Below is a DNC video that I recently was sent a link to.  And this is some of how I feel about it…

I don’t claim to have any answers – just questions.  So, here goes.

I could understand the Republicans being against Obama’s healthcare plan if they at least had a plan of their own.  Do they?

Sometimes I wonder if our elected government  has forgotten that they represent The “United” States of America…and that this issue is about LIVES not elections.

Okay, that wasn’t really a question, more like a statement.

And I’m totally NOT for taxing the top 2% of Americans to subsidize the 15% without insurance. But just out of curiosity…

Who are these people?  The top 2% people?  Are you one of them?

And how many of them would be totally against donating some of their wealth or business savvy (at least temporarily) to finding a way to help the uninsured of their own country?

Seriously. Did anyone think to ask? Maybe this population of our country isn’t as heartless and greedy as some people would like us to believe?

Anyway…Here’s the video from the DNC.  What do you think about all of this?  Dare I ask?

CNN Money…

House Democrats will propose a new stimulus package to “rebuild America” and “help the middle class,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, announced Monday.

The package will have some of the same features as one passed earlier by the House but rejected by the Senate, she said, including “aid to the states” on healthcare, food stamps and unemployment.

From The Washington Post…

Determined to keep the campaign spotlight on the economy, Sen. Barack Obama has added $60 billion in new tax breaks and other benefits to his economic stimulus plan, and will urge Congress to act quickly after the election to provide middle-class relief.

While his opponent, Sen. John McCain, has reportedly considered but not yet spelled out additional economic recovery steps, the Democratic nominee is expected to outline several new proposals at a speech here this afternoon. They include:

• A temporary tax credit for firms that create jobs in the U.S.
• Penalty-free 401(k) and IRA withdrawals through 2009, to allow struggling families to withdraw up to 15 percent of their savings, up to $10,000.
• A 90-day foreclosure moratorium for homeowners making “good-faith efforts” to keep up with their mortgage payments.
• Creating a new entity to lend to state and local governments, allowing for an effort similar to the liquidity assistance that the Federal Reserve recently extended to commercial banks.
• The temporary elimination of taxes on unemployment insurance benefits.

Obama also will raise the prospect of government aid to the automobile industry and more aggressive government action to help banks and free up consumer credit. He has already outlined benefits such as a middle-class tax break — delivered immediately in the form of a check — and small-business incentives that total about $115 billion over two years.

The Toledo speech coincides with a meeting of House Democratic leaders this morning to discuss action on a stimulus bill when the chamber reconvenes, as planned, after the election.

Also See:

What Is a Fiscal Conservative and Who Are They?

On the brighter side of the economy – Dow Takes A Giant Leap…

Last week’s gloom turned into euphoria as investors sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 11%, the biggest one-day gain since 1933. It was the fifth-largest percentage gain ever, and it came immediately after an 18% weekly decline, the worst such drop in the Dow’s 112-year history.

The head-snapping shift in sentiment, spurred by global plans for governments to rescue banks through direct capital injections, left investors debating whether this marked the end of the past year’s frightening bear market, or just a temporary respite.

So.  What do you think?  Do we need another economic stimulus plan?  Is this plan going to be good enough?  Let me know what you think in comments.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

Although the story I’m about to tell you is personal and happened to me and my family, it’s not just my story. It still happens everywhere, everyday. It’s a story of what it’s truly like to be gay in America. I don’t speak much about this these days, but I’m telling it to you today because I fear the country we face under John McCain and Sarah Palin. Under their virulently right-wing rule, this type of disenfranchisement and gutter treatment could spread exponentially throughout this nation.

I once worked for what I believed was one of the best Fortune 500 companies, a company that I had been loyal to since joining them in 1974 and I expected some type of loyalty in return. I was naïve back then. What I have learned is that companies expect loyalty, but they absolutely do not return it at the same level. No company name will be given, but let’s just say that with the advent of some new management came some discrimination. In this case, it was based on my sexual orientation (which, by the way, had not been an issue prior to management change). In 1997, after several ugly encounters between myself and my boss, I was roundly fired.

