Posts by sammielee24

51

Aussies/Canadians of JWD most laid back~

by FlyingHighNow in

jw
friends

i was thinking today, i've been here at jwd for nearly three years now.

i've observed that our aussie members are the most laid back members on the board here.they don't take their country, their politics or anything too seriously really.

people who are from europe tend to be more laid back than the brits and americans.

sammielee24

The Aussies are all descendants from our criminals we sent there 100 or so years ago

Too funny SAB..you gave me my grin for the day! I'm not beating you up here but I do feel that for anyone that isn't up on their history, couldn't you be a bit more enlightening and tell them that criminal back in ye olde merry england at that time, could mean a child of 12 stealing a slice of bread to live on. Or a poor woman sentenced to 10 years for being caught with a watermelon - along with of course the various rapists, horse thieves, murderers or traitors. Lets not forget the wardens, medical staff, ships crew and prison guards who stayed, procreated and settled themselves in as Aussies. Oh yes, and lets not forget the thousands of home children shipped from England to Canada and Australia by the boat loads - ripped from their families forever and many not orphaned but simply poor. I really am smiling..cos I love the Brits. Its in my blood. sammieswife.

51

Aussies/Canadians of JWD most laid back~

by FlyingHighNow in

jw
friends

i was thinking today, i've been here at jwd for nearly three years now.

i've observed that our aussie members are the most laid back members on the board here.they don't take their country, their politics or anything too seriously really.

people who are from europe tend to be more laid back than the brits and americans.

sammielee24

I find Aussies and Canadians much more laid back, as well as from my experiences, less quick to judge and condemn. I absolutely adore the British sense of humour..love Mr Bean, love Hyacinth Boquet...love Corrie...whereas in the US I always find it confusing to understand why Janet Jacksons covered nipple was cause for weeks of endless morality issues and yet football games are filled with cheerleaders with their butt cheeks hanging out. Don't get it me. sammieswife.

76

So is America finally getting wiser? Who still believes this nonsense?

by Jourles in

washington (afp) - for the first time since it began, a majority of americans believe the iraq war is not part of the war on terrorism, as us president george w. bush keeps insisting it is, according to a poll.. fifty-one percent of the 1,206 adults surveyed in the august 17-21 new york times/cbs news poll believed the two wars were separate, while 44 percent saw a link between them.

in june, opinion was split evenly at 41 percent..

rest of the story here.

sammielee24

The real *problem* is that the American people refuse to coinsider CONSERVING energy and doing with less fuel like every other major western country can and has. This then dictates their foreign policy which is to trade peace for oil.

Simon, I don't know if this is really an accurate statement but it may certainly qualify for a general one.

It isn't the American people who refuse to consider, its the government who are run by corporations who realize their billions of dollars in profit might be reduced if they allow the oil consumption to drop. One of the last reports I read, gave a clear indicator that the US has enough coal of its own that can be converted into clean diesel fuel to last the next 500 years. Instead of spending three trillion dollars on a war for oil, they could have spent the money on getting those systems up and running and been non oil dependent in short order. They opt not too. With the amount of money corporations save(d) by moving head quarters off shore to avoid paying taxes, there could have been enough windmill farms installed that would generate electricity for dozens of cities.

Many, not all, do want the oil dependency reduced but how? The transportation systems are a mess - there is not the same level of public transportation in the US that you see in England, Germany or most other countries and that's simply because of the geography. Most people outside the cities need cars in order to make a living - they can't live in the cities because they don't make enough money, so they move to the outskirts which then forces them to drive longer to retain their employment.

If the US decided tomorrow they were going to fire up the coal mines and use their own resources, the price of oil around the world would plummet and at that point, I could see the government easing up on their new plan because oil is cheap again and so the circle goes around and around. By the way, I heard yesterday on some show or other, that the US actually only uses 20% of their consumption of oil for transportation - I didn't hear what the other 80% is used for. sammieswife.

76

So is America finally getting wiser? Who still believes this nonsense?

by Jourles in

washington (afp) - for the first time since it began, a majority of americans believe the iraq war is not part of the war on terrorism, as us president george w. bush keeps insisting it is, according to a poll.. fifty-one percent of the 1,206 adults surveyed in the august 17-21 new york times/cbs news poll believed the two wars were separate, while 44 percent saw a link between them.

in june, opinion was split evenly at 41 percent..

rest of the story here.

sammielee24

Most Americans that I've spoken to do not agree with George Dubya's 'War on Terror'. Funny how you can lie to 250,000,000 about WMD, be responsible for thousands of deaths and put the country into debt to the tune of over a trillion dollars and you're not impeached. I guess that's because Georige Boy didn't commit the unforgivable sin and have a 21 year old on her knees in the Oval Office when he was implementing the plans for invasion.

oohhhh Mary...touche'....sammieswife..

