a bill with a public option! and, i have more thoughts on health insurance reform.

harry reid has announced that he will introduce to the senate floor a version of the health insurance reform bill that includes a public option.

i think this is a great idea. if you agree, call/email/fax/write your senators and let them know you support it too.

i think the creation of a strong and affordable public option is really the only way to have meaningful health insurance reform. private insurance companies are not in the business to deliver high quality care; they want to make as much money as possible in order to meet their obligations to stockholders and to enrich top executives. that's their right, i think.

but at the same time, health insurance is not something most people can safely or comfortably do without. i understand that it seems unappealing to some folks to think about their tax dollars paying for someone else's care, but i believe that this sort of investment in one another is part of living in a civilized society. and sometimes it doesn't seem fair.

like we think of the things that we don't personally use, or haven't used for a long time. for example, i rarely drive but my taxes go toward massive maintenance projects for highway systems. i haven't taken advantage of a public school district in a decade, but my rent is increased to pay property taxes that go to OUSD. but when i do drive, i'm sure grateful for safe highways. and i definitely benefited from two public school districts at one time. am i paying for things in proportion to my use for them? definitely not. but there are also the fringe benefits associated with living in a place where the people around you have access to safe roads and the opportunity for a good education. i think we as a society are strengthened by social goods like education and infrastructure, and access to proper care.

there's also the matter of corporate profits. we may feel like we're saving money in taxes if there is no additional burden to pay for health care, but if we are paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month to private companies that may or may not allow us treatment that keeps us alive when we need it, is that better? what if we consider the part of that money goes to bonuses and advertising and massive executive salaries? (the CEO of united healthcare west makes $57,000 an hour. an HOUR.)

consider firefighting (another social good we all pay for that only some of us use.) right now, if a person's house catches on fire, they call 911 and the firefighters come, rescue the person's family, make sure the fire's out, and go. and those shiny trucks and skilled first responders aren't free—our tax dollars pay for them. and firefighting services are a public good. what if there were a bunch of different fire companies and you had to sign up with one, usually through work because it would be too expensive otherwise, and send them your premium each month...and then when it was time to call 911 you found that they weren't actually coming because they decided not to cover your fire?

i think a fine for not carrying insurance is totally insane, since many people who are uninsured would like to be but can't afford it. and i think private insurance companies should be allowed to continue to exist, but i do think that a government-run program for which everyone is eligible (like medicare, but for those under 65 too!) is the only viable solution.

and it's way past time. strong public option now.

some thoughts on health care reform.

•when you consider that we already have socialized bookshelves (libraries), socialized learning places (public schools), socialized fire protection (your local fire department), socialized security forces (police departments), socialized letter and package delivery systems (the u.s. postal service), socialized road fixing (caltrans, at least here in california), socialized environmental monitoring (the e.p.a.), and socialized medicine for old people already (medicare)...socialized medicine for everybody just doesn't seem so unreasonable.

•i've read the gospels quite a few times and i still can't find the part where jesus says that the man found by the good samaritan shouldn't have been lazy enough to not have a job with good coverage and lucky enough not to have a carrier who dropped him when his treatment got expensive.

•if health insurance companies are already doing such a great job, why should competition from a public plan endanger them in any way?

•on this issue (and probably this issue alone) i am turning into a total laissez-faire economics cheerleader. move over thomas friedman, it's my turn to high five the invisible hand! natural competition in the market solves everything!

•if we were to get a public option and you didn't like it, you wouldn't have to use it. that's why the public option is called the public option, not the public mandatory.

•rep. alan grayson is a total badass and i would like to give him a hug and bake him a cake and probably give him a kiss, but only if he would like it and only on the cheek. WATCH THIS OMG HE IS SAYING THE THINGS I'M THINKING BUT HE IS ON TELEVISION:

Rep. Grayson on the Situation Room

•if you want to contact rep. alan grayson and tell him that he is the best ever, you can do so here.

•if you want to contact your congresspeople and ask them why the hell they can't be more like rep. alan grayson, you can do so here.

