SPECIAL PREVIEW: Sen. Baucus: You are a Caviar Senator in a Hot Dog State

I write this as I read the latest on the evaporating hope of a public option, the progressive option of last resort. I am like most who had realized in late summer that the single payer movement was hopelessly outspent, out-manuevered, out-lobbied. The reform intent of the entire year, squandered; reform itself has dissipated in thin air. Only a strong lesson emerges; for single payer to be realized, the movement must be better organized next time.

However, will there be a next time? I have long term questions. I reviewed the interviews of former Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating, over the holiday. I have compiled these here. I am gravely concerned. In the Common Dreams article; it states:

The number of uninsured capable of gaining insurance will be somewhere around 24 million. With private plans as the alternative, estimates are that more than $450 billion in tax-payer money will be transferred to private insurers in order to allow the uninsured to gain coverage. However, that coverage will be something akin to the lowest form of car insurance - you get by before the eyes of the state, but get into an accident and you will find yourself facing massive debt. Estimates are that the low-coverage plans would only cover 60% of costs. Even worse news comes for the more than 20 million people who will likely remain uninsured. They will now also have to forfeit 2% of their annual income because of it. A nightmarish scenario indeed - uninsured and penalized!

This coupled with Keating's prediction is a recipe for an economic disaster. If Keating predicts the American recovery to shape up in six to seven years, coupled with the health bill mandated buy-ins, and the projection of when the law takes effect; even with subidies--this will harm the economy long term.

In the rush to push any bill short of a thoughtful, and well-planned out approach to single payer; the health bill has the potential to delay an economic recovery and exacerbate the crisis we already are in. Keating, if his analysis is correct, predicts the U.S. may default on its debt. The holders of our debt, mainly China, will have to settle for only 40% of what is owed them. The U.S. Treasury credit rating will likely be downgraded.

Moodys recently raised their concern. “By the end of a two year period, the U.S. debt ratios will be higher and moving the country’s metrics to the lower end of the pack…this triple rating isn’t assured forever.” said Steven Hess, sovereign credit analyst at Moody’s. Moodys has outlined that US debt for 2008 stands at 41% of GDP which, they feel, is cause for concen. Even more concerning is the expectation of the percentage to rise to 62.4% by 2010.

Our Senators tell us this bill is deficit neutral. However, the Senate is not looking at the hidden cost to the individual who will buy into these basically worthless mandated plans. Who pays? Who pays when the consumer is on the hook for a high deductible and out-of-pocket expenses the plans do not cover. The consumer, if that happens, we can assume this will hit the disposable income of the individual.

This one issue is very alarming to me personally. I live in Max Baucus's state. Montana has perhaps the lowest in per capita, disposable income than any state in the nation. As it is now, we cannot even afford to send our kids to college. Our state's most premier public university, the University of Montana, is labeled a failure factory because of the economic conditions. Only 40% of all enrollees actually graduate, far below the national average. The proof of the tasting is in the pudding, our Senator has opted for the caviar. It is appalling to me that he has pushed this dangerous legislation as far as he has with no concern for his constituents. It is hard to look forward to a future of hotdogs.

The progressive left had hoped single payer would be foundational building block for what this economic crisis demands...the Second New Deal, with strong elements of the War on Poverty. Instead, we got a Congress that is kidding themselves, and a President that refuses to lead.

What are the future political costs if we continue to slog our way through never-ending recession? We know the mismanagement of the other party got us here, but we must also look at the deregulation of the Clinton years. These are the same people who have commandeered the change train. The Team of Rubinites. At what cost, does our Democratic Congress and the Team of Rubinites in the White House, really need and want the campaign cash of the health insurance special interest? Future recession, lost elections, the opportunity costs of a lost hope of reform...another generation as a minority party? I guess these are the questions we must ask ourselves.

http://melindaformontana.com

SPECIAL PREVIEW: BAUCUS A CLOSET RACIST

*This is a blog that will run in Urban Native Magazine, and the Huffington Post"

BAUCUS THE CLOSET RACIST: Hill 57 Victims of 30 Year Chemical War Deserve Same as Libby Asbestos Victims


At 1:00 a.m. EST, December 21, 2009--the U.S. Senate passed the Baucus crafted health care bill. This bill represents a vast expansion of the health care industry mainly through mandated buy-in law for 30 million Americans. The progressive wing of the Democratic party are not happy with this bill; it is a reform bill in need of massive reform before it is even signed by the President. It is the shallowest of victories. For us in Montana, we are used to being told “it’s better than nothing,” by Baucus, it’s his credo.

