It is perfectly legal in Arizona to carry a loaded semi-automatic rifle outside a presidential appearance.
Sports, my usual diversion, gives me Rick Pitino, Michael Vick and Brett Favre.
Help.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Signs of the End Times
Tom Delay goes to prison on "Dancing with the Stars."
It is perfectly legal in Arizona to carry a loaded semi-automatic rifle outside a presidential appearance.
Sports, my usual diversion, gives me Rick Pitino, Michael Vick and Brett Favre.
Help.
It is perfectly legal in Arizona to carry a loaded semi-automatic rifle outside a presidential appearance.
Sports, my usual diversion, gives me Rick Pitino, Michael Vick and Brett Favre.
Help.
Monday, August 17, 2009
This is priceless ...
Investor’s Business Daily, with mouth-foaming eagerness to further the demagoguery of corporate fearmongering, lies, and distortions about the healthcare debate and the bad bad public option, stated in its July 31 editorial:
Professor Hawking, who was born in Britain, has lived there all his life, and unlike the faux geniuses at IBD could well be the world’s smartest person, fired back:
Investor’s Business Daily, another right wing rag unmasked.
WHOOOPS …
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.
Professor Hawking, who was born in Britain, has lived there all his life, and unlike the faux geniuses at IBD could well be the world’s smartest person, fired back:
"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."
Investor’s Business Daily, another right wing rag unmasked.
WHOOOPS …
So where is health care now?
Perhaps it was a trial balloon as the WH seems to be distancing itself a bit from the HHS comments.
The Dems on this one started the wrong way by letting the Republicans dominate the debate. The starting point should have been single payer and then negotiate down to a public option, rather than the public option as the starter. With a public option gone, "reform" will only make health insurance more expensive, which will make everyone hate it.
Historians refer to LBJ as "the master of the Senate." When there was something he wanted passed, he got it passed. And now we have Harry Reid. Yippee.
The Dems on this one started the wrong way by letting the Republicans dominate the debate. The starting point should have been single payer and then negotiate down to a public option, rather than the public option as the starter. With a public option gone, "reform" will only make health insurance more expensive, which will make everyone hate it.
Historians refer to LBJ as "the master of the Senate." When there was something he wanted passed, he got it passed. And now we have Harry Reid. Yippee.
Real Times Real Reporter Dana Gould Shines a Light on our Dickensian "Healthcare" System
On one side, Hitler signs, ignorance, and hooliganism; on the other side, hope and civility from people who have no insurance at all. Whose side is the White House on?
President Seems Ready to Cave to Corporatists and Hooligans
There are growing indications that in order to appease the town hall hooligans and small state anti-healthcare reform conservative senators, names like Republicans Chuck Grassley and Mike Enzi and Democrats Kent Conrad and Ben Nelson, as well as Max Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, whose name the President uttered a gazillion times in his Montana town hall, the Obama administration is retreating from its insistence on a public option to ensure true healthcare reform competition, favoring instead a potential insurance company annual sweetheart giveaway of some $60 billion.
Doctor Howard Dean, who pioneered state-led comprehensive healthcare reform as governor of Vermont, and as chairman of the DNC presided over the Democratic Party's comeback, called a public option "indispensable." Democrats in Congress who favor a public option were quick to push back. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., who is co-chairman of the Middle Class Caucus said: "Leaving private insurance companies the job of controlling the costs of health care is like making a pyromaniac the fire chief."
Whether or not the so-called co-op idea will fly remains to be seen. Many analysts say it is a toothless non-competitive false "alternative" to insurance industry control of the marketplace. The fact that opponents of healthcare reform are lining up behind this craven "compromise" should be reason enough to view it for what it is: a poison pill intended to kill meaningful healthcare reform.
When Kent Conrad says there aren't enough votes to pass healthcare reform in the Senate, he means 60 votes. That may be true, but he makes exaggerated claims that healthcare reform cannot be done "right" with 50 + 1 votes on reconciliation. Of course it can. Better to "do it right," as everyone agrees, by implementing it in stages -- with a public option -- over 5 years and return to finish the job after the President's re-election, than to be stuck with a bad industry reform bill that hands over control to the insurance companies, offers no competition, and does little to curb costs.
President Obama may yet get his co-insurance company victory that assures his re-election, but at what cost to the country? Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote:
Can you say "Pyrrhic victory," Mr. President?
Doctor Howard Dean, who pioneered state-led comprehensive healthcare reform as governor of Vermont, and as chairman of the DNC presided over the Democratic Party's comeback, called a public option "indispensable." Democrats in Congress who favor a public option were quick to push back. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., who is co-chairman of the Middle Class Caucus said: "Leaving private insurance companies the job of controlling the costs of health care is like making a pyromaniac the fire chief."
