Clark4Prez

More states are passing stronger anti-smoking laws, this bothers me. I know smoking is bad for me. I know that it is bad for the others around me. Ok, I get the point. And I have no problem with it. I won’t smoke in public. With that being said, I feel it is my duty to bring up another public health issue. Cell phones. I’ve seen reports on the news of studies dealing with the low levels of microwaves or radiation or whatever it is you can’t see but they tell you it is there. These studies suggest that over time this might be bad for us. Which means that it is only a matter of time until they discover that, yep, second hand invisible things are bad for you. Nay! Far worse for you than first hand invisible stuff. As your President I would take immediate steps to halt this impending health disaster.

The way I see it we can either lump cell phones in with all the anti-smoking legislation or we figure out something for everyone. This is a situation where I think seperate but equal is justified. Government buildings would automatically be non-smoking and non-cell phone. Everything else would be determined by the property holder.

There would basically be 4 groups: non smoking cell phone users, smoking cell phone users, non smoking non cell phone users and the last category which, by the way, is where i fit in, smoking non cell phone user. Yes, these would be my people.

In fact, I would be open to legislation making traditional home phones go back to the way they were in the old Andy Griffith shows. You’d pick up the ear piece and depress the hook a few times and you’d hear maybe 6 or 7 people on the line. Ain’t Bee would be cussing Myrtle and her roses, Floyd would be talking to Goober and Earnest T. Bass would be sounding like a pervert in the background not really talking to anybody. In case you have not gathered I don’t like phones much.

I guess they are a necessary evil though, just like cigarettes.

Whoa……whoa. I know there are non smoking cell phone junkies aghast that I compared cigarettes to cell phones as a necessity, but just think about it for a minute. Still don’t think cigarettes are necessary? What tax shall we increase to replace the billions of dollars lost from taxes on cigarettes? What about the tobacco workers and farmers? And, most importantly, what about all the innocent lives that will be lost to maniacal cigarette addicts who just can’t take the withdrawl.

Save the dinosaurs.

Clark

I haven’t written in a while, I’ve been letting things digest.  I’m still trying to keep down parts of The State of the Union Address. I haven’t received much comment on my previous posts, which is a little disappointing, but we will keep plugging away. I figure that eventually I will write something that so completely pisses someone off they will have to comment. Either that, or someone will finally realize the true genius behind my plans and the groundswell will begin.

There will be more to come on the health care issue but I thought I might tackle some of the meatier issues facing us. Important things, things like gay marriage and abortion, things that can cost a person an election.

Gay marriage? Is this really an issue? I don’t see the big deal. I believe this is only an issue to singe people. Anyone who has been married for very many years knows that, after a while, no matter how much you love your spouse, there are a lot of times that there is nothing remotely gay about being married. So I say let them have at it, they too deserve all the benefits of married life, benefits like the marriage tax penalty, benefits like having to pay attorney fees when you decide you can’t take it any longer and want to leave your partner, benefits like in-laws, the list goes on ad nauseam.

There really is no good transition from gay marriage to abortion, that being said, lets just dive right in. I believe that the woman has the ultimate say so on this matter. It should be entirely up to the individual. It would be nice if the possible father was told, but he should have no say so in the matter. He is entitled to his opinion, but should have no rights in the matter. Let’s face it, had he taken the time to don a condom his lady friend might not have to make a choice. I am thankful, however, that 2 women didn’t choose abortion or my wife and I might not have any children, or at least not the children we have today. When you think about it how could someone like myself, who has come out in favor of doctor assisted suicide be against abortion.

And now for something entirely different.

My staff of volunteer is working on some ideas I had for some changes in the appearance of Clark4Prez.org. Look for them in the future. I’ll try to keep a little more regular schedule for my posts.

Thanks.

Would somebody please check the batteries in George the Lesser’s hearing aid. He must not have heard the news that, depending on what poll you see, about 65% of the American people are opposed to the war in Iraq. If he did hear, you would never know it from his speech Wednesday evening.

Perhaps he is really a Basset Hound in a people disguise. My family has owned Basset Hounds off and on since I was little. We bought a book on raising Bassets one time, the first paragraph contained this passage, “Basset Hounds are a stubborn disciplinary problem”. That could explain his behaviour.

Personally I like to think he is just proving that the slogan for The United Negro College Fund is absolutely true.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste. In Mr. Bush’es case maybe it should be “A mind is a terrible thing”. I support our young men and women in Iraq, I’d like to see them come home. Sending a small amount of extra troops to Iraq and purposely trying to provoke Iran to attack us is not my idea of the way to end this mess.

