adral's blog

AB 52 Healthcare Coverage: Rate Approval Fails, California Democratic Sen. Ed Hernandez Chair of Senate Committee on Health Gets Job Done for Healthcare Insurers – California’s Citizens at the Mercy of Profiteers
by Andrew H. Dral (Janosik -- The Rabble)

This was the fourth time in four years a bill, similar to Assembly Bill (AB) 52 Healthcare Coverage: Rate Approval (AB 52), to control exorbitant healthcare prices: premiums, deductibles, and co-pays failed to become law. If AB 52 had become law California would have joined 34 other states and the District of Columbia already having the authority to reject excessive health insurance rate hikes. The California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones would be given the power to reject exorbitant health insurance rate increases.

AB 52 is the logical extension to Senate Bill (SB) 1163, which went into effect last January, providing, among other capabilities, the insurance commissioner the ability to gather detailed financial information on premium increases. According to SB 1163 the insurance commissioner cannot reject a price hike, but can require certification from an outside actuary to determine if the rate increase is reasonable, post the findings to a Web site, and can ask for a delay in the price increase.

The Son of Reagan Wants to Eviscerate Housing for the Working Class -- Call Your Representative and Senators to Save the GSEs
By Andrew H. Dral (The Rabble – Janosik)

The son of Reagan wants to destroy the ability -- originally promoted by Roosevelt’s New Deal -- of providing home ownership for working class people. Mr. Obama wants to do away with the two government sponsored enterprises (GSEs): Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Please, there should be no doubts, Mr. Obama is promoting Chicago School neoliberal policies. Both of these entities were chartered by congress, Fannie Mae was chartered in 1938, a product of the Great Depression and Freddie Mac was chartered by congress in 1970. The private sector does not have the ability to fund housing for the middle and lower class (working class) of this nation, i.e, provide low cost mortgage market liquidity.

There is so much disinformation about the GSEs, it’s tough to discern where to start. Overall, we have to narrow the mandate, i.e, only provide support for 15 and 30 year plain vanilla fixed mortgages for the middle class and below. We should not be running the GSEs for the benefit of Wall Street, a tremendous mission creep, which has been what has been happening over the last 20 years, we must stick to the original 1938 Fannie Mae mandate to run the agency for Main Street. My thoughts about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

1. First of all, the GSEs should remain government agencies, wholly owned by the government, no privatization, no stock ownership, and no corporate boards to promote cronyism. Management should be government bureaucrats, not Wall Street types like Franklin D. Raines or Jim Johnson, former Democratic Clintonista hacks. Exhibit A of government back-sheesh to political hacks is the appointment of Rahm Emanuel on Freddie Mac’s board in February 2000. Rahm Emanuel has spent his life destroying working people, eviscerating their livelihoods, stamping out progressive politics, and promoting Chicago school neoliberal economic policies. For a long career dedicated to promote Wall Street criminality Rahm Emanuel was awarded with a 14-month term on Freddie Mac’s board earning $320,000 for doing almost nothing.

I thought the GSEs were insolvent from a capitalization perspective, normal bank Tier 1 and 2 standards -- below adequately capitalized, years ago, yet they kept on chugging along. Solid standards of capital requirements should be maintained, monitored, and reported. The public should have transparent access to capital adequacy.

2. Narrow the mandate, what do I mean by that? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should stick to fixed maturity 15 and 30 year plain vanilla standard fixed payment schedule mortgages to middle class families and below. No exotic mortgages, for example, no funding for adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) of any kind, no Alt-A -- the liar loans or no documentation loans, no subprime mortgages (FICO scores under 720 not acceptable), no unconventional jumbos over $450,000 limit, and no balloon payment mortgage vehicles, just plain fixed payment vehicles that a borrower can without penalty pay down in advance if they so desire.

