Big vote on the crappy House health care bill today, and they’ll apparently be struggling to get it passed. Not really sure how I feel about that. Somewhat ambivalent, I guess, ‘cuz I’m not sure that the House bill (which is probably better than whatever the assholes in the Senate will come up with) is better than nothing. Oh, it’ll be touted as a big defeat for Obama and a huge victory for teabaggers (and teabaggees) everywhere, so, I guess in that respect alone, I have to hope the bill passes in the House today. As for it passing on the merits of the bill itself? Not so much.

As I understand it, if your job offers health insurance – no matter how crappy and expensive – you’ll be forced to buy it or get fined 2.5% of your annual income. The only way you’d be able to get a government run insurance plan would be if you can’t get insurance on the job. An example of how wonderful this would be, is for Wal-Mart employees. According to this site, the average full time Wal-Mart “associate” earns $2,000 less than the Federal Poverty limit for a family of four. As for Wal-Mart’s employee health plan:

* If an average full-time Wal-Mart employee chooses the least expensive family coverage plan, they would have to spend over 20% of their income before the health insurance provided any reimbursement.[ EBRI Issue Brief October 2007]

* An average full time Wal-Mart Associate faces a serious family health issue. They have to pay the entire out-of-pocket maximum for the least expensive health plan, which adds up to pay 53% of their income. [ EBRI Issue Brief October 2007]

In other words, a Wal-Mart employee would quite likely be better off getting fined 2.5%, rather than get health insurance. Unless they got sick, that is. In which case, they’d be screwed either way, really.

Now, there are subsidies for the poorest families and all that, and I don’t know all the details of the bill (I doubt many people do), and I don’t know how it’s gonna work if you’re part time vs. full time or whatever, but I think it’s pretty fair to say the bill sucks. At the very least anybody ought to have the option of electing to go with the government plan. In fact, that ought to be the deal – take your company’s plan, or you’re automatically enrolled in the public one.

But, no, that’s not good for the insurance industry. They can keep raising rates, and you have to pay, unless you’d rather get fined and roll the dice and go without coverage.

Oh, I suppose for the people who will actually get some sort of insurance who otherwise wouldn’t this is better than nothing – at least in the short term. But for what this will cost us all in the long run when insurance rates more than double (one of the few promises from the insurance industry that you can believe), I think this will turn out to be far worse than nothing. Why we can’t just “redistribute” all those private insurance premiums into Medicare, get rid of the for-profit insurance model, and just cover everybody automatically is beyond me.

I guess I’m just not smart enough to understand all the nuances, but here’s what I think about Health Care reform:

The Democrats suck (with a few exceptions).

Obama sucks.

I can’t think of any words to adequately express how disgusting Republicans are. Nor can I express how disgusted I am with the US Government.

But, maybe I’m just in a bad mood ‘cuz the dog park’s closed for a cross country race today, and I’m faced with watching SU lose yet another football game.

Just a few thoughts to ponder this morning.

First, you don’t need to wait until all your items are rung up at the checkout (there’s a quaint phrase from the olden days, eh? “Rung up,” as if cash registers still had bells) before digging through your purse to find your credit card. You can swipe your card at any time. Honest. It’ll be OK. And if you’re paying with cash, you don’t need to paw through your purse trying to separate the pennies from the linty life savers at the bottom, looking for exact change. The kid behind the register needs the practice, and the rest of us in line have lives we need to get on with. If you happen to have change in your pocket, fine, but please, you don’t get a prize for coming up with exactly seventy-three cents (especially if it consists of more than three pennies). Throw it in a jar at home and consider it your medical savings account (trust me, you’re gonna need it). If you’re writing a check – really? You’re writing a check? – presumably you already know the name of the store and your own name, right? So, um, maybe you could have all that pre-filled, and your little checkbook out and ready (plus the twenty-seven forms of ID you’re gonna need)? And, goddamn it, if it says no payroll checks, then jeezus frickin’ charlie crist, no payroll checks!

By the way, the self-checkout isn’t some sort of mysterious, Rubik’s Cube-like oracle that requires you to read each step (while moving your lips) before proceeding. Seriously, it isn’t that hard. You’ve seen the mouth-breathing 17 year old from down the street who can’t make change w/o a computer do basically the same thing a million times before. If they can do it, so can you. And you know what? If the damn thing won’t swipe, you don’t need it; just leave it there and move on. Don’t make the pimple-faced kid with the retainer and the special key code have to come over. She’s busy trying to get the “#1 in Shrinkage Reduction” button pinned to her crappy red vest.

