http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/group_rss/GrandJunctionProgress Connect to other progressives in the Grand Junction area and share ideas, information, meetings and more! Click on the "Join Group" button near the top of the page. . ACTION ITEMS Protect rural landowners from oil companies - Write a letter to your state Rep and Senator to support the Landowner Protection Bill! Sign the Petition to protect west slope watersheds from oil and gas development. The dialogue around health care reform has been stifled and distorted by those who profit from the current system, so I wanted to share with you a piece I wrote for the Huffington Post -- Corporate Profit Continues to Define Health Care Reform & the U.S. Race to the Bottom . Please comment on the piece, if you like. I think that employers should certainly contribute to health care based on numbers of employees, but health care should not be tied to employment.  T.R. Reid, PBS journalist who made the documentary, Sick Around the World, is scheduled to show his documentary & comment to a joint session of the Senate-House Health & Human Services Committees this Thursday, Jan. 8 at 1:30pm- 3:30pm at the Legislative Services Building (across from the Capitol at 14th St. on Sherman) in Hearing Room A. The documentary has been shown a number of times on PBS Frontline. Reid lived in other countries, including England, where he found health care to be much more accessible and affordable than in the US. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CQfg http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CQfg/commentary#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:23:28 MST http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CQfg Michele S Michele S 0 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQfg/ As of Wed. 11/26 at 6:00 am the responses to this Impeachment OpEd had grown to over 1,246 The right wingers of both the Democrats and Republican parties were doing their best to ruin the discussion and diss the Constitution. They posted garbage using fake names which kept the right wing Dem/GOP messages on top. For instance the message "Blah.. Blah... Blah... this gets old" repeated many times really got in the way of real discussion. Regardless this is a record for comments on that paper for an impeachment discussion. It is a marvel that the Editorial Board allowed the article to be published. Our thanks to everyone who read it and commented at the newspaper. ----------------------------------------------- PLEASE: FORWARD TO YOUR LISTS NOW ! Thanks e. Suggest we all read and comment on this Pro-Impeachment op-ed piece in the Detroit Free Press today. Earlier the better. Getting to 1,000+ comments might help. Interestingly it is placed high on the paper's website. Is the paper now getting behind impeachment??? The comments have tripled to over 500 in 2 hours. Please add your pro-impeachment hearings comment and forward to your lists asap. Thanks John John H Kennedy, Denver CO impeach Colorado Coalition For economy's sake, Pelosi needs to push for impeachment now BY ROCHELLE RILEY Nov. 25, 2008 For economy's sake, Pelosi needs to push for impeachment now Rep. Nancy Pelosi's ineffectiveness became clear the day she became Speaker of the House and immediately announced that there would be no impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney. Advertisement Guided by politics, she said leading investigations into just how much the Bush administration did - and did wrong - would be divisive. What she didn't express was her worry that too many Democrats faced elimination from the House if they took on the difficult task of proving who knew what, when. But Congress is running out of time to finally make the Bush administration own up to its actions for eight years. If Congress isn't careful, the president who already has issued 171 pardons could also pardon every appointee and employee he has ever had - and their dogs. And then Americans will never find out what happened to our country over the past eight years. Pelosi wouldn't have to start from scratch: Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the bravest member of Congress, introduced legislation 11 months ago to impeach the president and vice president. Last January, the House gave a first reading of one of those articles of impeachment. Our own Rep. John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, joined 38 other representatives to sponsor HR 635, which would form a committee to look into whether there are grounds for impeachment. Revive that effort! Last week, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, submitted a resolution demanding that Bush stop issuing "pre-emptive pardons of senior officials in his administration during the final 90 days of office." Nadler said in news reports that he was moved to action by the president's "widespread abuses of power and potentially criminal transgressions against our Constitution" and that he wanted to prevent the "undeserved pardons of officials who may have been co-conspirators in the president's unconstitutional policies, such as torture, illegal surveillance and curtailing of due process for defendants." Nadler is storming the beach; others should join him. If Congress moves quickly and forces the president to focus on impeachment, then he won't have so much time to push through last-minute regulatory changes that will continue to hurt our country and our ideals. He already has pushed deregulation that would allow employers to talk directly with employees' doctors and allow power companies to build polluting facilities close to national parks. Anyone worried that our congressional representatives can't tie their shoes and chew gum at the same time, or cannot focus on the economic crisis and impeachment hearings at the same time, will find that many answers to our economic and global defense problems will come from those hearings. The only question I have for Nancy Pelosi is this: What are we waiting for? --------------- If the House Democrats fail to hold Bush and Cheney accountable, they are unlikely to get you Single payer Healthcare or anything else that will take courage to accomplish. --------------- http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CQDp http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CQDp/commentary#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:02:57 MST http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CQDp