Green Options » reform

Billionaires for Wealthcare Sing the Praises of a Public Option

Rhonda Winter — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:59:38 +0000

The brave Billionaires for Wealthcare are back in fine voice. This group of talented guerrilla performance artists graciously entertained attendees at a conference of health insurance industry workers with a seemingly spontaneous performance of a clever operatic anthem about our desperate need for a public option.

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At the annual conference of America’s Health Insurance Plans, (the corporate lobbying group that recently released a threatening report about how any inclusion of a public option in health care legislation would cause private insurers to grossly inflate their rates even more), attendees were entertained by the Billionaires for Wealthcare with their clever rendition of the ever hopeful song “Tomorrow“.

Michelle Obama’s Straight Talk on Women and Health Insurance

Rhonda Winter — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:00:29 +0000

First Lady Michelle Obama talks straightforwardly about women and why we all so urgently need health care reform in this five minute short that was just released by the White House. At the moment I know that I am existing in something of a self-absorbed cancer bubble of my own, but I actually found this quite moving and powerful.

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Al Franken Is “Supply Side Jesus”

Rhonda Winter — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:58:59 +0000

Years before he was a well-respected United States Senator, Minnesota native and satirist Al Franken was also “Supply Side Jesus“. He gives voice to this witty and sardonic animated allegory, “The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus”. Franken is quite effective as the overtly capitalist Christ who embraces supply side economics above all else; indeed Jesus and Franken are both Jewish. This five minute cartoon manages to be both simultaneously outrageously hilarious and disturbingly creepy.

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Grayson Speaks Truth and Fire

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:42:02 +0000

Florida Rep. Alan Grayson has just utterly transformed the health care debate in the United States with his speech from the House floor. “I’m just saying what everyone else has been thinking,” explains Grayson.

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Congressman Alan Grayson Succinctly Explains the Republican Health Care “Plan”

Rhonda Winter — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:36:26 +0000

Last week Florida Congressman Alan Grayson accurately and succinctly explained the Republican Health Care “Plan”: Don’t get sick. And if you do get sick, just please die quickly. His passionately honest retort against our nation’s “no-mongers” has spread across the country faster than a California wildfire.

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Brave New Films has just created this short video which clearly exposes the utter hypocrisy and obdurate cruelty of Republican health care “efforts”. I commend Congressman Grayson for his honesty and bravery. It is so incredibly rare and refreshing to hear one of our nation’s elected officials actually speak the truth and call out divisive Republicans on their bald-faced lies and obstruction.

Ironically, as I am writing this I am at present a patient at UCSF Medical Center, one of the best hospitals in the country. Three days ago I just had a big scary surgery, and have been receiving amazingly great health care, for which I am immensely grateful. Thanks to the visionary Tom Ammiano, San Francisco, unlike nearly every other place in the United States, provides universal health care coverage for all of its residents. It is now time that the rest of the nation does the same. Health care is a human right, not a privilege.

Billionaires for Wealth Care Proclaim: Let Them Eat Advil!

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:48:50 +0000

Billionaires for Wealth Care have created this rousing anthem to satirically support our nation’s for-profit health care industries. The group was counter-protesting at last week’s teabagger anti-health care reform 9/12 rally in Washington D.C. (which was funded by major health insurance corporations). The Billionaires were dressed in top hats, tuxedos and evening gowns, and carried placards like: “Fight Socialism—End Medicare Now!” and “Let Them Eat Advil!”.

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According to the Billionaires’ website they are:

A grassroots network of health insurance CEOs, HMO lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others profiting off of our broken health care system. We are not a political, religious or even particularly well-organized group. We’re simple folk, thrilled profiteers pouring out of our corner offices to dance on the grave of “Change.” We’ll do whatever it takes to ensure another decade where your pain is our gain. After all, when it comes to health care, if we ain’t broke, why fix it?

Efficient Animal Farming an “Illusion” - Reform Advised

Michael Ricciardi — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:52:33 +0000

The efficiency of current animal farming practices is an “illusion”, according to a report released last Summer by the Pew Charitable Trusts (May 30, 2008).

This “illusion” is made possible by “cheap grain, cheap water and prison-like confinement systems.” Underpinning this status is the drive for the lowest possible labor costs–meaning automated feeding, watering, and waste disposal is the norm–which undermines and impoverishes traditional, family and small farm operations (farms which are typically bought out by corporate farming conglomerates, who then receive the lion’s share of subsidies; about half a trillion since 2001).

What some call “industrial” farming and others –like the Union of Concerned Scientists–more descriptively refer to as “confined” farming, results in massive over-crowding of livestock where unsafe/unhealthy conditions prevail for both the animals, and the workers. These conditions make the spread of disease easier, and lead to over use of antibiotics (which are also often used to keep young calves sickly, and their meat more tender). *

Study Confirms the Need for More Sustainable Livestock Farming

Beth Bader — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:23:27 +0000

The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, a two-and-a-half year long study by a non-profit organization, calls for urgent and major reform of confined animal operations.

“One of the most serious unintended consequences of industrial food animal production is the growing public health threat of these types of facilities,” the report said. “There is increasing urgency to chart a new course” in agriculture, which has been shifting over the last 50 years from family farms to large livestock meat producers.”

The studies primary focus assessed four areas of impact by industrial farms:

Impact on public healthy by overuse of antibiotics on food animals, primarily the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria
Impact on the environment from animal waste
The need for humane treatment of animals
The impact on family farms from lack of competition and the consolidation of the agribusiness entities
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