Category: Political

Categories
Political

Edwards Responds

Edwards responded to the criticism of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan:

The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte’s and Melissa McEwan’s posts personally offended me. It’s not how I talk to people, and it’s not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it’s intended as satire, humor, or anything else. But I also believe in giving everyone a fair shake. I’ve talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone’s faith, and I take them at their word. We’re beginning a great debate about the future of our country, and we can’t let it be hijacked. It will take discipline, focus, and courage to build the America we believe in.

I respect that Edwards didn’t fire the webloggers, and I appreciate his position, but if I were Amanda or Melissa, I would resign.

This is typical patriarchal talk that both Amanda and Melissa used to balk at once upon a time before they became ‘legit’. What they said on their weblogs was there all along; they didn’t quickly add all of it once they had the jobs. Being critical of what they wrote before they were working for him is Edwards covering his butt; not firing either woman is also Edwards covering his butt. He didn’t fire them–he just shut them up.

Why did he hire them? Because he wanted very liberal and very outspoke feminists to placate those of us who wonder why we should vote for a white guy when we have Clinton, Obama, and Richardson to finally give us the diversity that we–including Amanda and Melissa–have been demanding.

He has them as surrogate feminists, so that he doesn’t have to taint his campaign with such. He’ll push the liberal agenda this year, but watch him drift towards the center next year–after hooking in the cyber folks with our money and our passion.

I think he’s a strong candidate and that’s why people like Malkin and others, all products of conservative think tanks, used this as an attack. I think he will support at least a moderate Democratic agenda if he gets elected. If he’s nominated, I will support him. But I also think this is a demonstration of business as usual: white boy telling the women to ‘hesh up, now’ and let the men talk.

The ladies swore. So? Who cares if they swore in their own weblogs, and in their own personal space. Or is is really that women are supposed to remember our manners; to be like ladies?

What both these women did was express their opinions, and last time I looked, it was OK to be critical of religion or the Church, especially when the religious and the Church interferes with our lives. I can respect people’s faith while saying that it angers me when the Catholic Church–or the Southern Baptist or the Lutheran or the Jewish or the Muslim–tell women what we can or cannot do with our bodies; what we can or cannot learn in school; what jobs we can work, how we raise our children, what we watch on TV, or to redefine science.

As for Amanda and Melissa, I wish them the best, I really do. It’s just too bad they’ve had their mouths politically duct taped.

Update

Amanda and Melissa’s statements, found at MyDD and Glenn Greenwald’s:

Amanda Marcotte:

“My writings on my personal blog, Pandagon on the issue of religion are generally satirical in nature and always intended strictly as a criticism of public policies and politics. My intention is never to offend anyone for his or her personal beliefs, and I am sorry if anyone was personally offended by writings meant only as criticisms of public politics. Freedom of religion and freedom of expression are central rights, and the sum of my personal writings is a testament to this fact.”

Melissa McEwen:

“Shakespeare’s Sister is my personal blog, and I certainly don’t expect Senator Edwards to agree with everything I’ve posted. We do, however, share many views – including an unwavering support of religious freedom and a deep respect for diverse beliefs. It has never been my intention to disparage people’s individual faith, and I’m sorry if my words were taken in that way.”

Categories
Government

The Boston TV Story

Sheila points to a good story on the recent Boston ‘terror’ alert, with bomb squad folks blowing up electronic boards with characters flipping the bird. She also has a good comment of her own:

Get a grip and admit you jumped straight to the doomsday scenario without investigating more plausible explanations. It’s not the kids’ fault that Boston — alone — spent $750,000 to defuse cartoon characters that had been decorating ten cities for three weeks.

I’m with the young people on this one. Boston acted like an ass. I liked Portland, Oregon’s take on the boards: the city checked them out, determined they weren’t harmful, and then left them alone if they weren’t on municipal property.

Categories
Political

Ameren Change of Venue

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Ameren has filed a change of venue in the state lawsuit regarding the Taum Sauk dam break. They want the case tried in Reynolds country, rather than St. Louis. The reasons are obvious: Reynolds County has developed an economic dependency on Ameren.

Despite the extensive natural resource and property damage caused by the Dec. 14, 2005, reservoir breach, Ameren would likely get a fair shake in Reynolds County, said District 1 County Commissioner Doug Warren.

“Other than maybe a handful of people, I think most of the people are behind Ameren in this county,” Warren said.

Ameren paid $732,710 in property taxes in Reynolds County in 2006, said County Assessor Rick Parker. Tax receipts from Ameren represented 62 percent of the tax base supporting the Lesterville school.

I think I have an idea who some of the ‘other than a handful of people’ might be, but perhaps the rest of the people of Reynold’s county need to be reminded of what could have happened if the lower dam hadn’t held: chances are support for a Lesterville school would have been moot.

