Grab Bag of Political Link Dumpings

December 22, 2010RobotPirateNinja Uncategorized Tags: baby boomers, congress, For Profit Colleges, israel, old people, Palestine, Progress, Tea Party Leave a comment

Just a few things to get off the desktop here…organized by order of randomness…

—

How “For Profit” Colleges cost us all a lot of money. I hate it when good things (higher education) get exploited for money in the wrong way. Continuing professional education should be a means to an end (expanding skillsets leading to making more money/job satisfaction) not used as that end in and of itself.

—

The Reality of the last Congress.

—

The Big Lie that killed it.

—

Glenn’s attempt at the Big Lie on Net Neutrality….only partially successful. I’ll probably do more on this after more details and analysis come out. I am a big proponent of net neutrality. The real kind, not the bastardized concept bouncing around the RWEC.

—

Fox News gives in, tells the truth, and now 9/11 Responders get federal help. Note: Shep Smith had a previous rant about this subject that followed my guidelines in How to Make Government Look Really Bad (and Win) to the letter. Now if we could only get Fox to stop lying about climate change we’d be that much closer to having a functioning democracy again.

—

EU is getting sick of Israeli shennangans. I think pretty much everyone is. When they have the gall to blame any third party for the breakdown of peace negotiations when they pull this settlement bait and switch is somewhat galling. Still, giving the recent string of Obama victories, maybe this SNL skit (re:Hillary) might turn out right (personally I think low expectations of a real deal increases their chances dramatically in this clusterfark).

—

There will simply not be enough lawns to get off of. I take a certain bit of guilty pleasure in reading that article. I’ve long held that Boomers are one of the most spoiled, entitled and ultimately disastrous generations to have cursed this nation. And now they get to start reaping their harvest. And by “they” I meant “we”.

The grim results arrive before next month’s milestone, when the oldest baby boomers will turn 65. America’s baby boomer generation of 79 million people adds up to a little more than a quarter of the U.S. population, the center reports.

Over the next 19 years, about 10,000 people will turn 65 each day, the survey reports, resulting in a grayer America by 2030. By that year, 18% of the nation’s population will be over the age of 65, compared with 13% now.

I just hope they come up with a good Alzheimer’s drug before the Tea Party really takes off . I think there’s a roughly 50% chance the nation as we know it survives the Boomers. Seriously. By 2030 the U.S. will be 25% Young, Poor, and Hispanic and 18% Old, Rich and Racist. If that doesn’t tear it apart, nothing will.

Who’s packing ERs? Not the uninsured

May 20, 2010May 20, 2010RobotPirateNinja Big Business, Doh, us Tags: Hospital Services, Insured, old people, Uninsured 2 Comments

http://us.mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/AnyArticle/p.rdt?URL=http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64I78X20100520

“In 2007, approximately one in five persons in the U.S. population had one or more emergency department visits in a 12-month period,” the report from the National Center for Health Statistics reads.

“Among the under-65 population, the uninsured were no more likely than the insured to have had at least one emergency department visit in a 12-month period.”

Tamyra Carroll Garcia and colleagues at the center used two large national surveys of healthcare use in 2007 for their study.

“Since 1996, demand for emergency services in the United States has been rising,” they wrote.

“While the number of emergency departments (EDs) across the country has decreased, the number of ED visits has increased. As a result, EDs are experiencing higher patient volume and overcrowding, and patients seeking care are experiencing longer wait times,” they added.

Let’s see, population is rising, number of ED’s decreasing, seems pretty natural that service levels would decrease. No need to blame the poor or undocumented, simple economics explains the problem. Not that that will stop anyone. In times of uncertainty folks are always looking for someone to blame.

Some of The Reasons I Can’t Vote for McCain

May 15, 2008August 26, 2008RobotPirateNinja asia, Poli-Fi, us, war Tags: bin laden, bush, mccain, neocons, old people, peace, vietnam, war, world war ii 1 Comment

The Associated Press: McCain outlines vision of Iraq victory

“By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won,” he told an audience of several hundred here in the capital city of a general election battleground state.

I though we were going to be done with the “it is the way I say it is, reality be damned” attitude. Bush and the Neocons tried that “we make reality” thing, and we’ve seen the horrific results.

If he was saying, “By 2013, I expect oil to cost $201.30.”, then maybe I would believe in his prognostication skills. And for some reason I still don’t personally understand how it is my freedom being defended in Iraq (i.e. the frontline of the War on Terror). We now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Iraq was completely incapable of posing a mortal threat to the U.S. A mortal threat is the ONLY type of type for which pre-emption is even a slight, remotely possible useful strategy. Self-defense only works after the guy pulls the gun, not while he’s looking at the catalog.

And above all else about his “2013 or Defeat” stragedy (yes, that is spelled correctly) is that the Iraqis adamantly want us out by 2011.

Later, as he drove to the airport on his “Straight Talk Express” campaign bus, McCain was peppered by reporters with questions about the timetable. He and his aides insisted there was a difference between ending the war and bringing troops home and, as they criticize the Democrats, announcing a withdrawal upfront without regard for the military endgame.

“It’s not a timetable; it’s victory. It’s victory, which I have always predicted. I didn’t know when we were going to win World War II; I just knew we were going to win,” McCain said.

When this guy talks about World War II in the present tense, like he was there…it’s because he was. How old is this dude again?

The Vietnam veteran added: “I know from experience, you set a day for surrender — which is basically what you do when you say you are withdrawing — and you will pay a much a heavier price later on.”

Yes, much like how when we finally pulled out of Vietnam, Communism swept the world and now we are on our knees in front of the Global Communist Domination of SouthEast Asia, and there are Vietnamese blowing themselves up here nearly every day in their quest to kill the U.S.

Oh, wait…you mean we are at peace with them, and have good relations?

(CNN) — Visitors to Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam are struck by its frenetic pace, by the modern skyscrapers, by stores bulging with goods and by streets teeming with industrious Vietnamese.

At night young men and women cruise the neon-lit streets of the former Saigon on shiny Honda motorbikes, gathering in coffee bars, discos and restaurants where they are serenaded by the beeps and chirps of their cell phones.

[full story]

I wonder if McCain forgot all about that stuff and has some sort of alternate history in mind when he used Vietnam as a good reason to stay in Iraq.

And speaking on 9/11….

In particular, he sees a world in which the Taliban threat in Afghanistan has been greatly reduced.

He added: “The increase in actionable intelligence that the counterinsurgency produced led to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden, and his chief lieutenants. … There still has not been a major terrorist attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.”

We’ve already killed about 7 number threes, so this has happened already. I wonder if McCain was napping. The fact that he’s still talking about the Taliban points to serious issues regarding how bad Bush sucked…and why McCain sticking with Bush’s war policy is retarded at best.

There is one place McCain divides from Bush however…

McCain also pledged to halt a Bush administration practice of enacting laws with accompanying signing statements that exempt the president from having to enforce parts he finds objectionable.

You mean the Bush administration practice of wiping its ass with the Constitution? Yea, we should certainly stop doing that…I’d have more respect for the “Maverick” if he intended to prosecute them for those indiscretions, but my guess is a pardon is much more likely. And that’s why I can’t vote for him.