John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e4c96e6db734362f3_l5hmv2v71.jpg John H Kennedy 233 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQDp/ Failed U.S. health care is a major contributor to our systemic economic crisis. Indeed, the excesses of Wall St. and the subprime mortgage catastrophe mirror U.S. health care policy  – both are typified by privatized profit (for investors and insurers), and socialized risk (for taxpayers and consumers). Inflated U.S. health care costs – 16% of GDP and rising – are major contributors to an inflationary economy. Redress of this single aspect of an out-of-control U.S. economy would lift all boats. Comprehensive health care reform would improve the economic status of all, relieving health access concerns of families, individuals and businesses, large and small. So-called "legacy costs" alone, comprised largely of retiree health and pension benefits, have contributed significantly to General Motor’s negative cash flow, prompting yet another request for government bailout. In 2005, costs of health care coverage to GM amounted to $5.6 billion for 1.1 million employees, retirees and their dependents. In 2005 BusinessWeek reported that legacy costs added $1,600 to the cost of each GM vehicle. It’s time to confront the crippling economic effects of employment-linked health coverage that reduces competitiveness of businesses in the world marketplace, reduces effective employee take-home pay, and adds to the costs paid by all for goods and services (note above cost added to each U.S. -made car). State and city budgets, too, are depleted by escalating health costs for employees and retirees. Progressives leaders must do a better job of promoting civic discourse while clearly defining issues, like health care reform. Democrats shoud cease parroting right-wing framing and code words intended to distort the issue, e.g., "government health care" or "socialized medicine," as a couple of recent Colorado candidates have done. We need to refute Republican "free-market" advocacy that treats health care as a commodity to be exploited for maximum profit, with top-skimming of over 25% of health care dollars for private insurance shareholder profits, CEO salaries, excessive administrative costs, marketing, lobbying, etc. "Free-market" health care is as perverse an incentive as free-market police and fire protection would be, leaving everyone vulnerable, at the mercy of the marketplace. Barack Obama showed promise broaching issues during the campaign. He made a start at explaining the high cost of privatizing Medicare (13% higher than traditional Medicare), and the failure of Medicare prescription drug reform that prohibits negotiation of bulk drug rates, as the VA does to save money. The 2003 reform was a giveaway to insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies, with billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies and inflated costs to benefit their bottom lines. Now is the time to make the case for an improved Medicare for All - a public insurance with true free choice of providers and hospitals. By contrast, for-profit insurance choices are narrowly limited to "in-plan" providers, necessitating change of providers with change of insurance. Comprehensive health care reform shoud be part of a broad economic remedy. U.S. health costs are almost double those of all other industrialized nations, and growing; yet we still experience worse overall health outcomes. Increasing numbers of underinsured pay escalating costs for decreasing coverage. Taxpayers currently pay for over 60% of health care costs, including 70% of legislators’ health coverage. By many accounts, that is enough to provide single-risk-pool coverage for all. In fact, single-payer health care is the only model of reform that has demonstrated in over 20 federal and state studies the capacity to save money and provide comprehensive coverage for all. It is time for reform that benefits the worker as well as the CEO. First posted on Huffington Post 11-13-08 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CQDV http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CQDV/commentary#comments Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:33:24 MST http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CQDV Michele S Michele S 2 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQDV/ Obama advisers: Bush era war criminals will walk . No Accountability for Bush, CHENEY, Rumsfeld, Addington, and the rest of these scum. IF THAT PISSES YOU OFF Call 800-828-0498 Ask for each of Colorado's Congressmen in turn and tell them to file their own Impeachment Resolution and to do it THIS WEEK. (Hint: leave a voicemail at night) IF enough Congressmen file single crime impeachment resolutions during the same week (this week) it will get the attention of the Media. Yes the MEDIA got Obama elected, and now are much more likely to pay attention to impeachment. WE MUST GET PEOPLE RILED UP ENOUGH TO DEMAND IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS NOW John Kennedy Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com QUESTION: HOW MANY US SOLDIERS HAVE TO BE KILLED AND MAIMED FOR THE BUSH/CHENEY WMD LIES Before Colorado Voters (you and me) bother to call the state's US Congressmen and Demand Impeachment Hearings NOW? Hint: Over 4,197 Killed Over 30,000 Maimed (some reports say it's over 70K) .. .... http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CQzh http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CQzh/commentary#comments Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:32:56 MST http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CQzh John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e4c96e6db734362f3_l5hmv2v71.jpg John H Kennedy 453 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQzh/ The "right-to-life" movement that elevates embryonic life above women's lives is more accurately termed "right-to-prenatal-life." One of the most extreme 2008 anti-abortion, anti-contraceptive ballot measures is the so-called Colorado "Personhood" amendment - number 48 - defining fertilized eggs as "persons" with Fourteenth Amendment rights to "life, liberty and due process of law." Simultaneously, rightists have opposed the same rights for women as "reading feminism into the Constitution." Both Amendment 48 and a rule change proposed by the Bush administration Department of Health and Human Services would re-define pregnancy as the point of conception, disregarding the medical