Abel Tomlinson for Arkansas State Rep (District 92, Fayetteville)

Campaign Announcement & Facebook Group

2010-07-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10607878916

I am running for the Arkansas State House (District 92, Fayetteville). I will be running as a Write-In Independent, partly because I am tired of political parties & divisive partisanship.

I will stand independently alone as it should be.

The issue I will most focus on is:

1. Repealing Corporate Personhood for world peace, restored democracy, and the ability for our civilization to smoothly transition from an oil-based agriculture and economic system to a solar-based society without systemic collapse. Considering the implications of peak oil and the oncoming supply decline, we must not fail to treat this issue as the national emergency that it is.

I respect and love my adversary, Democratic candidate Greg Leding, but I feel that America and the world can't wait to repeal Corporate Personhood. I believe that I alone have the courage, knowledge and focused inspiration required to confront this most problematic, entrenched and powerful institution!

Because of Corporate Personhood, big business now utilizes the Bill of Rights and other Constitutional amendments in ways that are extremely detrimental and deadly to the public interest, world peace & planet earth.

Corporate Personhood is a root cause of most of our political ills, including the Middle East Wars, environmental destruction in the Gulf of Mexico, massive corporate subsidies like the Wall Street bailouts, and the most corrupt healthcare system on the planet. We can not truly fix these problems and progress until we pull this toxic weed up by the roots. Only then will we see world peace and global environmental sanity.

Prior to 1886 corporations were prohibited from spending ANY money on campaigns or lobbyists. However, after a court reporter (and former corporate executive) inserted the notion of Corporate Personhood in the headnotes of the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Supreme Court decision, corporations have begun claiming all the rights originally intended for only Natural Persons like you and I.

One of the worst examples is corporations claiming the First Amendment right to Free Speech, which translates into them being able to donate billions of dollars in our campaigns. This has enabled these extremely wealthy institutions to buy our elections, candidates, government & laws. Another example is corporations using the 14th Amendment right to Equal Protection, which was originally intended to give freed slaves equal rights. Big business uses the 14th Amendment to harm and destroy small business that might offer competition.

Due to corporate financing of our elections, the Federal Government is captured by corporations and the best way to reclaim it for The People is to repeal Coporate Personhood. The best way to repeal Corporate Personhood is to amend the U.S. Constitution to define that only "Natural Persons" deserve political rights designed for human citizens, not "artificial corporate persons".

Please read Thom Hartman's evolutionary book on Corporate Personhood, "Unequal Protection," to fully understand the gravity of this subject.

The Federal Government is essentially owned by corporate campaign financiers, so it will be almost impossible to get U.S. Congress to make such a bold move for the public interest.

Thus, the best way to solve this dilemma is for state legislatures to begin calling for a Constitutional Convention to amend the U.S. Constitution. If 2/3 of the states call for this Convention, we can retake our Federal Government for the Greater Good and World Peace.

If even 1 or 5 states begin calling for this Convention, there is a high probability it would snowball until our Democratic Republic is restored. Why shouldn't Arkansas lead this political evolution? And why shouldn't Fayetteville more powerfully lead Arkansas?

Oil Spill Causes & Solutions

2010-07-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

This Omnivision show is about the massive BP Gulf oil volcano that is gushing 27,000 barrels of oil/day into the ocean, deeply endangering 40% of America's wetlands and our beaches. This oil spill will also result in many lost jobs and further damage to the U.S. economy. This episode features Dr. Stephen Boss, UA professor of Geosciences and Environmental Dynamics program director, Dr. Dick Bennet, retired English professor and OMNI Center founder, Jacob Holloway, Agriculture Economist and political activist, and myself.

Middle East Policy/War/Israel/Oil

2010-07-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

This episode of Omnivision is a discussion with two distinguished military veterans concerning America's current Middle East foreign policy. We discuss details regarding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the role of Israel and oil in those wars.

War Anniversary Peace Rally Speech

2010-07-17T21:07:00.000-07:00

This is a Peace Rally speech I delivered on the 7th Anniversary of the costly Iraq War. The title of the speech is "Love is the Answer."

