Jon — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:56:06 +0000

A few months ago I was driving from Johnson City to Spindale North Carolina. It was mostly backroads and two lane highways. Along the way I picked up a hitch hiker at the bottom of Roan Mtn. He looked like a nice old man with a bushy beard, and on top of that it was snowing. As we drove up the mountain he told me he’d just gotten out of jail that day for another DUI. We swapped stories and food and I was glad I’d picked him up. Anyway, somewhere on this drive I had the thought that I should start traveling around the country with a home made camper selling miracle elixir. I know this isn’t much of a congruent story, but when you’ve decided to selling miracle elixir does that really matter?

The Magnetic Fields Covers

Jon — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:50:52 +0000

Just finished a new cd this past week. It’s a 6 song EP of covers. I fell in love with a group called The Magnetic Fields and started recording some songs earlier last year. When I had 6 of them I sent a letter to their manager and got permission to print up some copies. Each song has a banjo plus one other instrument. So the first track has banjo+organ, the second has banjo+ukulele, and so on. Anyway, I won’t be releasing it for digital downloads but I’d love to mail you a copy if you want to give me your address. I’m asking $6/disc. I set up a paypal account so you can buy one and wait for it to arrive in the mail. Hope you like… email me jon@trailerparkjackson.com

Trailerpark Jackson’s Traveling Medicine Show and His Miracle Elixir

Jon — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:12:11 +0000

Addressing the health of my constituents…

Jon — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:19:41 +0000

From the front porch of Trailerpark Jackson:

Let’s start with some facts.

Several health care reform bills are being offered. Three in the House of Representatives, each one originating out of separate Committees. Each Committee has “jurisdiction” over this reform due to it’s size and nature, and therefore the bill must pass each committee or it is stopped all together.

There is no “Obama Health Care Bill”. When people talk about the one health care reform bill, what they are referring to is HR3200, written mostly by Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) and a handful of other democrats. That one bill was used to start with, but in their final drafts various changes have been made.

The three in the House will have to be blended together and passed on the floor of the whole House of Representatives. At that point further amendments will be added and some of the final legislation being offered will be cut from the bill.

That bill will then move to the Senate where it will undergo further changes, then to the President’s desk and, if signed, become law.

So any projections about what will or won’t happen if a bill is even passed, is at best a safe guess, and at worst an effort to misinform the public.

Further, I want to dispel some misinformation that has landed in my inbox in the last few weeks.

The only bill I will be referring to is HR 3200. Specifically the version that just came out of the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee Friday (7/31).

HR 3200 is over 1,100 pages and full of legal language that one would have to be a lawyer to read and comprehend in full, and even then it is still open to interpretation.

I think it’s important to note that this is the norm for congressional legislation and not an exception.

HR 3200 has garnered the most news due to the ”Blue dog” democrats. They threatened to stop the bill from passing through the committee, which would have stopped it all together.

So what happened?

The “Blue Dog” caucus negotiated a deal with the “Progressive” caucus in the form of the “Blue Dog Amendment,” which adds several changes to the legislation,federally subsidized Health Care Cooperatives, to name just one. And then it passed through the committee.

Okay, now onto dispelling some of the misinformation.

In black, I will list several statements that have landed in my inbox recently. These statements fall into 2 categories; untrue, and maliciously misleading.

In red I will respond with my hilarious and sarcastic zingers, but I won’t attempt a formal rebuttal until I’ve completed the list.

After that I will summarize what the bill intends to do. I will do my best at this but I am limited and can only add a little to the public debate. In my summary I will only give information I know to be accurate.

My limited qualifications are as follows:

A partial reading of HR 3200

Following HR 3200’s progress through several different news sources. (Washington Post, Miami Herald, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters et al. If these sources are too “left wing” for you to trust then I suggest you seek help for a mental illness.)

I have also spent no less than 10 hours watching CSPAN coverage of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s “mark up” sessions. “Mark up” is a technical term used in Congress. It is the time when amendments are voted in or out.

