Sorry for being so quiet, but I spent three days with no Internet at all, and then moved a long way away, and my broadband isn't up yet. But there is so much to write about... I will be back, and the floodgates will be open.
My first piece will be up Wednesday morning, and it is sure to piss off a bunch of people. At the center is Dennis Kucinich, and his "principles." Suffice it to say that voting against a piece of legislation that you find to be imperfect, and giving more ammunition to the Blue Dogs in the Senate actually LACKS principles.
Ok, I’m going to say it; the
new version of HR 3200 rocks. Is it perfect? Of course it isn’t.But then, few would say that Medicare isn’t a
great program (and if you think right wingers think it sucks, threaten to take
it away from them), and that’s had more than 40 years of tweaking, and still
needs lots more.
Look, folks; I would love to
blink my eyes or wiggle my nose and create a single payer health insurance system that paid every bill and covered
literally everyone who sets foot on our shores, because that reflects the
reality of how a health care delivery system is supposed to work.But then, I would like to live in a world in which it’s always between
70 and 85 degrees (Fahrenheit) and sunny, except when I want it to rain. I want
all people in the world to live in peace and harmony, and to exile all bad
people to a faraway planet; preferably in another solar system. Oh, yeah; and
chocolate; I want to live in a world where I can just go outside and pick
(non-fat) chocolate from a tree.
In other words,we have to understand that what we want and
what we can have are usually going to be two different things. That's the difference between realism and idealism. That doesn’t mean
we shouldn’t work toward a goal of single-payer, universal, affordable health
care; I’m going to be working toward that until the day I die. But we have to
understand that this is a process; it was never going to happen in one bill.
Consider the state we’re in
right now, and you can see what a miracle it is that we’ve gotten this far.
I have to tell you, once in a while, the wingnuts make fun of us for being a little too "politically" correct, and often, their assessment is correct. When it comes to racism, the goal should be to treat everyone the same, regardless of skin color, ethnicity or religious belief. So, aren't we defeating the purpose when we point and shout at anyone who says anything that isn't absolutely politically correct, and demand that something bad happen to them?
A few days ago, a big brouhaha was made over something Rush Limbaugh said that the PC Police cried foul over. Here's the rant, courtesy of Media Matters:
Apparently, using the word "boy," regardless of context, indicates racism. Come on, folks; there is a boatload of stuff I could dig out of the archives to prove Limbaugh's racism (and wingnuts; you really don't want to challenge me on this); we don't need this one at all.
Now, we come to find out that ESPN has suspended Bob Griese for a week, because he dared to suggest that a Hispanic NASCAR driver might actually eat tacos. Check it out:
I mean, come on, folks. I get why Imus was fired; what he said about those innocent college basketball players was racist and mean. But to suggest that Bob Griese, who couldn't have survived all those years playing for the Miami Dolphins in the NFL if he was really racist, is a because he suggested that Juan Pablo Montoya missed being in the top 5 for some NASCAR cup nonsense might have been "getting a taco"? Yeah, probably not the most enlightened thing he could say, but I can assure you, folks; Hispanics eat tacos. Presumably, if he had suggested that Jeff Gordon had gone out to get a taco, he'd be in no trouble. But mention that someone with a Hispanic surname might be eating Mexican food, and suddenly, you have to be punished?
Look, folks; the person who was being insulted by Rush Limbaugh (at least in that case) was President Obama, and I'm certain he and his Secret Service detail can handle being called "a little boy." And could we at least wait until Juan Pablo Montoya expresses some offense, before we just label Bob Griese a bigot against Hispanics?
Let's save our disgust for real racism. The problem with suggesting that anyone who says something that isn't completely racially sensitive a "bigot" or "racist" and punishing them for it is the terrible tendency to create a "crying wolf" scenario, in which what we say no longer has meaning, because we complain about everything.
We know Limbaugh is a racist; he has a long track record that proves it. And Bob Griese might be bigoted against Hispanics, but can we all agree that the offhand remark constitutes stupid and condescending, but doesn't necessarily constitute bigotry in and of itself? Let's save it for the really special racism we see all around us every day; there's no need to create more racism that we already have.
