WOW REPORTS (8/17-8/21) | 08/16/2009 11:00 pm

wOw Reports: What News Matters to You – And Why?

We are inviting you to share with us – and everyone else – the compelling news events that are impacting your life.

By YOU!

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wOw Reports is a place for YOU, the wowOwow.com community, to tell us — and everyone else — the stories that you find most compelling, interesting and important. Whether it’s urgent circumstances happening in your neck of the woods or happenings in another country, tell us the news that is most important to you — and why.

wOw Reports hopes to become a new kind of news site — one based solely on a community of shared interests and positive, open discussions. So let’s get the storytelling started below.

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531 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Here is some news…. (not that it wasn’t very obvious at the time)… talk about treasonous behavior and "grabbing elections"!! Imagine using terror warnings to scare and manipulate the American people after all they went through on 9/11! Stunning!

Tom Ridge: I Was Pressured To Raise Terror Alert To Help Bush Win

excerpts: "In a new book, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge reveals new details on politicization under President Bush, reports US News & World Report’s Paul Bedard. Among other things, Ridge admits that he was pressured to raise the terror alert to help Bush win re-election in 2004.

… The Bush administration was forced to admit in the days after the 2004 alert that it was based on intelligence three or four years old. Officials then claimed there was a previously unmentioned "separate stream of intelligence" that justified the warning — but offered little tangible information to support their new story..

ThinkProgress recalls, the AP reported that "even ‘some senior Republicans’ privately questioned Ridge’s timing of a terror alert that came just three days after the Democratic National Convention.""

By DeBúrca obj on 08/20/2009 12:14 pm

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I have a grandson in Afghanistan so I pretty much try not to watch or listen to the news from there. I’m not sure I care all that much except to bring him home safely. After 62 years of watching politicians and greedy men ruin our country and our world I am becoming apathetic and cynical about people in general. This business of not wanting to help people with no healthcare because it would take a little away from me is absurb and downright unamerican. You have a choice to either be part of the problem or be part of the solution. Furthermore it is none of my business who you want to marry. If someone is willing to accept the resposibilities and obligations that go with marriage who am I to say that they are wrong to do so because the partners are of the same sex. In the book of John God said to Love One Another …no distinction was made as to gender. This new law replaced all the old laws. As a people we have chosen to ignore history and have decided that only "our" interpertation of "the good and holy books" are true and correct. Balderdash!

By Nathalie Wilson on 08/20/2009 12:39 pm

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Amen, Nathalie! I pray your grandson returns home safely…….he is a real hero to serve his country in this way.

By MK P on 08/20/2009 7:41 pm

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Great, heartfelt post Nathalie. And I hope your grandson is safe at home very soon.

By DeBúrca obj on 08/21/2009 9:34 am

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Obama Smerconish Interview: "Guarantees" Reform, Still Open To GOP

excerpt: "Obama’s most powerful moment, however, may have come when he addressed a caller who had supported his 2008 campaign but was concerned that the president’s knees were "buckling" when it came to getting health care reform passed.

"I guarantee you," he told the caller, "we are going to get health care reform done. And I know that there are a lot of people out there who have been hand wringing and folks in the press are following every little twist and turn of the legislative process. You know, passing a big bill like this is always messy. FDR was called a socialist when he passed Social Security. JFK and Lyndon Johnson, they were both accused of a government takeover of health care, when they passed Medicare. This is the process we go through because understandably, the American people have a long tradition of being suspicious of government, until the government actually does something that helps them, and then they don’t want anybody messing with whatever gets set up. And I’m confident we’re going to get it done.""

By DeBúrca obj on 08/20/2009 7:20 pm

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Case closed. Enough said. The End.

By DeBúrca obj on 08/20/2009 7:23 pm

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Hi DeBurca. Hopefully you remember me, though I have been absent from this site for a long time. I was very active during the 2008 presidential campaign, and an ardent Obama supporter. However, I am (and remain) ambivalent about his — or any — universal health care coverage plan. BTW: in the last 3 years, I have had to rely on COBRA twice for health care coverage. Each time, I maintained COBRA coverage because I put a priority on placing my financial resources (which were limited) on health care coverage.

If you remember me as an ardent Obama supporter, I trust you realize that my reservations are about the principle, and not about Pres. Obama. I have great respect for your opinioin, so please tell me - don’t you have any reservations? You have discussed possible emigration to Ireland — this may seem like a cheap shot, but the logistics of providing universal coverage to Ireland is very different from providing it to all Americans (however "Americans" are defined).

I am the typical Woman-on-the-Web (W-O-W): I support myself (i.e., no husband) and have been my sole support for 20+ years. Though I am a professional in my 50’s, I hit the glass ceiling, and will have to work 20 years more (beyond the 32 years I have worked so far) to consider retirement — No Pension. Or die

Well, that’s the story of a lot of us, but my point is this: I know Obama promises to tax only the wealthy to fund universal health care, but life doesn’t always go according to plan!!!! And it’s the plodders like me — who keep on working, and working, and working, and working, etc,. ad nauseum …..who ALWAYS get taxed to pay for MORE benefits for someone else. I believe Obama believe what he says (that only the very wealthy will be taxed), but this is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. YOU HAVE TO KNOW IT. All these "projections" — if they don’t prove correct, do we ask the movie projectionists to make up the difference???? Do we ask the persons who made the faulty projections to make up the difference? Maybe we should.