Since the health care reform debate is heating-up across the country I sent this letter over the Christmas break to my ex-state representatives in the New Jersey State Legislature – 11th District. Their stance against health care reform voiced in a July 2009 letter bothered me, the first step in curing an addict is to admit a problem, the Republicans will not admit we have a health care problem. A recent study published in Health Affairs (conducted by Columbia University), peer-reviewed, concludes the USA is now 49th in life expectancy, for both male and female life expectancy combined, compared to 24th 10 years ago in 1999, World Health Organization. True progressives have a solution: single payer universal government sponsored health care for all, the Republicans refuse or cannot bring themselves to admit we are in a health care crisis. They are addicts drunk with corporate power, oblivious to the world around them.
by Andrew H. Dral (The Rabble -- Janosik)

Dear Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini, Assemblyman David Rible, Senator Sean T. Kean,

In regards to the enclosed letter on health care you sent me on July 6, 2009. In that letter you said you had serious reservations about the president’s health care reform plan. You indicated not signing onto New Jersey’s “Progressive Health Care Reform,“ instead I assume you ecstatically embrace the Republican health care program, i.e., outlined by America’s hero: Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida’s 8th district, “don’t get sick, and if you do get sick die quickly.“ The current privatized U.S. employer based health care system is broken. It doesn’t work. I lost my job a few years ago and couldn’t get health care at any price, because I had a pre-existing condition. What good is a health care system if you can’t participate in it?

Dark Legacy Film and Kennedy Assassination Presentation at the Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco by Paul Kangas
Andrew H. Dral

Tuesday, 11/9/10, 7PM and 9PM at the Red Vic Movie House, 1727 Haight Street, Web Site: http://www.redvicmoviehouse.com/

Hosted by Paul Kangas, a member of a U.S. Marine detail assigned to protect Pres. John F. Kennedy. Paul was trained for the April 1961
invasion of Cuba. Paul, a friend and activist, will give a presentation at each showing, detailing his vast knowledge of the Kennedy
assassination and new information on bullet holes and modern forensic sound techniques verifying multiple assassins and shots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKIeMZSJCEA. Paul will convey his knowledge of the Cuban invasion and the people in
charge -- George H. W. Bush. Paul is a great resource and scholar on the Kennedy Assassination, you might want to hear
the facts from a person that lived through this chilling event before he is no longer with us.

Get directions to the Red Vic Movie House, 1727 Haight Street, at Web Site: http://www.redvicmoviehouse.com/directions.php.

Letter to the Redwood City Council to Reconsider Cutting Fireman or a Firehouse, Why Not Raise Taxes from the Corporations or the Rich?
Andrew H. Dral (Janosik -- The Rabble)

Please, don't cut the jobs of our fireman or shut-down a firehouse to save on costs. I'd rather pay more taxes to keep these services and keep our fireman on the job. It would be preferable to pay a progressive tax, for example a state income tax with rising tax rate based on income. I'm less happy to see a regressive tax, on electricity, natural gas, tele-comm, or cable TV, but would rather see this implemented than have cuts made to our fire services. You could also consider taxing the corporations or the rich whom don't pay their fair share of taxes.

Response to “The Start of the Second American Revolution?” by Paul Joseph Watson Issue 3 August 2009 The Sovereign – Hey “Tea Bagger” Twisted Dupes to the Plutocracy – Our Forefathers Are Not With You Nor Are “We” the People!
by Andrew H. Dral

We have it in our power to begin the world over again. Thomas Paine

A version of this article was published in Issue 17 January 2010 of The Sovereign -- a small New York monthly. It was written in response to an article written by "Tea Bagger" Paul Joseph Watson Issue 3 August 2009 of The Sovereign. You might find this updated version of interest.

