The Republican Death Machine – Sen. Charles Grassley rammed the GOP’s most astonishing pro-death policy through the Senate in 2001. The estate-tax revision he championed reduces the estate tax to zero next year. But it includes an expiration clause at year’s end, when the tax will jump back up to its previous level of 55 percent. Grassley’s exploding offer has an entirely foreseen consequence: It’s going to encourage those whose parents and grandparents are worth anything more than a million bucks to get them dead by midnight on Dec. 31, 2010.
Chuck Grassley Fundraises Against Health-Care Reform – Sen. Charles Grassley is responsible for developing a workable compromise on health-care reform. But as this fundraising letter (pdf) shows, Grassley is running against health-care reform back in Iowa. Here’s how the missive begins:
I had to rush you this Air-Gram today to set the record straight on my firm and unwavering opposition to government-run health care. And ask your immediate support in helping me defeat “Obama-care.”
Nice bi-partisanship there, Chuck.
Texas Republican Pete Olson’s Health Care Propaganda Fail – Texas Republican Pete Olson probably figured he could get away with using a young child as a propaganda tool at a recent town hall meeting — but he was in for a big surprise.
Congressman Olson Caught Off Guard
Republican Congressman Olson (R-TX) tells the townhall about a mother who was turned away by the free market doctors for her unborn child’s heart defect. She was denied by the free market doctors but persisted and was able to find a specialized doctor and got a very delicate operation and a heart transplant 17 days after he was born. Olson then claims that the public option would have denied him the needed health care and he would have died! After being challenged he abruptly ended the discussion. Watch as he is challenged, and clueless as to what to say.
As Olson spews out his talking points, people in the crowd repeatedly point out to him that it wasn’t the government who turned this poor child away, it was the insurance companies. Olson was absolutely gobsmacked when people started calling him out on his obvious gaffe as he stood there looking like a deer caught in the headlights. It’s so encouraging to see some town hall video from health care reform supporters giving these GOP shills a taste of their own medicine!
Conservative Commentator Says Katrina cleansed New Orleans. It Just Washed Out a Lot of Debris, Including Human Debris – Yesterday, hate-radio talk show host Neal Boortz mocked President Obama’s pledge to rebuild New Orleans, calling the victims of Hurricane Katrina human trash. Boortz, who regularly mocks Latinos, women and the poor — even calling Rep. Cynthia McKinney a “ghetto slut” — made an expansive case that the combined natural and human disaster of Hurricane Katrina actually helped the city of New Orleans on his June 24, 2009 radio show. Although Katrina’s devastation cost this nation $80 billion, killed thousands, and displaced a million people, Boortz believes “Katrina cleansed New Orleans“:
“Katrina cleansed New Orleans. It just washed out a lot of debris, including human debris.”
Boortz has also called the overwhelmingly black and poor victims of the Katrina disaster in New Orleans “human parasites” and “deadbeats,” even suggesting that a victim of Hurricane Katrina consider prostitution instead of “sucking off taxpayers.”
Boortz is nationally syndicated from Atlanta’s WSB, part of the Cox Enterprises empire, whose billionaire heiress Anne Cox Chambers is the richest person in Georgia and a million-dollar tax evader.
Compassionate conservatives, indeed! And by the way, no health care for you!
More on the I Hate Obama Sermon – I reported on this last week, but there’s more detail. The guy who carried an AR-15 rifle to President Obama’s event attended this church sermon the day before. Here are some excerpts:
Here is my sermon, why I hate Barack Obama. That’s my sermon tonight, because Barack Obama is coming to town tomorrow morning.
And I’m going to tell you something. I hate Barack Obama. You say, well, you just mean you don’t like what he stands for. No, I hate the person. Oh, you mean you just don’t like his policies. No, I hate him.
What goes around comes around. You love violence. You hate that which is right. You love to harm others. You love to hurt or kill the unborn or the innocent or the righteous. He is saying, God is going to bring that upon your own head, because whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Now, turn back to Psalm 58 and let me ask you this question. Why should Barack Obama melt like a snail? Why should Barack Obama die like the untimely birth of a woman? Why should his children be fatherless and his wife a widow, as we read in this passage?
