We Can Live Like Decent People In A Society Or We Can Live Like Wild Beasts In The Tea Party Republican Jungle

When the economy improves, it is still going to be difficult for many to get a good job.

From the Associated Press—

But once employers do step up hiring, some economists expect job openings to fall mainly into two categories of roughly equal numbers:

• Professional fields with higher pay. Think lawyers, research scientists and software engineers.

• Lower-skill and lower-paying jobs, like home health care aides and store clerks.

And those in between? Their outlook is bleaker. Economists foresee fewer moderately paid factory supervisors, postal workers and office administrators.

That’s the sobering message American workers face as they celebrate Labor Day at a time of high unemployment, scant hiring and a widespread loss of job security. Not until 2014 or later is the nation expected to have regained all, or nearly all, the 8.4 million jobs lost to the recession. Millions of lost jobs in real estate, for example, aren’t likely to be restored this decade, if ever.

These are the structural facts of our economic future.

Our choices are that can work hard as honest people do while looking to government that helps with a safety net that includes expanded access to health insurance and unemployment benefits for people looking to get back to work.

Or, we can take the Tea Party Republican course and starve government as the private sector goes on cutting jobs, cuttings wages, and cutting benefits.

We can live like people in a decent society who understand that folks need help sometimes and that our economy is changing.

Or, we can live like beasts in a jungle fighting each other for evermore scare resources.

I’m going to live like a decent person who works for a living, has no problem asking for help if required, and who is willing to pay taxes so all of us can live in civilization instead like wild beasts in a jungle.

You are out of your mind if you think the average person in this society is not going to need help from the government to maintain access to health care and to help live in retirement.

Read here about health care reform. It is going to help a lot of hard working people in our great nation. The fact that it is going to work is what upsets the Republicans so much.

(Below–The Republican Tea Party view of life and society. Right makes right and survival of the fittest. A pair of bear-dogs, Hemicyon sansansiensis, prepare to feast on a slain paleomerycid ungulate, in Miocene, France as drawn by Stanton Fink. )

w—Tea Party Republican view of existence. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Hemicyon_sansaniensis.JPG

The Stimulus Worked And Health Care Reform Will Help People

The economic stimulus bill that Congress passed last year and that was signed by President Obama was very beneficial to the economy.

From USA Today-—

“Amid mounting signs that the economic recovery is faltering, one potential remedy seems out of the question: a booster shot of government spending.The White House says the multiyear $814 billion stimulus program passed by Congress in 2009 boosted employment by 2.5 million to 3.6 million jobs and raised the nation’s annual economic output by almost $400 billion. A recent study by two prominent economists generally agrees, crediting the pump-priming with averting “what could have been called Great Depression 2.0.” … It’s no surprise that the administration would proclaim its own policies a success. But its verdict is backed by economists at Goldman Sachs, IHS Global Insight, JPMorgan Chase and Macroeconomic Advisers, who say the stimulus boosted gross domestic product by 2.1% to 2.7%. It’s impossible to determine precisely how many jobs or how much growth the stimulus program caused. In a nearly $14 trillion economy, economists can’t go employer to employer counting new hires. And there are too many moving parts to confidently link any single factor with individual hiring decisions. Roughly one-third of the stimulus, for example, came in the form of tax cuts, which are designed to boost demand for a wide array of products and eventually result in related hiring. But to estimate the answers to such questions, economists rely on models based on historical relationships between various policies and real-world results. Earlier this month, (Mark) Zandi and co-author Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, released the most detailed assessment of the government’s efforts to combat the so-called Great Recession. Neither economist is regarded as a partisan firebrand. Zandi, for example, backed John McCain in the 2008 presidential campaign and has advised members of both parties.” Their conclusion: The fiscal stimulus created 2.7 million jobs and added $460 billion to gross domestic product. Unemployment would be 11% today if the stimulus hadn’t been passed and 16.5% if neither the fiscal stimulus nor the banks’ rescue had been enacted, according to Zandi and Blinder. “It’s pretty hard to deny that it had a measurable impact,” Zandi said.”

Government has a role to play in our lives.

