ccmask @ 69

If cancer was cured, how many jobs would be affected, I always wonder. And I’m a cancer survivor.

It’s wonderful that you considered that aspect of something most people would think of as a unmitigated blessing.

The same thinking should be applied to some other big Progressive issues.

– If we move from oil to some other energy source, then how does that effect people who work in the oil industry?

– If we change the health care system, then how does that effect people who work at shuffling papers in both doctors offices and at insurance companies?

– If we shrink the military, then what happens to all the trained military?

– If we do a lot of bridge reconstruction and improvement, then will we have sufficient people for that work or would we want to increase foreign guest worker numbers?

– If we change immigration policy to let in more guests, then how does that effect housing prices or health care services or costs to employers?

These are all very important questions if you’re going to do major restructuring the way Progressives want.

This is exactly the way we should be looking at this problem MarkH. Health Care should not be an industry drumming up business and sales.

Those are the very questions I thought we’d be addressing by now!

People need jobs in industries that actually help people and the planet….. and attitudes to match.

:-)

this health care crisis is worse than we realize…but health insurance profits are thru the roof

Illnesses can indeed hit suddenly, shockingly so.

Comparing health care to other businesses shows there is practically no competition which restrains prices.

Ask any Republican what Health Savings Accounts do to restrain costs! They have no answers.

Then, as you say, this commercial drive to make profits interferes with the actual delivery of health care. It’s like a virus.

I suppose a huge question is whether the whole system should be non-profit or for-profit. Edwards clearly differs with Kucinich on that issue and that’s one great example which shows where they stand on the political spectrum.

Would America accept one-payer non-profit health care? Could any president actually make that transition without serious problems to the economy? It would scare the dickins out of me to try that.

The tempting thing is to find a “market based solution”. But, has anyone shown one which could restrain costs? I don’t think so.

The in-between third-way is to transition from complete free market to a regulated system to government supplied competition and only in the event there is no third-way which works, then go on to single-payer. That’s where we’re seeing the more popular candidates.

I don’t think nationalized health care is the traditional American way. I think it may be a last stop solution. But, we manage to regulate utilities like water and electricity, so we might find a third-way with health care too.

Go Edwards!

cleter @ 110

I want my party to nominate Edwards. I want to watch Edwards eat Guliani* alive in the general. …

He didn’t do worth a damn against Cheney the last time.

Cheney is usually quiet and I think a lot of people didn’t quite know what to expect from him. But, he’s very intelligent and an excellent speaker. What is hard to combat in the short time period of a televised debate is LIES. Cheney lied his butt off and there is no way to challenge that without some time.

Edwards is a truth-teller and that’s worth supporting.

Also, don’t forget, he and Kerry probably won the 2004 election, only to have it stolen by the Republicans.

On that issue, the fight for more accurate elections is still going on. It doesn’t get press coverage, but it’s real and sustained. For details go to

http://www.bradblog.com

where that’s their number one issue to cover.

pseudonymous in nc @ 30
Great point. Guess who told me I HAVE to see Sicko? My doctor.

Now that’s what I’d call a serious referral!

Last OT on Collins but:

Not only is the executive editor of the Bangor Daily News, Mark Woodward, married to a current Susan Collins staffer, but executive editor Mark Woodward is himself a former Collins press secretary!

Collins’ former press secretary is now the one making editorial decisions about news stories impacting Collins’ re-election bid without so much as a mention in the newspaper!

These Republicans, they’re all about sex sex sex. That sounds like a very inc*stu*us relationship in … Bangor.

Seriously though, I hope Collins’ opponents (primary Repub and general Dem) can make this known to their electorate. It would be awful if they were able to used the newspaper “trick” to mess with voters again.

(MOD NOTE: *edited to allow through filters)

If cancer was cured, how many jobs would be affected, I always wonder. And I’m a cancer survivor.

It’s wonderful that you considered that aspect of something most people would think of as a unmitigated blessing.

The same thinking should be applied to some other big Progressive issues.

– If we move from oil to some other energy source, then how does that effect people who work in the oil industry?

– If we change the health care system, then how does that effect people who work at shuffling papers in both doctors offices and at insurance companies?

– If we shrink the military, then what happens to all the trained military?

– If we do a lot of bridge reconstruction and improvement, then will we have sufficient people for that work or would we want to increase foreign guest worker numbers?

– If we change immigration policy to let in more guests, then how does that effect housing prices or health care services or costs to employers?

These are all very important questions if you’re going to do major restructuring the way Progressives want.

LS @ 33

Edwards can win the election.

I believe he’d win the general election.

Right now though, across the U.S., it’s Hillary at 40% and Edwards and Obama at 18% each, says Rasmuussen.

Well, that’s interesting, as I don’t recall seeing a poll result which had Edwards in 2nd place, whether tied or not.

Has Edwards gained a bit at Obama’s expense?

Has any recent poll done one-on-one matchups between R and D candidates? The last one I saw was in Newsweek back in early July (surprisingly, usually an accurate poll, despite the nature of the rest of the mag). It had: D: HRC, BO, and JE vs. R: RG, MR, and JMcC.

Every D beat every R. But the interesting thing to me was that the sum of the margins was greatest for JE. (Warning: I threw the magazine out, so I can’t go back and check my memory, but I do remember doing the math and finding it interesting at the time.)

Sure seemed to me that JE was the winningest candidate of the six.

I’ve seen that too — I think Rasmussen polls. This should get more coverage: Edwards can beat the Repubs by a great margin than either Hillary or Obama can.

This is part 2 of 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TixbSoFU1YY

Tanbark attended this event and came out with an Edwards sticker on his shirt and I don’t think he’s taken it off as yet :-)