Won’t you take a moment to sign the petition and add your own message?

My Comments:

The real question is “How can we continue to afford paying more of our Gross Domestic Product than any other industrialized country?” Consider these points about the 30 member countries of the OECD:

• On average countries spend 8.9% of GDP on healthcare
• The US spends 16.0% of GDP on healthcare
• Second place spender France spends 11.0% of GDP
• Among the European Union countries Ireland spends the least, at 7.6% – less then one half the US level

All of the other countries have a form of single payer. All spend significantly less of the GDP than the US. Most have better health (measured by infant mortality and expected lifespand) than the US.

We’re paying more for worse care. How can we afford to keep doing what we’ve been doing?

Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform: Read it and think.

That nugget comes to us from Paul Krugman at the New York Times. Such is our public debate on health care reform. People love an existing government run health care program. People are adamant that government keep its hands out of their health care.

Well, some people feel that way.

This combination of attitudes – a love of Medicare (people on it are more satisfied than people with private insurance) and a distrust or hatred of goverment programs – has complicated the health care reform debate.

Some people would prefer employers to give cash and let employees buy insurance on the open market. That, it seems, is very inefficient in paying for health care.

In the individual insurance market, where people buy insurance directly rather than getting it through their employers, so much money goes into underwriting and other expenses that only around 70 cents of each premium dollar actually goes to care.

If you are an insurance company employee that 30 cents on the dollar keeping you employed is a good deal. [easy for the bank employee to write…]

Krugman concludes with:

To the extent we have a working health care system at all right now it’s only because government covers the elderly, while a combination of regulation and tax subsidies makes it possible for many, but not all, nonelderly Americans to get decent private coverage.

Now Mr. Obama basically proposes using additional regulation and subsidies to make decent insurance available to all of us. That’s not radical; it’s as American as, well, Medicare.

That paragraph is part of an analysis of not having a public health insurance option by DailyKos writer Devilstower. People with right leaning politics tend to be against the public option due to it being part of big government. They’re also against abortion because they’re “pro life.”

Dissonance for dinner anyone?

The Palin memoirs will be written. Palin will go on book tour and follow it up with a regular TV or radio show. She will run for president in 2012 with Rush Limbaugh as her running mate.

I challenge you, given her history and apparent personality, to come up with something more plausible.

That is from a Raw Story story on a Time Magazine story detailing revelations from former FBI interrogator Ali Soufan. Prisoner Abu Jandal had been held in Yemeni for over a year yielding no information before skilled FBI investigators arrived.

Time interviewed several interrogators who have worked with the U.S. military and retired intelligence service employees asking “[what works?] How does an interrogator break down a hardened terrorist without using violence?” Time reports “All agreed with Soufan: the best way to get intelligence from even the most recalcitrant subject is to apply the subtle arts of interrogation rather than the blunt instruments of torture.”

The Time article (3 pages) lists several examples of how smart interviewing succeeded. One example shows how these techniques work in a situation where time is of the essence.

For an American the reader’s comments are very interesting. The pro and con are not that different, to my eye, from similar discussions in the US. With one exception, in Ireland the debate is absent any discussion of constitutional rights.

In case you’re wondering, I’m not of Irish descent but I do check in with the Irish Times and the Irish Examiner at least a couple of times a week.

The President admitting to a mistake and taking responsibility for it. That is change.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Teresa at Making Light published a list of all the major Onion headlines during the Bush years. Here are my favorites.

