Funny

I stole this but I though is was funny.

A must Read

This is a must read for Democrats

New York Times

The Medicare Index

From the New York Times Editorial Page - By Sherrod Brown, a Democratic representative from Ohio

I though this is am interesting set of numbers

Estimated cost of the Medicare drug bill over 10 years: $400 billion

Estimated increase in drug industry profits: $139 billion

Additional payments from government to insurance industry to participate in Medicare: $14.2 billion

Members of the United States Senate: 100

Members of the House of Representatives: 435

Washington lobbyists who work for the drug industry: 675

Political contributions from the drug industry to Republicans (2002): $21.7 million (74 percent of total)

Political contributions from the drug industry to Democrats (2002): $7.6 million (26 percent of total)

Average elderly American's drug costs in 2002: $2,400

Portion of his drug costs covered by the new Medicare drug benefit: 45 percent

Average markup on United States drug prices relative to Canadian drug prices: 45 percent

Average profit margin of Fortune 500 firms (2002): 3.1 percent

Average profit margin of the top 10 drug companies (2002): 17 percent

Increase in elderly Americans' Social Security checks (2002): 2.6 percent

Average price increase in the 50 prescription drugs elderly Americans used most (2002): 6 percent

Retirees with health insurance before Medicare was signed into law: 50 percent

Retirees with health insurance today: 96 percent

Medicare administrative costs: 2 percent

Average administrative costs of H.M.O.'s: 15 percent

Compensation package, including stock options, for the chief executive of one Medicare H.M.O. in 2002: $529 million

Number of elderly Americans dropped by an H.M.O. (1999 to 2003): 2.4 million

Political contributions from the insurance industry to Republicans (2002): $25.9 million (69 percent of total)

Political contributions from the insurance industry to Democrats (2002): $11.7 million (31 percent of total)

Number of months after President Bush signed the Medicare bill that H.M.O.'s will receive more money from the government to participate in Medicare: 3

Number of months after President Bush signed the bill that elderly Americans will receive a drug benefit: 25

Clark

Why Clark is Cool.

Here

The Wall Street Journal

I was reading the WSJ Editorial page today, and I couldn't help noticing how fanatically and overenthusiastically they are anti-Clark. The WSJ has sunken to name calling and outrageous claims to attack Clark; it reminded me of high school. I now realized how scared the Right is of Clark.

I included a section of the editorial about Clark below, I also included a section for the next editorial on the page today about Dean, so you can see how they talk about a candidate that they know they can bet. What is really interesting is that the things they say about Clark, I could see someone saying about Dean.

This is the last two paragraphs for there anti-Clark Editorial

"And so my Democratic friends, patriots who vote Democratic and are voting in today's primary and the ones down the road. Please. We will take Joe Lieberman or John Kerry or even young John Edwards, men who appear to be somewhere in the normal range. We need a person who could rally the nation on a terrible day, and who could arguably meet the security demands the age requires. We can't afford flip-outs, or people who are too obviously creepy. Just a person in the normal range. Is that asking too much? Say it ain't so. Give Gen. Clark his marching orders: Retreat!

One suspects the Democrats will send him packing. Just as one suspects he might eventually withdraw, saying something like, "You won't have Wes Clark to kick around anymore."

Ms. Noonan, a Journal contributing editor, is a weekly columnist for OpinionJournal.com.
"

Here are the last two paragraphs from their Pro-Dean Editorial.

"Front-runner John Kerry presents an eminently reasonable posture but seems unable to deliver a thought not charged with pulpit-like oratory on the abandonment of our allies, the Patriot Act, and that refrain suggesting his future victory "We're coming, you're going, and don't let the door hit you on the way out." This is presidential?

That might have worked better coming from Howard Dean, a man to whom a touch of humor doesn't seem entirely alien, whatever other temperamental oddities he may have. From the looks of his quick transformation to the rational mode, evident this weekend, the doctor, it seems, is prepared to fight. It would be a mistake to count him out.

-Ms. Rabinowitz is a member of the Journal's editorial board.

"

MikeRoweSoft

From CNN...

...But he conceded Microsoft's original approach was "admittedly maybe impersonal."

I just thought this was funny, "admittedly maybe", they admit that it was maybe improsonal.

MikeRoweSoft

Taxes

As I start thinking about doing my taxes these 2 news story struck me.

Wall Street Journal -

"WorldCom avoided hundreds of millions of dollars in tax payment due to aggressive tax shelters designed by KPMG, according to a report by bankruptcy court examiner Dick Thornburgh.

The report says that the heart of the KPMG Peat Marwick LLP-designed method was that "foresight of top management" was classified as an intangible asset, which WorldCom could license to the subsidiaries in exchange for huge royalty charges."

