Perry, Bush, and Beer

It was said that when Dubya ran for president, he was the kind of guy that people felt they'd enjoy having a beer with. If that's the case, then does that make Rick Perry the loudmouth at the bar telling you how many beers he has had and maintaining that he still isn't drunk?

H.R. 1981 , and your online privacy

HR 1981 is a bill that is called the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act" but could be more accurately titled the "Internet Power Grab Act". It requires ISPs to store all their customers' information such as name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, websites visited etc. for 18 months. This is done under the pretense of catching child pornographers by basically treating everyone who has a computer like they could be one.

I'm hearing a fair amount of opposition from both sides of the aisle on this one, and sadly support for it as well. If this bill bothers you as much as it does me, call/write/email your representative and Senators and tell them how you feel.

Here's a video summary:

                           

The Democrat-Gazette disses Egypt (and Turkey too).

    Tuesday's issue of the Dem-Gaz had a stunningly pessimistic editorial about the trial of Mubarak in Egypt, and about Egypt's future as a whole. Of course it delved into their raging "Muslim Brotherhood is going to take over Egypt" hard-on that is seemingly shared by every right wing commentator in existence.

  They pointed to Mubarak's being in a cage as if that had some sort of inherent significance, ignoring the fact that the use of the cage in the courtroom is commonplace in the region (and even in Italy, France, and Germany when a particularly violent defendant is on trial). They even titled their piece "Lion in a cage: Hosni Mubarak on exhibit". References to the French Revolution were also made, and the whole thing was enough to make the reader believe that the writer expected guillotines in the street at any moment.


   Look, I don't dig the Muslim Brotherhood. Their presence in Egypt is unsettling. But they will have some sort of role in whatever government Egypt ends up having. We can deal with it, or we can freak out over it. If one reads the Economist the situation doesn't seem nearly as bleak as the Dem-Gaz's editorial would have you believe, but still very much up in the air.


  An article in the same issue dealt with Turkey as an example for the region. Of course if one read the Dem-Gaz's Mubarak LionMan editorial or whatever you want to call it, you would think that an Egypt headed in the direction of Turkey would be a scary prospect indeed. They described Turkey as a place that is is slowly heading the way of a theocracy. Meanwhile a poll in the aforementioned issue of the Economist addressed the percentages of Muslims that support harsh punishments like whipping for theft, stoning for adultery, and the death penalty for leaving Islam. Of all the Muslim countries mentioned Egypt had the highest percentages in favor of such punishments, hovering around 80% support. Turkey on the other hand saw the lowest percentages in favor of any Muslim country on the list, less than 20%.


  I understand 20% is still too much, but if Egypt were going to head any direction I would be pretty pleased if it was Turkey's.

Thoughts on Federal Charges for Abdulhakim Muhammad

A story in the Democrat Gazette dealt with the topic of federal charges being brought against Abdulhakim Muhammad for his murder of Pvt. William Andrew Long and wounding of Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula. Long's father Daris hoped that the filing of federal charges would help the case of his son and Ezeagwula being awarded Purple Hearts, which would in turn help Ezeagwula receive medical benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Listen, I'm all in favor of honoring Pvt. Ezeagwula and the memory of Pvt. Long. I'm also not opposed to some way being found for Ezeagwula to receive medical benefits. But filing federal charges against Muhammad, and even to a degree giving his victims Purple Hearts, would play right into what he wants. From the beginning, Muhammad has tried to make himself out to be something more than he is. As far as anyone can tell he's not a true terrorist, he's a wannabe. Instead of a wannabe gangster he chose to be a wannabe jihadist. Federal charges and giving his victims honors like those suggested would make Muhammad's day. The memory of Long should be honored and Ezeagwula should be taken care of, but Muhammad needs to disappear.

The thinking that got our country into this mess.

I'm reading William Greider's 1981 Atlantic article, "The Education of David Stockman." , about Ronald Reagan's incoming budget director. Not only is it a great glimpse behind the scenes of the beginnings of "Reaganomics", but there's a quote from Stockman that jumped out at me in light of today's problems:

Social Security was much more volatile, but Stockman noted that the Senate had already expressed a willingness in test votes to reconsider such basic components as annual cost-of-living increases for retirees. In the House, the Democrats, led by J. J. Pickle, of Texas, were preparing their own set of reforms to keep the system from bankruptcy, so Stockman thought it would be possible to develop a consensus for real changes. He didn't much care for Pickle's proposals, because the impact of the reforms stretched out over some years, whereas Stockman was looking for immediate relief. "I'm just not going to spend a lot of political capital solving some other guy's problem in 2010." 

