Entitlements

I think that most lobbyists have a greater sense of "entitlement" than just about anybody. They feel they are "entitled" to move America toward the vision of their corrupt corporate clients. They want to be "entitled" to be paid unethically high amounts of money to manipulate elected officials. Are they "entitled" to pour cash into elections and bring in elected officials who have very little connection with the interests of the electorate? It's time for us to end entitlements!

Investments vs. Waste

There is some myth out there that liberals like to spend huge sums of money. It seems to me that the debt has been run up the most under conservative administrations. The Representative for my district, Lloyd Doggett, is a good example of a deficit hawk who is still pretty liberal. I sure wish he would sign on to end the drug war, though.

Kennedy lowered the top marginal tax rate from over 90%, and Clinton balanced the budget (not that Clinton was a huge liberal). Liberals make better investments in society.

Light Rail In Austin

I'm all for light rail, and amazed and delighted that we are actually getting it started in this sometimes brain-dead state of Texas. But it has to WORK! A year and a half of delays in getting it started is not going to endear this project to anyone.

Desperate Actions For Health Care?

They are doing their best to stop universal affordable health care. What do we have to do, stop traffic on all the freeways? Cover ourselves with maple syrup and give politicians big hugs? Incidentally, I'm all in for the maple syrup. I recommend Vermont light amber grade A...it forms an airy froth when playfully whipped, and is not only a gustatory sensation, but also a tactile symphony on the tongue. It has that certain "je ne sais quoi."

But I digress. The insurance companies are already rationing care by denying coverage, terminating policies and screening out pre-existing conditions. That's the most cruel form of rationing; one run by nothing but some corporate executive's bottom line. It's almost unbelievable that a human being would make those decisions, chalk them up to "business" and then go home and play with his or her children.

I am constantly amazed by the people who accept the multiple reasons that somebody can be excluded from having health insurance as just an acceptable business practice rather than an absolute human rights violation. And that is why it should not be run by a profit-motivated business that answers to shareholders. While we're at it, why don't we open concentration camps for the homeless and the people who whine about not being insured, and assign them to a company with a profit motive? Maybe then some of them will actually get health care.

By the way, Texas has the nation's highest percentage of uninsured--25 percent.

Going Bayh-Bayh

Evan Bayh decides to retire from the Senate one day before the deadline for Democratic candidates to submit signatures to qualify to run. What is up with that?! Daniel Coats, former Senator, has already announced on the Republican side. There is a movement to draft John Cougar Mellencamp, but he'd have to want to, and he'd have to get the signatures by tomorrow.

A long shot is a provision that allows party leaders to select a candidate if there is a vacancy, but Bayh would have to file and then drop out.

Hardball Time

There is no excuse for letting a minority lock up the Senate and gum up the House unless you are not really committed to getting something done in the first place but want to sound like you do. It is time to play hardball, not tiddlywinks.

Your Tax Dollars

The U.S. Gov't paid bounty hunters in Afghanistan $5K each for 6 Uighur detainees who weren't even involved in the war. Then we kept them at Guantanamo, and paid Palau $100K each to take them off our hands. More of your tax dollars at work.

Texas' Legislative Districts

Ah, the memories. It wasn't that long ago that Tom DeLay and the Texas Legislature came up with their grand plan to re-draw Texas' legislative districts. As a result, my district (District 25) is now a long, narrow, snake-like object that goes all the way to the coast. Austin was carved up pretty much out of spite in an extremely anti-democratic maneuver. I attended the hearings in the Texas Capitol when this change was proposed, and the whole time I was there, I didn't hear a single person speaking in favor of this. The committee politely listened to everybody overwhelmingly testifying that this was a bad idea, and went ahead and imposed Tom DeLay's vision on Texas anyway.

And where is DeLay now? A reject from "Dancing With The Stars." But he will be making huge amounts of corporate money for his influence and connections. There is a powerful employment agency for the well-connected, even if there are few decent jobs for the average American

Blind Recall Cancelled, Small Children Recalled Instead

New York (API) Today the wide-ranging recall of blinds due to issues with their cords potentially strangling small children was scrapped, and small children were recalled instead.

