F* your lying asses all the way to hell (a rant)

You tell me that we can't have the health care we need in this country, and it is nights like this that get me pissed off.

You tell me abortion is murder. Then tell me killing thousands of people in Iraq is 'liberation'.

Yeah. You liberated people from their life. You liberated us from our tax dollars (that could be better spent saving lives here....). You liberated defense companies from debt, and a lot of your other friends.

You tell me that to protect me and my family you have to have wars, spying on us, your no fly lists, etc and so on.

All the while people are dying here from lack of health care, mental health care, and homelessness. Where is your war against the things that are really killing us?

You tell me I live in the best country in the world for health care.

And yet you piss around for decades trying to get everyone covered?

So here is what I ask YOU:
Look into my daughters' eyes below and tell me WHY -
Why we can put a man on the moon, invent and perfect computers, flight, cars, tv's - why we can send space probes to the farthest reaches of our solar system and put a robot on freaking Mars....

Why we can do more amazing things than most any other country on this planet and we cannot even ensure that all our people here have good health coverage.

Why you can identify someone at an airport in seconds and pull them aside but it takes months or years to get someone who is disabled Social Security.

Why you can know everything about me and not be able to approve simple forms in seconds.

Why my wife is getting sicker now with her Parkinson's and the best chance she has of ever beating it is a charity set up by an actor and not our own government.

YOU look into my daughters' eyes and tell her that the reason we lag so far behind on health care is not because of political BS and kissing the ass of lobbyist, or fear of losing your own power/job.

You can't, because the damn sad truth is that you care more about yourselves and your lobbyist friends than the real people who go out and vote for you.

Fuck all your lying asses to hell for what you have done to this country.

I am ashamed of what we have become.

Family values my ass. The only things you value are money and power.

You have lied to us for far too long. The sleeping giant called the people has awaken, and soon we won't be fearing our government, they will be fearing US.

Rant off (and sorry for the cursing, just been one of them nights).

"Who are we? What are we?"

--Michael Moore: "Sicko"

I'm so sorry that Mrs. SS's Parkinson's is getting worse.

And I'm especially sorry that she lives in a country that doesn't give a flying fuck about her or most of the other occupants of the country.

"Why you can identify someone at an airport in seconds and pull them aside but it takes months or years to get someone who is disabled Social Security."

Just want to take note of this one. How can we, in our "free society," allow the disabled who are ENTITLED to Social Security, under the rules we as a People have ostensibly agreed upon, to NOT GET IT? Because Bush and the lobbyists, with their willing Dem and GOP dupes, don't WANT average people entitled to Social Security to get it. The waiting times are in YEARS, not months, and it's one of the most shamefully underreported stories of 2007, as cutting SSA funding is Bush's backdoor way to destroy Social Security that he couldn't win through the front door.

Sorry, that one just hit me between the eyes. So did others, in your rant.

And yet I still remember her being held up at airports time after time because of a snafu with her drivers' license.

They have all that info in split seconds - when THEY need it. But when we need it....

him to take a disability retirement early. He finally had to hire a lawyer to get it straightened out. I hope you won't have to, but more than likely you will have to have someone with some knowledge of the law help you guys out.

:hug:

But of course, when they need something it is instant....

My father is in his early 60s so retirement was coming soon anyway, but at least he knows he earned it. These lying pack of jackals steals a presidency and the keys to the kingdom.

Every day I believe a little bit more that there is no justice in this world.

I fought for three years and ended up having a hearing. If you go that route, I will try to help as much as I can. It's inhumane what the system does to disabled.

for some reason, SS doesn't think I am crazy enough to be on disability; but my case worker is the one who told me to apply. They think because a person is bright and educated, they must be "sane". Ha!

Because of my mental health problems, I don't have enough work units to even qualify for SSDI, so I am in the process of SSI disability.

SS thinks I am well enough get a job that will pay $900/mo (w/no healthcare, of course) and be able to afford the $300 in medicines I take. Yeah, sure. The way the system for medically indigent adults works (in rural Cal.), anything over $600 is Share of Cost, and must be spent down to get coverage. There is then no reason for me to make over $600/month.

I was a teacher and I was told that despite my disabilities I could find a job. They agreed I couldn't teach any more and knew I couldn't stand but I should be able to work about an hour a day and was denied. During my fight with SS, the company my husband worked for closed and he was unemployed. If I could have worked I would have.

