exhpfan

I FEEL BETTER ABOUT THE SENATE BILL

2009-12-22T16:58:12Z

Everytime there is major legislation that harms a specific industry there are major constitutional attacks on the legislation. Senator Hatch has been very vocal about the unconstitutional nature of the Senate bill. I decided to do some research about this legal argument and found this article in support of Senator Hatch's argument.

I found this statment very comforting to me, a Democrat who supports a single payor system: "In effect, the onerous obligations under the Reid Bill would convert private health insurance companies into virtual public utilities. This action is not only a source of real anxiety but also a decision of constitutional proportions, for it systematically strips the regulated health-insurance issuers of their constitutional entitlement to earn a reasonable rate of return on the massive amounts of capital that they have already invested in building out their businesses."

Don't be so down on a bill until you know what is in it.

SOMEBODY HAS TO RECEIVE THE DEATH PENALTY FOR THE MURDER OF THE PUBLIC OPTION

2009-12-21T23:20:08Z

When all is said and done, somebody has to be punished for the death of the public option. When there has been a murder, somebody must pay or the loved ones of the deceased will rant and rave about injustice forever. My vote is for the political death of Joe Lieberman. Sorry Joe, but someone has to be punished. Say goodbye to your Chairmanship. I see this as the only way to appease the progressive wing of the Democratic party.

INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE AS GOOD AT MISDIRECTION AS BRER RABBIT

2009-12-17T21:17:21Z

"Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."

Please, please said the insurance companies. Please don't pass a law requiring everyone to buy my insurance policy at whatever price I want to charge. Please don't do this to us they pled.

A MISSED OPPORTUNITY

2009-12-10T21:07:06Z

I was almost certain that the publisher of Sarah Palin's book Going Rouge was going to use Tina Fey to read the book for the audio version. Based on how she was able to use exact quotes of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live to create comedy through just voice reflection, the publisher could have made a fortune. They would have sold the book to the far right group and the Audio version to everyone else. I thought for sure the publisher would have seen this opportunity.

I AGREE WITH THE REPUBLICANS-THERE IS NO RUSH ON THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE

2009-12-02T18:43:58Z

I agree with the Republicans that there is no rush to get the health care bill passed by the end of year, so long as the Senate stays in session until there is a vote on the bill. The last thing I want to have done is to have the Democrats destroy the bill to obtain 60 votes for cloture. I don't believe that time will cause fewer then 50 Senators to support the bill, so I don't see any rush to push for a cloture vote. Let the debate continue and continue and continue and continue. Most of the provisions don't take effect until 2013 anyway so I don't see the rush. Lets keep all Senators in Washington debating this bill until they have said everything they want to say. In other words let them filibuster. Don't destroy the bill to pass a cloture vote. I would rather let the debate continue and continue and continue.

THE DEMOCRATS SHOULD TAKE THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE TO THE STATES IN 2010

2009-11-24T16:44:01Z

I have decided that the Democrats should take the public option issue to the states for the 2010 races. If Congress would set up a strong public option (hopefully a Medicare+5), with a trigger that takes affect when certain events occur and then makes one of the events an opt-in by a state government then the debate in the 2010 races would center a lot more on health care then the economy. I don't know who would win this debate, but in my humble opinion it is a debate no Democrat should be afraid to have.

This is just my 2 cents on a very complicated issue.

PERCEPTION

2009-11-16T22:40:10Z

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace, stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. Several other children repeated this action. Every parent, without exception, forced his or her children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money, but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

Findings:
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the Metro Station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and people's priorities. The questions raised: "In a common place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?"

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

McCAIN'S MONSTER-IT'S ALIVE

2009-11-16T19:28:29Z

Like Victor Frankenstein of Shelly's Novel ,John McCain has created a Monster in Sarah Palin. Like Victor Frankenstein, McCain and the GOP are running away from her in fear and disbelief. Just look at this Sunday appearance by David Brooks:

It is not up to the Democrats to destroy this monster, we didn't give her life. Unlike Victor Frankenstein you cannot go and hide and leave your monster to rant and rave and cause harm to us all. You gave her life. It is your responsibility to destroy her.

