Pettifogging....

I miss a day and so much news has happened. You can tell stuff is going on when the bottom of page 6 has a note that says, "And by the way, the nuclear catastrophe in Japan is still ongoing."

First Trump and Huckabee drop out of the race.  Now it looks like Newt is going to explode at any moment.  My vision of this is like the guy on the Monte Python skit.  The waiters coax him to eat everything on the menu.  In the end, he is as big as a whale and then give him one last bite - boom!  He explodes.  Good stuff.

But I digress.

Here is what happened.  Newt goes on TV and blasts the GOP healthcare plan.  He then shows up the next day and says, "I support the healthcare plan and if you report that I don't, then you are lying."

I don't care if he supports it or not.  The real story here is how he handled it.  He was clearly spanked by his party and told to go and make things right.  This is a blatant example of how politicians can't be honest with us.  Newt was honest for a moment, then spanked, and then lied and said he changed his mind.

I'm going to miss him.

John Kerry got the Pakistanis to give back our helicopter's tail rotor.  Good for him.  I was wrong about that one.  I was sure China would have the highest bid.

At 8:40 am this morning, Obama gives a speech about the Middle East.  If it turns out to be worth commenting on, I will do so immediately.  Well, I'll wait for the GOP to tell us their view first.  It's always more fun to comment on their comments.

I heard a rumor that the GOP Medicare plan may have a clause that allows you to stay on Medicare as an option to the voucher.  If this is true, and I don't really think it is, then I'm interested.  Here is the problem.  The voucher they are proposing may work today.  However, the voucher's value will only increase with inflation.  Healthcare costs are going up much faster.  So, a voucher that is worth $15,000 today may be worth $30,000 in 30 years.  However, healthcare insurance for an 80 year old, costs about $25,000 today and will cost a Gazillion dollars in 30 years (A gazillion is way more than $30,000).

Here is another way to look at it.  Medicare pays for a doctor bill without making any profit.  Insurance companies make profits.  That profit comes from you.  There is simply no way that a For-Profit insurance policy will beat Medicare.

The GOP elected to protect oil company subsidies.  I agree with them on this because the oil companies, without subsidies, will just pass the cost on to us.  If we take away the subsidies and then regulate the oil prices, we will be interfering with the free market.

Here is the problem.  In a free market, the seller tries to get the highest price while the buy tries to get the lowest price.  Competition gives us the RIGHT price.  Right now, there is no competition in the oil industry.  I say, break them up into smaller companies that will compete for your dollar.

I was watching Hardball with Chris Matthews yesterday and his guest was Bill Maher.  When asked to comment on Michael Bachman as a candidate, he said, "She is the right candidate for those that think Sarah Palin it too intellectual."  Classic.

Apparently, Bachman is a Tea Party member that believes in the bible literally.  There is no such thing as evolution.  The Earth is 6,000 years old and people lived side by side with dinosaurs.  Incredible.

There was a Tea Party leader on the Colbert Report yesterday.  She said we take in enough money to pay our bills, including Medicare, the Military and Social Security.  All we need to do is cut spending.  She is almost correct - only off by about 1.6 trillion dollars!  Someone misplaced a decimal point.

I think reality television is to blame for all of the problems in today's politics.  All you have to do is be vocally wacko and there is a camera there, ready to put you on the 6 o'clock news.

And lastly, Fox news is determined to prove that torture is what got us Osama.  Why?  Because that means that George W. gets some of the credit.  They parade one guy after another onto their set and all say that the torture worked.  Noticeably absent is the person most qualified to give an opinion.  Imaging, a GOP member that spoke directly with the head of the CIA and imagine that this member was tortured himself so he has a perfect understanding on whether it works or not.  That person is John McCain.  His conclusion is that torture didn't play a role.

He's not on Fox News because he is not going to say what they want him to say.

The clip at the end of this is of Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly.  Fox was criticizing the White House for inviting over a rapper with questionable behaviors.  Watch as Stewart points out the hypocrisy.

Quote for the day:

"If everyone wanted peace instead of another television, then there'd be peace." John Lennon.

Thank for the clicks.

I'm off to save the world....

jim