The Lloyd House Wednesday Night Salon WEEKLY
A Newsletter published every Thursday from the Lloyd House in Cincinnati
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FIVE SECTIONS, including:
- Table Notes of the discussion at this Wednesday night’s Salon, as recorded by Ellen
- Events and Opportunities
- SPECIAL SECTION: Health Care Reform
- Articles of Interest
- Book, Film, Theater, TV, Music, Radio, and Restaurant Reviews
- Tri-State Treasures, compiled by Jim Kesner
Submissions: you must have the email copy to me by Wednesday night midnight. Copy the format you see in this Weekly please. (Times New Roman font, text 14 pt, headlines 20 pt. Maroon for Opportunities and Events, Navy for articles.)
The Wednesday Night Salon has been meeting each week of the year (no break for holidays, weather) since July 2001 in pursuit of good talk. Bring a dish at 5:45 pm and join us. We are usually about 12 people of varied erudition and age. We like to talk politics, environmentalism, social issues, literature, the arts, ad any blamed thing we want. Sometimes we have a special presenter. We emphasize good fellowship and civility always. Way fun! Everyone welcome. 3901 Clifton Avenue 45220.
SECTION ONE: Table Notes
These rough notes have not been approved or edited by the speakers and contain inevitable misunderstandings and misquotes. Also, opinions expressed are NOT necessarily Ellen’s.
At the Table this Wednesday:
Attendees:
Dennis Kinsley, Sara ernst, Vlasta Molak, Bentley Davis, Janice Alvarado, Roberto Alvarado, Jonathan Rosenberg, Chris Cox, Julia Yarden, Mr. G., Judy Cirillo, Lauren Hanisian, Mira Rodwan
Announcements:
Ellen: there are no GPS maps for Egypt, Jordan, Israel
Bentley: tomorrow at noon a protest against the Stupak amendment which banned coverage of abortions. Corner MLK and Clifton ave at noon tomorrow Thursday. Sponsored by UC feminist group.
Supreme Ct. justice Scalia recently said he would have voted against Brown vs Bd of Ed.
Topics:
Homelessness in Cincinnati this winter
RC workshop last Sat. (ellen)
Health Care Bill passed by House; Stupak Amendment prohibiting abortion;
Afghanistan Decision by Obama
Dennis: I grew up in Latonia KY. Whistle stop. Trains. “whites only” water fountain in the terminal, in the 40’s. Recently visited it again, still there! Though terminal now closed.
... I spent summers in Birmingham... Black folks were expected to step off the sidewalk to allow whites to pass.
Janice: I belong to Immigration Advocay Movement. We help protect rights of the undocumented.
This Sun 2:00 at Theo. Berry Friendship Park, a prayer vigil, by river down town. E of Montgomery Inn restaurant.
Come because these are people who cannot speak up for themselves.
Julia: at the Maketewa event. 3-50 project. These folks used employment statistics from this year. Project says, If you spend $50 of your per month expenditures with 3 locally owned businesses rather than chains like Wal-Mart, and if half the employed population did this, in one month only you’d have 42.6 billion $ will be returned to your local community in local tax revenu and enhanced local payroll.
If you spend 100 $ at a chain store, only $43 stays in your local economy.
But if you spend 100 $ in a locally owned store, $68 stays in local economy.
And when you shop online, zero of your dollars go back into your local economy.
OBAMA’S DECISION RE. AFGHAN WAR?
Lauren: To send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan
Mr. G. I thought I heard denials that he had made up his mind about that.
Lauren I saw this on CBS international news program... To send 30,000.
Bentley: I have not yet seen that there has been a decision.
Ellen: (why are we in Afghanistan?)
Julia: we sould screen “The beauty school of Kabul”
Judy: it is costing a fortune...the native people don’t want us.
Bentley: we wrote a new constitution that protects women, but those rights have been quickly abrogated.... Obama ran on the idea of phasing out Iraq war and going into Afghanistan. He believes that the Taliban presents a national security threat for us. Also Pakistan.