The circumstances are not important. The fact is that I signed an agreement not to sue (I was stupid, in retrospect) in exchange for a severance package. At the time, I had a small child under a year and a very sick partner, who had contracted pre-eclampsia during the final twenty weeks of the pregnancy and was saddled with a diagnosis of perinatal cardiomyopathy post-pregnancy. I saw no other way to survive and keep them both healthy and safe. One decision I had made, however, was that I would never again give my all to a corporation.

My new career begins

One of the benefits I received was the opportunity to get up every day for nine months and go to work at an outplacement center. Here, I got help with my resume and use of the phones to find a new job. What I really did, however, was take the time to start my own small advertising agency. For several years, it went gangbusters, but it had to. By then, I was paying over $1,000 a month for health insurance. Because my family was gay and not recognized, each of us had to carry an individual policy. Now, in my previous company, I had domestic partner benefits and Bill Clinton had worked on passing a law so that we could continue that type of coverage. However, actually getting that benefit from any insurance company at the time was a joke. The insurance company I used made damned sure that any kind of family health insurance for gays was off the charts. It was more cost-effective for each of us to carry our own.

In three years, my partner’s cardiomyopathy had remitted. She worked really hard at it and I was very proud of her. Things were going well, and we had always discussed having two children. I was nervous about her trying again, but she wanted our daughter, Thalia, who was then about two-and-a-half, to have a sibling. She was willing to take the risk and I made a conscious decision to support her. That’s what couples do, whether gay or straight.

The detail isn’t important here, so what I will just tell you is that the second time around, fertility was an issue. It took nearly two years and more than 1,000 shots of fertility meds to make this happen. The second time around, there was no pre-eclampsia or cardiomyopathy. However, my partner did get hyperemesis (24/7 morning sickness), and we had to pay for several rounds of inseminations out of pocket because my partner was over 40 during this time and insurance would only cover so many. Finally, on March 13, 2001, our son, Aaron, was born six weeks early. Thalia had turned four the previous November. During the delivery process, however, we had several problems with a prominent Boston hospital. My partner’s water broke early and she went in but could not advance the dilation. The plan was to put her in ante-partum. During this time, I had to leave the room to call and make arrangements for the evening for Thalia. There was no other way. In the time I was gone, my partner had gone into “back” labor and all hell had broken loose. The nurse would not allow me back into the room, in spite of the fact that we had medical powers of attorney. This was the worst of all possible situations for my partner as she had suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for years from her father’s physical abuse. She had a break that evening and things would not be the same for many, many years. I lost my business six months later, and this is where the story gets really ugly.

The bottom falls out of my business

With a six-month-old little boy and a little girl just over four, we were living in Beverly, Massachusetts. My partner had completely fallen apart and had been hospitalized, and we were looking at having to move since the woman who owned our building wanted to sell and move south with her husband. I started looking around and we found a place closer to Boston, since most of my clients were on the south shore. My business was doing well when we moved (2002). I had lost some smaller businesses, but I had also gained two new fairly active clients.

We were living in Winchester, Massachusetts, when the bottom fell out of my business. I had $52,000 in billings outstanding when one of my start-up biopharm clients fired their entire marketing staff. They then refused to pay the bills and, in fact, wiped out all evidence that I’d done any work. This issue has never been resolved to this date. Let me tell you, in this America, the companies get the benefit of the doubt, not the freelancers. About one month later, I had another client go under and cancel all of the work I had just started. In desperation, I took work from somebody out of state after taking a down payment from him, which cleared my bank easily and helped me keep afloat. This included paying the rent. I was in the desperation zone at this point and I had a partner who could not emotionally function.

I then went ahead and did more work for this client to the tune of about $110,000. I sent an invoice at $45,000, and waited nearly six months for payment. The check bounced. I then called the client and told him what happened and told him I needed all $110,000 in bank check form. I received that one week later. By now, I had been unable to pay the rent at all and was facing eviction.

At this point, my partner was unresponsive. I had two children under the age of five. I went to court to hold off eviction. I managed to do this for eight months. Then, a check for $110,000 arrived and I immediately went to the bank. The looked it over and said it looked fine. They gave me an advance to cover my rent and my business expenses. I immediately brought a bank check to my landlord, and we agreed together that we would sign a new lease. I felt great. I paid my electric and phone bills, and had my car repaired. The bank deposited the check. Two days later, I went to make a new withdrawal to cover some more expenses and they met me at the door. The check was counterfeit. I was questioned by the bank and the FBI, thinking that I was in collusion with whomever had given me a check. I turned all my files over, but they never located the person who had scammed me. The bank let me off the hook, knowing I was not involved.

