The soothsayers have slaughtered the ox and are examining the gloppy entrails for signs: Rising unemployment, a falling dollar, weak consumer spending, the credit crisis, a swooning stock market. Could there be something wrong here? Could we actually be approaching a, god forbid, recession?

The St Petersburg Times is blessed with a law-degreed, progressive Perspectives page columnist, Robyn Blumner. Here’s the link to her latest: Locked in a job by health insurance:
“[T]his tethering of an employee to his job [in order to retain health insurance for family members with preexisting conditions] reduces job mobility by about 25 percent, says [...]

We at United Professionals are not trying to talk anyone into supporting a particular form of universal health care. Our objective is to bring information to your attention in hopes that the country can eventually agree on a more informed course of action. As a step in that direction, we will do whatever we [...]

We at United Professionals waited quite anxiously for the details of Senator Hillary Clinton’s health care coverage proposals. When they finally arrived, we were disappointed — we had high hopes because she clearly has the capacity to understand the issues and the compassion to identify with those in need.
Here is our take on the issue [...]

               In solidarity with the striking screenwriters there will be no laugh lines in this blog, no stunning metaphors, and not many adjectives. Also, in solidarity with the striking Broadway stage-hands, no theatrics, special effects or sing-along refrains.
            Yes, I realize the strike could deprive millions of Americans of news as Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, [...]

Between the 1970s and the millennium, the United States federal government forgot whom it was of, by and for. Instead of serving the citizen electorate, legislators have been the lackeys of the corporate “protectorate” with the loudest lobbies.
Surveys have shown that we know it. In 1964, only 29 percent of us believed that big, [...]

The politics are coming! The politics are coming!
Okay, they’re already here. Campaign ads and sound bytes and photo ops. The overblown promises. The groundless smears. The media’s rehashing of each tidbit until the next tidbit comes along. All coming to the 24-hour news cycle of media outlets near you. These are not discount outlets like [...]

August reports of the relative profitability of U.S. versus foreign automakers blame the cost for retirees continuing health care benefits for U.S. automakers’ plunge into red ink on their P/L scorecard.

Let’s put the auto manufacturing industry’s plight into perspective. Business Week observed in a July, 2004 report on the demise of airline retirees’ pension and health care benefits that “Traditional pensions — so-called “defined-benefit” plans — and retiree health insurance were once all but universal at large companies. Today experts can think of no major company that has instituted guaranteed pensions in the past decade. None of the companies that have become household names in recent times have them….”

I’m getting sick and tired of this health care crisis. Isn’t that ironic? Fortunately, I love irony, so I feel enough energy and anger to continue the fight. Here’s the latest roundup of what’s-what, who’s-who, and what have they done for us lately:
What’s What – You can find comparisons of the Senate and House versions [...]

U.S.A., 2007. It was the best of nations. It was the worst of nations. In what was definitely not the best of its times – not for its healthcare system. What is difficult to impossible for individuals is merely tough but possible-through-persistence for a tidal wave of us. To get all the droplets of that [...]