LAUGHING AT THE BIGGOT

2009-11-13T20:40:26Z

It was the summer of 1952. I was 5yrs old and my brother was 9yrs old. My father was my brother's little league baseball coach. My father loaded my brother and I in the car and on the way to the ballpark for a game stopped and picked up two other players. He stopped at a convience store on the way to the game and gave us each a nickle to buy gum. We all bought a pack of baseball cards which also contained gum. I didn't get anyone special, but one of the kids who my dad had picked up said "damn N" and threw one of his cards on the backseat floorboard and rubbed it with his foot. After the kids on the team had ran to the baseball field, my dad took the card off the floorboard, looked at it, put it in my back pocket, and said "Hold on to this card son. He might very well be the best baseball player in the history of the game."

As I sit here in my office looking at my favorite cards displayed in one of my bookcases I am laughing. Proudly being displayed is my 1952 Willie Mays Rookie card. Tough luck biggot.

OBAMA SHOULD GIVE SHEPPARD SMITH A 1 HOUR INTERVIEW

2009-10-28T21:56:27Z

My admiration of Sheppard Smith is growing. Watch this exchange that will air on his show tonight. This guy deserves the admiration of everyone, especially Democrats:

MY FAVORITE HEALTH CARE VIDEO

2009-10-27T22:23:13Z

The top 20 health care videos are now ready to be voted on at http://my.barackobama.com/page/m/55c103fe/6c7f6367/d0049f6c/11886343/3271352483/VEsF/

I voted on this one as my favorite:

OPT OUT PUBLIC OPTION GOING TO SENATE FLOOR

2009-10-26T20:38:43Z

According to Harry Reid, the Senate bill that will go to the Senate floor will have a Public Option with the rights of States to opt out of the bill.

I liked this compromise the moment I started hearing about it being offered as a compromise. Living in a Red State, however, I worry about the large campaign contributions about to began being funneled to the Republican Legislators in Texas. With the huge war chest they are about to get, our Democrats are going to have a hard time competing even though their war chest are starting to grow. At least they chose the "opt out" and not the "opt in" compromise.

I also noticed that at no time did Reid claim to have the 60 votes needed to break a Republican Filibuster. The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday authorized the Health Bill to be considered as a Budget Item and considered under reconciliation if necessary. I wonder if Reid is now telling All Democrats and Lieberman to get on board and break the filibuster or he will push the bill through under reconciliation. Although there is clearly negotiations remaining, it is time to quit negotiating with threats and start admitting you will support a vote to close debate or just tell Reid to run the bill through using reconciliation. It's time for the Democrats to quit negotiating and time to vote. In other words, PUT UP OR SHUT UP.

For a good history lesson of the prior historical uses of the reconciliation option Look at this article.

I AM CONFLICTED-I AM BOTH PROUD AND ASHAMED

2009-10-20T20:29:41Z

Earlier I posted a story about Mike and his brother Mitch. Today I got a very nice letter from Mike with a copy of his Doctorate Dissertation for fulfillment of his Doctor of Philosophy. His Dissertation studied the influence of the life experiences of middle school counselors in dealing with multiple heritage adolescents. He dedicated his paper to his grandparents who I called Rose and her husband in my story. He added my wife and I and my three sons to his list of Acknowlegments. I am so proud of this paragraph and with the exclusion of our names have reprinted it below:

"There were individuals who impressed upon me the importance of education and had a keen enough eye to see the talent I had to accomplish boundless feats. In my hometown filled with stifling racism, there was a family that had the courage to stand against the status quo. The _____family, consisting of (me), (my wife), (my oldest son who I called Steve),(my middle son), and (my youngest son) were like a second family to me. (Me) and (my wife) treated me like their own son, while implanting in me the hope to accomplish anything my heart desired. In spite of what the town may have encouraged the non-minority population to think, the ____family helped me see that I could rise above the oppressive strongholds within it."

I was of course very proud of this acknowledgement. In reading his paper, however, this paragraph made me very ashamed:

"At no point in my upbring was the fact that I was mulitple hertiage an acceptable reality. I can recall being asked on numerous occasions the question, 'What are you?' I can remember feeling dehumanized by such a question. In addition, I felt I was never fully accepted by either side of my ethnic make-up. I was never Black enough to be Black or White enough to be White. For the duration of my childhood and major part of my early adulthood, I felt as if I was trapped in an ethnic quagmire."

I never knew he was going through this feeling of non-acceptance of either race. I always assumed that since he was Black that he was totally accepted by the Black community and his biggest problem in life was going to be fighting racism from the Whites. This was what I was determined to prepare him for. I never even considered the conflict that this caused with his White heritage. I am So ashamed.

