(no subject)

[gwydion]

* I'm reading Lord of the White Hell: Book One, another homoerotic steampunk charmer by Ginn Hale. She does such wonderful things.

* Voter registration drives statistically mostly help low income, students, and POC, so Florida Republicans are doing their best to get rid of them. Of course. They are doing the same in Kansas and a number of other states. Democracy being anathema to modern Republican politician, further disenfranchising POC and the poor is an obvious next move.

* So what is my deal with Richard Burton (the actor, not the 19th century linguist, traveler, explorer, and translator)? It's likely not what you think. In RL, he was the kind of broken that would have made me edge away fast if I'd ever met him. It's not a crush or a sexual interest of any kind. When I was a child, we watched him on a chat show, on which he parsed the verb to be as if it were a poem about existence. His acting talent and the beauty of his voice transformed grammar into Art. People a century ago talked about being moved to tears watching Sarah Bernhardt read a phone book. I got shivers watching Richard Burton say, "I am. You are." etc.. That, my friends, is talent. Often, the scripts of the movies he was in did not live up to his talent. He lived between the theater world and the movie world; between the mining village in wales and his large extended family from which he came and the glamor and wealth of his life with the movie stars; a bisexual in a Era when that was not okay, torn, like Spencer Tracy between his ideal of masculinity and the bits of him which didn't fit that stereotypical identity. Like him, an alcoholic with an epic love affair with a woman who was a strong and powerful woman in her own right; both never quite forgiving themselves for leaving wife and children for those women; both overshadowed in their careers by the women they loved best. All the beauty of his acting skill shone through. He fascinates me, when I watch him on screen, even through the crappy scripts and the outside drama. I still watch my favorite of his films, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? once a year or so.

* The crowds going to Republican Town Hall Meetings to complain about them voting to abolish Medicare are mostly bigger than the corporate funded Tea Party crowds at the democratic Town halls during health care reform.

* Want to make Medicare cheaper? Make Part D Single payer, like A and B. This would end the give away to the insurance companies running D, and single payer is vastly cheaper and more efficient, since there is no profit being siphoned up by insurance companies. It would have the added benefit of cutting down on folks like me having to fight to keep there meds every month. What's it like under single payer, by the way? Are there death panels? If I need tests, I get tests. If I need a specialist, I can just phone them up and make an appointment. Let me repeat that for those of you are U.S citizens lucky enough to have insurance. I just phone up specialists and make appointments when I need them. All this for way less than your insurance costs. Why was I pushing single payer/medicare for all during health care reform? It's way cheaper than insurance and it saves lives. Why do Republicans hate it so much? Because it means insurance companies can't make record profits by refusing life saving medical care to the poor and middle class. Single payer means everyone gets preventative care and the treatment they need to stay active. The Insurance system means that there are two health care systems, one excellent system for the very rich and the rest must go begging and have a choice between bankruptcy or death. Republicans want that second system as Corporations and the very rich are the only "citizens" who matter. Imagine if everyone could buy into medicare at any age? You could just go to the doctor if you caught bronchitis or found a mysterious lump growing where no lump should be, you know, like they do in Canada or England, or France, or Sweden.

Revolutionary.

* Today, Vermont got very close to a single payer state health care system. Fingers crossed on them succeeding.

* In Syria, the government is shooting at people who are coming to collect their dead. The Syrian government is calling these unarmed civilians "terrorists." After all, collecting your dead for burial is clearly a criminal act that would terrorize the populace, right? Seems like the opposite to me.

* I'm reaching the point where I want to yell "Shut up! Shut up!" at the TV whenever Donald Trump or Royal Wedding stuff appears on it.

* There appears to be flooding and serious risk of more along the Mississippi. Levies are breaking in Missouri. Those of you in that region, stay safe.

* sparkindarkness' Bad News Roundup: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2011/04/bad-bews-round-up.html
Violence Edition: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2011/04/bad-news-round-up-violence.html

* Word: http://feyandstrange.livejournal.com/1076891.html

* Rachel Maddow on Republican attempts to prevent children of those who are not rich from getting an education: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#42773719

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Comments

[fobok.livejournal.com]

" Voter registration drives statistically mostly help low income, students, and POC, so Florida Republicans are doing their best to get rid of them. Of course. They are doing the same in Kansas and a number of other states. Democracy being anathema to modern Republican politician, further disenfranchising POC and the poor is an obvious next move."

Looks like here, for once, your Republicans are copying our Conservatives, rather than the other way around. (Though it seems the Republicans may be more open about their intentions.)

Here one of the common occurrences is a 'vote mob', which is basically a flash mob encouraging people to vote. If you attend a vote mob, though, don't ever expect to speak to the Conservative leader, as he has RCMP declare anybody who attends one a protester and won't let them anywhere near him. I wouldn't be surprised if it's on their record too. (He's also banned students who, for example, have a picture of them meeting the Liberal party leader on their facebook. One political science student who was going about meeting all the party leaders got caught in that one.)

