We should know by Friday (or, Thursday when the Obama camp promises to ‘leak’ the choice to selected bloggers who will immediately ‘leak’ it to the rest of us). Who will it be? Will we be surprised? Disgusted? Outraged? Glad?

Don’t know if I have a favorite in this beauty contest. I’ve heard a lot of things, and thought about others. I’ve heard Hillary is out of the running, but she sure seems to still feel it’s her ‘right’ to be on the ticket. And given that she got half the votes cast, she may have a point. But how effective could Obama’s leadership be if he had a 2-fer on the Veep end that worked constantly against his policies and hogging the spotlight? So no, I wouldn’t be happy to see Hillary’s name drawn.

I’ve heard Richardson is out, but darned if I can figure out why. He’s plenty of admin and foreign policy experience, and would appear to lend strong National Security credentials. I think he’d be a good choice. I also think Biden is a good choice, though he himself says he’s out of the contest. I don’t know why on that one either.

My previous fave would have been Edwards, who could be kept plenty busy working on health care and poverty during Barack’s Presidency. Of course, the recent-ness of his revealed sexual infidelity means he’s not a serious consideration, even though John McCain has long been quite proud of his own sexual infidelities. Go figure.

It’s probably not going to be Dennis Kucinich, since he wouldn’t lend any mainstream clout to an Obama administration. Nor will it be that weird Libertarian-leaning guy with the beef against the Fed. Governor Sebelius could be an interesting choice, capable as well as female. But Hillary’s Hoards would never tolerate that.

General Wesley Clark? Might be good for the whole wartime NS situation given Obama’s lack of experience in those areas. Plus, Clark could run a tight JCS and probably get along with the various commanders on a militaristic level. Tom Daschle? Jim Webb? Evan Bayh?

Oh, well. We sit on pins and needles awaiting the official word, and the Convention awaits. I’ll certainly ‘leak’ the news the moment it gets ‘leaked’ to us, then do some background on the candidate. Let’s all hope it’s the best of all good choices!

Well folks, it’s 8-8-08, which of course means it’s the End of the World. Right on cue, it’s revealed that John Edwards, best-looking Presidential Wannabe in this nation’s history, was revealed today to have enjoyed an extramarital affair. Might even have fathered one of America’s many (a majority these days) “fatherless” bastards. Wow. I’m so not frothing.

No, we don’t use the word “bastard” anymore to talk about REAL fatherless children. We call him or her our “Love Child.” It’s been that way since the 1960s, becomes more popular every year. Yet the leftist Democratic blogosphere goes absolutely ballistic over this non-news, as if the socialist-leaning, populist, progressive population is this country isn’t the exclusive enclave of Hippies who managed to live through those glorious ’60s (and their children, and their grandchildren, many/most of them fatherless or on step-father #4 by now).

Suddenly they’re all strict Old Testament moralists of the Pharisee variety, buying fake beards and arming themselves with stones. It’s just enough hard core, disgusting hypocrisy to make me sick to my stomach. Get a life, people!

1. John Edwards dropped out early. Might have been guilt for the affair, but it’s more likely that he realized he didn’t have a real shot. He is NOT the Democratic nominee.

2. Affairs, especially engaged while the long-suffering wife is in dire straits with cancer or injuries or something, is a regular way of life on the ‘Pug side of the aisle. The actual Republican nominee is rather famous for screwing around on his injured wife with his now-current wife, whom he has publicly called a “cunt” even though he really does like her corporate jet.

3. Apparently John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth, who is in remission from breast cancer, are still together and “working it out.” Whatever that means. In which case, it’s none of our damned business. Really, now. Watch some porn if you’re that hard up for something sexy to excite you.

I can recall when Francois Mitterand’s long-time mistress and their daughter were moved into an annext of the Esysee Palace at state expense. She was just his favorite of many. Both attended his funeral. Jacques Chirac had a penchant for Japanese women. John Kennedy is said to have been ‘partying’ on his yacht with several young women while Jackie was in labor, and then there was the whole Marilyn Monroe birthday cake thing. Then there’s Hillary Clinton, who got a lot closer to the Democratic nomination than John Edwards. She had her wayward hubby – who subjected the entire country to 8 years’ worth of impeachment distraction because he couldn’t keep his fly zipped – out on the campaign trail for her.

