Sarah was half right. The “death panels” do exist but just not in that name and not brought on by Obama. They're a result of 4 decades of Republican & Democratic mismanagement, they're called “profit panels” and at their roots are the medical, pharmaceutical and insurance companies and the lobbies who represent them. The goal is to squeeze the maximum profit out of every individual passing through the web of the health care profession. Profit panels do result in death but this is not a major concern because the “product” is aging and being replaced in geometric proportions.
The pharmaceutical and medical companies and insurance companies have a delicate balance to maintain, to achieve maximum profit for both the drug and medical have to attain maximum pricing and the insurance companies have to balance what is perceived as a “fair and balanced and humane” length of stay, amount of subsidized drugs and treatment but not so much as to infringe on profits. Because of the sheer number of persons being treated, the total lack of actual and applied “compassion” the treatment time, the honor given to drugs and treatment is given shorter and smaller importance. Years ago it was noticed that patients, surgical, child birthing women were being sent home earlier. This was passed off as to be better for the patient and there is an element of truth here, but the bigger truth was to save the insurance companies money, money that they were paying to the medical industry. It's an uncomfortable marriage, the insurance companies and the health industry, but a necessary one, for both to survive. And survive well. The mid-wife of the whole scheme is the lobby industry and the congress. All get paid, and paid very well, and the greater fool theory is intact. The greater fool is, as always, the customer, the ill, the elderly, the taxpayer.
Any kind of meaningful health care will be obfuscated in rhetoric, circular arguments, meaningless dialog, mumbo-jumbo and political double-triple speak. It's easy to see how Sarah became confused. It's all driven by profit, a lot of profit, there is simply to much money in it to do the right thing.

It's the economy, Obama

I voted for Obama. I like him. Now he needs to pull his head out of his ass. And he needs to pull his ass out of Russia, Africa or France or whatever or wherever and get back to work, fire the culture and ideology that BatBrained Bush Wonker left, hire somebody like Volcker, go thru the pain and get it done. Ho ho ho, unless of course That Great White Hope, Obama, is cut of the same cloth as the execs of GS, JP, etc. Keep the $ press' running 24/7 and stuff it in your pockets as fast as you can. Perhaps not. I hope not and don't think so. But when damn near everybody with any stroke is a graduate of GS it does give one pause. This is not the "Change" I and millions voted for. There has to be a balance between the filth of greed and moral obligation to society. And integrity.

Supreme Court Hearings.. Sotomayor

Who are these batbrained wankers that run our country? And why is everybody polite to them? I'm a nationality collector. An ethnic collector. A race collector. The variety is great! It's what built this country. The differences are rich and add robust dynamic to the world and the similarities fundamental, powerful and morally admirable. Seems the lacking elements are relegated to the highest posts and/or to the lowest rungs of our culture. The greed, filth, prejudices, incompetence and intolerance's... dumb and stupid never stop. I guess it's the worlds way of adding balance. Or something.

Sarah blows up. Not much more to be said as everybody else is saying, speculating, posturing on this. Bailing out on Alaska (I'm a resident) in the midst of a gas pipeline deal is not good. This is a Big deal for Alaska and for the rest of the USA. Plus, just quitting in the middle of a job, incoherently, fractured talking, babbling bubblease, she has truly become (to quote) the head bull goose loony of the Republican party, an honor which she won over stiff competition. Jesus, dumb never stops.

The Filth of Iran

Murder this girl, the soul, grace and tomorrow of Iran.

The United States tortures??! Who would'a thunk? Pretty foul business anyway you look at it. Cruel, ineffective and frankly well beneath any nation or it's peoples who strive (hopefully) for the higher standard. If it ever comes to trial or hearings, at least, the defense will be the same as it was at the end of WWII at Nuremberg. "Orders are orders..." etc etc. But those were Nazis, lower than low, scum and filth. Leaves a difficult and very typical human dilemma. Stand up, disobey orders, and face courtmarshal, get fired, imprisoned or, in time of war, disobeying an order can get you shot. Lots of wiggling coming up on this one.

Alcohol & marijuana, excellent short clip here, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norm-stamper/420-thoughts-on-pot-vs-al_b_188627.html#postComment
Alcohol has lobbiests, marijuana doesn't. The only way to get anywhere with politicians is to bribe them or embarrass them. Sad but true, but a fact of life.

Why doesn't the US Navy just sub the pirate job out to the Israelies? They'll get it done & save the Capt. Waiting for the US Government and the hang over from the Grand Old Party is a hopeless exercise; the current government is saturated with the incompetent filth, centralized planning and decision making left over and it'll take a time to flush it. To bad for Obama, his inheritence is horrible, but, given time I believe he has what it takes. He just has to surround himself with better people and get rid of the dead old idealogs, incompetent bunglers and rabid bufoons.

