Health care is a human right, and to quote a nice, elderly man from my hippie church "We all need to get off our asses and make sure this thing passes!"

It's been a long time since I've posted on MOMocrats, the blog I started along with Glennia and Beth because, after 8 years of Bush "leading" our country, there was no way we were going to allow a Republican to become president.

After the election of Barack Obama, I was completely burned out. So much of my time, effort, brain space, and blogging was devoted to getting a Democrat elected that I needed a break. I just didn't expect that it would last 9 months.

I can't remember the last time I watched Olbermann. I don't hit refresh on Huffington Post or Politico or factcheck.org multiple times a day like I used to. My papers stacked up so I finally canceled my subscriptions. I have been content to focus on other aspects of my life feeling as if now, our country is finally in good hands. And it mostly is.

Except that over the last month or so, as I have watched the people who are working so hard to reform our failing healthcare system and to pass HR676 having to do battle against a well-funded, lie-spreading machine, I have gotten angrier and angrier. How people like Sarah Palin are STILL being so careless with their words. Death panels and socialized medicine? And people believe it.

How members of congress who have accepted hundreds or millions of dollars in donations from insurance and pharmaceutical companies are allowed time on the floor.

How Democratic members of congress (I'm looking at you, Feinstein) can say, "I am not for a public option."

And the guns.  Don't even get me started on the guns.

As I sat in my beloved hippie church today, listening to our speaker, Lynn Huidekoper, one of the founders of the Single Payer Coalition, share information on this landmark healthcare decision—a reform that could finally bring the United States in line with the other 27 highly developed nations of the world—I knew that it was time. Healthcare reform was my path back to MOMocrats. I know that my sisters here have been carrying on the healthcare fight for months now, but now is the time that I need to step up and do my part.

We MOMocrats did so much good before sharing our thoughts and combating lies and getting the right person elected president, that it's time to do it again. Healthcare needs to be our change we can believe in. If you believe that our current system is broken and that healthcare is a basic human right—that access to good healthcare is something that all people should have—then you, too, regardless of your political or religious affiliation, must take up this fight. It is only through the efforts of a very passionate and vocal grassroots effort that we are going to get HR676 passed.

So what can you do? 

First, let's counteract the lies and untruths with what Huidekoper calls, "no-brainers." These are the simple facts that you can copy and paste and include in an email to all your family and friends, and they are:

1. Healthcare is a human right.
2. We are not starting from scratch--we are taking an existing program, Medicare, and expanding it.
3. Medicare is a single payer program for those 65 and older. (We know what it is.)
4. Single payer means expanding Medicare to cover all. (Take something we are already doing and make it cover all Americans, not just those 65 and older.)
5. 5% overhead instead of 30% (Think about how much insurance and pharamaceutical companies spend on advertising. I never saw ads for erectile dysfuction, eyelash lengtheners, overactive bladder, or hyperactive leg syndrome on TV 10 or 15 years ago.)
6. It will cost less.
7. Everyone is covered, no denials, no preexisting conditions.
8. It is NOT free.
9. Employees and Employers pay into the system. Look at your pay stub, we already know how to do it.
10. Business will be paying 4.75% payroll instead of 16%.
11. A rich benefit package will be available to all.
12. All will have long term care, vision and dental covered (individual state plans right now may not, but federal will).
13. No more bankruptcies due to health care bills.
14. It is NOT socialized medicine. Socialized medicine is where government owns the hospitals, doctors, and everything in it. There are only a handful of truly socialist medicine systems in the world and guess what?  One of them is in the United States: it's called the VA.
15. Health care delivery remains private. Under HR676 patients continue to see private doctors in private hospitals. Government claims will be processed by private insurance companies not government agencies. See #14: It is NOT socialized medicine.
16. Total choice of health care provider. Under single payer you can go to any doctor, not just the ones in your plan. HMOs are more restrictive NOW.
17. More money will go to health care.
18. No more middle man between doctor and patient, contrary to what opponents say. The middle men are the insurance companies who currently tell doctors what tests and medications they will and will not allow.
19. Doctors will regain control of healthcare--which is why 60% of doctors support single payer.
20. No more deaths due to uninsurance or denial of care. Twenty thousand people a year die yearly because they are not insured, are under insured, or have been denied care.  That is an outrage.
21. No more obscene salaries for insurance CEOs.
22. No more inhumane waits in ERs for primary care.
23 We will join all the other industrialized nations in covering EVERYONE.

