Posts by Hines Brian

Damn! Bad blog post timing. I was all ready to get a good rant going about Republican willingness to shut down the federal government in order to prevent women from getting Planned Parenthood health care, then I see that a deal apparently has been reached. Well, there's no reason to waste a rant, so I'll fire up my outrage as if Boehner hadn't come to his senses. After all, it won't be long before social conservatives and Tea Party types find another opportunity to display their anti-women ridiculousness. Cutting the budget is one thing. Slashing Planned Parenthood's family planning, cancer…

Maybe it's the Starbucks grande coffee talking, but who cares? Today this progressive is feeling pretty damn good about where the political winds are blowing -- in Wisconsin, here in Oregon, and in the whole country. I remember how down Dems and left-leaning independents felt last November when the 2010 midterm tsunami wiped out "D" control in the House of Representatives, substantially narrowed the Democratic Senate majority, and put right-wingers in control of many governorships. Such as Scott Walker, in Wisconsin. Yet his union-busting overreaching has begun to backfire. Last night I obsessively kept refreshing the AP election results for…

Soon we'll learn specifics of the Republican plan to destroy Medicare. Columnist E.J. Dionne has coined the term "Ryancare," since Congressman Paul Ryan is announcing the plan, and his Road Map for America's Future calls for moving health care for the elderly into a system where vouchers are used to buy private health insurance. Ugh. No way. Keep your damn hands off of Medicare, Republicans. I'll be eligible for Medicare in less than three years. I'm looking forward to this, being sick and tired of the bullshit our current private insurer, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, regularly piles on us.…

Yes, I'll admit it. For a few days I was one of the many Americans who are freaking out over the prospect of dangerous nuclear radiation reaching our shores from Japan. I anxiously sought out potassium iodide and ended up ordering some. But facts are different from fears. As my wife and I learned more about how much radiation is likely to make it across the Pacific Ocean into Oregon, even in a worst case scenario, we became a lot more relaxed about our personal situation -- though still deeply worried about the people living near the damaged reactors. Some…

Driving home today, I listened to a interview with an expert who said, "The company that operates the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan probably is asking for volunteers among retired workers -- for obvious reasons." I took that to mean that if you're old, you don't expect to have nearly as many years left to live as younger workers do, so dying prematurely from radiation exposure, though distressing, would take on a different cast than if you were in your thirties with young children. A news story confirms that a search for volunteers, both old and young, likely is occurring:…

Here's a lesson for rabid conservatives and Tea Party types: What good has the free market been in responding to Japan's catastrophic earthquake? Are people relying on the government or on the private sector in dealing with the horrific consequences of the quake and resulting tsunami? The answer is obvious. When there's a huge seismic shift -- in the earth, in the economy, in the environment, in geopolitics, in national security -- governments are the glue which keep the social fabric from ripping apart. Yes, communities help. Non-profit organizations help. Volunteer groups help. But these entities are "governments" on a…