In addition to the helpful stimulus, which should be followed up with an additional stimulus bill, the Health Care reform bill will benefit millions of Americans.

Here are the details of Health Care Reform. Read about this plan yourself and don’t believe the lies.

Government can and does help people. We pay taxes so we can live in a decent society and have a decent government.

UTMB, U. Of Texas Regents, & State Of Texas Happy To Let People Die For Being Poor

The number of the indigent patients being seen at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston has been cut drastically.

These cuts have been mandated by the University of Texas Board of Regents and by the Texas State Legislature.

From the Houston Chronicle—

“UTMB has been edging out of the charity care business for nearly a decade and last year devoted the smallest portion of its resources to charity in memory, dropping to 2.6 percent of patient services. Charity care is a money loser, and UTMB officials say the Legislature wants it to make money, not lose it ..The decline in spending on charity care fell from 20.6 percent of total patient services in 1999 to 2.6 percent last year, according to a chart prepared by Dr. Merle Lenihan based on UTMB’s annual financial reports. Lenihan is the author of a report by the Galveston County Cancer Coalition on the county’s lack of charity policies. UTMB filled a vital role in Texas by caring for the indigent since the 19th century. Those days are gone, said Dr. Ben Raimer, UTMB senior vice president. “I think it is a different world for UTMB, but it is a world of accountability,” Raimer said…In fiscal year 2006, UTMB cared for uninsured patients from 160 of Texas’ 254 counties. By 2009 that number had dropped to 83 counties. That trend has consequences for social service agencies like Jesse Tree, based in Galveston. The organization has seen a 75 percent increase in people seeking health care since Hurricane Ike..The agency is enrolling 1,000 applicants a month seeking everything from primary care to cancer treatment, Hanley said. “We’re coming apart at the seams,” he said. Hanley said the problem is acute because half of Galveston County’s 250,000 population is uninsured….”It is their responsibility, that is a historic one, for UTMB to provide services for those that are economically disadvantaged,” said Joe Compian, a member of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Campaign for Human Development’s local board. “It is a state institution. It is a local institution, as well, and that means it belongs to the people of Texas and let’s do right for the people of Texas…””I think it’s a travesty,” Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough said. “It should be an integral part of their mission. They are the state indigent care facility, and they have patients coming from all over the state.” Yarbrough is irked that Galveston County rode to UTMB’s rescue last year, but now it can’t even get a contract with the medical school to care for the county’s poor. State law allows counties to spend $30,000 per patient, but UTMB wants twice that….To meet a condition set by the Legislature for a state bailout of UTMB, the county raised taxes by 6 cents last year to pay for indigent medical care other than checkups, such as care for diabetes or cancer..Fortified with new legislative appropriations, UTMB has embarked on a $1 billion reconstruction effort, has plans for a new surgical tower and other buildings, and reportedly expects to finish this fiscal year in the black.”

Here is the web home of the Jesse Tree charity mentioned in the article.

There are many decent people who work at UTMB who want to care for all people. But the policy decisions are made at the top and they seem to reflect callousness.

“…A world of accountability” one UTMB senior official says. What?—Being accountable for death and suffering?

And while people suffer from the lack of insurance and lack of care, the State of Texas is fighting what will be a losing battle in the courts to overturn Health Care Reform.

Here is a web page that discusses the benefits of Health Care Reform.

Our State of Texas is acting in a barbaric manner in letting people die because they don’t have health insurance.

We don’t seem to have any standards of decency at all anymore. Everything is about money and about extremist small government ideology instead of concern for our fellow human beings.

Houseplant Reads Poetry

Blogger’s Note–Because I have some other projects I want to take on, I’ll be offering up shorter and more formulaic posts for the remainder of August. These posts will still be quite good and will merit your visiting the blog each day. Yet at the same time, shorter posts will allow me time to accomplish other objectives. Thanks for reading Texas Liberal.

Texas Liberal Book Of The Day–—William Carlos Williams-Selected Poems. As you see above, Houseplant is reading this book. Mr. Williams does not waste a word in his poems. I wish that we all could combine discipline with meaning to such a degree.