Whether or not the so-called co-op idea will fly remains to be seen. Many analysts say it is a toothless non-competitive false "alternative" to insurance industry control of the marketplace. The fact that opponents of healthcare reform are lining up behind this craven "compromise" should be reason enough to view it for what it is: a poison pill intended to kill meaningful healthcare reform.
When Kent Conrad says there aren't enough votes to pass healthcare reform in the Senate, he means 60 votes. That may be true, but he makes exaggerated claims that healthcare reform cannot be done "right" with 50 + 1 votes on reconciliation. Of course it can. Better to "do it right," as everyone agrees, by implementing it in stages -- with a public option -- over 5 years and return to finish the job after the President's re-election, than to be stuck with a bad industry reform bill that hands over control to the insurance companies, offers no competition, and does little to curb costs.
President Obama may yet get his co-insurance company victory that assures his re-election, but at what cost to the country? Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote:
It’s a measure of how out of touch G.O.P. leaders like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are that they keep trying to scare voters by calling Obama a socialist. They have it backward. The larger fear is that Obama might be just another corporatist, punking voters much as the Republicans do when they claim to be all for the common guy.
Can you say "Pyrrhic victory," Mr. President?
Saturday, August 15, 2009
I love Illinois...
Assclown former governors:
Assclown politicians screwing with a great university:
Gov. Pat Quinn urges all University of Illinois trustees to resign
Governor's statement follows recommendation of panel investigating admissions scandal
Assclown baseball fans:
Cubs fan accused of tossing beer on Phillies outfielder says he's sorry, seeks forgiveness
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Time to Pull the Plug on Gramps Grassley
Today there was a story in the New York Times entitled “Obama is Taking an Active Role in Talks on Health Care Plan.” It should properly be titled Obama in Bipartisan Health Care Wonderland. At what point does the White House say, enough is enough, the Republicans, in particular Chuck Grassley and Mike Enzi, aren't negotiating in good faith. It's time to move in another direction? Examples:
The Lewin Group, as was mentioned here, is a wholly owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group which, according to Senator John Rockefeller, used Lewin's skewed data to "under-reimburse its own policyholders." Its "data" has been roundly debunked by nonpartisan fact-check groups.
Oh Please. First of all, Mr. President, if we get a bill that is minimally acceptable to Democrats, that is, one that includes a robust public option, these right wingers won’t vote for it. The only Republicans who might vote for an acceptable bipartisan compromise are the two moderate Yankee holdouts, OIympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine. The sooner the White House accepts this reasonable expectation of reality the better it will be for us to achieve meaningful healthcare reform.
As if to underscore this no-brainer insight, Gramps Grassley the very next day at his own town hall event threw the President under the bus, stoking the cruelest of lies spread by Sarah 'Caribou Barbie' Palin about so-called “death panels:”
A “moderate” is someone who is generally nonideological politically. Both Grassley and Enzi are steeped in conservative ideology, and they’re not going to budge. They come from sparsely populated states and rely on corporate contributions to a much larger extent than Blue staters. Grassley looks, acts, and speaks like a cumudgeony old man who would be more comfortable in Calvin Coolidge’s America.
A moderate Senator Grassley is not. Senator Grassley has a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee, 84 percent rating from the American Conservative Union, 100 percent rating from the Family Research Council, and 100 percent rating from Eagle Forum. Conversely, he has a 0% rating from the American Public Health Association (APHA) indicating a non-public health voting record.
Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the sharpies at the White House, Rham Emanuel and David Axelrod, the President of course, and a phalanx of healthcare policy wonks, don't know what Chuck Grassley's really up to. It's not that hard to figure out.
First, Gramps Grassley is not interested in negotiating in good faith with Democrats on the Finance Committee to craft a bipartisan bill. His interest, as an agent of the health insurance industry, is to obstruct and delay sufficiently to scuttle every one of the Democratic bills that have passed committee and introduce the largely nonexistent and anti-reform Republican "alternatives."
Here's What Grassley said at his town hall: "By sticking my finger in the dyke I have an opportunity to give the grass roots of America to speak up, and that's a good thing."
Really? Seed money for this "Astroturf" opposition has come from ultra-right wing health industry interest groups that coach town hall disrupters on where to go, what lies to scream, and where to position themselves. The powerful right wing lobbyist and former House leader Dick Armey is chairman of one of these groups, Freedomworks, with its coterie of Republican House staff and think tank retreads. Some of these groups have the gall to label themselves "nonpartisan."
