Here's to praying that once the major the legislative issues are resolved this summer and fall (health care, carbon cap and trade, financial reform and wouldn't it be great immigration reform, among others) that our President and his Attorney General will suddenly show their progressive stripes and:

1)  The President immediately stops the enforcement of DADT pending legislation in the Congress to permanently revoke the law;

2) Holder decides, based upon recommendations from the Intelligence Committees to appoint an Independent Counsel to investigate the unlawful torture of individuals in federal custody, in compliance with international treaties.

Methinks our Dear Leader and his administration believe that time is on their side as far as these two issues are concerned, and if we can take this once in our lifetime opportunity to set America on the glidepath to single payer health care and an effective carbon emission control regime, that those of us concerned with gay rights/national security and those of us who demand accountability for Bush War Crimes will just have to be patient and not put the cart before the horse so to speak.

I wish he had issued an executive order suspending enforcement of DADT on the afternoon of January 20th.  And I wish Holder had ordered a special prosecutor to investigate Bush War Crimes five minutes after that.

But I also know our President is a student of history, especially recent history circa 1993, and realized that starting off your tenure with gays in the military and prosecuting former administration officials for war crimes might have had a negative impact on his ability to effect real change.

Prioritize these issues to yourselves:

1) DADT
2) War Crimes Prosecutions
3) Real Health Care Reform
4) Real Energy Reform
5) Real Immigration Reform
6) Real Financial Reform

I think if I wanted to get all 6 of these things done, I would not have put the first two first.  It's a matter of practicality.  When you already have the mainstream right wing media expounding every single day on the enormous budget deficit, something they just discovered, blaming the entire mess on Obama and Geithner, and you have the Ariannas of the world as part of this echo chamber, add "gays in the military" and "Bush saved us/now Obama wants to prosecute him" to the endless reverberations and poof, no real Health Care Reform and No Real Carbon regime.

Yes I know the polls say 70% of Americans no longer oppose "gays in the military".  Trust me, the second Obama signs the Executive Order stopping its enforcement our very vocal right wing lying noise machine will be all over it, nonstop, 24 hours a day.  Watch that 70% evaporate overnight. 

Consider also that a large majority of Americans want real health care reform; it doesn't mean the right isn't demagouging it.

Our President is walking a tightrope to get his promised agenda passed through a thoroughly bought and paid for Congress.  He is asking many Congresspersons and Senators to betray the very special interests that get them elected.  The forces arrayed against him in health care and carbon alone are more than formidable.  Getting a real bill passed this year on either of these issues will be a phenomenal accomplishment considering the entrenched and powerful opposition to any change whatsoever. 

Name me one President who has taken on Big Oil, Big Pharma, or Big HMO and survived to tell the tale.  This guy wants to keep his eye on the ball, take these monstrous challenges one at a time and succeed.  I got to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.

My guess is that sometime in November we'll see the Executive Order banning the enforcement of DADT.  Eric Holder might need a bigger push. 


 

My wife went to the hospital with massive chest pains a few weeks back. She got all the tests including the treadmill stress test.  Everything was fine, no heart attack.  We still don't know what caused it but it wasn't cardio or neuro, probably some kind of intense muscular event.

Anyway, the bill came and it was $12,600 (and that was just the hospital, not the various doctors.) If we didn't have insurance, that is the amount we would have had to pay and I can guarantee you that the next time either of us had chest pains, we would probably not even consider dialing 911.

Here's the kicker.  We have insurance.  The adjuster knocked down the overall bill, get this, to $700 and since we had met our deductible already we paid 20% of that $700 with insurance paying the rest of the $700.

That's a 95% reduction in the bill.  Think about that for a moment.  No insurance? Please pay us $12,600.  Oh, you have insurance and we are a preferred provider under your plan. Well then, the bill is now only $700.
How does this make any sense? 

68% of bankruptcies have medical bills as their root cause.  Every person in America actually paying for insurance pays $1000 per year in additional premiums just to make up for the uninsured. 

We had insurance so we called 911.  Without insurance, how many people wouldn't dare.

This couldn't be a more ridiculous system.