Kal Penn, who recently left the television show “House” to work for the Federal Government, gave this quote on behalf of the U. S. Department of Overprotective Safety Redundancy Issues: “If we are going to improve safety, we might as well recall these twitching little uncontrollable proto-people who are causing all these safety problems in the first place.”

Parents are requested to bring their defective young offspring into the closest Department of Overprotective Safety Redundancy office.

Congress Passes Bill To Raise Lieberman's Insurance Premiums

Washington (API) Today, in near record time, both houses of Congress passed identical bills that have the effect of raising Senator Joseph Lieberman's health insurance premiums to six million dollars a month. To avoid any potential problem with special legislation passed to affect just one person, the legislation was originally worded as affecting “any backstabbing Senator from Connecticut who ran for a major party's Vice-Presidential candidacy.” The legislation was later amended to remove the word “backstabbing,” because, in the words of an unidentified legislator, “Joe Lieberman is way too big a pussy to ever wield a blade.”

The Senate historian declared that the wording of the legislation effectively only applies to one living individual, Sen. Lieberman. His colleagues are already starting to refer to him as “The Six Million Dollar Man.” It turns out that he has alienated so many of his colleagues throughout the years he has served in Congress that nobody was willing to speak on the floor of either house in support of him.

The measure was said to have overwhelming support among all the members of Congress who have taken money from the insurance industry, and many are hoping this move will increase their political contributions even more. It was reported that insurance companies are “falling all over each other” to be the chosen company to collect the monthly premiums.

An unidentified source stated that when President Obama was asked if he would sign the bill, he chuckled, grinned widely, and said, “Hell, yea!”

Lieberman's Folly

Sen. Joe Lieberman has indicated that he may filibuster health care reform. Lieberman lives in Connecticut, which is definitely one of the states that probably has more of an insurance industry presence than any other state. Obviously, his loyalty has been paid for. The only way to counter that is to register so much opposition, frequently and vehemently, that it is obvious that the people do not agree with his blatant pandering to the insurance industry.

We probably do still need him as a Democrat, unpalatable as that may seem to some. But we need to do what we can to sway his opinion. Big and small businesses all over the country (except for the insurance industry) are starting to see the advantages of health care reform on their bottom lines, so there is some corporate support. After all, what business would not have more of a global competitive advantage if insurance was divorced from employment?

This Unaffordable Life

The United States is rapidly becoming a nation that is shedding its middle class and making life in general unaffordable for the average person. We have bountiful resources, copious amounts of food, some of the best medical professionals in the world and the ability to house everybody. Yet all our resources are being siphoned off through deliberate policy decisions to a smaller and smaller group all the time. We are the frogs in the pot, and the pot is starting to boil.

Consider this: In the 70s, the median house was easily bought with a 15-year mortgage on a manageable percentage of the median salary. These days, a 30-year mortgage won't bring most dwellings inside a city within the reach of a family even if there are to-wage earners, without such a high percentage of salary being devoted to the enterprise that foreclosure is constantly looming. This doesn't even take into account the unconscionability of the mortgage companies getting so much more in interest over a 30-year period than they would have over 15 years.

Food is more expensive as well. The minimum wage, or, indeed, the median wage, has hardly increased in purchasing power in many years. But food is becoming a larger part of people's budgets. Many of us would not give a second thought to eating well, and having good, nutritious food twenty years ago. But some of us are making even more money and have to ration our food budgets much more.

And medical care is getting outrageous. Somebody is just pocketing a huge amount of money. And that "somebody" is mostly the insurance industry; a frivolous middleman that gets hungrier all the time.

Things are really getting out of kilter.

Our Progressive Future

Rush Limbaugh and his clones spent the last 20 years digging the grave of the conservative movement with an intolerant, venomous vision that moved the Republican Party toward a radical, ridiculous platform. The use of wedge issues gave the Republicans brief short-term spurts in votes, but doomed the Republicans in the long-term as people realized down the line how they had been taken advantage of. This is a lot like the situation with corporations that eviscerate themselves for short-term profit while destroying sustainability. The future of this country is becoming more and more progressive day by day. The "silent majority" is not spiteful, but compassionate.

