Drunken Samurai Politics and Commentary

What Happened Here?

2011-08-24T11:12:00.002-07:00

That is the question. I started this blog as a place where I could toalk about my thoughts on politics and current events. I used to do this on my original blog - http://drunkensamurai.blogspot.com/. Since that blog was dominated by posts relating to Emily I felt kind of dumb for putting posts about silly stuff like politics. With that in mind this blog was born. I managed to get in a few post over about a year but for the last year I have let this one slide.

I still have lots of interest in politics, current events and history. I am reading stuff all the time and thinking about stuff all the time but I never seem to feel motivated to write about these things. Some of the stuff I have been thinking about pobably should not be put in writing. Someday I might want to run for office and having things on a blog might come back to haunt me.

Having said that I do feel I need to write more stuff here and I am going to make an effort to update this blog on a regular basis.

Campaign Finance

2010-02-05T11:41:00.002-07:00

Here is a great discussion about the McCain-Feingold law and why it is so bad. http://reason.com/blog/2008/10/16/now-playing-at-reasontv-former

Homeshooling in Germany

2010-02-01T10:47:00.002-07:00

I have had a fascination with the German anti-Nazi laws for quite some time. One of the strangest manifestation of this Nazi paranoia is on the law against homeschooling children. Here is an interesting development in this issue. Seems that a German family as been granted political asylum in the US because they are home schoolers.

http://bigjournalism.com/wthuston/2010/02/01/homeschooling-german-family-awarded-political-asylum-in-u-s-where-is-u-s-media/#more-15910

Very interesting stuff.

What is he doing?

2010-02-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

Does the president really need to bow to everyone he meets? http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//100128/480/b07861589f354ce698c3bf88b741d692/

This is getting silly.

The Looney Left

2010-01-28T08:47:00.003-07:00

I found this very interesting piece on Big Journalism - http://bigjournalism.com/mwalsh/2010/01/27/the-loony-left-remember-when-the-media-was-honest/#more-12870

Watch this 60 minutes from the early eighties and tell me if there is not something very familiar and scary about this. What happened in the UK 25+ years ago seems like what is happening here, now.

Blaming (your) God

2010-01-15T08:11:00.002-07:00

Much has been said about Pat Robertson's comments blaming the tragety in Haiti on a pact with the Devil. Here is Robert Gibb's take on the issue - http://www.breitbart.tv/utterly-stupid-white-house-weighs-in-on-robertson-comments/ Here is Don Imus' comments - http://www.breitbart.tv/imus-pat-robertson-should-be-put-to-sleep/

I agree that these comments are not helpful and border on hateful. The idea of blaming innocent people for a natural disaster is just wrong. This kind of thinking is what lead to witch trials and inquisitions and has no place in modern society. Pat Robertson has the right to believe what he wants and it is right that he be called out on these comments.

I wonder how much Danny Glover will be ridiculed for his position on this? http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/pact_with_gaia/
Seems that Mr. Glover thinks there may be some connection between efforts to curb Global Warming and what has happened in Haiti. Is this any less outrageous? Is he not just as deserving of redicule? He does not care about the people in Haiti he only care about the opportunity this presents for the Obama administration. Sounds like he interviewing for a job. What a nut...

Long Time No Posts

2010-01-13T11:47:00.003-07:00

Well, I managed to let a pretty good start to this blog but then I let it slip. I am not sure what happened. I mean, there was plenty to talk about with health care and attempted terrorism, it just never made it here.

Here is an article from Fox News I found several months ago but never posted. It just points out how much the president talk about himself in his speeches.

This is an interesting story about how some people want to kill themselves after they see Avatar. Must be a pretty great move to trigger such strong responses from the audience.

Steven Crowder, at Big Hollywood, has a great video essay about the future of America. Will it go the way of Detroit? This one is scary.