I found Mr. Watson’s diatribe in the August edition of you paper completely misdirected and without merit. He ruthlessly attacked the U.S. government and President Obama, but what about the true enemy of working class America -- corporate America’s plutonomy -- the corporate aristocracy. Mr. Watson has been duped. He has been made a willing fool and a tool of the corporatists, along with those that would follow the will and policies that benefit the corporations and the plutocrats. Had Mr. Watson and his “tea-baggers” been around during our Revolutionary War times they would have sided with the British loyalists, the Tories.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine King of Goldman Sach’s Plutocrats – a Plutocratic Virus on the Body Politic -- Through Wall Street Fraud, Privatization, Poor Government, & Corruption, Wages War on New Jersey’s (NJ) Middle Class – A Progressive -- Not On Your Life
Andrew H. Dral

“You may fool all the people some of the time,
you can even fool some of the people all the time;
but you can’t fool all of the people all the time."
Abraham Lincoln

New Jersey’s Auction-Rate Securities Exposure
Goldman, the Standard Oil of Modern Times, the Fifth Column
All Government Agencies are Fair Game for Privatization
Gov. Corzine’s Tin Ear to Environmental Issues
Unequivocal Support of the Jewish Theocracy of Israel
Lack of Transparency In the Governor’s Suite
Continuing a Democratic Regime of Bribery, Influence Peddling, & Corruption
Summary

Upon my return to New Jersey (NJ) from my vacation in December 2008 I was welcomed back with a new toll hike. Directly from the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s (Goldman) playbook, Governor (Gov.) Jon S. Corzine, a former Co-Chairman at Goldman, implemented another regressive tax, taking another whack at the folks with the least ability to pay. Gov. Corzine spent 24 years at Goldman, before running for the U.S. Senate in 1999. It was a 43% toll hike on the middle class. My weekly trip back and forth to Northern NJ, will cost me an additional $75 annually, not to mention all the other times I traverse NJ’s toll roads.

The Governor never understood the difference between a regressive and progressive tax. In March 2008 the Governor successfully attacked the middle class by instituting parking fees on commuters to New York, costing me an additional $300 per year. The thought of a progressive state income tax, taxing those with the most ability to pay, to shore-up the states budget deficit was a small part of this Governor’s agenda. It was suggested this spring that a 0.75% temporary tax increase in the state income tax on residents making more than $500,000 a year could help close NJ’s $8 billion budget gap, but that was deemed too harsh on those with the most ability to pay. It would hurt the Governor’s plutocratic friends. A much better plan, according to the Governor, was to cut the pay or freeze the wages of state workers, the state’s scapegoats, reduce their pensions, forego their 3.5% annual pay raise, and force them to take unpaid furloughs. Another alternative was to maintain a deaf ear to the plight of homeowner’s suffering from the highest property taxes in the nation. The mantra of Gov. Corzine was to attack, attack, relentlessly attack the middle class.

During the governor’s rein, the state and its citizens have been subjected to Wall Street pay-back by availing NJ to the auction-rate securities market, privatization schemes, poor environmental policies, government corruption, and non-transparent processes. Wall Street windfalls continue, while a small increase in state workers’ pay is deemed excessive. The auction-rate securities market was marketed to governments and public institutions bankrolled by NJ’s taxpayers.

Proxy Access: the Rights of Shareholders to Nominate Directors, Big Deal for Unions, Pension Funds, and Institutional Investors, Could Transform the Corporate Board Room
by Andrew H. Dral

The following letter was sent by me to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in response to their request for comment on the "proxy access" rule. If you want to make a difference send them your opinion, just upload your letter at "www.sec.gov." The Chamber of Commerce is doing a full court press to water down this rule, any comments you make will help our cause to wrench control away from the corportocracy. This rule will give shareholders more power to replace entrenched corporate board members. My letter, included below, is on the SEC Web site.

http://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-10-09/s71009-513.htm

SEC Headquarters
100 F Street N.E.
Washington, DC 20549

Dear SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro,

In theory, our business texts tell us that shareholders own the corporation. The corporate board of directors works for the interests of the shareholders. Decisions by the board benefit shareholders. Like, so many other fallacies in our society, this is a blatant lie. As corporate boards across our land prove every day, the board of directors works for the interests of management. They promote unwarranted -- out of sight -- management salaries. Its members maintain their status by being docile puppy dogs, and they remain on the board at the pleasure of management. In other words, the current boards are lackeys and lapdogs for management. The crisis in corporate America orchestrated by overly aggressive, unethical, greedy, and corrupt management teams at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, AIG, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, and Adelphia could have been avoided with boards that were engaged in the operation and long-term value of the business.

