That’s why we need health insurance reform right now

When you hear people more worried about the politics of it than what’s right and what’s wrong…

Follow this link to the page where you can record the results of your call to your Congress people

With just days remaining, the final vote is shaping up to be extremely close. Everything we’ve worked for is on the line, and your voice is needed now more than ever before.

I posted this response to this Editorial as a comment on the web site:

Wow, I cannot believe that I am seeing this as a T & G editorial. I have been advocating this since at least 2004.

Read the book – Rethinking Pension Reform, Franco Modigliani, Arun Muralidhar, Published October 2004.

http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521834112

It spells out a well thought out plan to modify Social Security investment policy in ways indicated by this editorial.

Imagine if Social Security had been allowed to invest at the depths of the market in March 2009. That investment by Social Security would already be up by 60% or more.

Previous publications by Modigliani and Muralidhar show even more detail than in the book. They had an FAQ that showed how they resolved just about every possible objection to their plan. Ted Kennedy was going to have them testify before Congress, but I don’t think that ever actually happened.

Follow this link to what I posted back in 2004 about this topic.

I figure it always pays to understand what motivates an adversary.  I think it may be much worse than I imagined.

With everything on the line and so little time left, we have to bring our voice to Congress through every possible channel.

It takes just a few minutes to write and send your own letter directly to your representative to let them know that you support health reform.

I have made phone calls, sent email, and written on my Representative’s facebook page.

Don’t miss an opportunity to make your voice heard.

This gives the other point of view to my previous post, A Serial Obstructionist.

As with all issues in Israel, I don’t know which side to believe.  Of course that’s no different from political issues in this country.  Sometimes it is hard to know who to believe.

Of course the Haaretz article doesn’t take into account the political problem faced by President Obama.  The Palestinians may be taking advantage of the Obama administration’s seeming anger over the Jerusalem row.  However, the Palestinians may be taking advantage of Netanyahu’s demonstration that you can walk all over the Obama administration and they will be powerless to do anything about it.

It is not clear to me which position that Obama could take that would be more harmful to Israel in the end. Netanyahu has made his political calculation to do what he has done.  Time will tell who is the better political calculator, Abbas, Netanyahu, or Obama.

As for the analysis in Haaretz, I would hardly call Obama’s attempts to strengthen sanctions on Iran, extending a hand to Iran, unless you mean by hand a closed fist.

You may or may not choose to believe this.  I don’t quite know what to make of it.

Follow this link if you want to support the airing of this ad.

Two very positive reviews of this book have just come out:

On 12 March 2010, Felix Salmon of Reuters concludes, “There aren’t many reasons to be happy about the global financial crisis, but here’s one: that it brought Michael Lewis back to his roots, to produce what is probably the single best piece of financial journalism ever written.”

On 14 March 2010, Steven Pearlstein in the Washington Post writes, “If you read only one book about the causes of the recent financial crisis, let it be Michael Lewis’s, ‘The Big Short.’ ”

On 14 March 2010, CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired “Inside the Collapse”.

I have already pre-ordered the book.

-RichardH

During the 911 call, the operator urged Mr. Sikes to shift the car into neutral. He later said he was afraid doing so might cause the car to “flip” or shift into reverse.

What kind of ignorant driver would think that shifting to neutral would cause the car to flip over, but slamming on the brakes would not?  What kind of driver would rather crash into a wall at 95 miles per hour for sure rather than run some other kind of risk to get the car under control?

The piece I quoted isn’t even the question being raised.  The actual question is whether or not the driver actually applied the brakes as forcefully as he claimed.  I wonder if the behavior of the anti-lock brakes caused him to take his foot off the brakes.

I don’t know how many of you have experienced your anti-lock system coming into action.  In some cars it causes a rapid vibration in the brake pedal.  In some cars you may also get a bit of noise from the brakes.  If you are unaware of what is going on, you might think this is a problem and might take your foot off the break pedal.  Actually, this behavior is a sign that the anti-lock system is doing exactly what it is designed to do.  You just need to keep your foot on the brake until you regain control.

By KATE LINEBAUGH

A federal safety investigation of the Toyota Prius that was involved in a dramatic incident on a California highway last week found a particular pattern of wear on the car’s brakes that raises questions about the driver’s version of the event, three people familiar with the investigation said.

On Monday James Sikes, 61 years old, called 911 and told the operator his blue 2008 Toyota Prius had sped up to more than 90 miles per hour on its own on Interstate 8 near San Diego. He eventually brought the vehicle to a stop after a California Highway patrolman pulled alongside Mr. Sikes and offered help.

During and after the incident, Mr. Sikes said he was using heavy pressure on his brake pedal at high speeds.

But the investigation of the vehicle, carried out jointly by safety officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota engineers, didn’t find signs the brakes had been applied at full force at high speeds over a sustained period of time, the three people familiar with the investigation said.

The brakes were discolored and showed wear, but the pattern of friction suggested the driver had intermittently applied moderate pressure on the brakes, these people said, adding the investigation didn’t find indicators of the heavy pressure described by Mr. Sikes.

Further details of the findings weren’t available.

On Friday NHTSA officials declined to comment on the inspection and couldn’t immediately be reached on Saturday.

Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said the company will release technical findings very soon and declined to comment further about the vehicle’s brakes. Mr. Michels said the hybrid braking system used in the Prius would make the engine lose power if the brakes were pressed at the same time as the accelerator.

Mr. Sikes lawyer, John Gomez, said Saturday: “Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, it’s clear that there is a problem with these cars. We’re going to wait till the inspection is complete.” He said that the California Highway patrolman involved in the incident said he saw the car’s brake lights go on and that he smelled the brakes burning.

The investigation’s findings aren’t 100% conclusive and still must be finalized. But they are likely to cast doubt on how the situation was described by Mr. Sikes. The California Highway Patrol has said it has no reason not to believe Mr. Sikes, but questions have mounted in recent days, in part because the Prius has a type of technology that pulls back on the accelerator when the brake is engaged.

During the 911 call, the operator urged Mr. Sikes to shift the car into neutral. He later said he was afraid doing so might cause the car to “flip” or shift into reverse.

Mr. Sikes’s Prius is subject to a recall by Toyota to prevent the driver’s floor mat from pinning down the gas pedal that was announced in November and covers 5.4 million vehicles in the U.S.

Reports of unintended acceleration have prompted Toyota to recall more than six million vehicles in the U.S. and more than eight million world-wide. The recalls are aimed to fix the floor mat issue as well as gas pedals that can get stuck.

Follow this link to make a contribution to the effort by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

I would not normally post a link showing a segment from The Ed Show. I consider him to be a blowhard on the left almost in the image of Rush on the right. However, this piece does seem worthy of consideration.