Do
you know why so many right wing leaders like to show outrage at the stupidest
things? It’s because they know they’ll get the masses inflamed enough to send
them a bunch of money. That's all. It's all about the money. Does anyone believe Sarah Palin was actually
offended when David Letterman made fun of her weeks ago? Did she really think
Letterman was talking about her younger daughter?
Of
course she didn’t. But the fact of the
matter is, the Republican “base” is made up of the stupidest, most gullible morons
in the country, and they can always be counted upon tocough up a few dollars to support anything that
fires them up. Forget jobs and fixing the economy; it's sex and "dirty" body parts that make for the best money trail.
It
is this knowledge that keeps the Right Wing Fart Machine greased and running. While the Republican “base” has a lot of phony
passion and fake moral outrage, they have absolutely no sense of humor. And I mean none, folks. Have you ever noticed
what the right wing laughs at? Everything they find “humorous” involved cruelty
and/or death. They just absolutely love death. And they never actually laugh in
a way that demonstrates joy, like the rest of us; every right wing laugh is far
more sardonic than anything.
First
of all, I’m sorry for not being around much lately, but there’s something
about being the parent of a soldier that makes you feel really helpless when
something happens. As many who read this blog know, my son Tim was deployed to
Afghanistan this past August. He’s serving his country in one of the most
dangerous areas of one of the most dangerous countries in the world, just so he
can better afford to go to college.But
that’s another column for another day.
About
a week ago, my son and the others he serves with were scouting for IEDs, and
one of them went off, a little too close, and he was thrown back. From the way
he describes his symptoms, he’s definitely suffered a concussion, but it’s difficult
to tell if it might be worse than that. Tim has this tendency to “not want to
worry me,” and still hasn’t figured out that it’s not what he tells me that worries me, but what he doesn’t tell me.
So,
for the last week, I’ve been trying to go through channels to speak to a
doctor, and talking to him via instant message and email as much as possible,
trying to gain any information I can. This is my baby we’re talking about here.
I’ve raised him by myself since he was an infant, and the very thought of
losing him to a “war” that should have been over years ago really pisses me
off.The former Vice President, Dick
Cheney, made me want to reach through the television screen and slap him when
he accused our current president of “dithering” last week.What in the bloody hell was HIS
administration doing for seven years, if it wasn’t “dithering”? For shit’s
sake, folks; our mission over there was to wipe out a couple of thousand
scumbags who were behind the terrorist attack that killed 3000 of our people.
We had them cornered eight goddamn years ago; why are we still there?Oh, yeah; it’s because we stopped in the
middle, and started a war with another country not too far away; one that was a
pain in the ass, but which didn’t attack us at all. That’s not dithering? Roosevelt
and Truman beat the Nazis and the Japanese in half the time that it’s taken to
wipe out a small group of people who are apparently so lacking in weapons that
they had to use four of our airliners and box cutters as weapons when they got
here.
Some friends of mine
recently watched one of the most asinine "documentaries" ever made; Ben
Stein's "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." The film lamely attempts to make a case that
Intelligent Design (ID) should be considered alongside other sciences in schools,
primarily because the field of scientific research seems to be controlled by
"elite" (his word, not mine -- and no, I'm not making up that word) groups of scientists.Essentially, because scientists are
"elitists," goes the argument, they should be forced to accept the
concept of Intelligent Design.
Imagine if someone
was making the opposite argument, and demanfing that, because priests
and nuns were elitists, they should be forced to teach
evolution alongside Intelligent Design in a religion class. The same people,
like Ben Stein, who are trying to force science classes to teach Intelligent
Design would be hopping mad, and rightfully so.
Let's start by making something crystal clear; for all of their talk, the right wing is not a fan of capitalism.They like it when their heroes make a lot of money, but as organized crime, Enron and Jack Abramoff have proven over many years, it is possible to make a ton of money doing something that isn't capitalism.
I suppose we're supposed to be relieved by the current spike in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It is a sign that the economy has bottomed out. But we can't allow ourselves to fall into this trap again, folks. The Dow going to 10.000 means diddly squat when it comes to the overall economy. And if we don't gain some perspective, and do so soon, we're in danger of allowing ourselves to be taken in by another bubble. A rising Dow should be seen as a warning sign, not as a hopeful sign. The stock market is no longer about capitalism, which is why the right wing loves it so much.