Look, if the self-checkout is too difficult or intimidating for you, just go to a human. You might have to wait in line a little longer, but guess what? It’ll give you time to get your credit card ready, plus you’ll be saving somebody’s job, and clearing the way for those of us who aren’t idiots to get out of the store in under four hours. Oh, and if you’re buying fifty 2×4’s at Home Depot, guess what? The self-checkout is not for you. By the way, I know it says “Contractor Checkout,” but that doesn’t mean you can’t go to it. They don’t ask for your official “Contractor ID Card.”

Yes, that white stuff falling from the sky is snow. It does that here, and you’ll be seeing it for the next six months or so – except, instead of making the street a little wet, it’ll start sticking. You need to get used to it (just like last year, and the year before that, and…). And all those cop cars and flashing lights? That’s an accident. You really don’t need to slow down and take a look at it. If it was gruesome enough, you can see it on the news, otherwise it really isn’t interesting enough to keep the rest of us from getting home at a decent time.

As for you spambots out there, would you please stop registering as users for this blog. It’s really obvious you’re not real people, and I’m getting tired of deleting your lame-ass attempts. Even if you manage to sneak a link to your pecker pills past my eagle eyes, you’re really not reaching the right audience. Try the freepers, tea baggers, and Rush Limbaugh listeners – they’re the ones that can’t get it up unless they’re tapping their toes in a public mens room someplace.

We don’t need Viagara – we’re Liberals.

House Republicans have introduced their version of health care reform (good job staying ahead of the curve there). According to the CBO, it will cover about 3 million people who are currently not covered – by 2019 – reduce premiums for those who are covered by a whopping 0 – 3% (locally, Excellus just announced they were increasing premiums by 8.8% in January), and would reduce the budget deficit by $68 billion. In comparison, the House Democrats’ version of reform would cover 36 million people w/o health insurance, would reduce the deficit by $104 billion, and would be paid for by taxes and spending cuts. The Republican bill, however, would cost a mere $61 billion compared to $1.1 trillion for the Democrats’ bill. So, that’s either a savings of $966 billion (figuring in the deficit reduction), or a waste of $61 billion (seeing as it doesn’t really seem to do a goddamn thing). Good plan, Republicans. It makes the Democrats’ shitty bill look great in comparison.

Speaking of the evils of health care reform, Michelle “Soron” Bachmann has summoned her teabag zombie army to DC today, to make “one last stand” against reform. There may be upwards of 1,000 mouth-breathing orcs, trolls, and other mindless morons hitting the Capital today, demanding that the government stay away from Medicare and Michelle Bachmann’s government-provided health insurance, so that they can keep paying higher and higher insurance premiums in order for insurance executives to continue getting hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses.

So, apparently this Joy Behar person has a show on CNN or something, and she’s interviewed a Playboy Playmate – Nicole Narain – who’s a recovering sex addict, who says being a sex addict is – not surprisingly – “exhausting.”

You know what, I really try hard not to think about masturbating too much. I had a moment there where I really did, I could not get out of bed one day because I was just, it was a constant thing. That was an exhausting day. It was like, I didn’t even want to eat food because that was my food for the day. It was exhausting and it was scary because it consumed my entire day and I try very hard not to have any triggers around me where I would feel like I need to masturbate today.

I don’t know about you, but I think that would make for an incredible documentary.

A cat in Iowa got the Swine Flu. That would be a good Rapture Watch item, I think. Speaking of the Rapture and evil and whatnot, the Yankees won their 27th World Series last night. As much as everyone hates the Yankees, if there are any fans less sympathetic than Yankees fans, it would have to be Phillies fans. Or at least fans in Philly – especially Eagles fans.

The “Parents Television Council” (PTC) has its collective panties in a bunch over an upcoming episode of a teevee show that I’ve never heard of – “Gossip Girl” – on a network that I don’t think I’ve ever watched – the “CW.” Apparently there’s a coming (so to speak) episode that includes a teenage threesome. Hmm. Maybe I should start recording that show. I wonder if they can get Nicole Narain to guest star?