I am a very strong believer that ALL movies have a message(s). Sometimes the messages are very obvious and other times they are not so obvious. Sometimes the message is intentional on the part of the writer/director and other times it is unintentional. It is also true that sometimes the writing or directing is so inept that the message is lost but it is there. My wife is a huge fan of the Twilight books and movies and she would probably disagree with this article about the lessons girls learn from Twilight.

Interesting stuff around the web

2009-09-24T08:06:00.002-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zrsl8o4ZPo Here is a lovely little video of public school teachers teaching little children to sing songs of praise to the president. Very touching...in a creepy, disturbing way.

http://frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36267 This is an article from a couple of weeks ago. David Horowitz points out how different president Obama is from candidate Obama. Some very good point here. Is he a real life 'Manchurian Candidate?'

http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/09/21/steven-chu-americans-are-like-teenage-kids-when-it-comes-to-energy/ Energy Secretary Steven Chu has a very low opinion of the average American. Sounds like he as a plan to straighten out the unruly children...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=506667 If you have been wondering why the 'stimulus' has not been working it might be because it was written by a bunch of radicals. These folks have no interest in reviving the US economy, they want to destroy it and replace it with something completely different. The connections here are scary.

This Month's Camille Paglia Editorial

2009-09-08T22:11:00.002-07:00

Once again she hits one out of the park. As usual I find myself disagreeing with many of her points but the honesty is refreshing! This month I agree with about 75% of her points which is more than any other Democrat writer out there. http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2009/09/09/healthcare/

Head Scratchers...

2009-09-08T15:52:00.003-07:00

As if His Lordship, Obama, did not already have enough work to do he has decided that important (read meaningless) work in the UN must be handled by him personally. President Obama will be the President of the UN Security Council. WTF - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7d0c7a3a-9ca4-11de-ab58-00144feabdc0.html This guy is a major power trip going on. He is looking more and more like a control freak every day.

If you were not already opposed to the massive government take over of the health care industry wait until you find out who will be the primary enforcers of the new law - THE IRS. That should scare the crap out of every American! http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Health-care-reform-means-more-power-for-the-IRS-56781377.html Just what the most powerful agency in the US government needs - tons more power!

The President gave a pathetic speech to the nation's school children today. It was so pointless you might wonder what all the fuss is about? Most thinking people realize that the content of the speech was different today than it was originally planned to be. It is funny that the press and Congress doesn't seem to have any problem with the President addressing school children but when the first President Bush did something slightly similar in the early '90's there were Congressional hearings on the matter. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/When-Bush-spoke-to-students-Democrats-investigated-held-hearings-57694347.html Democrats are only upset by stuff like this when they are done by Republicans.

Freedom of the Press...

2009-09-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of stories that relate to the state of the Press today and where it may be going in the near future.

The first is from Big Hollywood and is and excellent example of bias in the media. If you don't think the media has a specific agenda then how can you explain the fact that both the war in Iraq and Afganistan have fallen off the media radar? Remember Cindy Sheehan? She is now protesting President Obama. Did you know that? http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/tslagle/2009/09/01/where-have-all-the-cameras-gone/#more-213334

Predient Obama is setting up a shadow government in the form of 'czars' for every concievable issue. The new FCC diversity 'czar' seems to be another scary radical. Seems he is not a big fan of freedom of speach and is not affraid to say so. http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=336613763986105

Some Interesting Stories From The Last Few Days

2009-08-26T07:51:00.003-07:00

An interesting discussion with Victor David Hanson. http://frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35971

Very interesting and scary stuff. I always thought the NEA should be closed down. Now I really believe that. http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pcourrielche/2009/08/25/the-national-endowment-for-the-art-of-persuasion-patrick-courrielche/

"As others have pointed out, this story would be a behemoth of a scandal if, say, Republican members had forwarded anti-Iraq War emails to the Bush administration, which then blasted out unsolicited pro-war talking points from Karl Rove to thousands of unaware or unwilling recipients." http://townhall.com/columnists/GuyBenson/2009/08/25/white_house_scandal_unanswered_questions

If I Were Reforming Healthcare

2009-08-20T10:25:00.002-07:00

If I were the person writing the healthcare reform there are several things I would do. These are probably dumb ideas but they are ideas that I think fit within the framework of the nation and would not violate the constitution, would protect states rights and preserve the free market system. I also believe these ideas would actually help with the cost of healthcare.

