Tragic-Comedy: Funny Yet Tragic…

Since this is how a lot of Americans view the map of the world…
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Republicans Say the U.S. Health Care System is Best

We say maybe for the rich and powerful. But what about the middle class and the poor?

Maybe you will listen to Bill Moyers, who says Money-Driven Medicine is “one of the strongest documentaries I have seen in years and could not be more timely. The more people who see and talk about it, the more likely we are to get serious and true health care reform.”

Meanwhile, President Obama’s supporters hope to recapture the energy of last year’s triumphant election campaign in a bid to regain control of the health-care debate, planning more than 2,000 house parties, rallies and town hall meetings across the country over the next two weeks. Organizing for America, a nationwide group of Obama supporters run by the Democratic National Committee, also brought along a colorful bus featuring the slogan, “Health Insurance Reform Now: Let’s Get it Done.”

Health-Care Reform, One Stop at a Time

Indeed, let’s get it done…

Glynn Wilson

I guess the people at Bacardi thought the folks of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans needed a strong drink to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. You can see the waterline on the empty billboard space below the Superior Comeback sign. The flood waters ranged from 12-15 feet deep in places…

by Glynn Wilson

NEW ORLEANS, La. — On August 29, 2005, I watched from afar as Hurricane Katrina veered east once again, like so many storms before that took aim at New Orleans up the Mississippi River. I went to sleep that night, like so many, thinking the city had been spared.

I could have been there, on the payroll of The Dallas Morning News and The Christian Science Monitor. But I had just made it back to Birmingham from Washington, D.C., and the free-lance offers with no health insurance or guarantees of battle wages made me hesitate. I figured I could get down to the coast and cover the aftermath, like so many hurricanes before, including Isadore and Lili.

Hurricane Katrina was no ordinary storm, however. It turned out to be “the big one,” not so much for the category 4 winds that mostly lashed an evacuated Mississippi Gulf Coast. It was the one that breached the levees, filling New Orleans like a bowl.

Even if I had wanted to go down after the storm, I would not have been able to get into the city without a boat. Even with a boat, there was no way to communicate out by phone for days. No power either, no Internet access, and the cell phone towers were down for weeks.

Watching the coverage on CNN, I wrote then, Katrina was “no doubt the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.” But a big part of the disaster, we now know, was not natural at all.

Call it Hurricane George.

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by Glynn Wilson

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was lobbied to drop the case against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman during his trip to Birmingham Thursday for the swearing in of Joyce White Vance as U.S. attorney for the state’s northern district, sources say.

Several people, including Alabama Democratic Party officials, spoke to Holder on behalf of Siegelman, and about firing U.S. Attorney Leura Canary — the prosecutor married to Karl Rove’s political ally Bill Canary of the conservative Business Council of Alabama — according to sources present for the swearing in.

Barry Ragsdale, an attorney who is a friend of the Vances and has been associated with the Over the Mountain Democrats in the past, acted as master of ceremonies for the swearing in. Apparently he is a funny guy, and made several jokes, including poking fun at Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller of Alabama’s middle district, the federal judge who presided in the controversial case against Siegelman and his co-defendant Richard Scrushy.

“I’m glad Karl Rove gave you permission to be here,” Ragsdale quipped, according to the Birmingham News account of the swearing in.

Rove, of course, was the chief political adviser to President George W. Bush, who recently testified in an investigation of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on political prosecutions and political firings of U.S. attorneys.

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86 Percent Want Universal Coverage

79 Percent Want Government Option

Despite the carefully contrived optics — the cell-phone videos of deranged Tea-Baggers, Birthers and Deathers disrupting town hall meetings; the armed “right wing terrorists” posing menacingly outside the meeting halls; and signs depicting Pres. Obama as Hitler — and in spite of Republican propaganda about death panels and the rest, a new poll finds that huge majorities of American voters of all ages* remain solidly behind the Democrats’ two primary goals for health-insurance reform: insuring everyone and offering the public access to the same coverage available to elected officials, federal employees, the military and veterans:

Nearly 8 in 10 Americans support a federal health insurance plan for those who can’t afford or can’t get private insurance, but only 37 percent define “public option” correctly, a new national poll found.

The majority of people polled — 86 percent — say insurance should be available to everyone regardless of health history, and 79 percent say they believe a federal government health insurance option should be available for people to buy.

The survey was paid for by AARP but the survey group of 1,000 Democratic, Republican and independent voters was not limited to AARP members. The age range of those polled was 61 percent 49 years old and younger, and 39 percent 50 years old and older.

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Why we need a public health insurance option. If you agree that a public option should be part of the health care reform bill, make sure you let your elected representatives know…

So Much for Looking Forward, Not Back…

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. named a veteran federal prosecutor on Monday to examine abuse of prisoners held by the Central Intelligence Agency, after the Justice Department released a long-secret report showing interrogators choked a prisoner repeatedly and threatened to kill another detainee’s children.

CIA Abuse Cases Detailed in Detainee Report

Two Administrations, Different Lessons From CIA Report

‘Inhumane’ CIA Terror Tactics Spur Criminal Probe

Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing CIA Abuse Cases

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Glynn Wilson

Coming up on sundown on the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River on Sunday looking south from the bridge on Cedar Springs Road in the area they call Little Shenandoah, right through the heart of the land sold to the highest bidder by the Birmingham Water Works Board last week. [Click here or on the image to see a larger view]

Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Birmingham, is hosting an “Energy Forum” next Tuesday, August 25, from 12-2 p.m. at the Shelby Campus of Jefferson State Community College in the Health Sciences Building, HSB 129, 4600 Valleydale Road, Bham, Ala. Lunch is $15. RSVP to jennifer.pino@mail.house.gov or 202-225-4921.

Jennifer Pino, an aide to Bachus, indicated speakers will include a who’s who list of polluting industries, including Mike Stenson, VP of Fleet Operations for Southern Nuclear to speak about nuclear; Vicky Sullivan, Climate Strategy Manager for Southern Company Research and Environmental Affairs will speak about hydropower and carbon capture; Mark Denton, VP of Business Development for Blossman Gas to talk about propane; Michelle Bloodworth, Vice President of Marketing for Alagasco will speak about natural gas; and Lance Brown, Executive Director of the Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) will speak from a policy perspective.