Interesting Article

[Jamie Ann]

The Gov'ts bad, so what's new. The Gov't whether Democrat or Republican are deep in the pockets of big bussiness. Until we have a strong third party independent of big bussiness, the garbage will continue. Their seems to be a slant of anger toward Bush, but Democrats have been in power and the same garbage comes from them. ... I, myself can not see Kerry a rich billionaire saying he is truly for the people, he's no different to what we got in there now, instead of big oil it will be big ketchup.

     I agree with much of what you have written, but I disagree with your assertion that “...Kerry [is] no different [from] what we got in there now, instead of big oil it will be big ketchup.”

     The Sierra Club, the United States’s most respected environmental organization, has endorsed John Kerry for President.  The difference is that Kerry, unlike Bush, knows that he does not have all the answers, but, unlike Bush, he is willing to be guided by the best scientific theories and data on environmental degradation.  Bush is guided by a brand of Christianity that thinks it has all the answers, not only about spiritual matters but also about scientific matters.  Incidently, Teresa Heinz Kerry does not own the H. J. Heinz Company to any important degree — she has no involvement whatsoever with the management or operations of the company, nor does she own anything close to a controlling amount of the company's stock. According to Heinz itself, the Heinz family trust which Mrs. Kerry inherited sold most of its shares of Heinz stock back in 1995 and currently holds less than a 4% interest in the company. Thus, John Kerry’s connection to Heinz Ketchup is hardly comparable to Bush’s and Cheney’s continuing ties to the petroleum industry.  And nations do not often fight wars over ketchup ....     

[Marda]

Hi Ladies & Pundits

Except for one point I'm staying out of these R&P discussions ...

Anyone who has an "Open & Basic Connection" with "Christianity" knows that any "Bush (or Kerry) Claim of Connection" under the heading "Christianity" is fraudulent ...

The same goes here in Canada with the "Bush family friend" named "Pattison" ...

The same goes for the PM of Canada named "Martin" ... the Premier of BC named "Campbell" ... the contender for PM of Canada named "Harper" ... his mentor named "Manning" ... their Ontario buddy named "Harris" ... the former PM of Canada named "Mulroney" ...

"Christianity" stands on its' own and *anyone* who "holds up a Cross" for personal political or commercial purposes does so at their own risk ...

The thrust of this point is offered in good faith knowing it may at any time cost me personally ... I will participate in no further conversations here on these matters ...

my suggestion to anyone *here on Earth* who has a vote is *Go see Mel Gibson's movie* before you make your mark ...

anyone ... make any signs or noises you desire

Love / Marda

[Jassmine(SO)]

Hi Amelie,

I too, agree with the vast majority of your post. It is everybody's responsibility to take care of Mother Earth. Which includes voting for people who wish to help protect our environment. Bush has become a part of the problem not a part of the solution. It seems to me that the democrats are much more concerened with doing something to help protect our environment. From what I found through my research is that quite a few environmental groups support Kerry.

http://www.sierraclub.org/endorsements/2004/

The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund is dedicated to stopping the anti-conservation policies of the Bush administration and Congress and to holding them accountable for the decisions they make. We have endorsed John Kerry for President. Your vote counts!

http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/conservationists

While the WWF doesn't openly support Kerry. Here's a quote from their website:

Huge Assault on America’s Wild Forests

U.S. activists, oppose the Bush administration's plan to eliminate protection for the 58 million acres of wild and pristine roadless areas in our national forests. The administration wants to let road building and logging go forward in these areas unless governors petition to block these actions.

http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org/action/

You can see why I feel Bush is a big part of the problem.


As for Bush's drug plan, your mom is one of the lucky ones. I have spoken with quite a few folks whose perscriptions have gone up in price.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_17/b3678111.htm

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editor ... care_scam/


I will keep my eyes peeled for more information on these topics.

*Hugs & Love*

[Amelie-Laveau]

Jassmine, I understand, It's just that I babble on and on, and I loose my train of thought.


PS I'm not a republican

Love-Amelie

[Kersten Lee]

Hi Amelie Laveau,

I think most would agree that you don't need to appologize. It's obvious here, that a lot of us don't like or support Bush policies. I won't get into a debate this time. I get too emotionally emphatic about my opinions. In my neck of the woods, I only know one person at work that has stated he will vote for Kerry. That person was so humiliated in so many personal ways by Bush supporters that political discussion from both sides of the issue have ceased to exist. When I bring up questions about Bush policies, I am met with, "you surely aren't voting for that ---------- Kerry, he will give our country to the terrorists, the queers, and the UN" or some such related message. People here still talk and guess how terrible it would have been if Gore had been elected. In my humble opinion I believe any president, man, woman, black, hispanic, gay or straight, would have gone after the terrorists with all the means at our disposal. We of the country demanded it.