One of the main problems with the US system is the fact that the real cost of healthcare is hidden from the consumer. Because most people have health coverage from their jobs, and the insurance company pays almost all the costs patients have no idea how much anything costs. This lack of knowledge prevents the consumer from being able to participate in the decision making process with all the information. It also means that most consumers have no idea how things got to where they are today. Hiding costs from consumers is bad for the system and is not a free market concept.

Another problem with employer provided health insurance is the lack of choice in the coverage. Most companies will offer one heath insurance option and the employee is stuck with a take it or leave it approach. The quality of this coverage almost makes no difference because you have not other options - nothing to compare it to. The quality of employer provided health insurance is decided by an HR rep negotiating with the insurance company for a plan that provides the most benefit to the company and not to the employee.

In my view employer provided health insurance must be one of the first things to go. Individuals should shop their health insurance options just as they would any other insurance product. My job does not provide car insurance or homeowner’s insurance so why health insurance? This one change would force insurance companies to change their focus from negotiating with a few HR reps to having to provide hundreds of more options geared towards appealing to consumers. This would completely alter the health insurance landscape.

Naturally, companies would no longer have to pay the employer portion of this coverage and would have a bunch of money that they are not longer paying out. Since this money is part of the total compensation package for the employee the company should give each employee a raise in pay equal to the amount of savings. This will allow the employee to have greater financial resources with which to purchase coverage. The savings to the company will come in the form of elimination of maintenance of the health benefits for the employees.

Another problem with the US system that makes a public option attractive is the issue of portability of coverage. A public system would not worry about a pre-existing conditions because, well, they wouldn't have to. Insurance companies have an issue with covering people that have a medical condition that has already been diagnosed and treatment started. This is very much the same issue as a car insurance company have with making repairs for damage that happened while the car was insured by another company. The difference is that cars rarely need ongoing treatment for an issue the way people sometimes do. A car is either broken or not. Once health insurance is detached from employment then the need for portability drops dramatically, but there should be rules in place to protect both patients and insurance companies.

Another issue that comes up is the insurance company’s refusal to offer coverage to certain individuals. This is usually associated with the portability issue mentioned above. With the reduced need to change insurance there is less chance of this happening. There should be some strict rules setup so that in the rare instance of it happening there are protections in place. People should not be refused service by insurance companies for all the usual discrimination scenarios but this should also include age and physical condition. This is a tricky area that needs to balance consumer/patient protections with logical standards to ensure one insurance company is not unfairly shifting the expense to another company after collecting the premiums.

It is common for health insurance policies to have limits on how much can be paid out over the life of the policy. Once this limit is reached the patient is usually dropped from coverage. In most cases this limit would increase as savings are realized in other part of the system. There should also be regulations that limit the ability of an insurance company from dropping a patient. One sensible rule would be that a patient cannot be dropped from coverage while being treated for an existing condition.

A huge area of cost drivers in the current system is the area of malpractice insurance. The current laws allow for nearly unlimited cash awards to patients who have been the victims of doctor incompetence. While malpractice is a real problem the huge cash awards act a transfer of funds from one set of patients to another, filtered through insurance companies. You see doctors pay insurance companies for malpractice insurance at huge premiums. The costs are rolled into the cost doctors charge their patients, and by extension the patient’s insurance companies. Which, in turn, drives up the cost of health insurance.