Unfortunately, the landlady sat on the check and never cashed it. Eviction was a reality now. There was no avoiding it.

Welcome to the system

We got as much of our personal stuff out as we could before being evicted, but we essentially had to sell everything we had anyway. We moved to an Extended Stay America hotel until I could figure out how to get myself into the welfare system. We had about $3,500. It didn’t take us far. We had about two or three months of safety, all four of us living in one room with two cats. The kids had lost everything; we refused to get rid of their pets. After the money ran out, my partner’s mom helped to keep us afloat at the hotel.

We immediately went to get food stamps and welfare money. They gave us food stamps and cash for three of us. I would not be included. Just the children and the birth mother. Gay people just did not fit into the system. It did not matter that my partner and I had made a commitment in 1992, that we had the children together on my company’s domestic partner insurance, and that we had a civil union in the state of Vermont. We were not a real family because we were a gay family. They told my partner that “if you get rid of her” (those exact words, by the way) they would place her and the children in a group shelter. If they had put my partner in a shelter like that, with just our two children, she would never survive and the children would become wards of the state. I knew that. I called a free legal service specializing in such things. They told me what would happen: We would be denied placement in Malden, Massachusetts and we would immediately appeal to Boston. That would get us placed. Prior to the placement, I pulled out all the stops on my partner’s mental health, worked with her therapists, and got a dispensation so that we would not be put in a group shelter with shared baths. At this point, she needed her privacy. She was having panic attacks with vomiting and a shared bath just would not be a good situation for her. They placed us in a hotel on the north shore of Boston, where we stayed for eight months in one room. There were so many homeless people at this hotel, that they had welfare and DSS (Department of Social Services) staff on-site.

When you are in this system, your life is not your own. They walk into your room unannounced at any time for inspection. They watch every single thing you do. They treat with you with great disrespect and make you feel less than human. Why? Because they can. Mitt Romney was our Governor at the time and the 2004 Democratic National Convention was coming to Boston. He wanted everyone out of hotels. I came home one day, just after my son had been diagnosed with autism, to find a message that we needed to be ready to move the very next day. That is the way the system works. There is no compassion. There is no support. It’s just you and them. And they run the show.

Because my partner could not be placed in a group center, they moved us to what is called a “scattered site,” or an apartment. Most of these apartments are in a town named Lynn, Massachusetts. When we arrived, there were two rats waiting for us on the porch. Their friends were all in the back yard. There were cockroaches everywhere. The water was leaking under the sink. The bathroom was lopsided and didn’t even have a door. It was disgusting and inhuman; nobody should have to live under those conditions. My car, which had long been sold, would have been cleaner and safer. And all around us, drug deals were going on. The building next door had a guy who drove a Mercedes come in and out every night. There was gunfire. I appealed the placement. In three weeks, we were moved to another apartment in Lynn. It was definitely cleaner and the rats were at least confined to the outside of the building (mostly near the trash), but the place was freezing and we all slept in donated down coats during the winter. Within the first two months of arriving, two men were shot to death two doors down because of a busted drug deal. My children were not allowed outside. We spent two years there.

My partner (now my wife in Massachusetts) and I got out of homelessness on our own just three months shy of our benefits running out. We moved up to Amesbury, Massachusetts. Our children are now eleven (Thalia) and seven (Aaron), and happy. I’m not sure that Aaron remembers much of this, but I know Thalia does. It’s amazing to me how resilient children can be. My partner has now recovered somewhat. She is functional, having decided to take herself off most of her medication, and is working on it. However, I must tell you that, in retrospect, it was good that she was medicated the way she was given what was going on. It insured her survival.

