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I DO NOT WANT my beloved to have to do another combat tour.
Excuse me while I go cry now.
It's not likely he'll do much at all and it may already be too late, but it's by far the most important issue we face today.
Although Obama's said little (at least from what I've seen) about on-the-ground issues, the forestry industry (and others who typically profit from the destruction of our forests) seems worried. That's a pretty good thing.
I am very sorry about your friend. I have a dear friend serving now, and I hope he comes home safely.
also, I want a New New Deal, dammit!
Our boys, girls, men, women.
(Not trying to be mean, just get peeved when female soldiers are marginalized.)
There's a real chance to change the way the world sees the US. Here's hoping he takes it.
There's a lot more, but from the money saved in NOT murdering people all over the world, I'm sure there will be enough money to improve health care, hopefully moving towards the rest of civilized world as in universal health care.
And, (((((((Kristin and llencelyn))))))))
That's just about perfect! Why weren't you on any ballot?
Me, too. My only nitpick is he keeps referring to the war. There are two wars going on. Other than that, I think smadin's comment was spot on.
You also do not get any drug coverage, unless you are in hospital. Read, the tylenol after your knee surgery. None to take home, and none while your joints heal, sorry about that.
And it also doesn't mean you don't pay high taxes to cover what health care you do get.
What one thing would I like to see from Obama in the next four years? Bringing in no-pornography internet for everyone, urban and rural, greater penalties for internet abuse as happened to various women bloggers in the past year or so, naming of pornography for what it is, hate-speech against women and cracking down on it in media, and bringing in the Swedish model of dealing with prostitution, taking a stand on abortion (which he didn't do) and giving a strong message that rape is to be penalized as strongly as property damage and fraud. However that can be done, I'd like to see him do it. He could also get rid of misogynist Larry Summers. Like any legislator would be allowed to have a right hand person who told us how blacks weren't discriminated against, they were just genetically dumber than whites.
By the bye, speaking of transportation infrastructure, and because I'm a big fan of the Duke anyhow, Mike Dukakis has been doing a lot of research and advocacy for rail over the past many years, and he argues that the cost of a serious national rail system — 120mph trains connecting all major cities, running frequently enough for everyday commuting — is around $3 billion a year, or a week to a week and a half of the Iraq war. The existing rights-of-way can be used, what extra track is needed can be laid down quickly, and that cost estimate includes, I believe, both improvements and ongoing maintenance. There's video of an interview where he talks about this here, but the audio quality's kind of poor.
I definitely add my name to the list of bringing troops home.
But some small part of me also hopes for the passage of the ERA. Totally far-fetched and I know so many other things take precedence and I really don't think it'll happen, but I like to dream.
If I have a heart attack next week, I have no coverage. Even a one or two day stay in the hospital would require me to file bankruptcy. You may think I'm exageratting, but I'm not. A couple of days in the hospital could easily cost 10-20 thousand dollars. If I get seriously ill, I'm screwed. Because I can't pay for it, but I make too much money to qualify for medicaid.
Seriously, unless you've lived in this country with chronic health problems, don't presume to know what it's like. You need to count your blessings.
I'm on the "Don't ever get sick" plan, and it's not working at all.
Miss Congeniality reference FTW.
Seriously, the troops need to come home from Iraq NOW, and ASAP from Afghanistan. Does anyone else love Christmas in America by Melissa Etheridge? It's one of the free songs on iTunes this week (and not OT, either).
And for purely selfish reasons, a national rail system would RULE. I went to visit my mom in Alabama for Thanksgiving and thought, hey, there are trains here (NE Kansas), there are trains there; why not save gas and try that? After visiting amtrak.com, I had my answer: because it would take three legs (KS to Chicago, Chicago to DC, DC to Alabama), totaling about two days. Yeouch!
We totally tried that here and its still godawful ;) Even after privatising it again, they still can't run trains on time or not be overcrowded or stupidly expensive. And our country is tiny in comparison! :P
PLEASE STOP KILLING OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM DEADER!
Sigh.
Obviously, I want lots of other things, too, but if I only get one, that's it.
:)
Universal Health Care. And Marriage Equality. And Free Drinks. (I'd go without free drinks, if it brings the other 2.)
