Amazing he can deliver this with a straight face. Rove and FOX were indistinguishable!

The healthcare debate rages across Capitol Hill with lobbyists fighting against a ‘single payer’ option as if it were the moral equivalent of the anti-Christ. Before you blindly accept any bill, please examine the very real (and ironic) face this debate has taken on for this journalist.

Paula Persichini-Petitti is a woman to whom I once joked, “you would be what would happen if Mother Theresa, Joan Jett and a drug-free Janis Joplin merged.” Paula is one tough, rock and roll loving, hard living, Boston-area born and bred “broahd” with a “haht” (heart) of pure gold. Listening to her thick Boston accent you would start with a first impression that would be one of the absolute biggest mistakes you could ever make.

Paula was born a rebel. She graduated from the nursing program at Blue Hills Regional Institute and became a radiology specialist at a time where technology was evolving and most said she could not do it because she was too young. If you have a death wish or desire physical harm, merely suggest to Paula that she ‘cannot’ do something.

Ironically, she now lays with tubes coming out of her body, a respirator helping her breathe and in a coma in a Rapid City, South Dakota hospital. She has spent nearly every summer of the last several years, working with Russell and Pearl Means helping Native Americans of the Lakota Sioux Nation in Pine Ridge Reservation. There she counsels and teaches indigenous families about the twin health threats of alcohol abuse and diabetes in one of the USA’s poorest communities.

Several years ago Paula visited the island of Jamaica and was involved in an automobile accident. She’d been an emergency room nurse and when she saw the dreadful conditions people in that rural hospital (near the Black River) lived under, she returned home to Massachusetts and started BlackRiverProject.org. Most appealed to her saying, “that’s just the way it is Paula, nothing can be done about it.” Remember the old Three Stooges short where someone says “Niagara Falls…” and then “slowly I turn…” Step back please, human freight train coming through.

Her leadership has seen her beg, cajole, plead and threaten just about every doctor, medical school, pharmaceutical and medical supplier in Massachusetts and across the globe to help her bring free medical supplies, used machinery, doctors and nurses to some of the most ravaged 3rd world hell-holes on the face of the planet.

Paula and I grew up two blocks from each other in the southern MA town of Avon. I went to school with her big brother Ricky and, as usual, everyone went their separate ways after graduation. My friend Terri said, “hey you’re a journalist, are you aware of Paula’s project?” That began a series of visits, phone calls, Facebook and Twitter exchanges to develop, research and tell this one woman’s story.

And what a story, everything from threatening Cuban prison guards suspicious of why she was there (providing medical help) by saying she was “Raul Castro’s mistress and there would be hell to pay if he found out she was being held there” (it worked, she was set free)… to being dragged from her hotel room at night, convinced she would be shot and flying in Soviet era helicopters across Laos and Cambodia to meet the ruling generals (think “The Killing Fields”) to demand they provide mosquito netting to protect their citizens against malaria.

This woman’s life is bigger than any Hollywood screenplay. And she shrugs it all off with a laugh that would filled any room. Most of us live fractions of a life. Thoreau, another Massachusetts native said, “I wanted to live deliberately, deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.” Paula lives in a way that most dream of doing.

She was driving in a car that was rear-ended at speed by a pickup travelling at 60 mph. The impact severely jarred her brain stem causing damage to the thalamus, the part of the brain which is the centre for speech, body temp., sight, hearing and smell. While she can today squeeze the ICU doctor’s hand on command, the hope is her brain will form connections around the damage and more or less repair itself. The good people in Rapid City have taken her as far as she can go there and she needs now to be med-flighted to Massachusetts General Hospital where she will be under the care of a top neurosurgeon.

Paula has health insurance and… (you know where this is going before I even type it)… it does not cover life-flights. Speaking to the Life-flight despatch office in Rapid City, South Dakota, the flight is 1,600 air miles in length and will cost $30,000 and that’s just for the flight. Then there is tended ambulance service to and from the airplane at both ends which adds even more not to mention the longer term care she will require to heal.

Buddy Persichini, 78, is Paula’s very proud Dad. He has numerous health issues of his own and Paula has been his rock since her Mom died when she was in high school. Buddy is resigned to taking out a second mortgage on his paid off house to get her home. Were the same to happen to me under the right’s very publicly maligned UK ‘socialised’ NHS medical programme plus my out-of-pocket add-on, I’d already be ‘home’ in the UK in a local hospital with family by my side.

