In only four years the number of Americans who either have no health insurance or are under-insured jumped 60 percent. A report by The Commonwealth Fund showed that 42 percent of Americans cannot gain access to much needed medical care because they are either without health insurance, or their out of pocket medical expenses in proportion to their income is far too high.

The majority of insured Americans are currently being covered by employer-sponsored health plans, and the rates for family coverage within those plans raised more than 90 percent since the year 2000. Perhaps the most disturbing information came from Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. She noted, “At least 25 percent of employers terminate employment the day you become disabled.”

Click here to read why the lobbyists for the healthcare industry and those they mingle with in our government make it so difficult to live the American dream since they make it so difficult to simply “live”.

Robert Mugabe once said, “So Blair, keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.” And after 38 years of wielding absolute power it is obvious that he is not ready to give up his Zimbabwe. The atrocities against humanity taking place in the midst of the run-off election in the south-eastern African nation continued today when Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader and winner of the popular vote back in the March presidential election, was arrested along with 14 of his officials. It seems that Mugabe has nothing to hide when demonstrating his authority over anyone who dares speak of opposition. Likewise, it appears that Tsvangirai has nothing to hide as he returned to his homeland with the knowledge of Mugabe’s plan to assassinate him. With his arrest, one can only assume that it’s a flexing of muscles to instill fear in the opposition, and how easy it is to achieve when the eyes of the world are watching elsewhere.

Click here to read about the political circus that makes Bush’s stolen election look rather simple.

By Brian A. Burns

Hillary Clinton announced today that she will be slowing down enough to allow Barack Obama to take the checkered flag in the race for the Democratic presidential nominee. Although many believe it is high time for our nation to have a female president, and though most of us always believed the first would be Hillary, this may be the best move on her part for the betterment of our nation. At least at this point in time.

We have all come to learn what the game “presidential election” is all about. There are no rules it seems, and the populous generally votes for the candidate who “smears” the best. We have noticed over the past eight years that the Republicans have pitched most of their funds into the “smear” position, with the rest being poured into players who are experts in the “power hide” spot. They spit out their attacks, which mostly have nothing to do with a candidate’s qualifications, against issues like the clothes they once wore, the church they once attended, the food they prefer, or their hairstyle in the 70’s, while using legal loopholes to hide their candidate’s resume. If in fact they cannot hide it very well, and all types of faults are issued to the public through the press, they ramp up their personal attacks to the level of ‘ludicrous’, and hope their constituents will bite.

I’ve met many a Republican who have said the Democrats play dirty in election campaigns. These were not unintelligent people, but people who’ve fallen into the cell of misinformation. They’ve been told that every media outlet lies except for Fox News, and so they refuse to listen to anything else, and their views of the truth become awfully clouded. Because they’re headline junkies they’ve grown to believe in the slogan “fair and balanced” but have nothing to compare it to. They wouldn’t know how unfair and unbalanced the Fox televised tabloid truly is, because they’ve grown too lazy to research a potential president’s qualifications through any other network or source of information. Consequently, they’ve adapted well and they have no problem blocking out the trash-attacks coming from their candidate. It doesn’t matter to them because it must not be bad - “Republicans don’t play dirty.” They have grown a keen ear to what the Democrat is saying. Although what goes in one ear enters their mixer-minds, gets churned around, and comes out with a different meaning entirely. If they heard the Independent candidate say, “We have to fix the problems with this nation,” the Neo-Con spits back, “He hates America.”

With Barack Obama driving the Democratic car, the Republicans will have to dig far deeper to find trash to sling. And if priests and pastors would learn to mind their own business they would have even less to catapult. Perhaps the most ingenious move on Obama’s part was to publish the book about his life. In that simple move Obama threw his garbage onto the table for everyone to pick through. He basically said, “Here’s what I’ve done, go ahead and slam me if you want to. I’ve already acknowledged it, and have moved beyond it.” This gives him the opportunity to step away to watch Karl Rove and his band of thugs dive through the scant dump.

With Hillary Clinton’s dump already being mountain-sized, it would’ve been a nightmare of mud slinging. And since the Democrats have a problem with fighting fire with fire, there’s no doubt that she would pay closer attention to the mud-that-matters, as opposed to the mud-that-hurts. With either Democrat we would expect to see an election run where they point out John McCain’s support for failed ideas, and his willingness to continue sending our troops to die overseas in the Cheney/Bush oil war, and his inability to face domestic issues with any honesty or integrity. The Republican’s instead will lie and tell the population that Barack Obama is a Muslim - because that seems to work in frightening Christian and especially Jewish extremists. They’ll go back to the photo of Obama dressed in the traditional clothes of Kenya and lie about him wanting to dress in Muslim fashion. Of course, they’ll bring up his middle name and call him the enemy. Beyond the lies they’ll be relying on the racist redneck vote - those who are psychologically entrenched in the 1800’s.

