MORE RANDOM THINGS

Finally got my computer online yesterday - four and a half days with no internet gave me some book and newspaper reading time, but I found out how frequently I use the internet for things. i I could barely make a grocery shopping list.

I watched the Jon Stewart vs. CNBC/ Jim Cramer shows on TIVO. Then watched John King interviewing Dick Cheney and wished that Stewart could have interviewed Cheney. Why is it that the "entertainment" side of the media is more direct and assertive in interviews than the journalists? Remember when "The View" was the first to call out the Republicans on all the lies during the campaign - then all the news outlets finally started discussing the factual distortions on both sides of the campaigns. Someone needs to challenge Cheney or any other representative of the former administration when they suggest they had nothing to do with our current financial crisis. Jon Stewart would have, and it would have been entertaining, too.

I really have mixed feelings about the cutting of health care for undocumented immigrants in California due to the huge cuts in the state budget:

After letting go of social workers, cutting mental health services and watching a delivery room built to handle 120 births a month accommodate 240, there were few other options, said Contra Costa Health Services Director William Walker."We've never had this crisis before," said Walker. "We've tried to carefully slice what we thought we could without cutting off our ability to respond. Now we're looking at bad choices among bad choices."

Hospitals receiving Medicaid funds must provide emergency medical care, despite immigration status, but primary medical care is not guaranteed.

It bothers me that low income people have difficulty getting the services they need because of the cost of helping undocumented workers, it also bothers me that we make it so hard for people to come to this country legally to take the low paying jobs they are willing to take. I suspect that having their yard work done and their houses cleaned were some of the first things people dropped when their portfolios went bust. Which means there are a lot of undocumented workers in real trouble right now.

On the other hand - hundreds of teachers, counselors and other staff have been cut from our local schools and something has got to give. Somewhere.

We watched a wonderful movie that I hope will not be overlooked on video - The Great Buck Howard. It stars John Malcovich as a magician/mentalist, touring the smallest of venues of the country with his newly hired assistant played by Colin Hanks. Hanks is trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life and Malcovich is looking to get back into a brighter limelight. It is a smart, charming comedy, Malcovich really makes his character ring true, both as a smarmy show biz veteran and as a complex, kind human being with some real talent.