AmericasBlood.com

ok. I would like to pretend for a moment that I acually live in a country of Laws. in such a hypothetical country I would be safe from unlawful detainment, and I know that if I DID break the law and WAS detained, I would eventually be asked to answer for my crimes. I would face a judge and jry, and I would be found guilty of any crimes that I may have committed and would be sentenced accordingly. Unfortunately I seem to live in a country where people can be arrested, detained and just kept with occasional torture to break the routine. They can just be held forever, on some remote island that for the purposes of keeping these people, is American territory, but for the purposes of paying attention to our constitutional laws and rules, is not a part of America. Let’s just bring these people to face justice already. I can’t think of a single group of 12 jurors in America who wouldn’t find them guilty and who wouldn’t vote for the death penalty.

If you choose to portray yourself as a self-righteous conservative christian, maybe you shouldn’t have a bunch of skeletons in your closet!. Ms Prejean should NOT have the right to act as the perfect Conservative Christian Model if she is in reality nowhere near as “Perfect” as she wold proclaim. Self-righteousness can’t fly in the fact of reality. Let’s face the reality of the Sex Tapes before we lecture others on their shortcomings.

who say that V is a critique of President Obama’s Universal Health Care Plan. Anyone happen to remember that this was a promise from V back in 1983. somehow the same analyzing wasn’t done for Reagan. Sometines a fictional show is a fictional show already. Else we could blame both “The Unit” and “24″ on Bush and his policies.

Considering the race of  Doug Hoffman, who is rather openly running as a “Conservative Republican” and being backed by other “Conservative Repulicans” such as Sarah Palin should be enough o a hint to America that maybe the Conservatives should just go ahead and annonces as a true “Third Political Party” I see no problem with Democrats, Republicans and Conservatives. matter of fact were that the case, more African Americans might be likely to vote Republican. Were it not for the demagogues on the far right of the Republican party, the very ones who would best be served by a Conservative party, I myself would be more likely to see Republican as an option. There is such a wide gulf between moderate Republicans and conservative Republicans that I, for one, do not see the need to continue the charade of them both occupying the same political tent.  Or hell, better yet. the moderate Republicans could schism and rebrand as the “Petriot Party” boy wouldn’t THAT muddy the waters.

There has somehow come the opinion that letting our children listen to the duly elected President of their country talk to them about the importance of education is a BAD thing. that it is a POLITICAL thing that it is to be discouraged. Exactly on what planet do these people live where our President is somehow not really their President and they have to protect their children from hearing and seeing him? Do they honestly believe that the importance of Education is a political topic? that it’s not what in most countries would be considered common sense? that we do not have a absolute lack of focus amongst our children? Someone needs to tell our children what it is they should be working towards and right now most parents don’t seem to be getting that message through. U.S. eight graders rank 11th worldwide in Science scores and 8th worldwide in math. If that is what these parents are protecting their children from, then they should absolutely have the right to tell their children to go ahead and fail in school, go ahead and look forward to a job in the service sector, go ahead and be less, but for those few parents who DO want their children to succeed, who DO want their children to go to college, what better voice than the President of these united States to talk directly to THEm, not through their parents or through their school administrators, bu to them, and show them the importance of education.

What if there were a health Care option that cost less, covered more, and provided quicker access to doctors? What if your health care provider offered 24/7 video chat and instant messaging for mental health counseling? What if there were no co-pay, if prescriptions could be renewed online or via phone? what if you had access to the best medical specialists in the world? what if emergency room waits were reduced to minutes as opposed to hours? Guess what. That option exists. Our servicemembers have it. They wouldn’t trade it for your BCBS plan for anything. It’s a Government managed program. Your legislators, the Republican ones who insiste you don’twant a plan like that have and use it.

So. Either it’s good enough for our Soldiers and Legislators who, could always afford a private plan if they wanted to, or we are shorting our Soldiers and legislators. Pick One.

Let’s keep a few points in mind while this debate rages.