Let me tell you why this is not okay

At the height of my family’s problem, I was a parent who learned what I had to learn to make sure that my family stayed safe. I made sure that I completed a second parent adoption and ensured that my children would stay part of the family by sealing it with a permanent legal guardianship (my partner actually came up with the idea to ensure we’d stay together). I learned about the McKinney-Vento Act, which guaranteed that my children could be bused back to Winchester to stay in a familiar school. My son was diagnosed with autism and my daughter diagnosed as legally blind in one eye while we were homeless. I made sure that they got the care they needed without fail. I met faithfully with welfare and DSS and completed all assignments as asked. I made sure my partner was kept separated and safe from the abuses of the system because I knew she would never survive any other way.

This is not okay because this is America and it should be a government for all the people, black, white, Hispanic, gay and straight. When my partner and I were doing well, I was working for a Fortune 500 company and paid anywhere between $5,200 and $7,300 per month in taxes over a 15-year period. The government had absolutely no problem taking my gay money. Yet, when the chips were down, I did not exist and my family was not real. Do you think this is an aberration? Do not put your heads in the sand anymore. It is not an aberration. It happens every day somewhere in this country. This is something that I never talk about if I can avoid it. It’s personal and it’s painful. I am doing it because I believe myself to be extremely politically astute and I pay attention. I have heard the rhetoric and firmly believe that a John McCain-Sarah Palin regime would disenfranchise and oppress everyone who doesn’t fit the approved mold. He will be the de facto president, but I have heard her speak and I hear what she is saying. The whole prospect of their election should be terrifying to anyone who believes in democracy and freedom for everyone. I am here to tell you from personal experience that it is a sham.

[Read more by Deb Della Piana  at Turn Left]

Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

Homeowners in Michigan Lose Vote…

Property ownership has always had a troubling connection to voting rights in this country. When the nation was founded, only white property owners, a tiny fraction of the population, could vote. And while most states had dropped property requirements for voting by the mid-eighteen hundreds, we’ve seen more recently, with the promotion of Bush’s “ownership society” and the high premium placed on homeownership, that owning property again features prominently in our concept of economic citizenship.

Indeed, it’s a slippery slope from the belief that homeowners are truer stakeholders and fulfillers of the American dream to the notion that homeowners are more legitimate Americans. That’s just one of the many disturbing aspects of the recent revelation, as reported by the Michigan Meseanger, that the chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County in Michigan is “planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.”

From Pam’s House Blend…

In Project Vote’s statement, Teresa James says “The GOP’s plan is a cynical partisan attempt to suppress the vote of thousands of low-income and African-American voters, a replay of the 2004 threats of mass challenges…In America you get to vote even if you’re behind on your bills. All Americans–particularly those members of the community hit hardest by the economic crisis–deserve a voice and a vote on Election Day.”

Even if your house hasn’t been foreclosed on, can you really be sure your vote will be counted?

It’s The Ballot Count, Stupid!

Millions will soon begin early voting in the General Election. Nearly half of all US counties will use Diebold GEMS tabulation system. Election officials have the ability to print off complete election summary reports throughout voting as ballots come in. This report shows how many ballots were cast, for whom, where and preliminary totals.

According to Jim March, “this is a Zogby poll from hell because if this information falls into anyone’s hands and not enough care is taken to protect the data, last-minute external pressure can be strategically placed to steal an election” not to mention the blatant internal manipulation possible.

Pima County Arizona uses Diebold voting machines. In May, 2006, a widely opposed $2-billion RTA bond measure to build new highways somehow was approved. Americans United for Democracy, Integrity, and Transparency in Elections – Arizona (AUDIT AZ) wants to know what happened.

They are so committed to uncovering vote machine and county worker fraud that a group member, who was also the officially, registered Democratic and Libertarian Party observer, was ordered arrested in Tucson last week during a hand count audit of the AZ Primary Election for asking questions about broken seals and ballot handling.

Will Democracy Lose In Ohio Again?

What follows is an article entitled “Ten ways the McCain/Palin GOP is Now Stealing the Ohio Vote”

Also See:

Adding Insult to Injury

Boing Boing

A new report is out about insurance and health care, and it’s not good. If you think the cost of health care is high now, just wait…It’s going to get even higher. Who would have thought that you could have insurance, and still not be able to afford healthcare? How is that possible? Only in America.

A few weeks ago I posted about the rising cost of prescription drugs, now it’s copays and premiums that will be increasing. Even people who have insurance and prescription drug plans, still can’t afford their medications. I thought insurance was suppose to “insure” we have quality and affordable health care? Not so much.

