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| ...or does it? |
If you read about the Bush/Gore election debacle in 2000, you probably already know that the butterfly ballots and hanging chads were just red herring issues and that the election was actually stolen due to the state of Florida purging tens of thousands of voters from the voter rolls. Since convicted felons are not allowed to vote in Florida—even after they’ve served their time in prison and have been released—the voter purge was ostensibly done to ensure that ineligible voters did not attempt to vote.
Katherine Harris was the secretary of state for the state of Florida and she oversaw the voter purge. She also happened to be George W. Bush’s campaign chairman [gee, no conflict there!]. The conflict of interest should have been criminal but it is not in this deluded country. But the conflict of interest certainly turned out to be beneficial for Bush. Of the 90,000 voters that were purged, approximately 80% of them were Democrats, a dis-proportionate amount were black and 15% of them (over 57,000) had never committed a crime.
This all could have been an unfortunate mistake, but it seems that it would be difficult to overlook the fact that the data for many of the purged voters showed that they had committed crimes several years in the future. Call me cynical but I find it much more likely that Choice Point, the company hired to conduct the voter purge, at a cost of $4 million (with no competitive bids), intentionally purged legal voters to give Bush an edge in the election.
When Greg Palast uncovered the scheme, he blew the whistle to our ineffectual news media who “investigated” the incident by calling the Bush campaign to ask if the voter purge story was true. The response from the campaign was “No.” End of investigation.
If you’re wondering what prison Katherine Harris ended up in, you may be surprised to know that she never went to jail. Instead, she got support from the Republican National Committee to run for Congress. She later got RNC support to run for the Senate but failed to win her election there.
Bad behavior that is not punished will certainly be repeated. That brings us to the 2012 election. Now, I don’t think that Gore would have been a much better president than Bush, and similarly, my preference among the two current candidates is a non-issue. You can call me idealistic but I still believe that the will of the people should be served. Otherwise, why have elections? So if you’re curious about how the will of the people is faring in our current election cycle, listen to this episode of To the Point with Warren Olney (link pasted below). It is one of the few news shows in this country where you will find an honest discussion about what’s going on.
The news story (begins at 23:17):
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp120604final_stretch_in_wis
~R. Charan Pagan
information systems technologist, musician, writer, filmmaker
Los Angeles, CA 90017
http://www.reclaimingourbirthright.blogspot.com/
Really?
This is a great news story (link posted below) that helps to clear up some of the information about the health care law. So much misinformation has been put out there that it is nice to see someone have an honest conversation about it and make sense of it.
Personally, I support that law. It contains things that suck--like the federal government mandating that individuals purchase a product--but it does solve a lot of very severe health care problems. And I know from experience. When I was 23 years old I could no longer bend over to tie my shoes because of severe back pain. Even putting on pants was a challenge. The HMO I went to at the time knew he could make more money if he protected the insurance company's profits rather than address my problem so he just kept telling me that there was nothing wrong. An MRI exam would have cost about $1,800.00, I believe, but it would have revealed that I had two ruptured disks in my low back. A condition that has so far already ruined me financially four times. It is aggravating to know that I could have addressed the problem back in my 20s if the medical insurance that I PAID FOR was used to ensure my health, rather than to ensure the profits of insurance companies and doctors. They profited while I faced financial distress for the next 15+ years. And who knows what my future holds?
The Affordable Care Act is not perfect legislation but I believe it is far better than doing nothing. And it can be improved to be a better law. Probably not with the stagnation and partisanship in the federal government today, but over time. And if a few people can be spared from health care nightmares like mine then it will be worth it.
The news story doesn't get too deep into the financial aspect of the law but it is paid for (for all intents and purposes) and the Congressional Budget Office has declared it to be deficit neutral. The law gets it's "deficit neutral" stamp by relying on future taxes and spending cuts that may never come to fruition (aka "gimmicks"). But I don't think it is going to explode the deficit, kill jobs or cause the country's financial ruin. If it is implemented correctly, it will reduce costs because it will give people, who otherwise couldn't afford it, access to preventative care rather than waiting for them to become deathly ill before getting emergency treatment and leaving the rest of us to pay the bill. It will create jobs because there will be more activity in the health care industry, requiring new employees to meet demand. And small business that otherwise couldn't afford to provide health care to their employees, will benefit from the increased productivity that comes along with having a more healthy workforce (one of the reasons other countries have been beating us in manufacturing).
So I reject the right-wing hysteria on this issue. At almost every turn I will favor pragmatism over ideology. This is certainly one of those cases.
The news story:
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/03/156174917/post-supreme-court-lets-review-health-care-law
~R. Charan
Pagan
information systems technologist, musician, writer, filmmaker
Los Angeles, CA
90017
http://www.reclaimingourbirthright.blogspot.com/
