Mary Landrieu Has Health Insurance!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Mary Landrieu, a United States Senator from Louisiana, has been in the news quite a bit lately. Polls show that the people of Louisiana favor a national health insurance program, but Senator Landrieu, an astute political animal and daughter of the infamous ex-mayor of New Orleans, Moon Landrieu, has an election coming up and she is not too sure about those polls.

(Okay, that was a bit unfair of me because all mayors of New Orleans, past and present, generate some degree of infamy.)

Last Saturday the National Association of Free Clinics - in association with MSNBC - held a free health care clinic in New Orleans, and the results were quite disturbing. Over one thousand people showed up for the free health screenings. Ninety-percent of those in attendance received two or more diagnoses, 82% had life-threatening illnesses, and four had to be taken to hospitals immediately on stretchers. Many of those seen at the clinic had not had any medical care since before Hurricane Katrina devastated their city and their lives.

One nurse who attended as a patient was interviewed on television. He worked for two different hospitals, and because he could not find a "full-time" position, he had no health insurance. The nurse said that he had not been to a doctor for his own medical care in over five years. (That's how Wal-Mart does it. Keep those wage slaves employed on a part-time basis so you don't have to pay those pesky benefits.)

Senator Landrieu was invited to attend the free clinic to visit with her constituents and get a firsthand view of the very real health care crisis that exists in her state and her city - but she declined due to "scheduling conflicts." She was also invited onto the television show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, to discuss the results of the clinic, but she was unavailable for that also.

While Mary Landrieu may not yet be certain which way the political winds are blowing, that is not the case with Republican Congressman Joseph Cao who represents most of New Orleans in the House of Representatives. Mr. Cao was the only Republican to vote for the comprehensive health care package recently passed by the House. Joe knows, Mary, Joe knows. Wake up and smell the chicory coffee!

(Senator Landrieu was in the news today when it was revealed that she inexplicably wrote a check to the United States Treasury from her campaign fund for $25,300. Either she is an exceptionally concerned citizen with altruistic motives, or she is trying to get in front of an ethics probe. My money is on the latter.)

The National Association for Free Health Clinics and MSNBC will hold another big clinic this Saturday in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Senator Blanche Lincoln, another Democrat, is also sitting on the health care fence. Will Senator Lincoln show up at the clinic and meet her constituents - and listen to their real life health care horror stories? That is what a good Senator, one who is truly concerned about the health of her constituents, would do.

Make your donation or pledge your time at: www.freeclinics.us (I made mine this evening.)

The Worst Person in the World

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Keith Olbermann has a regular segment on Countdown where he identifies the three worst people in the world. Each day three new individuals are selected for this honor based on their crimes, outrages, or dumb comments. Usually Bill O'Reilly of Fox News (whom Keith refers to as "Bill-O the Clown") makes the daily top three, accompanied by a couple of other buffoons like Rush Limbaugh ("Comedian Rush Limbaugh" or, more recently, "Boss Limbaugh"), Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, or any other easy mark.

And while it would be nice if those Neanderthal jugheads were the worst people in the world, clearly they aren't - well, with the possible exception of Cheney.

My nominee for Worst Person in the World is Steven Dale Green. The twenty-two-year-old Green was serving with the United States Army in Iraq when he and three of his buddies decided that breaking into an Iraqi home and raping a young girl would be an entertaining way to spend an evening.

According to at least one of the attackers, the four had spotted the fourteen-year-old girl while working at a checkpoint. They found out that she lived close by. The girl's mother, fearing that he daughter had attracted the interest of some unsavory U.S. soldiers arranged for the daughter to sleep at a neighbor's house. The problem didn't come that night, though, it happened late the next afternoon.

Private Green and his friends had spent that afternoon playing cards, drinking whiskey, and hitting golf balls. At some point after they began to get their drunk on, Green brought up the idea of breaking into the Iraqi home and raping the girl. One of the gang later described Green as being persistent about wanting to rape the young girl. At some point the group gave in to Private Green. They put on dark clothing, painted their faces, and proceeded to the girl's house.

One of the men related that after pushing their way into the home, Green took the parents and the five-year-old little sister into a bedroom and gunfire was heard. When Green emerged alone from the bedroom he said simply, "I just killed them. All are dead." Green and one of the others then got what they had come for. They raped the fifteen-year-old. After they were done, Green reportedly shot her in the head two or three times. They finished off the evening by burning the girl's body.

When the murders were discovered, the Army was quick to blame it on insurgents, even though the locals suspected that it had been committed by American soldiers. The FBI was brought in to assist with the investigation. A few months later two soldiers were abducted from Green's platoon by Iraqi insurgents. When their mutilated bodies were discovered, some felt that they had been murdered in response to some outrage committed by the Americans. One of the men who had been with Green that day was overcome with guilt for his dead comrades, and blurted out the story of the killings of the Iraqi family.

