Democracy isn't broken

No matter what your take is on the recently passes health care reform bill, I think there are a few positive takeaways....

1) The first is that this is the first major legislation to be passed by congress in decades.

2) Gives us hope that our government can provide solutions.

3) And it reminds some of our government representatives who they work for. See the Michael Moore Newsletter below...

How the People in My District Got Stupak to Change His Mind -- and Thus Saved the Health Care Bill ...a letter from Michael Moore

Friends,

Well, our full court press on my congressman, Bart Stupak worked! Hundreds of my neighbors here in his Michigan district spent the weekend organizing thousands of voters to get busy and save the health care bill. We called Stupak's congressional office non-stop and we got thousands of people up here to flood his email box.

And then a rare thing happened: An elected representative did what the people told him to do. It was nothing short of amazing.

Stupak, and his seven "right to life" Democrats who had said they would vote against the bill, reversed themselves after what Stupak said Sunday afternoon was a week of his staff having "really taken a pounding." Hey, all we did here in northern Michigan was let him know that we would be unceremoniously tossing him out of Congress in this August's Democratic primary. One of our group announced she would oppose him in the Dem primary. That seemed to register with him.

All of this made Stupak look pretty worn down at his press conference yesterday, pleading with people like us to stop calling his house and waking his wife "at two or three in the morning." Hey! That's not us. We never call during Carson Daly!

Obama needed 216 votes in the House last night -- and he barely got them (219 was the final number). Had Stupak not done a 180 in the last 24 hours, the health care bill would have gone down in flames. Thank you, to all of you here in northern Michigan who did what had to be done. You and you alone saved this bill in the final moments.

Stupak stood on the floor of the House last night and, in a surreal moment, spoke against the "Stupak Amendment"! Once he got through his medieval meanderings about where babies come from, he gave one helluva speech.

And, that's when Republican congressman Randy Neugebauer of Texas shouted out: "Baby killer!" Wow. I guess the fertilized egg police felt betrayed by Bart.

Those of us here in Michigan will now decide what to do about our misguided congressman. We're a forgiving lot, but maybe not this time. We shall see.

Bart, I'm glad you discovered you didn't have a uterus. And, like the scarecrow, I'm glad you found a bit of your brain.

A good night it was -- important little steps were taken to bring our country into the civilized world.

Now, we have some real work to do if we really want to say we have universal health care. The sharks who run the insurance companies have every intention of turning this lemon into some very profitable lemonade.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Someday, the Hyde Amendment is going to have to go. No Democratic president should ever agree to anything that discriminates against women.

i wanna (schoolhouse) ROCK!!

currently, the country awaits to hear whether the health care bill will pass. my point, and i do have one...is that it is important to know the process of how a bill becomes a law, so now more than ever i give you "i'm just a bill," the famous schoolhouse rock video. enjoy and share your points!

no sex for me

norrie may-welby has been a man and a woman and is now the first person legally designated neither. the genderless 48-year-old was born male in scotland, moved to austraila at the age of seven, then 21 years later underwent a sex change. even as a woman though, the fulfillment and self-identification that was so badly sought just wasn’t found. so may-welby stopped drinking the female hormones to become a “neuter” (having undeveloped or imperfectly developed sexual organs). new south wales government officials recently amended the scottish australian's birth certificate to reflect "no specific sex" after doctors were unable to make a gender determination.

may-welby said the following on her…um…his…um…blog: "the concepts of man or woman don't fit me…the simplest solution is not to have any sex identification…there is no reason for still insisting that our legal identity must include a public statement about a very private matter, our sex… many people like the idea of being genderless."

while I am happy for may-welby for finding an identity that now fits, my point, and i do have one….is that while this may be happening across the pond, obviously the dialog has already started here. we live in a country that can’t yet figure out how to handle the rights of people who are already identified as a specific sex, so one can only imagine the controversy that will surround all elements of person who isn't clearly defined. what’s your point?

An Incendiary Indiscretion

So I think Jessica Simpson is missing an opportunity here...

In case you haven't heard, a few weeks ago in Rolling Stone John Mayer described their relationship as "sexual napalm."

Now I like John Mayer's music a great deal, but apparently he's not heard of that maxim about how gentlemen aren't supposed to kiss and tell. So I think he's got some bad karma heading his way in the future...

Still, Jessica then went on Oprah and said "I don't want people to know how I am in bed." Her right, for sure, but I think she's missing a golden opportunity.

Given that you cannot buy this sort of publicity, I think she should trademark the "Sexual Napalm" phrase, and start a new line of clothing around it. On top of that, should John ever bring it up again, she could send the lawyers after him for misappropriating her trademark. The ultimate vindication, if you will...

