The RNC and a pro-choice VP

This is why I despite the Republican Party.

They are telling John McCain that he better not do anything maverick-like and pick a pro-choice running mate, like Tom Ridge or Joe "Vinega" Lieberman.  

Abortion is an emotional issue, but to most of us it has absolutely no impact on our lives.  Who cares what the vice-president thinks about an issue that's been decided 30 years ago.  This is simply how the republicans play around with the religious nuts.  Maybe McCain will show some backbone and pick a pro-choice candidate anyway.

On the democratic side, Barack Obama could choose someone like Tim Kaine, who is morally opposed to abortion.  

The republicans used to say that they were the "party for everyone" but lately it seems that territory has been taken over by the democrats.

Sicko: A libertarian perspective

I had wanted to watch this one for a while, but just now finished Michael Moore's movie, Sicko, a critique of the US healthcare system.  Although more is very biased in most of his films, it is tough to argue with the statistics.

The US has one of the lowest life expectancies in the developed world and spends more on healthcare than anyone else.  

While I have health insurance, and suspect most of my readers do, there are a lot of people without it.  But it is not them that are mainly affected, for many people are denied coverage everyday for routine conditions.  Herein lies the problem, where the medical insurance industry has basically taken over as our doctors.  It is generally they who decide what treatments are allowed, unless you have hundreds of thousands to spend on your own.  

Everyone knows the cost of prescription drugs here is ludicrous, that's why many go to Canada.  In Sicko, someone went to Canada for healthcare too, using a fake name.  She could not afford healthcare here, so she pretended to be married to a Canadian.  It is sad that a country as great as the US is unable to provide all of its citizens with some measure of healthcare.

Sicko tries to distill some myths:

1. Doctors in other countries are paid low wages.  He shows a family doctor in London who owns a million dollar house, plus an Audi.  

2. There are waiting lists for surgery in other countries.  Not for emergencies.

3. They pay so much in taxes for this, the people can't live well.  Not in France.  Despite having free healthcare, 35 hour workweeks, 5 weeks paid vacation for even part time workers, and even free babysitting, most people in France who had an education live as well as Americans, if not better.  (Maybe we should be more like the French).

Moore even shows us that Cuba has better healthcare than we do (he fails to talk about their human rights record on other issues though).  

He also fails to talk about one reason why our healthcare costs so much.  Lawyers suing doctors.  Massive malpractice insurance costs.

So, what do I say our solution should be?

National healthcare is not such a bad idea, but we also need to reduce lawsuits.  We should pass a law so that only actual damages can be sued for, not punitive.  

Doctors should be paid bonuses like in the UK.  

Here, insurance companies and some doctors make more money if they treat people less, since their costs are lower.

Under a national healthcare plan, doctors are paid based on outcomes, for example, by getting a certain percentage of their patients to have lower blood pressures, cholesterols, etc.

This makes sense, since it pays doctors for being good doctors.  

So where is the libertarian angle on this, I know what you are all thinking, what I've written above makes me look like a socialist pig.  Well, socialist pig I am not.  Most libertarians (other than the anarchists who you hear about the most) generally believe there are certain responsiblities that need to be left to the government, the so-called "night watchman" responsiblities: police, fire, some roads, national defense, and courts.  These are vital functions that protect the safety of the citizens.  Why should healthcare not be on that list?  Why should we have to worry about getting claims denied for being sick.  Government paid car insurance would not make sense, since the worst thing that happens if you lose your car, or go broke from getting sued for you DUI accident.  Health insurance, on the other hand, protects a much more important asset, ourselves.

Can anyone look a young mother in her face and tell her that her kids will die because they can't have a heart transplant because she can't pay for it?  Is that the type of society we want to be?  

I certainly don't want us going down that road.

That is why national healthcare would be a positive thing for us.  It would also give anyone, including myself, flexibility in job searching.  So many people stay with a job they hate, or will not go into business on their own, because they are concerned about losing their health coverage or paying up the ass for it.  

The other argument I can make, not necessary as a libertarian, but as a logical human being: we spend more on healthcare than any other country, yet our quality of care is lower.  That does not sound like a good deal to me.  Why not emulate the French or UK system, since they have been time-tested?

We need to come up with a solution to this crisis.  People are dying, people (like me) are spending way too much on healthcare.  We will probably have to do this in babysteps.  First, insure the elderly (already done), then insure the kids (will likely be done by our next president), then insure everyone else.

Cable Network Viewers Are Dumb

According to a new study by the non-partisan Pew, viewers of most cable networks do not have a "high knowledge" of politics and news.  Fox and CNN tied for last place among the news networks, with only 19% of viewers having high knowledge.  MSNBC didn't fare much better, with 25%. 

 

Interestingly enough, Bill O'Reilly's viewers are much less knowledagble than Chris Matthews'. 

 

Who have the most knowledge?  Readers of the New Yorker and the Atlantic, with 48%. 

It's not just the USA

As an update to my last post, America is decidedly not the only country who hand picks its immigrants based on race.  Israel is now shutting the door on Ethiopian Jews.  Law of return my ass.

When immigration enforcement becomes racism

Here is a disturbing article in the Washington Post about how our own American citizens are being detained and deported, accused of being illegal immigrants.  In most cases, the accused are either hispanic or African.  They sometimes are mentally challenged, or illiterate.  They are rounded up in immigration raids and held for hours.  The burden of proof is on them to show that they are Americans.  

