The most important issue to me is health care. When liberals denounce the Iraq occupation, and demand that our troops be brought home, I nod in agreement.

But when Gov. Gregoire extends WA Basic Health to cover more people, or when presidential candidates talk about just how they’ll cover the 45 million uninsured, I pay attention. It’s not that I don’t care about the war, or think it’s less important. I don’t. But the inequality of our health care “system” has been a war in and of itself. It’s a war that has cost our government billions, has put millions of Americans needlessly into debt, and has caused angst and heartache at the kitchen tables of so many.

It’s between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. How are their health care plans different?

Both plans require that private insurers offer policies to everyone, regardless of medical history. Both also allow people to buy into government-offered insurance instead.

And both plans seek to make insurance affordable to lower-income Americans. The Clinton plan is, however, more explicit about affordability, promising to limit insurance costs as a percentage of family income. And it also seems to include more funds for subsidies.

But the big difference is mandates: the Clinton plan requires that everyone have insurance; the Obama plan doesn’t.

But what’s wrong with Obama’s plan?

Mr. Obama claims that people will buy insurance if it becomes affordable. Unfortunately, the evidence says otherwise.

After all, we already have programs that make health insurance free or very cheap to many low-income Americans, without requiring that they sign up. And many of those eligible fail, for whatever reason, to enroll.

An Obama-type plan would also face the problem of healthy people who decide to take their chances or don’t sign up until they develop medical problems, thereby raising premiums for everyone else.

Every person needs health care, and mandating it is the only way to get it done. What Obama is offering is a system that is signifigantly flawed, right out of the gate.

Krugman continues:

But while it’s easy to see how the Clinton plan could end up being eviscerated, it’s hard to see how the hole in the Obama plan can be repaired. Why? Because Mr. Obama’s campaigning on the health care issue has sabotaged his own prospects.

You see, the Obama campaign has demonized the idea of mandates — most recently in a scare-tactics mailer sent to voters that bears a striking resemblance to the “Harry and Louise” ads run by the insurance lobby in 1993, ads that helped undermine our last chance at getting universal health care.

Obama’s political sensibility is so fucked up that I bet he doesn’t understand the nature of the health care debate. It is going to be a knock down, drag out fight, and if Obama’s health care plan isn’t ready to go in Day 1, then he’s going to get hosed.

…goes to the Garden Show.

Hey you-

Yeah, you!

Do you like live and local talk radio?

Then sign this open letter, and let Seattle radio stations know that live and local is worth something to you!

Letter To 710 KIRO

If you like talk radio, sign the letter. Liberals and conservatives agree that live and local talk radio is worth supporting.

All you have to do is sign the letter!

Letter To 710 KIRO

Make it happen, Horse’s Ass readers. Tell the radio brass that you want this kind of programming on the air.

Do it!

Letter To 710 KIRO

Apparently, a lot more than this:

The day James Anthony Williams allegedly stabbed to death a stranger on Capitol Hill, the homeless, mentally ill ex-convict showed up at his probation officer’s office agitated, defensive and, the officer wrote, “barely able to hold himself together.”

[…]

Department of Corrections (DOC) records released Friday show that Williams, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, spiraled into a pit of anger and delusion late last year. He skipped required mental-health appointments and was evicted for threatening his landlord.

[…]

An opportunity to intervene with Williams emerged last summer, after he was charged in Seattle Municipal Court with threatening to “shoot all the caseworkers” at Sound Mental Health and to “lay in wait” to shoot his DOC officer. He spent three months at Western State Hospital for an assessment of whether he was competent to stand trial for misdemeanor harassment charges.

His menacing behavior continued while at Western State. A social worker complained to DOC about Williams’ “intimidating and menacing behavior” toward staff, and about Williams’ claims of having “two personalities and one of them can lead to killing people and maybe he should go to jail,” according to the DOC records released Friday.

He’s a violent, mentally ill man with open disdain for his caretakers, but all of this isn’t enough to get somebody put away so they don’t hurt somebody.

What is this guy, a Husky football player?

