Category: Politics

An “Arnold Republican” = a “Gore Democrat”???

I don’t buy this rehabilitation of the Governator, but via DailyKos we get this quote from Meet The Press

MR. RUSSERT: What’s an Arnold Republican?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, it’s basically being fiscally conservative, being socially moderate and you know, being environmentally progressive

Which is pretty much where I see Gore. Not that he seems to be running in 2008 any more than Schwarzenegger can, but… *lol* …let’s face it, while I *am* a Gore fan it’s for gravitas that’s otherwise lacking in the Democratic field, and for his single-issue leadership on environmental issues.

It would be great to see someone with a more broadly progressive line, and the chops to be a president. Heck, it would be great to see one of the more experienced 2008 contenders take a strong progressive line on a single issue.

`Illegal drugs can be “harmless” and should no longer be “demonised”‘

British report: Drugs may not be all that bad.
In other news: Pinochet and Franco are still dead.

Illegal drugs can be harmless, report says

Thursday March 8, 2007
Illegal drugs can be “harmless” and should no longer be “demonised”, a wide-ranging two-year study concluded today.

The report said Britain’s drug laws were “not fit for purpose” and should be torn up in favour of a system which recognised that drinking and smoking could cause more harm.

(To make my own opinion perfectly clear: I am in favor of decriminalization of most drugs. Go Britain!)

What is wrong with for-profit healthcare? The basic premise.

A great diary on the US health care problem on DailyKos: For-profit healthcare: The ultimate triumph of insanity
(I’m going to skip to the punchline)

Let me end by explaining what in Wall Street speak an “improved” medical-loss ratio means for you and me.

The medical-loss ratio is improved for them by cutting the amount of premium revenues spent on patient care for us. Every dollar that is spent on our healthcare goes against the bottom line. It is bad for Aetna and bad for Wall Street when money is spent on our healthcare.

To the for-profit insurance industry, are not human beings. We are losses. We are not Americans. We are not patients. We are not sick people. Your life and mine are losses.

This system is beyond redemption and beyond repair.

Go read the whole thing.

Maine rocks.

Maine rejects Real ID

Maine overwhelmingly rejected federal requirements for national identification cards on Thursday, marking the first formal state opposition to controversial legislation scheduled to go in effect for Americans next year.

Both chambers of the Maine legislature approved a resolution saying the state flatly “refuses” to force its citizens to use driver’s licenses that comply with digital ID standards, which were established under the 2005 Real ID Act. It asks the U.S. Congress to repeal the law.

“Real ID” was a very stupid idea and terribly for privacy, with no real gain except in the size of the beaurocracy. Go Maine!

Bah humbug, part 2: Bush wants to take away employer-based health insurance

I’m just apalled by the health care situation in this country. It’s pretty rare that political issues hit home to me quite so obviously, but we need some kind of real single-payer national healthcare system now. Or, since the “right now” part has already expired while writing this, as soon as bloody possible.

A little over a month ago, I sat through our company’s open enrollment presentation discussing the benefit change for next year. Not many changes, and Guidewire has good benefits (just BTW, in case one of my readers is looking for a job. It’s a cool place to work.) That said, a big part of the presentation was talking about the combination of “High-deductible health plan” and a “Health (Medical?) Savings Account”.

Those seemed like a very broken way of providing health insurance to me, and inspired me to start a post which, until now, I’ve never finished; indeed, my original intent – arguing for single payer, will have to wait. But meanwhile I wanted to share the following news story with you in additional evidence that Bush’s goal, and that of the Republican legislators who were until recently in power, was to “reform” the employer based health care system out of commission completely.

Check this out: (Emphasis below is mine, quoting is selective, and I recommend reading the whole article.)
Bush Insurance Plan Gets Cold Reception

“Under the guise of tax breaks, the president is pursuing a policy designed to destroy the employer-based health care system through which 160 million people receive coverage,” the lawmaker said.

[The proposal] includes a trade-off. Contributions from employers toward health insurance would begin to be treated as taxable income. At the same time, a standard deduction for taxpayers with health insurance would be set at $15,000 for families and $7,500 for individuals

Giving a tax break to individuals who pay for their own health insurance, rather than only allowing it if it’s above 7.5% of total income seems only fair to me… after all, those of us who get it through our employers do so through either the employer paying for it untaxed or through a “cafeteria plan” pre-tax deduction. The fair way to allow people to deduct individually paid health insurance would be to do so through one of those special deductions that is separate from one’s regular, itemized deductions (as is done right now with student loan interest.)

Instead, what seems to be being proposed is just plain stupid. Fortunately, I think it is (as noted elsewhere in the article) a non-starter with a Democratic congress, but then again… didn’t the whole health savings account crap start under Clinton? Assuming that the Democratic party is on the right side of this issue ignores just how big a tent the Democratic party is, and how bad the Hillarycare proposal was (I vaguely recall my far-left friends/family calling it “corporate welfare for big insurance companies” at the time.)

If that’s not bad enough, we’ve also got the total fiasco that Governor Schwartzenegger (sp?) is proposing here in California. I’ve not been following that as well as I should, but I’ve been apalled by what I’ve heard so far (how, for example, will the individual requirement to carry health insurance be enforced? Filling the jails?) Calitics has had a good bit of coverage that I need to catch up on.

