Health Break

There's more crucial political activity going on that just the citizen's protest in Iran, although that's the doozy on the world stage. So while this isn't an entire break from that history-in-the-making (see below), I wanted to bring attention back to the fight for a public health option in the U.S., being fought tooth-and-nail by Republicans and the health insurance companies that love them.

This is assuming that single payer national healthcare -- the kind where you walk into any hospital without an insurance card, where there's no cash register let alone huge computerized bill to go with it, as in Canada, France, England, Germany, Sweden, and every other industrialized Western country -- is not going to happen here. And a basic public option, a check against the rapacity of the private insurance companies, won't happen if powerful people like this guy have their way:

The South Carolina Republican, appearing on ABC's "This Week," set a firm line in the sand when discussing the creation of a public option for insurance, insisting that such a proposal would not pass the United States Senate.

"The reason you are not going to have a government-run health care pass the Senate is because it will be devastating for this country," he said. "The last thing in the world I think that Democrats and Republicans will do at the end of the day is create a government-run health care system."

And later, in favor in a supposed "compromise" that would still provide no public option and still leave your health insurance fate and choices in the hands of the for profit industry that has been denying coverage and dictating both doctors and treatments for over thirty years:

"I think this idea needs to go away," Graham said of a public plan, "and replace it with something maybe like [Senator] Kent Conrad's proposal."

The audicity of nope: "I think this idea needs to go away." You can't ban an idea, Senator, and you can't ban it as a major policy consideration if nearly 3/4 of all Americans favor it:

The national telephone survey, which was conducted from June 12 to 16, found that 72 percent of those questioned supported a government-administered insurance plan — something like Medicare for those under 65 — that would compete for customers with private insurers. Twenty percent said they were opposed.

Republicans in Congress have fiercely criticized the proposal as an unneeded expansion of government that might evolve into a system of nationalized health coverage and lead to the rationing of care.

But in the poll, the proposal received broad bipartisan backing, with half of those who call themselves Republicans saying they would support a public plan, along with nearly three-fourths of independents and almost nine in 10 Democrats.

So if you want it, drop a quick line with some of the folks on this list at the bottom of this post.

Meanwhile, in extremist news, Operation Rescue has the gall (beyond chuzpah) to hold a memorial service for unborn children at the site of Dr. George Tiller's closed clinic, closed because of the assassination of Dr. Tiller that they at least indirectly encouraged in their rhetoric, and in some sort of communication with the killer.

And in lethal fascist extremism on the other side of the globe, the situation in Iran is anybody's guess, with rounds of arrests, dozens if not more killings of civilians, and a suddenly empowered population that may not be stoppable. Like in this movie-like clip from a standoff Saturday, the only tonic after watching Neda die the same day -- definitely play to the end:

Battle w/ Police - Tehran, Iran - June 20th 2009
by mightier-than

Keep the faith.