Politics

The two most often cited problems in health care in the US are: 1) Not everyone is covered all of the time. 2) Costs are too high. US House and Senate Democrats are hard at work preparing bills that they say will reform the industry and solve the above two problems. Unfortunately they appear to only address the first one, and that only at staggering expense. The House bill calls for a law that will require all Americans to purchase health care. The cost of that healthcare is not addressed in any way, but it requires Americans to buy it or they have to pay a fine. No, really. It actually does this. Which is why the measure costs -- get this -- $615 billio…

I watched quite a bit of cable news for the first time in ages yesterday (in the midst of traveling), and the top story was that two of Obama's top economic advisers (including Geithner) had "left the door open" for a middle class tax hike. This despite Obama's resounding and oft-repeated promise that he would not raise taxes on those households making less than $250,000/year. The general conclusion was that Geithner was simply being realistic: in order to afford a public option in healthcare, taxes will need to be raised. Perhaps this is why Obama is opposed to a single-payer healthcare system. It would undoubtably require a tax hike on middle-class Americans, …

Jon Stewart vs. Bill Kristol is like oil meeting water. Stewart tore into this Rupert Murdoch mouthpiece, and the argument between them was pretty strange and interesting: http://www.hulu.com/embed/ZkZpH6uXyKo0OPK8VqQA-Q/1085 Stewart was talking to Kristol about healthcare, and asked: The discussion continues... Kristol was caught between a desire not to insult the military healthcare system (which is a government-run single-payer healthcare system) and claiming it's first-class while trying to argue that the government wouldn't do a good job at running a healthcare system. I think that's one of the best arguments for single-payer healthcare I've eve…

This was a pretty interesting Krugman article: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/why-markets-cant-cure-healthcare/ It's short and to the point: for-profit health insurance systems don't work. To turn a profit they need to minimize the number of claims they accept. To do that they need to deny care. However, they're in the business of providing care. Worse, there's administrative costs associated in deciding which claims to accept and looking for loopholes which would allow them to deny care. This means that for-profit insurers actually spend more money to provide less care (because in the end this saves them money). As Krugman puts it: …

Have you guys been following the story about the situation with the Cambridge professor who was arrested trying to break into his own home, and reacted by accusing the police of racial profiling? That story in itself was not one that I thought noteworthy enough to discuss here, but when the President weighed in on it it suddenly got a lot more interesting in terms of political discussion. (There's a link below that can help catch people up if they missed this.) I cringed when I saw the President say that the police acted "stupidly", but I also noticed that he said that the officer in question had a respectable history. He was trying to be fair, but he really blew …

This guy I was talking to today, regular Limbaugh listener, keeps trying to tell me that some of the proposed legislation has 'hidden' items that are akin to Gestapo tactics, trying to force people to make personal lifestyle changes to improve their lives or be penalized monetarily. I was wondering if anybody knew of this. I found a trace of it on a blog but could not nail it down. I tried to tell him that I didn't think ANY politician would subscribe to such a thing but he insisted that that is what he had heard. Total Limbaugh Quackery or legit discussion? Has anybody heard anything about this? (Not like I am worried about anything.)

Cey_sqA6PfY Try counting all the shutters opening and closing.

I have a dream, where every man, woman, and child shall walk into any clinic and be CURED! Long before it becomes an uncontrollable problem that drains our system of precious resources! I have a dream of EFFICIENCY and EQUALITY and precisionlike performance of the machine that is our WORLD! I have a dream, that the ignorant shall be educated, that questions will be answered, and that lives will be improved, productivity will be restored, rather than being satisfied with the status quo of mediocrity that is our health system TODAY! I have a dream, of being at the FOREFRONT of healthcare in our world today, and NOT the selfish, elitist shadow republic of archa…

Almost like folks have been reading SFN! http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090326/pl_politico/20526 I'm afraid this didn't get much support from the President, though: My color commentary: "Oof, that's gotta hurt!"

This is good, right? Seems that way to me. One of the financial companies that got a huge bailout is about to report a big profit in the same quarter that it paid back $10 billion in TARP loans from the taxpayer. Apparently they're on track for their most profitable year ever, and their share price is up 73% from where it crashed to. To me this seems to be not only a sign of recovery, but also a sign that our compromise system of governance, neither socialism nor pure capitalism, can continue to drive our society forward. I imagine opposition comments will come in along the lines of "well of course they turned a profit -- they got bailed out". But at the tim…

For those of you who are wondering about the significance of something being OVER 9000, I invite you to read the Encyclopedia Dramatica article about the OVER 9000 meme. http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=INDEXDJX:DJI Despite the teabagging and worries about high unemployment the DJIA has slowly slogged uphill, reaching 9000 again for the first time since the beginning of the year. I'm not saying the Dow knows all but in general this is good news.

