Today's updates...
Mar. 27th, 2003 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brdgtFirst off, check out my friends new journal ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sonicobsession.
Secondly, here is my:
Review of Howard Dean’s appearance at the JFK library, March 26, 2003.
(Howard Dean is the former governor of Vermont and Democratic candidate for President)
I arrived just time to meet up with Brad and Aime. As we went in they didn’t check to make sure we had called ahead, but did ask some people to take off anti-war/pro-peace symbols. The Peace Sign on my bag went unnoticed, I guess.
The crowd was a good mix (young, middle-aged, elderly; etc.) and very Pro-Dean. It was a treat to find out that Dean would be interviewed by Joe Klein. According to the Boston Globe there were at least 600 people there and it certainly was “standing room only.”
Klein opened with a hypothetical question about the war (whether we should withdraw them, go ahead with the war, or some other answer) and Dean answered, fairly I believe, that he simply couldn’t answer that – he did not have the intelligence information and if he was president we wouldn’t be there in the first place. The Globe treated him poorly for that – but they obviously do not support him. Dean could have taken the easy way out and said to the crowd that we should pull the troops out and gotten a big round of applause, but he didn’t.
Dean expanded upon issues that I was already aware of, like guaranteed healthcare, fiscal responsibility, civil rights, and education.
The overarching theme through most of his policies is that you should not focus on the 10% of people who are doing things wrong/exploiting the system, but focus on the 90% that are doing something right and sacrifice some money for the sake of the greater good. So what if a small percentage of Americans could exploit a guaranteed healthcare system – if they alternative is 45 million Americans left uninsured it seems pretty inconsequential. It’s a practical approach – take health care systems that are already in place, add a pharmaceutical plan to Medicare, guarantee health insurance to everyone under 25 and refundable tax credits and federal subsidies to cover low- and moderate-income Americans who lack insurance. THEN, work out other details, but get those 45 million Americans insured FIRST. While the congress debates single-payer or tiered systems, those are the people who suffer. In addition, this system helps small businesses in America by freeing up capital, therefore providing an REAL economic stimulus.
If you are interested in learning more about Howard Dean, here are some of the better articles:
New York Magazine
New York Times Article
New Republic Article
and a list of articles is available at Dean’s “In the News” site
***Of course there is always Dean for America, Dean supporter’s “Meet-ups”, the Howard Dean Blog, and even a Dean volunteer website If you are in the Boston area the next Dean Meetup is Wednesday, Apr 2 @ 7PM: The Times Irish Pub & Restaurant (112 Broad St, Boston, MA 02110 617-357-8463)***
sonicobsession.Secondly, here is my:
Review of Howard Dean’s appearance at the JFK library, March 26, 2003.
(Howard Dean is the former governor of Vermont and Democratic candidate for President)
I arrived just time to meet up with Brad and Aime. As we went in they didn’t check to make sure we had called ahead, but did ask some people to take off anti-war/pro-peace symbols. The Peace Sign on my bag went unnoticed, I guess.
The crowd was a good mix (young, middle-aged, elderly; etc.) and very Pro-Dean. It was a treat to find out that Dean would be interviewed by Joe Klein. According to the Boston Globe there were at least 600 people there and it certainly was “standing room only.”
Klein opened with a hypothetical question about the war (whether we should withdraw them, go ahead with the war, or some other answer) and Dean answered, fairly I believe, that he simply couldn’t answer that – he did not have the intelligence information and if he was president we wouldn’t be there in the first place. The Globe treated him poorly for that – but they obviously do not support him. Dean could have taken the easy way out and said to the crowd that we should pull the troops out and gotten a big round of applause, but he didn’t.
Dean expanded upon issues that I was already aware of, like guaranteed healthcare, fiscal responsibility, civil rights, and education.
The overarching theme through most of his policies is that you should not focus on the 10% of people who are doing things wrong/exploiting the system, but focus on the 90% that are doing something right and sacrifice some money for the sake of the greater good. So what if a small percentage of Americans could exploit a guaranteed healthcare system – if they alternative is 45 million Americans left uninsured it seems pretty inconsequential. It’s a practical approach – take health care systems that are already in place, add a pharmaceutical plan to Medicare, guarantee health insurance to everyone under 25 and refundable tax credits and federal subsidies to cover low- and moderate-income Americans who lack insurance. THEN, work out other details, but get those 45 million Americans insured FIRST. While the congress debates single-payer or tiered systems, those are the people who suffer. In addition, this system helps small businesses in America by freeing up capital, therefore providing an REAL economic stimulus.
If you are interested in learning more about Howard Dean, here are some of the better articles:
New York Magazine
New York Times Article
New Republic Article
and a list of articles is available at Dean’s “In the News” site
***Of course there is always Dean for America, Dean supporter’s “Meet-ups”, the Howard Dean Blog, and even a Dean volunteer website If you are in the Boston area the next Dean Meetup is Wednesday, Apr 2 @ 7PM: The Times Irish Pub & Restaurant (112 Broad St, Boston, MA 02110 617-357-8463)***
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Date: 2003-03-27 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2003-03-28 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-28 07:32 am (UTC)