"Charity is commendable, everyone should be charitable. But Justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don't go hungry, unschooled or sick without care. Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth, justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance.
Faith-based charity provides crumbs from the table; faith-based justice offers a place at the table"
~Bill Moyers

Showing posts with label public option. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public option. Show all posts

Thursday, October 8, 2009

SIGN PETITION TO SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID: "NO DEM WILL SUPPORT REPUBLICAN FILIBUSTER"

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Which senators would feel pressured from this proposal? All the senators who are siding with the insurance companies and opposing the public option: Max Baucus (D-MT), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) are some examples.

Let's send a clear message: It's not OK for Democratic senators to join with Republicans to block a vote on health care. Period.

SIGN THE PETITION, SEND THEM THE MESSAGE!!!



Rachel Maddow broke some amazing news last night on MSNBC:

PETITION TO SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID:

"Any Democratic senators who support a Republican attempt to block a vote on health care reform should be stripped of their leadership titles. Americans deserve a clean up-or-down vote on health care."

Over 29,300 people have signed -- can we break 30,000 before we deliver signatures to Harry Reid?


Last night Rachel Maddow announced:
"Two major powerbrokers on the left...are encouraging a Senate strategy in which the leadership would revoke chairmanships and other leadership positions from any Democrat who sides with a Republican filibuster to block a vote on health reform."
Since then, thousands of progressives have signed the Progressive Change Campaign Committee's newpetition to Senate Leader Harry Reid.

Over 29,300 people have signed -- can we break 35,000 before we deliver signatures to Harry Reid? Click here

Thousands of people have joined purely through word of mouth, so please send this post to your friends. (HUNDREDS of folks have also shared it on Facebook and Twitter!)
Sign and share petition http://boldprogressives.org/majorityvote/p-dkos
Comment by wmholt at Daily Kos on Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 12:04:28 PM PDT

Here's what FreedomWorks sent out this AM

Yes, it's painful, but I signed up for the FreedomWorks email list.

This is what they are saying today:

"Obama is leveraging his allies in Congress to try and rush a bill through the Senate Finance Committee. His hope is that with the help of Harry Reid he can speedily move a bill to the Senate floor and invoke cloture (requiring 60 votes) to shut off debate and get the legislation to his desk where he will quickly sign it. Ultimately this will require every Senate Democrat, including several moderates still on the fence, to vote in favor of cloture when it comes up for a vote sometime in the next few weeks."

"FreedomWorks has established a list of targeted Senators that will be critical to the final outcome. You can access this list in our virtual "war room" that also includes updated talking points and the latest information on the Left’s government-run health care bill, as well as opportunities for you to take action and help apply the necessary pressure on these targets that will convince them to oppose the hostile government takeover of American health care. They need to know specifically that a vote for cloture = a vote for government-run health care.
SO, THEY HAVE A WAR ROOM, DEMOCRATS NEED TO HEAR FROM THE LEFT/PROGRESSIVE/LIBERAL SIDE, SIGN THE PETITION, SEND THEM THE MESSAGE!!!

Monday, September 14, 2009

SF Peaceful march for health care on Sept. 13, 2009

"Hello true believers!"

(View pictures of the event)

With these words, At City Hall, State Sen. Mark Leno, who represents the 3rd Senate District-- including portions of San Francisco, saluted us after our march, of course, it is always a pleasure to give and receive a hug and a peck on the cheek by an old friend who is doing many good things.

I'm so glad I did March, I saw so many beautiful people who are very committed to fight for True Health Care Reform for All.

I got to talk to Elizabeth Ward is a 53-year-old Republican who held a sign stating "Rational Republicans for Reform." - She is part of a disappearing breed, 'Rational Republicans'

I got to talk to members of two sight-seeing groups, from Spain and from Italy, they took pictures of us and maybe wondered: 'what is wrong with this country?'

A middle-aged Italian lady, borrowed my sign for her friend to take a picture of her holding it.

I do not own a camera and I didn't even take pictures with my cell, I was more focused on marching and displaying the signs I made -

I'm terrible at making signs, but they had a lot of work and loving care in them - in one I placed a picture or our dear and, sadly departed friend, Teddy, with the captions "THANK YOU TEDDY, FAREWELL!" "THE DREAM LIVES ON... IN US!", on the lower right hand side in a 8 1/2" by 11" page, I included two quotes from our President:

"If we are'nt willing to pay a price for our values, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all"
-- Barack Obama
From his autobiography "The Audacity of Hope"

The other quote was:

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
-- Barack Obama<>
'February 2008 Election Night'

My intentions for adding these quotes, were not so much to inspire us in following our President's beautiful words, no, quite the contrary, I wanted for us to let him know that we remember the words with which he inspired so many of us, to put aside our cynicism and loss of faith in politicians, and to believe against historical facts, that maybe in him we had found 'un frijol de un kilo' (A bean which weighs one pound (old Mexican saying)), and that he was ready to work with us to make the changes that the people in this country, and the country itself, desperately need.

There was no ambiguity during last year's campaign in what he proposed we would accomplish were he, with our support, be elected President; then, why the ambiguity now?, the parsing of words?, the compromising of the bargain we made during his campaign and which was sealed at the Ballot Box?

I wanted to tell him, yes Mi Presidente, I remember your words and I want to also ask you if you still believe that we must ask ourselves if we truly meant what we said, as you so beautifully stated, I know many of us did and still do, how about you?

Anyway, back to the story about our SF March, staff from the SFSU Student paper were covering it, Martha Vallejo, a staff writer wrote a piece and there were two staff photographers, Anthony Anastasi and Maria Katrina Echon who took some great pictures which they share in a photo gallery.

Well, that's about it on the March for HealthCare in San Francisco, organized out of OFA, except, that I can't get out of my mind the thoughts that I had while we were marching: "Many of us here worked very hard to elect B. H. Obama President and give Dems majorities" And there are many others, millions actually, who did the same, "Where are they?", "Did they lose their hope and faith?", "Did they miss the words 'it is up to you to make change happen' that our candidate kept voicing?"

