green blog of revolution

50 Days? That's Almost Half a Football Season!

2009-11-04T08:22:00.001-08:00

Dear Editor of the Register Guard,

I read in today's paper that James Matthew Dublin received a 50 day jail sentence for purchasing drugs, giving those drugs to a 15-year-old girl, raping a 15 year-old girl, and pledging to make that 15-year-old girl his regular "plaything" when he is in town. This is an outrage.

It appears that the normal sentence for these crimes would be a total of 62 months in jail, but District Attorney JoAnn Miller and Lane County Circuit Judge Doug Mitchell conspired to downgrade this sentence to a mere 50 days because Dublin, now a convicted sex offender, is a "responsible member of society" with a "clean record" who has never previously been caught drugging and sodomizing 15-year-old girls. Oh, and he's a military veteran with a Master's degree. I guess this makes it all right.

The Eugene police seem to think so, as Sgt. Kevin McCormick seems to say that the embarrassment of getting caught is punishment enough for Dublin and serves as a warning to other Johns. I have always been of the belief that grown men who would have sex with 15-year-old girls had long since abandoned their capacity for embarrassment.

The Register Guard itself completed the task of turning this tragedy into farce with the headline "Teen prostitution case ends." A 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted, but let's definitely make the headline about her and her actions. After all, a great guy made a "huge mistake" and now he will sort of not really have to pay for it.

Unfortunately this story is indicative of a culture that is extremely permissive when it comes to sexual crimes against women, where the police, the courts, and the media all go out of their way to make the male perpetrator out to be the sympathetic figure.

Damn, So Close

2009-11-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

Listened to an NPR story this morning on the Catholic Church and health care reform.

Good news: The Catholic Church supports health care reform! Seems like they support a robust public option! The Catholic Church has been in favor of socialized medicine in the United States going back to Harry S. Truman. You know, with Catholic charities and Catholic hospitals, the Church provides around 1/6th of all the medical services in this country! And they would be totally on board with health care reform, but...

Bad news: Even though all the proposed health care bills strongly prohibit any federal funds being used for abortion, there is the remote possibility that one day, theoretically, after seismic shift in political belief on the issue, it's conceivably possible that maybe Congress could change the law, and so, the Catholic Church just cannot bring itself to support any law that might allow for the possibility that poor women might be able to exercise the same legal right that Catholic school girls enjoy every single day.

Let's let asshat Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sum it up it in the asshatiest way possible:

"We want health care reform very, very much, but we cannot do that over children's dead bodies, to put it most bluntly," he says. "There is a fundamental issue here about whether taking life should be treated the same way as supporting and healing life."

Indeed, as we all learned in catechism, Jesus prefers that thousands of people die today for lack of basic health care than to make it possible for even one fetus to be theoretically aborted maybe in the future.

Assume the Position

2009-11-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

This is the funniest thing I have read in a long time. I literally LOLed (LLOL) this morning.

Eugene should support police

The people of Eugene should be grateful to have a dedicated police officer such as Judd Warden. Officer Warden works hard and is committed to upholding the law and keeping citizens safe. Until you have been put into a situation, like law enforcement officers deal with day to day, don’t be so critical of their actions.

Eugene police officers are sent into unknown situations routinely with very limited information. They constantly must be aware and ready for a life or death situation. Until they can prove otherwise, a high risk police scene is considered dangerous until secured. If suspects are not cooperating with police officers, then they face being restrained with what force is necessary until they cooperate.

I know that if I were visiting another country and police officers were speaking with authority in a language I did not understand, I would immediately lie face down on the ground with my arms and legs spread wide until directed otherwise. That usually is a universal signal of surrender or complying with law enforcement.

For that matter, if I were protesting in Kesey square in downtown Eugene and police officers were attempting to arrest me, I would assume the same position.

Don’t scrutinize the Eugene police for their actions, when it’s the actions of the suspects that are out of line.

It’s time Eugene citizens starting showing more support for their police officers instead of being unsupportive.

Mike Montgomery

Noti

Angry Dad

2009-10-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of thing that gets me all fired up in the morning.

Exposed!

