As an American who has lived abroad for decades, I’ve had the chance to experience single-payer systems firsthand. I did a TV interview in Manhattan a few weeks ago, laying out in plain language the problems with the current US system and how ideas from abroad can help. I have cut this interview (entitled “Beyond Sicko: What you really need to know about health-care reform“) into four short parts and put them up on youtube.

This is an overview of the series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bAcVgZDkwM (5:31 minutes)
Beyond Sicko: Part 1 covers the WHO study putting USA at #37 internationally and how ideas from other countries can benefit the US health-care system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6XgGetW-UA (7:18 minutes)

To be honest, Obama, you lost me when you voted for the PATRIOT Act reauthorization in 2006. You lost me again when you voted for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendment in 2008. And you lost me every single time you voted for yet more war funding.

Don't even get me started on your vote for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

I cast a ballot for you in November, but I just can't share in this moment of collective euphoria over your election.

So, if your transition team really wants feedback on "where President-Elect Obama should lead this country," here's a Top Five list:

The Bush administration is heading us towards more disaster with its 'toxic debt' bailout and destabilization of Pakistan and Iran. We can't afford to go down this road again. In this short video, Heather Wokusch provides background, context and ideas for taking action.

Links for sources cited in this video:

Bailout:

Crisis talks over $700B 'toxic debt' rescue plan

The lack of oversight characterizing both the Bush administration and crony capitalism have bankrupted the U.S. and created the need for perpetual war. With Cheney stirring up trouble over Iran, we can't wait until November 2008 to fight back.

Toxic economy

Take the Fed's recent $30 billion bailout of Bear Sterns. Why throw taxpayer dollars at a company with massive amounts of "toxic waste" on its books, created largely through reckless behavior chasing short-term profits?

The Pentagon is slated to release a suspected toxicant in Crystal City, Virginia this week, ostensibly to test air sensors.

The operation is just the latest example of the Defense Department’s long history of using service members and civilians as human test subjects, often without their consent or awareness.

Gas chambers in Maryland

Wray C. Forrest learned about the US military’s human-testing program the hard way. In 1973, the Army sent then 23-year-old Forrest to its Edgewood Arsenal chemical-research center in Maryland, promising patriotic service and a four-day work week.

Instead, he became one of roughly 6,720 soldiers used as Edgewood Arsenal test subjects between 1950-1975.

There’s a time bomb ticking over here in Europe, and it’s completely off the radar where it will hit the hardest: the US.

The Bush administration is pushing for radical new regulations on airline travel including:

- Armed guards on all US-airline flights from Europe to the US
- More personal data on all air passengers FLYING OVER (not even landing in) the US
- Europeans will need new permits and a lengthier permission-application process before even booking a ticket to the US
- "Washington is also asking European airlines to provide personal data on non-travellers - for example family members - who are allowed beyond departure barriers to help elderly, young or ill passengers to board aircraft flying to America, a demand the airlines reject as ‘absurd’".

The Facebook group called "I bet I can find 1,000,000 people who dislike George Bush!" will reach one million members very soon, and to help them celebrate this milestone, I’m giving away books!

Digital versions of the two-volume series The Progressives’ Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now are being offered for the next two weeks, along with hyperlinked excerpts of the books’ targeted-activism pages. Both books hit Amazon’s political activism Top Ten bestseller list in December 2007, with Volume One going to #1.

Dennis Kucinich, who has been locked out of the NBC presidential debates, is pushing for a New Hampshire Vote Recount.

As The Associated Press reports on the recount:

In a letter dated Thursday, Kucinich said he does not expect significant changes in his vote total, but wants assurance that "100 percent of the voters had 100 percent of their votes counted."

Kucinich alluded to online reports alleging disparities around the state between hand-counted ballots, which tended to favor Sen. Barack Obama, and machine-counted ones that tended to favor Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. He also noted the difference between pre-election polls, which indicated Obama would win, and Clinton's triumph by a 39 percent to 37 percent margin.

A number of sites are reporting odd discrepancies in the New Hampshire results. When the effect of voting machines is factored into the end count, then the polls would have been right and Obama would have won. We need to look at this BEFORE another primary…   

Here is what Democracy for New Hampshire had to say:

“If we cut the Pentagon budget 15%, $75 billion will go into a universal pre-kindergarten program so our children ages 3, 4 and 5 will have access to full-time day care and more money would go into elementary and secondary education. Our college-age students need to know that with a Kucinich administration they're guaranteed a two- or four-year college, tuition free, and it'll be paid for by the government investing in our young people. That's the kind of approach I'll take to education.” - Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Oct 30, 2007, Democratic debate at Drexel University