Though, if the Republicans get to the point of not only trying to stop an advanced polling station at a university campus but going so far as to try to physically steal the ballot box, as happened here, let me know. Then they'll have caught up. ;)

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a time honored tradition. We've been practicing voter fraud for two hundred years.

It likely happened most recently in Wisconsin this month during a key special election, though it's just as likely to be vote stuffing. We won't know for sure until the investigation is done. The results for on area disappeared for twenty four hours while in the custody of a partisan official, then reappeared with just enough votes to change the election.

I would love to hear more about your election. the political ads have been fascinating and virulent.

[fobok.livejournal.com]

Ah... in our case, it happened in front of a crowd of people. A conservative campaign manager walked into the ballot, yelling it was illegal and when they wouldn't immediately shut down he made a grab for the ballot box. When that didn't work, the Conservative party publicly filed a complaint with Elections Canada saying the ballot was illegal and the votes shouldn't be counted. (Elections Canada a day later stated it wasn't illegal and the votes would be counted, but they cancelled all other special ballots.)

Anyway, yeah, there's been a lot of stuff happening. Harper (our current Conservative prime-minister) lied to parliament (which is what resulted in the election), lied to the voting public, skirted the questions entirely during the national debate (and on the road he only takes 5 vetted questions from vetted reporters at a time... even when the CBC interviewed him during their big leader interview series, he had to vet the questions first). He's even preying on the average Canadian's lack of civic knowledge by making it sound like the other parties issuing the vote of no confidence was some vast conspiracy against the rightful elected ruler. (Where, in actuality, we don't elect a ruler, we elect a parliament who then forms a government from there... in the case of a minority, it's possible and totally legal for the other parties to do a vote of no confidence, or more, to not approve the winning party's proposed budget and end up choosing someone else to actually run things.) Oh, and did you hear, he's renaming the Government of Canada the Harper Government. If you want to hear more, check out http://shitharperdid.com

Meanwhile, Jack Layton (leader of the New Democrat Party) is promising the world, and winning a lot of support, taking away from the Liberal Party base. The worry here is this will split the left-wing votes in key ridings and the conservatives will end up with the majority, which I really, really don't want to see. (But, if he keeps gaining in popularity, they may take more seats and end up the official opposition party, which is a major major change to Canadian politics.) I actually really hope he can push through his internet and copyright promises, they're the most promising (though perhaps unrealistic).

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, meanwhile, is fighting a legacy of scandal from previous liberal governments. (Though somehow, many people forgive Harper's conservatives his scandals, which ended up costing a lot more money.) There's still a strong base of Liberal support out there, but their support is falling as the NDP's rises.

Another key issue which it seems *everybody* (but Rick Mercer) is ignoring is the fact that students are coming out to get involved in politics this time. And stunts like I described above are probably going to drive some of them away from conservatives. Also the lack of any kind of conservative campaign strategy for the internet. The only attempt they made so far was trying to scare younger voters by making an ad claiming (totally falsely) that the liberals wanted to put a $75 iPod tax into effect if elected.

Advanced polls had a 34% higher turnout this time than in previous elections, so I think things are really going to shift as more people come out. I'm doubtful it will be enough to cost them a victory, but it may just be enough (I hope) to cost them the majority.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Nearly all the attack ads I'm seeing are against Layton, and seem to have nothing to do with anything you mention. Interesting.

[fobok.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Layton's had a huge surge of popularity and the other parties are panicking. MacLeans magazine today put it that people are tired of the attack ads and being told what they can talk about, and Layton gives a good alternative (though he's put out some attack ads as well, he's actually asked people what they want and offered solutions).

As for the issues in the election, that changes on a day to day basis it seems. One day it's health care, the next crime, the next the G20 scandal. The last day or two I've fallen out of touch because I haven't been watching much TV.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

According to the ads they are running here, Layton is an evil Quebec lover. I'm not seeing much else that could be considered a substantive accusation.

[deusabscondidum.livejournal.com]

I've always been confused by Single-payer versus the other. Is it cheaper because the insurance companies mark up the prices

No one has ever been able to explain to me why we so need insurance companies in the first place. If insurance is just supposed to be a 'rainy day' sort of thing, why do people need it for basic medical care? That would be like saying only people who have credit cards can buy things, from houses to groceries. Anyone without a credit card, whether because they have no credit or bad credit, would be expected to starve. Neither of these makes sense.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

In single payer, they block negotiate prices with providers, so you get lower prices to start with. Then, instead of paying for large staffs, advertising, and CEO/executive salaries, and skimming off huge profits by denying claims; you hire government workers at standard office type pay to admininster the paperwork and cut checks. Most of what gets paid in gets spent on the already lower priced health care, instead of a fraction of what's taken in going to health care and the rest going into advertising, profits, and executive salaries.

Remember, insurance companies are corporations, and therefore "citizens," in Republican eyes, unlike you or I.