Paging Congressman Hoyer...

I might as well yield to the inevitable, and write a post on health care. It's not that I shy away from discussing controversial topics, it's simply that I like to discuss more either on foreign affairs, or on Maryland state affairs (but of course the General Assembly is not now in session). But every self-respecting political blog needs at some point to discuss the health care issue. It's just inevitable that it will since not only are so many people are talking about it, but that everybody needs it.

Yes, everybody needs health care. With the population of the United States aging (in other words, the population growth rate is shrinking, we will eventually have the same problem with ours that caused the near collapse of the Japanese economy--too many old people and not enough young people born at the previously regular rate) more and more people need more and more expensive forms of health care. I work at a retirement community and I see it all the time: as you age, you need these more expensive forms of health care because your immune system's strength and its ability to fight off diseases decreases, the risk of cancer is higher and surgeries get more complex and well, expensive again.

Clearly, doing nothing, or leaving the problem entirely in the hands of unrestricted, unregulated private industry is suicide, as the GOP seems to want to do. But on the other hand, having a single-pay, Euro-Anglo-Canadian nationalized system is the wrong way to go as well (this is why we need a moderate movement in the United States, the "solutions" both parties come up with is always extremist in the worst). You think that the British system is great, just because everybody is covered? there's a tradeoff: what good is "being covered" if you automatically disqualify for a kidney transplant at age 45 in the UK? Some of my father's friends live in Michigan, right across the US/Canada border. Canadians hop over the border all the time make use of American doctors (many belong to US insurance companies like Blue Cross-Blue Shield) because they are covered so well by the Canadian national health care system. Sometime when you are really bored and have a hankering for C-SPAN, turn on Prime Minister's Questions on certain nights of the week (see the C-SPAN schedule at www.cspan.org to find out when it's on) to listen to Gordon Brown answering questions to members of the British House of Commons. Half the time, they're bitching about some health care issue or other, or lack of funding for the system, or basically how lousy it is in general. Just like the Democrats, the Labour Party talks about how their health care system is some sort of miracle of the modern world where everyone's covered and no one dies of cancer. It seems that Her Majesty's Government draws many similarities in attitude--and success at its own initiatives--as its American counterpart.

Recently, Steny Hoyer, the Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives and a congressman from this state (thanks to gerrymandering, he's been in office 29 years--see my May post on "The Redistricting Scam" for more info on this diabolical crime against the People), held a town hall meeting in Waldorf, MD on the health care issue. According to the Baltimore Sun, he hailed the meeting as "a wonderful celebration of democracy." Of course, he didn't say that after the meeting by which time it had turned tumultuously against him and his party's health care policy, mind you. One surgeon from Edgewater asked him if there would be malpractice caps, to which he said he certainly expected the issue to be considered (a political way of saying it might be gotten around to, if there's time). Under Democratic Party health plans, he said "you keep what works and fix what doesn't." Well, not quite, Congressman. You lied when you said "Democrats want a more efficient Medicare with stronger benefits." The Democratic Congress has CUT the budget for Medicare Advantage, something that one in five Medicare patients make use of. Does he think we're stupid?

It's interesting (and refreshing as well) to see that the Baltimore Sun is not always necessarily the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, if one of its recent articles is any indication (though maybe I'm wrong!) The journalists of the Sun might have backed Barack Obama during the election, but they're certainly giving it second thoughts, now. According to the Sun, by the way, the crowd was three times larger than the one that booed Senator Ben Cardin. Seems like most Americans are not buying the Democratic Party's "myth busting".

So what to do?

Has anyone not considered one option that I might proffer, for the government to pay private insurers to insure the uninsured and those who do not qualify for Medicare and Medicaid? Then Congress could pass legislation to make private insurers "play fair" with patients. Possibly even eliminate crippling deductibles and the standard "we'll pay 85% of your $100,000 operation, despite the money you already fork out every month" that insurance companies have. Paying 85% of an expensive operation is bullshit: it most likely means that the patient won't be able to fork out the remainder and actually get the operation done (and possibly die as a result). Clearly, doing nothing is just as expensive and hazardous to your health as doing what the Democratic members of Congress want. Even if the "death panels" are indeed a myth, as key Democrats so readily insist, Americans these days do not want the government controlling the bottled oxygen they may one day breathe, figuratively speaking. Back in 1994, when the Congressional debate over the Clinton health care scheme was raging, it was due in part to a large lobbying effort from American insurance companies that helped to kill it (and of course, it's noteworthy that a Democratic Congress killed a Democratic president's health care plan, not merely a bipartisan struggle). It's not crooked lobbying that's got Americans PO'd; not this time!