Peace Rally Speech: Love is the Answer

2010-04-03T01:42:00.000-07:00

We are gathered here today to mark the 7th Anniversary of a bloody, costly and counterproductive war, and to call for comprehensive peace and an end to all wars. We must come to understand that all wars are intertwined. The causes of all of wars are the same, and the solutions for peace are all the same.

Our species is at war in far more ways than Middle East wars. Most importantly, an economic war is being waged on people and Nature. In this war, our national and international laws have all been geared to benefit only the richest few alive now. By destroying Nature or the Natural Economy, this war is a war that harms all of our children and grandchildren, rich and poor alike.

Initially, I was going to list tedious details about economic warfare and the War on Nature, but instead I will talk simply of the causes of wars. It is my belief that individual humans, like you and I, hold within ourselves the cause of war, and the solution for World Peace. I believe all people contain within them the potential for the highest good and the darkest evil. Depending on our educational environment and which side of our nature we learn to cultivate, we can each moment act as loving angels or hating demons.

One of the primary causes of 9-11 was hatred generated by our history of violent Middle East foreign policy. After 9-11, our leaders and most Americans reacted by likewise becoming filled with hatred, and we violently retaliated with wars. By responding to violent hatred with violent hatred, America became the evil we supposedly opposed.

I thought I was different by immediately opposing the Iraq War, and knew it was unwise. However, I oversimplified the causes of war and incorrectly blamed everything on Bush. By concentrating on Bush as a “villain,” I became filled with hatred myself, and became similar to the evil I opposed.

Since then, I have learned a lot, and learned to find understanding for people. I learned to have compassion even for Bush by placing myself in his shoes. If I had been born into a superrich oil family and never learned to love, there is a good chance I could have done the same things he did.

One of my favorite authors Thom Harmann wrote that to solve our problems we must learn to examine and replace toxic institutions instead of finding villains. These toxic institutions can be laws, ideas or beliefs. Instead of taking the easy way out and finding a villain, we must learn to understand how institutions permit or encourage people to act in certain ways.

In my view, there is one fundamentally important toxic institution that exists at the individual level of our entire society. I agree with Thom Harmann that this most toxic belief is the idea that “we are separate and different” from eachother, Nature and divinity.

Hartmann writes that the religious story that “we are separate from divinity or consciousness” perpetuates helplessness and spiritual slavery. However, “mystics through the ages tell us a different story-the possibility of being personally connected to divinity”.

In Eastern philosophy, they consider this powerful perception of separation Maya, the illusion of separation, and something to transcend. If we are able to transcend this illusion of separation, and realize that we are all connected, then the causes of war would dissolve. The Middle East wars, the War on Nature, the Economic wars on the poor all have the same cause, belief in separation. The belief in separation gives rise to hate, fear and greed toward the “Other”.

If America loved or felt connected to people in the Middle East, then we couldn’t be consumed with hatred and fear toward Arabs and Muslims. We would no longer want to drop bombs on their children for greedy economic reasons either.

For quite some time, I have held strong premonitions about our future. I have had suspicions that this greed and hate based society will be replaced by something more loving and peaceful very soon.
I recently had my suspicions confirmed by amazing Native American prophecies about the Rainbow Warriors. Numerous tribes from all over America delivered near identical prophecies about our future.

My favorite is the Cree Prophecy:
"An old wise woman of the Cree Indian nation, named "Eyes of Fire", prophesied that one day, because of human greed, there would come a time, when the earth being ravaged and polluted, forests destroyed, birds falling from the air, waters blackened, fish poisoned. There would come a time when keepers of Ancient Tribal Customs would be needed to restore us to health, making the earth green again. They would be mankind's key to survival, they were "Rainbow Warriors". These Rainbow Warriors would help form a New World of Justice, Peace, Freedom and recognition of the Great Spirit.

Rainbow Warriors would show the peoples that this Great Spirit, is full of love and understanding, and teach them how to make the "Earth or Elohi" beautiful again. Rainbow warriors would teach the people of the ancient practices of Unity, Love and Understanding. They would teach of Harmony among people and to love all mankind as their brothers and sisters. They would feel happiness enter their hearts, and become as one with the entire human race. Their hearts would be pure and radiate warmth, understanding and respect for all mankind, Nature and the Great Spirit.