More to come on this issue, I hope.

Addendum: Here’s a link to the whitehouse fact sheet on the president’s actual proposal. Also mcjoan at Dailykos discusses this further, although with a rather different read on what the proposal means.

Bah humbug, part 1: AIDS group claims Viagra causes increase in HIV infections.

AIDS group to sue Pfizer over Viagra ads

Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:02am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A major U.S. AIDS treatment group plans to file a lawsuit on Monday that accuses drug giant Pfizer Inc. of illegally promoting recreational use of its blockbuster impotence pill Viagra.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) told Reuters it wants Pfizer to be barred from marketing Viagra as a lifestyle or sexual enhancement drug. The nonprofit organization said Pfizer’s actions had led to risky behavior by men and an increase in HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

“Pfizer has created and contributed to the perception of Viagra as a safe, sexy, lifestyle, recreational drug, to be frequently used regardless of the degree, or even existence of” erectile dysfunction, the group said in draft legal documents.

While I sympathize about AIDS treatment costs, the case – at least as made in the news article (which is very much worth a full read) – is tenuous. Then again, I haven’t seen the ads in question.

Should the federales be suing Pfizer for welfare checks because of unintended pregnancies that might not have happened but for Viagra? It’s similar logic, though I doubt at $9/pill retail (and higher through the online vendors who cater to the recreational use market) that it’s making a lot of inroads among the very poor.

And why just Viagra? The other PDE-5 inhibitors (Levitra and Cialis) are essentially the same; indeed, both of the others for various reasons are better choices for a purely recreational user.

And yes, in one sense they’re right – Viagra is used as a recreational drug, especially heavily if you count people with real but intermittent ED. So what? It still require’s a doctor’s prescription, and the few risks a healthy individual (or otherwise-healthy individual with ED) takes in using it are theirs alone and relatively minor. The risks of STDs faced by someone using it are no higher than those by someone without ED, and indeed given the occasional complaints guys have about losing their erections when using condoms, one could argue that with Viagra may encourage safer-sex practices.

(I’m locking this one “no comments” because mentioning the big V will probably attract extra spambots. If you really want to comment, do so on Bah Humbug Part 2, to be posted shortly.)

Thailand in the economic news

No idea what to make of this, but in case it’s of interest to any of my readers:

Thailand Abandons Limits on Foreign Stock Investments (Update6)

By Suttinee Yuvejwattana and Margo Towie

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — Thailand scrapped currency controls on international stock investors one day after their imposition by the central bank prompted the biggest stock market plunge in 16 years.

The government lifted a requirement that banks lock up 30 percent of new foreign-currency deposits for a year for funds earmarked for stocks, Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula said in Bangkok. The rule, intended to slow a 16 percent gain in the Thai currency this year that threatened exports and economic growth, sparked investor selling that wiped out $23 billion of market value in Thai stocks.

“It’s the economy, stupid.”

Via AMERICAblog:
Wholesale prices surge; Housing rebounds

WASHINGTON – Inflation at the wholesale level surged by the largest amount in more than three decades in November, reflecting higher prices for gasoline and a host of other items.

The Producer Price Index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach the consumer, was up 2 percent last month, the biggest advance since a similar increase in November 1974, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

Economists had been expecting a rebound in wholesale prices following two months of big declines. However, the 2 percent jump was four times bigger than the 0.5 percent increase they had forecast. Even excluding volatile energy and food prices, core inflation posted a 1.3 percent advance, the biggest jump in 26 years.

Emphasis above is mine. What a great economy we’ve got, eh? Between this and the quagmire in Iraq war, Bush is looking like he is trying to out-Nixon Nixon.

Privacy? What’s that?

MPAA Kills Anti-Pretexting Bill

A tough California bill that would have prohibited companies and individuals from using deceptive “pretexting” ruses to steal private information about consumers was killed after determined lobbying by the motion picture industry, Wired News has learned.

The bill, SB1666, was written by state Sen. Debra Bowen, and would have barred investigators from making “false, fictitious or fraudulent” statements or representations to obtain private information about an individual, including telephone calling records, Social Security numbers and financial information. Victims would have had the right to sue for damages.

It’s not just about the MPAA, eiher:

Sean Walsh, past president of the California Association of Licensed Investigators and an investigator for 27 years, said his group opposed SB1666 because it was too vague and would have tied the hands of investigators looking into insurance fraud, child support cases and missing children.

It’s for the child-runnnn. Got it.

(via Doom9.org)

Modern or post-modern?

Headline: “Finland’s ‘sexiest man’ ends romance with txt msg”

Yawn. Just like Britney, some celebrity scandal. Well, let’s take a look anyway:

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, dubbed Finland’s sexiest man, broke up by text message with the girlfriend he had met on the Internet, she said in a magazine interview.

(emphasis mine) Prime minister??? You mean like their head of state… oops head of their government? (Can’t remember what sort of head of state Finland has.)

Yes, I know the Finns are way cooler than us Yankees, but this one still boggled me. Single PM, dating? Dating from the internet? Dumping the gal via text message? And the US still stuck with the religious reich making noises that it’s inappropriate to have a divorced president… gah, sucks to be us.