It’s that time again. Time for me to tally up the week’s events, personal, political, and nonsensical. Without any further ado, here are the week’s Sassy Sundries:
A little celebratory cake, surrounded by Chester A. Arthur memorabilia
A very Happy Birthday today to Chester A. Arthur, the Ultimate Blank Years President. Today also marks the anniversary of my first comment from Robyn. Glad to know you, Blog Pal. Plus One
Hypocritical homophobic Senator Larry Craig fails in his attempt to reverse his guilty plea to a charge that he solicited sex in an airport men’s room. He’s still determined to stay in the Senate until the end of his term in January 2009. Yeah, good luck with that, Senator. Minus One
The Boston Red Sox, with help from the scrappy Baltimore Oriels, win their division for the first time since 1995. There’s a long row to hoe, but the hometown team’s performance in Game One was a great way to start. Oh, and Satan's Minions lost their first game. Plus Five
Congress initiates legislation to hold American contractors operating in Iraq accountable in US courts after reports emerge in Septmeber that employees of Blackwater USA opened fire and killed Iraqi civilians under questionable circumstances. With the administration strongly opposed to the proposed legislation, I doubt anything will pass, but the effort counts for something. Even
W delivers on his promise and vetoed the S-CHIP bill, stating that it would lead to socialized health care. Oh, no! Not a healthcare system where everyone’s covered, people live longer, and the infant mortality rate goes down! There’s been some talk about how this bill would be funded, but the way I see it, if we didn’t have an illegal and unnecessary war draining billions and billions of dollars a year, coming up with $35 billion to insure children wouldn’t take much doing. Minus Five
I finally got to see the Mountain Goats Sunday night at the Middle East. Fantastic show. Am looking forward to the National this weekend and Architecture in Helsinki the next (other shows to follow). October isn’t just for baseball. Plus Three
Total Minus: 6
TOTAL FOR THE WEEK: +3
Last Week’s Total: +4
Posts
16 comments:
Wow! Has it really been a year since the Chester A. Arthur post?
I feel old.
Happy Birthday, Ches.
We have free healthcare, but then we pay over $2 a litre for gas. Hey ho.
I know. Weird, eh?
I'd be willing to pay more for gas if it meant I had healthcare instead of paying for a stupid war.
It just occurred to me, we may have us a situation if the Indians end up playing against Boston next week. Yikes.
FIGHT!!!
Glad you are still on the + side Sassy.
Ever heard of National Insurance Dive.
I know I pay enough each month for my "Free health care".
Most of it seems to go to the bloody work-shy scroungers and illegal immigrants. (ooops, bit ranty. Must run in the family)
Sassy, I completely agree with you on the Blackwater scenario. They should be held accountable. But I do (of course) disagree with you on the health care issue and your statements regarding it. Plus you should now be able to afford health insurance isn't that what the new Mass Health Care initiative is all about? The "Man" helping everyone out?
Here is a little info:
According to a 2002 analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least a third of all infant mortality in the United States arises from complications of prematurity; other studies assert the figure is closer to half. Thus—at the risk of oversimplifying—infant mortality in the United States principally is a problem of premature birth, which today complicates just over one in 10 pregnancies.
According to a 2006 Institute of Medicine report, the numbers of women using assistive reproductive technology doubled from 1996 to 2002. At least half of their pregnancies culminated in multiple births (twins or more), which are at high risk of premature delivery. Meanwhile, no amount of money or resources seems to reduce the rate of preterm births. Despite a doubling of health-care spending as a portion of the gross domestic product since 1981, the rate of preterm birth has jumped 30 percent.
*The Life Expectancy in the USA has risen by 8 years since 1960 when the average was 70.6 years old to 2004 when it was 78.3. That figure is includes all racial groupings. Americans continue to live longer which is why there is such a heated debate about the idiotic way Social Security is funded! * Sources: The CDC and The National Center for Health Statistics.
How about kicking all the ILLEGAL ALIENS out of the freakn country and fund insurance that way! Just a thought!
XXOO Your Neo-Con Friend in NH
Enjoy the weekend, Sassy and the baseball. Mr. M was getting all excited about the Phillies.
The Rockies are coming... :)
Prudence - how the hell would kicking illegals out of the country fund health insurance? I suppose you're also in favor of spending millions on that stupid wall idea...the mind boggles.
And though a portion of infant mortality may well be the result of preterm birth, let's not forget that a lot of children simply get sick, break bones, have accidents. And despite your xenophobic attitude about illegals, many of our low income kids are CITIZENS.
Are you telling me it's right to deny health insurance to a low income kid, when we're the most affluent country in the world, spending trillions a day on a war nobody fucking wants?
I find your backwards opinions and your lack of empathy absolutely appalling.
Sassy, I think I love you. And this is in a totally not-wanna-grab-your-boob-or-anything way....
I just like the way your brain works.
Dubya just keeps looking more and more like a jackass with blinders on. I swear if I have to look at his dumb ass smirk one more time...
The same goes to Craig.
And the Blackwater thing smacks of Cam Ne to me....
Prudence, I am trying hard, but can't get my head around the slapping around and sending back of illegal aliens in this country freeing up billions of dollars. In the first place, just look at it fiscally, getting rid of them would cost a FORTUNE. Do you really think this would be cheap? And then when they are gone (and c'mon....do you REALLY think they will just stay gone and what about the ENORMOUS amount of money it would take to prevent them from returning?), do you honestly believe that billions of dollars will be saved?
