McDonalds v. Burger King

posted by Ilyse Kazar

That's how "Reverend" Billy Talen, Green Party mayoral candidate here in NYC termed the contest of two career politicians to be our next mayor.

Billy raked in 0.8% of the vote. Considering he is a performance artist, activist and all-out, no holds barred critic of the power structure, I think it's great that 8 in 1,000 people voted for him!

The other "nice" thing about the mayoral vote was the 51%/46% split between Bloom-Borg and Thompson. Mayor mike is not as loved as he wanted to think. Especially considering the enormity of the differential in the money they each had to spend, Thompson's percentage is significant.

Response to a comment: Trickle-Down Piss

posted by Ilyse Kazar

A good buddy on Facebook commented on my post about today's VA and NJ governor races:

I wonder if it really Obama - that has people voting R - versus just how bad the economy is. Think we may not be finished with bad economic news (commercial real estate) And Americans want instant fixes - without them paying for it

I think people realized full well how bad the economy already was, and sensed how bad it might get, when they voted in November '08. I think people were hot to see some very tangible things done that directly benefited them. I think people were absolutely ready, in fact, would have cheered from the sidelines, to see the robber barons go down hard.

I also think people understood that fixing Dubya's mess was gonna cost and would not be a free lunch.

When we were on the purported precipice of complete economic meltdown, the people would  have been sobered by the need to pump a trillion dollars of funny money into the system, that will cost us so much as we move forward. But if the money had gone as deferred loans directly to keep real people in their homes, thereby ...

• saving whole neighborhoods from the sad loss in property values and crime and desolation that has resulted from foreclosures
• staving off the costs that we have yet to even calculate in feeding free lunches and offering other services to homeless children and families
• helped folks keep their jobs or find new ones quicker (it's nigh impossible to keep a job or walk into an interview like a positive fresh-faced prospective employee, when one is hungry and homeless)
• kept mortgage payments (preferably re-financed ones) coming into the banks that were crying they were collapsing because of mortgage defaults
• providing a way for the government to at least partially recoup our money when those homeowners get on their feet 

...  then folks could say, well, we can see the real benefits of this costly bailout in front of our eyes. They would have been sobered but not angered at so much money going down a stinking sink-hole while nothing changes in their towns and cities, nothing improves for their families.

Ditto if the money had been put directly into financing small businesses, to create or save jobs and help re-stimulate the Main Street economies.

I haven't noticed any revival of Main Street. I haven't seen the reversal of Reagan's trickle-down theories that have held sway in this country, to a huge extent, ever since 1980. The only thing I've seen is more piss trickling down on the little guy.

The Status-Quo Sucks (us back under)

posted by Ilyse Kazar

So, McDonnell takes VA and Christie takes NJ. This is just hunky dory. The Conservatives will now be spreading the meme that this is a rejection of Obama.

The distinction that will be lost: This is not a rejection of the Obama who promised to sock it to the special interests. This is a rejection of the glacial pace at which anything has been done along those lines.

If politics in Washington had ridden the tidal wave of sentiment re the little guy suffering at the hands of huge power blocks, if Washington had done a trickle-up bailout of homeowners instead of a fairly useless (to 99.999% of us) bailout of Wall Street, if Obama were pushing harder for the Dems to include a make-no-bones-about-it public option and if his administration had done a better job of selling it to the people, if stimulus money had gone directly to folks who needed to save or wished to start up small businesses, if Congress had immediately enacted some sort of real incentives to encourage Earth-friendly consumption and energy-user habits, if we had not only gone up against Coal but had the imagination to plan re-training, re-tooling and thereby a boost for the employment prospects of folks in areas where Coal has historically been the only employer ... this would not be happening.

I also blame this on all of us. We were all psyched during the election. There were leagues of us talking it up, knocking on doors, standing at tables, organizing and attending rallies.

Where is the march in Washington against escalation in Afghanistan?

Where are the dramatic news-worthy public events in support of universal health care, demanding real action against global warming?

Where are the demonstrations against the subsidies to factory farming mega-corporations?