January 26, 2000: Bush Reaches Out To Hispanic Community With Generous Tip.
March 8, 2000: Bush ‘Refuses To Dignify’ Mass-Murder Allegations.
August 9, 2000: Republicans’ ‘Diversity Through Imported Africans’ Plan Criticized.
October 18, 2000: Bush Horrified To Learn Presidential Salary.
November 15, 2000: Serbia Deploys Peacekeeping Forces To U.S.
December 20, 2000: Bush Calls For End To ‘Era Of Political Argument’.
January 17, 2001: Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’.
May 30, 2001: Bush Actually President, Nation Suddenly Realizes.
July 18, 2001: Bush Vows To Remove Toxic Petroleum From National Parks.
August 22, 2001: Bush Vows To Wipe Out Prescription-Drug Addiction Among Seniors.
September 26, 2001: Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves In Hell.
September 26, 2001: God Angrily Clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule.
September 26, 2001: Not Knowing What Else To Do, Woman Bakes American-Flag Cake.
September 26, 2001: Bush Sr. Apologizes To Son For Funding Bin Laden In ’80s.
September 26, 2001: U.S. Vows To Defeat Whoever It Is We’re At War With.
September 26, 2001: Dinty Moore Breaks Long Silence On Terrorism With Full-Page Ad.
September 26, 2001: Point/Counterpoint: We Must Retaliate With Blind Rage…
October 3, 2001: U.S. Urges Bin Laden To Form Nation It Can Attack.
October 10, 2001: Freedoms Curtailed In Defense Of Liberty.
November 14, 2001: U.S. To Arab World: ‘Stop Hating Us Or Suffer The Consequences’.
January 16, 2002: Bush Attempts To Distance Self From Yet Another Failed Business.
March 6, 2002: Bush Calls On Business Leaders To Create 500,000 Shitty Jobs By 2003.
September 11, 2002: Bush Won’t Stop Asking Cheney If We Can Invade Yet.
October 2, 2002: Bush Seeks U.N. Support For ‘U.S. Does Whatever It Wants’ Plan.
October 16, 2002: Bush On Economy: ‘Saddam Must Be Overthrown’.
December 18, 2002: Bill Of Rights Pared Down To A Manageable Six.
January 15, 2003: Bush On North Korea: ‘We Must Invade Iraq’.
February 5, 2003: Department Of The Interior Sets Aside Two Million Acres For Car Commercials.
February 12, 2003: Saddam Enrages Bush With Full Compliance.
February 12, 2003: N. Korea Wondering What It Has To Do To Attract U.S. Military Attention.
February 19, 2003: Terrorism ‘Not Likely’ Cause Of Fire At Local Laundromat.
March 12, 2003: Bush Orders Iraq To Disarm Before Start Of War.
March 12, 2003: Congress Accidentally Approves Arts Funding.
March 26, 2003: Vital Info On Iraqi Chemical Weapons Provided By U.S. Company That Made Them.
April 2, 2003: Government No Longer Even Bothering To Hide Halliburton Favors.
April 2, 2003: I Should Not Be Allowed To Say The Following Things About America.
June 4, 2003: Bush Visits U.S.S. Truman For Dramatic Veterans’-Benefits-Cutting Ceremony.
June 18, 2003: U.S. Refuses To Allow U.N. Weapons Inspectors Back Into Iraq.
September 10, 2003: Relations Break Down Between U.S. And Them.
September 10, 2003: White House Denied Third Mortgage.
September 17, 2003: Revised Patriot Act Will Make It Illegal To Read Patriot Act.
October 15, 2003: Lieberman Pledges To Gloss Over The Boring Issues.
October 22, 2003: CIA-Leak Scapegoat Still At Large.
January 28, 2004: Bush 2004 Campaign Pledges To Restore Honor And Dignity To White House.
April 14, 2004: New Negative Campaign Ads Blast Voters Directly.
April 21, 2004: Cheney Wows Sept. 11 Commission By Drinking Glass Of Water While Bush Speaks.
April 28, 2004: Bush To Iraqi Militants: ‘Please Stop Bringing It On’.
July 7, 2004: Nation’s Liberals Suffering From Outrage Fatigue.
September 8, 2004: Bush Campaign More Thought Out Than Iraq War.
October 13, 2004: Cheney Vows To Attack U.S. If Kerry Elected.
November 3, 2004: U.S. Inspires World With Attempt At Democratic Election.
November 10, 2004: Bush Promises To Unite Nation For Real This Time.
