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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 2009)
6 e t t i » » « « » IC A D E 10 Street roots Education * Dialogue * Independence COMMENTARY HOROSCOPE BY SOUP CAN SAM STA FF P S Y C H IC Leo (July 24-A ug. 23) The vastness of the universe can be difficult to imagine. So can. the footprints of a dust mite. Focus somewhere in between. V irgo (A u g. 24-Sept. 23) It's been 40 years since Apollo 11, the first time man walked on the moon. It seems it's been almost as long since you walked there yourself. You need a romance — not a love thing; more of a-joy of sex thing. Don't wait another 40 years. Libra (Sept. 24-Oct. 23) Now, NASA's got its sights on Mars. I wonder what kind of star Earth looks like from its surface? Are we blue-green? Does the moon orbit our planet fast qnough that we appear to twinkle? Do our problems amount to a hill of beans on Pluto? Probably not, but then they often - don't here, either. Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Isn't it interesting how much earthly emphasis, by way of money and human politics, goes into a space mission, when astronauts who've ? looked at our planet from outside have returned with a heightened sense ofour world's smallness and fragility. Sagittarius (N ov. 23-Dec. 22) Some people are pleased by the simplesfthings, and some are never happy. Nourish the aspects of your life that bring you joy. Capricorn (Dec. 23-Jan. 19) Everyone makes.mistakes. Learn from yours and move on. Dwelling is just a passive form of self pity, and you're better than that. A quarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Don't believe the conspiracy theories. Believe that humans made it to the moon. Impossibility is just a perception. Pisces (Feb. 20-M arch 20) Don't deny your emotions, Everybody has them, and we all know it sometimes sucks. But that, thank god, is relative. A ries (M arch 21-April 19) Be creative. Art is good for you. And don't forget Eddy. Taurus (April 20-M ay 21) To confront fear and learn from it is.to.be a better stronger; Kick profiteering out of health care debate BY JAY THIEMEYER even know where to begin, because we don’t guaranteed investment for its . stockholders. speak the language. And in ôur confusion/ If single payer were to win and become the ingle payer” is finally being allowed to - law of the land, that one triumph would do the corporations do what they want. the table. In spite of Montana’s bought more than anything else, to cut the ranks of Without effective intervention, or senator, Max Baucus. In spite of the accountability, the people’s interests pass by the homeless. (Excepting for some obstruction of the so-called health care philanthrope donating 50 millon yurts to the the way. We are mere ciphers, numbers industry. their bureaucrats crunch while amassing -- poor. But that aside, single payer would be The growing cry of the people is profife and promoting their, success to huge.) beginning to have effect It could certainly shareholders.. I figured a man like a Obamà, with a be heard Saturday night, July 18, in the Listening to Amy Goodman’s interview ! “community organizer’s heart” and with a Service Employees International Union on Democracy Now!, I hear Howard Dean Harvard law degree, could make a union hall where union folks and others push the need for a public option, without significant change. I Was tired of witnessing, sang along with Anne-Feeney and others in which there can be no real reform. But what year after year, double-digit profits to the the. road show for single payer. The unions, is it? If you include the private insurers in pharmaceuticals, the'hospital privatization except ironically for Andrew Sterns’ SEIU, the ntix, they will cherry pick healthier juggernaut, as public general hospitals were see the wisdom in single payer and have consumers for coverage (which their bought up by investor groups, the thrown their support behind it, even though commodification of what is a basic human bureaucrats will then deny) and they Will . they have their insurance. Why? Because . dump people with pre-existing conditions’, need, the growing power of a predatory they realize in this country, with this chronic illness, on the public. The taxpayers health system, and needless suffering and economy, nothing is certain, and they Could funding the public option will pay for' death from lack of care. Thè bureaucrats be laid off and losé their coverage. that right-wing nuts talk about as standing in increasing Costs, while the private insurers The House Committee on Education and are still-guaranteed their soaring profits. the way of you and your health care already Labor passed an amendment by the good Public option does nothing fo contain exists in the private insurance. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, allowing individual administrators whose task is to deny your costs. If you don’t contain costs, like the states to implement a single-payer health Massachusetts’ employer-based plan, the care and coverage for th e sake of corporate care system. This is how Canada came .to its profits. state budget will go bu st Other state single-payer system. One province^ I didn’t want to be another victim of some programs, for. affordable or supportive (Saskatchewan) at a .time. The man health industry CEO who didn’t care a Whit housing or treatment programs, for responsible for this “socialized medicine,” for my- care or well being, -for whom a instance; Will be defended. The taxpayers Tommy Douglas, is revered more than any human right was comic, whose direction Of suffer in order to get the corporations’ other in that cold country for heroes. his company meant the difference between “cooperation;” Who is our Tommy Douglas? Bernie health and happiness and loss of hope and And as for individual mandate, that’s Sanders or John Conyers or Deiínis K? It well-being for faceless “consumers,” and nothing but another subsidy to the private certainly isn’t our own Sen. Ron Wyden.' Anyone who includes the private insurers in the reform mix just doesn’t get it, Every alternative reform package, except single payer, includes the fox in the hen house! Health care Is probably the most deb ilitate d system serving a The majority of Americans gets it, How basic hum an need In this country, and the industry come our elected representatives don’t? controlling It is the most remunerative and safest, most They themselves enjoy* socialized medicine as members of Congress! guaranteed investment for its stockholders, l i single payer Now, in reality, Kucinich’s amendment were to w in and become the law ©I the land, th a t one triu m p h could easily be nothing more than a poison w ould do more than anything else to cwt the ranks ©I the pill. Most Republicans on the committee voted for it, after all. I imagine their support homeless« for the amendment was to guarantee that there would be a massive floor fight that would make certain that Obama’s objective of getting a reform bill out of the Congress by the summer recess would go begging. whose sole concern was the well-being of insurers, similar to Medicare Advantage or Just like the Republican obstruction around investors, his or her job security! To Medicare Part D, which was nothing but a a really effective stimulus' package, Obama paraphrase: “I ain’t dyin’ for NO CEO!’ subsidy for the pharmaceuticals. We’ve seen would be denied. So much for non- I thought Obama-and the people he’d these tactics before! partisanship. So much for constituents’ best bring to his Administration would take the The private insurers, the interest. I have faith in these clowns. It’S point in the fightto rectify; the system. pharmaceuticals, the HMOs, the private not about the people for them; it’s about job . So what gives? The so-called reform hospital groups, they all must be cut out of security and corporate donations to process seems to be merely a rejiggermg of any real progressive plan in order to promote incumbency (which includes the the corporations’ tools for clipping us. For guarantee health care for all residents of best health care package in the country). | corporate benefit not pur’s. this country. Their profiteering should not Make no mistakerThe corporate control They blatantly-buy out Congress, starting, be held sacred. You want to talk about of how our health care needs are addressed but not limited, to Max Baucus, whose holding life sacred, stop privatization, Will never yield to reason or need or popular pockets they’ve been filling for years as he’s de-regulation, corporate license! outcry. It responds to a greater power: Wall - approached Chairmanship of the pivotal Do yourself a favor and check Rep. Street. Health care in the corporate mind is . Senate Finance Committee. And how we Dennis Kucinich’s Web site. Check the nothing more than a commodity. Human read they are spending $1.4 million a day in “Health Care” link. He doesn’t forget Rights ismo consideration. It’s profit share. advertising against the “public option* and alternative therapies that work. He doesn’t - How long will this basic human need be what’s the so-called public option? It’s exclude naturopathic medicine. That alone nothing moré than a means — by virtue of J bogus; intended to drain energy and Says a lot for his focus on real-health care. its very necessity — to get money from the attention from the real solution which would - -Check out as well the Physicians National sick, a huckster’s game, to buy Congress to completely exclude corporate profiteers. „Health Plan site — very simple: pnhp.org. promote their agenda and sell out the It occurs to me maybe we should define And let those inside-the-Beltway types, " constituents’ real needs? some terms. Because, just like with the Wyden, Merkley, Wu, Blumenauer, et al., When Obama campaigned on a pledge to finance industry, a large part of the know that you’ll support them if they reform how health care was provided in this confusion and the smoke is a result of the exclude the private industry and include - country, he immediately got my attention. obscure terms, a specialized language, used their constituents’ best interests. Allow by the people whose profit-taking at our Health care is probably the most debilitated their constituents, the same healthcare they, system serving a basic human need in this expense goes on without our having the as our representatives in Congress, enjoy. slightest idea what.’s happening. We don’t country, and the industry controlling it is Medicare for all. the most remunerative and safest, most CONTRIBUTING WRITER S person. Gem ini (M ay 22-June 22) Pride is only sinful in excess. Take some time to appreciate yourself and the world at large. Cancer (June 23-July 23) Stay away from the summer sniffles! And if you do catch them, for goodness sake, take better care of yourself then Soup Can did. For every dollar used to purchase a Street Roots, 25 cents buys the paper, and the ! vendor keeps 75 cents. embrace piuaui diversity portlandliearingvoias.net