My question is, now that they are in bankruptcy can they be sued for selling a defective produce, aka “foresight of top management”

But really it is a shame that I am about to hand over a third of my income to the government when large company's can avoid taxes in this way.

And from the Washington Post-

"Shares of the Taxes

Treasury Secretary John W. Snow is making a smooth transition from the private sector to government work. But old habits of thought and speech die hard.

Snow was at the kick-off of the second year of the IRS's Free File program, a government-private partnership through which many taxpayers can get their returns prepared online and can file free electronically. Touting Free File's virtues, Snow said, "Free File reduces errors and simplifies the burden on the shareholder -- uh, the taxpayer."

Not quite the same. "

Land of the Free

The Moveon Ad that will be consored by CBS. Its a shame, because it is a good add.

Super Bowl Ad

1984

This is an interesting picture of the grocery strike. Is the guy on the right holding a assault riffle?

Every once in a while I get the fleeting thought that I am in a George Orwell novel and don't ever know it....

Does this bug anyone else.

Dean

This is not from me... it was in the Washington Post.

I actually like Dean alot. But this is kinda funny

Excerpt from Dean's speech:

"Not only are we going to New Hampshire, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico! We're going to California and Texas and New York! And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan! And then we're going to Washington, D.C.. To take back the White House!"

Excerpt from GW Bush's speech:

"I am going to run in the next state and the next state and the next state until I win the nomination!"

Note that the main difference is that Dean was
actually capable of naming all of the states!

How to fix California

This is from Steve Lopez in the LA Times. I just started reading the LA Times; I haven't really read any of his other stuff, so I don't know if he is crazy or what.

"The surcharge would start at 0.5% for light heavyweights making $200,000, and climb to 7% for bombers hauling in $5 million a year or more. All told, this $200k-plus group accounts for just 3.1% of all tax returns, but has 35.9% of total personal income in the state."

I like his idea. But I would like to know the real numbers. Like the 3.1% of all tax returns, begs the question of what percent of income tax returns. I think he may be including corporate tax too. And of course supply sider would tell us that taxing the super rich would just cause them to work less. While that is true when taxes get really high, don’t think we are there yet.

Recall Bush.org

This is funny little flash movie

Bush

TAX and SPEND Liberals

From the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page today-

"Steve Moore of the Club for Growth calls this bill a pork-laden monstrosity worse than any ever produced when Congress was controlled by "tax-and-spend" liberals. There's federal money for the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and one traffic light somewhere in upstate New York. There's $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Coralville, Iowa. (For that price we could send the whole town on a rain forest vacation.) There's $2 million for a golf awareness program in St. Augustine, Florida. The number of such earmarked federal expenditures has quintupled in the past five years to about 10,000, worth $23 billion, for 2004."

Now being a TAX and SPEND liberal I am expected to be criticized for spending money on education and medical help for the poor. What is it that the PRO-business Republics are spending that $23 BILLION on? It makes you wonder. But you know you are in trouble when the EDITORIAL page of the WSJ is criticized the administration. They go so far as to say.

"Here's hoping, for once, that Senator Daschle holds his ground and embarrasses the GOP."

Recoverty?

This is an interesting article from the Washington post...

Although it is antidotal evidence it is something to think about.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21204-2004Jan15.html

Did anyone catch this little

Did anyone catch this little tid-bit in the union tribune today..

Aguirre campaign (San Diego City Attorney) aide fired in flap over dating….. He's seeing sister of candidate's rival.

Mike Aguirre fired his aide Jason King because he is engaged to his rival Deborah Berger sister, Samantha Bowman.

It is kinda like Romeo and Juliet but without all the killing.

Higher education

It Could Have Been Worse….

“In view of the current fiscal situation, the administration is also proposing to reduce the enrollment of new freshmen by 10 percent, which would result in approximately 3200 fewer new students at UC, and 3800 fewer new students at CSU.“

The governor is looking to limit access to our higher education system at a time where it is getting harder and harder to make a livable wage without one. Not to mention buy a home. This comes at a time when enrollment is expected to skyrocket, because of the huge increase in the number of high school students graduating.

“…include increasing the student to faculty ratio, reducing for institutional financial aid and raising student share of cost”

The worst part is that the governor seen content to not only harm the chances to the students coming into the high education system, but also the students leaving it. He seems opposed to everything that makes the UC and CSU systems world class. This will decrease the value of the degree that I already have.

It is too bad that us collage kids’ wont start participating in politics until we are old and have forgotten how hard it is to work and go to school at the same time. I just wish there was something I could do to change the direction we are going.

….the quotes are from the governor’s budget summary.

This was my comment on weblog
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/weblogs/luna/

since I havn't been keeping up I though I would include it

Happy New Year

Happy New Year.