I am still Republican, but have voted for one independent and three times for a Democrat. The rest, starting at Nixon, I voted Republican. This last 2 years I have felt quite betrayed by the Bush beliefs and policies. The fact is over 90% of Americans already know for whom they will vote. A catastrophy before the election would almost guarantee the Bush re-election. Americans are known for not changing horses in the middle of a battle. This fact disturbs me a lot.

I do agree substantially that our politicians are bought and sold by corporate interests. AARP stated a large majority of older Americans in polls do not support the newly passed bill. Lots of it were good except for the give away to our drug companys. Bush policy has been that manufacturing going over seas is a good thing. Drug company millions went to both sides. It is obvious that money does speak volumes. Democrats and Republicans voted this protection for drug companies. These exemptions from free trade were given because of money needed for the up coming elections. I have yet been shown or explained by our supposed representatives why drug companies are different than electronics, steel, clothes, computer related technologies, engineering, communications and a whole lot of other manufacture related areas. Complaining of drug safety from Canada seems to be reaching for an excuse.

We all need to be taking a close look at how our representatives have been voting as of late. Everyone of these up for election is as important as the president to our personal freedom to pursue happiness and be the best we can be.

You should be able to voice your opinion here with out fear of retribution. I see and read more intelligence, understanding and caring for one another here than anywhere else that I have ever felt included. I for one, do have strong seated beliefs, but hope as I grow that I am learning to be sensitive to others beliefs.

I love the picture. I find too, your name rolls off the tongue quite beautifully!

Take Care and Continue to Write,
Hugs,
Kersten

[Amelie-Laveau]

Thanks, Kersten Lee I can now come out of the political closet-- I AM A REPUBLICAN and my father still loves me. (Joke) I lean toward libertarian, but much of my point is both parties are basically tweedlee dee and tweedlee dum not much difference. Here in Baltimore, it is solidly democrat, I don't think there is one republican. All I see are these clowns ruining what could be a great city. They put more energy into parking meters, than crime or schools which are on the edge of collapsing. That is probably why I have a bias against democrats. It is they I see every day messing up in my city, and a newspaper(Baltimore Sun) that just kisses their asses. OH no I'm babbeling again, please don't throw rocks at me.

Love Amelie

[Jessie]

Amelie-Laveau

That's funney because it sound very simular to my city and it run mostly by repulicans though we have a democrates for senators (both woman I believe) but the repulances in the city concal an mayors office are just making our city worse every year. So I believe that both parties can mess around with the system.

Jessie

[Jamie Ann]

As far as prescription drugs go, Bush's senior plan on prescription drugs is not that bad. My mom was paying 300 a month for drugs now with the plan it's about 30 dollars, nothing wrong with that.

     I do not doubt that your mom sincerely believes that, but she is calculating incorrectly unless there is much more to her case than meets the eye. First of all, Bush’s prescription drug plan does not go into effect until 2006, so no one has any actual experience that would allow them say whether that plan decreases their health care costs. What does exist currently is the “interim discount card” system that went into effect in spring 2004 and will run through 2005. Beneficiaries can buy a card (for about $30) estimated to shave 10 to 15 percent off their drug prices at their local pharmacy. Thus, someone who was paying $300 per month would be paying about $260 per month after buying the card. The other $40 would be paid by the federal government from our tax dollars.

     This is basically an election-year device to benefit a large block of likely voters. It will be discontinued in 2006. What various groups are arguing about is the merits of Bush’s 2006 plan, which critics say will cost many people more than they are paying now. Families with no health insurance still will have no health insurance. The pharmaceutical companies and private health insurance companies support Bush’s plan, but that does not guarantee that elderly Americans also will like it.

[Amelie-Laveau]

I am sorry Jamie Ann you are wrong on the calculations on savings. ON the interm period the savings are much greater than you say. My Mom was paying 300 dollars a month for drugs now it is under 30 dollars. That is a big difference than 10 or 15 %. Also she doesn't have to pay the thirty dollars. This the actual savings she is getting right now,I know this to be a fact because I buy her medicine. I know this comes from tax-payers so does money for welfare, wars, to foreign Gov'ts, and other social programs that I thought Democrats were in favor of. I am sorry but so far Bush's senior plan is a good thing that the democrats should have done first. You can blame Bush for a lot of things but not the senior drug plan.

I'm sorry your figures are defintly wrong in our case, one medicine alone went from 125 dollars to 9 dollars. I think it is called acteonal(spell?)

Amelie

[Jassmine(SO)]

Hi Amelie

I agree with Kersten, you have nothing to appolgize for.

