Let the Debate Begin!

On 30 July 1965, at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in
Missouri, President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) signed Medicare
into law. Former President Truman sits at the signing with LBJ.
Mrs. Truman is behind her husband and Vice President
Hubert H. Humphrey and Mrs. Johnson look on.

The Question of Health Care Reform: It is as important as was the Civil Rights Legislation of ’64 and the Medicare Legislation of ’65.
by Charlie Leck

The two bills passed, one in 1964 and the other in 1965, are as important and successful as any legislation ever passed in the United States Congress. I’m talking about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Medicare bill of 1965.

They were passed under the guidance of a guy who may have been the toughest S.O.B. ever to work in Congress and the White House. As tough and as crude as he was, he was a genius in the political process required to pass controversial legislation. He was the proverbial “horse trader.” As they say about great legislative leaders, “he knew how to count!” More importantly, he knew just how hard to twist a guy’s arm and that was sometimes right to the breaking point. They called him LBJ.

Oh for an LBJ right now, when the United States Congress will open debate on one of the most historic and important pieces of legislation ever to appear before it – the people’s right to high quality health care no matter what their economic status.

Just to define the ethical principle, it has never seemed fair to me that I should be able to afford medical and health care and advice from the finest doctors and institutions available and another person should not. That is the simple case in a nutshell.

There will be right wing jerks who will try to make it out as socialism or even vile communism! They should be laughed out of the halls of Congress; however, massive amounts of people, who do not truly understand the principles of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States, will believe them. Our right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” is a guaranty made impossible if we cannot care for our health! Period and exclamation mark.

The movement toward securing those rights began in the Civil Rights Act of ’64 and took the next step in passage of the Medicare legislation of ’65. Passing a health care bill that provides all people with an affordable public option SHOULD THEY CHOOSE IT, is the next step toward guaranteed, universal health care for all people. Such legislation would bring us one step closer to the modern world. It would inch us closer toward civilization and basic human fairness.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, for all his faults, understood that all Americans deserved to be a part of the great dream. My, how I disagreed with and fought the bastard over so many issues. Yet how tall he stood on that day when he said: “We SHALL overcome!” How proud he was the day he took pen in hand and stroked his signature over the Congressional bill, the Social Security Act of 1965, that guaranteed high quality health care to America’s senior citizens.

John F. Kennedy, before Johnson, had worked hard to pass the medicare legislation and so had President Harry S. Truman, but both had failed to work it through Congress. The master of the "hit upside the head" came in and led the blocking as the bill approached the goal line. It will take such a bold President, using all the wheeling and dealing powers at his disposal today, to get the American Health Care Reform Act passed during his tenure in the White House.

"At 2 p.m. on the afternoon of July 30, 1965 two planeloads of dignitaries departed Andrews Air Force Base in Washington for a flight to Kansas City, Missouri. In the lead plane, Air Force One, was President Lyndon Johnson and the first-rank of Washington officialdom. In the second plane were the second-tier dignitaries and the press. After arriving in Kansas City the group departed in a huge motorcade for the smaller town of Independence-a 20 minute drive from Kansas City. The group's destination was the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, where Johnson planned to sign into law the bill creating the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

"During his prepared remarks, Johnson stood at a podium with President Truman at his left side. Near the end of his prepared remarks President Johnson turned again to Truman and offered to enroll him in the Part B Medical Insurance program. Johnson told him, 'They told me, President Truman, that if you wish to get the voluntary medical insurance you will have to sign this application form. And they asked me to sign as your witness. So you're getting special treatment since cards won't go out to the other folks until the end of this month.' Johnson then looked back over at Truman and said, 'But we wanted you to know, and we wanted the whole world to know,' at this point Johnson leaned over towards Truman, sticking his long hound-dog face right in Truman's, 'who is the real daddy of Medicare.' Truman mumbled his appreciation. Johnson then signed up Harry Truman as the first Medicare beneficiary." [from a 2003 Article by Larry DeWitt]

To read an incredible inside story about how LBJ managed the political deal, read the story cited above by Larry DeWitt. That article concludes in the following manner:

"The passage of Medicare would be one of the lasting achievements of Lyndon Johnson's presidency and a key enduring pillar of the Great Society. While the general outline of Medicare's legislative history had been well-known for some time, the recent releases of Lyndon Johnson's secretly recorded White House phone conversations throws some new light, and adds some additional nuances, to this broad story. We see, for example, more clearly than previously appreciated the key role that Wilbur Cohen played in the successful campaign for Medicare's passage through Congress. We hear Lyndon Johnson express the populist sentiments which inform his commitment to programs like Medicare. We see some of the ups and downs and uncertainties of the legislative process with a clarity that is lost in a simple listing of key dates of the passage of bills through the various stages of the legislative process.