Oh well, I guess it is much easier to complain that Barack Obama is not doing this, or doing that, hey! What a great way to relieve oneself of any responsibility, isn't?

While it is true that our President and the Dems seem to be ready to throw us under the bus, it is also true that many of us are abdicating our responsibilities inherent in a Participatory Democracy, albeit Representative in large part, it is still supposed to be participatory and allegedly is what we have in these United States of America.

But in any event, it is up to us because we are the stakeholders in this Franchise, yes indeed, we are the Government and whatever is done in our name or happens, it is on us.

There is a quote whose words I have been trying to find out, for quite awhile, who voiced them, Cesar Chavez's name keeps popping in my mind as the possible source, maybe one of us here can help me with it; I include it because I do so happen to believe it to be true, paraphrasing:

'Our Struggle will be lost the moment we take it from the streets to the boardrooms'


Tuesday, September 8, 2009

"Letters to Pres. Barack Obama" A simple Pro-Healtlh Care Reform letter writing campaign

Building on the work of others:

"Kid Oakland", a Diarist at the Daily Kos, wrote a entry of which I include the introduction where he explains his idea and suggestion, the post got 387 comments, I don't know how many, maybe half, or one third, hard to know, but in these comments, Kossacks tell of sending a letter and they post the text hoping that if someone who doesn't feel like, or it is difficult to compose a letter, can use the text, or modify it, the important part is that the encouragement is to write a letter.

Below I include a few sample letters that, in following with the sentiments in the Diary, you can cut and paste and modify to your particular info and send. If you just want to send a simple and small message, here is a pre-formatted Email Click
to email Email info@barackobama.com
- If you want to send directly to the White House using their Email Form where you can paste your modified text, you can do it here,

If you want to email to President Obama, it is really quite simple, there is a list of Subject Lines to choose from (Short Msgs. are more effective), you can do it here, you can view letters sent to leaders here, letters to the President here.

Well, that's it, maybe it will make a difference, maybe it won't, but in the opinion of many, the least we can do is try - President Obama campaigned with a promise of change, advocating a set of values, well, IT IS TIME TO LIVE UP TO THEM! Wouldn't you agree?

Best wishes,

Aurora

Did you donate to Barack Obama? Did you volunteer to support his campaign?
Do you get his emails? (Heck, maybe like me, you got one today.)

Have you noticed that they all come from info@barackobama.com?

Did you know that you can write Barack Obama using that email address?
Further, did you know that when you write to Barack Obama at info@barackobama.com, that Barack
Obama's staff at barackobama.com will be able to see right away from your email address that you were a donor or a volunteer to his campaign?

Well, it's true. And it's powerful. Trust me. Politicians notice when their donors and volunteers write them an email. There's 13 million of us on Barack Obama's email list. Do you think he'd notice if we all wrote him this weekend about the need for healthcare reform?

This weekend I've got a simple, straightforward action we all can take to help pass comprehensive healthcare reform with a robust public insurance option open to all Americans.


Dear President Obama,

My name is XXXXXX and I am writing to you today as a volunteer and a donor to express my firm support for the passage of comprehensive healthcare reform including a robust public insurance option open to all Americans.

I had the privilege of volunteering for your campaign in XXXXX, XXXXX, where I walked a precinct in XXXXX during the XXXXX primary and built a MyBO community group in my neighborhood. I also wrote a series of well-read blog posts online explaining your policy views...including your support for healthcare reform that provided a public insurance option available to all Americans that would rein in costs and force insurance companies to be honest. I pent the general election in XXXXXX where we worked side-by side-with your campaign to help you win an electoral vote in XXXXXXX's 2nd Congressional District.

Mr. President, I am XX years old, in good health, and I pay over $XXX.00 a month merely to have a generic health insurance policy. For that $X,XXX.OO a year I am still subject to numerous rules and deductibles that limit my care and my security. But I'm not writing you today simply about myself.

I know firsthand the idealism and principled conviction that led millions to support you. In 2008, we were a nation hungry for change. We still are today. Millions of voters, young and old, from all walks of life and political points of view, cast a vote for you because you embodied hope. Hope for a real change in business as usual in Washington. But we all know that business as usual is powerful.

Mr. President, big, for-profit companies have dominated healthcare for too long in the United States. They've made money while excluding some of us, bankrupting others, and causing millions of Americans to live in fear of losing their jobs or getting ill.

It doesn't have to be that way. Big insurance corporations have had their chance to rein in costs and they've failed. We need a change. But for change to happen we need your principled leadership today. Mr. President, please use your speech to the nation this Wednesday to lead Congress to deliver comprehensive healthcare reform that includes a robust public insurance option available to all Americans.

Sincerely
XXXX XXXXXX
CITY, STATE



Dear President Obama,

I have been a fervent supporter and donor to your campaign. I believed you when you said that the current health care/health insurance crisis was destroying our country. I have been sickened by the thuggery and scare tactics on the right about something all America needs so badly.

People suffer and die. Businesses and individuals go bankrupt because the insurance and pharmaceutical companies siphon off their outrageous profit on pain. You know our country needs a public option. You know it is the only solution to this problem. You know that you will lose support and that your followers will lose hope if you waver on this issue. This is the time to stand
firm not, compromise with people's lives.

I know you are the best president I can hope for in my lifetime. If you yield on this issue your followers will sink back into despair that allowed Bush/Cheney to run amok, and new thugs and fear mongers will win and unleash new horrors on the world.

I believe that you are a good and extremely gifted man, and that you must realize how crucial your strength is now. Please do not compromise on America's future now.

Respectfully

NAME



Dear Mr. President,

You are asking for monetary support to "beat the special interests"? I need to hear that you are trying to beat the special interests. I am waiting to see what President Obama says about and actively fights for the Public Option before I donate any more time or money. I need to see follow through on what Candidate Obama said when he put forth his http://HealthCareFullPlan.pdf and what I talked to people about when I hustled up votes for him.

As Bill Moyers said in his special comment (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09042009/watch3.html) we need the President to fight and show leadership and stop negotiating with the crazy liars on the Right who will never compromise and only want his demise. Do not ask the Progressives how much change they are willing to negotiate away.