The United States spends more of its income on health care than any nation on earth, nearly $6,000 per person per year, more than 15 percent of our total income. In contrast, the countries of the European Monetary Union spend about $2,500 per person per year, less than 10 percent of their income.

The United States is very rich and we spend the most in the world on health care. We have a right to expect more for our money than a life expectancy outcome that places us thirtieth in the world, behind Singapore, Chile, and Costa Rica as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and every Western European nation.

Our health care system certainly delivers innovations in pharmaceutical and other technologies. It leads the world in Nobel Prizes for medicine and physiology. But it does not deliver medical care equitably to all Americans. Those who can pay have access to the best health care in the world. Those with good insurance plans—a decreasing fraction of the population—get good, life-extending health care. The rest must make do. And the result is that enough people fall through the cracks to place us at the bottom of the rich country life expectancy tables.

Here is some of what other women bloggers are saying about the rising cost of health care.

From Green LA Girl…

Our health care system’s so fucked up that people are getting married — and considering divorce! — simply due to health insurance issues. In the NY Times: “For today’s couples, “in sickness and in health” may seem less a lover’s troth than an actuarial contract. They marry for better or worse, for richer or poorer, for co-pays and deductibles.”

From MOMocrats…

• Under McCain’s Plan, Health Insurance Benefits Would be Taxed For The First Time, Resulting In A $3.6 Trillion Tax Increase On Working Families. McCain’s health care plan would eliminate the payroll deduction on health care benefits, which would have the effect of raising taxes on working families by $3.6 trillion. [New York Times, 5/1/08]
• The Health Care Tax Credit McCain Offers Would Cover Less Than Half The Cost Of An Average Health Care Plan. The McCain health plan would give families a $5,000 tax credit to purchase health insurance. However, in 2007, the average family health insurance plan cost $12,000 – more than double the value of McCain’s health care tax credit. [“Employer Health Benefits 2007 Annual Survey,” Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/11/07; “‘Call To Action’ On Health Care Reform,” John McCain 2008 press release, 4/29/08; Wall Street Journal, 10/11/07]

From Just Random‘s presidential wish list…

Universal Health Care (or at least affordable health care) – Why is the United States the only modernized country with out some form of universal health care? I know an argument could be made for the U.S. having the best health care, but why can’t we have both, come on some one smarter than me make it happen. Every child in this country should have access to health care.

From Christian Liberal’s Weblog…

Whatever the case, it’s surprising that so many self-professed Christians, and especially the evangelical type, are so eager to maul, mangle and manipulate those words, those lessons, so that it comes out as “every man for himself”, which of course is the exact opposite of the meaning and spirit of those teachings.

They’ll use phrases like “self-determination” or “market forces”, but it’s really just code words for “you’re on your own” and “don’t expect any help from me.” Likewise, they will use negative words to describe the concept. It’s been found that a majority of Americans favors universal healthcare, but if you change the language to “socialized medicine” the approval rating drops below 50%. And the greed-oriented apologists are quite expert at word-smithing.

The point is, any good-hearted Christian would not begrudge the care given to a needy neighbor.

Are you having trouble affording health care? Are you hoping if Obama is elected, things might get a little better? Are you worried, that if McCain is elected, things will get worse? Let me know what you think in comments.

(If you would like to be a guest blogger on this site, please join our community)

The day the world received the news that Senator Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a brain tumor, a fellow blogger I respect a great deal, Pamela Lyn, wrote an excellent piece that’s been in my mind ever since.

With yesterday marking the 40th anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, I have been reading a number of blog posts on the Kennedy family and their legacy.

Like Pamela Lyn, a Kennedy family member has served in a leadership role in the United States government for my entire life to date. One of my favorite and most memorable books as a child was one on President John F. Kennedy. It was a book focusing on the last 3 days of his life. I attribute that book and my parent’s respect for President Kennedy to my early childhood desire to serve my community and my desire as a teenager to serve in the Peace Corp.

At 14-years-old, I traveled with the All American Gymnastics Camp. While in the Salt Lake City airport, I was in a phone booth (remember those) talking on the phone with my mom. At one point, a large framed gentleman leaned back on my door and it began to open up on me while I was sitting on the little seat in the booth. The gentleman quickly turned around to excuse himself and apologize.

