It's Time to Have A Serious Debate about Adopting a National Healthcare Policy

Last Monday, General Motors Corp. said it would cut 30,000 North American manufacturing jobs and close a dozen plants as it struggles to compete with fast-growing rivals led by Toyota Motor Corp.

Yet another instance of callous bloodletting in a hemorrhaging of American jobs that has become commonplace since 2000. What's the answer? Well, it's right in front of everyone's face but no one wants to seriously discuss it. American companies are being brought to their knees by healthcare costs.

It is time to create a national healthcare policy. Other countries such as Canada have it. Right now many of the American companies are pulling up stakes and going to places like Canada because of it.

New York Times Columnist and Economist Paul Krugman has been discussing it for some time and so have many other liberals and progressives. Check it out

Calif. Rep. resigns after bribery plea

Yet another Republican lawmaker has had the sheets snatched away and revealed as the crook he is. U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a California Republican, resigned on Monday after pleading guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for help in securing Defense Department contracts.

One thing about it, at least he's admitting his wrongdoing. Not like the brazen corrupt products currently on display like Tom DeLay and Roy Blunt in the moral cesspool called the US House. There will soon be a special election. There's a buzz about Democrat Francine Busby as a strong candidate for the seat going on right now.

Murtha is the Chosen One

Representative Murtha appeared on Meet the Press with Tim Russert today and gave an amazing blunt and truthful assessment of the Iraq War, how to get out of it and the shortcomings of the Bush Administration.

Murtha spoke the words of the people this morning. I felt as if he were freeing the unbridled rage and powerlessness from my throat that I've carried since 2001 when Bush first began beating the drums of war to invade Iraq.

Here is the transcript of the interview. Yes, it's a bit long but well worth the read.

There is no doubt in my mind that Congressman Murtha has been divinely chosen to act as an agent to bring this war to a close. This conservative Democratic hawk has led a distinguished 35 year career in the Marines and Congress. He voted for the war and has been supportive of Bush's Iraq policy until recently. When he speaks, all of Washington must listen because he cannot be dismissed. He has the ear of the Pentagon generals and the foot soldiers. It is widely felt that he is, in fact, speaking for the military since they are unable to do so. That's why his coming to the fore is so powerful.

Most importantly, Murtha's comments have now forced a debate upon Washington about the development of an exit strategy. The tide is turning. The American people have hungered for this conversation for some time. I have been waiting for years.

After hearing Murtha's comments on Meet the Press this morning, I sent him the following letter:

I am a resident of a "red state" called Georgia and Representative Murtha, I HONOR and SALUTE you, dear sir!

You are correct! The American people are way ahead of Washington politicians regarding Iraq and the growing horrible destruction of America due to poor leadership in Washington!

As I watched you on Meet the Press today, I fell to my knees in tears and thanked God in prayer for giving you the strength, courage, backbone and wisdom to SPEAK OUT and tell the TRUTH!!!

Bush and his minions seem content to engage in eternal campaign mode and a war of words as people DIE and are disfigured horribly!

Although I am not a defense or foreign policy specialist, I already knew how bad things were. It's been quite naked for some time now through media coverage and what has not been said.

I am 38 and have never seen America in such a horrible condition fiscally, morally, ethically, socially, spiritually and politically!

I know that Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are now coming after you with everything they've got - lies, smears and more bullying. Of course, this is their stock in trade. But I also know that you are an old soldier with much heart, courage, strength and political acumen. Please know that you have A HUGE amount of public support and, I suspect, you are going to have a GROWING amount of Democratic and moderate Republican support, too.

When Tim Russert played John Kerry, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi's comments about your reasonable Iraq plan, I grew angry. As a Democratic activist, I was not surprised. This is the damn problem with the Democratic party leadership --- no damn backbone: I've been waiting for a Democratic legislator to clear his/her throat and speak the blunt, commonsense words that you spoke today since 2002 when Bush first began beating the irrational drums for war for an Iraq invasion. Sir, I've been waiting a lonnngggg time for you to come to the fore. I worked to elect John Kerry last year but I had no passion for the task given that he never really spoke the unbridled truth about the Bush administration and Dems' own capitulation on the war.

So, I HONOR you and I continue to PRAY for you and all the other Democrat and Republican and military officials who agree with you and soon will support you if they are not already doing so.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! For you are saving America and many lives around the world with your mighty stand for TRUTH, JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE and A WISE YET ROBUST AMERICAN NATIONAL DEFENSE PLAN!

Another Hawk Speaks Out Against the War

U.S. Representative John Murtha, top Democratic hawk in the House, says it is time to bring the troops home within six months. He voted for the war back in 2002 and has been visiting the troops at Walter Reed Hospital on a weekly basis ever since. Here's the video.

It will be verrrry difficult for Bush, Cheney and Rove to discredit Murtha, an old Vietnam Vet and retired Marine Colonel who has been in Congress for over 30 years.

Today, Murtha gave a long somber critique of where we stand in Iraq. And it ain't pretty. He calls Iraq "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion."