All we have to do is get out of this stinkin war to save those billions.
There is no easy solution, but we have to do something very, very soon. Think of all the Francie Nolans out there. I think they deserve a chance, don't you?
Robyn, we might have ourselves a situation come Friday, but last night I was rooting for the Indians.
Full, what we pay for healthcare is ridiculous.
Prudence, you know I love you, but honestly, I don't see your arguments at all. They do not account for the problem, and they do not address my argument---that if we weren't wasting money on Iraq, we could insure everyone, children and adults. Your immigration argument does not apply here---the cost of your solution would cost the country way more than the S-CHIP bill, not to mention the cost to the economy as a whole.
Medbh, please pass along my sympathies to MrM.
Perhaps they are, Zirelda. Perhaps they are.
Andraste, I agree with your arugments 100%. Prudence and I go back far enough for me not to get too angry with her, but I'm with you.
Maria, I love you too. And I'm with your healthcare arguments 100%.
Andraste, Maria and Sassy,
I do not understand why none of you can see the cost to the American tax payers to educate, provide medical benefits, feed, cloth and house illegal immigrants.
You all say that it will cost more to get/keep them out, I say it is a one time cost as opposed to the following:
Fact: FAIR estimates the current local annual costs of illegal immigration from just three program areas — educating the children in public primary and secondary schools, providing medical services in emergency rooms, and incarceration — amount to about $36 billion.
FACT: the Violent Crimes Institute of Atlanta estimates there are about 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States who have had an average of four victims each. She analyzed 1,500 cases from January 1999 through April 2006 that included serial rapes, serial murders, sexual homicides and child molestation committed by illegal immigrants.
FACT: In April 2005, the Government Accountability Office released a report on a study of 55,322 illegal aliens incarcerated in federal, state, and local facilities during 2003. It found the following:
·The 55,322 illegal aliens studied represented a total of 459,614 arrests – some eight arrests per illegal alien;
·Their arrests represented a total of about 700,000 criminal offenses – some 13 offenses per illegal alien;
·36 percent had been arrested at least five times before.
FACT: If the population of foreign low wage workers is allowed to increase as a result of not effectively denying new illegal immigrants access American jobs, current illegal immigrants are allowed to stay and bring their relatives to join them, and additional low wage workers are allowed into the country in a new guest worker program the costs to local communities will increase. Our estimate is that the annual fiscal costs in 2010 would increase by nearly 70 percent to $61.5 billion for just these same three program areas. The amount would swell by an additional nearly 73 percent to $106.3 billion by 2020. That is 106 BILLION per year!
Sassy, I can not see how this argument doesn't fit your scenario of "THE ILLEGAL WAR" and using it's funding to fund the S-CHIP bill. If we were not supporting all of these illegals we could very easily fund that bill many times over. Why do we not want to take care of our own before we dish out Billions on those who do not legally belong here. That is what I do not understand about your argument. You can speak of an Illegal War but I cannot speak of Illegal Aliens without being tagged a xenophobe??? I find that interesting!
Andraste, if you knew me you would know that I am not xenophobic in any way, shape or form. Because I believe that if you want to live here you should do it legally, I am labeled one click down from a racist? How very nice of you. My grandmother came here from Italy when she was 6, my Grandfathers parents came here just before he was born. Do you want to know the difference? I am sure you do not, at least not from the tone of your comment. But I will tell you they did it legally. You point the finger very easily at me without knowing me. I find that very close minded and backwards!
Sassy - I'm rooting for the Red Sox! Woo hoo! I'm so proud of them. And to think I've never even been to Boston...
Considering our forefathers essentially stomped all over the Native Peoples of this land, killing them with diseases and guns and every other way imaginable, I guess I don't really see how any of us has the right to be up in arms about "illegal" aliens. Unless we are directly descended from the Native Americans, aren't we all technically "illegal"? Just my oddball opinion.
I'm totally with you on healthcare. No child, or adult for that matter, deserves to be sick or in pain or treated as if his/her life has no value just because he/she happens to be poor.
Prudence, you have to know that your first statement went pretty quickly from health care to illegals seemingly without any logic to back it up, and that it would raise people's hackles. I still think illegals are a handy scapegoat for you - and that one could probably make the same argument that smokers, alcoholics, and the chronically obese cause just as much of a drain on our nation's health care system as some folks who came here to escape mind bending poverty and unemployment to scrub out our toilets for minimum wage.
Prudence, I applaud the way you hold to your opinions against the attacks of others. While we all have different opinions on how to deal with the illegal immigrant situation that binds our country,it's important to separate those who enter here legally from those who enter here by illegal means. It's the ILLEGAL part people are complaining about, and to call someone xenophobic because they choose to support the enforcement of the law is a cheap way to debate.
I would like to see solutions beginning at the source. I would like to see people finding solutions in their own countries rather than feeling the need to flee at any cost. I suppose this comment will open up a stream about the history of the CIA and its dealings in South America, but nothing is that black and white, and the problem cannot be laid at the feet of one source or event in history. There must a solution that involves all nations, not just putting the burden on the US.
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