Link Of The Day—The Nation Magazine offers up a series of viewpoints this week debating the Obama administration from the liberal perspective. I feel the Health Care Reform law was a significant accomplishment that will help millions of people get care. (Click the link to see what the bill really does instead of just hearing all the lies.) Overall, I give Mr. Obama a grade of B to this point.

Texas Link Of The Day–-The Texas Observer writes that Texas Democrats have lagged behind Republicans and the campaigns of Governor Rick Perry in the door-to-door solicitation of votes. What I’d add to this observation is that here in Harris County. Texas, Democrats have been very slow to register historically low-turnout groups.

You’d almost think that many elected Democrats in Harris County are content with winning election in safe low turnout districts. You might also feel that some of these folks have no real interest in representing the concerns of the poor and of the large Hispanic population of Houston and Harris County.

Yet I’m certain that such a thing could not be true. Of course not.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker Is “Happy” With Houston Economy Even As Many Live In Poverty—She Says It Is The Best Economy In The Nation

Houston Mayor Annise Parker, a Democrat, has offered up the City of Houston budget for the fiscal year ahead.

(Above–Mayor Parker)

Here is a Houston Chronicle story on the proposed budget.

In her remarks on the budget, Mayor Parker said the following—

“I’m happy that our economy is still better than that in any other part of the country, and that decisions that we’ve made over the years have kept us from the financial straits that many other cities are facing,”

That is an interesting viewpoint.

There are facts on the Houston economy and related social conditions that the Mayor left out of her assessment.

For example—

The Census Bureau estimates that as an average between 2006 and 2008,  20.5% of people in Houston lived in poverty against a national average of 13.2%.

The same data shows a child poverty rate of nearly one-third of all children.

Houston has attracted national attention for the number of people we have without health insurance. Yet while Mayor Parker has spoken out about clean air standards and NASA job cuts as federal issues that impact Houston, she had nothing to say about President Obama’s health care reform. This reform will extend coverage to millions of Americans–most of them employed but without coverage–including many people in Houston

Houston has a high dropout rate. While the numbers are disputed, as many as 47% of kids who enter Houston high schools do not finish within 6 years. Even if the numbers are not this bad, they are still bad. Is this graduation rate, and the bleak economic prospects for dropouts, part of a strong economy?

There is often high student turnover in Houston classrooms as families move from one apartment to another looking for the lowest rent.

This is an economy Mayor Parker is “happy” about? Is an economy that has higher rates of poverty than many other places one “that is better than that in any other part of the country?”

What passes for liberalism in Houston often seems to ask nothing more of Mayor Parker that she be progressive on some social issues and that she talk about clean air and making Houston more “green.”

While these things matter, so do economic issues.

You can get a sense of where the Mayor is coming from her campaign web site.

Here is what Ms. Parker says about the economic history of Houston–

“Houston was built by innovators and entrepreneurs – from the oil and gas industry and the Port of Houston to NASA and the Texas Medical Center, the city’s largest provider of jobs.”

There is truth in what the Mayor says. It is also true that Houston was built by any number of low wage—and in some cases no-wage—workers. This low wage economy is still very much a part of Houston today.

In the past, Ms. Parker has advocated for Houston janitors looking for fair wages and she has advocated for better banking services for the poor.

Where is this Annise Parker? Where is the Annise Parker who started in politics as a fighter for human rights?

Better yet, where are the liberals and progressives in a Democratic city demanding that the needs of all people in Houston be part of Mayor Parker’s agenda?

White Working Class And Middle Class Right To Be Frustrated, As Are All Working People, But If You Try To Address Issues You Might Get Called A Socialist By Some

I read a few days ago that white working class and middle class voters are deserting the Democratic Party for 2010 and may vote strongly Republican in the upcoming midterm elections.

(Though in some polls, more people plan on voting for Democrats this year than plan on voting for Republicans.)

I can’t recall where I read this and it does not matter. I suspect you’ll read the same point many times between now and November.

White working class folks are right in that they are being screwed in many ways and that bailouts for banks and big financial institutions are helping the already wealthy. Working people of all races would be right to feel this way. The fates of all working people are connected.

