Veterans Bill of Rights

From the blog page on MikeHuckabee.com.

• Governor Huckabee wants your feedback. We encourage you to leave a comment on his Veterans' Bill of Rights:
  I support the following VETERANS' BILL OF RIGHTS for issues that are not being adequately addressed: The right to a mandatory rather than a discretionary mechanism for funding veterans' health care, to eliminate year-to-year uncertainty that the funds they need will be there for them The right to obtain full and clear explanation of all benefits and comprehensive assistance in obtaining those benefits. The right to have a claim processed within six months. The right to the fullest possible accounting of the fate of POW/MIAs and the right to be designated as POW/MIA. The right to access state-of-the-art treatment facilities for traumatic brain injuries. The right of National Guard and Reserve personnel called to active service to receive the same benefits as active duty veterans. The right of disabled veterans to receive both their military retirement and VA compensation. The right of wounded Reserve troops to be treated like their active duty counterparts until their claims have been processed. The right of wounded veterans and those who have served in combat theaters to a comprehensive GI bill that provides full tuition, books, fees, and living expenses at any institution to which the veteran is accepted.

Found here

Mike Huckabee Talks About Campaign Momentum and Campaign

I am waiting to hear Mike Huckabee on FOX News. While I am waiting, I have a question. Why is Mike the only candidate not expected to be at the Mackinac Leadership Conference? OK, John Cox won't be there, but he doesn't count. Is this on the part of the Huckabee campaign or the state party? Whoever it is this is a stupid move. If Huckabee ain't there there will be less of his Michigan suppoters there. If less of his supporters are there the less others will get to hear how great he is. The less people hear about him the less they are likely to tell their friends and family about him, when they get back to their prospective homes. Plus, some people might feel snubbed.

Now he is on. He is talking about his recent momentum. There has been 2.3 million hits 72 hours after the results. Raised more money in the campaign due to placing second in the Straw Poll. Many of these donors are first timers. The results were what he needed. He says Republicans needed an alternative. And he is just that alternative.

Health Care- He wants a system that empowers people. The system needs to work for consumer. He says there needs to be preventive health care. When it is cheaper, not after the disease has arrived and it's more expensive.

Sales Tax- He says the party needs to get with the people. He talked about why Fair Tax is the best choice. People on the bottom rung need to be able to get up on the ladder. Everyone will pay their fair share.

Religion- He stated that he comes from the Christian background. While at the same time he is more than a pastor. Was a governor for more than 10 years. Wants to get the job done.

He has talked about having more fundraisers and events in the talks. I hope one of these things will be the Mac Lead Conf. I will talk more about the Conference soon. Stay tuned.

I was writing this as I was watching. So please excuse that's it's not very wordy.

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!

Two Goals - From Mike Huckabee

Email from Mike Huckabee:

Dear Friend,
I am busy campaigning in Iowa today but I wanted to reach out to you with an update on where things stand.

I spent yesterday in Davenport where I met hundreds of interested voters. Education, health care, border security, Iraq and out of control Washington spending are on the minds of voters here. Which isn't suprising, because wherever I go these are the issues people are talking about.

As I have said in previous emails our campaign is continuing to gain ground. Our online fundraising is picking up and our website traffic is building, especially in Iowa. Which is good news because the Iowa Straw Poll is only 18 days away and we still have a ways to go and very real goals we must meet as a campaign. Its my hope that you will once again help us.

1) By this Friday at midnight we need 1,000 online Vounteers to send emails to their friends, family members and co-workers encouraging them to join our campaign. You can do so by visiting the "Build Our Base" section of the website. The last time we set this goal over 2,000 of you participated. A great result and one we need to duplicate.

2) Make an immediate online contribution to our campaign of $15, $25, $35, $50, $70 or even $140. We must raise 400 contributions by Friday at midnight, so I hope you will take a moment now to make a contribution in support of our campaign. We will invest the contribution you make immediately into our grassroots field operations nationally.

Your support has helped fuel this campaign and your continued support is critical in the remaining 18 days before the Ames Straw Poll. If you have already made a contribution, now is the time to seriously consider making another. The amount you contribute isn't as important as your participation. Thank you!
With deep gratitude,

Huckabee: U.S. has 'sick care,' not health care

Sorry for the fact that the last couple posts have not been Huckabee related. Unless ya consider my attempt at "Rockabilly Poetry" to Mike Huckabee to be Huckabee related. I wonder how many of y'all recognized the songs I mentioned? No offense, but I prefer the vintage rock to anything modern, even country. Not that I don't like anything new, I do. Oh yes, back to Mike Huckabee.