The New York Times published today:

“Buried in the deal-clinching health care package that Senate Democrats unveiled over the weekend is an inconspicuous proposal expanding Medicare to cover certain victims of ‘environmental health hazards.’ The intended beneficiaries are identified in a cryptic, mysterious way: individuals exposed to environmental health hazards recognized as a public health emergency in a declaration issued by the federal government on June 17. And who might those individuals be? It turns out they are people exposed to asbestos from a vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont. For a decade, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, has been trying to get the government to help them. He is in a position to deliver now because he is chairman of the Finance Committee and a principal author of the health care bill.”

HILL 57: AMERICA’S SOWETO WITHSTOOD 30 YR CHEMICAL BOMBARDMENT

Montana’s ranking Senator’s gusto to get something done, when he wants it done—is breathtaking. The victim’s of W.R. Grace’s corporate negligence deserve help, they also deserve economic aid to recover their community and rebuild their lives. Our Senator’s commitment to the white electorate in Montana is unshakable. I am drawing a sharp contrast to the Senator’s concern of the Libby victims, and this is a good thing, and contrast that to the experience of the Hill 57 victims of chemical warfare that was inflicted on us throughout three decades. We have never had the federal ear to hear our story or to bring about credible efforts to help. Mansfield tried and failed. Deaf ears and blind eyes define Republican and Democratic response to Hill 57 in the entirety of the existence of “America’s Soweto.”

The Hill 57 Chippewa had been a super-minority, even within the Democratic Party. As a child on Hill 57; I can recall the low flying aerial flights in and around Hill 57, even our own Hill 57 community did not understand the danger of the aerial flights. “They are crop-dusting,” they said, almost glibly. Some of my older cousins can remember playing with the hand held insecticide spray bottles, with a spray nozzle attached. “ As small girls, we were playing with these cans,” recalled Ernestine Gopher. “I remember spraying Sally in the face.” Sally Gopher is Ernestine’s sister. They were unaware of the danger in the bottle; they had no idea. Both women are my older cousins.

SUMMER OF 1941: THE CHEMICAL WAR BEGINS ON HILL 57 CHIPPEWA

According to early Tribune reports of August, 1941; the county began an aggressive chemical assault on Hill 57 to eradicate fly-borne bacillary dysentery after the deaths of five infants on Hill 57 that year. Dysentery left many Hill 57 children sickened and malnourished. Local citizen activists, our own people, and Catholic clergy tried to get federal aid to our people. They tried to get badly needed federal aid; there were Hill 57 tours by Sen. Mansfield and then Representative Lee Metcalf. The Chippewas pulled out their historic colonial treaty flag during one such visit in 1955. My late father, Robert Gopher and my uncle Pete hosted one such visit and unfurled our family pride, a 13 star colonial treaty flag—this is the emblem of my campaign. This visit in 1955 resulted in Senate and House legislation intended to help Hill 57, but this legislation was killed by the Department of Interior, stating “Hill 57 was not a federal responsibility, but a local problem.”

On a national level, the federal government had approved the use of DDT in 1939 after its insecticide properties were evident. The U.S. used DDT widely during WWII to control typhus and malaria overseas. On Hill 57, a 1941 news report states DDT was the lead component in a chemical cocktail mixed by the county and sprayed throughout the barren hillside Indian camp. This chemical treatment would ensue for many years, and it would intensify. The county sprayed the inside of their homes with this chemical cocktail, all of the windows and doors closed. This was not an approved use of DDT, it was never intended or safe for indoor use. The Hill 57 residents were never told what the chemical cocktail contained, today we still do not know. The fumes would be so bad, residents recall being unable to sleep in their homes for at least a couple of days afterward, but some people would sleep in the homes, even when the fumes were overpowering.

