An Amazing Story

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2010/04/09
I've been a Radiolab listener for a few years. Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich are great hosts, their patter sets a great tone. They recently produced a show titled Lucy, the link is above and the photo is from Charles Siebert's book The Wauchula Woods Accord: Toward a New Understanding of Animals Please listen let me know if this story moves you. It will only take an hour our of your day and it truly is an amazing story.

Political Theater

With the political pundits in every media outlet looking for winners and losers and with the Republicans calling the whole event political theater, was anything really accomplished?
I'm guessing not but I could barely contain myself when I heard Eric Cantor R-VA speak up and say "the American people have spoken... and they don't want this bill..." I wanted Obama to bitch slap him and say of course not motherfucker, you lied about every part of it. From Death Panels to the carefully crafted talking points calling it a Government Takeover the Repubs pulled out the full arsenal. The Republican's master wordsmith, Frank Luntz, so skillfully framed the talking points that even the media began to use them. Let's review Republican tactics:

•Jim DeMint R-SC says: "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."
•Betsy McCaughey, former Lieutenant Governor of NY coins the term "Death Panels"
•Sarah Palin popularizes the term "Death Panels"
•All Republicans follow lock step with Luntz' term "Government Takeover"
•American learn they can substitute SOCIALIST for N****R
•Tea Party is started by Texas Republican Dick Armey
•Obama's face with Hitler mustache, apparently Tea Baggers don't know the difference between Socialism and Fascism...
•Republican Plan non-existent until recently...

I am surprised Obama kept his cool. Will anything change probably not. Was it political theater, of course. People on the right will follow what their talking heads said and people on the left will do the same. Most folks will vote against their own best interest and nothing will change...

Know What the Doc is Giving You

When I get sick I almost always go into Bronchitis and this time was no different. I went to the Doc and sure enough I had a secondary sinus and bronchial infection so he prescribed Bactrim. He asked if I have ever taken Sulfa drugs and to my knowledge I have not so off to Walgreens with a script. Twelve hours later and I look like a lobster but my cough is better. It seems Bactrim is a great drug to prevent patients from developing pneumonia but it has a high sensitivity rate. On a return visit to the doc I got a shot of a steroid to calm the hives and a new script for Levaquin, another kick ass antibiotic that I can tolerate. Here's the sucky thing though. Bactrim cost me $6.67 out of pocket because it's on my health plan's formulary. Levaquin cost me $35.00 because it's not. When I called my insurance company crying foul they said that's just the way it is. So common cheaper drugs that are on the formulary I'm allergic to and the effective not so allergic drugs I have to pay a premium for. That just figures.

Oh and it turns out that if my Doc had known that I was allergic to shellfish he would not have prescribed Bactrim. That little tidbit of info was buried in my file somewhere...

Classic Jon Stewart

It was fun to watch Stewart dismantle Glenn Beck's argument that progressivism was the disease that ails America. At the Annual CPAC conference, Beck launched into a tirade that blamed everyone from Teddy Roosevelt to FDR for the malaise facing the American economy... (Teddy Roosevelt? Really?!) At one point Beck claimed that he learned all of his quasi anti-progressive American history from the Library at which point Stewart stopped and said:

"Glenn, the library isn't free! It's paid for with tax money. Free public libraries are the result of the Progressive movement to communally share books. The first public library was the Boston public library in 1854. It's statement of purpose: every citizen has the right to access community owned resources. Community owned? That sounds just like communist. You're a communist!"

It just reminds me that on a fundamental level even my sense of humor tilts to the left. Stewart, for the most part, bases his humor on showing how off, how stupid, and how ass-backward his targets are. Beck, on the other hand, tends to base his humor on the grand idea that we are all victims of a conspiracy. To my mind one of the problems with Beck's thesis is that the conservatives are honest and pure in their intentions. But, once we start shining the light on one conspiracy can the Republicans really stand up to such scrutiny? Won't we find just as many holes in conservatism as progressivism? To state it more clearly, I don't think either point of view has a lock on the truth. Both need each other and unfortunately we are stuck in the middle. I think change will happen but it's not going to be as neat and tidy as Obama lead us to believe.