Aren't We Capable Of Doing Better?

With the release of the movie, “Capitalism, A Love Story,” comes the first real questioning of the 800-pound gorilla in the living room in quite some time. Sure, the movie is hyperbolic and contrived, and takes on much more than it can chew in the short time period that fits the attention span of a moviegoing audience. And there are definitely some questions to be raised about a movie that questions capitalism, yet is distributed in a capitalistic fashion and is definitely going to make a pile of chump change. Though the movie raises some questions that deserve a serious look, there is the faint odor of hypocrisy.

But the United States and Adam Smith's economic theories have been so melded together for the entire history of this nation that few have dared to raise questions about whether we are benefiting from a system that is based on seriously taking advantage of those who don't have the devices or faculties to prevent it from happening.

Sure, there have been a couple of eras where people dared stick their necks out. The “Red Scares” of the 20's and 50's were followed by serious bouts of crushing violence and repression; some might argue that what happened was incompatible with the notion of a free nation. The 60's were supposedly marked by an awareness that people can create their own power, but they were also marred with violent repression, war, and notable assassinations. For a fairly large portion of our history, there has been an undercurrent of fear combined with any idea of raising any doubt about our crushingly “free” markets, which are really just the product of a regulatory system that protects the massive accumulation and concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.

There is really no such thing as a “free market.” Some rules will always be laid down to protect people from too much exploitation. The question is, where is the line drawn? Some questions are easier than others. We as a society will not allow sexual exploitation of children for profit; that would be absolutely repugnant. We won't allow people to take up a collection to have other people killed on television for thrills. We won't let barkers advertise heroin openly on every corner and give out free samples. I could bring up many other examples of this, but you probably get the drift. The line has to be drawn somewhere. Any market is simply the product of its regulation.

For the past several years, the line has been moving more towards a free-for-all of greed and debauchery. It is OK for a large corporation to go into a town, drive all the small businesses into oblivion, and then decide there wasn't enough business to stay. They can then pack up and leave the town ruined. And that is within the rules now.

It is just fine for another big corporation to ignore the rules of the social contract that has been in force for years between the company and its workers; that is, it can lay off productive workers, decimate their pensions, change the rules of the game in midstream, and build short-term profits as the company is cannibalized. It is all right for private equity firms to come in and strip the value out of companies, and then sell the hollowed-out shells for staggering profits, all the while claiming through some sleight-of-hand that value has been created. The company that is left is like one of those old movie sets, where there is just a facade propped up by boards, but it looks like a shining city. And that is all OK.

The biggest problem with a system that is built to take advantage of people is when it gets too big, it can get out of control. It can crush other valid means of productivity. It can buy laws and regulations.

Perhaps so-called “free-market capitalism” served a purpose at a time when the world's population was smaller. When there were only a few million people in the world, and they were not as connected as they are today, you might only encounter a few people who wanted to burn down your life and make off with the charred ruins. But these days, with billions of people around and instant connectivity, everywhere you turn there is someone who is just chomping at the bit to dig holes in your existence to turn a profit. They are on the next corner. They are on your television set and on your computer screen. They tell all kinds of lies to bait you into picking them over the next three-ring-circus. They offer you things that are “free,” and don't have to tell you that you have to buy a huge pile of stuff to get something along with the stuff you bought. They exhort you to “save money now,” when really what they want you do do is spend a little less money. They advertise some commodity at some unreal price only to be out of that commodity, and suddenly the only thing available is something more expensive and less desirable. And those are the nice ones. The worse ones want to take away your home in the guise of saving you from foreclosure, lend you money at outrageous rates (that are probably even banned by the usury laws of your state but are somehow allowed anyway under some quasi-legal technicality—I dare you to check into whether your state statutes and/or constitution allows the interest rate that your credit card is charging you), toss you out of your health insurance when you get sick or dig for a pre-existing health condition that defies logic (I mean, who hasn't been sick with something previously?), or even steal your very existence and essence.

