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2009 June 20 — Why Now?
On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog
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Give People What They Want

CBS just commissioned a new health insurance Poll: Most Back Public Health Care Option

(CBS) A clear majority of Americans — 72 percent — support a government-sponsored health care plan to compete with private insurers, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds. Most also think the government would do a better job than private industry at keeping down costs and believe that the government should guarantee health care for all Americans.

The DC elite, if they want to stay in DC had better start listening to the people who pay their salaries, and stop acting like the only groups that matter are those that are paying them bribes campaign contributions.

If the DC elite think there is any way they can force me to give money to a health insurance company, they have another think coming, and might want to look at what is going on in the streets of Tehran. The health insurance executives have already testified that they have no intention of altering their rescission policy, and they backed away from the $2 trillion of reduction in growth of costs. They don’t intend to do anything that will affect their short-term profits.

The only way of stopping the unmanageable increases in health care costs is with a single-payer system, like the other developed nations.

While I’m on health care, I might as well cover the cost of malpractice in this county. Despite what people have been lead to believe, tort reform does not reduce the price of malpractice insurance. A number of states have done it, and it had no effect. If you want to reduce the cost of malpractice insurance, the state medical broads need to start dumping incompetent doctors, and the insurance companies need to stop gambling with the premiums. The Dow is a better predictor of the cost of malpractice insurance than any court docket.

June 20, 2009   4 Comments

The Empire Strikes Back

The protesters didn’t give up and the government has raised their response: Police, protesters clash into evening in Iranian capital

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — As thousands of defiant protesters took to the streets of the Iranian capital Saturday for a seventh day to protest last week’s presidential elections, opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi reportedly said he was ready for “martyrdom.”

By evening, police were using tear gas, clubs and water cannon as they tried to disperse the demonstrators.

A stream of videos posted on social networking Web sites appeared to show demonstrators who had been shot.

It “appears” that CNN is doing its best not to endorse either side in hopes of continued access to the story.

The protesters have figured out that they have to remove their cell phone SIM cards to keep the government from tracking them, as turning off the phone isn’t enough.

The security forces are doing their best to prevent separate groups from merging into large masses. The protesters are starting to use slogans from the 1979 revolution and referring to the security forces as “Israelis”.

For those not familiar with the symbols green is the color of Islam. By adopting green the protesters are saying that this is an Islamic protest.

June 20, 2009   12 Comments

About Those Green Shoots

Valerie Whitney of the Daytona News-Journal tells us the “shoots” are wilted in Florida: State jobless rate hits record 10.2%

DAYTONA BEACH — Florida was one of eight states that set unemployment records for May, with jobless claims reaching 10.2 percent, according to figures released Friday by the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

Flagler County posted the highest jobless rate in the state at 14.4 percent, up from 8.7 percent a year ago. Volusia County reported 10.8 percent unemployment, compared to 5.9 percent last year.

And at least one expert says the bad news is not over.

“Florida’s labor market will be the ugly scar that is slow to fade and serves as a reminder of the economic trauma we have endured,” said economist Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

“We’re going to experience double-digit pain not just for a few months, but through the middle of 2011,” Snaith said Friday.

[Read more →]

June 20, 2009   2 Comments