The Bush administration vs the Bill of Rights

Touchy subject for some people, but it shouldn't be. Patriotism is not blindly accepting our government's word, but valuing our country and its principles (see the Wikipedia entry on patriotism.

Seems so long ago.

I didn't realize it's been a week since posting. My job has been keeping me busy, as has the family.

My job has not changed, but I have been busy working with a mentor toward a new career path, called an IT Architect. As its name implies, an ITA architects an integrative solution to a business problem. Given my penchant for weaving known details into a system, this should be a good fit for me. This week has seen me create a "merit badge" for ITAs, writing up some lessons learned from previous assignments, and taking classes. This is on top of what I normally would be doing.

At home, this week has been busy from doctor's appointments and working in my yard. Now that our swimming pool is functioning again, I have to vacuum and skim the pool every day (and, of course, swim in it!). Also, the area around the pool has been neglected for a long time, and is very overgrown with weeds, small trees (under four feet in height), and other ground cover. I am rebuilding the stone pathway around the pool, both for beauty and to keep dirt from dropping into the pool. Naturally, all of this takes a lot of time, and I work until sunset (8:25 or so) on it.

Finally, there's Windows Vista. While Vista has its good points, it can be a pain in the rear to configure properly. For example, I just purchased a new, 22" HD LCD monitor to replace my old, 15-inch non-HD LCD monitor. For a variety of reasons, it took an entire evening to set up properly, not least of which was Vista's insistance on calling it my secondary monitor and forcing me to use a too-large resolution, pushing part of the display off the screen. Anyway, I did eventually resolve that issue and a couple of others. I was "forced" to install an HD DVD program and watch "T2: Judgement Day" in HD to make sure my monitor was now working properly! Now if I could only get it to recognize my TV tuner....

Today I received the below email forwarded from my mother. The original sender of that email was a Nettie Attili, but I have no idea if she was the originator. Here's the text of the email; I've done some slight editing to remove excess blank lines, but otherwise the text is untouched.

WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO TURN ON THE TV AND HEAR ANY U.S. PRESIDENT, DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN GIVE THE FOLLOWING SPEECH?

'My Fellow Americans: As you all know, the defeat of the Iraq regime has been completed. Since congress does not want to spend any more money on this war, our mission in Iraq is complete. This morning I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq. This action will be complete within 30 days. It is now time to begin the reckoning.

Before me, I have two lists. One list contains the names of countries which have stood by our side during the Iraq conflict. This list is short. The United Kingdom, Spain, Bulgaria, Australia, and Poland are some of the countries listed there. The other list contains every one not on the first list. Most of the world's nations are on that list. My press secretary will be distributing copies of both lists later this evening.

Let me start by saying that effective immediately, foreign aid to those nations on List 2 ceases immediately and indefinitely. The money saved during the first year alone will pretty much pay for the costs of the Iraqi war. THEN EVERY YEAR THERE AFTER IT'll GO TO OUR SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM SO IT WONT GO BROKE IN 20 YEARS. The American people are no longer going to pour money into third world Hell holes and watch those government leaders grow fat on corruption. Need help with a famine? Wrestling with an epidemic? Call France.

In the future, together with Congress, I will work to redirect this money toward solving the vexing social problems we still have at home. On that note, a word to terrorist organizations. Screw with us and we will hunt you down and eliminate you and all your friends from the face of the earth. Thirsting for a gutsy country to terrorize? Try France or maybe China.

I am ordering the immediate severing of diplomatic relations with France, Germany, and Russia. Thanks for all your help, comrades. We are retiring from NATO as well. Bonne chance, mezamies. I have instructed the Mayor of New York City to begin towing the many UN diplomatic vehicles located in Manhattan with more than two unpaid parking tickets to sites where those vehicles will be stripped, shredded and crushed. I don't care about whatever treaty pertains to this. You creeps have tens of thousands of unpaid tickets. Pay those tickets tomorrow or watch your precious Benzes, Beamers and limos be turned over to some of the finest chop shops in the world. I love New York.