And what do we have to protect us from hordes of invading forces coming at us from all directions, lured by the promise of riches while hollowing out your soul, and lowering their ethics more and more to try to grab a slimmer and slimmer share of the available riches (because, really, our most valuable resources have been actively and systematically plundered for three hundred years in the name of creating value)? “Caveat emptor.”

Oh, and our government. You know, that entity that is “of the people, by the people, for the people?” The protectors of our “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These are the institutions that are supposed to keep us from being plundered by the big corporations, the entities that we don't stand a chance against. They are supposed to keep the big accumulations of money and power that have no interest in whether we live or die, so long as they make a profit, from tearing us limb from limb. They are supposed to consist of a separation of powers, and a layering of this democratic process so that some of it happens locally, and some of it happens nationally.

Now what chance to we have if those elected officials who are supposed to be protecting our interests can simply be bought by big stacks of money? We won't get laws that protect us, we will get laws that exploit us even further. And that kind of money will buy huge amounts of brainpower with very little aggregate ethics, to create arguments that will tell you that black is white and it tastes like ice cream.

So that is what is happening. And when there is something that really matters to those big corporations, something that threatens to interfere with their short-term profits, you will see definite anti-democratic influences. You will see hearings and forums and town meetings where huge majorities of people will come out and say that they want something. And you will see the officials nod their heads, furrow their brows sincerely, and speak sympathetically about how they “feel your pain.” And then they will vote to do the exact opposite of what is good for the majority of the people because what they are voting for is good for the profits of their real sponsors. They will ease your lollipop out of your hand as they pat you on the forehead and tell you that black is white. And it tastes like ice cream.

Now I'm certainly not advocating that we have a bloody revolution and install a communist autocracy. We have all seen how well that works in actual practice, however appealing it could possibly look on paper. And I'm definitely not saying that we're not better off than we were under feudalism, when some baron could just have our skulls crushed for grins. Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Ghengis Khan--yes, they all sucked. Anybody could pick any past or imagined much worse situation and point out that at least we don't have that. But aren't we capable of doing better?

All that I think should happen, really, is that if a conglomerate of big corporations want to club us to death to take our skins, that our elected officials should not pick up a club and join them. They should stand in the way of the heinous practices of unchecked profits at all cost, and really make an effort to stop us from being clubbed to death. I don't think that is too much to ask.

Bush Apologizes for Deceit During Presidency

Washington (API) Former President George W. Bush called an impromptu and unusual press conference combined with an open public gathering today on the National Mall to express his remorse and regret for what he called “manipulating the American people for eight years.” Mr. Bush, sporting a newly grown beard, shoulder-length hair, and his trademark Birkenstock sandals that he wore informally around the White House, announced that he had been in seclusion while experiencing a “religious transformation.”

Mr. Bush walked to the podium hand-in-hand with Green Party spokesperson April Pfulle-Jacques and surrounded by members of Greenpeace, the National Organization for Women, and the NAACP. He clasped the hands of those closest to him high in the air in triumph as he ascended to the stage. When he got to the speaker's platform, he humbly acknowledged the standing ovation given to him by the assembled masses and members of the press.

“I want to tell the American people that much of what I participated in during my tenure as president was a cynical manipulation of the electorate, and I have come to deeply regret it,” said Mr. Bush. “Sure, I said before that I had been born-again, but that's just because Karl and Dick told me it would get us more votes. Now I really see that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven.”

Mr. Bush acknowledged that he had spread “a lot of mistruth and distortion” during his years in the White House. “People actually wanted to impeach me,” said Mr. Bush. He pursed his lips, his eyes welling with tears, and exclaimed, “And they may have been justified.”

“We lied about Iraq,” explained the former president after a dramatic and emotional pause, his head hanging in sorrow. “We lied about the Patriot Act. We misled people on gay issues to drive a wedge between people and spread fear. We tried to drive out U.S. Attorneys who would not be bullied into towing the party line. We lied about torture and rendition and, worst of all, we lied about justice and truth.”

