Majority Rule?

FEMALES MAKE UP FIFTY ONE PERCENT OF AMERICA.

I felt it necessary to say that right off the bat since many of the people in power like to say that they have our best interest in mind when they decide what laws should be written and which should then be defended. But the facts are that too many of the laws are being decided by and for men.

I am a man but I am also a human being. And what I see coming out of the mouths of some of our lawmakers leads me to believe I may in the minority in BOTH counts.

How can these leaders say that they want to allow citizens of this country to have control over their bodies and then legislate against personal control?

Unless I went to sleep and woke up in the middle or dark ages America still has the verdict re Roe v. Wade on the books. Abortion may be anathema to some but it is allowable under the law with certain restrictions. If so called wing nuts wish to assault that law then they have a right to do so. But that right is also controlled by our legal system. They cannot and should not do an end run around the law.

Bishops and other religious leaders this week reiterated their stance that no government tax dollar should go toward funding abortions.
BUT THEY DON'T PAY TAXES!!!
PUT UP OR SHUT UP!!!
IF YOU DON'T PAY - YOU DON'T PLAY!!!
Or to put it succinctly - SHUT YOUR FACE!!!!!

The phony separation of church and state cannot stand the light of day. In fact many people continue to call America a Christian society. But they continue to use only the parts of their religion that helps their cause.

Okay then a question for these hypocrites - When it comes to universal health care WWJD?

Another wonderful disconnect with the thinking of the 'wing nut' group is "Keep government out of my life."

Really?

So you don't want police to assist you in time of need?

DONE!

Sign here and we'll exclude you from all the services the rest of us rely on.

A short list of those services:
Homeland Security
Police
Fire
Medicare (IT'S GOVERNMENT RUN GUYS!!!)

Women and men should be incensed by the addition to the latest non health care insurance reform bill that the House passed. Not just because it lacks real choice and affordability but because it blatantly attempts to overturn the Supreme Court's decision on abortion.

If this is allowed to pass then the slippery slope starts and individual rights will disappear. These same idiots will soon say, 'there are more straight people than gays so let's outlaw homosexuality.'
Well remember the first line of this post and think about it.
How long before women outlaw men? I'm just sayin...

No Health Care for YOU

Anyone interested in the health care insurance reform debate going on in Congress these days is probably so confused by now that they don't have any idea what's right; what's wrong; what's good; or what's bad. And the funny thing is, that's just what the doctor ordered.

We have an incredible disconnect in this country when it comes to so-called experts. We want to believe that someone smarter than us knows what's best for us. This 'Father Knows Best' syndrome makes for great television (well it was a great show back in the day) but should be viewed skeptically in the real world. And in fact that old TV show had mom as the smarter parent but that's another story.

Yes there are always going to be smarter folk somewhere but why do we believe they have our best interest in mind? Simple logic would say that those in power want to stay there and they do it by pleasing the electorate that elected them. But you need only delve a tiny bit below the surface to find the truth.

Just as beauty is only skin deep so too is loyalty. Our Congressman, and nearly any elected official down to state and city office must play the game of politics in order to stay in office. That means they must trade or give in on many issues lest they be doomed to sitting on the bench for the duration of their time in office.

We just saw that happen in the latest watered down version of a health care reform bill that is slowly but surely becoming an instrument to help only big insurance companies make more money.

Compromise is always a good idea when it is needed for the greater good but when it is used for self-serving means by a small number of people in power it is awful.

We trust our officials to take care of us. Trust is good. So what is anti-trust? It sounds bad but wait, not so fast.

A law that has it's birth dated back to the 1890s (see the Sherman anti-trust act) but its spirit even older is aimed at stopping monopolies from performing acts and practices that are harmful to the consumer. The theme was enhanced years later with the Clayton act.

In other words if you felt that the price of bread was too high at $20 a loaf but found that every market was selling it at that price you would be stuck. The fact that the cost to the manufacturer might be 10¢ would not help you. Well the law states that the producers of bread (to keep the analogy going) would be guilty of price fixing and consumer gouging and would be subject to fines. The Anti-Trust laws keep the fair practice of open competition alive and at least the possibility that items will be priced fairly.

And the law works well, at least in some cases. The funny thing is if you were to open a store in your hometown and have two competitors in that town selling the same items AND then you got together with the two other owners to raise all the prices in tandem the law would be all over you.

