"Those who know and know they know are wise, listen to them. Those who do not know and know that they do not know are intelligent, teach them. Those who do not know and do not know that they do not know are dangerous, smite them." -- unknown, paraphrased
"Sure. Hey, I'll answer the question." · 58 days ago by John
So, Senator McCain tried to be plucky in his debate format of choice. Tried to pull off some of the snarkiness of Sarah Palin. Unfortunately for him, that’s just not him. He tried some “jokes” but they fell flat. And, is it just me or has he picked up the President Bush ‘heh-heh-didja-get-it snicker?’
The most annoying use of ‘the snicker’ was in response to the following question: “Would you give Congress a date certain to reform Social Security and Medicare within two years after you take office?” … here it is again: “Sen. McCain, two years for a reform of entitlement programs?”
Senator Obama’s response started like this: “Well, Tom, we’re going to have to take on entitlements and I think we’ve got to do it quickly. We’re going to have a lot of work to do, so I can’t guarantee that we’re going to do it in the next two years, but I’d like to do in the my first term as president.” That looks like a real answer to the question to me.
Senator McCain’s new-found snicker came after he said, “Sure. Hey, I’ll answer the question,” followed by the GWB-esque snicker (as if his opponent hadn’t answered the question). Here’s his response:
Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are. We’ve got to sit down together across the table. It’s been done before.
I saw it done with our — our wonderful Ronald Reagan, a conservative from California, and the liberal Democrat Tip O’Neill from Massachusetts. That’s what we need more of, and that’s what I’ve done in Washington.
Sen. Obama has never taken on his party leaders on a single major issue. I’ve taken them on. I’m not too popular sometimes with my own party, much less his.
So Medicare, it’s going to be a little tougher. It’s going to be a little tougher because we’re talking about very complex and difficult issues.
My friends, what we have to do with Medicare is have a commission, have the smartest people in America come together, come up with recommendations, and then, like the base-closing commission idea we had, then we should have Congress vote up or down.
Let’s not let them fool with it anymore. There’s too much special interests and too many lobbyists working there. So let’s have — and let’s have the American people say, “Fix it for us.”
Now, just back on this — on this tax, you know, again, it’s back to our first question here about rhetoric and record. Sen. Obama has voted 94 times to either increase your taxes or against tax cuts. That’s his record.
When he ran for the United States Senate from Illinois, he said he would have a middle-income tax cut. You know he came to the Senate and never once proposed legislation to do that?
So let’s look at our record. I’ve fought higher taxes. I have fought excess spending. I have fought to reform government.
Let’s look at our records, my friends, and then listen to my vision for the future of America. And we’ll get our economy going again. And our best days are ahead of us.
OK, anyone see an answer to the question in that train-wreck of a canned response? Nope. Nowhere.
So, either Senator McCain couldn’t keep a promise made in the previous minute or couldn’t remember the question asked. Neither reason bodes well for the good Senator.
I would like to think that Senator McCain is a man of his word and that he’s simply being led down a path being created for him by those who beat him in 2000. He’s now using the same smear tactics that were used to denigrate and whip him in 2000 by the Bush team and now he’s using them. It’s really sad to see the man who the North Vietnamese couldn’t break has been broken so thoroughly by the Republican hate machine.
Strawman E-mails? Sarah Palin's inquiries on banning books makes her unfit to protect our Constitution. · 85 days ago by John
There’s been much ado over an e-mail floating around that talks about Sarah Palin’s requests for information about banning books when she was mayor of Wasilla. The e-mail includes a list of supposed books she attempted to ban. This has the Republican pundits in a tizzy! “This e-mail is full of lies!” they scream.
What are they mad about? Are they furious that their candidate asked about banning books and then trying to fire the librarian who told her she’d fight any such attempts? Nope. That’s fine by them evidently. But, this e-mail lets them lie about her actions and hide the truth. Sarah Palin did ask her city’s librarian about the procedure to ban books. And, at this same time, her church was trying to get certain books banned. But, the Republican spin machine has whitewashed the whole affair over an e-mail which supposes the books she was looking to have banned.
This begs the question, “where’d that email come from?” The neocon pundits are famous for creating strawman issues and then using them as proof of this or that. Is this their new trick for dealing with Sarah Palin’s inconvenient past? Befuddle their masses with conflicting data they are unable to process without the filters of Hannity and Limbaugh to feed them their thoughts?
Sarah Palin wants to know how to ban books? If you’re even considering it, you’re not fit to protect the Constitution.
United Health Care and Riverside Methodist Hospital · 91 days ago by John
As many of you know, Lily was born this past May. And it seems that our choice to switch to Riverside Methodist Hospital may have been a good one for the service and a bad one for the pocketbook. Riverside bills differently than Mount Carmel (where Bobby was born). Mount Carmel sent a single bill for the birth and stay for mom and son. Riverside chose to bill in multiple billings. One for the anesthesiologists, one for mom and one for daughter. Conveniently enough for our insurance company, United Healthcare, this gave them the ability to suggest that this meant we had three separate deductibles to meet.
We enrolled in United Healthcare’s Healthy Pregnancy Program which was supposed to waive our “Maternity Deductible” of $125. My wife called them at each of the times we were supposed to call (thank goodness my wife used her cell so we have cell records of the calls) and supplied them with the information for the hospital she would be delivering.
From the moment we entered the hospital until the time we left 35 hours later, United Healthcare found a way to turn the “maternity deductible” (supposedly now waived) into $525 of charges which they’ve sicced the accounts departments of Riverside onto us. It’s a nice racket the two of them have going.
The $125 maternity deductible was applied to the hospital billing for my wife. Evidently, when a woman gets an epidural for her delivery, that’s not part of maternity… that’s now a special service related solely to the woman and hence subject to my wife’s specific $200 deductible. Then an additional $200 deductible was applied to the less-than-24-hour-old baby who evidently wasn’t a part of the maternity process either for her standard post-delivery care.
My wife attempted to break through United Healthcare’s multiple layers of red tape and never-ending phone queues but she’s fed up with them. So, now it’s my turn to see if they can provide the services they said they provide. Riverside started their “we’re eventually going to have to send this to collections” harassing calls but I consider them collaborators with United Healthcare since, unlike Mount Carmel, they chose to bill this in a way most confusing to us, the customer, and most beneficial to the insurance company.
We’ll see how it goes.
What the Republican Celebrities Will Be Saying Tomorrow · 98 days ago by John
So, the Republican celebrities like Hannity, Limbaugh and their pundit counterparts are going to be playing the “messiah” game tomorrow. I find it particularly amusing to hear the guy who says he has “talent on loan from… Gaaaawwwwd” call Obama “the Messiah.” I think what they’re relly saying is, “our candidate is so incredibly weak, he makes Obama SEEM like a messiah.” Mark my words, the pundits will be at it as well… watch particularly for George Will, Republican shill extraordinaire, to bring out this message in about three days from now.
Time to blog again. · 112 days ago by John
So, it’s been a long time since I have actively blogged. Think I’m going to take it up again. Presidential election years make me all gooey inside.