I mean, shit, in my junior high school we staged a sit-in, complete with black arm bands, against the war in Nam. Where are you, people? In November 2008 we pulled levers, touched screens or punched chads. We poured out into the streets in a spontaneous celebration when the results came in. Then we sat back to watch and complain.

Maybe the election of more Christies and McDonnells is what we actually need. Maybe we simply have not reached that howling pain-point at which we will get up off our duffs. Maybe we needed this dangerous pivot, this wake-up call that if you don't push hard and keep pushing for Change, the Status Quo is whatchergonnagit.

We were going to take back America, remember?

Quote of the day: Steve Lacy on Music

We don't determine music,
The music determines us;
We only follow it
To the end of our life:
Then it goes on without us.

Excerpt from 'Saxovision' by Steve Lacy

Poem of the day: Lao-Tzu on non-being

We join spokes together in a wheel
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move
We shape clay into a pot
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want
We hammer wood into a house
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable
We work with being
But non-being is what we use.

(Lao Tzu)

... this is one that saves me again and again.

Journalist of the day: Helen Thomas

Dana Milbank - Washington Sketch - washingtonpost.com:

Helen Thomas is 89 years old and requires some assistance to get to and from the daily White House briefing. Yet her backbone has proved stronger than that of the president she covers....

"Has the president given up on the public option?" she inquired from her front-row-middle seat....

"...[W]hy do you keep asking me?" Gibbs inquired.

"Because I want your conscience to bother you," Thomas replied.

Let's just give her a lifetime achievement Best Journalist award, come to think of it.

Quote of the day: Thos. Jefferson on Christian dogmatism

the greatest of all the reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distinguished by its lustre from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the diamond from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man; outlines which it is lamentable he did not live to fill up. Epictetus and Epicurus give laws for governing ourselves, Jesus a supplement of the duties and charities we owe to others. The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent moralist, and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems,* invented by ultra-Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by him, is a most desirable object, and one to which Priestley has successfully devoted his labors and learning. It would in time, it is to be hoped, effect a quiet euthanasia of the heresies of bigotry and fanaticism which have so long triumphed over human reason, and so generally and deeply afflicted mankind; but this work is to be begun by winnowing the grain from the chaff of the historians of his life.

* e. g. The immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of Hierarchy, &c.

From Jefferson's letter to William Short, Oct. 31, 1819.

House Expands Federal Aid to College Students

Hip Hip Hooray. Say good-bye to the multi-billion-dollar annual boondoggle that generously pads the profits of banking institutions for writing up student loans, while the Federal gov't (translate: taxpayers) takes all the risk:

“This legislation provides students and families with the single largest investment in federal student aid ever,” said Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, who wrote the bill. “Today, the House made a clear choice to stop funneling vital taxpayer dollars through boardrooms and start sending them directly to dorm rooms.”

Under the current program, the government pays subsidies to lenders and guarantees the loans. All colleges would be required to convert to the federal Direct Loan program by July 1, 2010.

The measure passed handily in the House; looks like it will breeze through the Senate also. Finally some measure of sanity prevails, if only for a moment.

Cutting back on salt could save U.S. billions

Cutting back on salt could save U.S. billions - Diet and nutrition- msnbc.com:

...researchers estimate that if the average sodium intake fell to the recommended level of 2,300 mg per day, there would be 11 million fewer cases of high blood pressure each year. (Estimates are that about 70 million American adults have high blood pressure.) The costs of treating high blood pressure and related heart disease and strokes would fall by $18 billion.

Cutting sodium consumption down to 1,500 mg, they say, could save $26 billion.

So before we go spewing about how some group of Others costs the taxpayers money we didn't agree to spend, each of us oughtta check our diet. How many mg of sodium a day do you consume? Do you know? If not, why not?

Wanna give your baby its best shot at life? Move to a country with socialized health care.

posted by i.n.kazar

As a follow-up to my examination of life expectancy here is a selected list of countries in order of "number of infant mortality deaths per 1,000 live births. On this list, the closer one is to #1 the worse the survival rate of newborns, so I'm starting from the end.