This is one of the problems with school funding in this state. To provide a good, basic education, each school needs a minimum amount of money, but many rural areas don’t generate enough revenue to meet this minimum need. This puts these rural areas at the mercy of a company like Ameren; who, more and more, is coming across as a strongly manipulative corporate entity, well aware that it can pull chains in Reynolds but not here in St. Louis.

The dam break was an unprecedented act of corporate malfeasance. The company management was aware that the dam was operating in an unsafe manner; but they chose not to forgo the profits that would be lost in order to take the dam offline long enough to fix.

No one was killed, but that’s either because a miracle occurred or we had the most amazing luck: pick one.

What did happen is that something very special that belonged to the people of that area–to the people of the state–was forever destroyed. The replacement might be wonderful in itself, but it will never the same. The community will, also, never be the same.

Ameren is playing a ‘big city folk’ against ‘rural folk’ game, basically playing to the economic fears in that area. Unfortunately, our good governor and state legislature aids and abets this by playing their own games with school budgets.

I feel sorry for the folks in Reynolds County, but I also feel sorry for we in St. Louis, and Missourians in general: justice has been given a price tag by people smug in their assumptions of who will, or won’t, pay it.

Categories
Political

The surest indicator

he surest indicator of how things have changed since the election is that Bush came to Missouri today, but the lead story in St. Louis Today (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch online site) ended up being about the winning Powerball ticket being sold in Missouri.

Bush’s visit was relegated to the back pages; along with an interview with the brother of the man who was arrested for kidnapping the two kids who have been in the news too much; a corpse discovered in the ditch in Centerville; a delay in the Highway 40 construction project; and a pit bull mauling in the bootheel.

Personally, I was interested in the Highway 40 construction project delays.

According to the story:

Bush met at St. Luke’s Health System’s Lee’s Summit hospital with a group of small business owners and employees to discuss how his plan would effect them.

Dan Jones, an engineer for a St. Louis-based computer company, said he’s uninsured because he couldn’t afford the premiums, which he said increased to $400 a month.

“That $4,800 (a year’s worth of premiums) is a lot of money,” he said. “That’s money that could go toward a car or a house.”

Bush said the plan would save Jones more than the cost for an insurance plan.

“Here’s a classic case, a young guy in the market place priced out of the individual market,” he said. “The plan helps him.”

Is there a new math involved here? Can someone explain to me how a tax deduction on the first $7500.00 of a single person’s income tax would save more than $4,800.00 a year?

Categories
Healthcare Political

Benefiting the insurance companies, not the people

Bush is making a visit to Missouri on Thursday to push his health care plan. How appropriate, considering that our Republican governor has cut the number of children and other people covered under Medicaid and Medicare. Over 100,000 400,000 were dropped, and I’ll tell you one thing: they won’t be covered under Bush’s plan, either.

Here’s the deal: I as a single person would not be taxed on my first $7500.00 in income, in order to pay for health insurance. What does health insurance run? About $200-400.00 a month for a single person without pre-existing condition. Monstrously more if there is an existing condition–if you can even get coverage.

Now, if I make let’s say 25,000 a year–that’s a tax savings of about $750.00 or so. This will buy me, on average, 2-3 months of so-so coverage under most of the HMOs in this state. All at the cost of those lucky people who have decent health care coverage for their families having to pay more in taxes, just so that I get enough tax saving to not have enough money to pay for my own health care coverage.

Now, if it were enough to actually allow most working people without insurance to get such, they’ll be joining these HMOs and other medical plans, adding to the profits these companies make. However, the quality of care will continue to degrade, as more and more of these organizations are denying even basic care in an attempt to further increase profits.

The health organizations will like it because they don’t have to cover quite as many ‘bums’ and ‘deadbeats’ and, you know, the people who most of the Republicans would prefer to just die, and eliminate the problem.

It is universal health care or nothing. No more Bushian ‘drug plans’ that helped few. No more compromises, and absolving this country of its social duties in ensuring that everyone has basic health care. No more embarrassing ourselves in the eyes of the rest of the world, as the people who put up with this shit from our politicians, and who don’t have the brains to demand better.

The cost to pay for all this really isn’t the problem. What is, is the health care organizations that are overcharging for services that are being underutilized because someone somewhere wants to make a buck off the backs of Americans. There is a Health Machine that doesn’t want universal health care. It’s not because people are worried about you and me, or jobs, or because of increased taxes, and it’s not because of what the country can and cannot afford. It all comes down to profits and quarterly reports and executive bonuses.

The Health Machine: that’s who Bush’s plan is for and to be frank, he’s not welcome in this state. Let him takes his sorry ass elsewhere.