2009-10-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

We're fucked. I suppose that everyone who reads this blog (save for the random crazy) situates themselves on the left of the political spectrum. Whether you call yourself a liberal, progressive, Marxist, Trot, or Obamafascist, I think we should all be very concerned that the right has finally caught on to our Hexagon of Power aka The Leftist Plot to Take Down America from the Inside aka Operation Slowly and Peacefully Try to Make America a Better Place.

Now, I don't claim to the the sharpest candle in the box, and I know that most of my readers know more about our Masters than I do, so I am not at all surprised that, despite my firm lefty beliefs and career in America's labor movement, I have never heard of three of the seven links in the Hexagon of Power. Tides? What the hell is Tides?

I know the Working Families Party, of course. They have been much mocked by me. If not on the blog, then certainly in the friendly confines of my chats with friends. This is the party, at least in Oregon, that would like to be a sort of more moderate version of the Democrats. Or as they like to say, they want to focus on "our" issues, not God, gays, and guns (and abortion). Not that the fine people in the Working Families Party don't actually agree with me/us on the Triple G (plus A) issues, it's just that Oregon has a lot of rednecks that might vote for "our issues" if only we just didn't spend so much time standing up for the civil rights of queers, non-Christians, and women. You know?

Don't get me started on SEIU. Nothing is as progressive as dividing the labor movement because you don't want to pay your back dues to the AFL-CIO. The less said the better.

So, there it is. We progressives can no longer hide our hidden-even-from-ourselves Hexagon of Power, as we have been exposed. I guess we have to crawl back under the rocks from whence we came, never to disturb this great nation again. Damn.

h/t NW Wingnut

Let's Not Rush Into Anything

2009-10-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

University drafts first sustainable climate plan
By 2050, the University hopes to achieve climate neutrality, net zero emissions

Fair and Balanced

2009-10-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

There was an article in the Register Guard about the drive to organize the faculty here at the UO. It was pretty boring. The only excitement came in the UO administration's pledge to be neutral during the campaign. A pledge they immediately undercut:

Asked to comment on the union effort, the UO Provost Jim Bean said the university “supports the rights of faculty and staff” as they decide whether to unionize and will make relevant information available.

“The ultimate decision about whether to unionize is up to each individual faculty and staff member, and the university will remain neutral in that process,” he said. “Accordingly, the university’s goal on this issue will be to merely ensure that accurate and relevant information is available to everyone.“

To be fair, so far the UO hasn't put out anti-union propaganda. When they do, I will expect them to put out pro-union propaganda to remain neutral. I will be disappointed in this expectation.

Oh yeah, the GTFF can't get a mention.

Fell On

2009-10-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

Darkest days in Oregon football history.

Darkest days in Washington football history?

Huck the Fuskies

2009-10-22T08:33:00.001-07:00

I Blame Dan

2009-10-18T11:45:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posting. I got the H1N1.

I Was Standing, You Were There

2009-10-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

In a City/Region story about the wide disparity in fund raising between Peter DeFazio and Sid Leiken for the big 4th District race (DeFazio is out raising him 5 to 1), the R-G casually mentions that Leiken's biggest supporter (other than his mom, one would suspect) is none other than newly-appointed Board of Higher Education member Allyn Ford.

So, Leiken won't be able to go to Washington to be an insignificant member of a minoroity party, but his boy will have the power to mess up higher education here in Oregon. Peachy.

Why, Oh Why, Do We Keep Electing These People?

2009-10-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

Our so-called Democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski just appointed Allyn Ford, a Republican, to the Oregon Board of Higher Education. This is great, because if there's one thing the GOP knows, it's how to fix higher education.

For funsies, it also appears that Ford supports repealing the tax increases which are the only thing keeping higher ed from collapsing or raising tutition through the roof.

Oh, and also he runs one the great logging companies here in Oregon.

Grand Slam Ari

2009-10-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

Ari Fleisher is exactly right, anyone on the left who questioned that Bush got the most votes in Florida and actually won the 2000 election is just as crazy as anyone on the right who questions whether Obama was born in the United States. The parallels are startling.

Moreover, Ari does the double when he rightfully points out that absolutely nobody ever criticized anyone who questioned the legitimacy of the Bush administration.

Ari is right again when he points out that it was the tactics of the left that divided the nation and frustrated Bush's desire to unite us under his kindly rule.

And has any man ever been more right than Ari when he points out the scientific fact that for every lulu on the right there are 1.8 lulus on the left?