Stocks Bouncing Near the Bottom
This is a futile exercise, calling a bottom, so, I'm not calling one, but just speculating. The DOW has to bounce off of 6400 +/- once more. The NASDAQ MIGHT, just MIGHT have to bounce off of 1250 +/- again but frankly I doubt it. The S&P might have to bounce off of 640 +/- again. There, got that outta my system.
The Democrats like government, committees, and big collections of folks who can't reach a conclusion and like lots and lots of money to spend on things that don't work, aren't accountable and eventually they blow themselves up. They like to suffer. It's their nature.
The Republicans like lots and lots of money in their pockets, wars, heavy industry, incompetence, fear and trembling in the population and the world. They blow everybody else up. Plus they're not terribly bright and blame everybody else for the ill they begat. But, they can bring themselves together as somewhat of a cohesive group of dingbats, airheads and fundamentalists. Buckley's dead, what else can you say?

Capitalism Evolving? Devolving? Something
Maybe I'm just getting to old. What is “contractual obligation” for failure?
And what's the opposite? For success? AIG, BA, C, etc, etc, bonus's paid for abject failure to the public, shareholders, the country or, is it Capitalism at it purist?
Everybody for themselves. The boss (es) are getting big ones everybody else might as well get it too. The success of the business is secondary.
The Mantra is “we have to pay it to retain the top talent.” This is talent? Incompetence is Talent? Getting the bonus when you're a greedy slimeball buffoon is talent.
Based on rewarding the incompetent and corrupt and insatiably greedy Madoff should get the biggest bonus of all.

Wrapping it Up – The Saudis, The Bushs & The Baath Party
We're at war in Iraq for one reason, to bust up the Baath Party for the Saudis who hadn't the brass to do it themselves. (See post Jan 18, “Mission Accomplished”) The Saudis are now in negotiations with the Syrians to form a new Pan-Arab league with themselves the Saudis- on top. Saddam is dead. Assad the Elder is dead. GW Bush can go home and watch re-runs of “Lawrence of Arabia” over and over. The Christian Right can wallow in the glow of a successful 6th Crusade, dead bodies and all. And they didn't even know what they were in on.

The Democrates blow themselves up, always and the Republicans blow everybody else up, always. The Democrates stand around wringing their hand, pissing and moaning and the Republicans just go for the money and power. It looks like now the Republicans have learned by default something from the Dems. Jesus, thank God for whiskey.

FOX & Conservative Luminarios

FOX news on February 28, during the CPAC confrence called Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter the "luminarios of the Conservative Party."
I am almost without words. Almost. This is like announcing that boiled Spam will be served for Thanksgiving. No wonder nobody showed up. I seriously thought it was a joke, thought maybe the newscaster was just playing with me, but, nope, dead serious. Sorry, I didn't mean to insult the Spam.

FOXnews & BOFS

Early in the last campaign an interesting situation surfaced. It's a new virus, know as BOFS, it's rampant in certain circles, savage in it's scope and frankly funny if it wasn't so sad, pathetic and humiliating for some members of the human race. It's neurological, kind of like dementia, a form of Serious denial, undefined currently in medical journals. BOFS is Barack Obama Fear Syndrome. Fortunately it's spread through a minority of the population but it can be observed on the Fair and Balanced TV newshow FOX. Disbelief, denial, disconnect from reality, and unwavering belief in the perpetuation of Dumb.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

“Mission Accomplished” & understanding the Mission
Sometimes it just gets too be to much. The war in Iraq isn't about oil or WMD. It's about tribal politics. That whole chunk of the woods is Tribal and the biggest tribe in the woods are the Saudis. The biggest threat to the Saudis is/was the Baath party. The Baath party was an attempt to organize the Arab nations into one political group. This political organization would have been a major threat to the tribal structure, economically and socially. The protagonists of the Baath party were Asad of Syria, now dead and his son is an unknown and Hussain of Iraq. The Saudi's had neither the brass, the ability or the political will to crush the Baath party. They found their perfect dupe in George Bush and, as the cliché goes, about “politics...bedfellows....etc,” the right wing, fundamentalist Christian element of the Republican party.
The Saudis had neither the brass, the political will or the ability to do the job themselves. I wonder if even Bush knew what the mission was. He's simply watched “Lawrence of Arabia” far too many times.
The Mission was to bust up the Baath party. The Mission was Accomplished. The fact that G. Bush got to wear a way cool flight jacket with lots of zippers and fly in a jet was just a bonus. For him. For the 5000 +/- Yanks, etc, etc plus God knows how many Iraq's, etc, etc had to die, not such a great deal.