definition of pregnancy - "the implantation of a fertilized egg." They would effectively categorize as abortion any contraception (e.g., the pill, IUD, emergency contraception, contraceptive patch) that interferes with the implantation of a fertilized egg, thus outlawing most contraception - the primary means to reduce the need for abortion. In a slippery slope to 19th century status for women, rightists have promoted "conscience clauses" permitting pharmacists' and others' refusal to fill prescriptions or provide health care for women. The HHS proposal states, "[T]he conscience of the individual or institution should be paramount in determining what constitutes abortion..." - holding women's health hostage to anyone's professed religious/ideological beliefs. It is time to recognize that abortion serves as surrogate for a spectrum of unspoken issues related to female personhood and male entitlement. The anti-abortion political litmus test was introduced by Paul Weyrich, who dictated that women step aside and "make way for new life." It serves dual purposes - the marginalization of women and the lightning rod around which to mobilize political coalitions, notably, Evangelicals and Catholics. The elevation of fetal life over women's lives, coupled with conservative strategist Howard Phillips' euphemistically described goal of return to "one-family-one-vote," is calculated to marginalize and disenfranchise women, consistent with the ultraright tenet that ultimately, only select white Christian males should retain the right to vote or hold office. Rickie Solinger concluded from her historical research of women's health care that women's rights have often been held hostage by politicians and others with "political agendas hostile to female autonomy and racial equality" ( Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade , 1992). The criminalization of contraception and abortion, and the widespread U.S. adoption black market that assigned value to babies and punishment to women based on race, were some effects of pre- Roe efforts to control women's reproduction. At core, Weyrich's anti-abortion, anti-contraceptive and abstinence-only ideology serves as cornerstone of an anticipated male supremacist theocracy. It is the platform upon which the majority of Republican candidates continue to run in 2008. The greatest conceit - that pregnancy is not a health issue and women's lives are expendable - underlies the dual standards of Republican Party pronatalist policy demanding female submission to males who presume the right to hold women hostage to personal beliefs. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CQ8R http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CQ8R/commentary#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:42:59 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CQ8R Michele S Michele S 2 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQ8R/  On August 29, the Friday before the Republican Convention, members of the Council for National Policy convened in Minneapolis to grant their imprimatur to the vice presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin. Focus on the Family's Tom Minnery described the group's reaction in a Focus on the Family Action video, which has since been removed from their website: "There could not be more excitement based on the little we know about Palin so far," enthused Minnery. Given general longstanding opposition to women in positions of power among CNP members, Minnery was asked whether James Dobson could possibly support a woman for the office. He quoted Dobson: "If it's the right woman, we are ready to vote for her." Dobson has been hoping for some time to find a "Margaret Thatcher" type, noted Minnery. Outside the obvious, i.e., her anti-gun control and anti-abortion positions, Minnery recited Palin's positives as a conservative candidate: a hocky mom in an intact marriage who "has not rejected her feminine side"; because she and her husband are union members, it was speculated that blue collar voters in important swing states would be attracted; and (improbably) because she is a woman, that she would appeal to Hillary Clinton supporters. The Council for National Policy (CNP) has remained largely below the radar since its 1981 founding as an umbrella group uniting a network of over 500 members from Congress, the business community and hard-right evangelicals. The press are excluded from their secretive invitation-only strategy meetings, held three times annually. The group is strongly influenced by the teachings of the late Rousas Rushdoony , a CNP member and patriarch of the reactionary Christian Reconstructionist (Dominionist) movement that has infused the doctrine of conservative churches since the '60s, and seeks Christian dominion over all aspects of society and the world. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CZMG http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CZMG/commentary#comments Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:48:40 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CZMG Michele S Michele S 1 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CZMG/ From a story in the Economist "UNPOPULAR, isolated, and facing the humiliation of impeachment, Pervez Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan on Monday August 18th.... they (the people)were dancing in the streets." ------------------------------------------------ We here in America can cause accountability for President Bush and Vice President Cheney, but you have to take action before the election. You the voter have the power to force our Incumbent Democratic Congressmen(and women) to honor their oath of office to protect our Constitution by calling for immediate impeachment hearings. It is not necessary that impeachment hearing be finished prior to the election, only that they are started. We the voters have the power to make this happen, but you will have to call your congressman repeatedly over the next two months. Contact information for Colorado congressmen can be found here . In addition, US House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers is calling the membership of the House Judiciary Committee back from their Fall recess to investigate Ron Suskind's revelations about the forged letter that falsely said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. It has been reported that the order to the CIA to have the letter forged came on White House Stationary. On Democracy Now today