Tea and Hot Rods.

The Republicans are all debate crazy and the Guano on toast points was served up by the usual suspects.


The media as usual has fixated on the shiny object, the anti-vaccination, and missed the bigger picture in the war on women. They would rather have their daughters die then have sex.


Bachman is anti science but you nave to be nuts not to acknowledge the success of the germ theory of disease and vaccinations. The HPV vaccine prevents a common type of cancer with very little risk. Because it is a sexually transmitted virus the wing nuts think it will cause their daughters to have sex if they get them vaccinated. I have never understood their connecting ignorance with protecting but it leads to lots of misery and in this case can lead to death. No rational person makes that choice. I know I am way outside the mainstream in my thought process on public policy but this I find disturbing. The anti government folks cheer when the government kills citizens some of which are most certainly innocent. I do understand the let him die sentiment screamed from the crowd but I have to call bullshit on the Ron Paul response. If the free market and god were doing such a spectacular job Why were Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon all able to find the need for the government to intervene.


The voice in the crowd is the true believer of the Objectivist philosophy. Only the strong should enjoy the fruits of society and the only role of the government is to enforce private property and contract rights. This position is repugnant to me but it is intellectually consistent. The freedom for others to die is an article of faith for these folks.



The Paul position is just ignoring the facts. It sucks to be poor but with the help of society it sucks less. The rising tide didn’t lift all boats and the most recent government bailouts only saved the financial sector. Nothing prevents churches and communities from paying for the uninsured now. They simply don’t do it. There are lots of charities and they do some good but they were not solving the problem. Government has not solved the problem either but it has done a measurably better job.

Paul’s complaint about the vaccine mandate from a freedom standpoint means nothing because he does not extend that body sovereignty to the individual but to the parent. Women are never to be granted sovereignty over their own bodies in the Ron Paul Libertarian Utopia.

The video is from the Cruzin Eureka car show. I chose the 3rd to calm the fear of crazy these folks instill in me.

Compromise is not always a good thing

The much anticipated Senate “Gang of Six” bill was put forth today by Montana Senator Max Baucus. Follow the Link to the PDF . I took most of the day to read it and I must say I am not happy. This is not the plan we were promised during the election. If this is what passes for reform than we are pretty much boned.
There is no public option in the bill, there is a provision for cooperatives but no public option. We were promised in writing.
“Specifically, the Obama plan will: (1) establish a new public
insurance program, available to Americans who neither qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP
nor have access to insurance through their employers, as well as to small businesses that
want to offer insurance to their employees; “ from the Obama plan PDF page2
There is a tax placed on the reciprocation of drugs.
The Chairman‘s Mark would increase the rebate for non-innovator, multiple source drugs to 13 percent of AMP. Page 53
The Chairman‘s Mark would impose a fee on any person that manufactures or imports prescription drugs for sale in the United States. Page 217
What we were promised during the campaign.
Drug reimportation. The second-fastest growing type of health expenses is
prescription drugs.46 Pharmaceutical companies should profit when their research
and development results in a groundbreaking new drug. But some companies are
exploiting Americans by dramatically overcharging U.S. consumers. These
companies are selling the exact same drugs in Europe and Canada but charging
Americans a 67 percent premium.47 Obama will allow Americans to buy their
medicines from other developed countries if the drugs are safe and prices are
lower outside the U.S. from page 10.
Looks like the drug dealers made a pretty good compromise. Protectionist policies continue and now they will have a captive audience.
The worst part of the bill in my opinion.
Beginning in 2013, all U.S. citizens and legal residents would be required to purchase coverage …. “ page 31
The mandate with a fine. $750 per year. For the poor, 100 to 300% of the poverty level. However, the maximum penalty amount a family above 300 percent of FPL would pay is $3,800.
The mandate was supposed to come later and only after lower premiums failed to get everyone to purchase coverage. The trigger was supposed to be for the mandate not the public option.
The details are still sorely lacking but the general tenor of the bill is full of loopholes and grandfathering. The fees tend to kick in in 2010 and any benefits tend to begin in 2013.
Hospitals that have physician ownership and a provider agreement in operation on November 1, 2009 and that met other specified requirements would be exempt from this self-referral ban. Page 177 for example.
And the big one Pre existing conditions. This for many the point of reform. What we were promised :
“Guaranteed eligibility. No American will be turned away FROM ANY
INSURANCE PLAN because of illness or pre-existing conditions. “
What we get under Baucus:
Within a year of enactment, any uninsured individual who has been denied health care coverage due to a pre-existing condition can enroll in a high-risk pool. Page 5
If you have cancer or other progressive type disease you might be dead in 6 months or bankrupt.
The rules for the small group market would be the same as those for the individual market, except that they would be phased in over a period of up to five years beginning January 1, 2013, as determined by each state with approval from the Secretary. Page 6 so the pre existing thing may not go away until 2018?
The ambiguities in the bill are going to lead to more government takeover nonsense but I am not going to be specific as the lunatic fringe on the right doesn’t need my help.
We are being sold out to the corporate masters in this bill. Will The President make good on his promises? We await his response. Bear in mind that the Missouri compromise preserved slavery for 40 odd years.

