to the question “Do we really want the government controlling our healthcare? They screw up everything else”

Cause the private sector has done such a fantastic job with healthcare so far– uhuh. And the Easter Bunny really does pop out candy-colored eggs every spring.

Twenty-five Kaiser Permanente patients in Northern California were denied the chance for new kidneys that were nearly perfectly matched to them last year during the troubled start-up of the giant HMO’s kidney transplant program in San Francisco, a Times investigation has found.

The Times reported Wednesday that Kaiser patients were imperiled by the massive start-up of the HMO’s first kidney transplant program, which now has a waiting list of more than 2,000. Since Kaiser took over, the number of transplants has plummeted. Patients have complained of inexplicable delays. And paperwork snafus have left hundreds of patients stuck between programs with no hope of receiving a life-saving organ.

But the government would be worse? Really, how? Being denied a perfectly matched kidney because your insurance company couldn’t pull its head out of its ass is better than what?

Read this fantastic post over at Salon’s How the World Works

One year ago, in the run-up to the French referendum on a proposed
constitution of the European Union, much was made of the “specter” of “the Polish plumber.” In a Europe with ever-fewer restrictions on worker movement, so the theory went, a horde of cheap Polish plumbers would descend upon France (or England, or Germany) and wreak havoc on existing wage structures.

This is one reason that after the accession of the so-called A8 central and eastern European countries in 2004, only three “old E.U.” nations, the U.K., Ireland, and Sweden, placed no restrictions at all on worker migration from the new E.U. members. But last week, four more, Greece, Finland, Spain and Portugal, possibly convinced by a fleet of studies opining that the economies of the U.K. and Ireland had benefited from the influx of new workers, if there was any visible effect at all, opened up their borders. Germany and Austria, which, not coincidentally, have historically been the most popular destinations for workers from eastern Europe, are still keeping a tight grip on inward migration.

For us, NAFTA and similar trade agreements we supposed to help us compete against the EU- whose population and GDP are quickly outpacing us. But NAFTA is only trade, not labor or social policy.

The main argument for both sides is that, historically speaking, every previous expansion of the E.U. has not resulted in an overwhelming rush of workers from poor to rich countries, because the benefits of membership have helped to boost
the economies of the new entrants so much that people find it more attractive to
stay home.

So maybe our real solution to immigration is to create a real alliance between Canada, Mexico and the US that includes immigration and social policy. Mexico would be required to create a less corrupt bureaucracy, the US would have to institute universal healthcare, and Canada could increase it’s population and tax base. I know I’m about to say something heretical- but maybe we should be the United States of North America. Each country would still retain it’s national identity (I think we can all acknowledge that the UK is not France) yet would benefit from a huge population and resource base. Mexico would increase its standard of living, which would increase the number of people who can afford to buy our products and decrease the number of people who need to come to this country to support their families.

Action figures doing yoga. Very fucked-up!

There has been a little running conflict about boys and how much credit we girls should give them going on in the blogosphere. I know that every time I post something girly I can hear crickets chirping and I am torn over what to do about it.

I could play benevolent educator- which is what I do in real life with a lot of you and what I do here quite frequently. But, and I’ll be really honest, it is pretty fucking exhausting to constantly try to re-educate you all.

I could just write off all boys as never being able to understand the fucked up power structure that pushes on us like a groper in a subway car. But I like to think you are capable of understanding more than that.

And then there are the boys who want a great big pat on the head for doing what they are supposed to be doing- and this one makes me want to scream. Since when do we give people pats on the head for doing what they are supposed to be doing to begin with.

I’ll give ya a couple of examples, and since it’s May we’re gonna center on parenting crap (happy Mother’s day and all that)

Unamed Boy #1: “My wife got a new job and I have had to babysit my daughter every morning this week”

Uhm- that’s not fucking babysitting- you’re her parent for christsake- babysitters get paid. You are doing what you are supposed to be doing. Mother’s never say “I am babysitting my own child”, why do fathers act like it’s such a big deal when they have to look after their own children? This was said to me, by the way, to get my sympathy and some kudos for the guy for “putting aside his very important work” so he could do this thing so his wife could work. If I remember correctly- he wanted his wife to work. They needed the money.

Unamed Boy #2 is a single dad raising his daughter by himself. Group of single mothers (and this just proves that the idiocy infects both sexes) is fawning over him for “taking responsibility”. I sat back until it was my turn to speak at which I point I said something about “how nice it must be for him to get all this praise for doing the exact same thing that every woman in the room does everyday without getting any praise at all.” In fact, single mothers usually get more harshly judged. We can’t possibly perform as well as families where there is a man.