This time, it's a grassroots movements of Americans who are standing up and saying they will not go gently into that night, and will not stand for the government dictating the very air they breathe. There IS a third way out there, but the sad thing is that few congressmen from either party have the balls to examine it, nor the will to do so, since our country suffers from another medical disease, political-bipolar disorder. Maybe the government should pay for ITS own prozac to cure it, not ours. I wouldn't trust them to give me an aspirin for a mild headache.

Good night,

Colin Bisasky
maryland@modernwhig.org

I'm So Ronery

So, I understand that Bill Clinton has negotiated to secure the release of American journalists who would have otherwise scored a 12 year hard labor sentence in a North Korean jail, after "making an appeal" to North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Il.

Boy would I have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.

'nuff said.

More to come, later.

Website www.mdwhig.org, and other issues

Dear Friends,

The website at www.mdwhig.org has been discontinued. We originally were using a program called "campaignsitebuilder.com" to create web pages for the Modern Whig Party but were disappointed with their look/feel/abilities, so a template is being designed for the state chairs to use. I will try to have the new site up as soon as possible, and using the same domain name as the previous site, if possible. In the mean time, this blog will have to suffice...and I promise I will try to keep up more with events and so forth on this blog until such time as we have a more professional website up for the State of Maryland.

A lot has been going on lately in our nation's capital. A health care bill is in the works, which Obama said he wants on his desk by August 1. Um, excuse me? Did you just TELL Congress how fast to work? Oh boy you really must not have been in Washington very long, Mr Obama! "I want it on my desk" indeed. What are you, a schoolmaster demanding a high school freshman hand in his term paper on time? Is that what you really think of Congress? Someone PLEASE give this man a copy of the Constitution and ask him to read it. There's something in there about separation of powers and limited presidential authority. He must've skipped over that one. And PS, you'll not get anything on your desk from Congress within a time frame presidents prefer. That's the nature of Congress. If the presidential seal shows a bald eagle, the seal for the Congress ought to show a gigantic snail. That's about how fast it works. In short, Mr President, you'll be lucky if you get it by NEXT August 1!

Health care is indeed a hot topic. We at the Whig Party believe it is fundamentally wrong to leave people out in the cold without health care and die as a result. On the other hand, we do NOT believe in having a single-pay system like Canada or the UK. If you think it's paradise in the Great Frozen North Kingdom; you're wrong. There are Canadians who belong to American insurance companies. They come right over the border and get quality health care when their government decides that they, a possible cancer patient, can wait six months for an MRI or CAT scan, or 12 months for a heart transplant. In the UK, you automatically disqualify for a kidney transplant if you're over 45 years of age. No kidding. there needs to be a middle of the road solution, one which would partially use the free market and maybe even co opt insurance companies to cover the uninsured. Then, for those still insured under insurance companies, Congress can pass legislation to make them "play fair" with their customers.

We in the Whig Party do not believe, like some Republicans, that doing nothing is the best (or only) option. If the Republicans don't want to electorally shoot themselves in the ass, they can contribute a solution now, or in 2010 (if they win congressional elections by then, and by recent polls, there's a slight chance they just might pull it off then or in 2012) by which time the health care problem can be solved on more conservative terms. But don't worry, they won't do it. And the Democrats will make a mass populist appeal (ie, shameless vote-grabbing) by dangling carrots in front of the electorate's eyes and we'll end up with a single pay system that helps nobody. Nice job, guys. That's what happens when you have a polarized system: you must choose between one extreme or another. And the people in the middle (who I firmly believe are actually the majority these days) will lose the most.

It seems that the protests in Iran are getting nowhere, just as I predicted. Probably a good thing Obama decided not to intervene, it would've just made things worse and drummed up support for Iran among the Arab states, which the Arab League wouldn't particularly like (hey, wanna screw Iran? lay off--don't engage Iran like Obama nor taunt it like W--and let the Arab League plant the seeds of Iran's destruction...there's been bad blood between Persians and Arabs for centuries and it's no different in the 21st century) especially considering it destabilizes the rule of jackasses like Hosni Mubarak and the Saudi Crown (not necessarily a bad thing but trust me, you don't want a revolution in the Magic Kingdom...not yet at any rate). Let the Arabs deal with the Persians, just like it's been done for centuries. The amazing thing, was that Saudi Arabia and Iran were BOTH on the US side in the Cold War for decades...they hate each other. Why do you think Iran is not a member of the Arab League? Just ignore Iran and let the Arabs screw them over. Worried about Iran getting the bomb? I wouldn't. The Israelis will take care of it; much in the same way they took care of Iraq's bomb program in 1985...by blowing it off the map with a few F-15's and a couple of smart bombs. Obama's previous policy of engaging in talks with Iran is just stupid, though I do agree with his not interfering with the election revolts, for which the GOP criticizes him.

Yet another reason for needing energy independence...

I also would like to apologize for being so sparse in my posts. In the future, I will try to make one per week at LEAST.