PALIN TO CAMPAIGN FOR PERRY IN TEXAS

2009-10-16T18:33:15Z

According to this article at CCC.com, Palin has agreed to come to Texas and campaign for Perry against Hutchinson in the Texas Republican primary in Texas. Most experts believe that Texas will turn blue by 2020. I am starting to get my hopes up for the 2012 Governor's race and Hutchinson's Senate seat race. We have had several good candidates looking at both the Governor's race and Hutchinson's Senate seat. It is usually difficult for our Democratic candidates to raise enough money to be competitive and because we have been a solid red state for so long the DNC doesn't like to waste their money on our candidates. Who can blame them? Not me. This time things seem to be different. Our Van has been increased to unbelievable numbers because of the contested primary between Obama and Clinton and our candidates are raising more money then I ever thought possible. Having Palin visit our state will really fire up this van and the money will pour in to our Democratic candidate. I always start getting optimistic about this time of the election cycle (pre-polls) and in the past many years have usually been disappointed.

TURN TEXAS BLUE IN 2012. WHY WAIT?

"Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."

2009-10-12T20:29:53Z

The above quote was made by Will Rogers over 70 yrs ago, but never has it been truer then today. Just look at the following pictures:

Now look at the following Politicians:

Who do you trust more and who is funnier?

GOVERNMENTS AND RELIGIONS

2009-10-09T20:25:08Z

President Obama's (I still get shivers when I type those words) recent receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize has caused me to again reflect on the main harm caused by the devotion of the followers of different religious beliefs, WARS. I have wasted a large portion of my life thinking in the abstract about many things, but this topic has probably caused me to waste the most of my time.

I went online and found a copy of the Treaty of Tripoli because it is so important in reflecting the desires of the founders of our Country to not let religion interfer with how we treated relationships with other Countries. Here is a picture of the treaty. Look at paragraph 11 which reads as follows:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

THE GAME IS ON AND I BET OBAMA WINS

2009-10-08T16:32:39Z

Michael Scherer has just posted an Article entitled

Calling 'Em Out: The White House Takes on the Press

The general of this new policy is Anita Dunn and to get an insight of her mindset, just read this last paragrph of this article:

It is not hard to awaken her fiercer instincts. "Here in the White House, you are reluctant to feel like you have to go to that place," she says. "But we have to be more aggressive rather than just sit back and defend ourselves, because they will say anything. They will take any small thing and distort it." In other words, after eight months at the White House, the days of nonpartisan harmony are long gone — it's Us against Them. And the Obama Administration is playing to win.

ANY BETS ON WHETHER OR NOT FOX WILL RENEW SHAPARD SMITH'S CONTRACT WHEN IT EXPIRES?

2009-10-07T16:16:40Z

SMITH: "Over the last ten years health care costs in America have skyrocketed. Regular folks cannot afford it. So, they tax the system by not getting preventative medicine. They go to the emergency room in the last case and we all wind up paying for it. As the costs have gone up, the insurance industry's profits, on average, have gone up more than 350%. And it is the insurance companies which have paid, and who have contributed to Senators and Congressmen on both sides of the aisle to the point where now we cannot get what all concerned on Capitol Hill seem to believe and more 60% of Americans say they would support, which is a public option. This has been an enormous win for the health-care industry, that is an unquestioned fact. But I wonder, what happens to the American people when we come out with legislation now which requires everyone to have health care insurance -- or many more people -- but does not give a public option? Therefore millions more people will have to buy insurance from the very corporations that are overcharging us, and whose profits have gone up 350 percent in the last ten years. It seems like we the people are the ones getting the shaft here."

A RISING NEW STAR OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

2009-10-02T22:32:02Z

Alan Grayson, the Freshman Representive from the 8th District of Florida is in my opinion a new rising star of the Democratic party. Although because of his recent speech on the house floor, Republicans have tried to paint him as some radical nut case, he is up to the battle. He graduated from Havard Law school with honors. As a trial lawyer, I would hate to have him on the opposite side of any case I ever try.

