haze of agenda
Lately I’m just so frustrated with so much surrounding politics. I’m both frustrated with the politicians on all levels, but also the public for being narrow minded, shortsighted, and generally uninformed.
I understand the supposed reason for a two party system, but it’s f—ed up to the point of dividing our nation based on incorrect information on both sides (propaganda is there on all sides people). I’ve been seeing too much blindly taking inaccurate claims to be fact. Living in a society with so much free information makes it harder for some to see through the haze of agenda. It’s just what the political parties and special interests are counting on.
Recently, the hot topic is the health care debate. My personal perspective is complicated, and much of it hasn’t been represented to my personal satisfaction. That’s right, I’ll take the power back and blog. Time to bust out some bullet points…
Socialized health care already exists in America
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- VA
- Prison
Compared to other industrialized countries (who all have national health care):
- We have higher infant mortality rates than industrialized countries – sometimes by as much as 50%
- American life expectancy is less than most industrialized countries – even the cheese and wine culture of France lives for 3 more years than us
Am I advocating any of the current plans? No. There are problems with them because of the back and fourth nature of our partisan system that’s more concerned with painting the other party in a negative light than doing their f—ing jobs. That and the special interests have already had a go at slanting any legislation currently considered.
What I do know is that doing nothing is more costly in dollars and lives in the short and long term.
My personal experience is such that I have doctors and other health care professionals in my family. I know how good our system can be, which is pretty damn good. We have some of the best doctors and institutions in the world (i.e. Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, etc.).
Despite that, I also know how messed up our system is it is thanks to many things. Basic statistics show that our system isn’t that good based on big things like infant mortality and life expectancy among a few (I bet we have the lowest rate of erectile dysfunction though). Starting my own business and also having family and friends with health problems shows how bad the insurance industry and state regulations are. I’ve seen doctors in public afraid to administer emergency care because of malpractice insurance concerns. There are a lot of problems.
I fall on the side that something needs to be done for the good of society as a whole. I see the failure as a result of bureaucracy on three fronts: hospitals, malpractice insurance, and general health care insurance. All three represent corporate profit interests, and reforming one at a time will do no good to a system already costing too much money and too many lives.
Our crown jewels of health care (i.e. Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, etc.) are protected by referral and acceptance policy like every other national system. But we don’t vilify them for those practices despite being kinda socialist in nature. Our insurance companies decide what is and what isn’t covered – doesn’t that make them a practitioner of death panels or socialist principle on some level? Does that mean we’re fine with out insurance coverage the way it is, or just happy to have any in the first place?
What always seems to be forgotten? No matter what, there will always be extra services available to those willing to pay for it. It happens everywhere, and it would be no different here. If you want supplemental insurance to cover a different hospital or benefits, someone will provide it. If you want to pay for that extra test that’s most likely non-essential, no one is stopping you from finding a way to have it done. It doesn’t matter wherever you are, you can get so much if you’re willing to part with your money.
I’m personally not completely jazzed about the possibility of putting my tax dollars towards paying for health coverage of those that do not contribute to society in some valuable way… But it would benefit myself and most of society more than the current system costs us.
Let’s take a hypothetical… Lets say that we all have to go to another country to live. I wonder how many would choose a country without national health care since it is such a pariah on the existence of freedom.
Child Support Tactic
The most common manner to collect child support here in the US is by wage garnishing. Despite this, there are always the those who find a way to fall behind on support payments…
Apparently there’s another way to attempt to get support payments in Tennessee through the Department of Human Services called “license revocation”. Basically, if a party ordered to make support payments that are 90-days overdue and owe more than $500, their state issued licenses can be revoked.
Think about how pissed some would be to have their hunting or fishin’ licenses yanked… It can go one more step in revoking professional drivers license (wouldn’t doing this possibly hinder the generation of funds to make support payments?)… The same agency can even get into lottery winnings…
I’m all for it, I’m just applauding the license revocation as a new angle against what are usually deadbeat parents.
[source]
talk about FPS [video]
The video below is just a bunch of examples of extremely high rate video… Somewhere in the 5,000 to 10,000 frames per second (the typical video a normal camera takes is in the 24-30 frames per second).