"At the end of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt was reported to have considered the Social Security Act of 1935 to be the proudest domestic achievement of his political career. It is unknown whether Lyndon Johnson saw Medicare as his. But one thing is certain which both Presidents had in common. Social Security would not have been enacted in 1935 without Franklin Roosevelt in the White House, and Medicare would not have been enacted in 1965 if Lyndon Johnson had not been President. They both were the indispensable right man for the right time."

The question now is: Do we have the right man for the right time?

Spectacular Lamb Shoulder Chops

This is not an actual picture of the chops I served. Had I known they
were going to be so wonderful, I would have taken photographs.

Shoulder meat from the lamb must be given some attention to enjoy it at a dazzling level!
by Charlie Leck

Here’s how to prepare fabulous shoulder chops!
On Thursday, my wife set out some lamb shoulder and arm chops to thaw. She suggested I prepare them for dinner if they thawed in time and she warned me that our butcher said that these were a bit inferior in comparison to the meat we sell our customers, so he had marked them NOT FOR SALE. It sounded like a challenge to me, so I decided not to rush them and to hold them for Friday evening instead.

Early Friday morning I prepared a marinade for the thawed chops. I mixed the following ingredients in a bowl as the marinade:

· Soy Sauce (quite a bit of it)
· Vinegar (ordinary cooking vinegar) – a few tablespoons!
· 2 Tablespoons of classic olive oil
· A healthy amount of ground black pepper corns
· A dash or two of salt
· A shake or two of paprika
· A third of a teaspoon of ginger
· 4 garlic cloves minced and mashed
· a third of a cup of red wine

I had already taken the chops out of the refrigerator and I was allowing them to warm up some. I took a sharp paring knife and cut little slits all over both sides of each chop. Two of the chops were from the shoulder and two were arm chops, which are cut from the top of the arm section of the lamb shoulder. If you’d like an explanation of various chop cuts from the lamb, go to this illustrated web page.

I put the chops in a single layer in a roasting dish. I then poured the marinade evenly over them and rubbed it in a bit. I sealed the dish with a plastic wrap and allowed them to marinade in the refrigerator about 4 hours and then turned them over and used a table spoon to drip marinade from the roasting dish on the tops of the chops. Then, I allowed them to marinade another 4 hours.

Three hours before cooking, I took the chops out and allowed them to warm to room temperature.

Here’s how I cooked the chops.
I put a little olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and got the pan and oil very hot. I then browned the chops very quickly on both sides and then put them in a roasting pan and put them in a preheated oven set at only 200 degrees. I allowed the chops to bake for about an hour and a half.

Anne had offered to prepare some fresh, wild rice. I also allowed some fresh brussel sprouts to warm to room temperature. I put the sprouts in a steaming dish, sprinkled them with a touch of salt and pepper and scattered some fresh raspberries on top of them and steam-cooked them to a nice tenderness.

I served the chops with a small French baguette and nice Italian Chianti wine. How attractive they looked served with the wild rice and the brussel sprouts and wilting raspberries.

When I took my first bite, I wished aloud that our nice butcher was dining with us so that he could taste one of the most wonderful lamb chops I have ever eaten. Damn, it’s embarrassing and vain to say it, but they were absolutely spectacular.

I am certain that the key to this particular dish was cooking it very slowly and browning and sealing the chops first.

Lamb from Sheepy Hollow at Native Oaks Farm – there’s nothing like it!

AARP and I have parted ways!

Seniors, like this old coot, need real advocates in Washington to
protect them and represent them. AARP has failed at this!

The AARP and I have parted ways and good…
by Charlie Leck

This is my second break-up with the AARP and it’s my last ‘cause I ain’t ever goin’ back. You can take that to the bank!

A few years ago I dropped my AARP membership because of the stance they took on Medicare payments for prescription drugs, when they supported an asinine proposal by the Bush administration (the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003). Back then, it was referred to as Part D. The pharmaceutical companies reaped huge profits from the passage of this legislation and it has cost seniors an awful lot of money. AARP shocked and angered me when they came out in full support of this bill.

"According to advocates for universal single-payer coverage and others, passage of the 2003 law potentially marked the beginning of the end for publicly-financed Medicare and clouded the future of employer-provided coverage. AARP played a crucial role, much like today in the debate over health care reform. It's siding with free-market ideologues destroys its credibility as an advocate for seniors."
(Steve Lendman, AARP's Tradition of Betrayal)

For some reason, I renewed my membership a couple of years ago. Why? Probably because I am a dummy and I’m susceptible to the kind of propaganda AARP puts out to seniors.

I haven’t the slightest idea why. This is a nutty organization. Though they claim to be an advocacy group, they really aren’t. They are a terribly commercial endeavor operating in the clothing of a non-profit.

Here are some things you may not know about AARP.

