Alright, I’ve about HAD IT with the troglodytes who have taken over the GOP, I really have! The really sad (no, *pathetic*) thing is they have no idea what hypocrites they are, and how they are nothing more than the right-wing version of the far-left kook fringe cult of personality that got Obama to the national stage. Oh, wait, they are different in one respect though–they’ve already revealed themselves NOT to be remotely interested in inclusiveness, not remotely interested in even TOLERATING differences of opinion on social issues, and because of their hard-core “purist” ideology on this front, are rapidly alienating people like me and leaving us without anyone to vote for at all.
It’s a rough day when someone like ME finds myself unlikely to vote for a conservative candidate because I simply cannot abide their positions on social policies, but that’s what it is because no longer are we dealing with candidates who are just “pro-life,” that would be FINE, so am I! Now we’re dealing with “You must be for the criminalization of abortion AND (here’s the kicker) must find the notion that gays have the right to marry as threatening as terrorism.
(sound of the buzzer) EXCUSE ME????? WTF?
Sorry, can’t go there with you.
And no it doesn’t matter that people like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh haven’t specifically pushed for hard-core anti-gay legislation in their OWN records in public service, they are pushing for it NOW and they are backing candidates who DO, and they are sending out signals that any candidate, any voter in fact, who doesn’t is not a “real” conservative. They have become as bad as the people who forced Joe Lieberman to become a third-party candidate, only they are the ones creating the third party.
There’s just one problem….There aren’t enough conservatives to split us into two parties! However “conservative” the nation might be, our people are not being well-served by either the GOP *or* the Palinotologists (or Paulians). They are all forcing us to make Faustian choices: align with their bigotry and ignorance, shunning science and civil rights OR align with fecklessness, frivolous spending, corruption and self-loathing. Oooooh, how to choose??
Puke.
Meanwhile, the punching bag is NEWT GINGRICH??? Seriously? The man is not only one of the smartest men in the GOP, he is one of the most realistic. I’ll grant you, he should have gone farther to sound the alarm during the Bush years, but if you look at what we’ve got, for people to call him a “hack” while they label Sarah Palin a “visionary” is downright insane. That’s like calling Obama a visionary and labeling Joe Lieberman a “hack” on the left, and I’m pretty sure the average conservative would balk at THAT.
Sarah Palin is the worst kind of cynic. She is using the media she loves to hate to shamelessly self-promote, even going on OPRAH of all places, and instead of LEARNING what she needs to know to truly help this country get out of the hole its in, she’s decided her role is to be the conservative Evita. Well bully for her and shame on us for falling for it, but I’m crying foul. She does NOT represent ME or my interests, not by a long shot and I wish she’d go away so people like Paul Ryan can get the attention he so richly deserves.

iMore brilliance from Vinny on healthcare reform

I don’t know if you know this or not, but the insurance industries are regulated both on the state and the federal level. While the President would have you believe that this “reform” plan will usher in a new era of insurance company oversight. My question with this is the same as my question about Medicare: why not do it now?
Get on the regulating agencies and state regulators to do their damn jobs! If insurance companies are as out of control as we’re being led to believe, then it’s because the people responsible for oversight are failing. Miserably. Maybe it’s time to reform that!
Insurance companies don’t operate in an unregulated bubble, despite what our President would have you believe. If they’re harming consumers, punish them! If they’re profiteering on people’s pain, punish them! Regulate them with the same boldness and swiftness that the FCC went after Apple for not approving an App for the iPhone! Pretend it’s Microsoft, and that they must be stopped!

Read the whole thing. Now.

How American Health Care Killed My Father – The Atlantic (September 2009)
It is sickeningly clear that our policy-makers and President haven’t spent any time talking to people like this or even thinking about the root of our healthcare problems. It’s terrifing actually considering they are to blame for where we are today, at least as much as the other eeeevil villains usually cited.

