Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY

Today is the day you get to help shape the path the country will be on for the next few years.

Today is the day you can help the Democrats achieve a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, or depending on your views, you can help prevent an unstoppable liberal legislative era and keep government reasonable.

Don't let the media fool you. This election isn't over until the votes are counted. George Bush effetively won the presidency by 557 votes in 2000. I honestly never thought I'd see such a close race, and I think the day of the landslide is now far removed. Your vote counts, and it's a precious resource. Don't waste it with some lame excuse.

Steve said about 2 hours later

I'm supposed to vote tomorrow? Sweet, must mean I get tomorrow off too! Oh crap, maybe that means I was supposed to work today....
GJ said about 2 hours later

Hahahaha
Marc said about 5 hours later

I just hope my fellow North Carolinians make the right choice. We are a swing state, so this is the first time my vote really might matter in the grand scheme of things. :)
Geoff said about 7 hours later

I live in NY. My presidential vote doesn't matter. Plus Ron Paul isn't running. I did vote though as my local politicians are closer races. Need to keep them Dem's from spreading the wealth.
GJ said about 8 hours later

Did you buy McCain's kool aid? Spreading the wealth is what our progressive tax was designed to do. The trick is finding the right balance, not wiping it out completely.
GJ said about 14 hours later

Congrats to Barack Obama, first black president. As of 9:30pmEST, he has enough votes (if you include California, Washington, and Hawaii going to him) to hit 270 electoral college votes. Game over, McCain.
Geoff said about 14 hours later

No I didn't buy it silly...I drank some of it though :)

The right balance is key. I'll let you know how that balance is swinging in a few years with the Democrats controlling everything :)

I can't say the Republicans would do better though. My boy Ron would clean things up though :)

NOTE: I replaced all my end of sentence periods with smiley faces :)
GJ said about 16 hours later

Nice to see the MSM get on my bandwagon by 11pm. :)
GJ said about 16 hours later

John McCain is giving the speech of his career right now....if this was the guy who actually ran this race, he might have won.
Kristen said about 16 hours later

Isn't it fun to be in a swing state Marc? Much more exciting to vote in Virginia than New York or michigan!
Geoff said about 17 hours later

I was plenty excited...I got a sticker! McCain delivered a good speech, Obama really nailed it. He definitely has the opportunity to be one of the greatest presidents of all time. Let us hope he can live up to the challenge.
GJ said 1 day later

Michigan's a swing state in most elections...just not this one. :) New York on the other hand--the last Republican prez it voted for was Reagan.
GJ said 1 day later

Ok, what was that dress Michelle Obama was wearing last night? That was a black widow dress if I ever saw one. Methinks she just wanted to give the conservative pundits something to talk about this morning.
Geoff said 1 day later

Black pride baby
Marc said 1 day later

We still can't make our minds up in NC. It's now a difference of 11k votes with Obama in the lead. It's all Charlotte's fault too, they voted for McCain, the rest of the state voted for Obama. Not that it matters. Congrats Obama! And I'll admit, that was a very good speech by McCain, but I imagine he's been practicing that one for quite some time now. :)

But all was not lost last night for the republican hunters in the south. I did my civic duty of killing a deer. Although not with a gun, I decided to do it with my car on a divided highway...again.
Geoff said 1 day later

Yes, but did you drag that carcass back home, cook it, and eat it?
Kristen said 1 day later

Ouch!! What's the damage Marc?

