Why Didn't You Get Mad

I picked up the following items over at a new blog that I started following titled The Best Article Every Day. The Teabaggers say they are angry. Why now? Why not earlier, much earlier?

• You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

• You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.

• You didn’t get mad when the president ignored the clear and timely warning that terrorists were going to hijack planes and fly them into the WTCs.

• You didn’t get mad when the weapons inspectors, who said there were no WMDs, were ignored.

• You didn’t get mad when hundreds of thousands of people died in Iraq.

• You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

• You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

• You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

• You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.

• You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

• You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

• You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

• You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden.

• You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

• You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.

• You didn’t get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

• You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans…oh hell no.

Go to hell, Teabaggers! You have no credibility with me!

Republicans -- The New American Terrorists!

Republicans are the new American Terrorists.

Check out the two videos below.

GOP Racism




GOP Violence


Republicans -- The party of the New American Terrorists!

HEY BONER! YES WE CAN!

Obama says '"Yes, we can!" The Party of No through their house leader "The Boner" says "Hell no you can't!" The internet puts them together.

Republicans -- YOU LOST!!!

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Corruption

Transparency International has published a list of the most corrupt nations in the world. They surveyed 180 nations. The number one nation, the best, least corrupt nation, is New Zealand. The US comes in at number 19, not too bad, sandwiched between Japan and the United Kingdom tied at 17, and Barbados at number 20.

At the bottom of the list at 180 is Somalia. Somalia is no surprise. It is the home of the ocean pirates and touted as having no effective government.

What I found interesting is number 179 and number 176, Afghanistan and Iraq. Wait! Aren't these the countries that we are supposed to be "bringing democracy to"? Aren't these the countries that we are saving from the death throes of dictatorship and religious fanaticism?

What the hell are we doing there?

What kind of example are we setting for the rest of the world?

Disgusting!!!

Welcome to Idiocracy!

Hats off to Matt Osborne for this great video, and to the defunct band Idiot for the music.

Surprise of theDay

We usually eat dinner about 7 pm while Jeopardy is on. Tonight's Final Jeopardy question surprised me.

The answer was (wording may not be exact):

"This nation has the world's most nuclear reactors at 104, one more than the next leading nation."

The question, or the answer to the answer, or what nation are they talking about is...the US.

We have not built a reactor in the last 20 years or more, so I was surprised that it was the US with the most. My guess was France and while they generate the highest percentage of their electrical power from nuclear reactors, they do not have the most.

However, I am not sure we should be proud of our leadership.

Question of the Day

Why is the government wasting our tax dollars sending out a letter that tells me I will be receiving a 2010 census form in the mail in about 1 week? It seems like a waste to me. Someone have a good answer?

Republican Unemployment Plan

First we had the republican health care plan:

Don't get sick.
If you do, die quickly.

Now we have the republican unemployment plan:

If you are unemployed,
Get off your fat ass and get a job.

This is thanks to Jon Kyl in response to Jim Bunning's hold on unemployment benefits.

Chris Hayes from The Nation says it best in the short video below from Countdown yesterday.

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Why are the republicans still a viable political party? But then again, maybe they no longer are.

First Day Of The Rest Of My Medical Life

Today I start Medicare.

I am very happy. I was able to tell Anthem Blue Cross where to put their 37% premium increase. And that got me to thinking. (I know, trouble ahead.)

I don't have the figures in front of me, but Medicare is the primary insurer of almost everyone over 65. That probably makes them the largest provider of health insurance in the country. If not the largest, its got to be one of the top 5 or 6.

Now, people keep complaining that the government should not get involved in health care insurance via a public plan because they don't want another big inefficient government program. They say that private corporations can do it better. They say that a public plan, particularly a single payer plan will be expensive, inefficient, full of fraud, and provide poor service. They say just look at any big government program. Things go to hell when the government gets involved.

Well, let's look at Medicare. Medicare is a good example because it is an existing GOVERNMENT HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM. And a big one at that.

Medicare overhead is around 5%. Private, for-profit, health insurance overhead is around 30%. The overhead is the cost of providing service. The remainder is the money goes to pay for your medical expenses. Medicare spends 95% of their money on medical expenses and corporate health care spends 70% on medical expenses.

It looks like to me that Medicare is much more efficient than corporate insurance companies, not less. I mean WAY more efficient. Medicare spends 1/6 the amount on overhead. Or, another way to look at it is that private for-profit insurance companies spend 600% more to provide the same service.

You realize that all they do is pay the medical bills. They, both corporate and Medicare, do not provide medical services. They just pay the bills. The big corporate for-profit insurance companies charge you 6 times more for the same service.

Let me say that again.

The big corporate for-profit insurance companies charge you 6 times more for the same service.

Please tell me again why they are better?