So, gentle readers, if you were rumored to be an incredible lover, would you own it, or run away from it?

Keynes vs. Hayek Rap - AKA It's All About the Debt

The above rap video is one of the best and most entertaining summaries I've ever seen comparing Keynesian economics to Austrian economics. Currently, the U.S. Federal Government is following Keynesian economics - particularly, we are engaged in hefty fiscal spending which is driving up the U.S. Debt outstanding, and the Federal Reserve is engaged in unprecedented monetary stimulus in the form of an extremely low federal funds rate target (e.g. 0 to .25%) PLUS the direct purchase of U.S. Treasuries and Agency Debt.

Despite the above intervention in the economy by the government and Federal Reserve, unemployment remains high, any "so-called" economic recovery is tepid at best, and total liabilities of the U.S. government, including the Public Debt and Medicare, Social Security, etc continue to sky higher to unsustainable and unservicable levels. Plus, the U.S. banking sector remains completely immobilized, seized up by bad loans and commercial real estate that continues to deteriorate. One only needs to look to Japan to question whether or not Keynesian actions have done anything to pull that great industrial nation out of the protracted deflation and anemic growth it has suffered for the past 20 years on the whole.

In essence, it is my Austrian argument that there is simply too much debt (especially as a ratio to U.S. GDP) in the system, and that trying to transfer some of that debt off of the private household/banking balance sheets onto liabilities of the Federal Government will ultimately fail, postponing and deepening as opposed to preventing the inevitable Depression. I would argue that a better approach from the onset would have been to clear the debt out of the system first, forcing massive bankruptcies, nationalizing key "to big to fail" banks/financial institutions while obliterating bank shareholders and giving their bondholders pennies on the dollar. This would have certainly resulted in even higher unemployment and plenty of short term pain for all sorts of individuals and businesses, but it would have wiped out the debt that those same individuals and businesses have no hope of servicing. Then, as the private debt was being cleared out of the system, I would have borrowed 5 to 6 trillion (through U.S. Treasury issuance) for the direct support/aid of families affected by the job losses via housing and food support, created a mini-U.S. focused New Marshall Plan, PLUS backstopped the FDIC so that depositors were made whole despite the widespread banking failures. Then, the nationalized banks and private banks who had strong enough balance sheets to survive the fallout could start lending again and private industry could resume, unchained from its debt shackles.

Anyway, that's my point ... what's yours?

how do you white a wrong?

fans joined facebook pages to lobby for it, media outlets wrote stories willing for it to happen..and now it has! the amazing, talented and wonderful betty white has confirmed that she will appear on snl this season. the 88-year-old legend gained fame in the roles of sue ann nivens and rose nylund, played password alongside her late husband and has now seen a resurgence in her popularity, thanks in part, to her snickers super bowl ad. her appearance will no doubt set up snl and nbc for a ratings bonanza they haven't seen in years! i am as big of a fan as any of this bawdy and sharp tongued octogenarian, which is why the i find the second half of this snl story so bothersome....

white's appearance will be part of snl's "women of comedy" night...so who, you may ask, will be the other comedy geniuses and legends to grace the stage that night? snl vets tina fey, amy poehler and molly shannon. ....REALLY? molly shannon? amy poehler? (i happen to like tina fey, so while i am unsure she fits either, i am not as outraged by her). to me this is an insult to white and her contribution to entertainment. snl being as self serving as they are, clearly only reached out to their own alums for consideration...but even so, they couldn't have had a recruited a laraine newman, jane curtin or candice bergen? or god forbid reach beyond their own little inbred pool fathered by lorne michales to a carol burnett, lily tomlin, marlo thomas or tracey ullman....or think to reunite white with rue mcclanahan or mary tyler moore?

my point, and i do have one....is that i am so excited to see anything and everything that betty white does, but i am completely and utterly disgusted by snl. what’s your point?

We Maybe Broke But It's No Cussing Matter

It's a bar of soap in the mouth for an entire state: California's lawmakers have approved a "Cuss-Free Week" to encourage Californians to watch their language.

The resolution can’t punish anyone for foul language, but the lawmaker who introduced the bill hopes Californians “act like you’re at your grandma’s house.”

The California resolution still has to be approved by the Senate, but if the chamber votes yes, “Cuss-Free Week” will start next Tuesday.

My point, and I do have one...California is in the middle of an historic budgetary crisis, people continue to lose their homes and has one the nations highest unemployment rates while the state assembly passes NO CUSSING week. %#*&^!

Governator couldn't be reached for comment because he is fighting childhood obesity this week.

Does our government even care anymore or is it our fault for not holding their feet to the first to solve REAL problems.

Excuse me while I go stick my head in the sand for awhile.