Politics

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-climate-trial25-2009aug25,0,901567.story The business lobby has pushed the US Chamber of Commerce to hold a trial so as to determine whether the idea of anthropogenically forced climate change has merit. It's a modern day Scopes monkey trial. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out, especially after a verdict is rendered. This may have a lasting impact on US policy for years to come.

Can anyone answer why the Republican Party has reversed the stars on the elephant logo? Stars that point downward are a symbol of black magic, satanism, anti 'mother-nature' etc. Ssshurely just a coincidence (!!), but why on earth did they do it? Have the US Christian groups complained?

LgQj0tL-AjU I've always thought that Lou Dobbs is a bit of a douchebag, but this was a surprisingly positive segment on single-payer healthcare. He notes that Denmark pays half of what the US pays for healthcare (as a percentage of GDP), yet has more doctors per capita than the US, and reports a higher level of satisfaction. It's awesome to see attention being paid in the mainstream media to single-payer systems, especially showing that they don't have to be overly expensive, especially compared to what we're paying now.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-08-26-ted-kennedy-obit_N.htm Love him, hate him, worry about him accidentally driving off a Marthas Vineyard pier and killing innocent women, the man has been a fixture of the American political system for decades. He will be missed.

I recently wrote a blog article on toobigtobail.com on hr 1207 and the current defence of the Federal Reserve's supposed independence. I was just wondering what people's opinions of it and the issue would be. The article is the most recent entry, written as a response to the previous article on the issue. I was hoping people would like to discuss it.

ROFL! Did this really happen?

Is this for real? http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877155,00.html? It's unimaginable. The language in the article is unimaginable. I am simply at a loss for words, is this really what it sounds like?

I am myself a libertarian. I don't claim to have the entire logic of libertarianism fully worked out, but what attracts me to libertarianism is simply the fact that I find freedom, choice, and non-coercion aesthetically pleasing. I am sick of hypocrisy and inconsistency and want a world of peace and happiness. When I see someone being beaten against his will then I don't feel right. However, if that person consented to it, e.g. suppose he competed in a boxing match and consents to being punched by his opponent, then I feel much better. Libertarianism can be summed up in the following statement: "You are free to do whatever you want so long as you don't reduce other pe…

There are many threads discussing the current healthcare reform, yet none of them are specifically geared to discussing the entire bill in question. This has meant many threads have been diverted from their original purpose and spiraled into massive tangents. So here is a thread to discuss HR 3200 in its entirety. HR 3200 PDF Version HR 3200 HTML Version Please try to stick to discussing the issues present by the bill, not slippery slope arguments about "Obama-Care. I apoligize to the moderators if they feel this is a repeat thread and feel that it should be deleted.

So much for that spirit of bipartisan cooperation: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/health/policy/19repubs.html?_r=4&hp The Democrats seem to be sick of dealing with Republican opposition to healthcare reform, and are set to go it alone. My opinion is: about time! What do you think?

Now, I doubt most of you have ever heard of TennCare, and it's nothing particularly special that you should have heard of. It's a state program in Tennessee to augment Medicaid by contracting with managed care companies that is most famous for going crazy and almost bankrupting the state a few years ago before being pared down considerably. Well, Frank Cagle (former editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel, if that means anything to anyone) wrote in his column in a local weekly about how Tennessee's experience with TennCare might and should reflect on the national health insurance reform proposals currently bobbing about Congress, and I thought I would share. TennCare No…

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/pistol-packing-protester-causes-worry-about-obamas-safety/article1248726/ I'm all for the right to peaceably carry weapons, but I really have to say that taking a gun to a protest is in bad form. I'm also concerned that this person is literally up in arms about healthcare reform. Why does he feel so passionately about it that he feels he needs to imply that there's some tyrants who need to be killed for the sake of liberty?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090816/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_health_care_overhaul Bowing to GOP pressure, Obama is now signaling its willingness to drop the government run healthcare option entirely, purusing health insurance cooperatives. Needless to say I'm not too happy about this. Here I was hoping for a substantive change in healthcare which could potentially lead to a cheaper healthcare system for all Americans. Instead we're just getting more of the same. I can't imagine this will reflect very well on Obama's popularity either. With total control of the White House and Congress, Democrats are now capitulating to the Republicans. They've been given the chan…

Medicare is a single-payer system, albeit not a universal one. Thus it is relevant to the debate as to whether the US should consider a universal single-payer system. Yes, Medicare is not doing well. Not well at all. This graph from the conservative Heritage Foundation illustrates the problem nicely: So navigator is correct (about Medicare, not Medicaid). Medicare spending is set to increase enormously over time, to unsustainable levels. If that's the case, why would we consider a universal single-payer system? Wouldn't it suffer from the same explosive growth in costs? You might notice that Medicare's explosive growth doesn't match the prev…