I have a friend with two dogs. Okay, he’ll tell you he has
one dog and his wife has the other, but she’s been working so much lately, he’s
the one who walks them.He walks them
both at the same time, and it’s really funny to watch at times, because the
little one walks as if it’s the biggest, baddest dog on the block, and the big
one’s a big sissy. Basically, the big
dog could eat the big dog in one healthy bite, but neither dog
realizes it.
The whole scene reminds me of the current state of the major
political parties at the moment. You have the Republican Party as the little
dog who thinks he’s king of the world, and the Democratic Party as the big dog,
who seems to have no clue he’s actually in charge.
At some point, Democrats will figure out they’re in charge
again, and they’ll come out of their shell. We’re already starting to see it.
And if we work our asses off and target the biggest pussy Democrats next election, and
elect a significant number of progressives, we’ll put the fear of Gawd in them
and they’ll straighten up and fly right. But Republicans are in the crapper,
and everyone but them seems to know it. They’re the little dog that struts and
yelps and nips at your heels, and makes you laugh in the process.
I really have to comment on this, which I just received in my e-mail from the new Air America blog, with the headline, "Does Olbermann Get A Pass For Sexist Drivel?":
Last night on "Countdown," Keith Olbermann named conservative blogger Michelle Malkin the second-worst person in the world for her work on the now-infamous "Obama song" sung by children at a New Jersey school. Malkin apparently fingered the wrong woman for having written the song and posted about her, resulting in the woman receiving death threats and harassment.
One can say a lot of things about Michelle Malkin's politics, her tactics, her strained relationship with reality and her commenters' propensity to embody the worst of the Internet. Or you could do what Keith Olbermann did.
Olbermann starts with a recitation of Malkin's emails, belittling her voice and putting on a "Valley Girl" accent--i.e., an unintelligent female voice. But it's only after that unfortunate display of sexism that Olbermann hits it out of the misogynist park. He said:
[Malkin's] total mindless, morally bankrupt, knee-jerk, fascistic hatred, without which Michelle Malkin would just be a big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it.
For the record, on average, once every 24 minutes in this country, a woman does become a "mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it." Nearly 1.3 million American woman will be a victim of domestic violence this year, and one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
A liberal, progressive critique of Malkin need not and should not resort to an attack on her looks or her gender or rely on silly stereotypes or imagery that brings to mind victims of domestic violence.
By attacking MIchelle Malkin's politics with an assault on women of every political persuasion, and then indicating a desire to see her physically harmed, a person might understandably get the idea that Keith Olbermann only respects women if they agree with him.
And if they don't? They're obviously just stupid Valley girls who deserve a good beating.
Now, I've taken Olbermann to task a few times in the past. I think he does go overboard in his criticisms at times, and he does take them a little too far. I also agree the "mashed up bag of meat with lipstick" remark is slightly sexist and a bit over the top.
But Megan Carpenter is being truly insulting to more women than Olbermann.
First of all, Olbermann does "rudimentary" imitations of a lot of people. And like it or not, Malkin actually sounds like a Valley Girl. So does Ann Coulter, and he's been "imitating" her that for years. I've never heard a peep out of anyone since he's been imitating Bill O'Reilly as "Ted Baxter" for years, and we KNOW Ted Baxter was a moron; that was why he was funny. Has Carpenter expressed the same angst since Olbermann's been imitating Rupert Murdoch's Aussie accent as a pirate? Dies she presume all Australians are pirates?
How insulting is it to the millions of women in this country who speak with the same sort of inflection as "Valley Girls" to presume that they're all stupid because they speak that way. I used to work at law firms, and several of the women lawyers I worked with sounded like Olbermann's imitation of Malkin, yet they were brilliant lawyers. It's an imitation of MALKIN, not a generic "stupid woman" imitation. If he were to do that, a southern accent works better. It also helps if you're missing some teeth and you have a little tobacco in your jaw.
