Reconciliation and Health Care Reform

As a user of our health care system and someone who understands the legislative process I am concerned about the "victory" our congress plans to give our president before his 100 day anniversary. This completely undermines any bipartisan debate on the health care system through another hard line partisan power grab. This congress has set aside something like 800 billion dollars for the health care initiative. The problem is that they want this passed by Wednesday, President Obama's 100 day anniversary, without debate. Just like the 1100 page stimulus package which was not read by one member who voted for it. I site the AIG bonuses which Barney Frank and Chirs Dodd were appalled about. They quickly passed a tax on those bonuses to take them back. The problem with and why those bounuses stopped being talked about. Congress, when they passed the stimulus bill also passed the AIG bonuses. They would have known that if they had read it. They are going to push this bill through too under reconciliation which will hold the senate vote to majority and not the normal 60/40 vote. I am concerned and wanted to voice my opinion. Do you have an opinion? Have you sent email or called your congressman or senators? I have and plan to follow this closely.

Thanks for reading my little blog. God Bless America.

Gaming Geek

If you are a gaming geek and love on line gaming with friends then this one might be for you. I am the fore mentioned gaming geek and I have been for a while. I started gaming back in 1986 with the good ole Commodore 64 and a book of code, a 1541 floppy disc drive and of course the store bought games that indoctrinated me into geekdom. Graphics were poor but the play managed to capture hours upon hours of my time and taught me a little about programming. I didn't get to play very much in my young adult life because of commitments to my country and the lack of the technology at that time. Later a friend introduced me to a text based game by Simutronics called Gemstone! I played that one on and off for over ten years and then I deceided it was way too expensive to play and the loot was very poor. Muliple accounts could be opened from one system and allows those fortunate people who do not have to work to run many characters at one time taking most of the loot. The accounts and characters could be bought and sold and it turned into a huge hassel. I left a couple of years ago and the same friend sent me a link to Dungeons and Dragons Online. We played the paper and dice version way back in 1985 in the basement of whomever hosted the games and the imaginations of us all were set loose. After playing DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online) through the trial subscription I was very intrigued. Now a year and a couple of months later I am hooked. If you enjoyed the books, paper and dice of D&D then you will love this online treat. The graphics are great and the quests are challanging. I tried Diablo, only to be PKed every time I got a couple of levels and hated it. DDO is a very friendly enviornment with the option for PvP in some of the bars. I am, however, most impressed with the DDO staff and customer service. Game balance is good and guilds are a plenty. I reccommend DDO to anyone who wants to game online.

The Deficit! How Much?

I keep hearing that the deficit is between 500 billion dollars and 3 trillion dollars. Which is it and how do they come up with that number? Is the interest on our debt included in our deficit? Are we so deep in deficit that we must print money which some say will cause hyperinflation? As you can see I have many questions and no matter where I go I cannot get a clear concise answer to these questions. I get answers but never the same one twice. That is what my post is about today. I hope someone can help me understand why those answers are hard to find. I understand that they are questions not easily answered but answers are very easily produced to boost one view or criticize another. Can anyone help me understand?