving millions of dollars. Workers could keep more of what they earn. Obama wants to renew this tax break for at least another year. What is in store though is they extend the Bush tax cuts and let this small break to the employed expire. What this means is the wealth will save money with their tax breaks and the workers will pay more. Sounds kinda screwy to me. Increasing the tax on the poorest in our land while reducing taxes for the wealthy.

 

Dr Thomas Fuller made that quote back in 1732 and it is still as valid today as it was back then. Supposedly we have made many progressions since then but in the availability health care is only for the people with money. If you are poor or even working poor you get no health care in this country. This country with all of our nation building and meddling in other countries affairs does not take care of itself. When we first chartered into the United Nations we signed a treaty that in part agreed that a nation should take care of its citizens.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, proclaimed that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one’s family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care.”

Oops. How did that one slip by? Could it be that the United States is being run by corporations instead of the people? High powered lobbyists can slip a little money into campaign funds and buy the vote of our representatives in Washington DC. Happens all the time. Could it be that the government that President Lincoln espoused as “of the people, by the people, for the people” has changed to of the rich, by the rich, and for the privileged. We know it is true but so many refuse to open their eyes and see what is in front of them. How can we a country that is supposed to set the standards for other nations to follow lag so far behind? Our allies and even regimes that we are opposed to have government sponsored health care. Call it socialism if you wish but the government is supposed to help its citizens not bow to the wishes of for profit insurance companies. Until we collectively stand up and demand a change it will remain as it has been for many years now, broken.  All we need to do is expand medicare and medicaid to cover all individuals. If you do not like them making decisions about your health care then buy a private insurance policy. Then you can be in the hands of some huge corporation that can turn you down.

There is a country in severe trouble. There are many who have no homes, shelter and clean drinking water. Many citizens have no heat in the winter nor a way to cool off during it’s normal summer heat waves. The elderly and young children are the ones who need air condition to prevent them dying during its heat waves. Thousands are without jobs and lack basic health care for the sick. What country is this that sounds as if it is in such dire straights? The country that needs this help is not overseas where we send so much money but instead right here at home. The US is in need of help but instead they say to hell with those unfortunates and send money overseas instead. I am not saying that there are countries that do not have dire needs but we should take care of our own people first.

Right now there is a petition drive being sent to Congress requesting that Congress establish a law to make it illegal to not report a missing child. I have seen two versions of the petition. One of them is to make it against the law to report a missing child that has been missing for 24 – 48 hours. The other version is to make it a felony to not report a child missing if it goes over 30 days missing. I personally think they could combine the two petitions together to create an even tougher law. The links are at Petition2Congress. Everyone who cares for the welfare of helpless children should visit there and sign the petitions.