Klarinet Archive - Posting 000612.txt from 2004/07

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Political Rant - do not open if you are offended
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 11:40:00 -0400


Jimmy Lee wrote,
>Walter, take a break and rest up or maybe seek help.>

The classic retort of the demagogue who can't come up with a well-reasoned
argument: Bluster that someone who disagrees with you must be mentally ill.
Charming.

>Been back here for two days and I will be leaving now.>

Toodleoo.

Walter, I agree with you about the need for medical insurance reform,
though I doubt it will happen as long as Republicans control Congress,
because the drug industry that profits so handsomely and so cynically from
the current mess is too well-connected with the Republican leadership. The
drug industry does its best to grab the news media by the gonads, too.
Ever notice what a high percentage of the ads on the network and cable news
programs are drug ads? It's tough for a reporter to persuade the suits to
offend a sponsor. And ever notice how many of the new reports on medical
issues are worded identically, or nearly so? That's because they're not
independent reporting. They're drug company press releases, some of them
rip-'n'-read and others provided as video (so handy for small, local,
low-budget stations), with cues for the newsies to splice in their own blue
screen footage of a local or network reporter, reciting the questions from
the helpful cue sheet. After splicing, the difference in studio lighting
is often hilariously obvious, once viewers know to watch for it.

Reform of the medical industry in general is a personal issue for me,
because in 1998, the combination of acute gallstone pancreatitis and
medical mistakes nearly killed me, during 45 days in the hospital. I had
good insurance that paid most of the bills, and a terrific husband acting
as advocate when I couldn't speak for myself, but the insurance money
couldn't protect me from inadequate staffing and dysfunctional hospital
bureaucracy. (When I finally left the hospital for good, the excellent
surgeon, who knew I was a horror movie critic, put on his best leering "mad
doctor" face and said, "I wish I could autopsy you to figure out why you're
still alive.") For every story of inappropriately huge jury awards for
medical malpractice, I suspect there are many more untold horror stories
like mine: I never sued anybody, because once I got my life back, I refused
to waste the rest of it on obsessing over the trauma in court.

We elect -- we hire -- the experts we trust to legislate reforms, and we'd
better make sure we choose the right legislators, because once they're in
office, we're at their mercy. Next fall, I hope we elect leaders who get
busy on medical reform and other real, necessary work instead of squadering
time and treasure on empty political posturing such as the latest public
relations farce, the staged "debate" over the gay-bashing Constitutional
amendment that never had a prayer of enough votes to pass. People are
dying from starvation, warfare, terrorism and treatable diseases all over
the world; the USA went to war for reasons that turn out to be excuses and
lies; Al Qaeda couldn't muscle into Iraq before we invaded but has set up
shop there now, thanks to our bumbling; since 9/11, we've swapped two
different evil dictators for two weak puppet governments surrounded by
murderous warlords who use religion as their excuse for murder, extortion
and other barbarism, and we've defined this exchange as progress; our
government tortures the English language to "prove" that torture isn't
really torture while all the time claiming that Americans are morally
superior to other people; and yet, the same week the news breaks that the
Red Cross believes the U. S. has tortured and is still concealing
"disappeared" detainees off the books, our stalwart elected representatives
fritter their time in a fake debate over a dead-on-arrival bill about how
much the Federal government should butt into who marries whom!

Taking a cue from Red Scare tactics half a century ago, this Administration
tries to intimidate critics by accusing them of being traitors, or fellow
travellers with the terrorists, or crazy. Every time bad news for the
Bushies hits the front pages, Ridge or Ashcroft or both issue new terror
warnings as a distraction. Their timing is so transparent it's getting
comical, a reaction as predictible as that of alarmed giant squids,
squirting out ink. When Kerry picked Edwards to run with him, sure enough,
Ridge lunged for the microphone again. How many people will die next time
there's a real terrorist attack in the USA, because when the real wolf
appears, so many citizens will yawn and assume it's only our government
crying "Wolf!" again? How many will fail to shelter in place or to
evacuate, until it's too late?

We'll get the governance we deserve next fall. If more and more
Republicans announce they plan to vote for Kerry, I won't be surprised if
the Bushies stage a major terror scare as a pretext to postpone the
elections, with just enough chaos to create plausible deniability in case
they get caught stealing the Presidency by ballot tampering. I won't be
surprised if they get away with it, too -- although this time, maybe the
Democrats won't roll over and play dead, the way they did after the Florida
debacle in 2000. Shame on us, if we tolerate this corrupt, lying,
incompetent Administration for four more years.

Lelia Loban
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban
Re-defeat Bush in 2004!

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