For some reason I feel like this terribly unflattering moment for Mr. Stockman, captures so much of the attitude that led us to this point with our debt/deficit problems and with issues of entitlement spending. It's something few people in Washington have ever spoken aloud, but a mindset that their daily actions speak to.

Dustin McDaniel vs. Jon Hubbard.

For those of you unfamiliar with the whole Dustin McDaniel and Rep. Jon Hubbard spat, here's a brief summary from the first part of the Democrat Gazette's story covering it:

A Jonesboro lawmaker has accused the attorney general of pandering to Hispanic voters and providing special treatment to the group by offering a Spanish-language version of the office’s website. The attorney general responded that the legislator could be seen as “an angry, misguided person.”
Rep. Jon Hubbard, a Republican, made the accusations in e-mails to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, a Democrat, between July 12 and Monday that also went to news media, the GOP lieutenant governor and about 30 Republican members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“Dustin, I regret that you are not as passionate about representing the people of Arkansas as you are about propping up this person masquerading as [the president of the United States],” he wrote in one of them. Hubbard said by phone Tuesday that he believes that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen as required by the U.S. Constitution.


And the Arkansas Times has a post that has the full texts of the emails. It can be found here.

My thoughts?  It's a little frustrating that I totally dig McDaniel's response (aside from the personal digs involving his former seat in Jonesboro which I could really give a crap about) considering how much I don't dig any number of other things that he's done with his office.

A section of Hubbard's first email also cracked me up:
     
Is there a state policy that provides special treatment for Hispanics in Arkansas, while no other ethnic groups are given the same special consideration?
    I seriously doubt Hubbard was caring very deeply about the concerns of any other ethnic groups in our state when he wrote that. There's a reason that across the majority of the country you can select Spanish on an automated voice system or an ATM. It's because it's the only other language that has a big enough presence to warrant it. Most of our country isn't going out of its way to put every freaking language as an option.

 C'mon Hubbard just come out and say it, you don't like people speaking a language other than English in Arkansas.  There's no point in couching it in all that pretty talk.

American Exceptionalism and "the best health care system in the world"

As I listened to the radio today (take a guess which show), I heard state representative David Meeks say that America had "the best health care system in the world". I also recall Rudy saying that in a debate a few years ago when he ran for president. Saying something along the lines of "where are Canadians going to go to get their health care?"

                                     Well, that's how I remember Rudy in 2007/2008



Does our country really have the best health care system in the world? I don't think so.

Of course I don't think we have the worst either and I'm not sure anyone has the best. People who hail from countries with more socialized health care have spoken very highly of it. Their stories are a far cry from the horror stories your average Republican tells about socialized medicine. But there's also the occasional reliable story that tells about the negatives of socialized medicine, such as long waits for crucial procedures.

As much as I hear the health care horror stories from own country that have led to people on both sides of the aisle saying we need to do "something", I also hear people who are more or less satisfied with the care they get when they go to a doctor/hospital. I also have my own experience to go by which has been mostly positive (but I've yet to deal with anything catastrophic).

Our country has some of the best doctors in the world and some of the best hospitals. But something must not be perfect if our citizens are taking trips to places like India for procedures. Of course, as this article in Forbes points out, the largest segment of medical tourism going on in the world is that of people coming to the United States. This is because our health care is considered the most advanced in the world.

So basically our health care system is a gas guzzling pimped out luxury SUV with the highest level of trim out. Whereas you could compare the health care system of a European country to a Honda Civic that gets 40 miles to the gallon. If you want a car that will basically drive itself, tell you bedtime stories and rob from your bank account at the same time, go with the SUV, if you want a car that is simple and does an affordably basic job of getting you from point A to point B go with the Civic.


                  U.S.A                                                           Europe                                             

       
                 
 My point with all this is that "best" is all in what you're grading on. Our country has the most advanced health care in the world, but I couldn't call it the best. Just like I couldn't call Great Britain's the best.

Which brings us to American Exceptionalism. Anytime someone tries to point to American being the best for anything other than the concepts that we were founded on, I get somewhat annoyed. So many of the positive things about this country have been a direct result of many of our founding concepts. I remember Palin flipping out because Obama said that our military was one of the best armies in history. Apparently "one of the" wasn't enough for Sarah. I guess she had all these matchups in her head where our army fights the hordes of Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great's army in Death Valley with spears and win.

Okay, sorry to digress. My point is that I don't need to think my country has the best health care system in the world to love it. A system ranking among the best is enough for me. Wait, I don't believe in American Exceptionalism? Shut up.