I applaud this noble patriot. Glad he decided to join us in the pool. Water's nice and warm, eh, Murtha? This is good news for the country and the Dems since Murtha's tough stand will embolden more Dem and Republican legislators to come out against the war and force Bush to change course in Iraq.

Here's a transcript of his speech.

Senate Republicans Block Iraq Timetable

Picture of a Last Vigil

On the eve of her husband’s the funeral, Katherine Cathey insisted on sleeping next to Jim's body, so the Marines arranged a bed and offered to stand guard through the night. She fell asleep to music she and Jim had planned to play at their formal wedding celebration when he returned.

The fighting must end. Most Americans know it, but the GOP still doesn't get it:

The Republican-controlled Senate easily defeated a Democratic effort Tuesday to pressure President Bush to outline a timetable for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It then overwhelmingly endorsed a weaker statement calling on the administration to explain its Iraq policy.

Senators also voted to endorse the Bush administration's military tribunals for prosecuting foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but to allow the detainees to appeal their detention status and punishments to a federal court.

On the question of a timetable for troop withdrawal, senators rejected the Democrats' proposal by 58-40. Democratic leaders had advanced the measure in the wake of declining public support for a conflict that has claimed more than 2,000 U.S. lives and cost more than $200 billion.

So the GOP guts the meat from the Dems proposal that will make Bush accountable and place crazy pressure on him to bring the troops home. Still, I am glad to see the GOP Senators atleast attempting to begin to do their jobs and demand SOME KIND of answers from Bush.

And the whole discussion among American legislators about whether "enemy combatants" should be elgible for due process is surreal. By the way, I have serious concerns about the integrity of the military tribunals that are being used as a pale substitute for a traditional internationally respected trial.

I'm running the above pic because it moves me. Whenever I see pics of military personnel and their families I always think of Bush and wonder "Why??? What are they really dying for? What are they suffering for? What's the nobel cause?" Kudos to Cindy Sheehan for asking the questions most Americans want to know.

I'm running this pic because America needs to feel uncomfortable and guilty when they view it. We are guilty. Guilty of not asking the questions, trusting too much and swimming in fear.

It must end.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Is The Second Coming of George W. Bush

Perhaps you noticed that I've not done any entries for a few days. I apologize but have been unable to due to being emotionally devastated by the outcome of the mayoral race in my hometown - Detroit, Michigan. Kwame Kilpatrick won in the wee hours of the morning on November 9th. The incompetent, arrogant and corrupt thug Kwame Kilpatrick stole his way back in.

Yes, I know that to say someone stole an election is a serious charge. And I make it with good reason. For most of the night Kilpatrick trailed Freman Hendrix who had a healthy lead. Then around 2:00am things shifted in a torrent of votes for Kilpatrick.

Did I mention that the Detroit Elections Clerk Jackie Currie is being investigated for incompetence/corruption? She's like in her third elected term and still can't manage to competently and fairly conduct an election. But charges of vote rigging were being made against Currie before the election even took place.

Right now, there are at least 3000 votes that are unaccounted for in the election. Now you know if they are only acknowledging 3000 votes then it is not beyond the realm of possibility that mass vote tampering has taken place.

After Kilpatrick ran one of the most hatefully racially and economically divisive campaigns in recent Detroit history, I am sick in mind, angry and disgusted for my hometown, Detroit.

When will we in America begin to hold our elected officials accountable? I had a bad argument on the phone with my longtime hometown friends after she told me during the night of the election that she'd voted for Kwame Kilpatrick because she decided it was better to stick with the devil she knows. With the outcome of this election, I am reminded of the re-election of Washington, DC mayor Marion Berry who was caught smoking crack on camera AND the re-election of George W. Bush last year.

Kilpatrick, a black Democrat, owes a lot to George W. Bush. He conducts himself in the same way that Bush does and is a thuggish bully. He ran a hateful race in which the only concern was to win at any cost and pulled on all the well-known historical racial paranoia and hatred inherent in the Metro Detroiter's way of relating to each other.

In the end, the contest came down to who is black enough and who can be trusted not to sell out the black community - mind you, all the while, Kilpatrick is steady selling out the city by stealing funds and cronyism.

Detroit is in need of good, honest and strong leadership, but Detroiters and I would argue Americans, continue to rationalize and take what they can get. Look at how Bush stole his way back into office under the troubling haze of election irregularities, yet Americans accepted this in 2000 and 2004. It's beginning to look like Detroiters are feeling resigned and will accept Kilpatrick's "mysterious" re-election, too, despite the investigation's outcome.

I am outraged and afraid for the future of Detroit, the state of Michigan, the entire country and the world. What is this rocky road here to teach you, my higher self is asking. I can only answer "All Are One." After all, Kwame Kilpatrick was elected on September 11, 2001.

There is a higher spiritual order at work in all of this, I know. But it is hard to watch it unfold since I am a control addict. Where there is no suffering, there can be no moral reckoning or redemption.

This morning, I got up and perused both Detroit Newspapers - the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. The News is historically conservative and the Free Press is liberal. I was afraid of what I would encounter, but went to the sites anyway.