A Response to Sarah Palin's "Death Panel" Comment from a Parent of a Child with Special Needs

Sarah Palin, you are not my advocate. You do not speak for me. You do not speak for my child.

You do not speak for the many good friends of mine who have children with chronic medical issues far more severe than my own son's neurological disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder. You do not speak for all parents of children with Down Syndrome. You do not speak for the member of my extended family who has Down Syndrome.

What you said on your Facebook page, about mythical Obama "death panels"?

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.  -Sarah Palin

If enough people believe it — if enough people are scared by it into opposing any kind of health insurance reform — that politically motivated statement deliberately promoting a dangerous rumor that has been proven to be patently false could cause tens of thousands of children with special needs in the United States to continue to suffer without adequate health care for years to come.

In the United States, children with chronic health issues are often denied coverage by private health insurance companies that consider their health concerns to be a pre-existing condition. Some of those children denied coverage under private health insurance are, thankfully, able to qualify for public health insurance through Medicaid or SCHIP — two of our country's existing socialized medical insurance programs — but some are not. And those children who do have private insurance coverage are often forced to pay high co-pays for routine procedures, and are frequently denied authorization for recommended medical care.

Every day in the United States, children with autism or cerebral palsy are denied occupational therapy. Children with juvenile diabetes are denied insulin pumps. Children with asthma are denied inhalers. American parents of children with chronic health conditions must fight a tangled bureaucratic health insurance system constantly to make sure that their kids can get access to the care recommended by their doctors.

And that's why the National Down Syndrome Congress supports health insurance reform. That's why the Autism Society of America supports health insurance reform. That's why Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, the American Diabetes Association, and the March of Dimes all support health care insurance reform. Because all of these organizations are advocates for children with special needs.

Cynthia Davis is right: hunger is a motivator

Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis, a Republican from O'Fallon, a St. Louis suburb with a median income 60% higher than the state average, recently criticized the state of Missouri's summer free lunch program for impoverished children in her monthly newsletter, saying that she thinks "hunger can be a positive motivator" for kids. Cynthia Davis argues that parents who have been laid off during the recession ought to be able to make do without government assistance:

Most parents put their children first, even ahead of themselves no matter what. If parents are laid off, that doesn’t mean they stop feeding their children, at least not any of the parents I know. Laid off parents could adapt by preparing more home cooked meals rather than going out to eat.

And she maintains that, if Missouri shuts down the free lunch program, children who find themselves going hungry will just be that much more motivated to feed themselves at no cost to the state by getting jobs at fast food restaurants:

Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can’t they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16?  Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals?

Tip: If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break.

No word from Ms. Davis yet on what those Missouri families who were already unable to afford regularly going out to eat before losing their income to recession ought to do to "adapt" to their new lack of funds to buy food. No word either on what teenagers are supposed to do if there are no jobs available at the local McDonald's because all positions there have been taken by recently laid-off adults. Or on how these kids are supposed to get to work if they cannot afford, say, a car, given that the local public transportation system recently cut bus services. No direction from Ms. Davis on what "motivated" younger children who cannot work at McDonald's are supposed to do to feed themselves.

Facing criticism by political bloggers and local and national press, Cynthia Davis continues to defend her position. I think Representative Davis is right about one thing: hunger is a motivator.

You never forget going hungry. Being hungry, well. That happens every day. As in, it's lunchtime. I'm hungry. Let's go out for a bite. I know a great little taco place down the street with fresh guacamole. That sort of feeling is commonplace. Forgettable. You don't always remember today what you ate for lunch three days ago, let alone the craving that drove you to eat in the first place.

Guest MOMocrats Post by Miguelina: Calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist? Make sure you have the facts first.

The MOMocrats welcome guest poster Miguelina who has a few things to say about the nasty tactics the GOP is using to try to smear Sonia Sotomayor.  Playing the racist card? You better come correct.

To Understand Takes Time and Effort, Something that Not All People Are Willing To Give

I'm not even going to pretend that this a political blog (or I should more accurately say, a judicial watch blog) but the constant exposure to Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latina" quote, taken out of context is -- to put it mildly -- disappointing to me.

Dirty GOP politics is nothing new, but that the mainstream media keeps repeating the quote out of context thus doing the GOP's dirty work for them is pretty scary.

Sigh.

Why such a sophomoric smear campaign? In Sotomayor's own words,

To understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give.

You could argue that those words are proven right by the storm brewing around her right now, but I'll let you decide on your own. I trust that my fellow Americans are capable to form an opinion based on facts, something that talk radio seems to think is impossible.

