The Question of Bacon

Since we’re on the topic of politics and Obama:

Alan Grayson (D-Florida) will not apologize. Not for bacon, not for nothing.

Nobel Obama

In case you haven’t heard the buzz the Nobel awards committee have decided to give President Obama the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Placing him alongside Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, the Dali Lama, Kofi Anan and Desmond Tutu along with many others.  Only three other US Presidents hold that title: Jimmy Carter (for his outstanding peace work) Woodrow Wilson (for founding the goddamn League of Nations) and Teddy Roosevelt (for ending the Russo-Japanese War, giving The Hauge it’s first case and probably cause he threatened to beat it out of them with a stick.)

"Grrrr..."

All that said, the induction seems to have come a little early. Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison and was forced to work in a lime quarry for standing up in what he believed in. There was even a plot by the South African aparthied government to spring him from jail just so they could shoot him down. Gorbachev faced Chernobyl and decided to go public about it, completely rewriting the Soviet Union’s freedom of information policies. He also faced arrest and a millitary coup by some of his closest friends, brought about the downfall of the very government he was elected to. He also had the strength to hold on end the Cold War and steer his country into the 21st century. Obama certainly faces adversity, but his toil is just beginning. He is the new guy and the nomination seems more like a pat on the back, a welcoming into the club. To put it lamely: He’s the new superhero on the team with cool powers and hip dialogue but until he takes his licks and really slugs evil in the face, he’s just an obvious revamp.

’76 Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire (guess where she’s from) puts it well in her response to the news: “President Obama has yet to prove that he will move seriously on the Middle East, that he will end the war in Afghanistan and many other issues.”

Big decision time there, B.O..

On the positive side this kind of seals the deal. Barak Obama has been entered into one of the big lists of the modern world and he’s going to have to prove that he’s worthy of the honor. We are really close to closing Guantanamo and ending policies of torture in US institutions and Obama has pushed that. Voices across the Middle East, where most of Obama’s work remains unwritten, have spoken out to his worthiness as a candidate. There are still detractors but hope seems to be a catching thing. Even Mahmoud Ahamadinejad’s adviser gave congratulations, urging Obama to continue to spearhead the fight against injustice.

So who knows what will happen, Obama seems mired in the many hurdles the presidency has to offer when it comes to reforming a nation, changing our world image and patching the huge holes in our foreign policy. The greater Middle East will be Obama’s crucible in the years to come. Can a President who has elected to send more troops to Afghanistan in one hand and take the Nobel Peace Prize in the other and not have a sense of contrast?

Hopefully in 2012, or even 2016, we’ll be able look back and understand that this was the right decision. One thing is for sure: There is a long road ahead.

Joe Wilson on TRICARE

Don’t know the name? He’s the guy who yelled out “You lie!” in the middle of President Obama’s speech on health care.

So, if you’re bored and feeling like you haven’t been misunderstood or called an “America hating muslim communist jew” enough in the past few weeks, feel free to place a comment on any article or video that’s been posted covering this. Seriously, it’s been blown way out of proportion. The man broke decorum. Obama recovered. It’s politics.

Crazy politics. But politics nonetheless.

However this unfortunate outburst has brought the liberal spotlight down on our poor Joe Wilson. He’s been under some intense scrutiny since his verbal outpouring with people looking to expose something horrible about our esteemed colleauge from South Carolina. Out of all of the morass, I found this to be the most interesting so far.

Senator Wilson is a retired Colonel from the Army National Guard and his four sons are in the armed services as well. Because of this Mr. Wilson recieves TRICARE, the millitary’s mostly free health care coverage. As Weinstein’s article states:

Military beneficiaries like Wilson—who, as a retiree, is eligible for lifetime coverage—never have to worry about an eye exam, a CT scan, a prolonged labor, or an open-heart surgery. They have access not only to the military’s 133,500 uniformed health professionals, but cooperating private doctors as well—whose fees are paid by the Department of Defense. It’s high-quality care, too: surveys from 2007 and 2008 list TRICARE among “the best health insurer(s) in the nation” by customer satisfaction.

Now here’s the tricky part: Sen. Wilson has voted multiple times against TRICARE and millitary health benefits. He has voted against expanding TRICARE coverage to all millitary veterans and has voted to reduce funding for the same program that his family has enjoyed the benefits of for generations.

Sen. Wilson is also one of the more outspoken opponents of government run health care. Despite the fact that he gets his health insurance from a government run agency. A very streamlined agency that encompasses both the government is funded by the Defense Department. And where does the Defense Department get it’s money?

Our taxes.

So it seems that Mr. Wilson is not opposed to his government run healthcare but is leery about the repercussions of our government run health care. To be fair his outburst was tied to his feelings that many illegal immigrants could be covered by a loophole in one of the bills, and yes, he has given a good portion of his life to serving the country’s millitary. But doesn’t a public schoolteacher, a police officer, a factory worker or any other individual serve their country as well? Is the only way to earn the government’s care to pick up a gun and pledge your life to do the government’s bidding?