1. Every one will still have the option of a private plan if they prefer one. CHances are good that the private plans will actually become cheaper and more competitive in the face of actualy competition.
2. No one’s gonna kill Grandma. BUT they will offer grandma counseling to help her decide where she wants to live out the last of her life. I for one know that if I know for a fact that I will be dying soon, with no reasonable options to prolong my life with any quality of life, I would love for my health care provider to provide a way for me to spend those last days in my own home surrounded by my own family and not be limited to seeing them during hospital visiting hours. THAT is what the living will portion of the bill addresses.
3. Illegal Immigrants won’t suddenly get free health care. As a matter of fact, under a Government option, Illegal Immigrants won’t be eligible for care.

Try to read just a little, learn just a touch, avoid the hyperbole, avoid the hype, avoid the drama, learn the truth, develop your OWN opinion, don’t just adopt someone else’s just because they speak louder than the next person. and don’t mention “Nazi Programs” to a Jewish legislator. (Shot out to Rep Barney Frank for putting ignorance to bed)

Special to Americasblood.com, from my mother, Julie:

I grew up and lived in Germany until the age of 26 and “suffered” through the perils of government-run healthcare, so let me share of of my terrible experience:
Imagine…..I could go to any doctor, anywhere, any time and never had the privilege of pulling out my wallet, not even for a co pay. If I needed a Specialist, he or she had the audacity of just referring me to one.
I never anxiously waited for the mail to get a stack of bills and explanations of benefits, when I had to be hospitalized, finances were never discussed, my pay continued, my job waited for me and there was no disease bad enough to just drop me. My parents have never had the privilege of exhausting all their savings and/or foreclose on their house to care for us. My co-pay for ANY medicine was $0.50 and I remember when my Mom had stress-related symptoms, she got sent to a health Spa, she was there for four weeks, all covered with a daily spending allowance.
btw, Dentists, Orthodontists and Optometrist were covered the same, we didn’t even get to pay them.
I spoke to my sister in Germany a couple of days ago and since we have a brand-new Grandbaby she asked me the silly question if our new Moms get to stay at home for three years as well, with pay, healthcare and job security, until the child starts Kindergarten, apparently they entertain the crazy notion that it is better for a society as a whole when Moms can afford to raise their own babies and apparently Kindergarten starts at age three which is free as well.
When I married my husband, who was in the Army, we all suffered a similar fate, free doctor visits for us and the kids, free hospitalization and free medicine.
How you might ask? Simple, no profits, everybody got paid, the doctors still drove Mercedes’ and BMW’s and the drug companies still operated and made a profit.
So, GOVERNMENT, PLEASE TAKE OVER MY HEALTHCARE!
Julie

To discuss this, please click Here!

So.. Sarah Palin has decidewd that being halfway into her first term as Governor makes her a "Lame Duck" and she feels it’s best to "Pass The Ball". Apparently being Governor is interfering with her Book Deal and Tour Schedule. Only a Republican would have the gall to stand there and announce that this is purely a selfless act. geez is that the kind of dedication that wants to be our next President? Really? I have a sneaky feeling that this will let some of her buried bones in Alaska walk forth in the light of day in ways not seen since "Thriller"

There’s been much thrashing about by the Republican Right in regards to Judge Sotomayor’s supposedly reverse-racist comments in 2001. Let’s look at those comments for a moment..

 

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,"

I’m sorry. I don’t get it. She compared someone with experience in a matter, with someone without experience in that same matter. Is it racist now to say that you have experience in something you are supposed to be adjudicating? Remembering of course, that the detractors fail to mention that she was specifically referencing race and gender discrimination rulings before the courts..

Perhaps she meant this statement in the same tone that John Yoo, Bush-Era White House lawyer used when speaking about Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas in October of 2007.

"This is a black man with a much greater range of personal experience than most of the upper-class liberals who take potshots at him."

 But that aside, let’s look at Sotomayor’s comments in context.

 

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O’Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O’Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.

Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown.

However, to understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give. For others, their experiences limit their ability to understand the experiences of others. Other simply do not care. Hence, one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women and people of color on the bench. Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.