the humid haney rant

Yup. Best Moonwalk I have ever seen.

RIP The Glove

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hK3Y1Ehv9c

Health Insurance Does Not Work Unless You Own An Insurance Company.

There is something morally wrong with the current health insurance industry. The act of making money off of health insurance means not paying for procedures. It means dropping people who become very sick and are in desperate need for the assistance health insurance is supposed to provide. It means cutting costs at the expense of the patient. It means private health insurance companies not allowing certain procedures because they deem them to be unecessary and thus letting capitalism determine a patient's needs rather than the health professional, their doctor.

So what should health insurance do?

Health insurance should cover you. It should not be run with profit in mind first and foremost, but with the well being of the patient as its primary objective.

I have a friend who thinks that America has a health industry 99% better than the rest of the world and we should not take on a complete overhaul of the system. I don't agree with this statistic. We are dead last when it comes to how we insure and cover our citizens in comparison to industrialized countries and our costs are twice as high compared to #1 France. I do agree that a complete overhaul of the system is not entirely necessary but I don't think that is what is happening. I think the way we are insured is being overhauled because it needs to.

He is afraid that Obama will create a health care system that is government run which will put private insurers out of business. To that I say "so be it." The only way they will go out of business is if they continue to operate as they have. They have a monopoly and if they are challenged they might drop prices and improve their coverage. But that is anti-capitalism, right? Wrong. Nothing speaks more to Capitalism than Competition.

A talking point against a public option for health care is that the government health care covered by insurance will be sub-par.  If this is true then those in fear of the socialized system of health coverage have nothing to worry about. Those who have no health insurance can finally get (sub-par) health insurance and those private insurance providers lose few of their customers because they offer a superior product. In the case of the person with Humana you pay more for greater value.

But what if I can get better health coverage for 1/5 the cost? Isn't that a good thing? A great thing?

I think so.

Here is another interesting benefit to a public plan. Businesses in America pay enormous fees to cover their employees. For example, with a public plan General Motors will save over 10 billion dollars immediately and this might help save the company. If American businesses can have employees covered by a public plan they can use that new capital they sace to compete with international businesses in the global marketplace by dropping the costs of their products and services which means more exports, more money, more jobs, more capital. Is that a bad thing?

Stop with the talking points and lets see both sides have an actual discussion on this issue and see where it leads us.

*cough*

Uh oh.

Debt sucks, but how about a government that actually protects us?

Common sense policies that protect and promote justice and the health of future communities is what I look for, as do many who claim to be Progressives, but not much of what we hope for makes it into law because Congress is in the pocket of business. Real "liberal" policies can't see the light of day because no one has the guts to defend and push them forward without them being taken apart and put together as shells of their original selves.

I have thought about the buy outs and loans to businesses MANY of you hate so much and I don't think either party would have done anything differently. Business will always be protected by Congress. And I have yet to hear or see what the alternative would have been other than some fat cats losing their jobs and having "learned a lesson." You can't just restart an economy, can you?

I agree with Bill Maher there are ways to cut spending and it is in the waste that is in the military budget. Talk about fucking waste. But no one seems to want to talk about it due to fear mongering. "But what is we get attached?" Really? That is just fucking silly. Do hundreds of billions spent on new aircraft that never will be flown stop a bomb from blowing up in a mall? Its just businesses getting contracts through reps in congress who tell critics that they must hate people having jobs. I think it is disgusting and insulting to the intelligence of the American people. But then again lots of folks watch Reality TV so maybe it is just insulting to my intelligence.

Less spending but with investment in our future via infrastructure, education, safety and open dialogs with other nations. That is what I support. That means cutting the fat that big business fights for. It means not allowing for crazy assholes to go to gun shows and pick up semi-automatic riffles that day. It means talking to Iran. It means new highways and new energy projects and actual levee protection. Protection not just here but in all 100+ other areas under sea level in the US. And it means admitting the mistakes of the past and that some times there is a need for social protections like Welfare and not claiming everyone receiving government support is a lazy, freeloading beggar.