For now, at least, we can sleep better knowing the Democratic candidate has packed lightly, and isn’t dragging along a mountain of trash that would be used against them. It’s a good thing for all of us that Hillary has run out of gas, especially for us who vote independently of party lines, because the last thing a swing-voter wants is the continuous ringing of the telephone with some person on the other end talking about how evil Hillary is for finding compassion enough to keep her marriage alive after her husband’s sexual misdemeanor.

By Brian A. Burns

In scrambling for every deal he could cut before being booted from the Vice Presidency, Dick Cheney yesterday scoffed at the idea of suspending the gas tax, calling it “a false notion”. Though many of us understand that the idea would do little in giving relief from the skyrocketed fuel prices, to say that it’s better to do nothing is only a tell-tale sign of how little he still seems to care about the welfare of the American population.

Billions of dollars from our earnings have gone into securing overseas contracts for Halliburton, which he chaired until only months before taking over the position of Vice President of the United States. Prior to that time, in 1998 when he was the acting CEO of Halliburton, he secured over 28 million dollars in business dealings with Saddam Hussein, and billions of dollars in government contracts and taxpayer-insured loans for his corporation. Once in office it took only two weeks for him to create the “Energy Task Force” - a group that met and discussed ways of securing oil contracts in countries throughout the world. It was a highly secretive operation which eventually led to a congressional investigation. From this it was uncovered that Cheney and his staff were creating documents, maps, and charts of oil fields, pipelines, refineries, tanker terminals and development projects in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The lists they created were titled, “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oil Contracts as of March 5, 2001.” There is no doubt that much of the meddling that went into gaining support for the Iraq invasion was directed by him. But, perhaps the most treasonous act came when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Then, Dick Cheney diverted relief efforts aimed at restoring power to hospitals to repair a broken oil pipeline running through Mississippi.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Dick Cheney used the Vice Presidency for only his own welfare, all the while promoting the Afghanistan and Iraqi invasions that have cost thousands of lives, and billions of dollars and that have also helped tank our nation’s economy. Trading lives for riches, why would he care when the people are mere strangers? Americans? Who cares. When you’re as high on the corporate pyramid as he was, and involved in the business of securing natural resources, you tend to have people all over the world to befriend and exploit - American or Iraqi, it makes no difference to Dick Cheney.

For Dick, George W. Bush’s legacy, which will be the knowledge that he was the worst president in the history of our nation, will not blemish the Cheney name whatsoever. Usually, the president takes the blame while their “right-hand man” disappears in between the lines of our history books. In this case Cheney is disappearing with fat pockets clinking with our money, and a whole lot of blood on his hands.

He is a man who at a different time in our nation’s history, might’ve been swinging from the gallows, and when one considers his acts against America’s best interests, his willingness to popularize a war in which our troops are dying for his profit, he should be dropped to hang. But he always had too many Americans backing him, whose pride and anti-progressive sentiments muffled their hearing when we ranted why he and his worthless cowboy-puppet shouldn’t be elected to ruin our nation. It’s a shame that “I told you so” has no medicinal quality for the eight years of suffering through heightened stress levels and heartburn. It’s a shame that if Cheney were to hang because of his treasonous acts, he is so coated in oil that his neck would most likely slip right through the noose.

photo courtesy of theage.com.au

As the June 27th run-off election approaches, President Robert Mugabe has been trying everything in his power to instill fear into the voters, who back in March showed their favor for his opposition when they voted for Morgan Tsvangirai to take over the Zimbabwean presidency. From evicting 40,000 farm workers from their lands, to conspiring an assassination attempt on Tsvangirai himself, Mugabe is now having arrested those who speak out publically against him.

Click here to read what happens when 38 years of absolute power nears the brink of finality.

Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd gained a few rungs on the “good guy” ladder when on Sunday he ordered his troops in Iraq to return home to their land down under. Leaving behind a small group of forces whose primary job will be security and surveillance, Rudd made good with his promise and reeled in about 500 of his troops - most of the remaining Australian military force who have been considered a top ally to the Bush Administration’s endeavors in the Middle-East. Whether it was a good idea to leave behind any of his military is up for discussion, and some might say they’re now “sitting ducks”. Nevertheless, the majority of Australians can sleep well tonight knowing their leader listened and responded favorably to their wishes.

Click here to read about one world leader who seems to understand the meaning of democracy.