I was also told that since I could name three presidents, I couldn't be depressed. Depression doesn't make you stupid. My husband is on SS for PTSD. His brother committed suicide and he is the one that found the body and cleaned up the gore. He has never been the same and is a different person than the one I married. His disability came through in three weeks. We knew how to fill out the paper work. Mind you, we didn't lie but we didn't try to focus on what he could do. When I applied we were stupid enough to tell the government what I could do and they didn't care how long it took me to do it.

I hope you get an good judge if you end up with a hearing. I was told to expect questioning for about 40 minutes. I was asked a couple of questions, the judge apologized for the system and what it had done to me and I was out in ten minutes.

OR if you happen to know a Senator personally.

Had a neighbor who broke his neck in a fall and was certified as a quadroplegic get turned down by SS. He could do NOTHING for himself. His mother had to go use her family's political clout and get her Senator to speed up the process - just to get him some help.

It's obscene. You pay into the program for years and you're forced into hiring a lawyer or sucking up to someone in Congress to get help.

I also teach special ed and have to fill out the applications for my students who apply. None of them has had to wait long that I am aware of. Certainly no more than a few months.

Maybe it differs by region?

spent two years in a wheelchair and ten years fighting his disease. We tried all through the 90's to get SSI and they finally approved him in 2002. He is now 29 but has the strength and stamina of a 60 year old man. He would love to marry his longtime girlfriend but would lose most of his SSI (a whooping $800 a month, $200 of that comes from California State Disability). She can not afford to support him or pay for the many medications he has to take. They approved him after I had to sell my home in order to continue his medical care. I had pretty good Insurance paid $360 a month in premiums. When it comes to a catastrophic illness that requires long term medical care or any treatment they deem "experimental" the Insurance Companies will fight and delay payment until you are broke.


It's time to take them out of the game....A Universal one payor System is long over due.

I knew a lawyer who worked in that process, and she told me they had applications stacked up in cardboard boxes, all over the floor and everywhere they could put a box.

It was chaos, and took years for applicants to be approved.

Or even get a reply.

Does anyone care how many died waiting?

two and a half years for mine to go thru , mean while suffering all the way , lost or sold everything to get thru it , finally a judge decided in my case , so it isn't a easy deal for everyone

When we applied for SSI Disability for our son about 10 years ago, we lived in a smaller town and their case load wasn't as heavy as it is in say metro Atlanta areas. I turned in such a complete profile and documentation on our son's medical issues that we received approval and a back-payment check within less than a month. The man who did the processing of our case file said he'd never seen such complete documentation for a first submission and had never before had a family who didn't require being called back for follow-up to collect information that was either incomplete or ambiguous towards proving the disability claim... And missing info on the file can result in weeks of delays, especially where the financial reports are concerned.

Then again, those were pretty much the "halcyon days" of the Clinton Administration when federal offices actually received the funding they needed... I'd hate to try to apply for SSID these days and especially in metro Atlanta!

There are millions of people in our once-great, once-proud, once-free nation that need these answers, and it could be any one of us on any given day in the future.

Powerful and impassioned rant.

K & R for the truth.

Corporate Government,' but nobody listens.

It stopped being about health care, and became the health industry long ago.

With what Social Security takes in from people, it should be covering more people a lot better than now.

I'm sorry to hear that your wife isn't doing any better.
Check this site out....maybe you'll find out something new or at least the members can offer your wife some outside support.

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=101&jump=Jump+to+Board

I know where you're coming from on the health care issue, as I have a chronically ill child.

Sending you and your wife prayers and good thoughts. O8)

BTW...Your daughter is adorable. :)

K&R
:kick:

Loud and clear.

There's no excuse for the wretched state of health care in this country, none at all. There's no excuse for the way our leaders treat those living with health problems, demeaning them, abandoning them, making them beg and pretending they don't see or hear them.

We have to speak out, pierce the bubble, grab them by their shirts and shake them until their teeth rattle. This isn't the world we planned to have and its not what we should settle for.

I had to beg a breast cancer patient today to continue the treatment she stopped a month ago because she's overwhelmed after losing her job, has no health coverage and is being evicted from her apartment. She sees no point in living when her world has been destroyed by illness and her government, her community leaders offer nothing.

Keep saying it until our leaders wake up and realize its time to do something.

Edwards speaks for me, and none of the rest can be bothered.