Etouffee a la Dave

2009-10-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

Two tablespoons butter, two tablespoons flour. Roux it to it.

While you stir, stir, stir, rough chop three cloves of galique-brand garlic, two medium shallots, and a pound of the zoo-keeny.

When that roux is peanut butter color, or you get tired of stirring and you're all "two bees in a bucket," add in a cup of clam juice and enough white wine to make a thick gravy-type fluid.

Into that delicious concoction throw a can of organic fire-roasted diced tomatoes and chipotle-flavored diced tomatoes. Bubbly, stirry, bubbly, stirry.

Get those veggies in the soup. Salt, pepper, cayenne. Lower the heat.

While that bubbles away get two cups of sushi rice ready. Or whatever rice. I don't care. Use a non-stick pan, that's all I care about. Cook the rice.

Remember when you bought that pound of white fish earlier? Cod, halibut, snapper, tilapia - as long as it's wild-caught in the U.S. of A. Rinse it, dry it on some paper towels. Hit it with some salt, pepper, Old Bay.

When the rice is ready, put it in a bowl. Put some sort of cover on top of the bowl. I use a plate, you don't have to. Wipe out the pan, heat it back up, drizzle in some oil. Give the fish a couple of minutes on both sides until it's good.

Plate, rice, etouffee, fish. Pour yourself a glass of that wine you were using earlier. Pour one for your significant other. Eat. Tell each other how much you love each other.

"Greater Good?!" - Whatevs

2009-10-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

You all know how much I love receiving Oregon Senator Jeff Kruse's newsletters. I haven't blogged on them in awhile because they have been sort of blah compared to the tea party/town hallers, but the once I received today was a gem of vacuity, so I thought I'd share a couple of choice lines.

Not only does government usually cost more and operate less efficiently, but we should always keep in mind the more government is involved the less freedom we have.

That second clause is particularly true, which is why I've always said "The U.S. out of the U.S."

I will admit, while I am a lover of the Kruse-man, I am a relative newcomer, so I can't be certain, but given his touching devotion to right-wing orthodox, I can't imagine he did too much balking at the notion of the unitary Executive advanced during the Bush years. Oh, who am I kidding? I doubt Kruse has ever heard the phrase "unitary Executive." He probably knows that when it comes to trillion dollar wars and all their attendant spying and torturing, it is probably best to trust a small cabal of people to make and implement decisions in secret. When it comes to health care, however, it is troubling to see the Legislative branch ceding power (it does not have) to the Executive.

The parallels between health care reform in Oregon and on the national level are striking in two different ways...What I find even more troubling is the seeming willingness in both cases for the Legislative Branch of government to cede authority granted them by the Constitution to the Executive Branch. One should keep in mind that nowhere in either the US or the Oregon Constitution is the authority to regulate health care granted to either Congress or the Oregon Legislature; however these bodies have been invested with the authority to set laws and review regulations. With the creation of the Oregon Health Authority and whatever President Obama chooses to call his organization we see a clear transfer of legislative responsibility to the Executive Branch, and this will come with very little oversight.

Jeff watches Fox, so a statement like this seems obvious to him:

The public sentiment for President Obama’s “public option” has been very negative.

A poll like this would obviously be fake, even if it says Obama is doing a bad job.

Fortunately, Jeff acknowledges that the health care system is broken. You know what broke it, don't you? (No, not that.) Medicare and Medicaid. You see, Medicare and Medicaid don't pay doctors and hospitals enough, which ~~forces them to not make as much money~~ is governmental interference with the natural market which always leads to a broken system. Also, the Governor of Texas, who is totally not a far-right wacko, thinks health care reform would be a bad idea and since Texas has the wisdom to exploit all of its natural resources (unlike a certain state in the upper Northwest corner of the United States that is not Washington), you know he knows what he's talking about.

All of this was wind up, of course. The real concern - the only concern! - is what might happen to our Constitutional rights.

Both the Oregon plan and the Obama plan will require the government to collect a lot more information about you than they already have. They will need to have all of your personal healthcare information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. This clearly violates the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Amendments to the Constitution, but we are told it is for the “greater good”, whatever that means. I personally think the government already has more information about me than they need and I don’t want to give them access to any more.

