The Senate and the health care debate
There are at least 40 millionaires in the Senate. Being wealthy does impact a person’s values. The Senate is an elitist (House of Lords-type) club.
The Senate also grossly violates the “one man, one vote” equalitarian dictum.
The two Utah,conservative Mormon Senators, Orin Hatch and Bob Bennett, represent <1>6% of the US population.
Some of the founding fathers even argued against a Senate body as it would violate majority rule.
The wealthy Senate club is an elitist anti-majoritarian institution. This came through clearly in last night’s health care reform debate.
The Utah GOP rightwingers, Hatch and Bennett, led the debate, denouncing the Dem. bill as a budget-busting, big government boondoggle. These two dour Mormons have no sense of humor; no visible Joie De Vivre.
The two Arizona rightwingers, John McCain and Jon Kyl, replicated the Utah Senators’ arguments. McCain also came off as slightly wacko.
I have not read the 2000+ page Senate bill; and few Senators have. The size of the bill is a product of lawyers on steroids. It is mostly incomprehensible legalize.
What is clear is that the bill attempts to deal with the immorality of 40 million + uninsured Americans. This total masks several different sub-groups. But you can slice and dice it all you want. 40 million uninsured is unacceptable.
The bill will have about 15 million moving into an expanded Medicaid. That will be difficult to do. The GOP rightwingers have it right. Medicaid is a health care Gulog or ghetto. It is sub-standard primary care.
If the bill leaves the Medicaid financing the same ( 50% paid by the states), moving 15 million uninsured into Medicaid will not happen.
Like our friend in Vermont, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I favor eliminating Medicaid and expanding Medicare (Medicare for all).
The cost shifting will come with moving $50 billion annually from Medicare. This is doable, without cutting elder care. There is $30-50 billion annual waste/fraud in Medicare.
There is also those Medicare preferred private plans that have infiltrated Medicare. Get rid of them.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
world series
The third game of the world series is scheduled for Halloween. I can see clearly now. I see alpha males, clutching beer, greeting kids at the door, spewing profantity at the Sara Palin-look alikes to go away.Pro baseball, and pro sports generally, are capitalism on steroids.It is all money.There was a time when , if the Yankees ended in first place, they went directly into the Series. And the series was over by mid-October.Now there are playoffs everywhere, in every type of division. It is all about money.The baseball pros are paid big bucks. So why not work them till they drop. I’ve long thought that baseball is as exciting as watching grass grow.Now with Astroturf, the grass doesn’t even grow.Last night’s Yankee-As game took almost 5 hours. I watched the last hour.The little kids in the stadium were dressed as little Yanks or As. How much do those uniforms cost at Target? The tykes are walking billboards for baseball teams. It is marketing on steroids.For 5 hours, you are fixated on the outfield billboards. By the second hour, you begin to see the the geico walking on the GEICO billboard.Every hour you see Kate Hudson routing for ARod, who will dump her faster than Dave Letterman rotates his interns.For five hours, you see that ubiquitious Pat Sajak sitting in his expensive box seat behind home plate. Every pitch, every inning, for 5 hours, there is that guy sitting there, spinning his wheel of fortune in his overactive neurotransmitters. Vanna White is easy to take for 5 hours..but Sajak?Waiting for the World Series is like waiting for Godot.It is all about money.I imagine that Sajak will ask to be cryogenicly frozen after his death.
Let's hope some disgruntled hoodlum will not use his head for a baseball, as someone did with the frozen Ted Williams head.
Let's hope some disgruntled hoodlum will not use his head for a baseball, as someone did with the frozen Ted Williams head.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
the american spectator- tyrell is a wacko
“He calls himself Barack Obama, but he could just as easily be Kcarab Amabo. Either way, his incoherent policies will end with the same oncoming train wreck. He claims he hails from Chicago, but could just as easily come from Ogacihc. Where the hell is Ogacihc, you ask: Perhaps it is somewhere in Kazakhstand or Kyrgystan. Again, it just depends on the way one looks at it. After four months of this bizarre dervish in the White House he looks like President Amabo from Ogacihc to us all at Am.Spec, and we shall not be surprised if he trades in his presidential limousine for a magic carpet with government-mandated airbags..”R. Emmett Tyrell Jr. the continuing crisis column , editor of The American Spectator.http://spectator.org/
Tyrell, the editor of the marginal conservative The American Spectator, is a wacko.I used to spell my name backwards in high school, and thought it was super cool. No one else did, including the teachers.But the current Am.Spec. has two good reads on the health care debate.One is by our state’s former LG, Dr. Betsy McCaughey.She dismisses the Dem.health care reform plans as destructive state control.Her major reform is a Cato libertarian debit card issued to millions of the uninsured (like food stamp debit cards). Her price tag to cover millions is $20-25 billion yearly. But that is for a very high deductable policy. She also dismisses covering any illegals,without defining illegals. How many current illegals are on a pathway to citizenship? How many are children?