All of them, it should be noted, are overwhelmingly white, as are the town hall ranters, injecting a disturbing culture wars/racist undercurrent to these protests, including the Nazi signs, the gun-toting participants, and the hate speech from right wing media. They're a vocal minority, but they don't represent the progressive coalition that voted President Obama into the White House.
Second, Gramps Grassley has not been shy about his objective to kill the Democratic bills:
President Obama decisively won the election of 2008 with a mandate from his supporters to change the nation's direction and do big things, including universal healthcare. Part of the President's mystique has been an overreliance, in my view, on the misguided belief that the current crop of Republicans in government can be redeemed and bipartisanship is possible.
It has even become an article of faith among some of the cognoscenti that universal healthcare reform cannot be achieved without bipartisan support and 60 votes. I could repeat what President Lyndon Johnson, who rammed through transformational Medicare, Medicaid, voting rights and civil rights legislation would say to this, but I wouldn't want to turn this post into a town hall rant.
Suffice it say that big Republican names (not as a monolith but close) have historically opposed every single piece of progressive legislation in the 20th century, from social security, to civil and voting rights, to Medicare/Medicaid. Names such as Bob Dole (who boasted in 1996 that he opposed Medicare as Grassley is boasting of obstructing universal healthcare today), Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan opposed Medicare in 1965 as vehemently as misguided Medicare recipients are coached with lies to oppose the President's healthcare plan.
Indeed, some of the ignorant blowhards ranting and raving at town halls today, many of whom are on Medicare, could have been channeling Ronald Reagan when he said: “[I]f you don’t [stop Medicare] and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Right. Seniors are really living in hellish gulags and warehoused in Florida retirement homes as a result of 44 years of health and security in their golden years from the Kennedy-Johnson Medicare program and FDR's social security. Has anyone paused to consider that these, and every other piece of progressive legislation in the past century, were Democratic Party programs and only Democratic Party programs? Have the ignorant Medicare recipients ranting from right wing talking points at town hall meetings about fictitious "death panels" forgotten that when it was the Republicans' turn, Newt Gingrich proposed slashing Medicare or privatizing it so that it would "wither on the vine," or that George W. Bush used his razor-thin electoral loss and selection by the Supreme Court to push through a scheme to privatize social security? Had that occurred, the Medicare ranters at town hall meetings would probably not be alive today once Bush's casino economy collapsed in on their meager privatized savings and threw them all under the bus.
Is ignorance an excuse for hypocrisy? No, because while hypocrisy presumes an informed distortion of the truth, ignorance of the facts cannot be excused when those facts are available for anyone willing to check. As anonymous (so as not to incur the wrath of the mob?) said, "a closed mind is a good thing to lose."
There's nothing that says a president with 60 votes, or ten to spare, can't pass a healthcare bill without a single Republican vote. In my estimation, the stakes for Republicans of saying "NO" are much higher. By the time the 2010 elections roll around, it's reasonable to assume, based on current trends and the stimulus package kicking in, that the economy will be on a sharp upswing. People will feel better, consumer confidence will be up, and a united Democratic Party will have delivered universal healthcare reform with many positive results as it is implemented, and none of the dire consequences always predicted by the demagogues and naysayers on the Republican side.
The notion that two, or even three Republican votes, translates into bipartisanship and gives skittish Democrats including the President political "cover," is ridiculous, especially when we have to surrender our principles. For what; three Republican votes, while the Bohners and the Grassleys stand laughing on the sidelines and prepare to demagogue the issue in the midterms anyway?
Better for Democrats to unite and pass healthcare reform as a Democratic bill, just as social security, and Medicare, and voting and civil rights were -- with Republican support yes, at a time when bipartisanship fit its dictionary definition, but Democratic initiatives.
If the President were to channel a little of Bobby's "ruthlessness" and LBJ's legendary arm-twisting horse trading, here's what he should do. Draw a line in the sand and give the Republicans an ultimatum. "This is as far as I'm willing to compromise; you can get on this train now, and be constructive, or you can stay behind at the station as the Democrats steer this nation into a future of promise, opportunity, and quality, affordable healthcare for all. Your choice." To the Blue Dog Democrats, the President should simply say: "Not supporting this plan is untenable for the Democratic Party. Stand with me, and I'll go all out and work for your re-election. Stand against me, and you're on your own."
That should do it.