Stop protecting the Blue Dogs who will not support any real health reform that does not protect the industry. Stop taking progressive support for granted.

People are dying because of the greedy homicidal health care industry. We are where we are because of their "management". The only "health" they are truly concerned with are their profits and CEOs salaries. We have the most shameful, unfairly-distributed health care system of all the industrialized nations.

I believed Candidate Obama when he said he wanted a comprehensive health care plan that included a strong public option, not just a mandate to force people to buy junk insurance from the same corrupt companies denying care now. Why does it seem he is going back on his word to his very SUPPORTERS during the campaign and trying to appease those in the minority who did not support him and NEVER will?

We compromised away single payer which was the best solution for America. We compromised it away with substituting a strong public option. The message can and should be simple: We should be able to voluntarily buy into Medicare before age 65, period.

The infrastructure is there and it works. No co-ops. No more corporate giveaways. No toothless regulations that can be dismantled. No triggers. A strong voluntary Medicare-for-anyone option. It can start immediately. It can keep the corrupt health insurance industry honest -- indeed it is the only thing that can. This is what President Obama campaigned on.

Health care reform for America is crucial. It is life and death, literally. For many I spoke to during the campaign, it was the vote-getting issue. It is HUGE! Now is the time. We can not and should not settle for anything less than the real thing. Any bill that the insurance or pharmaceutical industries can support will be bad news for us consumers.

The final bill MUST include no pre-existing conditions, no lifetime caps, no triggers, and a strong public option (Medicare).

PLEASE: Find your campaign fight! Start this process from scratch if you must. Use leadership and reconciliation! And get what you said you would get done for America, done!

Keep your promises and stand behind that record. Then come and ask me for my support in time and money. I'll be happy to give it then. Not before.

In the meantime, everything I can spare goes to the members of the Progressive Congressional Caucus.

Respectfully

NAME



Dear Mr. President,

My name is XXXXXXX and I was one of your millions of donors and volunteers. I supported you from the primaries on and convinced my family to do the same. I am writing today to ask that you keep your campaign promise. Give Americans a choice between private insurers and a public option. I don’t support a trigger, a co-op or any watered-down proposal. The public option, as you yourself pointed out during the campaign, is the compromise.

When the primaries started, the first thing I did was read through each candidates’ health care plans. Here’s just one of the reasons why health care is my top issue. [Personal story about a pre-existing condition fight] Because of this brief coverage lapse, my insurance company could now flag me as a
pre-existing condition. It didn’t matter that there was no merit to their claim, nor that I was now insured. It only mattered they had an entire department to pursue the matter. [More personal details, the hospital ended writing off my care, the insurance company didn't pursue the matter further] The hospital bore the costs of the insurance company’s greed. Since that time, so many hospitals in my area have closed due to financial problems. We are all paying the price for the insurance companies’ profits.

[Personal details about what I pay each month for the privelege of being insured] Still, I am one of the lucky ones. Insurance companies have had their chance, now it is time to truly insure all Americans.

Insurance companies have had decades to provide affordable insurance to all. Instead they have spent that time devising rules and fine print to exclude people from coverage and denying services to those who do have coverage. If we create new rules and give insurance companies more time, they will only find new ways to get around those rules. The end result will be more people who can’t afford to go to the doctor and even more bankruptcies. Mr. President, insurance companies have already failed. I am asking for true healthcare reform with a public option to keep the insurance companies honest.

I refuse to allow more millions of people to go through what I did. I know what it’s like to stay up at night and wonder if you’ll have to file bankruptcy...

Your supporters did not work so hard to elect a Democratic President and large majorities in both houses of Congress, only to cover just some Americans. Keep your campaign promise to myself and the millions of others who sit up at night wondering what will happen to them. Insuring 20 million is not good enough. How will the Democrats come back to those supporters who don’t get insured under a watered-down plan and ask for their votes? How will they look these people in the eyes? Do the right thing. Pass a healthcare plan with a public option. It’s why so many of us volunteered and donated even though we could barely afford to do either.

Sincerely,

XXXXX



Dear President Obama,

My name is XXXXXX and I donated to your historic campaign on many occasions, from the lead up to the XXX caucuses all the way through November 5th. All in all, it came to a little over $XXX.00, I believe. That may not seem like much, but it was not easy to do. Even though I couldn't afford to donate, I did so anyway because you vowed to bring change we can believe in. I viewed it
as an investment in my family's future. On election night, as the networks called Ohio for you, I never felt more hopeful for my country and for my family.
I was determined to do my part to help you restore the promise that this country has always represented to so many.

So it saddens me that I cannot donate financially to this cause. I cannot give my hard earned money when I fear that it will be wasted. You campaigned that you would get health insurance reform with a strong public insurance option to help keep the greed of the insurance companies in check.
Health insurance reform without a strong public option is not real health insurance reform at all. Yet, it seems that your administration is willing to give up the public option, even though anywhere from 55-77% of Americans want it based on recent polling. I dread the possibility that you are willing to settle for a weaker but more easily attainable bill, rather than fighting for what this country really needs. During your campaign you gave a speech in South Carolina where you said:

I don’t believe we can bring about real change if all we do is change our positions based on what’s popular or politically convenient...I think you deserve a President who’s willing to fight for you every hour of every day for the next four years. That’s the change we can offer in 2008 – not change as a slogan, but change we can believe in.

The voices of 70 million strong were heard loud and clear last November 5th, please don't allow our voices to be drowned out now. Because that's not change we can believe in.

Sincerely,

XXXXX XXXXXX



Dear President Obama,

My name is XXXX XXXXXXX, and I am writing to you today as a volunteer and a donor to express my firm support for the passage of comprehensive healthcare reform including a robust public insurance option open to all Americans.

I donated more money to your campaign than I have any campaign in my lifetime. In addition, I worked with my local Democratic party to mobilize voters for the primary purpose of electing you because I believed in your message of change.

