Stewart Slams Dobson Hypocrisy

This happens far too often in religion, and it's nice to see Stewart call Dobson on it with such irrefutable evidence.

McCain's Health Care Plan

Normally, I give a fairly detailed opinion on points raised as part of a candidate's health care plan. Now that we finally have one from a Republican, I thought I would do the same. Having just read it, the problem confronting me is that there is no plan. It's nothing but a bunch of marketing mumbo-jumbo that amounts to little more than a new tax credit.

The main problem I experience with health care is availability of insurance. What does McCain want to do? He wants to "...Work With Governors To Find The Solutions Necessary To Ensure Those With Pre-Existing Conditions Are Able To Easily Access Care." Let me translate for you. He wants to throw you into what states call their High Risk Pool, a cumbersome bureaucratically run process with ridiculous qualification procedures, high premiums, and massive deductibles.

My family went down that road. We paid some $400/month for my wife's CORBA coverage for 18 months to qualify for the High Risk Pool. If we had continued, she would have paid $350/month for a $500k lifetime limit (most policies are at least $1 million) with a $7500 deductible. The really amusing thing about that is a $7500 deductible would disqualify us for an HSA. We'd have to reach for an even higher premium to get a qualifying deductible.

maverick (n): Someone who exhibits great independence in thought and action.

Raise your hands if you think McCain's nickname should be changed. What a joke. It took his staff the entire primary season to come up with the same junk Bush said 4 years ago??? Pathetic.

The O'Reilly Fiction

When I first saw Bill O'Reilly's show several years ago, I thought he was a pompous ass, but I respected the fact that he aired negative feedback from his viewers. That was about all I knew of the guy. Of course, once I watched enough episodes, I found his personality abrasive enough to be disinterested whether I agreed with him or not.

Since then, I've gone on to lose interest in Fox News completely because of both bias (keep in mind, I'm conservative to an extreme) and incompetence. However, with the Obama/Wright issue recently, I started watching again because other networks were sanitizing the debate by playing less offensive videos.

One show I caught was an O'Reilly Factor episode where one of the other topics was The Huffington Post and offensive comments O'Reilly staff had found there. O'Reilly distorted the issue by noting Arianna Huffington as the editor and hence responsible for all text on the site. In this case, he was referring to the anonymous comments found in discussion of articles on the site.

Tonight, he's at it again. He sent one of his paparazzi-like camera crews after Huffington to interview (harass) her over the issue. Huffington responded here in far too respectful a manner.

What bothers me about this is that O'Reilly is deliberately misleading his viewers. He knows comments sections are open forums, not articles, editorials, or even letters to the editor. This isn't content sanctioned by Huffington. It's content created by users interested in discussing the issues raised in the article. And, the Internet is a tough place sometimes. People exercise their free speech rights there more than anywhere, and I would think sites should celebrate that speech in our country, not hide it like Huffington is doing and O'Reilly expects all of us to do. Let people speak their mind. If they say something offensive, they can deal with the fallout. Leave the site owners alone.

So who's less American...really?

The Wright Video to Show

Last night while watching the Daily Show, I saw a clip of The Trinity United Church of Christ preacher Jeremiah Wright saying something I thought I had misunderstood. It turns out I hadn't misunderstood it and found a more complete clip:



Let's write out what he actually said in case you don't want to watch or the video disappears:

...The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a 3 strikes law, and then wants us to sing God Bless America? No, no, no. Not God Bless America. God Damn America. That's in the Bible. They're killing innocent people. God Damn America for treating her citizens as less than human...

The thing you have to remember is this guy is part of Obama's spiritual advisory committee, and Obama has referred to him as "a crazy uncle who sometimes says things he disagrees with." Huh? That's it? He later goes on to use the following phrase in another clip in the same video:

U.S. of KKK A.

As much as I think Obama appears to be a decent fellow from what I've seen of him, are we going to take a chance and elect someone to the presidency who was brought to religion by, married by, and studied under a man who is obviously bigoted and anti-American? All we have are a few recent statements by Obama saying he disagrees with Wright on some issues weighed against some 20 years of membership in Wright's church.