I believe that Wachovia is based out of Charlotte, so that says something about that city.
Geoff said 1 day later

I'm eager to see how much money I'll be shelling out for Health care come next year now that I will be paying for the crack heads across the street to get medical attention when they overdose.
Kristen said 1 day later

I believe you were already paying for them before, Geoff. Gunshot wounds to the head are not often turned away at the emergency room. What will happen now is that people with like 6 digit incomes are going to subsidize a greater portion to assist people who have jobs with companies that aren't sizable enough to afford to cover health plans. So now hopefully those people will be more likely to seek early treatment and be able to afford co-pays, rather then having them wait until they have several major issues wrong--hence ending up in the emergency room which taxpayers have to cover.
At least this is what I voted for, although I know that GJ will poke five million holes (gunshots?) through my reasoning. Bring it! :)

GJ said 1 day later

Nah, I'm too busy picking on Geoff's psuedo-neocon non-sequitors.
Geoff said 1 day later

Easy for you folks to say, you don't pay health care for your employees. It's a bit different for business owners, but anyone who thinks the middle class is going to get a break is nuts. We NEVER do under any government whether it is Red or Blue. I'm no Republican by any means, but I sure as heck ain't a liberal either.

I'll post my numbers for what I pay in the coming years and we'll see where things land. Right now I pay $650/month per employee for the family plan with limited prescription coverage. If and when the government takes over, I'll be paying more for crackheads AND government waste...instead of just the crackheads. :)

Anyone who says different, please provide me numbers with the effectiveness of Medicaid. I've been searching and can't find anything. GJ might be able to find some good info.
GJ said 1 day later

When people talk about a break, they are talking about a tax break. You're talking about health insurance--separate topic.

Obama is not a proponent of socialized medicine--that was Hillary's gig. That said, if medical costs continue to spiral out of control, socialized medicine may be our only real option to bring those costs down. In case you haven't been reading the Economist, or other economy rags, companies who once strongly resisted socialized medicine are now beginning to demand the government implement it and get those onerous health insurance costs off their books. They figure that the taxes will then get split among citizens and businesses, and they'll end up paying less in that equation. Whether that's actually the case...has yet to be determined.

Now, let's cease and decist with the buzzword "crackhead." What you're referring to, but not saying, is welfare cheat, deadbeat, unemployed lazy asses, druggies, etc. Certain political parties would like you to believe that all poor people fit this stereotype and are not worthly of our mercy and financial support. The reality: most poor people are hard working folks who simply are finding that they cannot earn enough to make a living; or a catastrophic illness or accident has wiped out any ability to earn a living wage. We can make the choice to let the poor fend for themselves...but generally, that's not the way we do things in this country.

So, what precisely are you expecting to happen now that Obama will be the 44th president, Geoff? I expect the following:

* rollback of tax breaks enacted over the past eight years (in effect, a tax increase) for wealthy individuals / businesses.
* increase to the contribution cutoff for Social Security (in effect, the rich pay more into this fund).
* increase of the personal 401k/IRA contribution limitation.
* socialized medicine pt 1: universal prescription drug coverage.

That last one will be *hard* to pass. There will be a tremendous amount of resistance to this from the drug firms.
Geoff said 1 day later

That's fine with me on the above items. I would just like to see some hard numbers on who we are helping and how effective our programs are. I'm sure there are plenty of poor people who work hard and still don't make ends meat and need some assistance. What are their spending habits. Are they making good decisions with the money we are giving them?

I will admit that all I have seen is the ugly side of those who cheat the system. And the one single successful case I have experienced is with Medicaid for Michelle. She used it for a brief period of time before we were married and then as quick as she was on it, she got off it. Of course, getting off it was the most ridiculous process in the world, which sort of tarnished that experience.

I'm sure the more successful people who were on these programs would never admit it, so again, we only see the bad. I would like to see an in-depth evaluation of these programs with some hard numbers. You telling me that most people on these programs are hardworking isn't enough. A good scientist should know better :)

All I wanted from Obama is his image. He has the right image to hopefully change the way the world looks at us.
GJ said 2 days later

You only see the bad if that's what you look for. There are a lot of people out there that struggle to put food on the table, and they're not hard to find--stop by the food pantries this time of year with the economy the way it is. They are having trouble keeping the shelves stocked. You can bet most of those people have no health insurance and only get medical care in the emergency room when they can't put it off any longer.