Now, if you're my friend, then you have your Constitution memorized and you immediately know that these so-called health insurance reform proposals would jeopardize your right to be protected from having your property seized without compensation (5th), to be protected from search and seizure without probable cause (4th), and/or your right to not have government troops quartered in your home (3rd). That's right, if Obamacare passes, soldiers will be sleeping in your bed - without your consent!

And lastly, just because no discussion of health care would be complete without it, here is your completely nonsensical rant about people who are not you, a medical person, or a really convincing commercial telling you what you should do health care-wise:

Make no mistake, hospital admissions, payments to physicians, the allocation of medical devises, and what types of procedures are covered for which groups of people will be strictly controlled.How comfortable are you in having these choices made for you by non-medical people without your input?I think we should all be outraged.

I am outraged, indeed. I prefer to keep all my medical transactions between me, my doctor, my nurse, the receptionist at the doctor's office, my employer-chosen health care company, my health care company's IT people, and my employer's HR department. And the notion that someone other than myself would decide how much my doctor gets paid without my consent keeps me up at night. I like to pay my doctor in freshly-laid eggs, which, I believe, is the same policy my health insurance company has.

Now that Jeff (and I!) have thoroughly demolished Obamacare, let us leave you with this maxim, which you can hold onto when the leftists in the Senate ram their lefty health-care proposals down your throat:

Our greatness as a country is not because we are smarter or taller or better looking than the other people of the world.

May it always be true!

Meanwhile, Rome Continued to Burn

2009-09-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

I've been a weence obsessed with the Polanski thing and have been letting more important things slip. Fortunately, my ol' running buddy Lex has been paying attention to the anti- and anti-anti-ACORN/SEIU fracas. Yeoman's work.

Let me ask this, though. While yes, yes, yes, we all need to come to the aid of SEIU, didn't SEIU not just a few short years ago basically tell the AFL-CIO to shove it up their ass? And by "it" I mean labor solidarity. Is there no penalty for this? Isn't this one of new labor's problems, all of our supposed allies kick us where it counts and when we pick ourselves up we ask if there is anything else we might do for them.

For example, to answer Rachel Maddow's question, no, I don't think that prominent Democrats are going to do anything to publicly counter the attacks on SEIU and/or anyone who works for the underprivileged in our society. That hasn't really been the Democrats' schitck since 1992. Remeber, we're the third-way party. The "third-way" being finding ways to cave to corporate/conservative interests whenever possible. This is what we do now.

By 'Best,' They Mean 'Worst'

2009-09-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

I was doing a search for the book The Damned Utd on the Barnes & Noble website, and was offered Michelle Malkin's Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronnies as my best match. I'm no logarithmic scholar, so I can't even begin to guess how in the hell this is possible. It almost seems as if a certain book company is trying to shove a certain political agenda down my throat.

[Update] But hey, check out match #8, Lizzy Reis gets a mention!

The Associated Press, Where Even Child Rapists Can Catch a Break

2009-09-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

There was a big article about the Polanski case in today's paper. I'd link to it, but it's an AP story that is continually getting updated, so I can't find the exact story that the Register Guard published. In a huge article that quotes extensively from Polanski's lawyers, here is how the Associated Press describes Polanski's original 1977 crime:

The director had pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl while photographing her during a modeling session.

Which is, I guess, one way of describing what happened. Another might be:

Polanski feed a 13-year-old girl Quaaludes and champagne, then performed cunnilingus on her while she said no. He then anally raped her while she said no.*

Just to be clear, Polanski does not dispute that any of this happened, he just doesn't understand what is so horribly wrong about the whole thing. I guess he is not alone, as the French Culture Minister Fredric Mitterand threw out the "ugly American" charge today:

Mitterrand told a press briefing that the arrest is "absolutely horrifying" and the case is "an old story which doesn't really make any sense."

"We know the conditions that this happened in, and while there is a generous America that we like, there is also a side of America which scares and that side has just showed us its face," he told reporters.

[Interestingly, this article about the worldwide "shock and outrage" at Polanski's arrest does not even mention what it is the director did to get him in all this trouble. Ah, the little details.]

So I guess I am an ugly American. I know that in France drugging and raping 13-year-old girls is considered standard after-dinner entertainment, but at least in this respect I hope America remains just as provincial as we can be.

More at LGM and a good summary of the conversation.