But I have to say, the most insulting thing Carpenter says in this article is to impute that the "mashed up bag of meat with lipstick" remark rises to the level of some sort of endorsement of abuse. Yes, it was probably an unwise and somewhat sexist remark that was unnecessary. But for Carpenter to claim that Olbermann was suggesting that, because he was calling Malkin is a lying sack of shit (which is probably what he meant, but wasn't allowed to say, so he thought of a euphenism and came up with a bad one), that somehow meant that he was advocating someone abuse her, is an insult to Olbermann, but more than that, it's an insult to abused women everywhere.
This reminds me of those people who write to the Stephanie Miller Show to complain about Jim Ward's imitation of Kim Jong Il, because he uses a Korean accent. Whenever they complain that it's an insult to Koreans, I'm left scratching my head; if KIm Jong Il was able to speak in English, what would he sound like? It's unlikely he'd speak the King's English in a proper British accent. Likewise, has Megan Carpenter ever actually HEARD Michelle Malkin? She does sound like that; like she's better than everyone else. And for her to imply that Olbermann was advocating violence against women, well, that's more over-the-top than Olbermann's poorly chosen euphemism for "sack of shit."
Stop bending over backwards to find something to criticize our side for. There's plenty there, if you look hard enough.
(And by the way, I would have loved to have made such comments on the site itself, but Air America's new blog apparently doesn't allow for that. Hint Hint.)
It's official. The Baucus POS health
care bill has cleared committee, and now sits, dripping, on the Senate floor.
(In this case, POS can either mean Piece of Shit, or Point of Sale; take your
pick, they both fit.)
We have to bear down starting now. We
must get off our butts and contact our Congressperson and both Senators, to
support a massive reform bill with a strong public option.And we should do so whether our political
representatives are already on record as being against a public option or not,
or even Republican. It's time to put the fear of Gawd into these people.While you're at it, send a message to the
White House as well, and make sure they know a strong public option is an absolute
necessary. And while you’re at it, let them know the health insurance industry
now agrees with you.
There are five bills altogether; three
in House and two in the Senate, and all but the Baucus POS bill has a public
option, so the odds are in our favor. It's hard to imagine that the merger of
these bills could possibly end up without a public option, but stranger
thingshave happened, and this is too
important to leave to chance. We have to harness the same energy to fight this
that we harnessed to get President Obama elected in the first place. There
seems to be a tendency to think we did our job last November, and now he's just
supposed to do whatever we want,and
that's just nuts. Getting him elected was only the beginning, folks. It was to
provide us the means to try and pass reforms; it wasn't a guarantee of reform
itself. If President Obama and the progressives in Congress are going to do
this, they need our help.
A strange thing happened the other
day, and I wonder how many actually noticed it. We actually received a major
gift, in the form of a report in the costs to the system if the Baucus bill
passes. And the gift came from an unlikely source; the health insurance
industry.
I actually downloaded this report and
read it. I thought it would be painful, but I ended up laughing my ass off.
You'll see why as I go through this. If you’d like to read along, feel free; the
report is right here. (it’s not very
long, so don’t worry…)
How in the HELL did so many
incredibly stupid people get to be in such a position of power in this country?
I'd really like to know.
More importantly, why do so many
people not only VOTE against their own personal interests, and the interests of
their neighbors, but also advocate for positions that apparently run counter to
their stated belief system. And why are people whose lives are obviously more
messed up than those whom they are lecturing, constantly hawk their
self-righteous bullshit to the rest of us with regard to ethics and morals?
I've always believed you clean out your own barn before you start talking about
the stench of someone else's.
And here's the ultimate question;
why do they always seem to get a forum that is equal to everyone else, and why
doesn't anyone call them on their rhetoric?
Now, if you listen to a right
winger, wherever they live is a goddamn paradise, where everyone lives a
chaste, moral, Biblical life, and everyone who lives in a "liberal"
state might as well be living in a jungle. Right wingers, of course, are all
moral, peaceful and God-fearing, while we liberals are all heathenous retches
who kill babies and coddle terrorists.
Of course, we know they're
delusional. And yet, no matter how delusional they are, the press gives them a
soapbox, where they will get to say whatever they want, and no one will ever
call them on it.
There's a reason the righties used
to make fun of John Kerry for his fondness of nuance; they simply can't see it
or understand it.
