I wasn’t going to post anything about this, but I’m here in Canada (home of a National Healthcare System), and I just watched Michael Moore’s documentary, Sicko.

I’m a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program. While out at the park with my little brother, he got into an accident. He crashed his bike and was hurt. Many people around quickly jumped to his aide, some going out of their way and even injuring themselves to help him.

An ambulance was called. His mother came, and there was discussion about how they would pay for the ambulance ride. After some discussion, it was agreed that because his health insurance didn’t pay for the ambulance ride, they would drive to their doctor’s office later.

I couldn’t believe this, and I wasn’t going to let this happen. I paid for the ambulance ride, and I went to the hospital with him. How do you put a value on someone’s safety? How do you weigh the risk of $500 versus making sure a child is OK?

If you don’t think that America’s health care system is broken — wake up.

When Jodi lived in France, and I in Barcelona — when we got sick, we simply went to the hospital, or went to the doctor. We laughed at Jodi’s roommate who could never find out how to pay for one of her emergency hospital visits (she never did).  Why is that so hard for us Americans to do?

If 5 people can jump to the aide of one little boy, why can’t we all jump to the aide of 47 million Americans that can’t afford basic health insurance?

I just watched No End in Sight tonight with Jodi. It left me wishing it was just a movie. I mean sure, it had evil villains, greed, explosions, murders, violence, over-the-top acting — but alas, it was sadly a very real documentary.

It is just utterly amazing (enraging/frightening) to me how badly the Iraq war has turned out, not just for the Iraqi people, but for the U.S. and the current (and future) Administration. This movie does a most excellent job of *not* covering the already hashed out “illegitimate reasons” for the war and instead just focuses on the hard facts that caused the U.S. to essentially lose Iraq the moment after we invaded. I wish the simple explanation was that we let a few men (and Condi) with little to no direct military experience, no real knowledge of the Arab world, and no direct experience in Iraq just continue to escalate under mismanagement and lack of leadership (they are the leadership), but it can’t be that simple. After watching this video of Dick Cheney circa 1994 talking about how invading Iraq would be a quagmire, there has to be something we Americans are just too dumb for those in the Administration to let us in on.

I remember thinking while watching it, that anyone currently thinking of public service or in public service really needs to see this movie. I know I’m just a whiny liberal, and now probably a traitor for using the words “lose” and war in the same sentence, but I really just can’t wrap my head around what possibly it is that the Administration knows and is “protecting” us Americans from.

America needs leadership who can actually lead instead of simply wanting to lead. We need leadership that rewards loyalty as equally as dissent. We have a serious problem on our hands, and the worst thing we can do is not learn from our mistakes and move forward.

Random Political Rant Over.

“If you’re not liberal when you’re young, you have no heart. If you’re not conservative when you’re older, you have no brain.”

– a mis-quote (or made up quote) attributed to Winston Churchill

Jodi and I are going to the Obama rally this Saturday at Georgia Tech.  A good friend of mine told me to watch out for cocaine and madrasses.  Who needs Dancing with the Stars when we have Fox News for good old entertainment?

I just wish I only had one word to say: goddamnit.

But I don’t. I have quite a few words to say. First, let me say that life will go on with Dubya as president. America will continue to shine as the beacon of….aww fuck it…. America has an antiquated form of government that bases modern day decisions like partial-birth abortions, gay-marriage rights, deterrence/proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other such gems on a system comprised of a document enscribed by several old, white men wearing tights and wigs, escaping religious “persecution,” created with the intentions that it would be easy to amend for the changing times, and a system of checks and balances that would ensure government would be run by the people, for the peo… like I said, fuck it.

Well, you gotta think that the rest of the world with its <sarcasm>gay-loving, french-sympathizing, baby-killing, gun-hating </sarcasm> out-look on life is thinking, (along with, oh, say 48% of America) what the fuck?

OK, so it can’t be that bad, right? As my pal Omar reminds me: “Just remember my friend, it’s never as good as the people who won say it is, but by the same token, it’s never as bad as the losers will have you think.”

For sure, though, as Americans, we can’t make informed decisions (vote) or base our public-policy on what other people (the rest of the planet) think all the time, but for sure, maybe we should garner a little bit more support in the world-court (or whatever you’d like to call it) for our efforts. If we really think something like imposing a democracy on Iraq, outlawing people having sex with members of the opposite sex, utilizing semi-automatic assault rifles with armor-piercing bullets for killing “deer,” and implementing a Homeland Security policy complete with meaningless color-coded terror levels, maybe we should take a minute to think about the long-term implications for future generations. Maybe.