The End of the Middle Class

Marc Fitten, New York Times Op-Ed Contributor, wrote an excellent article for the Sunday edition titled Life Underwater In the article he writes about being a good boy, following the rules, living conservatively, never living on credit, and hoping to send his kids to college one day. Over the last few years he has seen the value of his home drop $70k, wiping out all of his equity. He classifies himself as part of the new suburban poor.

That was on page 10; on page 4 the Prime Number is 345 Follow the link because you will find a cornucopia of interesting data in this little paragraph. The basic premise is this:
•$345 million is the average earned by the 400 highest earning households
•The number is up from $263 million
•The average tax rate these households paid was 16.6% the lowest since the IRS started keeping track
•The top 400 households earned $138 billion in 2007, that's a 76% increase over the previous year.

So middle class homeowners are completely underwater and the top earning households are making more money than ever and paying the lowest taxes ever.

Is Obama Hatred Rasict?

I read the Y-Buzz on Kosmix and this article caught my attention: Michelle Obama thinks doubts about her have eased I read the article and it's refreshing to see that she had a high approval rating and that she was treated cordially at Fox but all that disappeared when I read the comments. Here's a gem

Yes she's Popular but not in America, Only in Africa and in Philly Zoo

Once again it's clear what Obama hatred is about.

Welcome Back Real Time

Bill Maher roared back from hiatus and I couldn't be happier. He started the show by talking to Elizabeth Warren, the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP. Warren said the financial system is so broken that it's literally banking lobbyists against American Families.
His panel Elliot Spitzer, former Governor of New York; Norah O'Donnell, MSNBC correspondent; and Seth McFarlane, creator of Family Guy; were hilarious. Finally Wanda Sykes came out and talked about being black and being gay. It was a great show and you can watch and join the discussions here Real Time.
If you don't have time to watch here are the main points:
1. Bank Lobbyists are destroying any chance of real financial reform
2. Everything that caused the Financial Melt-Down is still happening
3. Eight of the ten new rules to protect consumers from predatory creditors have been subverted
4. Sarah Palin knows how to fain righteous anger and Bill O'Reilly is a douche. Seth McFarlane hired an actress with Down's Syndrome and O'Reilly labeled him as a hater...

The episode features the character Chris falling for a girl with Down syndrome. On a date, he asks what her parents do. She replies: "My dad's an accountant, and my mom is the former governor of Alaska."

Last night, Palin appeared on The O'Reilly Factor and said, "This world is full of cruel, cold-hearted people" and asked, "When are we going to say this stuff isn't really funny?"

O'Reilly then asked her why she called for the resignation of Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel but didn't come down on Rush Limbaugh even though both men used the "r word?"

Of Course we know that it is OK for Limbaugh to use the r word because HE is a satirist...
5. Obama and the Democrats are PUSSIES. They are on the right side of every issue and still let the Republicans frame the debate.
6. Teabaggers are idiots Only 12 percent of the public say that the Obama administration has lowered their taxes since coming to office, despite the fact that the White House's stimulus package cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans, a new opinion survey found.
7. DADT needs to be repealed.
There's more but you'll have to watch clips to get the real deal.

Type Training Challenge

Here's a 20 minute effort on a type treatment for Thursday/Friday Eve

This Internet Machine Brings Out the Crazies

Every morning I love to read the Yahoo Buzz on Kosmix. It's full of insightful and concise rhetoric about the important stories in the news. Here's a little tidbit for you:
Obama says stimulus bill saved troubled economy from the AP. The first comment is a thoughtful examination of the story

More BS from the greatest liar of all time, the rest of the money will be spent trying to get his pals reelected.
They must go now, vote them out

But, here's what I loved. You have to keep in mind that most of the comments are from deranged neocons and this lone dissenter was taken to task. A user named Dubya says:

Thank you Obama for doing a good job to Rebuild America after Bush Destroyed America

Bush Ruined and Bankrupted America for his greed for Oil

and then 21 people read him or her the riot act (well some agree). Here is one of the best responses:

