It is good to see Jesse Ventura coming on the show. His Tru.tv program on 9/11 was right on the mark.

I very strongly believe a new independent investigation of 9/11/2001 is absolutely mandatory for our continued freedom, and will drastically change the way we Americans think about the world and our future for the better.

We need to keep the pressure on for a new investigation!

I have a few questions.

If corporations are people then can I deduct my health care costs as maintenance costs ?

If corporations are people can I deduct all my living expenses like corporations deduct their costs of doing business? Like food and gas are things I need to run my overhead.

Michael Moore on the Current Health Ins. Legislation

Video:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/ns/msnbc_tv-the_dylan_ratigan_show#...

Health "Insurance" vs. "Care" Reform

This morning, I heard Pres. Obama refer to this health reform legislation as "health INSURANCE reform." This is what I have been calling it for some time now, but this is the first time I've heard Obama call it what it is (tho, of course, there is not ENOUGH reform.)

Grayson's 3 1/2-page "Medicare for All" Bill Gets Huge Support - Part 2

Rep. Alan Grayson's "Medicare for All" petition to sign:

www.wewantmedicare.com

Ron,

Re: "You do get a basic deduction and corporations don’t. Their’s is based on profit, what is yours?"

How about "income?" God knows, though, since Reagan, income for the middle class has continuously deteriorated.

Ron,

Next question --- WHAT middle class???????

Pardon the interruption, but I want to take a moment for my weekend sports interlude. I have to admit that Ari Fleischer wasn’t the best selection to handle Tiger Woods’ PR in advance to his return to golf (just look at the mess he made of Mark McGwire’s “rehabilitation”), but on the other hand, I think most people are ready to move on. Unfortunately, there are still hundreds of sports commentators who just want to draw the Woods’ salacious saga on, and on, and on. Tiger Woods’ appearance at the Masters should be seen as a boon to the sport, but most commentators seem to have chosen to see it as a negative. He hasn’t behaved “contritely” enough for their tender sensitivities, he hasn’t groveled in the mud enough to satisfy them. It isn’t enough that the press has taken its pound of flesh, waxing frenzied and insuring that Woods has lost tens of millions of dollars in endorsements. Funny how Michael Jordan’s dalliances with at least one porn star didn’t cause sponsors to abandon him; it certainly helped that the media didn’t dwell on it. Perhaps there is a different dynamic at play between Jordan’s principle audience (black), and Woods’ (white). “They” made Woods a star, and because he exceeded expectations further than they could accept, “they” can unmake him too. For myself, if Elin has “forgiven” him, I’m willing to move on; after all, I have my own life to worry about.

Meanwhile, Woods’ fellow (white) golfers insist that there has been “great” golf being played in his absence, except that if that’s the case, hardly anyone knows about it. And how can it be “great” if they don’t have to test themselves against the best golfer of the last ten years and who may continue to frustrate frustrated white golfers for another ten? I wouldn’t give a damn about golf it wasn’t for Woods (because of golf’s elitist image), and now I might even watch an LPGA event if Paula Creamer is in the top four on the leaderboard (because the LPGA operates on such a shoe-string budget, it can’t afford to deploy more than two television cameras). When Woods’ returns for the Masters, TV ratings will undoubtedly go through the roof. That’s good news for golf, but “bad” news for his fellow golfers, and that is why they are trying to con the ones who still care into their way of thinking that everything is “great” without Woods in the picture.

Last Friday I mentioned baseball player Torii Hunter’s remarks about Latino players. He hasn’t been the only one making numbskull comments on this matter; one can always count on Gary Sheffield, who recently dissed Latino players as being “easier” to control than black players. "Where I'm from, you can't control us. You might get a guy to do it that way for a while because he wants to benefit, but in the end, he is going to go back to being who he is. And that's a person that you're going to talk to with respect, you're going to talk to like a man.” I suppose he means that if you spent your youth on the inner city mean streets “earning” respect by exuding a whiff of violence, saying “Yes sir” to The Man who pays your multi-million dollar salary when he asks you to behave only works until you get your guaranteed money upfront. Or he might be talking about the guys who if you don’t how sufficient “respect” for their manhood, they’ll ask you to at least respect their “little friend.”

(At this point I’d like to mention to those prima donnas who work for UAL who also like to talk trash, that I am quite prepared to lob some key-stroke missiles their way, even if they are union and not on the clock. When I watch them on the ramp, it reminds me of the old jokes about how many people does it take to screw-in a light bulb.)

Ozzie Guillen called out Hunter on his remarks, but most commentators dismiss him as “crazy” even when he does make perfect sense. Seventeen of the top 50 salaried MLB players are Latino, so they are hardly keeping salaries down. The fact of the matter is that African-American (as opposed to Latinos of African descent—those “imposters”) participation in baseball has declined as participation in football and basketball have increased. 75 percent of NBA players are black (with European players increasingly replacing white American players), and nearly 70 percent of NFL players are. The question is why. Outside of soccer, baseball is the most popular sport in many parts of Latin America, and baseball is actively supported by communities and even countries. This is not so in many inner-city environments. Baseball requires greater community support than other sports. For basketball, all you need is a hoop and a ball; for football, a vacant lot and a ball. But a pick-up game of baseball requires a sandlot, a bat, a ball and eighteen gloves and kids who have the patience to learn particularly skills. You can play an informal game of basketball or football without a referee or an official; in baseball, an umpireless game is likely to cause chaos. High schools in inner cities, besides lacking facilities, are rather less interested in providing the resources necessary if interest in baseball is a distant third to football and basketball.