You can imagine my surprise when I found myself looking up into the face of Senator Ted Kennedy!

He was as kind and as gracious and as concerned as he could be. I’m sure he thought I didn’t have a clue as to who he was, but I did! It didn’t matter to him if I knew who he was or not. His only concern was that I was not hurt or scared. He was so incredibly kind.

I have never forgotten that moment.

In 1983, I traveled with the international, nonprofit group Up with People. Part of our tour that year included performances at the International Special Olympics held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

For those not aware of the wonderful, nonprofit organization started by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, I encourage you to take the time to visit the Special Olympics website.

Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world were attending the International Special Olympics that year and the crowds were enormous. (They almost equaled the heat and humidity!) News cameras from more nations than I could count were at every venue following athletes and celebrities alike. What an incredible week in my life.

During that week, I was blessed to have been chosen to participate in a television sports special taping with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Jenner, and some of the athletes competing in the weight training events. To me, Mr. Schwarzenegger and Mr. Jenner were not the most impressive people in the room.

The athletes lit up the gym. They were the stars.

However, there was another group of people that spent the day with us. And they were more than impressive in their nature and their interaction with the athletes.

They were the Kennedy’s.

Maria Shriver, a brother or two and some of her male cousins were our companions the entire day. I remember sitting on a bench with a not-yet-famous Maria Shriver talking about her love for the organization and the athletes. Like her uncle before, she was as sincere and as genuine as could be. There wasn’t one false or pretentious bone in her body as she spoke to me. She didn’t know me and during that moment, it was just us on that bench. No cameras, no microphones, no one else within ear shot.

She was as genuine as they come.

And so were her brothers and cousins.

This is a family that has had its ups and downs.

REALLY big ups and REALLY big downs.

While this is not a family of perfect people by any means — none of us come from one of those — they are a family that has dedicated their legacy, generation after generation, to public service. In the face of some our countries most tragic and sad events involving their own loved ones, members of this family continue to pursue the common good for all.

This is a family with strong roots and I feel blessed to be of a generation that has benefited from so very many of their efforts to make this world a better place.

If you are a homeowner with a mortgage, these numbers may be very scary to you…Nearly 1 in 10 Homeowners Face Loan Problems, and More Than A Million Homes Are In Foreclosure.From The Associated Press…

The foreclosure hammer is hitting ever harder. People lost their homes at the highest rate on record in the first three months of the year, and late payments soared to a new high, too — an alarming sign that the housing crisis and its damage to the national economy may only get worse.

Dumping more empty homes on an already glutted market also is likely to put a further drag on home prices — extending a vicious cycle.

Slumping home values are being blamed in large part for the rising tide of foreclosures. Troubled borrowers are left owing more to the bank than their homes are worth. They can’t sell without taking a huge financial hit, so they just walk away.

In fact, Americans’ equity in their homes — usually their single biggest asset — now has dropped to the lowest level on record in figures going back to the end of World War II.

CNN’s Cafferty File asked the question – What does it mean when more than a million homes are now in foreclosure? So far there are over 200 responses to the question. Here are just a few…

Rick writes:
It means maybe, maybe, Washington will begin to realize just how much the American people are hurting. From the mortgage crisis to gas prices, our leaders still have their blinders on. At some point, they’ll have to stop paying lip service to these problems and actually start addressing them. We can only hope.

Linda writes:
People can’t afford gas to get to work or look for work, high unemployment rates, high cost of health care to name a few. How can one make a mortgage payment when they can’t even afford a few gallons of gas?

Rick from West Hollywood, Calif. writes:
1 million homes in foreclosure and a recession “longer and deeper” than anyone realizes mean one thing: George Bush and the GOP’s chickens are coming home to roost. And we are the newspaper lining the chicken coop floor.

Also See:

Video of Ed McMahon – talking about his possible foreclosure.

More Million Dollar Foreclosures

The Housing Crisis Is NOT Over

For Those Of You Counting

While the words might change from country to country and are sometimes taken for granted, human rights represent one of the universally agreed upon ideas — that all people are born with basic rights and freedoms that include life, liberty, and justice. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations.

