http://cbs13.com/video/?id=68830@kovr.dayport.com

Davis Media Access (DMA) will host a “wireside chat”with Lawrence
Lessig on Thursday, Feb. 25 from 3-4:30 p.m. The event is being webcast
live from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and made
available to host organizations in cities around the country.

Lessig has been described as the “foundational voice of the free culture
movement” and was recently featured on Bill Moyer’s /Journal/ on PBS.
His Feb. 25 talk will center on fair use, politics and online video.

“Lessig will address copyright issues in a digital age,” said Autumn
Labbe-Renault, executive director of DMA. “As a media center, we are
frequently faced with issues of ‘fair use’ — limited use of copyrighted
material without permission from those who hold the rights to such material.

“This digital age of mashups and remix begs for discussion and accurate
information for those who use readily available information for purposes
ranging from research and criticism to entertainment with video,” she
said. “DMA is committed to exploring these larger media and policy
issues with our community.”

Lessig’s lecture will last 45 minutes and be followed by a 30-minute
interactive Q & A session. Elizabeth Stark of the Open Video Alliance
moderates. Questions can be submitted using the hashtag #wireside. The
live webcast is free and available to all at
http://openvideoalliance.org/lessig. The Open Video Alliance is a
coalition of organizations and individuals devoted to creating and
promoting free and open technologies, policies, and practices in online
video.

DMA is our area’s community media center, providing access to media
technology and training across many platforms. DMA will host a
large-screen viewing area and offer refreshments and discussion
following the presentation. The center is located at 1623 Fifth Street,
adjacent to the Redwood Barn Nursery.

For more information, please visit http://davismedia.org

The argument about health care reform should have been closed long ago (as that about global warming, incidentally). But the demagogues are winning, and now Obama’s health reform is moribund. It is sad that Americans are easily hoodwinked into voting against their best interests (they are not unique, in this respect).
We have had many discussions of this issue on our blog at

http://european-americanblog.blogspot.com/

See for example
“If It’s Broken, Should We Fix It? (Oct.’09), and
“Hey Guys, Let’s Smother Grandma…” (Aug. ’09)

“A successful approach would aim to reform misplaced incentives. Giving individuals the same health-care tax deductions businesses get would be a good start.”

“We favor finding ways to give patients more control over their health-care expenditures. This would both improve cost discipline and health outcomes. One way to do that would be to encourage the purchase of high-deductible insurance coupled with putting money aside in health savings accounts, including a shift to HSAs of some of the funds now paid to insurance premiums. This would give patients a powerful incentive to focus on the cost of their care.

“The greatest barrier to a new approach is continued misdiagnosis of the underlying problem. We need to reach a consensus that Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance are the main offenders and must be reformed. Asserting that we can maintain the status quo for the majority of Americans while extending insurance to everyone is irresponsible. Our broken health-care system is not a problem just for the uninsured; it is a crisis for us al.”

Currently, the insurance industry is spending $1.4 million a day on lobbying for health reform. Yes Pieter, that’s included in your $20,000 a year premium. Our Congressman, Mike Thompson does not support this idea or concept. Unless and until Americans demand this from its leaders a social model of insurance, people like Peiter and Jeannie will continue to have to purchase private health insurance.

What’s wrong with our Country?

Cindy Young

From my perspective I agree fully that improvement/change in the healthcare system is a necessity. The tactical error by Obama being that he turned it over to Pelosi and Reid to create the solution which eventually became the 2500 page, $T out of control fiasco. I believe if Obama had handed Congress a “to do” list containing a mandate for a manageable deliverable, a $ cost limit, and required inclusions, and stayed “hands on”, he’d be signing a completed bill about this time.