*From her 1977 Grand Jury testimony:

Q: What happened then?
A: He reached over and he kissed me. And I was telling him, "No," you know "keep away."
...
Q: What did he do when he placed his mouth on your vagina?
A: He was just like licking and I don't know. I was ready to cry. I was kind of -- I was going "No. Come on. Stop it." But I was afraid.
...
Q: Did he say anything after that?
A: Yes. He goes, "would you want me to go in through your back?" And I went "No"
...
Q: When you say he went in your anus, what do you mean by that?
A: He put his penis in my butt.
Q: Did he say anything at that time?
A: no?
Q: Did you resist at that time?
A: A little bit but not really because -- (pause)
Q: Because what?
A: because I was afraid of him

I Thought It Went Without Saying

2009-09-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the notion that men who plead guilty to drugging and raping 13 year-old girls should be forced to serve out their sentence is controversial in some circles.

Walk On

2009-09-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

A quick shout-out to my brothers and sisters in the University of California Higher Education system that are participating in a walkout today.

I'm thinking the reasons for this walkout - that the UC system largely left faculty out of the decision making process during this budget crisis - might show labor the way forward in these difficult monetary times. ~~Control of the means of production~~ Voice, dignity, and respect need to be our themes when bread and butter are not options.

All Politics is Local

2009-09-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Any love for Kitzhaber out there? I was out of the state through most of his tenure, so I have little to no idea. Anyone?

I have been grooving on the Sid Leiken story. For those of you not from here, or those who disdain the City-Region section, let me fill you in on what-I-find-to-be a hilarious example of really inept political corruption.

Sid Leiken is the mayor of the neighboring burg of Springfield, known to many as "Springtucky" because of its relatively lower level of income, education, and cleanliness. It is also my hometown. The street I grew up on was t-boned by a gravel street which conveniently provided the ammo for our semi-regular rock fights. That street remains unpaved in the 21st century; Springfield has other priorities. (I would like to point out that, while it is true that my daughter is technically my half-sister, this has little to do with my Springfield-based origins.)

Mayor Sid is young, good-looking (if you go for that sort of thing), and conservative. As such, he's been tapped to run for the 4th District Congressional seat currently held by one Pete "Peter" DeFazio. Because Leiken is a big favorite of everyone's favorite NW Wingnut, I've been especially looking forward to his trouncing at the hands of the Congress' sexist Congressperson. You see, whereas DeFazio bucked his party leadership to vote against the stimulus bill, Leiken had the political courage to accept the funds, then attend tea party protests against goverment waste. How could he lose?

Leiken is so confident about his eventual victory that he has decided to cripple himself even before the race starts. It seems Oregon has some obscure (and probably fascist) law that does not allow a politician to personally benefit from his campaign funds. (Fascist) Awhile back the ~~Fascist Party of Oregon~~ Democrats noticed that Leiken had paid himself $2000 out of his campaign funds (no links because the R-G archive is protected) and asked the Oregon Elections Division to look into it. The R-G was reporting this story on the inside of the City-Region section, but due to my twin loves of Mayor Leiken's eventual defeat and reading the obituaries to see if any of my peers have died, I was on it like grease on an elbow.

The next Jim Feldkamp had a very good reason he wrote himself a check out of his campaign coffers in violation of Oregon election law. You see, he was just paying himself back for some polling work he had done on behalf of the city regarding a proposed gas tax increase. Who did this polling work? His mother. Sure, this made perfect sense. Whenever I needed polling work done I always turned to my mother. And you know who was the bestest, brightest, handsomest son ever? This guy. Then she had to go and die and you all ended up with the mess of insecurities I am today.

The highly-partisan Democrats did not find this to be a sufficent answer. Possibly because they could find no evidence that Mother Leiken actually runs a polling firm. Simple answer, again. Like so many mothers of mayors, she was just dabbling in polling to see if it felt right. Turns out it didn't, as this is the only poll she conducted or plans to conduct.

Because of the vicious media hounding Sid and his mother were suffering (including a page two City-Region "expose"), the good Mayor held a presser where he pulled a Boehner, begged the media to leave his poor mother alone, refused to give back the puppy, and wrote a personal check (again?) for $2000 to repay his campaign fund.