First off, sorry to hear the Parkside Democrats were shut out last night. If it’s any consolation, SU managed to lose to its Division II neighbor LeMoyne last night. Truly shameful. Nice going guys – way to waste my Three Philosophers buzz. Praise Allah it was just an exhibition game. In other news, a huge loss for the Teabag crowd, as Bill Owens took down the asshole Doug Hoffman by about 4%. A wingut with a truckload of wingnut money couldn’t win in a solidly Republican district. Good deal. Syracuse elected its first-ever female mayor last night, as Stephanie Miner won handily. Though turnout was less than 30%. WTF is up with people? The news was not so bright in NJ and VA, unfortunately, as Republicans took both statehouses. Despite the fact that these are just state races, and, in the one national race, a district that’s been Republican since, like, the 1800’s, this is being hailed as a “big night” for the GOP and a referendum on Obama by the traditional media.

You gotta believe all the corruption and arrests of public officials in NJ earlier this year led to a pretty big anti-incumbent mood there, and was at least partly responsible for Corzine’s loss. As for VA? Well, there’s a reason Richmond (and then Danville) was the capital of the Confederacy. Other state’s Governors don’t really affect my life, anyway, and I had no plans to visit either NJ or VA.

In my Town races…. It appears they lost the votes, ‘cuz I can’t find any results whatsofrickinever. Must be those damn lever machines.

For the first time in MS blog history, we are officially endorsing a candidate for office. Actually, we’re gonna go ahead and endorse an entire slate – the Parkside Democrats. Mostly, though, we’re endorsing Andy, who had the guts and gumption to get out there and do more than sign an online petition or march around carrying a cute sign, hootin’ and hollerin’. He’s running for a public office – Borough Council – where he can actually accomplish something. That’s a lot more than I can say for myself (not that I set the bar very high). Good luck, Andy, and no matter what the results are at the end of the day, just making the effort makes you a winner.

It’s funny, these “off year” elections don’t usually have any “big” races, so a lot of people don’t bother to vote. Imagine that – elections for offices that probably have the most direct affect on your life, and where your vote is huge (instead of one in millions, it’s one in thousands – even hundreds in some cases), and you don’t bother to vote. And odds are you know less about the candidates and where they pretend to stand than you do about those big national ones.

So, anyhow, get out there and vote. And then send your condolences to the residents of NY’s 23rd District, who are probably gonna elect a major asshole as their “representative,” whose qualifications seem to be that he hates gay people, wants to privatize Social Security, opposes “government run health care” and the “death tax,” is endorsed by the likes of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, and considers Glenn Beck his “mentor.”

In the City of Syracuse (where I don’t vote), they’re electing a new mayor. The choices are a woman, an old white guy, and the rather oxymoronic (and, from the sound of him, you can drop the “oxy”) “black conservative.” I heard a bit of a three-way debate, and the woman – Stephanie Miner, a long time City Councilor – is by far the smartest person in the race. The old white man seem to be running on the “I’m a businessman, so I know what’s best” line. And he’s got a really bad set of fake teeth. I don’t know if the Conservative guy is actually brain damaged, but he certainly sounds like it.

In the “big name” races today, there’s a good chance that the NJ statehouse will turn red, as Jon Corzine is in a tight race against Chris Christie. It’s a similar situation in VA, where Creigh Deeds is battling against Bob McDonnell to replace Tim Kaine. The traditional media is calling these races (and the NY 23rd) a “referendum” on Barack Obama. Which I suppose it is, but not in the way they’re painting it. They seem to think “We the People” don’t like all this wild-eyed socialism that they keep telling us about (and which I, for the life of me, just don’t see). If anything, it’s out of disgust for his timid (dare I say feckless?) first ten months in office.

Oh well, time to get going. I reckon I’ll head out to the polls before work this morning. I don’t think there’ll be much of a line.

Those of you who don’t live in my television market should consider yourselves very lucky. These campaign ads are getting really unbearable, and it appears that the people who are bankrolling creepy Doug Hoffman have a lot of money left to spend. In 45 minutes of watching the morning news, I’ve now seen about 20 Hoffman ads – to maybe 8 for Owens. And Hoffman’s are the really nasty annoying kind, too. There’s also one still running about Dede Scozzafava. It’s one of those interesting ones, saying that Dede is the choice for “true progressives,” because she favors abortion and gay marriage. Of course, in the teeny-tiny print, you see it was sponsored by “Common Sense America,” whose board chairman happens to also be the Executive Director of the National Organization for Marriage (an anti-gay group that featured Dougie-boy on its website). It also appears that CSA paid NOM $166,000 for some unspecified reason. But then it looks like the CSA ad was actually paid for by a donor for the Club for Growth, which is another right-wing group (one that wants to privatize Social Security – ‘cuz the stock market is so great, I guess – among other things) that’s running anti-Owens ads, too. At any rate, I’ll be glad when this is all over, though if this weekend poll is accurate (or even close), things don’t look good for Owens.

