Category: Politics

Sometimes I wonder about Chuck Schumer. Today’s great quote is this:

“I’m sure the civil libertarians will object to some kind of biometric card — although . . . there’ll be all kinds of protections — but we’re going to have to do it. It’s the only way,” Schumer said. “The American people will never accept immigration reform unless they truly believe their government is committed to ending future illegal immigration.”

Now let me get this straight. The only way Americans will accept reform is if it looks like Congress will actually give it to them, and therefore we need a national ID card with fingerprints on it? What? I’m not terribly concerned since it looks like immigration reform is already a dead issue to this session of Congress.  However, the depth of this stupidity is breathtaking. Real immigration reform will need to have these components:

1. Severe penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. And those penalties should go far enough up the corporate ladder that executives will make sure that supervisors and managers follow the law. Some will complain that making employers follow the law will cause a shortage of workers who will work for very low pay. With our current unemployment levels, that’s not a valid argument.

2. A clear and understandable path to legal status for immigrants, coupled with sufficient INS staff to work through any existing backlog within 1 year. It should be simple enough that even a citizen can understand it. If people know they way it has to be and we have the means to make it work that way, there will be no excuse for illegal immigration.

That’s it. We don’t need a high-tech way to verify identity and work eligibility. Actually using the I-9 form as it is supposed to be used does that nicely. We don’t need fallible biometric identification that will leave many eligible workers unable to work. We don’t need a government database that will function as an expensive and error-prone green list of people who are allowed to have jobs. All we  need to do is enforce the law, and make it easier to follow the law.

In Closing: Penn Jillette (oh, and Teller too) asks “if two goofball magicians can slip this stuff by with full lights shining on them and the full attention of the audience, then what could a really bad person do?”; volcano punches hole in clouds; Supreme Court rules in favor of common sense; cracks in the Massachusetts Plan (do you remember I said it would fail and be used as “proof” that universal care doesn’t work?); why we need a public option; and Farrah Fawcett, RIP.

We’ve been reading for weeks about politicians and health execs resisting true reform of the way we pay for health care. Remember, relatively few of us want care itself reformed, but most of us want the way we pay for things reformed.

Businesses are experiencing a 9% rise in health insurance costs alone. In these hard times they have no choice but to either pass along the gouge or reduce the level of insurance they purchase. We’ve had people try to scare us with “rationing” of care, which we already do with money. We’ve had people try to scare us by telling us that the government wants to tell your doctor what to do, when insurance companies already do that by telling them what they’ll cover — and the government plan they fear merely wants to figure out what works and stop your doctor from doing stuff that doesn’t work (too scientific, I suppose). We’ve had the Republicans try to dress up the same old nonsense in new clothes with no details and call it “reform”. We’ve been reading about how insurance companies actively try to cut people who need services — and have the gall to say it’s the only way they can be profitable.

But now it looks bad. Ezra warned us of trouble, and then he delivered it. The Senate has been negotiating themselves right out into the cornfield. It’s a stinking political deal that lets Senators prenend they are helping, but it’s nothing more than a mandatory insurance plan with some fancy ribbons to give the illusion that everybody can afford it.

How can you have mandatory coverage when insurance companies can cancel your policy for no reason?

How can you have mandatory coverage in a time of high unemployment, high foreclosures, high bankruptcies, and high credit card defaults? Don’t you suppose that these things indicate that there is no money to buy insurance?

How can you have mandatory coverage of children in a system where most coverage is still through employers? Don’t they know there are child labor laws?

How can we support mandatory coverage from the same people who brought us the most expensive care without bringing us the most effective care?

How can they offer We The People a mandatory plan when there is increasing support for true universal coverage or at the very least a “public option“?

How can anyone support this plan when we can’t even have Senate discourse about the idea of Medicare for All? Are they that completely 0wned by the insurance companies that are bleeding America dry?

And the question the 100 Senators should really ask themselves: how can we send them back to Washington if they sell their voters down the financial river?

Let them know what you think. Do it today. Feel free to use any points you like from above.

It’s ridiculous.

In Closing: unseen Chapter 11 wave; anti-stab knives (how British); Will high speed rail kill the airlines? (answer — not if the TSA does it first); “get used to tighter credit“; highest unemployment rate since 1983 (say, you don’t suppose that true universal healthcare might make it easier to hire people, do you?) including record unemployment in my state, and many are too discouraged to even look for work; I would have gotten fired and probably fined by the feds if I had sent this from my office email account; essentials of financial freedom probably should be applied to the health insurance industry too; recession tracks Great Depression; Boomers rethinking [the existence of] retirement (my favorite part is the guy with 35 years IT experience going back for a degree in IT so he can be even more completely priced out of IT jobs); “new” financial regulation program has support of the ******* who brought us the current crisis so it must be good, right?; on double-standards and really good mascara; The American Tribe; and Zach the Cat.

