Well, who woulda thunk it?

Not I.

From the Miami Herald:

Even before Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton unveiled her new healthcare plan, Republicans attacked it as socialized medicine. They neglected to mention, however, that her plan bears a striking resemblance to changes that were proposed in 1974 — by the late President Richard M. Nixon.

”It was an extremely extensive plan, as I remember, that would have given universal coverage” for healthcare, recalled Rudolph Penner, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and economic official in the Ford administration.

Nixon introduced his Comprehensive Health Insurance Act on Feb. 6, 1974, days after he used what would be his final State of the Union address to call for universal access to health insurance.

snip

In his 1992 book, Seize the Moment, Nixon repeated his support for national health insurance, sounding remarkably like today’s leading Democrats:

”We need to work out a system that includes a greater emphasis on preventive care, sufficient public funding for health insurance for those who cannot afford it in the private sector, competition among healthcare providers and health insurance providers to keep down the costs of both, and decoupling the cost of healthcare from the cost of adding workers to the payroll,” he wrote.

Seriously, I would have never made the connection. I also don’t understand the Matalin/Carville marriage. Or why people eat jello.  Or drink Coors Light.

So much I don’t understand.

Just saying.

And sometimes they get published by the big boys at USA Today.

Okay.

Am I apart of this world? Are politicians and policy makers respresenting me? Are they representing you?

According to things that have happened in the last 24 hours, I would say no.

Wait, the Sunshine law is not so sunshiney today.

From the Chattanooga Pulse, who breaks it down:

Local government could meet in executive session to talk about what they want to offer or accept when talking about buying, selling, leasing or debating the market value of land or buildings. Publicly owned hospitals could talk about marketing strategies and strategic plans outside public view. School boards could talk about and grade a superintendent outside public view. The schools also could talk about land deals.

Do I have to pay taxes if they aren’t paying attention? Do I have a choice? Nope.

But, now things are changing. It’s not, as I’ve said 100 times, not about journalists. It’s about average citizens. It’s about things being discussed without input of government’s main boss.

That would be you.

This is utterly ridiculous.

Here’s why:

No Silence Here

R. Neal

I’m putting bloggers here, because these guys have been on top of things. Go read what they’ve been up to.

Here’s the story from the Nashville City Paper.

A pair of votes Tuesday was all that stood between recommending a state ombudsperson with no defined duties and one who was legally charged to help improve Tennesseans’ access to public records.

The Open Government Study Committee, which is charged with the task of studying and improving access to government, could have gone one of two ways: vote to recommend changes to the open records law with defined duties for the ombudsperson, or vote, as Nashville attorney George Barrett recommended, to do nothing.

Barrett’s move to not make any recommended changes to the Open Records Act fell two votes short, only garnering eight of the 10 votes needed for passage.

Instead, after lengthy deliberation, the open government panel voted unanimously to recommend changes to the state’s Open Records Act that included prescribed duties for the ombudsperson.

The state’s newly created “ombudsperson” will have the ability to issue informal opinions to Tennesseans on open record issues.

The ombudsperson, which was funded for the first time in this year’s state budget, will also be able to answer questions from “any person, including local government officials, the general public and the media” regarding open records.

An ombudsperson. “Informal Opinions?” What the hell is an informal opinion?

Guh-reat. I don’t think this will make a difference.

It’s one of those stories you tell that makes you laugh and then you wonder about who’s in tune with the blogging world, and who’s not.

Monday, after dragging my cute, yet ample, butt into work, the groovy chicks at work immediately told me to drag my cute, yet ample, butt home. I didn’t argue. I felt like a slug that had been attacked by a five-year-old with a salt shaker.

Yucky.

So, I come home, put on the muumuu and started lying about the house, as I’m wont to do.

I noticed on my blog this comment from a producer from CBS’ Sunday Morning. I was a bit wigged out. Why did they want to talk to me? I’m in Hooterville, for Christ’s sake. I, of course, wondered if it was about meth, my illicit history of being a NSA spy or some Elvis trivia that I might now. (I know more about Porter Wagoner, go figure.)

So, I talked to my friend Scratchy Throat and asked him what he thought. He said “Maybe they think you are a writer for The Late Show.” I was like, cool, no one from CBS has ever wanted to yak at me before, so what the hell and old Scratchy pinned it.

Yeah, I almost had a heart attack. A big ol’ coronary.