Previously I mentioned the fact that costs in the current system is hidden from the consumers. Most people do not realize that doctors and hospitals are more than willing to negotiate process for services with their patients. You see, filing and insurance claim is very expensive for the doctors and hospitals. They will frequently have large staffs of people who work solely on insurance billing. This increased cost means that higher prices are charged to insurance companies to offset this additional expense. Insurance companies are also notoriously slow at processing claims. If patients were to take a more active role in paying the bills they would be encouraged to work with their doctors on the price. This, in turn, lowers the costs throughout the entire system. Patients could then purchase insurance policies that cover a greater amount of catastrophic medical conditions that will have higher total payouts for the policies.

The same situation is true for pharmacies. They, too, have to bill to insurance and have huge amounts of expense for this. They would also benefit from customers paying more out of pocket but they may not be as will to negotiate the prices the way a doctor might.

This is all well and good but what about the poor you ask? Isn’t the point of reform to help those who cannot help themselves? If a person can’t afford health insurance today why would these reforms change that? The fact is there will always be people who cannot or will not purchase health insurance. For the people who will not I say tough, you got sick so now you need to pay the bills. For the people who cannot afford it (and there are very few of these people) then the government can provide some sort of assistance for these people. Any of these programs should be managed at the state level and not at the federal level. The states are much more responsive to their people than the federal government and will have a better idea of the needs of their people. These types of programs for the poor should ne means tested and carefully monitored for fraud. Ideally they would involve reimbursements to patients rather than doctor or hospitals billing to the program. Most states already have these types of programs in place and they tend to work better than federal options such as Medicare.

What about Medicare and other federal healthcare programs? I think that eventually all federal healthcare programs, such as Medicare/Medicaid and VA medical benefits, should be phased out and converted to the private sector. These could be transitioned by way of vouchers to allow people to purchase private insurance rather than be on the public system. They would also need a grandfathering as many people who depend on them today would not have the ability to transfer off the system.

If you think these changes would not work keep in mind that Congress as excellent healthcare…and it is provided through private insurance companies that provide lots of coverage options. You don’t see Congress rushing to eliminate their coverage. If it works so well for them why wouldn’t it work well for everyone else?

Summary:

1. Eliminate employer provided health insurance
2. Individual consumers purchase own coverage based on their needs and budget
3. Insurance companies forced to compete for customers on an individual basis
4. Protections for pre-existing conditions
5. Restrictions against refusal of coverage or dropping coverage
6. Tort reform to lower the cost of malpractice insurance
7. Encourage patients to negotiate prices for common services with their doctor and pay those costs out of pocket.
8. Phase out federal healthcare programs in favor of private insurance

Ronald Reagan's Thoughts on Socialized Healthcare

2009-08-14T16:55:00.001-07:00

This was recorded in 1961! He could be talking today about events of today. Reagan was an incredible political mind. You MUST listen to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs

My Favorite Democrat

2009-08-12T07:46:00.002-07:00

Camille Paglia at salon.com is with out a doubt my favorite democrat writer. I try an read her column every month and while I rarely agree with everything she says (or even anything) she is one of the most reasonable voices on the Left. This month's column is particularly good.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2009/08/12/town_halls/index.html

If everyone put this much thought into their political commentary our country would be a lot better off.

The Real AstroTurf campaign

2009-08-11T11:51:00.003-07:00

Michelle Malkin had this post yesterday about the dem's AstroTurf campaign in support of the healthcare bill - http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/10/better-astroturfing-through-craigslist/

The best link is to this post on Verum Serum about ads on Craigs List for protester jobs - http://www.verumserum.com/?p=7742. Looks like these pay pretty well...

The connections here are amazing and, once again, no one from the MSM is talking about his.

Healthcare Bill Part 1

2009-08-11T07:59:00.004-07:00

My mom has been going through the Healthcare bill and here is a list of interesting points from the first 170 pages or so.

• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services. Really? Pgs 132-133, line 16. Page 143-line 3 contradicts this.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter. Can't tell about Medicare here.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for pr ice-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families. I could not find this.
• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll Starting page 153, line 19 - read this - penalties
• Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t' have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income. Line 5
• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them). They won't be taxed because "they are not covered"...see Page 50 above

Keep in mind that this is a 1000 page bill. Look at what it does in less than 200 pages. If you would like to read it yourself go for it! http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3200ih.pdf You know your Congressman won't be reading this.