According to the EPA website, during the 30 years of DDT’s approval as an industrial pesticide, 1,350,000,000 pounds were used. The Hill 57 chemical experience spans this entire 30 year period. The spraying only stopped around the time of the actual federal ban in 1972. Because of this timeline, we can assume—based on official conduct of Cascade County, that DDT was the product used even though there was ample evidence of its “environmental health hazard.” The EPA website states:

Immediately following the DDT prohibition by EPA, the pesticides industry and EDF filed appeals contesting the June order with several U.S. courts. Industry filed suit to nullify the EPA ruling while EDF sought to extend the prohibition to those few uses not covered by the order. The appeals were consolidated in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. On December 13, 1973, the Court ruled that there was "substantial evidence" in the record to support the EPA Administrator's ban on DDT.

What does prolonged DDT exposure do to the body? There are a variety of autoimmune responses to DDT exposure; from nerve damage, liver and kidney damage, arthritis, diabetes, and of course cancer. This exposure also has neo-natal effects, spanning from attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, infertility to deformities. Forward to the second week of December, 2009. I receive a call from my brother, Glenn in Great Falls, he is worried. Our older cousin, Della Gopher Ahenakew, is awaiting a liver transplant in Spokane, Washington. We are all worried, she has been fighting a losing battle of liver disease for several years. A transplant may save her, she is very weak. Her transplant surgery will take place later this week. We will have to wait and see. We pray in our traditional custom for her to live.

Not all have been so lucky, I recall hopping a ride with my late cousin Raymond Bacon about a year before he died. He confided in me he would vomit something akin to coffee grounds. He died the following year in 2001; of intestinal cancer. There is a great deal of deaths of the Gopher family—the extended Chippewa clan of Hill 57, of cancers of the intestine. Our grandfather and clan patriarch, Jim Loud Thunder Gopher died of colon cancer in 1946 in his mid 50s, five years after the chemical assault began. His widow, the niece of Chief Rocky Boy, died of cancer in the fall of 1965. The average lifespan of the extended Jim Gopher clan is 44-45 years, almost half of the national average.

BAUCUS RESPONSE: SLOPPY, HAPHAZARD, COLD, BRUTAL--DISINTERESTED

Our people are now scattered, Hill 57 became unlivable, the land lost—all that remains is a memory and the three to four gatherings held yearly to attempt to keep our traditions alive. The health legacy is one of unanswered questions, like the residents of Libby, MT. Although W.R. Grace was found to be not guilty of criminal negligence, there is no doubt as to the health effects of the vermiculite mine. Justice is beginning to flow to these long suffering people. Today, I am asking is for the American people to hold Senator Baucus accountable on the Hill 57 issue.

All we asked from the Senator is to be heard. This was early June of 2002—a re-election year for Baucus. We, the un-enrolled descendants of the Rocky Boy band, met with the Senator after he ignored us for an interminable amount of time. This meeting came about on the heels of a picket line we had thrown together to protest the Senator. We picketed a Cascade County Democratic Party fund-raiser at the Black Eagle community center, just on the other side of the river in Great Falls. We literally had to drag him out of a fund-raiser to gain his attention. He reluctantly agreed to meet with us. His assurance at the time is if our complaints were founded, he would look into it.

At this meeting, several Chippewa elderly women were present. They had waited all their lives to express their voice to someone in a position of power. They had a sliver of hope now, that the entirety of their experience would be in the hands of a caring person; their long nightmare coming to an end. We again, as our people had done in 1955; brought our historic and now famous treaty flag. Baucus was clearly irritated with us. He was visibly angry. We asked for the honor of taking a picture with the senator with our beautiful Old Glory, he refused. “This is not a photo session!” he snapped. Our hearts fell on the ground. The meeting fell apart, our women elders left the meeting crying.

He never has gotten back to us to evaluate whether our complaints were well founded. I have released at least a partial record of resources documenting Hill 57 to Huffington Post, accompanying this post. This record was compiled by Chippewa historian, Mike Gopher. This record would more than support our claim time and again, but, it’s just not convincing enough for the Senator. Perhaps Max Baucus will deny Hill 57 ever existed, this is akin to Holocaust denial. We have no contact with the Senator, we are not his favorite people. He is not beholden to us. I want America to see a clearer portrait of President Obama’s point man and top health care reformer. You can evaluate if he is the moral leader fit to end the reality that an American dies every ten minutes from lack of health care.

