Did You Expect Better??? Really?!?

Haste makes waste.  Isn't that the common wisdom our grandparents passed down to us? 

It's a simple thing, when you rush a project, you're generally not going to give it your best effort.  Corners are cut, things are left out. 

When that project is a multi-trillion dollar new entitlement set to re-shape healthcare for the entire nation, haste is a disaster.  The bill that was passed was introduced and rushed to a vote with little to no debate in both the house and the senate.  Haste in this case, is a nightmare. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110621/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_health_overhaul_glitch

This is what we can expect from our "Representatives"

It doesn't matter if you're a democrat or a republican.  When the rubber meets the road, they're both going to dodge the tough choices.  Neither is going to do anything that jeopardizes their chances to get re-elected.  Not because what they do is popular to the majority, but because it's popular to the ones who spend the most money.  Another big lobby just got its wish. 

The Republican controlled House has killed a bill that would have cut down money wasting farm subsidies while the Democrat controlled Senate has killed a similar measure that would have cut off subsidies for ethanol. 

Over $100 million in wasteful spending will continue.  when you consider that we're going to have to borrow close to $60 million to pay for these subsidies and that the net effect is to artificially keep the price of food high, then you can see the great service our elected representatives of both parties have done for us. 

We don't have a lot of power here, at least not as individuals.  If we as the People don't hold our elected representatives to account, why should they do any differently?  Everyone likes the ideas of "voting the bums out" except when it comes to THEIR bum, because he brings home the bacon.  Well, your bacon and my bacon and everyone else's bacon has finally clogged the arteries of this country.

For more information on the wonderful world of farm subsidies, consider this Heritage Foundation article.

This is why we have revolutions...

An SS like team, dispatched by, of all the bureaucracies, the Department of Education, raids a home, confines a man separately from his children in a hot patrol car for 6 hours beginning at 6AM.

Why?  They're searching for his estranged wife because she's delinquent on her Student Loans.

It's apparently harder to get a no-knock warrant for a drug dealer's den than it is for the Dept of Ed to get one for a dead-beat student borrower.

One day they're going to bust down the door of an armed man, and that armed man will justifiably shoot the invading Soldiers and become the first martyr in a revolution.  Right now I'm too angry to write more, back soon.

Why Lie?

If your economic successes are so great, why do you have to stretch the truth or outright lie about it?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/president-obamas-phony-accounting-on-the-auto-industry-bailout/2011/06/06/AG3nefKH_blog.html

It happens all the time.  Politicians, marketers, etc.  If what you're trying to convince us of is so wonderful, quit with the gimmicks.  Lay it on us straight. 

Shit, I'd like you to play me straight even when the news is dire. 

Joe Wilson had to apologize for telling it like it is when he yelled "You Lie!"  In my opinion, the only mistake he made is that he directed it at the President alone.  He left out the House, Senate, and himself.

Could you have a worse name for a scandal like this?

WeinerGate?  I'm not sure if they're talking about the man or the subject matter of the photo he allegedly tweeted to a young woman.  If he's the victim of a hoax then I feel bad for him.  Something tells me though, that the Weiner is in deep....trouble.

What Happens When You Support the Ends, but Not the Means?

I'm all for having more information.  I think the more information we have, in general, allows us to make better choices.  There are, of course, exceptions.  A series of PSA's in the 90's was titled "The More You Know..." and I think that the overall theme was good.  The more information you have on a subject, the better conclusions you can reach. 

But what am I talking about?  Does it matter?  As an example, take Health and Nutrition:

I think that everyone who sells and serves food should post the nutritional information about that food on their menus.  I think that the additional information will help us make better choices and I think that if enough people agreed with me and demanded it of the Market, the Market would provide it.  The people, however, have taken a different path.  They have chosen a different means to that agreed upon end.  Laws are so much easier to shift than markets it seems.  It's not OUR freedoms that are being abridged and we even benefit.  Now, if you oppose the means you must also oppose the ends.