A special note to our neighbors. Canada is on List 2. Since we are likely to be seeing a lot more of each other, you folks might want to try not pissing us off for a change. Mexico is also on List 2 its president and his entire corrupt government really need an attitude adjustment. I will have a couple extra thousand tanks and infantry divisions sitting around. Guess where I am going to put 'em? Yep, border security. Oh, by the way, the United States is abrogating the NAFTA treaty - starting now.

We are tired of the one-way highway. Immediately, we'll be drilling for oil in Alaska- which will take care of this country's oil needs for decades to come. If you're an environmentalist who opposes this decision, I refer you to List 2 above: pick a country and move there.

It is time for America to focus on its own welfare and its own citizens. Some will accuse us of isolationism. I answer them by saying, 'darn tootin.' Nearly a century of trying to help folks live a decent life around the world has only earned us the undying enmity of just about everyone on the planet. It is time to eliminate hunger in America It is time to eliminate homelessness in America. To the nations on List 1, a final thought. Thank you guys. We owe you and we won't forget.

To the nations on List 2, a final thought: You might want to learn to speak Arabic.

God bless America .. Thank you and good night.'

---

I post this as a reminder we all do not think alike. My answers to the various points are as follows.

- ... our mission in Iraq is complete.... I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq. Whether we like it or not, we've screwed up that poor country to the point where an immediate removal of troops would be a disaster. The big problem there has always been the lack of direction and plan for Iraq after removing Saddam Hussein. (We don't belong there anyway, but since we went, we're stuck with it.) Assuming we were right about Hussein, the plan should have been to prepare the Iraqis from the start to take back their country, including a goal-oriented, gradual withdrawal of our troops. I agree a timetable based on dates would be irresponsible; however, we must set goals like "When X number of Iraqi police are trained, Y number of US troops will be withdrawn." I have worked on or run too many projects in my job where the project fails when adequate goals are not set.

- Before me, I have two lists. It is generally useless to classify such things as governments into only two lists. Understanding and working with governments is not a black-and-white proposition; each government has its pluses and minuses, including ours. Bad move.

- ... foreign aid to those nations on List 2 ceases immediately and indefinitely. Another bad idea. One of the reasons the United States was so well-liked years ago was our generosity. That includes not only financial aid but other types of assistance.

- The money saved during the first year alone will pretty much pay for the costs of the Iraqi war. THEN EVERY YEAR THERE AFTER IT'll GO TO OUR SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM SO IT WONT GO BROKE IN 20 YEARS. To answer the first question, no it won't, because the cost has been borne now for seven years, plus interest. Also, the war isn't being paid for out of the budget but is an off-budget expense (thanks, Mr. Bush!). To answer the second comment, the real fix to Social Security is to eliminate the cap on taxable income for Social Security taxes, or at least make it a reasonable number (say, $1,000,000) and then index it for inflation. Also, Social Security is not going to go broke in 20 years. 2047 is the year Social Security will start losing money, not go broke.

Finally, the real social program in trouble is not Social Security but Medicare. To fix both problems, the Social Security tax should be lowered to 4%, the Medicare tax raised from 1.7% to 4%, and have no caps on income subject to these taxes. Today, the combined weight of these two taxes is 7.8 percent, so the change I suggest would retain about the same weight (it's actually a 0.2% tax increase, which is very slight) but resolve both problems for the foreseeable future.

- The American people are no longer going to pour money into (the) third world ... In the future, together with Congress, I will work to redirect this money toward solving the vexing social problems we still have at home. A couple of them are taken care of by the above. The health insurance crisis can only be solved when we determine coverage based on people, not based on having a job. That is why we have so many un- and underinsured people in the US: there are many people without jobs or their jobs have no health coverage. The email writer doesn't want to line the pockets of foreign despots, and I agree with that, but let's not turn around and line the pockets of our corporations, either. The money belongs to the people according to need and hard work, not selfishly hoarded by the top 1% of our nation.