Bloggers Unite For Human Rights challenges bloggers everywhere to help elevate human rights by drawing attention to the challenges and successes of human rights issues on May 15. What those topics may include — the wrongful imprisonment of journalists covering assemblies, governments that ignore the plight of citizens, and censorship of the Internet. What is important is that on one day, thousands of bloggers unite and share their unified support of human rights everywhere.

This is a great opportunity for BlogHers to write about the BlogHers Act/Global Giving projects which are raising money for maternal health, as well as relief efforts for the Burmese people affected by the Myanmar cyclone. Because of the great need to assist in the Myanmar relief effort, BlogHers Act has extended it’s Mother’s Day deadline and will continue to accept donations.

The three recently added Myanmar projects are:

1. Provide Shelter for Survivors of Myanmar Cyclone
2. GlobalGiving Relief Fund for Myanmar Cyclone
3. Help Victims of Myanmar Cyclone

Also See:

Backyard Beacon

Tina-Sue Ducross

Nancy Zimmerman

The Multitasking Librarian

Selma In The City

Elaine Vigneault

Donna Sunbdlad

Pondering Penguin

Penny Ronning

Bethany Jaeger

Lilly’s Life

Girl With Pen

Mom Knows Everything

Have you blogged about Human Right today? If so, please share your link.

(cross-posted at The Care2 Election Blog)

Last week I did a post for BlogHer on the realities of John McCain’s health care plan — Would You Be Covered Under McCain’s Health Care Plan? Here is an excerpt…

Would you be covered under John McCain’s health care plan? I wouldn’t.

Regardless of who wins the Democratic nomination, that person will be running against John McCain. Not too long ago, I posted about McCain’s position on a woman’s right to choose. Basically, his position is to do everything possible to stop a woman from having reproductive choices. And when it comes to McCain’s healthcare plan, anyone with a preexisting medical condition should be very concerned.

I was watching ABC’s Sunday program, This Week with George Stephanopoulos — John McCain was being interviewed, first on the economy, then on his healthcare plan, and then on Barack Obama’s patriotism. I already wrote about what I thought of John McCain’s plan for the economy. So, I thought I would take some time to address his plan (or lack of) for healthcare.

Unlike the Clinton and Obama plans, McCain doesn’t seem to think it’s important to insure everyone have quality and affordable healthcare. It actually seems like his plan is to see how happy he can make the health insurance industry.

Over 40 million Americans do not have health insurance, and under the McCain plan, neither will people with preexisting conditions. So, who won’t be covered? Anyone with a preexisting condition such as…

• Asthma
• Diabetes
• Any Type of Cancer
• Heart/Blood Pressure Problems
• All Chronic Illnesses

But don’t worry. McCain says, he will “talk” to each state and “try” to have them cover some people with preexisting conditions. Well…That makes me feel a lot better…NOT. This is nothing more than straight-talking double-talk. What he should be saying is…If you thought things were bad with health care now, just wait till I am in office. I think someone needs to point out to the McCain campaign, that calling something “straight-talk” doesn’t actually make it straight-talk. Although, in his defense, he is just doing exactly what the Bush administration has become an expert in. Giving something a “feel good” name, that doesn’t reflect the truth in any way. Let me give you some examples…

• No Child Left Behind
• Foreclosure Prevention Bill
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Support The Troops

Just to name a few.

Bottom line. Things aren’t always as they seem…Especially when it come to straight-talk.

This is from The New York Times…

As Senator John McCain spends the week talking about health care and health insurance coverage, the Service Employees International Union has begun broadcasting an ad against his plans in Ohio and Washington, D.C.



The S.E.I.U.’s ad buy coincides with a new bus tour it began this week, starting in Cleveland, to promote and push for better health insurance coverage.

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More Political Voices of Women…

We now have over 400 women political bloggers on our list, here are the J’s…

Jac’s Notepad – an election 2008 diary

Jen’s Green Journal — My blog is 1/2 politics and 1/2 green living (which is becoming more and more political)

Jenn’s Journey As a Conservative - jenn is an awesome woman of conscience and conservative values stuck somewhere in n.j. and she’s always a fun read.