Conyers said "The 110th Congress isn't over. We're starting our work, and then we're doing it in a period where the Congress is in recess. I'm calling everybody back. We've got a huge amount of work to engage in." Please contact the Judiciary Committee to urge them to impeach now: 202-225-3951 FAX: 202-225-7680 THE GRAVES OF THE 4,134 Murdered US Soldiers CRY OUT FOR IMPEACHMENT for the WMD LIES Impeachment. More important than ever. Plenty of time. Impeachment Is Coming! John H Kennedy, 43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to the Denver County Democratic Convention, and organizer of the IMPEACH COLORADO COALITION ImpeachCO.com http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cq4F http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cq4F/commentary#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:36:48 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cq4F John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e4c96e6db734362f3_l5hmv2v71.jpg John H Kennedy 5 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/Cq4F/ US House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers is calling the membership of the Judiciary Committee back from their Fall recess to investigate Ron Suskind's revelations about the forged letter that falsely said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. It has been reported that the order to the CIA to have the letter forged came on White House Stationary. On Democracy Now today Conyers said "The 110th Congress isn't over. We're starting our work, and then we're doing it in a period where the Congress is in recess. I'm calling everybody back. We've got a huge amount of work to engage in." Here's the link to Democracy Now Please contact the Judiciary Committee to urge them to impeach now: 202-225-3951 FAX: 202-225-7680 Please help by contacting all media outlets and members of Congress . Impeachment. More important than ever. Plenty of time. Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com IMPEACHMENT IS COMING .. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cq4c http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cq4c/commentary#comments Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:46:49 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cq4c John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e4c96e6db734362f3_l5hmv2v71.jpg John H Kennedy 0 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/Cq4c/ When Democrat Mark Udall debated Republican Bob Schaffer in July, he made no effort to refute Schaffer’s distortions surrounding health care reform. In fact, he essentially short-circuited meaningful debate by adopting the nebulous right-wing description of single-payer health care as “government health care,” thus capitulating to Republican framing of the issue. Just what is government health care? Is it the more than 60 percent of all health care costs that are paid by taxpayers, including subsidies for inflated costs of private insurances? Private insurers skim the cream and game the system for profit, and count on government (taxpayers) to pick up the health care costs of all whose coverage they reject. Does government health care include the 70 percent of our legislators’ health coverage that is funded by taxpayers? Democrats who facilely echo GOP talking points grossly misrepresent single-payer health care. In fact, contrary to assertions by the right-wing “free market” chorus, only single-risk-pool insurance provides true free choice of private providers, the same as traditional Medicare before Republicans moved to privatize Medicare (at 12 percent higher cost). Private insurance plans limit choice to “in plan” doctors, often requiring change of providers when plans are changed. Only single payer is capable of providing comprehensive, continuous health care benefits and protection against medical bankruptcy. Our leaders should vigorously protest the abomination of Medicare prescription drug reform that was written by insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies with billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies and inflated profits to benefit their bottom lines, while prohibiting negotiation of bulk drug prices. Instead of privatizing Medicare-for-profit, why not improve and expand its coverage for everyone? Traditional Medicare has lower overhead costs – less than 4 percent – whereas private insurances divert 25 percent or more to profits, lobbying, marketing, exhorbitant CEO salaries and wasteful administrative costs. Profit is a perverse incentive for health insurance, which protects its bottom line by reducing benefits and shifting ever-greater costs to consumers. The insulated political class in Washington, dependent upon corporate money and privy to 70 percent taxpayer-subsidized health coverage, seem out of touch with the U.S. people. Polls by Pew and others have revealed that increasing numbers – 54 to 65 percent – support a national single-payer health care plan. A recent study reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine (3-31-08) that 59 percent of U.S. physicians “support government legislation to establish national health insurance,” an increase of 10 percent since 2002. Notably, more than 20 federal and state studies since 1990, including the 2007 Lewin Group evaluation in Colorado, have demonstrated that single-payer health insurance is the only reform model that can both save money and provide comprehensive health care benefits for all. The Colorado single-payer proposal and Rep. John Conyers’ national health care bill, HR 676, both deserve serious further study. We have everything to gain from an honest dialogue about quality-, saftey-centered universal single payer health care, in place of profiteering health insurance gatekeepers. