New Blog Name. Can't Afford To Get Sick? Leave New Hampshire... Harry Reid's New Favorite Position.

New Blog Name

I have decided to re-christen this blog. The main reason was because I was originally looking to call it something that would both make me look like a wise person and a smart-arse at the same time. If I Could Walk That Way seemed to have been lost on most of my seven readers (two of whom thought it was a reference to Aerosmith's "Walk This Way"), and, since I wasn't that hot about it in the first place, a change seemed in order.

I reached into the realm of Greek mythology by way of Homer's Odyssey for inspiration, and I found it in the form of Polyphemus, the cyclops who was blinded by Odysseus as the famed warrior attempted to make his way back to Ithaca after defeating the Trojans in the Trojan War.

But besides being what I hope is a somewhat clever hook, the imagery it conjured came to me after I'd decided on the change. The cyclops was a one-eyed giant. Once his eye was poked out he was blind. So it is with President Bush. He thinks he is a giant, and sees things only one way--his way. In this regard he is very similar to the lumbering Polyphemus, who, after having been blinded, stumbled around feeling his way about in confusion in a clumsy attempt to right the wrong done to him. Only in his case, he was truly injured. Bush just likes to trample all over the scenery causing catastrophic damage for his amusement.

Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. At least until what passes for additional inspiration occurs...


Can't Afford To Get Sick? Leave New Hampshire...

In a somewhat localized manifestation of the New Cruelty, we have a story about how New Hampshire is attempting to tighten it's fiscal belt by cutting Medicaid benefits to the poorest segment of that state's population.

Yahoo News excerpt:

CONCORD, N.H. - As states struggle to cut Medicaid costs, New Hampshire has proposed going further by making the poorest of the poor even families with no income at all contribute to their coverage.

No other state has ever gone so far. And even if the idea makes it through the Legislature, New Hampshire is going to need to federal approval. Under federal law, the very poorest do not have to pay anything for Medicaid coverage. Those making higher amounts pay premiums or other expenses on a sliding scale according to their income.

Under the New Hampshire proposal, families with no income would have to pay $10 a child per month, up to a maximum of $30. Families who have some income but are still in the lowest category would pay as much as $20 a month, for a maximum of $60.

The move would save the state roughly $12 million over the next two years in a nearly $9 billion state budget, or about one-tenth of 1 percent.

The New Hampshire House at first embraced premiums, but backed off. But the idea is still alive in the Senate.
Supporters of the proposal say tough fiscal times demand tough solutions. They argue that making the poor pay would make them thriftier health care consumers.

Excuse me, but what kind of brainless noise is that? How the hell can people with little or no money make "thrifty" bargains with health care providers?

But wait, it gets better:

"In order to balance the budget, you do all sorts of things to try to bring issues to the fore," said state Rep. Neal Kurk. "The problem is real. The solution we've come up with is probably not as good as it needs to be."

Translation: We'd like to do away with Medicaid altogether, but we don't think we can get away with anything quite that drastic. "The problem is real." Sure it is. It's just as real as the bullshit Bush is feeding everyone about the crisis with Social Security. The real irony here is that many Granite State residents probably voted for this knob Kurk, and most likely applaud his Uriah Heep impersonation, even at their own expense.

Full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050509/ap_on_re_us/Medicaid_cuts


Harry Reid Bends Over Once Again

In a continuing saga of surrendering to the White House, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid showed once again that he is a scared little creep who deserves nothing but scorn and contempt.

Yahoo News excerpt:

WASHINGTON - Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on Monday offered the Democrats' support for one of President Bush's judicial nominees, former Senate lawyer Thomas Griffith, as a goodwill gesture in the confrontation over banning judicial filibusters.

"Let's take a step away from the precipice," Reid said. "Let's try cooperation, rather than confrontation, which seems to be the hallmark of what we've been doing here lately."

The offer came as President Bush and Senate Republicans renewed their pressure on Democrats to stop blocking some of his judicial nominees, four years to the day that the White House unveiled its first judicial picks.

"Each deserved a simple up-or-down vote by the entire Senate," Bush said in a statement, pointing out that two of his first nominees from 2001 Texas judge Priscilla Owen and North Carolina judge Terrence Boyle have yet to be approved by the Senate.

Griffith replaced a third, Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada, who withdrew his nomination for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' for the District of Columbia after Democrats filibustered his nomination for two years.

Griffith was the Senate's general counsel during President Clinton's impeachment and became Brigham Young University's general counsel in 2003.

Democrats are hoping Reid's offer will help persuade the dozen or so undecided Republicans that they should not support Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's call to ban judicial filibusters.

Full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050509/ap_on_go_co/filibuster_fight

So Griffith was the Senate's general counsel during President Clinton's impeachment. What a convenient coincidence! That aside, Reid, and any other Democrat who goes along with this reach-around, ought to resign from the Senate by lunchtime tomorrow. Again, our only hope here is that some sane Republicans stand up and go against the grain here. Hey Harry, here's a news flash: You can't stand up for these ghouls, pretend that they could somehow pass for human, then cry in anguish as they conspire with the White House to make America an uglier, more brutal nation.