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Question for Bernie:
I am seeing healthcare reform mirroring the disaster in Massachusetts with everyone forced into private insurance and the government plan used as a dumping ground for the uninsurable (resulting in NO PUBLIC COMPETITION for the insurance companies.to force costs down.)
The idea behind "the public option" is to drive costs down by forcing private insurance to compete with a low-cost public plan. But if the only people that can join that plan are the people they don't want, and everyone else is forced to buy private insurance, how is that supposed to drive costs down?
Aren't we simply duplicating the MA plan that we already know doesn't work? And how does the Democratic MAJORITY allow the Conservative MINORITY to dictate what the final bill looks like?
FREE LUNCH AT THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION
I thought this online article made an important point in a cute and direct manner.
http://www.campusprogress.org/features/345/free-markets-and-free-sandwic...
Regarding human speech in the Geeky Science segment:
Yeah, humans vocalize alot, but do very poorly in learning to listen!
If we are so smart, why do we still fail to understand the communications of other species and show so little cultural interest is doing so? Would it mean we would have to admit that, as a species, we are just Talking Exploiters who have no interest in knowing how those we exploit feel or think?
This may be obvious, but it seems never to be mentioned in relation to the huge Afghanistan crops of opium poppies (as discussed on today's show): No nation -- especially not one like Afghanistan -- independently decides to raise an illegal drug crop without UPFRONT FINANCING AND A GUARANTEED BUYER WITH DISTRIBUTION CAPABILITY. The Afghans don't sell this stuff to themselves. (Perhaps alot of this product IS turned into medical morphine via somekind of black market to poorer countries, in addition to illegal street drugs.) Afghanistan cannot be held solely responsible for this illicit industry because Afghanistan COULD NOT DO IT ALONE. Is it really impossible to follow the money that enters Afghanistan to finance the crop rather than just the money that comes from selling it on the street? Big investors are needed; who are they?
Lest we forget, the British and American wealthy investors/companies were behind the opium trade, taking opium from Afghanistan/India and selling/smuggling it into China for many decades despite eventual Chinese national resistence in the Opium Wars. The point I want to make is that this is a traditional business for many of the Oligarchy (such as the Boston Brahmins who financed these illicit drug ventures at least in the 1800s). Will it ever be possible to FOLLOW THE MONEY that high up the food chain?
http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz157/KSUW4E/MedicareForAll04.jpg
Send an application to Medicare to your Congressmen and to the President!
Step 1: Download and print out the Application Form. (The above link!)
Step 2: Fill out *all* fields.
Step 3: Use the extra space below the statement to add your own comments, share your own stories, or just share your thoughts about the recipient's stance on this issue.
Step 4: Address the envelope to your Senator's or Representative's *home* office (to avoid delays that occur when sending mail to Washington), or the White House.
Step 5: Stuff the envelope, apply first class postage, and mail!
Step 6: PASS THIS ON!
Wildcat
In other news, it appears that CNN's "Mr. Independent," Lou Dobbs, is taking his "commitment" to outrageous overstatement and bigoted misrepresentation of the facts elsewhere. Fox News, perhaps? Wolf Blitzer, meanwhile, seems utterly flabbergasted that there might be two heroes in the Fort Hood massacre instead of one; the white woman might have to share the glory with a black man. Frankly, it's rather pathetic that the "real" drama in the massacre is who will be determined the "greater" hero.
The execution of the DC sniper, which covered practically the entire front page of the Tacoma News-Tribune all of places (either it was a really slow news day, or the paper’s editors thought it serve as a “warning” to the city’s gangs), and the haste in which it went through legal process, makes me think of another case of a serial killer with a much different outcome, and served as a highly questionable springboard for the political career of an ex-law enforcement officer.
In November of 2001, police arrested Gary Ridgway, the so-called “Green River Killer,” accused of killing 48 women, mainly prostitutes, drug addicts and others living on the fringes. Ridgway was allowed to plead guilty in 2003 to avoid a date with the chair, apparently because of the circumstantial nature of much of the evidence against him, and because he “promised” to assist police in locating missing bodies (not very helpfully, as it turned out). King County Sheriff Dave Reichert was acclaimed for the apprehension of Ridgway, and although most people viewed him as an empty suit, he rode his law and order “credentials” to a seat in Congress as a Republican.
Yet there were things about this case that disturbed me, beyond the fact that Ridgway was never obliged to confront the verdict of a jury. The killings began in 1982; in 1983, police had a suspect: Gary Ridgway. In 1984 he was given a polygraph test, and later samples of hair and saliva. Yet police failed to track his movements and chose to follow pointless leads on other “suspects.” Reichert was the chief detective in conducting this investigation. It wasn’t until 2001 that DNA evidence tied Ridgway to some of the victims. After he was arrested, Ridgway claimed that he continued his killing spree until 1998—15 years after he was first identified as a suspect. It testifies to either incompetence or the failure to take seriously his status as a suspect by the police—and Reichert in particular—that Ridgway felt no pressure to end his killings; perhaps he was too much the average white Joe to the police. At least three dozen more women lost their lives because of this failure. And voters overlooked this fact when they rewarded Reichert with a House seat.
I wrote to a columnist for the now defunct Seattle Post-Intelligencer about some of the doubts I had about the case; he responded by saying he had considered mentioning these points, but thought it would not be “appropriate,” since he had recalled how “anguished” Reichert was in failing to apprehend the killer—who he had in his grasp one year after the killings began.
