Comments by DrDan
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1 of 1 people thought this was a good comment.
Posted on August 26 at 8:28 p.m.
from maximum's nasty references to binky, jonk, river and other thoughtful responders ["ignorant" etc.], it's obvious he's a cyberbully, and don't deserve more serious and decent responses. Thank you river, binky and others who sliced and diced max. He moans a lot and those like him who have to resort to ad hominem insults merely reflect the emptiness of their thinking.
On Obama Blinks
Posted on August 22 at 10:18 a.m.
Jonk, since the passed House bill stipulates "US citizens" why do we need to fold more controversy into this debate with more on illegal immigration? A diversion.
Second, health care has always been "rationed" -- right now the insurance companies do this. Giant health insurance companies WellPoint, UnitedHealth Group, and Assurant refuse to stop their vicious practice called "rescission" which is their fancy term for retroactively cancelling coverage on their policyholders who develop expensive diseases. These companies profit from discriminating against sick people, thus we need a public option forcing them either to compete or go out of business.
On Obama Blinks
Posted on August 21 at 2:53 p.m.
The raft of misinformation and outright lies by the fearmongers on the right shows how completely AFRAID they really are. While we do need a government "makeover" of healthcare which would offer a public option thus lowering health costs for all, what a joke to believe it "would pave the way for federally funded abortions, healthcare for illegal immigrants, and mandated euthanasia counseling for senior citizens"! Read the House bill, fools.
Europeans and Canadians laugh outright at the ignoramuses who quake at the term "socialism" while puffed-up American "capitalists" accept double the health costs for about half the services. Americans need to grow up, read the fine print, and heavily support the public option in the House legislation, bypass the Republican fearmongers, and end up with cheaper and better healthcare for all.
When the Right and Republicans have absolutely nothing to offer to this debate, they resort to their typical Rovian cultural wedge issues to obfuscate the debate. We need healthcare reform NOW and we need to cover the 47 million human beings without health insurance.
On Reform Wars
Posted on August 21 at 1:09 a.m.
How sad that after just eight months in office this President already begins to succumb to Washington lobbyists and hair-splitting logic. Obama gave in to Big Pharma and with his increasingly shaky waffling on the public option we can see he's preparing to cave in to insurance companies, too. Unlike what John Mackey of Whole Foods wrote in his infamous Wall Street Journal piece, citizens DO have a human right to healthcare, and you are correct, Jerry, that this issue is a defining one for Obama's presidency.
He sends more troops to Afghanistan, he sells out to the pharmaceutical corporations, now he calls the public healthcare option a mere "sliver" of his healthcare reform! The Republicans in Congress will oppose anything he proposes anyway, lying about euthanasia and abortion provisions, so why not go all-out and ENLARGE the public option? Intelligent folks in Europe are aghast at the crudity of our public debate and the vacillating weakness of liberals and lefties in this country.
On Obama Blinks
Posted on August 19 at 1:26 a.m.
that's great bpbp and I admire your approach, however, you act alone and have no impact on PUBLIC OPINION in our state. A unified general strike approach would have impact on California citizens. In fact, I see folks like boysandgirls and John Locke saying to you, "perfect, why weren't you always doing this? since you likely teach less than 8 hours a week we can see adding another 30 days of furlough for you and it still won't impact your teaching, and you love research and will do that all the same."
seriously, unless the university has some solidarity you will just get more cuts like Prof. Snyder has said.
Posted on August 17 at 1:38 a.m.
Displaying complete "transparency" is critical if the University is to get the public support it needs. As an alum and fervent supporter of UCSB, I think it's critical that the highly visible "coordinated campus-wide furlough days" approach be adopted. If these enforced cuts are actually terrible — and they are and they deeply affect the true mission of the University — the public needs to SEE the impact. If faculty choose the first furlough option then obviously they just go with the flow, blow any idealism about genuine teaching, and utilize the furloughs to ensure themselves of three and four-day free weekends. Or so it will seem to the already cynical public (e.g. John Locke's tone).
