Open Letter to Rep. Leonard Boswell (IA)

I fully support the presence of a public option in the health care bill. Our system is one of the most expensive in the world because of the obscene profits allowed the insurance companies for depriving their clients of appropriate coverage. Senators and Representatives are scrambling to pay back these entities for their previous campaign contributions. Citizens deserve more.

We want a public option. Powerful forces are arrayed against us but we must stand firm, Mr. Boswell. I know you are under a huge amount of pressure from some very wealthy interest groups but Iowans are not wealthy, as you know, and we are not usually a loud and inappropriate citizenry, but we do know what is right for Iowa.

We have been on the short end of Medicare funds distribution for some time. Iowa’s hospitals and doctors are reimbursed at some of the lowest rates in the nation. Where are our representatives? If you won't protect us from monopolies and price gouging, who will, Sir?

When I have had a chance to vote for you, I have supported you because your statements sound considered and your responses are reasonable. Please, we beg you; this may well be our best chance to have the crushing burden of health coverage lifted from small business and the American people. This is no time for partisanship as you say.

As a frequent board, organization and committee member, I know that there are many ways to look at costs when planning. I ask only this: (1) Consider the cost of leaving things the way they are. (2) When evaluating costs, don't discount the potential for increased revenue from businesses that may thrive freed from the unfair burden of covering their employees. (3) Iowa citizens will be paying for coverage no matter who offers it, government or business. Paying many millions of dollars to health care executives to find ways to deny coverage to the elderly, women and children yields benefits for very few. (4) Citizens have no recourse in their struggle against the banking and insurance monoliths.

Sir, please end this injustice. No one elected you to be a Social Darwinist. No one 'deserves' to die and no one is 'fated' to die. Health care should not be slathered on the affluent and withheld from the destitute - not now, not ever.

In conclusion, once again, please end this travesty now. Save money by trimming pork from all of the rest of your fellows' self-serving agendas. Increase taxes if you must and then adjust the system to make it fair to the poor and disadvantaged. Please do not stop until we have a fair and just health care offering for YOUR people, for Iowans.

Hate and The Conservative Caucus

An Open Letter to The Conservative Caucus (In response to their 'US Taxpayers' Campaign Against a Multilingual America')

What disgusting, vile and hateful little nest of morally bankrupt buzzards is this?

Our republic was built on finer stuff than this and was forged from the talents of people fleeing the very kind of crap you are peddling. Your views are hermetic, bigoted and totally antithetical to anything for which this country has ever stood.

We live in a world that cries out for even-handed and unprejudiced leadership. You are liars and vigilantes and do not deserve the protections of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights but you have them nonetheless.

Intelligent people everywhere hold you and your narrow-minded allies in absolute contempt. It is my fervent wish that justice prevail and your hate speech will one day be silenced forever.

I have made a donation to NCLR (National Council of La Raza) in direct response to your request that I sign your petition. I hope this fascist effort cost you dearly and yields the response it deserves - overwhelming outrage and national action to combat this putrid screed and those who fostered it.

You disgust me.

Grassley Doesn't Even Understand His Own Insurance

Charles Grassley has successfully complained about every aspect of government spending while uniformly managing to vote not to support the citizens of his state. Who is he representing? Oh Lord, please forgive me, of course! Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, Principal, United Health, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, ExpressScripts, Medco, Mutual of Omaha, Caremark. I wonder why?

Thank you, Blog For Iowa

Alley Cat Allies

It’s easy to talk about feral cats and the nation’s current animal control and shelter system. More than anything, outdoor cats need a voice:

* Call your local shelters and pounds. Ask them if they have programs for feral cats. Tell them you support humane standards of care for outdoor cats.
* Contact your local elected officials. Tell them you want the animal control system to be held accountable and to change.
* Tell your friends, family, pet sitter, groomer, veterinarian, and others that you don’t think it’s OK to kill healthy animals, just because they’re not socialized to people. Tell them how they can join and become part of the collective action.
* Spread the word about National Feral Cat Day on October 16.

Start conversations about outdoor cats. The cats will thank you. Donate here.

Intolerance Of The Religious Right

Is there nothing that involves hate that doesn't smell like Steve King?

Thank you, oneiowa.org! Contribute to this cause.

The Dumbing Continues

Thank you, The Eight Things

Rhythm

My Favorite Geek T-Shirt

Credit: Oddee

Wasting Away In Boehnerville

The monthly data for industrial production show a near three-year collapse under President Hoover, ending when FDR came to office in March 1933. Production rocketed by 44 percent in the first three months of the New Deal and, by December 1936, had completely recovered to surpass its 1929 peak.

Orlan Love: The Cedar River

Orlan Love is one of the Cedar Rapids Gazette's best writers. His prose is similar to that of Hemingway but in a class of its own. The poetry is in the simplicity that allows the reader his own range of creative synthesis.

Rokia Traore

It is true that strength is in unity
Thank-you my love
For being at my side no matter what
Only a distant memory remains
Of my solitude and my fears.
Now I am strong through your support
Your presence makes me radiant

Lyrics Credit: Amariyam

The Diminution Of Heroes

By now, you’ve heard of the dramatic emergency landing of an Airbus A320 on the Hudson Rivers by US Airways pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III, and you’ve also probably heard this pilot called a hero more than a few times, either. So I’m wondering: what makes this guy a hero?

What caught my attention (on Countdown) was the implication that the pilot’s successful ditching (that’s what you call a forced water landing) was heroism. That’s not heroism. That’s called skill. Phenomenal skill, but skill and little more. Why is it heroism — the fact that he didn’t panic, piss his trousers, and crash the plain? Heroism is not the absence of cowardice. Heroism isn’t even keeping a cool head in a dire situation. It’s not just getting the job done.

It seems to me that heroism requires both getting the job done despite considerable personal risk and having some choice in the matter.

Okay, maybe I’m being a hard ass about this, and it’s not like I’ve done anything to make me an expert. But I do think it’s worthwhile to think about these concepts critically. People throw that “hero” term around far too lightly.

Captain Sullenberger used his considerable skills to do what had to be done. He did it exceptionally well and deserves praise for it. He ditched the plane and no one died.

The passengers evacuated the cabin in ninety seconds. And then, with the plane sinking, the captain and the copilot went down through the cabin, checking to make sure all of the passengers had, in fact, left the plane.

And then they did it a second time. In a sinking plane, they double-checked to make sure there were no injured passengers left behind.

That’s heroism.

Credit: Balls and Walnuts

Yums - But Where To Begin?

Men grill part of a sausage looped around a rack in Bucharest during a Guinness World Record event for the world's longest sausage December 27, 2008. The sausage measured 392 meters (1286 feet) and set a new world record.

Credit: REUTERS/Mihai Barbu

Mother Nature Opts For Her Own

After 24 hours of starvation, neurons from females (left) mobilize free fatty acids and form lipid droplets (bright green), keeping them alive. In contrast, neurons from males (right panel) begin eating themselves from the inside to break down proteins, presumably to use as fuel.

Credit: LiveScience.com

Sooo Watcha Doin'?

A revolution in home exploration and telepresence, ROVIO is a Wi-Fi enabled robotic webcam that easily moves in any direction and can be controlled remotely. View and interact with ROVIOs environment through its streaming video and audio from its built in camera. Use ROVIO to check on your family while away from home, watch over your house while away on vacation, or look over your pets during your lunch time. In the office, enjoy movement enabled web conferences with colleagues, using ROVIO anywhere.

Why I Love Iowa