What are we to believe? If we've all learned anything this past week, we should have learned to keep a healthy dose of cynicism about all politicians regardless of what they may be leading us to believe, right?

Obama on the Firing Line

Shots like this one from Captain's Quarters at Obama show just how insanely desperate the GOP is right now. Keep in mind, I've typically called myself Republican, but this kind of attack is just embarrassing. They took a speech by Obama's wife, dissected, and twisted it to try to make undermine Obama's campaign. The problem is...what she said is basically true albeit not 100% accurate. Instead of dissecting her inaccuracies, maybe they should address her general theme which is basically a good one (and I'm not talking about our "souls").

Senator Clinton's Health Care Plan

As I'm sure anyone following the candidates knows, Senator Clinton recently released her full-blown health care proposal. In this case, I'm not going to go through the package point by point, but I do want to focus on what seems to be a basic premise...competition.

Senator Clinton has proposed 3 types of coverage:

1. Private / Group Policies as we have now.


2. Government Insurance as Congress has now.


3. Medicare-style Insurance similar to what the elderly or impoverished have now.

In brief, she is saying if we like our existing coverage, keep it. If we don't like our coverage or don't have coverage, use a government variant. I don't really know how I feel about her specific prescription for competition, but I do think the basic idea is an interesting one.

What would happen if we put private, group, and government health insurance all into the market to compete with each other? Let's then adjust the tax code to keep those in the private and group pools from paying for anything in the government pool. Which plan wins? Wouldn't that be the ultimate test of a free market in health care, government competing on a level playing field with private industry?

As to Senator Clinton's specific plan, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Many of the provisions are very good for my family, but I don't know that they're good for the nation as a whole. My real concern with her plan honestly has nothing to do with the plan itself. It's her recent comments about $5,000 trust per child born in America or $1,000 per person for a 401k plan. These are the kinds of proposals that just confound me when it comes to Democrats. Why collect taxes from citizens, reduce the money by bureaucracy, and then turn around and give that money back in whatever way politicians see fit? Isn't this a role that personal responsibility and charity can play in a free market? Those of us who can, save. Those who can't, we try to help.

Every time she speaks, I feel like Senator Clinton is plotting some new way to confiscate and redistribute my income or savings. So, my real problem with her health care policy is her attitude toward taxing and spending, not the policy itself. I guess in that way my attitude toward her is much like my attitude toward Romney and Giuliani on other issues...I just don't trust her.

Earmark Watch

Through a post at Captain's Quarters, Mr Morrissey points us to Earmark Watch, a site who's sole purpose is to help citizens research the wasteful spending of our representatives in Washington, D.C. Take a look and see what sort of games your representatives are playing. After reviewing my own, I'm left wondering if we're running our an experiment with Communism in this country. Why do all of these military technology businesses need government grants? Isn't the basic idea that you develop a product and try to sell it to the armed services, not the other way around?

Captain's Quarters Outs the Porkers

I don't always agree with Captain's Quarters, but when it comes to earmarks/pork, he's right on target. Take a look at his evaluation of pork in the transportation bill.

SC4Huckabee

After a comment left on my site, I started reading SC4Huckabee's blog. At times, the posts have been interesting and informative, dare I say more so than most of the official blogs of other candidates on both sides of the aisle. Nevertheless, SC4Huckabee managed to lose my respect with this paragraph in a post about Huckabee and Paul's exchange in the Fox debate:

As we all know this debate will stick out because of brief moments when Congressman Paul and Governor Huckabee had a passionate debate on Iraq, and I am going to say it like it should be said Ron Paul is wrong America NEVER brought upon itself the attacks on 9-11 and I am tired of hearing negatives like that from those who want to be our next president. For those of you that do not know Governor Huckabee, I think he was very disturbed by Ron Pauls comments because this is not the first debate he has alluded to these same comments.In Columbia, SC during the third debate, he did the same thing and I am grateful that Governor Huckabee took a jab back at Ron Paul and put him in his spot on Wednesday. Governor Huckabee responded because he cares about this country and wants the best for all Americans.