I laugh so I don't cry.
But yes - fund poor schools. In fact, change how schools are funded completely, New Green Deal, equality legislation with teeth, end the fucking wars, rebuild international reputation, make college affordable, reform financial institutions, public transportation initiatives, eliminate the death penalty...
Not too much to ask for in eight years?
Pshaw. We could have it done by Christmas if someone would give us a few bulldozers to go with these teaspoons... ^_^
and ending capital punishment and mountain top removal, but dream on alice.
Since someone mentioned it upthread: The troops and their families, if they're Active Duty, have free healthcare. And it's pretty decent, if you live near an Army Medical Center. They'll even 'prescribe' you OTC drugs so that you get them for free. And I'm getting better treatment for my fibromyalgia than I did when I was being seen by Dartmouth professors.
That said, it IN NO WAY makes up for 15 month deployments with 12 months dwell time (half of which is spent training, natch).
OK final wish on wish list - end ability to leave assets to your own spawn. All assets of all dead without living partners go to state or somewhere else to fund early intervention education and gender untraining. It is *not* a death tax, it taxes the living survivors who already had 57 legs up in their upbringing. Can you imagine the changes - aah.
Seriously. The economy doesn't work when our national budget is drained by war and our household budgets are drained by the cost of health care; it also doesn't work, over the long run, when education doesn't work. In four years I would like to see sectoral employment programs as an established norm of our economic structure, with targeted sectoral employment supported by private business, across industry sectors.
Accountability Hearings - with consequences - for Bush, Cheney, Rove, etc.
Light Rail, a la Europe's TGV. Universal Health Care. More grants for college and post-grad education so we're not burdened by loans, or forced to bypass our dreams because we can't afford it. End the goddamn wars. Protect choice.
This is starting to feel like a Dear Santa letter :)
With a side of fries, and an ice cream cone to go.
Anyway, I'm hoping for FOCA, quick, as well as a speedy repeal of DADT. The visibility of openly gay servicemembers will help with the repeal of DOMA and ushering in a national Civil Unions law that will lead inexorably to gay marriage.
And a pony, too.
Wow! I haven't seen The Heretik's presence in a long time! (Also agree, and how sad is it that the agenda of a moderate can now be considered radical?)
I wish! Unfortunately, given the inertia that is The Congress I fear this disaster will be with us for the rest of our lives. I know people who work for DHS. I know of only one or two (out of many, many more) who like the creation of this cabinet department. Virtually everyone I know who works for it wishes for the old days when it did not exist.
This wasn't truly the creation of ShrubCo. They were initially totally opposed to it. They did a 180 when they realized that Congress was going to create it whether they liked it or not. This clusterfuck is the Congress's baby far, far more than it is Shrub's, and Congress is even more loathe to own up to a mistake than Shrub is!
Oh heck yeah, me too! Can it have a picture of his belly on it?
but that's, uh, maybe a little weird ;-P
Oy.
Restore habeus corpus. Create a real renewable energy program with teeth. End the occupation of Iraq.
Three is REALLY VERY FEW.
Gay male porn is the template for porn. The eroticization of dominance.
Can it have a picture of his belly on it?
but that's, uh, maybe a little weird ;-P
I just like interthreaduality. I'll retract the statement if it will make you feel less creeped out. :)
Zuh?
(...but there go my budding dreams of making a fortune selling shirts with my belly on them...)
Followed very closely by single-payer universal health care.
Yeah... I'd probably prefer one with my belly on it, anyway. I'm vain like that.
I'm also aware that I can have that shirt simply by not wearing one...but I'm moving to Kentucky next year (with luck *fingers crossed for grad school acceptance*) and if God's in charge of their security, I bet their obscenity laws are impressive. ^_^
Woo! Two instances of interthreaduality and counting!
However.
When I was three, I smashed one of my teeth in a trampoline accident. I had to be taken to hospital and put under general anaesthetic to have the pieces removed. Because it was a Sunday the hospital illegally forced my parents to admit me as a private patient, but after some stern words to the hospital administration from the dentist and the anaesthetist about how willing they would be to testify when my parents sued, the bill magically disappeared.