Prof. Snyder is correct that these "temporary" cuts will certainly become permanent, and they're likely to become much deeper: best to fight them hard HERE and NOW.
The most effective tactic then would be to “declare a general strike for the first week on campus” by concentrating this enforced non-work time at the most visible moment. Professors could demonstrate their own idealism — and this is questioned by a cynical public! — by holding off-campus class meetings dedicated to the stupidity of our State government's budgeting process, the venality of our politicians, but NOT going into their class curricula.
This entire mess does challenge the commitment of the faculty to teaching and to demonstrating the life of the mind. I wonder if you people are up to it?
Posted on August 14 at 11:04 p.m.
thanks spacey and SezMe for giving some thoughtful comments. Boehner is typically Republican by trying to inject another cultural "wedge" issue into the debate because HE has no genuine contribution to make to this issue and wants to divert attention from the facts.
At the same time, Capps should be at this meeting since it really is a vital national issue. I have a job and pay taxes and believe we need socialized medicine in this country. US citizens on average pay over $6,6000 per year for medical care, more than half what folks in Germany and France pay — who gets all this extra money? I think we know. And these pharmaceutical companies etc. will fight like crazy, e.g. Boehner's mendacious crap, to keep ripping us off.
"She has drank the DC koolaid" ?!
Posted on August 7 at 11:56 p.m.
Great article, Jerry, and we can follow the title of Ronald Dworkin's fine book: IS DEMOCRACY POSSIBLE HERE? In the recent special election only 26% of the eligible voters bothered to vote... since these folks heartily voted NOT to raise taxes by going NO on Prop 1A, my calculations show that just 17% of voters threw us into this mess. We all hate waste and corruption in State government, but taking it out on education (the young), the poor, the disabled, and the elderly is cruel and mean-spirited. We do need a convention to rewrite the Calif. State Constitution ridding it of the Prop 13-derived "two-thirds" rule AND eliminating the useless State Senate. Gridlock is the rule, and quite frankly neither Jordan nor Williams will make much difference.
Posted on July 13 at 8:15 p.m.
UCSB should cut an entire week from each of the three "quarters" thus showing the public that you just can't keep starving the U. and imagine the quality of education hasn't been deeply affected. As Prof. Lichtenstein suggests, in order to defend the University not just defund it "the people" need to see the vicious impact on students, especially incoming undergrads, from these budget cuts/furloughs/reductions.
On UCSB Community Resists Salary Slashing, Furlough Proposals
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Posted on September 4 at 3:21 p.m.
Excellent, measured reporting Ben, thank you for a clear view of this meeting.
Capps assured us the passed House version of healthcare has nothing to do with death panels or with illegal immigration — healthcare bill critics really haven't had any ideas beyond tort reform. The most critical part was when Capps stated, "I believe that a robust public insurance option is the only way to ensure true competition." In a rigged marketplace dominated by overcharging insurance companies, it IS ironic it will take a PUBLIC OPTION, a government single payer insurance plan, to force Wellpoint etc. to drop rescission and to lower their premiums. For all those who shout "socialism" I shout "competition!" Too bad the government has to do it, but modern democratic socialism works well in Germany and France. England's National Health Service is fantastic and offers better health care for much less money. The leader of the British Tories, David Cameron, is a strong supporter of socialized healthcare in his country, remember, he's a conservative, albeit a thoughful one.
We have to support Pelosi, Capps, and the House Democrats to keep the strong public option as a core of their healthcare reform legislation. Forget bipartisanship with the Republicans (OK with Olympa Snowe) and observe how they won't really agree with anything that cuts profits of the gigantic healcare corporations (including Anthem). We need to get this legislation passed by this Congress before December and while we still have about 60 votes in the Senate.
The upcoming scrap over the dismal War in Afghanistan looms and will soon take most of our attention.
On Capps Brings Healthcare Debate to Santa Barbara