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqPs http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqPs/commentary#comments Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:50:53 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqPs Michele S Michele S 1 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CqPs/ Progressive Democrats of America with The Nation magazine are setting up headquarters at Central Presbyterian Church (1660 Sherman St.), where they have scheduled issues forums over 5 days of the Democratic National Convention. Free daily panels moderated by The Nation 's John Nichols at 11 AM, are followed by additional panels covering Health Care on Monday, August 25, followed the rest of the week with forums on Media and Election Reform, Economic Justice, Global Warming and Constitutional Law. Participants include Reps. John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Robert Wexler, Keith Ellison and Lynn Woolsey; Tom Hayden, Jim Hightower and authors David Sirota and Vincent Bugliosi; various writers and publisher of The Nation ; journalist and radio host Laura Flanders; Jeff Cohen, author and founder of FAIR; and many others. For schedule and more info, check Web site http://pdamerica.org , click on "Progressive Central" in green bar at page top. Watch for posting of PDF event flyer. Also, check link to HCAC page for Democratic Convention Actions around Health Care . http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqPk http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqPk/commentary#comments Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:00:39 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqPk Michele S Michele S 1 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CqPk/ Is this the "smoking gun"? Will our Democratic Congressmen honor their Oath and call for Impeachment Hearings? Tape: Top CIA official confesses order to forge Iraq-9/11 letter came on White House stationery. In damning transcript, ex-CIA official says Cheney likely ordered letter linking Hussein to 9/11 attacks A forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery and probably came from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new transcript of a conversation with the Central Intelligence Agency's former Deputy Chief of Clandestine Operations Robert Richer. The transcript was posted Friday by author Ron Suskind of an interview conducted in June. It comes on the heels of denials by both the White House and Richer of a claim Suskind made in his new book, The Way of The World. The book was leaked to Politico's Mike Allen on Monday, and released Tuesday. See the rest of this story at: RawStory.com WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP BRING ACCOUNTABILITY TO BUSH & CHENEY Rep. Kucinich and five other co-sponsors of his articles of impeachment (Robert Wexler, Tammy Baldwin, Keith Ellison, Maurice Hinchey, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Hank Johnson) are calling on all Americans to contact their representatives (202-224-3121) 24 hours, seven days a weekand 365 days/year and urge them to join in co-sponsoring those articles and in calling for a formal impeachment hearing PRIOR TO THE ELECTION. You can call after normal business hours and leave a message urging your Congressman to join in co-sponsoring those articles and in calling for a formal impeachment hearing. ALSO And Very Important: PLEASE CALL ALL of Colorado's Democratic Congressmen/women and demand they immediately Call For Impeachment Hearings Prior To The Election. Contact info for Colorado's Congressmen ------------------------------------------------ And if you have time on any Saturday around Noon-1:00 pm Our group holds an Impeachment Protest at East 6th & Speer in Denver every Saturday. We have lots of Impeach Signs so just show up and help. OR JUST DRIVE BY REPEATEDLY and HONK TO IMPEACH. John H Kennedy, organizer Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com ( other groups around Colorado do similar events and are listed on our Calendar at ImpeachCO.com ) .. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CqP8 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CqP8/commentary#comments Sat, 09 Aug 2008 10:46:13 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CqP8 John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e4c96e6db734362f3_l5hmv2v71.jpg John H Kennedy 0 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CqP8/ Kucinich, Barr, Bugliosi, Holtzman,"Rocky" Anderson, and Elliott Adams, President of the Board, Veterans for Peace are among those testifying. The House Judiciary Committee has released a witness list for its hearing to examine "the imperial presidency" of George W. Bush. Testifying Friday morning will be Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who has introduced several resolutions calling for President Bush's and Vice President Dick Cheney's impeachment; former Rep. Bob Barr, the Libertarian presidential candidate who led the charge to impeach Bill Clinton in 1998; Vincent Bugliosi, author of the just-released book The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder; and 10 other current and former members of Congress, constitutional experts and human rights activists. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday on Capitol Hill and will be carries on CSPAN. Late Thursday afternoon, the committee released the full witness list, broken down into two panels. Panel One The Honorable Dennis Kucinich, Representative from Ohio The Honorable Maurice Hinchey, Representative from New York The Honorable Walter Jones, Representative from North Carolina The Honorable Brad Miller, Representative from North Carolina Panel Two The Honorable Elizabeth Holtzman, Former Rep. from New York The Honorable Bob Barr, Former Rep GA Nominee for President The Honorable Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson, Stephen Presser, Raoul Berger,Northwestern Univ.School of Law Bruce Fein Asst.Dep Atty General 81-82 Chair Vincent Bugliosi, former Los Angeles County Prosecutor Jeremy A. Rabkin, Professor of Law, George Mason Univ Elliott Adams, President of the Board, Veterans for Peace Frederick A O Schwarz Jr Senior Counsel, NYU School of Law Conyers (D-MI) previously laid out six areas the hearing would explore: (1) improper politicization of the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys offices, including potential misuse of authority with regard to election and voting controversies; (2) misuse of executive branch authority and the adoption and implementation of the so-called unitary executive theory, including in the areas of presidential signing statements and regulatory authority; (3) misuse of investigatory and detention authority with regard to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, including questions regarding the legality of the administration's surveillance, detention, interrogation, and rendition programs; (4) manipulation of intelligence and misuse of war powers, including possible misrepresentations to Congress related thereto; (5) improper retaliation against administration critics, including disclosing information concerning CIA operative Valerie Plame, and obstruction of justice related thereto; and (6) misuse of authority in denying Congress and the American people the ability to oversee and scrutinize conduct within the administration, including through the use of various asserted privileges and immunities. Rep. Kucinich has offered four impeachment resolutions so far: >According to article on Rawstory.com John H Kennedy, 43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to the Denver County Convention and organizer of the Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com Join our Impeachment Protests, see the Calendar on the website .. .. .. