Going Greek

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
--Everybody Knows, Leonard Cohen

No more fooling around, not in this place.
We'll pull our pants up and make a pile of money
--Zorba the Greek (1964)

And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return
--Ode on a Grecian Urn, John Keats
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Congress has passed the mother of all bureaucratic behemoths in the shape of the Health Care Reform Bill 2010. What else should we expect of bureaucrats?

One thing we do not expect of them is that they should live under the same health care standards imposed upon us, the plebes. We allow them to have the Cadillac of all health care systems and Cadillac retirement plans that the most fortunate among us non-politicos will never experience.


From Bloomberg.com yesterday:

President Barack Obama faces a fight over the health-care overhaul from states that sued today because the legislation’s expansion of Medicaid imposes a fiscal strain on their cash-strapped budgets. Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania are among 14 states that filed suit after the president signed the bill over the constitutionality of the burden imposed by the legislation. The health-care overhaul will make as many as 15 million more Americans eligible for Medicaid nationwide starting in 2014 and will cost the states billions to administer (States Sue Over Overhaul that Will Bust State Budgets).

We are looking a lot like Greece, yet our leaders don’t seem to care.

Why do we accept their moral authority to dictate the policies from which they themselves are exempt? Their actions may possess legality, but that does not necessarily equate to moral authority. There is a disconnect when our leaders enjoy the comforts of nobility, while their constituents -- the people they serve -- struggle for meaningful lives.

Their leadership often looks like parasitism.

Blue Dog's in the House

Indigenous Tea Party members, at I-75
in Lake City, FL

I support the left,
though I'm leaning to the right.
But I'm just not there
when it's coming to a fight
--Politician, Cream

Tiny splinters are in your soul
And they remain there
Darkest lite in the deepest hole
You’ll sit and pray there
All the guilt from the things you've done
You wouldn’t know what for
What you thought was so much fun
You'll have to pay for
--Politics, Korn
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The photo above was snapped about 150 miles east of Tallahassee, and shows a local contingent of the Tea Party movement.

The one hand-held sign states: "NO GOV Health Care." Most members sport a liberal avoirdupois, and my thought was, should any of these poor zhlubs find themselves out of a job they would need health care, as they are the sorts to load up on several cases of orange Faygo at Costco, "Just in case." However, they feel it is only the nasty immigrants and minorities who will be sucking up health care, so their bigotry trumps their self-interest.

As I sat in the lobby of my Representative Boyd's office last week, I was privy to hearing three constituents voice their displeasure with the upcoming health care bill. Each threatened to pull his vote from the good Rep. should he back the bill, and each was reassured by the Rep's rep that he hated the bill, and would go no where near it.

And in the end, Blue Dog Democrat Allen Boyd of Monticello helped vote the bill into law.

It may be that his liaison with the public was ill-informed, but surely those people who took the time to walk into the office will be checking the voting record, and making good on their franchise threats. Mr. Boyd may have signed his professional death warrant in this conservative neck of the state.

We would like to thank Rep. Boyd for being an exemplary civil servant. He and his representatives have provided invaluable assistance to Ranger over the years. But politics is a dirty business.

Ranger suggests that the Representative (who has white hair) ready himself for his next position by using a bit of Grecian formula, as ageism is a unkind reality. However, upon re-consideration, he realized that the representative's younger constituents are not doing that much better.

As Mr. Boyd is Vietnam veteran, if worse came to worst, he could always join his fellows somewhere along I-10, as those holding the "Veteran will work for food" signs seem to be engaged in a growth industry.

[The NYT also did a piece on Boyd: "Casting Vote, and Now trying to Sell It Back Home". I predict it will be a hard sell. The article mentions 22% of his constituency is black, and the interviews took place in Quincy, which is 65% black.

The implication is that those residents will now go for the black candidate, who was previously the underdog. With this vote, Boyd will have lost his conservative Democratic base.]

Health Care Bennies

Now interaction can make you sick sometimes.
Just hearing certain voices can make me want to throw up,
and we may need clinics for obsessive watchers
[or cross-watchers] of Fox or CNBC
--Frontline, Digital Nation (2.2.10)

If 50 people tell you that you're dead, lay down
--Southern saying

Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow
--Lord Byron
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Now that the vaunted Health Care Reform behemoth has slouched its way into law, will it be a New Day for America? Does this cryptic 1,000+ page document usher a new democratic reality for the citizens whose lives it claims to enhance?

We at ranger ask the simple question, "What does health care reform NOT mean?":

• Do the troops come home from two elective wars?

• Do disabled vets get better treatment and benefits?

• Will the unemployed find employment?

• Will the national debt decrease?

• Will energy dependence be lessened?

• Will industry return to America?

• Will the will of the people ever be translated into law?

• Will illegal immigration be solved?

• Will the rate of home foreclosures be staunched?

• Will bankers be regulated more closely?

You can tune in tomorrow for the answers to the Days of Our Lives, but we bet that you will meet with the same "no" you did the day before health care passed.