Like many of you, I get most of the news from FOX News Channel. In fact, at least one of the five televisions in my house is always on FOX...and has been since 9-11-01. So, to tell you that I have been sitting here "facebooking" with FOX on in the background, is nothing new.

Today, as with most days lately, I hear the show commentators and their guests mulling over the latest polls..who is leading who in what race. Commenting on all the different issues and trying to guess what they may or may not mean in the upcoming mid-term elections. Will this or that "hurt" one or the other of the political parties. Will we voters "remember" this, that or the other thing that Congress has done...what Obama has done..or not done. Are we voters angry? Will that anger show in the elections? Are we more concerned about the economy or are we mostly concerned with homeland security and the war on terrorism? Are we upset about all the spending ...the bailouts...the pork...my my...what IS bothering all of us..and..will we remember November 2, 2010!?! Is THIS the year of the newcomers to the Washington scene? Is it anti-incumbent? JUST what are we the voters thinking of...they keep asking, over and over.

Answer: WE ARE THINKING OF ALL OF THOSE THINGS! Yes, we ARE angry...and NO, we will NOT forget WHY we are angry.

We remember last summer, when we begged...pleaded..called our representatives...marched on D.C. and DEMANDED that Congress honor the U. S. Constitution and OUR wishes to VOTE DOWN the healthcare bill. We REMEMBER how we were ignored. We watched as Pelosi made her victory lap to the halls of Congress, gloating with every step. We have not forgotten that the bill was NOT even read by a majority of the Congress nor the Senate. We have not forgotten for one moment her, "...we have to pass the bill to find out what is in it..." comment. We have not forgotten that votes for the healthcare bill were BOUGHT ..to be paid for by US. We have not forgotten those "favored" by the passage of the bill....and we have NOT forgotten that the bill was not even about healthcare but a huge power grab, not only over our healthcare but over one of the most private and sensitive aspects of our lives...and as always..it was about MONEY. The redistribution of the "wealth" ..from those who work hard and EARN it..to those who do not...and have not earned it.

We have screamed, "STOP THE SPENDING!" We have watched as we are again, ignored. We, as the common folk, know that when our bank account is depleted, we STOP writing checks. We cut up our credit cards and we make financial choices for our survival. We do NOT keep spending what we do not have. We know that you cannot SPEND your way out of bankruptcy. Truth is..over spending and over reaching ones financial means is HOW you end up in bankruptcy.........HELLOOOO! So, Congress' and the Senate's ignorance of math..and disregard for common sense or maybe the LACK of it..has been noticed, and will NOT be forgotten. EVER.

It has not been lost on us that Obama went to China..hat in hand and the other hand out...asking FOR a hand out. It is not lost on us that we now owe way more than we can repay to China. A communist country..our enemy, and what a horrible and very delicate and vulnerable position that places America in. How can one stand up in strength to an enemy that, for all intents and purposes..OWNS YOU?! It is also not lost on us that to go down to the basement and just print up more paper money only reduces our currency to the value of Monopoly money. A dollar bill with nothing to back it up is just another piece of useless paper.

We also were paying attention when Obama traveled to countries less than friendly to America and apologized for America....and for what? For being strong? For being the beacon of FREEDOM? For rushing to everyone's aid when they needed it...for the graves in Europe of OUR men and women who gave their lives for others' freedom from tyranny and oppression? For...believing in the free market and personal responsibility? For...being the success that we have been the last 200+ years? We watched as he bowed to kings of other countries. We have watched and listened to his admonishment of the American spirit and dreams. These things will not be forgotten.

We have watched as he has taken over our banks, our automotive industry, our healthcare and taken steps to control our businesses. We have also noticed the things that neither Congress, the Senate nor Obama has done. We have noticed that NONE of them have honored their Oath of Office....to defend and protect our country and our Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. We have watched as they have made a mockery of our laws designed to do just those things. We are watching as they SUE our states for enforcing not only state laws but FEDERAL laws. They want those of US who DARE to oppose their actions in this regard, investigated. I suppose that is easier than DOING THEIR JOB!

We have noticed the preferences to terrorists, first by their refusal to even identify them for what they are..TERRORISTS, then by such actions as dropping cases against them, setting them free to perhaps succeed another day in their attempts to kill as many Americans as they can and further their destruction of our country.

We have noticed their inaction as our country is being invaded by ILLEGAL aliens; their refusal again, to protect our country from enemies. Help was promised to Arizona. Another promise broken.

And the list goes on and on..and grows daily. The bottom line is...we the people..the voters ...consider ALL of these issues. We have NOT forgotten, nor will we. Those running for office will be best served if they keep this in mind. If you are an incumbent, rest assured, you do NOT have job security, even if you voted our way. In your way, you have facilitated all of this by NOT standing up strongly to the socialist agenda in play. We have had enough of political correctness. It will get Americans killed! It is way past time to call things as they ARE...not try to paint pretty pictures. No matter how many coats of lipstick you smear on a pig..it is STILL a pig.