And yet, when you try to give some of these folks health insurance, or if you propose a large government federal jobs program, many of these same people would call you a socialist.

As an example, the new health care law helps working and middle class people of all races, yet many whites who fall into these classes often refuse to believe that they will benefit.

Do these hard working people think the private sector is going to treat them fairly?

It is worthwhile to discuss who may be getting unfair special treatment from the government in the form of bailouts.

It might be also be so that without the bailouts, as odious as they’ve been, we might be in a depression today. A depression for the poor and working class even more severe than the one we are already experiencing.

At heart, People need to decide if the focus of their lives is going to be progress or resentment.

Here is an article from the liberal magazine American Prospect about the urgency of massive federal help to create more jobs in America.

If people are going to be resentful and blame their problems on immigrants and whoever else—I’m not sure what I can say.

If people are going to move ahead and care about each other, then we will make progress.

Working people need to fight together as allies.

Mayor Parker Raising Health Insurance Premiums For Some City Retirees By 50% After Saying In Her Inaugural Address These Are People Willing To Brave Fire Ants

Houston Mayor Annise Parker has allowed insurance premiums paid by retired city employees to go up by nearly 50%.

Here is what Mayor Parker said about Houston city employees in her inaugural address—

“I also know that the city’s workforce is one of the best anywhere. I see them every day; I know many of them—and I know the commitment they have to doing a good job. We hear on the news about the small disasters, the things that go wrong. In truth, we rarely notice the smooth workings of this city—how much of it goes right. So we miss the smaller, invisible events: the two Water Department crews who worked through a cold February night to repair a sewage leak. The nurse at one of our clinics who worked a double shift because they were short staffed — and did that three days in a row!  The Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care employee who rescued a dog from a drainage culvert in the middle of a thunderstorm — getting thoroughly soaked and ant-bitten in the doing!”

(Here are facts about fire ants in Texas.)

This is from the Houston Chronicle of March 30–—

“Beginning May 1, more than 4,000 retirees under 65 will face a nearly 50% increase in their insurance premiums, a budget fix the Mayor imposed without consulting City Council.”

Mayor Parker is not a heartless person. I think she cares about others.

Though at the same time Mayor Parker was silent on the federal health care reform that will benefit many in Houston. She was silent on this Houston-releated concern even as she spoke up on the federal census, federal EPA standards, and possible job losses at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Mayor Parker was clear from the beginning that she would be focused on the city budget and the city debt.

Yet Mayor Parker is no longer our City Controller as she was before she became our Mayor. Her focus now must involve the human needs of all our city.

During her campaign, Ms. Parker allowed herself to be portrayed as a so-called fiscal conservative. She wanted potential Republican voters to see her as one of them, and she wanted other voters to see her as a watchdog over city funds.

Ms. Parker also knew that the great majority of Houstonians and poor Houstonians would not vote in the 2009 election.  She knew the unmet needs of much of the city could be ignored in her campaign.

In a city of over two million people, only something like 155,000 people voted in the race for Mayor.

Mayor Parker has shown strong leadership in taking on entrenched racism and sexism at our Houston Fire Department.

Social justice is an economic concern as well as about matters of human rights.

Mayor Parker was reported in the Chronicle story to be willing to consider reversing her decision on the insurance premiums.

I hope  Mayor Parker will decide that potentially leaving more Houstonians and more Texans uninsured is not the right course.

Father And Young Daughter Attacked For Obama Bumper Sticker—My Hail To The Thief G.W. Bush Bumper Sticker

A father and his ten year old daughter were road rage victims in Nashville, Tennessee after being attacked for having an Obama/Biden bumper sticker on their car.

From WKRN in Nashville—

“A Nashville man says he and his 10-year-old daughter were victims of road rage Thursday afternoon, all because of a political bumper sticker on his car. Mark Duren told News 2 the incident happened around 4:30p.m., while he was driving on Blair Boulevard, not far from Belmont University. He said Harry Weisiger gave him the bird and rammed into his vehicle, after noticing an Obama-Biden sticker on his car bumper. Duren had just picked up his 10-year-old daughter from school and had her in the car with him. “He pointed at the back of my car,” Duren said, “the bumper, flipped me off, one finger salute.” …Duren told News 2 that Weisiger honked his horn at him for awhile, as Duren stopped at a stop sign. Once he started driving again, down Blair Boulevard, towards his home, he said, “I looked in the rear view mirror again, and this same SUV was speeding, flying up behind me, bumped me.”…Police say Harry Weisiger is charged with felony reckless endangerment in the incident.”

