Close the Loophole: Help Close the Gun Show Loophole. Keep Guns Out of the Hands of Criminals.

Close the Loophole: Help Close the Gun Show Loophole. Keep Guns Out of the Hands of Criminals.

REPOST OF THE PETITION TO EMPOWER CHICAGO'S INSPECTOR GENERAL

PETITION TO CHICAGO'S CITY COUNCIL

"The residents of Chicago, demand that the City of Chicago's Inspector General be given the full legal authority, by ordinance, to have oversight and investigative power over all City Hall departments, including the Office of Mayor and the 50 Ward Aldermen and their staff."

Sign the Petition Here and PLEASE pass this on to your friends and neighbors.

(FYI: This petition was first posted in February of 2009. At the time of this re-post there were 203 signatures, with many interesting comments. Please add yours!)

HEALTH CARE REFORM; ANOTHER VIEW

"The Wrong Diagnosis"

by Dr. Andrew Weil

Posted: August 9, 2009 11:00 PM

The Huffington Post

I'm worried -- and if I'm worried, you should be, too.The reason I'm worried is that the wrong diagnosis is being made.As any doctor can tell you, the most crucial step toward healing is having the right diagnosis. If the disease is precisely identified, a good resolution is far more likely. Conversely, a bad diagnosis usually means a bad outcome, no matter how skilled the physician.And, what's true in personal health care is just as true in national health care reform: Healing begins with the correct diagnosis of the problem.

Washington is working on reform initiatives that focus on one problem: the fact that the system is too expensive (and consequently too exclusive.) Reform proposals, such as the "public option" for government insurance or calls for drug makers to drop prices, are aimed mostly at boosting affordability and access. Make it cheap enough, the thinking goes, and the 46 million Americans who can't afford coverage will finally get their fair share.

But what's missing, tragically, is a diagnosis of the real, far more fundamental problem, which is that what's even worse than its stratospheric cost is the fact that American health care doesn't fulfill its prime directive -- it does not help people become or stay healthy. It's not a health care system at all; it's a disease management system, and making the current system cheaper and more accessible will just spread the dysfunction more broadly.

It's impossible to make our drug-intensive, technology-centric, and corrupt system affordable. Consider that Americans spent $8.4 billion on medicine in 1950, vs. an astonishing 2.3 trillion in 2007. That's $30,000 annually for a family of four. The bloated structure of endless, marginal-return tests; patent-protected drugs and "heroic" surgical interventions for virtually every health problem simply can't be made much cheaper due to its very nature. Costs can only be shifted in various unpalatable ways.

So, a far more salient question that must be addressed is: Are we getting good health for our trillions? Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding, "No." The U.S. ranked near the very bottom of the top 40 nations -- below Columbia, Chile, Costa Rica and Dominica -- in a rating of health systems by the World Health Organization in 2000. In short, we pay about twice as much per capita for our health care as does the rest of the developed world, and we have almost nothing to show for it.

I'm not against high-tech medicine. It has a secure place in the diagnosis and treatment of serious disease. But our health care professionals are currently using it for everything, and the cost is going to break us. In the future, this kind of medicine must be limited to those cases in which it is clearly indicated: trauma, acute and critical conditions, disease involving vital organs, etc. It should be viewed as a specialized form of medicine, perhaps offered only in major centers serving large populations.Most cases of disease should be managed in other, more affordable ways.

Functional, cost-effective health care must be based on a new kind of medicine that relies on the human organism's innate capacity for self-regulation and healing. It would use inexpensive, low-tech interventions for the management of the commonest forms of disease. It would be a system that puts the health back into health care. And it would also happen to be far less expensive than what we have now.

If we can make the correct diagnosis, the healing can begin. If we can't, both our personal health and our economy are doomed.Politicians aren't going to resolve this issue overnight. Any health care reform bill that gets jammed through Congress in the next month or two will be dangerously flawed. Washington needs to take a step back and re-examine the entire task with an eye toward achieving the most effective solution, not the cheapest and most expeditious.

NATIONAL HEALTH CARE REFORM

(click to enlarge)

If you have questions and/or, are being confused by all the misinformation and flat out LIES coming from the 'opponents' of 'Healthcare Reform' (coordinated & financed by Big Pharma, the Insurance Industry and HMO's), then be sure to mark your calender and attend this upcoming Community Meeting sponsored by AARP.

And in the meantime, consider the following article:

Palin Lies About Health Care, She's good at one thing.

Posted by Steven D., Booman Tribune at 11:00 AM on August 8, 2009.

Not an original title, is it? Yet that is what the journalists and newspapers who report on her should be doing if they are going to publish every stupid, deceitful thing she says, like this: "Palin accuses Obama of pushing Medicare 'death panel' "

Gov. Palin blasted Democratic-led health care reform and accused President Obama of backing a "death panel" that would withhold Medicare funds from the elderly and disabled when funding runs short. From that headline and lead paragraph you'd think Obama was planning on sending everyone over 65 to death camps.

