Politics

Mike Munger on why Single-Payer Healthcare would be better than what we had before and what we have now. These are the exact reasons why I’ve converted to the Single Payer idea myself as the most pragmatic solution, after years of dismissing it, but he writes it a lot better than I can. And let’s face it, folks…do we really have a better healthcare system than Canada, France, or Switzerland, no matter the horror stories that come up every time someone mentions that other countries might have a better solution? (Yes, I know those three countries have different solutions. Each also happens to be a lot closer to single payer than they are to us.) Note I didn’t throw Britain’s NHS in there. That ends up sounding like going to the doctor at the DMV. :) ...

Mike Munger, former Libertarian Party candidate for NC governor, recommends some steps to get past this economic morass. I’ll summarize, but you should really go and check out the article. Single Payer Healthcare, to divorce healthcare from employment compensation. Cuts to the military, while reducing mission. Cut the deficit with tax increases and spending cuts Pay for Social Security by removing the tax cap, and means-testing the rest. Reduce business uncertainty by slowing down the pace of regulation. Cut corporate tax rate to 20%, but remove all loopholes to ensure it is actually paid. Pretty interesting, and in my opinion we’re going to be forced to do a lot of these things eventually, but we’re going to wait long enough for it to be much more messy and painful than it had to be. ...

So, in North Carolina we’ll be voting on this measure for an amendment to our state Constitution, which has somehow survived for many years without it: Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. See, if I was in the state legislature, I would have voted to amend that measure as follows: ...

Full remarks here. This is an important quote: As we do, we must also reaffirm that the United States is not –- and never will be -– at war with Islam. I’ve made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity. ...

GOP holds up NJ governor’s record as a model With bipartisan backing, Christie plugged the budget hole largely by cutting aid to schools, suspending property tax rebates and skipping a $3 billion payment to the state’s pension system. He imposed a 2 percent cap on increases to local property taxes and fought frequently with the state’s teachers and other public employee unions. Wow, so plugging the budget hole is defined as moving all of your expenses to next year? It’d be interesting to see the credit ratings for Coulter, Barbour, and AEI, if they think the Christie model is any better than what states have been doing for decades. I’m surprised he’s not talking more about running in 2012, given he’ll need to flee the state soon after. ...

In a speech on the House floor, Republican Representative Ron Paul of Texas asked nine questions in regards to the ongoing kerfuffle about Wikileaks: Number 1: Do the America People deserve know the truth regarding the ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen? Number 2: Could a larger question be how can an army private access so much secret information? Number 3: Why is the hostility directed at Assange, the publisher, and not at our governments failure to protect classified information? ...

Not the liver, obviously…I know, the brain…or whatever Tony Stark uses for thinking. The Word - Nothingness The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cwww.colbertnation.comhttp://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:364881Colbert Report Full Episodes2010 ElectionMarch to Keep Fear Alive

NPR: Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law It’s a membership organization of state legislators and powerful corporations and associations, such as the tobacco company Reynolds American Inc., ExxonMobil and the National Rifle Association. Another member is the billion-dollar Corrections Corporation of America — the largest private prison company in the country. It was there that Pearce’s idea took shape. “I did a presentation,” Pearce said. “I went through the facts. I went through the impacts and they said, ‘Yeah.’” ...

Statement from Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, on December 23, 2009: “June 1989 was the major turning point in my 50 years on life’s road. Before that, I was a member of the first group of students after restoration of the college entrance examination after the Cultural Revolution (1977); my career was a smooth ride, from undergraduate to grad student and through to PhD. After graduation I stayed on as a lecturer at Beijing Normal University. On the podium, I was a popular teacher, well received by students. I was also a public intellectual: in the 1980s I published articles and books that created an impact. I was frequently invited to speak in different places, and invited to go abroad to Europe and the US as a visiting scholar. What I required of myself was: to live with honesty, responsibility and dignity both as a person and in my writing.. Subsequently, because I had returned from the US to take part in the 1989 movement, I was imprisoned for “counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement to crime”, losing the platform I loved; I was never again allowed publish or speak in public in China. Simply for expressing divergent political views and taking part in a peaceful and democratic movement, a teacher lost his podium, a writer lost the right to publish, and a public intellectual lost the chance to speak publicly. This was a sad thing, both for myself as an individual, and, after three decades of reform and opening, for China. ...

…killed by a health care reform bill, pronounced dead at the age of 233. Who knew democracy was so fragile? Who knew our great American traditions of relatively non-violent political change would be so easily broken. All by one bill. Goodbye, America…killed by a piece of government legislation, passed by a majority of the House and Senate, two bodies that we have the opportunity to radically change every two years simply by voting…not even a Constitutional amendment…. ...