The Hill was our last stand, but it is also our holocaust. It was a symbol of the federal termination policies’ devastating effects on a tribe. These policies were in place post New Deal to 1973. Hill 57 was a strong argument to honor tribal sovereignty, but we as a people were swept under the carpet where we have always been. Homeless, poverty stricken, sickly Indians, even ones who vote—are not the stuff winning campaigns are made of. Baucus affixed his political fortunes to the “recognized” treaty tribes in Montana; this ensures electoral victory every election season. He does not want to be bothered with Hill 57. He has made that clear; a choice dictated by lack of electoral advantage and largely by race. I stand by my assertion that Max Baucus is a closet racist. His priorities are dictated by skin color.

Notation: Hill 57 largely resulted from the Chippewa being run off their own reservation by Cree and Metis bands. Although from Canada, the Cree/Metis bands were granted asylum by the U.S. government and placed on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation. This is not consistent with federal doctrine, or case precedent. In spite of this, the Hill 57 Indians have tried to have their recognition clarified, draft legislation submitted to Montana’s delegation (Baucus, Tester, Rehberg) have gone unanswered. The MT delegation has responded favorably to the Little Shell Band’s efforts to gain recognition, they are perceived to be larger in numbers but are also more assimilated than the Hill 57 group. We can only question if the political goals of MT’s delegation determines their commitment? The Hill 57 group consists of the original Rocky Boy and Migisew, or Bald Eagle Bands of Chippewa, plans are to restore federal recognition, this effort is underway. The question remains, how will the Obama administration act to restore our band’s recognition? Will the Obama administration stand with a closet racist?

We Are Lost Without Kennedy

We need health care now! Senator Kennedy, we are lost without you. Below is rare footage of the late Senator speaking of health care as a right, and not a privilege.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENgDewrZD2k



In the video below, David Gregory and Marcos Moulitsas, from Daily KOS discuss the number: 60% of American people support a public option. The Senate has stripped out the option--clearly there is a disconnect between the Congress and the people they represent.

The Numbers: 60 lobbyists for every person working in Congress, 260 million dollars from the insurance industry to protect their interests. David Gregory discusses the loss of Kennedy; Marcos responds the unequal compromises the Democratic Senators have made. They have compromised away the viability of the Democratic party to win in 2010; for nothing in return.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

SADDENED AND DISGUSTED

I am saddened and disgusted the Obama administration is sticking it out with Max Baucus at all costs. I am afraid the Montanan's influence in the Obama administration is profound and entrenched. Former Baucus staffer, Jim Messina, is a Deputy to David Axelrod. I personally believe the Obama administration is imploding over this issue. In the video below; Axelrod is clearly on the defensive, uncomfortable, and evasive. This is in stark contrast to the Axelrod the progressive Democrats--who helped sweep President Obama and the Democrats to decisive victories in both branches of government--know and respect.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There is a profound lack of Senatorial leadership. In contrast, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was able to deliver a house bill containing what the majority of Americans want--a public option.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRES. OBAMA: FROM HILL 57 TO THE WHITE HOUSE

As the second youngest of eight children of an Ojibwe family, I grew up on Hill 57, outside of Great Falls, Montana. I lived in a two room house, more like a shack. It was put together with scrap lumber, Hill 57 was a collection of such ramshackle homes strung together with dirt roads. The bitter Montana winds feel merciless when you are a child living in these conditions. Still, our home was warmed by a wood stove. Hill 57 existed due to federal denial of a trust obligation owed the Ojibwe people; we were allies of George Washington's forces. We were and still are; proud people. Hill 57 epitomized Indian poverty in America. Hill 57 was rivaled only by the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation; a contest with no winner.

Our historic alliance with the French paved the way for the assertion of American independence. As our tribe lost more and more lands, with each successive treaty, our people were pushed deeper into land dispossession, deeper into an inescapable poverty. If the Ojibwe are a tribe on the winning side of a revolution; I cannot imagine losing. I can only envision that would entail total extermination. This is an ugly and undeniable skeleton in the American closet.

