Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Thanks to Z who sent me to this editorial by Keith Olbermann (video version here). There’s not a word in it I disagree with; he states my measured and thoughtful opinion and view accurately.
So with keyboard in hand (because I didn’t want to have the delay inherent in my usual method of correspondence (postal mail), I used the Whitehouse contact form and wrote:
I find that I agree 100% with Mr. Olbermann’s comments as stated in this article “Ruined Senate bill unsupportable – Conservatives have destroyed this version of health care reform”. I believe the worst thing that could happen is to have this offensive (”must by insurance”, “no public option”, etc etc) bill pass. I earnestly would rather the thing be scrapped than this abysmal give-away to the very groups that one supposed would be the target of “reform”.
Here is the link to the editorial I reference above. Thank you for your time.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34455168/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann
PS: I just removed myself from your (barackobama.com) mailing list as I am not recognizing the man I voted for.
Ack, typo. (by vs. buy) Oh well.
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Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
Great little collection of quotes from recommended movie, The God Who Wasn’t There.
Republicans, religion, and the triumph of unreason. (Doesn’t that just say it all? From the [UK] Independent)
As a result, 18,000 US citizens die every year needlessly, because they can’t access the care they require. That’s equivalent to six 9/11s, every year, year on year. Yet the Republicans have accused the Democrats who are trying to stop all this death by extending healthcare of being “killers” – and they have successfully managed to put them on the defensive.
These increasingly frenzied claims have become so detached from reality that they often seem like black comedy. The right-wing magazine US Investors’ Daily claimed that if Stephen Hawking had been British, he would have been allowed to die at birth by its “socialist” healthcare system. Hawking responded with a polite cough that he is British, and “I wouldn’t be here without the NHS”.
Not anxious to start taking any statins anytime soon.
Mark this site: PolitiFact has a great Truth-O-Meter for catching out political lies.
15 cool and crazy ways to tie your shoelaces (spotted via the inimitable Liam)
CSM: The “war on drugs” needs a timeout. (The failure drones on.)
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Saturday, August 1st, 2009
Shame on me, I didn’t get my phone calls in this week to my representatives and others in congress on the debacle that is the whinging about how we just can’t afford to do anything about the teetering colossus that is Health Care System In America Today.
But I just opened my monthly mailing from Senator Mike Crapo and about spewed my tea reading his “survey” this month. This is what I wrote (via his email form) in response:
Sir:
I just wanted to ask what sort of numbskull in your office devised this month’s “survey”? I’m sure the results are terribly (un)informative since the answer options are skewed to a limited field — bad job!
Just for the record, I am *not* unsure. What I want and what I *know* that this country needs is single payer. Of course that won’t happen because it’s too efficient and logical and there’s not enough money in it for all the greedy hands.
As a second choice I want a public option.
Please look for a letter from me in the near future. Thank you in advance for your response.
The letters to the Idaho delegation (for what good they’ll do) and Pelosi and Reid and as yet undetermined others are going out next week.
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Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Via my daily-read UnequivocalNotion, two guides to why the seemingly contradictory pissing match is going on with Idaho, Otter, Republicans, and the tax.
The Statesman gives some recent (2008) history on the machinations…
House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, said the stakes in this latest gas tax debate are so small – just $36 per year for the average driver after 2013, according to the proposal Otter now insists on – that this surely must be about something more than just a tax hike. “This is about the hearts and minds of the Republican Party,” Rusche said
But the real pièce de résistance is this second post which gives it the smell of a Stalinistic purge (albeit without any real blood).
Meanwhile the Republican Party has lost the ability to effectively govern. It is no longer about what might be best for the state of Idaho. They are so consumed with their party war that the people of the state of Idaho are being left out in the cold.
As the Republicans move further to the far right, the ability to craft consensus legislation that serves the people is lost. Instead we get a litany of legislative initiatives that have unintended consequences, cater to the most conservative element of their party, are either unenforceable or represent empty messages instead of good public policy, or provide special interests with benefits at the expense of the people..
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