health care

This hurts me. I have good friends at Whole Foods. But now I have another reason not to shop there.

If you are a progressive and you are shopping at Whole Foods, you are feeding a high-priced machine that violates many of your personal principles. Please join me in shopping elsewhere. And just so you know what soapbox your hard-earned dollars are funding, consider this from Whole Foods CEO John Mackey in the Wall Street Journal.

The last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment.

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Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This “right” has never existed in America.

A careful reading of both documents will not reveal any intrinsic right to education either. I'm guessing Mr. Mackey would like to do away with any federal support for public schools, too.

Stop shopping at Whole Foods. Period. And make sure they know why. Mr. Mackey is certainly entitled to his opinion. And you're entitled to take your business elsewhere.

AARP: Reacts to president’s health care townhall
8/12/2009

Jim Dau or Jordan McNerney

202-434-2560

AARP Reacts to President’s Health Care Townhall

"WASHINGTON – AARP Chief Operating Officer Tom Nelson issued this statement following remarks by the President at a townhall event in New Hampshire on health care reform.

“AARP has been working with Democrats and Republicans to fix our broken health care system.

“While the President was correct that AARP will not endorse a health care reform bill that would reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate."

Complete letter: http://www.aarp.org/aarp/presscenter/pressrelease/articles/prez_townhall...

WASHINGTON (FNS) – In a startling development related to the recent disruptions of town hall meetings, FNS is now able to confirm that the Obama Administration, with the assistance of Unilever Group and Queen Beatrix, both of the Netherlands, PepsiCo, Skull And Bones, and the Bilderberg Group, is unleashing a secret plot to dispatch fleets of unmarked aircraft and helicopters to prevent teabag protesters from having access to teabags.

The goal of the plot: to disrupt protesters’ plans to save America from the destruction of our health care system.

FNS reporters have been following a trail of information that includes airport noise abatement records, classified documents, and the testimony of insiders, some of whom are now willing to be publicly identified.

We’ll begin our story by reporting on three events that occurred the evening of Friday, August 8th.

Dear Democrats in Congress and President Obama,

We, the undersigned, vehemently oppose the health care and clean energy legislation you are considering this year. This is a democracy and you must to listen to us, your constituents, the everyday people of this great nation.

Let us be clear: if you continue to pursue passage of this legislation, there will be consequences at the ballot box. We remind you that in the last election we were the ones knocking on doors, making phone calls, attending the political rallies, and giving campaign contributions to the Republican party and Republican candidates. Therefore, you cannot ignore us.

In 2008, we worked tirelessly to support candidates such as Senator Norm Coleman in Minnesota, Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, and John McCain for President. Your vote on these matters will dramatically affect whether we return to participate in next year's election.

I just saw last nights Rachel Maddow show. She had a guy on her show that used to be a Right Wing Republican until he realized how wrong they were. I think he was C. Everett Koops (sp?) son. He wrote a book about his experiences as a Right Wing Republican. He spoke about what is happening now with Health Care Reform Town Halls and how the GOP, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Right Winged Organizations such as AFP are promoting violence against public officals and Democrats and how there is a subtext to the lies that could easily lead to a right winged fanatic killing someone. That is my fear, what will happen if some lunatic actually does commit a violent act towards a Democrat and public official.

You can read the full article at the below link:
http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/statehealthreform/northcarolina.html

Stable and Secure Health Care for North Carolina
How Health Insurance Reform will Benefit North Carolina
LOWER COSTS FOR RESIDENTS OF NORTH CAROLINA

•Ending the Hidden Tax – Saving You Money: Right now, providers in North Carolina lose over $1.3 billion in bad debt which often gets passed along to families in the form of a hidden premium “tax”. Health insurance reform will tackle this financial burden by improving our health care system and covering the uninsured, allowing the 113 hospitals and the 26,716 physicians in North Carolina to better care for their patients.

I did a little research this morning and found out that rom what I see, Patrick mcHenry is the only NC Congressman holding town hall meetings during the recess.

It seems that the GOP organizers of health care astroturf (fake grassroots) activities are terrified that real people will crash their party.

In Mocksville (county seat of deep red Davie County) today, a Foxx event was first postponed by two hours in order to avoid a permitted counter-rally. Then, according to counter-rally organizers, Mocksville police used a flimsy excuse to revoke their permit altogether, and order the small crowd of mostly senior citizens to disburse.

I was not able to attend this event (unlike the one in Winston-Salem on Monday), but I consider the reports I received reliable, and the photos posted on the following blog entry seem eloquent:
http://www.democraticunderground.com:80/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&...

Over the next three weeks, the State Employees Association of North Carolina will host a series of town hall meetings on health insurance reform across the state. SEANC and community members will share their health care concerns and hear local experts discuss the dire need for health insurance reform. SEANC also invited local congressmen to join the town hall events.

“State employees are concerned about health care. Many of them can’t afford to cover their spouses or children on the State Health Plan, adding to the growing number of uninsured North Carolinians,” said SEANC Executive Director Dana Cope.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/28/divorce.marriage.health/index.html

According to the above article, "a study was completed at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study found that divorced or widowed people have 20 percent more chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer than married people. They also have 23 percent more mobility limitations, such as trouble climbing stairs or walking a block."