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[jaydub]

Wouldn't it be worth it though if you could have a charismatic evil dude as a leader? I don't mean wrinkled old evil like Cheney but a serious unrepentant evil sonofabitch with stylish black outfits with huge collars a goatee.

I think he's busy sitting in a hotub full of Chivas Regal in North Korea.

[littlefallsmets]

If we're building our perfect charmingly-horrible despot, I demand a pointy beard.

[Doc]

Actually this might explain Putin. He'd defintely fit.

[Carlos del Vaca]

My #1 issue is the overall direction of foreign and military policy, i.e. the PNAC strategy, and all that entails:  the wars, our standing in the world community, and the fact that we spend more on defense than the rest of the world combined.

By the way, if you liked the will.i.am/Obama "Yes We Can" video, you'll love the McCain version.

[jay-ell]

In a strong but distant second, socializing medicine. C'mon people. Everyone with electricity other than us fuckin' has this. Lets quit being piddling dicks about a little bit more in taxes and fuckin' get on it. Seriously.

Amen, hallelujah. 

[jaydub]

In a strong but distant second, socializing medicine.

Sure.  Government does such a good job with education, infrastructure, immigration, and transportation - lets apply some of that genius to health care.  After all, war is the ultimate government program, and we've got front row seats to how well that's going.

[Arachno-capitalist]

Sure.  Government does such a good job with education, infrastructure, immigration, and transportation - lets apply some of that genius to health care.  After all, war is the ultimate government program, and we've got front row seats to how well that's going.

You dont get it, jaydub, this will be the first thing government has done right. They will magically learn everything there is to know about healthcare and run the system better than anyone else.

[wombat]

OK, I know I am a bad person, but right now my number one election issue is that it is too freaking cold to go to my polling place which is two and a half blocks away.  I'll have another cup of hot tea and try to get over the feeling.

Oh god, Afghanistan. Sometimes a news story or such says something about how we are at war in two places, and for a second I'm all "TWO - oh, yeah, right...."  I have no idea what we are still doing there and it is too depressing to think about.

[theinevitable]

Man, no. The solution to nationalized healthcare is the same as to the problems with education, infrastructure, etc. Broad policy changes at the national level, with implementation controlled by local entities that understand the specific problems of the community. Soviet-style monolithic government failed, we need a national program that implements large-scale changes while giving actual power to the people who live in the communities-- municipal and state level authorities, elected by the people they will directly serve.

The psychology i've had, and the anthropology I've had, and the nearly-20 years of experience I've had with human beings, tell me that people do not make the most "rational" decisions, especially when it comes to things like health which are complex and don't seem like immediate threats. People constantly make horrible decisions about their health, and that's their right. Smoke, do drugs, eat fatty foods, whatever. But kids shouldn't suffer for the sins of their parents. The fact that your dad spends his money on lottery tickets, or your parents are saving up for a house, or whatever the fuck, whether good use of funds or not, should not keep you from getting basic healthcare.
We have public education in this country because we believe every child deserves the same chance to be successful. Has this been entirely successful? No. Some people are born with inherited natural advantages (intelligence, discipline), and some are born with inherited advantages of a different type (my dad is a legacy at Harvard, my mom is in the yacht club with the head of the UPenn medical school, my great-grandpa invented ketchup). Does this mean public education shouldn't exist? I hope none of you will argue this is the case. Not to mention the fact that democracy cannot come even close to functioning without a well-educated populace. How is education a universal right, but not basic healthcare? Ridiculous.

[wombat]

Oh wtf... I just looked at the sample ballot and not only do I have to vote for a presidential candidate, I have to vote for "Female delegates and alternate to the Democratic national convention" and "Male delegates to the Democratic national convention."  wtF???

But seriously for a minute... Public education used to be something this country did a good job of. And it wasn't that long ago. I am old enough to have lived when children with no money could get a good education in the New York City public schools. (They still can, but it's way more complicated, from what I hear.) I'm not going to attempt to analyze what has changed and how much of that is under federal control or what that implies for healthcare.  But if you assert that education is something government can't do well, it seems to me you're simply ignoring history.

[AugustWest]

Sure.  Government does such a good job with education, infrastructure, immigration, and transportation - lets apply some of that genius to health care.  After all, war is the ultimate government program, and we've got front row seats to how well that's going.

OK, fair enough.  But can you seriously be suggesting that our healthcare system is OK the way it is?  We spend roughly twice per capita what any other industrialized nation does, yet the quality and access to care is far worse.  Right now our system is run by insurance companies -- an industry that makes the oil companies look positively altruistic -- and drug manufacturers. 

Why should we be satisfied with hugely over-paying for far lower quality? 

And how does the consumer change the system without government intervention?

Let's just give up and not try to improve anything.  All hail our corporate overlords!

[Carlos del Vaca]

Sure.  Government does such a good job with education, infrastructure, immigration, and transportation - lets apply some of that genius to health care.  After all, war is the ultimate government program, and we've got front row seats to how well that's going.

How much of this is intrinisc to government, and how much is due to the people who have been running the government for the last 8+ years?  The current administration, and the Senate (which, despite technically being Democratic controlled right now, is still beholdin' to the Republicans on everything because the Dems don't have the sack to actually make them filibuster a bill), are overfond of stripping all non-defense agencies of their funding, appointing people from the industries they're supposed to be regulating to key government posts, then pointing to the subsequent shitty job and saying "see, government is incompetent!"

Or to quote Lance Mannion,

If the Government is a car setting out to give every one a ride to work, then for 40 years the Republicans have been puncturing the tires, pouring sand in the gas tank, stealing the distributor cap, and, whenever they can get their hands on the wheel, driving it straight into the nearest ditch and then, pointing to the wreckage as the tow truck backs up to it, saying, See, this proves that people were meant to walk. And they do this so that they don't have to chip in on gas.

[AugustWest]

How much of this is intrinisc to government, and how much is due to the people who have been running the government for the last 8+ years?  The current administration, and the Senate (which, despite technically being Democratic controlled right now, is still beholdin' to the Republicans on everything because the Dems don't have the sack to actually make them filibuster a bill), are overfond of stripping all non-defense agencies of their funding, appointing people from the industries they're supposed to be regulating to key government posts, then pointing to the subsequent shitty job and saying "see, government is incompetent!"

Or to quote Lance Mannion,

Since I can't give Lance Mannion a can, I'm giving it to you.

[CortJstr]

I almost want to see a dental version of Medicare. Right now insurance companies tie their payments to Medicare's. So if Medicare raises their payout for say a mammogram, then every private insurer will raise theirs to match.

So if there was a dental version of Medicare that say, covered the type of fillings that have been in use for the last 20 years instead of just the cheaper crappier fillings that nobody uses anymore then other insurers would basically be shamed into following suit.

The downside is that if Medicare settles on a criminally low payment for a service (as they did for mammo for a number of years) then private insurers will keep their payouts equally low. But the dentists I've talked to seem to think it would be worth it.

[wombat]

Since I can't give Lance Mannion a can, I'm giving it to you.

Me too.

OK, I went out and voted. I was rewarded for my civic duty by having the freezing rain start just as I started to walk home.

Now, the more important race: If the beagle wins Westminster tonight, I have to get up tomorrow morning and start trying to turn in a story about it by the end of the day.