I was coming back from lunch and turned on the radio to hear Sean Insannity ramp up over the latest bad news from election central where yet another long term Republican seat had been lost to the Democratic Party. Sean said he is no longer a Republican. He is a conservative with principles: free markets, strong national defense, law and order and no taxes. He echoed Grover Norquist's remarks, who made an appearance last night on the Colbert Report to push his new anti-liberal book and demand more tax cuts.

It is obvious Republicans have got nothing to promote. The War on Terror is a slogan, which is actually just a method to shakedown darker complected people at airports and other public places. It has cost the American taxpayer his home, health care, education and retirement. Also, it has never worked on our supposed enemy who eludes us at every turn. Our enemy reminds me of the old Rocky & Bullwinkle nemesis Mr Big, whose shadow was so terrifying but whose reality was that of a small disfigured misanthrope. The American people have for years seen through the slogans and have begged to get out of Iraq, but our wacky government moves painfully slow in making any real changes of any benefit for the citizenry.

The Conservatives/Republicans are hearing the public is fed up with our health care woes and costly beyond belief market that benefits only the insurance industry, a small percentage of medical workers and the pharmaceutical industry. The Republican answer is to embrace more competition in the market place, and a tax break offered as a "health savings account" that in no way can pay for much in our current medical cost world. It is a sham of a proposal and its very name is simply another euphemism for giving the most wealthy the biggest savings. Republicans have got nothing to promote.

Every rational human being in this country knows a very small percentage of people have profitted at the majority's expense these past seven years, which has seen disastrous results for average citizens. America elected an oil man and the oil companies got a whole lot richer. The oil cartel has used every disaster and armed confrontation to increase the  price of petroleum, which has been downloaded to a weakened dollar and declining wage worker in America. This same oil cartel, in bed with giant agri-chemical companies and food processing giants, has spawned  a monoculture of corn derivatives on the American consumer. This has forced up food prices, spread disease and bacteria and transformed a once healthy nation into a collection of over-weight high fructose corn syrup diabetics with a declining life expectancy outlook for the first time in our nation's history.

Every attack will be made that can be conceived of by right-wing extremists to try and put fear into the citizenry regarding the Democratic Presidential nominee. The candidate, Barrack Obama, is a brilliant man. Those who know him have all said so. The frightened power mongers on the right have tried to paint his pastor as a madman, and marginalized a whole life's work of community service into a twenty-second angry sound bite. People are not fooled any longer by the clumsy attempts of boorish propogandists who are paid big bucks by an establishment that fears change more than any other thing.  Even Sean Insannity knows the Republican playbook is ready for the scrap heap. Calling well a qualified candidate an idiot is an act of complete desperation from a mindset that has lost all touch with the world.

I stumbled upon the Great Valley Center, which is a nonprofit  organization that provides information to policymakers, businesses and other nonprofits to help better the state of affairs here in the Central Valley, when I recently read an article from the Sacramento Bee. The organization is headquartered in Modesto, and just released a report on the state of healthcare in the valley. 

A few areas of concern from the report are the lack of physicians and specialists in the valley compared to the metropolitan areas. Kern County is near the bottom in terms of physicians available per 1,000 patients with only 1.4 doctors available. Fresno and Bakersfield are one-two in chlamydia cases in the state. Kern County has the highest incidents of coronary heart disease deaths in the state. The statewide average for coronary heart disease death is 162 per 100,00 patients. Kern County had 267.9 deaths per 100,000 in 2007.  The statewide average for cancer deaths per 100,000 is 165.1.  Kern County clocks in at 198.8 cancer deaths per 100,000. Kings, Tulare, Merced and Kern counties are one through four for the highest incidents of diabetes deaths in the state.

Maybe the biggest contributor to all these startling statistics is the tremendous amount of poverty found in the Central Valley, and particularly here in Kern County. California has 17% of its persons under the age of eighteen living in poverty. Kern County has 29% of this population base living in poverty, behind only Madera Fresno and Kings counties for highest poverty honors.

Having just visited the doctor and radiology lab, where you must pay, up-front, the cost difference between what your insurance will cover and the balance for the tests prescribed I saw plenty of people forced to leave without getting their asked for exams.

To your health and the hope for a single payer system very soon.