The Pope placed known criminal predators in charge of children. He should resign.

The culture was different back in the 60's, but it has never been permissible to molest children. In two cases we know about the current Pope placed known criminal predators in charge of children. It is unconscionable.

It should be just as important to the Catholic Church to guard the kids already under their care as it is to champion the rights of those who aren’t yet born. What is wrong with these men? How can they not understand the crime that was committed?

The Pope should resign.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/us/27wisconsin.html?ref=homepage&src=me&pagewanted=print

What's in the health care bill?

Here are some links for more information about the health care bill ->

I found this chart online and I think it's really useful to show you who gets what:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-healthcare-passage22-2010mar22-g,0,7818440.graphic

This is from speaker Pelosi's website, so I assume it's prolly got a fair share of rah rah rah, but it does seem to be a very comprehensive guide:
http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/legislation?id=0361

Here's a bit of info on the exchanges from Ezra Klein's blog:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/how_do_the_exchanges_work.html

Speaking of Klein, he's got a series of posts explaining the bill all tagged with "explaining health-care reform." You can find his intro column here:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/a_bill_becomes_a_law.html

The bottom line is that this bill is far less than many of us wanted. I badly wanted the Medicare age to be dropped to 55. Hell, I'd like to see Medicare for all-also known as Socialized Medicine, but it wasn't going to happen. But, as so many have said, it's a start. It will help those most in need and begin (hopefully) to change the health insurance dynamic in this country from one of have vs have not, to a more equitable program.

My other frustration with the bill is process related, since Republicans decided to oppose the bill unilaterally, we didn't get any benefit from an honest give and take discussion between conservatives, liberals and moderates. Instead we got screams about killing Grandma, Death Panels and Socialist Tyranny. It's funny (sad) that this is the sort of bill that past Republican politicians could have written. It's damn near Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health care plan, and similar to what Nixon proposed back in the 70's. But now Republican leaders are beholden to their extreme right wing so this pretty moderate plan is demonized.

In the end, it will help those who really need it and keep the insurance companies from denying people coverage. Those are two very worthwhile goals.

Silence gives assent

Where are the leaders of the Republican party when their supporters are shouting racist slurs? They are silent.

The Tea Partiers are not a spontaneous uprising of disaffected citizens who are angry about bailouts. This is the base of the modern Republican party, and they are the same kind of people who were co-opted by the Republican "Southern Strategy" so many years ago.

The leadership of the Republican party can not condemn them because they NEED them to win their elections. They continue to dance with racists and bigots because that's who brought them to where they are today.

Fingernail Art

Not politics.
Not food.
Not children.

Fingernails!

I'm having way too much fun with fingernail art.

Why I don't watch the Sunday "news" shows

This week John McCain won't be on the Sunday talk shows...I'm shocked. But guess who will be?

Tom DeLay. Tom DeLay, likely the most unethical scum who has ever been majority leader in the Senate. Why, of all the people to have on, would you book Tom DeLay? Our press corp is really a mess.

Another interesting post, this one on health care. Since I can't seem to send a link through Facebook I'll just paste it in.

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/sink-or-swim

Innocence in Journalism

Jay Rosen has a fascinating new blog post, about how journalists leave out reality when writing, and how that's harming their profession and resulting in less information for their readers.

It's really worth checking out.