Putting aside all the wingnut rhetoric and shrillness of those protesting, here is a simple explanation of WHY our country and citizens need a National Health Care program.
RSS Feed
Posts
All Comments
Showing posts with label Washington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington. Show all posts
Monday, August 31, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Senator Edward Kennedy 1932 - 2009
Awoke this morning to the expected yet still sad news of Senator Kennedy's passing last night as he lost his final battle with brain cancer. Like all of us, he was a flawed human being. But he was also one who strove to rise above those flaws and accomplish something that would have a lasting impact for good for all Americans.
Other than his heartwarming and touching eulogy for his brother Robert, one of my favorite speeches of his is the one he gave in 1978 in which, while pounding the podium with his fist, he strongly declared:
"As long as I'm a vote and as long as I have a voice in the U.S. Senate, it's going to be for the democratic platform plan that provides decent quality health care north and south, east and west, for all Americans as a matter of right and not of privilege."
Here is the 8-minute tribute video to Senator Kennedy that was shown at the 2008 convention:
We are all the poorer for his absence.
Other than his heartwarming and touching eulogy for his brother Robert, one of my favorite speeches of his is the one he gave in 1978 in which, while pounding the podium with his fist, he strongly declared:
"As long as I'm a vote and as long as I have a voice in the U.S. Senate, it's going to be for the democratic platform plan that provides decent quality health care north and south, east and west, for all Americans as a matter of right and not of privilege."
Here is the 8-minute tribute video to Senator Kennedy that was shown at the 2008 convention:
We are all the poorer for his absence.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A Happy Day. A Historical Day. A Day Of Hope.
The Internet and Blogosphere are filled to overflowing today with posts, articles and photos about the inauguration. I don't think I have much else to offer other than a few personal observations.
I turned on the TV this morning to find hundreds of thousands of people already gathered before sunrise in the National Mall, made even more incredible by the frigid temperatures. By the time the swearing in ceremony took place, the Mall was filled with Americans and visitors from around the world who came to see history in the making.
At 12:06pm this afternoon, Barack Obama stepped into history when he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. We, as a nation, have much hope that he will indeed be the leader we need and the man that a majority of us believe we saw in countless speeches, appearances and debates. A man of intelligence who is able to capably express himself verbally and in writing. A man with an innate ability to inspire others. A man who sets aside grievances with former adversaries to concentrate on fashioning a positive future, and initiates dinners with far-right, radical conservative media pundits who have savaged his character and fitness for office either directly or through innuendo, in order to find some common ground from which to move forward.
Shortly before our new President was sworn in I twittered: "I'm a grown man, and I'm getting goose bumps because of what is about to happen in our nation's capitol!!" Then, just after his speech I twittered: "This President possesses the leadership ability and skill that we have sorely been without the past 8 yrs. What a change we can believe in. What a great speech from a man who promises to be a great President for our great country." Of all the twitters I read during the speech, this one from John Frost of The Disney Blog was the most poignant; "'and the Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day.' How can anyone not be moved by this moment?"
Obama brings with him the sense of hope that we have so long been without. The hope that the rule of law will return, that science will not be swept under a rug of religion, that an unwarranted invasion will end, that our economy will be strengthened with commerce and production instead of weakened by debt, that the needs of our world's environment will not be ignored in the name of corporate greed and that America will once again rise to the role of leadership by example in the world.
That hope is tempered by the realization that change will not come overnight. Eight long years of poor administration and lack of leadership brought us to this point and it will not be changed in the blink of an eye, but it WILL be changed if we all commit to following the leadership and example of our new President. Better times are ahead for us, both as individuals and a country. That is the hope he has given us this day.
At approximately 12:10pm this afternoon the official website of the White House, whitehouse.gov, switched content to reflect the new administration. I immediately added the blog feed to my RSS reader.