As you'll recall, I blogged about my disappointment in part of Ron Paul's response. I'll even take it a step further. I agree with Huckabee's "you break it, you bought it" metaphor. Unfortunately, that doesn't change anything in the Daily Show's skewering of U.S. foreign policy, and to suggest otherwise is either ignorance or deception.

Actions come with consequences. Trying to suggest otherwise is absurd. Giuliani attempted it in an earlier debate, and SC4Huckabee has decided to try it now. In so doing, I think SC4Huckabee, well intentioned though he may be, does his candidate of choice a disservice.

Disappointed by Ron Paul

SC4Huckabee posted a clip from last night's GOP debate where Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee went toe-to-toe on Iraq. What disappointed me most is not what you might expect. It's the fact that Paul used the Republicans' election woes as a reason for leaving Iraq. I don't want my President to do what's popular. Senator Clinton would do a fine job of that for me. What I want is a President who will do what he/she thinks is right.

It's Funny, But I Wish It Wasn't So True

John Stewart skewers American foreign policy in the Middle East in this clip from the Daily Show:



While he was playing a bit to Barack Obama's crowd with these jokes, I think these clips do a better job of highlighting the logic in Ron Paul's arguments on foreign policy, especially as it pertains to the Middle East.

If you want to be disgusted by politicians yet again...

...read this.

Hypocrite Series: Calling Out Giuliani on Health Care

On his blog, Giuliani gives this "Bad Medicine" FUD-fest about Moore's Sicko and Clinton's health care plan. Whether this diatribe is true or not doesn't matter much to me. What matters is that Giuliani and others Republicans (save President Bush, oddly enough) refuse to say anything substantive about how they would fix the problems with our health care system. Now that Giuliani has fired a couple of shots across the socialism bow, I think we deserve more than free market this and competition that. Get specific...how are you going to deal with pre-existing conditions in the private health care market? How can small businesses compete to hire workers if they can't offer health benefits? How are you going to handle pharmaceutical companies abusing patents to keep drugs like Lovenox at $50/dose?

Answer some of these questions or shut the hell up about health care.

Hypocrite Series: Democrats on Bush's Stem Cell Research FUNDING Veto

Obama and Clinton both posted strong rebukes of Bush for today's veto. The only difference is that one candidate was honest, one was not. The Democrats have long played a dishonest game with stem cell research claiming Republicans were banning it. The truth is that a majority of Republicans have opposed government funding of embryonic stem cell research, not stem cell research in general. And, where is it written the government should fund any research?

Before I get on a rant, let's get back to the point. Obama's quote from a blog post:

By vetoing funding for stem cell research once again, the President is deferring the hopes of millions of Americans who do not have the time to keep waiting for the cure that may save or extend their lives.

Nicely done...Obama was honest about it. Let's see what Clinton had to say in her blog's post:

So let me be very clear: When I am president, I will lift the ban on stem cell research.

Oops...looks like she's playing the political game of turning a ban on funding into a ban on research.

Why do I bring this up? I think it's important we find someone honest to go into the presidency regardless of their policy positions.

Bush's Enemy Combatant Policy

Over at the Right Wing Nuthouse, the blogger there rails against the decision of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to hold an American citizen indefinitely without bringing charges in this post. What bothers me about this is the guy calls himself "right wing". Since when do conservatives support an unchecked expansion of executive powers? If he's a true conservative, he should be fighting tooth and nail against this policy. Unless we're in a civil war, the President MUST honor the rights of any American citizen no matter how objectionable their conduct. The court was undeniably right in its decision, and it's disappointing to see conservatives dissect the decision as a liberal coup.