They would once again fill their minds, hearts, souls, and deeds with the purest of thoughts.
Their children would once again be able to run free and enjoy the treasures of Nature and Mother Earth. Free from the fears of toxins and destruction, wrought by greed. The rivers would again run clear, the forests abundant and beautiful, the animals and birds replenished. The powers of the plants and animals would again be respected and conservation of all that is beautiful would become a way of life.

The poor, sick and needy would be cared for by their brothers and sisters of the Earth.
The leaders of the people would be chosen in the old way, by those whose actions spoke the loudest. Those who demonstrated love, wisdom and courage and those who showed that they could and did work for the good of all, would be chosen as leaders or Chiefs. They would be chosen by their "quality" and not the amount of money they obtained. They would understand the people with love, and see that their young were educated with love and wisdom. They would show them that miracles can be accomplished to heal this world of its ills, and restore it to health and beauty.

The tasks of these "Warriors of the Rainbow" are many and great. There will be terrifying mountains of ignorance to conquer and they shall find prejudice and hatred. They must be dedicated, unwavering in their strength, and strong of heart. They will find willing hearts and minds that will follow them on this road of returning "Mother Earth" to beauty and plenty - once more.

The day will come, it is not far away."

This vision gives me great hope and inspiration, for perhaps we are the Rainbow Warriors. We are the people that were destined to save and heal the world, making it a more loving, happy, beautiful and peaceful place.

I don’t know for sure if these Rainbow Warrior prophecies are true, but I can only hope they are and ask that you join me in this hope.

What I do know is that war is caused by hate, fear and greed, and the only way to end war and bring peace is deep love, a Love that binds us all together as One Family.

I love all you Beautiful People!

May Peace Prevail!

Confronting American Nightmares

2009-12-09T23:08:00.001-08:00

A dozen tsunamis are rushing toward the American shoreline as the great American consumer fills its mind with Black Friday sales on Chinese plastic. As a citizen that has partially broken free from the brainwashing corporate consumerism propaganda, I have trouble sleeping at night because our collective future is so deeply endangered. Our current societal design is completely unsustainable, and drastic systematic changes will imminently be forced upon us for mere survival.

Among the crises that keep me awake at night, many of them will be easy to alleviate once reality becomes increasingly blinding in clarity.

One of the greatest nightmares for the conscious citizen is war and mass killing that the government conducts in our name. In addition to over 700 costly foreign military bases, we are engaged in multitrillion dollar wars for corporate profit and are spending over $1 trillion per year on military “security.” This fear-sustained spending exceeds that of the rest of the world combined, and the consequent retaliatory hatred and economic damage warrants renaming the Department of War to the Department of Insecurity. Ending these counterproductive policies will become easy.

Eliminating weapons of mass destruction, mines, depleted uranium, cluster bombs and other civilian-slaughtering weapons globally, and especially at home will also become straightforward.

Ending our massive $12 trillion national debt by reinstating Republican President Eisenhower’s tax rate on the superwealthy, and by slashing gratuitous military spending will also become easy.

Eliminating massive corruption and corporate profiteering from our healthcare system will also be simple when single-payer is finally realized.

Saving and improving democracy from corporate plutocratic rule will also become easy once we abolish commercial mind control and indoctrination into the Church of Mindless Consumerism.

Dealing with global warming will also be relatively simple once we begin seriously transitioning to a wise, conservation-minded, energy efficient, and solarized economy. Saving the rainforest from insatiable appetites for beef will also help.

Slowly reviving and conserving massively depleted global fishing stocks will also be accomplished, but with inferior gene pools.

Stabilizing the unsustainable global human population with a humane two child policy encouraged through education, contraception, and other incentives will be simple too.

However, the nightmare that keeps me awake all night is that of petrochemical-based agriculture. A whistleblower from the International Energy Agency recently said we have reached peak oil, and U.S. officials have been pressuring a distortion of the figures. Even with distortion, it is estimated we will reach peak oil in the next decade or two.

This means oil prices will skyrocket way past the $4 per gallon record. The cost of fossil fuel-based fertilizer and pesticides will also increase drastically, and unsustainable petrochemical agriculture will eventually die.

Considering that food is our most vital necessity after water, this is the most serious problem. How are we going to feed our massive and growing global population? There are ideas about how to do so, but compared to the other solutions, they will not be easy.