It's difficult to describe the joy I felt knowing the shrub and his cronies were out the door. Obama, as always, was gracious, but I cheered when the man stepped onto the helicopter and left our nation's capitol. I'm obviously not as nice as our new President, that's something I'll need to work on in the future.
But before I do, did anyone else think that Cheney in the wheelchair looked like evil old Mr. Potter from "It's A Wonderful Life"? Really, look at that photo. He looks like Old Man Potter.
Out with the old, our long national nightmare is over. Today was a happy day, a historical day and a day of hope for our country. Congratulations, President Obama.
I turned on the TV this morning to find hundreds of thousands of people already gathered before sunrise in the National Mall, made even more incredible by the frigid temperatures. By the time the swearing in ceremony took place, the Mall was filled with Americans and visitors from around the world who came to see history in the making.
At 12:06pm this afternoon, Barack Obama stepped into history when he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. We, as a nation, have much hope that he will indeed be the leader we need and the man that a majority of us believe we saw in countless speeches, appearances and debates. A man of intelligence who is able to capably express himself verbally and in writing. A man with an innate ability to inspire others. A man who sets aside grievances with former adversaries to concentrate on fashioning a positive future, and initiates dinners with far-right, radical conservative media pundits who have savaged his character and fitness for office either directly or through innuendo, in order to find some common ground from which to move forward.Shortly before our new President was sworn in I twittered: "I'm a grown man, and I'm getting goose bumps because of what is about to happen in our nation's capitol!!" Then, just after his speech I twittered: "This President possesses the leadership ability and skill that we have sorely been without the past 8 yrs. What a change we can believe in. What a great speech from a man who promises to be a great President for our great country." Of all the twitters I read during the speech, this one from John Frost of The Disney Blog was the most poignant; "'and the Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day.' How can anyone not be moved by this moment?"
Obama brings with him the sense of hope that we have so long been without. The hope that the rule of law will return, that science will not be swept under a rug of religion, that an unwarranted invasion will end, that our economy will be strengthened with commerce and production instead of weakened by debt, that the needs of our world's environment will not be ignored in the name of corporate greed and that America will once again rise to the role of leadership by example in the world.
That hope is tempered by the realization that change will not come overnight. Eight long years of poor administration and lack of leadership brought us to this point and it will not be changed in the blink of an eye, but it WILL be changed if we all commit to following the leadership and example of our new President. Better times are ahead for us, both as individuals and a country. That is the hope he has given us this day.
At approximately 12:10pm this afternoon the official website of the White House, whitehouse.gov, switched content to reflect the new administration. I immediately added the blog feed to my RSS reader.
It's difficult to describe the joy I felt knowing the shrub and his cronies were out the door. Obama, as always, was gracious, but I cheered when the man stepped onto the helicopter and left our nation's capitol. I'm obviously not as nice as our new President, that's something I'll need to work on in the future.
But before I do, did anyone else think that Cheney in the wheelchair looked like evil old Mr. Potter from "It's A Wonderful Life"? Really, look at that photo. He looks like Old Man Potter. Out with the old, our long national nightmare is over. Today was a happy day, a historical day and a day of hope for our country. Congratulations, President Obama.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Disasters, The Economy, Politics & The World
Just a few stray thoughts to sort of "clean out" the dustbin of my mind. Thanks for indulging me.
My friend Denise is down in Texas helping in the aftermath of Ike. Working 12 hours a day and driving an additional hour each way to get to your work site is difficult enough; being sick on top of that makes things even harder. Hope she feels better soon
Up here in Iowa one of my co-workers had to go home when she came down with strep throat. Another one is currently on the job with bronchitis and a sinus infection. I'm told that in another office in Iowa there is a "creeping crud" going through the entire office, which is not a rare occurrence. I've had it happen in offices I've been in before. One person gets sick and then it just passes around to everyone until it comes back to the person who originally had it and had recovered but gets sick again and it starts its circuit all over again.