BUT one industry has been exempted from this law. Irrational as it may be that industry is the Health Care Insurance Industry. The wall that has been placed around these controllers of life and death harbors the true heads of the infamous death panels. They decide whether or not you shall live and if so how much money it will cost you to do so.

And to paraphrase some words famously uttered by the Republican God Ronald Reagan (I'll pause here so the 'Right' has time to genuflect) CONGRESS TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!


Every argument that is used to show the insurance companies are acting in harmony with each other and practicing unfair anti-competitive policies is met with lies. These lies are at times eloquently delivered by insurance lobby puppets such as the traitor to the people Joe Lieberman or not so eloquently mouthed when it comes to the embarrassingly ignorant Michele Bachmann or other "Rogue" morons. These people have their own agenda and crave the attention they otherwise would never get. And they care not who dies as a result.


And yet the less informed among us continue to rely on their opinions without question. The country has prospered on the tenets of free enterprise so why not have our illustrious insurance companies join that arena?

Since our Government does not seem to have the cojones to make that industry comply with the Anti-Trust LAW a public insurance option would be a great first step.

So why is it not happening?

GREED!!!

Big insurance has made so much money from their unfair practices that they are able to throw around millions upon millions of dollars to keep the status quo. And when millions of those ILL-gotten dollars find their way into the pockets of our congressmen it is easy to see why the fight rages on against reform.

And the most annoying part of the entire ballet between battling talking heads in DC is the fact that the ones who are deciding whether or not you and I will be allowed to have true affordable universal health care ALREADY HAVE IT!

Just like father deciding if we can have another candy or stay up to watch just one more TV show Congress holds our lives and future in its hands. Please daddy? Can I please have affordable health care insurance.

No! Now run along. And don't forget to floss.

Oh well, you know best.

You Don't Say!

On the television show, The $25,000 Pyramid (et al) it was never about what you said but what you implied. In that show and others of its kind like 'Password' you made money by figuring out what was meant by using logic to determine what was left out.

Unfortunately the only ones to have learned a lesson from those shows seem to be the insurance companies. And they are playing the game to perfection.

Many years ago my home owners insurance cost under $300 per year and I was covered for nearly everything one could think of with the possible exception of elephant stampedes. But in the 20 years that I was complacent about shopping around my insurance company slowly but surely increased their coffers at my expense.

The policy continued to look the same and the wording was just as hard to read or follow without a PhD in obfuscation but tiny additions or riders kept cropping up. For example my home was always covered for damage caused by events other than my negligence. But a few years ago I received a note about flood damage. Suddenly there was a new worry and a new rider I had to purchase if I wanted to cover that possibility.

Other such riders include Hurricane damage and were quantified by category of storm. In other words if a storm was too weak to be worried about I was covered but if it was a 'cat 3' or higher I had to purchase another rider for coverage. Simply put I was now only covered in the event of a fart damaging my home. Anythiong stronger than a fart would be at my expense.

Without checks and balances I believe that in another 10 years my home will only be covered for those elephant stampedes of which I spoke earlier. And then only if they happen during a solar eclipse.

Insurance companies are not the only once complicit in the scheme to defraud their customers. Think back to that ground coffee you used to get at a supermarket. There was 16 ounces in a can of a certain size. The can stayed the same size but only those few observant consumers may have noticed that the contents of the can was getting lower. In fact the last time I bought a can of coffee at a supermarket the normal can I had grown up seeing on the shelf held only 10 ounces. But the price never dropped.

Guardian Health, one of the 'who gives a shit' insurance companies out there (and my current one unfortunately) was caught dropping an entire group of disabled individuals because as one of their soon to be fired employees wrote in a company email, "...These dogs are costing us too much to cover..." (sic)

So Guardian realized that dropping 1 person who cost them too much was illegal but dropping everyone like him could give them safety in numbers. Naturally they reversed their stance WHEN CAUGHT!

My auto insurance costs just went up. No I did not place a claim. And actually according to the guy who took my complaint call I was wrong - My rates did not go up. What happened was they discontinued a discount I was receiving. My reply was simply, "But yesterday I was paying $X and today I am paying $X plus X. On what planet do you not see my out of pocket expense being more now than before?" I don't care if there is less coffee in the can as long as you charge me less for the product NOT MORE!

There is a major disconnect in this country. Too many people say they want Government out of their lives. But they also want less expensive health care and affordable insurance.

But Government is currently out of the lives of the big insurance companies and do not regulate them. The industry has no restrictions and can gouge us until the cows come home - and then leave and come back and on and on.

