A few notes for those who are following my little writings. Monsters & Critics has posted an interview I did with Christophe Beck, the composer of ELEKTRA. They also posted my review for MILLION DOLLAR BABY. Check them out at:
www.monstersandcritics.com
I've also seen a delightful film from Bhutan called TRAVELLERS & MAGICIANS. My review will be up on M&C soon.
And now for a political rant...
Well, the inauguration is behind us and we’re still standing (except for those who were pepper sprayed - I hear that stuff smarts). It’s been some time since I made a political rant. I’ve mainly been licking my wounds since November and trying not to get upset. Then the Bush family went and made it personal.
Jeb Bush, governor and rigger of Florida, is putting forth a motion to privatize Medicaid in the state my mother lives in. Privatizing is the key word among Bush Republicans. The fine print, as Mr. Janczewski brought to my attention, is that when money is spent in the private sector (either with social security investment or insurance carriers) it helps raise the bottom line of the economy. Think of it as a quick fix to all the deficit Bush got us into in the first place.
Ah, there’s noting like a free society dictating that you have to spend your money or lose your retirement and the health insurance that will get you through it.
My mother has M.S. She is on Medicaid not because she is poor (a major misconception with those who don't understand Medicaid's benefits). She is on Medicaid so that she can avoid being poor due to the $2,000 a month needed to keep her disease at bay and her alive. Many private insurers already have limits in place on how much an MS patient covered by them can spend on the drugs needed for a quality of life. Some don’t even cover MS patients because of the cost involved. Nothing like being thrown to the compassionate wolves. Thanks, Jeb.
True, Medicaid has its problems like those who exploit it for greedy gains. There’s still no reason to cutback or ash can the whole program especially when the underlying goal is to make it look like the governor (or president) is doing better at balancing things than they really are. Quality of life (medicine, public utilities and the like) should never be privatized. It’s not like we’re asking for plasma screen TVs and designer clothes. We’re asking for what’s guaranteed to us by the Constitution (right before the bits on liberty and the pursuit of happiness). We’re asking for life. Don’t take my mother’s life from her... from me.
Still, it seems that’s how Bush, the people’s choice, wants to make it. He wants to force our government into as little responsibility as possible (except for the war part - that puts lots of dollars in the private sector while simultaneously draining the budget. Hmm, I think I stumbled on something here. War is okay to spend on, but people... well, can’t we get someone else to pay for that?)
Less responsibility is one thing. Out and out decpetion is another. Look at the depths they’ve sunk to with the No Child Left Behind debaucle. It’s payola pure and simple. Journalist Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to publicly back Bush’s education plan. A plan that doesn’t work. (see Al Franken’s simple yet succinct breakdown of Bush’s plan is his book ‘Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them). Just when I think we’ve sunk as low as we can go, Bush finds a basement door (that’s not mine - that’s from the old TV series MOONLIGHTING, but applicable nonetheless).
