I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
OT-
The tally of E-Patriot donations this site has raised is misleading. Single donations and sustainer donations are added to arrive at $6315.01 in total donations (see top-left of Atrios homepage, under Boot Bush! graphic).
Since sustainer donations are amounts pledged for each of 12 months, shouldn't that amount (currently $870.01) be multiplied by 12? Right now, total donations (paid and pledged combined) by Atrios readers totals $15885.12
Of course, the so-called Religious Right in this country are never interested much in Christianity or helping their fellow man. It's simply about power, and crushing anyone who stands up to them. Who gives a fuck about the poor? I've got my money and my mansion!
Not that I'm embittered or anything. I'm just tired of the choke-hold that religious fundamentalists have over this country. That efforts to bring Alabama to the 20th Century (they really need catching up) would result in such a firestorm just shows you there's a serious problem.
I'm cheering really hard for the governor here.
I don't think his religious rhetoric is inappropriate; no person of goodwill would object to what the governor is doing. If someone in Saudi Arabia declares that instituting a system of revenue sharing like Norway's is the good Muslim thing to do, I'm all in favor of that as well.
What disturbs me is the huge disconnect between godliness in personal life and godliness in civic and economic life. I'm at home now, and my dad was talking about the physicians in town who refuse to accept Medicaid patients, who don't want to work at a hospital because it has "too many indigents." To a man, they're all pillars in the church and heading Bible studies.
If a tenth of the religion that is mouthed in the churches, synagogues, mosques and temples in this nation were put into actual practice, we'd be seeing heaven on earth.
Christianity is anathema to capitalism.
Has anyone in this dust-up had the presence of mind to ask John Ashcroft just what God does think about the merits of the respective positions?
Those of you who get your understanding of Christianity from Pat Robertson need to go to The Right Christians.
many rich (CHRISTIAN-emphasis on religion) repugnicans seem to forget that needle/camel part.
Okay... now that I'm getting some linkage, I've put up on my blog a compilation of the more relevant posts that I've made over the past two months about the tax reform issue in Alabama. Why should you care?
Well, I think you should care because this has all the makings of a political watershed. It is a most unlikely scenario: A state with a long history of regressive taxation now has a conservative Republican governor calling for progressive tax reform with the backing of the Christian Coalition. If Amendment One passes on September 9th then it sets a precedent for how progressive tax reform can be made to happen with a bi-partisan effort that is backed by both conservative and liberal religious organizations. It could potentially set off a chain reaction in the Bible Belt with tax reform sweeping across the South. If the measure is approved in Alabama, my guess is that Tenneesee would be next. Of course if the measure fails then it's a moot point.
That's why Alabama's tax reform efforts should be of national interest and all liberally minded tax reformers should be intently watching what happens over the next thirty days.
And the point is well made that the "So-Called Liberal Media" has absolutely IGNORED what's going on in Alabama. Aside from a few stories in the New York Times and the few AP wire stories, this has generated ZIPPO national media attention.
Everyone is so caught up with the nomination of Bill Pryor to sit on the 11th Circuit Court or Roy Moore's efforts to keep his Ten Commandment's monument in the state courthouse that the REAL political story in Alabama is not getting the attention it deserves.
Hopefully this will change over the course of the next month, but I fear it may be too little too late. Polls indicate that the measure currently does not have much chance of passing although it does seem that the pro-reform lobby is gaining ground.
Thanks for the link, Atrois and keep Alabama in your thoughts through September 9th.
Michael Bowen
http://aminorityofone.blogspot.com
Gawd, Michael, I would love for Tennessee to be next. Our tax system is dreadful.
My dad was horrified when he found out we pay 9.25% on food. And every governor we've had in the last 25-30 years, Republican and Democrat alike, has called for an income tax.
The last attempt, by Republican Don Sundquist, was a mess. The talk show wingers arranged protests, which devolved into riots, with legislative staffers assaulted.
Hamletta,
Susan Pace Hamill, the law professor who helped influenced Bob Riley's thinking on the issue has been speaking to politicians in Tenneesee already:
http://www.wbir.com/News/news.as...ws.asp?
ID=13890
If Alabama can pull this off then so can Tennesse!
- Michael
yeah, Tennesseeans are way screwed.
pansypoo, they also seem to forget the Caesar/God distinction. Don't even get me started on peacemakers.
Hello PG, if you're around,
Thought I'd just comment on doctors and Medicaid/Medicare. I can't say anything about the personalities of the doctors you mention; don't know them. Lots of snobs/hypocrites in medicine.
That said, it is impossible to pay the bills if your practice contains too many Care/Caid patients. When I had a private practice (More than 10 years ago) the percentage of combined Care/Caid a practice could carry was 14.?%. Anymore than that and the physician's income delined precipitously. Up around 20% the practice could not meet expenses without turning into a "mill."
If you do not know the term, a "Medicaid mill" runs patients through as fast as possible. One symptom per visit, 1-2 minutes doctor time (if that), or, ideally, treatment by the least trained paraprofessional possible (doctor will sign chart later). No real supervision of care. No real thought about the patient. Any resemblance between this and good medical practice/care is not just coincidental, it's miraculous.
Some of these places cheat the system by billing for services/proceedures/visits not done. It is even possible to grow rich "supervising" several mills. The poor don't sue. Even if there is glaring malpractice it has to be worth mounting a case. Trying a malpractice case is expensive. Time, experts, proof of economic loss. Poor people don't earn much...
Of course the patients, who think they are receiving care, are the losers. This assembly line medicine is one of the reasons that socio-economic status is a predictor of life-expectancy.
But, let's say the doctor doesn't want to treat his Care/Caid patients any differently than his private pay patients...and many of them don't. The payment for a given visit/proceedure by Care/Caid is about 55-65% of the going rate. The overhead in a typical family practice is 50-60%. So with Care/Caid a practice can just keep the doors open if the doctor works for free. Many doctors wouldn't even mind that, but a lot of them have family obligations: food, clothing, etc.
I'm not saying, as I mentioned above, that the doctors you mentioned aren't "whitened sepulchures." Don't have much time for doctors who won't treat "indigents" myself.
Just keep this in mind the next time the politicians say that they're going to balance the medical budget by cutting payments to doctors and hospitals.
we may have quite a lot of taxes in WI, but our sales tax is resonable and doesn't get applied to FOOD.
Beyond fights for state taxation, this could also be a watershed moment in our politics, as Michael Bowen suggests, because of the dynamics of 2004. Bush's tax cuts and the economy will, along with matters of national security, be front and center. Realizing that the Christian Coalition has now supported a progressive taxation package, can Democrats appeal to swing Midwestern Catholics and other key religious constituencies in battleground states who tilt socially conservative?
One of the biggest gaps in our politics is the religious gap. Democrats are secularist, and Republicans are religious extremists. There's a place for a noble political vision informed by genuinely life-affirming religious values. "The Christian Left," an emergence of progressive Christianity that respects everyone but has a moral center, can give the Democrats a winning coalition. Up until now, it has been a total fantasy to think this could possibly happen.
Alabama is changing fantasy into reality, or at least it has the potential to do so. That's the (enormous) significance of this story.
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