She is totally opposed to a public option, whether it’s a real one or a trigger-based phoney one.
I’m still perplexed on why Gov. Pataki, or Bruno and Shelly, did not order Betsy to sit down during Pataki’s state of the state.
The second article, by Philip Klein,”the matter with myths”, is a very good read.
He breaks down the 47 million uninsured; and realistically concludes that 10 million are the core that need near-term coverage.
Tyrell, the editor of the marginal conservative The American Spectator, is a wacko.I used to spell my name backwards in high school, and thought it was super cool. No one else did, including the teachers.But the current Am.Spec. has two good reads on the health care debate.One is by our state’s former LG, Dr. Betsy McCaughey.She dismisses the Dem.health care reform plans as destructive state control.Her major reform is a Cato libertarian debit card issued to millions of the uninsured (like food stamp debit cards). Her price tag to cover millions is $20-25 billion yearly. But that is for a very high deductable policy. She also dismisses covering any illegals,without defining illegals. How many current illegals are on a pathway to citizenship? How many are children?
She is totally opposed to a public option, whether it’s a real one or a trigger-based phoney one.
I’m still perplexed on why Gov. Pataki, or Bruno and Shelly, did not order Betsy to sit down during Pataki’s state of the state.
The second article, by Philip Klein,”the matter with myths”, is a very good read.
He breaks down the 47 million uninsured; and realistically concludes that 10 million are the core that need near-term coverage.
the ragin' cajun
The ragin’ cajun says “40 more years”
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James Carville is always a good read. His new book “40 More Years:How the Democrats will Rule the Next Generation” is chock full of good ideas.
Carville dismisses the neo-cons as highly destructive to our system. The neo-cons’ Big Ideas, neo-conservatism and supply-side economics, are stupid.
Carville calls for Obama to frame and articulate the Real Deal. It would include the environment; energy independence; the economy ( inc. tax policy); education; and teen-age pregnancy.
What? Teen-age pregnancy ? Yes! And the Real Deal is not the theocratic nostrum of abstinence. Humans should abstain from destructive fundamentalism, not sex. That is my statement, not Carville’s.
Fundamentalism is highly destructive. Be careful of those who believe God is whispering in their ear.A good read on this is Michael Baigent, Racing Toward Armageddon.He argues that the three big religious movements all have fundamentalist wings, and these wings are directing the plane of state in many countries. Here, the wing controls the local GOP in many states. These radicals are converging , leading the world to Armageddon.
His best summary of the fundamentalist mindset is:
“..they are humanity’s greatest enemy. They leave no room for human fraility; for compassion; for forgiveness; or for creative freedom of thought. They want to return to darkness; bend belief rather than farsighted discovery; and are more dogmatic, and less tolerant; and are false more than true…”
See Jaycee Lee Dugard as the most recent media example of the fundamentalist mindset destructiveness.
__________________________________________
James Carville is always a good read. His new book “40 More Years:How the Democrats will Rule the Next Generation” is chock full of good ideas.
Carville dismisses the neo-cons as highly destructive to our system. The neo-cons’ Big Ideas, neo-conservatism and supply-side economics, are stupid.
Carville calls for Obama to frame and articulate the Real Deal. It would include the environment; energy independence; the economy ( inc. tax policy); education; and teen-age pregnancy.
What? Teen-age pregnancy ? Yes! And the Real Deal is not the theocratic nostrum of abstinence. Humans should abstain from destructive fundamentalism, not sex. That is my statement, not Carville’s.