Another co-worker whose home on Galveston was destroyed while she was here in Iowa left to go home this past Wednesday and see just how much there might be that can be recovered. Judging from the photos we've all seen, I have to sadly think that there won't be much.
Between natural disasters and the economy, 2008 has not been a good year for America.
Like most people, I think, this whole bailout issue leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Still, I'm not sure we're left with much choice if we don't want an even worse domino effect to take place. I woke up Thursday morning to find that my main bank had collapsed and been purchased overnight. My deposits are safe, but I still had to fight the urge to go move what I had there into another bank I use. There are plenty of people who did not fight that urge and watching them on TV was reminiscent of watching old footage of bank runs in the 1930's. These types of actions lead to even worse scenarios and create a panic effect, and panic is the last thing we need right now.
Speaking of panic...
I watched the Presidential debate last night. Nothing that was said made a difference in how I plan to vote. There were no spectacular gaffes or knockouts, other than McCain's mispronunciation of the Pakistan president's name and what has become his SOP of misrepresenting statements by Obama, but we're all used to that by now. He also completely ignored the moderator's repeated entreaties for each candidate to address the other and not the camera; it was as if he almost absolutely refused to acknowledge that Obama was there. Obama's tendency to give thought to his answers (NOT a bad thing) showed up less, meaning he was prepared for most questions and issues that came up (and cognizant of the time restraints on answering), but he still seemed tentative at times. I would have liked to have seen him be more forceful in his rebuttals to McCain's misrepresentations, but I've read that he is desperately trying to avoid looking like "an angry black man" to skittish white voters. Funny how McCain can be a grumpy old white man, but Obama can't appear to be an angry black man. I hope by the time my grandson is an adult we will be past these silly racial issues. I tend to think that backers of each candidate will feel their man did the best, but obviously the real question will be how undecided voters viewed the whole thing and if they are swayed yet toward any particular candidate/philosophy.
This is, in the scope of the whole thing, a very small matter but one of the many things that irritated me throughout the debate was McCain's pronunciation of "Taliban." He kept saying "Towel ee ban", which made me think of the Day-o song chorus:
Come mister tally man, tally me banana,
Daylight come and me wanna go home,
Come mister tally man, tally me banana,
Daylight come and me wanna go home.
Then, in what my friend Michelle twittered to me as the "McCain hooked-on-phonics osmosis" effect, Obama used the same incorrect pronunciation, but thankfully only one time.
For the record, here's the link to Dictionary.com with the pronunciation guide for Taliban and, for those who don't know what that is or how to read it, they even have an audio example.
The shine has quickly worn off of McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin. When I heard McCain wanted to postpone last night's debate and reschedule it in place of next week's Vice-Presidential candidate debate, I could not help but think the ENTIRE reason he was postponing last night's was so that Palin would not have to participate in next week's debate against Biden. Her interviews with Charles Gibson and Katie Couric were train wrecks. She doesn't take questions from reporters when she makes an appearance (sometimes the campaign even tries to ban reporters as it did when she was at the UN), won't release her financial statement until AFTER the election and she declined to join Biden in responding to questions from reporters and offering an appraisal of last night's debate when it was over. Instead, Rudy Giuliani stepped in to substitute. She has been kept on such a tight leash by the McCain campaign that, whether she is or not, it makes it seem that she is totally out of her league on this national political stage.
Even conservatives that hailed her as an inspired choice are rethinking this move by McCain and supposedly so are those within the inner circle who are frantic that she cannot present an informed picture to voters. Now I can't help but wonder if the maverick will regretfully accept his running mate's resignation from the platform in the next few days and choose a new one, rendering next week's scheduled VP debate a moot point. Unlikely, I know, but so was asking to delay last night's debate.
News came this morning that Paul Newman had passed away at the age of 83 after his battle with cancer. I don't know what he was like personally, but he was a good actor and a great philanthropist. And he made a damn good salad dressing.