Jessica Mondillo’s Blog — I am a freshman at Boston University. I’m an 18 year old girl with very different views than many of the people around me. I enjoy intelligent conversations and seeing other people’s views.

Jo Jo Says…

Julie Pippert: Using My Words

A new study has found that the life expectancy for women in the United States is on the decline. But don’t worry, this is not something that will affect ALL women in our country – just the poor women.

Even more troubling, is that the study doesn’t include any statistics after 1999. What that means is, the Bush years have not been figured into these statistics. I can only imagine how the last eight years of the Bush administration have impacted the reality of these numbers.

It seems like it wasn’t that long ago, that I heard how the US life expectancy had slipped in ranking from 11th to 42nd, behind most European countries.

John Edwards was absolutely right when he talked about two Americas. Try to picture America on one side, and a third-world country on the other. Now picture that third-world country within the United States. Thanks to a failing economy and a serious health care crisis, that is exactly what we face today. It’s really not surprising at all. Very sad, but not surprising.


From The New York Times…

Life expectancy has long been growing steadily for most Americans. But it has not for a significant minority, according to a new study, which finds a growing disparity in mortality depending on race, income and geography.

The study, published Monday in the online journal PLoS, analyzed life expectancy in all 3,141 counties in the United States from 1961 to 1999, the latest year for which complete data have been released by the National Center for Health Statistics. Although life span has generally increased since 1961, the authors reported, it began to level off or even decline in the 1980s for 4 percent of men and 19 percent of women.

“It’s very troubling that there are parts of the wealthiest country in the world, with the highest health spending in the world, where health is getting worse,” said Majid Ezzati, the lead author and an associate professor of international health at Harvard. It is a phenomenon, he added, “unheard of in any other developed country.”

Listen to an interview on NPR…

Women in the southern part of the U.S. are dying earlier than before, according to a new study of life expectancy among women in the deep south and lower Midwest. The study’s lead author, Dr. Christopher Murray, explains the findings. And Dr. Wendy Klein, who specializes in women’s health, discusses what could be causing the change.

This is from a post at Momathon Blog

Women in the U.S. aren’t living as long these days. Can we blame it on the increase in obesity, high blood pressure, smoking and chronic illnesses related to these health concerns? One of every five American women (compared to only one of every 25 men) are dying at a younger age or seeing no improvement in life span according to a new study by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Washington. That works out to be a decline average of 1.3 years in 180 counties mainly in the south and certain rural areas. The decline is not the same in all parts of the country. That raises the question: What is causing the deadly trend? And why are life expectancies not on the decline for other Western nations?

This is from Crooks and Liars…

Now it would be easy to take the Republican route and blame this on individual lifestyle choices rather than looking at this as a symptom of inequality of care. PBS has just recently offered a series titled “Unnatural Causes: is inequality making us sick?” showing how our position in society affects our health. Executive Producer Larry Adelman wrote about it at the AFL-CIOblog.

This is from Healthy Moms…

There is a lot of discussion about a recent study done in the late 1990′s that concluded that the life expectancy rate in American women is declining. On AmericaBlog.com readers are blaming Republicans and the current administration for the decline. I don’t understand why since the study was done before President Bush was elected. Anyway enough of my politics. I thought that this story would be fitting because most of my readers are women.

It would be easy to look at this study and assume that these women are choosing an unhealthy lifestyle, and therefore contributing to the health conditions that are causing them to die at a younger age. But when you look closer, it’s clear that poverty and a lack of adequate healthcare is the underlying cause. I hope these new findings will be a catalyst in helping to bridge the gap between poverty and wellness.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan, also at The Care2 Election Blog

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More Political Voices of Women…

We now have over 400 women political bloggers on our list, here are the D’s…

Dana Tuszke — Political Contributing Editor for BlogHer

DC Metro Moms — The politics of parenting.

Dear Kitty, Some Blog

DebsWeb

Deep Muck Big Rake

Defending The Environment

Delaware Way

Democracy For New Mexico — by Barbara W.

Detroit News Politics Blog

Diary of a Content Black Woman

Different Drummer

Ditzy Dems, Part Deux

DogWoman

Cynthia Samuels — Don’t Gel Too Soon

Dragon Lady’s Den

Dragonfly Ranch Blog