•stephen helmsley is a bad person (but he's not the only one. anyone who makes their fortune denying care to sick and injured people is, in fact, a bad person):

Greedy Insurance Companies—Unscrupulous United Healthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley

•it's taken me a long time to get around to writing about this. i don't feel like this post represents my best work, or my clearest or best organized thinking about health care reform. but i'm tired. tired, and furious and terrified. i just weathered another coverage-related fiasco, and i'm doing fine now (properly covered, going to get reimbursed for some stuff i needed but couldn't easily afford, etc) but it was a really scary couple of months. yes, months. with terrible nightmares. i'm publishing this in spite of its failure to meet my usual capricious standards because i think it's important, but i've really gotten to the point where, when i'm trying to talk to someone who is arguing against health care reform, all i hear these days is, "sarah, i don't actually care if you die."

this is one way to deal with the government auctioning off public land to be destroyed by oil and gas companies:

(ap story, via huffington post) a 27 year old university of utah student named tim dechristopher went to a bureau of land management auction in december and starting bidding on parcels of federal land that were being sold to oil and gas companies. he won 13 of them, and managed to make others much more expensive than they would have been otherwise.

"I thought I could be effective by making bids, driving up prices for others and winning some bids myself," the Salt Lake City man said.
snip
DeChristopher snapped up 22,500 acres of land around Arches and Canyonlands parks but said he could afford to pay for only a few of those acres. He owes $1.7 million on all of his leases.

he's expecting federal charges, he says, and he's "willing to deal with that."

somewhere, edward abbey is smiling.

because i respect honesty in headlines:

from the san francisco chronicle: "Power plant has no plans to stop killing fish"

jätte bra, sverige!

from the christian peacemaker teams winter 2008 newsletter signs of the times (volume 18, number 4, page 14):

Swedes disarm Iraq-bound weapons
CPT Reserve Corps member Martin Smedjeback and three other activists entered two arms plants in Sweden 16 October and disarmed weapons destined for use in Iraq.

The simultaneous actions at BAE Systems and Saab plants disabled antitank grenade launchers, parts for Howitzer 77 and Archer artillery systems and other armaments used in the illegal war and occupation of Iraq. After disabling the weapons, the activists alerted police of their presence inside the supposedly high-security areas.

"When your government supports an illegal war and sells arms to dictatorships, it's time for ordinary citizens like us to take action," said supporter Annika Spalde.

christian peacemaker teams, whose motto is "Getting in the Way," asks, "What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war?" during the season in which christians observe the birth of christ, it seems like a particularly reasonable question.

and this is what happens when you antagonize everyone, for eight years.

bush at the g20.

also, i find it kind of funny that some random dude on cnn is now joining the bush anti-fan club. toward the end there, when he starts yelling about his google research, he starts to remind me of keith "for shame, mr, president" olbermann.

can we all just agree that obama's on it?

selected awesome quote: "when you hear john mccain talk about taking on the ol' boys' network, know this: on the mccain campaign, that is called a staff meeting." -barack obama

go watch!


obama speaking to women in daytona beach, florida
september 20, 2008

september 11 thoughts.

there is so much that could be said today.

i could write you a roundup of the deaths and injuries and environmental devastation and economic implications and tremendous waste involved in the war on afghanistan and the war on iraq.

i could talk about the people (including john mccain) who have discussed attacking iran.

i could mention the corporations that are making money hand over fist as a direct result of the wars.

i could reflect on the fact that new york/washington, dc/pennsylvania's 9/11 wasn't the only one that will live in infamy in this hemisphere.

i could explore the connections between the bin laden family and the bushes, note that we still haven't found osama bin laden, mention the people who have been arrested, detained, beaten, tortured, or simply disappeared for being, looking like, or sharing a name with someone the united states was looking for, or for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

i could share with you my september 11 story (we've all got one—some are more dramatic than others, but everyone has theirs.)

i could discuss the stark division i see in my own life between the pre-9/11 and post-9/11 days.

but i'm not going to. because i'm tired. and because i think that any of those things might detract from the very most important thing i can say about today, the thing i woke up thinking: if you didn't like september 11, 2001, then don't let that kind of thing happen to other people.

that is all.

can we all just agree that joe biden nails it here?

biden's talking about the rnc: "it's not so much what i heard...it's what i didn't hear." watch for his elementary school analogy and the reaction of the people sitting behind him. i think he really strikes a chord. and i think he's right.


joe biden on fire

please pay attention to the rnc protests.

amy goodman explains what happened

journalists, photographers, community activists, food not bombs volunteers, and plenty of other folks are being arrested right now. don't watch this happening silently.

action alert from mike:

"So things are getting worse in ST. Paul and we need to support our friends can you please post the following on your blog. Feel free to edit it but make sure to include the media links and the phone numbers as it is extremely important to get as many people as possible to call!

