'Obama'care and the consequences

While I believe that Universal Healthcare is at its core is born of the best intentions, it frightens me.

It frightens me to think that the government is trying to convince its citizens that they can be trusted with an individual’s health when polls are showing that most Americans would not trust the government to tell them how to take their morning cup of coffee.

I don't say that to be flippant either. I am legitimately concerned that a governmental takeover of healthcare is a prelude to an overly strong, centralized government poised to institute more "Big Government" policies.

I'm also dumbfounded that many of our legislators are ready to endorse such a significant bill when THEY HAVE'NT EVEN READ IT! I've read it! (H.R. 3200) All 500-some-odd pages and it is scary.

When you get past all the political jargon, you discover a bill that actually places age limit restrictions on certain routine medical procedures.Grandma needs a pacemaker at age 85 (sorry, too old). Grandpa needs a hip replaced at 80 (better buy a hover-round). I've listened to President Obama give his health care pitch at town halls around the country saying that Republicans are trying to "scare you into thinking were gonna pull the plug on Grandma, and that's simply not true." Technically President Obama is correct. However, placing age limit restrictions on medical procedures can indirectly be likened to "pulling the plug." It not a scare tactic, it's the truth!

The bottom line for me is that government should not be in your bedroom and it should not be in your doctor’s office either. That may sound cliché' but It's what I believe. Making a healthcare decision for a loved one is a serious and PERSONAL decision. You should be able to choose your own doctor and your own insurance provider.

I’ve also not heard any talk about how we would actually pay for universal healthcare. Would we raise taxes yet again on an already over-burdened middle-class? Or would we borrow money from other government entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicade or Social Security (all three of which are bankrupt as it is!)

Socialized medicine is nothing new, forms of Universal Healthcare exist to some extent in Canada and the United Kingdom. My research shows that it on average, it costs much more per year than a private insurance plan and it results it longer hospital wait times and less access to medical procedures.

The poor and the uninsured will, under this plan, be covered by the Government and will instantly inundate the medical system with millions of more patients and not enough doctors to go around.

Let’s assume for a moment that Government run heath care legislation is passed and signed...Who's keeping an eye on the Government to make sure it does it's job for every American life? Where have the checks and balances gone? Our founding fathers instituted a system of checks and balances so that no single branch of government gets too much power, and yet, we are being asked to let the Department of Health and Human Services forced upon us (with a single piece of legislation) a private sector insurance takeover of epic proportions?

Lastly, I am concerned with privacy. The bill recommends that a “national database” be created to store and regulate patient information, visits, medical history and even your social security number.Can the President honestly GUARANTEE ME that my information is safe in an era of widespread cyber crime? It’s not as if government computers with important information haven’t gone “missing” before.

I could go on and on about how the bill has loopholes that could potentially allow for the coverage of illegal immigrants AND how congressman and government officials are not included in the healthcare bill they are voting us into but I digress for now.

It’s expensive, it’s scary, its big government at its worst and it’s the wrong choice for America.

A Conservative in a Liberal World

Ok...so maybe not a liberal world, but certainly a proud prisoner of "blue state America."

I don't really know how, or when I became a conservative. I was not brought up in a politically active family. My father and mother are both registered independents.

Contrary to popular belief, as a conservative, my day typically doesn't begin with a bowl of grits, a morning hunt, and then an afternoon of beer guzzling at a NASCAR race. It begins like any other AMERICAN. Any other NORMAL PERSON.

I think it's funny how liberals dub themselves as 'open minded' and accepting, but yet they're the ones who pass us off as angry conservatives or dumb Republicans.

Every day I get the same jokes...and every day I have to laugh just to not look like one of those so called, ANGRY REPUBLICANS. I don't take any of it to heart because it's usually all in good fun, but it gets old.

As someone who has observed many reactions to conservativism I can only conclude that liberals feel legitimately threatened by conservative ideas. Usually when they find out I'm conservative they just fall in line with the jokes and the monotonous cycle begins again.

When a person hears that I'm conservative they usually assume a lot of things about me. They assume that I like all Republicans...(I don't) they assume that I don't support gay marraige (I do) they assume that I don't support stem cell research (I do) and they assume that I'm just uninformed or the victim of poor education (NO) It's only when a liberal actually cares enough to talk with me that they discover these things.

Let me say this...above all else I am an American. I am an American first, a conservative second, and a Republican third. My politics are defined by my ideology, not my party.

