According to this article posted on US News and World Report, Tom Ridge, the first head of the idiotically-named and redundant Department of Homeland Security, is releasing a new tell-all titled

The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…and How We Can Be Safe Again

. In this book, he discusses his experiences with the frustration he felt at infighting in the Bush Administration while he was trying to build an effective department, but that isn’t the big news. This is the big news:

Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was “blindsided” by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush’s re-election

…Excuse me…WHAT? I mean, I’m not surprised that the Bush Administration raised the “terrorist alert level” to boost the chances of Bush being re-elected–after all, when Americans are afraid of the scary brown people, Republicans get elected.

But I am sickened that an elected official–no matter how slimey George W Bush has proven to be and have been during the mass incompetence that was his administration–would use shameless, baseless fear, just three years after the worst terrorist attack on American soil in our country’s history, to hold on to their own power. And to make my nausea worse, no one in major media other than Keith Olbermann and MSNBC are covering this story. I suppose, instead of blowing the whistle on the most incompetent and criminal administration of the 20th century, and possibly the entire history of the United States, major news networks would rather talk about death panels that don’t exist.

But, hey, I’m just keeping it real.

I support single payer universal healthcare quite strongly. I believe it’s been proven to be effective at solving the primary problems of health care in the United States: rising costs and shrinking coverage. Unfortunately, the crazies out there have terrified Democrats to the point where universal healthcare isn’t even really on the table. Instead, they’re pursuing a “public option.” I can live with that, because it will at least cover those who have no coverage now(for example, my own mother. More on that later), and it will reign in the greed that has run rampant in health insurance companies. The right-wing whackjobs are making so much noise the so-called liberal media(ha) is actually treating them like a legitimate opposition, while they are, quite literally, nothing more than psychotics who have been fed lies by insurance companies and their patsies in Congress and believe every word of them.

Let me very clear on this:

the right-wing opposition has absolutely no leg to stand on.

And I’m going to go over a few points to explain why.

“A free market health care system is most beneficial. We should get rid of regulation bodies like the FDA, too.”

Wrong. First, regulations like those imposed by the FDA are what keep snake-oil-selling drug companies in check, otherwise these companies would sell sugar pills as cures for cancer just to make a buck. Second, profits for insurance companies have risen 428% from 2000 to 20007, while the number of uninsured Americans has risen by 19%. That is absolutely shameful, and proves that, in a market health insurance system such as ours, health care providers make money by not providing health care.

Think about it: health insurance companies make money from premiums. Health insurance companies lose money when they pay for health care procedures. These companies do not exist just to provide access to health care(like, say, a government-run single payer system would). They exist to make a profit. Paying for care lowers their profit, so it is in a health insurance company’s best interest to not provide health care insurance, and to raise premiums as high as possible.

To put it simply, health insurance companies want profit. Profit leads to greed. Greed leads to those companies doing everything they can to maximize income while minimizing payouts. Therefore, a capitalist health care system is, by nature, bad for everyone except health insurance companies.

“The current health care bill in Congress will lead to forced euthanasia.”

Um…if you actually believe that, you’re an idiot. Seriously. The provision in the bill people are talking about is insurance coverage for discussing and planning a living will with a doctor. There are no and will be no “death panels” or “forced euthanasia.” This claim is nothing but a right wing scare tactic, and unfortunatey, it’s working, because Democrats have announced this provision has been removed from the bill. Hey, I never said the Democrats weren’t a bunch of giant pussies.

“Government-run health care will take away our choice of doctors, hospitals, and treatments.”

Wrong again. Single-payer health care doesn’t take away choices. There are no massive waiting lines or rationing or any other side effect the right wing has made up to scare people, and I have heard no reports of anyone dying because they had to wait for health care in any country with a universal system. You can still pick your doctor, your hospital, you treatment, and everything else. The biggest difference is, instead of the first question at a doctor’s office being, “Do you have insurance?” it’ll be “How can we make you well?”

The choice argument makes me especially sick. A few months ago, I had surgery on my leg to remove a benign tissue mass. I’m 22 years old, and the mass had been in my leg for five years. I suffered from what felt like a muscle cramp that never went away and varied from slightly noticeable to so excruciating I couldn’t sleep at night for five years because I didn’t have insurance and couldn’t afford to do anything about it. The only choice I had in that situation was “hope it isn’t cancer.” And by the way, even though I now have health insurance, I still can’t afford all of the medical bills from my thirty-minute surgery.

A few years ago, my mother(who for most of my life has been self-employed, and done anything involving wallpaper, painting, and other construction/home improvement-related work) was working on a ceiling in a marble bathroom. She fell off a ladder and landed on her side, and then had a very painful feeling that she said felt like she’d at least bruised a rib. Instead of going to a doctor, she came home and went to bed. Where was her choice? In what is supposed to be the greatest country in America, it’s an absolute fucking shame to have people that can’t have basic access to health care.

Those are just two cases of the so-called “choice” we have in health care right now. There are an estimated 47 million people in this country that can probably tell a similar story.

So, as you can see, the major arguments of the conservatives are blatantly false. It’s time we called a lie a lie; a liar a liar. These people are liars. There is no grassroots opposition. There are only terrified corporate executives and their equally-terrified puppets in Congress, scurrying to plant as much propaganda as they can to turn public opinion against progress. They have no plan to fix health care. They only care about defeating Barack Obama and maintaining their stranglehold on American health care. They cannot be allowed to win.

I’m just keeping it real.

According to a recent post on MediaMatters.org, GEICO has redistributed its advertising on Fox News so that none of it airs during Glenn Beck’s Hour of Fear, Hate, and Misinformation. It seems that GEICO doesn’t appreciate a nationally-televised commentator running a segment where he jokes about poisoning an American elected official.

My first experience with Beck’s idiotic ranting was during the aftermath of pro wrestler Chris Benoit’s murder of his wife and son, followed by his suicide. My first thought was, “this guy has no idea what he’s talking about.” He didn’t then, and he doesn’t now. How this man still has a TV show is beyond my understanding, and even worse, some people actually watch his show because they agree with him(instead of just watching it because his wild lies and rants are so pathetically funny).

My hope is for more advertisers, like my own employer, Wal-Mart, will pull its advertising from Beck. Unfortunately, I doubt that will happen, but GEICO is a nice start.

I’ve always been a politically opinionated person.  Aside from a brief stint in blogging several years ago(when I was roughly 15-16), most of my opinions are kept to in-person conversations, facebook status updates, and myspace bulletins.  But it never feels like enough.  I watched the 2008 presidential campaign unfold in an overwhelming victory having done little else to contribute other than volunteering for one Obama event during the early primary season and verbally tearing new body cavities in anyone who opposed him.

But it never felt like enough.  My voice was localized.

As the Obama administration began, the Republican Party drifted even farther to the fringe than the McCain campaign.  The “teabaggers” soon led to the “birthers,”  closely followed by shameless fearmongering on healthcare–and this is just the first six months.  Still, I never felt like I was contributing to the debate.

This is my chance.  This blog is my attempt to throw my two cents out to anyone willing to read.  Some of you will probably be offended by what you read here.  You should know right now that I don’t care if you are offended.  The political landscape on the left is already afraid enough of its own shadow, so terrified of offending anyone they won’t really stand up for anything.  I will.

I’m just keeping it real.