Here is a column by Detroit News' Nolan Finley which panders to the racial anger and paranoia of the metro Detroit region. After reading it, I wrote him and told him he was part of the problem, and therefore, incapable of pulling people to higher ground.

Then I read the Detroit Free Press two columnists who hit the ball out of the park, in my estimation. Rochelle Riley and Mitch Albom both wrote of painful uncomfortable truths and the honesty and courage that will heal metro Detroit and the nation.

It all comes down to taking personal responsibility (accountability) for what is occuring in our communities, organizing and demanding changes for the better. We must get involved. There is no way around it. The time for rationalizing, making excuses for mediocrity is at an end. It has to be. If we want better lives, better communities and better political and moral leadership then we must be the change we want to see. Period.

Will the Dems fight to protect the Supreme Court or not?

Spine-challenged Democratic Senator Joe Biden made a chilling statement today:

A key Democrat said on Sunday that he expects the full Republican-led Senate to vote on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito without the threat of a Democratic filibuster.

But Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said a decision would not be made about such a possible procedural roadblock until more lawmakers meet with President George W. Bush's conservative nominee to the nation's highest court.

"My instinct is we should commit" to an up-or-down vote by the full Senate, said Biden, a member of the Judiciary Committee. "I think the probability is that will happen.

"I think that judgment won't be made ... until the bulk of us have had a chance to actually see him and speak to him," Biden told ABC's "This Week."

After 5 years of unbridled, sheer, lily-livered, mass Democratic capitulation to Bush and his right wing agenda including striking a deal on the nuclear option in the Senate, what, I ask you, what and when WILL the Democratic Senators actually fight to protect the Supreme Court?????

Don't get me wrong, but I was DELIGHTED when the Dems shut down the Senate last week in order to force the GOP to investigate how the White House's falsified intelligence to trick us into invading Iraq! I'd hoped this was a sign that the Dems had newly committed to walking the path of courage, and integrity.

In any case, it looks like its time for the grassroots to raise some hell by picking up the phone and calling your Senators and writing letters to the Editors of your local newspapers. Let's let the Dem senators know we're watching and we EXPECT a FIGHT to protect the courts!

Harry Reid Shuts Down the Senate & America Wins Today!

Democratic Leader Harry Reid shut down the Senate today in order to demand that the Republican led Senate do its job and conduct oversight hearings on the faulty pre-war intelligence and how we were erroneously taken to war in Iraq!

I see the Democratic party has finally decided to take its fighting shoes out of the dusty box under the bed and try them on for size! It seems like America, might, juuuust might, have a REAL opposition party.

Regardless of what your political leanings are, most Americans MUST be disgusted with the TOTAL lack of accountability in the Bush White House and Congress. Finally, the Dems stood up and demonstrated, in the process, they are not afraid to filibuster Scalito.

America and our system of checks and balances won today.

Click here to see video of Senator Harry Reid in action!

From Reagan's Speechwriter: The Wheels Are Coming Off

I ran across this interesting Op-Ed piece in The Opinion Journal by Ronald Reagan's speechwriter Peggy Noonan. I honor her for being willing to commit to words the anxiety that is being felt regarding the future of America and the World with the Bush regime in charge. She also gives insight into the rationalizing going on in Bush supporter's minds regarding Bush's incompetence. In many places, she is emotionally and factually honest:

I think there is an unspoken subtext in our national political culture right now. In fact I think it's a subtext to our society. I think that a lot of people are carrying around in their heads, unarticulated and even in some cases unnoticed, a sense that the wheels are coming off the trolley and the trolley off the tracks. That in some deep and fundamental way things have broken down and can't be fixed, or won't be fixed any time soon. That our pollsters are preoccupied with "right track" and "wrong track" but missing the number of people who think the answer to "How are things going in America?" is "Off the tracks and hurtling forward, toward an unknown destination."

Bottom line: Bush is incompetent, corrupt, arrogant and dangerous. This is what happens when you place a bunch of thugs in the White House.

To read the entire article,click this link.

Ku Klux Klan to rally in support of Texas anti-gay marriage amendment

It figures! This Klan rally is actually a good thing since it makes people realize how bigoted the gay marriage amendment actually is:

Klan to rally in support of Texas anti-gay marriage amendment
Austin event is planned for weekend before Nov. 8 vote

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) | Oct 25, 10:30 PM

The Ku Klux Klan plans to rally in Austin to support the gay marriage amendment set for the Nov. 8 ballot.

The rally planned on the steps of city hall the Saturday before the election will urge voters to favor Proposition 2.

However, some who support Proposition 2 don't welcome the KKK's assistance.
One such person is Pastor Ryan Rush of Bannockburn Baptist Church.

Rush said that a group that would come in that is characterized as hateful and bigoted is not welcome in this city. He said he doesn't want the Klan as a partner on any cause.

In a letter the Klan sent to the city, the group acknowledged that security will be an issue, noting the violence that erupted at a KKK rally and march to the capitol in Austin in 1983.