1am. A mug of finished black tea left, a lit tealight candle fracturing through its crimped glass holder on the window sill right, and groovy underwater tunes roll out of Princeton on Sam's Storytime Castle at 103.3 WPRB. I can't talk up this radio station enough. Stream that shit!
Since mentally beginning this post, I have started work and thus lost much reading time. I find myself glad to be working for a nonprofit that does more than deal in paper & ink and the shifting of money. It is an efficient nonprofit too (as far as nonprofits go); a generally accepted rule says effective nonprofits spend a minimum of 85% of their total expenditures on providing direct program services.
Employment made for a nice contrast to increasing anxiety re: current national dilemmas. Namely, that Obama blows. Quite frankly, his skin color and political party mean nothing to me. Apparently, his political party also means nothing to him. Pourquoi!? Yeah, the dummy who talked up transparency, abortion rights, and bringing the ego of big business back down to size has manipulated Congress Democrats to pass a conservative health care bill ultimately derived from The Heritage Foundation.
It's been a while, but it still stings. While I haven't considered him useful since implementing seatbelt standards, I surprisingly found myself agreeing with some of Ralph Nadar's dramatic take on the fiasco:
The health insurance legislation is a major political symbol wrapped around a shredded substance. It does not provide coverage that is universal, comprehensive or affordable. It is a remnant even of its own initially compromised self — bereft of any public option, any safeguard for states desiring a single payer approach, any adequate antitrust protections, any shift of power toward consumers to defend themselves, any regulation of insurance prices, any authority for Uncle Sam to bargain with drug companies, and any reimportation of lower-priced drugs.Most of the health insurance coverage mandated by this legislation does not come into effect until 2014, by which time 180,000 Americans will die because they were unable to afford health insurance to cover treatment and diagnosis, according to Harvard Medical School researchers.
The bill’s 2,000 pages afford many opportunities for insurance companies to further their strategy of maximizing profits by denying claims, restricting the benefits of their present customers, and the benefits of the new customers who are mandated to buy their policies, all backed by hundreds of billions of dollars of federal subsidies.
Its main saving grace is that it is so inadequate and so delayed in implementation that the position supported by the majority of people, physicians and nurses –- full Medicare for all –- will have abundant opportunities to build around the country. The spiraling price hikes by the insurance industry are sure to spur the single payer movement to new popularity.
Regardless of a body's position on this particular legislation, more people ought to be outraged by POTUS's duplicity on most every issue--financial, health care, military--which by now is old hat. Why? Because these idiots put him in office fueled by his bloated promises of Hope and Change. Instead it's more of the same; continuations of Bush policies, 'bipartisanship' that bows to Republicans, increased corporate entanglement, etc. Feeling gassy, folks?
Apparently banks can't get too big and their CEOs can't do something so horrible that the board won't return their bonuses, perhaps plus a little extra on the side.
But no matter. That the upper echelon of American business terrorizes the poor regularly is no biggie, because Obama is taking care of the true, dastardly terrorists: Anwar Al Aulaqi, for instance, an American-born religious guy, was a "potentially significant" acquaintance of the 9/11 terrorists, so Obama ordered his execution. Ya know, without legal proceedings or anything. According to p221 of the 9/11 Commission report:
Another potentially significant San Diego contact for Hazmi and Mihdhar was Anwar Aulaqi, an imam at the Rabat mosque. Born in New Mexico and thus a U.S. citizen, Aulaqi grew up in Yemen and studied in the United States on a Yemeni government scholarship. We do not know how or when Hazmi and Mihdhar first met Aulaqi. The operatives may even have met or at least talked to him the same day they first moved to San Diego. Hazmi and Mihdar reportedly respected Aulaqi as a religious figure and developed a close relationship with him.
No question the guy is sketchy, but that is not the relevant question. The question is why the Chief would publicize an order that so violently violates fundamental American rights, an order not even Bush made during his time in office. Or at least Bush wasn't foolish enough to leak it publically.
Obama couldn't give the guy five minutes in court or some legal representation, but he will give some dumb panel, once it is assembled, six MONTHS to debate what should be done about the oil disaster currently, and ceaselessly, spreading down around the Gulf of Mexico? This is not really so surprising from a president taking a vacation on Memorial Day. Where are the trendy go-greeners and outraged environmentalists?
frm streetglo.net
Maybe they are too worried about finding a job and paying for school to shout about environmental issues. But first of all, no level of school acclaim is worth amassing such intense debt--especially not in this job market. Second of all, this is the bitter callousness of class of 2009 who graduated into worse employment conditions speaking: bite me! And third of all, I love this lady and direct you her way for an explanation of our structural unemployment. You might like to be sure you aren't in fact crazy to think it absurd that Obama and his buds intend to raise taxes and focus on lowering the deficit. Aye, focus on the intangible number and ignore the individuals who comprise our nation's double digit unemployment rate! Aye! --Well, at least NYC's unemployment rate recently dipped below the national level. But does that help you?