Once again, Latinos are being unfairly scapegoated for merely filling in the void for declining interest in participation by other groups. The real problem has to do cultural shifts, lack of resources, and lack of community commitment.

@Quark re: insurance reform vs. care reform -

Reconciliation can ONLY be used for BUDGETARY issues. Health Insurance reform IS a budgetary issue. Health Care reform is NOT. So that's where we are now.

mstaggerlee,

Thanks for the info. on "insurance" vs. "care" reform. :-)

Ron,

I get SO tired of Repugs. and corporatists using government to privatize everything that once was part of the "commons." They are amoral or even sociopathic and their disregard for the rest of us. They suck this country dry and move its wealth UPWARD to those who Gengis Khan once killed when he conquered cities --- the useless upper classes!

Ron,

It's wonderful that YOU are doing well. A lot of us in this country are NOT, through no fault of ours. You are an .... when you mock people, you cease to make this a blog on which to sincerely exchange points of view.

Ron,

"You are an.... " meaning you don't seem to be aware of anyone but yourself.

So ... which blog page are we posting on TODAY???

Well mstaggerlee, I'm moving to this blog today, but I'm betting their will be dual blogs going on today too.

Fridays without Bernie is like a Birthday without a party. :-(

HEY, RUTHERFORD! - you wanna sincerely exchange a viewpoint or two? Here' are a couple to chew on ...

1) I'm sure that even YOU can accept the notion that in a healthy economy, there is some kind of a balance between SUPPLY and DEMAND. For the past 30 years (since your namesake was President), the pendulum has been getting pushed exclusively towards the SUPPLY side. Now, for the most part, DEMAND is collapsing - GLOBALLY!, because the people who comprise the greatest global market for consumer goods are systematically being put out of their jobs and their homes.

2) The whole concept of the "Ownership" society is beginning to collapse, as the investor class (e. g., YOU!) sits by the pool waiting for your dividend checks. You demand GROWTH, above all, from your investments. THAT is why, for the past 30 years, productivity has increased annually while wages have flattened.

Ever hear of a guy named Henry Ford, Ron? I have some grudging respect for the racist bastard, because he knew something about how to SUSTAIN a business by taking the LONG view. Ford recognized that if he paid his workers enough that they could afford to buy the products produce in the factories they worked in, he'd CREATE a market for himself. Do you think the 9-year-olds in Singapore that BUILT your 48" Plasma display & 3 GHz computer are making enough to buy those items? Do you think they can even DREAM of making that much?

Enjoy your private little "micro-economy" while it lasts, Ronny-boy. It's all gonna come tumbling down around your ears, far sooner than you expect. Don't be lookin' in here for a soft place to land when it does.

That's a very familiar song you are singing there, Mr. Phillips - but I'd far prefer to have my health care claims handled by a GOVERNMENT bureaucrat, whose wages are NOT dependent upon his claim-rejection ratio, than an INSURANCE COMPANY bureaucrat, who job DEMANDS that he reject as many claims as possible.

Well Ron if that's how you feel about pass then read bills, join me in calling for the repeal of every piece of legislation that the Republicans passed in the middle of the night mere hours (or less) after putting their gregarious bills on the table.

BTW, how long do you have to sit and think before coming up with your (dubious) zingers... looks like at least a 1/2 hour to me. Do you have to call someone to get ideas?

@Nels - There ARE NO ideas on that side ... he has to call someone for the correct talking point.

@Ron - If _I_ can read "Atlas Shrugged", _YOU_ can read the bill!

@mstaggerlee, well said.

I love Ron's Aircraft Carrier comment. So Henry Ford was building a product for the average man, but it was just a side effect that he paid his quality workers enough to buy a product made for the working class. If his workers could produce as many Aircraft Carriers as they could cars per day, well then perhaps they should be paid enough to buy their own Carrier.

@wRONg Rutherford, re:"Just ridiculous to tie work output to consumption."

I've been working on the bleeding edge of the electronics industry for the past 33 years, creating non-consumer products that make most people's eyes glaze over when they ask me "What do you do?" You ARE correct that nobody here gets paid well enough to buy our products - then again, nobody who works here would WANT one ... kinda like an Aircraft Carrier. However, pretty much everyone who works here IS paid well enough to buy a 3 GHz computer or a 48" Plasma TV ... if they do want one.

So - your statement, copied above, seems to indicate a belief that wages (consumption) should NOT be tied to productivity (work output). Enlighten us fools in here then, Professor, to what SHOULD wages be connected?

@wRONg Rutherford, re: "The one time that {I remember} the Republicans working so hard to get something passed “in the night” was ANWR and that never did pass even when using the same techniques Pelosi is using now

Jeez - guess you forgot all about Medicare Part D, huh ... passed around 2 AM, by waiving their OWN rule regarding how long votes may remain open.

Here's some more about the fair and balance Republican congress.

http://www.yuricareport.com/Corruption/RogueRepublicanBillsUnconstitutio...

@wRONg Rutherford -

Pelosi hasn't yet called the vote, and won't till she knows she has the votes - that's what the Speaker of the House is SUPPOSED to do.

Denny Hastert established the "finish the vote in 15 minutes" rule for Congress when he was Speaker. HE opened the vote on Medicare Part D and HELD IT OPEN for HOURS while he shopped around for additional votes.

But I guess it's all the same, eh?