OK, so what values should we base our decisions on? When a majority of Americans seem to believe that the US is a experiencing a decline in moral values (it started with that damn Clinton), well just what do we do? Elect a leader whose Christian values of prayer and going to church and declaring gay marriage illegal? No. Unfortunately, most Americans may not admit it, but the values we share are hard work, intelligence, and, well, money. Insert compasionate-conservative-gasp-at-crazy-liberal-view here.

Well, Omar, you are correct sir, maybe it’s not that bad. After all, he’s only the Commander-In-Chief, and we do have several checks and balances (like our soon-to-be-even-more-conservative Supreme Court and GOP-majority House and Senate) to keep everything fair and balanced and running like a well oiled governmental machine. I mean, the presidency may be an important job, but it’s still a government job, and man do those suck.

I’m done. Here’s your recap: George Bush won. It sucks. Election Reform.

“Of Course Your Vote Counts” by Stephen Colbert

Taken from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart presents: America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, and actually I dictated from the Audiobook. This is a hilarious book, the audiobook is done really well, too.

If I hear one more time from someone (I almost wrote: republican/conservative/nut-job) that John Kerry is a flip-flopper, I am going to flip out and change my mind about how I deal with that comment. That’s right, I’m going to change my mind–flip-flop if you will. Before, I thought it was pretty funny. Haha, funny, I get it, he changes his mind, you can’t trust him, eh, eh, eh?

Hmmmm. I wish John Kerry (and others) would just come out and say: “You know what, I, like 70% of America was for the war after that day, September 10th (or 11th or whatever day that was), but now I’ve seen a few things, learned the truth (or even the lack there-of) and now, like most Americans, am against it.”

There. I’m done. OK, now honestly, don’t send me the link to the video where John Kerry is debating himself, haha, I get it, he flip-flops! Don’t send me any more stuff on that shit. What I will take links for is something not related to this war on Iraq. I’m done.

How about, some links to the “other debate” - the one between David Cobb and Michael Badnarik? Or what about 12 questions with David Cobb of the Green Party (on slashdot). My favorite line:

Do yourself a favor, find out about the other issues (not this war in Iraq–however silly/important/far-fetched/vital you think it is to your vote). Here’s some that you might find of interest: election reform, the fair tax, national single payer health insurance, educational reform, peace, racial/social/economic equality, off-shoring/out-sourcing, patent/copyright laws, gun-rights, … hmmm….

I was listening to talk-radio the other day, and to be honest, I listen to several talk-radio programmes every Monday and Friday on my drive to/from Nashville. We all know that radio is where the right-wing nut jobs hang out, c’mon y’all, let’s admit it. I think as soon as you can accept that radio DJs have only 2 real objectives, the better off you are.

1) Entertainment. Pure, and simple. Yes, Rush Limbaugh is upset. He is, in fact, yelling. And, yes, he is always up in arms about something. If you don’t agree, chances are you’ll listen and laugh (or get mad at him). If you do happen to agree (after or before the yelling), chances are you’ll listen and just get madder with him. Damn that liberal gay jew run media.

2) Commercials. I believe Sean Hannity put this one best, when he was talking about something or other, repeating something about 9/11 changing how he walks his dog, and then he told me about 1-800-USA-DOOR — which provides quality overhead and garage doors, built in America. He says that they do “extensive criminal background checks, and drug-screening of all their service technicians,” so it’s safe! No, wait, I believe it was Neal Boortz (Atlanta, GA syndicated) who was talking about vinyl siding, or was it gutter cleaning or fucking-old-people-insurance, and you know, he did mention clearly that the terrorists were going to come into your home and bomb your duplex and rape your dog and steal your wife and drink the milk straight from the jug without using a glass if you didn’t get real scared and buy American Products. I think that was the gist of it.

I’m so over talk-radio. How about, pTunes on my Treo600, streaming one of those ShoutCast Radio stations? Now if only I could find a good one.

The Cato Institute daily has an article by Jonathan Clarke (also ran on Sep 22 in the LA Times) entitled An Ominous U.S. Model that spells out some scary truths.

He asserts two scary scenarios.

Even more scary is that is approach tends to place more power in the hands of the “central executive” (George W).

In my opinion, if any country decides to wage a war on terrorism–the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons–they may consider attacking the largest terrorist “group” in history: us.

OK, so it’s time for some pajama journalism. Slashdot’s 15 questions from the Libertarian Party’s US Presidential nominee, Michael Badnarik is quite refreshing. Check it out: Libertarian Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik Answers

From Reason Magazine’s Daily Brickbat by Charles Oliver:

Thanks for the link Omar.