crawlingwithidiots

A Vain Attempt to Find Common Ground Between Corporate News and Public News Broadcasts

An update on Health Care

This is an excerpt from an email Mr. Moeller sent recently.  It just might give us all a little hope to hear about the process and how it can work.  If anyone is interested I can email you the entire letter.

 * Memorials.  With these products, we express an opinion or send a message to a government body outside Washington.  Memorials are often used to bring an issue to the floor, and to start a conversation about the important challenges that face not only the citizens of Washington but the whole country.

 Today, the Health Care Committee passed House Joint Memorial 4005.  This memorial requests Congress to guarantee that very citizen is entitled to receive all medically necessary care under a universal health-care system. Universal is sometimes misunderstood to mean “single payer”. I do not mean single-payer when I use the word universal and I also believe that there is a place in the private market for any universal system that is designed. I encourage you to read the memorial yourself. (See Below)  I brought this memorial forward at the request of one of the citizens of the 49^th District.  

Approximately 46 million Americans do not have health-care coverage. My memorial requests that Congress enact federal legislation guaranteeing every person in the United States all medically necessary care under a universal health-care system. The system would include guarantee that health care is affordable and cost-efficient — and that it provides comprehensive benefits, promotes prevention and early intervention, provides parity for mental health, and promotes quality and better health outcomes.

Will this memorial force Congress to make sure every citizen has health care? Unlikely.

Will memorials from every state ensure that every citizen has health care? Maybe.   

Does this memorial force the Washington Legislature to discuss the possibility of health care for everyone? Absolutely!  The only way to solve our health-care crisis is for both legislators and citizens to discuss all the possibilities.  That’s the only way we’ll come up with solutions. I filed this memorial to try to facilitate those discussions.

posted by: jcwalker at 00:10 | link | comments (4) |

The Rape Article

I attempted to post this as a comment on the class blog, but was denied access.

Rather than make the obligatory codemning statement about the authors of the article I would like to point out that the article in question neatly pandered to the current media values.  More disturbing than the content and purpose is the response!  Now, I admit that I stopped reading comments after about a dozen (which may speak to my lack of attention span or the monotony of the comments).  Instead of spouting rhetoric in protest perhaps this would have been the place to start an intelligent debate over social reforms, or legislative options in human rights.

posted by: jcwalker at 21:13 | link | comments (5) |

Writing Assignment

I wanted to post what I put together for our second writing assignment as a way to give those who need ideas a place to get started.  I know my writing isn't the best, but please realize that the prof reads this and if you copy it you'll probably get nailed for plagiarism.  Not that anyone needs to, or that my stuff is worth plagiarising, but I figured a disclaimer couldn't hurt.

Democracy.  Does the story in some way affect the structure of our democracy and the freedoms we enjoy?  If the subject changes the balance of power between the branches of government (which theoretically includes the populous) it should meet a new Threshold value.

Threshold.  The new threshold would have to shed the old ideas of “interesting” and assume that if an event affects enough of us it is interesting and therefore newsworthy.  Because importance is a subjective term it would stand to reason that it can remain, but would require a new standard.  Currently threshold is tied closely to celebrity.  It is deemed important or interesting if the “right” people are involved.  Can I just say Anna-Nicole Smith?  How is that newsworthy???  That tie needs to be severed and replaced with the idea of Balance as I posited above.

 

posted by: jcwalker at 00:53 | link | comments (1) |

Whose Health Care?

I read a great interview on Democracy Now about a couple of different groups promoting Health Care Reform.  Interestingly enough one of the groups involves a couple of Huge Corporations including AT&T, Intel, and Wal-Mart.  The other group is taking more of a grass-roots approach and has found sponsorship for a bill in Congress which proposes to REMOVE INSURANCE COMPANIES from the equation, saving an estimated one-third of health care costs.  An interesting move and I wonder what kind of coverage this one will get?  I plan on scanning the MSM for some signs of this.  Perhaps if AT&T, Intel, and Wal-mart got behind HR 676 we could have a fun media bonanza where the benevolent (wink-wink) CEO's face-off against the Evil Insurance companies!  I wonder who has closer ties to MSM oulets?

posted by: jcwalker at 03:15 | link | comments |

The Issue Nearly at Hand

Video Games, Music, Reality TV....when is there time to care? When the babyboomers have forgotten the 60's how will we firmly grasp the enormity of the position we're in? We (Gen-X a term which I despise) have steadily drifted into a bog of slothful indifference. As a generation we have fallen into the trap of allowing the media influenced blue hairs to elect our representatives and direct our legislation. As a voting group (sic) it is my impression that we feel politically impotent. With the aged voters voting en masse does our vote count? Where can we find our political identity? Will our news sources please give us the resources we so desperately need to make informed decisions?!

As my first attempt at blogging I felt the need to voice some of my concerns. In the future I will endeavor to bring news stories from both the corporate news and the public sources in the hope of addressing some of the issues I've raised above. Enjoy the ride....I know i will.

Walker

posted by: jcwalker at 00:26 | link | comments (1) |

Template by motime.com