Hi everybody. I just came across an article I wrote a while back in January on the Economic Recession. I went into explaining causes and economic phenomena rather than just chronicling events. I hope you guys like it. ecom1[1].doc

This is the sort of thing that, had it happened during the Bush administration, would have been pounced on as an example of our civil rights being trod upon. Note the last paragraph of this article: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/11/cheney.surveillance/ I think Obama is right, and Congress needs to take its single-digit approval rating and buzz off. What do you all think?

Ok! Well here's a thread to discuss this aspect of the story: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/11/cheney.surveillance/index.html?eref=rss_topstories Congress was never briefed on a still-cloaked-in-mystery CIA counterterrorism program, under orders from Dick Cheney. Is this right? Should at least one member of Congress know about these sorts of programs? I think so. How about you?

Interesting article in the New York Times on Friday: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/us/politics/11protest.html?ref=politics These folks need to be careful. The issue is not Obama, it's acceptance of the science by the public. IMO only an extremist could believe that Obama lacks sincerity or motivation on the issue of global warming. He's going to continue to do the best that he possibly can, gradually ramping up over time. I think the mainstream environmental groups have it right in supporting these bills and keeping the general pressure on to move forward, not demanding the most aggressive bills possible and shoving it in the face of Christian conse…

This was a rather interesting: http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1549 According to a Pew Research Report: I agree with the majority of scientists. Do you?

The underlined part affects us here on SFN. Most are not living in Germany, but I still wish to explain why: Often, people ask about explosives and other dangerous substances, usually on the chemistry forums. The way the German law is explained in the Dutch newspaper suggests that answering such questions is punishable. It's highly unlikely that the person answering will be prosecuted... we don't have manuals to build bombs. But often, the preparation of explosive material is one of the hardest parts of building a bomb... and these things are asked (but not always answered). I think that the days of free information about anything you want on the internet ar…

Hey all. I don't know if this question is asked a lot (apologies if it is). I just wanted to know what the smart people on this forum think. The only decent reason I here from the anti-gun people is that it would reduce the number of accidental shootings. But then more children die from swimming pools than guns...so why don't swimming pools face the same judgement? I think that guns should be allowed, but with more strict regulations than what they have nowadays (the current laws make it easy for people who should not have guns to get them.). I also know from history that prohibition DOES NOT work, and that people who want illicit items will just buy them illicitl…

(LOL Faux Noise and D/R) So it seems the South Carolina governor who disappeared a few days ago on an apparent hiking trip has been found! Has been found... having an extramarital affair with some Argentinian woman. Yes, those Republicans, they sure know how to preserve the sanctity of marriage. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sc-governor-quits-gop-post-in-wake-of-affair Oh, and he quit. Is it me or is "Republican hypocrisy" just completely redundant at this point?

So yeah, Iran, rumors of a rigged election, 2 million people protesting in the streets... pretty absurd. What's your take? It seems to me like this will not end well.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090629-710951.html So in a nutshell the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against the lower court decision in which Sotomayor participated in the majority view -- her position was overturned. Some things to bear in mind here: 1) Had Sotomayor already replaced Souter (and there'd been no conflict of interest), the decision by the Court would have been exactly the same, because Souter was in the dissent, expressing the exact same view that Sotomayor expressed. 2) The dissent is not an extremist position -- it's a disagreement between intelligent human beings. Three long-standing, well-respected (liberal) Supreme Court justices …

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/05/president-oba-5.html President Obama has done a 180-degree reversal on this issue over statements issued less than a month ago, saying that he has been convinced that the release of photographs of Guantanamo Bay detainee abuse would endanger US troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Which, by the way, was exactly the same position taken by the Bush administration. IMO this is an incorrect decision now just as it was then (though I am enjoying watching MoveOn.org squirm). What do you all think?

(The first question is more for JohnB, to hopefully provide us enough insight to stir good discussion) In Australia, voting software is open-sourced* and it's mandatory to vote. So.... To JohnB (or lurking Australians): how is (each) that working out for you and citizens generally? To others: what's your opinion of doing both those in your respective nations? As for me: open-source voting yes, and mandatory voting only for any citizens whose state makes it a law. *(or maybe not)

http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/a/3110/ So here's an interesting story: within the span of two days, Dr. George Tiller was assassinated by Scott Roeder, and two US Army recruiters were assassinated by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad. Muhammad was charged with terrorism. Roeder was not charged with terrorism. What exactly is the distinguishing factor in these two cases? According to Wikipedia (lol) terrorism is: I'm unclear on how the actions of Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad qualify as terrorism while the actions of Scott Roeder do not. I think either they're both terrorists, or neither of them are. I will refrain from suggesting that Abdulhakim Mujah…

Obama extends benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/politics/17gays.html?ref=your-money I never realized that this was something he could pretty much do on his own. Its progress and shouldn't bother anyone who has a hangup with the marriage word.