From its beginning it has sold insurance to its members to earn royalties. Keep that in mind as we go on. “Insurance” is the key and operational word to remember.

AARP is probably the most powerful advocacy organization in America with an abundance of funds with which to work. The organization is headquartered in the nation’s capitol and operates out of a 10 story, 500,000 square foot building. Within that building, AARP employs a staff of more than 2400. It’s annual revenues exceed a billion dollars (60 percent of which comes from Medigap supplemental insurance sales).

An organization of physicians, which supports a national health care program (PNHP), is not very complimentary about AARP’s supplemental insurance coverage. “Some of these programs are total rip-offs.” PNHP also contends that AARP is “part of the problem and not part of the solution.”

If any of you seniors out there are waiting for AARP to take on some of the big national health insurance companies, you have a very long wait. What is it they say? "When we can play golf 365 days a year in Minnesota!" Hell will freeze over first!

AARP is now solidly part of the industry and not a watch-dog over it. AARP offers its members 17 different types of insurance and brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from those insurance companies. This is important: AARP is a part of the insurance industry -- the industry that is so opposed to a public option in the new health care plan.

Add in its annual membership fees and you can easily picture a major corporation taking in incredible sums of money.

Do I want to keep my membership in such an organization in order to get an occasional discount on hotel/motel rates or on an infrequent dinner (before 6 P.M., please) at crummy chain restaurants?

AARP puts on a costume that makes it appear it supports national health care reform while, in fact, it works for the weakest possible legislation -- something that will allow it to claim we've had health care reform while the insurance industry and the drug companies suffer the least possible hit and seniors get no cost relief. AARP is not the nation's leading advocate for seniors; it is thoroughly in bed with those who are currently reaping mind-boggling profits from America's seniors and America's ill.

Seniors in the U.S. are ripe and ready for a real senior advocacy group. If someone puts a real one together right now, seniors would flock to it. Like I, seniors are leaving AARP in droves.

I know one thing: I'm flipping the bird at AARP and I will never again renew my membership in this rip-off organization.

Helen & Margaret and Thanksgiving

Helen & Margaret (photo copped from their blog)

What a good blog!
by Charlie Leck

I'm a regular reader of the blog called "Margaret and Helen." As a matter of fact, I'm hooked on it. The current blog is pretty cool and, I think, the only one of their blogs to which I have ever responded with a comment.

It's all about the "real" and normal American family! Read it and read the blog regularly. It'll help your innards and provide you with great regularity.

PALIN GETS 5 MILLION UP-FRONT FOR BOOK

Thoughts from a high altitude -- from about 14,500 feet, on the way to Pike's Peak.

Oh, my! Can you picture, in your wildest imaginings, that Sarah Palin would be guaranteed five million buckeroos for writing a book?
by Charlie Leck

Oh my! Am I going absolutely batty? The world is topsy-turvy! The inmates are truly in charge of the asylum! There is no balance left in the universe. Sarah Palin is paid five million dollars for writing a book about herself. And, there are Rush Limbaugh type idiots who are going to run to the bookstore to pick up copies at full retail price. Have you seen the video reports showing long, long lines of people waiting to meet Sarah and buy her book? These are people, I guaranty you, who have never read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, A Team of Rivals, or Gore Vidal’s book, United States: Essays 1952-1992. And, I know for sure that they’ve never read Doris Lessing or Tim O’Brien.

Going Rogue is the title Palin, or some clever marketing person, gave the new book. Who out there believe’s Palin really wrote this book? Oh, my!

Give me a break! In a Palin world, the inmates really would be running the asylum.

Have you listened to any of these recent interviews of Sarah Palin about her book and about her future in politics? Have you? If you have, don’t they frighten you? How about Glenn Beck as Vice President of the United States of America?

Give me a break.

Thanks to all those who wanted to know if everything is okay because I missed TWO days of blogging. I was traveling in Colorado and couldn’t get to a place civilized enough to allow me on line to write my blog. For instance, I had no blogging connections up there at 14,000 feet – only part way up to the top of Pike’s Peak. Oh my, what a lovely place!

Oh my! On a clear day you can see forever!


My buddy, Fred, warms up at the bar before heading to a table with his son, Adam,
and me. Fred, a native of Denver, introduced me to Luca d'Italia.

Had dinner in a marvelous Denver restaurant while out there visiting… I’d give it four and one-half stars. Oh my, what a wonderful place – called Luca d'Italia. The next time I visit Denver, this restaurant will be on my must “go back to” list. The same owner runs Mizuna, a French restaurant right around the corner, and I want to try that place as well. Everyone I talked to called Mizuna Denver’s best restaurant. At Luca D’Italia, I ordered the Pan Roasted Duck Breast with pumpkin risotto, fegato emulsion and cranberry conserva and, oh my, it was so wonderful. My host, Fred, had the Meyer Hanger Steak with short rib cannelloni, a saffron carrot puree and cipolini marmalata. The service was perfect and the setting was “nice enough.”