This sort of grotesque puritanism and blatant hypocrisy is one of the things I like least about the American public’s so-called “values.” I am flat-out disgusted. Not by John Edwards, or by his and Elizabeth’s private lives, but by all the fickle flirts out there in the blogosphere who once tried so hard to turn him into a sex object, and who are now screaming and raging because they weren’t the ones who got to do the dirty deed. Time to call a waaaaaambulance.

Enough, already.

“There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America – not two – and that man is Barack Obama,” Edwards said at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Things did look a little iffy recently, when some of Edwards’ campaign staff worked on behalf of Clinton prior to the North Carolina primary on May 6. Edwards is a North Carolina resident and ex-Senator for the state. Obama in turn embraced Edwards’ Half In Ten initiative to reduce poverty in the U.S. by 50% within the next ten years.

Additionally, on Thursday, May 15 Obama received the endorsement of the United Steelworkers union. This fight may soon be over, the better to take on Republican candidate John McCain in the real race to the White House. The full endorsement speech is available in the videos below, parts 1 and 2:

Part 1

Part 2

Links:
Ex-Rival Edwards Throws His Support to Obama
John Edwards: “We must come together…”
Steelworkers Endorse Obama
Half In Ten

Well, John McCain locked up the Republican primary last night, and his only remaining rival Mike Huckabee good-naturedly dropped out as expected.

But alas, neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton managed to lock up anything – though God knows they should probably think about locking up their most rabid supporters, who aren’t the least bit shy of ravaging the Party while lobbing nasty epithets at each other.

I’d say it’s a problem with our primary system, which does have many problems, but I don’t really think it’s that. I think people are just too emotionally involved with personalities, and not very well-versed on how politics actually work in this country. Where “Machines” generally run the show and the best any candidate can do is hope to contribute to the policy platform come convention time.

Personally I don’t much care which of the remaining contenders get the nomination. I supported John Edwards early on and still hope he’ll wield enough power at the convention to get his health care ideas into the platform. But the truth is that a genuine populist is never going to have a seat at the “Machine” table if they won’t let themselves be molded into whatever the machine demands. I’ll vote Democratic in November because I sure as heck don’t want another Republican, and John McCain makes me sort of nauseous with all his flip-flopping. I never could ride those rides at the fair without getting sick.

Both Clinton and Obama have their own machines. Hillary runs as if she were a complete “insider” (and she is) who should get the nomination for no other reason than that she and her hubby believe she deserves it. And in the end, she may be right regardless of what We the People think about that. She’s utterly ruthless (the tears are for show) and eminently capable of out-machoing any and all chickenhawks. That makes me think she’d be more anxious to go to war than she would be anxious to avoid such a situation. Do we need more of that?

Obama on the other hand has embraced the Dean 50-state strategy and deployed a regular army of ground troops in all the states Hillary has dismissed as meaningless. It has served him well, and he’s energizing lots of support from minorities who have long felt abandoned by the system. Whether they’d actually vote in November is anybody’s guess, and I’d guess not if he’s not the nominee. Both Clinton and Obama are too far to the right to appeal to me, so it’s not my fight.

Regardless of who gets the crown, the Party will run the show both through the election and for all the in-power years thereafter. That’s how it’s designed to work, and nobody has yet successfully mounted a real challenge. Sans a viable third party option (and no, I’m not talking about Nader, who is a Republican-financed shill) we can be assured that the outcome is not and never was in doubt. For whatever it’s worth.

Obama still leads Clinton in delegates, neither can take the nomination even if they win 100% of all still outstanding delegates. It’ll be a brokered convention, we’ll get whatever our ‘betters’ decide we get. And, given glaring lack of Democratic action on outstanding high crimes and misdemeanors of the Imperial Presidency of GWB since they were elected in ‘06 to do something about it, I don’t expect things will change significantly come January ‘09 regardless of which Party wins.

But at least my primary vote in May will finally mean a little something. Usually there’s no point because it’s all over by then!

Since both Clinton and Obama developed their plans while taking large campaign contributions from insurers, it’s not surprising that their plans are “insurer-friendly.” Both involve mandates requiring citizens to purchase health insurance from an insurance company. Both avoid highlighting problems with the way insurance works as the reason our system is in such outrageous disarray.

Forcing people to buy health insurance doesn’t address the issue of access to health care. Insurance and treatment are two entirely different things. They’re artificially linked at the valuation end. The standard operating procedure to deny claims hasn’t just hurt the patients, it has hurt the health care providers as well. Hospitals are closing. The system’s been bled dry.

