Fortuna Faveat... may fortune favor us

You know, I get really sick and tired of hearing people claim that the U.S. health care system is anything more than an oxymoron. I could regail you with facts and figures, but that has been done before. I can attack the boilerplate response to a single-payer system, “you’ll wait 2 months to see a doctor”, by telling you that I am currently waiting 2.5 months to see a doc in our “free market” system (and I’m certainly not alone in that). But I’d rather focus on real, pragmatic, first-hand reporting from inside these scary, spooky, “other” worlds. You know, places like France and the United Kingdom. Boogedy!

Do yourself a favor and read Steve Weissman’s report for Truthout about the French single-payer system. Weissman worked for many years in London as well, so he knows that experience, too. In fact, the taxes he paid to the UK now cover his health care in France. What a concept!

It is time for the citizens of the United States to tune out the noise coming from the medical-insurance complex (not my term, but a good one) and do what is right for ourselves. We have the opportunity to take the single-payer system and make it work for us! We don’t have to blindly adopt another country’s system. We can use our ingenuity and make it the best system in the world. But first, we all need to get serious and get on board with the new mantra: single-payer or bust! Disagree and have the intellectual wherewithal to back it up? Meet me in the comments section!

The weather in Kansas has turned towards the coveted chill of late fall. The wind has whipped most leaves out of the trees, creating agnostic whirling dervishes all across the lawns. It makes me want to curl up in a window with a mug of hot tea and watch the dance of the dead leaves…and now I’ve got the perfect soundtrack to do just that.

Over the past few days, I’ve been on a reconnection binge with old friends and that turned up a great find from my friend and ethnic Kansan Alex Kissel. As you know, I am fond of pointing you in the direction of my friends that busy themselves by creating things for the rest of us to enjoy. His band, The Resurrectionists, has a new album entitled Here Hope Flows Like Blood From the Nose. It has been described as being “for those who prefer their Americana with a side order of strangeness,” and while that seems apt, I prefer to simply call it “American Gothic”. At least that’s how it will be labeled in my music collection once my CD arrives.

It has hints of Sixteen Horsepower and Tom Waits, but these guys hoe their own road. Listen to “Jersey Devil” below and imagine your nose filled with the scent of burning leaves and blowing flurries. Then, check out more tracks on their MySpace page. If you are lucky enough to be in the Boston area tomorrow night (Saturday, November 22), they are playing at The Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. I highly recommend checking them out, live, loud, or preferably both.

Vice President Dick Cheney and former attorney General Alberto Gonzales were indicted on Tuesday by a grand jury in South Texas. The indictment cited “organized criminal activity” surrounding alleged abuse of inmates in private prisons and a “money trail” of Cheney’s ownership in prison-related enterprises. Cheney has an ownership stake in the Vanguard Group, which owns an interest in private prisons in south Texas. The indictment states that Cheney is “profiteering from depriving human beings of their liberty,” according to Reuters.

For his part, Gonzales allegedly chose to “stop the investigations as to the wrong doings” into assaults in county prisons.

I hope this is the first of many indictments for the crimes committed by the Bush administration over the last eight years. We lost our respect for the rule of law at the hands of Bill Clinton. We lost the reigns outright under Bush and Cheney. If Obama doesn’t make an example of Bush, Cheney and their cohorts, there is very little hope that the notion of justice will ever reign again over our amber waves of grain. Unfortunately, I think Obama and his team just aren’t going to be the new sheriff we need. It seems the best we can hope for is that they stay out of the way of justice.

Border War debuts on Metro Sports on Wednesday Nov. 26 at 7:00 PM. It will re-air multiple times on Thanksgiving Day. Border War will also air on Fri. Nov. 28, & Sat Nov. 29.

• Time Warner KC Ch 30
• Comcast Ch 258
• Sunflower Ch 37

Eric Ashel is another proud alumnus of The University of Kansas, a Jayhawk through and through. He was brave enough to venture deep into Tiger country for his documentary, Border War, that purports to dig deep into the roots of the rivalry between The University of Kansas and the University of Missouri, the greatest sports rivalry in the United States. Obviously, I’m completely objective on this issue.

I haven’t seen the film yet, but I could hardly be more excited about it. I think it will be the definitive answer to last year’s HBO documentary on the lake party love fest that purports to be the Michigan and The Ohio State University rivalry. I’m counting on this movie to prove, once and for all, that no other rivalry comes close to our athletics, hatred, history and vitriol.

All you far-flung Jayhawks out conquering the broader world should make a point to check it out if you are back home with the family over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Back in May, I beseeched my fellow Kansans to stand up and say no to new coal power plants. There is no such thing as “clean coal”. It is a myth that grips many Americans, including our President-Elect. But enough mythbusting; I have good news to report!

