Month: January 2007

Time to Light a Fire Under Your Senators.

So we as a nation have had a chance to digest the State of the Union Address. And we’ve even had a chance to think about the various rebuttals.

It’s time to send some nice friendly mail to your Senators. Specifically, there are two things you need to impress upon them. The first has to do with their systematic destruction of the minimum wage hike bill that passed the House with flying colors. You may be aware that in the Senate, there has been an attempt to saddle it with a bunch of tax cuts. These cuts allegedly benefit “small businesses”, but I imagine that a close look would reveal a strange definition of “small businesses” is in play. It is worth noting that some news sources drop the word “small” altogether.

But what you may not know is that the Senate has also tried to use this bill to exempt agricultural workers from minimum wage laws! Talk about creating “jobs Americans don’t want”; Americans kind of like being able to — in the immortal words of Mr. Bush — “put food on their families.” And we will scratch our heads and wonder how the next food contamination scare happened. Funny thing about asking people who make under the minimum wage to use food sanitation guidelines.

But wait, there’s more!

This article only touches on a serious problem in the President’s Cabinet. We have an Attorney General for the United States of America who does not believe that we necessarily have the right of habeas corpus. None other than Arlen Spector called him on this, asking how the Constitution can say a right can’t be taken away unless we specifically have that right to begin with. The battle becomes bipartisan as Patrick Leahy joins the action. If you want to see the whole thing in context, these nice people have it.

You need to write both your Senators today. Tell them to pass a clean minimum wage hike, and stop screwing around. Or better yet, tell them that it is high time to demand the resignation of Alberto Gonzales for fundamentally failing to understand the Constitution he has sworn to uphold and betraying his duty as “the people’s lawyer.”

In closing: obligatory comments on health care; terrific site that addresses the practical considerations of travel in the modern world; speaking of travel, Bruce Schneier once more says the truth; yet another Federal voucher proposal, never mind what a bad idea it is; what R2D2 and Chewbacca were really thinking in Star Wars; been a long time since I said anything about Fannie Mae; a different spin on the ticking bomb scenario; a Government initiative that has the stated purpose of food safety but the actual purpose of driving small and sustainable faming operations out of business; and finally, I want a HoverJeep!

Follow up: It seems that someone managed to sneak in an amendment that would pre-empt state laws mandating a higher minimum wage. What on earth were they thinking??

Sometimes a Picture Only Needs to Say 15 Words.

In this case, those 15 words are “I used to oppose Universal Health Care… then I lost my job and got sick!”

Yes, that’s right, I’m on about universal health again.

First, let’s check in with Paul Krugman, who basically says that it’s nice of the Governator to try, but that his plan should not be a substitute for a national health care system, and furthermore his plan will create 3 new intrusive bureaucracies. Way to shrink Big Government, ya? A couple of choice paragraphs:

There are three main reasons why many Americans lack health insurance. Some healthy people decide to save money and take their chances (and end up being treated in emergency rooms, at the public’s expense…); some people are too poor to afford coverage; some people can’t get coverage … because of pre-existing conditions.

Single-payer insurance solves all three problems at a stroke. The Schwarzenegger plan, by contrast, is a series of patches. It forces everyone to buy health insurance…; it provides financial aid to low-income families…; and it … basically [requires insurance companies] to sell insurance to everyone at the same price.

He follows this up by asking why we have to make it so darn complicated.

Elsewhere on the political spectrum we have Lou Dobbs, who spends several paragraphs in the middle of an editorial on states rights versus federalsim to tell us:

As more companies drop their employee health-care coverage, the number of Americans without health insurance rises each year. Now nearly 47 million Americans — including 8 million children — have no health insurance, and the only action to deal with this crisis has originated with state governments.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney last summer advanced the healthcare debate when he rolled out a proposal to bring mandatory coverage to everyone in his state. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week announced a universal health-care plan for his state, which would join Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont in passing such universal coverage laws. Fifteen other states and the District of Columbia are all considering similar proposals, despite the costs associated with the plans.

It’s not enough that the United States possesses the best medical care in the world if all our citizens cannot have access to that care.

Notice that he calls the Massachusetts plan “mandatory” coverage. Notice also that he gives a nod to the idea that employers are not part of the answer; the 8 million uninsured kids he cites — just like our unemployed woman in the cartoon — don’t have an employer.

Sprinkled between these commentaries, we have companies trying to bring health care in house with on-site clinics. It isn’t a new trend. I am not sure this is a good idea. There are things you might not want your boss knowing about your medical care! What if your company isn’t exactly the most scrupulous? Where does the doctor’s loyalties lie?

Oh, and don’t forget, experts still think a bird flu pandemic is a serious threat that would “challenge”our health system.

The longer I go on, the more I think that Medicare for all is the answer. The insurance companies will still get to make oodles of money on supplemental policies, and everyone will be covered. If the political will is lacking, we should at the very least implement a MediKids program to cover everyone under 18, and in an ideal world every full time student up to age 25.