Requiring everyone (including the government) to give more money to the cause of the serious problems we face is astoundingly stupid. The greedy just get more money. Americans don’t get more health care.

Then there’s the question of who the mandate applies to. Clinton wants it to apply to everyone, even going so far as to garnish the wages of those who show up at ERs without coverage. Obama would let adults opt out. But if everyone doesn’t contribute to the pool, the problem of costs for those who do remains precisely the same and the bill still ends up in the government’s lap.

Nor does any of this address the scandalous and “ought to be illegal” tricks insurers use to limit their pools to the least likely to have medical problems (while leaving those most likely out in the cold). Both candidates promise to outlaw the practice of insurers refusing coverage for pre-existing conditions, but that is regulatory law the insurance lobby will fight tooth and nail. Those people will end up with federal coverage instead, the insurers will still discriminate. Then there’s the practice of simply refusing all claims unless the policyholder can afford to get a lawyer to threaten suit. Or the practice of approving necessary treatment and then rescinding approval after the treatment has been delivered – a practice that threatens the viability of hospitals, clinics and rehabilitation services directly. Or the practice of canceling policies if the premium is a day late, charging twice as much to reinstate.

Then there’s your basic “junk insurance” that if everyone is forced to purchase policies, will be all that a huge chunk of the middle class (up to $60K range) can afford. Junk insurance is insurance with large deductibles and co-pays – up to $20,000 per year for a family of 4 – that, if their income is going into buying junk insurance, the family won’t have to pay for doctors, treatments or drugs. In other words, junk insurance is pretty much the same thing as no insurance unless someone gets gravely injured or contracts a serious disease, and in that case the insurer will just refuse to cover claims or cancel the policy. Free money to rich insurers for exactly nothing to the person forced to buy it.

None of this addresses our health care crisis, none of it gets actual health care to any American citizen, and none of it is fundamentally different from what we [don't] have right now. But the insurance companies are bound to love it. They’ll get richer, America just gets sicker.

This is Super Tuesday and Americans are voting their diminished choices in 22 states, 1 territory and Dems abroad. Tomorrow we’ll see what the situation is, but since the polling outfits are finding it impossible to make accurate predictions this cycle, we might still be looking at a brokered convention. Which is a great place for Democrats to insist that real health care solutions be part of the platform and not corporate welfare to rich insurance companies.

Hillary’s Plan

Barack’s Plan

Now the buzzword is “Corporate Owned Media” – COM – for short. COM is actually more accurate, given the major media’s heavy-handed attempts to control the 2008 primaries (as well as which Democrat we’ll get for President in November, since Republicans don’t have a prayer). But these last couple of weeks definitely take the cake.

I am complaining about the decision of the COM to pointedly ignore John Edwards as a viable candidate for the Democratic nomination and pretend that the only ones running are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Despite the FACT that after 1 primary and 1 caucus (of 49, Michigan doesn’t count), John Edwards BEAT Hillary Clinton in Iowa and the delegate count is very close. The split works out thusly:

Obama: 25
Clinton: 24
Edwards: 18

That’s close enough to be a horse race, folks. Yet Edwards has been dropped from Survey USA’s election polls, even in Oregon where he is running strong (and getting more money than the others) because Survey USA has made a “Judgment Call” [h/t sarahlane @ DKos] that he is not a viable candidate.

Excuse me? I think there’s something entirely else afoot here. Consider, for instance, how Edwards rated in a recent CNN poll on how the top Democratic contenders would stack up against John McCain – the only realistic Republican candidate. It looks like this:

[Graphic by RedJet]

Hmmm… John Edwards BEATS McCain by 8%, while Obama ties and Hillary loses. Might I suggest that this is why the COM has decided to withhold polling and coverage for Edwards? Who, by the way, is no great friend of the Corporatocracy, and you can bet your bippy the Corporatocracy knows it.

There’s really nothing anyone can do to make the COM offer fair coverage, or include any candidate they don’t like in their polls. But that doesn’t mean John Edwards won’t win enough delegates in the primaries to be a real contender in the balloting in Denver this summer, or at least be a “kingmaker” who can send either Obama or Hillary to the White House – on his terms. That’s real power. And every Democrat paying attention (after 7 years of Bush-Cheney, an awful lot of ‘em are paying attention) knows who’s running. The names are on the ballots, the activists are on the ground canvassing daily, the fund-raisers are raising funds, and the activists are activating. Ignoring him will not make him go away.