Yesterday, the Sierra Club won a battle for all of us in the fight to modernize our infrastructure and move away from fossil fuels. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Appeals Board ruled EPA has no valid reason for refusing to limit the carbon dioxide emissions that cause climate change from new, coal-fired power plants. This means all new and proposed coal plants nationwide must go back and address their carbon dioxide emissions.

Kansans still face the possibility of new coal plants, so contact your representatives and tell them that you expect them to leave coal in the 18th century where it belongs. Let’s seek out 21st century technology for our modern energy needs. As you can see, this is not a death knell for coal, but an important roadblock for the coal industry and a window of opportunity for the renewable energy movement. Kudos to the Sierra Club!

Via Good

This photo is not doctored. It’s from the White House itself and makes me immensely happy. Enjoy!

Edit: yes, I totally changed the title of this post. I originally agonized over the title and then gave up, going with the less-than-spectacular “President Bush wants to give you the shocker. No, seriously.” I like what I’ve got now much better. Sorry for altering the space-time continuum this way.

Via BoingBoing

Yes, you read that correctly, that is a “T”. No, we haven’t spent $5 trillion just yet, but we, the people, are now on the hook for that amount. This, according to a report from Forbes.com, citing research firm CreditSights. Yes, feel that bile rise up in your throat. Don’t worry, that is indeed the correct emotional reaction to this calculus.

But then you realize that you have a stalwart government in place, ready to spring into action with alacrity and logic. The man of the hour is Henry Paulson, former CEO of Wall St. investment house Goldman Sachs. Obviously, his recent past as a Wall St. tycoon won’t cloud his vision. Surely he can lead us out of this mess of corporate intanglements and towards a purification of our economic system. Obviously, the days of over-leveraged business practices are gone, right?

Write Congress

and/or

Call Congress

Wrong. Paulson’s answer, according to Jon Taplin and the New York Times: abandon the idea of buying ”troubled assets” (aka the infamous mortgage-backed securities) through the Troubled Assets Recovery Program (TARP). Instead, Paulson will lever up the rest of the $700 billion 20-1 (!!!) to, as Taplin put it, “get some real bang for the buck by loaning to consumer finance companies [aka Credit Card companies].”

Now, I know I graduated from business school way back in the dark ages of 2001, but to my trained eye, this seems to be the exact sort of behavior that got us into this mess in the first place. I agree that buying the mortgage-backed paper is a terrible idea, but 20-1 leveraging as a solution? Give me a break!

Just so we are clear, I’ll spell out my understanding of Paulson’s plan:

1. Loan the rest of the TARP money to credit card companies.
2. This, in turn, will keep those companies “lending” to consumers.
3. This will then keep consumers out in the malls buying unnecessary shit, leveraging themselves even further beyond their means.
4. Pat self on back for job well-done maintaining status quo that leads inevitably to the complete collapse of our economy.

Read the links. Do your own investigating. If my analysis is wrong, let me know. Then, I suggest you write your lame duck congressional reps and forcefully instruct them that this cannot be allowed to continue.

Two more fun facts for you: since the financial shit really started to hit the fan in September, Bank of America has increased my credit limit twice and Citi just increased my limit by thousands of dollars yesterday.

I pointed you to the Obama administration’s transition website the other day and said nice things about the potential of inclusion contained therein. Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. As of yesterday, two key pages at change.gov (technology, ethics) have disappeared without explanation. If you didn’t get a chance to view them last week, here are Google’s cached versions of ethics and technology (and just in case those go dark, I’ve got them cached here and here).

The Obama camp says the pages were taken down for “retooling“. I’m unconvinced. This is an incredibly web-savvy political apparatus. It shouldn’t take them this long to retool anything. I’m sorry to say this incident smacks of the secrecy and duplicity of the Bush administration under Cheney.

Am I borrowing trouble? Yes. I want you to steel yourselves to the possible reality that Obama may be nothing more than a great speaker who is just as in the pocket of the corporations as any other politician. Let’s just keep a wary eye cast on what Obama was advocating right out of the gate.

Nobody was holding Bush to this standard when he took office. Well, actually, we still didn’t have a President-Elect at this time in 2000. Antonin Scalia hadn’t voted yet. But these are the cards Obama has been dealt and honestly, there is nothing wrong with a citizenry becoming hyper-vigilant towards their government. In fact, it is about time we did!

Via BoingBoing

…I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.Eugene V. Debs
Union Leader, Presidential candidate (1900, ‘04, ‘08, ‘12, ‘20)

My friend Nate had the good fortune of being in Grant Park last Tuesday evening. He scored a ticket and made his way through the throngs to bear witness to history. He is a gifted writer and precisely the kind of person we all want witnessing history as it unfolds. Take a look at his experience.