Finally, one problem we still have is bias. There are, surprisingly, people out there who will not vote for Barack Obama for president simply because he is black. There is no way to resolve this issue through money; we need education. Education is the way out of many problems, so let's make college (or a trade school) mandatory as we made high school mandatory a hundred years ago.

- I am ordering the immediate severing of diplomatic relations .... OK, this is stupid. Being in the United Nations and a member NATO nation helps keep the peace. If we dislike what someone is doing, ignoring it is not going to make it go away. On the contrary, it gets worse. This is what we are all taught as children, to talk out problems instead of trying to punish those who don't think the way we do. Besides, who said we're always right? It's jingoism if you believe that.

- Oh, by the way, the United States is abrogating the NAFTA treaty - starting now. I don't know enough about economics to know whether NAFTA is the best solution; however, I do know enough to know not to just throw the thing away. We in the US have to get with the program: the coming economy is global, not "every country for themselves." The sooner we can adjust to that the better off we'll be.

- Immediately, we'll be drilling for oil in Alaska- which will take care of this country's oil needs for decades to come. Wrong. There is not that much in Alaska. It may, in fact, be in our best interest to leave the oil there for now, in case we are desperate for it.

What we really need to do is focus the money we're using for these insane drilling projects (and the ethanol business) and put it into researching alternative fuels we do not have to burn. There are electric cars now that'll go about thirty miles on a charge. If we learn better storage methods, we could come up with a car that'll go the same distance as the cars currently burning gasoline. Using electricity generated by hydro, solar, and wind power, we would almost eliminate our carbon footprint and stop worrying about human-caused climate change.

- Nearly a century of trying to help folks live a decent life around the world has only earned us the undying enmity of just about everyone on the planet. Wrong again; in fact the exact opposite is true. It is the Bush administration's (and the email writer's, apparently) desire to stand alone in the world that did it. Clinton was not the greatest president, but at least during his administration most countries liked us. The reason people don't like us is two-fold: fears of a pre-emptive strike by our current administration, and the fact we are a hypocritical country who orders people to stop torturing people but engages in torture itself.


One message I left off of the email is the writer's thanks to the military. I would like to echo that sentiment. Our military volunteers do a great job; it is not their fault this administration ordered them into unwinnable and disagreeable battlefronts. In point of fact, the top generals back in 2002 warned Bush not to invade Iraq, and were either shouted into submission or pushed out.

One last point: our government treats the military badly once they've been discharged. Our veterans have been getting the short end of the stick since Vietnam. We of the United States love our veterans, and it makes us sick how badly funded the government agencies assigned to help them are. The VA is not at fault; they are simply not supported by our government.

The main problem with emails like this one is they contain just enough truth and make just enough sense to allow many people to believe they are all true. This is where education comes in; the more you know, the better you can understand what's going on around you.

Obama and the New Yorker

By now, everyone's seen the New Yorker cover with Michelle in fatigues and Barack in Muslim clothes, an American flag on the fire, and a picture of Osama bin Laden over the fireplace. I understand, I think, the New Yorker's position that it's a satire over how the far right sees the Obamas. Accurate or not, this extreme form of satire should not be on the cover of a magazine.

I am all in favor of a free press, but posting such a picture without explanation on a magazine known for its careful research and quality writing is not helpful but harmful. Not only is it harmful to the Obamas, it is harmful to the people of the United States. It keeps stereotypes alive and promulgates hate. If it were posted in a story discussing the issue, fine, it would (hopefully) stimulate discussion. As used, however, it's just bad.

A big reason for that is, obviously, bias. Anyone who thinks Obama is a Muslim radical working with bin Laden, and/or thinks Michelle Obama is a terrorist or militant, is going to believe this cover proves it. Some sort of disclaimer should accompany this picture. Not that a disclaimer would keep everyone from thinking the Obamas are terrorists, but it might help those on the edge or wavering.