So I called the guy and he did think I was a writer on The Late Show because I’ve been writing about it. He said he liked my style. I told him I didn’t write for Letterman but was available in 15 minutes if they were so inclined. In all honesty, I suggested he go to the The Late Show’s writers’ blog if he was looking for some information about it and for contact information. He laughed, we talked about how he came via Hooterville to get information about New York (where he was) on these innertubes and we went on about our day.

He also liked the southern style of my accent. I had my Scarlett O’Hara voice on and had put away the Larry the Cable Guy voice I use in juke joints and at football games.

Yeah, I’m smart that way.

Of course, he just needed some info, but still it was sorta cool.

Two things came to mind from this situation.

One, why aren’t you people hiring me? I’m fantastic. (I keed. I keed. Not really.)

Two, the Internet has made the world much smaller. The story tells itself. People in traditional media are looking throughout the blog world and are finding things of interest in non-traditional ways. This is important.

So, there you go. As I’m still hacking up body parts (this morning’s delicacy was my esophagus), I’m amused about it all.

Steve, if you see this, Hi and thanks.

Because Raincoaster is always on top of things, I want to remind you that Dec. 5 is Ninja Action Day. I know that we are all private ninjas when we go home, giving the illusion of being mild-mannered bloggers, but when we turn off the computer …

WHAM

Ninja.

So, I’m stealing this from Raincoaster. It’s his idea, not mine and I’m late on the ball because the video was from earlier this month.

I was busy.

My ninja duties have been really heavy lately.

[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVnfyradCPY&rel=0&border=0]

If you are a ninja, you must prepare for the zombie apocalypse.

It’s in the handbook.

I was looking at my last post and realized that it didn’t make as much sense as I would have liked for it to, so in my MethBenedryl haze, I wrote some more to Cathy’s comment and yet I still wasn’t satisfied with what I was trying to say.

Then, of course, I went to sleep at 7 p.m. which could be the reason why I’m awake now, at 4 a.m.

Everything is connected.

Anyhoo, here’s the reason I think this is a bad idea. Listen, endorsements from celebrities happen all the time. Mike Huckabee has Chuck Norris and Nature Boy, Fred Thompson probably has a slew of folks, etc., Clinton has Spielberg (who most likely won’t say a thing.)

Barbara Streisand reminds me a lot of Hillary Clinton. I’m afraid they both are polarizing figures when you get right down to it although I did hear Goldnl in her post other day about her strengths but I’m just not sold yet. Now, and this is from friend of a friend, who says that someone formerly from Hooterville went to the big Barack Obama and Oprah fundraiser a couple of months ago (this woman no longer lives here). Big fan of them both, I might add. With that said, she said the fundraiser wasn’t about Obama but about Oprah. And, ironically, this woman was disappointed by this although that was one woman’s opinion. But I’ve been thinking about it.

Now, with that said, I saw this at Dork Nation this morning:

It is likely that Winfrey helps Obama by bringing out the dead. People who might not ordinarily have gone to stand in the cold and listen to a political speech on a barnstorming tour may well come out for Oprah (especially if they think there’s a chance they’ll find some Oprah gift under their seats). This can only help Obama, whose been suffering from lacking the immediate name recognition of Sen. Clinton.

And, of course, he’s right. Oprah Winfrey is, regardless of what I said above, not a divider but more of a uniter sort of figure. In the endorsements of the divas, Obama wins hands down, because as Mark says later in his post, people are tired of Barbara.
Oprah has also never done this before where Babs has. And Oprah literally “owns” television. Her show is amazing in that it has lived as long as it has and continues to stay strong.

The presidential race has become a cocktail party and, right now, the person using celebrity fascination the best, well, thus far the guy speaking to folks around here anyway, is most likely Mike Huckabee because the Chuck Norris thing made them laugh, they dig wrestling and he seems like a moderate conservative.

Which we know he isn’t or at least that’s what Rolling Stone is reporting:

He believes the Earth may be only 6,000 years old, angrily rejects the evidence that human beings evolved from “primates” and thinks America wouldn’t need so much Mexican labor if we allowed every aborted ­fetus to grow up and enter the workforce.

Can you say Yikes!

Yup, they like Chuck Norris. Ding, ding, there’s a vote. Now who is this Huckabee guy?

For me to wish that people would vote on the issues is a pipedream, I get that. But I do. But the days of spin has always been around elections. It is what it is.

Is this the only way to get people out to vote?

In this case, I’m wondering who Britney Spears is supporting as she gets the most air-time on news programs than anyone.

Wait, last time, it was Bush.

Never mind.

The upcoming presidential race is not about the battle of the divas, but about getting people who don’t traditionally vote to go to the polls for a president with a big fancy (D) next to their name.