Our elected officials need to stop doing the politically expedient thing and start doing the right thing.

In closing, What’s Wrong with Real ID; on a related note, can you prove you are a citizen? If not a simple traffic stop may land you in a foreign country (remember, folks, a drivers license does not prove what nation you are a citizen of, it only proves you can legally drive a car, that’s why the I-9 form you had to fill out the first day of work wanted a Social Security Card or Birth Certificate too); the New York Times wonders maybe tax receipts would be up if the IRS spent more time auditingbig businesses and less time crawling through Joe Average’s records; Preachers and scientists agree, saving the planet would be a Good Thing, and in fact none other than Stephen Hawking says climate change is worse than terrorism; buying beer for minors is a bad idea, but what about buying weapons for those who can’t?; wow, somebody is actually checking the accuracy of the No-Fly List and deleting errors; Alberto Gonzales says “Ok, we’ll pretend to follow the law”; The House of Representatives says “You know, Big Oil, if you are really making that much money, you won’t be needing these subsidies”; and finally, it sounds like Mr. Bernanke is a real conservative, the kind that thinks we ought to reign in the national debt. Who knew?

Shorties Ho-Tep

Healthcare Follow-Up: “Health spending went up 6.9 percent in 2005, approaching $2 trillion. The total amount represents about $1 of every $6 spent in the United States, compared with about $1 out of every $10 in the early 1980s.” But that’s slower growth. Yay, I guess. More on the Governator’s plan. And smacked down by his in-laws! Let Mr. Kennedy show you what a real universal coverage plan looks like.

The Bare Minimum: By now everybody knows about the minimum wage hike bill going through Congress right now. I wonder if it will be vetoed. In any event, here’s Life at America’s Bottom Wage and U.S. Home Prices Unaffordable for Many Workers.

You want to put what where? The SMU community isn’t sure they want the Bush Library. Go, Mustangs!

Um yeah, a headscarf is not the same as a bomb. Airport screeners get [long overdue] training in how to to tell a devout Muslim from a rabid “Islamofascist.”

“Surge” is something storms and waves do, not American troops. Some sage words. Seriously though, “storm surge” was what destroyed parts of New Orleans. “Surge” cannot and will not put Iraq together again. Let’s call it what it is: escalation.

Make it as secure as you like, your employees will manage to find ways around it. The problem of corporate security in a webmail world.

If you want to fix the picture, you’d better take a look at the frame. Issues important to women, and the media that undermines them.

And finally, obligatory comparison of iPhone to other devices. The biggest difference, of course, it that you can get the other devices today. Pull up a bowl of popcorn and let’s watch the legal battle ensuing. Um, yeah. Cisco owns the trademark to iPhone, and has since purchasing it in 2000. The trademark was created in 1996, which means it predates the original iMac. Cisco even has a product called the iPhone. Oops!

Stop Calling It That!!

According to the word experts over at Merriam-Webster:

Universal: 1 : including or covering all or a whole collectively or distributively without limit or exception; especially : available equitably to all members of a society [universal health coverage]

Now look at that. They even use the specific example of universal health coverage being available — equitably — to all members of a society. So if you have a problem with my definition of universal health coverage, please take it up with them. Very handy, those clever people at Merriam-Webster. The people over at the Associated Press are by comparison not so clever.

They printed an article today entitled California Governor calls for universal [healthcare] coverage . The people over at the International Herald Tribune make the same mistake! This is yet another one of those plans that calls for every citizen to get coverage or face the consequences; larger businesses will be required to buy policies for employees; the 80% of California businesses that qualify as “small” will be exempt; if Joe Average does not have coverage, he will be forced to buy it; if he cannot afford it the state will darn well help him buy it. In fact, the Chicago Triubune is most accurate when they call it Mandatory Health Insurance.

At least this program would cover all children under a statewide program. Remember, kids don’t have employers. But otherwise, this isn’t universal. One is forced to wonder whether the program will cover students until they finish high school, or whether 18 year olds will have to buy a health insurance policy.

First, 80% of employers are not required to get with the program at all. Think about that; only one out of every 5 employers will be effected by this in any way shape or form. The employees of the overwhelming majority of businesses are still left to fend for themselves. They are in good company, in the same boat as every contractor, every unemployed person, every self-employed person. All of these people will now be required to pay through the nose for an individual health insurance policy.

Second, although we must give credit for the fact that “insurers would not be able to deny coverage based or age or pre-existing health conditions”, that does not mean that insurers will be required to charge affordable rates. Nor does it mean insurance companies can’t charge a premium to cover those with chronic health conditions. The very people who would be most helped by an actual universal health coverage program will instead find themselves bled dry by premiums.

This plan may indeed cover everyone, but it will not be equitably available. It isn’t universal, unless of course you’re a kid. The biggest risk of this program and others like it is that someday, it will be used as “proof” that universal coverage does not work, when in fact all it proves is that forcing customers to participate in an unfair market does not work.

