When Bill Foster first ran for Congress I put a fair amount (by my standards) of money and blogging time and spreading the word to help get him elected. I was thrilled when he got elected.

But I cannot understand why he remains undecided even at this late date about healthcare reform. We do not need further delay. People are DYING for lack of effective healthcare. Americans are dying. Our economy is suffering from overpriced and inadequate healthcare. What is Bill Foster waiting for?

Congressman Foster: SUPPORT HEALTHCARE REFORM NOW. This is the moment you prove yourself to those of us who supported you. American healthcare is among the most expensive in the world, yet gives health outcomes on par with Albania, Cuba, Slovakia. That is not right. It is time to fix it and Congressman Bill Foster is in a position to do it. I keep dwelling on these numbers, but maybe someone had better start sending them to Bill Foster because the numbers show very starkly that we are paying too much for lousy healthcare. Here they are (2005 numbers, but the costs have only gone up and the quality down):
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Awhile back I wrote about a borderline fraudulent (technically legal but extremely misleading) census the Republican Party was sending out. I learned about it from a letter from Congressman Loebsack of Iowa:

I was very disappointed when I heard from concerned citizens in the 2nd District that Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, has sent a fundraising appeal into our district that looks like an official Census document. This fundraising letter even calls itself a 'Census survey' and asks people to pay for the cost of processing the census form.

The Census is vital for our communities because an accurate count helps ensure that Iowans get adequate funding for schools, roads, and hospitals. It is also critical for flood recovery, and helping our disaster stricken neighbors.

Please look for your official Census in the mail over the next few months. It will not ask for party affiliation or for money.

That the RNC would target our district shows just how determined they are to take back the House. Please stay vigilant and please be in contact if you see any further attempts to mislead our community: info_at_loebsackforcongress.org
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Among the most important elected positions are for positions on state boards of education. The Texas board of education is a particularly powerful one that is also dominated by right wing extremists who want to ruin public education and want to mix religion with science. That makes this year's Texas Board of Education races among the most important in the country...and yet are largely ignored.

There are two particular races for progressives to focus on. This is adapted from a Daily Kos diary: (with some additions)

VOTE FOR CHANGE IN NOVEMBER - State Board of Education District 10 and District 5

There is a way to change the direction of the Texas State Board of Education - and the states across the nation which are influenced by this board.

The best way to change this direction is to support and elect the Democratic challengers in these races.

District 10 - Dr. Judy Jennings.

The State Board of Education sets policy for Texas public schools. But Republican board member Cynthia Dunbar calls public education a “subtly deceptive tool of perversion” and likens sending one's children to public school with "throwing them into the enemy's flames."
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I am amazed at the disgusting right wing love fest for Joseph Stack, the terrorist who emulated the 9/11 terrorists when he crashed a plane into an Austin, TX building. Supposedly respectable Republican politicians have glorified this domestic terrorist...as they did with many domestic terrorists in the past. Clearly the right wing long ago ceased to be the law and order party (if they ever were) and have become the party that praises the likes of Timothy McVeigh and Joseph Stack. Remember, Republican idol Ron Paul even praised David Koresh, the insane, child abusing rapist cult leader who died resisting arrest in Waco, TX, as some kind of martyr.

Here is what I wrote recently in my own newsletter:

According to Republicans a Domestic Terrorist is a Hero...why do Republicans hate America and love terrorists so much? Republicans love the guy who committed a terrorist act against America. But let's remember the victim of the attack:

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It astonishes me what idiots the right wing global warming deniers are. In essence they believe that Rush Limbaugh knows more about science than actual climate scientists do. That is the bottom line. The deniers believe that scientific data is not as important as the given word of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

But Rush Limbaugh and Fox News are scientific illiterates and everything they say denying global warming is made up, either based on no facts whatsoever, or focusing on only isolated data points, ignoring most of the data out there. Science has to include ALL data, not just the data that supports your own faith-based beliefs.

Once, when I was complaining about having to go over the same facts about evolution and global warming over and over again, someone on Daily Kos told me he agreed and put it like this: "It sucks to have to defend the blatantly obvious."

It's like we have to continually review the facts that the earth is round or that the earth goes around the sun rather than the other way around. Science like evolution and climate change is based on the same kinds of scientific work and effort and thought as any science. Global warming denial is based on the same kind of blind refusal to face solid facts as shown by those who deny evolution, deny the earth is round or deny that the earth revolves around the sun.
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Last week I heard Congressman Anthony Weiner discuss healthcare reform in Brooklyn, NY. Weiner, though I have disagreed with him at times in the past, is an amazing champion of healthcare reform and I wish we had Congress full of Anthony Weiners right about now because then we'd have real healthcare reform pretty damned fast.

Weiner briefly emphasized a point I have made many times and will reiterate below: that our current healthcare system is highly overpriced and yet delivers only mediocre care. I put it that we pay more than any other nation for our healthcare system and yet get a quality of care comparable to that of Albania, Slovenia, etc. (See below for a repeat of the details). Those "socialist" nations that the Republicans are scaring us with, namely Sweden, Finland, Israel, Britain and Canada, have cheaper and better healthcare systems. Doesn't it make sense to model our system after ones that are BETTER and CHEAPER than our own? The Republicans just don't get that for some reason.
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