Our war against Mexicans has become a full out racist war.  One of our main grievances against King George during the American Revolution was that he passed laws prohibiting immigration.  We have turned into the very despots we overthrew.

One of our specific complaints against the English king: 

"He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands."

We are now at a point where our own citizens are terrified.  And for all you that say, "well, I'm white so its OK" I've got news for you.  Not every illegal immigrant is non-white.  A bunch of Israelis were rounded up in Iowa a few months ago when a Kosher meat packing plant was busted.  So, should the government be able to round up anyone who speaks Hebrew?  Of course not, just like we should not be able to apprehend a bunch of people speaking Spanish.

Tiger Stadium Destroyed

Another piece of my childhood has been destroyed by a thuggish mayor who would rather have text message sex than balance a budget.

Fair and Balanced on Georgia?

Watch the video and decide for yourself.  To me, it seems that Fox News freaked out when the 12 year old girl they were interviewing thanked the Russian troops for rescuing her from the Georgian military.

Double the money in July

Obama raised almost double the money of McCain in July.  Obama raised $51M vs McCain's $27M.

Money is everything.  This is the money that's used to organize a ground game, pay for buses to take people to the polling location, properly staff offices, and churn out TV ads.  

Obama is going to have such a huge money advantage going into the home stretch, it is hard to imagine how McCain can win.  

Greatest Athlete Ever

Phelps has just won 8 gold medals in a single Olympics.

Jury Nullification: Our last defense against the state

Courtesy of Reason, I have found an interesting Boston Globe article on a jury nullification case.

Jury nullification is when a juror votes to acquit a defendant who has clearly broken the law based on a reasoning that the law is unconstitutional or immoral.  In the 19th century, many juries would go against the law to help a freed slave retain freedom, a just cause.  Nowadays, most nullification cases (like this one) are for drug related crimes.  In this specific trial, the juror correctly stated that federal laws prohibiting the possession of cocaine are unconstitutional because it took a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol.  By that standard, there would also need to be an amendment to ban cocaine.  There is no such amendment.  This was a case of federal law, NOT state law.  

In the above referenced trial, the juror was removed by the judge.  Judges really hate jury nullification.

I see it as our last defense, and so do countless others, such as Ron Paul.  If you are ever in a case where the defendant is guilty as hell of a crime that should not be illegal (e.g. gambling, drugs, prostitution, etc.) vote to acquit, no matter what the judge says.  But unlike this guy, never admit to what you're doing.  Vote with your conscience.  Laws change, morals usually do not.

For more information jury nullification, please visit this site: http://www.fija.org/ 

McCain said WHAT?

McCain is now saying that in the 21st century, nations cannot invade other nations.  In this context, he was referring to Russia and Georgia.  

Did he forget about our invasion of Iraq? 

Story via kos.

GOP jumping ship to Obama and a critique of Vinegar Joe

I can't remember the last time this many members of one party endorsed the other party's candidate.  

Today it is Jim Leach, a Republican endorsing Obama.

Obama has also picked up endorsements by Chuck Hagel and Lincoln Chaffee, both Republicans.

Who does McCain have?  Joe Lieberman.  One of the biggest pieces of garbage in the senate. Lieberman bats for both leagues, and generally picks the worst policies of all.  He is one of the most anti-gun senators out there, he is very much for affirmative action, he loves the Iraq War, he wants every movie and video game to be a G-rated Bambi-fest. 

Phelps: Winningest Ever

Michael Phelps just won his 10th gold medal.  This is a record in itself.  In the process of getting this one, he set a new world record in the 200m butterfly.  

Georgia: McCain the warmonger

While McCain rattles his sabre and threatens to go to war with a nuclear power, Barack Obama offers a more pragmatic stance.

McCain states that Russia is totally at fault and that we must stand by our ally Georgia.  As I've mentioned previously, it is not clear who is at fault.  Russia says that Georgia attacked its peacekeepers and citizens, while Georgia says that South Ossetia belongs to them.  

It should be noted that corruption permeates McCain's thoughts on this issue.  One of his senior advisors is a lobbyist for Georgia.  This is a clear conflict of interest.  

Obama's response has been more neutral, while still condemning the war.  He is encouraging both sides towards a cease fire, offering our support at negotiating, but stating that Russia needs to back down. 

Whatever your view is on this issue, it should be understood that this is a complex issue, not black and white.  We have two sovereign nations fighting over a contested piece of land.  People of various ethnicities live in this area.  It is not clear who fired the first shot, nor who is committing any wartime crimes.  We cannot run into this situation without understanding more of the facts, and we cannot appear to be completing taking one side over the other, especially since this issue has nothing to do with our national defense.

While McCain looks for any excuse to push the big red button, Obama offers principled diplomacy, which is what we need at this time.  We do not need another Iraq.

Phelps gets second medal

Just watched Michael Phelps and the US Mens swim team get a gold medal in the 4oom relay.  The French had talked some smack earlier in the day and were projected to win, but in the end we won by .09s with world record shattering performance by veteran Jason Lezak.  Talk about close!  

These Olympics are shaping up to be pretty good.  The Chinese audience also seems to be very respectful of our athletes.  

Wish I were there.