The campaign has put up a new video web feature called Media Perception Vs. Reality that should be viewed by anyone honestly concerned about these campaigns and the future of America. Citation from that feature:

The new web feature also includes a graph comparing news coverage of Obama, Clinton and Edwards from January 6th through 11th based on data from the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The graph shows that while 25 percent of campaign news stories by major outlets mentioned Clinton and more than 15 percent mentioned Obama, Edwards was mentioned less than three percent of the time.

“For the better part of a year the media has focused on two celebrity candidates,” John Edwards for President communications director Chris Kofinis said. “And they continue to act as if there were only two candidates in the race, even after John Edwards beat Senator Clinton in Iowa and poll after poll show competitive races in Nevada, South Carolina and other key states.

“John Edwards has led the field with the boldest agenda for change and he’s the only candidate who has the strength and courage to stand up to the powerful entrenched interests and fight for the middle class families,” Kofinis continued.

On Friday, January 18 (that’s tomorrow when I post this, today if you’re just now reading it), Edwards campaign activists are hosting “Go For The Gold,” a push to reach $7 million in one day. I have given my small shares previously (as I could afford it), but saved up for this one. Instead of my usual $10, he’ll be getting $100 from me and another $300 from friends I’ve lobbied mercilessly on his behalf. That’s a lot for us, and we want it to count. Donations up to $250 are eligible for federal matching funds!

Since we all know this is how to make our contributions to public radio count for more during their interminable fund-raisers, here’s a chance to do it for someone willing to fight for the poor and middle class in this country against our wannabe (and actual) corporate slave-owners. Dig deep!

I consider health care to be the #1 concern for the future viability of this nation, though oil wars/energy independence, revamped ag policies top to bottom and regulatory housecleaning across the board are all important issues as well.

Under the heading of energy policies, I’m going to have to weigh in on the whole renewed “nuclear option” horsehockey disguising itself as a cure for global warming and a means to energy independence in the 21st century. Nuclear power is a pig not even in its poke anymore – it’s fat and ugly, it’s voraciously greedy, it’s arrogant of its filth, and it can’t even fly. Hogzilla Unleashed.

We tried to leash it, honest. Succeeded for more than a quarter of a century, too. But they think we’re all dead now, or maybe just so old we’ve forgotten. We have not.

Way back in 1979, when TMI didn’t mean “Too Much Information” but “They Melted It.” Our field was health physics. Those are the folks who measure the releases and doses, make sure nothing’s leaking, monitor the reactor’s chemistry, and if something is leaking, they’re the ones who make sure workers have the right protection before they go in to clean it up.

HPs have never been very popular in the industry, though they are required to have HP staff on-site as part of oversight and safety. Apart from regular operational coverage at the plant, the HPs have a further task of ensuring that the public is NOT exposed to excess radiation, by promptly reporting over-limit leaks, accidents and any practices that break the rules. This is the power to “Stop the Job,” even order shut-down if it is warranted.

We worked for a technical support staff subcontractor rather than for utilities. This gives the HPs a measure of independence and a little job security if they happened to have to actually blow the whistle. It paid extremely well, but in the end the whole of the civilian industry was so filthy compared to the US Navy’s nuclear power program – where most reactor operators and HPs got their primary training and security clearances – that it just wasn’t worth it. So when told US military top level security clearances were no longer enough to justify our participation in the industry’s daily cover-up game, we told ‘em to take the job and shove it.

When TMI melted, we were called to meet in a Middletown motel room with the HP crew and handed a copy of 10CFR21 with the pertinent reporting sub-clause highlighted in dayglow yellow. We were given a copy of the GPU sequence of events for the accident’s 16-hour evolution, and got a thorough run-down on initial conditions – it was a horror story deluxe. We took the job measuring (and recording) releases, scans, isotopic analyses and doses beginning just four days after the accident and stayed for a month to monitor the recovery. Then we left to go back to being civilians.

We moved to a cabin in the mountains of New Mexico and wrote a book detailing the nature of the accident, its causes, and its serious effects which we’d hoped to publish while there was still time to mitigate some of the damage with intensive medical intervention and monitoring. We had help from a couple of other HPs we knew, one who had worked at TMI’s sister plant and then came to the meltdown (with the full tech schematics in tow), another who was at a different plant but checked our data per current NRC incoming. That one was my brother, HP site coordinator at the Hatch plant in Georgia before he was killed in one of those notorious one-car ‘accidents’ hours after arriving in NM to consult with us.