Yesterday, three Chinese Taikonauts lifted off into space and today one of them performed a 20-minute spacewalk. This might be an event to raise our admiration of the Chinese...if it wasn't for the high probability that they accomplished it by stealing US technology. Added to the fact that the Chinese government already had a news article prepared, including conversational quotes by the Taikonauts during the liftoff, BEFORE the rocket even lifted off and you can see how this whole thing is as scripted as a Hollywood movie.
Hey, thanks for letting me get those thoughts out of my head and into digital print and thanks for reading. My head is much clearer now.
My friend Denise is down in Texas helping in the aftermath of Ike. Working 12 hours a day and driving an additional hour each way to get to your work site is difficult enough; being sick on top of that makes things even harder. Hope she feels better soon
Up here in Iowa one of my co-workers had to go home when she came down with strep throat. Another one is currently on the job with bronchitis and a sinus infection. I'm told that in another office in Iowa there is a "creeping crud" going through the entire office, which is not a rare occurrence. I've had it happen in offices I've been in before. One person gets sick and then it just passes around to everyone until it comes back to the person who originally had it and had recovered but gets sick again and it starts its circuit all over again.
Another co-worker whose home on Galveston was destroyed while she was here in Iowa left to go home this past Wednesday and see just how much there might be that can be recovered. Judging from the photos we've all seen, I have to sadly think that there won't be much.
Between natural disasters and the economy, 2008 has not been a good year for America.
Like most people, I think, this whole bailout issue leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Still, I'm not sure we're left with much choice if we don't want an even worse domino effect to take place. I woke up Thursday morning to find that my main bank had collapsed and been purchased overnight. My deposits are safe, but I still had to fight the urge to go move what I had there into another bank I use. There are plenty of people who did not fight that urge and watching them on TV was reminiscent of watching old footage of bank runs in the 1930's. These types of actions lead to even worse scenarios and create a panic effect, and panic is the last thing we need right now.
Speaking of panic...
I watched the Presidential debate last night. Nothing that was said made a difference in how I plan to vote. There were no spectacular gaffes or knockouts, other than McCain's mispronunciation of the Pakistan president's name and what has become his SOP of misrepresenting statements by Obama, but we're all used to that by now. He also completely ignored the moderator's repeated entreaties for each candidate to address the other and not the camera; it was as if he almost absolutely refused to acknowledge that Obama was there. Obama's tendency to give thought to his answers (NOT a bad thing) showed up less, meaning he was prepared for most questions and issues that came up (and cognizant of the time restraints on answering), but he still seemed tentative at times. I would have liked to have seen him be more forceful in his rebuttals to McCain's misrepresentations, but I've read that he is desperately trying to avoid looking like "an angry black man" to skittish white voters. Funny how McCain can be a grumpy old white man, but Obama can't appear to be an angry black man. I hope by the time my grandson is an adult we will be past these silly racial issues. I tend to think that backers of each candidate will feel their man did the best, but obviously the real question will be how undecided voters viewed the whole thing and if they are swayed yet toward any particular candidate/philosophy.
This is, in the scope of the whole thing, a very small matter but one of the many things that irritated me throughout the debate was McCain's pronunciation of "Taliban." He kept saying "Towel ee ban", which made me think of the Day-o song chorus:
Come mister tally man, tally me banana,
Daylight come and me wanna go home,
Come mister tally man, tally me banana,
Daylight come and me wanna go home.
Then, in what my friend Michelle twittered to me as the "McCain hooked-on-phonics osmosis" effect, Obama used the same incorrect pronunciation, but thankfully only one time.
For the record, here's the link to Dictionary.com with the pronunciation guide for Taliban and, for those who don't know what that is or how to read it, they even have an audio example.