Opportunity, opportunity/
This is your big opportunity

-Elvis Costello, Opportunity

I snapped this photo during one of my several guest appearances on “The David Goldstein Show.” I was a guest on his very first show. Tom Clendening took a chance on Goldy, and Goldy took a chance on me. For that, I am very thankful.

I’m a longtime radio nerd. I first listened to “The Bill Gallant Show,” which is still the best show on politics I’ve ever heard. I listened for a long time to “The Tom Leykis Show.” That is, until the retards at Entercom decided to change the format of the only FM talk station, “The Buzz.” “Leykis” killed in Seattle, and was the highest rated drive-time show, second only to Mariner’s games. While controversial, he had the most entertaining show on the radio. His feud with the P-I’s Susan Paytner is legendary: She’s yet to flash her boobs for charity.

Lastly, before “The Buzz” went country, they picked up a show from Washington D.C. called “The Don and Mike Show.” It was like nothing I had ever heard in Seattle’s lame media market. They are often described as a “morning show in the afternoon” because they’re funny and do goofy gags.

“The Buzz” eventually dropped D & M, and I’ve always been looking for a way to get a hold of the show. Spokane (you bastards!) have been getting the show for years. It’s, like, the one good thing I like about that place. When “Don and Mike” started podcasting their entrie show, I found it and started downloading it… only to learn that Don Gerronimo (The “Don” of “Don and Mike”) is retiring in only a few months.

I have decided, much to the surprise of the parents, friends, etcetera, not to pursue a career in politics and instead pursue radio. Sitting in on Goldy’s show was fun, but political radio ain’t my thing. Goofball radio, here I come!

And here’s how:

Go to…

www.letterto710kiro.com

…and put your name on the open letter to the KIRO brass. Tell them what you think of their move to replace David Goldstein’s six hours of liberal talk with six hours of… I don’t even know what. Fucking “Meet The Press”? Fucking reruns?

If you give a shit about honest-to-God live and local radio that is unapologetically liberal, sign that letter.

If you think new local talent ought to have a shot in Seattle, sign the letter.

If you’re a conservative and you love telling Goldy how full of shit he is, sign the letter.

Even if KIRO is taking a pass on local liberal talk, let’s show other stations that this is something we want on the air.

UPDATE:
Andrew has a diary up on Daily Kos. Recommend it!

Read this.

Whenever I’m at the bank, I like to pick up a few of these:

With a pocket full of twenty or so dollar coins, I like to spread them around. Sometimes people will give you this look that says, “Why did you give me this? I know that it’s real, and that it’s a dollar, but why do you purposely upset the rickety apple cart that is my life with this coin?”

Today I gave one to a Real Change vendor. The fella looked at it and gave me the biggest grin I’ve seen in a long time.

I’ve found that dollar coins work in every modern vending machine I’ve run across. There is a reason why this is true. The vending machine political lobby is a major player in the “dollar coin” movement. Dollar coins are much cheaper to accept than “paper” dollars. Those bill readers are an extra expense they’d love to be rid of. Alas, Americans (other than myself) aren’t taken by the dollar coin phenomenon.

King County Metro takes them, however. If you’ve ever seen someone try to feed a buck into the fare box during rush hour, you know that this can be excruciating. Dollar coins would solve this problem.

The dollar coin has had two recent iterations. Several years ago was the “Sacajawea”, and more recently was the “Presidential” series. The “Sac”, as it was nicknamed (by me), didn’t really catch on, so the new ones are shinier and more robust in their features. Also, the Native-American choice may have thrown some folks. Not me, but I do find the choice somewhat odd. It’s like, “sorry about the years of genocide. Here’s a coin.”

Of all people, Republicans should love these coins. You guys love to put Reagan on all sorts of shit. Here’s your chance.

So the next time you’re at the bank, ask the teller to load you up on some dollar coins. You’ll never have so much fun spending your money.

I appreciate everything ECB’s been doing to bring to light some pretty egregious anti-woman crap. That said, what did you think was going to happen? Hillary Rodham Clinton has been hated by the Right for years and years. This stuff is not a surprise.

