KiloXray

H.R. 1424, also known as the “bailout plan” is the greatest economic mistake of the 20th and 21st centuries, and is a dangerous step back in American society.  Nowhere in time did we ever make such a dangerous move towards killing the capitalistic nature of this great country and moving toward socialism.

Don’t any of our representatives study recent history?  Let’s look at socialist USSR, and how they ended up collapsing.  How about socialist China? Socialism took it down, now that its government is encouraging a gradual shift to capitalism - they are flourishing.  How about Cuba?  There isn’t a single case in recent history in which forced socialism works.  Socialism takes away the basic human right to prosper by personal effort, initiative, and risk, and brings government into our lives in a dangerous way.  Governments need to be enablers and stay out of our lives, not control and dictate any and every aspect.

H.R. 1424 is a mistake for the following reasons:

1) It will increase the national deficit by over 800 billion dollars.  That is 800 billion dollars the American people do not have.  This is defacto enslavement of this and future generation. What happened to living within our means?

2) This bill will force a significant increase in federal taxation.  As every economist will tell you, more taxes means slower growth.  Slower growth means higher burden and the path to disaster is paved.

3) Our politicians signed us up for 800 billion dollar debt in just one week! This is the worst type of reactionary legislation.  The legislature has a history of screwing up nearly every reactionary legislation they came up with (look up the “Patriot Act” if you want a good example.)

4) After the Great Depression (1929) the Federal government created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation which had similar goals to that of H.R. 1424.  The RFC was later shut down amongst allegations of corruption, favoritism, and bureaucracy.  Think it won’t happen this time - think again!  The first attempt to pass the bailout plan failed in the House with good cause.  In order to pass it in its second incarnation (H.R. 1424) the Senate laced it with Pork money providing tax breaks and incentives such as: wooden arrow maker, race tracks, rum makers in the American Virgin Islands to name a few.  This bill just passed the house, and it is already filled with corruption and favoritism.

5) This crisis wasn’t created by any single person, corporation, or legislator.  It is a culmination of greed by hundreds of thousands of people, corporations, and legislators.  The American public can be split down the middle to those that recklessly jumped on the bandwagon, and those that were responsible and did not.  Why are we punishing those that were responsible by enslaving them with the debt of those that ran wild? What kind of a moral message are we sending?

6) Many claim that “something needs to be done” and that “free market capitalism failed.”  They are correct on the first account, and wrong on the second.  Something does need to be done, we should let the market correct it self - that is how free markets work.  Someone once said “Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.”  And that is exactly the essence of how a free market should operate.  When people in a free market become reckless - they pay the price.  It is a self correcting mechanism.  It helps maintain moral hazard, ethics, and proper cost/risk/benefit approach to business.  If we privatize gains and socialize losses - we destroy the foundation for the success of capitalism.

Let’s remind our elected officials that they are public servants, let’s reminds them that they were put in office to serve our interests, rather than pad their pockets with kickbacks, let’s remind them that pork money and corporate favoritism is wrong, let’s oust them from office.  KiloXray recommends you vote the following senators and house representatives out of office to help remind them what there were put in place for.

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Here is a link to the full text of H.R. 1424.

Here is a link to the official House voting record for H.R. 1424.

Here is a link to official Senate voting record for H.R. 1424.

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PLEASE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO VOTE THESE RECKLESS SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES OUT OF OFFICE!

House representatives that supported H.R. 1424:

PLEASE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO VOTE THESE RECKLESS SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES OUT OF OFFICE!

Senators that supported H.R. 1424:

PLEASE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO VOTE THESE RECKLESS SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES OUT OF OFFICE!

Health care won’t be easy to fix.  Most politicians offer great single-step ideas that have absolutely no financial merit.  In order to fix health care, we have to address some of the core issues.  It’s time to abandon the “patch it up” approach - those do not work.

We have the best health care system in the world - why?  because we are capitalist pigs!  In the U.S. health care professionals have an incentive to do fundamental research, invent new procedures, and improve just about anything they can.   It is no surprise that:

• The rest of the world comes here to learn anything we will teach them.
• People who with the most difficult conditions come here to get treatment.
• We are the number one source of new drugs.  Medicines are developed here and sold world wide.

In reality, we have a health care problem because we subsidize health care for the rest of the world. Yes, the world is getting healthier at our expense!