I'm not even going to pretend that this a political blog (or I should more accurately say, a judicial watch blog) but the constant exposure to Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latina" quote, taken out of context is -- to put it mildly -- disappointing to me.

Dirty GOP politics is nothing new, but that the mainstream media keeps repeating the quote out of context thus doing the GOP's dirty work for them is pretty scary.

Sigh.

Why such a sophomoric smear campaign? In Sotomayor's own words,

To understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give.

You could argue that those words are proven right by the storm brewing around her right now, but I'll let you decide on your own. I trust that my fellow Americans are capable to form an opinion based on facts, something that talk radio seems to think is impossible.

Dear Democrats: On AIG, Quit Gnashing Your Teeth. Start Doing Your Jobs.

No, seriously.

I've seen you on TV this week, outragedly expressing your outrage about the outrageous outrage that is the outrageous AIG bonus payout.

All that outrage sure makes for good populist theater. But that's what it is, isn't it? Theater.

Because the fact is, you should have seen this coming.

Bush, Paulson and Bernanke may have been the ones behind the notorious TARP Part One, the taxpayer-funded bailout that handed out no-strings-attached cash to failing financial firms like a lonely grandma passing out Halloween candy. The application for the Bush version of TARP required less information from floundering banks that had publicly admitted risky behavior than I, as a fairly responsible private citizen, would have to provide in order to secure a Victoria's Secret credit card.  

Conservatives blame poor people for housing crisis [De-bunking the CRA myth]

This morning I received a coded message across the super-secret liberal journalist hotline an email directing my attention to an article in the Washington Independent which puts the kibosh on the misguided-but-popular-with-conservatives notion that the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 is the cause of the housing crisis.

A little background: the CRA "requires banks to help meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered,' regardless of income levels. The law was enacted to prevent banks from denying loans (home, small business etc.) based on the poverty levels of certain neighborhoods — a practice known as redlining." In other words, yes, the law was designed to promote lending in low-income areas. It was not, however, designed to promote risky, sub-prime loans. In fact, the CRA penalizes banks for reckless and irresponsible lending practices. This is an important distinction.

The GOP and conservative pundits would have us believe that this law is the root cause of the nation's housing mess. In other words, poor people got risky loans and defaulted on their payments because they couldn't pay their bills. This argument puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of low-income homeowners while letting their lenders off scot-free.

Ah, but if only it were the true. Federal Reserve Board analysis in 2006 found that "CRA-covered banks operating in CRA-targeted neighborhoods accounted for just six percent of the risky, high-cost loans largely responsible for the housing crisis."

According to the NCRC, sub-prime lending practices exploded two decades after the passing of the CRA and reached their peak—nearly doubling—from 2000-2006. These were made by unregulated mortgage companies because let's not forget that it was the George W. Bush Administration's "roll back of regulation and oversight of banks, insurers, lenders, and credit raters" that left Wall Street with "no cop on the beat."

A top federal regulator went before Congress last week and didn't mince words:

“I can state very definitively,” Sandra Braunstein, director of the Federal Reserve’s consumer and community affairs division, said during a House Financial Institutions subcommittee hearing Wednesday, “that from the research we have done, the Community Reinvestment Act is not one of the causes of the current crisis.”

Yet, according to the article, "some myths don’t die easy." Republicans, backed by the financial and banking industry who continue to lobby hard and make campaign donations even in the wake of recent and on-going bailouts, "appear as willing as ever to blame the CRA for the collapse of the housing market."

So remember, the cause of the housing crisis wasn't bad loans or predatory lending or poor underwriting practices. It wasn't the non-CRA-covered banks who targeted CRA-covered areas to to push risky, high-cost loans, and it certainly wasn't failed regulatory oversight.

It's the poor people's fault.

Read the entire article here.

MOMocrats co-founder Stefania Pomponi Butler wishes she really did have access to a super-secret liberal journalist hotline. Because that would be some badassery right there.

Conservative Republican David Frum on conservative Republican Rush Limbaugh in this week's Newsweek [but will they listen?]

Rush Limbaugh has been in the news a lot lately, and frankly, I don't mind it. The more he talks, the worse off the Republicans are. The more he pontificates, the more he alienates the voters that the party desperately needs to reach, namely women and independents.

And that's not just my opinion, noted conservative David Frum wrote a scathing cover story on Loud-mouth Limbaugh in this week's Newsweek. My subscription paid for itself this week with that one article. It's a searing indictment which makes it all the more delicious to read, but at the same time, I kind of wish he'd kept his mouth shut.