A point I made in the “Dear Mr. President” post of July 30 and emailed to the White House on the off chance the President would read it, bears repeating, not for any stellar insight but because what was clear as a cloudless day then is even more crystal clear today. And it represents, I believe, the sentiments of the President's progressive base:
The last I heard, we had an election. We won and Gramps Grassley's party lost. Big time. I can only hope the President won't decide, for the sake of expediency, to sell progressives down the river -- after we've come so far with him -- for a chimera called bipartisanship.
NYT: Mr. Obama and his top aides have immersed themselves in the Senate Finance Committee process. The president talks to Mr. Baucus several times a week, people briefed on their conversations say. Mr. Obama has also held a few calls with the panel’s ranking Republican, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.
Gramps Grassley: Well, listen, the government is not a competitor. The government is a predator. And what you're going to have according to the Lewin think tank that specializes in health care. You're gonna have everybody opting out of private health insurance into the government-run insurance. [Sen. Grassley on MSNBC, 7/16/09]
The Lewin Group, as was mentioned here, is a wholly owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group which, according to Senator John Rockefeller, used Lewin's skewed data to "under-reimburse its own policyholders." Its "data" has been roundly debunked by nonpartisan fact-check groups.
President Obama (inexplicably) at his New Hampshire town hall event: Senator Grassley is one of my "Republican friends on Capitol Hill" who is "sincerely trying to figure out if they find a health care bill that works." The President then went on to gratuitously paint the two right wing Republican Senators, Chuck Grassley and Mike Enzi, as somehow profiles in courage because they are under extreme pressure from their party not to negotiate with Democrats.
Oh Please. First of all, Mr. President, if we get a bill that is minimally acceptable to Democrats, that is, one that includes a robust public option, these right wingers won’t vote for it. The only Republicans who might vote for an acceptable bipartisan compromise are the two moderate Yankee holdouts, OIympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine. The sooner the White House accepts this reasonable expectation of reality the better it will be for us to achieve meaningful healthcare reform.
As if to underscore this no-brainer insight, Gramps Grassley the very next day at his own town hall event threw the President under the bus, stoking the cruelest of lies spread by Sarah 'Caribou Barbie' Palin about so-called “death panels:”
Sen. Chuck Grassley said "In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life...You have every right to fear. You shouldn't have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma." [Iowa Independent, 8/12/09, emphasis added]
A “moderate” is someone who is generally nonideological politically. Both Grassley and Enzi are steeped in conservative ideology, and they’re not going to budge. They come from sparsely populated states and rely on corporate contributions to a much larger extent than Blue staters. Grassley looks, acts, and speaks like a cumudgeony old man who would be more comfortable in Calvin Coolidge’s America.
A moderate Senator Grassley is not. Senator Grassley has a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee, 84 percent rating from the American Conservative Union, 100 percent rating from the Family Research Council, and 100 percent rating from Eagle Forum. Conversely, he has a 0% rating from the American Public Health Association (APHA) indicating a non-public health voting record.
Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the sharpies at the White House, Rham Emanuel and David Axelrod, the President of course, and a phalanx of healthcare policy wonks, don't know what Chuck Grassley's really up to. It's not that hard to figure out.
First, Gramps Grassley is not interested in negotiating in good faith with Democrats on the Finance Committee to craft a bipartisan bill. His interest, as an agent of the health insurance industry, is to obstruct and delay sufficiently to scuttle every one of the Democratic bills that have passed committee and introduce the largely nonexistent and anti-reform Republican "alternatives."
Here's What Grassley said at his town hall: "By sticking my finger in the dyke I have an opportunity to give the grass roots of America to speak up, and that's a good thing."
Really? Seed money for this "Astroturf" opposition has come from ultra-right wing health industry interest groups that coach town hall disrupters on where to go, what lies to scream, and where to position themselves. The powerful right wing lobbyist and former House leader Dick Armey is chairman of one of these groups, Freedomworks, with its coterie of Republican House staff and think tank retreads. Some of these groups have the gall to label themselves "nonpartisan."
All of them, it should be noted, are overwhelmingly white, as are the town hall ranters, injecting a disturbing culture wars/racist undercurrent to these protests, including the Nazi signs, the gun-toting participants, and the hate speech from right wing media. They're a vocal minority, but they don't represent the progressive coalition that voted President Obama into the White House.