However, the latest fight for health care reform has left me very disheartened. In the below email, terms are used such as "fight for health insurance reform", "campaign for real reform", and especially "finally get the health insurance reform we all need." But lately all that I've seen and heard after beginning the "fight" by compromising on single-payer are calls for "compromise" and "bipartisanship" with Republicans who have plainly expressed no desire to participate in any legitimate discussion of health care reform. In addition, the administration seems ready, and all too willing, to compromise away the public option, the only real chance to get true health care reform in
this country. That's not change I can believe in - that's continued compromise of the values that elected a dominant majority of Democrats to both houses and lifted Obama to an overwhelming victory.

Frankly, I have no desire to continue to support politicians who consider compromise and bipartisanship to be higher values than the values they professed to believe in when campaigning, only to appear to have no will to enact change in accordance with those values when holding the majorities they claimed to need to do so. My money and time from this point will be going to candidates who currently support the public option and to the primary opponents of those who do not, and considering that poll after poll continue to show a significant majority that support the public option as well, I'm sure that I'm not alone in that regard.

There is still time for the you to display the leadership needed to obtain true change in the form of the public option. While the other changes to insurance reform that you've outlined are certainly valuable, big insurance corporations have had decades to rein in costs and they've failed. We need a change - and we need a strong public option available to all Americans to ensure that change. Mr. President, I hope that when you return you choose to lead Congress to deliver health care reform that includes a robust public insurance option to reinforce the faith of the millions of us that were initially inspired by your message of hope but have become disheartened.

Sincerely

XXX XXXXXX

CITY, STATE

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
(The words from Obama's February 2008 Election Night speech have become almost legendary, with "We are the ones" featuring in many of his ads and commercials. It's the "we" that's most important here.)

Sunday, August 23, 2009

PROGRESSIVES ON THE MOVE: NATIONWIDE MARCHES FOR PUBLIC OPTION ON SEPT. 13

Please, let us not take it upon ourselves to choose for others whether or not to take individual action in their best interests as shareholders of this commonwealth; hence, let's give others the opportunity to choose for themselves to mobilize and take action, or not, on this vital issue to ourselves, to our families, to our fellow citizens and to the Economic Health of this Republic as a whole.

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THE INFORMATION BELOW IN WHATEVER FORM BEST ADJUSTS TO YOUR TIME AND CAPABILITIES.

(Suggestions are: to post pertinent info on Blogs, listservs, Facebook Walls and Groups, Tweeter and any and all info-sharing networks and services, in addition to emailing our family, friends and any and all individuals in our circles and that we interact with)

For those of us who may even hate or, strongly dislike or, disapprove of what is being sold and passes as Capitalism today, feel that in order to lower down costs of Health Coverage, a robust public option is imprescindible.

We need competition in the Health Insurance Providers Market Place, hence, the need for a Public Option in the Health Care Reform Bill, and

Whereas, it is the Responsibility of elected Representatives to be Responsive to the Needs of their Constituents and do what the Majority charges them to enact on their behalf, and

Whereas, it is the duty of the Citizens to be engaged in what it is supposed to be a De-Facto Participatory Democracy, to, under no uncertain terms, let their respective Representatives in both Houses of Congress and to The President of the United States of America, know the terms and conditions of the Legislation that this majority mandates for their Representatives to Enact and it's Demands of these same Elected Representatives

Therefore, it is imperative that each of us, let our Representatives know our wishes in the loudest and widest possibly form

Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital, quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change. (Robert F. Kennedy)

DEMAND A PUBLIC OPTION NOW!
"No Public Option, No Vote" - 66 members so far

1) CALL or WRITE PRESIDENT OBAMA! Phone: 202-456-1111 email: president@whitehouse.gov

I'T HAS BEEN ADVISED BY THE STRATEGISTS, INCLUDING JANE HAMSHER, THAT ALTHOUGH CALLING THE WHITE HOUSE FEELS GOOD, IT'S MUCH MORE IMPORTANT TO FOCUS ON CALLS AND EMAILS TO CONGRESSPEOPLE. SO PLEASE, PLEASE MAKE YOUR PRIORITY THE LONG LIST OF CONGRESSPEOPLE WHO MUST HOLD THE LINE FOR THE PUBLIC OPTION.


2) CALL or WRITE YOUR SENATORS! The Phone numbers and emails can be found here: Senate, General Information


3) CALL OR WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE: The contact information is here: House, Write your Representative

DNC Main Phone Number: 202-863-8000


To contact the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, click here.
To contact the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, click here.


We will be marching on September 13th @ 12:00 PM in every city across the country for affordable healthcare. We demand a public option. Let the president and congress know that we will not accept a watered down bill. Click on events to see locations that are confirmed for the march. We will need help to organize all of these rallies. Please fill out your information in the contact us section if you can help.

Please join our group on facebook at March For Healthcare

Read the March for Healthcare blog


It's time to let that voice be heard. Now is time for the crowds, the independents, the young, new voters to show up by the thousands and show up for what you want; what you believe in. (Gerald Britt)


FACEBOOK GROUPS CALLING FOR REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM / PUBLIC OPTION

There are many Facebook groups and fan pages demanding the public option that are rapidly attracting members. If we can get everyone who belongs to all of these groups to join all of the others, it will exponentially multiply the effect and send a strong message as to what the American people really want from health care reform.

March for Healthcare - 1227 members so far
The purpose of this group is to organize a march on September 13th across the USA. Congress is wavering on the public option and we must demand one if we expect healthcare costs to go down. Every city in the country needs you to come out on that day and March For Healthcare. I am just one person who is fed up with the system. If there are a million of you out there like me then we can make our voices heard. Let's March!!!

We are "Fans" of a public option for health care. We are tired of delays, we are tired of ridiculous scare tactics, and we are tired of excuses. America needs a public option for health care -- and it's time for Americans to stand up and demand it.

This is a place to show support for an American Public Healthcare option and share stories about issues and solutions to the current nightmare we call healthcare. Discussion is encourage but distractors will be blocked from the group.

