America has lost one of its heros. We want to acknowledge the passing Tuesday evening of Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Senator Kennedy devoted his entire career to making America - and the world - a better place for all of us, by championing socially conscious legislation for the last 47 years. He will be missed.
* * * * * * *
As we see it, the biggest obstacle we face in achieving meaningful Health Care Reform in this country is the lack of any kind of connect with the people in and around Washington who are in a position to help make the absolutely critical changes necessary to our current system. For the most part they’re advocating contrary to our wishes…either because it’s in their interest as stakeholders, beneficiaries or employees to assure ever more outrageous profits for the health care industry…or because it’s simply not possible for them to relate to the problems most Americans are confronted with every day, since they’re not!
What we need in Washington is someone representing us who’s facing bankruptcy because of a mountain of medical and household bills that they have no hope of paying…someone who can’t take their sick child to the doctor or go to the doctor themselves because they no longer have health insurance and can no longer afford to pay…in short, someone who’s just as fed up and pissed off as we are.
What we need in Washington is someone like Ed Broadbent, the former, long-time leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, the party that, although never in power, was almost solely responsible for bringing Universal Health Care to all Canadians.
The following are excerpts from remarks that Broadbent delivered to the NDP in Halifax on the occasion of the opening of their National Convention on August 14, 2009.
“…There's never been a time when our social democratic values have been more practical. This is a social democratic moment. It's a moment when governments of all stripes in advanced economies around the world have been forced by the economic crisis to acknowledge things we have always known, what we've always known about how the economy works and the important role of government. Even governments of the right, who created the current mess in the first place, have now had to adopt the kinds of policies we social democrats have advocated all along. So if ever there was a time for discussing the relevance of our values to practical politics…it's now, when the whole world has experienced the disastrous consequences of three decades of an ideologically based attack on equality of citizenship and social programs, complemented by a general denigration of government and the virtual worship of markets.
…More equal nations like Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, are better off in almost every way. Their citizens are healthier, live longer, have fewer teenage pregnancies, are more law abiding, participate more in civic projects and are more trusting of their neighbours. There is, in short, a greater flourishing of individual liberty. Transcending any differences in religion, language and culture, it is the higher degree of equality that makes those nations so much better off than the US or the UK, which are the most unequal. I repeat and emphasize that once a certain minimum level of wealth is reached, it is not more growth but more equality that leads to a better quality of life for everyone.
…Unequal societies are not only unfair, they are dysfunctional. They promote isolation and social estrangement, and they foster higher levels of consumerism that depletes the planet's resources. Not just the poor but everyone is worse off. Rich and highly educated British and Americans do worse than their equivalents in more equal societies, even in basic things like health.
The first leader of our party, my friend and mentor Tommy Douglas, was a political genius. About Tommy and about no one else can it be said “Without him universal medicare would still be a dream in North America.” Tommy's genius lay not in his arguing that health care should be a right and not a privilege. Others too had made this claim. His political genius, which laid the foundation for fundamental change, was that he showed why universal public medicare was a practical answer to the health problems of Canadians. He understood in every bone in his body that idealism only works in democratic politics when the idea is seen to be real. In politics people like to be inspired, but they need to be persuaded. Then, to get the job done, they need a reforming government that manages the economy with competence.”
One more item that we neglected to mention in our Media Blitz the other day, and this one probably should have led it off. So let’s put it in the category of giving overdue credit where credit is due.
In the beginning, we were not what you’d classify as big believers in radio-pundit, and now also TV-pundit, Ed Schultz. Truth to tell, we initially thought he was kind of an opportunist who just happened to be in the right place at the right time…and we weren’t all that convinced about his true commitment to progressive ideals. Well, he’s slowly but surely changed our minds.
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding…and although, due mainly to style, he still may not be the person we most look forward to tuning in every day, we do tune in. What we are finding is that there’s absolutely nobody out there in the electronic media who, day in and day out, holds the feet of Democratic politicians to the fire more than Ed Schultz does when it comes to their thoughts, words and actions throughout this Health Care Reform debate.
All we can say is, well done Big Eddie. Keep keeping them honest.