Let me say something about that last position. Government is not perfect and neither is society. The person making minimum wage, so little money that they can't afford really any of their own protections or have stability in their life, plays a role in our society that we take for granted. They are part of how American society runs. To not try and support them in some way, give them some assistance because you think they need to "learn a lesson" or not be "given handouts" is to ignore that without them slaving away doing shit work for no pay no one can achieve the American dream of becoming insanely wealthy beyond any reason other than establishing your own personal empire and then telling Congress what it can and can not do.

You can't have protections for society and then bitch when they are misused. It will never be perfect. And to have no government support programs, to be true blue Libertarian means having an ever growing cycle of fear of your own streets, neighbors and future. I would never want that. But that is just me.

Here ends the 1st Rant in some time.

Twitter hijacked my blog.

So with Twitter and my current insane work schedule I have neglected my Rant. I do feel bad about this so here is something I am about to post that is longer than 140 characters.

...

New America: The Party Mascot

Got some face time on WWL.

http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl061609tpyoungpros.891bd7d8.html

Katie Moore / Eyewitness News

kmoore@wwltv.com

NEW ORLEANS - Less than a year from now, New Orleans will choose a new mayor.

And even though there are still no leading candidates, grass-roots groups are mobilizing to have a louder voice in the election. According to political analysts, a merger of the city's young professional organizations could have a big impact.

In post-Katrina New Orleans, young people are making their mark, and for 33-year-old Blake Haney, that means creating quirky t-shirts that celebrate everything New Orleans.

“There was a lot of apathy and I think when the storm occurred, everybody who moved back, they moved back for a reason. They probably rediscovered a passion for a place, for a neighborhood, for New Orleans,” Haney said.

That pride is what made the t-shirt part of his company take off, and now he's putting it to use on the Internet with a new venture: a web site for anyone connected to New Orleans.

“We wanted to find a partner that we could work with for what we're calling, if I was mayor. People who have profiles on our site can put on their platforms,” Haney said.

They're now partners with seven of the city's young professional organizations to create a voting block of sorts.

Young Leadership Council is taking the lead.

“I think the Obama election and several other recent elections showed that young professionals are really concerned about, if this city and this country and is really gonna belong to us and be about our future, how do we take control of it,” said Young Leadership Council President Nolan Marshall.

The collaborative, called EngageNOLA is meeting weekly to come up with ways to get young people excited and educated about the issues, and in general, about the election, not about any one candidate.

“With those organizations, there's really the bandwidth to reach over 80,000 young professionals who are registered to vote,” Marshall said.

Tulane Political Science Professor Brian Brox helped the school conduct a pre-mayoral election poll this spring and he said young professionals could play a big role.

“If you pull out just the individuals who are 35 and younger, you look at those people, the question asked if you intend to vote in the 2010 mayoral race? 85 percent of that voting group said that they will definitely participate,” Brox said.

America: The Party (all the details)

Free Entrance / Free Hot Dogs / Freedom
Fourth of July
9P - til
The Rusty Nail (old Mermaid Lounge)

1100 Constance Street, New Orleans 70130

In celebration of all things American, we cordially invite you to join us in the celebration of our Independence.
Come join the legions of characters for a night of Power Ballads, Yacht Rock, Funk, Motown, Hip Hop and more.  
Everything from Journey, Doobie Brothers, Van Halen, etc. to Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye and the Bounce styles straight out of NOLA.
Music made by Americans for Americans.
Location is a mere few blocks from Fireworks show on the river.
Costumes encouraged but not required, but what New Orleanian doesn't like an excuse to costume?
Come dressed as SOMETHING or SOMEONE Americana!

