KIND HEALTH SESSION JULY 1 9 A.M.

From the Tribune:

U.S. Rep. Ron Kind will host a panel discussion on health care reform Wednesday in La Crosse.

The public forum is from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the La Crosse Public Library, 800 Main St. The panel will include a hospital administrator, physician, small-business owner and laborer, and will focus on how health care reforms would affect businesses and families in western Wisconsin.

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What do we want?

Single payer universal health care!

When do we want it?

NOW!

LOTS of important stuff!

Sorry to dump all this at once but I just have not had time to update regularly. If you can make it to one or more of these important events, please go!

It's especially important for all of us to push back against the bland and dangerous "middle" that is fast destroying our hopes for true change in environment and health care policy. See more below this event list:

Wednesday, May 27 at 6:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church (1010 Sill St.) - TREATMENT INSTEAD OF PRISON! sponsored by AMOS. A Restorative Justice Forum with rick Raemish, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections; Judge Elliot Levine, La Crosse County Circuit Court; Tim Gruenke, La Crosse County District Attorney. For more info, see the AMOS web site.

Thursday, May 28 at 2:45 p.m. at the Amtrak Station in La Crosse (601 St. Andrew St.) - RALLY FOR HIGH SPEED RAIL! sponsored by UW-L Environmental Council and WISPIRG. For more info and/or to RSVP visit the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=89800911125&mid=820be0G28dac05eG1bf4b0bG7

Thursday, May 28 at 7:00 p.m. at the Ho-Chunk Three Rivers House (corner of 8th and Main Streets in La Crosse) - Wisconsin's Electric Energy Future with Commissioner Mark Meyer, of the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) sponsored by the Clean Energy Coalition. Also on the agenda is discussion about Governor Doyle's Global Warming Task Force. For more info, please email Bill K.

Saturday, May 30 - NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION IN SUPPORT OF SINGLE PAYER UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE - NO LOCAL RALLY IS PLANNED, but please take this opportunity to write and call your representative and senators in support of this best, most cost effective option. See Health Care Now for more details.

Monday, June 1 at 7:00 p.m. at the Franciscan Spirituality Center (920 Market St.) - Judicial Independence Forum - Should we reform Wisconsin Supreme Court elections? sponsored by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a non-partisan organization now building awareness of the Impartial Justice Bill scheduled for a May 27 public hearing: http://www.wisdc.org/pdf/joint-public-hearing-may-09.pdf

On the national front, our wonderful dear leaders are taking the middle path ensuring no significant change will occur in health care and environment issues.

HEALTH CARE - according to American Health Care Reform, the insurance and drug lobbies are buying their way into a sweetheart deal. Referencing a Washington Post March report, "Health insurers and drug makers have showered Congress with almost $6 million bucks to have their seat at the health reform table."

Seeing the handwriting on the wall, major providers and insurers apparently promised to lower costs by &2 trillion and Obama touted this as a "major breakthrough." But, this promise was quickly disputed by those who attended the meeting. And, even if it were true - $2 trillion over 10 years - who is going to hold them accountable?

And what about the reform that would benefit the most Americans at the lowest cost - single payer, universal health care? Off the table. In fact, some "moderate Democrats" have vowed to keep a public plan out of the mix of options now being considered. Ben Nelson (D-MT) has called a public option a "deal breaker."

On the other hand, in April, four major caucuses (Progressives, Black, Asian Pacific American, and Hispanic) sent a letter to Obama stating what's ON the table for them - ‘our support for enacting legislation this year to guarantee affordable health care for all firmly hinges on the inclusion of a robust public health insurance plan like Medicare.'

With big bucks and "bought" Dems (and don't forget the loopy Republicans) and Obama's mastery of making something out of nothing, unless there is a major public outcry, the best, most cost effective health care reform plan will not see the light of day.

ENVIRONMENT - Well, we knew this had to happen! "Coal, Electric Industries Big Winners in Climate Bill Deal." In fact, this bill is so flawed that major environmental groups are not supporting it.

Really, it's too depressing. Watch this Democracy Now! program for more info.

Energy Fair Coming - Take the BUS!

This just in - don't miss out:

The People's Food Co-op will sponsor a bus trip to this year's MREA Energy Fair on Saturday, June 20. Here are the details:

SATURDAY, JUNE 20
Coach (56 passenger with bathroom facilities)
Bus Cost: $15 (Fair admission separate - see below)

7:00 a.m. - Depart PFC parking lot
9:30 - Arrive at Energy Fair in Custer WI
6:15 p.m. - Depart Energy Fair
9:00 – Arrive at PFC parking lot

FAIR Admission (pay at gate): $15 (general); $10 (+65); $10 (13-18); Free (12 & under)

NOTE: MREA gives $5 off admission for bus goers (coupon given on bus). SIGN UP BY June 6! (Last year's bus sold out early!) There are no cancellations after registration (unless we have a wait list).

If interested, please email Vicki or call the People's Food Co-op, 784-5798.

What do we want? Universal single payer health CARE!