At least when we accused Bush of Nazi like tactics he really was doing some of the same things the Nazi's did, like prosecuting an illegal aggressive war which he lied about to sell it to the American Public, torture, and warrantless surveillance, including keeping tabs on antiwar groups composed of Quakers and Vegans, of all people. We had proof for our allegations of wrongdoing but the media still wouldn't cover it half the time, or gave far more coverage to Republican rebuttals devoid of substance than they did to the people coming forward with evidence of crimes.

By the way, it isn't just the Anchorage Newspaper that's promoting Palin's lies. Here's the headline ABC News is giving her entry on Facebook: "Palin Says Obama's Health Care Plan Is 'Evil'

And here's her money quote:

"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," Palin wrote.

Hey, big media. If you are going to give free publicity to these loons at least give a response from a Democrat in your story. I don't care much for Jake Tapper, but at least he does the legwork that should have been done to demonstrate that Palin is full of it when she makes such outrageous and frankly fraudulent claims:

"One can question whether there will by necessity be any rationing decisions that will need to come as a part of health care reform (and, in fact, we have) but pictures of government bureaucrats forcing euthanasia upon seniors -- and, now, children with Down syndrome -- because they're not productive members of society are not part of any reasonable debate on the facts of the matter."

Asked specifically what the former governor was referring to when painting a picture of an Obama "death panel" giving her parents or son Trig a thumbs up or down based on their productivity, Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton responded in an email: "From HR3200 p. 425 see 'Advance Care Planning Consultation'."

That's a curious reading of page 425 of the House Democrats' bill, which refers to “advance care planning consultation,” defined as a senior and a medical practitioner discussing “advance care planning, if…the individual involved has not had such a consultation within the last 5 years.” This includes an “explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to,” an “explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses,” and an “explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy.”

As Tapper notes, Factcheck.org has disputed the Palin camp's claim that this provision of the House bill will lead to "death panels deciding whether you get medical treatment or are cut off from care and forced to be euthanized." Still, this is the headline ABC News gave Tapper's story, even though he essentially debunks Palin's entire confabulated death panel fantasy/lie: "Palin Paints Picture of 'Obama Death Panel' giving Thumbs Down to Trig"

How many people are going to read past that headline before forming their opinion? Far too few. There are no "death panels" in the health care reform bills floating around Congress, so why does that phrase appear in almost every headline about this story? Why not just state the obvious: Palin is lying. Or if you don't have the guts for that, at least say that Palin's is making unfounded and outrageous claims about the Democratic bill for health care reform (if you're going to waste time writing about her Facebook entries at all). Of course, that would take something that most of these media corporations don't want to do: real journalism.

SUPPORT AND PARTICIPATE IN REFORMING ILLINOIS GOVERNMENT & POLITICS: HERE'S HOW TO DO IT NOW!

E-Mail from the Illinois Reform Commission:

On April 28, 2009, the Illinois Reform Commission issued its 100-day Report, calling for ethics reform in six key areas. The report can be found at www.reformillinoisnow.org, the same place where you added your voice to the work of the Illinois Reform Commission. Will you give the same call for reform to your legislators? WE SUPPORT SIGNIFICANT REFORM AS OUTLINED BY THE ILLINOIS REFORM COMMISSION THIS LEGISLATIVE SESSION.As a citizen interested in reform, won't you join us in calling for that reform now? The nation is watching Illinois to determine how we will respond to the corruption and scandal that has been the state's legacy.

Please call your legislator, as urged by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. See Give your Illinois legislators an earful on ethics reform - Chicago Sun-Times, May 6, 2008 and Give lawmakers your ultimatum. And do it now. - Chicago Tribune, May 3, 2009.

PLEASE CALL OR E-MAIL THE LEADERSHIP OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND TELL THEM --- "We support major reform being enacted now, as called for by the Illinois Reform Commission. It can't wait!"

House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago): mmadigan@hds.ilga.gov , 300 Capitol Bldg., Springfield, IL 62706, telephone 217-782-5350.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego): tom@tomcross.com, 316 Capitol Bldg., Springfield, IL 62706, telephone 217-782-1331.

Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago): john@senatorcullerton.com, 327 Capitol Bldg., Springfield, IL 62706, telephone 217-782-2728.

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont): cradogno@sbcglobal.net, 309-A Capitol Bldg., Springfield, IL 62706, telephone 217-782-9407.

You can also find your legislators at the Illinois State Board of Elections website. WATCH OUR VIDEO ON YOUTUBE AND BE INSPIRED! BE ACTIVE! THE TIME FOR REFORM IS NOW!

Sincerely,
Illinois Reform Commission
Patrick Collins, Chair