End of story. Except one thing. Leiken is unable to produce any evidence that he wrote his mother a check in exchange for a poll. The future 25% vote-getter in the 4th is not good with paperwork or the keeping of the finances.

Is it necessary to even say that neither Leiken nor his mother can actually produce any evidence that she conducted an actual poll? The only evidence they can produce about the poll seems to be negative evidence. According to the Leikens, Glenda Leiken used a Springfield phone book and called 286 people to get 200 results for her poll on the proposed gas tax. Leiken has (thank God) stipulated that this poll was not "scientific." No cross tabs, no demographics. Apparently, some people were 'fer it, some were ag'in it. I could have told him that for 1900 dollars, American.

The Demorats, of course, will not let it go. It seems that they are suspicious that no actual poll was conducted. But to believe that, you'd have to believe that a good man like Mayor Leiken was dipping into his campaign fund for personal reasons, got caught, brought his mother in to lie with him, and then did that so transparently badly that absolutely no one bought it. (Well, not no one - go down to the letter from the Muches.)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the future of the Republican party. I fear them.

Screw You Pegasus Pizza

2009-09-17T09:22:00.001-07:00

Oregon's minimum wage won't be going up this year. Which is fine. We fine citizens of this great state passed a ballot measure (the horror!) that ties the minimum wage to the cost of living. If the cost of living goes up, so does the minimum wage. This year we had some deflation here in the state of Oregon, so the minimum wage is rocking steady.

All well and good. Except that the media (that's right, I am a wingnut railing about the media. yip. yip.) can't report on the goddamn minimum wage without digging up some business owner that is willing to advance, yet again, the thoroughly discredited idea that an increase in the minimum wage leads to a loss of jobs.

Tara Reader, a manager at Pegasus Pizza, near the University of Oregon campus, said she was glad that the minimum wage wouldn’t change next year, and she wishes it would stay put beyond that.

“The minimum wage increases should come to an end, and given Lane County’s unemployment rate, I think it’s even more important now,” she said.

“For companies like Wal-Mart, a yearly minimum wage increase doesn’t affect them,” Reader said. “But when you’re a small business, and the only costs you can control are labor costs, it ends up being significant. It can be a devastating blow to small business.”

Of course a small increase to the minimum wage can just destroy a small business. I believe this is why they are called "small" businesses. What really gets my goat is that Ms. Reader goes on to say that actually an increase to the minimum would have no effect at Pegasus, as all their workers are paid above the minimum because they are such valued employees. My God, if you think the minimum wage is crap, why are you decrying its potential increase? You run a small business, you have to know what crap this argument is.

Let's look at the numbers here.

Oregon's minimum wage is $8.40 an hour. Let's say the economy recovers and a pizza joint like Pegasus (well not Pegasus) is facing a 4% increase to the minimum wage. This means your dough slinger would be pulling down $8.74 an hour, or $.34 more than he's making now. Will Poor Man's Pie go under? Well, let's assume that PMP is open 12 hours a day and needs an average of 5 employees to keep the masses fed. That's 60 person hours a day. With that body-blow 4% increase to the minimum wage, that's $20.40 a day out of the till in labor costs. My God, PMP would have to sell one more large pepperoni with extra cheese per day just to cover that! Let's hope that newly recovered economy can cause such an increase in business.

But wait Dave3544, you're thinking, it's not just increased labor costs. What if PMP was thinking about adding crew, increasing employment in Lane County and providing a solid job for ~~a teen who needs spending cash~~ a struggling father who just wants to keep his youngins in Pampers-brand diapers?

Well, in the first place, pizza joints just don't add crew for the hell of it. It's not like the owner of PMP was sitting in his mansion surrounded by luxury goods thinking, "Well I've got everything I need, why don't I share the wealth by hiring a minimum wage employee I don't really need, this way everyone can slack off." No, he either has the business to necessitate hiring another employee or he's thinking about expanding. Either way, he's thinking that he can make more money than it costs by hiring a minimum wage worker - it's called capitalism (oh, and exploitation!)

If PMP pizza owner is thinking about adding an employee, one has to wonder if the increase in the minimum wage by $.34 an hour is really going to be what compels him to hold off on that decision. Is his margin really so narrow that $.34 an hour is the make-or-breaker here?