Hypocrite Series: Giuliani's Ignorance of the State of Private Health Insurance

A Wall Street Journal article discusses the direction Giuliani is going in preparing his own health care proposal. In it, they claim Giuliani will encourage everyone, including those insured with employers, to move to the private health insurance market. Apparently the guy's never had to get private insurance. If he had, he'd realize that they don't want to sell their product to anyone who's ever been to a Doctor. He might win the Republican nomination with this nonsense, but he'll lose the general election in a big way if this is all he can come up with.

Hypocrite Series: Giuliani on Health Care Video Clip

Giuliani's site just put out a video clip of his health care answer:

Giuliani on Health Care

What surprises me in watching this clip again is that Giuliani wants his $15,000 tax deduction to be applied no matter what you pay for health insurance. That means if you pay $8,000, you still get to deduct the full $15,000. That's an interesting idea that will never make it through Congress, and I don't see where you really need a deduction that isn't for the actual amount of the expense.

Anyway, Giuliani goes on to compare his idea of health insurance to homeowner's and car insurance. If you've read my blog, you would probably think I would agree. If so, you're partially right. I agree with the idea, not the analogy.

Homeowner's and car insurance in America is so controlled by government and insurance companies that you have a limited set of choices for deductible. If I have a $130,000 home, I'm unlikely to find an insurer willing to give me a deductible over $1200. They might blame the bank financing my home, but even if I owned it outright, I guarantee you they wouldn't give me a $5,000 or $10,000 deductible.

Car insurance is the same way. Raise your hand if you dropped comp/collision when you paid off your car. Now raise your hand if your deductible is over $500. Okay, I can see my wife's hand, and my hand is up. Anybody else? Nope? Point made.

Like I've been saying, health insurance right now is more like a warranty. It pays for everything with small deductibles or co-pays. Giuliani skirted the better analogy when mentioning oil changes. You don't buy a $2,000 warranty that includes $5 oil changes. You change it yourself for $15-20 (or more if you use the good stuff...Mobile One) or find someone else to do it within your budget. Instead, you use the warranty for a transmission rebuild or engine rebuild like it was intended.

If Americans can't come to terms with the purpose of insurance, then we should resign ourselves to socialized medicine and the expansion of the nanny-state.

I best stop this post before I draw too close a parallel between oil changes and medical tests...that might get ugly and R-rated. :)

Hypocrite Series: Huckabee on Health Care

It's amazing all of the different places candidates leave their breadcrumb trails of positions on the issues. It seems Huckabee is doing a lot on Youtube with short videos on the issues. Here's his take on health care:



Well, as quickly as I gained respect in my previous post, I have now lost it. Talk about the non-answer of all time. There isn't really anything to discuss here. He pays lip-service to the Republican ideal of less government, but that's about it. Give me something concrete, and then we can talk.

Note: As critical as I've been of Romney, let me add that at least he has a proven record of addressing the issue. Arguably, no other candidate on the Republican side can say the same.

Hypocrite Series: Mike Huckabee

How can you not like this guy? His explanation tonight of his answer to the South Carolina debate Evolution question was extremely well done. Evolution is no more than theory, and it takes the same kind of leap of faith to believe in Evolution as it does to believe in the Bible. If you assert Evolution as fact, then you're anti-science much like you would accuse Christians of being anti-science for pressing Creationism.

Regardless, we're still being distracted from the primary issues. A Huckabee presidency won't remove Evolution from school curriculum so let's drop that garbage and find out where he stands on health care and Iraq.

Hypocrite Series: Giuliani on Gun Control

In looking for a clip of Giuliani's debate comments tonight on Youtube, I happened to find this older footage about New York filing suit against gun manufacturers:



Giuliani makes it very clear in this clip that he is anti-2nd Amendment. Giuliani does not want me to own a gun, and he's willing to pursue all means including filing a lawsuit against manufacturers to make that happen. On his site, he talks about what works in New York not necessarily working in Montana. Guess what Mayor? This is America. You don't get to pick and choose. We have a right to bear arms, and it's not up to you where and when to allow citizens to exercise it.