Fundamentalism is highly destructive. Be careful of those who believe God is whispering in their ear.A good read on this is Michael Baigent, Racing Toward Armageddon.He argues that the three big religious movements all have fundamentalist wings, and these wings are directing the plane of state in many countries. Here, the wing controls the local GOP in many states. These radicals are converging , leading the world to Armageddon.
His best summary of the fundamentalist mindset is:
“..they are humanity’s greatest enemy. They leave no room for human fraility; for compassion; for forgiveness; or for creative freedom of thought. They want to return to darkness; bend belief rather than farsighted discovery; and are more dogmatic, and less tolerant; and are false more than true…”
See Jaycee Lee Dugard as the most recent media example of the fundamentalist mindset destructiveness.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
the kennedys
The Kennedys
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The story goes that Ted Kennedy was sitting outside the Senate chamber, crying.Sen. Orin Hatch, a very conservative Mormon, sat down behind him.After a few minutes, Hatch told Ted, “Let’s work together (perhaps meaning the SCHIPProgram).They built a strong personal friendship, transcending political ideology.At least 44 Senators attended the Boston services, attesting to EMK’s charisma.The ceremonies yesterday were a great learning moment. I suspect many of the 18-30 yr. old millennials became acquainted with JFK, RFK, Jackie and the symbolism of the eternal flame for the first time. We are formed by the decade that we come-of-age. For me, it was the 60ies. It was the best and worst of times.JFK had a tremendous impact on me. I became a political junkie in grammar school; had a temporary illusionary belief that I was JFK; and married a young Jackie look- alike.I showed my grammar school classmates the Time cover of RFK that I sent to the AG ,and that he sent it back,signed.I watched RFK and Hubert Humphrey debate in the Senate during my time in Wash. Ol’ Hubert looked up to gallery, waved to me, while RFK smiled, but failed to wave. He wouldn’t do that,but Ted would have.I also became an assassination conspiratorialist.JFK’s murder was a conspiracy. The best, and most recent, books on this are the two by Thom Hartmann and Lamar Waldron, Ultimate Sacrifice and Legacy of Secrecy. These books describe the JFK/RFK plans for a coup against the Castro brothers, scheduled for Dec. ’63. The plans were infiltrated by organized crime, and turned against JFK in Dallas.RFK’s murder was a conspiracy. There were too many shots fired in the Ambassador Hotel kitchen, and Sirhan was not in the position to shoot RFK behind the ear.Two recent books make a case that Aristotle Onassis was the bag man for the murder (see Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys by Peter Evans and Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story by C David Heymann. )In Nemesis, the author has witnesses to Onassis’ confession that he paid to have RFK hit. Aristotle could not marry Jackie as long as RFK was alive.The assassination conspiracy community has accumulated voluminous data on both these murders.It is now time to come together and file legal murder charges in both of these cases. There is no statue of limitations on capital murder.
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The story goes that Ted Kennedy was sitting outside the Senate chamber, crying.Sen. Orin Hatch, a very conservative Mormon, sat down behind him.After a few minutes, Hatch told Ted, “Let’s work together (perhaps meaning the SCHIPProgram).They built a strong personal friendship, transcending political ideology.At least 44 Senators attended the Boston services, attesting to EMK’s charisma.The ceremonies yesterday were a great learning moment. I suspect many of the 18-30 yr. old millennials became acquainted with JFK, RFK, Jackie and the symbolism of the eternal flame for the first time. We are formed by the decade that we come-of-age. For me, it was the 60ies. It was the best and worst of times.JFK had a tremendous impact on me. I became a political junkie in grammar school; had a temporary illusionary belief that I was JFK; and married a young Jackie look- alike.I showed my grammar school classmates the Time cover of RFK that I sent to the AG ,and that he sent it back,signed.I watched RFK and Hubert Humphrey debate in the Senate during my time in Wash. Ol’ Hubert looked up to gallery, waved to me, while RFK smiled, but failed to wave. He wouldn’t do that,but Ted would have.I also became an assassination conspiratorialist.JFK’s murder was a conspiracy. The best, and most recent, books on this are the two by Thom Hartmann and Lamar Waldron, Ultimate Sacrifice and Legacy of Secrecy. These books describe the JFK/RFK plans for a coup against the Castro brothers, scheduled for Dec. ’63. The plans were infiltrated by organized crime, and turned against JFK in Dallas.RFK’s murder was a conspiracy. There were too many shots fired in the Ambassador Hotel kitchen, and Sirhan was not in the position to shoot RFK behind the ear.Two recent books make a case that Aristotle Onassis was the bag man for the murder (see Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys by Peter Evans and Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story by C David Heymann. )In Nemesis, the author has witnesses to Onassis’ confession that he paid to have RFK hit. Aristotle could not marry Jackie as long as RFK was alive.The assassination conspiracy community has accumulated voluminous data on both these murders.It is now time to come together and file legal murder charges in both of these cases. There is no statue of limitations on capital murder.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Ted Kennedy
Psalm 72: Read today by Kara Kennedy at her father’s service.