I have been severely clinically depressed since I was eighteen. I was originally diagnosed by a GP at my university health clinic and saw her once every month or two for the next three years. (The reception staff all knew my name.) I paid nothing for any of these visits. I was prescribed a number of different sorts of antidepressants in that time, since I was a student I usually paid about $10-15 per month for those.
As a side-effect of my anxiety, I lost dangerous amounts of weight. I was given blood tests for everything from leukaemia to gluten intolerance, there were so many different tests it took twenty minutes to take enough blood. These tests were all free. I was eventually told that if I lost another 500g (about a pound) they would hospitalize me. I would have been sent to a public hospital, which I would not have had to pay for. Luckily I was also referred to a psychiatrist, who put me onto a medication that works and made me gain weight, so that wasn't required. I saw him on and off for about a year. Again, I paid nothing for any of those appointments.
Since then I've been a reasonably happy and productive member of society with a job and a healthy weight. Now I'm earning more I pay slightly more for the medications that keep me that way. I take a locally-produced generic antidepressant, which is subsidized by the government and costs me around AU$31 a month. (In the States the same amount would cost US$100.) I also take the pill to prevent the hormonal mood swings, which costs about AU$8 per month. If I'm out of work and apply for government benefits, those prices would probably drop by half.
Since I earn more and my closest GP doesn't bulk-bill without a concession card, I pay around $65 per visit and get refunded about half that by the government. But depending on which doctor I see, sometimes they bulk-bill me anyway just to be nice. Because I'm under 27 and female I was also able to get them to give the HPV vaccine for free through the government vaccination scheme.
I have health insurance. I don't have hospital cover, just extras cover. I receive a government subsidy for this too, so I pay about $45/month and it covers half to three-quarters of my dental, physiotherapy and optometry costs. Getting my vision checked once every two years is paid for by the government, I paid about half of the cost for my reading glasses. Or, to put it more accurately, I paid for the designer frames and the insurance covered the rest. There are also public health care options for those, but the waiting lists tend to be long. I do remember a lot of free dental care as a kid though, and I've never had to pay for any of my bizarre x-rays. (I've never broken a bone and have excellent joints. This has often come as quite a surprise to my doctors.)
I know that if I get a serious health problem, such as cancer, I'll end up paying for at least some of my care. But I will have to pay a lot less, and won't be denied care because I'm poor. Since I also have cheap or free access GPs, gynecologists, etc. - not to mention the HPV vaccine - I'm also more likely to be diagnosed earlier which will lower the costs and improve my chances.
It's not a perfect system. But I can afford the medication and physiotherapist visits to treat my chronic medical conditions whether or not I'm employed. To be honest, the costs are so low I don't even have to budget for them - I spend much more on my hair. If I get hit by a car this afternoon, I won't be bankrupted. If I'm sick, I can go to a doctor. If I need tests I probably won't have to pay much, if anything. If I need medications, they'll be subsidized. I have glasses, even though I hardly ever need to use them. If I need to go to the hospital I'll probably have to wait longer than I should, but I will be able to get emergency care without having to prove that I can pay for it first. If I need an ambulance to get there, my entire household covered by the $0.28c/day tariff on our electricity bill.
The system could definitely be a lot better. But from stories from friends and people online I can picture how much worse my life would be without the overburdened, inefficient and underfunded system that we DO have. And most Australians agree is that it should be better and we might have to spend more money on it.
The dirty socialists.
Don't "look into it" or "draft a plan" or "appoint a committee," Just fucking close it! Cancel the cable, stop the paper, fill out some change of address forms and close up shop. Sell it back to Cuba or give it away for all I care, just shut the goddamn thing down. As for all the prisoners there, CHARGE THEM AND TRY them in a court that at least resembles either federal criminal court or established military courts for dealing with POWs/War Criminals. I hate that I have to ask for the little things here, the most basic tenets of modern jurisprudence; things like the defendant gets to see the evidence against him, have access to a lawyer and have stuff he admitted to while an angry dog was snapping at his naked nutsack rendered inadmissible. If you can't make your case under established law and procedure, SEND THEM THE FUCK HOME!!!