Anyone who still believes that the whole war is not about oil needs to take their head out of the sand. If there weren’t so much oil over there our government wouldn’t give two hoots in hell about Iran and Iraq. We certainly don’t seem as concerned about North Korea as we do Iran, and North Korea is already testing nukes. Oh, but wait, no oil there is there?

Perhaps Mr. Bush also missed the news from Isreal last week. I seem to recall something about the Isrealis being ready and willing to use tactical nuclear weapons (that would be nuculear to you Mr. President) to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities. So what possible reason could we have to provoke an attack? Do I have to say it? We don’t want people that don’t like us to have control over that much OIL. The problem is; no one in that entire part of the world likes us except the Isrealis.

Before it all said and done over there it will have cost approximately one half of a trillion dollars, and no telling how many American lives. I do not hesitate to say that that much money and that many lives could have been better used by building wind farms and coal gasification plants and geothermal power plants. Three thousand plus, brave young men and women could do a lot of useful things with that kind of cash.

Truth is, Mr. Bush scares me and I’m not afraid of much. I wasn’t this scared when I was little and had to hide under my desk in school to practice what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Mr. Bush is a loose cannon, a lone wolf, a single tumbleweed on the plains of world politics. I, for one, feel it is not to early to start impeachment proceedings.

Thanks

This is the tough part of the health care issue. Anybody can say “everybody should have health care” but how do we pay for it? I don’t have a staff to crunch the numbers for me, but I have some ideas. They may seem a bit harsh or cruel but we can’t have everything.

First, I believe that the President should have the power of the “line item veto”. I’m sure I could find a lot of fat to trim away from the hog that is government. One of the first things I would stop would be government funding of medical research. We have a population with an ever increasing life expectancy. We can’t take care of our elderly the way we should as it is now. Besides, if researchers stumbled upon a cure for say, cancer, would the average American without health care be able to pay for it. No. So why bother. Lets get health care first, then if there is anything left over we’ll see about research. I would also grant Dr. Jack Kevorkian a full pardon and legalize doctor assisted suicide. It is all about quality and not quantity. It would be similar to the movie “Soylent Green” but we wouldn’t be making food supplements from the corpses.

Another thing that really bothers me that I would fix is drug company advertising. I would make it illegal for drug companies to advertise anywhere but in trade magazines and individual mailings to doctors. Why do I need to know about the latest pill for toenail fungus? I don’t, the drug manufacturers want me to know so I watch for the earliest symptom and go running to my doctor to beg for the new pill. The same for restless leg syndrome, itchy watery eyes, runny nose, e.d., herpes outbreak and…. I think you see where this is going. How many people even knew there was such a thing as restless leg syndrome before they had a medicine to treat it?

I realize parts of this may seem disturbing, but facing our own mortality is always disturbing.

Thanks

I believe every American is ENTITLED to health care. The government is supposed to “provide for the general welfare”. What more general welfare is there? I have a plan, it is more detailed than my plan to deal with Iran. It is multifaceted. It may seem a bit harsh at first and I will be spelling it out over the next few days. Today will be part one.

HEALTH CARE PART 1

I feel the first step towards being able to provide health care is to reform our courts. We need realistic tort reform. Doctors are not perfect, thats why they call it the practice of medicine. While they should be held accountable for any blatant screw ups, such as leaving a scalpel in someones abdomen, they shouldn’t be expected to be held accountable for everything. There should be limits on monetary awards for damages. This will help lower the cost of medical care making it an easier fiscal pill to swallow.

I live in Illinois, where at least all our kids have health care. Thanks to our Governer, Rod Blagojevich. The governator, Arnold Schwarzenneggar announced California is going to do the same thing. There are no examples of states with governer’s names like Smith or Jones or I certainly would have used them. If these two states can manage to do this much the Feds should be able to do better. But, how do we pay for it? That will be the subject of my next rambling.

Anyone who reads this might wonder how I would accomplish anything with no political party affiliation. Won’t the Democrats and the Republicans both be out to see that I fail? Maybe, but I would have one very powerful tool, the people. And the people have 2 very powerful tools: their voice and their vote. I believe some dead president wrote something like…a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. (This is where, in my t.v. ad, you would see the flag waving and hear a choir singing “America” in the background with, of course, MY picture superimposed)

I’m sure trial lawyers will not like this part of my plan. So?

Thanks