Healthcare-NOW! - 3244 members so far
Healthcare-NOW! is an education and advocacy organization that addresses the health insurance crisis in the U.S by advocating for the passage of national, single-payer healthcare legislation. Right now, the National Health Insurance Act (HR 676) is the only legislation that will create a national, single-payer healthcare system.
We see healthcare as a human right, not a privilege tied to the ability to pay.
HR 676, United States National Health Insurance Act, was introduced by Representative John Conyers (MI-14) and has 91 congressional co-sponsors--more than any other current healthcare legislation in Congress. For more information on HR 676 (it's not very long or difficult to understand), go to http://www.healthcare-now.org/hr-676/.
Healthcare-NOW! has more than 400 committed activists all over the country. Let us know if you'd like to get involved by visiting http://www.Healthcare-Now.org.

President Obama and his aides have indicated that in order to reach a compromise, he may drop a government option from the health care reform. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says it's "not the essential element". Kent Conrad, a senator in the Finance Committee, calls it "a wasted effort". We need to let them know that this compromise will be unacceptable. Obama should not waver on something he at one time claimed to have strongly believed in, just because he has some loud vocal opposition! The public option is necessary, and dropping it from this bill is not only a disservice to the American people, it is a slap in the face of every single person who voted for or supported him!

I support the Public Option - 1415 members so far
Do you support a public option component as part of Healthcare Reform?
Let Congress and President Obama hear your voice!
Shout louder than the opposition. There's strength in numbers.
Yes We Can Pass A Healthcare Bill That Includes A Public Option

I am creating this group because I am sickened by the way the right wing and the health care corporations have hijacked the Health Care debate.
Let the DEMOCRATS know we are holding them accountable to providing a public option.
Please take ten minutes out of your day to write or call the White House, your Senators, and your Represantative DEMANDING a public health care option in this year's Health Care Deform.


Meaningful healthcare reform is on the ropes! And it's partially our fault. The insurance industry and their supporters are organizing effectively, sending huge numbers of letters and emails to Congress, and sending people to town hall meetings to stifle other voices.
The result? Our elected officials are running for cover on the public option.
Polls show that we are still in the majority on public option, but as the old saying goes "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." Right now our opponents are squeakier. We can't let them defeat meaningful healthcare reform simply by being louder.
We can still win a public option, but it will take serious work on our part. Will you renew your commitment to this effort by taking action right now?
Progress Now Colorado
Contact Info
Email: mailto:keystoneprogress.org
Website: Keystone Progress
Location: 641 R Penn Ave.
West Reading, PA

This group is intended simply to spread news of a petition to be signed. If you agree with it, please sign the petition, and invite all your friends to join this group.
In his speech on June 3, President Obama reaffirmed his support for the "public option" of the healthcare plan. That's the crucial ingredient of the plan. The petition at
http://pol.moveon.org/popetition/
urges legislators to include that option in the legislation.

We think that the only acceptable result of the health care debate is a public option or a single payer system - and we would be willing to take to the streets to peacefully demonstrate this belief.
"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis"
"Los lugares más obscuros en el Infierno están reservados para aquellos que mantienen su neutralidad en tiempos de crisis moral"
-- Dante Alighieri

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Health Care Mobs = Swift Boat Vets... And the Press Plays Dumb, Again



By Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America. Posted August 21, 2009.

Mini-mob members being treated as deeply important newsmakers is reminiscent of August 2004.

Here we go again.

During August's summer daze, right-wing mini-mobs (egged on by corporate interests) have run wild at town hall meetings, propagating all kinds of smears and misinformation in an effort to derail an important Democratic campaign. Yet the mini-mob members have been treated as deeply important newsmakers by the press during a slow summer news month.

Sound familiar? Recall August 2004, when the right-wing Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (egged on by corporate interests) stole a month's worth of campaign headlines by propagating all kinds of smears and misinformation in an attempt to derail an important Democratic campaign. Yet they were treated as deeply important newsmakers by the press during a slow summer news month.

Honestly, the only thing missing this time around is a crackpot, best-selling book. In 2004, the Swifties used the release of Unfit for Command to launch their media-based smear campaign. This summer, it could have been something like ObamaScare: How Liberal Health Care Will Destroy America. (The Swifties' right-wing publisher must be kicking itself over the missed marketing opportunity.)

But what has been perfectly consistent is the way the press has, again, fallen for a right-wing smear campaign and dressed it up as news. Just as with the Swifties, the press has turned over its summer coverage to a band of agitators spreading misinformation. Five summers ago, the Swift Boat Vets helped hijack the election. They lied about documents, they lied about eyewitness, and they lied about their partisan affiliations and connections. For several crucial weeks during the campaign, journalists turned away from the pile-up of Swift Boat falsehoods and contradictions, rarely daring to call the Swift Boat attack out for what it really was -- a hoax. Too spooked by the GOP Noise Machine and its charge of liberal media bias, the press propped up the Vets as serious men and showered them with attention.

This year, the press has handed over untold hours of free airtime to mini-mob members whose sole purpose seems to be to spread as much fear as possible. (The ones who show up toting guns and Nazi posters make that point rather emphatically.)

Fringe players on the right are making wild accusations that cannot be backed up by fact. The mainstream media response? We must cover the phenomenon daily, even hourly!

So, day after August day, these vacuous health care "debates" are aired on cable television, just as news consumers suffered through night after night of vacuous Swift Boat "debates" five summers ago. In both cases, the press for the most part handed in its referee's whistle and focused its attention on simply reporting the fact-free claims and then getting the Democratic response. (i.e. he said/she said.) It turns out journalists are petrified of calling out right-wing activists as liars, and the other side knows it.

What's amazing is that even a conservative Republican congressman has conceded that the mini-mobs (this summer's news superstars) appear to be completely detached from reality. "You cannot build a movement on something that is not credible,'' Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina told the Los Angeles Times after being confronted by belligerent, fact-free protesters who were convinced that as part of health care reform, children would soon be forced to receive swine flu vaccinations. "At town meetings, the hostility went straight through to hysteria,'' said Inglis.

You might be interested in:

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Public Option or Bust: My Resolution for Labor Day Weekend

My President, Dems who have drawn a line on the sand, and the millions of people who have done the same, I say unto you: "hold that line, for the Cavalry is on it's way."