Peace, love, Unity,

Mike Butler

RED ALERT!!!

THERE IS A FASCIST POLICE STATE IN ST. PAUL

http://twincities.indymedia.org/

http://news.infoshop.org/search.php?mode=search&type=stories&topic=dncrnc2008

http://indymedia.us/en/index.shtml

http://www.democracynow.org/

Also Watch Democracy Now! Tomorrow as police have arrested a journalist with that show!!

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON: FREE OUR FRIENDS!!

Hennepin County Jail: 612-348-5112

Ramsey County Jail: 651-266-9350

FLOOD THE MAYORS' OFFICES ASAP

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman

651-266-8510

Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak

(612) 673-2100

(612) 673-3000 outside Minneapolis

Sunday

3:30pm: Plymouth police refusing to let IWW union workers off train taking them back to Bloomington Station. Diabetic who needs insulin also not allowed. (Twin Cities IMC)

2:30pm: Cops have surrounded train to get at reinstated IWW organizer and escorting friends and fellow union workers. (Twin Cities IMC)

1:30pm - Cops moved in on demonstration of around 30 people in intersection at 6th and Washington. Intersection cleared, no arrests.

Nine arrested from vets march detained

RNC protest groups file court order to stop police seizures

Sixth person arrested in anarchist investigation; advocate says one is being denied meds and vegan food

Saturday

10:45pm: Permaculture bus impounded? No reported arrests.

RNC Welcoming Committee Organizers Seek Sanctuary From Illegal Arrests

Complete search warrant from Minneapolis raid today

Coldsnap: NLG lawyers ejected from press conference. 2 NLG lawyers kicked out of law enforcement press conference in St. Paul!

3:30pm: One more WC member grabbed on street by police squad.

9:45am: House raid occurring at 3500 Harriet Ave S. Approximately 20 people

9:45am: One person arrested, taken to jail from Food Not Bombs House. One person from Food Not Bombs House Arrested, Charged with Four Counts of Conspiracy

9:45: People from 17th Ave. House Charged with Conspiracy to Riot

Friday night

St. Paul: 10:30 pm CDT: Convergence center on Smith Ave. has been raided by the cops. They have a warrant. The cops have handcuffed everybody at the center and are processing people to get their names and identification. No arrests at this time. Twin Cities Indymedia reports: The convergence space is currently being raided. Police burst in and are using force against people. Everyone inside has been handcuffed. Estimates of people inside currently vary between 20-70. One block radius around the convergence space has been blocked off. Lawyers, legal observers and media are on the way. More updates as they come.

St. Paul: 10:30 pm CDT: No arrests during Critical Mass ride, though there were several crashes."

i am so happy to be back to ridiculous dreams.

because for the past few weeks, my dreams have been horrifying. the kind of dreams that take hours (or even days) to start to forget, and the kind of dreams that cause me to wake up terrified and already in tears.

but not last night! last night i dreamed that i still worked at that one job (okay, that part was pretty crummy) but, amazingly enough, the office building was way, way nicer, my cornucopia of nasty bosses seemed much less involved...oh, and also: morrissey was one of my co-workers.

yeah. that morrissey.

i have no idea what his job actually was, or really what he was doing there at all. he didn't really seem to talk to any of the people who worked there, and none of us really talked much to him. i think my co-workers were all either in awe of the fact that we worked with morrissey (i was!) or totally indifferent to him. (believe me, that office was chock full of indifference...to everything, pretty much, which apparently, at least when i'm asleep, extends even to morrissey. crazy.)

