One Year Ago Today

call in the airstrike with a poison kiss

as we continue to do god's work in libya,  upholding the 11th commandment of the responsibility to protect civilians, we will follow god and samatha power's word and protect the helpless civilians in yemen, syria, bahrain, saudi arabia and israel?  coming next week: the rest of africa? 

health insurance reform, or blame canada

the health insurance reform bill turned one, and both the brain damaged and evil were out in force to announce the end of days, while the easy to please, the reading impaired and the true believers were celebrating like mardi gras as the rest of us were simply mortified.  for all the benefits that supporters point to, the reality of the now year-old law is thin gruel when compared to the great need for not insurance reform but real, universal health _care_ coverage.

the triumphalist warblers and political tools see fit to ignore the very careful language: health insurance reform.  was it the best we could get?  did they do all they could?  did they bargain from a position of strength?  or was the outcome exactly the goal all along: preserve the insurance industry and insurance industry donations; preserve the welfare queen pharmaceutical industry and it's money?  we may never know the answer to these questions, but tune in next week to 'bullshit or not?'.

lots of these fools ask, 'well, how will we get what universal coverage, smart guy?'  'obama couldn't do it.'  whatever.  i don't believe it; obama had no intention of delivery universal health care; he had no intention of negotiating for universal health care; he had every intention to maintain what is essentially the status quo while putting on a puppet show for the democratic faithful, and reforming the current system at the edges to relieve much of the political pressure.  democratic health reform 2009 was cutting edge republican health reform circa 1994.

so, how's it gonna happen, smart guy?  the best hope is innovation in individual states.  that's how it went down in canada.  blame canada!  certainly many states are cesspools of backward thinking; we've seen it now in wisconsin, ohio, arizona, south dakota: utter fools and vile, santorum-baby conservatives fucking up their states.  it is very easy at the state level to sweep in and fuck up.  with luck--and after some hard work and hardball politics--the teabagging and overreach will also be undone as quickly.  not all states are so full of assholes, though.  in places where better people have some say, there has been real work on the health care issue.  both vermont and connecticut have been working for some time.  vermont has passed a single payer bill that has a good shot at becoming law.  connecticut has been working to use both state laws and federal programs and their wavers to put together a system that will have the ability to cover everyone in the state.  states are more flexible, for good and ill, and they can move more quickly _and_ with more resolve on this vital issue than the federal government is able or _willing_ to take.

the political belief is that once these programs are in place in individual states they will become very popular and spread from state to state, just like in canada.  as long as the united states has as much sense as canada.

a low-budget geraldo rivera

looking like a 70's gay porn fluffer, john stossel, primarily known as a low-budget geraldo rivera, once again shows just how abrasive and dim-witted he is on this fox 'news' train wreck.  jesus he's a douche nozzle.