1 Endow the king with your justice, O God,the royal son with your righteousness.
2 May he judge your people in righteousness,your afflicted ones with justice.
3 May the mountains bring prosperity to the people,the hills the fruit of righteousness.
4 May he defend the afflicted among the peopleand save the children of the needy;may he crush the oppressor.
5 May he endure [a] as long as the sun,as long as the moon, through all generations.
6 May he be like rain falling on a mown field,like showers watering the earth.
7 In his days may the righteous flourishand prosperity abound till the moon is no more.
8 May he rule from sea to seaand from the River [b] to the ends of the earth.
9 May the desert tribes bow before himand his enemies lick the dust.
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shoresbring tribute to him.May the kings of Sheba and Sebapresent him gifts.
11 May all kings bow down to himand all nations serve him.
12 For he will deliver the needy who cry out,the afflicted who have no one to help.
13 He will take pity on the weak and the needyand save the needy from death.
14 He will rescue them from oppression and violence,for precious is their blood in his sight.
15 Long may he live!May gold from Sheba be given him.May people ever pray for himand bless him all day long.
16 May grain abound throughout the land;on the tops of the hills may it sway.May the crops flourish like Lebanonand thrive [c] like the grass of the field.
17 May his name endure forever;may it continue as long as the sun.Then all nations will be blessed through him, [d]and they will call him blessed.
18 Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel,who alone does marvelous deeds.
19 Praise be to his glorious name forever;may the whole earth be filled with his glory.Amen and Amen.
20 This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse.———–For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.Ted Kennedy.—–Kara Kennedy’s reading of Psalm 72 is very appropriate.The positive legacy of the Kennedy brothers will endure.This positive legacy includes JFK taking Curtis LaMay’s cigar and stuffing it up his arse during the Cuban missile crisis. It saved the world from a nuclear war.It includes JFK pushing the military-industrial complex aside and calling for an end to the Cold War at his American U. commencement address in 1963.It includes RFK’s anti-Vietnam war stance after 1967.It includes RFK’s empathy for the powerless.And it includes Ted’s long public career fighting for the powerless.The Catholic Church’s social gospel and Ted’sliberalism were, in many ways, compatible.The major difference is that the Church rejects the unfettered private-market capitalism, while Ted accepted the private market while fighting to protect us from the ravages of this same private market.The Church is good on death. Faith and redemption are very positive. Ted’s death is easier for him and the Kennedys if you believe in an afterlife.I like to believe something of us lives after our body dies.If we don’t believe this, nothing in our earthly lives would be worth while, including posting on this blog.Today is a day to put aside the warts in the Kennedy legacy.But I would still like to see murder indictments in the Kennedy brothers’ assassination conspiracies.Indictments against Carlos Marcello in the JFK murder; and Aristotle Onassis in the RFK murder. After all, both of this criminals confessed to these murders.Let’s get on with the indictments.
Comment by gecannonphd — August 29th, 2009 @ 1:40 pm
1 Endow the king with your justice, O God,the royal son with your righteousness.
2 May he judge your people in righteousness,your afflicted ones with justice.
3 May the mountains bring prosperity to the people,the hills the fruit of righteousness.
4 May he defend the afflicted among the peopleand save the children of the needy;may he crush the oppressor.
5 May he endure [a] as long as the sun,as long as the moon, through all generations.
6 May he be like rain falling on a mown field,like showers watering the earth.
7 In his days may the righteous flourishand prosperity abound till the moon is no more.
8 May he rule from sea to seaand from the River [b] to the ends of the earth.
9 May the desert tribes bow before himand his enemies lick the dust.
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shoresbring tribute to him.May the kings of Sheba and Sebapresent him gifts.
