One liner on hope and change

We were hoping he would change Washington, not America.

DOJ - Did I hear that right?

So, regardless what California might do about it's laws concerning marijuana (quit enforcing them, decriminalize possession or just make it legal) the feds are going to enforce the law - I guess put pot heads in federal prison.
WSJ
But they won't enforce immigration laws because they are too busy with other stuff????? They let illegal aliens out of jail because they don't have enough beds?
Wash Times
Intellectual Conservative

You have to say DOJ has priorities, it's just that they are all screwed up. Go figure.

And DHS/ICE is just as -- irresponsible.
Canada Free Press

High tech - more trouble than it's worth

So, I have this really expensive embroidery/sewing machine. Two names, initials H and V. I never use it for embroidery - it's a lot of trouble to set up and I'm not very inspired by the results.

Anyway, it has a lot of handy utility stitches and every once in a while, I pull it out to sew something. Like a hem in a knit fabric. Or overcast a seam. This happens maybe once a year.

And every *&^ time, it sews about 15 feet, snarls the thread, flips some kind of bar in the bobbin assembly and absolutely will not work after that. It doesn't look like it would be very hard to fix myself if I only knew how, but apparently it is something only the HV mechanic can do. Of course, it only happens on Saturday (because that's when I'm home to do this stuff of course) and the dealer is closed on Sunday. Note to file, any project will take a minimum of 9 days.

I think I am just going to go get some simple machine that has half decent utility stitches and tell the dealer they can have this piece of high tech poo. If they can get it running.

Why can't the government do a cash for clunkers program that lets people s-can their junk for some functioning tools? Somehow, I think that would be more stimulative. I am definitely shovel ready with this.

Libertarian vs Cynical

Some interesting discussion going on at a Stossel article:

Congress Can't Repeal Economics

Obama is neither clueless nor evil. By removing a viable marketplace for private insurers, you gain more customers for the public option, which is what Obama and Pelosi wanted in the first place. Likewise, by taking free market out of medical care, you by definition change the type of people who gravitate there as employees. Free market tends to make individuals accountable. Darwinian capitalism. Government market tends to make nothing an independent decision. Medical treatment will be determined by a book and a committee of physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Not that there is anything wrong with either. It's just that overall, the quality of medical care has to deteriorate just because of the lack of education and practice in a variety of care environments. Fewer experts will result in more mistakes and fewer people practicing will result in more overlooked symptoms. But more inadequate government employees will review and revise the treatment plans until they pass the sniff test. Just like getting specialized treatment now in a PPO - you have to jump through the bureaucratic hoops. Just look at how government (e.g., public schools, the motor vehicle dept.) work now.

That's all part of the plan, too. It is medical Darwinism. Not only will fewer people survive medical care, but the attention will turn to ostracizing people who are not viewed as having an appropriately healthy lifestyle. Smoking, obesity, high triglycerides, failure to exercise, too much fat, salt and sugar, not enough fruit and vegetables, drinking caffeinated and sugary drinks will not only cost more at the retail counter, but it will cost more for your insurance and care. And you will get in the back of the line for care over and over, while someone who has a higher "health index" gets the priority. Technically, people who don't do everything perfectly cannot be penalized, but people who do can be incentivized, and what is the difference? Just that the government will be able to say they don't charge the poor sick people more for being sick. They will get free care, when the governments gets around to it.



If you think I am crazy, consider this: they are monitoring garbage with microchips to make sure you recycle. So, very easy to monitor what food you buy with RFIDs, and then penalize (tax) accordingly. Kind of like paying tax by the mile instead of tax by the gallon. (Tax by the mile is what state governments are coming up with since gas tax revenues are down due to increased mileage and reduced driving.)

Just making people wait longer before they get a diagnosis (let alone treatment) will shorten the amount of time that people are in the program, yes? True it is cheaper to treat healthy people than sick people, but once they are sick, you really want to get them out of the program as soon as possible.