And there, Mr. President and Congress lays the rub. Why should a 78-year old man, who clearly loves his daughter, be forced to bury his fierce New England pride and go deep into debt to bring her home? Why too should Paula now risk losing her home to pay for long-term care when she returns?

This is what needs fixing in the health care system. Not providing the same profit margins for those who can most efficiently lobby but inefficiently leave a broken system essentially intact with some window dressing tweaking around the edges and then everyone calling that “ground breaking change.” For Paula and many like her, I urge you to bring in a public option to bring true competition and transparency into this opaque nightmare of a scenario.

Mr. President, you were quoted two days ago in the New York Times as saying: “What we’ve been doing over the last six months is getting people back into fighting trim. This is a town where there was just a belief that nothing could get done… I’ll use just the workout metaphor, and that is… when you start training again and you’re pushing your body a little bit harder, sometimes it hurts. But if you keep on at it, after a while your body adjusts. And I think that’s what’s happening to politics in Washington.”

Well sir, it’s time to end the training and start the marathon. It’s time Congress to put some real political capital and action behind those words on everything from this issue to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. You came into office promising change we could believe in and this is important not just to the nation, but to every one of us who sees a true Mother Theresa in need. Please consider it for all the irony-filled Paula’s out there, not just the ones who tell the best story at your town hall meeting and help bring her home without bankrupting her or her Dad in the process.

My own deep regret is that during my most recent visit to the USA in May, I cancelled our scheduled meeting because of my time considerations. I now have to live with that. I promised to come back and see her in the fall. Now I must pray she will be home, solvent, conscious and well enough to recognise me.

(Please contribute to “The Fund for Paula Persichini-Pettiti” by following the tipjoy micro-finance/contribution link and sending money to the e-mail address: info@bringpaulahome.org, at the website: BringPaulaHome.org or via Twitter @BringPaulaHome. The family and her friends are moving very quickly to establish all accounts to life-flight transport her home and provide for her long term care needs.)

Al Franken finally elected as Minnesota Senator.

Yesterday Amy Klobuchar won the over/under wager of before 04 July and the nearly 8-month long nightmare for Minnesota’s voters came to an end. For 237-days she served as Minnesota’s only Senator handling the work of both since the battle to see who won the 04 November 2008 election began with multiple recounts and court challenges. The Minnesota Supreme Court in a unanimous 5-0 ruling declared Al Franken the winner of the election. This caused defeated and morally bankrupt former Senator Norm Coleman to finally concede defeat and finally handed the Democrats their 60th US Senate seat.

Governor Tim Pawlenty is expected today to sign election certification papers and Vice President Joe Biden will induct former comedian Al Franken next week when the Senate returns from its 04 July weekend break as the Senate’s 100th member and Minnesota’s 2nd Senator, dontchaknow.

Right Wing ‘hate’ headline writers, already apoplectic with rage for 237 days and screaming over the end of the world (because Obama is President, the Democrats control both houses of Congress and even though they are in a deep hole, they just can’t stop digging) are becoming less than irrelevant. And they now have a new target at whom to vent their rage!

The Party of “NO!” instead of licking their wounds from an historic defeat 8 months ago, trying to come up with a coherent strategy and plan, just keep mouthing off. The problem is no one is listening except the rabid 20% of their wing-nut base. So there is at least one emerging business with many job openings in this stagnant economy, Right Wing Hate Headline Writer!

Several times a day missives of hate, doom and gloom arrive in the In-Box, Twitter or RSS feed: “Stop Obama’s radical take-over of the courts!,” “Obama: Letting people die is cost-efficient,” “Help stop government run healthcare!” All proclaim ‘the socialists are coming to take all your money away through taxes.’ The current Labour Party electoral weakness here in the UK, Obama’s 6-point drop in the opinion polls (gasp!) and the healthcare fight in the USA… have them frothing and running at the mouth.

With names like GOP USA, RedState, Order-Order, USA Tea Parties they are the print frontline in the ongoing social conservatives war against the current ruling party. What broadcasters Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Karl Rove and Sean Hannity say, these dittoheads “writers” pick up with conservative commentators from Dick Morris, Michelle Malkin, Charles Krauthammer and Bill Bennett picking up the gauntlet and running down the field, regardless of whether or not they are headed in any direction or scoring “own goals.”