Well, One day you will grow Up and understand that Not only did Bush not Cause the Recession or Depression if thats what they wish to call it but in fact CONGRESS,, Yes CONGRESS is the Ones that Caused the Recession,,, IE: They are the ones that Passed the LOAN for Homes that people whom were on Lower Income Scales and that is the Program that was put Into Place By CONGRESS and Signed By President Clinton , it is also a BILL that President Clinton Wanted. I commend what He was Attempting to do for those that do pay their Bills on time and deserved to be able to afford a Home but the Same Democratic CONGRESS that paased that also let those same PEOPLE lose their Homes. Read the facts,, as for the War and its Cost,, it has been Paid for by the Taxes of Diesel Fuel. So when you are more better Informed and can Make Rational decissions then you might be a Helpful member of Society, till then you just wasted your Breath as I just have on YOU!

Even if there were good points to be made you wouldn't be able to find them in the mess of poor spelling and bad grammar.

Obviously the real issue here is why did Google name their social networking branch Buzz? Yahoo Buzz has been around for about two years and is only tepidly popular. Google wants it's Buzz to be a Facebook killer but I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

Were They Christian?

It's almost impossible to know what the Founding Fathers believed... Sure you can extrapolate from their writings but it's important to realize the whole mythology and concept of the Founders is over blown. Jefferson and Adams for example became bitter enemies, although the worked together during the revolution. It wasn't until they both retired from politics that they reconciled. Ironically they both died within hours of each other on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4th 1826.

So while they Founders were sometimes bitter rivals what did they believe? In the case of Jefferson it was quite radical. On the site Beliefnet you can find a version of Jefferson's Bible. A bible that he cut and pasted to assemble the teachings of Jesus without miracles and virgin birth. Jefferson said he wanted to separate the "diamonds from the dunghill." Exactly what did her remove from his version:
The virgin birth—gone.
Christ's bodily resurrection—gone.
The miracles of the loaves, walking on water, raising Lazarus—none of them made Jefferson's book

What about James Madison? Here are a few quotes:

"Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects."

and this

"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people."

Jefferson and Madison are just two examples. Adams was a Unitarian and didn't believe in the concept of the Trinity or the Divinity of Jesus... To say these men were not christian would be a stretch but to say the wanted to establish the United States as a christian nation would also be a stretch.

Christian Nation

Did the "Founding Fathers" intend the United States to be a Christian Nation? Christianistas would have you think so but was that really the case? If you take a look at the first 150 years, of the colonies, you will find religious intolerance was rife. Protestantism was preferable, Catholicism was not, and Jews were an anathema. In Massachusetts Quakers were beaten, arrested, deported and executed. Yes the man on you favorite oatmeal was the scourge of the colonies. Pennsylvania was founded as a refuge for the persecuted Quakers and Maryland was founded for Catholics. Although Catholics were not safe for long in Maryland. The Puritans burned all of the Catholic churches in Southern Maryland. Actually it was George Washington who promoted tolerance of Catholics to curry favor with the French, as an ally, a predominantly Catholic country.

The words God and Creator are each mentioned only once in the Declaration of Independence. The word God is never mentioned in the Constitution. Isn't strange that if the Founding Fathers wanted this to be a Christian Nation that they would leave God out of the Constitution?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

It wasn't until the 14th amendment, in 1868, that the Bill of Rights was applied to the States. Until then The States could establish religion and sanction it. The Restoration period, after the Civil War, changed the nature of the Constitution forever.

More about the beliefs of the Founding Fathers tomorrow.

RNC Chair an Idiot

Michael Steele, Republican Idiot, say the Dems are running for the hills. Never mind the fact that only 3 democrats are retiring while 6 republicans are retiring. Since twice as many republicans are retiring compared to democrats does that mean they are already in the hills?

I guess another way to look at it would be 5% of democrats are running for the hills and 14% or republicans are running for the hills. Either way I think Evan Bayh, who was leading his opponent by 20 points, is a pussy. If you don't like something you work to change it not quit!

Why Does Texas Get to Pick Textbooks?

