Max Baucus = corrupt coward

Since I believe in giving credit where credit is due, here is a great blog I found about what a stupid corrupt coward Max Baucus is.

That being said, Max Baucus is not only a corrupt coward, but a stupid corrupt coward because his actions today, or should I say inaction, that killed the public option in the health reform bill as it lurched its way through the Senate finance committee, will be the rallying call for Republicans in 2010 and 2012.

I think it was best enunciated during the Kerry v Bush battle of 2004. Why vote for Bush-lite when you can get the genuine article? By trying to appeal to conservative voters, democrats are throwing away their opportunity to show how they differ from their Republican rivals. If your campaign is based upon "hey look how conservative I can be while still calling myself a Democrat" your constituents are bound to say "well shit, why don't I just throw my hat in with the really conservative guy."

Bottom line, this will hurt you Max. And it will hurt President Obama. And it will hurt the 45 million who do not have health insurance. And it will hurt the 260 million who have our messy, complicated, and fragile health insurance. Hopefully enough other Democrats will realize this mistake and fight for a Single Payer, or at the very least, the Public Option.

Afghanistan: How many is enough?

The New York Times is reporting that Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has said "success in Afghanistan would probably require more troops and certainly much more time". I would like him to be honest with Congress, the administration and the public and say exactly how many more troops, and how much more time he thinks it will take for "success".

Frankly, I am of the belief that matter how many more sons and daughters America and NATO decide to sacrifice in Afghanistan, there can never be "success" as I would define it, and I doubt that most people would consider what Mike Mullen is calling "success", truly successful. This brings us to the issue of what is success in Afghanistan, Iraq or Pakistan? What does it look like? Does anyone really believe that if we send another 100,000 or another 500,000 or even another 1,000,000 NATO soldiers to Afghanistan that it will transform the country into a Western style democracy where the biggest problems are which intern the President may have "not had sexual relations with"?

And if we are to have any trust in these generals, admirals and other military commanders, then they should say exactly how many more troops they need and for how long. Instead, we see them making their requests in a political framework, asking for 10-20,000 troops at a time. This is dishonest and erodes the public trust as well as prolongs these conflicts. It seems astonishing to me that all these military officials, who probably served during the Viet Nam war would still be unable to grasp the concept that America is not good at occupying other countries.

From the day American troops entered Afghanistan and Iraq it seemed to me that we were just beginning a countdown (or a countup of bodies) until the troops would have to be pulled out and the world would agree that the missions were giant failures and gross expenditures of lives and treasure.

If anyone believes that another 30,000 or even 300,000 troops in Afghanistan will truly achieve "success" then have I got some real nice shorefront property to sell you on Baffin Island.

Health Care

Since I haven't written anything in a long time, I just felt the need to get something out here. Let me begin with the Health Care debate that has been raging for over a month now.

For starters, there isn't really a Health Care debate. What there is, sadly, is a Health Insurance debate because the Democrats are too cowardly, the Republicans too crafty, and the American people too stupid to really fix this problem. What we need, first and foremost, is a single payer system for the entire country. Every legal resident of the country should be covered for any necessary medical procedures. Doctors should be reimbursed by a Government controlled agency funded by tax dollars.

No other system proposed would be able to fully cover the entire country as efficiently or as effectively as a single payer system. Today, dozens of insurance companies spend tons of money on redundant paperwork and advertising that would be unnecessary under a government run system. There would also be far less paperwork for the doctors and nurses who waste countless healthcare hours filling out forms to get approval to run tests.

The notion that people don't want the government to come between them and their doctors is ludicrous, not only because we are happy to let the government come between us and a fire, or between us and a criminal, but also because it seems to imply that there is no one between you and your doctor today. Wake up America, that's the insurance company. I would be surprised to find someone who did not have a first hand account, or a close family member with one, about how an insurance company prevented them from getting the treatments they needed without overly complicated paperwork and telephone calls.

As Dr. Dean said, there is virutally no one out there saying we should get rid of Medicare, so why is there so much opposition to expanding Medicare to all Americans? That is what a single payer system would be. It would be a form of Medicare or VA healthcare for all Americans in every hospital.

It is just such a sad thing to see so many people fooled and misinformed about the Health Care reforms facing the country. Sadder still that Senator Kennedy, who fought so long and so valiantly for a single payer health care system, did not manage to live to see it become a reality.

Scary Shit

While I hate to help spread anything Glenn Beck has ever said, the conversation, and I use the word conversation loosely, he has with an intelligent and thoughtful caller from Massachusetts who challenged his assertions about health care outlines everything that's wrong with people like him.

What pork really looks like

The next time you hear some blowhard say how there isn't enough money in the budget for health care, education or other programs that benefit society as a whole, just mention the F-22. Despite the administration's requests to cut the massive spending (we're talking many billions of dollars) Congress continues to try and slip in more purchases of the F-22 fighters to appease their corporate campaign donors. Enough is enough. Call your Congressmen and Senator's offices and demand that they not fund the F-22 and instead fund something that truly matters to the American public.

NY - DO NOT RE-ELECT THIS MAN

For the past month, citizens of the Empire state have had to watch as their state senate ground to halt thanks to the bumbling power grab by State Senator Pedro Espada.

For those who haven't been following, Pedro Espada and girlfriend stabbing senator Hiram Monserrate departed from the Democrat caucus in the beginning of June and joined the Republicans reversing the 32-30 majority that the Democrats controlled. This led to the month long battle between the two parties and "accidental" Governor Paterson.

Thankfully it has since been resolved with both morons returning to the Democratic caucus and allowing legislation to resume, but not before jeopardizing the budgets of numerous municipalities as well as wasting New York state tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars in state senate salaries and expenses.

Now, the turn coat has been appointed Majority Leader of the party he abandoned. While I am glad that this impasse has been cleared it churns my stomach to think that this fool actually came out ahead in all of this. I hope that when his term is up, the good people of New York's 33rd district have the good sense to bump him out of there and replace him with someone who cares more about his constituents than about senate titles.

Thank you Portugal

Just saw a report on BBC America about Portugal's experiments in decriminalizing ALL drugs. That's right, ALL drugs. And while they had been warned by some that decriminalizing drugs would lead to massive increases in drug use and the potential for a new boom in "drug tourism" none of that has come to happen. In fact drug related deaths and illnesses have decreased and there has been no noticeable increase in drug use. Now, people who need treatment to break their addictions are able to get it and those unable or unwilling to get treatment can at least get clean needles and other services previously unavailable to drug addicts due to the legal issues with associated with providing such services for an illegal activity.

I hope that other countries will realize the folly in keeping drug use a criminal offense and begin to save on the tremendous amount of money and time that is wasted on waging "drug wars" against their own citizens.