Second, Gramps Grassley has not been shy about his objective to kill the Democratic bills:
Grassley’s tweets:
Republicans know need for healthCareReform That's why there are at least 4 Republican bills There is one bipartisan_Wyden-Bennett GiveLookSe
7:27 AM Aug 9th from txt
Misinformatio accuses me of supportin ObamaCare NOT TRUE I M at table making sure Govt takeovr doesn't happen,protect patience,and taxpayers
12:19 PM Jul 24th from txt
PTL BluDogs Keep barkin Pelosie bill is Govt takeovr of healthCare Breaks Obama promise"keep what u hv" Puts Wash Burocrats in chrg MUSTSTOP
9:01 AM Jul 24th from txt
President Obama decisively won the election of 2008 with a mandate from his supporters to change the nation's direction and do big things, including universal healthcare. Part of the President's mystique has been an overreliance, in my view, on the misguided belief that the current crop of Republicans in government can be redeemed and bipartisanship is possible.
It has even become an article of faith among some of the cognoscenti that universal healthcare reform cannot be achieved without bipartisan support and 60 votes. I could repeat what President Lyndon Johnson, who rammed through transformational Medicare, Medicaid, voting rights and civil rights legislation would say to this, but I wouldn't want to turn this post into a town hall rant.
Suffice it say that big Republican names (not as a monolith but close) have historically opposed every single piece of progressive legislation in the 20th century, from social security, to civil and voting rights, to Medicare/Medicaid. Names such as Bob Dole (who boasted in 1996 that he opposed Medicare as Grassley is boasting of obstructing universal healthcare today), Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan opposed Medicare in 1965 as vehemently as misguided Medicare recipients are coached with lies to oppose the President's healthcare plan.
Indeed, some of the ignorant blowhards ranting and raving at town halls today, many of whom are on Medicare, could have been channeling Ronald Reagan when he said: “[I]f you don’t [stop Medicare] and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Right. Seniors are really living in hellish gulags and warehoused in Florida retirement homes as a result of 44 years of health and security in their golden years from the Kennedy-Johnson Medicare program and FDR's social security. Has anyone paused to consider that these, and every other piece of progressive legislation in the past century, were Democratic Party programs and only Democratic Party programs? Have the ignorant Medicare recipients ranting from right wing talking points at town hall meetings about fictitious "death panels" forgotten that when it was the Republicans' turn, Newt Gingrich proposed slashing Medicare or privatizing it so that it would "wither on the vine," or that George W. Bush used his razor-thin electoral loss and selection by the Supreme Court to push through a scheme to privatize social security? Had that occurred, the Medicare ranters at town hall meetings would probably not be alive today once Bush's casino economy collapsed in on their meager privatized savings and threw them all under the bus.
Is ignorance an excuse for hypocrisy? No, because while hypocrisy presumes an informed distortion of the truth, ignorance of the facts cannot be excused when those facts are available for anyone willing to check. As anonymous (so as not to incur the wrath of the mob?) said, "a closed mind is a good thing to lose."
There's nothing that says a president with 60 votes, or ten to spare, can't pass a healthcare bill without a single Republican vote. In my estimation, the stakes for Republicans of saying "NO" are much higher. By the time the 2010 elections roll around, it's reasonable to assume, based on current trends and the stimulus package kicking in, that the economy will be on a sharp upswing. People will feel better, consumer confidence will be up, and a united Democratic Party will have delivered universal healthcare reform with many positive results as it is implemented, and none of the dire consequences always predicted by the demagogues and naysayers on the Republican side.
The notion that two, or even three Republican votes, translates into bipartisanship and gives skittish Democrats including the President political "cover," is ridiculous, especially when we have to surrender our principles. For what; three Republican votes, while the Bohners and the Grassleys stand laughing on the sidelines and prepare to demagogue the issue in the midterms anyway?
Better for Democrats to unite and pass healthcare reform as a Democratic bill, just as social security, and Medicare, and voting and civil rights were -- with Republican support yes, at a time when bipartisanship fit its dictionary definition, but Democratic initiatives.
If the President were to channel a little of Bobby's "ruthlessness" and LBJ's legendary arm-twisting horse trading, here's what he should do. Draw a line in the sand and give the Republicans an ultimatum. "This is as far as I'm willing to compromise; you can get on this train now, and be constructive, or you can stay behind at the station as the Democrats steer this nation into a future of promise, opportunity, and quality, affordable healthcare for all. Your choice." To the Blue Dog Democrats, the President should simply say: "Not supporting this plan is untenable for the Democratic Party. Stand with me, and I'll go all out and work for your re-election. Stand against me, and you're on your own."
That should do it.
A point I made in the “Dear Mr. President” post of July 30 and emailed to the White House on the off chance the President would read it, bears repeating, not for any stellar insight but because what was clear as a cloudless day then is even more crystal clear today. And it represents, I believe, the sentiments of the President's progressive base:
With all due respect, Mr. President, we didn't vote for change, we didn't hand you huge majorities in the House, and a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate, to have the fate of meaningful healthcare reform for all Americans decided, or rather destroyed, by Senator Chuck Grassley, who is a shill for the insurance industry.
