Count to 20.

I invite everyone to just watch the cost of the Iraq occupation counter on the left side of my blog while they count to 20. When you see how much money that is just sit back and think about what our country could be doing with that money.

1. Hire more teachers to lower teacher to pupil rates in our schools.
2. Pay the teachers we have better.
3. Pay for the college education of any American that wants to attend college.
4. Make sure no American goes without healthcare.
5. Invest in renewable energy to allow America to be energy independent.
6. Invest in renewable energy to lower our CO2 emissions.

feel free to add your own to the list

what would Republicans do with this money if they didn't want to stay the course?

1. Build 700 miles of fence along a border that is 1951 miles long.
2. Give oil companies who are making record profits billions of dollars in subsidies to drill in land that every American owns.
3. Give no bid contracts to friends of the vice-president to rebuild New Orleans which they then sub-contract and still make a hefty profit. (and the job still does not get done)
4. Eliminate the estate tax on estates over 7 million dollars so their wealthy donors kids never have to work.
5. Buy off journalist to write flattering articles about their legislative agenda
6. Buy voting machines from their supporters to protect their majority and steal election after election after election.
7. Give huge tax breaks to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

Oh that's right they already did all these things on top of the Iraq war. I forgot every man, woman, and child in America already owes $29,000 thanks to the fiscally responsible leaders of our country.

Have they no shame?

VS








Click on the link and watch the ad that Rush Limbaugh and the right wing attacked Michael J. Fox for. Rush even went so far as to make fun of him. It is really upsetting to them when they see that positions they hold for purely political reasons affect real people.

Wal-Mart--$4 for some generic prescriptions

For those of you who have not heard Wal-Mart has launched $4 for a months supply of some generic prescriptions. For this cost they have received a tremendous amount of free publicity which would have cost them much more than just lowering the cost of many drugs that people don’t use anymore.

Wal-Mart is saying that they are doing this to allow people without healthcare to have access to low cost medicine. I would argue that the point is that Wal-Mart is yet again trying to run all competition out of the market place. Wal-Mart can afford to lose money on some prescriptions.

The number one problem I see as a pharmacist is that insurance companies are soon to follow and only reimburse $4 for a prescription. It will quickly eliminate independent pharmacies at this reimbursement rate. The cost to fill a prescription is more than $4. If we are not going to be reimbursed for our services, which we never have been, then what are independent pharmacies supposed to do.
Pharmacy is already a profession that I would like to get out of, due to insurance companies and soon they will force me out, but is also a profession I love. I love it when I catch a doctor’s error on a prescription and am able to save a patient from unpleasant side-effects, a hospital stay, or even their lives. I love to be able to spend time with my patients and get to know them and help with their drug regimens. I love counseling patients about OTC medications and what they can and can not take. I love helping pregnant and breast feeding mothers with which drugs are safe and which are not. I really love recommending cheaper alternatives for high priced new drugs and telling patients that their doctors unfortunately are not gods. I love to break the myth that their doctor chose their drug therapy based on science when it was actually based on the fact that he/she had samples in the supply closet.

I have been an advocate for a long time, with no success, for set pricing of prescriptions drugs. I hate the fact that people with out insurance, in all aspects of healthcare, get screwed. Everyone knows this, but no one does anything about it. Just look at your insurance statement from your last doctor’s visit. It will say office visit-- Billed-$100 allowed $48. It is the same with pharmacy. If a company is willing to accept a price from an insurance company they should be willing to accept that same price from a cash paying customer. They should not have to form a buying group or pay a monthly premium to some insurance company to get a fair price for a service.

PBM’s (Pharmacy Benefit Managers) are the biggest crooks, well maybe besides drug manufacturers and oil companies, in the USA. That is why Medicare Part-D is such a sham, they along with manufactures wrote the law, and Republicans pushed it through no questions asked. I love the facts put out before it was passed. It will only cost us 400 billion dollars over ten years, now that figure is up to 1 trillion.

Anyway back to Wal-Mart, their goal here was not altruistic but to stick it to all competitors and to eliminate competition. I do feel sorry for their pharmacist, being a former one. They do have the bitchiest customers in the entire industry and this will only make their lives worse.

The link is to an article on Tom Paine about $4 rx’s and independent pharmacies.

We are on the wrong path!!!!

US October death toll in Iraq hits 70.

Bush said al-Qaida was very active in Iraq. "They are dangerous. They are lethal. They are trying to not only kill American troops, but they're trying to foment sectarian violence.
"They believe that if they can create enough chaos, the American people will grow sick and tired of the Iraqi effort and will cause government to withdraw," he said.
Bush said the news of casualties "breaks my heart" but said it is surrender "if you pull the troops out before the job is done."—AP

I’m sorry Mr. President but you do not get to define victory or defeat. You have been wrong about everything, and I mean everything when it comes to this war. You do not get to say anymore what a victory or a defeat is. You have made all your friends very rich at the expense of American lives and families. Your motives for going into Iraq were totally false and your new motives for the country are unachievable. You may want to wait until the Iraqi’s stand up but I say it is time for the Iraqi’s to stand up. We can no longer afford to stay the course of a failed strategy. We need new leadership and a new strategy for Iraq.

The new Iraq must be run by Iraqi’s not corporations. You want to turn Iraq into your corporate buddy’s utopia, like you have done with this country, but the Iraqis are not willing to adopt your American values. They no longer want American troops there and do not want permanent military bases in their country.

