letter to my congressman on HR 676

John Culberson is a Republican piece of shit, but unfortunately, he's the congressman from my district. I wrote him a letter about HR 676, the National Healthcare Act, currently to be debated in September, and FAR superior to the plan Obama is backing with a "public option." Anyway, here's my letter:

You're my representative, and I'm expressing my will as a voter.
Vote FOR HR 676, The National Healthcare Act. Become a co-sponsor if possible.

I work full time, I have private health insurance through my employer, and it sucks. I have back problems from work that I have to fight with my doctor about when the pain returns because United Healthcare doesn't want to fully cover my pain meds, and the dental coverage is a joke. My teeth are rotting out of my head because I can't afford out of pocket expenses even with coverage, and I'm sick of it.

Health coverage is a right, not a privilege. It's time the USA joined the rest of the civilized world and recognized that allowing private companies to profit off the misfortune of citizens is immoral and evil.

Vote FOR HR 676.

EDIT: I already knew Culberson was an asshole, but after reading his policy positions on his website, I'm now fuming with just exactly how big of an asshole he is. I agree with him on gun control, but that's about it.

I'm so totally not candidate material, but I am wondering how hard it is to get on a ballot while still remaining just as foul-mouthed and belligerent as I am, and while also not accepting any corporate donations. The very idea is anathema to me as an anarchist, but it might be good for a laugh to run for office while still saying anything I feel like saying.

Keith Nielsen for Congressman, District 7

I'm not saying this is a real possibility, but just for the hell of it, I'm going to try to come up with a platform of positions I would run on. It's a thought experiment, unless I go really crazy at some point.

Healthcare: I support single-payer healthcare. I like John Conyers' HR 676, The National Healthcare Act, also known as the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act and would vote for it given the chance.

Gun Control: Use both hands. I don't own any guns, but I'd like to get around to it sometime. I have no problem with people owning as many guns as they can get their hands on. If they shoot someone other than in self-defense, they should be punished for that, but not for owning guns alone.

Abortion: I am fully pro-choice. I don't even like kids in general, although specific ones I know are ok. I prefer cats. However, while I support a woman's right to unilaterally decide to have an abortion with or without the sayso of the father, there needs to be a quid pro quo, some mechanism by which a father has a right to opt out of supporting a kid if the woman wants it but he doesn't. I have no idea yet how to fairly do this, but we need something there to make it fair.

Gay Rights: I fully support the rights of gays and lesbians to marry, with all the legal rights and responsibilities that entails. I will also support civil unions, but only if all legal marriages, heterosexual or homosexual, are called civil unions. Call it whatever you want, as long as it's the same for everyone.

Polyamorous Rights: I also support the concept of group marriages, provided all people involved are of age and consenting. None of this Warren Jeffs bullshit with underage kids forced into it. I think it would drive me crazy, and I am committed to one person, my wife, but if people want to try various other configurations, I don't give a damn, if they can make it work, more power to them.

Foreign Policy: I'm a non-interventionist. Bring the troops home from Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Korea, wherever we got them stationed. Areas that we've fucked up like Iraq and Afghanistan, we probably do need to still help out, but not with the military.

Corporations: I don't know the logistics of how to do it yet, but I'd want to sponsor a bill to remove the legal fiction that corporations have the rights of a person due to some shenanigans with court rulings and a malevolently creative interpretation of the 14th Amendment. I'd also seek to revoke many of their charters. Any corporate officer found guilty of white collar crime, especially where it involves robbing lots of people out of their hard-earned retirement and whatnot, gets life in prison, full asset forfeiture, and gets put into the general population with other murderers and rapists. I don't care if they're not pulling triggers or personally raping people, they do more harm, it's time that there were real consequences. If some jury decides to go with less than life in prison, I'd like to see something like a sex-offender registry for corporate criminals whose actions were harmful to others, maybe make them wear asshats or something.

Election Reform: I want to see instant runoff balloting implemented in all elections at the federal level. The state level, too, but they have to do that on their own. I also want to see Election Day turned into Election Week, so that people don't need to rush to the polls and wait in ridiculous lines. This can be Election 2 Weeks, for all I care. It needs to be more convenient. All private campaign contributions will be made illegal, and replaced with a publicly funded system. Fuck you, money isn't speech.

Religion: Tax all religions equally as with any other property owner. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Scientologists, Satanists, whatever. There can still be some tax exemptions, I suppose, but nothing special for religions, they can apply the same way non-profit orgs do, as that's all they'll be in the eyes of the law if I get to decide.

Science: I'd jack NASA's funding way the fuck up. I want to live in a goddamned space station, with the ability to visit permanent bases on the Moon, Mars, and wherever the fuck else they can swing it. With my non-interventionist, defense only foreign policy, we should be able to afford it. Also, I'd pump a shitload of money into solar, wind, fusion, and whatever else other kinds of alternative energy research needs to be done. Fuck oil, coal, and fission. Global warming is real, and needs to be stopped.

Crime and Prisons: I will abolish the death penalty entirely. No system is 100% fool-proof, and our criminal system is far from that. Life in prison may suck, but at least we can let you out if it turns out you're innocent. I'd also decriminalize non-violent offenses. If you want to do some drugs, I don't care. If your use of drugs causes harm to anyone else, fuck you, you go to jail, not for the drugs, but for fucking with other people.

Media: This ties in with corporations, but I'll limit how many tv or radio stations a single company can own, will restore the equal time principle, and appoint Noam Chomsky as head of the FCC. Or Doug Stanhope, if Chomsky doesn't want it.

Education: Teachers need to be a highly trained and highly paid profession. They're goddamned important, especially when it comes to keeping bullshit like creationism out of science class. We can have a religion class in public schools, but only if it teaches about all religions, pointing out the merits and flaws of each, and what, if any, empirical evidence there is to back up each's claims.

I need to crash, but I can expand this if someone brings up other issues or whatever.

Alarming new outbreak model

When a science journalist gets an email from Neil Ferguson, with the subject "An important new piece of infectious disease modelling research", one tends to take notice. Dr Ferguson, Professor of Mathematical Biology at Imperial, College, London, is one of the world's leading epidemiologists, who advises both the World Health Organisation and the UK Government on the current swine flu pandemic. Where infectious disease is concerned, he is a source of some authority.

The attached study, he said, highlighted "a problem we should wake up to -- this paper shows only the harshest control measures would give us a chance." Just what might this terrifying new threat be?