Dual rant

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Waste one work one.

Spent most of Friday debating online with a nice Wicca person about the toxic nature of all religion even one as seemingly benign as hers. I remarked about pissing away the day on twitter mainly from the standpoint of people rarely change their minds based on evidence. I ended up being wrong as I often am in that time spent thinking logically and expressing those thoughts on paper works out the writing muscle. Later that evening I wrote a first draft of paper you will be seeing here shortly on the state of women in the wake of our Iraq misadventures. I am doing this in blog style so I need to track down all the links to the stories I cited. I had planned to do that this AM. But instead something got me going on, “the man in the cave.” This you may or may not see as it is an attempt at satire that flowed of my pen for about two hours but if I cannot refine it I may not publish. I was successful at it in “McCain reprises that’s my Bush“ that you can find here.
It is a bit of a style question right now it is part South Park and part children’s fairytale for a slow child. The subject is 911 so if I am unable to get it right I will not be posting. Getting in good rides each day looking for a window to camp. I have regained my compulsion to write I believe. I think the key is to write, today’s output began with organizing an argument on kos that got me thinking about the futility of arguing that led to books for dummies to the man in the cave by way of Fractured Fairy Tales. I will work at it.

Not feeling particularly clever

Spent the day on housework and a short ride before turning in to the debate of the Democrats. There were some entertainments early but in the end it was not very productive. In my opinion Edwards put on the best show, he made them look like bickering children on occasion but again I appear to have backed a dead horse. Of course Denis Kucinich was nowhere to be found but the media dealt him out day one. In this world I have really no political power at all. I am so far left that It is safe for the democrats to ignore me. The repugnant party platform means I will never vote for them. They have become so horrible, Huckleberry hound has advocated theocracy and people still act like he is not bat shit crazy. So that leaves the choice of voting for a third party that has no chance of winning but may end up Nadering somebody and getting the worst possible outcome. 4 more years of the same old shite. So I hold my nose work for the fringe until they fall by the wayside and try to drag the debate to the left. Do I sound depressed, bitter and cynical? The stories headline was too many PHDs, the number of jobs for doctoral graduates was too low to employ all the new graduates. Does this not sound scary? I thought that the way to move up was education. Is that not the Meme we are sold. I do not see our society lasting much longer in its present form. We may embrace the green technology and turn the country green but I think the pain will be unbearable for many before that is allowed to happen.

Free market myths

Being a native Californian I have had the opportunity to see firsthand the bullshit that happens when the free market morons get to deregulate a functioning system and steal billions of dollars. The republican policy of privatization has failed every time it is allowed to be implemented. We have seen what happens when you let the industry write the regulations, unbreathable air, fish so poluted with heavy metals that it negates the benefits of omega threes to eat them and real living standards falling like a rock for the middle class. My question for republicans is can you show me one example where your free market policies have solved a problem just one? I have a list as long as my arem of its failures just show me one instance that you can back up with facts where the free market has solved any social problem.