Here is the first of three videos I want to add to this post. This is his original speech that started all the recent attacks against him for which the Republicans demanded an apology:

Following this speech he gave this apology:

Following this speech he walked right into the stuation room and took on Wolf Blizer and the entire panel. Here is a video of this remarkable confrontation:

I love this guy. He is the type of straight talker that the Democratic party needs right now. This is the type of attacks that should have been coming from our Congressional leaders, not a freshman Representative.

DON'T PANDER THEM! SHAME THEM!

2009-09-24T17:21:06Z

It appears that the over 65 age group in this county have now become the strongest opponent of Health Care reform. This makes me furious. The baby boomers have rightfully been referred to as the ME GENERATION. I am ashamed to have to call this generation my generation. I say that it is time to quit pandering to this generation and to start shaming them. It is not right that they care more about what programs they are going to get instead of the burdens they are placing on their own children and grand-children to pay for these programs. Not a single person over 65yrs of age ever paid in sufficient money to pay for the cost of their social security and medicare benefits they are now receiving. There is no way my children or grandchildren will ever see a dime in benefits from their large social security and medicare taxes they now pay unless something is done to made the funds solvent. SHAME FOR SHAME ON THE ME GENERATION.

I for one don't believe the elderly in this country are more important then the children. There is not a single person over 65yrs of age who shouldn't stand in front of a child to stop a bullet.

I KNOW WHO THEY ARE

2009-09-21T20:05:20Z

President Carter's comment has received a lot of publicity lately. What is absent in his statement is a very simple statement that he knows who the racist are. I am a 61yr old white male who was born and raised in Texas and I know who the racist are in my community and they know I know. Some think it is for some reason important to try and convience me that they aren't racist, and some just don't care what I think and refer to me a N---- lover. I could list over and over again the things said at private partys or Masonic Lodge meetings that has allowed me to know these people and their beliefs, but it doesn't matter. This post is simply to back up President Carter's statements. He knows of what he speaks.

THIS PICTURE HAS CAUSED ME TO THINK ABOUT AND TELL THIS STORY BEFORE I DIE

2009-09-11T20:06:26Z

My friend capthek posted this picture on his journal. Before I tell my story I want to give a little history by just posting the two post I made on capthek's journal. I posted these two responses:

Post 1: Actually those people in that picture were probably Southern Democrats and not Republicans at the time that picture was taken. I am lucky that my parents belived in and got on board with the new young leaders that emerged in the Democratic Party in the 50's and 60's. LBJ had more problems with the members of his own party then he did with the Republicans in getting the Civil Rights Act passed. The Republican domination in the South was caused because the Republican's welcomed with open arms these people in that picture and although they gained Southern dominance they lost their soul while the Democrat's gained their soul. LBJ said that the Civil Rights
Act would give the South to the Republicans for the next 60 years if the Republicans welcomed those people shown in that picture into their party, but that at the end of that 60 years the Democratic Party would emerge stronger and better, and the Republicans would become weaker and weaker because rejection of any influence by those shown in your picture was the Right side of the issue. He recommended that neither party welcome those type of people into their party. The Republicans didn't listen to LBJ and his prediction is about to come true.

Post 2: The key is education. I don't know if you are aware that when FDR was trying to fully integrate the Military during the 30's and 40's that he commissioned a study to determine the strengths and weakness of doing so and the report came back directly opposite of what he expected. It determined that blacks were inferior to whites and did not have the mental capacity to perform normal military activities such as flying airplanes. This gave credence to these people's arguments against inter-racial marriage and they really did firmly believe that inter-racial marriage was a Communist plot to cause the intelligence of our country to go down and make us inferior to other white nations. As long as any party continues to embrace the people with outdated and totally absurd views, they will continue to lose support from the educated in this country.

My Dad, a totally good and honorable man agreed with the report during my younger years because during his life he was only subjected to uneducated blacks with the vocabulary of 10 yr. olds. He thought it was his duty as a Christen to help this unfortunate race from which God withheld the ability to learn. He didn't think he was a racist, because he didn't "hate blacks" and condemned such things as lynchings. It was only when television gave him the opportunity to see and hear intelligent blacks like Martin Luther King and others that caused him to change his opinion. Education is the key.