Oh, and I’m a recurrent candidate for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional district.

My hope is that I can add to the amount of accurate information, dispel several myths and rumors about the legislation, and cause some of my friends and family to consider the possibility that they should question most the “news” coming out of their T.V., radio, and their inbox.

1. This bill will mandate a government run health care system.

-This is entirely misleading and a disingenuous attempt to sway public opinion against the bill in order to stop what the bill actually intends to do. Which causes me to be suspect of anyone who parrots this line. The reason it causes me to be suspect is because I don’t trust people who lie to get what they want.

2. This bill will force every American into a government run health care plan. Some times restated as “socialized health care” or “universal health care.”

-See above. It applies. Replace words “entirely misleading” with “entirely untrue.”

3. Obama’s health care plan will cover illegals.

-This has several problems. Namely the implication that Obama has somehow been an “iron fist” behind the drafting of this legislation. He hasn’t drafted anything. He has stated he wants to reform the health care system, but the drafting process has been done by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. And that part about it covering illegals is a lie. The bill itself states that it does not extend to illegal immigrants. On the other hand, each state has it’s own application requirements for medicare. It is assumed that states will also be in charge of determining application requirements for federal subsidies (photo ID/birth certificate/first born child). So if the state of Minnesota doesn’t require the applicant to produce a photo ID, then all those Canadian who want a great American insurance plan could do so on our nickel!

4. A national ID card will be issued.

- Interesting fact: in 2005 the REAL ID act was passed by a Republican led congress who held a majority in both the Senate and the House. Real ID imposes federal regulations on an individual’s state drivers license. State legislatures across the country rushed to ban it.

5. An employer must automatically enroll an employee into public option plan. NO CHOICE!

-What the legislation actually says is that an employer who has a payroll greater than $500,000 will have to do one of 3 things. Provide at least one insurance plan for their employees, make payments directly to the employees so they can buy the plan of their choosing, or pay a fine. If the employer offers the employee a choice of 2 or more plans, and the employee does not specify which plan he/she wants, the employer is obligated to enroll the employee into the cheapest plan.

Section 312 and 313 of HR 3200

Boiled down, here’s what is clear about what the bill intends to accomplish.

It will create an “Exchange.”

The Exchange will be a physical place where people can buy health insurance. It will be staffed with experts to direct you to what will best suit your needs according to cost and desired coverage.

This is where qualified individuals (un-insured/under-insured) can go to enlist and buy into a public health insurance plan.

It will be a federally subsidized plan.

Individuals who are 125% below the poverty level will be eligible for a free health care plan.

Private insurance corporations will have a new set of regulations. My favorite is that they will be limited in the profits that they are allowed to take in by the cost of their premiums.

On top of that it sets several regulations that will have to be met by all insurance plans, including no more pre-existing condition clauses, no rescinding policies because the client forgot to tell you they took acne medication in the 9th grade, and protections against discrimination of the mentally ill.

The bill does mandate that every American carry some kind of health insurance plan. Just like Tennessee mandates that if you drive you have to have car insurance. This is what our government gave to the insurance industry to get them on board.

My opinion- this bill is 99% bullshit. Our congress caters to the interests of mega-corporations and that is the only reason we aren’t talking about a single payer solution.

Any questions?

Google HR 3200 to read the bill.

Here’s an interesting article that does what I just did for several other rumors.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g5ewCvsGcSPBeHJurb6qYZLVU8OgD99QQ2OG0

-TP

JPF Nomination

Jon — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:37:54 +0000

Untitled is up for music video of the year and Sycamore Tree is up for americana song of the year.

song: Untitled album: Green Apples

Jon — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:50:41 +0000

Untitled from Jon Jackson on Vimeo.

booking: jon@trailerparkjackson.com

Trailer Park Jackson

The Magnetic Fields Covers

Trailerpark Jackson’s Traveling Medicine Show and His Miracle Elixir

Addressing the health of my constituents…

JPF Nomination

song: Untitled album: Green Apples

Campaign Speech