Tuesday

Tuesday and it’s already the end of the month. That went by pretty fast! And February is even shorter…Darn! I didn’t get all of things done that I wanted to; not even close, and so my list of January chores rolls over into the next month and the list is even longer.

According to the news reports, it’s time for the annual “State of the Union’ message tonight. I am extremely interested in hearing what Karl has to say, but I will wait until the transcripts are published before I comment. I really have a hard time concentrating when the presenter delivers the message.

And speaking of government…I was listening to Talk of the Nation yesterday and they were exploring some of the problems associated with the rollout of the new Medicare/Medicaid drug plan. Some listeners called in and the government experts gave them advice. Sort of. One gentleman called in and asked for some information on how to deal with the fact that he had to make a choice for a drug provider but he had no prescriptions to fill. (He was drug free!) Since I’m not taking any drugs at this time, I was eager to hear the explanation. The expert then rambled off onto some other subject and when called back to the subject…went off once again in another direction. It seemed like such a simple question! The short story? We never did hear it.

From what I have read, Karl is going to explain some of the drug program rollout issues tonight. I certainly hope he does a better job of it than the “expert” I heard yesterday. I’m still baffled and I can only imagine what it must be like for someone who is genuinely in need of prescription drugs.

It’s time for more coffee. With a shot of Butter Rum syrup. That’s my new favorite. And it’s time to look at the news and weather for today. With the Google Iran Alerts arriving on an hourly basis, it’s sometimes hard to see past that crisis and notice the other news. But there is plenty of it if you look for it. Such as “The highlight of the State of the Union address is likely to be the expansion of Health Savings Account”. Now there is a plan doomed for failure. You can’t get Americans to save for the little things in life (like retirement) and you expect them to save for their health care?

And how about this? “The much debated California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act of 2006, which passed with 47 of 48 Democrats voting in favor -- and no Republicans in support…would be a voluntary program. But a candidate who chose not to participate and accepted outside donations would almost certainly face scrutiny -- and perhaps voter backlash.”

The Republicans had this to say, "A system like this of public financing compels people to support candidates they otherwise would never want to support," said Mark Wyland, R-Vista.”

It would be better for all of us, no matter who we supported, if the voters paid for the campaign rather than the special interests. They just don’t get it…