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UPDATE ON SINGLE PAYER: Interview with Margaret Flowers, MD
By Joan Brunwasser
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My guest is Dr. Margaret Flowers, congressional fellow of Physicians for a National Health Program [PNHP]. Welcome back to OpEdNews, Margaret. Republican lawmakers, fresh from their November victory, are pledging to move immediately in the new Congress to dismantle the health care law that President Obama gave so much attention to. What's your take on that?
Thank you for inviting me back, Joan. As you know, Physicians for a National Health Program does not support the new health law. Overall we find that it does more harm than good by further privatizing our health care and failing to address the fundamental problems of rising health care costs and lack of access to care for tens of millions of people. That said, we find the Republican plans to dismantle the health law reprehensible given that they are willing to remove what coverage was gained under the law and offer no effective alternative to our growing health care crisis.
The Republican calls to repeal the law are mere political posturing and will not succeed. In fact the health industries, which contributed more heavily to Republican campaigns in the last election cycle than to Democrats, do not want the full law repealed. The Republicans will more likely succeed in defunding portions of the bill and relaxing regulation of the health insurance industry. This will escalate our health care crisis.
Response from The White House RE: Mordechai Vanunu Via The New York Times
eileen fleming
When President Obama took office, this activist reporter began phoning, faxing and emailing him and Secretary of State Clinton seeking a statement regarding the fact that Israel continues to deny the Nuclear Whistle Blower the right to leave the state ever since he emerged from a tomb sized windowless cell on 21 April 2004, after 18 years in jail for telling the world the truth and providing the photographic proof that Israel had manufactured upwards of 200 nuclear warheads by 1986, in the Dimona's seven-story underground nuclear facility. For the last two years, I have been requesting a statement from this Administration vis-à-vis the fact that Israel’s very statehood was established contingent upon their upholding the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As a co-signer of the Declaration of Human Rights, America is responsible for holding all Member States accountable when they fail to honor it. I have relentlessly reminded my government that Article 13-2 guarantees “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
The Politics of Hate—and Hate Speech
by Walter Brasch
Just about anything that could be said about the murders in Tucson have been said.
We know that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was holding a "Congress on the Corner" meeting outside a Safeway grocery store.
We know that a 22-year-old named Jared Lee Loughner is in FBI custody, and has been charged with one count of attempted assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of killing an employee of the United States and two counts of intent to kill employees of the United States. We know that six people are dead, that 14 were wounded, several of whom were in grave or critical condition. We know there will be additional state charges filed against Loughner.
Turmoil in Lebanon
by Stephen Lendman
Reportedly, 19th century Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz once remarked: "Poor Mexico, So far from God, So close to the United States." His proximity comment applies to Lebanon. Bordering Israel, it experienced decades of belligerent interventions as early as 1954 when Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proposed supporting the establishment of a Maronite-dominated Christian mini-state.
In 1978, Israel attacked Lebanon and occupied the country up to the Litani River before withdrawing under US pressure, letting UN Blue Helmets (UNIFIL) replace its own forces.
Netanyahu's Government: Israel's Worst Ever
by Stephen Lendman
Numerous previous articles explained Israel's extremism, notably under Netanyahu exceeding the worst of Ariel Sharon. Both men, of course, are war criminals by any standard. So are complicit Knesset members - roguish, racist and hard-line, comprising a voting majority that co-opt a weak-kneed opposition going along most often to get along.
Access several relevant previous articles through these links:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/alarming-racism-in-israel.html
The tyrant must go….Now
By Khalid Amayreh
I was really planning to write an article entitled "the lying woman from Washington " in which I wanted to expose the utter hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton's recent call for political reforms in the Arab world. After all, the United States has always been the main impeder of democracy in the Arab region as it has constantly and consistently embraced criminal and tyrannical regimes from Casablanca to Bahrain .
However, the dramatic events in Tunisia seem to be taking a certain unexpected turn which no serious observer can treat with indifference.
In Tunisia things seem to be sufficiently clear. The people of this north African country are simply rising up against a thuggish, rotten and despicable dictator who has come to consider Tunisia , its people and resources a kind of farm for himself and his family.
America Replicating Japan
by Stephen Lendman
An except from Franck Biancheri's new book titled, "World Crisis: The Path to the World Afterwards" states:
"The (current) financial and economic crisis....marks the end of the world order established after 1945." In 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved, and since fall 2007, we've "witness(ed) the accelerated decomposition of the 'Western pillar' with" America advancing disintegration.
After decades "spent living in the myth of an 'ended history' in which" Western ideology was triumphant, "it is almost impossible to imagine 'a world after' " without Washington/Wall Street dominance, "where 'Anglo-American' would not necessarily mean 'modern,' and where the dollar would no longer be king."
Can O’Keefe lick the Palestinian campaign into shape?
Stuart Littlewood
Find something else to get angry about, I was telling myself.
Yes, I was all set to shunt Palestine into a mental siding because leadership is still lacking and so much time and effort is misdirected, unco-ordinated and wasted.
Most importantly of all, there’s no overall strategic plan for meaningful action and communication, although individual groups are doing amazing work in their efforts to break the Gaza blockade.
Then somebody - Debbie Menon - said: "You gotta listen to this Press TV interview, it's fantastic. Ken fills my heart with pride."
Pakistan in Search of Change and New Leadership
Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.
American friendship is more dangerous than its publicly defined animosity. Rejecting cynicism but pondering on the US rationale of “war on terrorism”, there are ample similarities of the blueprint what happened in Iraq, the same fate could be waiting for Pakistan.
Nobody would cry nor would the sky fall if the corrupt Zardari regime is ousted by the voices of reason and a much desired non-partisan government is put in place to re-arrange the affairs of the nation……. The recent Wikileaks documents reveal how some of the Generals and the PPP politicians are accomplice to conspire against the interest of the people of Pakistan. Their mindset and behaviors belong to draconian age full of poisonous backdoor conspiracies for continued power sharing governance. The so called PPP operated democracy does not have roots in Pakistani society; it is a mere foreign illusion to destroy the nation by it sown agents. The political gangsterism has ruined the life of ordinary Pakistanis. These agents of foreign rule have no sense of fear and shame that emboldens them to commit any wicked and cruel crime against the freedom and security of Pakistan.
Salam Fayyad: Israel's Man in Palestine
by Stephen Lendman
His resume includes a University of Texas economics Ph.D., a teaching position at Jordan's Yarmouk University, and economic research at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. From 1987 - 1995, he also served as a World Bank and IMF official, and until 2001, was IMF's man in Palestine, serving as Yasser Arafat's finance minister.
In Palestine's 2006 legislative elections, his Third Way party got 2.4% of the votes, a clear renunciation. Yet after Fatah's coup d'etat co-opted the PLO, PA and West Bank, President Mahmoud Abbas illegitimately appointed him prime minister.
The New York Times calls him "a political independent who gained the confidence of the West and is largely respected in Israel." In fact, he's a political opportunist, Israel's man in Palestine. Also Washington's. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Nathan J. Brown calls him "indispensable to US diplomacy....confusing a useful individual with sound policy." He's mainly improved security, providing enforcer services for Israel against his own people.
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