Now, I will acknowledge that there are probably businesses out there that can't readily expand to the equivalent of one pizza a day. They may have hundreds of person hours to worry about. Maybe they need to exploit their workers down to every last penny in order to just stay alive. Fine. But if that is the case, then the Register-Guard needs to go find one of those business owners and Tara Reader of the Pegasus Pizza should stop babbling bullshit talking points that have nothing to do with her business.

And Yet, I Imagine They'd Disagree with My Interpretation of Their Argument

2009-09-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

Just so we're clear, Oregon Right to Life very much believes that a government bureaucrat should stand between you and your doctor when it comes to important medical decisions.

Let's Keep Defining It Down

2009-09-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

You want a great example of everything that's been wrong with the Democratic party since the third-way Democrats took over in the early 1990s? Take a good look at former Clintonite and current a-hole Matt Miller's piece from the WaPo. Matt takes on us crazy liberals who believe that without a government option, health care reform ain't worth spit. Actually, like all good centrist Dems, he ignores actual arguments from the left in favor of shooting down the charactures of arguments from the left.

Matt comes out swing and labeling. First, "the left" is "dangerous" because we are opposed to the wonders of "the biggest progressive achievement in half a century," which says a lot more about the last half century than it does about the dangerous left.

In the next paragraph the dangerous left becomes "Democrats" and/or "liberals" who have mindlessly been led astray by unnamed leaders who say that without a public option, health care "reform" is a waste of time.

Matt takes on the liberal, Democrat, dangerous left leaders. Apparently, we believe without a Medicare-style public option, there will be no way to cover everyone. Matt trumps us with the Netherlands and Switzerland. They have universal coverage and private insurance. Their health system is better and cheaper. Boom, dangerous leftists destroyed by real-world facts.

What Matt fails to mention, of course, is that while the Swiss have private insurance, they don't allow for-profit insurers to participate in the basic plan. This seems like an important distinction, as getting rid of for-profit insurance would certainly lower costs in the US and is not an idea that anybody is proposing right now. Other than that, yes the Swiss example is spot on.

Oh and, while were here, maybe Matt can throw out an insane right-wing talking point.

In fact, as these two countries show, it is possible to cover everyone without a “big government takeover.”

Matt continues by reminding us that the public option is not the most important thing. The most important thing is providing all Americans "access" to group health coverage outside of the employment context. Matt sees this happen through the wonders of the regional co-ops.

The central progressive breakthrough in any reform should be to make it possible for every American to access group health coverage outside the employment setting — access that does not currently exist but which the proposed insurance exchanges would enable. What’s critical, therefore, is the structure of these exchanges and the rules about who would be eligible to use them.

That's right. Matt has managed to define the essential need of health care reform from universal coverage with effective, quality health care to access to something. And the real danger, as it always is to a Clintonite is that if we don't get about compromising with the Republicans over the crumb they might allow us, well they might just take it away.

Matt then spends a few paragraphs attacking the one thing that nobody is proposing, but would actually solve a lot of problems - single-payer. Can you guess why single-payer would be bad? Did you guess that the crushing hand of government bureaucracy would stifle innovation? You guessed right!

On the eve of beneficial innovations in drug therapies, devices and cost-effective ways to deliver better care, it is ill-advised to make the government’s hand too rigid.

Oh glory day we are on the eve of! Oh happy future! When? How? Unanswered, but assured.

Liberals should make peace with the notion that a regulated market of competing private health plans can be the vehicle for getting everyone covered. Yes, it means that unlike some other advanced countries, we’ll have billions of “health” dollars siphoned off by middlemen and marketers.

But if liberals think of it as a jobs program, they’ll learn to love it. If everyone’s covered and insurer “cherry-picking” is dead, health insurance will come to look more like a regulated utility.

A regulated market "can" be a vehicle for accomplishing the half-assed goal of getting everyone "covered," sure. Let's not for a moment stop to consider what kind of coverage for how much and who benefits. Those issues pale in comparison to the larger goal of making sure everyone has "access" to "coverage." And even if the whole thing turns out just like a non-governmental Enron-type utility, so much the better. I will rest easy knowing that there are lots of middle men employed in the business of denying the claims of poor people, because, in the end, it's all about jobs, jobs, jobs, n'est pas?

Days, Dollars

2009-08-24T16:52:00.001-07:00