Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. It has been a wonderful 2006. Let's all look forward to a great 2007. There is so much we have to be thankful for. I am aware of how lucky we are here in the United States.

My hope for 2007 is that we can share our wealth and ingenuity with those who need it most. If everyone could just stop for a moment. How about for one day we try to feed someone who is hungry, comfort someone who is sick, give someone shelter to someone, put our weapons down, try to understand those we disagree with? Perhaps for one day we could do this. If we could do it for one day, we can do it for another. I know that is too much to ask. So let's try it for just one day. It would be a start.

The New York Times had an article on health care today.

The article in the Times was on how caring for their parents is a financial burden to many Americans. I thought I would give you some general background on the issue of health care in America.

Do you know what percentage of our gross domestic product that is spent on health care? 16%.

Do you know how much of that amount is spent on administration (essentially billing)? 33%.

Do you know how many Americans are uninsured? The answer is 29%. 15.7% are totally uninsured and 12.9% are on Medicaid. So, really only 45.8 million are totally uninsured.

We spend 16% of the largest GDP in the world to not insure 45 million of our population. This is not really astounding unless you compare it to another country. So let’s do that.

Do you know what percent of Sweden’s GDP is spent on health care? 7%. They insure their entire population and no one is arguing that their health care is not good. In fact, it is very good.

I know, you are thinking the same thing I was. We are spending almost the same percentage of our GDP on administration as Sweden spends on their entire health care system.

But let’s look at the bright side. We manage to not insure 45 million people for that extra 9% of our GDP that we spend. So we have that going for us.

Juan Cole knows his stuff.

Click Here

Is the government protecting public resources?

Click Here

Many people have been skeptical of how well the current Interior Department is protecting our public lands. I do not want to begrudge former administration officials a decent job after public service but... it does give at least the appearance of a conflict of interest when the former head of the Interior Department takes a job with an oil company soon after leaving.

The other part of the equation is many of the government appointees at Interior are from the industries that the department is supposed to regulate.

I guess the analogy would be, if an umpire for a football game was hired from one of the teams, served as an umpire and then went back to that same team upon after the game. Do you think it would be at least reasonable for the opposing team to ask the question "gee whiz, I wonder if that umpire is being fair in making the calls?"

This is just one example, of many, that underscores credibility gap this Administration faces.

Ever wonder why this was not pointed out about Bush or Cheney?

John Edwards announced he is running for the Presidency today. Have you ever wondered why the "liberal media" always seems to focus on how rich John Edwards is? To put this into perspective ask yourself this: how many times has the media said anything about how rich these people are?
1. Dick Cheney - Bllionaire (from Halliburton stock).
2. George Bush - Multi-millionaire (from selling a bankrupt company to his father's friends for a few million and then taking a 10% stake in the Texas Rangers and somehow selling it for significantly more than 10% of the ending value of the team when they sold it. Humm, why would the coowners accept less of their share and award more to the 10% owner?).
3. Bill Frist - Multi-millionaire (his family -including Bill- own a very large hospital chain.
4. I could go on, but you get my point.

When the media talks of these people they say "former CEO of Halliburton, former Governor of Texas, and physician." They never refer to their riches. Why don't they say of John Edwards, "former attorney and Senator"? Just a little food for thought.

Click here.

The media's relationship to the political Right.

Here is an interesting discussion about the financing of the media machine that has benefited the right end of the political spectrum over the last decade.
Click here.
I have always chafed at the term "liberal media." It is most often used when the media reports a fact that the Right does not like or digs beneath the veneer of political spin. Since it is hard to debunk facts, they tend to blame the messenger as biased, thus avoiding having to talk about the facts. In effect this changes the topic and sends the hounds chasing a different fox. The media then has to justify doing their job with integrity. In effect I feel "liberal media" is a low blow.

President Ford

President Ford was a good man. He passed away today at 93. The world was better with him in it. I am sorry.

Andrew

Merry Chrismahaunakwanza!

Here's hoping that you and yours have a wonderful holiday.

A

Uggh, Christmas cards

As of 12 minutes ago the holiday cards are on their way. They arrived from the printer at 4:00. I had the envelopes stamped and addressed. I stuffed the cards in the envelopes and ran to the post office. I made it at, and I mean at 5:00. Now I only have one more hated task left, wrapping. Perhaps if I sprain my wrist...

The Iraq Inspector General lives again.

I have a friend that just finished a tour in Iraq. He was in charge of a lot of people and it was hard to get him home. That story is for another time. He told me of the problems they are having with contractors in Iraq. For example: contractors are paid $100,000 to $250,000 per year, for a job that the military gets done for $30,000 per year.

A couple of months ago the Republicans passed a bill, in the middle of the night, that no one had a chance to read. Literally! It was passed out of Conference Committee and the members of the House and Senate passed it without seeing what the Conference Committee had done to the bills that each body had submitted.

It turns out that committee did away with the Iraq Inspector General. Who, you say? The position of Iraq Inspector General was created to make sure that our tax dollars were not being squandered on dubious activity in Iraq. They have saved us millions, if not billions of dollars. Thanks to the fine Senator from Wisconsin, Russ Finegold, the position has now been extended. You can read more about it here: http://www.firedoglake.com/

Oh boy, here we go again.