What does this pastor “soweth”? He talks against hate while spewing hate? A defining characteristic of right-wing authoritarians is lack of self awareness.
Dressed in business suits and cocktail dresses, and occasionally sporting champagne, the motley crew of “billionaires” cheered on anti-healthcare protesters. They carried signs with messages including:
· “If God loved the poor people, he wouldn’t let them get sick.”
· “Survival of the RICHEST!” “IT’S A CLASS WAR AND WE’RE WINNING”
· “Keep WEALTHCARE alive / NO on HealthCare reform.”
· “Healthcare rationing, that’s our job!”
· “We love BlueDogs. A solid investment in healthcare profiteering.”
In a YouTube video the group posted, one top-hatted “billionaire” is quoted as endorsing the privatization of other public services, as well. “Along with privatized police, [we should have a] privatized fire department,” the gentleman quips. “I mean, because if my cat’s stuck in a tree, I don’t want the fire department taking ten extra minutes because of a silly fire going on somewhere else in my neighborhood. Because if I have the money, I get the first priority.”
Man Holding “Death to Obama” Sign Outside Town Hall Meeting on Health Care – A man was holding a sign reading “Death to Obama” Wednesday outside a town hall meeting on health care reform in Hagerstown, Md. Washington County Sheriff’s Capt. Peter Lazich said the sign also read, “Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids.” There were also signs comparing President Obama to a Nazi and showing him with an Adolf Hitler-style mustache.
Is it heath care, or is it something else with these people?
A group of protesters camped outside Rep. Susan Davis’s (D-Calif.). “Neighborhood Day” event this past week were brandishing signs calling the president a Black Supremacist and suggesting he’s a Nazi disciple.
“Black National Socialism Is Not Utopia,” reads one poster.
Another has a picture of Obama’s former preacher, Jeremiah Wright, juxtaposed with a picture of Adolph Hitler and one of picture of Obama and Wright together. It read, “Obama’s Church: Black Supremacist.”
Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Says He’d Buy a License to Hunt Obama – Earlier this week, Idaho Republican gubernatorial hopeful, Rex Rammell, said he’d buy a license to hunt Obama. At a Republican rally Tuesday in Twin Falls where talk turned to the state’s planned wolf hunt, for which hunters must purchase an $11.50 wolf tag, an audience member shouted a question about “Obama tags.” Rammell responded, “The Obama tags? We’d buy some of those.”
Confused in Conroe – An attendee at the town hall meeting in Conroe, TX, said, “I don’t want it (health care system) to change.” Then she said she just dropped her insurance two months ago because of a lack of income, which she blames on the current government.
Let’s see, she blames her job loss on the current government although the recession set in under the Bush Administration and she doesn’t want the health care system, which she now can’t afford, to change. Brilliant! NOT!
Now, I know we’re supposed to think that private for-profit health care companies don’t ration care, while government-run programs like Medicare do – but as the insurance industry admits right here for all to see, that’s just not the case. The obvious truth is that the health insurance industry works hard to “control utilization” – that is, it works hard to make sure that when you need a costly medical service, you are “controlled” (read: prevented) from getting it.
Americans Need Help, Republican Senator Coburn Needs a Heart – At a town hall meeting in Oklahoma hosted by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), a constituent begins her question with a desperate plea, “Senator Coburn, we need help!” Her voice is then overwhelmed by the kind of choking tears that reveal a person reduced whose frustration and suffering has brought them to the last possible chance to save the life of the person they love more than anyone else in the world. She then explains her situation:
My husband has traumatic brain injury. His health insurance will not cover him to eat and drink. What I need to know is, are you going to help him so he can eat and drink?
As the questioner’s courageous voice fades into heaving sobs, Senator Coburn calmly responds,”Yeah, we’ll help. The first thing we’ll do is see what we can do individually to help you through our office.” Initially, Coburn seems headed towards a reassuring resolution, but then he concludes with the following:
But the other thing that’s missing in this debate is us as neighbors helping people who need our help. We tend to–the idea that government is the solution to all our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement.