The last I heard, we had an election. We won and Gramps Grassley's party lost. Big time. I can only hope the President won't decide, for the sake of expediency, to sell progressives down the river -- after we've come so far with him -- for a chimera called bipartisanship.
As a wise philosopher one said....
A great thinker, pictured below:
once said "What a maroon!"
This would be oh so applicable to the former governor/disgrace of Alaska who stood by her ridiculous "death panel" claim. As other great thinkers have said, Madame Ex-Governor/Liar/Dimwit, etc.:
once said "What a maroon!"
This would be oh so applicable to the former governor/disgrace of Alaska who stood by her ridiculous "death panel" claim. As other great thinkers have said, Madame Ex-Governor/Liar/Dimwit, etc.:
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Well, guys, what's going to happen?
I have been incommunicado, was WAAAAAY downstate fishing with my 82-year old father (who God bless him, wants to kick Hannity's ass--and I think he could do it.)
So the prez has gone all in on health care, but as per usual, the wingers are better organized and better able to frighten the old folks (except for my pop). Do the Dems have the spine and the votes to tell them to shove it? Does the prez cave and take a crap bill to get "a bill?" It's cliffhanger time.
Carlos, horses on Sunday??
Monday, August 10, 2009
Every Day an Ignorant Blowhard Shouts Down a Town Hall Meeting …
14,000 AMERICANS LOSE THEIR HEALTH CARE and
Stephen Hemsley, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Group (remember, they posted a staggering profit of 155% this year!) makes $819,363.10. Yes, EVERY DAY. Ain’t laissez faire capitalism GREAT?
It’s about PROFITS:
Health insurance profits rose 428% between 2000 and 2007. How? Well, by denial of coverage for expensive lifesaving care and by kicking sick people off the rolls. Another favorite health insurance company ploy in REAL RATIONING is to steer people to high deductible insurance plans, and pared-down catastrophic coverage only.
Result:
During the same period, as health insurance company profits went through the roof, the number of uninsured Americans rose by 19% from 38.4 million to 45.7 million, while the number of the underinsured rose exponentially.
Rationed care for profits:
The average health insurance CEO pay is $11.9 million. Now, is there any doubt why the health insurance industry is fighting with bare knuckles and hooliganism to prevent the facts from getting out? In tight economic times, this is one hell of a gravy train to give up.
Can anyone really blame them?
Mr. President, how could you believe any differently? Perhaps it’s a lesson learned that a community organizing model which brings disparate groups together in common purpose -– from the local community to small businesses and corporations -- does not always translate to the BIG STAGE where literally TRILLIONS of dollars and one-sixth of our economy are at stake.
And the wingnuts call our President a socialist? Ha! Any socialist worth his or her rose would have seen through the corporate schmoozing ‘why can’t we all get along, oh yeah, we’ll cooperate’ schemes in a Chi-town second. Senator Bernie Sanders had their empty promises sussed from the get-go.
Ah, if only the people knew how truly mainstream our President really is.
Even so, I can understand scared and confused seniors from the “greatest generation” not feeling reassured by offhand comments like “we’re not messin’ with your Medicare.” That’s a surprising tin ear, Mr. President. On this one, seniors are looking for an ironclad guarantee -– which should be a no-brainer for a Democratic president.
Time to get back to fighting trim or should I say, campaign mode, Mr. President. I hope you’ll come out swinging for the American people beginning tomorrow at your New Hampshire town hall event.
Here’s a video that should drive the obscene profits for TRUE RATIONED HEALTHCARE message home to anyone willing to think and listen and learn:
"The Health Insurance Racket:
Getting Rich by Denying Americans Care
UnitedHealthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley owns $744,232,068 in unexercised stock options. CIGNA’s Edward Hanway spends his holidays in a $13 million beach house in New Jersey. Meanwhile, regular Americans are routinely denied coverage for the care they need when they need it most.
Welcome to the American health insurance industry. Instead of helping policyholders attain the health security they need for their families, big insurance companies get rich by denying coverage to patients. Now they’re sending lobbyists to Washington, DC to twist the arms of lawmakers to oppose reform of the status quo. Why? Because the status quo pays."