“I may be able to live with myself some day, but right now, all I can do is work to make it right.” Mr. Bush then went on to announce the formation of the “George W. Bush Freedom From Hunger and Homelessness Foundation,” and he pledged to work until his “dying days” to find enough funding for to end the dual plagues of low food security and housing instability within the borders of the United States.

“We will tap into all that money that, up until now, has been cynically used to manipulate people's opinions to win elections using scare tactics, and use that money to spread a blanket of security over the American people. And this time I mean real security, not just the siphoning of money into make-work, no-bid contracts,” Mr. Bush said.

“I really want the American people to finally trust my motives. I hope that each of you can find it in your heart to forgive me, and this time, I will try my best not to let you down.”

Mr. Bush then ended his speech by picking up a hammer and a tool belt, and saying he would personally work his fingers to the bone until every homeless person had a roof over his head. He also sheepishly grinned and indicated that he was working very hard to improve his vocabulary.

As he descended from the stage, an aide whispered in Mr. Bush's ear, "Sir, it's too late to be considered for the Nobel Prize." The ashen former president then furiously exclaimed, "Aw, screw it, then. I take it all back."

John Cornyn Is NOT A Gay Meth Dealer

With all the attention that has been lavished on Barack Obama's fantasy lack of a birth certificate, we wanted to somehow indicate that opponents of Obama's detractors would never stoop to such a strategy.

That is why we want to be the first to point out that John Cornyn is NOT a gay meth dealer. Sure, he HAS been seen in the company of other men, and sometimes his eyes look a little wild, and this would surely constitute more evidence that he is a gay meth dealer than is available for the proposition that Barack Obama has no birth certificate.

But to suggest that John Cornyn is a gay meth dealer would be really low. And we are better than that.

Now, some of you might be thinking about planting drugs on John Cornyn in a false and spurious attempt to prove that he is a gay meth dealer. We don't think that would be a good idea. That would be illegal, even though the drug laws don't differentiate between mere possession and any kind of knowledge or intent, and even though the mere fact that someone has drugs on them makes them guilty in the eyes of the law whether someone planted them or not.

Just because John Cornyn says things that don't seem to have any rational basis, it does not mean that he is fried out of his mind on crystal meth. We here at the blog are surprised that anyone would even be thinking along those lines. And we are not talking about the lines that you snort, either. John Cornyn is not a babbling, incoherent ape; he is a decent man working hard for Texas families.

The doubts that John Cornyn had about voting for Sonia Sotomayor were NOT bug-crawling, bat-swatting psychosis induced by snorting way too much white powder. Nor were they an orgasmic revelation induced by some male lover who boldly went where no man (or even many men) had gone before. No, those doubts were the product of the courage of his convictions.

Oh, and there is one last scurrilous rumor we would like to kill. When John Cornyn ran that campaign ad calling himself "Big Bad John," it was NOT an homage to the Village People.

A Letter To Lloyd Doggett

Dear Representative Doggett:


As one of your constituents, I am deeply sorry that the town meeting you called the other day turned into an ambush by organized anti-health care interests. It is my belief that the majority of this district supports President Obama's health care initiatives and your efforts to reform health care. Big insurance interests have been taking advantage of us to enrich themselves for too long now, and it is time to change the way the big insurance companies turn us upside down for the loose change in our pockets.

Pseudoepinephrine Madness

So I go to the doctor yesterday because my ears are kinda stopped up. He gives me a prescription and tells me to also get an over-the-counter drug, Mucinex-D. Last night I went to the pharmacy and I had gotten there too late; the pharmacy was closed. I figured that I could at least pick up the OTC drug, but no such luck. There was a sign saying that I had to get it from the pharmacist.

Today I went in to get my prescription and the OTC drug, and to get the Mucinex-D, I had to have the pharmacist run my drivers' license and sign something that looked like a loyalty oath! I remarked to the pharmacist that I didn't even have to do that for prescription drugs, and he said that the law says they have to track people who buy anything with pseudoepinephrine in it.

Great. So now just because my ears are stopped up, I'm in a database somewhere as a potential speed lab chemist. What kind of absolute madness is this?