If we are to survive and thrive with a little spending money left when we retire we then the PASSWORD is listen! Listen to what's being said AND what is not. Don't forget other TV shows such as "You Bet Your Life" and "You Asked For It." And remember, the $25,000 PYRAMID was JUST a game but this is real life!

My Opinion is Better Than Yours!

This year we have a so-called off year election. That's one in which we are not electing people to fill important positions in government, or so they say.

If this were not an important election then why are such self important people like Rogue Palin and Dick 'Dawn of the Dead' Cheney campaigning so hard for their respective non-important candidates?

Because every election is important - You betcha!

The reason for all the hype about the Governor's elections in New Jersey and Virginia and the upstate New York election for a representative in what has been a Republican stronghold forever is that it is no longer about the public. It's only about winning. The citizens of this country do not matter except in the way they can be manipulated.

And once a party is in power they immediately putout polls showing they deserve to be there and start new polls to see how they can increase their numbers and secure power for a longer period of time. But nothing that matters to us humans gets done!

I despise polls and what they have done to our country but they must have escaped from a box once owned by a lady named Pandora because there is no way we are stopping them anymore. T he majority of people in this country have no idea what is going on in their local or state government let alone Washington DC. And since they have no idea and, it seems no opinion of their own they rely on polls to tell them what to do.

There is safety in numbers and if the numbers show that most people are doing a certain thing well then that must be the way for me to go, right? It is safer to be in the mob than the object of that mob. This is true even when the mob is out to get you as was so brilliantly shown in Thomas Frank's book, "What's the Matter with Kansas." The polls turned around the electorate so much that they voted against everything they needed and effectively kept themselves in the dark ages while giving Conservatives control of their lives.

Most Americans have been trained to be insecure about their knowledge and are ashamed to admit that they haven't a clue about many important issues. Lance Armstrong did an interview during which he said that Health Care Reform was important and that the poorest man in a state should get the same health care as the richest man but he then said he was against a public option. But then went on to again say that something must be done! LIKE WHAT? Without options that rich man will get all the health care he needs and read about the death of that poor man while he has his morning coffee served by his maid.

It's clear that Mr. Armstrong got off his bike in time to catch a Fox News poll telling him what to think.

And that brings us to one more important point, POLLS CAN LIE!

Four out of five doctors recommend - SO? Suppose the first four were on drugs and the fifth was THE authority on the subject?

Fox News and their puppets on the Right are always throwing out polls to prove their point or further their agenda. Check and see how many polls have been published by the famous Lewin Group. These polls show how health insurance reform is bad for America. Then read and find out that the Lewin Group is totally owned by the Insurance Lobby.

Bad for America? Yup, the Lewin Group sure is bad for America!!!

My opinion is mine.

I am certain I know what I would like to happen when it comes to many of today's issues.

I do not need a poll to tell me what I need.

And I am also confident that if everything I would like to happen did happen most of the people in this country would be better off. Let me repeat that, MOST of the people.

Many of the wealthiest Americans might not be able to continue raping, I mean raking in the tremendously obscene amounts they do without consequence or at least without a fair tax.

And by fair I mean it in the same way Warren Buffet did when he said his secretary pays more in taxes then he does!

Is that fair?

Why not take a poll?

We The Idiots...

The definition of an idiot is someone who continues to do the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. But I think we can not make that assumption a constant. Or at least we must add a disclaimer that reads, "In many cases" or, "4 out of 5 doctors..."

For more years than I'd care to remember we the people have been pushing, wishing and hoping (sorry Dusty) for a reform in the health care system. We continue to believe that our leaders, the ones we really elect and the ones that get into office by other than legal majority rule methods will do as we ask.

Year after year we the sheep are led to the proverbial slaughter by double-talking politicians speaking out of several sides of their mouths at the same time.

Many of these Congressmen have a valid excuse for allowing our complaints to go in one ear and out the other, they have nothing between the two to hinder their progress!

And yet we continue to beg hoping this time for a different outcome. Yup, you guessed it, we're idiots!

Now for the disclaimer side of the issue.

For all the years we have naively done what we do honest and compassionate people have run for office with dreams of fairness in their hearts. But in order for these "Mr. Smith" wannabes to get elected they must beat the machine. So very few of them are able to do so and end up owing their positions in Congress to one or more "Special Interest Groups."