Agriculture Policy Discussion

2009-12-09T22:54:00.000-08:00

This is a discussion about the oncoming food security crisis America and the planet will be facing as we reach peak oil, and petroleum based agriculture ends. This is arguably the gravest security risk and challenge we face because food is our most vital necessity. Please watch.

Economic Policy Discussion

2009-11-24T23:29:00.000-08:00

This is a discussion on economic policy, national debt, Wall St. bailouts, military spending, peak oil, tax policy, U.S. reserve currency flight, etc.

Israeli Policy protest

2009-11-01T03:13:00.000-08:00

http://nwahomepage.com/content/fulltext_news/?cid=130591#at
http://www.4029tv.com/video/21445582/index.html
http://www.kfsm.com/news/kfsm-news-nwa-ehud-olmert-israel-speech-protest,0,6728903.story

Policy discussion on drug war/clean energy

2009-11-01T02:40:00.000-08:00

This is a discussion on the issues of clean energy and the drug war

Policy discussion on Healthcare

2009-10-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

This is my Youtube political channel where I will be posting videos of my new cable access show OMNI Vision, as well as other political videos. This one is about healthcare and more.

Nothing Else Matters

2009-10-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

Oil. It causes wars, dictatorships, pollution, sickness, cancer, and it will be the greatest national security threat America has ever faced. I am not even speaking of global warming, but something easier to understand and imminently dangerous.

Oil is a limited nonrenewable resource, and we will be running on empty in the near future. The American empire reached peak oil in the 1970s, and our domestic production declined ever since, causing a corresponding dependency on foreign oil from unstable dictatorships in the Middle East.

Not only has cheap, easily accessible oil been drying up for America, but a recent report by the British government indicates global peak oil may be reached in the next decade or two. Sure, a few large oil fields are discovered every couple years, but these finds are drops in the bucket compared to the immense and growing international consumption.

We will very likely see gas soaring toward $10 per gallon in the near future. Our central national priority must include finding ways to reduce consumption, increase efficiency, find alternatives and conserve the remaining fuel for imperative transitional energy to a sustainable, clean energy future with solar as the dominant source.

Not only would gas near $10 per gallon hurt individuals directly, drastically impacting our economy in obvious ways, but this cost would vastly increase the cost of oil-subsidized food production. In addition to consumption of millions of gallons of oil for our most essential necessity, we rely on millions of gallons of fertilizer and pesticides produced from nonrenewable fossil fuel that will soon become exorbitantly costly. Additionally, all the countless plastic products, chemical drugs, artificial food additives and household materials made from petrochemicals will eventually become incredibly more expensive.

What will we do? For our children to survive, we must immediately transform toward a sustainable food system. We waste billions subsidizing unsustainable, monopolized corporate factory farms and agrichemical industries that produce the unhealthiest foods, which also increases critical healthcare costs. Instead, we must subsidize smaller, localized, sustainable, healthier and environmentally wise farms. We also need to deeply invest in non-petrochemical alternatives, such as advanced plant breeding, organic fertilizers and advanced water conservation technologies.

Because our incompetent government is ignoring this extreme national security threat, and the potentially dark future increasingly promised for our children, I am strongly considering a second campaign for U.S. Congress. Unfortunately, I do not have the wealth or elite connections to run as a major party candidate. I am also morally opposed to taking campaign donations from lobbyists of dangerous and unethical corporations that are diametrically opposed to democracy and the public interest.

Unlike the cowardly, self-interested political shapeshifting from “professional” Blue Dog politicians, I will take only one principled position, and that is fearless representation of the Public Interest and the Public Good, not elite private interests on Wall Street.

Please google Crude Awakening and please God, help Homo sapiens survive the extreme global security threat of the oil crash.

