"Today's Stew

"We spend $30 (billion) to $40 billion in California, a trillion dollars in the country, on health care. Where is the money going?"
------Archie Lamb, chief counsel of CA Medical Association, in a new "California Consensus" report on health care by representatives of insurers, medical professionals and government officials, that calls for greater transparency in spending as a preliminary to universal health care.


"...And let's give special mention to The Wall Street Journal, which...in 1998 told its readers to 'rest easy': 'U.S. corporate accounting has been getting steadily more conservative in recent years, not less so.'
In other words, we shouldn't blame the public too much for getting caught up in irrational exhuberance. Foolish ideas were made to seem sensible by the unanimous optimism of analysts and the financial media. That unanimity was the product of a climate of fear in which everyone knew that asking hard questions put your career at risk. It wasn't just a market bubble: the system failed."
-----Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review


Political notes: A Zogby Poll study of the electoral map shows a pattern favoring Kerry. In a bipartisan poll, Kerry has a lead in Florida of some 4 points, and while Nader polls at 3%, he is at the moment drawing equally from Republicans. Campaigning in Florida, Kerry vows to set up a legal team to monitor patterns of fraud in Florida voting before the election, and advocates voting systems with paper trails or some way to check and recount votes.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports Bushies preparing to attack Teresa Heinz Kerry during campaign. Pennsylvania is a must-win state for both Bush and Kerry, and Pittsburgh is a key. Attacking Teresa Heinz in Pittsburgh---home of Heinz Hall, Heinz Field where the Steelers play, and where every kid remembers the school trip to the pickle factory and the pickle pin they get on the way out---throws the city to Kerry.

Kerry has won primaries with strong support from the black community. It occurs to us that a lot of the qualities the media parrotheads criticize about Kerry are part of his appeal to this community. They see dignity, not stiffness, and they are used to feeling expressed in words, accompanied by gravitas. That Kerry reminds them of Kennedy is a big plus, as no other white politicians in the last half century are as revered as John and Robert Kennedy.