So the point to all this blathering is why do boys think they deserve a great big pat on the head for doing what they are supposed to be doing? I don’t get a great big pat on the head everytime I wash a dish or pick my child up from school or do the grocery shopping. It is assumed, whether I am working or not, that these are my responsibilities.

I am sure the crickets will be chirping in force on this one. But at least y’all will be thinking about it.

Addendum:I am going to give one big fat pat on the head to Phuxy. He goes to school and takes care of the kiddos while his hot wife, Science Girl goes to work. I have never heard him call it babysitting nor has he ever acted like he was doing something above and beyond the call of duty. For that- Phuxy gets a head pat (and a belly rub if he’s really nice).

We made Sister Nancy Beth Ecxema’s blogroll, but unfortunately we are only Nancy-cons. I wanna be a whore of heresy. Growl, whine, snivel.

Picture included above only cause I think it’s hot. It has virtually no relation to this post whatsoever.

New Conservative Fashion Trends Courtesy of Mikhaela– click on pick for more fun!

Most of you have heard me rant about buying crap from irresponsible companies. Now I have found a tool to make it much easier to know who you are buying from and what they do.

check out buyblue.org

Some things I have discovered:

I am never buying from Amazon again, I’ll go to Powell’s instead.

Overstock.com is not only a great place to find bargains, but supports Dems too.

Ebay is blue-ish.

As always- Costco kicks all the other big-box stores in the nuts when it comes to corporate responsibility and donations to the Dems.

Shop wisely kids- only you have the power to prevent donations to the republicans being made with your hard earned money.

Wonder and I were talking about the sneakiness of military recruiters this morning. See, I live in a poor neighborhood near a highschool. In the only shopping center for the neighborhood (this is the ghetto- big grocery stores don’t want to compete for food stamp dollars) are all the military recruiters. Army, Navy and either Air Force or Marines (I can never remember which) all have men with crew-cuts and well-pressed uniforms wandering around all the time. Now, 3 miles up the road, where all the docs and proffs for the university live- there isn’t a military recruiter to be found. I’m sure if they even tried- eyebrows would be raised considerably over there. But even here in the ghetto, they aren’t getting much business lately. This is despite the reduction in student loans and financial aid to colleges. Guess the real possibility of dying in war isn’t a great marketing strategy.

So I am perusing craigslist today- checking out jobs, cause like I said- they cut financial aid and the Queen’s coffers are seriously diminished at the moment. I may have to take a break from school for a bit and go work a real job.

Then I ran across this:
Which leads to this little bit of crap:

Funny- I didn’t know that dying in a fucked-up war constituted customer service work. And $250 a month seems like a paltry sum to me. No wonder they can’t get anyone to join up.

But how sneaky is it to post on craigslist as a customer service job? Pretty damn sneaky in my opinion.

Oh man- this just chaps my hide. Enough that I went and emailed my congressman- Jim McDermott.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) took on a rare role yesterday as a defender of President Bush. Hoyer came to the defense of the commander in chief after Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where the president took a drubbing from comedian Stephen Colbert. “I thought some of it was funny, but I think it got a little rough,” Hoyer said. “He is the president of the United States, and he deserves some respect.”

We are the minority party because of pissants like this who couldn’t grow a set of balls if they tried.

So here is the note I sent:

Dear Congressman McDermott:
Would you please tell Rep. Hoyer to stick a sock in it about Stephen Colbert’s fabulously brave Correspondent’s Dinner speech? Hoyer’s sucking up is the reason Democrats are perceived as milquetoast weenies.

While our party has spent most of the last 6 years running around trying not to offend, Colbert was one of the few people to call Bush on his inane policy behavior to his face. If more dems acted like that instead of trying to pander- we wouldn’t be the minority in every branch of the federal government. Standing up to corruption and idiocy is not disrespect- it is patriotism and a civic duty. Hoyer’s comments are asinine at best, but harmful in that they perpetuate the idea that Bush’s grab for absolute power is ok- he’s the president after all and according to Hoyer he deserves absolute respect simply for occupying that position.

Thank You, I know you have been much more vocal than most of your fellow Reps, but the other members of the party who (to use a blue phrase from my yellow dog democratic southern roots) wouldn’t say shit if they had their mouth full, are causing us to look like the party of cowards and suck-ups.

Thank You

If you are also tired of Democratic politicians who act like pimples on the ass of wignuts- go tell your rep to shut Hoyer up.