SC
Showing posts with label Tommy Douglas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tommy Douglas. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Shona The Shill:
In our last post we told you about Shona Holmes, the unfortunate woman from Waterdown, Ontario who, as we found out in a dramatic TV spot that recently began airing nationally, was diagnosed with what she described as a brain tumor. And again according to her, the Canadian health care system told her it couldn’t fit treatment of same into their schedule for six months. In her estimation she would have been dead by then…and jeez, a brain tumor! How could anyone ever doubt a story like that?
Funny thing about ‘walking back the cat’ though. When you start pulling on a thread as you trace a story back to its routes, more often than not the entire garment begins to unravel…and pretty soon the emperor, or in this case the empress, has no clothes.
Our girl Shona ended up making her way to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona where, for a mere $100,000.00, they confirmed the diagnosis, did some additional testing, performed the appropriate operation and sent her home fully cured just four days after the surgery. Trouble is, the surgery wasn’t for a brain tumor, or brain cancer as Fox News so typically overstated during their interview with this unfortunate victim of Canada’s socialized health care system. It was for the removal of a benign cyst…and they excised it not by boring through her skull, but by going up her nose with something akin to a Roto Rooter and popping that sucker like a big ol’ zit.
What she actually had was called a Rathke’s Cleft Cyst, a rare, fluid-filled sac that grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. It can cause hormone and vision problems, both of which Holmes had been experiencing, and can also cause more serious problems if left untreated. But it is not…NOT…life threatening, and is normally treatable with minimally invasive surgery, as was the case in this instance.
End of story, right? Our victim/heroine escapes the tentacles of Canada’s oppressive, socialized health care system, heads south to that ‘shining city on the hill’, gets the treatment she was denied in her own country, and finally goes back home to live happily ever after. Wow! If it weren’t for this damn gag reflex it would probably bring tears to our eyes.
Here’s the thing, though. This procedure took place four years ago, but Americans For Prosperity/Patients United Now didn’t see the need to produce and release a TV spot featuring Holmes until just recently… when they undoubtedly felt it could do the most public relations damage to any Health Care Reform initiatives currently being considered by Congress. And the Mayo Clinic, which first wrote about this story in 2007 as a not so subtle dig at Canada’s public health care system, and a not so subtle plug about their own expertise, all of a sudden decided to re-release it this summer to coincide with the release of the TV spot. Oh the humanity!
What a crock of unadulterated horse pucky! For openers there is no way…no freaking way…that anyone with either a life threatening or immediate need medical condition gets put on hold by the Canadian health care system, unless there has been some kind of misdiagnosis or they have somehow fallen through the cracks. And neither of those things could ever have happened here, in the good ol' USA, right?
Oh, you may have to wait a while for that vasectomy or nose job, and maybe even for that hip or knee replacement…and that could never happen here either, eh? But if you need treatment NOW for ANYTHING that is in any way life threatening, the Canadian system will make sure you’re taken care of. Anyone who tries to tell you differently is either misinformed, or just plain lying for their own selfish reasons…like that health insurance agent we told you about yesterday.
We don’t know what Shona Holmes was paid or given for agreeing to do that ill-advised TV spot or the Fox News interview decrying the Canadian public health care system…maybe a ton of money, maybe all the expenses associated with her treatment at the Mayo Clinic, maybe nothing? But what we do know is this. She is nothing more than a shill…and she’s being used by extreme right-wing interests in this country who, for their own selfish reasons, will do anything to try and stop any type of ‘public health care for all’ from becoming a reality in the United States.
The Canadian system isn’t perfect. Nobody ever said it was. But like ours, the quality of care is world class. The difference is that their system is significantly more accessible and exponentially more effective and efficient than what we have here…or maybe ‘what we don’t have here’ would be a more accurate way to describe it!
And here’s a little nugget for you that you probably don’t know…and you’ll certainly never be told by anyone who leans to the right in this country. When asked in a poll at the turn of the millennium to pick who they thought was the most important person in the history of their country, Canadians overwhelmingly selected a man by the name of Tommy Douglas. The late Mr. Douglas is noteworthy for a few reasons. He was the father-in-law of actor Donald Sutherland and the grandfather of actor Keifer Sutherland…and he’s also the man primarily responsible for making Canada’s public health care system a reality. We’re fairly certain the latter reason is why so many Canadians named him the most important man in their country’s history.