Coburn answers an American’s desperate plea for help to care for her husband, in other words, by repeating the anti-government mantra of the Republican Party. The political calculus in Coburn’s words hang in the room like an icy cloud. There are millions of Americans with problems like this, and neighbors and Coburn’s office staff can’t help them much. If Coburn cared, he wouldn’t be trying to defeat health care reform legislation.
John McCain Promises and Plans Don’t Match – After John McCain opened his town hall up to questioning, one man angrily pointed at him and asked the senator why he deserves a better health care plan than him.
“I’m trying to get it for you,” McCain told him. “We’ll do it for you. We’ll make it affordable and available to you.”
John McCain’s health care proposal is similar to President Bush’s failed plan. Like Bush’s, McCain’s plan undermines existing employer-based health care and pushes workers into the private market to fight big insurance companies on their own. It will reduce benefits, increase costs and leave many with no health care at all.
Investors were promised their investments were safe and were scrutinized by Antigua’s bank regulator and an independent auditor. But Davis said in the court documents that the bank’s balance sheets were made up and the work of “reverse engineering.”
“Sometime in 2003, Stanford performed a ‘blood oath’ brotherhood ceremony with King and another employee of the FSRC … This brotherhood oath was undertaken in order to extract an agreement from both King and the other FSRC employee that they, in exchange for regular cash bribe payments, would ensure that the Antiguan bank regulators would not ‘kill the business’ of” the bank,” according to the plea agreement.
Republican Dirty Tricks Are Not New – Tape recordings from the Nixon White House betray a preoccupation with the Kennedy mystique and how that advantage might be used against the Republican president by the last surviving brother, Ted Kennedy, who died Tuesday at age 77. Nixon wanted a sharp and private eye kept on Ted Kennedy’s movements after the Chappaquiddick scandal, hoping to expose another misstep with a woman other than his wife, Joan.
Nixon’s men had investigators tail Ted Kennedy on a Hawaii vacation and when he was at his Martha’s Vineyard haunts.
Mortified, they told Nixon that Joan Kennedy wanted to wear “hot pants” to a White House function until her husband talked her out of it. But Ted’s behavior? In the aftermath of his scandal, he was careful not to step out of line, the tapes suggest.
“Does he do anything?” Nixon asked in a September 1971 meeting. “No, no, he’s very clean,” Ehrlichman replied. “He was in Hawaii on his own. He was staying in some guy’s villa. He was just as nice as could be the whole time.”
Nixon shot back: “The thing to do is watch him.”
Nixon pressed for more wiretaps and a combing of tax records, not only on Kennedy but other leading Democrats. “I could only hope that we are, frankly, doing a little persecuting,” he said.
Because Kennedy was not a presidential candidate in 1972, he did not qualify for full-time Secret Service protection. But Nixon offered it to Ted Kennedy.
But Nixon’s motives for the offer were not pure. He worried that if a third Kennedy were shot, and while not having Secret Service protection, he’d be blamed.
Plus, he wanted dirt. And the best way to get it was to have a Secret Service agent rat on the senator. There is no evidence an agent turned into such an informer.
“You understand what the problem is,” Nixon told Haldeman and Ehrlichman on Sept. 7, 1972. “If the (SOB) gets shot they’ll say we didn’t furnish it (protection). So you just buy his insurance.
“After the election, he doesn’t get a … thing. If he gets shot, it’s too damn bad. Do it under the basis, though, that we pick the Secret Service men.
“Understand what I’m talking about?”
Pete Olson Filters Town Hall Questions But Still Gets Punked – At Congressman Pete Olson’s Town Hall meeting in Sugar Land, audience questions to Olson were entered on 5 x 7 cards that Olson’s aides collected and then filtered. They literally handed them to him one at a time. So Olson’s questions were largely tailored to Olson much like his ridiculous “polls.”
For example, here is one “poll” question right off of one of his recent glossy mailers: “Do you support or oppose limiting access to health care by placing a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor?” (He might as well asked if you’ve stopped beating your wife.)