He sure as hell doesn't speak for those who don't. If you really don't want people losing their healthcare, maybe you should support a candidate who would make single-payer universal healthcare a top priority. There seems to be a very real divide between you're stated concern and what you're prepared to vote for.

I live in my car.

It's freezing cold.

Get the picture?????

John Edwards speaks for ME. Kucinich doesn't.

My family has had it's share of bad health news this year and it just seems to never end. I lost a cousin in Dec of last year to some unknown illness. She became paralyzed out of the blue, but couldn't stay in the hospital because she had no health-care. Her family did what they could, but it wasn't enough. Two months later, her older sister became ill with a brain tumor and passed away. My poor Aunt has had her share of grief, but that's another story.

Another Aunt has lung cancer and probably won't be around much longer. Now I'm told the middle son of my oldest Aunt has heart problems and doesn't have health-care( Don't know what will happen with him) also his younger brother has just found out he has an inoperable brain tumor. :cry:

Needless to say, this has been a really crappy Christmas season for my family.


I'm sorry that you and yours are also having a difficult time. My only wish is we get a President in 2008 who will make Universal health-care one of his/her priorities. A nation such as ours should be ashamed and outraged that so many of her citizens can't take care of even their basic health-care problems and are suffering because of it.

Funny how none of the people in a position to deny all of those things you mentioned to average Americans ever again have to worry about those benefits for themselves.

Redstone

I think it's disgusting that we're the only industrialized nation that does not care for its citizens. We're an embarrassment. Not only do we not have coverage for everyone, our health care costs make it prohibitave to pay for it out of your own pocket. I'm so sick of the corporate stranglehold on access to health care.

I am supporting a candidate that I believe will change that... and one that tried in the past and was attacked and ridiculed for it, and the attacks continue to this day. Attacks financed by the insurance industry, no doubt.

One minute they are saying that there is no problem because anyone can walk into an emergency room and get free health care, the next minute they are saying that if we had universal health care, you would die while waiting for care in an emergency room. When you point out the contradiction, they just go on to the next insane argument until they loop back to first one.

It's textbook cognitive dissonance.

Arguing with your insurance company will make you even sicker.

Today, our health insurance refused to pay a lab bill because they say my wife is overweight - and this was for treatment that had NOTHING to do with her weight. So, I looked it up and the policy only excludes coverage of surgery for "Morbid Obesity". But, they seem to think they can use this as an excuse for stalling the payment. I hate them.

I totally agree with your thoughts expressed.

Beautiful photos and family, SS.


:hug:

Just had to repeat the heart of the matter. That, and there's one set of rules for "them" and another set for "us."

who collect benefits fraudulently or don't play by the rules?

Try reporting them, the Govt. wants you to give them the offenders Social Security Number or they can do nothing.

It's all Bullshit, they don't want those entitled - to have it, and they don't want to take it away from the cheats.

by government contractors and GOP campaign contributors who bilk Medicare and Medicaid through fraudulent billing and waste - prime example is the nursing home industry.

gaming the system.

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

oh, and by the way

..


Big Brother is Watching You

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/03/20/BL2006032000742.html

Oh man are you gonna be disappointed.

I think I heard the SAME EXACT WORDS after the 2006 election. Hows that workin out for ya ?

If you never wake up though, you will never get moving :)

The repubs crushed Irans democracy in 1953 in the name of oil.

The repubs invaded Iraq based on lies for US oil interests



How long are you willing to wait for change ? How long does it take to get going ?

Fuck the GOP ( Goobers Oppressing the People)!

And may those who have stood in the way, have their eyes opened.

together and en masse meet at our various senators' and representatives' offices. Such a group of wheelchairs, walkers, oxygen bottles, and walking sticks would never been seen at one time in DC since the Supreme Court went on a picnic. The press? They love wheelchairs and people who are "brave."
Hell, I ain't brave, I'm pissed as hell, and getting more pissed daily! The disabled community, as a rule, makes the "average" Fightin' Democrat look like a Mormon Sunday School ice cream social.
The hypocrits are exposed and that is the shame of it: that they have no shame. I have thought of just trying to walk to DC with my faithful Wunderhund by my side, all the way from south of Nashville and get press all the way to the Rayburn and outside Nancy's lobby. Let's see what would happen then as I copose my TV copy all the way in my head and for the local outlets until perfected by DC!
I would love the headlines: "Disabled Community Occupy Washington, from the Mall to Pennsylvania Avenue, A Brigade Armed with Wheelchairs, Walkers, and Oxygen Bottles Gather in Key Locations. President and Congressional Leaders Unsure of What to Do." or from the N Y Post:
"Gimps to Gov: Drop Dead."

p.s. Lovely picture! And the little girl is cute, too!

