Online Left

Republicans Okay with Listeria Deaths

CNN article, Death from tainted cantaloupes rise to 15

Fifteen people have now died after consuming cantaloupe contaminated with the listeria monocytogenes bacteria, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

At least 84 people in 19 states have become ill with the bacteria, the agency said. And the number of illnesses could still grow, added the CDC, citing reporting lags and how the disease can develop slowly in some people.

On Tuesday, the CDC was reporting 13 deaths and 72 illnesses in what was already then the deadliest food-borne illness outbreak in the United States since 1998.

Throughout recent history, Republicans have voted against any effort to make Americans safer-by-regulation. Food safety is important to the American people. Without regulations to protect America's food supply, the deaths now associated with listeria infected foods would be minimal compared to a national food supply without regulation. With their total disregard for science, Republicans repeatedly put the health of Americans at risk. Of course, the saddest part is that these same people find some lame excuse to vote for people who put them at their families in danger. Read the following article and be afraid - be very afraid the next time you prepare dinner for your family. Just know, if your food turns out to be lethal, the Republicans don't care. You should. From a June 16 Washington Post article:

Arguing that the U.S. food supply is 99 percent safe, House Republicans cut millions of dollars Thursday from the Food and Drug Administration’s budget, denying the agency money to implement landmark food safety laws approved by the last Congress.

Saying the cuts were needed to lower the national deficit, the House also reduced funding to the Agriculture Department’s food safety inspection service, which oversees meat, poultry and some egg products. And lawmakers chopped $832 million from an emergency feeding program for poor mothers, infants and children. Hunger groups said that change would deny emergency nutrition to about 325,000 mothers and children.

Mitch Daniels gets 16 stitches following workout accident – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Good thing Daniels has access to health care. Too bad the thousands of women he denied coverage to with the decision on Planned Parenthood aren't also the governor of Indiana, or rich. Seems those are the only people Daniels cares about.

That door that opened on his head was probably the Republican nomination. If Republicans are smart -- and we all know that can't be true -- they'd slam the door in a hurry. American women aren't going to forget what he's done, no matter how large the knot on his head.

(CNN) – Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels received 16 stitches to his forehead after being struck by a door after a workout Friday, his office said.

via politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

What's The Matter with ... Kentucky?

In the Washington Post today, an article, In Kentucky, a not-so-healthy slice of Americana, Wil Haygood reports on the overwhelming number of obesity cases in Manchester, Kentucky, a small town of 1,738 in Clay County.

The national obesity rate for adults is 24 percent; in Manchester and surrounding Clay County, it's been estimated to be as high as 52 percent. In a study of the healthiness of Kentucky's 120 counties, Clay County ranked dead last, with 41 percent of the population classified as in poor health.

Manchester, part of Kentucky's 5th Congressional District is represented by Republican Harold Dallas "Hal" Rogers. Of course, Rogers voted against health care reform. Does he think his constituents don't need health care, considering that 52% of them are obese? Or, did he vote against the bill because it had too many pages for him to read? In fact, of the number of issues highlighted on Roger's website, health care did not even make the list.

Good thing Roger's has that great health care system for Members of Congress.

Rogers won the 2008 election with 84% of the vote.

Senator Kennedy's Letter to President Obama

Dear Mr. President,

 

I wanted to write a few final words to you to express my gratitude for your repeated personal kindnesses to me – and one last time, to salute your leadership in giving our country back its future and its truth.

 

On a personal level, you and Michelle reached out to Vicki, to our family and me in so many different ways. You helped to make these difficult months a happy time in my life.

 

You also made it a time of hope for me and for our country.

 

When I thought of all the years, all the battles, and all the memories of my long public life, I felt confident in these closing days that while I will not be there when it happens, you will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society. For me, this cause stretched across decades; it has been disappointed, but never finally defeated. It was the cause of my life. And in the past year, the prospect of victory sustained me-and the work of achieving it summoned my energy and determination.

 

There will be struggles – there always have been – and they are already underway again. But as we moved forward in these months, I learned that you will not yield to calls to retreat - that you will stay with the cause until it is won. I saw your conviction that the time is now and witnessed your unwavering commitment and understanding that health care is a decisive issue for our future prosperity. But you have also reminded all of us that it concerns more than material things; that what we face is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.