Otherwise, I’m up early this morning, thanks to the fact that I’ve been unable to explain to the dogs that we set the clocks back the other night. Once they get me out of bed, go outside, and get their breakfast cookies, they seem content to sleep on the couch next to me. It’s time for my annual plea for Congress to enact what I call the “Daylight Preservation Act.”

Now, I know that some people seem to like daylight in the morning and during working hours, and for some reason prefer it to having daylight when it counts – after I get out of work. As misguided as I believe these people are, I acknowledge their right to be wrong. So, in the spirit of compromise, here’s my solution. Every morning at 2 AM, we turn the clocks back an hour (or two; I’m flexible. In fact, I’d be willing to support a plan that adjusts clocks by one hour during the spring and summer months, and by two hours in the fall and winter). This will give us extra daylight in the morning, and make the kids safe at the bus stop and whatnot. Then, at 2PM, we set the clocks ahead again. This would give us some extra daylight in the evening.

Everybody wins.

Sometimes the simple solutions are the most elegant.

On Press the Meat today, it’s Tim Geithner and David Plouffe, plus a roundtable with author Jon Krakauer, Jim Miklaszewski and Andrea Mitchell.

Faze the Nation has David Axelrod and scumbag, traitor, asswipe, and lying whore Joe Lieberman.

At Fair and Balanced Fux News Sunday, Weaselface Wallace devote the entire show to one guest: radio “giant” Rush Limbaugh.

Over on the Goebbels network George Snufalufagus has Valerie Jarrett, plus a roundtable with George :jerk: Will, Dee Dee Myers, Ed Gillespie, Ron Brownstein of the National Journal and Al Sharpton.

At CNN, Fareed Zakaria has Matthew Hoh, the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, Martin Wolf of the Financial Times and Robert Schiller, who predicted the financial crisis and the stock market collapse of 2000.

Hope you remembered to set your clocks back. It’s gonna be dark awful goddamn early tonight.

Unlike NY’s 23rd District, we don’t have any marquee (perhaps “marquis” would be more apt, given who’s stuck their noses – and money – into that one) races in my town on Election Day, but there’s still stuff to vote on, and I feel obligated to go and be a good little citizen taxpayer. Plus it’s the last time I’ll get to use the lever voting machines that have served me well for the past 30 or so elections (and served my parents and grandparents before me). I don’t like any surprises when I pull that curtain closed, so I’ll be spending this weekend trying to decide how to vote.

First up are two NY State ballot proposals to amend the State Constitution (so I’d be definitely be interested in knowing what other NY’ers – like Sue – think about them). First up is (not surprisingly) Proposal Number One.

We have a clause in our Constitution called “Forever Wild,” which prohibits any development in the Adirondack Forest Preserve unless the State Constitution is specifically amended to allow it (instead, our old growth forest is being steadily killed by acid rain from the smokestacks of the Midwest). A constitutional amendment requires passage by two separately elected state Legislatures, and then must be approved by voters.

The following amendment was passed unanimously by the Legislatures that took office in 2007 and 2009, and is now being presented to the voters on Tuesday’s ballot as Proposal #1:

PROPOSAL NUMBER ONE, AN AMENDMENT
Amendment to section 1 of article 14 of the Constitution, in relation to the use of certain forest preserve lands by National Grid to construct a 46 kV power line along State Route 56 in St. Lawrence County.

The proposed amendment would authorize the Legislature to convey up to six acres of forest preserve land along State Route 56 in St. Lawrence County to National Grid for construction of a power line. In exchange, National Grid would convey to the State at least 10 acres of forest land in St. Lawrence County, to be incorporated into the forest preserve. The land to be conveyed by National Grid to the State must be at least equal in value to the land conveyed to National Grid by the State. Shall the proposed amendment be approved?

So, at first blush, it seems like, well, they get 6 and give us 10. Sounds good, right? Well, the problem is this: it’s already happened.

That’s right, as per the League of Women voters:

This amendment will make constitutional an action that has, in fact, already taken place. The NYS Power Authority, with the involvement and agreement of the interested environmental and municipal groups, approved the building of a back-up power line through forest preserve land to protect the health and safety of the residents of the village of Tupper Lake. The line was built and activated in May of 2009.