For those new folks entering the political arena..we WILL be watching you. We expect and DEMAND honor and integrity! We will watch every move you make..we will listen to every word you say and everything you do NOT say. We ARE AWAKE. If you are elected, we will watch your every stance and vote on every issue. We expect TRUE REPRESENTATION. If we scream NO...you best pay attention. We will NOT EVER be ignored again. We will NOT tolerate being dismissed and "talked down to" again.

So...to you candidates and to those in the media...do not ever under estimate "we the people"...do not think that we have the attention span of a gnat...and that we cannot chew gum and walk at the same time. We are paying attention to ALL of the issues! We are coming together as never before. In fact, if there is ONE good thing about the last 20 months, it is the unification of the majority of the American people. It is the rebirth of the TRUE American spirit. It has been a hard lesson learned that we cannot afford to sleep ever again, taking our freedom for granted. GOD BLESS OUR AMERICA!

Sammye G.

Health Care Reform Essay by a Physician on Insurance Companies versus the Government

by Epimenides - a physician

"I am no lover of insurance companies. After all, I have sued them, and would do it again tomorrow. But there can be an enormous difference between private insurance corporations, and government. If you examine the issue closely, you will see that corporations are NOT at the root of the problem.

Here's why.

Who "regulates" insurance companies? Who tells them what kind of policies they can and can't write? Who decides that health insurance bought by a company you work for is a deductible business expense, but the same thing bought by you, personally, is not a deductible personal expense? In short, what is it that sets up the rules that favor insurance companies and give them the ability to do what they do? In particular, who gives them rules they LIKE, if they pay the bribes?

Yes, you are right. Government. Government is the absolute, unequivocal, root of the problem with medical care. Rules, regulations, favors, taxation preferences, "licensing" requirements, "capital" requirements, etc... all these things are holy writ from GOVERNMENT, and enforced, at the point of a gun, by GOVERNMENT.

Why can't you and I start a little "mutual" insurance company with our 5-guy family practice? Why can't we buy reinsurance from somebody in Bermuda and provide for our patients based on them paying us $90 a month apiece? Yes, you guessed it - government.

Why can't we, and 3 other groups like us, especially if we are each running our own little mutual company, then cut our costs by doing our imaging at our own imaging center, instead of paying for it to go somewhere else? Ah, yes. Stark laws. Government.

Why can't I enter into a voluntary agreement with a patient, enforceable by a mutually-agreed-upon enforcement company, to prevent him from suing me frivolously? Because one entity claims the monopoly on violence and enforcement - government.

Health care "reform" is a subset of "liberty 'reform'", and without liberty, there will be no real "reform" of anything at all. The antithesis of liberty is government.

And the folks who run it, like it that way."

by Epimenides
physician (verified)

On Sarah Palin’s Death Panel and Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel’s Rationing of Health Care

On Sarah Palin’s Death Panel and Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel’s Rationing of Health Care
- by an anonymous physician (verified)

Well, for the first time ever, I have agreed with Sarah Palin. Boy is my wife gonna be pissed...
I also read Dr. [Ezekiel] Emanuel's entire Lancet article. It is very thoughtful and well organized, but I have two serious concerns that prevent me from accepting it.

First, the article presupposes that some entity (government, presumably) should have the power to apply rationing. For gas and tires in wartime, that’s fine; for health care, or any other aspect of daily life, I can't agree.

Life is not fair. No practicing physician can disagree with that statement. But one of the greatest glories of humanity is the ability of some to overcome difficulty, to figure out a better way, to figure, scheme, plot or even connive to do the undoable.

There are certainly negative consequences when such maneuvers are unrestrained, or even when they are restrained, but this quality, more so than any other, is that which makes humans successful - the most successful - as a species. And it is an innate quality among us.

Even the most disadvantaged among us - the poorest, the disabled, the dumbest (excuse the political insensitivity) - do the best they can every day to try to improve their lot in life. The person who's robbing you at knifepoint may not be doing a particularly good job from a societal viewpoint but the fact is that, from his perspective, at that point in time, robbing you is the best thing he can figure out to do. Otherwise, he would be doing something else.

And it is the freedom to do whatever is the best one can figure out to do that is the hallmark of the unique, and uniquely successful, democracy known as America. To consent to having any entity, and especially the government, apply rationing to the general population is antithetical to the very things that make us human, and American.

On the other hand, resources in life, and in health care in particular, are limited. It is inevitable that when competing for constrained resources, some will succeed and some will fail. Which returns us to the point that life is not fair. But, fair or not, life is much more fulfilling, even in failure, when the opportunity to compete has been offered. To remove that opportunity is a far greater affront than to simply allow one to fail.

