Democracy for New Mexico: Udall: Reauthorizing Patriot Act Is Mistake; NM Congressional Dems Vote No
U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), took to the Senate floor last Wednesday to reaffirm his opposition to the Patriot Act, saying that the law undermines the constitutional right to privacy of law-abiding citizens (see video clip above).
Democracy for New Mexico: Udall: Reauthorizing Patriot Act Is Mistake; NM Congressional Dems Vote No [hat tip to Democracy for New Mexico]
At the start of health care reform, MR suggested Medicare availability for 50+. Now, a big-wig calls for Medicare at any age.
The Republican death wish – War Room – Salon.com
Democrats should be proposing that anyone be allowed to sign up for Medicare. Medicare is cheaper than private insurance because its administrative costs are so much lower, and it has vast economies of scale.
If Medicare were allowed to use its potential bargaining leverage over America’s hospitals, doctors, drug companies, and medical providers, it could drive down costs even further.
And it could force the nation’s broken health-care system to do something it must do but has resisted with a vengeance: Focus on healthy outcomes rather on costly inputs. If Medicare paid for results — not tests, procedures, drugs, and hospital stays, but results — it could give Americans better health at lower cost.
Let the GOP go after Medicare. That will do more to elect Democrats in 2012 than anything else. But it would be wise and politically astute for Democrats to go beyond just defending Medicare. Strengthen and build upon it. Use it to reform American health care and, not incidentally, rescue the federal budget.
Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was secretary of labor during the Clinton administration. He is also a blogger and the author of "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future." More: Robert Reich
The Republican death wish – War Room – Salon.com
[hat tip to dangerousmeta]
What do you do with the large blocks of styrofoam that come with most assemble-it-yourself items? I put several large blocks of styrofoam out to recycle and saw many of my neighbors do the same. I got a note that such is not recycled. Do we want this in the landfill? How much of this goes to the dump every month? I bet you can’t answer that.
I think if someone goes to the trouble of putting material on the curb for recycling, the recycle truck should take it. You have no other way of knowing what people think *should* be recycled or how much of that there is. Collect it, quantify it, then trash it if you can’t figure out anything better.
peace,
mjh
PS: Abq also doesn’t accept “chipboard,” such as cereal boxes, plastic bags (Smiths and other groceries accept these for recycling), common plastics other than #1 or #2 (Whole Foods accepts #5 — Gimme 5), or glass (curbside, but yes at various drop-off points; call 311).
Recycling – City of Albuquerque
Much of the more than 1,800 tons of trash generated by the city each day can be recycled. The manufacturing of new products requires considerable energy. If these materials are reused or recycled instead of being disposed of at landfills, less energy will be used, saving on scarce resources. … For more information on the Three R’s—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—call the Solid Waste Management Department at (505) 761-8100.
Recyclables are collected curbside at Albuquerque households, at recycling drop-off sites throughout the city, and at the city’s three Convenience Centers.
Recycling – City of Albuquerque
Preserve Gimme 5 bins can be found at the following Whole Foods Market stores and other select locations. The program will expand in the coming months so check back for additional locations. If you don’t live near a Preserve Gimme 5 location, you can mail your #5 plastics directly to Preserve. Turn your yogurt cups into toothbrushes, your takeout containers into razors by joining Gimme 5.
War – good god, y’all – what is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Say it again.
My Dad died 40 years ago, 5/28/71. I had just turned 16 and we had just moved into a new house, a quirky fixer-upper that would become Pine Street in many memories.
Dad came home early that day in a cab, not feeling well. He went upstairs while I threw a ball against the back of the house for Barnabus, our St Bernard, to catch. The ball got slobberier and muddier with each iteration and a Pollack of brown spots broadened on the white stucco between windows on the second story. Those blotches stayed there for years. I heard a thunderous crash and ran inside to find my Dad prone on the landing where the stairs turned. He was unconscious but breathing. I tried to rouse him, then ran for the phone. I didn’t know what to do, so I called my sister, Elizabeth. (This was before 911.) She called emergency rescue. I sat on the steps near my Dad, listening to his last breaths. Rescue arrived too late to save him.
I remember when my friend Dave Stilwell came over the next day I said, in effect, if things seem weird around here today, it’s cuz my Dad just died. My first obituary.
My Dad was a farmboy who grew up to be an engineer and work for a series of communications companies, ending with Comsat. Mom loved to say it was his job to figure out the cost of the phone call between the President and the astronauts who first landed on the moon. By hobby, he was an excellent carpenter. Just this weekend, I saw a bench around a tree whose hexagonal design reminded me of a far-sturdier version he build for Mom years earlier. To this day, when I concentrate on certain chores, I whistle tunelessly just like he did.
Dad was a military man, proud of his service in Asia as part of the Army Corps of Engineers. He was a Colonel in the Army Reserves at death. Military service played a huge role in his largely-self-destruction. I have no affection for the War Machine. We need to outgrow the waste and destruction we celebrate too often.
I don’t remember crying when Dad died. We were unhappy with each other then. However, many years later, I wrote a letter to Dad, imagining he had outlived Mom and lived in Montana with dogs and a pickup truck. Then, I cried.
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died 5/28/1971 Date: May 30, 2011 |