In closing: a net gain of 167,000 new jobs in December, which sounds great until you realize that the majority of them require an specific degree you don’t have and as for jobs you could get, “Factories, however, cut 12,000 positions and construction companies eliminated 3,000 jobs — casualties of the souring housing market and the struggling auto industry. Retailers shed just over 9,000 slots” (more on where job openings are here at least locally speaking); 2007 expected to be warmest year on record but remember that some people still think global warming is just a crackpot theory; What Does 200 Calories Look Like; is there a Zombie next to you right now?; Terry Jones on the value of human life in the War on Terror; and ok, you’ve finally got your dang iPhone, along with a MacTV. Where have I seen that before?

It seemed more important in the 18th Century.

Some time ago I wrote about the First Amendment and the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The third installment of my impromptu series on the Bill of Rights has been slowed by the fact that nobody knows what it says. This isn’t one of those Amendments that comes up in Supreme Court cases all the time; it’s not one the ACLU or the NRA has to rant about. In fact, this Amendment has worked so well I can’t imagine anyone wanting to violate it.

If you’d like the context, the whole Bill of Rights is right here, but the part we need says:

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Remember, this was important enough to guys like Jefferson and Madison that they stuck it right in there between the right to bear arms and the right to be secure in your own home. As the title says, it was a bigger deal back then. quartering of British troops in private homes was a big issue prior to and during the American Revolution, a British tradition of necessity, and in fact one of the grievances mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.

It worked like this: Farmer Jones would open his door one day to find a British Officer informing him that two dozen men would be staying on his property for an indefinate period of time. Farmer Jones would be expected to make accomodations, feed them all their meals, and maybe even see to their laundry and entertainment until such time as the soldiers moved on. Woe be to Farmer Jones if he did not see to his guests properly, and woe to Farmer Jones’s daughters in any event (if Farmer or Mrs. Jones were clever and had any sort of warning, the girls might be sent away into the woods to fend for themselves — for their own protection).

This was a big enough and bad enough problem that it was worth writing not just a law, but a Constitutional guaranty that it would never happen in peacetime, and during war would require a special act of Congress.

In closing: help for those of you trying to lose weight this year; by way of follow-up I am not the only one who says software sucks, but Harvard is willing to say software sucks because of programmers; another follow-up, somebody is trying to do something about the problem of kids with no health insurance; a tidbit on the problems with eVoting in Florida points out that “Some observers have suggested that the 18,000 voters simply did not vote in the District 13 race; others claim the touch-screen ballots did not record the votes,” but the real problem is that without a paper trail we will never know which; rapists are the number one cause of rape, causing 100% of them; a quarter of start-up companies in the United States are started by people who weren’t born here; some friendly advice for the Democrats; and Wil Wheaton is mad about it and you should be too, once again the President has used a signing statement to undermine a bill as he makes it a law, and asserts his right to violate the Fourth Amendment while he is at it.

Shorties and the Rainbow

Hot Time in the Big City, um, I Meant Glacier: China is worried about global warming, but maybe not as much as Canada, eh?

Don’t Fix what you can Replace for a Few Million Dollars More: follow up on low-income rental housing in New Orleans.

More Americans Expect Rain of Fire and Brimstone than Alien Invasion: Specifically, in 2007, 60% think there will be a terrorist attack in the United States, 70% think global warming will get worse, 29% think we will actually get our troops home, 35% expect reinstatement of the draft, 35% predict a cure for “cancer”, 19% think we will find extraterrestrial life, and 25% think Jesus will return. Yes, that’s right, one in four Americans expects the events described in Revelation to start happening in 2007. Look around you; one in four thinks the world ends before the ball drops in New York again. Somehow, I don’t consider that a strategy for dealing with global warming.

Now with 27% Less Agonizing, Eating Holes In Your Brain Death: Genetically engineered cows may resist Mad Cow Disease. No word on whether they can transmit it to unwitting humans. Now tell me something; is it really easier to genetically modify every cow on the planet than to just stop feeding them bits of ground up old sick cows? I mean, really?

We don’t need no steenking Federal help: A peculiar Katrina after-effect. “Frustrated by poor federal cooperation, U.S. states and cities are building their own network of intelligence centers led by police to help detect and disrupt terrorist plots.” ‘Nuff Said.

Numbers Only Lie When They Are Misused: Ezra Klein on Universal Healthcare.

Fly in Wall Street’s Ointment? Maybe: two items on probably slowing consumer spending and a potentially slowing economy.

And finally, Do the Right Thing: I have been harping for years about studies that show teenagers’ brains just aren’t functioning early in the morning, pointing out how dumb it is to make them attend classes at 7 or 8 AM and then letting them loose by 1 or 2 PM so they can roam town virtually unsupervised until Mom and/or Dad get home at 5 or 7 PM. It turns out a legislative commitee agrees with me! But not because it will improve academic performance. No, because they think it will reduce traffic accidents! The great irony is that the insurance industry will probably be the driving force behind getting high school hours set to reasonable times. It’s about time.