I’ll stop before I get carried away.

BREAKING NEWS: President a Human Being

Before a CNBC interview on Monday, President Obama was yukking it up with reporters and let it slip that he is actually a Human Being, with Opinions and a Sense of Humor.  His comments about Kanye West’s ridiculous micjacking at the VMAs — namely that Kanye acted like a “jackass” — made their way out into the world, and now people may have to accept that he has the ability to be both candid and jovial.  How this will change politics in the years to come is unknown.

TMZ.com has the audio, which clearly captures the comments and also includes a reporter calling the President a “ninja.” Look out, Kanye; when you’ve gained the ire of a Hope and Change Ninja President, it may be time to take a long hard look at the way you’re living your life.

World News Update

World News Update (Simplified Indefinite Article Version with Commentary)

1. A pigeon is faster than broadband. (Yep.)
2. A bunch of promising films are to be shown in Toronto. (Michael Caine in an Urban Western? A big-screen biopic about Charles Darwin? Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner in a film together? Awesome.)
3. A man tries to come off as a strong and capable leader on national television. (That man is Barak Obama.)
4. A dead cockroach will freak other cockroaches out. (Would freak me out too.)
5. A bunch of people don’t like the idea of giving this one guy the key to the city. (I personally don’t like it either.)
6. A toymaker invents a game where you can buy any street in the world. (If I bought every street I’ve ever lived on I’d probably lose.)
7. A new mirror is being designed by an internet and technology based company. (I want to look at myself in one.)

The Light of a Napkin

This is a really good tool for understanding what’s going on with the whole health care situation:

A Four Napkin Explanation of American Health Care (with pictures!)

The Real Threat to Our Society

A Little Bit About Health Care

This summer has been a strange one for health care in America. Back in July Walmart announced it was backing Obama’s health care plan and supported a universal single-payer care program. Just recently Whole Foods’ CEO wrote against “ObamaCare” (in the form of a national health care program) in the Wall Street Journal saying: “A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This “right” has never existed in America.” Everyone it seems is taking a side and making enemies.

Now on the Walmart front, aside from the speculation that “the mean old giant has met the baby Jesus and now loves the people of America”* it seems most likely that this is a huge business ploy.  Walmart is the largest private employer and so will have a huge part in negotiating what the employer health care mandates are and can set the bar higher for it’s competition. Also, the need for employers to supply health care to their workers will make the market a lot harder to enter. I am not a buisiness major, I picked a lot of that info up here.

And Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods whose statement has stuck in the craw of hundreds of upper-middle class yippies does have some good sugguestions, like making medical costs transparent and honest so that a positive form of “doctor shopping” can take place where a patient can know what he’s getting in for and what he is actually paying for up front. As he puts it: ”What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?”

America has the most expensive health care system in the world. The second is Norway, however Norway does not have 15% of its population uncovered by health insurance, nor does it have a privately run health insurance industry a trait we share with a large number of third world nations and only a very few developed nations. Now there have certainly been health care reforms that have gone bad, and though America is not going to close all rural hospitals and tell sick people to go to Washington DC for treatment. we certainly could stand some positive changes.

Just listen to this guys argument.

World News Update

1. The Portland, Maine chapter of the 48 Hour Film Project is finished!  MINT Films submits their short: ”The Burden” on time. Screeming on Tuesday at 9:30pm at the Westbrook Cinemagic with the rest of the festival’s films.
2. New Zealand man robs record store after giving owner his contact information.
3. Jones vs. Harris Associates may be first Supreme Court case to address the issues of ”excessive” bonuses paid out to executives of failing publicly traded firms.
4. Obama may opt for non-profit insurace co-operatives in health care reform plan following pressure from opponents.
5. Japan leaves recession but experts not sure for how long.
6. 600 Chinese villagers storm lead plant after children poisoned.
7. Egyptian President agrees to recognize Israel if comprehensive peace plan is achieved and building on the West Bank is stopped.
8. 20 dead in Russian suicide bombing.
9. Stanford engineer decodes his genome for just five easy installments of $10,000.

World News Update

1. Christian Anti-War activists play hide and go seek and halt a training exercise featuring 24,000 Australian and American troops.
2. Two Uighur “lawbreakers” are shot by Chinese military in aftermath of rioting that claimed 180 lives in rural China.
3. Tennessee forces it’s residents to reexamine that old chestnut, the 2nd Amendment, as it relaxes gun laws.
4. This is just a really cool article about whales.
5. Obama starts to investigate claims that hundreds/thousands of US captured Taliban fighters were executed or left to suffocate in shipping containers.
6. Drunk badger disrupts traffic in Germany.
7. Man turns Rome’s Spanish Steps into one of those ball pits at Chuck-E-Cheeze’s.