As the health insurance reform debate rages on, it seems clear that We The People are at risk of being scammed.

You see, a lot of “experts” — insurance company lobbyists/executives and the politicians they have purchased — think that the way to make sure everybody has access to health care is to simply pass a law saying everybody has to buy it! Make a penalty for anyone who for whatever reason can’t participate. I call this system Mandatory Health Care, because that’s the most accurate description. It’s delightfully simple, except for this:

1) Nobody is forcing the insurance companies to charge reasonable rates, nor preventing them for making it difficult for people with pre-existing conditions to get/afford insurance.

2) Nobody is making insurance companies actually pay for needed treatment in a timely fashion.

3) Nobody is doing anything about bloated insurance company profits, marketing budgets, and executive pay scales that cost consumers money without providing any care.

4) This does nothing to help entrepreneurs who must find a way to afford insurance for his/her family and employees while running a small company in a difficult economy. I would love to see a small business study for Massachusetts: I bet the number of active small businesses has shrunk more than the recession alone would account for in the last few years. The closest any of the available plans get to equalizing the playing field for small businesses is to make insurance benefits taxable for everyone! I’m not sure who that’s supposed to help other than big businesses that are already wildly profitable.

5) Mandatory insurance has resulted in a shortage of providers in Massachusetts, despite the fact that in countries where they actually have universal health care, there is a similar number of providers per thousand patients and no shortage.

6) It doesn’t magically make anybody able to afford premiums — the single biggest reason people don’t have coverage. (And how exactly will a homeless person get the bill, let alone pay it?)

Our system of paying for health care is broken, and the people who brought it to us want to scare us into being a captive audience. This issue is too important to be turned into nothing more than a political football. Let’s not make things worse by forcing every citizen to participate in a broken system. Susie’s right: if the powers that be really wanted reform, they would call the one guy who knows more about how health insurance really works in this country than anybody else, Howard Dean.

Insist on a true, universal public option. Do not let Congress settle for Mandatory Health Insurance.

Don’t take the heat off anti-abortion terror groups either: Tiller’s assassin has warned of more violence unless his viewpoint is immediately adopted  and abortion outlawed (textbook definition of terrorism). There is nothing to be said between the points of view until the anti-abortion movement completely renounces and expels the terrorists within.

In Closing: stick a fork in Norm Coleman, he’s done (seat Senator Franken already!); why did the British press have to tell us that American banks are lobbying to not be held to any rules?;  it turns out that rural areas have homeless people too; even if the recession ends tomorrow, the unemployment rate may rise for another year or two, and it’s a pretty awful trend now; mindfulness is a good thing; maybe Scholastic Books should stick to selling books.

Ok folks, this is teabagging. It’s also not really safe for work. 

So it turns out that most Americans are OK with big government, and almost half of us think we pay about the right amount of taxes. All things considered, that’s a remarkably high percentage

That being the case, what the heck is with these anti-tax “tea parties”? Is it in fact a faux-grassroots (tea tree roots?) movement? Have you noticed that most of the pictures are really close up, so you can’t tell if there are dozens or thousands of people present? Is anyone actually serving any tea? Because I could really use a cup right about now.

When you really boil off the ethers, the “tea party” crowd appears to be saying “what has the government done for us?” Indeed, I think it was put best in Monty Python’s Life of Brian:

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Just insert Government where the original says Romans. See? 

Bloody Romans Government.

Look. Here’s who is paying taxes. Here’s where that tax money is going. Here’s what the President would like to do with the tax code. Of course I have an alternate idea, but it’s never going to happen. 

If you seriously think your taxes are too high, what do you propose be cut?  Roads (got helicopter?)? Give up public schools and live with the fact that even if you can afford private schools, most of the next generation’s workers will be illiterate? Give up city sewers, and all the power generated by Hoover Dam? Hire your own security team and get a sprinkler system, because police and fire department are both government? Food safety (not that they’ve been doing a great job, but you know)? I imagine property inspectors would be in demand, because building inspection is another government function. 

Do the “tea baggers” even really know what they are protesting?

In fact, if you want to see how well things run when there is no government, take a good hard look at Somalia. 

Follow up: Chuck Butcher has some interesting observations about the “crowds” too.