Living in Massachusetts my whole life as a conservative is no cake walk. I've been belittled, I've had yard signs stolen from my lawn and property vandalized. I've been called everything from a racist to the devil simply because I have a different set of beliefs.

Can I call it discrimination or will I take heat for that? It is. I am discriminated against by my own state because I am different than the majority. Just like I'm sure a liberal would be discriminated against if they lived in Utah.

If there is truly any war that needs to end, it's the war of political discrimination on BOTH sides. Put your party on the back burner. What has your PARTY ever done for you? Has it ever saved you? Has it ever truly made your life better? When times get really rough it's your NEIGHBOR and your fellow countrymen that will pick you up again. Does it really even matter what their politics are?

Now I am not calling for political apathy by any means. In fact, the one thing I can't stand is apathy. This nation gave you a democratic right to a vote, a voice, an opinion. SO GET INFORMED AND VOTE.

REAL CHANGE can only begin when we put aside the partisan politics that devide us. Who cares if an idea comes from a Democrat or a Conservative? If it's a GOOD idea, its a good idea.

In my opinion we are moving in the wrong direction as a nation. We have a bloated government, out of control spending and a national debt that looms over our children's and grandchildren's future.

I wish that someone would understand that the Governments job is not to be in the homes or doctors offices of its citizens. LIMITED...but EFFECTIVE government that works FOR the people is what we need.

I just hope that people can open up their eyes and see that America's best days are only ahead of her if we change the current climate in Washington.

And to all my liberal friends out there...Please, enough with the blame game. 8 years of Bush was enough, I'm with you on that. He sucked! But Obama sucks just as bad...and we were sold a bogus bill of "Change" that is bankrupting our country.

The BIG 3, to the DEAD 3...The Rise and Fall of Networks

I've been mulling over what I wanted my first blog to be about. I wanted to stick to what I'm good at while still being thought provoking, so here it goes...

The era of the big 3 networks (NBC, ABC, and CBS) is gone. I've thought for a while now that networks were dead but yesterday it became OFFICIAL. NBC's ratings, in particular, are abysmal. NBC Nightly News was the highest rated show in the prime time lineup beating the likes of tried and true programming like Law & Order and cheap reality knock-offs like Howie Do It.

Prime time network programming is confined to comedy shows, reality or crime. THATS IT! How many original, creative, thought provoking, risk taking shows do we see on TV each night? Very few I venture.

It's hard to believe that there once was an era where all of this was different. It was the era of the Classic Network System from 1965 to 1975...(following the quiz show scandal of the 1950's) It was a fat and happy time for networks! They reaped the benefits of vertical integration, full control, and an advertising win fall.

The classic network era was touted as a period where corporate influence went hand and hand with public service. Networks were tightly regulated by the FCC who embarked on an aggressive campaign to reform the American media landscape by encouraging more diverse, highbrow, educational, and public service oriented programming.

So the MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION IS...When and how did such a prosperous period hit the crapper....THE ANSWER...The moment the FCC "deregulated" the networks.

PICTURE THE PERIOD (1965-1975.) Social strife, the rise of feminism and liberalism, a counter-cultural rebellion of sorts. Certainly a period of governmental and corporate distrust.

Over the past 40 years, deregulatory policy changes like the Cable Communications Act of 1984 and the Telecommunication Act of 1996 the have DEVASTATED the media landscape. We saw POSITIVE effects of media REGULATION in the late 1940’s film industry when in 1948, studios were stripped of theater ownership to stop vertical integration. This resulted in more independent films. At around this same time we saw the radio industry become much more fluid, with locally owned and produced content. Early TV was shaped by the FCC Blue book. It pressured TV for a balance between commercial and sustaining programming while including more public affairs programming.

Now let me say it was very hard for me to come to this opinion. As an ideological conservative I typically believe that governmental regulation is a BAD thing. Less government is better government. However, not in the case of media. The media is INCAPABLE of policing itself and it's practices. It is both a business and a public service and needs to be held accountable to standards of public service programming.

We in the media industry are again in a period of great transition. We are the pioneers of a global media transformation. The era of the citizen journalist and the I-Reporter is HERE. All we can do is sit back, buckle up, and get ready for the rise to power of social networking, up to the second updates, live Internet streaming, a surge in entertainment news, and an empire of Internet bloggers (like me I guess.) God help us, and God help the journalists. Nobody likes change, but the times they are changing…and in the end; we just have to hope we get a diverse system of media that serves the public interest.