Listen to the whining and
complaining about President Obama's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. I could
understand arguments that suggest it's too soon, or that he hasn’t accomplished
enough quite yet; there’s at least something of a rational basis for such an
idea, especially given the sad state of our news media these days. But most of
the biggest complaints are nothing short of irrational. The de facto head of
the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, actually found himself in agreement with
the Taliban with his remarks about what a “joke” the Peace Prize has become,
and didn’t see that as a sign that, perhaps, he might be wrong. I don't know about you, but when I find myself in agreement with oppressive idiots, I actually re-think my position. But then, I think my position in the first place.
Let me explain the Nobel Peace Prize
in a way that most on the right may be able to understand.
I was listening to the radio yesterday
morning, and heard a news break featuring a story about the record price of
gold, including speculation that the price could go to $1100 an ounce before
too long, and eventually hit $1500 per ounce.
Excuse me, folks, but this is exactly
what got us into our current economic mess; the promise of huge returns on an
investment, and the idea that you can simply buy something and make money on
it.
Will we ever learn? How many times
must we be made into suckers before we realize we're being taken for a ride by
these people? You know who's going to make a shitload of money during this run
up? The people who bought gold when it was $600 an ounce, and who are trying to
get YOU to buy it as $1100 an ounce. Believe me; the price is far more likely
to crash back down to $500 than to ever see $1500. But even if it does hit
$1500, it will still go down to $500, eventually.
Why don’t people get this? If you
really want to make some money, go SELL your old gold jewelry right now to pay
the mortgage on the house you’re currently underwater in, or to pay for a few
tanks of gasoline, made from oil that goes up and down constantly, based on the
whims of "speculators."
This past Sunday morning, I woke up
and immediately started reading the news. It's been a habit for years. It’s a
habit I’ve had since I was in my teens. In the old days, I would wake up and
immediately head to the front door to get the paper. Now, I just reach over and
grab the laptop from the nightstand and start perusing many different papers.
Of course, the first story that smacked me in the face was one that eight US
soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border.
Immediately, tears welled in my eyes,
and feelings of dread came over me, as I haven't heard from my son, who is
stationed not far from there, for almost a week. As the parent of a soldier,
you try to hope for the best, but you can't help but dread the worst.I've talked to many other parents of soldiers
deployed in various places, and I've learned that you simply can't train
yourself to look away, no matter how hard you try. He's been deployed for 2
months so far; I have no idea how I’ll make it through 13 more.
I've never understood why we sent
babies over there. I know; he's 19, not technically a baby. But if you have
ever been a parent, then you know, no matter how old they get, you just keep
flashing back to those trips to Chuck E. Cheese and Discovery Zone, the first
time he rode a roller coaster, and the first time he dressed up to go to a
dance. Besides, I just sent him a care package replete with sour gummy worms,
Skittles, and downloaded copies of his favorite anime (screw you, RIAA!) videos.
I've pre-ordered a couple of new video games, one of which features Mickey
Mouse and Goofy (don’t worry; the other one features plenty of gore; he’s
normal).We're talking about someone who
hasn't really started his life at all.
A recent study estimated that at least 44,000 people die every year because they don’t have insurance. Don’t you wonder how many with insurance die because their insurance company doesn’t honor their commitment to protect their health and their bank accounts?
Once more, folks; these aren’t stories from people without insurance. These are actual complaints from people who pay for health insurance; some of them have been doing so for many years.
One of the problems we are having
in this debate stems from the fact that something like 78% of the country has
health insurance. Since insurance companies only insure healthy people, the
vast majority of those getting health insurance rarely have to use it; their
boss simply pays their premiums for them, and they assume that, should anything
happen, they’re covered.
Think again.
A few weeks ago, I put a call out
for stories from people who have experience dealing with health insurance
companies, and have been inundated. (You can put the word out, too. Send
stories to healthcrisisnotes@gmail.com.)
I have also gained access to actual complaint files from a couple of insurance
companies.
I have compiled many of these
stories below. While many of these are not extreme horror stories, the problem
is clear. The intention of posts like this is to articulate how health
insurance companies operate, and why we need serious reform. Feel free to show
them to those relatives and friends who insist the health insurance system is
fine. This is only the beginning; I literally have hundreds of stories.
