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-Tim Wise

-Joseph Palermo

-Robert Reich

-Larry Gross

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-Robert Reich

-Randy Shaw

-Joseph Palermo

-Randy Shaw

-Robert Reich

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-Herb Engstrom

This noise is about race. It is about "othering" a President who is seen as a symbol of white dispossession: dispossession of white hegemony, white entitlement, white expectation, and white power, unquestioned and unchallenged from the darker skinned other. On Health Care, It's "E Pluribus" Without the "Unum." The fact that 50 million American citizens have no access to health care and when they get sick or injured they are either driven into bankruptcy or suffer from being denied care does not seem to register with these people. Sarah Palin's Death Panels . The "town meetings" that are now spewing such anger reflect deepseated fears that are welling up across America during this economic crisis. Healthcare reform may ease some of these fears. But the demagogues that are manipulating those fears for political gain don't give a hoot. Adam Schiff's Town Hall Fracas . Last night tempers flared during a boisterous town hall meeting on health-care reform attended by 3,000 people. The event was organized by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D- Burbank).The President needs to be very specific about two things in particular: (1) Who will pay? and (2) Why the public option is so important - and why it's not a Trojan Horse to a government takeover. Obama Did Not "Punk" the Common Guy . Obama is using every political chit to secure health coverage for 47 million "common " Americans, strongly endorsing the public option that other Democrats and the Republican Party are seeking to kill. Health-Care Reform Key Issue in 2008 Campaign: What Happened? The current state of the health care "debate" illustrates, even with the election of Barack Obama and large Democratic majorities in Congress, we might have already lost the vocabulary for collective moral discourse. Progressives Shouldn't Mimic Teabaggers In Promoting Health Reform . Activists often make the mistake of fighting battles on their opponent's turf. Small town hall meetings are so easy to disrupt that they offer a perfect forum for the passionate Rush Limbaugh crowd that lacks a broad base. How the White House's Deal With Big Pharma Undermines Democracy . The White House confirmed it has promised Big Pharma that any healthcare legislation will bar the government from using its huge purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices. That's basically the same deal George W. Bush struck in getting the Medicare drug benefit.The latest failure to communicate on the part of Democrats is in using the term "health care reform." What does that term mean to the public? Why it means that the government will diddle with our great medical care!