They Tell Me There Are a Lot of Cockroaches in New York, Now We Have Proof, New York’s Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Senator Charles E. Schumer Proud Members of the Plutocracy
by Andrew H. Dral

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York showed his support for Israel during the 23 days, January 3, 2009 – January 26, 2009, of hell on earth for Palestinian civilians in Gaza by flying to Israel, on January 5, 2009. The mayor uplifted the citizens in the southern Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon with his presence of solidarity. His trip was a pure propaganda play for the consumption of New York’s rabid supporters of Israel.

Senator Charles E. Schumer gave a speech on Saturday, January 10, in front of the Israeli embassy in New York, during the Israeli onslaught. He praised the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for texting messages to Palestinian families before blowing up their homes, “what country does that, what country,” exclaimed the Senator. Mayor Bloomberg and Senator Schumer display the lowest form of unethical and immoral parasitic behavior. They are a disgrace to the state of New York, our country, and all of humanity. They support and are loyal to an international outlaw state, the fanatical theocratic state of Israel. Israel was not provoked, it attacked Gaza for no other reason other than to exert collective punishment on a people – to teach them a lesson – a war crime.

Palestinians paying the price, Sunday, January 11, 2009, The Herald News Letters to the Editor
By Andrew H. Dral

The destruction and massacre unleashed by the Israelis against the Palestinians in Gaza is so one sided, it boggles the mind. Hundreds of Palestinians are reported dead, many of them civilians (estimates 30 percent civilians, mostly children), compared just a handful of Israelis. How can Americans sleep knowing that children are being killed with our weapons at the hands of Israeli soldiers?

Israel will not go back to its 1967 borders — U.N. Resolution 242 — and will not adhere to the Geneva Conventions or the will of the international community through many, many United Nations resolutions. It has an economic stronghold on Gaza. The Israeli land grab under President Bush has been in full throttle. Hamas rockets from Gaza are pea shooters compared to the collective punishment, economic embargo and massive military force perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people.

Listen to National Public Radio’s (NPR’s) “Take Away” with John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji and be Mislead, Misinformed, and Propagandized
Andrew H. Dral

On Friday morning December 26, 2008 John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji (I believe) interviewed David Frum. Mr. Frum represents the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a reactionary think tank espousing royalist propaganda. Mr. Frum made a statement that Bush had created jobs during his administration as one of his successes. There was no response from Mr. Hockenberry or Ms. Udoji, just silence. I was astounded. Mr. Frum is the same individual that invented Bush’s “Axis of Evil,” and wrote many of Bush’s early speeches. In early October 2002 Bush gave a speech in Cincinnati, Ohio. In that speech Bush unequivocally asserted Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program. Bush indicated Iraq was rebuilding its nuclear facilities. Iraq was purchasing high-strength aluminum tubes with other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, the propagandist in chief said. All of these assertions were lies. Why Mr. Frum would be given full, unfettered access to National Public Radio’s (NPR’s) audience is beyond me. He has a history of lies, deceit, and distortions, yet Hockenberry and Udoji had no problem helping him catapult the propaganda, as Bush would say.

