The loss of Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate has made me sad. Living in Georgia, I never have any chance of having an elected representative who actually represents my views. But Senator Kennedy has represented me. I have even written him to explain that since Georgia will not elect anything other than rightwing nuts, that I have adopted him as my senator. The Kennedys have always influenced my life. Somehow, at only 9 or 10 I was mesmerized by JFK. I remember staying up late watching the tv returns hoping that he would be elected president. It was not decided until the next day. Senator Edward Kennedy has had a life like David, in the Bible. He has acted in the worst possible ways and brought about the death of a young woman. Whatever happened, his conduct was reprehensible, indefensible. Yet he continued and became more and more an advocate for those with no voice. Truthfully, he has been God's advocate. He fought for civil rights, rights for the handicapped, and most of all, for healthcare to be a right and not a privilege. With enormous wealth and power he should by rights have been a Republican, but at the expense of his family, he has been dedicated to the poor and needy.

He was a lion. The Lion of the Senate. I will miss him.

A dog is worth 14 belly laughs a day.

It's not like the Republicans have not effectively used the "fake grassroots" rallies before, and to their great advantage. I remember clearly the media coverage of dozens of "citizens" protesting the way ballots were being counted in Florida, the day after the polls closed for Bush's 2000 election. Angry, shouting, people, appeared to have poured out of their homes and into the streets to cry out that Al Gore's people were stealing the election. (A good rule for thieves is to always say the opposite of the truth). Much later, months later, the truth came out. When you ran those videos in slow and stop motion researchers could identify all those protestors. They weren't from Miami. They were from Washington. They were dozens of offices staffers of one Republican bigwig after another who looked at all their interns and said "Get on the first plane to Florida, raise a ruckus." Videos even showed protestors on different days in the same clothes. The staffers went straight to the airport with no bags. In just hours they were a grassroots movement.

This time we are calling them what they are, an astroturf movement, that is "fake grass." These poor "Tea Party" pawns are being fed their lines from the voices of the Repub party, Shawn and Rush, and they swallow it hook, line, and sinker.

A whole segment of the American population is now so brainwashed that they think FOX NEWS is presenting news instead of propaganda. If you believe what they project as truth, then NPR news must be in the service of the Dark Lord Obama.

There is no grass roots movement against health care. We need non-profit health care in this country for a change. If these guys are grass roots, I say it is time for a prairie fire.

I don't know if any health national care program at all will be allowed for the citizens of the United States. I do not understand why we can't have dialogue about a process that would work for us however. The democrats are discussing and the republicans are just cussing. Their histrionics can only remind one of a ill-mannered and angry four-year-old who screams and cries and smashes things because they cannot have their way. The question seems to be, will the screaming child get their way and remain in charge of the family, or will there be enough of us to let reason prevail. There certainly seem to be a lot of stooopid Americans.

I'm not crazy about Paul Krugman sometimes, but he is calling a spade a spade in this NYT opinion piece. The republicans have no leadership and they have no purpose except to destroy. If they can't have their way they may take up arms and kill us all. Read Paul. He says what I feel about today's situation in the battle for health care reform.

Concerning the Republican Party attacks on healthcare, Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post says it much better than I do. Read it here.

Since defeating healthcare in 1992 was followed by mid-term election victories for Republicans that allowed them to seize power for years to come, the Repubs are hoping that deja vu will occur if they can somehow defeat healthcare again. History will repeat and they will be right back in power. But I don't think the country is going to fall for it this time. These protesters are the same people who stopped the election in Florida and threw the 2000 election for the shrub.

The clearest voice of all is the president's. While there is no such thing as Obamacare (If you can remember back to 1992 the slanderers called it Hilliarycare), the congress, representatives of every American, are hammering out the beginning of healthcare as an American right instead of an American privilege. If you missed the President's concise explanation, here it is.

First things first. The crape myrtle is the grandest plant in the south. Introduced to America in 1747, they have endured and spread everywhere, known for flowering throughout the summer, their brillant blooms in a variety of colors, and the beautiful wood. As I walk every day, I'm impressed that no matter how unimaginatively they are pruned they remain beautiful.

There is an all out assault going on by the Republican party to try and prevent any movement by the government that would provide health care for people who do not have it. 50 million people who cannot afford to go to the doctor. I often hear Republicans boast that we live in the greatest nation on earth. If that is true, then we must have reached moral banckruptcy to allow the current situation to continue year after year. I hear people spouting that they don't want to be taxed to pay for someone else's healthcare. They must see healthcare as a product that people should want, they should work to have, and that everyone should provide for themself. No one should be burdened with another's healthcare. Of course, we already pay in spades for the healthcare of the poor and needy. A poor person with the flu who walks into the doctor's office, cannot be seen without insurance or prepayment. So that desperate, sick individual will instead call 911. When the paramedics bring him to the hospital, they will be treated by the emergency room at ten times the cost. The cost is then added on to my bill and yours. Anyone who thinks we are not already paying for the healthcare of the poor is simply stupid. The only difference is, the healthcare industry makes a profit ten times as great on that patient taking the ambulance ride as they would on the same patient walking into a clinic.

So it is capitalism that oppresses peoples healthcare. I recently heard a discussion on television that explained that government healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid run on a 3% cost for administration. Private health insurance runs on a 23% overhead. The extra 20% of the money goes to insurance executives salaries and to stockholder's profits. Since I am heavily invested in mutual funds in 401k and 403b accounts, I must be a stockholder in some of these companies. I do not wish to continue making that money by denial of healthcare to the poor.

And even if you think you have healthcare, you may turn out to be wrong. Get the wrong disease, of lose your job and then get sick, and you'll be denied coverage by health insurance bureaucrats (who are somehow different from government bureaucrats?), and lose you home and savings trying to fund treatment to keep yourself alive. If you live, you'll have nothing. Sixty percent of all bankruptcies are the result of medical emergencies carried to worst case senarios.

This is not right. President Obama's leadership is the light on the path to a better day in healthcare in America. The people disrupting town hall meetings are terrorists and should be imprisoned.