Intelligent Discontent

Senator Baucus certainly deserves credit for one thing. Being able to make this remark to a reporter about increasing access to health care without bursting into laughter must have taken a remarkable degree of self-control:

“I want the Finance Committee to be ready, to be ahead of the curve,” he said. “That’s why I’ve begun hearings, getting the facts out, pushing the edge of the envelope.”

As much as I’d like to believe that Senator Baucus is truly interested in protecting the the 47 million Americans without health insurance, I have to admit that it crossed my mind as I read the piece that Senator Baucus might just be saying this because he is running for re-election. After all, hasn’t he had a few decades in Washington on the Finance Committee to make this happen?

No, instead of being ahead of the curve on universal health care, he’s chosen to be ahead of the curve on incredibly irresponsible tax cuts, Medicare giveaways to giant pharmaceuticals, and protecting the economic interests of struggling farmers to make millions every year. While there certainly have been some positive steps from Senator Baucus, like his work on the SCHIP program, no one can seriously believe that he can be at the forefront of ensuring universal access to health care.

(more…)

Popularity: 42% [?]

If for no other reason than to enjoy the inevitable torrent of scathing comments that will no doubt soon appear, you might enjoy a little piece I wrote about education funding  appearing in today’s Billings Gazette.

Popularity: 44% [?]

Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I found this NBC interview of Cindy McCain to simply be too much. How can we ask the spouses of candidates to undergo grilling like this? No one deserves to face questions this challenging:

“What drives you to reach out to do so much? Adopt a child, reach out to all these different nations, care about Myanmar?” Curry asked. “And what does it say about what you might do as first lady?”

It’s going to be a long fall, folks.

Popularity: 51% [?]

Governor Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming will be coming to Billings this Saturday to “debate” Bill Clinton on behalf of Obama, who he endorsed last month. I’m interested in this event because I think western values may be a focal point of the discussion;

Freudenthal endorsed Obama a month ago, saying that Obama’s intelligence and command of Western issues impressed him.

I would really like to hear what both Clinton and Freudenthal have to say on this issue. Which candidate really is better for the west?

Popularity: 69% [?]

A year before Dennis Rehberg voted “No!“ on regulating the subprime mortgage industry, we were already receiving warnings about the precarious situation the subprime market was in:

… now every serious reader has heard the term “It’s a crisis in Sub-Prime US home mortgage debt.” What almost no one I know understands is that the Sub-Prime problem is but the tip of a colossal iceberg that is in a slow meltdown.

Shouldn’t Rehberg have been one of those “serious readers”? In fact, a year before Rehberg voted “No!” on subprime mortgage regulation we were already seeing the consequences of an under regulated credit market. When the stock market tumbled in December of 2007, it was blamed on bad news in the subprime mortgage market.

Now we are talking about a full blown recession, which will effect everyday Montanans all across Montana - the same Montanans that put Rehberg in office to represent their interests. Do we really need Rehberg making such important decisions? Like we need a stick in the eye.

Because the economy will be such an important issue this November, Rehberg must be held accountable for his poor voting record. You didn’t need to have a Ph.D. in economics to know that something was going wrong with the wobbly lending market, but I guess you’d have to have a brain to do something about it.

Thanks, Rehberg.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Parents of a soldier from Oregon, who is serving in Afghanistan, came home to find a three minute long phone message of a firefight their son was involved in. The soldier’s phone pressed redial during the firefight, which he and his unit made it out of safely, and called his parents.

The story is so shocking because one can not imagine the horror these parents faced while trying to get a hold of their son.

Phillips’ mother, Sandie Petee, and her husband, Jeff Petee, were not at home at the time of the call. When they checked their voice mail, they heard the shooting.

“His friend died a year ago in Iraq and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, this may be the last time I hear my son’s voice on the phone,’” Sandie Petee said.

After reading the AP article about the incident, I found myself thinking about how detached we, as the civilian populous, are from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Firefights and battles happen every day, but sometimes it takes a unintentional phone call to remind us of that fact.

Popularity: 37% [?]

I’m not going to say too much about the two latest primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, because not all that much has changed. Obama has widened his lead over Clinton, but Clinton is using her slim victory in Indiana as a justification to continue her campaign.

We have six relatively small primaries left: West Virginia (May13th), Kentucky (May 20th), Oregon (May 20th), Puerto Rico (June 1st), South Dakota (June 3rd), and Montana (June 3rd). Clinton should win West Virginia and Kentucky; Obama should win Oregon. There is limited polling information in terms of the primaries in Puerto Rico, Montana, and South Dakota.

So what will change after the final primaries on June 3rd? Not much in terms of delegates. Party leaders, however, will feel even more pressure to tell Clinton to drop out. Unless there is a major turn of events, North Carolina and the strong showing by Obama in Indiana put him in place to be our nominee.

Do I think the nomination process will go until the convention? I doubt it. Clinton will have essentially run out of options come the post-primary world. What super delegate is going to pledge against the candidate with the most pledged delegates won and the winner of the popular vote? Not many.

Reconciliation needs to begin as soon as possible - Clinton’s people need to be greeted with open arms and Clinton encouraging them to back Obama full heartedly. I know this probably won’t happen till after the Montana and South Dakota primaries, I just hope it happens, period.

We must be the party of unity. “After months of bickering and tough campaigning, the party still came together to defeat the bane of America’s future: McCain.” How powerful of an image would that be?

It is my hope that this hope of mine becomes more than just a simple hope.

Popularity: 43% [?]