Ooooh, I have a dream that millions of the real people march to demand that the bargain we made last year, is honored.

I pretty much decided to march in support of a robust Public Option, I'll do it on Labor day, Sept. 7 in San Francisco, from the Embarcadero's Justin Herman Plaza, to the Federal Building where Nacy Pelosi has her office, no, it is not my idea, it is all over, I keep hearing, where are the people who made magic in the 2008 election? I don't know where the rest of us are, but I do know where one of them is, right here and itching for action because I had it, as Popeye would say: "That's all that I can take, I can't take no more"

As to the location where the march ends, why not? It is a fact that many Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, have drawn a line on the sand for Public Option, no doubt that The President whom we helped elect and who promised us health reform which would include Government-administered health services in competition with the Insurance Companies, needs to hear from us, didn't we agree that it was up to us? That we, as always, are the ones who have to carry the heavy load, it is up to us, we have to make it happen.

Why on Monday? Why not? Other people may choose to march on Sunday, or on Saturday, while some of us may even march on these three days if there are corresponding actions, Sunday seems a good day for church-going people, worship in the morning and then take action for the Health Reform that each of us, and the nation's economy, desperately need, now is the time, Saturday may sound good to people who simply just like to march on Saturdays, Monday may look appealing for people who still believe in fighting for the rights of all workers and who still live by the principle that "An injury to one, is an injury to all", of one thing all of us can be sure, people are getting hurt and dying due to the expensive and deadly nightmare that the Health Care System has turned into, did I say Health Care System? Ha, ha, ha... I laugh to avoid crying, if it is a system at all, it is a 'fleece-the-consumer-system and get obscenely wealthy while doing it.

Oh yeah, I do have a dream, Labor Day Weekend 2009, a weekend of Actions, a historic time in the USA where once more the people made History and forced passage of a Health Care Plan which works for the people, where the interest of patients is placed before profits and not the other way around, as has been the case forever and the long struggle of trying to change the status quo for... how many? 60, 90 years?

I have not mentioned one of the issues that compel me to march is that WE ARE NOT BEING HEARD, or we are being ignored by many Democrats who forgot that we elected them to take care of a few matters, chief among them is Health Reform, I though we had a bargain because, in addition to being not only our Representatives, they are our employees, we pay their salaries, they were elected to serve the people who put them there and instead they are serving the powers who fought hard to prevent many of them from getting into office, we won that battle and sent them to Washington with overwhelming majorities and with a mandate. WE HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.

Last time I checked, the Democratic Party's Platform lists Universal Health Care and yet, some Democrats are shitting on it.

What is up with that?

No, there are not thousands of people also marching, nor hundreds, not even dozens, there is only one friend I talked over with about this issue who said: "I'll also march with you, I have to do something about this"

So, there are two of us so far.

Do Something, I don't think there is one pro public option person who isn't saying to him/herself: "I've got to do something"

There are many ideas, proposals, a Boycott or Something, in the meantime... time goes bye bye, drip, drip the bleeding continues, the lies get more abundant, widespread and established.

What I say is: let's not complicate what it is in essence a set of simple issues which have complex problems with huge repercussions, we want a choice, we want true competition on the Health Insurance Market Place, we will settle for a Robust Public Option, we do know that Medicare and the VA systems work better than the private systems, so we should be given the opportunity to compete, yes, we, WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT, WE ARE THE SHAREHOLDERS WITH A FRANCHISE ON THIS ENTERPRISE WHICH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS SUPPOSED TO BE.

Curious that the Health Insurance Industry is spending ungodly amounts of money to defeat it, it seems to me that if they are against something, undoubtedly, it has to be good for us. They don't want competition because it would be... GASP!!! Unfair?

Hey you blood suckers, isn't this a Capitalist System? This is what you keep telling us and you do not want competition? How stupid do you really think we are?

In everytown USA, people make their own resolution, organize and take action, we invite family, friends, co-workers, colleagues, the small business / organizations who serve us, we have a Church or some other venue where we attend; all of us have a stake on this struggle, more aptly to call it a war, it is a very old war and we have to put an end to it with a clear objective: Health Care Reform with A Robust Public Option - LET THE COMPETITION COMMENCE AND LET THE BEST PROVIDER OF HEALTH SERVICES WIN.

Many Right Wingers and many in what passes as the Republican Party, are saying that they want their country back, eh? Hellooooo? We are the majority, we won the elections, isn't this still a Democracy? C'mon, who is really in danger of losing the Country? I don't really mean losing our Country, but hey! I'm told that elections matter and as the gullible and idealistic soul that I am, I believed it, I opened my meager check account, gave tons of my time, a lot of it from my sleeping time to help elect Barack Obama and to give the Democrats a majority, candidate Obama said that I could own a piece of the campaign, President Obama confirmed that I do own a piece of it - I'll march.

I want to tell my President, to my Representatives who are sticking for our best interests, you are not alone, I may be only one, but I'm with you and I'll say it by making contact with the soles of my shoes to the street's pavement on Labor Day Weekend, Monday for sure, but I'd love to also March on Saturday and on Sunday no matter how long my tired 60 year old bones take to recover.

Target: Labor Day Weekend, plenty of time to ask other people if they want to do the same, time for them to, in turn, ask others if they want to do the same, time for them to also ask others if they want to do the same, and so forth, and so on.

If many more would make their own commitment and resolve to also do something, it would be magic all over again.

"WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR"

YES WE CAN, SI SE PUEDE!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Olbermann tears the Worst Sellouts on Health Care in Congress

Keith Olbermann exposes Sen. John Thune, Sen. John McCain, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans -- as well as a few Democrats, too: specifically the "Blue Dogs.", warns them on the political consequences of derailing Health Reform.

Telling it like it is

"Legislators For Sale"

Sunday, August 2, 2009

What's Not to Like? Reform? Why do we need health-care reform? Everything is just fine the way it is.

I just had to share this article, I'm confident you will want to share

it with others, go ahead, it's a beaut.