having ridiculously handsome co-workers is generally pretty great, i think (seriously dudes, look at him!) but apart from being ridiculously handsome, morrissey (who, for some reason, went by "moz" in my dream [his attempt at traveling incognito?]) clearly didn't take anything about our office seriously.

he came to work sometimes, but not on any kind of reliable schedule, and definitely not on time. and for some reason, he had his own office (in both real life and my dream, this job was located in a mess of a cube farm, and quite a few people had desks crammed into a shared space that was clearly originally intended for only one person.)

and he smirked at everything. he was always very kind to anyone who managed to summon the courage to say hello or to try to make small talk (which we rarely did,) but it was totally obvious that he was completely unafraid of our bosses.

and when he did actually come to work, it was common knowledge that he spent most of his time on the internet listening to music. he didn't make any attempt to hide this fact, and would occasionally leave himself logged in to various music sites on public computers in the building (to show how much he wasn't intimidated by the abusive management, who, for some reason, seemed to generally leave him alone? to encourage us to be brave too? to suggest new music to us? who knows?)

anyway, it was a pretty funny dream, and it almost made up for the yucky dreams that i also had last night. i had the morrissey-as-co-worker dream last, fortunately, so that's the one that's stuck in my head this morning. (sorry, housemate! i sure did tell you this story when you were just trying to brush your teeth this morning, didn't i? ah, the occupational hazards of living with sarah in the morning time.)

in conclusion, despite a poor work ethic where soul-crushing administrative work is concerned and a particular aura of celebrity unconducive to office-based camaraderie, morrissey is likely an awesome co-worker owing to his physical attractiveness, tendency to simply ignore terrible bosses, and kindness toward fellow employees.

and now you know.

my blog report on "Donkey Punch." by sarah.

my blog report on "Donkey Punch"
by sarah.

i started reading "Donkey Punch" because of the comments that t4toby, its author, regularly leaves at "Sadly, No!" they are witty and insightful without being mean, and i was happy to see that "Donkey Punch" is the same way. t4toby writes a lot about american politics, with a particular eye to the future and what we can do to try to make it in this scary world. he's not very optimistic about our prospects for survival, but his concerns are totally reasonable, and i think that talking about it is much better than ignoring it. and the comments tend to be worth the read too.

"Donkey Punch" will make you laugh, teach you some things, and maybe, just maybe, help you find ways to approach the future. go see.

(read more blog reports)

reasons to vote republican

happy (belated) fathers' day, part 2: a story about the dad

when i was growing up, we didn't have trash service. it was available in our neighborhood, and all of our neighbors had it, but we didn't. we recycled glass and aluminum, we sometimes burned paper in our wood stove (which was also our sole source of heat during the winter) or in the burn barrel out back, we composted food waste, we donated unwanted household items and clothes to various charitable causes and made rags out of the really unwanted clothes.

and the dad used those prepaid business reply mail envelopes to deal with a lot of the rest of our trash. we'd get tons of them: credit card offers, magazine subscription solicitations from magazines we didn't want, other random stupid mailings that happen to a family whose mailing address has become a commodity.

[i should stop for a moment before you get too confused/disgusted and say that we also had a trash bag going for things that don't recycle, burn, compost, donate, or rag up well. it just took a long time to fill it, that's all. the night before trash pickup, the dad would drive around looking for houses where people had bagged up their yard waste and put it at the curb. after prodding the bag a bit to make sure that it was something mulchable, and not just a few grass clippings on top of mixed trash, the dad would switch out our trash bags for green waste, at a ratio never exceeding 1:1. (even when we didn't have a trash bag or two to get rid of, he LOVED driving around and collecting green waste bags.)]

but the business reply envelopes! the dad considered it a personal challenge to fill them as full as possible. he would carefully fold junk mail or plastic bags into precisely-sized rectangles, and more than once i saw him cutting corn chip bags into strips, for a better fit. twisties would go into the envelopes, and pieces of hard plastic packaging would also end up there.

he never sent anything messy, dangerous, or mean. but his obvious delight at the pennies that a megacorporation would have to pay to receive an envelope full of useless material was fairly infectious. "they send me garbage all the time!" he'd say. "i'm gonna let them throw it away!"

