TV and the Internet

How many of you watch TV online? Probably everyone sometimes if you are under thirty. And you probably use the site HULU. It is now part of Comcast so watch out. If you can give THEM you feedback!

If Hulu (or an equivalent online TV service) begins expensive subscriptions it will cause viewers to skip TV shows entirely except for the shows/seasons I might purchase through iTunes, who's prices must remain at the current level or we will quit that also. Like current cable companies, online TV services should offer packages from basic to loaded and the consumer can choose related to content and perhaps less or more advertising. The sites should clean up their acts, too, literally. The sites are poorly designed and full of c__p. Weeding through it all is a nightmare. Just give us the information for your services in a clean lineup and separate out the ads out (if you must have them!) to the side - preferably the left - it is easier to read a right hand column (remember newspapers?)

I love watching TV on my computer, personally. I don't have to go out and purchase a huge flat screen for a fortune and it goes every where with me. Media moguls, get with the program!

THE CITIZEN'S HEALTH CARE PLAN

The Citizens Health Care Plan

• The Public Option: The Federal government should jump start non-profit insurance cooperatives without initial loans but with large grants (similar to bail-outs) No beneficiary premiums would be required for people with incomes lower than $45,000 for individuals and $65,00 for families of three or four. Tax credits won’t work because poor people do not have stable incomes. They may not file income tax returns.

• Employers with any number of full time employees must offer coverage with the lowest cost plan that meets requirements set by the government. There should be competition between insurance companies as well as real public option as described above.

• Long term care should cover the full cost of at least $75 a day for individuals who have worked at least five years.

• Abortion should be covered by the case of rape, incest or health emergency with the mother or the fetus. Abortion should be available to any woman 18 or under. A private health care plan can refuse coverage.

• Illegal immigrants must pay for basic insurance if they are working in the US. Visitors to the US will receive care with pay. If they cannot pay they will be deported as soon as they are healthy.

• Children should receive care without cost paid for by Medicaid. If the parents are not citizens the family will be returned to the native country as soon as the child is healthy.

• Any health insurance plan should be paid by funds from a surtax to high-income earners of $500,000 a year and increasing exponentially with the level of income. Makers of pharmaceuticals pay sums allocated according to market share and earnings.

• Health Insurance premiums must be capped and adjusted according to incomes of subscribers. These amounts could be set by the Federal or State governments as decided by the people in an election.

ABOUT ABORTION

To the Los Angeles Times, November 8, 2009

The issue before the senate currently contains the following, I believe, that was an editorial in the Los Angeles Times last September. The editorial described the financial coverage allowed in the House Health Care Bill (there have been so many it is confusing) for women who want abortions:

U.S. law bars federal Medicaid dollars from being used to pay for abortions except when the pregnancies result from rape or incest or threaten the mother’s life. It also prohibits insurance plans for military personnel, federal employees and lower-income children from covering abortion. This page (of the healthcare reform bill) has opposed these rules because they deter poor women from obtaining the constitutionally protected medical care available to women with means. Legislators in California and about a dozen other states agree, and they provide funding for elective abortions with their own states’ Medicaid contributions.

In my opinion, abortion should be available to women who need one for any reason at all. It should be her choice and perhaps also the choice of the father. A baby should not be born into an environment that is lacking in any way. A child of fourteen or fifteen should not be forced to ruin his or her life if they make a mistake. Make abortion available but make that woman AND the man suffer the consequences. They should pay a lot of money (also something required in the House version of health care reform) for that mistake (Then watch those boys put on those condoms!), and perhaps some other consequences such as community service and some classes they must attend.

If they choose to have the baby they should BOTH bear the responsibility of their behavior and pay lots of money to insure the welfare of the child. They should also be required by law to go to regular doctors visits during pregnancy and afterwards. Social workers should be required by law to regulate and supervise the environment in which the child grows up in. The choice to have a baby is a lifelong commitment and this should be part of the education of minors who are sexually active.