Aurora

Jonathan Alter -- Newsweek

What’s Not to Like?

Reform? Why do we need health-care reform? Everything is
just fine the way it is.


Jul 31, 2009








Go ahead, shoot me. I like the status quo on health care in the United States. I've got health insurance and I don't give a damn about the 47 million suckers who don't. Obama and Congress must be stopped. No bill! I'm better off the way things are.

I'm with that woman who wrote the president complaining about "socialized medicine" and added: "Now keep your hands off my Medicare." That's the spirit!

Why should I be entitled to the same insurance that members of Congress get? Blue Dogs need a lot of medical attention to treat their blueness. I'm just a regular guy and definitely deserve less.

I had cancer a few years ago. I like the fact that if I lose my job, I won't be able to get any insurance because of my illness. It reminds me of my homeowners' insurance, which gets canceled after a break-in. I like the choice I'd face if, God forbid, the cancer recurs—sell my house to pay for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment, or die. That's what you call a "post-existing condition."

I like the absence of catastrophic insurance today. It meant that my health-insurance plan (one of the better ones, by the way) only covered about 75 percent of the cost of my cutting-edge treatment. That's as it should be—face cancer and shell out huge amounts of money at the same time. Nice.

I like the "lifetime limits" that many policies have today. Missed the fine print on that one, did you? It means that after you exceed a certain amount of reimbursement, you don't get anything more from the insurance company. That's fair.

Speaking of fair, it seems fair to me that cost-cutting bureaucrats at the insurance companies—not doctors—decide what's reimbursable. After all, the insurance companies know best.

Yes, the insurance company status quo rocks. I learned recently about something called the "loading fees" of insurance companies. That's how much of every health-care dollar gets spent by insurance companies on things other than the medical care—paperwork, marketing, profits, etc. According to a University of Minnesota study, up to 47 percent of all the money going into the health-insurance system is consumed in "loading fees." Even good insurance companies spend close to 30 percent on nonmedical stuff. Sweet.

The good news is that the $8,000 a year per family that Americans pay for their employer-based health insurance is heading up! According to the Council of Economic Advisers, it will hit $25,000 per family by 2025. The sourpusses who want health-care reform say that's "unsustainable." Au contraire.

And how could the supporters of these reform bills believe in anything as stupid as a "public option"? Do they really believe that the health-insurance cartel deserves a little competition to keep them honest? Back in the day, they had a word for competition. A bad word. They called it capitalism. FedEx versus the U.S. Postal Service, CNN versus PBS—just because it's government-backed doesn't mean you can't compete against it. If they believed in capitalism, the insurance companies would join the fray and compete.

I'm glad they don't. I prefer the status quo, where the for-profit insurance companies suck at the teat of the federal government. Corporate welfare's what we've got, and it's a damn good system. Through a wonderful program called Medicare Advantage, the insurance companies receive hundreds of billions of dollars in fees to administer a program that the government is already running. Don't touch that baby. You'd be messing with the handiwork of some fine lobbyists.

You know what part of the status quo I like best? It's a longstanding system for paying doctors called "fee for service." That's where doctors get paid for each procedure they perform, as if my auto dealer got paid separately for the steering wheel, brakes, and horn instead of for the car. Fee-for-service is why the medical care at that doc-in-a-box at my mall is so superior to the Mayo Clinic or Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where the doctors are on salary. Who would want to mess with that?

OK, if you really press me, I'm for one change. It's the one that Republicans trot out to prove they're "reformers," too. We could save our whole system if we just capped malpractice awards. Two of our biggest states—California and Texas—did it a few years ago and nothing has changed there, but who cares? It sounds good.

So tell your congressmen and senators when they're home for the summer recess that it's too soon to address this issue. We've only been debating it for 97 years, since Theodore Roosevelt put national health insurance in the Bull Moose Party platform of 1912. We've only had 745 congressional hearings on the subject (I made that number up, but it's got to be close). That's not enough! Let's study this problem more before we do anything about it.

Did I say "problem"? Who said there was a problem? Not me. I like the status quo.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Baucus: 'No idea' how he'll vote on Sotomayor

This guy is really seriously compromised, him and others like him quickly forget that we gave tons of money to elect Obama and other Dems, I'm sure we can pitch in with funds to Dem Candidates who may be in trouble during the mid-term elections - in addition, they do not seem to realize that the same way we contributed to elect Representatives, the contributions can be used to support any other Dem who will oppose them.

I'm not the only one who has already decided that if the Blue Dog Dems screw the people and help the 'Dark Side', we will spend as much as we can to make sure they are defeated.

Albeit I disagree with them in many of their political positions, I'm OK with it because the Dem Party really is supposed to be a Big Tent, but when it comes to the issue of Public Option in Health Care and they do not support it, they will prove beyond any doubt that friends of the people is not one political characteristics they have. (I do prefer a 'single payer plan' but I don't think it could be reachable now)

Now, after all that we have witnessed on the attacks on Sonia Sotomayor, he will not support her being in the Supreme Court, just pushes him over the line to the racist wing nut as far as I'm concerned.

What the hell more do they want from us?

Judge Sonia Sotomayor did what people who want to get ahead are expected to do and she did it very well.

Thank you very much for nothing Max.

Posted: 07/30/09 08:27 PM [ET]
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Thursday he hasn’t made up his mind on whether he will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

Baucus this summer has infuriated liberals on and off Capitol Hill by working to strike a deal with Republicans on healthcare reform. A “no” vote on Sotomayor would be adding fuel to the left’s fire at the Finance Committee chairman.

Baucus on Thursday twice told The Hill he is undecided on next week’s floor vote on Sotomayor.
“I have no idea,” Baucus said. “I haven’t paid any attention and I haven’t announced … I’ve been so busy with healthcare. It’s under consideration. I’ll certainly know when I vote, but right now I can’t tell you.”

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has come out against Sotomayor, stating it will factor the vote into its legislative scorecard because the group feels the nominee would curb gun rights.

Baucus had an A rating from the NRA in 2008, as did two other Senate Democrats who ran last year: Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Mark Warner of Virginia.

