And I laid traps for troubadours / Who get killed before they reached Bombay
zenhack woke me up asking what that line meant - turns out hippies on the Hippie Trail from Europe to India took their lives in their hands... One guy is in jail for killing two, but suspected of killing up to twenty. Traps for Troubadors - a good band name?
Went to the beach Sunday - Ash LOVED it. Lots of love. Lotsa lotsa love.
On to the action portion of our program: I am getting yard signs. Does anyone else want me to pick up some for them? Also, you should vote. Whether or not you agree with me on your preferred candidate and issues, please vote on Nov 2nd. Please. Also, consider a letter to the editor - here's a nifty way to send one easily.
My stand on issues / candidates
I like Obama. (yes, I know he's not running)
He's working in a tough situation, and while I think that the health care bill was a distraction in the short term, I also think it needed doing in the long term, and I am trying hard to take a long-term view. It's not perfect, especially in the cost-containment area, but there are some critical components that we really needed: eliminating pre-existing conditions coverage refusal, creating exchanges, creating the best-practices board. Requiring all to buy is not ideal, but it's how the insurance companies can stay in business. Hopefully, with this structure in place, amending it to add cost-containment structures will be easier.
Jobs / the economy: To me, the last decade has shown again that supply side / tricke down economics do not work in the real world. Friedman vs Keynes: I truly think the experimental data supports Keynes. The capital just keeps floating around in the casino we call a stock market. Yes, we need to ease the credit available to small businesses, yes we need to somehow trigger a virtuous cycle of investment and growth. Will tax cuts for the top 2% of income / small business owners do that? No. Trickle down economics does not work.
And besides which: we had a tremendous decade of growth with the Clinton-era tax levels. Yes, much of that was tech driven, but still - it shows clearly that the Clinton-era tax burden was not onerous. We should go back to that for all incomes. Yeah, even me, under $200K plebian that I am.
I want this because I would REALLY like for someone to address the deficit in a meaningful way - not trying to defeat the $80B unemployment extension, but actually addressing the elephants in the room: social security / medicare / medicaid. Damn it, raise the retirement age and reduce benefits already! Do it now before we have to do it more! (starts frothing at the mouth)
For US Senate, I'm voting for Elaine Marshall, because Burr and the Republican party want to return to the strategy that got us into this mess. Also, she's mentioned the elephants as needing some restraining. With a public that believes (44%) that the elephant isn't an elephant, she may not get far, but the thing the Tea Party might do that's good is educate people on the realities of the national budget. You can't have lower taxes and higher medicare too.
Locally (NC Senate, House)
I think Josh Stein and Jennifer Weiss have done good things for our area - I especially love Josh's promotion of credit unions as alternatives to banks and ways of getting credit / capital to small businesses and underserved markets. Market based, risk allocated to the people getting profit, and no profit growth requirement for the administration of the CU (ie, they don't have to stick it to their customers in order to find new revenue streams). It's NOT a government program - the government role is limited to regulation. Banks hate 'em, I love 'em.
Went to the beach Sunday - Ash LOVED it. Lots of love. Lotsa lotsa love.
On to the action portion of our program: I am getting yard signs. Does anyone else want me to pick up some for them? Also, you should vote. Whether or not you agree with me on your preferred candidate and issues, please vote on Nov 2nd. Please. Also, consider a letter to the editor - here's a nifty way to send one easily.
My stand on issues / candidates
I like Obama. (yes, I know he's not running)
He's working in a tough situation, and while I think that the health care bill was a distraction in the short term, I also think it needed doing in the long term, and I am trying hard to take a long-term view. It's not perfect, especially in the cost-containment area, but there are some critical components that we really needed: eliminating pre-existing conditions coverage refusal, creating exchanges, creating the best-practices board. Requiring all to buy is not ideal, but it's how the insurance companies can stay in business. Hopefully, with this structure in place, amending it to add cost-containment structures will be easier.
Jobs / the economy: To me, the last decade has shown again that supply side / tricke down economics do not work in the real world. Friedman vs Keynes: I truly think the experimental data supports Keynes. The capital just keeps floating around in the casino we call a stock market. Yes, we need to ease the credit available to small businesses, yes we need to somehow trigger a virtuous cycle of investment and growth. Will tax cuts for the top 2% of income / small business owners do that? No. Trickle down economics does not work.
And besides which: we had a tremendous decade of growth with the Clinton-era tax levels. Yes, much of that was tech driven, but still - it shows clearly that the Clinton-era tax burden was not onerous. We should go back to that for all incomes. Yeah, even me, under $200K plebian that I am.
I want this because I would REALLY like for someone to address the deficit in a meaningful way - not trying to defeat the $80B unemployment extension, but actually addressing the elephants in the room: social security / medicare / medicaid. Damn it, raise the retirement age and reduce benefits already! Do it now before we have to do it more! (starts frothing at the mouth)
For US Senate, I'm voting for Elaine Marshall, because Burr and the Republican party want to return to the strategy that got us into this mess. Also, she's mentioned the elephants as needing some restraining. With a public that believes (44%) that the elephant isn't an elephant, she may not get far, but the thing the Tea Party might do that's good is educate people on the realities of the national budget. You can't have lower taxes and higher medicare too.
Locally (NC Senate, House)
I think Josh Stein and Jennifer Weiss have done good things for our area - I especially love Josh's promotion of credit unions as alternatives to banks and ways of getting credit / capital to small businesses and underserved markets. Market based, risk allocated to the people getting profit, and no profit growth requirement for the administration of the CU (ie, they don't have to stick it to their customers in order to find new revenue streams). It's NOT a government program - the government role is limited to regulation. Banks hate 'em, I love 'em.