What Congress Must Do to End U.S. Wars and Help Secure a Peaceful Middle East
DESCRIPTION: Educational briefing on the U. S. agenda in the Middle East, its consequences and development of a strategy/plan to withdraw. Emphasis will be on constructive, interactive dialogue among panelists and attendees.
MODERATOR: Representative Dennis J. Kucinich (D - Ohio)
PANELISTS: Chris Hedges, Jeremy Scahill, David Swanson, Ann Wright -- Learn more.
I participated in a thread called Another call to publicly disown the "firedogs" My answer was so long, and because it threw light on what, I hope, will be a systematized and rational way of dealing with honest differences of opinions, that I've decided to post it as a separate diary on FDL, OpenLeft, and DocuDharma.
Somebody had suggested an "FDL Party", but I said that an "FDL Voting Bloc" would be smarter. Turns out, that was too simple a statement, as was made clear by PaulaT's post:
Back when they had the Mass special election to fill Kennedy's seat, there were threads on here with comments in the hundreds about what should be done. Some were in the camp of vote for Coakley because she's progressive, though those were the minority. Some were saying to vote for Coakley because even an establishment Dem was better than a Republican. Others were saying to vote for Brown to send a message about how bad the Senate bill was before the House also passed it and they ended up with a crappy bill (not that it stopped them, after all, but at least there was some hope it might). After all the discussion and some really good arguments from all involved (plus some really bad ones from some), there was no consensus on what should be done. I don't think there would be on future races. There would be those in the any Dem is better camp and those in the anything but an incumbent who has betrayed us to teach a lesson camp, and probably a few other camps as well depending on the particulars of the race. There are those who would like to see Kucinich gone and those who are mad about health care but say he's been good on other things or they think the pressure was so great that they are inclined to forgive him or he's the most progressive one we've got even if he's spineless, or whatever, but want to keep him. When we had Romanoff on here the other day, every other question was about why anyone should trust him even though we know from very recent experience we can't trust Bennett, who he's running against. You'd think people would be okay with jumping in on that lesser of evils, but some would still rather go third party or maybe not vote at all, but something other than just trust him from what they were asking.
So how do you get this particular community to vote as a bloc?
Today in America there is a big and under-reported issue. There are actually people out there, some of them unbelievably in Congress, crazy enough to challenge that great American institution, the military industrial complex. Who doesn't love Halliburton? Or Dick Cheney? Or the Iraq War? Or useless projects that do nothing more than enrich and empower an already powerful and rich elite?
I'll tell you who. 65 good for nothin' Congresspeople. They're the ones who today voted against a symbolic resolution to get our troops out of Afghanistan.
Now, cutting the snark, so many of the other 356 don't even have the gall to vote against a symbolic resolution to end a war! I understand that some people honestly support it, but when less than half of the country supports the war in Afghanistan, it's a bad sign that all of these Congresspeople still do:
Last week, House Democrats killed two provisions that could have given us the best health care in the world: single-payer. But we've still got a chance in the U.S. Senate.
Single-payer health care is the only kind that would both control costs and cover all Americans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had pledged to hold a House vote on single-payer, but she broke her promise, and did not allow the vote.
Even worse, Speaker Pelosi stripped a provision from the health care bill that would have allowed states to try single-payer.
As a final insult, the House approved an anti-choice amendment that will remove abortion coverage from millions of health insurance policies.
That's just not good enough.
Americans deserve a healthcare system that will cover everyone and won't bankrupt anyone.
Let's make our voices heard for real health care reform. Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced S. 703, a bill that would create single-payer systems in every state to cover all Americans.
Apparently not, in the latest concession to the insurance industry, Blue Dog Democrats and other conservative interests who seem to have long held the whip hand on healthcare reform.
In July, the House Labor and Education Committee approved an amendment introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich that would exempt states that enact Medicare for all/single payer bills from the onerous limitations contained in the federal ERISA law governing employer sponsored health plans.
Since then a rogues gallery of Fortune 500 corporate interests and insurance lobbyists have put a lot of pressure on the House leadership to strip the Kucinich amendment from final bill going to the House floor.
America's registered nurses and other guaranteed healthcare activists are hailing the vote last night by House Education and Labor Committee to amend the national healthcare reform bill and give individual states the freedom to adopt single-payer, Medicare-for-All style reforms.
This bi-partisan vote affirms the best of American democracy. The exemptions would life federal mandates on healthcare money and free states to act as the laboratories of democracy they are supposed to. The vote is also an encouragement to progressives who are looking for paths to improve the parameters of the healthcare debate.
Now it's time to explore our candidates for the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Anyone interested in health care should understand the importance of this position. If we do get to some form of Universal Health Care, the HHS secretary will likely the the key player implementing such a plan.
As I continue my research, let me again give credit to Sven from My Silver State, who did an excellent similar series back in May. I apologize to the devotees of anyone I've left out - I can't manage an unlimited list. The poll includes an option for "Someone Else," plus a request to specify in the comments.
Once again, poll and brief description of each candidate on the flip. I evaluate each option as best I can. (I had to research the credentials of a few.) I trust others will add more data, including why others would be great or awful. I may have missed a few excellent candidates, so please feel free to add your own.
(And I haven't gotten a lot of feedback. If anyone has some substantive of stylistic suggestions, I'd welcome them.)
As many of you know, Dennis Kucinich is campaigning, in part, upon a platform to add a cabinet level US Department of Peace. What exactly is Dennis getting at, and why would he make this a centerpiece of his campaign for Strength Through Peace?
