Otter Limits

Word around the campfire is that the reason the Democrat’s health care proposal, which includes a government-run public plan option to compete with the private sector, is being held up is because nobody can come up with how to pay for it.

It is plainly obvious to everyone, including Congress and the President, that the only way a proposal of this magnitude can only be paid for by increasing taxes.

Now I have said before that I do not mind having to pay a little bit more in taxes if that money is going toward a good cause. I will admit that health care for those that are currently uninsured is a good cause.

However, I am adamantly opposed to the idea of any of us paying more in taxes to support the Obamaplan that is currently circulating through Congress.

The fact is that a public plan is not needed so our hard earned dollars do not need to be spent to pay for something like this.

First, there already is a public plan. In fact, there are 2. They are called Medicare and Medicaid. It would be a lot less costly and a lot more efficient (well as efficient as the government can be) to just expand on these programs than to create some new big health care monster.

Second, the idea that this public plan “option” will “compete” with the private sector is a complete farce. Anyone with half a brain can plainly see that if there is a government run program instituted that is cheaper than any of the private health care plans, people simply will not care about how bad the quality really will be (and it will be terrible) because people think with their wallets and will essentially jump ship from their current insurance company to join the public plan. The problem with this is that there will no longer be any competition in the health care market. Our health care system will simple be a single payer system. Thousands, if not millions, will end up being out of work (including myself). The economy will greatly suffer. With so many more people out of work, there will be less people paying taxes, thus, less money to go toward paying for this program the government created, thus an even larger deficit than what we already have.

Finally, and I have mentioned this time and time again, this will be a plan that will be owned and operated by the federal government and we all know how well that will end up working. Another new government institution equals more government workers to administer the plan. More government workers equals more bureaucracy in the federal government. More bureaucracy equals less efficiency. More bureaucracy also of course equals more government which nobody in this country really needs.

So, in essence, this health care reform legislation is yet another attempt by the Democratic party to make government bigger and bigger, making the American public more and more dependent on them, giving them more power.

So I don’t know about you but I don’t think the federal government needs any more power than it already has but if this health care reform is signed into law, that is what it will mean in the end.

The only hope we have is for those of us that truly do not support this health care legislation is to constantly write our elected officials to let them know that you do not support this legislation. I myself, have written both of my state’s Senators (Patty Murray & Maria Cantwell-D-WA) and our district’s Congressman (Jay Inslee-D-WA). I let them know that I am extremely opposed to this plan and reminded them who they work for. They do not work for Obama. They do not work for Nancy Pelosi. They do not work for the Democratic Party. They work for the people of the United States of America. I let them know that if this bill is signed into law and they are part of the cause of it, I will not forget it come election time. I will make it my mission in life to make sure none of them are re-elected (to be totally honest, I don’t want any of them to be re-elected anyway but I didn’t tell them that).

Write your elected officials. For my Oklahoma readers, your Senators are Jim Inhofe & Thomas Coburn (both Republicans by the way that if I understand correctly are both opposed to the plan so mostly you can just write them and thank them for their opposition. Personally, it feels really strange to me to be in support of Jim Inhofe.)

For those of you that don’t actually know this. The President of the United States is not elected by you. When you step into the polling booth, and cast your vote, you are not voting for your choice for President. You are actually voting to elect someone called an elector, who actually does the real voting for the President. This person that you voted for, can vote for any candidate that he or she wants, they do not have to vote for the person whom you THINK you are voting for.

This is known as the Electoral College system.

I think this system of selecting the President needs to be done away with. In my opinion, the office of the President should be decided by a direct popular vote, just like our Senators and Representatives are.

With the current system of voting, a person’s individual vote is irrelevant.

If you are a person, for example, living in Washington state, it does not matter who you are voting for because almost all of the electors in the state are going to vote for the candidate for the Democratic party. All of the votes will go toward that candidate, even if the guy is a complete tool (as in the case of our last Presidential election).

Likewise in the state of Oklahoma, all of the electoral votes are going to go toward the Republican candidate, no matter who YOU choose to support.

This is where we get the idea of red states and blue states. It is a ridiculous tradition and needs to stop.

With this system in place, the two party system will continue to thrive and there is no chance for 3rd party candidates.

The system just needs to go away. Our electoral system should be based on the idea of one man one vote.

Sorry couldn’t come up with a better title than this.

So I have been thinking a little bit about my own political affiliation. I began to even somewhat consider changing my political affiliation to the Republican party. I even borrowed a book from the library about the party (see most recent Currently Reading).

I remember that the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln! The party of Theodore Roosevelt! Both Presidents that I admire.

But is the Republican Party of today the same as it was then? I’m not sure. I don’t think so. I have not read much of the book yet so I might post some information about that once I get further in my reading.

But after thinking about it some I kind of came to my senses about affiliating myself with them.

Even though I do agree with the party’s stance on several issues, I can’t bring myself to agree with their stance on other issues.

And quite frankly, I am pretty sure that they would not have me anyway. LOL!

I certainly can’t bring myself to align with the Democrats either. Even thought this was technically the party of Jefferson, another President I admire, it has turned into something totally different. In my opinion, the Democratic Party seems to be okay with big government. That is, that the government is the solution to all of our problems. This is a generalization based on my own experiences within the party of course.

I’m not a Libertarian. Although I do agree with quite a bit of their positions, I think their position on the pro-life issue is not in line with mine and I will not align myself with them base don that principle alone.

So that is why I affiliate myself as an Independent.

I voted for Nader in the last election. Not because I agree with everything he has to say. But because it is my way of ‘flipping the bird’ at the two-party system. I think we could all be better off in most election if we had other choices. Granted, we do have other choices but not to the extend that these other choices would ever hope to get a significant amount of the electoral vote.

