Just so you don't think I'm not in love with McCain however..

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225199589258&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

I am still scratching my head at the level of Jewish support for Mr. Obama. Thanks to Eytan for this link.

Also - here is a copy of the Heritage Foundation's Morning Bell this morning about Health Care. Where will the Canadians go when they need quality medical attention in a timely fashion if we close our doors to health care and research in this country? Won't someone please think of the Canadians??


They Left Out the Socialized Medicine Part

The Washington Post has a lengthy front-page story today on Barack Obama’s health care plan, which the newspaper admits contains “profound — and controversial — changes.” The Post tries to compare the Obama plan to Massachusetts’ 2006 health care legislation, asserting the only difference between the two is the individual mandate in the Massachusetts plan. This is indeed a big difference between the two plans, but it is nowhere near the most important. For all of its other problems , the Massachusetts plan did not create a new government-run health care plan that would compete side by side with private insurance plan. Obama’s plan does.

Why is this important? Because not only would the federal government be an active competitor in the health care market, but it would also set the rules for competition. Heritage’s Center for Health Policy Studies Director Robert Moffit explains what would happen next:The likely incentives for government officials would be to set rules to advantage the government’s own health plan and to disadvantage the private health plans, including setting the government’s health plan premiums artificially low, reducing or eliminating cost-sharing requirements, or more heavily subsidizing certain benefits to make the government health plan more attractive than the private health plans. These plans would operate without incurring any of the normal financial risks that private health plans must bear.

One could easily imagine a massive crowd out of private coverage, as employers dropped private coverage and paid the requisite tax. Likewise, lobbyists for businesses or private insurance industry executives may see the government health program as a convenient “dumping ground” for high-risk individuals or families, which would reduce business and insurance industry costs but would amount to massive adverse selection against the taxpayers. … In such a political environment, the value of personal choice and anything at all resembling free market competition would mostly likely be rendered meaningless.

Obama’s preference for socialized medicine is no secret. He openly admitted earlier this year, “If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system.” The question for Obama and the left is not whether socialized medicine is desirable. They want socialized medicine. The problem Obama is trying to solve is how best to trick the American people into a policy they do not want. Obama’s health plan is the answer to that problem. Just ask New York Times columnist Paul Krugman: “The Demoplans offer choice — so that people won’t feel that they’re being forced into a government plan. Over time, I suspect, many people will choose the government plan or plans — but they’ll have the option of staying with those wonderful people from the private insurance industry.”

Krugman is undoubtedly right. But not for the reason he states. The government plan will not win because people love socialized medicine (as Krugman recently learned), but because Congress will strangle the private market to death so the American people have no choice. These are the policy options the American people are about to face. It’s high time papers like The Washington Post begin accurately reporting on them.

The future of the Republican Party

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/29/palin.gop/index.html

I thought that I was a minority voice against Palin in the Republican party which has fallen head over heels in love with her (and with those legs, I can't say I blame them). I'm glad there's such a base of people as unimpressed as I am. Here's hoping we can block her in 2012...

Two great posts from the Phnom Penh Police Blotter

I'm a tiny bit obsessed with the Phnom Penh Police Blotter. Here's two great posts from today:

MAN DIES FROM OVERSLEEPING
Sao Sorng, 37-year-old moto-taxi driver, was found dead in his family home in Toeuk La' Ork 3 commune, Tuol Kork district, Phnom Penh at 6am Thursday. The man's neighbours said that they suspect that he died from sleeping too long because they had not seen him for a number of days before his body was discovered. The police said a postmortem examination indicated that Sao Sorng died of natural causes.
KAMPUCHEA THMEY

VILLAGE CHIEF IS A SORCERER: RESIDENTS
Long Thorn, 51, village chief of Prey Keh village, Preah Vihear commune, Krong Pisey district, Kampong Speu province had to be whisked away to safety by the police after an angry mob accused him of being a sorcerer on October 18. The villagers said that they were angry at Long Thorn because he was stealing their money instead of repaying a loan the village took out from the Farmers' Families Association. According to the police the villagers, armed with axes and knives, attacked Long Thorn at his home. When the police arrived at the scene to stop the violence, the angry mob cut up the loan documents and accused him of being a sorcerer. Long Thorn has been detained at the police station for his own safety.
RASMEY KAMPUCHEA

We're doing this NOW?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/us/politics/27web-nagourney.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The New York Times has just published an article on how many members of the GOP and the McCain campaign are questioning the Palin VP pick.

Really? You don't say!

I from the get go supported Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge. Sure, Palin has energized "the base" - but that's not how you win elections. Independent and moderate voters have been swung left due to the Palin choice. She scares them. She scares me too. When I've heard lines like "She's the future of the Republican party" a shudder roles down my spine. Where will we be in four years? And will I still be on board? Outlook not so good.

