The State of the Union…vs. the art of the possible...

Tonight I am going to a "State of the Union" party in my hometown.  Several progressives decided to get together in a  group and enjoy each other's company and watch the spectacle from a widescreen TV in a rented room in downtown White Plains.

Many of my friends in this group have been bitterly disappointed in Obama's performance over the past two years. At one meeting there was a woman crying over the fact that she was a progressive and had expected a great deal more from the Obama Administration.

Dianne Black - Republican from Tennessee feels insurers should be ableto deny coverage for children based on health histories.

The crazies are out in force these days, aren't they?  No area more so than on the in the health care reform bill. This tea party movement fundamentalist - and a former nurse no less -clearly lacks the basic understanding about what insurance is supposed to be.  She was particularly concerned that insurance companies not be required to ensure children regardless of their health care history.

Health care reform is about covering everyone - not just healthy...

Oh my goodness…where do you begin on something like this?  The purpose of health insurance is to cover people when they are sick.  They pay into the system when well in the hopes that they will lose money.  To win in the insurance lottery means that you lose in the health lottery.  I don't know about you, but I would rather lose in the insurance lottery than cash in with a heart transplant.  In that way, the healthy pay for the sick.  Which is why the requirement to purchase health insurance is the lynchpin of health care reform.  We need a large enough pool of healthy people to cover the sick.  Since this same sort of mentality believes that a required opt-in is "unconstitutional" she automatically consigns children who were born with health issues to a lifetime of struggling to get treatment.

Insurers need to be required to insure and not sell snake oil...

Insurers should not be allowed to opt-out if they wish to remain in the insurance business.  That's what regulation is all about.  Insurance industries, in particular, need to be regulated because the service they provide puts them at odds with the public interest. You have to FORCE THEM to do the right thing.  If you don't, then people have what whistleblower Wendell Potter refers to as junk plans that nothing better than an expensive form of snake oil.

Countdown withe Keith Olbermann Signs Off - the same week the ComcastAcquisition of NBC Was Approved by the FCC.

Now let me get this straight - Keith Olbermann's show is canceled the same week that the Comcast acquisition of NBC was approved by the FCC?   All I can say is that though I can prove nothing - I smell a rat.

Too much media power concentrated into the hands a few conglomerates..

Allowing Comcast and NBC to merge was a mistake if only from the standpoint that there is far too much media consolidation for comfort.  Senator Al Franken has been against the merger from the standpoint of its implications for net neutrality and the general free flow of information. Franken is also concerned about what this could do to the streaming video available now on NetFlix.  The fear is that Comcast will throttle NetFlix preventing access to streaming video the way it did to BitTorrent.

Getting rid of "Second Amendment Solutions" without getting rid ofassault rifles.

In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of AZ Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords  - even Republicans are looking for ways to control firearms.  Dan Burton has suggested that a plexiglass dome separate the public gallery from the Congressional members.  Republican Congressman Peter King wants to make it a federal offense to carry a weapon within 1000 feet of an elected official.

OK- so they have been working overtime making sure that they are protected from firearms.  I guess even the tea party has now decided that "second amendment solutions" are dangerous - particularly now that many of them have been elected to Congress.   Of course for the rest of us to benefit from most of these proposals - we merely have to be elected to Congress...No biggie...

Toning down the rhetoric - or not - Obama vs Palin

President Obama & Governor Brewer Take the High Road.

The memorial service for the victims of Saturday's shooting in Tuscon was perhaps America at its best.  Differences were set aside and President Obama and Governor Brewer set aside their political difference and summoned up their better angels to help unite a very polarized nation. Both are obviously rival politicians bunkered in camps on opposite sides of  great political divide.  For them Statesmanship trumped politics.

The Politics of Hate - When Politicians Scream "Fire" in a CrowdedTheater.

You would have to be living in a crater on the Moon or under a rock somewhere not to notice the increase in vitriolic politics.  Lathering up the masses into a frenzy of anger often gets them to the polls - but does it incite actual violence?   Sheriff Dubnik said it better than most when he said: "Arizona has become the mecca for hatred and bigotry."    Cute pictures with candidates targeted with cross-hairs on a map as well as rhetoric involving "taking back our country" might have undue influence on a mind that is not totally sound.

Corporate Patriotism - A Contradiction in Terms

Our Constitution begins with three very significant words…."We the people…"  I haven't been hanging around the National Archives reading the original version, but I'm pretty sure that I can trust the copies I have found on-line and for the life of me I can't find any reference to "we the corporations…" or perhaps even "we the multinational corporations…"

Nevertheless, in January 2010, the majority of the Supreme court ruled that we were denying corporations their right to "free speech" when we denied them the right to contribute money to specific candidates in their election bids.   The dissenters sighted the likelihood that corporate money flooding into politics would corrupt democracy as part of their opinion.

The Filibuster has been the Senate Buster…

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to someone I know about the 911 first responders bill and I mentioned the role of the filibuster in the Senate.   She promptly asked me "what exactly is a filibuster?"  Well - had I not had a mother who was a radio interviewer back in the day where segregation and civil rights issues were regularly being filibustered on the Senate floor - I too would be confused.

So to all of you out there who keep hearing the terms "cloture" and "filibuster" - this is for you.

The Education Conundrum - Do I Pay to Play?

Do Reporters Actually DO Any Research These Days?

I was watching CNN  yesterday and I had to ask the question - do reporters do ANY research anymore?  I mean do they drill down into a story to get the facts or do they merely parrot what some high-level official tells them and call it a day?

The comment that spurred the question was made by Christine Romans on Your $$$$$  when she indicated  that education was the answer to all of our employment ills and that people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) careers were "naming their price." HUH??? They are???? Really????  Have these people talked to any unemployed engineers or scientists lately?  Have they seen the conditions under which post-docs in this country work?