Jon Stewart: Obama Promises to Take Action....

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Also, on September 17th, 1787, our constitution was adopted, creating a new federal country, and a great political experiment at that. The United States of America were [did you notice the plural form?] a loose collection of states that would suffer a bloody civil war to settle a few important issues. Since 1864 these states became known in the singular--one country. Of course, there are some among us who haven't accepted that the South lost the war, while others want to secede, like Palin's Independence Party in Alaska, along with those kooks in Texas and a few other red states.

In other news, DINO [Dem in Name Only] Sen. Max Baucus came out with his "bipartisan" bill on health care reform without a single Republican supporting it. What a surprise! I thought that the long delay since last Spring was for the "moderates" of both parties to forge a good bill. All this delay for nothing? I do hope that president Obama is a fast learner, and that he changes strategy soon. He's correct in saying that he will own the health care bill--let's hope it's a meaningful one and not just re-arranging the chairs on the Titanic. Thus far, Obama is all fluff and no substance regarding his campaign promises! We are watching Mr. President.... and, we have noticed those embarrassing Bush policies you've chosen to continue.

On the positive side, the Jets surprised me last Sunday. If they beat the Patriots too, they may be for real this year. Remaining on positive territory, September is going very well and I can't wait to see some glorious colors as the Northeast puts a wonderful display this autumn.

If you happen to be in NYC this weekend, you might want to visit Governor's Island for the New Island Festival. The Dutch have returned and taken over this little island in the NY harbor! 400 years ago, an Englishman, Henry Hudson, working for the Dutch arrived at the island and sailed up ..his river. Manhattan was named New Amsterdam; this was changed to New York when the Brits took over, but we still have many Dutch names present. The festival has many venues of Dutch theater, music, art, food, and all sorts of performances. [I'll soon post on my casual cafe more about it]

Update, 9/18/09
In the last several months, I've been devoting most posts to the need for sensible health care reform. It's a very urgent matter for our country and IF we want to reduce unnecessary suffering and deaths, there's NO another greater national priority right now. Safety, security don't always come from having a strong military at the border and overseas!

I'm healthy and I now have a good insurance plan, but I can't accept that this wealthy country leaves 50+ million people with no health insurance and up to 100 million Americans who are way under-insured, that is, likely to be financially destroyed [#1 cause of personal bankruptcies] if they get a serious illness.

A new study released by researchers at Harvard Medical School has calculated that 45,000 Americans a year die because they lack health insurance — nearly one every twelve minutes. “We’re losing more Americans every day because of inaction…drunk driving and homicide combined,” said Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study.

PS. Socialized medicine in France has hit a snag! There's a deficit, so in order to save money the government announced that the cost of an overnight stay in the hospital (the patient has to pay) will rise by 25%! Also, over-the-counter drugs subsidies to the French consumer will drop from 35% to 15! .....

Those Fenchies will have to grow up (be like Americans!) and do more for themselves (ah, the freedom!) than having the government give them all those health care goodies! So, they'll now have to pay $29.40 instead of $23.50 for their overnight hospital stay, and they'll only get 15% subsidy for the non-prescriptions drugs (like Aspirin) they buy! Horrors! Let them drown themselves in wine and cheese!