’Free’ market is too costly, not working

The most recent privatization debacle is the Medicare Advantage program. This free-market alternative for senior citizens costs taxpayers 17 percent more than the government-administered traditional Medicare program, with substantial subsidies going to private insurance companies.

The only viable answer to our health-care crisis is to adopt a single-payer, government-operated insurance system. This country can afford to provide health-care coverage for all its citizens; we only need to find the political will to do the right thing.

Preach it brother!

Photos: Flooding in Downtown Cedar Rapids

Video: Cedar River Overtakes Downtown Cedar Rapids

Johnson County Preps for Evacuations, Road Closings, Office Move

More from local Iowa bloggers

Many people are in terrible pain right now and can’t think about politics.

More here. This is apparently the independent teevee station in the area and doing a good job of covering events there.

If you have money, or time, think about donating some to the Red Cross or similar organizations. It seems Bush’s cronies at FEMA can’t do more than give speeches.

Last night while I was watching CNN. One of the commentators made the statement that “African Americans were looking for a sign from whites that it is OK to support Obama.” Now this is jus the kind of shit you have to deal with being black in America. The problem is I think Obama believes it as well.

“Obama, through an unprecedented convergence of luck and skill, has never before faced serious attack delivered by a competent opponent,” Democratic strategist Dan Newman said. “He’s now earned the right to be mercilessly scrubbed and scrutinized. No one knows how he’ll respond to the challenge, and how voters will evaluate the criticism.” link  Read more 

Boo led me to a charming example of how the SCLM keeps the public ignorant and in the dark about how their Leaderz are chosen (for them).  Read more 

I suppose it’s the case that most writers, and readers, in and about Iowa are sick of policital horserace talk. I am too, and I’ve tried not to pay that much attention to who endorses whom, or who says what nasty thing about whom, or any of the rest of the he-haw that constitutes “important developments on the campaign trail.” But Strickland makes an actually meaningful point:

“One night in Iowa…” (Coming Up Close)

Alas, or not, the corps would have none of her. The hit:  Read more 

AP:

With a 4.4 percentage point margin of error, [a]mong Democrats, Barack Obama got 28 percent, while Hillary Rodham Clinton had 25 percent, and John Edwards had 23 percent. Other candidates were in single digits. More than half of likely caucus-goers in both races say they could change their minds. A chunk are undecided.

An Associated Press-Pew poll being released this week echoes the competitive situations in Iowa.

“We haven’t had wide-open races on both sides for some time. This is absolutely unprecedented,” said David Redlawsk, a University of Iowa political scientist. “And the impact of Iowa is unknown because the environment we’re in is different.”

Edwards isn’t doing too bad, for a guy neither Hillary Obama mention, and whose message is almost entirely suppressed by our famously free press.  Read more 

Way to go, Judge Hanson. Let’s hope he survives his next election; fundies have long memories about this sort of thing. But nonetheless, Iowa has an important opportunity here and we’ll see if a Heartland state can truly support the concept behind the 14th and other amendments. ’Equal under the law’ is really simple, when you get down to it.

Anyway, to me this is a lot like the drug legalization issue: to get to the moderates and fence sitters, argue the money. Gay marriage means money for Iowa. There is a huge, unsung population of bears and cubs, Wedgewood collectors and Judy Garland fans, working class dykes and fags, all of whom would love nothing more than to have a wholesome, churchie, Heartland wedding. Not the flashy, sparkling Queers of the tribe of Har, mind you. But the regular folks, like the one you have a beer with twice a week after work and would never guess lives with another man. The quiet lesbian couple who are the pillar of small town activism and community building. That police officer in your church. Etc.  Read more 

Greetings, Iowa! I am here to ask permission to pick your brain. Do you know anything interesting about your Rep Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa 3rd)? If so, share your dirt here. Even if you’re not technically a Hawkeye, I still want to hear what you have to say. It’s for a greater project in which I’m going to be a part. I lived near Iowa for a short time, and my time there made some impressions on me. I’m interested in comparing them with yours. Bottom line: to you love, hate, or not care about Boswell, as an Iowan former, present or future? Thanks in advance.

And for a change, it’s not all bad! It even made a mainstream paper:

his Guest Editorial was published in The Iowa City Press-Citizen. It is reposted with permission of the author.

The June 6 primary election has come and gone, but it should not be forgotten. A problem that has marred elections across the United States came to Pottawattamie County and offered our state an unforgettable lesson in the need for verifiable and auditable elections.

On election night, as county election workers watched absentee ballots tabulate, they noticed odd results in the race for Pottawattamie County recorder. John Sciortino, the popular incumbent of 23 years, was losing to a 19-year-old college student named Oscar Duran. Auditor Marilyn Jo Drake quickly suspected something amiss, and ordered a manual check of the paper ballots. Her suspicion proved correct: The ballot scanners had not been programmed to recognize that in different precincts the paper ballots rotated the candidates’ positions. Ballot rotation is a measure commonly used to reduce the chance of voter fraud.  Read more