Corporations Violated Clean Water Act Over 500,000 Times in Last Five Years

2009-09-14T22:57:00.000-07:00

NYT Investigation Exposes Severity of Nationwide Water Contamination; Corporations Violated Clean Water Act Over 500,000 Times in Last Five Years
Duhiggarticle-web

A major investigation by the New York Times has found that chemical companies have violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times in the last five years. Most of the violations have gone unpunished, with state regulators taking significant action in just three percent of all cases. An estimated one in ten Americans has been exposed to drinking water that has dangerous chemicals or falls short of federal standards. We speak with Charles Duhigg, the New York Times reporter who carried out the investigation. [includes rush transcript]

HACKING DEMOCRACY (Corruptible Electronic Voting Documentary)

2009-09-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

Electronic voting machines count about 87% of the votes cast in America today. But are they reliable? Are they safe from tampering? From a current congressional hearing to persistent media reports that suggest misuse of data and even outright fraud, concerns over the integrity of electronic voting are growing by the day. And if the voting process is not secure, neither is America's democracy. The timely, cautionary documentary HACKING DEMOCRACY exposes gaping holes in the security of America's electronic voting system.

In the 2000 presidential election, an electronic voting machine recorded minus 16,022 votes for Al Gore in Volusia County, Fla. While fraud was never proven, the faulty tally alerted computer scientists, politicians and everyday citizens to the very real possibility of computer hacking during elections.

In 2002, Seattle grandmother and writer Bev Harris asked officials in her county why they had acquired electronic touch screen systems for their elections. Unsatisfied with their explanation, she set out to learn about electronic voting machines on her own. In the course of her research, which unearthed hundreds of reported incidents of mishandled voting information, Harris stumbled across an "online library" of the Diebold Corporation, discovering a treasure trove of information about the inner-workings of the company's voting system.

Harris brought this proprietary "secret" information to computer security expert Dr. Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University, who determined that the software lacked the necessary security features to prevent tampering. Her subsequent investigation took her from the trash cans of Texas to the secretary of state of California and finally to Florida, where a "mini-election" to test the vulnerability of the memory cards used in electronic voting produced alarming results.

As the scope of her mission grew, Harris drew on the expertise of other computer- science experts, politicians and activists, among them: Andy Stephenson, candidate for secretary of state in Washington state; Susan Bernecker, Republican candidate in New Orleans; Kathleen Wynne, an activist from Cleveland; Dr. Herbert Thompson, chief security strategist, Security Innovation, Inc.; Ion Sancho, supervisor of elections for Leon County, Fla.; and Harri Hursti, a computer-security analyst. Academics, public officials and others seen in interview footage include: Deanie Lowe, supervisor of elections, Volusia County, Fla.; Mark Radke, marketing director of Diebold; David Cobb, presidential candidate, Green Party; and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones of Ohio.

Diebold software, or other software like it, is installed in thousands of counties across 32 states. David Dill, professor of computer science at Stanford, says the problem is that there are "lots of people involved in writing the software, and lots of people who could have touched the software before it went into that machine. If one of those people put something malicious in the software and it's distributed to all the machines, then that one person could be responsible for changing tens of thousands of votes, maybe even hundreds of thousands, across the country."

In Florida, Leon County supervisor of elections Ion Sancho presided over a trial "mini-election" to see if the vote could be hacked without being detected. Before votes were actually cast, computer analyst Harri Hursti "stuffed the ballot box" by entering votes on the computer's memory card. Then, after votes were cast, the results displayed when the same memory card was entered in the central tabulating program indicated that fraud was indeed possible. In other words, by accessing a memory card before an election, someone could change the results - a claim Diebold had denied was possible.

Ultimately, Bev Harris' research proved that the top-secret computerized systems counting the votes in America's public elections are not only fallible, but also vulnerable to undetectable hacking, from local school board contests to the presidential race. With the electronic voting machines of three companies - Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia - collectively responsible for around 80 percent of America's votes today, the stakes for democracy are high.

One of the executive producers of HACKING DEMOCRACY is Sarah Teale, whose previous HBO credits include "Dealing Dogs" and "Bellevue: Inside Out."

HACKING DEMOCRACY was directed by Simon Ardizzone and Russell Michaels; produced by Simon Ardizzone, Robert Carrillo Cohen and Russell Michaels; executive producers, Earl Katz, Sarah Teale and Sian Edwards; edited by Sasha Zik. For HBO: supervising producer, John Hoffman; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.

Over 100 Million Americans Have Smoked Marijuana -- And It's Still Illegal?

2009-09-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

Over 100 Million Americans Have Smoked Marijuana -- And It's Still Illegal?