What about young independent voters?

I think we're a dying breed.

Source: Pollster

You would have to say that the GOP truly ruined the brand for the long run if that many young people switched from R to D between 2004 and 2008. Same kind of thing happened in 1996, just not nearly so dramatic. The tracks for independent and republican all demographic certainly seem to reflect inverse trends. Democrats seem to run a fairly constant trend from 1976 to 2004, when it dips - odd. But young people seem to be polarizing - and swinging too and fro. It would be interesting to do some digging and try to figure out what their unique burning issues were in 1996, 2000 and 2008. Makes you wonder... and it doesn't exactly seem like anyone (including Rock the Vote) really has a handle on this.

What is it about independent voters?

I caught a few interviews last week that just show me they don't get it.

One was a discussion among representatives of young republicans and young democrats. Another was with a lady who works for rock the vote. Another was a pol-dit who was commenting on independent voters and what they want.

The young democratic view seems to be be something along the lines that young people are looking for a leader who will articulate a way forward. No one now has a plan. The guy talking about independents wanted to paint with a broad brush in tea party terms.

My y-gen kids are thoughtful, politically informed and astute on the issues. Yet they are not represented by either of the young groups that were talking - not even close. And they say that their friends ranging from late 20s to 40 are of similar views, if not as well as informed. But they would be the first people to tell you (to paraphrase the Cheshire cat) if you don't know where you are going, any path will do. They aren't looking for some path.

I personally took umbrage at the guy who thought he knew what independent voters are all about. First of all, I don't believe they like to be painted by anyone's brush. Let me explain like our president - if I just say it slower and louder:  in-de-pen-dent. Meaning I don't ascribe to the political ideology of any group. People have different priorities and different visions on a variety of issues. You can't put everyone in the same bucket and start making assumptions on what motivates them. Unless of course, ideology is what motivates them, whether political, cultural, familial or (egad) facebook. Lack of ideology seems to be perplexing to these nanos. We don't need someone to tell us how to think.

The other strawman that was set up is that independents are just mad about liberals, progressives and democrats who are in power. That whatever the democrats want or do is somehow the issue. Nope, missed the point, we don't like what the republicans want or do either. That's why we threw them out in - get this - 2006. That was two years before Obama.

And I don't think people are looking for a way forward. I think they see very clearly where the current path is leading and this is a categorical rejection of the destination. Hope and change isn't a way forward, it isn't a goal, it isn't even a measurable objective along the way. Change is not progress if it is just motion. If you take bit broader perspective and remember that people weren't happy in 2004 either, picked a different crew in 2006 and kept "throwing the bums out" in 2008, then you can't simply say that it is about the current administration or agenda. What I see as consistent across the half-decade is a dissatisfaction with having a more and more intrusive government that appears to be more and more incompetent and disconnected from the people they work for. My small group of boomers have been talking 3rd party for 6 years. And the heat went up a lot as soon as Bush was re-elected. We didn't want Kerry, what an elitist, lying fool. But we didn't like Bush and especially pork ear marking Congress.

We don't like the prices we are paying for healthcare. But we know that requiring even more be spent isn't an improvement. We didn't like medicare part d, either, remember? We like choices and medicare advantage offered options that fit our locations, our lifestyles and our medical needs. Taking away advantage to pay for someone else's free health insurance wasn't a good idea. The people on medicare have been paying for the plan for years and years. It was a stupid idea and it is an insult to make it law and then exempt the state of Florida.

We are really, really pissed that wall street, banks and market traders were rescued when it was our money that they bet and lost in the first place. If anyone needed to be restored, it was the people who got ripped off. We don't believe Goldman, Citibank and the like needed taxpayer money. We really don't like screwing us by giving our GM stock to the unions and giving Chrysler to the Italians. And then tell us that we have to give more while congress keeps adding more and more to their pockets and budgets and giving more and more to their friends.