In Closing: how likely is Gramma to be online?; it’s almost iced coffee season; a creepy Japanfilter, kids playground on former execution site; a slow-motion environmental disaster; a quirk of the current recession is that more men are losing their jobs than women (perhaps because the men had relatively high wages compared to the women?); where to find pirates; Goldman Sachs joins the list of banks trying to pay back the TARP money; international travel may be difficult for some Bush Administration figures; extremists suck; study says charter schools close over money, not academics, but neglects the fact that the money wouldn’t be a problem if they had students, and having students would be easy if they had good academics; how to scare people about cyber-terrorism; and COLBERT in space. 

Finally, I may have missed Blog Against Theocracy Weekend. However, I think the most important thing you need to know about theocracy is how well it “works” in Afghanistan. Theocracy is not good. That’s why the First Amendment specifically protects us from government mandated religion.

Dear America,

Thanks for doing the right thing.

Picture courtesy of The Telegraph.

Most of you have no idea how huge Grant Park is.  Sure, there are a lot of people here.  But you can’t appreciate how many people there are until you know how freaking huge Grant Park is. How big is it? The whole thing is 319 acres.  And there were people standing outside who couldn’t get inside.  It’s so big that there isn’t an openable window in sniper range, despite the fact that it is sandwiched in between downtown Chicago’s skyscrapers and Lake Michigan.

To think that in addition to this crowd, there were crowds in New York and in Washington and I don’t even know where else.  Just in the United States.  Not counting those in “palaces and parliaments” and “huddled around radios” around the world.  Wow.  What a night.

Thank you, America.

As for California, I’ll deal with you later!

Hugs and kisses,

ShortWoman.

Despite the fact that I consider myself only “slightly left of [the real] center,”  I don’t vote like a lot of “centrists” and “moderates.”  In fact, the last Republican I voted for was a Justice of the Peace in Fort Worth back around 1994.

That’s right. I vote a straight ticket.

It isn’t that I agree with the Democratic party all the time.  In fact, there have been times I have had to hold my nose to vote.  However, the time to choose the right candidate isn’t just on Election Day:  it’s at the primaries;  it’s at the caucuses;  it’s at the local political events that happen weeks and months and sometimes over a year before the election itself.

My views in this regards are informed by the writings of the late Robert Heinlein, author of such books as Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers. He also wrote a book on political activism called Take Back Your Government.  Mr. Heinlein recommended that if you really want to change your country, you must change the political parties.  And the way to do that is from the inside!

There are two sides to many issues, and conveniently enough two political parties.  Just pick the one closest to your views and join up. I don’t care which party you join; in fact the Republicans could sure use some new ideas right about now.  Start going to your local events.  Learn who the local players are.  Do some volunteer work and meet some people.  Get a feel for who might be running not just next year, but for some years in the future.  From here, you can influence the future!  You can quietly argue for the points where you don’t necessarily agree with the party, and maybe change the way the party sees things.

While I think there is some merit to crossing party lines to vote for an incumbent who honestly has been doing right by his/her constituents, I hold no truck with those who “vote the man, not the party.”  For a man [or woman] to get to the point where they are running for a political office higher than Dog Catcher, he [or she] must have demonstrated some willingness to adhere to the party line. All Maverickyness aside, the candidate did not get to be the candidate by being independent.  This, by the way, explains why Joe Lieberman finally lost the Democratic nomination for his Senate seat;  he wasn’t much of a Democrat anymore.

Yes, I am a member of the party. I gave money.  I volunteered.  I wrote letters to my Congresscritters.  I wrote essays here and elsewhere.  If you want change, you have to work for change.  You won’t get it by doing nothing more than showing up at your polling place today.

In closing, special election day edition: Fetal rights are bad news even if you are [so-called] Pro-Life;  how Election Day came to be today; mmCoffee; mmIceCream.  Get off the computer and vote.  And then get busy!

Ok.  I’m not the first person to post this picture:

According to Buzzflash, that’s a $650 Louis Vuitton handbag. For a 6 year old.  Just for reference purposes, I have been an adult *ahem* somewhat longer than Little Miss Palin has been alive, and I haven’t spent that much on handbags, total, in my lifetime. To get anywhere near that total, you’d have to add briefcases, backpacks (ranging from K-Mart cheapies to L.L. Bean), and a computer bag.  Sure, I know people who would buy that kind of bag for a kid (well, a teenager anyway);  I also know people who can barely afford the gas to get to work in the morning.