Warmest regards,

Colin Bisasky, state chairman

Reset your time stamps...

The Iranian secret police are looking for people using Twitter and blogs that have the GMT+3:30 time stamp....so set your blogs and Twitter to Tehran time, and confuse these thugs even more! It'll make it that much harder for them to hunt down and destroy innocent people trying to make a difference. I realize I said Obama shouldn't interfere, but here's a harmless way to do it, as someone suggested to me. Certainly a lot less harmful than direct intervention, and if enough people do it, it might help protect the people in Iran whose only "crime" is wanting a better life.

---Colin

Protests in Iran

Dear Friends,

I thought that I ought to write a post on the current situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

As you know by now, Ahmedinajad was declared to have been re elected in a fraudulent election. Protests throughout the country have exploded and many have been killed by security forces.

Now, most Americans are (naively) hoping for the protesters to overthrow the government of Iran, which is led by a non-elected Guardian Council of senior clerics, headed by the Grand Ayatollah, Khameini (successor to the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, whose revolution established the current Islamic Republic). This will probably not happen. During the last revolution, Shah Pahlavi's government was overthrown (the Shah was absent for cancer treatment in the United States) when protesters filled the streets and hunted down the Shah's ministers. But what really did it was not so much the protests, but the fact that the security forces (army, secret police, regular police) defected from the government and sided with the people (ie, they did nothing to interfere with the popular revolution).

Take as a case in point the Ukranian "Orange Revolution". Did the people packed into the city squares really overthrow the fraudulent president? No, it was that the army and police decided to allow the protesters to ground things to a halt. Had the army sided with the fraudulently-elected president, Kiev would have run red with blood, and the "revolution" would have been nipped in the bud.

So in order for the protesters in Iran to pull off some sort of popular version of a coup d'etat, the military must decide not to interfere with it. There is no such thing as a truly civilian coup d'etat; it just doesn't happen. It all hinges on what security forces do (or don't) do.

So before Americans jump the gun and decide to hold their breath and wait for a popular coup to reenact (and reverse) the 1979 revolution, let's wait to see what Security Forces will do in this backward country before making any predictions.

My own (pessimistic) predictions are, that the Guardian Council will either put down the protests with the Army, or, to avoid an embarassing international PR disaster that that would cause, declare Ahmedinajad deposed and announce the real winner of the election (have a recount or something). In either case, the Army will not defect, and the people's "democratic revolution" will be stalled.

Now, let's hope that the CIA or other contacts other countries (since we have no relations with Iran officially) may have, encourage the Army not to interfere with the protests. Maybe even defect. But that's highly unlikely. And any direct involvement the United States may have in Iran's protests would only lead to more bloodshed and a harsher, more effective, reaction by the police and the army.

I offer my hopes and my prayers to the besieged people of Iran, in hopes that one day the word "Islamic" may be struck from the title, and the name simply to be the "Republic of Iran". The Islamic Revolution was the result of the US policy of supporting jackasses like the Shah in the name of fighting communism. Let's not interfere and legitimize the reaction of the unelected Guardian Council to repress its own people. Sit back, and watch...that's all we can do. I hate to say it but it is one of those cases we just cannot interfere and make things worse. I call on the American people, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, to pray for the safety and freedom of the People of the REPUBLIC of Iran, which one day, it will be called. The very panic of the senior clerics in Iran is proof that will one day happen. But we have to wait for the right opportunity to interfere. The Republicans are wrong to criticize Obama for not "doing anything". There is nothing to do in this case. I hate to say it but the President is right in this case in what he's doing: condemn it publicly but not interfere directly.

Now is not the time for that. All we can do is watch, and again, pray for these poor people. Again, I really hate to say that. I can't wait for these jackasses to be on the run just like the Shah. One dictatorship was replaced with another in 1979, which is usually the case with a coup d'etat.

Mr Ahmedinajad and Mr Grand Ayatollah, if you're listening, you're both jackasses whose days are numbered.

Warmest regards,
Colin
maryland@modernwhig.org

A Little Humor

Dear Friends,

Just a little humor to pass the time for the moment, while I am working on somehow transferring this blog onto the www.mdwhig.org website....in the mean time, I promise to come up with more new posts regarding current events and so forth.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE LABORATORIES DISCOVERS HEAVIEST ELEMENT KNOW TO SCIENCE

The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces known as morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons it is inert, however, it can be detected since it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.

A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half life of four to eight years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration; this hypothetical quantity is known as critical morass.

When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

Hope you liked and I'll get more posts for you to read ASAP---

Colin
maryland@modernwhig.org
www.mdwhig.org

New Website

The new Maryland party website is up and running, though it's still under constant construction and update. The blog isn't on there, so I'll still be running this blog occasionally, but other things will be on the website.

The address is www.mdwhig.org