The book was finished by May of 1980, but was never published due to intervening murder, mayhem (and post-classification). The full investigation report – including data from and analysis of the Kemeny and Rogovin Technical Assessment and Health Physics Task Forces reports – was completed by June of 1981 and filed with the NRC, the chair of the Congressional Committee on Energy and Environment, and the chair of the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee. In 1985 we testified before Congress and the NRC, then our house promptly burned down in a not-so mysterious “electrical wiring” fire taking what little we had left. Absolutely nothing whatsoever was done about the bad technology that led to TMI or to mitigate the harm to the public from its aftermath. The rest is history.

So we went on with our lives, did something else for a living. Now, like Zombies or some other ghostly specter of the Undead, They’re Baaaack…!!! Once again touting their golden goose as the Great Green Answer to all our energy woes – “Clean, Safe, Too Cheap To Meter!” Some things just never change, I guess.

All the top contenders for both the Republican and Democratic nominations support nuclear power as ‘Green Energy’ and a band-aid for global warming. Except John Edwards, who happens to be the candidate I support. Now, I do understand that professional politicians – particularly those nervy enough to vie for the top post – are not scientists. Nor do I expect them to be. They have probably never seen a nuclear plant, or toured one, and wouldn’t know a GELI from a TLD if it bit them on the ass. So when wannabe Theocrat (and current Republican front-runner) Mike Huckabee says…

“There’s been a real bias against nuclear energy in the United States, going all the way back to Three Mile Island in 1979, but I think most of it is unfounded,”

…I just have to roll my eyes. I was there. He was not. He doesn’t know shit.

When John Edwards was asked “Would you be in favor of developing more nuclear power here in the United States?” at a recent appearance in New Hampshire, he said very simply and unequivocably, “No.” That deserves all our applause, and certainly our votes. He may not be a scientist or a nuke, but he is a tort lawyer. If you’ve any doubts, Google “Price-Anderson.”

Now his campaign is running ads in New Hampshire touting his anti-nuclear stance, and I hope that resonates with the electorate. We can do better than nukes. All we have to do is put our national will into it, and we’ll surprise even ourselves! John Edwards believes it. I believe it too, and I’ve the experience in operational health physics (and TMI) to know what I’m talking about. No Nukes.

Links:

FOE Action: New TV and Radio Ads for Edwards in NH

WaPo: Video of Sleeping Guards Shakes Nuclear Industry

SFBG Politics: The candidates on nuclear power

LATimes: Nuclear power gets boost from candidates

USNuclear: Presidential Candidates’ positions on Nuclear

The Dems

For those of us who weren’t thrilled with the idea of revolving political dynasties – the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton mantra – Iowa’s caucuses came as a refreshing surprise. Given Hillary’s “brass balls” approach to belligerent foreign policy, obvious ties to Big Business and business as usual, and her penchant for dirty politics, I think she got what she deserved – a sound slap-down.

It’s not that I like Barack Obama that much either, or that the mostly rural, stoically rustic population of Iowa is a particularly good representative of America in general (or the political leanings of the nation). But when Hillary Clinton set her staffers on Obama with repeats of already established lies and smears, it’s gratifying that Iowans turned against her in droves. The *last* thing this country needs is just another dirty politician in a bad suit.

All that said, Obama is going to have to learn some things quickly that my personal favorite – John Edwards – had to learn the hard way back in 2004. Like Edwards then, Obama is a relative rookie. He’s mostly an unknown factor for the country at large, and while young and energetic and extremely well-spoken, he’s got some serious deficits.

His health plan is weak, though so is everyone else’s now in the arena save for Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich could still weild some power and contribute single payer as a platform plank at the convention if he can stay afloat through the early primaries. Obama’s tried hard to out-balls Hillary for so long that now Democrats must wonder who will finally do their expressed bidding – reflected in the ‘06 voting – and get us the hell out of Iraq.

Obama’s never faced the Republican slime machine either, at least not in as significant of ways as Hillary and Edwards have. Still, if his middle name, ethic heritage and kindergarten transcripts are the best that Hillary’s minions could dish out he may be a shoo-in.

Edwards beat Clinton for second place by a mere nose, but New Hampshire should come in a little differently. There I’ll be brave and suggest that Edwards and Clinton will be neck and neck for the top spot, with Obama bringing up the rear. Looks to me like the real race is between these three, even though I’d really like to see Kucinich and Richardson show well in at least one of the early primaries.