224. Singapore: 2.31 infant deaths/1000

223. Bermuda: 2.46

222. Sweden: 2.75

221. Japan: 2.79

[and again: "OK but where's the U.S., did you skip it??"]

217. France: 3.33

214. Norway: 3.58

211. Czech Republic: 3.79

204. South Korea: 4.26

198. Netherlands: 4.73

196. Australia: 4.75

193. United Kingdom: 4.85

189. Canada: 5.04

["WHAT ABOUT THE U.S.?!" ... hang on, I'm almost there]

181. Cuba: 5.82

[and now quite a decline between Communist Cuba and the next one on the list ...]

180. United States: 6.26

Yes, that is right, according to the CIA's figures your baby born in this country is 2.7 times as likely to die in infancy than a baby born in the top-ranked Singapore. At number 38 from the end of the CIA's reverse-ranked list, the U.S. ranks near the bottom of the second decile when looking at the survival rate of infants around the globe.

Still think that our money-driven health system is something to cling to? I have some ideas as to why our infant mortality rate would be so high, but I'll leave that for a possible future post.

Photos of the day: California Wild Fire

The Boston Globe has assembled a stunning, scary collection of photos for their Big Picture online section, such as this one:

Wanna live longer? Move to a country with socialized health care.

posted by i.n.kazar

Countries in order of life expectancy, as reported by the CIA Factbook, with details on the health care systems of some of the countries (enough to communicate my point) as reported by the World Health Organization and other sources. Oh, and by the way, many of the governments topping the list have panels empowered to examine health expenditures in the final year(s) of life. Contrary to the 'death panel' hysteria promoted by groups in the U.S. that wish to preserve our lovely status quo, countries whose governments take stock of the expenses and questions of dignity at end-of-life have the LONGEST life expectancy. If you don't believe me, click some of my links and do some reading for yourselves, instead of just repeating what your favorite columnists and radio hosts might be spouting.


1. Macau: 84.36 years -- Mixture of government-provided healthcare and private services overseen by the government. (WHO and Wikipedia)

[hmmm... not the U.S.? where we are not subjected to "the nightmares of government-controlled medicine"?]

2. Andorra: 82.51 years -- 92% of the population covered by the government health agency (WHO pdf)

3. Japan: 82.12 years -- "In the Japanese health care system, healthcare services, including screening examinations for particular diseases at no direct cost to the patient, prenatal care, and infectious disease control, are provided by national and local governments. Payment for personal medical services is offered through a universal health care insurance system that provides relative equality of access, with fees set by a government committee. People without insurance through employers can participate in a national health insurance program administered by local governments. Since 1983[1], all elderly persons have been covered by government-sponsored insurance. Patients are free to select physicians or facilities of their choice.... It is compulsory to be enrolled in a Japanese insurance program if you are a resident of Japan." (Wikipedia)

"The basic principle governing the delivery of health care services is that all citizens should be able, at any time and place, to receive the care they require, with an affordable personal contribution.

"The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced a health promotion programme, the National Health Promotion Movement in the 21st Century (Healthy Japan 21), in 2000. The movement, unlike traditional programmes, emphasizes ‘primary prevention’, aiming at early detection and treatment of diseases." (WHO)

4. Singapore: 81.98 years -- "There is a dual system of health care delivery. The public system is managed by the Government, while the private system is provided by private hospitals and general practitioners." (WHO)

[OK but where's the U.S., did you skip it??]

5. San Marino: 81.97 years

6. Hong Kong: 81.86 years

7. Australia: 81.63 years -- "Australia’s health care system is a partnership between the Federal, State and Territory, and local governments. Through the Health and Ageing portfolio, the Federal Government provides national leadership, determines national policies and outcomes, and shares responsibility for funding services....

"The system is complex, with delivery provided by both the public and private sectors." (WHO)

8. Canada: 81.23 years -- "Canada has an extensive social security network, including old age pension, family allowance, employment insurance and social assistance. Basic health care is provided to all Canadians through a universal free health care system." (WHO)

9. France: 80.98 years

10. Sweden: 80.86 years

13. Israel: 80.73 years

19. Italy: 80.20 years

[WHAT ABOUT THE U.S.?!]