Satire is a two-edged sword, and it requires some open-mindedness and awareness to understand it properly. I have no idea whether anyone thought Jonathon Swift really wanted to eat children, but his satire was less biting than the New Yorker image.

Performance

No doubt you've heard the statement "if 99.9% was good enough. Here's another look from a medical professional, The Independent Urologist. Something to think about as we stuggle to succeed. The pessimist in me says I fail more often than that. On the other hand, how does one define success or failure in situations without obvious endpoints? Then there is this question: "If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?" Either way, it's a deep philosophical question. Thus we are left with doing our best and hoping it's enough.

That is the essence of parenting. Each child is different. My children have some of the same issues and personality traits I had as a child, but what would have worked for me does not work for them. Sometimes I feel at a loss as to how to handle a situation, and I know every parent faces that. All I can do is what I think is best at that moment, and learn from it if the strategy fails. What bothers me the most is the helpless feeling I get because they're kids, and they look to me for guidance and I'm failing them somehow. They don't have the same ability to think as we do, taking things a day at a time rather than taking the long view. FWIW, I remember having the same point of view as a kid, only learning this lesson slowly over many, many years, even into adulthood; and I'm still learning it. Perhaps I am not failing, just not succeeding as I would like. Oh well, enough of the self=flagellation....

Right now, I am listening to a television program on airline safety. While it does fit in with the above comments (given airline travel is safer than traveling by car), I just heard the narrator say, "There are too many near misses." Well, in my opinion (and that of the late George Carlin), a near miss is a hit. "That plane nearly missed us." I agree with Carlin the phrase should be "near hit." makes more sense, and is better English to boot.

New job?

I just talked to my boss about a position opening up in India. It'll be a year long, and a big plus on my resume. I am not sure I am fully qualified yet (specifics have not been released), but my family approves, so if it's offered to me I will probably take it.

Saturday on the road, Sunday saw Hancock.

The family took a trip to Big Brook yesterday. I found a number of shark teeth, a piece of turtle shell, several coprolites, and something new for me: a turtle bone. I'm not sure what bone it is, but it does have a condyle on it, so it's part of a joint. A family there also found something new to me. It looked like a canoe; I will eventually look it up.

With the EZ-Pass, tolls are no longer an issue. Pretty cool.

Hancock is a pretty enjoyable movie. Good, well, I don't know about that, but I did find it funny and interesting. Will Smith is a pretty good actor and did some pretty good behind-the-scenes work too.

More on health care

In a previous post I may have strongly hinted we should model our healthcare system after Taiwan's. That wasn't my intention; I was simply passing on an article and agreeing with its contents. Perhaps we should model our healthcare system on the system in France, generally recognized as the best in the Western world (we're a pitiable 16th). Regardless, I think the time has come to move away from an employment-based system of healthcare and into a "healthcare as a basic right" system. What that is may be beyond this blog; maybe not.

Fantasy baseball, first half

OK, a small interest group, I realize, but hey, it's here anyway. At the mid-way point of the season I am in second place. The league leader is running away with it (he is 13 points ahead of me), but the third-place team is 12.5 points behind me. This is not normal for the league. I think it's partially because the league leader and I use the same basic draft strategy, and partially because we have been lucky and have suffered few major injuries. There is still half a season to go; many things can happen between now and then.

Barrack Obama and the FISA bill

As I see it, I agree Obama went "against his word" when he voted for the FISA bill giving immunity to the telecom companies who provided their lists years ago. After all, he did say he would definitely vote against it, and that's that. Let's be realistic, though; frankly, I don't think he had a choice. Sometimes voting for a bad bill meant to correct problems in a corrupt system is better than not voting to pass it. In other words, Obama did what a politician has to do, sometimes: hold the nose and vote for it anyway. Besides, I'm not certain how you can hold a telecom accountable for being forced by a government agency who rules by fear to turn over the list. Many of us would have done the same thing. Cheers go to Google who refused to turn over their browser logs.