By the time the story of that awful evening in Iraq came to light, Private Steven Green had been honorably discharged from the Army after being diagnosed with a "personality disorder." The three who were still in the Army were tried for murder and rape in a military courts-martial and received sentences ranging from 27 months to 100 years in prison.

Steven Green, by virtue of no longer being in the military, was tried in a Federal Court in Paducah, KY. This past Thursday he was found guilty of murder, rape, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. The penalty phase of his trial will begin on Monday, and it is likely that he will be sentenced to death.

The four young men who committed this awful crime were part of the Army's 101st Airborne Division out of Ft. Campbell, KY. I didn't know Mr. Green or any of his gang, but I was at Ft. Campbell during the time they were there. And while I never met, and probably never even saw, Steven Green, I feel like I do know quite a bit about him.

Though it has not been reported in the press, be assured that Steven Green was seriously abused as a child, physically without doubt - and probably sexually as well. Children aren't born bad - ever. They are often taught to behave badly by those who are entrusted with their care. A brutalized child learns to cower in weakness or to lash out against anything that gets in his way. A child who is repeatedly raped learns to fear sex, or use it to survive, or to use it as a weapon. Every child, and each of us, is a product of our life experiences.

Steven Green grew up flawed - and then he joined the Army. He became part of a large enterprise that valued violence, an organization that saw Iraqis as something less than good Christian humans. His deeply flawed character became immersed in the military and the occupation of a foreign country, and the result was almost inevitable. He was an open can of gasoline sitting in a room full of burning candles.

Society failed Steven Dale Green, and society suffered his rage for that failure. How many more Steven Greens can we bear before society completely breaks down? We need to be watching our children and listening to what they tell us. We need to be respecting our children and celebrating the fact that they are our future. When it comes to children, we truly do reap what we sow.

And we need to be highly selective about who we allow to serve in our military. Psychological tests are available that would have weeded out Steven Green - but some recruiter was hard pressed to make his quota. By the time he was weeded out with a "personality disorder," two innocent children and their parents had lost their lives.

So is it fair for the government to take the life of Steven Dale Green if he is indeed the product of forces beyond his control. Of course it isn't. If he is sentenced to prison for the rest of his life, can he be rehabilitated and be of any use to society? Probably not. Green who grew up in Midland, TX, the same affluent community that produced President George W. Bush, will either be killed for his crimes or warehoused.

Death or warehousing? Two bad choices, but what other choice is there?

The Stimulatin' Blues

by Pa Rock
Political Commentator

If the hypocrisy generated by Republicans and their media mouthpieces was pure manure, it could fill the Grand Canyon and create a victory garden that would feed America! (Alright, so it is manure, but like most things produced by the GOP, it is lacking in quality.)

Today a handful of Republican Governors from the American South were gnashing their teeth and saying that maybe they wouldn't accept any of that stimulus money. Yeah, wanna bet? Try telling that one to the voters back home who are without jobs and mired in debt. Big talk emanating from big mouths - but when the cash starts rolling, they will be the first hogs at the trough!

Today the big conservative whine revolved around the unfairness the "bailout" of people having trouble with their mortgages. First of all, the "bailout" doesn't pay the mortgage, it just gives people in trouble an opportunity to take care of their debt rather than walk out on their obligation and let the banks handle the loss. Poll those same Republican noisemakers and you will learn that damn few want the banks to suffer. Second, Obama is right. The people who aren't in mortgage trouble don't really want a bunch of foreclosures in their neighborhoods. Boarded up houses with ragged lawns hurt the home values of all of the neighbors.

But my favorite hypocrite isn't a governor or a radio maggot. My favorite hypocrite is Senator Kit Bond of Missouri. Yesterday he stayed busy travelling around Missouri proudly pointing out how its citizens would benefit from certain parts of the stimulus package - never mind that he had voted against that same package when it passed in the Senate. Keith Olbermann wisely made Bond his "Worst Person in the World" on Countdown yesterday for his opportunistic buffoonery.

Rush Limbaugh put the Republican strategy into words when he said publicly that he wanted to see Obama fail. Fair enough - it's all politics. The problem is that if Obama fails, we all fail - even drug-addled radio clowns. The economy is a lemon, a big sour lemon. Do we want to sit around sucking on it and feeling sorry for ourselves, or do we want to roll up our sleeves and at least try to make lemonade? The GOP likes to squint and pucker and tell us how awful anything is that is done for the public good, but the rest of us don't have to buy into their miserable view of life.