(Wasn't that previous post posted on Thursday's comment page?)
CNN is reporting s poll which claims that by a margin of 48 to 44 percent, Americans at this point in time will support Republicans over Democrats. Knowing how weak-kneed Democrats are, they will interpret this as meaning that Americans don’t like the policies they are trying to push. The problem is the Democrats have not “pushed” much of anything, spending more time bickering among themselves that actually getting things done. That is what is frustrating Americans—that Democrats are like a ship without a rudder. Obama can be blamed for some of this, but it is mainly the fault of Congressional Democrats. It is not that they have done too much—it is that they have done too little. Democrats in Congress must begin acting as if Blue Dogs are de facto Republicans, and develop other strategies to pass needed reforms, like budget reconciliation.
Wyoming certainly seems logical, since Lord Cheney hails from there, and he would not have to relocate again...like that pesky 8 years of being in Washington. Texas makes more sense to me, though. We could then build that border wall and surround the new country with military guard to their north. Lou Dobbs will go completely ballistic having to watch out for Liberals to the north and Mexicans to the south...AND have to pay for their own border protection. I am pretty sure we could come up with a program to relocate the cool of Austin...probably quicker than we will see Health Insurance Reform...
Thom said this in the second half of the hour: "... so that we can fund the kind of infrastructure that we need to actually have a country that CAN manufacture things, that has the intellectual capacity (or intellectual infrastructure) by giving free college education to our students (like every other industrialized country does) ..."
(Sorry for the 2 ellipsises, it was a long sentence)
I agree with the argument, but I have nit to pick. We DO have the intellectual infrastructure, but not the jobs. Plenty of engineers, scientists, and other STEM workers have given up looking for work in the fields they trained for and went instead into law, nursing, landscaping, whatever, just to get by.
Education is important and overpriced, but the jobs have to be there first. This means trade barriers to reduce outsourcing. This means restricting or eliminating worker visa programs like H-1B. Thom has it 90% right on this issue, but I fear he may have bought into the old "tech worker shortage" propaganda.
Wyoming's fine, as long as they don't get Teton county:
A . Jackson's the only "liberal" part of the state.
B. the Republitards don't deserve the some of the best snowboarding pow on the face of the earth.
...on second thought, maybe they can have Snow King.
Well, if it's got to be Texas then you have to leave Austin protected. This town is way to cool to believe that it's in the middle of this mess
I think Thom meant Hoity-Toity when he was talking about Friedman(unit) and said "join the Hoi Poloi"
The answer to the Afghan problem can be solved by reading the book, "Three Cups of Tea." WAR IS OUTMODED. WAR ONLY CREATES MORE PROBLEMS THAN IT RESOLVES PROBLEMS.
The last three paragraphs of Chris Hedge's article, "Afghanistan's Sham Army!"
The problem in Afghanistan is not ultimately a military problem. It is a political and social problem. The real threat to stability in Afghanistan is not the Taliban, but widespread hunger and food shortages, crippling poverty, rape, corruption and a staggering rate of unemployment that mounts as foreign companies take jobs away from the local workers and businesses. The corruption and abuse by the Karzai government and the ANA, along with the presence of foreign contractors, are the central impediments to peace. The more we empower these forces, the worse the war will become. The plan to escalate the number of American soldiers and Marines, and to swell the ranks of the Afghan National Army, will not or defeat or pacify the Taliban.
“What good are a quarter-million well-trained Afghan troops to a nation slipping into famine?” the officer asked. “What purpose does a strong military serve with a corrupt and inept government in place? What hope do we have for peace if the best jobs for the Afghans involve working for the military? What is the point of getting rid of the Taliban if it means killing civilians with airstrikes and supporting a government of misogynist warlords and criminals?
“We as Americans do not help the Afghans by sending in more troops, by increasing military spending, by adding chaos to disorder,” he said. “What little help we do provide is only useful in the short term and is clearly unsustainable in the face of our own economic crisis. In the end, no one benefits from this war, not America, not Afghans. Only the CEOs and executive officers of war-profiteering corporations find satisfactory returns on their investments.”
Chris Hedges, whose column is published on Truthdig every Monday.
If we compare wages iwant know how salaries compare.
http://original.antiwar.com/eland/2009/11/10/why-most-counterinsurgency-...
A failed counterinsurgency and a failed president!!!
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091109_afghanistans_sham_army/
How can we leave Afghanistan with its sham army? What a farce!!!
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/11/10/stop-look-listen/
Does anyone take the time to stop, look, and listen?
http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2009/11/11/obamas-wacky-war/
Obama's wacky thinking!!!
http://original.antiwar.com/pfaff/2009/11/10/a-year-with-obama/
It will only get worse!
http://ncronline.org/news/people/afghan-war-flawed-start-says-ethicist
Re: Low wages
The employee can never take a big enough pay cut, just as the CEO can never take enough home.
Part of the problem is that we shoot ourselves by buying into the corporate mantra that it has to be cheap.
Mom & Pop business do not get the tax breaks, abatements, nor the buying power of buying in mass quantities. So we shop at Walmart because the it's cheaper than the locally owned business. Our local governments buy out of town, because the big box stores are cheaper than the locally owned businesses.
Loretta,
Have you read "Screwed" by Thom?
Also, do you know you can download Thom's programs and burn your own CD?
I used to do that until I could no longer download them for free.
Mugsy,
Why is Ford building cars in Canada?