Apparently this is a commercial with a political message, hence the category inclusion… And while I agree agree with the message, it’s posted mostly for the video…
I’d love to be the production staff that gets to specialize in this type of video. Imagine the daily meetings where the question is always “what are we going to shoot next?”
Oh yeah, the opera is a nice touch as well…
interesting comparisons
Click on the image for a much larger representation…
It’s an image created by The Atlantic that shows comparisons figures between the beginning and ending years of the GWB era… it’s not all one side or another, but it still is interesting nonetheless…
Quite the stretch of days
Yesterday was a weird day. It was surreal to see the events in Washington, and more so to have a chance to speak to my mother who was there in the midst of it all.
The speech has been resonating a little more with me than it did when he gave it, but it still comes nowhere close to calming my apprehension about the continually deteriorating economy. Part of me want to ask how things can be so bad with so many people able to afford the trip to DC. How can things be so bad with 10 inaugural balls in DC alone? Think of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent over the past 3 or so days by the government and by private citizens.
I also was around on Facebook a few times throughout the day, and I’m still flabbergasted by the overreaction from the hardcore right. Someone I went to high school with commented at around 1 am yesterday morning that she couldn’t sleep because all this “change” scared her. Someone else was going on about increased tax dollars going toward paying for abortions in 3rd world countries. I just don’t get it. These are all supposedly educated people as well.
But I’ll put all that behind me because another hope of mine comes to fruition tonight. How do you ask? It’s the season premiere of Lost.
Hell yeah!
I know that my most loyal commenter has never regained an affinity for the show, but I’m really past the point of return. Even if the show sucks from now until the end of season 6, I’ve put in too much time to not see how things work out. That’s not quite the most optimistic of statements, but I am looking forward to the show. I’ve liked each season for different reasons, and I’m 90% sure that I’ll like it from here on out.
I know I’ll get to see Locke die at least once.
is it raining man?
Just browsing stories on Jalopnik, and I came across this image which made me laugh out loud… Not only because it’s aligned with some of my economic beliefs, but because it brings R. Kelly into it.
If you’re interested, this was taken outside of the Detroit Auto Show. The group protesting is the UAW. I’m not going to go all editorializing on this anymore, but the issue is far from going away. I’m still unsure on what to make of all sides of the government / auto company / union love-hate triangle.
Just ask yourself if watersports is really the answer?
The Big Three
What caught my attention today was a the first paragraph in an op-ed from Mitt Romney.
If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed. (ny times)
I drive an American car. Not specifically because it’s American… That was a very minor contributing factor… But things are in a tizzy over the big three (General Motors, Chrysler, Ford).
The prevailing notion is that American companies have produced unreliable cars that no one wants with a short-sided market viability. Are they unreliable, sometimes. People do want them, but the shift in market share tells the tale. The short-sided market viability is the real problem. The over reliance on the SUV / Truck market in terms of inventory and manufacturing throughput was a step towards the edge, while the economic fall or recent was a push right to the edge.
I’ve heard proponents of bailing out the automakers say that they should be assisted because the actual downturn was no fault of the automakers. I’ll call BS because those automakers took the measures that put them at risk. They were hurting real bad before the housing/lending collapse. This just sped things up, so it’s still 99.9% their fault in my eyes.
The question of whether they should be bailed out is so tough and complex. I realize the ripple effects it would have if one or more of the big three went down, but it may be better to let them run a ground and try to reorganize with smarter business plan and processes… I don’t know. I’m torn. Reading Romney’s op-ed definitely made me think…
blah, blah, vote blah
So today’s been a long time coming. It seems like this whole election has been building up to such a fever pitch. I know I’ve been seeing stress of the whole process taking shape in was I’m totally not used to. I think it’s partially because of the prevalence of online communication. Everyone has been vocal to some extent.
Take facebook. A lot of my “friends” are from high school. Without Facebook, I probably wouldn’t have ever talked to many of these people unless I change my mind and actually go to a reunion (right now, that’s not going to happen). But because we’re online contacts, I’m getting notified of all these passive aggressive comments because their political party may not be victorious.
My favorite status update by a high school friend: “contemplating the possible election of a man that has accomplished nothing aside from popularity. It is inexplicable.” This same basic sentiment is being used in ads from a lot by right-wing PAC’s and organizations who also sought to elect W in 2000. That fact seems to be reason enough to sink that argument.