Things started out pretty calm, as a result. The heat was turned up a little after Olson read the 10th Amendment to the Constitution. Someone asked him to read the Preamble to the Constitution, and Olson complied. Olson began with the words “We the people…” until he got to that part that says “promote the general welfare.” At that point several people in the room broke out into vigorous and loud applause.
Olson paused and looked genuinely surprised, realized at that point that he had been punked.
George W. Bush Questions Brevity of Obama’s Vacation – Former president George W. Bush criticized President Barack Obama today for taking such a brief August vacation, arguing that the brevity of his summer break “sends the wrong message to terrorists.”
“The one way to let the evildoers know that they don’t have you all stressed out is by taking all of August off,” Mr. Bush told reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. “I always made sure I did that.” The former president called Mr. Obama’s golf game in Martha’s Vineyard today “a positive step,” but added, “It may be a case of too little, too late.”
Failed Texas Bank Lied About Housing Losses According to Former Executive – Craig Wolfe, who served previously as vice president for loss mitigation at Houston-based Franklin Bank, claimed in a whistleblower letter prior to the failure that others at the institution improperly shifted losses that should have been booked in 2007 into 2008. Wolfe said in the letter that he refused on three different occasions to sign the bank’s Sarbanes-Oxley attestation certifying its balance sheet and financial statements. He was swiftly demoted, and the company moved forward with the statements as presented to him.
After Franklin Bank shut its doors, a loss review conducted by the FDIC identified major accounting errors and raised “significant questions about the competency of the management.”
In addition to facing continued regulatory scrutiny, the bank’s parent company was hit with several securities class-action suits alleging that it misled investors.
See, free-market and private enterprise takes care of itself. NOT!
Right-Wingers Opposed to Turning a Day of Fear into a Day of Service – Right-wing commentators are claiming that the White House is planning to “erase the meaning” of the 9/11 attacks and turn the anniversary into “a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry” — despite the fact that the idea to link the 9/11 anniversary to volunteerism was originally promoted by President George W. Bush. (“President Bush today [9-8-2008] renewed the call he made in the wake of the 9/11 attacks for every American to give 4,000 hours or two years of their lives in service to others.”) The bill, passed this spring, had bipartisan support.
An article by Matthew Vadum, published Monday in the American Spectator, states that the president’s plan for a National Day of Service, to be celebrated on September 11, would eliminate 9/11 as a political tool for Republicans. “The plan is to turn a ‘day of fear’ that helps Republicans into a day of activism called the National Day of Service that helps the left,” writes Vadum. “In other words, nihilistic liberals are planning to drain 9/11 of all meaning.”
See, in the right-wing view, doing good deeds is evil. But war and lying is good. And, if George W. Bush said it, it’s good; but if Barack Obama says the same thing, it’s bad.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley Likes Beliefs More Than Facts – At a recent town hall, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said, “I think most of us believe we have the best health care system in the world, …” Well, it may be true that the people at that town hall may believe that we have the best health care system in the world, but the fact is that U. S. health care is ranked 37th in the world. Or maybe Grassley was referring to the health care of U.S. Senators provided by our government.
The Senator has in the past endorsed the “death panel” myth and told his constituents, “you have every right to fear” it.
How United Health Care is Gaming Heath Care Against Doctors and Patients – United Health Group, the insurance giant is literally instructing its employees to go to town halls and spit talking points. They have rigged the system to lower how much insurance pays of your bills. They bought the agencies that are supposed to independently determine “usual and customary “ costs. The AMA sued them, claiming United Health Group was now low-balling the usual and customary rates used by the insurance industry, so insurance companies, including United Health Group, could cheat patients and providers on their reimbursements, while telling patients the company providing their rate estimates was, quote, “independent.”
While United Health Group was telling other insurance companies they would get a 16 to one return on investment if they bought those rate estimates from United Health Group. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said United Health Group low balled consumers by as much as 30 percent. A Senate committee concluded that millions of Americans, including more than one million military families, paid billions more for out-of-network health care than they should have.