This weekend's New York Times Magazine featured this article by RUSSELL SHORTO: How Christian Were the Founders? The basic premise of the article was that the state of Texas influences the textbook revisions of all the major textbook publishers and therefore impacts the textbooks that schools use around the country. In his interview with Don McLeroy he said:

McLeroy was frank in talking about how he applies direct pressure to textbook companies... [he] wanted books to include classic myths and fables rather than newly written stories whose messages they didn’t agree with... McLeroy shared an email with the author showing the fruits of his efforts: “Hi Don. Thanks for the impact that you have had on the development of Pearson’s Scott Foresman Reading Street series. Attached is a list of some of the Fairy Tales and Fables that we included in the series.”

To me there are 3 issues with this topic:
1. That Texas gets to choose what is taught in public schools around the country
2. That crazy people get to influence the curriculum even though they know nothing about the subject matter.
3. That we are still arguing about the beliefs of the Founding Fathers.

The agenda of the christianistas is to gut evolution, promote creationism, and establish a christian nation. I have no doubt that many of the Founding Fathers were christian but did they want a christian nation? Tomorrow I will discuss the latest on the beliefs of the Founding Fathers.

Crazies

There are two blogs floating out there US4Palin and A Time for Choosing that both have the exact same narrative...(which is no surprise because the editor ATFC is an author on USFP) here are some highlights:

Another day another scandal from the most corrupt president in American history...
In short this is the most secretive and corrupt government we have ever had...
This latest scandal regarding transparency involves one of Sarah Palin’s areas of strong expertise, energy. As everyone knows, America has more than enough natural resources to become energy independent, but the zealots and flat earthers are doing all they can to prevent this from happening...

This revolves around a "leaked" memo citing approval for offshore drilling and the manipulation of the data. If "drillgate" is such a big deal not even Fox News knows about it yet. In my search it seems that the meager about of oil and natural gas would not be worth the trouble.

The Minerals Management Service estimates the area contains 130 million barrels of oil, which it estimates would be consumed in roughly six days, and 1,140 billion cubic feet of gas, which would be used up in 18 days.

What I find interesting is the language leveled at the Obama administration... Most corrupt in US history? Really? Wow, I guess Bush wasn't that bad.

Hah!

This in hilarious. Fox News has a poll asking "What do you think Tea Party Movement is about?"
... and the people have spoken




And here's an example (unedited by me) of what the Tea Partiers are looking for:

We simply want someone who is average. It doesn't need to be a Rhodes Scholar. It doesn't need to be a college professor. It doesn't need to be a lawyer who passed the bar. It doesn't need to be a Peanut farmer, or an expert on global warming. Just an average guy with some CEO experience. Or even a hot chick with the same qualifications would be fine. Or even an average chick with the same qualifications. "Average" means "one of us". That brings a lot of baggage with it, such as imperfect, and blemishes, and mistakes, and even some inexperience. But it also brings the ability to lead, and to be accountable for choices made. It would also be nice to have someone as a leader who does not invalidate us and dismiss us, calling us names such as "teabaggers" and "birthers" and "right-wing nuts" and "Limbaugh lovers" and "gun nuts" but instead, call us "taxpayers" and "citizens" and "voters" and "constituents" and "Americans".

I would love to see the Tea Party rise to power. I think it would be the best thing to happen to the republican party

Bullies

As much as I want to continue to rail against the dark presence of Goldman Sachs and their evil emperor Lloyd Blankfein, my attention has be drawn to another phantom menace: Bullies and Stupidity.
I was watching the Daily Show last night when the portly Newt Gingrich rolled out on stage. He was wearing smug suspenders of confidence to hold up his 60" pants. As he an Jon Stewart tussled over various issues they came to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the trial that was to take place in New York. Stewart correctly stated that Richard Reid the shoe bomber was tried in US court under the Bush administration and Gingrich falsely stated that Reid was a US citizen. Where were the right-wingers when 289 terrorist were tried in US courts under Bush?
The discussion went on to talk about Miranda rights and why Obama doesn't "get" how to try terrorist. Never mind the disaster Bush created. Never mind the black eye and loss or moral standing the Bush brought about. Never mind the recruitment tool Gitmo is. Gingrich spoke and his followers listened. Republicans have taken to the position that military tribunals are the best way to go and treating the terrorist thugs as criminals is wrong. The sad thing is that too many people below 35˚ north agree with Gingrich. The very people who are chanting for Obama to read the constitution are the same people who would throw it away and forsake our court system, arguably the best in the world.