Here is how we can fix it step by step:

1) Let’s start with the pharmaceuticals.  When pharmaceuticals apply for drug approval with foreign FDAs, as a part of the drug approval process in that country - the drug’s selling price is negotiated. If a price is not agreed upon, the drug does not achieve FDA approval in that country.   This practice is forbidden in the U.S. As a result, the pharmaceuticals have to agree to very low prices world wide, and we here in the U.S. have to pay the difference.  Since this has become an unfair situation for us, we have to force the FDA to set price limits just like other countries do.  If we do that, the pharmaceuticals will have to price their drugs more evenly across nations and have other countries pay their fair share in drug development.  Under normal circumstances,  I would object to such government intervention, but in this case it is needed since foreign governments are exercising a de-facto tariff on the U.S.

2) Price quote mandate. Medical care is one of the only trades in the U.S. in which you get service with no price estimate before hand.   When was the last time you went to the doctor and got a price quote before seeing the doctor?  They will outright refuse!  This prevents competition since we are a captive audience.  Doctors are in collusion by making this “standard practice”.  Congress should immediately enact legislation that forces every doctor/clinic/hospital to provide a written quote for every visit - allowing consumers to make educated decisions.

3) No cash, no insurance - no service! We have to stop paying for people with no coverage.  In reality, many people don’t carry insurance because they know the state and federal governments will pick up the tab.  Clinics and hospitals have to be profitable organizations for them to be viable in the long run.   While I do not want to force insurance on everyone, if you don’t have insurance - you must be willing to pay cash.

More to come…

Tonight, Barak Obama delivered his much choreographed nomination speech in the Bronco’s stadium in front of 80,000 enthused worshipers watching the return of the Messiah.

Obama spoke very well. He is well articulated, very charismatic, and always a person of presence.  Unfortunately, beyond that - did he really deliver a worthwhile message?

For starters, he immediately went on the offensive and attacked McCain.  He then went to play on the public’s fears stating that McCain is nothing but a continuation of “President Bush’s failed leadership” (his words.)  Is that going to be his platform – a platform of fear and intimidation? Going on such a strong offensive from the start of his speech is a significant indicator suggesting that is his only tactic for victory.  Such an offensive maneuver suggests he knows that he doesn’t have substance to solidify his platform, so he chose the next best thing - attack!

After a long assault on McCain he decided to present his platform, and here are the core points I noticed:

1. He will fight for the blue collar worker that was laid off because his/her factory was shut down.  He mentioned this blue collar worked over and over again. So let me get this, a factory is no longer financially viable - but Obama will keep it open.  Who will pay for that?
2. We will all get health care at the same quality senators do, including those of us who don’t currently have health care.  Those of us who currently have health care will pay less.  So we will all get more but pay less, who will pay for that?
3. Obama will pay teachers more, and improve our education system.  First, why is education a federal responsibility? The states should be in charge of education - not the Federal government, that is what federalism is all about!  So, we will have higher paid teachers, look at the California education system that spends billions of dollars a year on education but is on the top three worst in the nation. How will paying teachers more help? Some of the least funded education systems in the world are some of the best – money doesn’t solve everything. Once again - who will pay for these pay increases?
4. Obama promised affordable college education for everyone - who will pay for that?
5. 95% of us will pay less taxes - yippee!!! I think I belong to that 95%, so I will pay less taxes. Now, if there is less tax revenue, how are we going to pay for items 1-4?
6. Abortion - one topic he actually made some sense on!
7. 2nd amendment: this is where his true colors show.  Once again, he tried to “remind us” all that the second amendment was written for “hunting” and that “we should keep those AK47s out of criminal’s hands.” Well Obama - the 2A was written to protect  “we the people” against a tyrannous government.  Not a single word in the second amendment mentions hunting, or sporting, or target hunting.  Obama -  if the 2A is for hunting, then the first amendment is for pen-pals only. Obama, 2A shouldn’t be changed to keep those evil AK47s out of criminal’s hands, all that needs to be done is enforce the rules that are already on the books! This part of his speech demonstrated the DNP’s ever going attempt to rewrite the constitution whenever convenient.

So,  Obama promised everything, to everyone, for less money - how will that work? Speeches like that demonstrate how gullible people really are - just say what they want to hear and they will worship the ground you walk on!

Obama – your nomination speech receives a FAIL!

Election is coming up it’s a good opportunity to remind our elected officials they are public servants. This upcoming June we should do this by booting San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders out of office.

Why boot Sanders? Let’s start:

1) City finances. The mayor has been all talk but next to no action. He told us he inherited the mess and it’s not his fault - while true, as mayor he is expected to clean up. If he can’t clean up - he should leave. We have a city with a huge deficit, but he failed to balance the budget without committing us to super expensive loans. Why is it that he can’t understand that when budget is short - you reduce expenses!