They only know one thing, keep it coming thick and strong no matter if it works or not, just make a name for yourself and be ridiculous. Watch now as they today will attack Al Franken as an “actor/comedian” and ignore that two of the party’s own, Ronald Reagan and former TN-Senator Fred Thompson had similar backgrounds. Thompson even acted while serving(!). Although watching the Eddie Murphy film Trading Places the other night on SKY it was fun to see Al Franken and former SNL writing partner Tom Davis playing bumbling baggage handlers with a gorilla in that classically funny movie.

Now if you want to be a top GOP Hate Headline writer you need to bring up your game to the highest level of mud. Take time to sharpen your pencil, hold your nose and breathe in and sample work from the masters. These nuggets from the GOP USA e-mail team are a good place to start:

Alert: Bill to Ban One Million People from Gun Sales! (Heston fans and cold dead hands appeal).
Action Alert: Hands Off My Healthcare Decisions! (covers a multitude of objectives regarding the socialisation of healthcare).
Hate Crime Hearings Vow to Punish Pastors, Protect Paedophiles (God and perverts always a winning combination)
Stop Obama’s Radical Takeover of the Courts! (So mayn iterations this one still gains traction in the south)
Obama Catastrophe’s Coming Soon Warns Dick Morris Warns America (love it, the man who created Bill Clinton’s campaign switched sides when he knew he could make more money now is the Repug guru!)

They do fulfil their purpose, they get me to read the opening of the article. Now I usually laugh until I realise that there are people out there consuming this vitriol and acting on it.

The rise in hate crimes, the shooting at the Holocaust museum and the murder of Dr. Tiller all show how dangerous this kind of “free speech” rhetoric can be. How far must it go before someone on the right acts and says enough!

So congratulations Senator Franken! There is much hard work to be done. Hope you have your staff in place and are ready to hit the ground running. You lost almost 10% of your elected term in this fight. Time to play grind it out catch-up ball sir.

Just ignore the headlines.

He’ll sign if ordered to by State Supreme Court but if Federal Court Weighs in and says stop he will. Flip then flop?

White House Press Corps needs to grow up and stop whining. Nico holds own against Dana Milbank.

No take out the media trash this Friday. Bernie Madoof knows how much it will cost and now wonders how big a book will be thrown at him Monday. Those swindled by the confessed Ponzi Scheme creator got some measure of revenge or half their pound of flesh yesterday when US District judge Denny Chin ordered Bernie and wife Ruth to forfeit $170 billion dollars, the total amount the Justice Department says was lost from all claimants.

They’ll get the rest of the flesh on Monday when it is expected that Bernie will be sentenced to prison for the rest of his life. Many expect he will be made an example of and sent to one of the USA’s SuperMax prisons to spend the rest of his life locked down 23 hours a day. Somehow it seems improbable if not impossible that he acted alone yet he alone has taken the complete fall and investors think everyone but the lifelong accountant who has also been charged will be the only ones doing time.

The judge’s ruling included all property including: real estate (mansions in Palm Beach, Long Island, NY and the imfamous Penthouse in Manhattan, investment accounts, cars and boats. Ruth Madoff wanted some $60-80 million dollars set aside as hers, unrelated to and supposedly separate from the Ponzi scheme. She settled for $2.5 million and was photographed riding the New York City subway instead of her preferred limousines and private cars.

Ruth will need to find another home to live in and many investors consider her an unindicted co-conspirator. So she will likely find herself battling lawsuits the rest of her life and several hoped in interviews Friday that that eats up her leftovers in legal fees. Ruth did not endear herself to investors by withdrawing $15.5 million in cash before the bombshell hit and wanting to keep her money.

And the government was quick to point out this does not preclude other legal actions filed by those wronged. So it is far from over. It will take years to unravel the scheme and investors will be lucky to get .05 on every dollar when done.

So Monday is small comfort to those who lost everything trusting this polished ‘charmer’ in his scheme. As, Yogi Berra, another famous New Yorker once said, “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” Stay tuned, there are a number of terriers gnawing on Ruth and Bernie’s leg.