Republicans like to quote the Lewin Group‘s claim that more than 100 million Americans would ditch employer health plans for a public option. House Whip Eric Cantor, Orrin Hatch of Senate Finance, they have called Lewin non-partisan. But the Lewin Group, too, is owned by United Health Group, which has given thousands to Hatch and Cantor in just the past two years.
Last year, hospital executives raided big insurance companies in a national survey. United Health Group was worst. Favorable, just eight percent; unfavorable, 91 percent.
United Health Group has reportedly hit small businesses and consumers with regular double-digit rate hikes recently, far out-stripping inflation. In 2007, United Health Group denied, but agreed to settle, claims of handling patient claims improperly in at least 37 states.
They have colluded with elected officials to fatten their profits at your expense. With all of this terrible behavior, the United Health Group CEO has made $750 million so far, and will make even more if the public option does not pass.
United Health Group – Low Balling Rates Paid to Doctors Constraining New Benifits OK To Die if You Can’t Pay
Patient number one: Senator Chuck Grassley. Diagnosis: possible dementia—telling a town hall in Iowa he opposes the public option because he wants the public to have options. Doing nothing to rebuke a man also who threatened Grassley‘s fellow lawmakers, saying, quote, “I‘d take a gun to Washington if enough of you would go with me.”
Patient two: GOP Chair Michael Steele. Diagnosis: whiplash. Three years ago saying cuts to Medicare had to be on the table. Yesterday, releasing a senior‘s health care bill of rights promising to protect Medicare, today calling Medicare, quote, “a very good example of what we should not have happen with all of our health care.”
And then there‘s patient three: Senator/Doctor Tom Coburn. Diagnosis: pronounced cardiac deficiency—or in layman‘s terms, he‘s utterly heartless. A constituent told him her husband suffered a traumatic brain injury. He‘s on a feeding tube. They have insurance. It will not cover trained help nor a nursing home. Coburn responded that her neighbors should help out but not, of course, via their government and that his office will help, even though his office is the government.
Why the Gullible Can’t Help Themselves – The psychological theory of cognitive dissonance holds that when people are presented with information that contradicts preexisting beliefs, they try to relieve the cognitive tension one way or another. They process and respond to information defensively, for instance: their belief challenged by fact, they ignore the latter. They also accept and seek out confirming information but ignore, discredit the source of, or argue against contrary information, studies have shown. An example is the large number of Americans that still believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks. In a study, when people who believed this Sadam-9/11 link were shown newspaper articles reporting that the 9/11 Commission had not found any evidence linking Saddam and 9/11, and quoting President Bush himself denying it, 96% of them still would not change their minds.
Which brings us back to health-care reform—in particular, the apoplexy at town-hall meetings and the effectiveness of the lies being spread about health-care reform proposals. First of all, let’s remember that 59,934,814 voters cast their ballot for John McCain, so we can assume that tens of millions of Americans believe the wrong guy is in the White House. To justify that belief, they need to find evidence that he’s leading the country astray. What better evidence of that than to seize on the misinformation about Obama’s health-care reform ideas.
Calculation May Explain Why So Many People Believe Stupid, Fact-Less Rumors – There is an old saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” If that’s true, assuming an average lifespan of 66 years (world average), 365 days per year, 24 hours in a day, and 60 minutes per hour, that comes to 34,689,600 suckers, which just happens to equal the number of right-wing wackos in existence today. (Just kidding, but you can’t prove it’s not true.)
The “I’d rather believe something crazy” crowd is not new. What makes a difference is knowing how to use them. Even though many people believe that the phrase, “there’s a sucker born every minute” was said by P. T. Barnum, there is no proof he ever said that. It was actually uttered by David Hannum, spoken in reference to Barnum’s part in the Cardiff Giant hoax. Hannum, who was exhibiting the “original” giant and had unsuccessfully sued Barnum for exhibiting a copy and claiming it was the original, was referring to the crowds continuing to pay to see Barnum’s exhibit even after both it and the original had been proven to be fakes.