11 May all kings bow down to himand all nations serve him.
12 For he will deliver the needy who cry out,the afflicted who have no one to help.
13 He will take pity on the weak and the needyand save the needy from death.
14 He will rescue them from oppression and violence,for precious is their blood in his sight.
15 Long may he live!May gold from Sheba be given him.May people ever pray for himand bless him all day long.
16 May grain abound throughout the land;on the tops of the hills may it sway.May the crops flourish like Lebanonand thrive [c] like the grass of the field.
17 May his name endure forever;may it continue as long as the sun.Then all nations will be blessed through him, [d]and they will call him blessed.
18 Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel,who alone does marvelous deeds.
19 Praise be to his glorious name forever;may the whole earth be filled with his glory.Amen and Amen.
20 This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse.———–For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.Ted Kennedy.—–Kara Kennedy’s reading of Psalm 72 is very appropriate.The positive legacy of the Kennedy brothers will endure.This positive legacy includes JFK taking Curtis LaMay’s cigar and stuffing it up his arse during the Cuban missile crisis. It saved the world from a nuclear war.It includes JFK pushing the military-industrial complex aside and calling for an end to the Cold War at his American U. commencement address in 1963.It includes RFK’s anti-Vietnam war stance after 1967.It includes RFK’s empathy for the powerless.And it includes Ted’s long public career fighting for the powerless.The Catholic Church’s social gospel and Ted’sliberalism were, in many ways, compatible.The major difference is that the Church rejects the unfettered private-market capitalism, while Ted accepted the private market while fighting to protect us from the ravages of this same private market.The Church is good on death. Faith and redemption are very positive. Ted’s death is easier for him and the Kennedys if you believe in an afterlife.I like to believe something of us lives after our body dies.If we don’t believe this, nothing in our earthly lives would be worth while, including posting on this blog.Today is a day to put aside the warts in the Kennedy legacy.But I would still like to see murder indictments in the Kennedy brothers’ assassination conspiracies.Indictments against Carlos Marcello in the JFK murder; and Aristotle Onassis in the RFK murder. After all, both of this criminals confessed to these murders.Let’s get on with the indictments.
Comment by gecannonphd — August 29th, 2009 @ 1:40 pm
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Heath care reform
( Congressman Paul Tonko got an earful during his town hall on health care reform yesterday)
I attended some of this town hall meeting. The opponents of the House reform bills were loud and insulting.Their minds are rigid, and they do not want an honest dialogue.Having said that, there are many myths swirling around this debate.It’s important to separate the myths from the reality.Myth 1:There are 50 million uninsured Americans.There are, but this figure blurrs the reality of the segments included in this total.The Census Bureau report “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005,” puts the initial number of uninsured people living in the country at 46.577 million.But 10 million are non-citizens. They need health care, and they go to ER for treatment. This costs all of us.“… according to the same Census report, there are 8.3 million uninsured people who make between $50,000 and $74,999 per year and 8.74 million who make more than $75,000 a year. That’s roughly 17 million people who ought to be able to “afford” health insurance because they make substantially more than the median household income of $46,326.”So there are 17 million who could afford their own insurance.That leaves about 20 million that cannot afford health insurance, but may qualify for already existing programs (Medicaid)It is this core that should be the priority in moving to universal care.
I attended some of this town hall meeting. The opponents of the House reform bills were loud and insulting.Their minds are rigid, and they do not want an honest dialogue.Having said that, there are many myths swirling around this debate.It’s important to separate the myths from the reality.Myth 1:There are 50 million uninsured Americans.There are, but this figure blurrs the reality of the segments included in this total.The Census Bureau report “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005,” puts the initial number of uninsured people living in the country at 46.577 million.But 10 million are non-citizens. They need health care, and they go to ER for treatment. This costs all of us.“… according to the same Census report, there are 8.3 million uninsured people who make between $50,000 and $74,999 per year and 8.74 million who make more than $75,000 a year. That’s roughly 17 million people who ought to be able to “afford” health insurance because they make substantially more than the median household income of $46,326.”So there are 17 million who could afford their own insurance.That leaves about 20 million that cannot afford health insurance, but may qualify for already existing programs (Medicaid)It is this core that should be the priority in moving to universal care.
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