Friday, August 07, 2009
Rush Limbaugh Stokes Flames of Hatred and Violence: Compares Democrats to Nazis
Reacting to Rush Limbaugh’s latest hate speech comparing the Democratic Party to Hitler's Nazi Party, Rep. Steve Israel, Democrat of New York, condemned Republican Boss Limbaugh's stoking the flames of hatred and simmering violence in Democratic town hall meetings. Limbaugh's radio show rant alleged similarities between the Obama Administration’s health care logo and the Nazi symbol: "[President Obama's] healthcare logo looks DAMN LIKE the Nazi logo." Then he posted a morphing graphic (below) on his website to further this insanity:
The TRUTH is the medical symbol in the Obama Administration’s logo -- IN ITS ENTIRETY -- is common to medical organizations as far back as the late 1970s. Many medical organizations, notes a medical website, use
So much for hate speech with the BIG LIE comparing the Obama healthcare logo and/or Democratic Party symbology with the Nazi Party.
Using Limbaugh’s twisted illogic, the following symbols are dead ringers for the Nazi Party logo. Notice, for instance, the eagle head, wings spread out, turned to its right:
Rep. Israel, who is Jewish and founder of the Institute on the Holocaust and the Law, responded forcefully to Limbaugh’s hateful screed that Democrats, like the Nazis, were against big business, “and of course we all know they were opposed to Jewish capitalism.” Said Mr. Israel:
As usual, Limbaugh’s statements and analogies are historical fantasies. The fact is the Nazi Party received its major private sector boost from Big Business interests and not from average voters. In this respect, the Nazi Party is a mirror image of the Republican Party, whose main constituency has traditionally been Big Business. The Nazi Party, at its zenith, was only as popular as the Republican Party, with 44% of the vote in the election of 1933.
But of course, this is where the comparisons end. Or do they?
GOP leaders from John Boehner to Mike Enzi have expressed sympathy for mob behavior in Democratic congressional town hall meetings. The GOP has been spreading the myth that the carefully orchestrated Astroturf uprisings are actually individual expressions of concern from average citizens, when in fact such thuggish behavior is driven by corporate interests and powerful lobbyists such as former Republican leader Dick Armey, with threats of violence aimed at intimidating proponents of healthcare reform -- a tactic straight out of the Nazi Party's Brown Shirts playbook.
It should be noted that the GOP’s self-described “maverick,” John McCain, is one of the few voices on the Republican side to publicly oppose mob rule in town halls:
How soon before the danger of escalating violence in this corporate-driven mob assault on Democratic town hall meetings -- with Republicans joking about their fellow Democrats being hung in effigy and Limbaugh spouting hatred into his mega-microphone -- turn the unruly mob into a lynch mob? At the very least, Republican Congressman Todd Akin (MO) who made this lynching joke, "different people from Washington, DC, have come back to their districts and have town hall meetings, and they almost got lynched" (LAUGHTER), should be censured by the full House.
But most important, when do Limbaugh’s violent fantasies cross the legal threshold of yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theater? Perhaps it will take a visit from the Justice Department and the FBI for Limbaugh to dial back his hatred.
The TRUTH is the medical symbol in the Obama Administration’s logo -- IN ITS ENTIRETY -- is common to medical organizations as far back as the late 1970s. Many medical organizations, notes a medical website, use
“a symbol of a short rod entwined by two snakes and topped by a pair of wings, which is actually the caduceus or magic wand of the Greek god Hermes (Roman Mercury), messenger of the gods, inventor of (magical) incantations, conductor of the dead and protector of merchants and thieves. It is derived from the Greek karykeion = "herald's staff", itself based on the word "eruko" meaning restrain, control.
It is interesting to see that most organizations using this symbol are generally either commercial or military (or American).
Walter J. Friedlander surveyed 242 logos or insignias of American organizations relating to health or medicine in which the caduceus or staff of Asclepius formed an integral part dating from the late 1970s to early 1980s.”
So much for hate speech with the BIG LIE comparing the Obama healthcare logo and/or Democratic Party symbology with the Nazi Party.
Using Limbaugh’s twisted illogic, the following symbols are dead ringers for the Nazi Party logo. Notice, for instance, the eagle head, wings spread out, turned to its right:
1. U.S. Air Force Symbol
2. Boys Scouts of America symbol
Rep. Israel, who is Jewish and founder of the Institute on the Holocaust and the Law, responded forcefully to Limbaugh’s hateful screed that Democrats, like the Nazis, were against big business, “and of course we all know they were opposed to Jewish capitalism.” Said Mr. Israel:
“I do expect my Republican colleagues to denounce his comments. The Holocaust taught us that silence in the face of evil expression becomes acquiescence to evil. And what Limbaugh said is pure evil.
Today, there are survivors of the Holocaust with tattoos stenciled on their arms who are registered Democrats. And he's treated them with vile contempt.”