We just need to get this dude out of the office of President before he can do any more damage. Check this out:

From Glenn Greenwald:

Thursday, December 21, 2006

The Bush administration's provocations towards Iran
(updated below)By Glenn Greenwald - Over the past several days, there have been reports of increasing U.S. military activity in the Persian Gulf aimed at Iran, and today The New York Times confirms that "the United States and Britain will begin moving additional warships and strike aircraft into the Persian Gulf region in a display of military resolve toward Iran." The buildup includes "a second aircraft carrier and its supporting ships to be stationed within quick sailing distance of Iran by early next year."

To read the rest click here: Unclaimed Territory

Oh, this is too good

If you saw this over at Daily Kos, then don't bother to click the link. But if you didn't...
Click here:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/12/21/213322/02

Podcasting #2

The first thing you do when deciding to podcast is to buy some stuff. You can either buy the stuff to go in your computer or you can get stuff that is outside your computer. I decided to use the stuff that I could attach outside the computer as I heard it is better (more robust). I may not need something more robust, but I bought it anyway.

At first I was torn between a Zoom H4 digital recorder and an Edirol R-09. I decided on the Zoom as I could plug in two microphones for interviews. When I got to the store they were out of the Zoom. The sales person listened to what I wanted to do and told me about a Tascam package that included everything I needed and cost a little less. I bought it.

Getting the drivers loaded was a pain. I ended up going to the Tascam web site and downloading updated drivers there. I did manage to get the thing to record a file on my computer. For those of us that are not recording engineers or musicians, this process is not exactly intuitive.

Now I just need to figure out how to post one on this blog. Oh yes, I need to do some interviews. All my friends are laying low. None of them want to be my first subject.

Rep Keith Ellison #2

And this is a good example of why he represents me. I could not have said it better myself.

Click here

Rep. Keith Ellison

Politicians forget that when they attack Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress, they attack me. I am an average, white, American family guy. I voted for Keith and am proud to have him represent me. I trust he will represent me well. Those who are attacking him only diminish themselves in the process. Who cares what he uses to take the oath of office? Judge him on what he does. This is typical of Washington in the past six to twelve years; attack a guy for many irrelevant characteristics and lose sight of what matters, his or her actions.

Podcasting

I have decided to podcast on this site. I know nothing. The thought of being able to do interviews with interesting people and have discussions on interesting topics intrigues me. I will post on how I end up doing this.

A sobering discussion

Scarborough is not a guy I have historically agreed with. He carried Bush's water for longer than was reasonable. Despite this lack of foresight, I feel he is doing a much better job lately. Here is a conversation that puts yesterday's press conference in perspective.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/12/21/12969/

Best band video ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NINJQ5LRh-0

I saw it a couple of months ago and was reminded of it by Daily Kos

Norm licked his finger, stuck it up and:

By Brady Averill, Star Tribune
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said today after a two-day trip to Iraq that he would not support an increase in the number of soldiers in Baghdad.
He said he would "stand against" any effort to send a surge of more troops to Baghdad unless there's a clear vision that it will help end sectarian violence in the city.
"I think it would create more targets. I think we would put more life at risk," he said in a phone call with reporters from Bahrain. Coleman visited Baghdad, Fallujah, Taqaddum and Talil.
Brady Averill • baverill@startribune.com
©2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

I guess the lap dog found that the Pres' lap was not comfy enough. He is looking for a new place to curl up.
I would have more respect for Senator Colman if he had done anything this past four years as Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Oh yes, I forgot, he investigated the UN. The Constitution of the United States is falling down around his ears and he is concerned with the UN; a body his party is trying to destroy/ignore.

Presidential credibility, or the lack of it.

E. J. Dion, of the Washington Post, said that President Bush had holes poked in his credibility over the past couple of months. He listed President Bush’s change in language from “we are winning the war in Iraq” to “we are not winning but we are not losing.” E. J. also mentioned the President’s assertion that he would not fire Rumsfeld. Three days later, Rumsfeld was gone.

I am incredulous that EJ Dion has left the impression that holes in the President’s credibility only began to appear recently. Remember what the President ran on in 2000; “I’m a uniter not a divider,” and “I will return high morale to our military” and “we need to return honesty to government,” etc.

In six years I, a center left Democrat, have not been thrown a single bone. How can you be a “uniter” if you don’t throw the center at least one policy bone? How can you maintain morale in the military when you fire any general that disagrees with your policy; or over-commit your military in unwinnable wars? General Shinseki happened to be testifying before Congress at the time and could hardly lie. He was quickly fired for his honor. Honesty to government, you must be kidding? I could go on and on.

I am brought to this conclusion. President Bush, at times, sounded almost rational today. I have heard it all before. Saying it is easy, doing it takes character. President Bush has had ample opportunity to demonstrate that he suffers from severe lack of character. He will say anything and then do what he wants, confident in the assumption that no one will notice. I have had enough of this crap over the past six years. I no longer care what the President says.