One would think that John McCain must be seriously out of touch with more than just reality. It would appear that he has also strayed from the intentions of U.S officials in Iraq who state they have no intention on setting up any permanent presence in the war torn country. That is assuming that U.S. officials are being honest with the public, a laughable thought, as they have been working on a long term security deal that involves keeping our troops in Iraq beyond a U.N. mandate.

All the while those who Bush told us would greet us as liberators are protesting our presence with demonstrations, and roadside bombs. It makes one ponder how far away these people fall from the “real world” when hired into government positions.

Click here to read how willing our officials are to continue lying to us, believing we have no idea what is going on in the Middle-East.

By Brian A. Burns

As long as there are recipients of large quantities of tax dollars there will always be proponents of failed ideas. After taking over a billion dollars, those who refuse to accept the fact that they have little control over the sexual activities of their teenage sons and daughters continue taking our money under the guise of “government assistance”, to wage their war against reality - the belief that abstinence is the only message to send our children. In trying to frighten teens into remaining celibate, the falsified information they spread is in direct contrast to the factual information received through a true form of sexual education, and not only does it fail to reduce the frequency in which our teens are engaging in sexual activities, but it makes them less likely to use contraceptives while doing so.

Through a congressional investigation in 2004 it was discovered that the groups who insist on the effectiveness of abstinence were reporting as scientific fact that a pregnancy occurs once in every seven times a couple uses a condom, when medical evidence shows that condoms are 98% effective. They have lied saying that condoms do not help in preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and have grossly distorted fact by claiming that contraceptives fail to prevent HIV 31% of the time. One group went so far as to state that HIV could be passed through sweat and tears. They have also lied about the risks of abortion, stating 5% to 10% of women who receive abortions will become sterile, and some have proclaimed that a 43-day-old fetus is a “thinking person”.

In all, the government gives away nearly $170 million per year to groups who seemingly believe that biology is the study of a god’s claymation project. But why would members of religious organizations willingly break one of their commandments and lie to our teenage population? They do this because they have to, for if they presented the evidence as they receive it they know their audience would abandon them completely, and with nearly $600,000 going to each of these organizations annually, they aren’t so willing to give up the hefty chunk of change they’ve grown to rely on.

While it’s true that the only way to fully guarantee a person never gets pregnant is to never have sex, these groups fail to admit that our teenagers are having sex and will continue to have sex, and just as the “Just Say No” message failed to stop people from taking drugs, the message of “Abstinence Only” seems to be as equally ignorant to the problem.

The fact that our children pass through puberty at or around the age of 12 is biologically meaningful, and with it comes message we’re so apt to ignore. Their bodies are proceeding through the physical changes that are the first signs of adulthood. As they move through this transformation so too are they passing through one that is psychological. Mentally, though unbeknownst to them, they are becoming aware of themselves, and are beginning to enter a stage where they feel more self-governance. For many, the ambitions that parents have always deemed as important, like academics, pale in comparison to the importance they place upon their social lives. Consequently, the effort they put into the activities where their parents still hold high expectations lessen in favor to their sociality which moves up in priority. They feel the urges that accompany their passing through puberty, and their interest in sexuality becomes real. They aren’t paying heed to the warnings from their parents, or teachers, or coaches, or even their spiritual advisors who are telling them, “Just say no!” Instead, they are listening to their urges, and they are experimenting with their new found curiosities.

There was a time in history when children were made responsible at a failry young age. They were given chores in and around the household, and some were even performing the role of “servant” by the age of seven. It was not uncommon for boys to begin life on their own at the age of 16, and with “women” being betrothed to them by the age of 12. Girls passed into “womanhood” when they experienced their menarche, and by that time were well accustomed to all of the duties necessary in maintaining a household. Contrary to what one might assume, most of these women did not start bearing children until the age of 16. The decisions they made in dealing with their sexuality were far more responsible than those of many of our children. In this day in age we tend to focus more on academics than we do on trying to ready our children for life beyond school. They are far less responsible than the children were then, and the age in which we feel they’re prepared to start life on their own is much older. This, however, does not mean that their bodies aren’t carrying the same sexual urges at the age of 12 and 13. Indeed they are.

When it comes to “growing up” America is one of the only countries that restricts the process so vehemently. While America has the highest rate of teen pregnancy of the westernized countries, we too are among those with the highest age level in consent laws, with our average at 16 and edging toward 17. The age of consent is 14 in both Germany and Italy, and their teen pregnancy rates are one-quarter and one-seventh that of ours respectively. And in Japan where the age of consent is 13 the percentage is even less, being around one-eighth.

Now I don’t mean to imply that we should let our kids run rampant having sex at the age of 13 and 14, but am only trying to prove a point that in nations where they don’t make taboo what we American adults may consider “vice”, they have less of a problem in all areas. Where we restrict even our war veterans under the age of 21 from being able to buy a beer in a bar so too do we have a high rate of alcoholism, whereas the countries that have no drinking age have far less an issue with the disease. We can see that in countries that don’t try keeping their biological urges locked behind parental denial and fear, their struggles with teenage pregnancy and STD’s are easy compared to our own.