Check out this article in the WCFcourier.com.

• DAVENPORT --- The U.S. health care system is too focused on curing illness and not enough on preventing it, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said in Davenport on Monday.
• Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, told about 60 people at the Adler Health Education Center that while universal coverage, the goal of all the Democratic presidential hopefuls, is laudable, the country ought to focus on lowering the cost of care.
• The U.S. spends about $2 trillion a year on health care, or 17 percent of its gross domestic product, Huckabee said, with most of it to treat chronic disease.
• "We don't have a health-care system. We have a sick-care system," he said.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Mike Huckabee Responds to Iowa Democrat Party/Health Care Record in Arkansas

NEWS RELEASE

Huckabee Campaign Responds to Iowa Democratic Party Little Rock, AR – The Mike Huckabee presidential campaign issued the following
statement in response to comments by the Iowa Democratic Party about Huckabee’s record as Governor of Arkansas:

“Mike Huckabee has a proud record of dramatic innovations in health and health care during his tenure as Governor of Arkansas. In fact, he’s been consistently honored as the national leader in health innovation, including recognitions by the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Association of Retired Persons,” said Iowa campaign spokesman Eric Woolson .

“Frankly, I find it ironic that the Iowa Democrat Party is lambasting Governor Huckabee’s record in Arkansas – especially given that this same record has, in fact, been lauded by Democrat Governor Tom Vilsack and Senator Tom Harkin, not to mention Bill Clinton,” said Woolson.

Woolson pointed out that Huckabee’s health achievements led to his being named one of the country’s five best governors by Time magazine, Public Official of the Year by Governing magazine, and receiving the National Excellence in Public Health Award from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Last year the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation held a special event to praise Arkansas as the only state to have reversed childhood obesity rates, he said.

“Given the Iowa Democratic Party’s irresponsible rhetoric on this issue, it’s critical that Iowans have a chance to look at the facts about Governor Huckabee’s impressive health care record in Arkansas ,” said Woolson.

n Governor Mike Huckabee created the ARKids First program which today covers almost 200,000 children who previously were uninsured, and has cut the rate of uninsured children by more than half.

n Governor Huckabee created ARHealth Net, an innovative program that provides basic benefits to small businesses that did not previously offer health insurance. The program is a partnership among the federal and state governments, small businesses, and their employees.

n Governor Huckabee led the effort that made Arkansas the first state in the country to require that the Body Mass Index of every school child be measured annually.

n He led the successful banning of vending machines from all elementary schools. Access to vending machines in junior and senior high schools has been reduced, and half the choices in the machines must meet certain health criteria.

n During Governor Huckabee’s tenure immunization rates improved dramatically. First Lady Janet Huckabee led this effort and visited all 91 health offices in the state. In 2003, the state was forced to provide a new “philosophical” exemption to its immunization law after a federal court declared the previous law unconstitutional. According to the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement’s 2006 Annual Report, this new exemption resulted in a “significant increase in the number of immunization exemptions requested, compared with the two previous years.” The increase in exemptions resulted from parents’ exercising their freedom of choice as the federal court mandated and was beyond the control of the Governor. He urged all parents to continue to immunize their children.

n Governor Huckabee created the Healthy Arkansas initiative to encourage Arkansans to stop smoking, eat healthier diets, and exercise more. As chairman of the National Governors Association, he chose health as his personal initiative issue and expanded Healthy Arkansas into the Healthy America initiative.

n He used radio addresses, speeches, news conferences, media interviews, and web sites to spread the Healthy Arkansas message. He developed local plans in all 75 counties.

n Governor Huckabee made smoking cessation tools available to all Medicaid recipients at no cost. He created an innovative program to get better disease management information to diabetics.

n Governor Huckabee led efforts to improve the health of state employees and made these programs a model for the private sector to implement. He eliminated co-pays and deductibles for state employees to have diagnostic procedures like mammograms, colonoscopies, and prostate cancer screening. He expanded state health plans to include medically-supervised weight loss. He made smoking cessation tools available at no cost. He offered state employees and their spouses a reduction in their health insurance premiums if they agreed not to smoke and took an online health assessment. He provided exercise breaks during the work day.

n He successfully led a 2000 ballot initiative that devotes all of Arkansas ’ tobacco settlement funds to improving Arkansans’ health. Arkansas is the only state that has used every single federal tobacco dollar for health programs and issues.

n He successfully led the fight in 2006 for passage of the Arkansas Clean Air Act, guaranteeing people smoke-free environment at work. Arkansas was the first state in the South to pass such a law.

