Health Care Matters to the People!

No matter the issue important to a majority of real Americans at any given time, Congress—the Senate especially—is too slow to act.

On true health care reform, for instance, they’re out of step with the pulse of the country, have rules that are archaic, and are too involved with petty politics—always fighting rather solving the nation’s big problems. The gamesmanship needs to stop. The Democratic leadership needs to change its rules—ending the misuse of the filibuster—and allow a 51% majority on all major legislation.

In short, Congress needs to get onboard, enacting the legislation the people want. Health care reform—in its current shape—does not go far enough. “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” –Thomas Paine

Roland Madore
Fort Collins, CO

Where are the jobs?!?

With unemployment still steady at 10%, President Obama needs to be out front, promoting jobs, jobs, jobs!

He needs to have a jobs press conference that shows what his administration is doing to create jobs. Further, he needs to travel the country focusing on jobs–with a populist passion–at town hall meetings, surrounded by big corporate executives, showing hard-pressed, out-of-work Americans just what is being done to create new jobs NOW. The President is already doing something similar with education, though not with town hall meetings.

In short, the Obama administration must convince out-of-work Americans that the Democrats–not the Republicans–are out there for the People with actions, not words. Always, in hard times or when transformational changes were needed, it’s been the Democratic Party that’s come to the rescue. Americans deserve no less now.

My Christmas Wish List?

Corporate America and their lobbyists run America, and this must change.  The Senate is an atrophied arm of the government, and this must change.

Just as the teabaggers are in the streets protesting big government, the progessives need to do the same against big corporations, especially the insurance companies.  President Obama must rally his troops.  The Senate needs to change its rules.  Get rid of the 61 votes necessary to move legislation, and make it 51.  The current health care reform bill is a sham.  On my wish list are these changes when the bill comes out of conference:  put back some type of a public option, have real reform begin in 2010, remove the mandate that requires the uninsured to purchase insurance,  remove the anti-trust status of the insurance companies, and tax high income earners rather than Cadillac insurance plans.

The middle class and poor are being screwed over every day by greedy corporations and a Senate that’s too slow to act to do what is right for the people because it’s mired down in politics and meaningless rituals.  All Americans deserve the best health care in the world, and we deserve it NOW!

Obama’s running mate is another balancing act!

More of Senator Hiliary Clinton’s supporters than Senator Barack Obama’s would love to have her end up being Obama’s vice presidential running mate.  This is bad because Obama cannot run on a platform of change and have the Clintons back in the White House in any shape or form.  Hillary as VP only makes sense if Obama is a phony. If he means what he has been saying about changing Washington, then he has to start with skipping what the “insiders” and conventional wisdom folks want.  We need to turn the page on the disgrace and scandal of the past two presidencies. 

 

Obama may need to pick someone fast to rebuild the support he is losing from Clinton supporters. The process will be another test of Obama’s skill and balance because he needs to pick someone who is strong on defense, more conservative than him, has lots of experience, appeals to females, blue collar, and Republican-Indpendent voters, and pacifies the racial tensions of white America. 

 

P.S.  Personally, since I’m behind changing the electoral map, I like any of these choices: Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, or Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio.

 

Mainstream media is part of the problem!

Voters ARE tired of the conversations that divide this nation.  Millions more want us to move forward.  Since the past two presidencies have exemplified imperfection, the American public has lost confidence in the Clintons, G.W. Bush, John McCain, and our public institutions.  In Barack Obama, we have a good and decent man running for president. He is not perfect, and says so often.  Rather than being sidetracked, we need to move forward on the real problems that face us as a nation.  To do this, we need to stop scapegoating Barack Obama for all the sins and bitterness of the past.

 

Mainstream media has failed to do its job.  In fact, they’re part of the problem: favoring the viewpoint of the government and the powerful corporations.  They have refused to investigate and report objectively on today’s real issues with fairness, disinterestedness, factuality, and nonpartisanship. Their specialty has been coverage of wedge issues and the delivery of covert propaganda packaged as credible news.  Until mainstream media provides the American public with truth, fairness, and accuracy on the real issues of the day, their public disservice makes them irrelevant and criminal.

 

The only thing we have to fear is pride itself!

Today, America’s greatest challenge is not fear, but pride.  “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”  (Proverbs 16: 18).  Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s most recent remarks delivered before the Detroit NAACP and then at the Washington D. C. National Press Club, have created another stir, or manufactured, mainstream media meltdown.  Rev.Wright plainly states:  “America is in dire need of radical change and honest dialog on race!”  And Rev. Wendell Anthony proclaims:  “It’s not about man’s acceptance; it’s about God’s approval!”  What we don’t need now is the mainstream media’s version of the truth broken down for us. They are part of the problem, exceptional in the business of disinformation, lending credence to the sheep in wolves’ clothing, and supplying millions of voters with their mental breakdown.  They are no longer a reliable source of information in an open society.