 

And so because of your vision and resolve, I came to believe that soon, very soon, affordable health coverage will be available to all, in an America where the state of a family’s health will never again depend on the amount of a family’s wealth. And while I will not see the victory, I was able to look forward and know that we will – yes, we will – fulfill the promise of health care in America as a right and not a privilege.

 

In closing, let me say again how proud I was to be part of your campaign- and proud as well to play a part in the early months of a new era of high purpose and achievement. I entered public life with a young President who inspired a generation and the world. It gives me great hope that as I leave, another young President inspires another generation and once more on America’s behalf inspires the entire world.

 

So, I wrote this to thank you one last time as a friend- and to stand with you one last time for change and the America we can become.

 

At the Denver Convention where you were nominated, I said the dream lives on.

 

And I finished this letter with unshakable faith that the dream will be fulfilled for this generation, and preserved and enlarged for generations to come.

 

 

With deep respect and abiding affection,

[Ted]

Letter to the Editor: Invisible Deaths

With all the hysteria over the deaths that will supposedly ensue with government "rationing" of health care, it is worth nothing the findings of a 2004 report from the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, which estimated that 18,000 unnecessary deaths occur each year for lack of health insurance. Since that time, the number of uninsured has increased substantially. These deaths seem to be invisible and of little consequence to those in the Congress and in the public who loudly oppose needed reforms to our broken health-care system.

Jerome Puskin, Letter to the Editor, Washington Post

Health Care Talking Points

·         With health insurance reform closer than ever before, it’s important that Americans know all the facts about what reform would mean for them – and what inaction would mean for the country.

 

·         The health care status quo is unsustainable.  Skyrocketing health care costs are straining family budgets, threatening American businesses’ viability, and exploding our national deficit. Even Americans with good insurance are finding that they are paying more and more out of pocket for premiums, deductibles, co-payments and they are getting less for what they pay.

 

·         If we fail to act now, everyone’s health care coverage will be in jeopardy.

o   Thousands of Americans will continue to lose their insurance each day. 

o   Americans with insurance will continue to pay more for less. 

o   Small businesses will continue to be forced to choose between covering their employees and staying afloat. 

o   And rising health costs are inflating  the cost of Medicare and Medicaid, making those programs the number one driver of long-term national deficits.

 

·         When President Obama signs a health insurance reform bill into law, the discrimination, dropping, and coverage gaps that riddle today’s health insurance system will be a thing of the past.  

o   Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition or refuse to renew your policy because you get sick.

o   They won’t be able to charge exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses for things like co-pays and deductibles, or cap the amount of coverage you’re able to receive.

o   And they’ll have to fully cover – without charge – regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.

 

·         But as is so often the case when we get close to change in Washington, some powerful vested interests are going all out in defense of the status quo.  They’re dedicating their considerable resources to spreading baseless rumors and outright falsehoods in hopes of blocking the reforms that American families so desperately need.

 

·         That’s why, today, we are launching www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck, a site where administration officials and experts will debunk the smears and set the record straight.

o    This website is a place that Americans can go to get the truth about health insurance reform straight from the source, and then share that information with their friends and families.

 

When Jobs End, Health Care Follows

Robert Pear writes a great article in the Sunday New York Times, When a Job Disappears, So Does Health Care outlining the direct correlation between jobs and health care in America.

Race, Reality, & Health Care

Hidden Hurt, an article by Mary Otto appears in The Washington Post magazine for November 9, 2008.

Pain hides in these green mountains. Diseased hearts and clouded lungs, aching teeth and anxious minds.

But, for three days a year, more than 800 volunteer doctors, dentists, nurses and other health-care workers come from all over Virginia and beyond to this isolated place in Appalachia to provide free medical care to those who cannot afford it. Sick and hurting people by the hundreds gather and wait for the gates of the Wise County Fairgrounds to swing open -- their presence a testament to the country's health-care crisis.

The people of Wise County and surrounding environs are poorer and more likely to be unemployed than the national average. Workers -- or former workers -- are also more likely to be disabled.

By most any objective review of the proposals put forth during the presidential campaign, the overwhelming majority of Wise County residents would have been better off under the Obama plan.

And yet, they couldn't bring themselves to vote for the person who could make their lives, and those of their families, better.