And I, for one, choose not to!

Gobama!

Gay Rights Are Civil Rights!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

This morning my daughter forwarded a link to me on the special comment that Keith Olbermann did on Countdown last night. His topic was gay rights and the electoral travesty that took place at the polls in California on that topic last week. Normally I catch Keith's special comments as they happen, but last night I was engaged in some other activities, so I was pleased and surprised that my daughter not only saw the comment, but she was affected by Keith's words enough to pass them along to her email list.

Keith was railing (he always rails - and he does it so well!) on the passage of California's Proposition 8, a measure that constitutionally removed the rights of gay couples to marry in California. (Generally constitutions have functioned to give people rights, not take them away!) Seventy million dollars were spent on that one ballot measure, making it the most expensive election item in the U.S except for the Presidential race.

Keith argued, quite eloquently (as always), that gay marriage does nothing to pose a threat to anyone else's right to marry. He said that all gays want are the same privileges that are afforded to straight people. He noted that up until the second half of the twentieth century nineteen states had laws forbidding people of different races to marry - laws that would have prevented the marriage of the parents of the next President of the United States.

Most of the millions that were pumped into California were spent on support of the measure to ban gay marriages, and most of that money came from the Mormon Church.

Gay activist and journalist Andrew Sullivan had this to say regarding the Mormon energy and gold that went into the passage of Prop 8:

"This was not typical church activism. The Mormon Prophet commanded that every California member give time and money to pass Prop 8. Each member was then contacted by a church authority to make sure the orders from Salt Lake City were obeyed. Mormons were organized into groups to canvas neighborhoods, knock on doors, distribute yard signs, and otherwise organize against gay marriage rights.

"Sounds like standard civic participation, right? But remember, Mormons are not allowed to dissent.

"Those who openly speak disagreement with the church's orthodoxy are routinely excommunicated..."

(Andrew Sullivan's complete comments can be found on the website of The Atlantic.)

It's ironic that the Mormon Church, an institution that was born in bigamy, would deign to tell others how to marry. (Some fundamentalist branches and off-shoots of the Mormon Church are still openly and defiantly pro-bigamy.)

Mormon's prefer to hear their church referred to as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with emphasis on the Jesus Christ part. They want other fundamentalist Christians in America to give them their proper due as also being Christians, something that did not universally occur during Mitt Romney's brief run for the Presidency. Some say that was why they so eagerly poured their monies and energies into California's homophobic ballot measure.

When it comes to the subject of homosexuality, the Mormon church gets plumb stupid. For a good sense of their institutionalized homophobia, check out the 2003 movie, Latter Days. It is the tale of a promiscuous young gay man living in West Hollywood who makes a bet that he can seduce one of the three young Mormon missionaries who have recently moved into his apartment complex. The tale gets dicey when he falls in love with his intended target, and more complications follow when the Mormon Church itself weighs in on the romance.

There has also been a recent controversy playing out in the news that focuses on the Mormon Church's uptight stance regarding sex. A young Mormon man named Chad Hardy came up with the idea of creating a calendar with pictures of shirtless Mormon missionaries. The beefcake product was titled "Men on a Mission," and it sold about a bazillion copies. The Church, however, was not amused. Mr. Hardy was promptly excommunicated, and Brigham Young University, a school completely owned by the Mormon Church, just as promptly withdrew his diploma. Fortunately for Mr. Hardy, the Church's draconian response has sent sales of his calendar through the roof. A sequel is very likely!

Boycott Utah!

But back to the subject at hand...

Anti-gay marriage amendments were on the ballot in three states last Tuesday. California's passed by 52%, older and more conservative Arizona passed it by 56%, and the ancients of Florida rejected gay marriage with a whopping majority of 62 percent. That sounds bad, but the nation's homophobia is gradually lessening as younger, and more worldly (and educated) people, begin to make their mark at the polls. (As an example, similar legislation passed by 61% in California in the year 2000 - so the bigotry has subsided by 9% in just eight years!)

The times, as Mr. Dylan tells us, they are a changin'!

Viva Keith!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Okay, I gave up on living without television and had my cable reconnected on Saturday. I immediately experienced a problem, and it only took me thirty-five minutes to get a human being on the telephone at Cox Cable. Some things never change!

Tonight I managed to get my Countdown jones sated! Keith did a "Special Comment" on Sarah Palin, and he was brutal! He was breathing so much fire I was afraid that my sprinklers would go off! I laughed until I hurt!

After Olbermann waxed Palin, I stayed on MSNBC and watched Rachel Maddow kick Pat Buchanan around the studio like he was an over-inflated beach ball.

Gosh, it's good to have my friends back. You betcha it is!