I thought your post was wonderful I just used it as an opening to get more information out. Knowledge is power ##oo##

*Hugs & Love*

[Jamie Ann]

I am sorry Jamie Ann you are wrong on the calculations on savings. ON the interm period the savings are much greater than you say. My Mom was paying 300 dollars a month for drugs now it is under 30 dollars. ... [O]ne medicine alone went from 125 dollars to 9 dollars. I think it is called acteonal(spell?)

     I am not sure I can reconcile your experience with what the experts at AARP have concluded. The AARP (which is nonpartisan) estimates that the savings average 10-15%. If I had to take a wild guess, it would be that your mom switched from an expensive brand-name drug to a much more inexpensive generic version. That could reduce the cost a lot; however, it has nothing to do with Bush or the “interim discount card” system. Whatever the explanation, the real debate is not about this temporary stop-gap system, but rather is about the Bush plan that will go into effect in 2006. I do not think anyone, Democrat or Republican, is against this stop-gap measure, but the real challenge is reforming the health care system so that elderly persons in the future will not have to choose between (say) their heart medication and eating.

[Alexandra]

apparently this thread titled "interesting article" didn't get my attention until someone pointed it out to me by PM! (Thanks!)

If there has ever been a CLEAR black or white choice for us TG/CD people in an election, the one this November is it!

Bush MUST GO!

If GW Bush had his way, YOU would be stripped of basic human rights and forced to become a public spectacle as a human being.

Now I understand that some of you have some other conservative values and can't easily dismiss them, unfortunately this time around, you've 2 choices: Bush conservativism and human rights curtailment and hatred for who you are as a CD/TG person from YOUR OWN PRESIDENT, or vote for the other guy (whoever he is) and your rights to be a CD/TG will be maintained, if not expanded. Your choice.

I know this might seem like a bit of hyperbole, but geez, GW Bush is a bad, bad, bad president for us.

There is no point to even debate Kerry vs Bush issues. BUSH MUST GO!!!!!!!!

If Bush is elected again, he will no doubt have the opportunites to fill the Supreme Court with justices who will side with him on TG/CD issues. If this happens, his impact on the destruction of the TG/CD communites will be felt for decades to come.



Have a good day!

[Alexandra]

ps: on topic: Bush's flat dismissal of the letter from 60 nobel prize winners is your cue to vote for the other guy. We've a dumb president who convinced a whole lot of dumb americans to vote for him so he can do dumb things. Is there any intelligence left in our society?

[Kathy]

I generally sit out on political discussions but I have to agree with Alexandra on this. Just the fact that Pres. Bush introduced the gay marriage ammendment to the Constitution is proof enough of his bigotry. That alone should be enough reason to have him removed from office.

Even my ultra-conservative Republican parents have no intention of voting for him again.

[Jamie Ann]

ps: on topic: Bush's flat dismissal of the letter from [48] nobel prize winners is your cue to vote for the other guy. We've a dumb president who convinced a whole lot of dumb Americans to vote for him so he can do dumb things. Is there any intelligence left in our society?

     I agree, Alexandra.  Over 5,000 scientists have now signed the statement, including the 48 Nobel Prize winners.  Some of those scientists (e.g., Paul Ehrlich) are Republicans.   The concerns expressed thus represent much more than merely the opinions of a “radical fringe.”  Mr. Bush has consistently aligned himself with a narrow theological perspective.  Like George Bush, John Kerry, and John Edwards, I personally am a practicing Christian.  However, my personal faith includes the idea that I could be wrong.  God has never literally come into my home, sat in my living room, and spoken to me.  I think I know what various passages in the Bible mean, but my faith allows room for doubt.  George W. Bush, on the other hand, thinks that his understandings are Perfect Truth.  That stance is a recipe for intolerance, for being against CDs and any other group that current religious thinking considers an abomination.  In the past, black Americans and women fell in that category.  Now, gays and the transgendered get most of the hatred.  Of course, Muslims and those of other religious faiths are considered outside the pale, too, as if God could not have spoken to them in some way consistent with their needs.  I think that a truly religious person would have the insight to recognize that God probably did not communicate perfectly with 6 million Southern Baptists (the faith in which I was raised), while somehow failing to communicate with the other 6,294 million persons (99.9% of the population) of Planet Earth.  Why would God focus on Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, while not giving equal attention to the rest of the world?

      Someone who thinks that global warming is a myth, that Nobel Prize winners are fanatics, and that wearing one’s religion on one’s sleeve is a sign of virtue, is not someone I would want to meet in a dark alley (accompanied by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney) while I was dressed en femme!   So I agree with you, Alexandra:   the choice this November is an easy one.   Kerry may not be flawless, but George W. Bush has made America more intolerant, more dangerous, and more economically strapped.   Who needs four more years of that?