The DNC caved.
We all knew they would; they are, after it is all said and done, professional panderers.
I had hoped, however, that they would hew to their own rules.
Perhaps they did. After all, Rule Number One at the DNC is to pander to whomever prostrates themselves the loudest. Read more. . .
George McGovern (yes that George McGovern) wrote in the NYTimes, “The competition for the Democratic presidential nomination between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has been long and intense. The news media have given it round-the-clock coverage, including seemingly round-the-clock debates between the two candidates. The campaign has been good not only for the Democratic Party but also for America. It has made millions of voters excited about selecting our next president.”
Senator McGovern is right.
But he is right in a way that worries me greatly.
I don’t have a great passion for John McCain but I do have a great passion for politics. And I do have a great passion for parity.
Senator McCain has gotten short shrift in the media during the 138 months of the Democratic Party Primary that Senator McGovern lauds. Every network story, every front page article is about the Obama v. Hillary battle. Unless it is about the Hillary-Obama battle. Anyone coming to our shores for the first time would think the presidential election is between the two Democratic candidates and that there is no one else in the race.
The Democrats certainly want it that way.
“Early voting was nearly three times what it has been for previous presidential races,” Kate Snow said on the May 13 edition of World News Tonight as she reported from the West Virginia Primary.
Ms. Snow? It was a party primary. It was not the Presidential election. That happens in November, not May.
I have to wonder if the round-the-clock news media coverage would be so skewed if Mike Huckabee and John McCain were having the same nearly equal battle while an anointed Democratic candidate campaigned less loudly from state to state.
See, I don’t think it would.
I think our media has given up giving the candidates equal time. And that is the worst thing that can happen to this election.
Every Florida Democrat in Congress has written to Democratic Party Chair (and former Vermont Governor) Howard Dean. The congress critters have insisted that Governor Dean respect the Florida voters by seating the Florida delegates at the upcoming Democratic convention.
Huh?
Perhaps every Florida Democrat in Congress needs to have some respect for the rules of their own party. After all, it was the Florida Democrats who broke their own rules by holding their primary elections too early. The Florida Democrats knew they were breaking the rules because the Party leadership and every media outlet in the known universe told them so. I reckon even Al Jazeera carried that particular story.
Now they want to break the rules again.
Does anybody wonder why I don’t want to be a Democrat in any state?
The undead are popular this year. Moonlight, the CBS Friday night crime drama with a vampire as the lead detective, drew a 2.1 share last Friday. That may have been the episode in which our hero came back to life and then reverted to his nighttime habits, but the show is popular every week.
Vampire Power. David Pogue in the NYTimes calls it “the juice consumed by electronic gadgets even when they’re turned off (also called phantom loads, standby power or leaking electricity). They just sit there, plugged in, sucking electricity, at a cost to you and to the environment. According to the Energy Department, vampire gadgets account for about 25 percent of total residential electricity consumption in the U.S.”
Say what?
OK, I admit that we have a teevee or two, more than our share of VCRs that show the time rather than blinking, and a couple or seven electronic phones. We also have a refrigerator and two freezers along with a water pump to pump the water in and a sump pump to pump it out, an electric mattress pad, and an electric stove.
This household burns through 666 KW-Hrs per month or so. Vampire power measured in watts is 25% of that kilowatt load? So those blinking green lights would account for 167 KW-Hrs per month? 167 KW-Hrs??? I don’t think so.
This sounds more like the Far Green in action. I need proof. Like actual, measured data, instead of being vamped by hyperbole.
Congress is planning to announce a possible investigation into something. Whew. That ought to keep them out of trouble for the entire term.
Li Rifu and Chen Yanfe live in Shuang Miao, a rural village in east-central Chinas Zhejiang Province. Last year, Mr. Li and his wife were both diagnosed with cancer.
The NYTimes reported that “Ms. Chens reproductive tract cancer has gone into remission after $7,000 in medical bills. But Mr. Lis fist-size malignant prostate cancer tumor has resisted two operations and four rounds of chemotherapy.”
They have spent nearly $50,000.
Of their own money.
In China where care is nominally free.
“With payments from the local health insurance fund capped at $4,300 a person per year, Mr. Li has had to sell many of his possessions, and still he has had to go into debt.
“It is a common occurrence in this country, nominally communist, but with little or no safety net.”
Medical care is more expensive in the U.S. than in China. Health care costs are skyrocketing here and health insurance premiums have risen four times faster than wages since 2000 according to the Scranton Times Tribune .
About 46.6 million people in the United States were without health care insurance in 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.
As an aside, our U.S. believers in socialized medicine would have us emulate Canada, not China. Milk in Canada costs about $8/gallon.
Our U.S. believers in socialized medicine all have plans for affordable coverage for everyone. Their plans offer to cover all essential medical services with affordable premiums, co-pays, and deductibles and guarantee eligibility. Those covered will have income sensitive federal subsidies to buy the mandated insurance. Medicaid and SCHIP will expand. The plan will require employers to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the cost of a national insurance plan.
Let’s see. Federal mandates. Federal subsidies. Federal bureaucracy. That’s a great prescription. Reduced patient care. Increased taxes. Increased wait times. And “Press 2 for English.” Yeah, that sounds like Canadian health care.
Back to China. China has an economy growing over 10% annually. China has cradle to (early) grave medical coverage. China caps health care benefits at $4,300 per person.
I wonder what cap our U.S. believers in socialized medicine will impose.