The bullshit has to stop.

We have become a nation of killers, we kill innocent people with bombs, we kill people with pollution, we kill people to get our so called friends in power, we kill people in poverty by not helping them, we kill people with no health care, we kill people for their resources, and we are killing the planet we live on out of greed.

When will it ALL stop?

What good is government if it doesn't do everything it can to give us whatever we need? I shouldnt' have to be responsible for my own healthcare, let alone that of my children's. It's ridiculous that if i get sick and can't afford to do what it takes to get better that there's no way to get other people to pay for it instead. People are fuckin dying out there.

Frankly, i think the government's responsibility should extend further than providing me healthcare. College education is so important in this country and yet so expensive as well. Why the hell should the richest among us have the best education while those least fortunate have to be suckered into the army and huge financial debts just to have an equal chance? Racism at it's finest. And by finest, i mean worst.

Hell, it's ridiculous that for every purchase of ANYTHING I buy, it costs me more of a percentage of my income than anyone else who's richer than me. It would make far more sense to have the price of anything be determined on level of income. It'll never see the light of day, because the stranglehold on the country that the rich have would never allow paying 1,000 bucks for an apple or 20,000 dollars for a pack of pencils. But just think how easily we could pay for everything we need if it were to happen?

Now that would be a BIG step to equality.

Or contradicting themselves by telling us they want us to be safe while ignoring the things that are killing us much more than anyone/anything else?

And it is not 'giving' we would be paying for it and restructuring how the system works.

If you don't think it can be better, well then you would be wrong.

The government gives billions upon billions to businesses to keep them afloat. OUR money pays for the health care of federal employees.

It is our government, our money, and there is nothing wrong in asking that it be used in the best interest of the people.

The government can really fuck things up - but if you get the right people in they can make it work, for all of us who are paying for it.

I am paying for their health care, and missiles, and pork out the wazoo.

They are the ones asking for handouts.

If i'm paying government say, 1000 dollars in taxes and am receiving 30,000 dollars worth of hospital care provided by governmnet, then 29,000 dollars is essentially coming from other taxpayers. I'm paying for it, just not very much of it. And that's the way it has to be to provide healthcare for all. And with the rich having all the wealth, that's the way it SHOULD be, shouldnt' it?

So when you say:
"I am paying for their health care, and missiles, and pork out the wazoo."

It's not really an accurate statement, or at least wouldnt' be if we had national healthcare, because every dollar you would be giving to government would be spent paying for only a part of your health care bills. Is it a big wonder many people and politicians don't want it? You would essentially be one big drain on the government's tax money. They'd prefer you just died from whatever it is you contracted than spend their precious money on you.

Fact of the matter it it IS "in the best interest of the people" to have national healthcare, just as it is in the best interest of the people to fund anything else we want. Only way we can fund it is by taking more from the wealthy and redistributing it to the rest of us, which is precisely why capitalism is not the way to go. European socialist systems clearly work far better.

I was trying to point out that the Insurance Industry is the drain on our health care dollars. When they deny valid claims of their policy holders and force them onto public assistance than you indeed are paying for their profits. If you haven't seen sicko yet watch it Moore does a better job of explaining it than me. But I lived it with my son's long and very expensive illness. I fought them and didn't have to use public assistance but only because I had a family that could provide financial help(I still had to sell my home to continue paying COVERED health cost). There are many families who do not have a home to sell or a family that can support them.





edited for spelling

In order for Insurance companies to stay in business, they have to get a profit. Only way they can profit is to have more people paying into the coverage but not getting anything out of it in return than there are those who are getting their bills paid by the insurance. In other words you have to have a lot more money that is being wasted getting the insurance companies rich than is actually going to anyone's health. It's a lot like some charities nowadays that are only giving a small percentage of their donations to the people they are supposed to be a charity for.