28

Exodus Decoded tonight on History Channel

by purplesofa in

http://www.historychannel.com/global/listings/series_showcase.jsp?egrptype=series&id=17255036&netwcode=thc .

on at 8:00 central time.

the commericial says it gives scientific evidence of the 10 plagues and parting of the red sea.

sammielee24

It was interesting - and logical. sammieswife.

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

Who 'systematically' approves the baseline? The same people who are 'approving' it now,

Who have almost bankrupted this entire country - does that mean we continue to let them act in this same manner for another 50 years? There will be no country left by then. The people have power to change things but have become apathetic. As HB just said - let's hear some screaming from everyone about the millions upon millions handed over to other countries that could be spent here. Let's hear some screaming about loans to other countries that are never repaid that amount to billions of dollars. Lets hear some screaming about the handshakes between government and drug industries that keep prices higher and quantities lower in this country. Before we keep screaming against healthcare that would benefit all of the people - lets hear some screaming against the money that flies out of the country - money that could give a NHS a great start and benefit the entire country. The economy is a mess - more and more people are seeing the real value of their paycheck decrease as prices rise in every other way - if we do not change the system now, you can expect another 20 million to be uninsured in the near future. Employers cannot foot the bill. It must be done through taxes that ensure that all those working, pay into the system and have access to it across the board.

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

1. What agencies do you think county employees work for? Hmmmm....county jail, county sherriff, county social services, county-based EMT and ambulance services, etc etc. So NO, if I were a county employee I would not want to be hospitalized at the facility where I am most likely to run into people who have, ah, encountered my 'services.'

Gee that's too bad - why not? I worked in community services, knew all the people in the community - including hospitals, mental facilities, police and local govt levels. There was no issue. Why were there be? Every community doesn't have 100 people in it - if you take a community of 100,000 there is a good chance you aren't going to run into anyone you have 'serviced'. If I'm sick that's the least of my worries. In addition, there are generally private, semi private and ward rooms so again, you can utilize those options if they are available.

2. Additionally, there is a great divide here in Fresno culturally. There are many cultures which are here (a good thing) but many have neither an understanding nor respect of our rules. Namely, two visitors at a time. No visitors after 8. Have you ever had the pleasure of sharing a hospital room with a Southeast Asian patient who has 34 relatives squeezed into the space next to you, while your two visitors are reduced to yelling above the din? I didn't think so. Of course this says nothing about hospital quality of care, and everything about social differences. However it speaks to the fact that YES people have preferences about their medical care that have NOTHING to do with the quality of said care.

I accept that there are cultural differences and again, those need to be ironed out. The hospitals are within their rights to apply a limited number of guests in any room at one time - I've visited people where the rules are 'one person at at time' to 'open house'. If there is a problem, any hospital administrator can be advised of it and if people are active enough in voicing their concern, it will get changed. Policies are set for the benefit of all people in the hospital. It just needs to be enforced.

As for your question about sharing a room - I shared a co-ed room with 3 other patients - 2 men and 1 woman. It could have been a challenge simply because of gender issues but I guarantee that when the men were being examined behind the curtain I could have cared less - I was too sick to worry about the noise, the people, the conversations and I would imagine that the men felt the same way. The only woman in there with me was a crier who had some very loud visitors and many of them - one gentleman called the nurse, complained and it was dealt with immediately.

I don't see these objections as relevant to why the system won't work. I see them as concerns and while they may be viable, again, I reiterate - it is up to the people to work together to ensure a healthcare system is effective.

swife.

7

27.5 Trillion Disappeared?

by sammielee24 in

there was some belief that portions of the social security balances were removed to fund other govt ventures - which is why there was such a push on for bush to get people to dissolve the social security.

27.5 trillion is a lot of money - the implication of what bush is doing is being talked about round the financial world and not in a good way..... greg szymanski.

16 aug 2006 .

sammielee24

I have no doubt you are right Bryan...he's the only fool arrogant enough though to try and hoodwink everyone into believing that its bankrupt because of overuse. The shortfall comes when someone cashes in the bonds held in trust for the people of the country, and then refuses to pay it all back - with interest. It would be like taking the bonds that were given to your child as a gift and signing your own name and using them to buy a plasma TV - with no intent of repayment or consideration for the financial future of your kid and then lying to the kid later on when he needs cash for college by telling him that you lost the bonds. sammieswife.

7

27.5 Trillion Disappeared?

by sammielee24 in

there was some belief that portions of the social security balances were removed to fund other govt ventures - which is why there was such a push on for bush to get people to dissolve the social security.