Johnson supports Sotomayor’s nomination.
Warner told The Hill on Thursday he intends to support Sotomayor — and that he was “very disappointed” in the gun lobby. Warner also said he is not worried that Sotomayor will restrict the rights of gun owners.

“I’m very disappointed. [NRA seems] to be going beyond their Second Amendment issues, particularly when I think the judge’s positions on those issues are still fairly open,” Warner said. “I trust in her judgment and temperament. I think the NRA at some point has gone beyond its mission, and are perhaps allowing themselves to get hijacked by those who are in the extreme.”

The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Baucus “no” vote against President Barack Obama’s high-court nominee would attract national headlines. It would also create a politically awkward situation with the White House as it is trying to prod Baucus to produce a healthcare reform bill.

Liberal groups are incensed at Baucus for his refusal to embrace the so-called public option in revamping the nation’s healthcare system. Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee are running ads against Baucus in Montana on the issue.

Baucus voted to confirm John Roberts, President George W. Bush’s nominee for chief justice. He later voted against now-Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

Fellow Democrat Jon Tester of Montana said he also has traditionally received NRA support, while noting that he will support Sotomayor.

Tester said he pressed Sotomayor on gun-rights issues during his private meeting with her and, like Warner, feels comfortable with the nominee.

“I think she’ll be fine on gun rights. I asked about some of her past cases, and I just think she’s going to be fine,” Tester said.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who has an A rating from the NRA, on Thursday announced his support of Sotomayor. Other Republicans who say they will vote yes on her nomination are: Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Richard Lugar (Ind.), Mel Martinez (Fla.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine).

In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last week, the NRA cited two controversial decisions in Sotomayor’s past: Maloney v. Cuomo, in which she ruled the Second Amendment did not apply to state and local governments, and United States v. Sanchez-Villar, in which she found that gun ownership is not a fundamental right.

“We believe any individual who does not agree that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental right and who does not respect our God-given right of self-defense should not serve on any court, much less the highest court in the land,” the NRA’s letter reads.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Health Care Reform and The Media: Who is Wendell Potter?

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This is a story that any one who feels that we should have Health Care for everybody must see and share with others, there is so much propaganda as to why Health Care Reform, as proposed by President Obama, is VERY BAD! How it would lead us to... SOCIALISM! How it would destroy the very fabric of our society or something of that sort.

We hear Senators and Congressmen, both Republican and BLUE DOG Democrats, tell us through all the media outlets that the Public Health Systems in Canada, England and France are total disasters, how Public Health leads to health rationing and blah, blah, blah... The interesting part is that these elected Representatives are in the pockets of the Health Care Insurance Companies - I mentioned Blue Dog Democrats, but it also includes other Dems who are closeted Blue Dog Democrats, and who are no friends to common folk's interests, that's for sure.

As somebody who is very concerned and well informed of how the media allows itself to be used as long there is a lot of money to buy space, it doesn't surprise me to see how gleefully they join in the campaigns of misinformation, they have a license to lie to the public, as Producer Director Sue Wilson documents on her movie "Broadcast Blues" , there is at least one court ruling which said that there is no law which prohibits or sanctions lying while presenting "News" (FOX NOISE ANYONE?) or on their Ads, while the FCC may have Administrative Jurisdiction in some of these matters, it doesn't even want to look into it, much less do something about it, till now that is.

As a learning bonus, it is very interesting to see how the 'Media Personalities' put these sellouts on their programs and allow them to make their claims without a challenge to provide evidence on the failures of Government-run Health Care in other industrialized countries, needless to say, they do not challenge any claim no matter how outrageous and patently false it may be.

I don't know what else to say about how important it is to also fight this battle, I'm constantly reminded of the saying that 'you can lead a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink', all we can do is make the truth available.

For those interested in to at least know how we, our children and our children's children are and will be royally screwed and even killed for lack of care if the Insurance Companies have their way, there is some info below, and for those also interested and willing to join the fight for Media Reform, send me an email to get connected with other people who will not go quietly into the night without a fight.

Wendell Potter interview on the Bill Moyer on his July 10 PBS Program, "Profits Before Patients",
In his first extended television interview since leaving the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter tells Bill Moyers why he left his successful career as the head of Public Relations for CIGNA, one of the nation's largest insurers, and decided to speak out against the industry. "I didn't intend to [speak out], until it became really clear to me that the industry is resorting to the same tactics they've used over the years, and particularly back in the early '90s, when they were leading the effort to kill the Clinton plan."
Even so he doesn't tell us anything new, as a former insider, he confirms what we have been saying all along about the current Health "System", what is very revealing is to confirm their tactics to keep the 'status quo' hence their profits, as of last week, the Health Insurance Company's Lobby was spending $1,000,000,00 a day, yes, you read right, ONE MILLION DOLLARS A DAY TO DEFEAT THE PUBLIC OPTION (They do not want any competition that would drive down the cost of buying Health Care).

He also confirms that Michael Moore's "SiCKO" Is right on target and describes how they went about discrediting Michael and the Documentary, if you didn't get a chance to see the Movie, you can watch the full version here (02:03:12), I have also embed the video at the foot of this post.
.
Even so this movie came out in 2007, two years later it is still current and highly pertinent.

In his Moyer's interview, Potter reveals his struggle in deciding what to do about his epiphany on the horrible reality of Health Care in These United States, going as far as quoting Dante Alighieri "The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."

In closing, let me just tell you a little known secret, the current media status is literally killing people, the Fourth State has failed us and many of our Representatives have betrayed us, for money.

On the bright side, there are exceptions in the Media chicanery, there are many journalists who still do their work with honesty, under traditional journalist's guidelines and principles, on the down side, these honorable Journalists are outnumbered by a ratio of at least 10 to 1 according to the Sept. 12 2007 Media Matters' Report: Black and White and Re(a)d All Over (PDF) which should tell us that before we can realistically have any type of just and comprehensive reform on Health Care, Immigration, Working conditions, Education, etc., WE NEED TO HAVE MEDIA REFORM FIRST.


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