Hopefully, this will make the supporters of Government health care want to move to Norway and leave me and my money alone!

What do you call a country in which the gap between the rich and the poor is growing beyond bounds, whose principal exports are wood pulp and scrap metal, whose principal imports are manufactured goods, and whose fastest-growing industry is the construction and operation of private prisons? A third world country. That is the state of the union we have inherited.

In our government’s drive to protect the far-flung financial interests of multinational corporations, we have abandoned our principles and fought wars of aggression against small countries. We have overthrown popularly-elected leaders and installed puppet dictators who sell out their own people to our corporations. In our drive toward a corporate New World Order, we have sold out our workers, our families, our environment, our children’s futures, and the American dream. This too is the state of the union we have inherited.

We have had the opportunity to create a land without want. What went wrong? Why are our workers paid such a tiny percentage of their true worth? Why are we the only major nation without a national health program? Why are our high school graduates two years behind their counterparts in other countries? Why are we hated by so many around the world? Why do we have hundreds of thousands of troops patrolling foreign lands and supporting foreign dictators? What is going on?

The answer, I’m afraid, is that we have lost our republic. Legislators no longer represent the people who elect them, but the corporations who finance them. They answer not to their constituents, but to the lobbyists who line their pockets and fill their campaign coffers.
http://truthwire.wordpress.com/tag/patriot-act/

I dont understand why if the government cant run anything why are the insurance companies so afraid of the public option. If you think about the costs of un insured, co pays, premiums company costs and all the administrative costs involved if you take all that money your paying anyhow and call it a tax and they can get costs under control why in the hell wont universal health care work? Il tell ya why you will take out the middle man makeing a fortune and they will not allow it! They own the papers and dominate the debate with their verry loud media voice and they will continue to screw us over as long as we let them!

Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released Monday but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens.

The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

Norway, Australia and Iceland took the first three spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom, just below Afghanistan.

China moved up seven places on the list to rank as the 92nd most developed country due to improvements in education as well as income levels and life expectancy.

Colombia and Peru rose five spaces to rank 77th and 78th while France -- which was not part of the top 10 last year -- returns to the upper echelons by moving up three places to number 8.

The UNDP said the index highlights the grave disparities between rich and poor countries.

A child born in Niger can expect to live to just over 50, which is 30 years less than a child born in Norway. For every dollar a person earns in Niger, 85 dollars are earned in Norway.

This year's index was based on data from 2007 and does not take into account the impact of the global economic crisis.

"Many countries have experienced setbacks over recent decades, in the face of economic downturns, conflict-related crises and the HIV and AIDS epidemic," said the UN development report's author Jeni Klugman.

"And this was even before the impact of the current global financial crisis was felt."

Afghanistan, which returns to the list for the first time since 1996, is the only Asian country among the bottom ten which also include Sierra Leone in the 180th spot, just below the Central African Republic.

The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan.

The United States ranks 13th, down one spot from last year.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091005/ts_afp/undevelopmentpoverty_20091005115324

Take note all the top ten have universal healthcare