So cleary the Insurance Industry is a drain. If it wasn't, there would be no Insurance companies. And then where would we be, I wonder?

yet the insurance companies are taking most of your premium and not providing health care when needed. I hope no one in your family ever has to battle a catastrophic long term illness and your insurance company at the same time to pay for medical treatment. You will soon find yourself wondering what happened to the health care coverage they promised.... been there done that.

which is precisely why we need to do away with the middle man and go for national healthcare--because insurance doesn't always cover everything, in the same way car insurance doesn't always cover every situation that can occur with your car (thus the reason for the price fluctuations on coverage). If you go for the cheap insurance, you are taking a risk that the things that are not covered may actually be the things you NEED covered. So screw all that and have government pay for it.

I had top of the line health insurance, two different policies an HMO and a catastrophic plan and still had to fight them and sell my home to continue care for my son. So it is not always about buying cheap insurance. We will be paying much less and getting more for our money if we go to a Single Payor Health Care plan like government employees(like the Senate,Congress and Busco) enjoy. btw we pay for that too.

Just try to remember: "lobbyists are people too."

:kick:

Everything you said is painfully true. I always enjoy reading your posts, and have missed them lately. My brother has Parkinson's, as did my Mother and Father. I believe they "can't" find a cure for Parkinson's or cancer, due to the wishes of the pharmacutical companies. I can't believe what has happened to our America, it's a damn disgrace. Love and peace to you and your family.

K & R

Lovely pix

surround them with working stiffs, like you and me, who cannot afford health insurance, form a tight circle around them and bombard them with those exact questions.

Excellent points made. Just sorry it doesn't translate into what is of the utmost importance, which are guaranteed health options for all.

Keep shouting it out!!

I'm sorry to hear that Mrs. SS is sicker. My father had PD so I know how painful it is to see their condition deteriorate.

You have a lovely daughter, and I pray that her future will be much brighter than it appears today.

K&R

Agreed! 100% (K & R, of course)

some of us are sleeping in a car in the snow and cold.

Which Dems have made an issue of this????

Which "progressives" give a shit about those without homes?

It just doesn't rank up there with a war.

It doesn't rank with impeachment.

We can just eat cake.

Fuck that shit.

(No apology for language. It beats putting a fist through a wall.)

:cry:

Thank you!

:hug:

be pissed off!

Rant and curse away, my friend.

You hit the nail on the head and
then some!

To you, your wife and beautiful
daughter ( and your doggy),

:grouphug:

But I have to agree with you 100%.

There IS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT HAVING HEALTHCARE...not healthINSURANCE...HEALTHCARE! As you said...F**k that.

I'm so sorry about your wife.....its scary being out here with no backup. I am one of the many with no healthcare....just can't afford to get sick.

DR

SS, I don't know how you keep your sanity. Billions, and billions, many billions unaccounted for by killing people, but we don't have the money to treat your wife? That's insanity. Your family deserves to receive top notch health care.

Why try to spread our way of government to other countries, if our own citizens are treated so shabbily? Is it really so important to keep showering the rich with more wealth than they could possibly spend in their, or their children's lifetime?

they just want to milk us like cows for what little $$$ we have and then they want us to die

that's the real truth

altho as a side note, NO, they can't ID someone in seconds at the airport, my husband has the same name as someone on the "no fly" list and it takes an hour each time just to figure out it ain't him -- so they don't even know what they're doing, it isn't that it's an efficient boot stomping on our face, it's that it's a random and careless boot stomping on our face just by random chance because they don't care enough to get it right

I'm with you - word for sad-assed word! The most prosperous nation with the most advanced weapons ever created and I had to feel guilty for only delivering 5 bags of groceries and a token check to our local food bank, just before Xmas. Their shelves were bare.
Yah, we's a great nation. One nation under god. And with some simple hoodwinkin' and a bit of a shell game, those who profess to be "god-fearing" are gonna vote for more of the same thing we've "enjoyed" for the past seven, torturous years. But I'm thinkin' positive here. We're gonna have a progressive president, if we don't fall for The Grand Dame, that is.

:hug:

:)

How ya doing Swampy?

:hug: :hi:

I'm surviving, though I wish I had healthcare. If I had insurance or some kind of healthcare plan I could have gotten my fractured ankle x-rayed over a year ago (and a broken toe), my ulcers looked at, and other much more serious medical problems addressed. If I won the lottery, I would go straight to the hospital/doctor and cash out.

I hope that a DUer who does, will take this and read it to the candidates in their next public appearance (OK, s/he can skip the F word...)