Just my opinion,

Elizabeth Brady Woods

Pasadena, CA

Afghani Election

Americans have the wrong idea about politics in Afghanistan, and the countries of that area, including Pakistan. There is no such thing as an election that is not corrupt. It is not possible to install a government that is not corrupt. The Taliban know that and possibly even pay for the area's governments to look the other way. The people of the region are terrified for their lives. Americans are making things more dangerous for the locals everyday that we are there. What David Shenand said about building our defenses against enemies here at home is the right way to think. We all need to realize we are getting our own killed while helping a bunch of thugs. The whole region of Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan is in a centuries old turmoil that can only be rectified by the people themselves. We need to step back (out of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq) and build up our own country's intelligence and defenses.

We need to fix our own ailments, healing the cankers that are destroying us, the leading Democracy of the world. We should be proud of the education we give our children, proud of how we care for the medical needs of our citizens, and proud of our scientific advances in stemming global warming. We should be leaders in guarantying the civil rights of all of our citizens. We have no credibility until we do this. Ms. Clinton, look homeward and work to disengage from hopeless and dangerous governments. Work to form a strong bond with friendly countries. Work for your people, Secretary Clinton, not the corrupt puppet governments of the East.

Imigration 101

President Barack Obama

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20500

October 1, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Immigration is an economic and cultural “tradition” in the US. Were you aware

that the American Apparel crack down was going to occur? I hope not. Those people,

and many others like them, have been in this country many years and are Americans, except on “paper.”

America has had open borders for more than two hundred years. It has been

a fruitful and beneficial policy. Our population is as diverse as the United Nations. Our

Constitution welcomes all people to our shores. Immigrants who have been woven into American life by doing jobs we won’t do, shoring up our economy and raising our children should be respected and rewarded for what they’ve contributed to our society. We must reward them with citizenship, not arrest them.

Perhaps our borders need to change with the times, however. We can’t just allow people in without documenting them these days. Unfortunately, it is now too dangerous

for us to have completely open borders, there is so much illegal trafficking. The safety

of our citizens is suffering from many kinds of criminal activity by many unscrupulous

people, not just undocumented workers. There is much illegal commerce interfering with our peace and prosperity.

We can tighten our borders by screening immigrants for everything we need to know in order to keep all Americans safe. We want that. Arresting workers and forcing families to leave and return to their countries of origin is cruel and counter productive. Many haven’t been “back home” for decades. Many will be arrested for political views when they disembark their flight “home.” These are important people in our lives. People such as the woman who helped raise my child, the grocer down the street who has been caring for his community and raising two sons, the seamstress who lost her only son in Iraq or the doctor who plans to return to his home country to serve the poor there.

The proper and respectful procedure in rounding up illegal residents should be

to do background checks, see if they have any record of criminal activity, examine their current situation to see if they are good people and make them citizens, not deport them.

We need them here.

An amendment should be discussed and perhaps added as an “update” to our Constitution, which was crafted long ago. There are good productive people here from all over the world who should stay and help us advance to meet our challenges.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Brady

Afghanistan War On Line

September 23, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Today the papers are reporting you want to take a new turn in the Afghan war.

That is great, but we should not send troops there at all. Trying to fight Al Quaeda is like fighting ants by stepping on one and thinking that you’ve won.

The pursuit, we all know, of Osama Bin Laden is futile. He may even be dead. We all realize that he is just one of many Al Quaeda leaders. For that to be our objective, I have to believe your administration is just using that to explain to the Americans who need a reason for the death of their sons and daughters. Either that or we need a war to sustain our flagging economy? Or, perhaps, you, Mr. President, feel you must continue the conflict to shore up the Democratic party. Are we fighting to keep the Republicans from beating you up some more?

Mr. President, I don’t mean to be rude. You are in a tough spot. You were handed this idiotic war and there is no easy way out. If changing the mission there from killing all insurgents to weeding out Al Quaeda so that perhaps we can have fewer troops deployed, I’m all for it. Keeping any troops there at all, however, is senseless.