27.5 trillion is a lot of money - the implication of what bush is doing is being talked about round the financial world and not in a good way..... greg szymanski.

16 aug 2006 .

sammielee24

I find it fascinating....since I only just started reading about it...

'with the Wanta settlement there exists, as reported by financial writer Christopher Story, "set-aside payments promised to certain governments that assisted the Reagan administration in procuring the beneficial changes in the Soviet Union, remain unpaid, to the distress and mounting anger of the governments concerned."

The amounts that remain unpaid, as verified by Ambassador Wanta, include $5 billion each to the governments of Canada, France, Germany , Greece, Italy, Mexico and Spain and $30 billion to the Russian Federation.

Besides the $4.5 trillion negotiated settlement in May, Wanta has been declared legal trustor of more than $27.5 trillion in offshore funds amassed when he was instructed by President Ronald Reagan to destabilize the Russian currency at the end of the Cold War, which turned into a highly successful financial program beyond Wanta and Reagan's wildest dreams.

But instead of using the money to strengthen America after Reagan was out of the picture, Bush Sr., Clinton and others devised a plan to use the money for their own underhanded purposes, jailing Wanta in the process, as they then created phony front companies and illegal trusts to use the money illegally.

And now, according to Wanta, the same people are trying to undermine the latest deal signed, sealed and delivered between Wanta, his AmeriTrust Groupe, Inc., and U.S. authorities after negotiating the deal through influential law firms in New York and Georgia, as well as with the assistance of two federal court judges.

Wanta claims the $4.5 trillion has been diverted and stolen with the complicity of high level officials, including the President of the United States, Secretary of the Treasury, Henry M. Paulson, Jr., the U.S. Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzalez, the Supreme Court and other high level officials.

Furthermore, he claims financial institutions are illegally trading the vast sum of money with up to $200 billion a day being illegally earned instead of the money being used to better the American economy'

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

All been heard before and simply fear mongering. The USA has the lowest health care rating in the industrialized world, it spends more per person, infant mortality is higher and people die younger, it performs more heart surgeries than any other country with NHC - yet patients live no longer, it performs more high tech testing using MRI/CT etc, yet produces less results, it has more people living without adequate, consistent or even equal healthcare, by its very own system it blocks preventative health care that would ensure preliminary care before people become so ill they require lengthier and more costly treatment - those are just the basics.

In a system that is implemented for all people via national healthcare, hospitals and doctors are paid proportionately according to a systematic approved baseline. Research is still funded. Bush has decimated the Medicare and Medicaid system, capped rates, ignored the people and professionals that advised against it and created these problems.

You don't need HMO' s in a national healthcare system. People will use community hospitals - that's what you pay your tax dollars into so you will use them. The idea of 'people not wanting to use a community hospital' is interesting - it speaks to a number of different issues. The number of poor use the hospital but the number of insured don't want to? Why is that? The hospital is only good for poor people? The service is only good for poor people? Would we rather not change the way the hospitals do business for all the people instead of creating greater social issues by fostering a belief that those with insurance and their families are somehow more deserving and better than others?

Moving away from privatization requires restructuring on many levels and it takes time. It doesn't bankrupt facilities - it creates opportunity to realign a heatlhcare system that provides for all people - the rich, the poor, the indigent and the community at large. The reason for the 3 year recalculation would be to iron out the kinks, determine the funding based on need as populations shift and change. It takes everyone working together and not screaming at separate doors. It takes someone listening to professionals in other countries that make the system work there and using those ideas in the best way here.

The national healthcare system can work. It will work. There is never going to be a right time to change - this agenda has been tossed around in every government that held office for 60 years now and each time, the corporations and industries that stood to profit from the health of the American citizen made sure by their $$$$ contributions to gov't, that it was squashed.

Issues of illegal immigration and prisons need to be addressed - and should be addressed and voted on now. They won't be. Healthcare can't be held up because the adminstration can't get their act together on anything but the 'war on terror' and their belief in exercising their right to move funds and pass laws without ramifications and consideration.

Maybe the 27.5 Trillion that has been moved around could be brought back to the table and used to push start healthcare. Maybe there could be more accountability at every govt level for the millions of middle class who, despite working as hard as every other person in the country, now find themselves falling behind in wages and living with no benefits including health insurance. Rather than propagandize the number of jobs created by not mentioning they are primarily in retail and service industries that pay the lowest wages without benefits, we should tell the truth of the economy as it is now. Healthcare can be streamlined and can be run more efficiently. It can be done to give access to those 45 million without any source of care.

Where you see it won't work, where the obstacles are too great, where you see bankruptcies and nightmares - I see opportunity, equality, safety and health. It takes all of us working together for the common good of the people - not segretating ourselves with our paycheck into the haves and havenots of healthcare.

swife.