2) Homosexual daughter fiasco. Mayor Sanders told us before he got elected that marriage is between a man and a woman - and that was his stand as our representative. Halfway through his term, he flipped on his position. Was the change due to public interest? Was it due to a change of heart within the San Diego community? Absolutely not - it was because he has a Homosexual daughter. Now, why should any of us care about Mayor Sanders’ daughter? Why would this personal matter cause him to change the position of the San Diego community? What’s next? His wife runs into financial problems, so Sanders will choose to declare that the City of San Diego supports bankruptcies? There is nothing wrong with his daughter’s sexual orientation, but city policy should not be based on Mayor Sanders’ family issues.

2) Sunroad building fiasco. Mayor Sanders failed the newspaper test on this one. His actions are those of someone guilty of corrupt involvement. This is coming from the person that came into the position promising to “clean up” the city and it’s government agencies.

3) Favoritism with Police/Fire Departments. We have a deficit - but he gives his Police and Fire department buddies generous raises. Some may get the feeling that Sanders is nothing but a Police and Fire Union puppet mayor.

4) “F-U Steve”. In a mayoral debate, Mayor Sanders couldn’t help himself to greet Steve Francis good-bye in any other way than “F-U Steve”. If he can’t control himself in public, what’s he like behind closed doors? What’s he like in the office?

5) Perpetual cry-baby. Mayor Sanders continuously complains about the fact the Steve Francis is self funded. At least Steve doesn’t take money from special interest groups.  If Mayor Sanders had real achievements to show for, he wouldn’t care about Steve’s campaign funding.  But since Mayor Sanders doesn’t have much to show for his term in office, he has to portray himself as the poor underdog.

Bottom line: His ethical standards are suspect, he failed to take aggressive action to repair our corrupt city government, he can’t control himself, and he acts like a Police and Fire Department Union crony.

Let’s put in someone new, like Steve Francis. What do we know about Steve Francis - very little. But the fact is that we need to remind our public servants who is in control, and whenever they get out of control - we need to exercise our civil rights, rattle their cage and vote them out of office. This is probably the most effective way to motivate our public servants to do their job - serve the public.

Steve Francis’ page: http://www.steveformayor.com/

Eric Bidwall is 25 years old, has dread locks and wears T-shirts for mayoral debates. Everyone considers him a novelty candidate, but then again, they said an actor can’t be the governor of California and the president of the US: http://revolutionarymayor.com/

Our elected officials love to shoot themselves in the foot and abuse the power we have given them. Since so many of us tend to forget it, I will update it periodically with reports of such events.

Lots of talk in recent months about universal health insurance a.k.a socialized health care, especially from politicians that love to dazzle us all with “affordable health insurance for everyone”, and “once everyone buys in costs must go down”. Well, talk is cheap, and most of the politicians never took economics 101. Let’s consider the problem more in depth.

First, everyone loves to blame the insurance companies for our health system’s faults. It’s a lot of fun blaming them - because they are an easy target. Well, health insurance companies are just like any other insurance company - they are a co-op for health services with the premise that people join it voluntarily, and the total costs (i.e. medical expenses) will be covered by the premiums paid by the members with some sort of profit margin. Now, everyone loves to blame the insurance companies for making huge profits. Is that really the case? Most insurance companies are publicly traded corporations - that means their books are wide open for everyone to review. Can anyone show me even one health insurance company that make outrageous profits? If insurance companies were that profitable - everyone would be investing in them. That clearly isn’t the case.

To understand the health care problem we need to look at the root cause. Health insurance isn’t the root cause -they are just a symptom of the disease. long ago, when health insurance became popular, the health insurance companies did the right thing for their customers - they negotiated rates with doctors with the idea that a large customer base would enable them to have leverage. This is at the core of free market. Since doctors found themselves in a spot they didn’t like, they changed the way they did business. Since “fair rates” are negotiated on the health provider’s cost, the doctors started increasing their costs in order to maintain the level of profitability they wanted. They started building modern clinics, with all the services and amenities of a 5-star hotel (or malls), and they started increasing their staffing levels. As an example, when I go to see my doctor, I walk in, to be greeted by the clinic’s receptionist (5-10 person team) for the initial check-in. After the administrative check-in is complete, I walk over to the doctor’s office only to be greeted by the doctor’s two receptionists. After being checked-in by the doctor’s receptionists, I wait to be called. I am called in by the doctor’s nurse #1 - she takes me to the exam room. Then nurse #2 comes in to take my vitals. It is only after I go through at least 4 support personnel that I get to see the doctor. These folks are just the people I interact with. I can’t even start to count the number of back office support people which I never see.