A point of fact, job creation has been extremely weak during the Bush administration, by some measures the weakest on record, four years after the 2001 recession ended the job count increased by only 2.6%, the slowest rate ever recorded, surpassing the previous low of 4% set four years after the 1953-1954 recession. Bush promised his policies – deregulation, globalization, privatization, and free trade – would create 8 million (MM) jobs a year. The best he could do was just over 2MM jobs a year. On average, 189,000 jobs were created every month in 2006, compared to only 111,000 jobs per month in 2007. A matter of fact the first quarter of 2007 was the slowest quarterly rate of job creation ever recorded. You need at least 150,000 jobs created a month to be at equilibrium, i.e., providing jobs to new entrants into the work force. This is a far cry from 1994 to 2000 period when the Clinton administration was averaging creating roughly 300,000 jobs per month. At the time of the Frum interview, the latest year to date non-farm payroll numbers the economy had lost over 1.9MM jobs. For calendar year 2008 we’ve lost 2.6MM jobs. You have to go back to the Great Depression to get these economic numbers. A matter of fact, 2008 was the worst job loss year since 1945.

A recent article in the New York Times by Floyd Norris published on January 24, 2009 indicates during Bush’s term the economy added enough jobs to employ only 14% of the added number of working-age Americans, the lowest proportion of any postwar administration. Employment grew at a compound annual growth rate of 0.3%, half the 0.6% rate that his father had recorded in what had previously been the worst post-World War II performance.

Flat Earth Society Deniers of Global Warming -- Heartland Institute -- Surrogate for Exxon Mobil and Reactionary Industrialists Propagandize the Public
Version Published January 16, 2009, Asbury Park Press
by Andrew H. Dral

LETTER: Global warming real, and economic hazard

Those who are trying to deny global warming exists should stop ("Global warming screed suffers from scarcity of facts," Jan. 2).

The Heartland Institute, whose op-ed was printed in the Press, does not stand for truth or scientific facts. The letter was pure corporate propaganda.

Former Vice President Al Gore, in his fact-filled book and movie on global warming, showed the rise in CO2, changes in heat levels, in precipitation and in water levels, the melting of glaciers, the change in strength and frequency of hurricanes, as well as changes in ocean currents and wind currents.

Peer-review articles prove over and again that global warming exists and that those who disagree are funded by corporate interests — industries such as oil and auto that want to keep raping our environment.

As far as drought goes, talk to a farmer in Georgia. The southern United States has had a tremendous drought during the last few years. In fact, our focus should not be just on New Jersey, but on the world we live in, the total ecosystem, without borders. What we do in New Jersey affects the entire world. And severe droughts are occurring worldwide with greater intensity than locals ever anticipated.

The cost to clean up the environment is money well spent. A clean, balanced environment will create a healthy economic environment. A few more Katrinas, and you can kiss away the Gulf Coast as an economic machine. We can't have citizens living in an environment of toxic waste and expect the economy and people to flourish.

First Hand Report from the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, January, 10, Demonstration/March in Washington, DC
By Andrew H. Dral

On Saturday, January 10, 2009, I joined over 15,000 protestors in Washington, DC to show support and solidarity for and with the Palestinian people in Gaza. Hopefully, some of our lawmakers were inconvenienced by the long procession of people through our nation’s capital, which snaked as far as I could see, with a nice density and width. Even though the only quote for the number of marchers was made by Indymedia, at over 15,000, it appeared to me like there were more, 40,000 to 50,000 participants, possibly. I have only been to one demonstration, in Washington, where I thought there were more people, then there were 500,000. There were signs and marchers as far as the eye could see. A tremendous mass of humanity and colorful signs. I took a break about 3/4s of the way through the march, came back about 30 minutes later and the marchers were just as dense, wide, and deep in the streets as when I left the march.

I saw some coverage after the demonstration by Reuters, AP, and Indymedia. Reuters just mentioned there was a demonstration, while AP distorted its report by quoting a pro-Israeli demonstrator in a video. Note, this witness never saw any pro-Israeli counter demonstrators, none, not a one. There were some Hasidic Jews marching with everyone else, but they were protesting against Isael too. Note, if you rely on AP you will be misled, it consistently distorts and obfuscates the news, almost always. The AP is part of the right wing echo-chamber. By far Indymedia gave the most coverage and the most accurate, with pictures:

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/145222/index.php
http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/145232/index.php