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CqPC http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CqPC/commentary#comments Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:44:28 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CqPC John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e4c96e6db734362f3_l5hmv2v71.jpg John H Kennedy 0 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CqPC/ Per RawStory.com article: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may be changing her tune. The Democratic leader said Thursday that the House Judiciary Committee could be holding hearings on impeachment articles introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) sometime in the near future. RawStory.com Politico.com PLEASE.... Join us in Calling The House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers to demand that he allow the Judiciary Committee to immediately begin Public Impeachment Hearings. Call Chairman Conyers at 202--225-3951 Or 800-828-0498 (ask for the House Speaker's Office) John H Kennedy 43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to the Denver County Convention, organizer of Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com .. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CqyD http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CqyD/commentary#comments Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:46:23 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CqyD John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e4c96e6db734362f3_l5hmv2v71.jpg John H Kennedy 0 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CqyD/ Kucinich said he was doing it for our Soldiers whose "Commander in Chief sent them on a mission that was based on falsehoods about the threat of WMDs from Iraq." RawStory.com Join us in Calling The House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers to demand that he allow the Judiciary Committee to immediately begin Public Impeachment Hearings. Call Chairman Conyers at 202--225-3951 Or 800-828-0498 (ask for the House Speaker's Office) John H Kennedy 43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to the Denver County Convention, organizer of Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com .. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cqy2 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cqy2/commentary#comments Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:38:09 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cqy2 John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e4c96e6db734362f3_l5hmv2v71.jpg John H Kennedy 0 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/Cqy2/ Read Resolution overwhelmingly passed by U.S. Conference of Mayors at their Jun 22-24, 2008 annual meeting. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/Cqy5 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/Cqy5/commentary#comments Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:39:24 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/Cqy5 Michele S Michele S 0 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/Cqy5/ A study published in Health Affairs (6-10-08) documents a sharp (60%) increase in numbers of underinsured between 2003-2007. Underinsurance rates nearly tripled among those with incomes above 200% of poverty. Consequently, 42 percent of U.S. adults were under- or uninsured in 2007, reporting high levels of access problems and financial stress. Even among those with incomes over 400% of poverty, 15% are underinsured. The study indicates that the move toward greater consumer cost-sharing for minimum benefit insurance policies in recent years is pushing millions of insured non-elderly adults toward spending large shares of their incomes on health care. The clear impact is to increase the share of families at risk for medical debt and loss of savings for retirement, college, or other long-term needs. Our current insurance system is working well only for the wealthy, who can afford high costs. Politicians' promises that "you can keep the insurance you have" also apply to the wealthy.  Read the Report Following is a 650-word piece I wrote about the failure of profit-centered health care that has been picked up by several newspapers around the state.                               Failure of U.S. profit-centered health insurance Spending almost twice as much, the U.S. has worse health outcomes than other industrialized nations. Uniquely, U.S. health care is dependent on over 1200 for-profit health insurances, functioning as gatekeepers. Underwriting – the art of risk evaluation and avoidance – insures profits by covering the healthy and rejecting everyone else as a "pre-existing condition." Profit is a perverse incentive for quality health care: imagine for-profit fire or police protection. "Market-driven" health care treats health as a commodity, to be negotiated like a car or a house. The free market has also spawned "designer hospitals," offering only the most profitable specialties, e.g., cardiac procedures, and eliminating less profitable services, e.g., emergency and mental health. No reform proposal by current presidential candidates addresses the failure of the private health insurance industry, characterized principally by decreasing benefits and greater costs and risks shifted to consumers. In turn, more are subjected to underinsurance and unpaid medical bills – now the leading cause of personal bankruptcies. Premium increases of 87 percent over 6 years have outpaced both cost-of-living and median family income increases. Incremental reform proposals demonstrate lack of political will – the same failure to confront corporate profit-taking by insurance and pharmaceutical industries that wrote Medicare prescription drug reform with billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies and inflated profits to benefit their bottom