Instead of plugging our ears, slamming our eyes shut, and yelling to drown away the “evil word” that is truth, we need to first come to terms with the reality that teenagers will have sex, whether we like it or not. Then we might be able to teach our children how to be responsible with their actions at a much younger age, as opposed to dumping them into “adulthood” on the final day of their senior year in high school. Truly, the only words needing to be drowned away are “More money, please,” coming from the abstinence crowd, as that money would be far better spent on comprehensive sex education programs for our teens. One that starts with saying, “Just say ‘no’, but since many of you won’t listen and will have sex anyway, this is what you need to know, and here are some tools to help.”

By Brian A. Burns

We would hope that a man who believes American troops should die to forge an indefinite occupation of Iraq would have an understanding of the fundamentals of what it would take to do so. But the man who once said, “In all candor, we thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots who didn’t have the least notion of what it took to win the war,” was somewhat prophetic in his statement, in the sense that he was speaking of his own future - John McCain at 71.

Being portrayed as a “war hero” by those who enjoy having the country run by people as ignorant as themselves, John McCain has latched on to the folly of his constituents and is proudly paying lip-service for their votes. He has dug himself a ditch of warmongering, and is happily leading his flock into it headfirst. But with mounds of wool blinding their vision they cannot seem to understand that John McCain truly only served about five months in battle, as the rest of it was served in a prison camp where he was tucked away from witnessing any war being waged.

For five years John McCain suffered through what could only be described as a living nightmare. Not many people would be able to survive the conditions he was forced into, and it can only be assumed that his experience was an agonizing journey through a veritable “Hell on Earth”. This, however, does not take away from the fact that John McCain was no longer engaged in fighting on the battlefield. In turn, he was unable to gain any knowledge of military strategy, and couldn’t learn anymore how to fight an enemy in war.

When in war, a commander must know quite a bit about military strategy. They must understand the fundamental elements and plan their attack accordingly. “Civilian commanders” who are “complete idiots”, seem to not understand that before you could ever wage a war in a country where the enemy’s reinforcements are just outside of the border that border must first be sealed to prevent those troops from getting in. Donald Rumsfeld learned this the hard way, and we all learned that he was a civilian commander who was a complete idiot.

The people most qualified to propose a battle-plan are those who have spent the most time learning first-hand about military strategy. Those who have been witness to multiple battles in multiple conditions would understand the gammut of elements that each situation holds, and would know best on how to plan for an attack when in those situations. Someone who spent only five months in battle could never have time enough to gain the knowledge necessary to present a battle-plan.

John McCain’s experience as a prisoner of war is the stuff that fictional characters are born from. The horrible existence he endured under the harmful watch of the enemy could not be imagined by anyone of us who had not suffered the same conditions. The pity we should have for him is immeasureable, and the relief we should have for his survival should be as equally great. Aside from a possible parade to show our gratitude for his endurance and his service, we need to end it there, and realize that his experience is what makes him anything but qualified to issue a strategy for war. Perhaps if he spent five years in battle he would know enough about war-planning, but five months is simply not enough.

All this is assuming that our military should continue their seige on the methodology that is terrorism. Since we’ll only ever be able to do so by borrowing what will amount to trillions of dollars from China, all to realize in the end that winning a war on terrorism is not improbable but impossible, maybe it’s time his constituents do one of two things - shed their wool and run away from his side, or when once inside the pit, pull the dirt in over themselves.

McCain likes to brag that his military service better qualifies him for the “Commander in Chief” position, as Barack Obama never served in the military. What he is overlooking is the fact that the majority of our citizens only want to see our children being led in one direction - home.

With the announcement of the Libertarian party’s candidate Bob Barr, John McCain will get a dose of what the Democrats have been dealing with every time Ralph Nader steps from the woodwork. The Democratic party seems to be approaching the upcomnig election with an iron-clad constituency, refueled by two strong candidates vs. a Republican that has been watching many in his party cross the river to join his opponents.

When your policies are the reason for the evacuation of party members, and especially to side with the enemy at a stage when the division in American politics is so wide, your party should maybe think about abandoning the run altogether and invest the remaining money in… oh let’s say… the war their so keen on continuing.

Now with Bob Barr looking forward to stealing the McCain votes of the remaining “anti-Dems”, It looks like the winner of the endless Democratic marathon will be digging their opponent out from beneath a landslide.

Click here to read about the reasons behind John McCain’s sudden need for a barrel of Zoloft.