Jonathan if you are the US president, you are being fed a lot of bullshit information.
HEALTH CARE BILL THAT HAS PASSED THE HOUSE
Bentley: has public option, community rating (insurance co cannnot look at health history or gender to determine yur premium rate) . Lots of good things. What was not so good was the Stupak Amendment: “any insurance that you get a tax credit to buy, cannot offer abortion services.” You could however purchase a rider that would cover abortion services.
you could, of course, have private insurance thru your employer and it could have abortion coverage...most people don’t realize that existing plans mostly offer abortion coverage.
Insurance companies know that abortions are a lot cheaper than pregnancies.
The Stupak amendment severly limits the accessibility to abortion.
Ellen the DEA project. ... (democracy educator / advisor. By subscription. Pay Bentley monthly to give her report. Stay tuned about this.)
Bentley: the Stupak amendment brought support from the Catholic bishops.
In several states, Medicaid pays for abortion services: Cal. And some other states. You cannot use federal money for that. The Stupak amendment MAY limit that as well.
Mr. G. how many women a year get abortions? (will email) (see below, navy section for DEA)
Bentley:
I will be going tomorrow to the demonstration against Stupak Amendment to show my support for abortion services in the demonstration tomorrow to show the news media that there are many opposing Stupak.
Bigger issue: that the senate version should have a strong public option and subsidies or some means for low income people (who are above poverty line) to afford to buy insurance. Without that it is just giving insurance industry a pile of money.
the house bill closes the donut hole for drugs.
Sherrod Brown was part of the committee coming up with a senate plan; it is progressive and good. He needs our support for that. “the bill From the Health and Human Services Committee”
Voinovich, you can call and ask hin to support the bill Brown supported.
Say you want a health insur reform bill; you want public option; sliding scale (you pay premiums acording to your income); no opt-in or opt-out (meaning whole states cannot either choose to go with public option or not). (Opt in / opt out would be dangerous for Ohio because the conservative legislature here would opt Ohio out of public option.)
Mira: complimentary medicine techniques are probably not covered in the House bill.
Julia: pharma deal?
Bentley: pharma did get a deal re the generic biologics. Biologics are medicines that are not made chemically... But have DNA.
Generic versions of these would be prohibited. This is good for big pharma.
... Undocumented immigrants are not covered by the house bill. It is silly.
...
Mr. G. in the house bill, Christian Science practitioners are covered.
Bentley Anything can happen in the senate. That’s why we need to encourage our senators to make sure what happens is what we want. The Republicans might threaten to fillabuster.
Might be possible to get Republicans like Snow to support a good bill.
Incidentally, Driehaus voted For the Amendment Stupak, and For the bill.
... You are the non-paid lobbiest at home and you can call every day your Senators.
Ellen: so it is important to call your two senators even daily to tell them you want the bill, and it should have strong public option without opt-in/opt-out, and should have sliding scale to help Americans afford their premiums.
Brown, Sherrod - (D - OH) Cincinnati Office 513 684 1021
- 713 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
- Voinovich, George V. - (R - OH) Cincinnati Office 513 684 3265
524 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Julia: There are 40 paid health care/pharma lobbyists per elected official!
Judy: do people believe that this legislation will be an improvement, but not perfect, and it can be a step and later there will be more steps.
Bentley: yes, a lot of people feel it is a step in the right direction. The hope for some is that the public option will be so competitive that masses of people will flood to the public option. Then it will be like a Single Payer plan like other countries have. Like the Post Office vs. UPS and FedEx.
Julia has there been discussion of how this legislation will help the economy.
B: yes, and is a reason why the unions are for it. And the AMA is now for the public option.
Mr. G. The public option means that there will be a government insurance company, financed by premiums. Must be self sustaining.
Roberto: insurance companies cooperate with each other. They really don’t compete.
Hugs to all,
Ellen
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