The pick has certainly helped in the fundraising department however, considering how far back McCain is trailing Obama on that front, what difference would it really have made? On all my campaign contributions I've sent to McCain headquarters, I've written "Palin sucks" in the memo line. I wonder if I'm the only one. If Joe or Tom were on the ticket, it would have felt a lot easier parting with those checks, and maybe more.

His tricks, their treats

Greenspan gives up on capitalism and free markets?

The lead story in the New York Times today is "Greenspan concedes error on regulation". http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html?hp

I'm already asleep. Ohh.. what could be more exciting than the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve talking about regulation policy in a hearing on the Hill? Perhaps an Enya concert?

However, towards the end of the story (that shows how slow of a workday it truly is, that I got this far) - I read a sentence that rocked my world a little bit.

Mr. Greenspan conceded a more serious flaw in his own philosophy that unfettered
free markets sit at the root of a superior economy.
“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own
shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.
Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”

I would really like to hear an analysis from my Ayn Rand to this crisis.

Groping in Cairo

Groping in Cairo.. that's sort of like eating pastries in France or drinking Guinness in Dublin. I came across a blog on the New York Times this morning that made me smile.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/in-cairo-a-groping-case-ends-in-a-prison-sentence/index.html?hp

When I was in Cairo 2 and a half years ago, there was a constant barrage of sexual harassment from Egyptian men. While I was there I did amazing things... rode a camel at the pyramids, rode a bicycle through Luxor to temples, climbed up and down and all over statues and structures that were thousands of years old. The experience was tainted almost in its entirety by the Egyptian men I encountered at every turn. I couldn't walk out of my hostel without my friend Jake. The line was crossed on numerous occasions from a mere annoyance to moments of genuine fear. I didn't know how Egyptian women put up with it. I'm glad they aren't anymore. I'm not one for feminist causes.. but this is a basic violation of human rights, the right to walk the sidewalks unaccosted and unfettered.

A survey released this year by the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights found
that 98 percent of foreign women in Egypt and 83 percent of Egyptian women had
experienced some kind of sexual harassment.

That 2 and 17% (respectively) must have been pretty fucking ugly.

Cambodian-Thai border crisis

This perhaps is not the most spicy issue to start of my blogging with. However, it's a bit of a personal link to my previous blog (http://bethanyshondark.blogspot.com). I spent 3 months of the summer of 2007 in Cambodia, and the seven years before that dreaming about waking up in Phnom Penh. There's a part of me that has always, and will always, be transfixed by Cambodia.

It's never nice to see it in the news. In the mainstream media Cambodia only makes the front pages as a joke, like the couple who cut their home in half instead of going through the hassle of a divorce proceeding.

Lately, however, the story has turned serious. There has been a significant border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over an ancient Temple which straddles the border. This is not the first time that Thailand has claimed ownership over Cambodia's Angkorian history. This is just the first time in a while that it's lead to gunfire.

When I was in Bangkok at the Royal Palace I overheard a government trained tour guide showing a model of the Angkor Wat temple complex (found in Siem Reap, Cambodia). He explained that true ownership was Thai. This temple complex is highlighted on the Cambodian flag, and this period of history is one of the only bright spots in the darkness of the Khmer people's past. This dispute isn't just over a temple, it's over pride.

In 1962, the World Court awarded ownership of the Preah Vihear temple complex to Cambodia. The most accessible entrance is via the Thai border, the Cambodian government has allowed tourists and worshipers to come across the border without passports or visas. The financial benefits of this temple have been almost exclusively enjoyed by the Thais, who control tourism of the site (hotels, buses, restaurants).

So why are there suddenly troops amassing over the borders, and shots being fired, almost 50 years after the Cambodian government was awarded ownership? Recently, the site was deemed a World Heritage Site by the UN's cultural body. It's been a nasty reminder to the Thais that while they control tourism to the site, the Cambodians still own the site, and the ownership of the entire Angkorian empire's prestige.

Last week, two Cambodian soldiers were killed and over a dozen Thai solders were taken as POWs. A handful of soldiers on both sides of the border were injured.

Where are all the stories about this crisis being filed from? Bangkok.

• Why won't the media venture a guess as to who fired the first shot?
• Why are there stories about the hardships of the Thai tourism industry, but not about the deaths of two Cambodian men?

And most importantly, why is Thailand dragging their feet on border talks while simultaneously telling their citizens to get out of Cambodia ASAP, regardless of business transactions they might currently have in progress?

Thailand is having serious issues with its government. Their Prime Minister was just forced to step down (who was replaced by a man who is already under investigation), their beloved King isn't getting any younger, and they are having serious issues with Muslim separatists in the south. Is a nationalist war of aggression something that can distract Thai citizens from the forces threatening to tear their country apart in the middle of a worldwide recession?

Hopefully we won't find out.