Wading In

Printed on: Thu, Jun 28, 2007 How Paris Hilton can help the world By Kelvin Wade It's time for Paris Hilton credits. Here me out. Carbon credits are a way for companies to run their business in a carbon neutral way. For instance, a company that may release a thousand tons of pollutants in the atmosphere may buy carbon credits from another company that will plant enough trees to offset the damage to the environment. The same can be done for Hilton. I came to the conclusion we need Paris Hilton credits after logging onto my home page, CNN, and finding that Hilton's release from jail was the top story. Later, I was watching CNN on television and I sat through a Paris Hilton story. At least five points swan-dived off my I.Q. Paris Hilton Credits are the answer. This bimbo could be doing loads of good around the country. She could endorse a product and a dollar from each sale of that product could go to some charity or worthy cause. While we hope and pray funds for things like an af...

"Oh, my, looky there Stone cold, foxy platinum hair Short skirt, barely there Make a chick wanna hate, make a boy wanna stare Well... Miss Hilton, you must be worth a trillion bucks Get the feeling that you don't really give a fuck " ---"Hey Miss Hilton" by Penfifteen Club I'm not hatin' on Paris. Hell yes I am. How? Why? There are plenty of bimbos out there to despise. Britney Spears comes to mind. But at least Britney has some measure of talent. The fact that Paris Hilton is famous for being Paris Hilton is reason enough to despise her. But it's also the fact that she appears to revel in her own stupidity. It's disgusting to see someone worth millions live an inconsequential life. And I can't listen to her talk about jail being traumatic and being strip searched was humiliating blah, blah, blah..because there's a way to avoid all that. Don't break the freakin' law! Most of us would concur that jail is a bad pl...

Printed on: Thu, Jun 21, 2007 "Sicko" will open some eyes By Kelvin Wade A few weeks ago, while waiting six hours in the ER waiting room, all I could think about was Michael Moore's upcoming movie "Sicko," which is about the American health-care industry. Having recently seen the flick, this infectious film was well worth the wait. Moore makes it clear that his film isn't about the nearly 50 million Americans without health care. No, this movie is about the 250 million people who are covered or think they are. Moore's movie is a call to arms for universal health-care coverage. He then treats us to a parade of ordinary folks who paid their premiums and found that their claims were denied by HMOs bent on maximizing the bottom line. Former medical director Dr. Linda Peno quit her job after finding she could no longer work for a company that gave incentives to deny claims. She lamented that whenever the company had to pay out on a medic...

If you've gone to an ER recently, you know our system needs an overhaul. My last ER trip, I entered the ER at 10:30 PM and left a little before 7 A.M. How does our system contribute to long waits in the ER? So many people go to the ER who should be going to their primary care physician. But many people don't have one. We've got a crazy system that pays lip service to preventative medicine. Poor people without health insurance don't go to the doctor. They can't afford to. They treat themselves with OTC medication and home remedies. And instead of cheap drugs that could've helped them, once their condition has metastasized to something worse, THEN they come to the ER. By then we're talking thousand of dollars that they won't be able to pay, that gets passed on to everyone else's medical bills. Our system is set up so that those without health care insurance end up seeking the costliest form of care. Then there's the problem of illegals who use hos...

I first registered to vote in 1984. It was no surprise that I registered as a Democrat. My parents were Democrats. (My father would later become a Republican but we don't talk about that.) Democrats believed in what I believed in, while the Republican Party was busy pursuing a Southern Strategy and seemed to have a "We Don't Need You" attitude towards blacks. I voted for Walter Mondale in '84, Dukakis in '88 and Clinton in '92 and '96. I didn't like how things were going in the 2000 race. It's not that i was ever enamored of George W. Bush, but by 1999 my thinking had evolved. I saw a Democratic Party that took the black vote for granted. And while I resented the GOP for never asking for my vote, I also resented the Democrats for assuming they didn't have to ask. As I grew older, my positions moderated. Meanwhile, the two parties in California were colluding to control primary elections. It ticked me off. By the fall of 1999, I'd regis...

Printed on: Thu, Jun 14, 2007 Democrats need to grow a backbone By Kelvin Wade The world's oldest political party, the Democratic Party, has been represented in cartoons and posters by a donkey ever since Thomas Nast's political cartoons of the 1870s. Although some say the symbol was born in 1828 during Andrew Jackson's run for president. Opponents referred to Jackson as a "jackass." Regardless, today's Democratic Party doesn't deserve the donkey symbol. Donkeys have spines. Say what you want about the national Republican Party, but you can't say they're not committed. And I might even think they should be committed for some of the things they espouse, but at least they fight for their beliefs. In December 1998, after the GOP lost half a dozen House seats in an election where they were expected to pick up seats, the Republicans had to decide whether to impeach President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. A Gallup P...

This week I revisit the Carole Migden case. She's the California State Senator who was involved in erratic driving and a couple of accidents a few weeks ago. She has since attributed her bad driving to the chemotherapy drugs she's taking to battle chronic myeloid leukemia. This column just seeks a bit of justice. The thing that has stuck in my craw ever since this case occured was Migden allegedly telling another motorist, "You can't talk to me that way. I'm a State Senator!" It presumes there's a difference in how she should be treated. And looking into Migden's past, you find that her alleged outburst fits right into her personality. It's not the first time she's made statements like that. She is notoriously hard on staff members. In fact, staff members call working for Migden a "combat tour." She once publicly berated two peace officers for not doing her bidding in a timely manner. And there's the now infamous time when the Dem...

Printed on: Thu, Jun 07, 2007 Sen. Migden needs a day in court By Kelvin Wade The California Highway Patrol recommends the Solano County district attorney charge state Sen. Carole Migden with reckless driving following a wild 30-mile jaunt that reportedly nearly ran one driver off the road and ended with a crash in Fairfield. The district attorney's office is reviewing the case and will decide what to do in the next two weeks. Migden believes the drugs she's been taking for chronic myeloid leukemia may have contributed to her poor driving. She's being medically evaluated. Migden's explanation, while garnering sympathy, hasn't quieted all of her critics. Many right wing bloggers and conservative radio talk show hosts like Phil Cowan out of Sacramento have pooh-poohed her explanation. I share their skepticism. After all, there are nearly 5,000 Americans are diagnosed with the same illness each year and they're not running people off the roa...