I once had a bumper sticker that read—“Hail To The Thief–George Bush 2000.”

Knowing that people would tear the bumper sticker off my car, I bought four of them.

In time, the first three were ripped off my car. I was down to the last sticker.

Each time the sticker was ripped off my car, I found it crumpled on the ground near my car.

One afternoon I was driving in Wharton County, Texas and my car broke down. This is when I had the last of the four stickers still on my car.

I bear no ill-will to the people of Wharton County, Texas. But Wharton is a rural and Republican county about 50 miles southwest of Houston and I did not want trouble.

John McCain won Wharton County 65-34 in 2008.

I did not want a sheriff’s deputy to come and club me over the head while I was pulled over on the side of the road. I did not want to be shot by one the fine citizens of Wharton County who was observing the second amendment by packing a rifle as they drove.

So I pulled off the bumper sticker right after I broke down. That was the last of my Hail To The Thief bumper stickers.

Help did arrive and I did get off the side of the road and made it back to Houston.

It should be noted that I lost three stickers in Houston and got nothing but help in Wharton County.

The road rage incident in Nashville is part of a pattern of right-wing assaults on people they disagree with over health care and other issues.

(Below—A billboard that said pretty much what my bumper sticker said. Though my sticker did not have the picture.)

Threats Against Democrats Made By Conservatives Must Be Monitored As Possible Seeds Of Terrorism

Threats are being made against Members of Congress who voted for the Health Care Reform bill.

From the New York Times—

“Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the majority leader, said at least 10 House members had raised concerns about their personal security since Sunday’s climactic vote, and Mr. Hoyer characterized the cases as serious. At least two Congressional district offices were vandalized and Representative Louise M. Slaughter, a senior Democrat from New York, received a phone message threatening sniper attacks against lawmakers and their families. Ms. Slaughter also reported that a brick was thrown through a window of her office in Niagara Falls, and Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, said Monday that her Tucson office was vandalized after the vote. The Associated Press reported that the authorities in Virginia were investigating a cut propane line to an outdoor grill at the home of a brother of Representative Tom Perriello of Virginia, after the address was mistakenly listed on a Tea Party Web site as the residence of the congressman. Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan and a central figure in the measure’s abortion provisions, reported receiving threatening phone calls. Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking black lawmaker in the House, said he received an anonymous fax showing the image of a noose.”

These types of threats are at the very least acts that merit placement on some type of watch list, and that merit further monitoring and investigation by the the proper authorities.

With all this talk about secession and nullification and with all these threats about votes taken as part of the legitimate workings of our democracy, it is time to wonder about the basic Americanism of many on the right.

Why don’t conservatives want to be part of our country and why can’t they accept the results of the ballot box?

And of course we can’t forget terrorist tax hater Joseph Stack who earlier this year smashed his plane into the side of the IRS building in Austin, Texas.

Threats against Democrats and against people who don’t agree with the far right-wing agenda of the Tea Party and of today’s Republican Party, must be kept under close review by law enforcement and by federal agents responsible for preventing acts of terror.

We can’t allow another Timothy McVeigh to do terrible harm to federal employees and other decent Americans.

When Census Jobs Are Done, Will Death Panels Begin To Hire?

When all the Census jobs are done, will the Death Panels begin to hire?

With the Census well underway and with health care reform now passed, I hope Americans will be able to find work on the Death Panels Republicans said would result from the health care bill.

These jobs are needed in these tough times.

I hope that Death Panel work is done in local communities and not outsourced to India. It takes local hometown knowledge to know who should be left to die.

I would consider working on a Death Panel if the wage and benefit package is competitive.

Republicans promised Death Panels. Where are the jobs?!?!