The term 'Special' as used above should in no way be confused with the term 'Good' as in what a daddy calls his children but rather 'Elite' as in 'just me and my friends.'

The newly elected officials join their brethren in double-speaking; double-dealing ways and lead us on right until the moment when they pull the rug out from beneath us. They are not hurt because they are not standing on the rug at the time but rather at another fund raiser hosted by the Lobby Du Jour.

So they continue to do the same thing year after year but expect the same result. AND THEY GET THE SAME RESULT! And therefore by definition they are NOT idiots.

And to make matters worse We the Idiots have been doing the same thing all our lives! So guess what? By a definition used by another one of those lobbies that own our Congressmen, "if it is something we have had all our lives - IT'S A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION!"

So even if by some miracle we ever get the option to have a fair health care system none of us IDIOTS will be covered!

When I Was a Young Man

In many ways I miss the good young days.

I know, I know it should be the good OLD days but let's face it - back then I was younger than I am now.

The bogeyman hiding in the closet turned out to be a harmless overcoat when the light was switched on and every thunderstorm eventually passed into the distance.

Life may not have been simpler but it was certainly less complicated and a bit more fun. There was less to worry about or at least that's the way it seemed.

We could also get away with harmless pranks or tiny insignificant thefts that really hurt no one. While I am neither admitting to have ever stolen anything nor condoning theft businesses always figured a certain amount of petty theft into their pricing.

And 'getting away with murder' did not mean killing someone and not being caught. Back then it could simply be the charging of more money for a shrimp dinner because shrimp was costly while defending the fact that you served a smaller portion of shrimp on that plate because, well shrimp cost more!

While technology and our 'better mousetrap' mentality has kept the distance between "Necessity" and "the Mother of invention" constant there is nevertheless always a tiny period of time between the two when savvy individuals push the envelope. And the bigger the push the harder the eventual payback.

Remember taking a trip to a distant city before cell phones? You arrive at your destination and not wishing to waste money on the "I arrived safe" call home you place a collect call to yourself. Your loved one refuses the charges satisfied in the knowledge that you got where you were going and the phone company got screwed out of another 25¢.

Nowadays that call is made via an unlimited cell phone service that only costs you 10 times as much as your monthly bill used to set you back. The phone company connects you satisfied in the knowledge that they have screwed you back BIG TIME.

Remember cramming your entire wardrobe into one suitcase because the airlines only allowed one per passenger? And then you toted the rest of your apartment in your carry on bag?

Now the airlines don't care what you take with their version of the "Cash & Carry" pricing your bags are counted along with extra weight and charged accordingly. The end result is you may as well take nothing and buy an entire new wardrobe when you arrive at your destination.

And don't even think about the old 'hidden city' scam. The airlines are onto that one and you could wind up being stranded in a not so hidden city!

(For those of you in the dark - The 'Hidden City Scam' worked like this: You needed to get from NY to Minneapolis but the ticket cost $800. Then you noticed that a flight from NYC to Rochester Minnesota cost only $500 but had a stop in Minneapolis! You bought the Rochester ticket and took only carry on bags so you got off where you wanted and saved $300. But now if you do that you will not be able to board a return flight in Minneapolis if you were not on the plane when it departed Rochester and you will have to buy a new one-way ticket home. Shame on you and the airlines for this double edged scam.)

Truth in advertising was always an oxymoron that really only fooled morons (and those on Oxycontin) but now the advertising world is not alone in their trickery.

If you are politically or socially motivated and wish to find a group of like-minded individuals with whom to hang you had better do your research. There now seems to be more wolves in sheep's clothing than there are sheep.

Such "wolf" groups as Americans for Prosperity have wonderful sounding names but group President Tim Phillips is not for most Americans. The group is hell bent on keeping the wealthy wealthy while fooling the rest of America into taking up their cause. This is not the only group with an oxymoronic name and you would do well to make sure that the one you wish to join is actually what you believe it to be.

Again I miss the days when you knew where you stood. When the annoying yet impeccably dressed duo of young men and women rang my doorbell in an attempt to save my soul by enlisting my service into their witness protection program (It had something to do with their God) I had no problem smiling and politely slamming the door. But the game changed when someone named their group "Pro Life." This group implicitly stated that non members condoned death. This early fraud has caused a great deal of death and destruction and should be watched.

We have come a long way since the good young days of my youth and unfortunately the road back is no longer open to us. Pandora, not Elvis has left the building and the box is forever open.