I moved to the small town in Texas where I now live in 1973. I was a young lawyer fresh out of law school with a young wife and 9 month old baby boy. I will call my baby Steve. I took a job as an Assistant District Attorney. When I moved to the town, it was in the middle of a racial scandal. The best athlete this town had ever seen had gotten a girl pregnant and they had a 6 month old baby boy. The athlete was black and the girl was white. The white girl's family disowned the girl. She moved in with the mother and dad of the black athlete, but never married. I will call the black athlete Willie and the athlete's mother Rose. I will call the white girl Sandy. By the time I moved to the town, Sandy was pregnant again, football season was over, but the team had won district in football, mainly because of Willie's running ability and speed. The town was in contention for the baseball District championship and it had come down to the last game of the season between the two leading teams. It was a home game and we went to the game. The game was tied 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth. Willie came to bat with two outs. He bunted and beat it out to first. The next pitch was a ball and Willie stole second. The next pitch was a strike and Willie stole third. The next pitch was a swinging strike. The next pitch was a high ball and Willie stole home to win the game. A leading business man in our community had a son on that team that night. I will call that man Ramsey. Willie got a football scholarship to Oklahoma. I head later that he was caught with drugs and sent to prison.

I will now fast forward to 1983. I had left the District Attorney's office by this time and was in private practice. My son Steve wanted to play Little League baseball and I agreed to coach his team. Mike was on my team. Rose came to every game that season with Willie's other two son's who I will call Mitch and Dan. Dan was not the son of Sandy, but was from a different mother, a Black woman. Rose and her husband were raising all three boys. I never met Rose's husband that year because he was working two full time jobs trying to make ends meet. I asked Rose about Sandy and she said she had left the kids with her and moved up north when Willie went to prison. We won the League championship that year, mainly because of the athletic ability of Mike. My son was no slough either. After the last game of the season I invited the entire team to my house for a swimming party. We had just put in a swimming pool at our house. While I was in the parking lot putting the baseball equipment in the trunk of my car, Rose came up to me and asked if Mike was invited. I was shocked and wanted to know why she felt she had to ask that question. I asked over and over again if I had done anything wrong that season. She finally told me that she just didn't want Mike to go through what Willie had gone through. She told me that after winning District, Ramsey had invited the team over to his house the next day for a swimming party and she had dropped Willie off at the house and drove back home. She said about 2 hrs later he got back home and had been crying. When he got to the door and knocked Ramsey had told him he wasn't invited and Willie had walked home crying. "That was not going to happen to his kids," she told me. I assured her that was not going to happen and insisted that she bring Mitch and Dan and that they all stay for the party. She did. Ever since that day, Mike, Mitch and Steve became best friends. They were so close that when they reached High School, Mike and Mitch would ride the bus home with Steve every Friday we were going to be home and I would take them home Saturday night so they could go to church Sunday. Many times Steve would go spend Saturday night with them and go to church with them instead of us. Once they stayed Saturday night with us and went to church with us, but they never wanted to do it again. Later they said that they liked their services better than ours and my son said he did too. It was a lot more fun he would say.

During Mike and Steve's freshman year, Willie was arrested for drugs and charged as a third time offender. He was facing a minimum of 25yrs and a maximum of Life in prison. I agreed to represent him pro bono. When I went to the jail and met him for the first time, it was obvious to me that he was mentally ill. I filed the competency motion and made sure my expert knew about the incidence at Ramsey's house. My expert found him incompetent, but the State's expert found him competent. During the trial on competency the Judge refused to allow me to tell the jury about the Ramsey incident and he was found competent. The District attorney offered to drop one enhancement and allow Willie to plead to 10yrs in prison and Willie took the plea. The Appellant courts on the competency hearing upheld the Judge's ruling. I heard from Mike two years later that Willie was killed in prison.

I don't remember exactly when my conversation with Mike occurred, but I remember one night when he was staying at my house he asked to talk with me in private. We went into my bedroom and shut the door and talked. He told me that the school had determined that Dan was mentally retarded and that they had placed him in Special Education. Dan isn't mentally retarded he insisted, he just doesn't have the ambition that he and Mitch had. I offered to go with Rose up to the school and talk with them, but I never heard from her. In Steve and Mike's junior year, Rose had a heart attack and I agreed to keep all three boys for a month until she recovered. I had her sign a power of attorney concerning the boys and they moved in with us. Every night I worked with Dan on his home work and refused to allow him to use his book to answer the homework questions. I would make him read the pages and then made him answer the questions without his book. It was unfair, he would insist, because all of his tests were open book exams. After I was certain that he was not mentally retarded, I visited his teacher and insisted that the next test that Dan took would not be an open book exam. I found out later from Mike that when Dan made a 98 on that exam, his teacher worked with him and got him out of Special Education.

