God love the rich man

Don't you think it's our inequality that makes us so special. We cherish it. We laud it. Clearly we vote for it, because the one tenth of the one percent who own it, "it" being one side of the inequality, still only have one tenth of one percent of the votes. God bless us all.....and screw the foolish camel trying to get through the eye of the needle!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/opinion/nocera-romney-and-the-forbes-400.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

The 47% who don't pay taxes...what a stinking lot

Mitt Romney spoke at a gathering of supporters recently and claimed that 47% of Americans don't pay taxes, are dependent upon government, and will never resonate with his message of lower taxes. He felt he'd never get them to support him. He's probably right that they won't support him, but he's not right for the right reason.

They won't support him not because they disagree on the role of government (and please forgive all the negatives). Sure they think government should provide more help for the poor than Mr. Romney would approve of. But that's not why they won't vote for him.

The won't vote for him because Mr. Romney has a tin ear. Actually he has two tin ears. Mr. Romney sees no inequity in a system that pays one person $20,000 for a year's work and another person $2,000,000 for a year's work. Clearly one is doing a job we don't value too highly and the other is doing a job requiring more skill. No one questions there should be a difference in pay. But we can all see how clearly Mr. Romney disparages the poor fool with the shit-for-pay job. It's got to be the poor fool's fault that he's got a shit-for-pay job. If Mr. Romney figured out how to get a high paying job, why can't everyone. That's the first tin ear. He can't respect folks who have only figured out how to get low paying jobs.

The second tin ear is his reverence for an economic system that produces low paying jobs. Again, we may all agree that capitalism is the best economic system around. But that does not mean we can't recognize it's short-comings. Low pay, and I'm talking about poverty-level pay, is a short-coming of the system. It may be an inevitable part of the system, but at least we can have the good grace to recognize its stench. Mr. Romney  doesn't smell the stench of a low paying job; he just smells the stench of a low paid person.

Health Care and Financial Crisis

In the July/August 2011 issue of Public Citizen News Dr. Sidney Wolfe, co-founder and director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group was asked, "What is the key to solving the crisis of health?"

"Eliminating the private insurance industry and having a Medicare-for-All (single-payer) system would save upwards of $400 billion a year and provide enough money to cover all Americans."

My brother is a doctor. I asked him the same question a year ago. He gave the same answer, adding that, as a doctor, he would not like it, because he would be locked into the rates set by a single entity, but as a consumer and citizen, he thought it was the way to go.

Four hundred billion dollars a year in savings. How is it that we do not make this a litmus test for our Senators and Congressmen? There may be reasonable arguments against a single-payer system, but do they stack up against saving $400 billion dollars a year?

Minority Representation and its Limits

The Senate can slow government down to a crawl.

It's actually designed to do so.

There are good arguments for it.

Minorities don't get trampled thanks to the Senate.

However in the last twenty years the Senate has become so bipartisan, so devoid of diplomacy, that it is impeding basic governance. The New Yorker article by George Packer gives an in-depth look at the obfuscation and recalcitrance that has replaced what was once a legislative body.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/09/100809fa_fact_packer

The New York Times editorial explains why Jeff Merkley and Tom Udall's Senate Reform Proposal deserves consideration. Read the editorial. Read the proposal. If you agree, call your Senators immediately. Ask them to support it.

The first day of the Senate is the only day, each year, the Senate rules can be amended.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/opinion/03mon1.html

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/opinion/Senate_Procedures_Reform.pdf

Embarrass Us

A ten-year old girl embarrassed her family and her village.

She objected to being raped.

Nujood Ali is a young girl in Yemen. In 2008 she was ten years old when her father married her off to a lecherous man in his 30's. Her father worried for her safety in a land where some village elders, the wise men of the community, considered rape an inconsequential crime, an act easily rectified by marrying the child to the rapist. Nujood's father had already had one daughter go through this terror and didn't want to see it happen again. So her father married her to an old man, who proceeded to rape her....oh, sorry, have sex with her....night after night. Amazingly, Nujood, after several months, escaped to a nearby city where judges actually listened to her, and granted her a divorce.

I am not sure what is more striking, that Nujood escaped or that the judges listened to her. The judges actually listened and granted her a divorce. There is hope for men, maybe. Though I pray to the gods, Women, don't let up, don't acquiesce, don't be silent, don't be submissive. Our species won't survive if you do.

Some of the men in her family are embarrassed by all the attention. Why couldn't she just suck it up, take the rape and act like a good girl.

Nujood has much attention thanks to many strong women in her life, not the least of whom is Delphine Minoui, who helped Nujood write about her young life. With some luck, she may grace us with a long life.

"I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced"

Embarrassment may be our only salvation.

George Clooney is banking on embarrassment preventing the Sudan from descending into civil war, if not another genocide. He and John Prendergast and others have raised almost a million dollars to hire satellites in the sky to watch the troops live, in action, and broadcast the feed immediately for the world to see.

www.satsentinel.org

Sadly, people who hate other people aren't usually embarrassed by their hatred. In fact, publicizing it often fuels their resolve.

It leaves me embarrassed for us.

Journalists, Our Guardians, Need Our Help

Natalia Estemirova is dead.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/15/natalia-estemirova-killin_n_234021.html

Anna Politkovskaya is dead.
http://www.annapolitkovskaya.com/

Stanislav Markelov is dead.
http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2009/01/grigory_pasko_rip_stanislav_markelov_1974-2009.htm

Anastasia Baburova is dead.
http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13055783

They were all murdered.
We should remember them.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee are still alive.
Imprisoned, but alive.
Help them.

http://www.lauraandeuna.com/

Happy Easter

Just caught wind of this video happening.
People catching a train station by surprise, singing and dancing.
Warmed my heart.

http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000089?v=4816051&l=100022574