Month: March 2009

March 31, 2009

Congressional representative John Conyers and HR 676 pack the Westminster sanctuary on a Sunday afternoon

Anyone with a lick of sense is painfully aware that health care is one of the most critical problems facing America today. The stupid privatized insurance scheme that is currently in place is steadily dragging the middle class into poverty, and the poor into early graves. All this unnecessary misery created so that a handful of parasitic corporate insurance scammers can get richer than they already are.

On Sunday I walked with The Wife over to Westminster Presbyterian Church over on State Street for a public meeting about Single Payer Health Care. I was feeling a bit under the weather so I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. Well, I certainly learned a few things at the meeting, and I got to chat with one of the most powerful politicians in the country, a guy most people in Albany have barely heard of.

I’m talking about John Conyers of Dearborn, Michigan, the second longest serving member of the House of Representatives. He is the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, a committee which has extraordinary power over a wide variety of federal departments, including federal courts and federal law enforcement. He is also the senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, which this year has finally come unto its own as an influential body.

Representative John Conyers

Most people don’t know any more about Single Payer Health Care than they know about John Conyers, it’s just words. What it means is that we would have one and only one health insurance provider for every American citizen. Since this one provider is a government agency, the behavior of this agency would be ultimately subject to scrutiny by the voters and taxpayers.

This is in sharp contrast to the current scheme, where a pack of hungry corporate insurance companies supposedly, allegedly, compete with each other for the American citizen’s money. In practice, these insurance corporations have formed virtual cartels that take advantage of sick Americans by driving up the cost of all services, from the hospital to the doctor visits to the pharmaceuticals.

In addition, these corporate insurers pointedly refuse to insure all Americans. They say in their own defense that they can’t afford to provide insurance for people who are … sick. They only want to insure people who are healthy, because that way they can keep their corporate “bottom line” healthy by not paying out premiums to those who need them.

It’s a savage, stupid and idiotic method of exploitation one might find in a miserable run down third world country. This privatized insurance scheme is a national boondoggle, a parasitic method of extracting wealth from people who work for a living. It should go without saying that America can no longer afford such boondoggles, we taxpayers can no longer nurture thieves and robbers.

Westminster Presbyterian Shortly Before The Event

Will Single Payer solve the debilitating societal problems caused by privatized health insurance? Mr. Conyers put it this way:

You have to first of all decide that getting healthcare when you need it is a right and not a privilege. So when people talk about “affordable health care,” you’ve just left a hundred million Americans outside the door because they can’t afford anything. What do you do if you don’t have the money to afford affordable health care?

. . . Do we really need to have profit taking in health care? …And now they’re all marketing …everybody’s hustling health care. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we want to put you into a full employment full reaching program, because you need one organization insuring health care, a single payer. One, only one.

March 10, 2009

Finally! But now we have a split race as two viable and competent
candidates take on the current mayor of Albany . . . and each other

For the past four months the potential candidates for mayor have been talking and maneuvering through the political circles in the City, bouncing off each other like bumper cars. And there have been secret meetings, along with secret meetings that were not so secret. But until this month no one has made a formal announcement. And as of this writing, the incumbent has not formally announced His intentions.

Last Tuesday I bopped on down to the Crowne Plaza, the hotel on State Street with no proper front door, to hear Corey Ellis, who was born and raised in Albany and is a former South End resident, become the first candidate to publicly announce that he intends to ask the voters to elect him Mayor of Albany this coming September.

Corey Ellis Announces His Run For Mayor Of Albany

It was a well managed event with a fair sized enthusiastic crowd and the media in full attendance. The mood on the podium, though, was mostly serious, an attitude which reflects that of the recent Obama presidential campaign, with which Mr. Ellis is closely connected. The clear message from the candidate and his supporters on stage was that the City of Albany is in very serious trouble and we need someone serious to put things right.

First ward Common Council member Dominick Calsolaro gave an enthusiastic endorsement speech, in which he said that Mr. Ellis is the one member of the council “whose commitment to good government matches my own.” That would be a lot of commitment, and a powerful endorsement.

Dominick Calsolaro Endorses Corey Ellis

Sad to say, as I reported on February 28, Dominick has declined to take City Hall for himself. He has wide name recognition in the City and a record to be proud of over his two terms as the progressive leader the of Common Council. In a fair contest Dominick would have kicked Jerry’s Butt. And Jerry knows it.

Mr. Ellis’ announcement speech was solid, a well considered short and to the point statement why the current administration has got to go, and why he is qualified to do a much better job. Here are some excerpts, first Mr. Ellis’ assessment of Jerry Jennings:

Too many opportunities have been squandered, even during a time of great economic expansion… For the past 16 years, we have seen a dramatic loss in our population and ever-increasing property taxes. We have seen entire neighborhoods given up on, given over to crime and demolition by neglect.

And in response to these problems, this administration has grown inward, more secretive, less transparent.

Instead of working proactively to develop new sources of revenue and create new opportunities for our residents, we’ve remained dependent on shrinking state aid and payments and from a landfill that’s almost full.

What is the plan? Where is the vision? Getting more handouts from the State? Building a convention center? Shall we re-capitalize Albany yet again?

For too long, the people have been shut out of the process. You have not been given access to information. You have been treated as though you can’t make a contribution.

That’s no way to lead this city.