I don't remember when Mike, Mitch, Steve and I first started talking about the history of race, but I made sure they all knew the history I told above and a lot more not relevant to this post and that is why this picture made me want to write this story. When my Dad and mother would visit us we would all very often have conversations about how my mother and dad's views changed because of the influence that intelligent and educated Blacks had on them. At first my parents were unconfortable having these conversations with Mike and Mitch present, but soon they became at ease and treated them like their own grandchildren.

Where are they all now:

Steve graduated from college with a degree in Criminal Justice and now works for ICE.

Mike has just received his PHD in Social Work and works in Dallas

Mitch received a degree and teacher's certificate and is now a coach in Dallas

Dan graduated from high school and has now worked his way up to the manager of a large pet store in Austin.

Ramsey is now dead. Both Rose and her husband are now dead. I have no idea where or what Sandy is doing, but both her parents are now dead. They never met or talked to their two wonderful grandchildren.

MY GRANDDAUGHTER WON

2009-09-08T14:53:09Z

My 8 yr. old granddaughter finally won out with her pleading and I took her to see Half Blood Prince at the Saturday afternoon matinee. It was funny. The theater was empty except for 5 middle age women who came into the theater after us and proceeded to sit in the row right in front of us and immediately started talking. This was the fifth time all 5 women had seen the movie and it was clear they were Snape fans who spent all their free time discussing Harry Potter. During the previews they started discussing how they thought the scenes explaining why Snape would kill Dumbledore should have been included in Half Blood Prince since the mystery of Snape being good was already explained in Deathly Hallows and the movies should have just told the story instead of trying to maintain the mystery.

I felt like I was on cosforums all over again and was wishing I hadn't come to the movie. Then my fears came true. My granddaughter, before the movie even started, asked me WHY would Snape kill Dumbledore if he was good. I replied that Dumbledore had ordered him to do so because he was dying anyway. I then said that you come to find out in Deathly Hallows that Dumbledore is really a very stupid and immoral person. Two of the women went ballistic on me and turned around in their seats with their knees on the seat and started eating me out. What they didn't know is that I knew as much Harry Potter as they did and proceeded to give them an ear full on the stupidity of Deathly Hallows and how it ruined the series for me. This went on until the movie started and I told them to turn around and watch the movie for the Fifth Time.

It was funny. I thought I had embarrassed my granddaughter, but she just looked at me and said: "PaPa, you really know a lot about Harry Potter. It is Stupid, isn't it?" "Yes", I replied ,"it is stupid." I could just see the steam rising from the backs of all five women. Then my granddaughter put the icing on the cake for me: "Twilight is better." she simply stated. I laughed out loud.

WHAT WOULD I ACCEPT IN PLACE OF A PUBLIC OPTION?

2009-09-04T22:38:23Z

I have been trying to decide what would possibly work in insurance reform without a public option.

I would accept each insurance company being allowed to only have 1 national pool with rates set based only on age. I would accept a requirement that with a simple application and initial premium a person is automatically accepted into the pool. I would accept that all insurance companies are all listed on one site with their rates posted. I would accept that no company or government employee be given a different rate or policy then what is offered to everyone. All insurance provided for any government employee must be provided from this pool.

I would accept a trigger to add the right of a person to choose a medicare option if the insurance companies don't spend at least 80% of premiums charged on actual medical cost or make more then a 5% profit from premiums collected or if no more then 5 companies agree to participate in this National Pool or if premiums increase more then 10% in any one year for any age group. I would want any price setting to be strickly prohibited.

Just some random thoughts before I sign off to be with my family for the Labor Day Weekend. Everyone have a good weekend.

IT WON'T HAPPEN, BUT I CAN STILL DREAM

2009-09-02T15:17:42Z

Obama is set to make a very important speech on September 15 in Pittsburg. He will at this time direct Congress on what he wants in the Health Care reform bill. This is my dream:

Obama concedes that any attempt at bi-partisanship is dead. He agrees with the Republicans that all the present bills are too complicated and it is impossible to determine their actual cost because of the complexity. He then ask that all bills be scraped and a very simple MEDICARE FOR ALL bill be passed. He throws his entire support behind the simple 30 page H. R. 676 and asks it to be passed by the end of the year.