Brutal Texas Nutballs Help Me Feel Like I Am At Home Even When I Am Far Away

Just because I’m in the Chicago suburbs this evening, does not mean I can’t keep up with the far-right Texans committed to making sure that folks have no health insurance and that Texas never accepts the outcome of the Civil War.

The Congressman who screamed “babykiller” during the health care debate was a Texan. Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock was the guilty party who did the yelling.

Also, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is one of a group of AG’s nationwide who plan to file suit to stop parts of the health care bill.

It’s the same idea of nullification of federal law that the far right has always held dear whenever they feel that the federal government is doing something to make life better.

Does it matter to Mr. Neugebauer and Mr. Abbott that millions of Texans don’t have health insurance?

No—It does not matter.

With these brutal Texas nutballs making news up here in Illinois and nationwide, I have the warm feeling of home even though I am far away.

Recount! Ted Kennedy Beats Scott Brown

Not long ago, all we heard about is how Scott Brown winning the Senate election in Massachusetts to replace Ted Kennedy meant that Mr. Kennedy’s hope of health care for all was finished.

Well—There has been a recount in this matter. The House had passed the health care bill and it appears that Mr. Kennedy had gotten the better of Mr. Brown.

Texas Governor Perry Says Health Bill Is Part Of Spread Of Socialism—I Hope He Is Right

Crazy far right wing Texas Governor Rick Perry has said tonight that the passage of the health care bill means that socialism is spreading across the United States.

( Please excuse the absence of a link to the quote. I’m on my iPhone around midnight in a hotel room in the Chicago suburbs. Getting links in the post is beyond my skills and current energy level.)

All I can say about what Governor Perry has said is that I hope he is correct.

Working People Resisting Efforts To Make Sure They Have Health Insurance Is So Stupid

Average working people resisting efforts by President Obama to make sure they are able to get health insurance is one of the most stupid things I have ever seen.

I’m just not sure what more I can say on this matter.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker Should Expand Her Focus To Health Care Reform—She Often Talks About Other Federal Issues

Above you see Houston Mayor Annise Parker encouraging folks in Houston to fill out their census forms.

Very good.

Here are details of testimony offered by Mayor Parker about EPA clean air standards that impact Houston.

All right. We should hear what the Mayor has to say on this issue.

Here is a link about an agreement the Mayor is going to sign in an effort to help promote  trade between Houston and Mexico.

Okay. This is a concern for Houston.

Here is a Houston Chronicle editorial discussing that fact that one in three people in Houston have no health insurance.

Have we heard anything about support for federal health care reform from the Mayor or from Democrats on Houston City Council?

I’ve not heard anything.

Here is a list of press releases from the Mayor since she took office. The issue of health care reform is not addressed by Mayor Parker on this list.

President Obama and Democrats in Washington could use the support of the Democratic Mayor of the fourth largest city in the United States.

A strong statement by Mayor Parker might cause other local leaders around the nation to speak up. Such a statement might serve as notice to the many citizens of Houston who do not vote in city elections that the concerns of all people are of importance to Mayor Parker.

Sometimes when you suggest that local officials should take up issues being discussed on the national scene, you will hear in reply that the focus needs to be on what matters to local voters.

Though at the same time, I’m certain Mayor Parker would be happy to tell folks that Houston is an international city.

Houston is a global city when that is the concept suits people in power. On the other hand, it is a city where we need to focus on flooding and roads when that idea of Houston suits people in power.

Here is a City of Houston web page called Green Houston. It is all about making Houston a more environmentally friendly place to live.

Here is what Mayor Parker says on this Green Houston page—

“The City of Houston is working harder than ever to make Houston green. We have made a lot of progress, but more is needed. We need the help of every citizen of Houston to do their part. I would encourage everyone to take a little time and explore this web site to learn what they can do to make Houston green.”

Great–I’m all for it.

Mayor Parker could order up a Health Care for All page or a Living Wage for Houston page.

Mayor Parker can direct her focus to any issue she wishes. There are many people in Houston who could use the Mayor’s help and advocacy.

Maybe with the Mayor setting the example, more people in Houston would fight for themselves instead of just accepting the fact that things around here are often very rough.