Bush Administration Shocker — More Spending Proposed

Wow, here’s a shocker — according to the New York Times, the Bush adminstration is proposing to further increase federal spending!

President Bush will increase Medicare payments to health maintenance organizations and other private health plans by a record 10.6 percent in an effort to persuade them to enter the Medicare market and increase benefits for the elderly, administration officials say.

Federal officials and members of Congress said they hoped the increase, five times as large as the typical annual increase in recent years, would reverse the exodus of private plans from the Medicare program. The administration, trying to enhance competition and efficiency in the Medicare marketplace, wants to triple enrollment in private plans within three years.

Thank goodness the era of big government is over.

Source:

Insurers to Get 10.6% Increase From Medicare. Robert Pear, New York Times, January 20, 2004.

Wesley Clark — Worst Major Candidate Ever?

Has there ever been a major candidate as completely inept as Wesley Clark? I personally can’t stand John Kerry or most of what he stands for, but this comment by Clark is way out of bounds,

It’s one thing to be a hero as a junior officer. He’s done that, I respect that. But I’ve got the military experience at the top as well as at the bottom.

Don’t worry, though, by tomorrow Clark will have changed his mind about junior officer heroes, too.

Update: Originally this story implied that Clark, unlike Kerry, had not been awarded a Silver Star. In fact, Clark earned a Silver Star for his heroic actions during a firefight in Vietnam.

Source:

Clark Aims to Pull Rank on Kerry in N.H.. Associated Press, Jan 19, 2004.

A Kinder, Gentler Israel?

There’s an op-ed in the local Newhouse rag, the Kalamazoo Gazette, today featuring advice for Israel on how to deal with the Palestinians. The op-ed is written by Paul Clements, chair of the Kalamazoo Interfaith Coalition for Peace and Justice, and concludes with this bizarre paragraph (emphasis added),

The only way to reach peace in the Middle East is through a viable Palestinian state. Israel needs and deservs U.S. protection, but the best way we can protect them is encourage them to be kind — and just — not tough. A secure and viable Palestinian state would also undermine resentment of the U.S. in Iraq, helping to create a climate hospitable to the establishment of democracy there. The United States should push for a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, and the next time Palestinian suicide bombers try to derail peace negotiations, the Israelis should ignore them.

Yeah, because that approach has always worked well against terrorists. Just ignore them rather than retaliate and the terrorists will go on to pick on someone else (this is why Al Qaeda never targeted America again after we ignored them following 1993 World Trade Center bombing).

As for “helping to create a climate hospitable to the establishment of democracy [in Iraq],” I think the overthrow and capture of Saddam Hussein and his cronies offers the best chance in decades of such an eventuality.

Source:

In Israel, kind is better, smarter than tough. Paul Clements, Kalamazoo Gazette, January 20, 2004.

Letter from a Kucinich Supporter — That Explains the Two Percent

My wife and I were having a discussion the other day about who exactly those 2 percent of Democrats are who tell pollsters they’re supporting Dennis Kucinich. After all, Kucinich should be polling slightly higher than that even if he was only getting the vegan vote.

This is a candidate, after all, who was actually beind in fundraising to perennial Democratic nutcase candidate Lyndon LaRouche for the third quarter of 2003. Kucinich supporters can’t possibly think he has a chance to influence Democratic politics, much less win the nomination, can they? Well, yes, apparently some of them can. Here’s the opening paragraphs of a letter from a very confused Kucinich supporter published in the January 8 edition of the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times,

Re: Kucinich takes antiwar message to Islamic center.

I was pleased to see coverage of congressman Dennis Kucinich in the Dec. 31 City&State Section by Adam Smith. However, I think it is a mistake to give much weight to these “national polls” because I have seen Kucinich ahead in many online polls, which can be found at his Web site: http://www.kucinich.us/

And they let these people vote. Oy.

Source:

Candidate offers vision of hope. Letter to the Editor, Marcella Respini, St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, January 8, 2004.

She May Have Helped Murder Three People, But Hey — She Really Loves Her Dogs

A regional chapter of Norwegian animal rights group Dyrebeskyttelsen recently published a calendar for fund raising purposes. The calendar featured photographs of celebrities and others, including a photograph of convicted murderer Kristin Kirkemo Haukeland posting with her three dogs.

Haukeland was convicted of being an accomplice in a 1999 triple homicide that stunned Norway. Anne Orderud Paust, 47, her father Kristian Orderud, 81, and Marie Orderud, 84, were found murdered in tier family home in May 1999. All three victims had been shot at close range in one room of the house.

Anne Orderud Paust’s deceased husband, Per Paust, had been a diplomat, and Anne was an adviser to the Norwegian defense minister. Both had been subject to numerous death threats. In 1998, a bomb was found under Anne’s car, so initial speculation was that there might be some political connection.

Instead the murder turned out to be a straightforward dispute over inheritance of the family home. Haukeland aided her ex-boyfriend and two other people in murdering his mother and grandparents.

So why is Haukeland now gracing the calendar of an animal rights group? Dyrebeskyttelsen member Lene Lotvedt, who took the picture of Haukeland that graces the calendar, seems to think that Haukeland’s criminal conviction is a relatively minor matter. According to Norwegian TV station Nettavisen,

You can’t just discriminate people just because they are in jail,” Løtvedt stated.

Løtvedt said that what Kirkemo Haukeland is convicted of has nothing to do with why she was chosen as a model. She assures that the choice was made independent of her current life situation.

“The people we selected for the calendar, we selected because they love animals,” Løtvedt explained.

Apparently they want people who love animals — just not the bipedal homo sapiens kind.

Sources:

Convicted triple murderess as calendar girl. Carin Pettersson, Nettavisen, January 9, 2004.

Advisor to Oslo defence minister and her parents found dead. Deutsche Press-Agentur, May 24, 1999.

Hasbro’s Customizable Xevoz Action Figure Game

Hasbro has launched a line of action figures — Xevoz — that can be customized with interchangeable parts and then sent into battle against each other using a pretty innovative looking (if simplistic) combat system.

I’ve seen a couple of customizable action figures games (mostly collectible ones aimed at the RPG/CCG crowd) — none of which, to my knowledge, have been particuarly successful. This looks like something that might actually succeed depending on the pricing for the action figures.