The direct result of all of this - is that we have to pay for the doctor’s entire team. Since the doctors managed to build a small empire around them, their profitibility level is maintained at the levels they originaly wanted them. Doctors will tell us that this support staff is need to be able to see a patient every 10-15 minutes, but doctors forget the law of diminishing returns, and their current staffing levels are way past the point of diminishing returns - but they don’t care as long as their financial objectives are met.

Another interesting observation related to this is the fact that politicians love to talk about how our collective buying power will create economies of scale, and how free market will help us make better choices. First, we can never achieve economies of scale when it comes to medical services - if you don’t understand why, open your Economics 101 book. This industry does not have the ability to create economies of scale. Now, to address free market; when was the last time any of us was able to compare prices when going to get medical services? One of the requirements for free market to work is the prerequisite that people have knowledge and choice. To demonstrate this point, call up 3 local doctors, and tell them that your knee hurts and ask how much it would cost to see them. Let me know what you find out. Doctor’s intentionally keep their costs a closely guarded secret - so we have no choice and the proposed socialized health care system will not address this.

Now, if we go to socialized health care let’s consider what will happen. We will all be obligated to have health insurance - right? Perfect (for doctors)! We will hand our collective rear ends to the health providers because now, we will be a captive audience - another concept politicians don’t understand. If everyone has to come to you for services - what incentive do you have to reduce your costs? Since health care is an oligopoly we know the outcome would not be a competitive market place. Economists have known that for a long time - why can’t politicians understand that?

In addition, we all know that you can’t make something from nothing - right? If everyone must have health insurance, someone must pay for it. So let’s make the government pay for it - right? Who funds the government? We do - what a revelation! The outcome would be that those that don’t want to pay for it - won’t be paying anyway, and those of us that have been paying for it - will pay more. So now we will have a situation in which we increase the burden of our social leaches on the those of us who are productive members of society. Since when is social justice defined as burdening the socially responsible and rewarding the social leaches?

Some of our beloved politicians like to point to how great socialized health care works so abroad. What they don’t tell you that other countries had to nationalize the medical profession - yes, doctors and their staffs are government employees! Do you think doctors here will agree to become government employees? Do you think the medical industry will agree to be nationalized?

Another thing politicians don’t tell us about the allegedly successful forign socialized health care is the fact that those systems are consistently overloaded. Need outpatient surgery? Get in line! And the line could be lone, very long. Need emergency surgery? Get in line as well. Is there a chance you won’t make it while you wait in line - tough, you still need to wait in line. Before you fall for the socialized health trap - talk to someone that needed health care in a country that has such a system to get a first hand account on how it really works.

Last but not least, socialized systems are inheretly flawed. They are flawed because by equalizing everyone - they supress basic human nature to exceed and succeed. There is a reason why people from all over the world flock to the United States for medical care - we have the best doctors. Why do we have the best doctors? Because they have the incentive to succeed. Turn them into government employees, and watch our medical system decline to the mediocrity of other countries.

The health care issue is a difficult one, and no magic bullets exist to fix the problem. Fixing the system can only be done by tackling all aspects of the problem. The aspects include medical health providers cost structure, liability insurance (I didn’t address this topic), health insurance, and last but not least - us. Don’t fall for politicians that promise you free health care by taxing someone else - for that someone will be you!

At first, the December 25 2007 attack by Tatiana on the sounded like another vicious attack of a wild animal on innocent zoo patrons, but now a different story emerges.

Carlos Sousa Jr., Amritpal “Paul” and Kulbir Dhaliwal, seem like any other teenagers, but their actions after the mayhem just don’t add up. Sometimes behavior is the best indicator of guilt, and in this case the behavior of the survivors doesn’t add up. If they have nothing to hide, why are they refusing public comment? why are they refusing to cooperate with police investigation? If this was a random attack by an aggressive animal what reason would they have to hold anything back? On a side note, it seems like when someone hires Mark Geragos - they can’t be innocent!

The result, one beautiful Siberian Tiger dead!

R.I.P. Tantiana

In the age of trash “reality TV” there is one reality show actually worth watching. The show is never scripted, the actors don’t talk much, but there is always action and drama. I am talking about Animal Planet’s Meerkat Manor.

Recently, the show has lost its lead character; Flower of the Whisker tribe. Flower was a worthy leader, a tenacious warrior, and a dedicated mother, that could have taught many Homo sapiens a lot about leadership.

This is a small tribute to Flower, who was killed by a Cape Cobra protecting her pups and leading her tribe on a suicide mission to evict the deadly invader. While her loss was unfortunate, her actions were typical of her personality, and we would expect no less of her. We salute you Flower!

Just installed Wordpress to make web page edits easier.  Let’s see how well this system works!