Free Hot dogs, American drink specials, patriotic visuals

"The American History Text Book Project" Photobooth w/ Zack Smith

Special Guest Appearances by:
Hippies, The NRA, NASCAR, The Rat Pack, Run DMC, Break Dancers, Uncle Sam, George Washington, Sweet Sixteens, Bowlers, Pimps, Bruce Springsteen, The Golden Girls, Televangelists, Jack and Diane, Cowboys, The Dude, Jesus, Christopher Columbus, Wat Whitman, Indians, Captain Kirk, Betty Crocker, Rush Limbaugh, Steven Colbert, Nicolas Cage, Howard Hughes, Hugh Hefner and the Playboy Bunnies, The Muppets, Baseball, Andy Warhol, Shaft, Bruce Lee, Jackson 5, Elvis Presley, Jerry Garcia, Jimmy Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Rocky, Louis Armstrong, Marlyn Monroe, Neil Armstrong and NASA, Lassie, Beaver Cleaver, Andy Griffith, John Waters, Mel Brooks, Hillary Clinton, Anne Colter, Betty Boop, Maye West, Wonder Woman, U2, American Gladiators, P.T. Barnum, Kurt Vonnegot, Flannery O-Connor, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Johnny Carson, Oprah, Judge Juddy, Rosy the Rivetor, Jackie O, Nina Simon, Amelia Ehrhart, Billy Holiday, Betsy Ross, Lil wayne, Dolly Parton, Grand Ole Opry, Roscoe Picol Trane!, Bo and Luke Duke, Scooby Doo.etc.

This event was made in America.

Brooklynola Re-Cap

BrooklyNola 2009 from humidhaney on Vimeo.

Griffith doesn’t deny the charge & I don't deny that if this is gentrification, then sign me up.

My neighborhood is very close to making a turn around. There are only a few blocks where shady things occur freely in cracked out buildings that are falling apart while waiting for their almost guaranteed demise due to arson or the careless tenant and their lit cigarette.

As a home owner and someone planning to begin a family I support getting rid of anyone who is going to run illegal businesses, attack their neighbors or bring more of the crazies to the neighborhood. The Lower Garden District has a chance to become a vibrant quarter of the city if it can just accomplish 2 things: make Magazine 2-ways and bring businesses further down the street to connect to the WWII museum.  Making that happen will be tough as long as the neighborhood is peppered with crack heads and head cases. Who wants to open a business or invest in an area that looks this way, is treated like shit?

http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/viewFeature.cfm?recid=1397

"That day that girl spit in my face I was so angry I couldn’t see no more. I snatched her but she fought me off. I thought I was going to take all the hair off her head,” she said.

The neighborhood feud has no doubt turned personal, Murdock said, but it has nothing to do with race. The Griffiths, she said, are largely responsible for much of their own misfortune.

The only reason their apartment building was damaged during the S&WB construction is because they allowed it to crumble into a state of disrepair over the years that left it structurally vulnerable, she said.

Instead of accepting responsibility, they sued the city in an attempt to get paid, closing the street for two years.

“They caused the street to be blocked and it killed every business,” Murdock said. “It was an absolute nightmare. It turned this block into a Third World. There was garbage everywhere and we had all sorts of assaults. It wasn’t safe for anybody. But they couldn’t have cared less. These people don’t play. This woman beat me up and could easily take out a pistol and shoot somebody. They’re dangerous, crazy people who have hid behind claims of racism.”

America: The Party

The Street Car Can Save The World

Richard Pryor "Here and Now" @ The Saenger Theater

Incoherent Response

"Thus, when Bush's inner circle first really came to grips with the threat of terrorism, they did so in a state of shock -- a bad state in which to develop a coherent response. Fearful of new attacks, they authorized the most extreme measures available, without assessing whether they were really a good idea."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/29/AR2009052901560.html

Crawfish

Crawfish
Originally uploaded by humidhaney

The Shift

Come rock out on a Sunday

Reminder to mark your calender, and to be sure to come to the Saint, 961 Saint Mary St, this Sunday from 2 to 8 in the afternoon. Come celebrate life and friendship with special sets from New Orleans own, the Generationals, and Louisiana darlings the Peekers and Drew Stubbs will be filling the gaps with his some classic vinyl and ohhh we got some surprises! There will also be BBQ from Squeal, drink specials and a baby pool provided by Pami P! This amazing showcase of love is being brought to you by the fine people at Static, Park the Van Records, Humid Beings and Dirty Coast. Come and say hello and drink with us!

Supa Saint Family Album

HB Alpha Sneak Peak

Ultimate Praying Championship

Ht Carbi

This is a test of the blog importer option in the Humid Beings profile controls. This is only a test. If this had been a real blog post I would have said something funny or filled with frustration.