Edit: I just wanted to clarify that much of this information was forwarded to my mom from some friends in Fort Wayne, IN who's church group has been going over the bill. Their comments are all mixed together so it is a true group effort. No flagging here just trying to give credit where credit is due! Thanks everyone!

Cash for Clunkers: European Edition

2009-08-08T22:21:00.002-07:00

Turns out the Cash for Clunkers that is so popular is not an original idea of the Obama administration or the 111th congress. Several European countries have had there own version in place for months. I found this article at Townhall about how some experts fear that these programs are making the problems for the car industry worse - http://townhall.com/news/business/2009/08/08/in_europe,_cash_for_clunkers_drives_sales

Wait! A government entitlement/subsidy/bailout program that causes more problems than it solves? Who has ever heard of such a thing?

Some interesting links about the health care debate

2009-08-08T18:56:00.004-07:00

Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal has a very interesting editorial about the public response to the health care reform debate - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574334623330098540.html. She is right, the dems are terrifying people.

Michelle Malkin linked to the amazing photo essay of the health care reform protests in Denver - http://www.lookingattheleft.com/2009/08/pelosi-astroturf-healthcare/. Take a look and tell me who you think the real grassroots protesters are and who the AstroTurf protesters are. Don't read it first, just look at the pictures. This is extremely enlightening stuff.

Karl Marx - The Communist Manifesto

2009-08-06T21:27:00.004-07:00

Earlier this year I finally got around to reading The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. It is strange it has taken me so long to read this very important work. I downloaded a copy form http://manybooks.net/titles/marxengelsetext93manif12.html. It cannot be overstated how important this work is on the history of the last 200 years and especially the last 100 years. This is the source of more death and killing than any other work of a human mind.

One of the most famous and important sections is the so called '10 pillars' of Communism.

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form.Combination of education with industrial production

How many of these pillars have already come to pass in our country?

The White House Blog - Over Beers

2009-08-06T17:01:00.006-07:00

Glen Beck pointed out this picture a few days ago on his Fox News blog. I have looked at a few times. It is a really compelling picture in light of recent events surrounding these three people.

What do you see when you look at this picture? You should see a racist cop and a noble professor being led by the racial healer to a higher level of understanding...or something like that. Is that what you see? Do you want to know what I see?

I see a career politician thinking only of himself while his dear friend, who obviously has mobility issues, is helped down the stairs by a career public servant. It really shows the difference between these two people. Who would you rather have around if you were Prof. Gates...at least in this particular situation?

Hot Air - Who We Are

2009-08-06T11:27:00.001-07:00

I found this linked from Michelle Malkin this morning. This post from Hot Air sums up my views rather well. http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/06/who-we-are/

New Blog...First Post

2009-08-04T20:07:00.001-07:00

Well, here is it. The first post on my new blog. I started this blog in the hope that it will inspire me to get back to commenting on topics that are important to me or maybe just interesting. Some of you may be familiar with my other blogs and you might be wondering why I need a new one. My original blog - http://drunkensamurai.blogspot.com/ - started off with a similar format as I am using for this new blog. But it was soon taken over by personal events. The nature of those events are so emotionally huge I can no longer bring myself to talk of such trivial things as politics and current events there. My other blog - http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/ - is dedicated to the truly trivial, miniature war gaming. It is not the forum for anything like what I will have here.

With out of the way I am ready to get started. A couple of notes that will help my readers. First, I am a poor speller but I am an even worse typist. Please keep that in mind as you read and when in doubt it is my typing skills that are at fault. Second, I am not a professional writer and that will show. I will do my best to write in a coherent fashion...but there will be no guarantees that you will have any idea what I am talking about.

Enjoy!