When I was young we screwed Ma Bell out of a quarter now and then. Nowadays a small group of devious parasites is hiding in a K Street closet screwing everyone out of their futures. Will someone please turn on that light and expose today's true bogeyman?

Heads I Win

A coin toss is a simple and almost perfect way to decide the random outcome of a wager or even a close non-crucial argument. That's because with the possible exception of that one Twilight Zone episode the only outcome will be heads or tails.

For the most part we must have a winner and therefore a loser clearly delineated so that we can go on with our lives. Many people internalize the feeling so as to not cause further discussion and may even mumble "loser" as they pass an adversary.

But for years now we have been listening to, no subjected to political adversaries demanding to know if we can win the war in Iraq or now Afghanistan.

"Can we win without sending more troops?"

"Can we win if we allow the Afghanis to govern themselves?"

I have a simple question - Would someone please define WIN?

Would it be considered a win if we could get out without any more of our troops (young men and women who used to be called our children before the military dehumanized them by calling them troops) being murdered?

Should we consider it a win if we can annex Afghanistan as our 51st state?

Before we do annex the country can we find out if they would be a red state or a blue state?

We now know that a win in Iraq meant that Cheney and his cronies were able to get their hands on lucrative contracts through subsidiaries such as Haliburton and Blackwater.

But what happened to all that inexpensive oil we were promised? Did they hide it somewhere?

For me and many other Americans I believe a win would be ending the war and securing the future of our young men and women in a more productive way.
I believe the rest of the world must join us and take up the task of securing peace in the area.

No, I am not filling out a form to compete in the next Miss America pageant although I wouldn't with World Peace. However we cannot do it alone.

Alexander the Great surely wanted World Peace. He just went about it in a slightly different way.

Someone once said, "Winning isn't everything." Unfortunately he didn't stop there but he should have. Winning may be the only thing but only after we have a clear understanding of what "Winning" means.

You Can Bank on It

I have some money in Chase Bank. I guess that makes me lucky by today's standards.

Actually the money is not really mine it belongs to Chase or at least that's the way it seems. You see they don't let me have it unless I jump through hoops and ask nicely, very nicely. And in many cases I must pay a surcharge for the privilege of taking my money and doing with it as I please.

An explanation is in order because the above would make no sense to an ordinary human being with a modicum of intelligence but intelligence is not what you need in our country anymore. What you need is a lobbying organization on your side and a congressman in your pocket.

When it comes to a bank versus a depositor the government will always side with the bank.

Don't believe me?

Spend recklessly and lose all your money; take some of your relatives along for the ride and send them into the poor house; bankrupt your mother-in-law and then apply for a bailout.

If your name happens to be Vikram Pandit or Jamie Dimon or Hank Paulson's friend Lloyd Blankfein there will not be a problem. And with no strings attached you will have all the money you need to get you back to where you want to be.

Now I am not going to rant about how the banks have totally wrecked the country and have nothing to show for it except deferred millions on bonuses and CEOs who continue to gorge themselves as if there's no tomorrow. This post is to point out how the little guy, a regular investor has no one on his or her side anymore and no chance of the change we need on the horizon.

I said I have money in Chase and that's true. But since Chase is offering a wonderful rate of less than ONE QUARTER OF A PERCENT on one year certificate of deposits I decided to take some of my money (I mean their money) out of my account and send it to a different bank.

In order to do this through the on-line banking service I have to set up the new bank as a "Payee." But having done that Chase is not allowing me to send any money out until they decide if the new bank is worthy.

SERIOUSLY! I received a message that the new 'Payee' is under review. A call to the customer service hot line (It's hot only because everyone who calls them gets extremely hot trying to get a person on the phone) informed me that it will take up to two days for me to be allowed to use the new account.

And if I would rather set the bank up as an external account and thereby be allowed to transfer money back and forth between banks I will be charged $3 every time I do so. That includes receiving money back from them!

The last part is very interesting because Chase actually states that if you wish to transfer money from an external account into Chase they will charge you $3 per transaction! I can see depositors lining up to send money into Jamie Dimon's a-hole of a bank, can't you?

Remember when a new deposit could get you a toaster? Now a deposit of a certain kind and you're toast!

It's not bad enough these receivers of our tax money bailouts are flaunting their wealth in our faces but now they are not even allowing us to play with our own money without scrutiny and new surcharges.

Wouldn't it be nice if once, JUST ONCE our Senators would say no to the bribes and yes to the little people who pulled that lever to get them into office?