TELL RON KIND THAT WE WANT
SINGLE PAYER UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE!

APRIL 13

4:30 TO 6:00 P.M.

VALHALLA, CARTWRIGHT CENTER

UW-LA CROSSE

1741 STATE STREET

Tell Ron Kind: CO-SPONSOR and PASS HR 676 -
The United States National Healthcare Insurance Act

It's amazing that the insurance companies and their lobbyists have such a hold on our politicians that even at the Obama health care "summit" in March, those who represented a single payer, universal health care plan were at first excluded entirely, then allowed admittance but virtually ignored.

The facts are undeniable. According to Physicians for a National Health Program, administration consumes at least 31% of U.S. health care spending. The administrative costs of the Medicare program are around 3%.

For the whole picture, download and read the extensive Single Payer/Medicare for All - An Economic Stimulus Plan for the Nation.

If we don't push now for a health CARE (NOT INSURANCE) program that covers everyone for basic and necessary services, we will be stuck with a crushingly expensive welfare program for insurance companies (can you say Medicare Part D?) for a long tie to come.

And every week you will be invited to attend a silent auction, spaghetti dinner or some other fundraiser for a friend, relative, neighbor or co-worker who is seriously ill but has no insurance. If this doesn't make you boiling mad, you should not be visiting this blog!

(And please GET WELL SOON, Guy!)

Sustainability is NOT a four letter word

Sometimes you have to wonder what some people are thinking. Certain La Crosse Common Council members are having trouble with the Sustainable La Crosse legislation on which a group of committed volunteers has worked long and hard. Dick Mial's column in today's Tribune gives you a few examples of some of the nutso ideas that must be overcome if this meekest of plans is to be implemented.

The very idea that the government might actually be involved in people's and, yes, businesses', lives seems to irk some people (who don't seem to wonder at their government certified clean air and water, their government protected streets, their government subsidized electricity and internet access, their government inspected food (well, hmmm, maybe NOT that one) ... you get the idea.)

But, equally disturbing, are the people who just don't get that this is a real crisis. If you ask me, the time for suggesting is over and now it's time for some real mandates and I mean mandates on private individuals and business, yes.

For example, we now forbid people from burning waste in their back yards. Why? Because the smoke and smell is a nuisance, it's a fire hazard, and worst of all, it's a major health hazard, especially when people burn plastics and other things that should not be burned. It's a government mandate that you NOT burn your trash and it's for the good of all that this mandate exists.

Now it's time to mandate a few more things. I'm all for mandating that businesses selling electrical appliances and toys (ceiling fans, refrigerators, televisions, etc.) turn them OFF. I think we all know what a ceiling fan looks like whether it's moving or not. Or how about the city mandating that any group using city facilities pay a carbon tax for the electricity they use. And that tax increases as more power is consumed. (Yes, I am out to END the wasteful and polluting Rotary Lights as we know it!)

I'm also in favor of mandating that private individuals quit wasting energy with crappy windows and minimal insulation. If I were king, the city would go neighborhood by neighborhood and do an energy audit of every house, then work with homeowners to WEATHERIZE - upgrade doors and windows, insulate, seal cracks, etc. Why couldn't the city offer low or no interest long term loans, paid for by the stimulus bill, to be paid on property tax bills, for homeowners to do this? Homeowners would save on energy costs, people would be put to work building and installing upgrades and utility companies would not have a leg to stand on when they wail about increasing energy demand. (The latest National Geographic magazine has a great feature article on energy conservation we can all do right now.)

And, while they're at it, the city should ensure that homeowners who DO upgrade to save the planet aren't punished for it by higher property taxes. Maybe each neighborhood could be like an energy TIF district, where the payback for the upgrades, say at 0% over 30 to 40 years, takes the place of any property reassessment due to the energy enhancement of the property. And after the 30 or 40 years, then the enhancements can be used to increase the property taxes (assuming the world doesn't end in 2012 or something (since apparently the Y2K apocalypse didn't work out as planned.))

It doesn't have to be Draconian.

The City of Austin does an annual Kill-A-Watt Challenge and businesses participating see a great financial savings from reducing their energy costs. Even Wal-Mart, which has started its own energy challenge, is requiring that suppliers start using less energy too.

One elderly person I talked with was afraid she would be required to ride a bike or [gasp] SHARE A RIDE with someone if the sustainability plan passes! Rather than scare old and overweight people with visions of bicycle torture, why not make it an offer they can't refuse by charging much higher parking fees, increasing frequency and convenience of public transportation (hey! THAT one IS in the sustainability plan) and using the $20/month bicycle incentive in last year's stimulus bill to get some of those big behinds out of the Lexus and onto a bicycle (or at least a bus seat.) Why should those of us who have to BREATHE for a living subsidize fat asses who insist on driving everywhere and clogging our air with asthma inducing pollutants?

The sustainabilty plan is a good start, but to me it doesn't go far enough. Read it and then contact your council representative to vote for this important first step. (And while you're at it, ask her/him to see about getting council meeting agendas posted on the city's website at least one or two days in advance of council meetings!)