By Paul Armentano, NORML. Posted September 10, 2009.

41 percent of the U.S. population say they've tried cannabis at least once in their lives, 10 percent say they've used it in the last year.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has once again released their annual survey on “drug use and health” — you know, the one where representatives of the federal government go door-to-door and ask Americans if they are presently breaking state and federal law by using illicit drugs. The same survey where respondents have historically under reported their usage of alcohol and tobacco — these two legal substances — by as much as 30 to 50 percent , and arguably under report their use of illicit substances by an even greater margin. The same survey that — despite these inherent limitations — “is the primary source of statistical information on the use of illegal drugs by the U.S. population.” Yeah, that one .

So what does the government’s latest round of ’statistical (though highly questionable) information’ tell us? Nothing we didn’t already know.

Despite 70+ years of criminal prohibition, marijuana still remains widely popular among Americans, with over 102 million Americans (41 percent of the U.S. population) having used it during their lifetimes, 26 million (10 percent) having used it in the past year, and over 15 million (6 percent) admitting that they use it regularly. (By contrast, fewer than 15 percent of adults have ever tried cocaine , the second most ‘popular’ illicit drug, and fewer than 2 percent have ever tried heroin — so much for that supposed ‘gateway effect.’) Predictably, all of the 2008 marijuana use figures are higher than those that were reported for the previous year — great work John Walters !

Equally predictably, the government’s long-standing prohibition and anti-pot ’scare’ campaigns have done little, if anything, to dissuade young people from trying it. According to the survey, 15 percent of those age 14 to 15 have tried pot (including 12 percent in the past year), as have 31 percent of those age 16 to 17 (a quarter of which have done so in the past year) — percentages that make marijuana virtually as popular as alcohol among these age groups. By age 20, 45 percent of adolescents have tried pot, and nearly a third of those age 18 to 20 have done so in the past year. And by age 25, 54 percent of the population has admittedly used marijuana.

Question: Does anyone still believe that marijuana prohibition is working — or that all of these people deserve to be behind bars?.....

This Isn’t Reform, It’s Robbery

2009-08-24T10:40:00.001-07:00

Published on Monday, August 24, 2009 by TruthDig.com

This Isn’t Reform, It’s Robbery

by TruthDig.com

by Chris Hedges

Percentage change since 2002 in average premiums paid to large US health-insurance companies: +87%

Percentage change in the profits of the top ten insurance companies: +428%

Chances that an American bankrupted by medical bills has health insurance: 7 in 10

—Harper’s Index, September 2009

Capitalists, as my friend Father Michael Doyle says, should never be allowed near a health care system. They hold sick children hostage as they force parents to bankrupt themselves in the desperate scramble to pay for medical care. The sick do not have a choice. Medical care is not a consumable good. We can choose to buy a used car or a new car, shop at a boutique or a thrift store, but there is no choice between illness and health. And any debate about health care must acknowledge that the for-profit health care industry is the problem and must be destroyed. This is an industry that hires doctors and analysts to deny care to patients in order to increase profits. It is an industry that causes half of all bankruptcies. And the 20,000 Americans who died last year because they did not receive adequate care condemn these corporations as complicit in murder.

The current health care debate in Congress has nothing to do with death panels or public options or socialized medicine. The real debate, the only one that counts, is how much money our blood-sucking insurance, pharmaceutical and for-profit health services are going to be able to siphon off from new health care legislation. The proposed plans rattling around Congress all ensure that the profits for these corporations will increase and the misery for ordinary Americans will be compounded. The corporate state, enabled by both Democrats and Republicans, is yet again cannibalizing the Treasury. It is yet again pushing Americans, especially the poor and the working class, into levels of despair and rage that will continue to fuel the violent, proto-fascist movements leaping up around the edges of American society. And the traditional watchdogs—those in public office, the press and citizens groups—are as useless as the perfumed fops of another era who busied their days with court intrigue at Versailles. Canada never looked so good.

The Democrats are collaborating with lobbyists for the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and for-profit health care providers to craft the current health care reform legislation. “Corporate and industry players are inside the tent this time,” says David Merritt, project director at Newt Gingrich’s Center for Health Transformation [1], “so there is a vacuum on the outside.” And these lobbyists have already killed a viable public option and made sure nothing in the bills will impede their growing profits and capacity for abuse.

