Whitehouse ready for questions

The White House has a new question section on their website, something that is probably a first for a nation.  Anyone is welcome to pose a question for the president.  I have already posted several questions, and encourage everyone else to do so.  

Other users will vote on questions and those getting the most votes may be answered.

Health insurers try to bargain their survival

Health insurance companies are offering to charge the same price to those who are sick and those who are not, provided that all American are required by law to have coverage.

This is a stupid approach, and the Obama administration better not buy it. The whole point of a business is to make money, and charging sick people more is good business sense, since they tend to use more healthcare. That being said, I do not believe that healthcare should be a for profit business. The best solution would be to create a large, national, non-profit agency charged with administering the health plan, but this would not be at a profit. When we can finally provide Americans with quality healthcare, we will be able to cut out a lot of overhead (profits of insurance companies) which will likely give more people coverage for less money, which is what we see in other countries.

The 4 principles of President Obama's Budget

1. Renewable energy
2. Quality education
3. Universal healthcare
4. Reducing the deficit.

A budget that puts America first.

I pledge to support the budget.  Won't you too?

Plan B age limit is lowered

Finally, some sane reasoning from the federal judges: 17 year old can now use Plan B, the "morning after pill."  Another horrible Bush policy goes away.

A plan to save the banks

Treasury Secretary Geithner today announced a plan to get the toxic assets (mostly Collateralized Debt Obligations, or CDOs) off the balance sheets of the banks.  The biggest buyer of these assets will be the federal government, which could buy up to $1T (that's trillion) of the assets.  

As I said, these assets are CDO's or slices of individual mortgages.  Some may be worth well more than what the fed pays for them, while others could be worthless.  There is a chance that the government may actually make money off this deal, or it could lose.  Only time will tell.  However, this is not just a straight government buyout of these firms; there is an opportunity for large investors to get in on the action, buying these assets for pennies on the dollar.

Let's just hope the oversight is in place, or else there's the possibility to game the system.

The Nano is Out

What has zero airbags, seats four, and costs $2000?  The Tata Nano, of course.  And it has just been unveiled and could be one product that will change everything.

This vehicle has the potential to prove that India has moved beyond mere manufacturing and into design.  We'll see what happens, but at that price, you can bet that a lot of the developing world just figured out what their first car will be.

J Street Survey

J Street has conducted some interesting polling on Jewish Americans.  The full presentation of the survey is below.  Some highlights:

• almost half have a connection to Bernard Madoff (personally affected or know someone who was)
• what I would characterize as a "schizoid" stance on Israel.  Supporting it during Gaza, but overall supporting a Palestinian state, and ambivalence towards Iran.
• On a more positive note, there is an overwhelming approval of President Obama and a large disapproval of the GOP and the conservatives in Israel.

The Immigration Bailout

Seems that it may actually be possible to implement a "buy a house, get a visa" program.  Especially for more expensive houses, but I agree that we should just make it a $100,000 investment in something American, like a typical house.

This program would be good for several reasons:

1. We'd get more smart people immigrating to our country from China, India, and other locations.  This will give us a sustainable advantage over other areas of the world.

2. We get some of these foreclosures off the books of the banks

3. Immigration is always a good thing.

Ahnold 4 Change

My favorite republican loves my favorite president.

Happy SPD

On Saint Patrick's Day, it must be lucky to have a president who's a bit Irish.

About those AIG bonuses

Those bonuses AIG paid to execs after it got bailed out were called "retention" bonuses. Seems that many of those paid are not being retained: they quit.

But now senator Schumer wants to tax these bonuses more than other income. I disagree with this approach. It was very stupid for AIG to pay these out (they claim they were legally obligated, which could be true but likely is not in all cases). It is a PR nightmare. But the execs should not be punished, and we should not pass an unconsitutional bill of attainder against these guys.

Worse than GM?

What is one auto related company that has been so bad for so long that we've all but forgotten its name, is near bankruptcy?  Autobytel.

Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie

The start of Borat will soon have a new movie with his gay Austrian character "Bruno."  It sounds like Ron Paul got punked in this new movie, when "Bruno" tries to have sex with him.  Ron Paul's reaction?  "This guy's a queer!"

Shep Smith

I agree with Andrew Sullivan, Shep Smith is the last anchor on Fox News who deserves any respect.  Here he is, mocking who is possibly the third biggest fool on Fox News, the former alcoholic mormon, Glenn Beck.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/03/god-bless-shep.html

Movie Review: Milk

Milk is a great film about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician in America and possibly the world.  He and the mayor of San Francisco were assassinated in city hall, so as would be expected, this film shows his rise to power and early death. 

It is also a movie that delves into the gay rights movement of the late 70's, and it is sad that things have not changed very much since then.  There are still many ignorant, and bigoted people out there who possess the same backwards views that existed in the time of Harvey Milk.  These are the same assholes that brought us prop 8.  In one scene of the movie, they are discussing how the Nazis took away gay rights in the 30's, and people across the US did it again in the 70s, when anti-discrimination laws were struck down.  

Unfortunately this has happened a lot this decade, with anti gay marriage ballots passing due to the same ignorant people, or perhaps their ignorant children, who fought against Milk.

Regardless of the politics involved, this is a truly great film, and definitely in the top 10 of 2008.