November 10, 2004: Nation’s Poor Win Election For Nation’s Rich.
January 5, 2005: Bush Celebrates Millionth Utterance Of ‘Lessons Of Sept. 11’.
March 30, 2005: Bush Launches Preemptive Attack On Social Security.
July 20, 2005: Marine Corps Shortens Slogan To ‘The Few’.
November 23, 2005: Topeka Mayor Now Highest-Ranking Non-Indicted Republican Official.
January 20, 2006: CEO Needs $30 Million Aspen Home To Recharge Batteries.
February 8, 2006: White House Debuts Iraq War Infomercial.
February 14, 2006: Bush Hides U.S. Report Card In Sock Drawer.
February 27, 2006: Democrats Vow Not To Give Up Hopelessness.
March 13, 2006: Bush Increasingly Focused On How Revisionist History Will See Him.
April 26, 2006: EPA Didn’t Know Anybody Was Still Drinking Water.
May 31, 2006: Critics Blast Al Gore’s Documentary As ‘Realistic’.
August 1, 2006: Bush Grants Self Permission To Grant More Power To Self.
August 15, 2006: U.S. Dedicates $64 Billion To Undermining Gates Foundation Efforts.
November 7, 2006: Republicans Blame Election Losses On Democrats.
November 22, 2006: CNN Renews This Week At War For Next Eight Seasons.
December 13, 2006: Failed Attempt At Hyperbole Yields Dead-On Statistic.
March 26, 2007: Injured Troops Request Extended Tours To Avoid Being Sent To Walter Reed.
March 28, 2007: Heroic Secret Service Agent Takes Question Intended For Bush.
March 28, 2007: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Confesses To Confessing Under Torture.
June 5, 2007: Secret Service Agent Takes Out Dandelion On White House Lawn.
August 24, 2007: Democratic Mob Censures Bush In Effigy.
September 20, 2007: In The Know: White House Announces ‘Everything Is Great In Iraf’.
September 21, 2007: Fifteen Awesome Lies about Hillary Clinton.
October 10, 2007: Cost Of Freedom At All-Time High.
December 18, 2007: Gore Wins Oscar, Nobel Peace Prize For Slide-Show Presentation.
January30, 2008: We Must All Do Our Part To Preserve This ClimateOf Fear.
May 14, 2008: Obama Voicemail Message Not That Inspiring.
June 16, 2008: Grandmother Proud To Have Lived Long Enough To See First Viable Female Candidate Torn Apart.
July 2, 2008: Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency.
July 9,2008: Bill Clinton Sadly Folds First Lady Dress Back Into Box.
July 14, 2008: Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In.
July 30, 2008: Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape Dying Planet.
August 22, 2008: Bush Told To Sign Birthday Treaty For Someone Named ‘Kyoto’.
September 3, 2008: Top Story On John McCain Run Out Of Obligation.
September 17, 2008: Obama Deletes Another Unread MoveOn.org E-Mail.
September 22, 2008: Man Succumbs To Seven-YearBattle With Health Insurance.
October 3, 2008: Bush Goes Blonde For Remainder Of Presidency.
October 7, 2008: Gunman Kills 15 Potential Voters In Crucial Swing State.
October 13, 2008: Michelle Obama All That Stands Between Love-Struck Media, Barack Obama.
October 30, 2008: Struggling Lower Class Still Unsure How Best To Fuck Selves With Vote.
November 5, 2008: Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job.
December 2, 2008: U.S. Economy Continues Campaigning For Barack Obama.
December 8, 2008: Bush’s Eyelid Accidentally Nailed To Wall.
December 9, 2008: Supreme Court Overturns Bush v. Gore.
January 14, 2009: Bush, Cheney Stand Back-To-Back, Cock Shotguns One Last Time.

There are many Americans who are disappointed, some deeply, with tonight’s results. Since it has been a long time since Democrats, Progressives and, yes, Liberals have had won. We need to remember our manners. We need to remember the console of Molly Ivins.

For a point of comparison American’s spend over $6Billion on potato chips last year. So says the Snack Food Association.

I wonder how much was spent on dip.