Possibly the most gratifying thing about the caucuses was the turnout. Independents overwhelmingly caucused with Democrats, bringing in 236,000 participants. In 2000, all the Dems could pull for the exercise was 59,000. This should be telling ALL the candidates something. People are upset that their Congressional votes in ‘06 didn’t manage to sway the leadership into doing what We the People want done. Now we want an administrative leader who will.

Both Joe Biden and Chris Dodd used the opportunity to bow out of the race gracefully. While we know that the fields have to be trimmed by the process, I’m a little sorry to see them go. Our Democratic field this cycle is the best I’ve ever seen in all my long years, and any of them could have beaten any Republican in the race. Here’s hoping that the best ideas among them end up in the platform when the Convention’s final bell has rung!

The Reps

Republicans drew around 115,000 participants in the caucus, compared to a mere 87,000 in 2000, a 30% increase. So it’s clear that the citizenry is more than ready for a big change in D.C. and the country after 8 years of depression and anxiety from Bush and the ‘Borg.

Mike Huckabee, another former Arkansas governor, soundly defeated the strong Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, an upset that has the campaigns re-thinking strategy a little bit. Particularly in regards to the notorious “Base” of reliable voters that come from the megachurches of the Religious Right. Huckabee’s sudden surge appears to have come based on his rather radical theocratic rhetoric in the past few weeks, while other Republican candidates have been downplaying ties to the RR base of Bush voters.

As a Democrat I’d love to see a Romney-Huckabee horse race deteriorate into savage inter-religious back-biting, which would disgust mainline Christian voters – and possibly whole branches of the once-independently minded Baptists – enough to start looking elsewhere for national leadership.

Rudi Guiliani, the arguably mob-connected ex-mayor of New York City running on the “Hero of 9-11″ platform, came in #6 with just 3% of the caucus support. His organization had pretty much ignored Iowa and had no active on the ground campaign going there, so this result isn’t too surprising.

John McCain, who is possibly the strongest real-life candidate for his party’s nomination, will have an opportunity to turn Romney’s loss and Guiliani’s poor showing to his advantage in New Hampshire. In Iowa, however, McCain lost third place to Fred Thompson, a latecomer to the race. Not a very good showing, though he’s still a favorite in New Hampshire.

To tell the truth, I think that either Huckabee or Romney would be excellent candidates against any Democratic ticket we could put together. The issue of religious oppression and wannabe theocrats who have been trying for decades to usurp our national charter – that pesky Constitution – for establishment of their own version of Sharia Law – must play a large role in the 2008 elections. I am hoping that sensible religious people are finally waking up to our national nightmare and all these radical end-timers so eager to launch Armageddon in the Middle East over oil instead of simply invent our own ways of fueling our country. Tuesday should be very interesting!

Links:

NYT: Obama Takes Iowa in a Big Turnout

Kos: The Iowa Results

David Brooks: The Two Earthquakes

The Big Winner: Democrats

NYT Analysis: 2 Newcomers Jolt Parties’ Status Quo

The philosophy is well known by now – Grover Norquist’s vision of shrinking government until it’s small enough to “drown in a bathtub.” Which might seem hypocritical coming from the man responsible for the largest increase in government since the New Deal, but we’re not supposed to notice that. This is the man who glibly sells our children’s economic future to China at the rate of $10 billion per month ($3,800 per second) just to keep his war of aggression going against the nation of Iraq. So it can’t really be about cost…

This past week Bush went farther in imposing his silver spoon will on strapped working families and sick children. The administration issued a late-night order directing states to cut back on enrolling children in the SCHIP program, and imposing a 12-month “waiting period” before a child can be enrolled in the 20 states who offer the coverage for children of parents who earn up to twice the federal poverty level income.

Bush explained his position in an interview with The Washington Post back in July.

“I support the initial intent of the program. My concern is that when you expand eligibility [...] you’re really beginning to open up an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government.”

Democratic candidate John Edwards quickly issued a response, extolling congressional Democrats and ‘responsible’ Republicans to override the order and expand the program as soon as they return from summer recess. It remains to be seen whether the newly Dem-controlled Congress can negotiate a veto-proof majority on this issue. If not, we can expect the fallout to further affect the chances for re-election of Republicans next fall.

Our dismal national health care standing and shameful lack of basic access for tens of millions of citizens – including children – does not speak well of the self-styled “Pro-Life” crowd. It’s time for meaningful change.

Links to articles and blogs on this subject:

Washington Post

Art Levine – Huffington Post

In These Times

Medical News Today