Take the last general election for example.

In the Presidential race, we had the ultra-liberal, somewhat shady past, Democrat on one side and the only kinda sorta Republican on the other. No real safe bet there.

And in the Washington gubernatorial race, we had the crook going up against the straight party line lying liberal on the other side. Again, no safe bet.

So as you can see, if we had more “real” choices, we could probably, just maybe, come up with some elected officials that aren’t corrupt businessmen or blind partisans that will do anything to please their party.

We might just get some elected officials that actually do work for the people.

It could happen. Although I am not holding my breath.

This is a list of the Top 4 bands whose name comes from a geographical location (country, city, etc…)

1. Boston
2. Asia
3. Green River (early grunge band named after a river in the Seattle area)
4. Otisburg (ok, so it’s a fictional city that never existed but I have to plug the band again somehow. LOL!)

I think I might have offended zTruth with my presence on BNN Oklahoma.

She recently posted the article Seattle-based Otter Limits ranked #1 Political Blog in Oklahoma!

It is a fact. I live in Washington. I do contribute to the Washington BNN as well as the Oklahoma BNN.

But, I went to high school in Oklahoma. I went to college in Oklahoma. I have several friends in Oklahoma. In short, I have strong ties to the state.

Fairly often, I do write posts about the going ons in political Oklahoma.

That is the main reason that I contribute to the Oklahoma BNN.

But I never claimed that my blog is 100% politics. It just so happens that a large majority of my blog is politically related.

However, as I told zTruth in the comments on her post, if she (or anyone else on BNN OK) is offended by my presence there, and feels that I am taking away from blogs that are more deserving of being rated higher, let me know and I will will request to the editors that they remove me from the rolls of BNN OK.

Keep in mind that I don’t have anything to do with the way the various blogs are rated. It’s not like I petition BNN to make me #1 or anything like that. It just happens. I am just as surprised than some of you maybe when I get ranked so high.

So shoot me a comment here and let me know or shoot me an email (the addy is otter272@gmail.com). If you don’t think I should be on BNN OK, I will leave.

I told Dave that I would throw up a couple of Emery videos in honor the release of their 4th studio album. In Shallow Seas We Sail was released today by Tooth and Nail Records.

Wow guys this is getting kind of weird.

What is going on this week with America’s favorite past time?

AMERICAN LEAGUE

East
Boston Good to see the Red Sox back on top/
NY Yankees Booo!!! Not a big fan of the Yanks. Can you tell?
Toronto
Tampa Bay
Baltimore

Central
Detroit
Kansas City
Minnesota
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland

West
Texas
Los Angeles Angels
Seattle Only 6 games out of first. They can make this up. Really
Oakland

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Easter
Philadelphia
NY Mets
Atlanta
Florida
Washington

Central
Milwaukee
St Louis
Cincinnati
Chicago Cubs
Pittsburgh
Houston

West
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego
San Francisco
Arizona
Colorado

LEAGUE LEADERS

Batting Avg
Jason Bartlett (Rays) – .373
V. Martinez (Indians) – .371
J. Votto (Reds) – .371

Home Runs
Raul Ibanez (Phillies) – 17
A. Gonzalez (Padres) – 16
A. Dunn (Nationals) – 15

RBIs
Evan Longoria (Rays) – 49
J. Bay (Red Sox) – 45
R. Ibanez (Phillies) – 43

Wins
Roy Halladay (Blue Jays) – 8
Z. Greinke (Royals) – 7
B. Arroyo (Reds) – 6

ERA
Zack Greinke (Royals) – 0.82
J. Santana (Mets) – 1.50
W. Rodriguez (Astros) – 1.83

ESPN Power Rankings (1st 10)
Dodgers
Red Sox
Yankees Booooo!!!
Cardinals
Rangers
Brewers
Phillies
Tigers
Blue Jays
Braves

For those that might be interested, the Seattle Mariners are ranked 20th (behind the Giants I might add that they just spanked in their latest series against..hmmph)

Hardcore

Most of the time when someone is referring to “hardcore” they are referring to hardcore punk.

The word “hardcore” is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as:

a form of exceptionally harsh punk rock

Hardcore punk is a subgenre that is heavier and faster than “traditional” punk rock. Songs in this genre are usually very short, very fast and very loud.

Some of the bands that are considered pioneers of this movement are Black Flag, which formed in Los Angeles in 1976, Bad Brains, which formed in Washington DC in 1977, and Minor Threat, which formed in 1980, also in Washington DC.

Other notable bands of the hardcore punk genre are The Angry Samoans, JFA, Agnostic Front and Sick of It All.

Some “essential” albums of this genre (in my opinion) are:
Black Flag’s compilation album The First Four Years
Minor Threat’s compilation Complete Discography
Bad Brains’ 1982 self-titled album.

Post Hardcore

This is somewhat of an offshoot of hardcore punk. It is kind of a generic term that originally referred a group of artists that were associated with hardcore punk but decided to explore other genres.

Bands from this genre are typified by loud guitar-based instrumentation and a combination of clean vocals and screaming, along with loud volume and heavy bass levels.

Some of the bands that came out of this genre early in the movement are the Minutemen, the Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr, Gone, Big Black, and Fugazi.

Some newer bands that are considered post-hardcore are Thrice (good band by the way), Poison the Well, Senses Fail and Emery (Emery by the way being one of the best bands out there and one of the only decent “new” bands worth listening to in my opinion….this band is based out of Seattle by the way I would like to add).

Some “essential albums” of the post hardcore movement would include:
Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime
Gone’s Let’s Get Real Real Gone For A Change
Fugazi’s 13 Songs
Fugazi’s Repeater
Emery’s The Question
Emery’s I’m Only A Man