At Luca d'Italia, my pan roasted duck with pumpkin risotto,
figato emulsion and cranberry conserva

Visitors to Denver won’t have problems finding wonderful places to eat. Oh my, the town if filled with great dining spots. On a day when you aren’t prepared to doll yourself up and you just want to eat wildly, go over to Greek Town and try some of Pete’s establishments. Oh, my!

Just need to add that I also visited the Air Force Academy while in Denver. I was impressed. It doesn’t impress you the way West Point does, with old and deeply ingrained tradition, but it is still a spectacular place in a breath-taking setting. It’s worth the visit.


The spectacular Air Force Academy chapel in Colorado Springs.

Fred, my host in Denver, made sure he took a photograph of me entering the Barry Goldwater Air Force Academy Visitors’ Center. Nothing needs to be said about why Fred thought that was so funny.

I'm trying to ignore my real subject today -- Sarah Palin has written a book. Really, a whole book with words and sentences and paragraphs and all. Roll out the typewriters and set the monkeys down to work… My fair lady! Oh, my!

Goodbye, Lou Dobbs and good....

Ding! Dong! The somabitch is gone!
by Charlie Leck

On his “show” (notice that I do not say "newscast") last Wednesday evening, Lou Dobbs abruptly resigned and made a statement that included these words:

“…leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day.”

I've written here a number of times about my distaste for Dobbs. He didn’t belong at CNN and he didn’t fit in. He was too bombastic and he opined with far too much malice and fury. I stopped watching him well over a year ago, but I kept reading about the wave of dislike of him that was flooding the executive offices at CNN. People were bombarding the news network with vows that they were boycotting those companies that sponsored the Lou Dobbs Hour.

I couldn’t be happier. Now I’ll switch on CNN once more at that first hour of the evening around here and, perhaps, hear real news again and not the kind of screeching I normally get over at FOX News and MSNBC.

An old, Hungarian friend of mine, gone now to dwell among the stars, could never quite pronounce my favorite “cuss” word. Instead, it always came out as “some-a-bitch.” This morning, when I heard that Dobbs is gone from CNN, I wanted to sing the well known refrain: “Ding! Dong! The wicked witch is dead.” However, my old pal captured my tongue and it came out much more poetically: “The somabitch is gone!”

Ding! Dong!

Dobbs dramatic fall began when he started to treat the silly notion that President Obama was not born in this country (the birther movement) with a degree of respect and as if it was newsworthy.

For those interested in good coverage of Dobb's resignation here's the NY Times story that appeared on Thursday morning (written by Brian Stelter and Bill Carter). On his blog, Media Decoder, Stelter provided full text of Dobb's announcement of his resignation.

Obama in China

It is in his visit to Asia that you will see why Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize!
by Charlie Leck

Our President, Barack Obama, is going to show you why the Nobel Committee decided to award this year’s Peace Prize to him. This is where he sparkles.

Our nation has been in a serious international slump for the last decade. Not very much of the world has held any significant degree of respect for us and our world policies. The Nobel Committee clearly saw that Barack Obama had changed that nearly overnight. Our President has won the attention and respect of nearly every nation in the world and they are looking to us once again with a degree of hopefulness – that we will lead both compassionately and wisely.

Watch our number one guy in Asia – especially in China – and see what you think of how he does.

If you’ve got any kind of age on you, what you must remember is how the world has changed in this 21st century. This, believe me, is not your father’s Oldsmobile. New world leaders are emerging and new economic and technological experts are coming from nations that were barely visible a decade ago. China, of course, is one of those nations. We need China to be a friend and not an adversary. We need China to help in solving world problems. There are good signs in China and there are also some worrisome ones. We must be able to talk and negotiate with China in good faith, as a trusted ally, and I think Barack Obama will create that atmosphere.

Watch him! I strongly recommend you get to the really good newspapers (NY Times) to follow Obama’s Asia travels very carefully.

P.S. The current political leader of China, carrying the titles of both General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President of the People’s Republic of China is Hu Jintao. (Remember, Hu is his family name and Jintao is his distinctive name.) He has been in office since 2003 and appears to be very popular with the Chinese population. A large percentage of the Chinese people have begun to prosper under his leadership; however, this is a massive nation with a huge populace and there are still wide-spread pockets of unimaginable poverty. China’s educated population is among the most highly skilled and well trained people in the world. Just since Hu’s rise to power, China has developed an incredibly strong presence in Africa and Latin America and may have a stronger center of influence there than that of the United States. Though Hu will turn 67 in December he appears much younger and seems to be in strong, good health.