Besides, politics ain’t beanbag. If her political operation can’t handle this stuff, then she doesn’t deserve to carry our banner in November. Plain and simple.

Four years ago, the GOP took aim at a Vietnam war hero, a recipient of the Silver Star, and mocked his war medals. They’re shameless.

There is no reason to think that they’ll be any more reasonable if Hillary is our nominee.

Seattle Times political reporter David Postman is reporting from eastern Washington this week, and he’s sending back some great stuff. His most recent post is from Garfield County. (Anti-government types, pay attention: Garfield’s two largest employers are the federal government and the county itself. Go figure.)

Postman interviews some rock-ribbed Republican family farmers, and finds that not everything is going as planned:

These are no longer the energetic Republican backers who in 2000 spent $3,000 of their own money to make a batch of 4-by-8-foot “Save Our Dams” signs that urged people to vote Republican. You won’t see them at a rally this year, or maybe even at the Republican caucus Feb. 9. Where Mary had “a totally intense feeling” about the campaign in 2000, today there is a palpable sense of disillusionment.

In the GOP’s SOP, meaningless fringe issues are used to rile the peons, while the Wall Street faction gets exactly what they want. (Dividend tax cuts! Corporate tax cuts! A farm bill that pays millions to ADM and peanuts to the little guys!)

Meanwhile the Dyes sold off their life insurance policies, reduced their health insurance to a bare minimum, and put their kids on the state’s Basic Health Plan. And they all scrimped. When there was a bit of milk left in the bottom of a glass, it got poured back into the carton for another day. Mary said:

“In large part, there’s something really awful to me about a man who has been farming since 1978, now in his mid-50s, having to struggle like this.”

Farmers were at the epicenter of the Progressive movement in the early twentieth century. They said, through their great champion, that they would not be crucified on a “cross of gold.”

Mary stayed involved in politics up until mid-2004. She was a Bush supporter and leading the Washington state effort to draft that year’s party platform. Then as her family and friends struggled she no longer wanted to be part of the system that had once energized her.

She quit the campaign and all the party business. She didn’t tell anyone why and everyone was apparently too polite to ask.

“George Bush has betrayed me personally. … I just definitely thought he understood.”

Software folks have a saying for when something doesn’t work right. They say “it’s a feature, not a bug.” The Bush Administration was always all about screwing the little guy and using the government for the advantage of the powerful. That was the idea all along.

It would be easy to go all “What’s The Matter With Kansas?” on these folks, and to dis them for voting against (what I perceive to be) their economic self interest, but that’s gauche. I can’t expect them to be wooed by an argument of economic populism if the leading Democratic candidates aren’t wooing them with one. It’s as simple as that.

Back in 2003, I was just stretching my legs on the local political scene. I decided to volunteer for Peter Steinbrueck’s reelection campaign. At the 36th District candidate’s forum, several candidates started to mention a rezone of some residential land near Rick’s, the Lake City stripclub. Like most folks, I thought it was no big deal, and didn’t think it would play much of a factor.

How wrong I was.

Three City Council members who voted to override the planning department on a strip club’s parking-lot rezone turn out to be beneficiaries of some $39,000 in campaign contributions that the club’s owners allegedly funneled through various contributors to get around donor limit laws. The rezone is then revoted and rejected. The council members return the money and pay fines. Two of them are promptly ousted at the next election.

It’s worth noting that the city council people involved never faced any charges for wrongdoing themselves. That said, the whole thing stank to high heaven.

But what struck me about the whole affair is how small ball this was. Seattle is not like Chicago, Miama, LA, or Boston, and certainly not like New Orleans.

Our corruption is nothing like that of those cities. For example, Richard McIver had to pay a fine for allowing former Govenor Albert Rossellini to buy him lunch at Quizno’s. Quizno’s, for God’s sake. McIver got nailed for a six dollar sandwich.

So, suffice it to say I wasn’t blown away by today’s news:

With a touch of defiance, Seattle strip-club owner Frank Colacurcio Jr. and a longtime associate pleaded guilty today to criminal charges related to the so-called “Strippergate” campaign-finance scandal of 2003.