The United States will be unable to reclaim the smallest bit of our former standing in the world so long as that military base is open and under our control. "Gitmo" has become a symbol, shorthand for nation run dangerously amok on the world stage and it needs to be gone. Blow it up, burn it down, salt the earth and VOW that bullshit like this will NEVER happen on Uncle Sam's watch again.
I think we stand a good chance of that happening.
I'm in deep agreement with everyone who has said all these issues are interrelated.
Then health care, the wars, the consititution...
Electoral reform. So that every American eligible to vote is registered to vote, and every one who chooses to vote can be sure their vote is counted if their intent is clear.
That way, you don't have to hope Obama can get everything done in his first term before the next Republican candidate steals the election... because he can probably win the next electio, given a fair chance.
My partner served in Iraq and came back a completely different person. Since then, we've suffered huge financial reverses because of her deployment and subsequent Hurricane Katrina and her inability to maintain employment because of PTSD, agorophobia and panic attacks. We have no real healthcare. Even though I pay for it through my employer, they continuously find reason not to pay. Thus, more financial ruin. Ad infinitum. It just goes on and on.
It's about time those stuffed suits got over themselves and brought to the American worker the kind of help that we need and pay taxes for.
selfishly, I would hope that some sort of legislation ordering the forgiveness of credit card debt in order to improve the economy would be on the plate, because we're struggling/
But there's so much wrong right now...
Fully investigate and prosecute anyone and everyone in the Bush administration and the current Congress (yes, enabling Democrats too) who have been complicit in the egregious lawbreaking down by this administration over the last 8 years, starting with those who had a hand in Bush v Gore and going on from there.
Why is this important? Look at Gerald Ford. He pardoned Nixon and we ended up with Cheney. Bush I swept Iran Contra under the rug and we ended up with Iraq. If we don't clean up -- legally, publicly, and thoroughly -- the host of illegal activities we've seen over the last 8 years, we'll have Monica Goodling et al back in 20 years doing the same stuff all over again.
And, more to the point, I'm telling Obama just that: http://change.gov/page/s/yourvision
Okay, why would we want to withdraw our support for one of only two truly working, liberal, secular democracies in the Middle East?
Oh c'mon Flew! *EVERYBODY* knows that the JEWS are the ONLY problem in that area. I mean, c'mon! haven't you read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion?!
/snark
Admittedly, there is no small amount of a "To Serve Man" Twilight Zone feel of Christian support of Israel, so I get why one might want religious orgs to butt out, as it were, but for our gov't to remove support completely just seems outrageously irresponsible. That's not to say there isn't legitimate criticism of Israel to be stated and heard. But completely abandoning Israel seems like a punishment more than a reach for justice.
This is something I've felt uncomfortable about for some time, the widespread support on the American and European Left for condemning Israel for actions they do not condemn in other nations. I know that there are legitimate reasons to criticize some actions of the Israeli government. Hell, many Israelis criticize actions of their government; it is a democracy, after all.
But to go from "this action by the Israeli government was wrong" to "we should not support the existence of the state of Israel"...well, I have to wonder if some on the Left have accidentally absorbed some antiSemitic memes.
Prezactly. There's a happy medium between unconditional support and unconditional rejection. We need to find it.
++
"But to go from "this action by the Israeli government was wrong" to "we should not support the existence of the state of Israel"...well, I have to wonder if some on the Left have accidentally absorbed some antiSemitic memes."
Of course they have. The same way they've absorber other racist memes, sexist memes, ableist memes, etc.
Every adult American citizen--every single one--enjoying equal rights and protections under the law. Make it an amendment. Put it in the Constitution and be done with it. That's what I want. I want someone or, more likely, several someones to have the spine to say that discrimination for any reason is un-American, and then make it stick. If I could get my hands on an original copy of the Constitution, I'd write it in myself in bright red crayon.
(ETA: Sorry, I thought I'd posted this comment last night but it was still sitting here in the comment field. It's late and kinda random now.)
Gbl- Bringing in no-pornography internet for everyone, urban and rural.
I really disagree with this. We are getting this in Australia and it is awful. They are bringing in strict Internet filtering for everyone- you have to ask to be in the 'adult' filter, and even that will block 'inappropriate material'. It is completely horrific and disgusting.