More from Blogger Call

Here is more from yesterdays blogger call.

Both A Buck for Huck and One Mom asked questions about health care.
Mike Huckabee said that in order to motivate people to take better care of themselves and live healthier there needs to be a culture shift as opposed to programmatic. People need an advertising for attitude change. There needs to be a positive atmosphere.

Sloane Reality asked about school vouchers. Mike huckabee believes that parents should be allowed to make their own decisions as to where their children go to school. He also believes that vouchers should be made available to everyone of all economic levels. He also has much respect for parents who choose to homeschool and realizes how much of a personal sacrifice that is.

On the issue of focusing on National Security he said that with the Iraq issue it needs to be stressed that the terrorists and jihadists are waging a theological war against the world. Mike believes that a candidate needs to focus on both domestic and foreign issues equally. He likened it to a if a pilot only focuses on on plane wing or the other. The plane will crash unless he focuses on both wings.

I asked Mike Huckabee a question about teaching children in school about healthy eating habits. He said that he was asked a similar question in Iowa recently. He said that schools should integrate it into classes such as math. Using recipe measurements into math problems help the kids see how it relates into the real world and how math is applicable in their own lives.

Mike Huckabee ended the call with "God Bless to you all and God Bless to this great country of ours."

To hear the entire call go to Mike's blog page on his website.

James Kotecki Interviews Mike Huckabee

Watch both videos. In these vids Mike Huckabee is given the chance to discuss all the issues that are on his mind. Fair Tax, Education, Arts & Music, Health, his own personal issues with health, going from pastor to governor and why both experiences can help him in his run for President, Foreign Policy.





I don't know too much about this James Kotecki kid. I hear he is fairly popular in political videos on YouTube. It seems he is a college student. From what I have seen in these two vids he seems smarter than many of the guys on major news channels. He actually listened to Mike rather than staring off to space saying, "uh-hu, uh-hu."

UPDATE: I have received a comment from James Kotecki. He is currently a college grad.

Blogger's Call Part 1

This morning I participated in another Blogger's Conference Call with Mike Huckabee and his guest was Senator Bob Kleg of New Hampshire. Mike Huckabee is thrilled to have him on his team. I am rather tired, just got home from work a few hours ago. So I will be writing this in parts.

As I have stated I didn't get to watch the debate or record it, I am still kicking myself over this. I was able to pick up on what was being said. He wished that there were more questions about issues that the American folk talk about around the dinner table, like education, economy and healthe care. He was grateful that bloggers talk about these issues and get the word out to the viewing public.

One blogger asked Mike a question about No Child Left Behind Innitiative. His answer was that education should be primarily left up to the states. Although he still feels that The No Child Left Behind Innitiative did bring up the school standards in the states. He feels that testing is vital in finding out how well the kids are learning. He said "It's like going to a ball game and there's no scoreboard." He compared turning the numbers on a scoreboard like seeing the test results. While Governor of Arkansas more got done in five years than all that was done in the past fifty years in Arkansas schools. Teacher's pay and standards became more competitive. He said that too many kids are putting their heads on their desks and taking the most expensive naps because they are bored. That is why he is so passionate about music and arts. Music and arts help kids to learn with their right and left brains. When kids learn with both sides of their brains their test scores go up in math and science. It will also enhance them with team work and leadership skills, which is essential.

He also believes that education should be focused on in the campaigns and it should be on the minds of all the candidates. While I don't have kids, as an American voter and taxpayer, I think focusing on education is important. These kids are the future of America. I don't want kids taking naps on my tax dollars. If these kids don't get a good education they will be on government assistance after they graduate. Thus, after I pay for their naps I pay for their food and nessicities. So I am glad he is focusing on education.

Well yawl, I am tired and need to sleep, so I shall go now. I will blog more later.