This is Interesting

Under Obama job creation has perfectly mirrored job losses under Bush

Goldman's Gonna Get You

Over the weekend the New York Times reported that Goldman helped push AIG to the edge.
Here are some fun facts:
2003 Goldman creates mortgage securities that AIG insures against loss.
2006 AIG stops writing insurance on securities that contain subprime mortgage bonds (looks like they had an idea this might blow up...)
2006 Goldman increase negative bets on mortgage market basically hedging against the monster they created.
Fast forward to November of 2008 and Goldman gets 8.4 billion in AIG payments and then the Fed pays Goldman another 5.6 billion.
If you have time to read the entire article it's fascinating.

It's Good to Know That Politics As Usual is Still an Appropriate Cliché

Check this out and tell your friends Sen Shelby R-Al had put a blanket hold on all Obama nominations...

Rammed

Too busy this week even to blog. More exciting stories from the news coming soon. Anyone want to join the team?
Ed

What's up with the Czar Thing

All the wing nuts want to decry the Czars that Obama has appointed. Why does Obama have so many and blah, blah, blah. Actually Obama has appointed 21, Bush had up to 46... Of course the wing nuts don't mention that. Basically Czars are special appointees and advisers to the President.

Czar is kind of a funny word though. It comes from Caesar (which means hairy one... Julius Caesar was actually bald later in life but was supposedly born with a full head of hair). After the split of the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire in the east continued and Kaiser was the title given to the emperor, Kaiser comes from the Latin Caesar and in Russia it was translated as Czar or Tsar... just a little fun factoid.

Jefferson and Washington

There is a great, probably apocryphal, story about Jefferson and Washington discussing politic of the new republic and at some point Jefferson asks Washington why we even need a Senate. Washington noticing that Jefferson poured his steaming hot coffee into a saucer asked Jefferson why he did so and Jefferson answered "to cool it." Washington said that is why we need the Senate to cool the legislation. Whether it is true or not the story does a nice job illustrating why we sometimes become so angry at the ineffectiveness of the upper house. Much of what comes out of the House of Representatives is a knew jerk reaction and the Senate does tend to temper it.

Over the past 2 weeks I've written some inflammatory posts about the Democrats being pussies and ineffective even with majorities and maybe that's a good thing. I really want to see change in the health care and it would be nice if it was boiled down to a few key ideas:

1. get rid of pre-existing conditions clauses
2. allow price negotiations on prescription drug costs
3. make health insurance companies non-profit
4. change the fee for service structure

The last 2 will never happen but they are at the heart of what is wrong with health care in the U.S. Physicians and insurance companies blame each other for the spiraling costs and the physicians are winning. Doctors love to create a scenario that they are fighting for your health care rights against the mighty dragon of insurance. I just had a battle like this and felt all warm and fuzzy about my doc. He wanted me to get a prescription that my plan would not pay for and tried to fight 'em. What I didn't think about were the kick backs my doc was getting from the pharmaceutical company. There was a little noticed settlement in September: Pfizer did not admit guilt to kickback charges, but instead paid $1 billion to settle the civil case. Pfizer just happens to make the drug my doc was fighting my insurance company over. I guess it's unfair to assume that my doc was getting a kickback but the Pharmacist told me there are other, safer, generic versions and thought it was "silly" to push for one drug in particular... I ended up with a generic and it works fine and cost me $10 instead of the $289 I would have had to pay out of pocket.

Well, that's a long way from Washington and Jefferson but it illustrates the point that we have a long way to go and there will be a lot of coffee cooling in saucers.

Please comment with what you would like to see your representatives do with health care.