Op-Ed Columnist - Learning From Europe - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/opinion/11krugman.html

Housing Crash Continues

http://patrick.net/housing/crash.html

New CBO Cost Estimate for Health Care Legislation

$597 Billion to cover the all Americans under proper health insurance, hmm seems pricey but worthwhile for about the same price as the Defense budget every but instead designing new and expensive ways to kill people.

But wait it gets better. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's price tag of $597 Billion isn't for one year but the cost through 2019! That's rigtht $59.7 Billion cost per year to ensure health insurance for 310 million Americans. That makes the cost per person $192 a year, $0.53 a day! Seriously what cheapass person could possibly be against throwing their pocket change so that every man, woman, and child have universal access to affordable health care.

Betsy McCaughey--still bat sh!# crazy

Jon Stewart reading verbatim the H.R. 3200 to Betsy McCaughey that the end of life consultation spelling out exactly what life sustaining treatment the patient will be willing to receive. Below is the pertinent part of the legislation that read aloud, with McCaughey declaring immediately afterward that 'sustaining treatment' meant ending life and she had written "disgusting" on her personal copy of H.R. 3200.

17 INITIATIVE FOR END OF LIFE CARE.—
18 (1) PHYSICIAN’S QUALITY REPORTING INITIA
19TIVE.—Section 1848(k)(2) of the Social Security Act
20 (42 U.S.C. 1395w–4(k)(2)) is amended by adding at
21 the end the following new paragraphs:
22 ‘‘(3) PHYSICIAN’S QUALITY REPORTING INITIA
23TIVE.—
24 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of re
25porting data on quality measures for covered

432

1 professional services furnished during 2011 and
2 any subsequent year, to the extent that meas
3ures are available, the Secretary shall include
4 quality measures on end of life care and ad
5vanced care planning that have been adopted or
6 endorsed by a consensus-based organization, if
7 appropriate. Such measures shall measure both
8 the creation of and adherence to orders for life
9sustaining treatment.
10 ‘‘(B) PROPOSED SET OF MEASURES.—The
11 Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register
12 proposed quality measures on end of life care
13 and advanced care planning that the Secretary
14 determines are described in subparagraph (A)
15 and would be appropriate for eligible profes
16sionals to use to submit data to the Secretary.
17 The Secretary shall provide for a period of pub
18lic comment on such set of measures before fi
19nalizing such proposed measures.’’.

I've met McCaughey when she was running for Democratic nomination for governor in 1998. My initial personal reaction upon meeting her was "Wow, she's a deer caught in headlights." She abandoned the Republican party because being the incumbent Lt. Governor was unacceptable to her after being pulled from her career of being a right-wing columnist without ever running for elective office.

Large Swaths of the American Public Are Ignoramuses

Liberal blogosphere has already jump all over the fact that 39% of the American public believe the government should stay out of the beloved government agency Medicare. My concern is that only 90% believe the fiftieth state admitted to the Union believes Hawaii is part of the United States.

6% of the respondents deny that Hawaii is part of the United States, while another 4% taking the Hamlet route and are unsure of the state's being... well a state. 4% and 6% seem like far too small of numbers to be concerned about, but 10% either denying or unsure about 1.2 Million U.S. citizens status as citizens is disconcerting. 10% of Americans is 30 Million people, not a population you could really ignore. 39% being ignorant of the fact that Medicare should also bring shame to our national pride (especially since those 39% respondents are likely the ones that are quick to claim we are smartest, richest, best in everything country in the world), but confusing a government agency with private insurance is a little more understandable since Medicare pays private service providers and it is the private service providers are in direct contact with the public while Medicare exists several degrees of separation away from the end user. 30 million Americans not knowing enough about their own country shocks me.

With this response I would have like to seen the same poll have asked whether Alaska is part of America? The Hawaii question was the first of a string of questions leading to ferret out how many 'birthers' really are out there, and where do the 'birthers' believe President Obama was born. My question far any of these 30 million or any 'birther' conspiracy theorists, do they believe that Panama is part of the U.S.? Why would I ask that non-sequitur question? Well because that is where 2008 GOP nominee for president John McCain was born. Panama being one of the rare examples of former U.S. territory being handed back.

If birthers can't believe Hawaii is a state, or that the state's department of health issued a certificate of live birth for Barack Hussein Obama, or that 2 newspapers in Hawaii independently issued birth notices contemporary to the president's birth; how would they contain the possibility that John McCain was constitutionally eligible for the office of the president but not Barack Obama who was born in a state that is still part of the U.S.?

The Christian Street

The Christian Street (like the eastern variation the Arab Street) is unfocused, intense, fearful and of course very, very, angry. Reza Alan wrote a book/thesis about the Islamic-fanatics called Cosmic Wars, that could just as easily describe the temper tantrums that have been occurring at Congressional town halls all through out the country.

• Neither the Arab Street or the Christian Street have plans for, or believe in a resolution.
• Neither the Arab Street or the Christian Street have complaints that are specific. (Anti-Zionism /Anti-Socialism)
• Neither the Arab Street or the Christian Street have desire for civil discourse.
• Neither the Arab Street or the Christian Street have solid organization or strict tenet of beliefs other than you are either one of us or one of them.

Now obviously the American left has wing-nuts that share in these traits, but currently the Cindy Sheehans, Code-pinkers, and paint tossing PETA members are not in the spotlight. The left's wing-nuts also hasn't shown a violent/terrorist side since the Weathermen, while anti-abortionists, miltia, white supremists, and the like have been committing acts of terrorism at a steady clip in the past 20 years. A Beer Hall Putsch can't be too far away and it will be welcomed by the wing-nuts.

Fed Audit Supported By 75% Of Americans: Survey

Fed Audit Supported By 75% Of Americans: Survey

Of course the Federal Reserve should be audited, shouldn't the most economically influential organization in the country be accountable the same way the banks they deal with every day are? FDIC has the responsibility to audit banks they insure, so the Federal Government who insures the Federal Reserve with full faith and credit of the American government has the responsibility to audit the Federal Reserve. Why aren't the conservatives up in arms htat this hasn't been done already, they complain about healthcare being handled by some bureaucrat and an ever increasing size and scope of the federal government that is accountable to no one, and yet bringing accountability to these far off bureaucrats commanding and controlling the economy with a greater and greater scope and size has not brought out one tea-bagger, not one John Birch Society member, not one Libertarian, not one conservative talking head (the Glenn Becks, O'Reilly, Michelle Malkin, or Ann Coulter).

The conservative movement is paralyzed by their corporate pay masters, Obama and Tim Geither should get on this right away starting the audit will take less push than Healthcare and it is nearly universaly approve of bby the public (75% is as close as your going to get without including Mom, baseball, and apple pie)