To be sure, there will always be miscreats who abuse the system. It's no different from the white collar crime dudes--they're always there, you just have to work to make it harder for them to survive, while keeping the mission of the welfare system alive and functioning for those who truly need it.
Geoff said 2 days later

I just see a welfare state growing. In my opinion, handing somebody a welfare check or food stamps isn't going to solve the problem. They should be temporary programs to get people back on their feet. Somebody working a dead end job (or not working at all), collecting welfare on an ongoing basis is doing nothing to improve this country. If they want their welfare check, they should work for it. Either by forced community service or attending higher education/trade schools. I would much rather pay for somebody to go to school than just hand them a check. Not to mention if you are on welfare because you can't afford to put food on the table, having another child while you are participating in the program should take you completely off the program. My former neighbor (house repossessed) is a great example there. They couldn't afford their mortgage, wife refused to work, was on food stamps, and still managed to pop out 2 more kids, and didn't mind because they would receive more food stamps.

I'm sure I am oversimplifying this, but I drive pass these bums on the street everyday to work, I live next to them and I am related to some of them (thankfully not by blood).

I don't mind helping people out in times of need, but I do have a problem with people who live off of welfare.
Kristen said 2 days later

I'm going to generalize a bit here myself. Working in a public school, I get to meet the full range of people out there. I usually surmise from the enrollment papers who is receiving welfare and who is not. Guess what patterns I see?

1. The parents have very limited education, but almost all have jobs. They just suck and don't pay sh*t. From my judgement, most of these people could barely hack it in high school. No way in heck most of them would ever cut it in college.

2. Almost all have major issues in the family. They are so dysfunctional it's all they can do to keep a roof over their head. They have disabilities (both physical and mental), they have illnesses (often co-morbidity), there's abuse, neglect, irresponsibility, and just plain old drama. They get arrested for stupid stuff.

Then they pass this all along to their children, who repeat the whole process.

While yes, I'd like to create programs to help these people, I want to see healthcare be more affordable for Joe the Plumber and Geoff the Media Master--for people living paycheck to paycheck.

BTW, if you google Barack's healthcare initiative, one of the things he is proposing is more detailed reporting from Hospitals on costs...what are people really paying? I think this will give us more data on how much and what types of treatment are coming from Medicaid claims....

A bigger issue than welfare, in my opinion, is going to be the rising cost of caring for elderly. There is going to be a huge number of people that did just fine up until they ended up in a nursing home--and are there for 15+ years. Who is going to pay for that once their estate runs out??!! Yikes! All these baby boomers!
GJ said 2 days later

Yeah, elder care will be nasty. We've gotten far too good at keeping people alive, but haven't really prepared for that sometimes bitter harvest.

At the end of day, Geoff is afraid of us sliding into a complete socialist state. That's not going to happen. By the same token, a total free-market every-man-for-himself system isn't going to fly either. We have a half-baked, half-assed system today that works rather inefficiently and frequently not overly fair. So, rather than through the baby out with the bathwater, we need to work to improve the system.

You seem to have a real interest in this, Geoff--have you considered getting involved? Politics isn't just the realm of politicians, you know!
Geoff said 3 days later

Yeah I know...I should and plan on it. I'm thinking in 5 years or so once I get a bit better at evaluating things, research, and gain some notoriety in the local community (and maybe more facial hair). I tend to get carried away with being stupid and goofy some times...I've been hanging around creatives too long :)

GJ said about 3 hours later

Cat with head in glass thingy: win!

Geoff said about 20 hours later

Yeah that was great. I wish I caught my cat on video last week. I had opened up the projector which was shipped out to me and the empty box was sitting half on/off the kitchen table. The cat leaped into the box, which subsequently fell off the table, hit the kitchen chair and knocking it over. In the middle of the catastrophic sequence of events, the cat somehow leaped back out of the box right before the box and chair collapsed to the floor. It was great.