substandard term life insurance rate

There are an estimated 9 million children ineligible for healthcare coverage at some point in the year. This bill hopes to bring healthcare to approximately 5 to 6 million of them.

There are some that say these numbers are wrong, and according to the Washington Post the Whitehouse is calling their own Department of Health and Human Services liars in their estimations. Others say that this bill takes healthcare out of the hands of private industry and attempts to make healthcare a government program.

But lets admit it. Healthcare in the US is failing. HMOs are trying to squeeze all the money out of the system as is possible, not maximize coverage to provide the best care possible to the largest number of people.

Doctors aren't going into primary care because they can't make enough money to repay record high college costs.

Doctors are so worried about covering their tails that they're constantly requiring unnecessary tests that waste healthcare dollars.

Corporations with medical pensions are buckling under the costs to cover retirees.

Consolidation in hospitals mean cities like Greensboro and Fayetteville are served by a single company, who charge anything they can get by with.

Uncovered patients are often billed at two, three, or more times the rate that insured patients pay.

We have programs that work. Medicare, military medical care, even the Senators themselves benefit from one of the best medical care programs in the world, care of us the tax payers. In fact, everyone admits that SCHIP is a very effective program.

North Carolina especially needs this program. There are constant lay-offs from shrinking furniture, tobacco, and garment industries. Immigrants are moving to North Carolina in droves. When these children don't get healthcare we pay for their more expensive treatment in the few emergency rooms left.

Luckily, the senate vote of 68 to 31 makes a veto proof majority. But makes our senators look like the uncaring tyrants that worry about money before people. Or corporations before voters.

Let them know. It's just not right.

Senator Burr

Senator Dole

This is just too ironic. Just before voting against insuring our children, Senator Burr voted to "improve the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance, and Protection Act of 2000 "

Yep, you've got that right. Monkey important, your children, not so much.

John Edwards on MTP

Meet the Press kicks off a series of in-depth interviews with 2008 candidates with John Edwards on Feb. 4. The Sunday morning show is on Time-Warner feeds at 9:00 am or 10:00 am depending on which station you view, and is repeated in the evening starting at 7:00 pm on MSNBC. You can also get streaming video on the MTP web site.

Governor Easley knew all along that District Attorney Mike Nifong was a bad choice. Distancing himself from his appointee he told a group of law students in New York:

"I almost un-appointed him when he decided to run," Easley said. "I rate that as probably the poorest appointment that I've," the governor trailed off before adding "I've made some good ones."

Does this mean Governor Easley was against Nifong before he was for Nifong?

Along with campaigning is the obligatory running before cultural groups. The NAACP and AIPAC are probably the two largest outside of AARP.

This week both John Edwards and Hillary Clinton went before Jewish groups. Jewish groups in Florida, Los Angeles, and New York combine to make large dollar donations to candidates. In return, Israel accounts for approximately 1/3 of the US foreign aid budget.

John Edwards went before the Seventh Annual Herzliya Conference by satellite to promise action with Hamas and Iran.

Other candidates speaking before the conference include Sen. John McCain, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is in Israel and will speak in person at the conference.

Hillary Clinton spoke before Thursday’s AIPAC Northeast Region dinner. Hers was a bit more moderate tone, speaking of getting hate rhetoric out of Palestinian textbooks and remaining tough on Iran.

All of this talk about Iran to Israelis may explain why US officials aren't talking about Saudi's funding Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

Jewish groups aren't homogenous just as black groups range from conservative to liberal. But two groups, JINSA and AIPAC, are very good at supporting Israeli issues in the US government by giving large donations to politicians. And sometimes their rivals.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has received $23,350 (2006)in donations from pro-Israeli sources. Joe Lieberman, a staunch defender of this war (hmmmm), has received the top billing with $155,686 in 2006.

But my largest surprise was our junior Representative, Patrick McHenry, at $25,0