As usual, Limbaugh’s statements and analogies are historical fantasies. The fact is the Nazi Party received its major private sector boost from Big Business interests and not from average voters. In this respect, the Nazi Party is a mirror image of the Republican Party, whose main constituency has traditionally been Big Business. The Nazi Party, at its zenith, was only as popular as the Republican Party, with 44% of the vote in the election of 1933.
But of course, this is where the comparisons end. Or do they?
GOP leaders from John Boehner to Mike Enzi have expressed sympathy for mob behavior in Democratic congressional town hall meetings. The GOP has been spreading the myth that the carefully orchestrated Astroturf uprisings are actually individual expressions of concern from average citizens, when in fact such thuggish behavior is driven by corporate interests and powerful lobbyists such as former Republican leader Dick Armey, with threats of violence aimed at intimidating proponents of healthcare reform -- a tactic straight out of the Nazi Party's Brown Shirts playbook.
It should be noted that the GOP’s self-described “maverick,” John McCain, is one of the few voices on the Republican side to publicly oppose mob rule in town halls:
“Town hall meetings are an American tradition -- we should allow everyone to express their views without disruption -- even if we disagree!”
How soon before the danger of escalating violence in this corporate-driven mob assault on Democratic town hall meetings -- with Republicans joking about their fellow Democrats being hung in effigy and Limbaugh spouting hatred into his mega-microphone -- turn the unruly mob into a lynch mob? At the very least, Republican Congressman Todd Akin (MO) who made this lynching joke, "different people from Washington, DC, have come back to their districts and have town hall meetings, and they almost got lynched" (LAUGHTER), should be censured by the full House.
But most important, when do Limbaugh’s violent fantasies cross the legal threshold of yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theater? Perhaps it will take a visit from the Justice Department and the FBI for Limbaugh to dial back his hatred.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
The stupid, it burns
In a conversation between Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck, Beck apparently said that Obama's presidency is "the worst time in the Republic."
Just checking, but worse than the Civil War, when nearly half the country left the Republic and the country almost tore itself apart? Really?
Just checking, but worse than the Civil War, when nearly half the country left the Republic and the country almost tore itself apart? Really?
Laffing, redux
Obviously, the silliest thing about the Arthur Laffer quote below is the meme that Medicare and Medicaid aren't already government-run, which just show how stupid they think we are. There's a second point to pick on, though, and that's the crack at the Post Office. I know that they're an easy target, but for the most part, they're a (private) agency that takes almost any item you give them and gets it to any other address in the country, often in a couple of days, and most items cost less than 50 cents. For any company, that's remarkably time-efficient and cost-efficient. The employees may be somewhat annoying at times, and the lines don't always move quickly, but if a new health care system was that efficient, we'd all be grateful.
The DMV, though, is a different story entirely. Of course, that's state-run, not federal, so it's still a sign of idiocy.
The DMV, though, is a different story entirely. Of course, that's state-run, not federal, so it's still a sign of idiocy.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Rachel Maddow PSA: Exposing the Scripted G-NO-P Thuggishness
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
These people are incredibly pathetic tools; do they really think that such thuggish behavior is going to pull the wool over the American people's eyes? Do they think the American people are really as stupid as they are, despicable bottom-feeding morons? Pfft.
Moneyed special interest corporate agitators are as old as this republic. So, how much is the insurance industry corporate lobby paying their storm troopers? A check would be nice. Walk-around, scream and shout money? Travel expenses from and to their survivalist bunkers? Brown bag cash? Because if they're not getting paid, boy are they ever addle-brained pathetic tools on steroids!
Thanks, Rachel, for this point-by-point exposé of the insurance industry corporate lobby, the real entity behind this faux "grass roots" scripted right wing town hall thugghishness.
Fox News => Talking Point => Town Hall Disruption => Crank Cycle
(Thanks for this, Telemann.)
AMERICA’S MOST TRUSTED NEWS ANCHOR, Jon Stewart , brilliantly exposes the “Crank Cycle:”: Faux News plants the seed, a viewer pollinates the point, and an outrage-generating ecosystem is created. View video here.
AMERICA’S MOST TRUSTED NEWS ANCHOR, Jon Stewart , brilliantly exposes the “Crank Cycle:”: Faux News plants the seed, a viewer pollinates the point, and an outrage-generating ecosystem is created. View video here.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Master Rebators - The Crank Cycle | ||||
| ||||
We're not Laffing with you, we're Laffing at you
Arthur Laffer, developer of the mathematically trivial and utterly meaningless Laffer Curve:
"If you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they're run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government."
"If you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they're run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government."
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