His father, Frank Colacurcio Sr., was also expected to plead guilty to the same charges, but the longtime strip-club magnate, who is 90, did not appear in court due to health problems. His attorney said Colacurcio Sr. will enter a plea by Monday.

In a plea bargain that avoided jail time, Colacurcio Jr. agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and one year of probation. His father is expected to accept an identical deal.

Those penalties are in addition to a $55,000 civil settlement approved Wednesday by the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

[…]

Gil Conte, a former lounge singer and longtime Colacurcio associate, also pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor conspiracy charge and agreed to pay a $1,000 fine.

After the sentencing, Conte did a quick soft-shoe dance step for a throng of reporters, and said, “I didn’t do nothing.”

Lame.

“I didn’t do nothing.” What is this, Goodfellas? C’mon.

A headline at the Times website:

Amtrak cancels Seattle-LA service temporarily

Who takes a train from Seattle to LA? I’d rather fly some shitty cattle-call airline like Southwest for $49 and be subjected to screaming infants and douchebags in cutoffs reading Joel Osteen books out loud to themselves.

Amtrak sucks, and it’s not because it’s government run. Railway networks in Europe are awesome, and they’re all government run. Why? Infrastructure investment: they invest in theirs, and we don’t invest in ours.

To all the urban hipsters who have latched on to the Paul campaign, I give you this:

If elected president, Paul told me he would continue to pursue such a policy.

“I think the Roe v. Wade situation was a big mistake and the states ought to have the right to decide on the issue, so I would deny jurisdiction to the federal courts on abortion issues,” he said.

Roe v. Wade was decided in large part under the doctrine of substantive due process as an issue of privacy. Paul thinks that basis for the ruling is flawed.

When speaking of liberty, I can think of nothing more important than the right a person has to keep the government out of their own body. If Paul is the libertarian he says he is, he’d agree. If the government edges it’s way into the doctors office, it will get itself into everything eventually, and then it’s all over.

***Hilarious response to my earlier post about Rep. Doug Ericksen. GOP bloggers are pissed at the bad press, while the B-Ham Herald’s political guy is just telling it like it is:

For the record, Wally, I generally try to write my own headlines, sir, unless someone else’s is better. Too bad you never seem to realize there is no conspiracy. I promise. You, of course, don’t complain that I’m “slamming” someone when I link to posts on your blog, which I will also continue to do.

***Rep. Geoff Simpson calls bullshit on the anti-light rail attacks dressed up in “governance reform” language:

You hear a lot of talk about “governance reform.” This push is coming from fans of regional financing of state highways and those opposed to light rail. Sound Transit is delivering projects on time and on budget, bringing in hundreds of millions in federal funds and passing audits with the highest grades.

The only thing I regret? That Rep. Simpson represents Kent. You rarely hear Seattle legislators speaking up like this about Sound Transit.

***Rick Steves is my homeboy.

***The P-I interviews tourists about Downtown Seattle:

Convention scouts descended on Seattle to rate its suitability to host major events and pronounced their judgment: The food is good, the people are great, the weather’s a bit of a drag – and could we please do something about all the transients downtown?

Seattle has always had a visible homeless population for as long as I can remember. It is also one of the most needlessly politicized issues we face.

Josh Feit:

State Senator Mike Carrell (R-28) tried to undermine Senator Karen Keiser’s universal health-care bill at the hearing this afternoon by grilling her star witness, state Senator Jon Erpenbach from Wisconsin.

[…]

Senator Carrell tried a little scare mongering. He brought up the right wing’s shorthand for socialism. “Given that Wisconsin is on the border with Canada,” Carrell began harrumphing, “doesn’t your plan parallel theirs?”

Senator Erpenbach laughed—gave Carrell a geography lesson—and appropriately Carrell’s loaded analogy quickly came unglued. “No, it doesn’t [parallel the Canada model] except that everyone is covered,” he quipped getting another round of laughter at the geographically challenged Republican’s expense.

Somebody’s getting an atlas for Christmas.