lines. Commercial health insurance is the 800-pound gorilla, responsible for over 25% of health care dollars siphoned to excessive administrative costs, lobbying, marketing, CEO salaries and profit-taking: $30 billion annual health insurance profits; $32 billion insurance underwriting and marketing costs (McKinsey Group, 2007). Gaming the system for profit has given rise to the annual $20 billion business of "denial managment" – health insurance middlemen who search claims for excuses to delay, deny or renege on reimbursements. Responding to double-digit premium increases, more employers are opting to move employees into underinsurance – high-deductible catastrophic plans. Simultaneously, the American Hospital Association reports that both family out-of-pocket health expenses and unpaid medical bills have risen approximately 60% over a decade – still more costs ultimately shifted to taxpayers and consumers. Notably, more than 20 federal and state studies since 1990, including the 2007 Lewin Group evaluation in Colorado, have demonstrated that single-payer health insurance is the only reform model that can both save money and provide comprehensive health care benefits for all. Indeed, the single payer model is the only truly efficient, equitable, and sustainable financing system, enabling universal coverage by spreading risk across the entire population. Contrary to assertions by the "free market" choir, only single payer insurance permits true choice of pubic and private providers; private insurance is limited to "in plan" doctors. Only single payer provides comprehensive benefits and protection against medical bankruptcy. Rather than comprehensive health care reform, most current proposals revert to a Massachusetts-style nostrum, preserving insurance profits and requiring an individual mandate to purchase minimum-benefit insurance, subsidized by taxpayers as needed. It is a formula for continued inflationary consumer health costs and decreasing benefits. National single payer bill, HR676, calls for a progressive 3 to 4 percent employer and employee payroll tax to replace all health deductibles and premiums. Full-coverage costs for a family of four earning $40,000 annually would drop to $110 a month, from recent levels of $273/month for employer-sponsored coverage, or $489/month for an individually-insured family (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2007). A political class dependent on corporate money (and privy to 70 percent-taxpayer-subsidized health coverage) sidesteps meaningful reform. Nevertheless, polls by Pew and others have revealed increasing numbers – 54 to 65 percent of people – support a national single-payer health care plan. A recent survey reports that 59 percent of U.S. physicians now support national health care, up 10 percent from 2002. A grassroots movement and political reforms, including publicly-financed campaigns, may be necessary to instill the political will for meaningful reform. We have everything to gain from quality-, saftey-centered universal single payer health care to replace U.S. dependence on profiteering health care gatekeepers. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/Cq45 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/Cq45/commentary#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:35:09 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/Cq45 Michele S Michele S 0 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/Cq45/ CheneyCare -- We taxpayers pay 70% of guaranteed coverage for VP Dick Cheney and 2 million federal legislators and employees.  Link: Bill Moyers' Journal 5/9/08 -- California Nurses' campaign for "CheneyCare" for all.  Read transcript or view program: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05092008/transcript1.html Video "Who the Health Cares?" gets straight to the point: Presidential candidates will not determine health care reform -- the ball is in the court of Congress. http://www.moblogic.tv/video/2008/04/30/who-the-health-cares/ For-Profit Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industries -- scary statistics 1) Melody Peterson's book "Our Daily Meds" reveals that the benefit of medicines marketed by pharmaceutical companies "has become secondary to how much it will bring shareholders in profit"...due to constant pressure by Wall Street for drug companies to exceed profits made the year before; Big Pharma employs 2 lobbyists for every Congress member. 2) Tests show that placebos often work as well as the drugs being marketed to the public. 3) 100,000 Americans die annually from taking prescribed drugs as prescribed (FDA reports). 4) U.S. experiences 75,000-100,000 preventable deaths annually, ranking 19 out of 19 nations. (Recent study, Ellen Nolte & Martin McKee, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)  http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqYV http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqYV/commentary#comments Sun, 25 May 2008 21:39:15 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqYV Michele S Michele S 0 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CqYV/ Please join Be the Change-USA & Health Care for All Colorado for an exciting, engaging and fun event May 31 Are We All Really Covered? Closing the Gaps in Health Care 12 noon - 7:30 PM, Sat., May 31, 2008 First Plymouth Congregational Church 3501 S. Colorado Blvd. (Hampden and Colorado Blvd) Englewood, CO Registration: Full program: $35; Dinner & evening speakers: $25; Evening speakers only: $10. Discount for Seniors, students, veterans, BTC and HCAC members: $5 Special program features: 1-3 PM Providers and Patients Panel: "How did we get into this mess, and how can we get out?" 3-5 PM Presentations by CO elected officials and candidates: "Will Colorado begin to close the gap?" 5 PM Dinner "Legislative Grill" -- Members of Congress and candidates and representatives of Presidential campaigns: "Will Congress or our next President begin to close the gap?" 6 PM Evening Keynote speaker: Elizabeth Kucinich More info: www.BTC-USA.org or www.healthcareforallcolorado.org or call Dick Barkey, 303-808-8504, or Eliza Carney, 970-416-0636 To register online: www.BTC-USA.org   http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqYj http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqYj/commentary#comments Sun, 25 May 2008 21:20:23 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqYj Michele S Michele S 0 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CqYj/ According to an article quoted on RawStory.com today and originally published by the Jerusalem Post Bush Will Attack Iran before the end of 2008. Per RawStory.com: An article in Tuesday's Jerusalem Post claims that US strikes on Iran are imminent. "US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran in the upcoming months, before the end of his term, Army Radio quoted a senior official in Jerusalem as saying Tuesday," the Israeli newspaper reports. Excerpts from article: # The official claimed that a senior member of the president's entourage, which concluded a trip to Israel last week, said during a closed meeting that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action was called for. However, the official continued, "the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" was preventing the administration from deciding to launch such an attack on the Islamic Republic, for the time being. The report stated that according to assessments in Israel, recent turmoil in Lebanon, where Hizbullah de facto established control of the country, was advancing an American attack. ------------------- SO! Why are our Colorado Congressmen, especially Rep. Udaall not screaming for Impeachment Hearings? Rep. john Conyers, Chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee has said that Bush should be impeached if he attacks Iran. So has former Presidential Candidate Senator Joe Biden. Isn't it time that one of our brave Colorado Congressmen stood up and called for impeachment hearings Before The Killing Starts Anew????? And where is our ACLU Of Colorado (led by Cathryn Hazouri) when you need them to lead on Impeachment? They are doing a great job for the crazies in Recreate68 but are not protecting Our US Constitution from the Cheney/Bush criminals. Rawstory.com article Jerusalem Post article John H Kennedy, organizer Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com I am a 43 year Democratic voter and Obama delegate to the Denver County Convention who is sick and tired of Congressional Democrats refusing to obey their oath of office and refusing to protect Our Constitution. .. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cqsz http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cqsz/commentary#comments Tue, 20 May 2008 12:53:02 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/Cqsz John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e4c96e6db734362f3_l5hmv2v71.jpg John H Kennedy 1 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/Cqsz/ The U.S. spends on average twice as much on health care as other industrialized nations, and has overall worse outcomes. Paul Krugman’s & Robin Wells’ commentary ( "The Health Care Crisis and What to Do About It ," The New York Review of Books , 3/23/06 ) attributes the U.S. health care crisis to high dependence on fragmented, for–profit private insurances, hospitals and numerous middlemen that add health costs without adding value. Noting "the strange persistence, in the teeth of all available evidence, of the belief that the private sector can provide health insurance more efficiently than the government," Krugman and Wells remark that free-market ideology is "wholly inappropriate to health care issues." As many observe, health is not a commodity, like a car or house. Factors of declining U.S. health care:      -Washington and the Bush administration are in thrall to insurance and drug industry lobbyists.      -The privatization-for-profit increases the fragmentation of U.S. health care, swelling the ranks of the uninsured.      -Commercial insurance has abandoned the principle of shared risk, shifting more risk to consumers, and has adopted the principle of adverse selection to guarantee profits for shareholders.      -Private insurances continue to skim over 20 percent of costs for profit and CEO salaries. Employer-provided health coverage is unraveling, as U.S. health costs rise twice as high as inflation and 4 times faster than wages, prompting more employers to reduce/eliminate health coverage. Medicaid rolls grow, as Medicaid picks up the slack from the unraveling system of employer-based insurance.      -Medicaid is particularly vulnerable as a means-tested program – its consituency is not politically powerful.      -Authors: "Funding for Medicaid depends on politicians' sense of decency, always a fragile foundation for policy."      -States fund an average 40 percent of Medicaid – unable to operate at a deficit, states are squeezed by growing Medicaid costs.      -Attempts to privatize Medicaid for profit – states like South Carolina are seeking federal waivers to offer recipients vouchers for purchase of private insurance – certain to be inadequate for many. So-called ‘consumer-directed’ health plans requiring higher out-of-pocket medical expenses are not a cure.      -Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) serve as a tax break for the rich, but do nothing for the lower income.      -HSAs undermine employment-based health care, encouraging adverse selection – HSAs are attractive to healthier individuals, tempting them to opt out of company plans, leaving them less healthy individuals. The authors cite a large body of evidence indicating that public insurance of the kind in many European countries achieves equal or better results at much lower cost. Unfortunately, political will is lacking. Krugman and Wells call it "politically smarter" and "economically superior" to educate voters about the huge advantages of a single payer system, than to merely attempt to coopt the drug and insurance lobbies by writing them into compromise plans that they will likely oppose anyway. Alternatively, say the authors,"things will have to get much worse before reality can break through the combination of powerful interest groups and free-market ideology." Everything speaks to the need to grow a grassroots movement in order to overcome the powerful insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies that write policy, as they did Medicare prescription drug reform, with billions of dollars of subsidies and inflated profits to enhance their bottom lines. http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqlG http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqlG/commentary#comments Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:04:53 MDT http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/micheleswenson/CqlG Michele S Michele S 614 http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/comment_rss/CqlG/