Some of the criticisms I have heard about Obama from his own party sound exactly like criticisms from the far right: the two end points (left and right) tend to see things in black and white, and therefore if he's not right he's wrong. What is wrong with being a left-leaning centrist, anyway? This is what moderates are. We realize there are serious problems with the two endpoints of a continuum, and try to achieve a compromise for the best solution to the problem. There are almost no such thing as a certainty, particularly where people come in, and certainly in government. Each solution will cause problems for a subset of the population, therefore we must choose the solution causing the lesser problems for the smallest subset. It is not an easy thing to do.

The situation on Single Payer HealthCare

This is a summary of an article in The Washington Spectator, June 15, 2008 (v34, no12) by Ian Williams.

Taiwan offers single-payer universal health care with dental and prescription drug coverage, with a choice between modern and traditional Chinese medicine, all for about 1/3 of the proportion of their GDP than the US system costs. Taiwan searched the world's countries for the best system, and they chose Medicare.

The problem with the US system is that health care is tied to employment, which in the modern economy is sometimes precarious. Further, many jobs do not pay enough to manage a place to live, food, and health care. If someone is too ill to work, they lose both job and health coverage. In Taiwan, the government started by including everyone; in the US, bills designed to cover the uninsured (e.g. SCHIP) are vetoed or voted down because some people might be able to afford coverage on their own.

The economic gap between the haves and have-nots in the US is roughly equivalent to the gap between the insured and uninsured. The main reason, as CEO of Wellpoint Angela Braly stated, "We will not sacrifice profitability for membership."

In Taiwan, people pay their premiums through a payroll tax similar to Social Security or Medicare: based on what they earn. The maximum per/month premium is $20, the maximum covered dependents is three. Employers pay an average sum for dependents. There are exemptions for those who cannot pay, loans for emergencies, and referrals to charities if the loans fail. Further, there is catastrophic illness coverage cards for those with chronic illnesses, reducing or eliminating premiums for them. This is the same class of people who American insurers do not want to cover.

This is not socialized medicine; Taiwanese can visit the public or private clinic or hospital of their choice. Each citizen has a smart card carrying their medical information (this is something mentioned in at least two of the above articles). The smart cards allow doctors to skip unneeded tests that happen so often in the US. It also helps prevent the human errors resulting in mis-prescribing drugs, allergic reactions, and so on.

The big problem in the US is that almost nobody in the government is willing to stand up to the big health care lobby or pharmaceutical industry. Until that happens, little or no progress will occur.

Taiwan's costs are about 6.2% of their GDP, versus the US's cost of 16.2% of our GDP. Taiwan spends about $1,000 per person on medical care, while the US spends over seven times that much. The stark reality is, the pharmaceutical and health care companies will not change; in their opinion, higher premiums, reduced coverage, and paying doctors less per patient will allow everyone to get health care. In fact, they admit they do not want to cover everyone. They are also inefficient, callous, and have high overheads.

US health insurance companies spend about 20% of their premium income on administrative overhead, compared to 2% for Taiwan's universal plan. Governments really are efficient in handling very large numbers of people. Further, the infrastructure is basically in place through Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, and a network of public and not-for-profit hospitals. Again, the only thing lacking is the political will because of the enormous amount of lobby money the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies funnel to our elected representatives.

There is little I can add to this; Mr. Williams pretty much covers the topic. My brother-in-law was in Taiwan for many years, and received generally good-to-excellent care. He had only two complaints: getting a specialist could be difficult (that was the same as in Canada's system), and follow-up care could be a problem if you had a complaint about your local doctors. The plan covered all health care, so it was free, except for transportation to and from the doctor's office, hospital etc.

First post

This is the first entry of this blog. Since it's 10:00 PM and I am just setting up my computer, I will be back soon to make some other entries.