Get The Insurance Companies Out Of Medical Care

The insurance companies who currently seem to run our medical care with an iron hand really don't seem to be doing a very good job when it comes to patient care, though they seem to be doing a much better job of enriching their executives.

Some of the guiding principles seem to be the opposite of what they should be. Why on earth are any of these organizations allowed to exclude people with pre-existing conditions, haggle with customers over what types of services are covered or not covered, and do anything that is antithetical to reaching a good outcome with the patients' health?

Obviously we need to get these organizations out of medical care completely. If only we had the political will to create a single-payer system, we could probably get the medical care we need with a minimum of hassle. We could still have boutique health care for the rich, and tax it heavily to assist with paying for the single-payer system. If Snidely Whiplash wants to take a gold helicopter to his private plastic surgeon, that's fine, but Snidely should pony up for the privilege of society letting him do that.

The Unique Position Of The Medical Community

I think one thing that a huge number of people can agree on is that we need to fix our medical insurance system. Fact of the matter is that insurance has run rampant over us in just about every domain of society. And they seem to be able to manipulate legislatures and courts like puppeteers pulling the strings for their marionettes. But medical insurance cuts to the very heart of all of us (sometimes literally!).

Medical costs carry with them a very unique quality. Let's say that you went to the store to buy some eggs, and you paid for the eggs at the register. Then you got home, and a month later you get a bill from the guy who brought the eggs to the store. Funny, you had no idea that you were going to get such a bill. Then another week passed, and you get a bill from the farmer who raised the chickens. Geez, you might think. You might assume that such a thing had already been taken care of. Then a little more time passes, and you get a bill from the guy who sold the farmer the feed. Well, gosh, you might ponder, didn't the farmer take care of that? And then at the end, you get a bill from the guy who shoveled the chicken shit out of the coops. You might start getting a little pissed off.

But this is the sort of thing that regularly happens with medical care, particularly when you are hospitalized. If you are made of money, then it's not a problem. You're made of money, so you just clip your golden fingernails, and offer the shiny fingernail clippings as payment. But if you are made of money, likely you are not reading this.

And, you are told, those people all did the work, and they deserve to be paid. But so did the farmer, the feed store salesperson, the chicken truck driver, and the shit shoveler. Somehow, though, they have been taken care of without you even getting any notification of their payments.

So is it too much to ask that the hospital get together all those people and send you one bill? And is it too much to ask that the insurance make it easy to figure out what it is going to cover and not slide more and more costs onto the consumer, hidden in slippery and esoteric language about co-payments and co-insurance and lifetime deductibles and the like?

I had a bill once from a medical provider where they charged me several hundred dollars. And it was somebody who I had no idea was going to bill me, and it was after I had grilled the hospital about what my costs would be, and they had assured me that I would be billed a certain amount, and no more, and there would be no other bills. Believe me, I asked a ton of questions about it. So I was prepared to pay that certain amount.

Then I got the bill from the other folks. Well, of course, I hadn't budgeted for that, so I couldn't and didn't pay it right away. And I got notices that became nastier, telling me that insurance had covered its part and I had to pay, and they were gonna turn it over to collection, and, well, you know the drill.

Then a funny thing happened. About seventeen months after the original procedure, I got a notice telling me that the insurance had paid about eighty percent of it. Now, my understanding is that my insurance has eighteen months to pay a claim. So obviously, the provider (previously unknown to me until I got the bill from them) leaned on the insurance company, and got them to pay it under some perfectly legal and justifiable provision AT THE VERY LAST MINUTE. And that was after they had told me that insurance had already chipped in its part. Insurance companies are not in the charity business; they don't just volunteer to pay for stuff out of the goodness of their hearts. No, there has to be some contractual provision; albeit one that may be incomprehensible to the likes of regular folks like you and me.

So if I had paid that bill right away, I have a feeling that the insurance company would never have had any incentive to kick in those hundreds of dollars, and the little matter would have gone unmentioned, and I would have overpaid for the services I got.

Now, with stuff like that happening, how does anybody know that it is safe to pay any of those bills without getting ripped off?