For more on the Shona Holmes traveling circus, there's some excellent material on these sites:
Funny thing about ‘walking back the cat’ though. When you start pulling on a thread as you trace a story back to its routes, more often than not the entire garment begins to unravel…and pretty soon the emperor, or in this case the empress, has no clothes.
Our girl Shona ended up making her way to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona where, for a mere $100,000.00, they confirmed the diagnosis, did some additional testing, performed the appropriate operation and sent her home fully cured just four days after the surgery. Trouble is, the surgery wasn’t for a brain tumor, or brain cancer as Fox News so typically overstated during their interview with this unfortunate victim of Canada’s socialized health care system. It was for the removal of a benign cyst…and they excised it not by boring through her skull, but by going up her nose with something akin to a Roto Rooter and popping that sucker like a big ol’ zit.
What she actually had was called a Rathke’s Cleft Cyst, a rare, fluid-filled sac that grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. It can cause hormone and vision problems, both of which Holmes had been experiencing, and can also cause more serious problems if left untreated. But it is not…NOT…life threatening, and is normally treatable with minimally invasive surgery, as was the case in this instance.
End of story, right? Our victim/heroine escapes the tentacles of Canada’s oppressive, socialized health care system, heads south to that ‘shining city on the hill’, gets the treatment she was denied in her own country, and finally goes back home to live happily ever after. Wow! If it weren’t for this damn gag reflex it would probably bring tears to our eyes.
Here’s the thing, though. This procedure took place four years ago, but Americans For Prosperity/Patients United Now didn’t see the need to produce and release a TV spot featuring Holmes until just recently… when they undoubtedly felt it could do the most public relations damage to any Health Care Reform initiatives currently being considered by Congress. And the Mayo Clinic, which first wrote about this story in 2007 as a not so subtle dig at Canada’s public health care system, and a not so subtle plug about their own expertise, all of a sudden decided to re-release it this summer to coincide with the release of the TV spot. Oh the humanity!
What a crock of unadulterated horse pucky! For openers there is no way…no freaking way…that anyone with either a life threatening or immediate need medical condition gets put on hold by the Canadian health care system, unless there has been some kind of misdiagnosis or they have somehow fallen through the cracks. And neither of those things could ever have happened here, in the good ol' USA, right?
Oh, you may have to wait a while for that vasectomy or nose job, and maybe even for that hip or knee replacement…and that could never happen here either, eh? But if you need treatment NOW for ANYTHING that is in any way life threatening, the Canadian system will make sure you’re taken care of. Anyone who tries to tell you differently is either misinformed, or just plain lying for their own selfish reasons…like that health insurance agent we told you about yesterday.
We don’t know what Shona Holmes was paid or given for agreeing to do that ill-advised TV spot or the Fox News interview decrying the Canadian public health care system…maybe a ton of money, maybe all the expenses associated with her treatment at the Mayo Clinic, maybe nothing? But what we do know is this. She is nothing more than a shill…and she’s being used by extreme right-wing interests in this country who, for their own selfish reasons, will do anything to try and stop any type of ‘public health care for all’ from becoming a reality in the United States.
The Canadian system isn’t perfect. Nobody ever said it was. But like ours, the quality of care is world class. The difference is that their system is significantly more accessible and exponentially more effective and efficient than what we have here…or maybe ‘what we don’t have here’ would be a more accurate way to describe it!
And here’s a little nugget for you that you probably don’t know…and you’ll certainly never be told by anyone who leans to the right in this country. When asked in a poll at the turn of the millennium to pick who they thought was the most important person in the history of their country, Canadians overwhelmingly selected a man by the name of Tommy Douglas. The late Mr. Douglas is noteworthy for a few reasons. He was the father-in-law of actor Donald Sutherland and the grandfather of actor Keifer Sutherland…and he’s also the man primarily responsible for making Canada’s public health care system a reality. We’re fairly certain the latter reason is why so many Canadians named him the most important man in their country’s history.
For more on the Shona Holmes traveling circus, there's some excellent material on these sites:
http://mediamattersaction.org/factcheck/200905270002
And if you really want a laugh, check out the Fox News anti-health-care-reform infomercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJGTcfcWGo
Steve
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