23. Spain: 80.05 years

30. Netherlands: 79.40 years

36. United Kingdom: 79.01 years

38. Jordan: 78.87 years

40. South Korea: 78.72 years

50. United States: 78.11 years

Poem of the day: Song

beauty is a shell
from the sea
where she rules triumphant
till love has had its way with her

scallops and
lion's paws
sculptured to the
tune of retreating waves

undying accents
repeated till
the ear and the eye lie
down together in the same bed


-- William Carlos Williams

Four-Paragraph Descriptive Essay

brown boy spins
limbs spread
a twirling human asterisk


on a swivel-seat office chair
in the street
spun by hydrant water


white teeth laugh
at flying bricks


wet brown boy.


-- ilyse kazar. written 24 July 1980 in rebellion against, it seems, all the four paragraph essays I was forced to write for years, yet somehow still true to the form

NY Times invites reader interaction with content

Just now the New York Times published a CIA report detailing abuses that took place inside secret prisons.

The entire pdf of the report is published within an online document reader. A brilliant feature is that readers are invited to interact with this content by helping to annotate it.

Hip hip hurrah, NYT.

Poem of the day: The Hebrew Mamita

Vanessa Hidary is one of my faves amongst the poets who appeared in the six seasons of Russ Simmons' Def Poetry series on HBO.

This performance is especially deep for me, because I have been that girl on that barstool, I have been told many times "gee, you don't look Jewish" and remained silent (or, worse, took it as a damned compliment). On the other hand, I have been known to let people go on and on about "this Jewish bastard" or about "the Kyke landlord" or about "the Jewish conspiracy that owns all the world's stocks and plots to limit my access to the pharmaceuticals I need" (yes, that is an actual meme out there) ... let them go on and on until they have taken all the rope they need to hang themselves, and then stood up and before leaving the table have let them know THEY WERE TALKING TO ONE.

But I have not done the whole trip that Hidary has done (at a much younger age). I never fully processed the shit I've sat and listened to that people felt safe to say in front of me because I "don't look Jewish" (odd, also, because I think I do "look Jewish") ...

Thanks, Vanessa, for crossing the desert for me and bringing this back with you:

Quote of the day: Police Chief Stamper on Legalizing Marijuana

Any law disobeyed by more than 100 million Americans, the number who’ve tried marijuana at least once, is bad public policy. As a 34-year police veteran, I’ve seen how marijuana prohibition breeds disrespect for the law, and contempt for those who enforce it....

Perhaps the biggest objection to legalization is the “message” it would send to our kids. Bulletin: Our children have never had greater access to marijuana; it’s easier for them to score pot than a six-pack of Coors. No system of regulated legalization would be complete without rigorous enforcement of criminal laws banning the furnishing of any drug to a minor.

Let’s make policy that helps, not handcuffs, those who suffer ill effects of marijuana or other drugs, a policy that crushes the illegal market — the cause of so much violence and harm to users and non-users alike.

that was Norm Stamper, Seattle police chief from 1994 to 2000, in a Room for Debate piece in NYT in July.

Poem of the day: And I Always Thought

I have had this poem pinned to my wall or laying around ever since i bought my first electric typewriter and typed it out on an index card.

And I always thought

And I always thought: the very simplest words
Must be enough
When I say what things are like
Everyone's heart must be torn to shreds.
That you'll go down if you don't stand up for yourself
Surely you see that.

Bertolt Brecht, 1956
Translated by Michael Hamburger

Doh of the day: control air traffic around Manhattan

Why would this be a matter of debate for more than 3 seconds?

The freewheeling nature of the corridors has spurred debate about whether to place tighter controls on the airspace or to restrict who can fly in them.

America's Seniors are the real "Me Generation"

Ezra Klein pulls together a brief analysis of who supports and opposes the public option in the Health Insurance debate:

...one reason that it's been hard to explain the appeal of the bill to the insured population -- which tilts older and votes in higher numbers -- is that it doesn't have a lot to offer them.