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So that’s what the Middle East looks like to everyone else

  By International politics, Middle East

I hope everyone read the long article in the Times on Sunday about the history of the conflict leading up to the war in Georgia. It is worth understanding how this war began. But I especially hope strong partisans on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides of that conflict read it. For I suspect that their initial reaction will be like mine: both sides are responsible for this mess and both ought to be acting a whole lot more sensibly. Its is hard not to sympathize with the Georgians with the Russian Bear next door, until you see what the Georgians have been doing to their minorities and how they are provoking the Russians. That’s more or less the way I look at the Israel-Paletinian conflict these days. I’m still a supporter of Israel’s right to exist. (And I wrote my first published article calling for a Palestinian state in… Continue reading

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Health Care For America Now! Kickoff Today!

  By Health Care

Today, July 8, in Washington and about 50 cities around the country, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Erie, a new movement for health care reform will be born, Health Care for America Now! (HCAN). The Philadelphia HCAN kickoff will be held at 1 pm in the Caucus Room (Room 401), at City Hall. Confirmed speakers include • Liz McElroy, political director, AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. • Randy Barge a Presbyterian minister and board member of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. • Carolyn Banks, a member of Acorn who has had issues related to access to health care. • David Grande, MD, of National Physician’s Alliance We have invited the members of City Council, and Philadelphia State house and Senate members. HCAN is being created by a large number of organizations nationally and in Pennsylvania. It is co-chaired nationally by SEIU and AFSCME and our Pennsylvania organization is being brought together by SEIU,… Continue reading

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Should health insurance really be a partisan issue?

  By Health Care

I wrote this op-ed for Antoinette Kraus, who signed it when it was published by the Pottsville Mercury on June 30, 2008. Poll and poll shows that, after the economy, health care is the issue of greatest concern to people in our state. It doesn’t really matter whether people have health insurance or don’t have it; whether people are poor or rich; whether they are Democrats or Republicans. So why is the Republican leadership of the State Senate standing in the way of SB 1137 and HB 2005, two bills that would expand health insurance for the uninsured and reduce health insurance costs for those of us who have health insurance? Continue reading

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GOP health care plan copies Chairman Mao

  By Health Care, Pennsylvania

Published in the Morning Call, June 23, 2008 In 1965, Communist China was one of the poorest countries of the world. Chairman Mao Tse-Tung created a program—widely known as the Barefoot Doctors program—to provide health care for his impoverished people.  The Barefoot Doctors, who had a minimal level of medical training, offered basic primary care to people for whom no other medical care was available. Continue reading

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Even if the GOP Plan works, it will be inadequate

  By Health Care

Originally published in The Harrisburg Post-Gazette, June 17, 2008 In January 2007, Governor Rendell introduced Cover All Pennsylvanians, a plan to provide health insurance coverage for the uninsured. In March 2008, the Democratic House leadership introduced a new plan, called Pennsylvania Access to Better Care, (PA ABC), to insure about 275,000 uninsured adults over the next five years. That plan passed with substantial Republican support soon after. Since March, the Senate Republican leadership has blocked consideration of this legislation. Continue reading

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It's gotta be Hillary

  By 2008

I’ve made it pretty clear I have no love for the Clintons. But she’s got to be / is going to be the Veep. 1. Barack needs to make sure that there is a gender gap that works in his favor. With Hillary’s help, he can do much better with white women which will give him enough of the white vote to win the election. 2. Hillary is the only Veep choice that brings him a candidate who can move the base and turn people out in droves to events and fundraisers. And Bill is pretty good at that as well. 3. Hillary clearly wants it, and actually does have something of a claim to it, given the race she has run. If she doesn’t get it, she could create problems. The disadvantage is figuring out what to do with Hillary and, even more with Bill, after January. Barack will… Continue reading

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The Clintons: Our Nixon

  By 2008

Originally bloggded at YPP under the name A Philly Progressive on May 21, 2008 I’ve not been fond of the Clintons for a long time. It goes back to a few days after the 1992 election when I heard Bill Clinton talking about his ambitious plans for health care and I turned to a friend and said, “I sure hope he knows now to count to sixty.” It took no special prescience to see the disaster of Clinton care coming. The program was formulated in secret with plenty of experts but few congressional allies. Those experts were more intent on creating a document to satisfy their fellow wonks than in developing a plan that might attract a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. No one was surprised that the Clintons lost both the Congress and the issue. Instead of using the failure of the Congress to address the major issue of… Continue reading

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Nutter, transparency, and the Cohen wage tax rebate

  By Philadelphia, Taxation

Evidently transparency only goes so far in the Nutter administration. It was widely reported that the budget plan adopted by Council retained the Cohen Wage Tax Rebate but delays implementation of the program for another year until 2014. Now it is itself is a bit of a farce to delay the beginning of the program until after the next election for Mayor or Council. Michael Nutter wouldn’t claim to be serving the interests of the business community by promising a big BPT cut in 2014 but doing nothing now. But now it seems that this farce is the least of our problems. Stan Shapiro recently sent an email that said It turns out that the Cohen rebate has actually been stunted, not just postponed. Under the law as it is now, the rate for low wage workers would go down to 1.5% no matter what, in yearly half percent increments… Continue reading

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Dead woman walking

  By 2008

Some notes on the Presidential Race 1.Hillary is over and has been for at least a month. It is impossible for her to close the delegate gap. So, to win, super-delegates would have to decide to support her in one of two ways. They might, first, simply hand her the nomination against the will of the majority of the delegates. Or, second, they could change the rules in a way that gives Hillary the majority of regular delegates by, say, seating overwhelmingly pro-Clinton delegations from Michigan and Florida. The first path is manifestly undemocratic. The super-delegates might get away with this without too much complaint from the Obama supporters and the broader public if there were broad agreement that Obama is somehow too flawed to be President or far less likely to defeat McCain than Clinton. But, in the absence of an utterly unforeseeable event, that is just not going… Continue reading