 

Ironically, a black leader and the black church have opened the eyes of real America.  Instead of reacting to words, educated people choose to hear the truth. This is no time for treading softly, business as usual, or measured remarks.  America has its faults!  Rev. Wright is not in need of rehabilitation, America is.  Historically, those in power are corrupted, blinded by pride, and in denial as to the error of their ways. Traditionally, we attack the messengers—like Jeremiah—willing to “die over a lie!”  Today is no exception.  Roused from sleep, millions of Americans elect to re-think critically the sins and faulty assumptions of their past.  In solitude, they may read Isaiah 61 and Luke 4, reflect long and hard, and hopefully heal, moving down the road of reconciliation.  Praise be to God for the preachers who “brought it on home” and woke up America in time.  Barack Obama, this is a test of your steel and leadership.  Answer the call!

And which god does white America worship?

And which god does white America worship?

 

The attacks against Rev. Wright were unfair.  They show how too much of America—including the mainstream media—is still racist and out of touch because they choose to be and have no experience of the everyday life of the black church.  And the mainstream media, rather than helping the situation, is guilty of adding fuel to the flames.  They say: “Ignorance is bliss.”  All this blindness is no surprise to me because, as a native New Englander, I grew up with blacks and visited their churches often.  Much of white America has a lot of nerve when they call Rev. Wright racist and unpatriotic.  Instead, they should be outraged at their own white supremacist views.  The role of true patriots—like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Wright—has always been biblical and prophetic, preaching which:  “comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.”

 

White America still needs to come to the table and talk about all of this.  “The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.” (Proverbs 3:35).  Like the prophets of the Bible, and Jesus himself, who called out the moral failings of the powerful, Dr. King, Rev. Wright, and Senators John Edwards and Barack Obama have all taken America to task—and rightly so—for its racism and poverty.  Rather than question how black Americans worship, white America better question its own form of worship, and to which god.

 

Tell Hiliary where to get off!

Republicans do all they can to get Hiliary Clinton nominated and to take Barack Obama out.  The North Carolina Republican Party will run a Willie Horton-type ad against Barack Obama because that’s the game plan. John McCain and the National Republican Party can denounce and implore all they want; it’s never enough that anyone says:  “It distracts Republicans, degrades our civics, and seeks to divide the American people.” This racist ad will run just once and do its damage.  Millions of smart voters figured out the old games played by McCain and Clinton.  Isn’t it the “Good Cop-Bad Cop,” or the “Hot-Cold vs. Bitter-Sweet Game?” Clinton hasn’t denounced the ad as more of the same because she is more of the same!  Both McCain and Clinton use the same playbook.

 

On the Democratic side, Hiliary Clinton doesn’t have a chance of winning the nomination statistically.  Yet she’ll waste our time playing the waiting game, and ruin the Democratic Party, in the process.  For me, and millions of disgruntled, bitter Democrats, this is more like “the crying game!”  The super Superdelegates need to step in and tell Hiliary where to go!  Why should it become a game of The Mean Machine vs. Retribution?  The Democratic Party, and American public, loses.  WE should not have to wait for her clock to run out!   She and the Democratic Party are taking up valuable time by not allowing Barack Obama to build up the constituencies now favoring her.  This we cannot forgive! 

 

 

 

With faith, Obama forces march on to Waterloo!

Hiliary Clinton beat Barack Obama by 8 points in Pennsylvania.  She obviously connected with the voters there.  From Indiana, the Obama campaign asked for $100. Though a sacrifice, for the next two weeks, we must wage the war against Hiliary, Bill, and McCain.  Come hell or high water, the People’s Revolution must succeed.  Because she has loads of bills, a campaign that is broke, and her contributors are dried up, Hiliary doesn’t have a prayer.  “These are the times that try men’s souls.”  Superdelegates need to pay Hiliary a visit to remind her how she’s tearing up the party.  But, they probably still don’t have the moral backbone.  Meanwhile, faith keeps us going: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  (Hebrews 11:6)

 

The bottom line, Barack Obama?  You need to get into general election mode and attack McCain!  Attack Clinton for her mistakes too, especially her incendiary, cowboy Iran rhetoric and other foreign policy blunders.  Ordinary people want you to stop playing it “too cool!”  Stand up to the disconnected media!  Tell ordinary people why you love America.  On the economic side in Indiana and North Carolina, go grocery shopping!  Indiana is hers to lose, and North Carolina is yours to lose!  So connect, have faith, and we’ll make up the difference because May 6th is our Waterloo!

 

May your own words bury you, Hiliary!

No, we don’t get to choose our family; but fortunately, we do get to choose our president. The current primary race has the American public bogged down in three wars:  a war of words, our economic war, and our war in Iraq.  The Good News is on all these fronts, Barack Obama is winning.  Try as they have, the Clinton Machine has been unsuccessful in their swift-boat assaults on Barack Obama.  He still leads—clearly out front with the most delegates and popular vote—and, the People believe he’ll be the best as steward for the economy and preparedness to be our next commander-in-chief.  Even though Hiliary Clinton may claim a win is not necessarily a win, or Obama’s a loser, the People have heard and had enough! 

 

As long as Hiliary Clinton insists on dragging this process out, the People lose.  My prayer, and only ray of hope, is: “May your own words bury you.  Amen!”