I think the balance of opinion would be tipped if Obama/the proponents would address the real fear; how do I (i.e., "EveryWOMAN") pay for universal health care when I don’t know if I can ever retire with dignity? I have worked hard and I — NO ONE ELSE — has earned the fruits of my labor, dammit!!!! I think Obama underestimates how deep this fear abides in the national psyche, including his supporters. Recent financial events demonstrate an objective basis for such fears, and that fiinancial security is fragile for many Americans, not just those without health care.

Sorry for the rant, and not sorry. I don’t mean to unload it on your shoulders, but I don’t understand how it can be so simple. Enough. It is good to be back at this site.

By Linda Mason on 08/20/2009 11:40 pm

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No ambivilance whatsoever here. I’ve lived with decent coverage, I’ve been uninsured (along with my children) after my husband died, I’ve been insured with lousy high deductible catastrophic plans that kept me awake at night and STILL cost nearly a mortgage pmt per month, I’ve again been without insurance because of sudden job loss, I’ve paid $1200 per month for COBRA, I’ve been turned down for insurance due to both very minor reasons (like going for counseling after my husband’s death) and later for a rather minor pre-existing condition. I have insurance now through my new husband’s job, yet we pay nearly $600 per month for THAT even with it coming through employment… and still I fear getting sick because the bills never seem to be covered with huge portions going toward the deductible. Now that’s just my experience. I know people who have gone bankrupt because of healthcare costs, people WITH insurance. I know women who have had to find childcare for their children and take menial type jobs just for health insurance for the family because their husband works for himself and they can’t afford to buy into a plan.

As far as taxes go… I would say paying $1200 per month for COBRA was well above any tax I could possibly be hit with. Even now, paying $600 per month along with what I pay every time someone in this family visits a doctor and most of it ends up unpaid and put toward the deductible.

I am more "scared" of what I have than of worrying about a tax I have been told I will not have.

My husband lived his whole life in Ireland and after being her 5 years is appalled at out system, cannot believe a country he once was so in awe of could treat their people like this. I lived there for a year and had a baby there. I’ve experienced their system firsthand. I even had my older daughter there who needed some follow up care after a major surgery which she got in a timely manner, no hitch… I paid a total of about $50 for a consult and her x-rays were no charge.

I have no doubt that this country can handle a public option, or better yet, single payer, as well or better than any other country. Our numbers have nothing to do with it. It would just be on a larger scale, but that only means there are more people in the pool paying for it. We’ve had to do everything in this country on a larger scale.

At the end of the day, I can move to Ireland and not have to deal with this. But I am still determined that Healthcare Reform be passed in this country for three reasons. One, because it is the right thing to do and here or not, I am an American citizen and I want my country to have its priorities readjusted to treat its people properly. Two and Three… I have 2 children in their 20s who are American citizens who do not have the option of leaving if this system stays as it is and I want it for them. I don’t want them to have to live through this for profit American healthcare industry, I want them to live in a country that has a humane healthcare system.

I really don’t understand the fear of taxes. We already pay 3 times what the rest of the Western Civilized World pays per capita. Most of us are just one major illness away from bankruptcy, though many apparently don’t know it. Like I said, I’ve paid $1200 per mo for COBRA and I’m paying nearly $600 per mo right now for Blue Cross through an employer! Taxes are not the problem.

And mark my words. If we get a strong public option in this country there will be a boom in entrepreneurship. THAT is the sort of recession buster we need, from the bottom up.

By DeBúrca obj on 08/21/2009 8:21 am

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Clarify: "We already pay 3 times what the rest of the Western Civilized World pays per capita. "… that is referring to what we pay per capita for healthcare.

By DeBúrca obj on 08/21/2009 8:25 am

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"If we get a strong public option in this country there will be a boom in entrepreneurship. THAT is the sort of recession buster we need, from the bottom up. "

So agree with you!!! I know when my employer bid against other insurance companies for some of the Medicare business, "our" bids lost…they didn’t think they had to "give a little" to get the government contracts. Well, other insurance companies got the contracts and our Medicare subsidiary just closed..Glad I retired last year.

My employer just built a big, new complex overlooking the city. They had too much cash reserves according to a newspaper article prior to beginning the construction of the new complex. So instead of being audited by the state insurance commission the employees got a new building to work in. However, the company could not "give" enough back to get government contracts which meant loss of jobs for those in the Medicare subsidiary. Just the way business works, I guess.

By Dab-a- do on 08/21/2009 6:17 pm

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Hi Everybody — It’s good to be back!

When this website first appeared, I clipped a newpaper article (remember newspapers?) about a site dedicated to smart, educated women over 40. I was never one to surf the web (and still don’t), but the idea of a web site that focused on women my own age had a lot of appeal.

It’s been very gratifying to read and share thoughts of women far more knowledgable than me (DeBurca, Diana, and others too numerous to mention). Frankly, though, the site often disappoints. The Women on the Web don’t aim high enough. I understand the need to attract advertisers, but do we really need pieces drooling over over-the-hill divas such as Cher? Or Ms. Reed’s narcissism (I knew so-and-so, ….). There may be [another] place for it’s so shallow. It does not sustain us.

Anyway, while I have been away, I have missed this site terribly and its lively discussions on political issues. Yes, the last election was extraordianary, and we all may have suffered from over-exposure, but PLEASE DON"T DUMB-DOWN THIS SITE!!!

Best to all, Linda.

By Linda Mason on 08/20/2009 10:18 pm

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I know what you mean Linda. Those bits about the divas are fine if used sparingly, but lately it is all we’ve had. This has turned into the Liz Smith site. I have nothing against Liz Smith, but that is just about all we’ve had in here for a week.

By DeBúrca obj on 08/21/2009 8:27 am