The shine has quickly worn off of McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin. When I heard McCain wanted to postpone last night's debate and reschedule it in place of next week's Vice-Presidential candidate debate, I could not help but think the ENTIRE reason he was postponing last night's was so that Palin would not have to participate in next week's debate against Biden. Her interviews with Charles Gibson and Katie Couric were train wrecks. She doesn't take questions from reporters when she makes an appearance (sometimes the campaign even tries to ban reporters as it did when she was at the UN), won't release her financial statement until AFTER the election and she declined to join Biden in responding to questions from reporters and offering an appraisal of last night's debate when it was over. Instead, Rudy Giuliani stepped in to substitute. She has been kept on such a tight leash by the McCain campaign that, whether she is or not, it makes it seem that she is totally out of her league on this national political stage.
Even conservatives that hailed her as an inspired choice are rethinking this move by McCain and supposedly so are those within the inner circle who are frantic that she cannot present an informed picture to voters. Now I can't help but wonder if the maverick will regretfully accept his running mate's resignation from the platform in the next few days and choose a new one, rendering next week's scheduled VP debate a moot point. Unlikely, I know, but so was asking to delay last night's debate.
News came this morning that Paul Newman had passed away at the age of 83 after his battle with cancer. I don't know what he was like personally, but he was a good actor and a great philanthropist. And he made a damn good salad dressing.
Yesterday, three Chinese Taikonauts lifted off into space and today one of them performed a 20-minute spacewalk. This might be an event to raise our admiration of the Chinese...if it wasn't for the high probability that they accomplished it by stealing US technology. Added to the fact that the Chinese government already had a news article prepared, including conversational quotes by the Taikonauts during the liftoff, BEFORE the rocket even lifted off and you can see how this whole thing is as scripted as a Hollywood movie.
Hey, thanks for letting me get those thoughts out of my head and into digital print and thanks for reading. My head is much clearer now.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Photos Of Secret Training Location
Back on January 13th I posted this necessarily cryptic mobile blog entry using my new Blackberry. While I still cannot disclose specifics about where I was or, as usual, what it was for, I can share some information and photos.
I flew into Reagan National Airport Sunday afternoon and joined about 20 other attendees on a comfortable shuttle bus with padded seats and a bathroom that would take us on a 90 minute drive through the outskirts of the nation's capitol and the Maryland countryside. We joined many others in the registration area getting our room assignments and eating dinner in the dining hall. I then hit the sack because I was still sick from the flu I had picked up in Lake Charles and was very tired. I wanted to start the next day as well-rested as possible
Training began on Monday morning, January 14th and lasted through Thursday night, January 17th at a location that I can only describe as a former Catholic College in the Blue Ridge Mountain area of extremely rural Maryland, near the Pennsylvania state line. The dormitory rooms were very reminiscent of their former boarders. Mattresses that felt like slabs of concrete on single beds that kept making me wake up every time I rolled over because I felt like I was going to go over the edge, pipes that rattled and windows that let in the cold (or let out the heat, not sure which) made the stay almost a survival exercise. At least each room had it's own bathroom. Internet access in the dorm rooms was of the ancient dial-up type. I didn't even attempt to get my laptop online, instead using it to listen to music and watch DVD's during the short amount of "down time" we had each day. Cellphone coverage, even with my new Blackberry, was spotty at best.
Here's an aerial view of the "campus" from Google Maps. In the lower left hand corner the blue arrow is pointing to the building my dorm room was in, right next to the tennis courts. In the upper right hand area the blue arrow is pointing to the building where all of my training took place, which also happened to house the dining hall.
Speaking of the dining hall; the food was, as one instructor put it, "Ok for institutional food." There was a wide variety of main courses, side dishes, desserts and beverages, but a lot of us laughed the day we walked in and one of the choices was Chicken Tetrazinni. I haven't seen that dish on a menu since college, which was apropos.