The historic Migisew clan of the mighty Ojibwe tribe were reduced to a small square of land; less than a half mile total. Eventually the county tax collector got that too; as the federal government provided no trust oversight. This defined my existence growing up. It took me a lifetime of effort to understand and study the origins of the Ojibwe-French-Colonial relationship in the context of Revolution. America has never been a nation of fairness. Our democratic ideals are just that--empty ideals. The course of history has proven the American system to be grossly out of sync with the lofty ideals of liberty, freedom--and the principal of equality. This is not to diminish the worthiness of these ideals; indeed, we must strive for our perfection now more than ever. We as a nation are now forced to look at our collective face in the mirror. It is not a pretty site.

We are at an arc in time, whose arrival is unprecedented and pregnant with incredible timing; this momentous point in our collective existence screams "teaching moment." This arc finds American society reaching the ideological, economic, and spiritual limits of our dysfunctional democracy. We can see the situation unfolding in Afghanistan after eight long years--the waste of throwing more human lives into this abyss makes our hypocrisy inescapable.

Draping the Obama change mantle over this protracted conflict does not make a troop increase acceptable, ethical or moral. Some of us have not forgotten, this war was never a legal war in the sense of engaging a state actor who engaged in an act of war against us. The difference between a terrorist act and an act of war is not nuanced and subject to interpretation. Foundational principles of international law were thrown out the window by then-President Bush, and it is these laws that govern the global community. We are a pariah, it is as true then as it is now. As a woman candidate for the U.S. House, I am proud to carry Jeannette Rankin's tradition of pacifism. This is rooted in my upbringing.

In a sense, those of us who embraced the Obama change mantra have had a bruising coming of age this past year. It is clear the hopeful campaigner has fallen short of his change message. We need to look at the reasons why, so that we can course correct. It was hard to attack a message of hope, indeed my own campaign is premised on the hope message. There is nothing wrong with hope, in fact, sometimes that is all we have. It is wrong to abandon hope, to curtail change that is within our grasp, largely due to our own internal conflict, fear, and unwillingness to evolve. This describes the Democrats in Congress. I dare say, Congressional Democrats are still stuck in the Bush era group think of the fear-mongering past. Bold actions are needed now, self doubt is not a luxury we have. We all know action to fix the economy is needed now. Jobs are needed now. People are homeless and hungry right now.

Roughly half a year has been consumed on the health care debate, this is a time waster of poorly thought out priorities in the face of unprecedented job losses. This is a mismanaged effort--because of the manner in which the Senate Finance Committee and its Chairman Baucus--have mishandled this legislation. American families awaken every day and look at their credit card debt, dwindling resources, foreclosure, homelessness, joblessness and hunger. This IS the fierce urgency of now.

Campaign for America's Future blogged about the dim prospects surrounding the jobs summit, and the apparent unwillingness of your White House to expand the stimulus. If your administration has another strategy, such as supporting the Dorgan-Durbin jobs bill--please by all means clue us in. The American people need to know now.

Doing nothing is not an option. Hosting a jobs summit, while leaking the White House's limited efforts, and announcing an Afghanistan troop increase in the same week is poor planning, it reflects the hope train has flown off the tracks. I am worried. Here in Missoula, I have never seen people living out of their old RVs, pitching tents out of sight in the trees along the Clark Fork River, to the extent as I have this year. It is not uncommon to see bedding stashed off beside this city's busy walking trails.

Winter is here, along the bottoms of Waterworks Hill hiking trail, just off I-90, the homeless pitched their tents in the trees earlier this fall. On a recent hike, I glanced to see them sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags, huddled against the brisk evening air of Montana. People are living in their vans and cars in Missoula, Montana. This city has an unprecedented number of homeless children in the school district. One recent day, my family member wandered into a local church to find out this church's pews overflow at night.

People have nowhere else to sleep; a good number of these homeless are Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. It makes no difference to them that our ranking Senator is Chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, and our junior Senator is on the Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs. Their stature has not provided this city and other cities in Montana, with the means to address growing homelessness, poverty, and despair. This is America of 2009. America: 2009 is your Hill 57. Please, Mr. President--you must do more right now.