This is only a test. Carry on.

Video from Brooklynola of North American Wildlife

I don't like when a social safety net is abused but neither do I like folks who seem to be elitist bitches. I am conflicted.

So one of the emails that Stacy Head sent says this:

Pisses me off 100 percent of the time. I have been shopping carefully, looking at the per serving cost of
all items. This chick in front of me is buying pre made croissant and egg, canned soups, solft driinks,
pre made beef pattie (who eats that???), pre made RICE KRISPYs!!! Precut sweet potatos (didn't know
those existed) and is payong with a food stamp card. I am voting for the freak mccain and his trash bag
vp. I am sick of it.

Alright I will admit. I am disgusted by the sight of folks not working and living off of the dime of the tax payers. Who wouldn't be. Black or white or latino, if you choose a lifestyle where you give nothing back to society other than more human bodies who need assistance you will be on any reasonable person's bad side. But I also understand the bigger picture and that there is a need for this assistance. Without it we would have mayhem and it is the lack of investment in education that leads to a break down in families and the community that lead to a mindset where food stamps and welfare is the only possible avenue.

But that is the exception, not the rule. There is not US and THEM. That mind set is just lazy and judgmental with a nice slice of racism.

But I also can understand Stacy Heads frustration as she works in City Hall 5 days a week. Have you been to City Hall? Talk about entitlement and laziness. Nothing is holding that place together. Its a receipt for depression to enter and try and get anything done.

But Stacy. 1 word. Just 1 word which is my advice to you.

Gmail.

Use it. Abuse it. Write the craziest shit you ever could imagine. Let Gmail deal with it. Not the City's servers.

//

Stacy Head is great to blog about because it always means traffic later through Google searches when she is in the news and her supporters will hound you down and comment like mad on your blog. Comments being rewards for bloggers. We thirst for them. Previous posts on the rant:

Stacy Head doesn't want you to save your seat.

http://humidhaney.typepad.com/the_humid_haney_rant/2008/04/stacy-head-does.html

Don't critique Stacy Head!

http://humidhaney.typepad.com/the_humid_haney_rant/2006/04/dont_critique_s.html

And then there is of course the irreplaceable Ashley:

Stacy Head should move to Metairie.

http://ashleymorris.typepad.com/ashley_morris_the_blog/2006/11/stacy_head_coul.html

Nope. Not Dick Cheney.

If 3,000 Americans had been killed on your watch, in an attack that could have been prevented, perhaps you'd be a little hesitant to accuse anyone else of endangering America. And if you had advocated torture, and the torture produced false information that you used to mislead America into an unwise, unjust and unwarranted war, you might be a tad sheepish about defending the use of torture.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/mr-cheney-you-did-not-kee_b_203013.html

"What the hell is water?"

David Foster Wallace, novelist, Kenyon College, 2005.

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?"

//

Top 10 Commencement Addresses

Transmutant

GOP Desperado

Will Write For Funds!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The Neighborhood Story Project (NSP) is hosting its first annual Write-a-Thon, the first Write-a-Thon in the history of New Orleans. The NSP will be raising money to finish masterpieces by John McDonogh students that are two-and-a-half years in the making.

Tom Piazza and Eric Lois Elie, two of the writers of the new HBO series "Tremé," will be participating, and Elie will offer free consultations to participating writers. All Write-a-Thoners will be fed by The Joint BBQ.

During the five years since the organization’s inception, the NSP has published 8 best selling books, and provided royalties exceeding $25,000 to their writers. In March, the NSP released The House of Dance & Feathers: A Museum by Ronald W. Lewis with a blow-out party at the museum in the Lower 9th Ward. The NSP has grown tremendously in five years, and continues to tell the stories of our neighborhoods. To donate to the NSP’s first annual Write-a-Thon, visit www.firstgiving.com/nspnola or send checks to P.O. Box 19742, New Orleans, LA 70179.

Brilliant Match Up

ht http://www.yesyesyall.org/

100 Days of Fair & Balanced