When asked what you have done wrong in Iraq you said I think I talked to tough. Well what the fuck do you think you are doing now with North Korea? Listen up pea brain, you have ignored North Korea for 6 years now and the only thing you have done is name them as part of your axis of evil. If I were one of the 3 countries in your axis of evil and you attacked one I would be doing everything possible to stop you from attacking me as well. I am in no way defending North Korea or Iran but what do you expect. This President and for that matter this Republican Congress have no idea what diplomacy is. They see diplomacy as a sign of weakness.

I have been watching a lot of the House and Senate debates on C-Span and every Republican uses the same word to describe a strategy that would involve diplomacy—WEAK. What is it going to take for them to realize that might no longer makes right? We have the best military in the world in Iraq, the best technology on the face of the planet, we have allegedly trained 300,000 Iraqis and we can not stop the escalation of violence.

For those of you influenced by campaign rhetoric you may believe that your only choice in Iraq is “cut and run” or “stay the course”, but you would be wrong. Your choice is “stay the course” or find out the whole truth so you can make up your own mind what we need to do in Iraq. The only way we are going to get to the bottom of the Bush’s Iraq occupation is to find out what led us to where we are. The only way to do this is to elect Democrats on Nov. 7th. I do not care what you think about your elected official. I do not care how much Pork has been sent your counties way. I do not care if you are Republican or Democrat. This quagmire is going to break this country financially and morally if we do not stop it.



Fiscal Responsibility

While watching a debate on Meet the Press between Senator Talent and Clair McCaskill, she brought up the fact that we have spent over 300 billion dollars in Iraq. He proceeded to counter that that is only 1% of our GDP. UMMM does that make sense to anyone in blogger land? Why not say it is only 3.3% of our National Debt, or that that is only $1000 for every man women and child in America, or that this is more important than education, and healthcare but not tax cuts for the wealthy.

We need to spend our tax dollars better. We need to spend them for the common good. We don’t need to spend them so Dick Cheney’s stock options are worth more and more. Republicans in Congress believe that if you give more money to the wealthiest Americans it will trickle down eventually, but I say give the money to the little man and watch him spend it to boost the economy. Republicans believe that if you are a working American you should pay on average 33% of your income in taxes but if your earn your money in the stock market while on vacation you should only pay 10% in taxes. There is a fundamental difference of opinion. Republicans believe in maintaining power and wealth and Democrats believe hard work should be rewarded. Republicans believe their wealthy donors should be rewarded with tax cuts and Democrats believe theirs should pay their fair share. Republicans believe a rising tide lifts all yachts, and Democrats believe it should lift all boats. Republicans believe that there is nothing wrong with CEO’s making 369 times what the average worker in his or her company makes. The Republicans in control of our country believe in theocracy and oligarchy and Democrats believe democracy, and a bottom up power structure. Republicans believe that they are accountable to their donors and Democrats believe they are accountable to the people.

Donate, Volunteer, or just tell your friends to vote Democratic.

It is time for a change. Do everything you can to get a democrat somewhere elected. You want to see what kind of shape this country is really in then elect a democrat to Congress. You will find out that the Republican economic recovery is a sham and that Iraq is in a civil war and that we can stop global warming and that following the Kyoto protocols will lead to job growth and economic prosperity. You will find that we do not have to give up our civil liberties and our founding fathers beliefs for Bush security. You will find that we do not have to torture and detain people to get good intelligence. You will find that America does not have to play world bully to get respect. You will find that when Democrats do not have the answer to a problem that they are willing to listen to experts, you know scientist, not corporations. You will find the national dialogue raised and America will be better for it.

Foley! Foley! Foley!

Foley, Foley, Foley!
Thank You God for Foley,
Thank You for shedding light on their hypocrisy.



Foley, Foley, Foley!
Bringing down the G.O.P
one power hungry Republican at a time is thee.



Foley, Foley, Foley!
Oh! Where art thee,
Can't we get some pictures of you with kids for T.V.



Foley, Foley, Foley!
Thank You God for Foley,
We know without he we would be fighting Diebold machines.

Christian right says "100 more muslims dead, so what."

Insurgents(Civil War) again ratcheting up the violence, but I'm sure the media is just missing the good news again.

Iraqi Police Unit Linked to Militias

--An increasingly common insurgent tactic is to detonate one bomb to draw rescue workers and onlookers, then to explode a second device to cause more casualties.

One witness, who identified himself only by his first name, Hamdi, said a roadside bomb went off first and people started to gather, then the second blast went off. "Then more people gathered and they were searching for their dead or missing relatives when the car bomb exploded," he told AP Television News.

"Everybody knows this is a Christian neighborhood, they are neither Sunnis nor Shiites, so why are they doing this?"—AP

I guess the death squads and the Sunni insurgents have figured out that the best way to get the Americans to stop supporting this war is to start attacking Christians. They unfortunately are overestimating the value of an Iraqi Christian to the fundamentalist Christians that support the Republican Party and Bush’s occupation.

They also do not realize that there is currently a sex scandal going on here in America so no one is going to hear anything about Iraq for at least 2 weeks. Americans want to know how many young boys have been molested and how long has the cover up gone on. Republicans want to know how a gay man infiltrated their party and plan to use this as another chance to bash gays. Sex and gays will always push dead bodies overseas off the airwaves and the newspaper here in America.

The moral of the story is that if you want our boys out of your country all you have to do is accuse them of being gay. They will not only get kicked out of your country but kicked out of the military. This insight gives new meaning to the phrase, “Make love not war.”