Making an NSA Spy's Job That Much Easier

Former National Security Agency Analyst Russell Tice recently reported to MSNBC that, under intelligence directives issued during the Bush Administration, the NSA has been spying extensively on American citizens, and has specifically targeted American journalists:

Some journalists who have written critically about domestic spying programs have come forward to say they believe they have been placed under government surveillance in retaliation. New York Times reporter James Rise suspects he has been deliberately targeted, because Bush Administration officials recently revealed copies of James' Rise's phone records to a grand jury investigating government leaks.

And even government officials who have expressed doubt about the usefulness or constitutionality of government domestic spying programs, including Deputy Attorney General Comey and former Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, have also reported they were subsequently targeted with surveillance.

I've written about government spying programs that target American citizens. I'm not a journalist; I'm a blogger, but the difference is blurring these days. And heaven knows, certain Republican friends of mine have made it pretty clear to me that they consider MOMocrats to be a radical leftist organization. Have I been under government surveillance? If the Obama Administration has not yet shut these domestic spying programs down, could I still be?

"Did he love his country less because he was Muslim?"

The title of this post comes from the very astute Suebob who twittered it along with a link to the above photo.

Bronze star. Purple heart. For a soldier with a majestic name who lived 20 short years and who died in service to his country. He was Muslim. He was a hero. He was a patriot of the highest order.

Can we please get off of this Muslim=bad trip? Does Cpl. Khan not deserve our deepest thanks and gratitude? Imagine how his mother must feel hearing those racist whispers. Does smearing Muslims make it any easier for Cpl. Khan's mother to lift her head from his gravestone, stand up and return to her normal life? If I were her, I think I should like to stay there forever with my arms wrapped around his headstone, protecting his memory forever.

That hate reminds me of how Japanese-Americans were treated during World War II. I cannot imagine being stripped of my rights as an American, forced to live in a concentration camp far away from my home, then enlisting to just to prove one's patriotism. "Yes, Muslims, Blacks, Japanese, Any People Not Like Us—we will vilify you, smear you and lock you up, but we will happily accept you into our Armed Forces."

Patriotism doesn't have a race, religion, or color. Neither does bravery or heroism. There are people in this country who would do well to remember that, and if they can't, let's hope they do the next generation a favor and teach that lesson to their children and grandchildren. Enough is enough.

To more powerful photos from the New Yorker series, click here.

—Stefania Pomponi Butler

Proud member of the "liberal feminist agenda" here. How 'bout you?

Y'all catch this gem from Senator McCain this morning?

I just want to say one thing to you, Senator McCain, so listen in real close:

Sarah Palin is not the "best thing that could have happened to America." She is not "a role model for all women." She represents everything that I am against. I feel like holding up her photo to my two young daughters and saying, "See this, girls?  As a women, do not strive to be like this. Strive to be the opposite."

Her family values:

• Extreme, fundamentalist Christian
• Lack of importance placed on education (two kids so far are high school dropouts with no immediate plans to go to college)
• Lack of curiosity about the world
• Has no moral problem with spreading racist smears even though she is "Christian"
• Ignorance
• Anti-choice
• "Drill, baby, drill."
• Allows herself to be as a pawn in the GOP's political agenda (and yes, this includes her cringe-worthy appearance on SNL)

My family values liberal feminist agenda:

• Religious/spiritual acceptance
• High priority placed on education (my girls are being raised to go to college, no if's and's or but's about it)
• Love of travel, meeting new people, experiencing new cultures; we are citizens of the world
• Bigotry and racism is wrong
• Tolerance
• Pro-choice
• "Green, baby, green!"
• Critical thinking

With each passing day McCain is showing us how much he hates women. I mean, he just seems to harbor so much disdain for anyone with a uterus. From air quotes about "women's health" to his callous treatment of his first wife to calling Cindy a "cunt" in public to picking a complete douche to be his running mate he has shown how little he thinks of women. How Cindy can continue showering Gramps with her money after that is beyond me. Cindy seems like a sensible woman. Let's hope she comes to her senses and divorces his ass after this campaign is over. She certainly doesn't need him to support her.

The fact that McCain thinks she is a role model to all women again highlights the abject cynicism with which he views our gender. If that's the case, count me as a proud liberal feminist raising two more liberal feminists to follow my agenda. McCain, if I were your wife (shudder) and you called me a cunt in public your stumpy little ass would have been knocked out. I know I could take you, because I'm two inches taller than you, Short Stuff. Liberal feminists unite!

—Stefania Pomponi Butler