WTF? Sounds like a scam to me. If you’ve already done it, why should I retroactively make your illegal actions constitutional? Sounds like bullshit to me, but, then, (again, according to the LWV),

Before this new power line was built, the village of Tupper Lake had frequent power outages caused by damage to its single electrical supply line, principally from falling tree limbs in forested land along its route. There was no back-up line in the event of power failure, and during the winter alternative shelter had to be provided to village residents. This was considered an urgent situation that could not wait for the completion of the constitutional amendment process for relief, since it affected the health and safety of the villagers. The most environmentally friendly route for the new line traverses about two miles of Adirondack Forest Preserve land, affecting a small number of physical acres. While the new line could have been detoured to avoid forest preserve land, the detour would have involved a six mile cut through old-growth undeveloped forest and wetlands, endangering the habitat of wildlife. The chosen route along an existing road through previously cleared preserve land was judged to be more ecologically friendly. National Grid, the builder of the line, will compensate for the loss of existing preserve land by conveying new forest preserve land to the State. This new land must be of equal or greater value than the land that was lost. Environmental and civic organizations are supportive of this remedy to what was a serious and persistent public health and safety issue.

Hmm. So, it sounds like a good thing that I would have agreed with, and, while I’m somewhat inclined to vote against it (just ‘cuz they didn’t ask first), I suppose I’ll have to grudgingly vote for this one.

Next up, it’s (you guessed it), Proposal Number Two, which is yet another amendment, this time to article 3 of the NY State Constitution. This one “would authorize the Legislature to pass legislation to permit inmates in state and local correctional facilities to perform work for nonprofit organizations.”

Supporters of this amendment say that slave prison labor would provide under-funded non-profits with access to a “willing” labor force, and gives the prisoners a way to “give back” to the community.

That sounds all well and good, but it seems like this would be an incentive to under fund non-profits even more than they are already. It also seems like a slippery slope leading to judges imposing longer sentences to non-violent offenders in order to keep the “willing labor force” well-stocked, and Attica inmates stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart for kickbacks to the State.

Then again, some guy doing six months for DWI would probably greatly prefer (and benefit from) the ability to cut the grass at Catholic Charities or something, rather than rot in a cell 23 hours a day.

What with the state of the State budget these days, I think non-profits are gonna need all the help they can get, so, what the hell, put those prisoners to work. I hope somebody’s planning on keeping an eye on ‘em, though.

Now on to my important local races. First, the election for State Supreme Court Justice. This is one of those “Chinese Menu” elections, where you vote for any two people, even in the same column. Column 1 has a guy running on the Democratic, Republican, Independence, and Conservative lines. Well, f*ck him. Pick a team, pal. I don’t vote for people who are running unopposed, and I won’t vote for somebody that’s on every line. Just doesn’t seem ‘American’ to me. That leaves a guy running as a Democrat/Conservative Party candidate, and another guy on the Republican/Independence Party lines. Hmm. Tough call there. I don’t like Conservatives too much, and neither do I care for Republicans, just on general principles. I might have to write a couple of people in, here. Remind me to bring a pencil with me on Election Day.

Next up, County Court Judge. Easy one here, with a Democrat running against a Republican/Conservative, who’s an incumbent that’s been in office forever. When in doubt, I vote against the incumbent.

Moving along, it’s four more unopposed candidates. Two are on the Working Families Party line, so I may just break my rule and vote for them (I usually just vote the whole WFP row). The other two are SOL, though (makes me think I should have run for something).

Town Justice is an easy one: a happy looking-fat guy with a happy-looking fat wife and happy-looking fat kids who’s on the WFP line. Plus his opponent’s name is ‘Jokyl,’ which I have to assume is pronounced “Yokel,” and we have enough yokels around here as it is.

Finally, another Chinese menu list for three Town Councilors. Easy call there, with two WFP and one Dem, and my work is done for yet another year.

Now, off to don my biblical garb and head out to Trick-or-Treat, or maybe do some bobbing for beer bottles. Happy Halloween, y’all.