But according to Shaun at Kiko’s House, it’s even worse.  The bag isn’t real, but a counterfeit!  Buying a stupidly expensive handbag for a first grader is merely bad taste.  After all, they can afford the real thing — particularly if the RNC is paying.  Counterfeiting is a crime.  Supporting it is theft of intellectual property.  Oh, yeah, the money made from these bags may also support organized crime and terrorism.  Way to be “America First” there.

In Closing: My what big borders you have; a creepy doctor’s office (thankfully, abandoned); cut Federal spending all you like, but you won’t touch the National Debt without letting the blood out of some sacred cows; the downside of public transit?; Agent Greenspan Is Just Shocked!!; ok ok fine split the baby and each of you can have half, or Fake Centrists taken to task; and sign of the economic times as much as the academic times, today’s kids less likely to graduate high school than their parents. Forgive me for not seeing this as a problem in any way;  nobody needs a diploma to sack groceries or scrub floors or dozens of other tasks that are menial but necessary. Furthermore, no school administrator is able to wave a magic wand and make poor families able to do without the meager income brought in by a working (ex-)student.

Good morning, readers.

This morning I have a post by special request from a research team at New York University. They would like you to participate in a political opinion survey.  According to the site, the initial set of questions should take 15-20 minutes, and there will be a follow up that might take another 15 minutes.

Please, take the time to help them out.  Here is the link to the opening page of the survey, with more information. You will notice that comments are turned off;  that is by request of the research team.  They don’t want the comments thread to accidentally color the results.

Aw heck, it wouldn’t be much of a post without In closing: you clearly need a cardboard box opening simulator; 100 skills every man should know; a wise open letter to Hank and Benny; a comic that captures my sentiments; The Money Meltdown; the Economist’s View of What The Heck Happened; Ok we have a bailout, but it won’t fix everything; in fact, some think it will only help if the housing market gets better (locally, it’s happening but nationally, even the NAR is guessing); Economists Prefer Obama; parents prefer telling kids the truth about sex; the employment situation sucks, particularly when you include “the underemployed”; peacekeepers in a neighborhood near you?; not to scare you but the presidential election could end in an electoral tie (remember that when you vote for a Representative in Congress, ok?); and Stationmaster Tama is still a cat, but he’s driving tourism to his local Eki (train station).  I suppose he actually runs the local worldgate as well.

Or, “Are you healthy?”

A lot has been said about Senator McCain’s proposed health insurance reform plan. He says “I want to make sure we’re not handing the health care system over to the federal government….”  Interestingly enough, the federal government has taken care of his health care for his entire life.  But on to the plan.

He wants to take away the tax break your employer (assuming you have one) gets for providing you health insurance, and instead give you a tax credit of up to $5000 for buying your own insurance. The thing is, I honestly believed such a plan would work 5 years ago. I now think that such a plan would have worked perhaps 10 or even 15 years ago, but it’s way too late (and frankly was probably too late 5 years ago). Critics say it will cause companies to drop coverage for employees.  Yes, yes it does.  And that’s the goal.

Senator McCain thinks it will work out to give you $5000 in April to pay for something that costs you $12,000, payable in monthly installments.  That’s only problem one.  Problem two is that in some states, citizens are required to have health insurance.  Talk about raising the cost of living! Furthermore, mandates such as this completely short-circuit the “market actions” that would have brought costs down. Without such mandates, consumers might have demanded quality policies with decent coverage that cost something closer to what they would get out of the tax credit.

The goal — an admirable one — was to bring down health insurance costs by making the insurance industry more subject to the laws of supply and demand.  The actual result of such a plan would be people spending way more of their income on insurance without getting a whole lot more for their money.

Just a few things about the bailout package that failed yesterday (NOT because Republicans were being babies, not because “we just don’t understand” how important it is, but rather because that particular package was BAD NEWS): it’s raining investors; consumer spending dropped last month, probably mostly because consumer income dropped on an inflation-adjusted basis (funny about not spending lots of money when you don’t have lots of money to spend); an all too true chart; Congress is — of course — scrambling to polish that turd revise the bill; and 5 lessons from the Credit Crisis.

In closing: a shout-out to those of you in Fort Worth to check out Sheila Ford, candidate for state House of Representatives; you know it’s bad when the BBC is reporting on Americans who live in their cars; a collection of links to accounts of the Great Depression; My Backpack’s Got Jets! (reference); Koizumi the younger is entering politics; Stupid Republican Tricks (what on earth was she thinking when she said that??); about time they started to investigate those fired prosecutors (does “executive privilege” apply after January?); tomorrow is World Vegetarian Day; on the possibility of a Detroit bailout (Citizen Carrie, if you have anything to say please do); and finally, Snow On Mars.