Now when it comes to the training, that was the best part. We had 3 main instructors and several personal trainers assigned to each group. We went through practices, policies, processes, procedures, individual simulations and finally an all day group simulation that wore all of us out but left us with the confidence to tackle our chosen areas (in other words, my day job). I met several of my colleagues from around the country and found several that I hope I have the opportunity to work with in the future, should the need for our talents and training arise.
I've posted photos over at Flickr and you can access them using the link in the right hand column. They were all taken either Thursday night (it began snowing at 10:30 in the morning and I could no longer resist getting the camera out and taking pictures (even though that is NOT encouraged) of the campus being snowed on, or the next morning before our departure to the airport when I got up early to catch the first rays of light bathing the complex's snow-covered grounds and buildings. Unfortunately, Flickr did not tag/describe all my photos as I directed, but if it's dark or yellow it was taken Friday night and if it's light then it was taken Friday morning. Some of the night shots were with flash, some were without and you might see two different versions of the night shots; one that is clear and one that shows snowflakes falling, a result of removing my hand as a cover from above the lens. I really did have a lot of fun playing with light in all of these shots and I think the effects show that.
I flew into Reagan National Airport Sunday afternoon and joined about 20 other attendees on a comfortable shuttle bus with padded seats and a bathroom that would take us on a 90 minute drive through the outskirts of the nation's capitol and the Maryland countryside. We joined many others in the registration area getting our room assignments and eating dinner in the dining hall. I then hit the sack because I was still sick from the flu I had picked up in Lake Charles and was very tired. I wanted to start the next day as well-rested as possible
Training began on Monday morning, January 14th and lasted through Thursday night, January 17th at a location that I can only describe as a former Catholic College in the Blue Ridge Mountain area of extremely rural Maryland, near the Pennsylvania state line. The dormitory rooms were very reminiscent of their former boarders. Mattresses that felt like slabs of concrete on single beds that kept making me wake up every time I rolled over because I felt like I was going to go over the edge, pipes that rattled and windows that let in the cold (or let out the heat, not sure which) made the stay almost a survival exercise. At least each room had it's own bathroom. Internet access in the dorm rooms was of the ancient dial-up type. I didn't even attempt to get my laptop online, instead using it to listen to music and watch DVD's during the short amount of "down time" we had each day. Cellphone coverage, even with my new Blackberry, was spotty at best.
Here's an aerial view of the "campus" from Google Maps. In the lower left hand corner the blue arrow is pointing to the building my dorm room was in, right next to the tennis courts. In the upper right hand area the blue arrow is pointing to the building where all of my training took place, which also happened to house the dining hall.
Speaking of the dining hall; the food was, as one instructor put it, "Ok for institutional food." There was a wide variety of main courses, side dishes, desserts and beverages, but a lot of us laughed the day we walked in and one of the choices was Chicken Tetrazinni. I haven't seen that dish on a menu since college, which was apropos.
Now when it comes to the training, that was the best part. We had 3 main instructors and several personal trainers assigned to each group. We went through practices, policies, processes, procedures, individual simulations and finally an all day group simulation that wore all of us out but left us with the confidence to tackle our chosen areas (in other words, my day job). I met several of my colleagues from around the country and found several that I hope I have the opportunity to work with in the future, should the need for our talents and training arise.
I've posted photos over at Flickr and you can access them using the link in the right hand column. They were all taken either Thursday night (it began snowing at 10:30 in the morning and I could no longer resist getting the camera out and taking pictures (even though that is NOT encouraged) of the campus being snowed on, or the next morning before our departure to the airport when I got up early to catch the first rays of light bathing the complex's snow-covered grounds and buildings. Unfortunately, Flickr did not tag/describe all my photos as I directed, but if it's dark or yellow it was taken Friday night and if it's light then it was taken Friday morning. Some of the night shots were with flash, some were without and you might see two different versions of the night shots; one that is clear and one that shows snowflakes falling, a result of removing my hand as a cover from above the lens. I really did have a lot of fun playing with light in all of these shots and I think the effects show that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