I’m speaking to the Democrats here.

I just don’t think this is a good idea. 

Reports that Mike McWherter isn’t going to run against Sen. Lamar Alexander have surfaced this morning around the blogosphere.

I’ll be honest, I know nothing, but I’m wondering a couple of things.

First of all, would the Lott resignation and Alexander immediately looking at seeking  his Republican Whip position be part of McWherter’s reasoning not to run. When you think about it, and Sean Braisted has it right, the Dems most likely won’t sink a lot of money in the campaign. There was a certainty to McWherter seeking the seat (or at least the illusion of one) less than two months ago.

Would recent events, combined with former Sen. Fred Thompson’s decision to seek the presidency, force McWherter back into the shadows? And when I say shadows, I basically mean back into a pretty cushy position of being a kingmaker and not one of the kings (elected folks) as McWherter has been very successful in some campaigns around the state, including Sen. Lowe Finney’s.

Another thing really hinges on whether or not McWherter wanted to run in a race that he didn’t have a guaranteed win. McWherter’s father, Ned, was very popular during his time in Nashville. A loss is not something that the younger McWherter even wants to chance right now. It’s a lot of money, a year’s worth of campaigning and a tight race.

For one thing, it’s a loss for northwest Tennessee, who after years of being power hitters in the state’s capital when Ned was there (and even from the day’s of Fats Everett while he was in Congress in the sixties) has seen a decline of power. Sure, Jimmy Naifeh is the house speaker, Philip Pinion is the chair of house transportation commission, but those positions don’t have, for lack of a better word, the sexiness that Ned’s glory years did in the past.

In some ways, most likely McWherter had a better chance of beating Alexander than anyone else. On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder why he pushed for it across the state, then backed up.

Curious. I guess that’s why they call it an exploratory committee.

Apparently McWherter found something in his explorations he didn’t like.

Shuck and Jive is talking about my local senator:

State Senate Democratic Floor Leader, Roy Herron, will deliver two addresses at King College in Bristol, on Tuesday evening, November 27, and on Wednesday morning, November 28. The Tuesday evening speech entitled, “How Can a Christian be in Politics?” will be delivered at 7:45 PM in the Student Center and will be preceded by a dinner beginning at 6:30. The Wednesday morning speech will be delivered in the King College Memorial Chapel at 10:30 AM and is entitled “How Can a Christian be a Democrat?” Senator Herron’s appearance at King College is a part of King’s “Stories That Connect” series. 

Herron has been doing this for awhile around the state. I have a book at my office he wrote.

I probably should go find it. I read it and it was a pretty good. He doesn’t blog much, but he has one.

Hey, I’m a trendsetter because I already have one of these:

6. Inflatable Moosehead

No need to go through the expense and trouble of tracking down a moose and shooting it dead when you can simply buy an inflatable moose head for the trophy wall

There are more wonderfully insane stupid gifts at Stupid.com

For you neo-cons or liberals who think Hillary Clinton is the scourge of the country, there is always the everfascinating Hillary Clinton nutcracker.

Or one of these fancy action figures.

But these guys might behind the times, or more advanced, depending on your point of view because I had a chicken about ten years ago that did what the Poo-lar Bear will do. Man, I loved that chicken. It pooped tiny easter egg shaped gum.

Heh. But I’m still partial to Archie McPhee. We have retail shopping history.

So here’s the deal…

My cold has turned into an evil entity lying within my throat and chest that might require a visit from the local exorcist. (I wonder if we have one.) I am making the assumption that there are 13 demons residing in me at this very moment. 13 seems reasonable.

I have blisters on the back end of my throat that is swollen up to the size of a cow’s tongue, right before you slice it and have a lovely tongue sandwich (actually, it’s not too bad, those tongue sandwiches, as long as you get them in an authentic New York deli. In New York.)

I have gathered hundreds of unused antibiotics, left over hydrochodone cough syrup and some Meth Benedryl to exorcise the phlegm demon. I do not want to go to the doctor (did I tell you my blood pressure is doing great though and they think that all that mess was most likely just stress from the high impact lifestyle that Hooterville offers me and my personal feelings of lack of self-worth and value.)

That’s good news, now if it weren’t for my damned throat and chest.

The fever has only destroyed 200 hundred brain cells, but I should be able to collectively give myself a medication lobotomy before noon.

Woot.

If this is strep, I’m not going to be happy. The good news (there’s more) is that I can mess with the day job from the house, except I can’t talk that well.

I love technology.