If some failure is inevitable, as it is in any competition for constrained resources, there is no more demoralizing event, and no greater evil, than to be disallowed from competing. Thus, the very notion that any entity, no matter how well intentioned, should be given the power to determine our successes and failures for us, without allowing us the opportunity to compete, is itself morally wrong, and is a far greater injustice than that which occurs during the inevitable failures that competition entails.

My other concern with Emanuel's paper is his reliance on vaguely defined "morally relevant principles" - a term he uses throughout the paper, and his desire to adopt not a set of rules for rationing, but a framework of principles. In closing, he states "...society must embrace the challenge of implementing a coherent multiprinciple framework rather than relying on simple principles..."

If ever there was a statement more open to blatant abuse of a system by the politically connected, I have yet to see it. And that, ultimately, is the great threat of government rationing, no matter the way in which it is implemented.

While I stated above that being disallowed from competition is the greatest evil, I was mistaken. Being disallowed from competing, while knowing that others are being given, by virtue of birthright or political connectedness, that for which you are forbidden from competing, is indeed the greatest evil of all.

This is the fundamental injustice, which has led to every great political advancement in human history, from the Greek republic to the Magna Carta to the American Revolution and the Emancipation Proclamation. The notion that America could seriously consider undertaking this kind of morally repressive and morally reprehensible action causes me great fear for our future.

- by a physician acquaintance of mine who wishes to remain anonymous in these politically charged times.

Sarah Palin’s “Death Panel Post” can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=113851103434

The Dr. Ezekiel J Emanuel article, “Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions,” can be found here: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60137-9/abstract
It is in The Lancet, Volume 373, Issue 9661, Pages 423 - 431, 31 January 2009, and is authored by Govind Persad BS, Alan Wertheimer PhD, and Ezekiel J, Emanuel M.D.

Waiting Lines in Canada and England

"Although Canada has a population smaller than California, 830,000 Canadians are currently waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment, according to a report last month in Investor’s Business Daily. In England, the waiting list is 1.8 million." - John Mackey

EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER was a Health Activist

The NIH pays tribute to Eunice Kennedy SHRIVER. - BRH

STATEMENT OF DUANE ALEXANDER, M.D., DIRECTOR EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, ON THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development (NICHD)
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, August 11, 2009

CONTACT: Robert Bock or Marianne Glass Miller, 301-496-5133,

STATEMENT OF DUANE ALEXANDER, M.D., DIRECTOR
EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
ON THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER IN ADVANCING RESEARCH IN CHILD HEALTH, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, AND INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY

The entire world owes a debt to Eunice Kennedy Shriver for her foresight in calling for an institute at the National Institutes of Health to study the myriad aspects of human development, both as it unfolds without problems and when medical and environmental factors prevent it from doing so.

In 1961, Mrs. Shriver persuaded her brother, then-President Kennedy, to include in his first health message to Congress the proposal for an NIH institute focusing on child health and human development research. After the bill that would establish the new institute was introduced, Mrs. Shriver testified in support of that bill and worked to persuade members of Congress to approve it. The institute that now bears her name, by act of Congress, is a tribute to her vision and commitment.

Research that the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has sponsored has led to the near-elimination in the developed world of once common causes of intellectual disability. For example, as recently as the 1980s, Haemophilus influenzae Type B (Hib) meningitis was the leading cause of acquired mental retardation in the United States. A vaccine against the disease, developed in the NICHD's laboratories, has been so effective that today the disease is nearly eliminated. Children with the metabolic disorder phenylketonuria, or PKU, develop severe intellectual disability soon after birth. In the 1960s, a blood test for PKU was developed and children with the disorder were identified at birth. NICHD research documented that a diet low in the amino acid phenylanine spared them from brain damage and allowed normal functioning. Another newborn blood test developed through NICHD research for a disorder caused by failure to produce sufficient amounts of thyroid hormone allowed diagnosis and treatment before any brain damage could occur. Other NICHD research documented the benefits and feasibility of mainstreaming children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities into schools and communities, a practice that is now routine.

She was also instrumental in creating in 1961 what eventually became the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities (ACF/HHS), and served on that Committee from 1966-1968 and from 1977-1980.

We owe these and numerous other advances in health, especially for those with disabilities, to Mrs. Shriver's determined efforts. She will be greatly missed.

The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute's Web site at .

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit .

Katie Couric Reveals Backroom Deal on Health Care Reform

Last night, Katie Couric reported on CBS News that Barack Obama made a backroom deal with the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Sidney Wolfe, a consumer activist, called it "a very bad deal for the American Public." Dr. Wolfe is an expert on issues of drug safety, health care policy, Food and Drug Administration and hospital oversight, OSHA, medical devices, Medicare and Medicaid and doctor discipline.

First Line of Any Health Care Reform Bill

The first line of any health care reform bill should be that the president and congress shall not have any better health care than the people. That would ensure that we get a better system instead of a worse one.