In turn, Barnum’s fellow circus owner and arch-rival Adam Forepaugh attributed the quote to Barnum in a newspaper review in an attempt to discredit him. However, Barnum never denied making the quote. It is said that he thanked Forepaugh for the free publicity he had given him. (The quote is also attributed to other people.)
Stupidity is neither ignorance nor organicity, but rather, a corollary of knowing and an element of normalcy, the double of intelligence rather than its opposite. It is an artifact of our nature as finite beings and one of the most powerful determinants of human destiny. Stupidity is always the name of the Other, … that we conduct in order to render ourselves uncomprehending. Stupidity, which has been evicted from the philosophical premises and dumbed down by psychometric psychology, has returned in the postmodern discourse against Nation, Self, and Truth and makes itself felt in political life ranging from the presidency to Beevis and Butthead. This course examines stupidity.
Deaths of 43 Bald Eagles is Unanticipated Side Effect of Rat Eradication in Alaska – Alaska’s Rat Island appears to be pest-free for the first time since rats overran it after a Japanese sailing ship wrecked there in the late 1700s. Scientists stopped by in early August to check on the progress of the $3 million eradication. The project has had some ecological side effects, however. Scientists found more than 250 dead birds on Rat Island last spring when they returned for the first time since the island was baited. Those carcasses tested positive for brodifacoum, the poison used on the rats. Scientists had anticipated that some gulls would die, but the deaths of 43 bald eagles surprised and disappointed them.
The Fish and Wildlife Service will look at water and soil samples to understand the movement of the rat poison in order to determine how it killed so many birds, and what scientists need to do to avoid such deaths next time, if they treat other islands in the chain.
There are several theories, but scientists suspect that gulls ate some of the poison pellets. Eagles may have eaten the dead gulls.
Real Anti-Cap and Trade Grassroots Were Evicted From Energy Citizens Rally in Houston – The Energy Citizens’ rallies are really energy company picnics. The Houston rally was attended ONLY by energy company employees and retirees (at least that’s the way they wanted it). It’s no big surprise that a few rabble-rousing enviros were kicked out, but when even those that oppose cap and trade were turned away– that should raise major red flags about the true nature of these events. Watch the video at the link of people who were throw out of the rally because they didn’t work for an energy company.
REPUBLICAN GRASSROOTS TRICKS! – BIG OIL UNITED HEALTH GROUP LEWINGROUP, FREEDOMWORKS
Don’t Get Sick in Texas – From 2004 to 2007, employer-sponsored insurance for Texans, age 19-64, fell 2.6% (four times the national average) while the number of uninsured in this age group rose 1.2% (six times the national average).
If You Don’t Speak Up, It’s a Bad Deed – Congressman Pete Olson will have a health care town hall meeting on Saturday in La Marque. Here are a few questions that might interest Olson:
1. Why should the tax payers pay for your socialized health care plan? Why don’t you find and pay for your health care like everyone else does?
2. Under your socialized health care, your pre-existing condition (heart pacemaker) will continue to be covered even if you change health plans. Why do you refuse to fight for that same right for your own constituents?
3. Why should the tax payers pay for socialized health care for the 2 million federal employees, many who work in your district? If we can’t afford to cover all Americans, then let the federal employees pay for their own insurance.
4. What happened to the Christian compassion that should be reaching out to those who are sick and need help?
La Marque Town Hall Mtg
Date: Saturday, August 29, 2009
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Location: La Marque City Hall
1111 Bayou Rd
La Marque TX
If you can’t make it to La Marque, or even if you can, sign the petition standing with President Obama for Health Care Reform today and this petition urging Congress to enact real reform and create a public option.
Burning the Future: Coal in America – This award-winning movie examines the explosive conflict between the coal industry and residents of West Virginia. Confronted by emerging “clean coal” energy policies, local activists watch a world blind to the devastation caused by coal’s extraction. Faced with toxic ground water and the obliteration of 1.4 million acres of mountains, our heroes launch a valiant fight to arouse the nation’s help in protecting their mountains, saving their families, and preserving their way of life.