happy fathers' day, fathers of all sorts. keep up the good work.

just in case you ever need to know, if someone's messing with your cobra coverage and ruining your life, the federal agency who is supposed to help

you can be reached at: (866) 275-7922.

good luck.

can we all just agree that prop 98 is a terrible idea?

much like prop 90 before it. prop 98, in addition to eliminating rent control (sidenote: wtf?), guts many of california's environmental regulations. forgive the megapaste, but susan smartt, the california league of conservation voters' executive director breaks it down pretty darn well:

Here's How California's Environment is at Risk

Prop 98's language would prohibit laws and regulations that "transfer an economic benefit to one or more private persons at the expense of the private owner." The problem with that language is that courts have ruled that virtually all environmental protections technically impose costs on the affected party and transfer economic benefits to other private parties.

Therefore, Prop 98 would instantly gut a wide range of laws and regulations that protect our environment and regulate growth and development, such as:

• AB 32 Regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other laws to limit climate change;
• Water supply and water quality protections that ensure adequate supply and quality for species protection, such as waterfowl, salmon, and delta fish; or for maintaining the beauty of natural treasures like Lake Tahoe;
• Regulations to protect sensitive wetland areas, including limiting development on or near wetlands;
• Urban limit lines and other growth control measures intended to stop sprawl and uncontrolled development, and to protect open space;
• California Environmental Quality Act mitigations that cities, counties and public agencies require of developers to mitigate environmental impacts of developments;
• Protections of endangered species and their habitats;
• Protection of coastal areas, farmland, and ranchland, as well as cultural and historic sites;
• "Smart growth" regulations designed to promote compact, walkable, and transit-oriented communities that combine residential and commercial land uses;
• Ordinary zoning regulations, such as restrictions on the development of polluting industries, adult businesses, and "big box" megastores; and
• Regulations intended to protect old growth forests by limiting timber harvests.

there's a pdf link in that article to a 40 page legal analysis. it's worth your time. please vote no on 98.

update: sweet! it's always nice when my obsessive, every-four-minutes refresh of the california secretary of state's elections results page doesn't result in tears!

can we all just agree that mattel should stop picking on special education?

mattel, the giant corporation that manufactures barbie, hot wheels, fisher price, and other popular toys has been battling a small, south carolina-based manufacturer of special education materials called super duper publications over super duper's use of the words "and say" in the titles of some of their theraputic toys for children with autism.

Since 1987, the Webbers [super duper's founders] have used the words “AND SAY” and “SAY AND” in the titles of their speech and language materials, including workbooks, card decks, and games.

In March, 2004, Mattel opposed a trademark registration the Webbers had filed for use for the name “SORT AND SAY” on a line of special education magnetic games. A year later, Mattel filed to cancel three other Super Duper registered marks , FISH & SAY, FOLD AND SAY, and SEE IT!, SAY IT!.

Super Duper then filed a lawsuit in federal court, seeking a finding that its 15 SAY trademarks did not infringe on any of Mattel’s trademarks. Mattel responded by claiming Super Duper’s use of these SAY marks on its special education products amounted to trademark infringement and dilution of the Mattel’s SEE ‘N SAY electronic pull toy. Mattel asked the court to prevent Super Duper from publishing any of its materials using the 15 marks, and sought $10 million in damages. (full article here.)

remember, super duper sells resources for use by educational professionals and parents for children with autism. and mattel is upset that super duper uses the word "say" in their educational and theraputic games. "say." does the use of the word "say" in the name of the game "see it! say it!" really dilute and infringe upon the see 'n' say? and, given that characteristics of autism include difficulties with speech and conversation, what else should a game that involves seeing and then saying words be called?

this comes down to a simple question that is either absurd to the point of hilarious, or terrifying. or both. do corporations have the right to own words like "say?"

as a side note, there is no way that super duper's products constitute a threat to the market dominance of mattel. for example, super duper's website indicates that there is a sale on the phonological awareness fun park set—not exactly poaching the barbie purchasers, right? i'm sure mattel would like to hear your perspective on the issue. here's their contact page.

edited: clarity