But back to that comment, if I can accomplish 10% of what Senator Obama has accomplished by his age, I’ll be pretty happy. If you disagree, then you don’t know what it is to get through Harvard Law School with notable accomplishments… Then spend time community organizing (more valuable than he’s getting credit for)… There was teaching constitutional law at a really good school… What about working in a good law firm? Running for (loosing and winning elections) to serve in the Illinois political system… And the obvious accomplishment of being elected to Congress… He also found time to get married and have children. Let’s put it another way, how many of the presidents in modern times have done as much as he has by his age without the aid of affluence?
Senator McCain took a different path in his life which is quite praiseworthy. I admire those willing to serve their country in such ways. We all know Senator McCain’s major noteworthy experience was by the same age as Obama was his military experience (as a POW and later as an officer in the Air Force). All of that is quite admirable in so many ways, as has his continued service as a member of Congress for a long time.
In different ways, both men have served their country and paint different pictures of the American Dream. Both visions are quite necessary to see the overall spectrum that makes America work. But we’ve had a long time to examine the candidates and their supposed character. If you haven’t made up your mind, then I would hope the decision would be made based on the policy you agree with and not the projection of character that is coming from both sides of the argument. Attacking the men from either side feels tasteless to me at this point.
Congressional Balyhoo
yeah, I’m pissed… I’m pissed that I’m even in the position that a bailout is necessary…
Notice the part of the statement acknowledging that a bailout is in fact necessary.
F* the financial sector for screwing the pooch in so many bad ways… F* the government for letting it go down (both parties are responsible, but the party pulling for less regulation is more to blame)… And F* the congress for failing to do something quick when it’s obvious that it needs to get done NOW…
It makes me feel sick to my stomach…
Post Primary Weigh-In
So after the weekend dramatics, I can’t go any longer without weighing in on the state of the democratic candidate process.
Disclaimers… I voted Obama in the Indiana primary. My wife gave money to his campaign. He’s got me hoping for a better way of doing things. For the record, I had my hope tattoo long before I ever heard of Obama.
So what really brought me to the place to write this was a piece I heard on NPR last friday before the nasty weather here. Here’s a link to a page where you can go read about it or listen to the actual piece I heard via a link. What it boils down to is that every time there is a party without a clear candidate before the convention, and bitter fighting for the nomination – the opposing party wins pretty easily. The piece talks about this happening in ‘72, ‘76, ‘80, ‘84.
If you would have asked me leading up to the first primary of the whole process I would have told you that Hillary is going to win because from what I knew she was the best candidate, and I was completely fine with that. I wasn’t sure if she was electable because of how polarizing she was to moderates, but I was more than happy to vote for her. I knew of Obama from his ‘04 convention speech, so I knew he had a nice future ahead of him.
Then I started hearing what he had to say. It took very little time for me to look at him as someone I’d like to have represent me as the president, and not because I didn’t like Hillary any less. Then she went negative against her own party in nasty ways. That negativity from her, her husband, and her campaign in general as soured me in a big, big way many times.
Now we’re at a place where Clinton is threatening to take the fight for the nomination to the convention. Doing so will severely handicap the ability of any democratic nominee to get elected.
Here’s what I understand as the facts of some cases that haven’t been really hammered into the minds of the public. Clinton agreed before any primary that the delegates from Michigan and Florida would not count. She even agreed not to campaign in the states. There are signed documents to that effect. She’s also claiming a win in the popular vote despite NOT counting votes in caucus states (which she lost the majority of) and counting the votes from Puerto Rico which can’t vote in the general election. Again, she signed documents agreeing to rules and such for the whole primary process before it all began, and said absolutely nothing about anything she had a problem with until she was loosing badly.
Now I’m at the point where there I see no good outcome for the ‘08 general election. She has poisoned FLA against Obama if he gets the nod. There is supposedly throngs of Clinton supporters that won’t vote for Obama. I can assure you that there are many Obama supporters that either won’t vote or vote McCain. The moderate vote could very likely swing to the right. At the very least, the democratic party is looking less and less like a cohesive, organized party and more like some weird election from a backwoods country who spends it’s time making spittoons for Wall Mart.
And I used to like McCain, but he went and flipped on many topics and turned into a war-advocating stooge of the current administration. I can’t advocate his policies.
I have hope for change.