“It will basically be a government law that says you have to buy their defective product,” says Dr. David Himmelstein, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Plan [2]. “Next the government will tell us a Pinto in every garage, a lead-coated toy to every child and melamine-laced puppy chow for every dog.”

“Health insurance is not a race to the top; it is a race to the bottom,” he told me from Cambridge, Mass. “The way you make money is by abusing people. And if a public-option plan is not ready and willing to abuse patients it is stuck with the expensive patients. The premiums will go up until it is noncompetitive. The conditions that have now been set for the plans include a hobbled public option. Under the best-case scenario there will be tens of millions [who] will remain uninsured at the outset, and the number will climb as more and more people are priced out of the insurance market.”.....

Jeremy Scahill Slams Chuck Todd, Media, Congress Over Blackwater On "Real Time With Bill Maher"

2009-08-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

Countdown-The Nation's Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater chief Eric Prince's deep troubles

2009-08-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

Countdown-The Nation's Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater chief Eric Prince's deep troubles

Source: www.youtube.com

htt p://firedogl ake.com

In Explosive Allegations, Ex-Employees Link Blackwater Founder to Murder, Threats

2009-08-05T22:19:00.001-07:00

In Explosive Allegations, Ex-Employees Link Blackwater Founder to Murder, Threats

Source: www.democracynow.org

In sworn statements, two ex-employees claim Blackwater's owner, Erik Prince, murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.

Olbermann: Legislators for sale - Countdown with Keith Olbermann- msnbc.com

2009-08-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

Olbermann: Legislators for sale - Countdown with Keith Olbermann- msnbc.com

Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

In a Special Comment, Countdown’s Keith Olbermann slams members of Congressfor acting more in the interests of their health industry campaign donors than their constituents who so clearly favor health care reform.

By Year’s End, Benefit Lifeline to End for 1.5 Million Jobless - NYTimes.com

2009-08-05T22:16:00.001-07:00

By Year’s End, Benefit Lifeline to End for 1.5 Million Jobless - NYTimes.com

Source: www.nytimes.com

Tens of thousands of workers have used up their benefits, and the numbers are expected to soar in the months to come.

FRONTLINE: sick around america: watch the full program | PBS

2009-08-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

FRONTLINE: sick around america: watch the full program | PBS

Source: www.pbs.org

As the worsening economy leads to massive job losses—potentially forcing millions more Americans to go without health insurance—FRONTLINE travels the country examining the nation's broken health care system and explores the need for a fundamental overhaul. ...

Blue Dogs are Extremists

2009-08-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

Blue Dogs are Extremists

It is apparent that the medical-insurance-drug complex owns our government. America spends twice as much per capita on healthcare as other developed nations, yet fails to cover one-sixth of our population. We currently spend $2.4 trillion annually, and around $800 billion derives from waste for private health insurance bureaucracies. Why does America sustain such a corrupt, inefficient system?

It is because superwealthy owners of medical corporations wish to maintain massive profits. Their racket functions by pocketing “conservative” politicians through funding their multi-million dollar campaigns. Most Republicans, like John Boozman, are privately owned and will never vote to end the medical complex scam, and “conservative” Democrats are equally problematic.

As economist Paul Krugman recently noted, “Blue Dogs are basically...nothing but corporate tools, defending special interests.” Blue Dogs, particularly our Arkansas delegation, have been leading the fight against public insurance reform. This is unsurprising if one follows the money. Mike Ross, considered a #1 obstacle to reform, has heavy financial ties to insurance and drug companies, as do most “conservatives.”

Recent news reports have been calling Blue Dogs like Mike Ross "moderates" or "centrists," but these labels are misleading the public to believe their positions are mainstream when they are not.

In fact, 72 percent of the nation supports public health insurance, so Republicans and Blue Dogs are radically right of the public. Progressive Democrats like Dennis Kucinich are actually the true moderates most accurately reflecting the public interest.

If Arkansas wants public healthcare reform, among other genuine solutions, voters must reject extremist Blue Dog Republicans in all elections. Please join me in calling for the Democratic Party to field progressive Democratic candidates, or vote Green.