The US needs to pull out of that area entirely. You and the other commanders in chief should develop a solid new plan to fight Al Qaeda (and even the Taliban) in cyber space. The latest capture of Mr. Zazi, in New York, is good. He seems to be talking quite a bit (can we believe this?) and providing the authorities with some useful information, hopefully. Our investigators are looking at plans he and others had on his computer. He used the internet to organize a group of terrorists, make a plan of attack and assemble the different materials to make bombs.

This method of combat is what I think the American armed forces should use more extensively. If we have to find people hiding in caves, use their Facebook or MySpace. I’m not trying to be flip. I am serious when I say our enemies use electronic devices and we should track them via that technology. Obviously, we will deploy troops at some point to go get whoever is found out. The number of American at risk would be so few and their objective would be so much clearer and much more direct. At least, they would know what and where the enemy was.

Such a surgical approach and use of many fewer troops would surely make more sense, save many lives and win the approval of the American people. The people of Afghanistan and many other countries would be happier with us too. What right have we to invade these countries, march through villages with sub-machine guns frightening people and putting their lives at risk? We are now trying to “make nice” with those localvillagers. Are we really helping them? The Taliban and other groups kill the elders for talking to American soldiers.

We should be a silent force in our battle with terrorists. Our missions should be clandestine and invisible to our enemies. Our intelligence agencies would do well to get better information to supply to the troops on the ground. It would be nice to be so good that we attack our enemies with surgical swat teams that accomplish their objectives

and then leave, without killing civilians.

We don’t have to risk American lives by making our soldiers befriend Afghani people over tea, ever on the lookout for someone who might kill them. That is ridiculous. Our soldiers with camo and guns should not be doing the job of the Secretary of State and foreign policy experts. Secretary Clinton should be over there winning over Afghani hearts and minds.

Al Quaeda is not an army that assembles at some headquarters in Pakistan or Iran or any other one place. They gather in “cells” all over the world. The recent arrest of Mr. Zazi proves that. Al Quaeda is everywhere. Al Quaeda is on the internet. Do our military really think they have home offices in the mountains of Afghanistan? Cubicles in the caves? Coffee machines and Sparklets water fountains in the rocks?

President Obama, if you really want to take the war in Afghanistan in a new

direction, look no further than your laptop. That is the way in. That is where our enemies lurk. Please get our people out of that desert and onto the world wide web. I makes sense to fight terrorism at its heart and its weakest point. Communication.

Urgent: Obama and Health Care Reform

Dear President Obama,

In today’s New York Times (online) I found the best opinion piece yet about what is wrong with your approach to getting the health care reform we all want.

“Mr. Obama should declare himself in favor of covering as many of the uninsured as possible in the near future; should insist that insurers grant and renew coverage without regard to health status; and should insist on new insurance exchanges in which people without group coverage and those working for the smallest employers could buy insurance at large-group rates.” He should insist,...that a strong public plan be introduced if private insurers fail to hold costs down in the future.”

Declare, insist, push are strong words that echo what the American people

are waiting for you to do, Mr. Obama. You are way too diplomatic. We are no longer

sure of what you believe. There are “reports that the price for winning over Republicans and conservative Democrats” will get us a “drastically scaled-down” plan. We have been

very clear. We want every American to have basic health care coverage. Cutting costs

to please Republicans would be a huge mistake. Democrats need to take advantage of the number of their colleagues in Congress and the Senate at this time and have the

guts to push through a comprehensive health care reform bill that will provide what all Americans want: universal coverage.

Finally, the editorial says, to get through the Republican blockade, “Democrats ought to resort to a parliamentary maneuver known as “budget reconciliation,” which would allow them to push through most reforms by majority vote.” Absolutely right,

Mr. President. This is the time to push hard, use every way possible to do this for our country. If you, President Obama, never achieve anything else while you are in office,

this would be enough of an accomplishment to make you a hero forever in American

history.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Brady Woods