Somebody wrote a letter to the editor here, suggesting that parents have their kids dress up as biblical character to offset the pagan influence of Halloween. He wrote that Halloween “…has become a superstitious and empty way of imposing mindless triviality.” Funny, that sounds more like religion than trick-or-treating to me. He also writes that those who celebrate Halloween “are in reality celebrating death….” Unlike Good Friday, I guess. In the comments, one person suggested that adults dress up like priests and chase the little boys around. I thought maybe I’d dress up like Jesus (got the beard, but I think I look to Irish; if Jesus had been Irish, they’d have had beer instead of wine at the Last Supper) and bring a big bag of stones, which I would toss at people who are, themselves, with sin, yet cast aspersions on others. I’d need an awful lot of rocks, though.

Looks like you folks out in the Denver area have a little bit of snow to deal with. I see it’s supposed to heat up in the next few days, though, so no white Halloween for you. I say just call in sick ’til it melts. Speaking of heating up in Denver, the Nuggets opened the NBA season on fire last night, with everybody’s favorite former Orangeman Carmelo Anthony picking up where he left off in preseason, scoring 30 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, and handing out 5 assists. Let’s hope they keep it up. Everybody’s other favorite former Orangeman, Jonny Flynn, scored 18 points in his NBA debut, overcoming the flu (swine, no doubt) to help the Minnesota Timberwolves win their season opener over the Nets. Everybody’s other other favorite ex-Orangeman – Etan Thomas – only had 2 points in 9 minutes in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s season opening win. I feel kinda bad for Etan. I hope it’s OK (so to speak) for an articulate, outspoken black man to live in Oklahoma City. That’s enough sports, I guess (don’t have time to look up all the former SU players and see how they did, and I’m not really an NBA fan anyway), except I feel obliged to mention that the Phillies stomped the Yankees last night in Game One of the World Series. I’m not a Phillies fan (not much of a baseball fan in general), but everybody hates the Yankees, right?

OK, on to important stuff like politics. Yesterday, we brought you the shameful story of AR Blue Dog Marion Berry voting against HR 562, “Congratulating Syracuse University for winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Men’s Lacrosse Tournament.” His peckerheaded excuse was that “[h]e makes it a practice not to vote for any resolution honoring sports teams” (never mind that he sponsored a resolution to name a Post Office in his district after Hall-of-Fame 3rd baseman George Kell). Well, yesterday afternoon Berry voted in favor of HR 824, “Congratulating the Northwestern University Wildcats on winning the 2009 NCAA women’s lacrosse championship, and to commend Northwestern University for its pursuit of athletic and academic excellence.” Liar! This guy needs to be ridden out on a rail.

According to the AP, President Obama is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan – just not as many as the military wants. In other words, he’s just gonna stick it in a little.

Now, personally, I think it’s nuts to try and “nation build” in Afghanistan. It’s just not gonna happen, and things can only go from bad to worse. So my choice would be for Obama to ignore all the hawks and have the guts to weather the shit storm he’ll get from faux patriots and cowards like Dick Cheney and Fux News, declare victory, and get the hell out. But I’m willing to entertain the possibility that I’m wrong about that, so if he feels it’s really necessary to “win” over there, then he ought to make his case to We the People (including a specific definition of what winning consists of – no vague bullshit), and then commit as many troops as would be needed to occupy every cave and do whatever it takes to get the job done (likely hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of troops, and tens of thousands of US deaths), even if requires a draft.

Either do it or don’t (either it’s worth billions of dollars and thousands of lives, or it isn’t worth on red cent or one American – never mind Afghan – life); don’t try and have it both ways.

This epitomizes the Obama Presidency for me. Give a good speech about being bold and visionary, then try to have it both ways, with the result being you get nothing (except dead, if you happen to be one of the poor dead soldiers sent on a fool’s mission). It’s more or less the same thing that’s happened with health care reform (if we get a “public option,” it won’t be Obama’s doing), closing Gitmo, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…. Did I miss anything?

Speaking of the public option, the House unveils its version today, apparently not the “robust” version with rates tied to medicare, but with “negotiated” rates. So the House will go to conference from that much weaker a position (assuming the Senate can actually pass their version, which seems difficult, what with them having to rely on the likes of Joe Lieberman). Oh well.

“Expert” Chuck Todd is on the Today Show right now, reporting on Obama’s unexpected trip to Dover AFB to watch 8 dead soldiers being returned from Afghanistan. He just told us that one of the fallen was from “Terry Hot” Indiana. Seriously. That’s even more stupid than thinking the abbreviation for Arkansas is “AK.” 🙄

I see by the old clock on the wall, it’s time to head out to face the day. At least I don’t have to shovel the driveway (yet).