Look, I oppose Obamacare as represented by the three bills circulating currently, but even I’m getting weary of hearing opponents toss out the tired old “They can’t even run the Post Office!” criticism of government’s ability to “run” things. If the big argument against “government controlled” healthcare is that they suck at running things, or that the quality of the product they turn out is sub-par, or that it’s too expensive, or most accurately, ALL OF THE ABOVE, why not look at the largest, most expensive, most VITAL “single-payer” system we have in this country besides healthcare.
The government can’t even run the damn SCHOOLS!
Oh, I realize people don’t want to touch that subject, it’s tantamount to saying people’s kids are stupid and getting dumber by the day because most are trapped in that system. every time you even hint at voucher programs or some other form of privatization of the system, people act like you’re trying to instigate “white flight” or leave minority kids or poor kids behind, or like you’re just saying that average American kids are dolts because they come out of this system. It’s a touchy subject.
But just because it’s touchy for politicians doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be talking about it out there in the blogosphere. We sure do talk about the crap-ass jobs schools are doing when the subject IS education, so why not now? Let’s look at the particulars shall we?
Public schools educate MOST kids in this country and it’s a “universal” system in that every American (and non-American, even illegal) kid walking around of school age in this country is “entitled” to a “free” K-12 education in this country. Not sure exactly where in the Constitution it ever said that, but no matter, it’s the law of the land today, so here we are. And I would even argue that it’s probably a good idea in a democracy to take steps as a government to ensure that you do have a literate society because people who can’t read can’t (or rather, shouldn’t) vote.
Now I know the federal gov’t doesn’t pick up the whole tab, or even most of it, the states and localities do (thank GOD for small favors) but the fed DOES set standards and make laws that require those states and localities to meet those national standards in order to get the federal contribution, and in order for them not to come in and tell you you’re running a school that violates someone’s civil rights. So in essence, the fed “runs” public schools about as much as they’d “run” healthcare if universal single-payer were passed. Even in Canada the system is provincial, and I’m betting we’d have the same thing here too, so the analogy fits fine.
More particulars:
As of 2006, we were spending about 4.7% of GDP on public k-12 education in this country. In layman’s terms: a “CRAPLOAD” of money.
16% of our students are dropping out and that number is CLIMBING despite us pouring more and MORE money into the system annually.
The federal government has steadily increased its involvement in the formulation of policy and curriculum of our public schools, despite questionable authority to do so (that’s putting it mildly).
To summarize: We have a public system, run by the government–federal at the macro-level and state and local at the micro-level, but “gov’t run” nonetheless, with a cabinet level position dedicated to “running” it and ensuring it be a permanent entitlement for our citizenry. This system costs more and more each year despite turning out less and less quality and FAILING UTTERLY in its mission at every increasing rates. And we the people are told that we need to spend MORE to make it better, we need to reward bad teachers and unions who coddle them and politicians who profit from coddling them and students who don’t care and parents who don’t take responsibility and if we DARE to argue that this is wrong or there are better ways, we are a) racist
b) unpatriotic
c) classist
d) selfish
e) all of the above
Sound familiar?? What are we being told now about healthcare?
But no one points to the schools. No one talks about how No Child Left Behind has nearly crippled good teachers and students and has completely left behind the “gifted” amongst our children (those who might be the ones to invent our next great energy source, or figure out a way to bring peace to the Middle East, or just write a screenplay that doesn’t bore us to tears). And no one highlights the obvious flaws in asking the same government that can’t do any better with education despite constantly asking for more and more and MORE money, to take over ANOTHER 1/6 of the US economy.
Teachers are far less expensive to train and to hire than doctors and nurses, they work fewer hours and have more time for continuing education and research, as stressful as their jobs are, they aren’t LITERALLY dealing with life and death issues in their classrooms every day, nor are they at risk of being sued if they make a mistake or even if they just fail to teach a kid anything remotely useful. As much paperwork as they have to do, it pales by comparison to what doctors must do just to get reimbursed for Medicare as it is, and they get summers and weekends off. If the government still has trouble hiring and keeping GOOD (never mind excellent) teachers, how do you think they’ll do when doctors and nurses are on salary to them as well?
The only logical answer is that they have purposely run our schools so poorly in hopes that we really are stupid enough to “buy” that having them run healthcare too would SAVE us money, never mind that it would “improve” quality of or access to care.
I’ll tell you what, the day there are no high school dropouts in America I’ll consider supporting them as viable candidates to run my healthcare, but until then, no thanks. Next time someone tosses out “they can’t even run the Post Office,” do them one better and remind them about the bang up job the government does “running” our schools. If that doesn’t scare the piss out of them, nothing will.

I just read this piece in the Telegraph UK, and it hit me: THIS is how you save the New York Times!
The “Paper of Record” is losing about 2700 readers a WEEK, and yet they print nothing but friendly news about the administration, right? Meanwhile, papers like the Telegraph and other British media are ATTRACTING readers by the thousands weekly, as are the WSJ, Washington Times and Examiner, and I think we all know how Fox News is faring these days. Their ratings consistently CREAM the competition.
So it’s simple really! All Pinch has to do is PRINT THE TRUTH. There you go. Print something, anything really, critical of the President that isn’t written by an obvious “token” conservative voice on the Op/Ed pages, do a front-page feature on the stimulus money that ISN’T being spent and hasn’t helped, or human interest stories on the countless small business owners (Chrysler dealers included) who are going OUT of business daily in spite of Dear Leader’s policies. Then contrast that with the Holy One’s rhetoric and show him for what he is!
Of course this would require having an owner and editors and writers who a) have integrity and b) want to remain in business, but don’t say I didn’t suggest anything!
I just BET if they were to do this, people would be snapping up the Times EVERY SINGLE DAY, just to see what they’d say next! First they’d buy it out of curiosity, then they’d buy it for the information which would, for the first time in YEARS, resemble “reporting,” and finally they’d buy it out of a sense of duty to keep alive the “free press” itself.
Of course if they did do this, I’d be glancing at the windows constantly waiting for the pigs to fly by.