Recently, an unintentionally hilarious editorial in Investor's Business Daily about the supposed "death panels" of "socialized medicine" included the following quote: The sentence has since been removed, though not before setting off a snark bomb in the liberal blogosphere. TalkingPointsMemo decided to ask Hawking himself about it, who responded by email with a decline to interview but saying, I bring this up not merely to make fun IBD or the Palinesque fearmongering about "death panels" (although obviously I'm not above that), but as a jumping off point for discussion using this high-profile and illustrative case. The point here is not that the NHS …

Apparently the "Clunkers for Cash" program has been used as an example of how the Federal Government can't do anything right, with it running out of money so fast. I get that the program has been "unexpectedly popular" but what I don't understand is, they budgeted 3 billion dollars to run 3 months, but are they running out because of the demand, or because of unanticipated costs? Everything I hear tells me that they basically budgeted the program for $3b to move x cars over n months, but the only real way to claim it has "failed" is if the $3b has been spent to move far less than x cars - the factor of 'n months' seems to be just a factor of working unexpectedly well…

Interesting op/ed piece in the Wall Street Journal today by John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, which runs a chain of natural-oriented grocery stores around the country. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html?mod=googlenews_wsj He mentions several suggestions for overhauling the industry that would be an alternative to the Obamacare or single-payer approaches, costing less and focusing more on cost reform and less on universal coverage, which he denies is either a right or a necessity (I agree, though I am willing to spend SOME to cover more, but not at a cost of a trillion dollar deficit for the forseeable future). L…

Apparently Dick Cheney is writing his memoirs and plans to blame everything on Bush. By everything I mean all the mistakes that were made. By mistakes I mean not pardoning Scooter and not being tougher on Iraq and more secretive and stubborn towards the American people. Doh! I guess there is some value in having him talking, at least. What do you all think? http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/08/cheney-unloads-on-bush-.html

Simple question. If you're opposed to the current pair of bills (one in the House, one in the Senate) before the US congress on health care reform, are you opposed to health care reform in general? Or can you be in favor of reform but opposed to these bills? What is your opinion? I ask because some of the threads around here, and some of the discourse I see out in the media, seem to equate the two. In my opinion you can be opposed to these specific bills but still be in favor of reform.

Hi I'm Tom, I receieved a google alert about a federal reserve article on this site which led me to another site to post. You people are all geeks, I was a stoner and used to attend your chess clubs in high school 35 years ago and win every game. Alright, I have a question for you, this is completly different then my usual post. But you are unusual! Just kidding, I hope you know that! Thomas D. Dowling http://www.tomdavidd.com/blog/ tomdavidd@gmail.com August 06, 2009 Here's a chart put together of our country's Gross National Product vs. our Total National Debt over the past 15 years. There is one slight problem with this chart. The current National Debt nu…

As unemployment figures have grown, critics of the administrations stimulus policy have acquired more headway. This comes right at the moment when we're considering vast spending on health care; a fact that is clearly not lost on political Washington. An interesting article talking about Obama's plans for encouraging people to be patient on this issue: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/11/AR2009071102465.html?hpid=moreheadlines I think he's correct, and most of the criticism is political in nature and not based around better ideas and solutions. I think it's also inaccurate and misleading for conservatives to point at the 8…

Given the recent discussion about plans failing or working (L vs R), Do you guys think if Obama's plans work out, that the whole left vs right thing will die down as well? This whole conversion from Bush to Obama has really kicked up the parties drive to make everything politic. I am pretty sure if Obama bought a dog, there would be a political story attached. Say a white poodle, would be seen as "Obama brings white slave to white house!" joke of course. Also have we sort of brought this upon ourselves with the vindictive behaviours (Atleast I can say I attributed to it) with the attacks on Bush. Even though I do find there is slight difference because his action…

I've always been a little bit peeved by complaints about the American "two-party tyranny." For one, people seem to forget how chaotic multi-party democracies, like Israel's or India's, can be. No one party ever wins an outright majority and so is forced to assemble impromptu coalitions which can take months and inevitably give disproportionate power to small fringe and local parties that can undo governments by withholding their few votes. Our two parties are essentially pre-packaged coalitions that can take power and govern much more reliably and with greater accountability. And secondly, no third party ever seemed really serious to me about putting forward a broad, nat…

I can't remember if I posted this before, but the story's been updated so it's a good chance to refresh it and/or post it for the first time. (It's Friday the 13th, so I figure I'll cover both my bases to be sure!) This is just one honkin' bizarre story, and one of those crazy things that usually gets a "Florida" tag on FARK (probably did -- I haven't been by there in ages). Stories like this just seem to bake and simmer in the hot Florida sun, what can I say. Anyway, not too many months ago a new law was passed in Miami that increased the buffer distance (2500 ft) that convicted sex offenders have to maintain between their place of residence and any schools, park…

u9rtlL4nq3c These libertarianesque retro Republicans who are trying to move beyond the "moral majority" are pretty damn awesome. Rand Paul and Peter Schiff. I am obliged to hate them for various reasons (well not really), but I think they're pretty sweet.