Insurers Have 50,000 of Their Employees Lobbying Congress to Claim Their Profits Are Fair – A spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s trade group, admitted in an article published Monday that as many as 50,000 industry employees are involved in an effort to fight back against aggressive healthcare reform. The health-insurance industry is sending thousands of its employees to town-hall meetings and other forums during Congress’s August recess to try to counter a tide of criticism directed at the insurers and remain a player — and not an outsider — in the debate over the future of the health-care system.” Employees of the health insurers have also been given talking points that encourage them to keep a low profile and avoid taking “the bait” when the industry is criticized in public
Fox Furthers ‘Death Panel’ Hysteria With ‘Death Book’ Claim by a Guy Trying to Sell His Own Guidebook to the VA – Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace devoted the first segment of this week’s show to trying to prove President Barack Obama’s administration was encouraging veterans to choose to die. However, they failed to mention that the so-called ‘death book’ contains the same advance-care planning required of all health care organizations under federal law, has been in use since 1997 and was developed with the input of interfaith ministers.
It all started with Jim Towey, the former president of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives under George W. Bush. Towey seems to have his own axe to grind. He has repeatedly tried to get the government to spend millions to purchase his “Five Wishes” book, which is published by Aging With Dignity, a non-profit group he founded, to distribute to veterans across the country.
In his op-ed, Towey stated that this panel did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. In fact, according to the VA, the panel included a priest, a rabbi, a renowned disability rights advocate, and the president of the organization that produces “Five Wishes,” the alternative advance care planning document that Towey is promoting and selling.
Without Reform, Health Insurance Rates to Nearly Double in 11 Years – Insurance rates will rise 94 percent by 2020 if cost-saving reforms to the US health care system aren’t enacted, a new study from the Commonwealth Institute finds. The 90-year-old non-profit health care charity released an analysis of health care costs and forecasts that says employer-sponsored family plans will rise from an average cost of $12,298 in 2008 to $23,842 in 2020. By contrast, the same coverage would have cost around $9,200 in 2003.
There is Essentially NO Competition Among Private health Insurers – One of the most widely accepted arguments against a government medical plan for the middle class is that it would quash competition — just what private insurers seem to be doing themselves in many parts of the U.S. Several studies show that in lots of places, one or two companies dominate the market. Critics say monopolistic conditions drive up premiums paid by employers and individuals. There is a serious problem with the lack of competition among insurers,” said Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the highest-cost states. “The impact on the consumer is significant.”
Help us stand strong against their despicable attacks. Sign the petition voicing your support for health insurance reform today and make sure to share it with friends and family.
Republican Congressman Supports ‘Proud Right-Wing Terrorist’ – US House Representative Wally Herger, of California’s 2nd congressional district, expressed “enthusiastic approval” of a town-hall attendee who described himself as a “proud right-wing terrorist,” newspapers in northern California report. “Amen, God bless you,” Herger reportedly replied to the comment. “There is a great American.”
Love, American Right-Wing Preacher Style – Steven Anderson, who preaches from the pulpit at Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, says that all gays and lesbians should face the death penalty. Anderson says that God “commanded it and said they should be taken out and killed.” He also said, “Our country is run by faggots,” and “God appointed him [Obama] to destroy this country for the wickedness of the United States of America,” and “I’m not gonna pray for his good. I’m going to pray that he dies and goes to hell.”
Sean Hannity is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong – Sean Hannity claims that Democratic Senator Max Baucus says Social Security will enter default in two years – but:
It was actually Republican Congressman Spencer Bachus,
Bachus said “deficit,” not “default,”
And the claim by Bachus is wrong.
Study Finds Mercury in Fish Widespread, Blames Mining, Coal Plants – A federal study of mercury contamination released Wednesday found the toxic substance in every fish tested at nearly 300 streams across the country, a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has become. The main source of mercury to most of the streams tested, according to the researchers, is emissions from coal-fired power plants. The mercury released from smokestacks rains down into waterways, where natural processes convert it into methylmercury — a form that allows the toxin to wind its way up the food chain into fish.
EPA Fails To Inform Public About Weed-Killer In Drinking Water – One of the nation’s most widely-used herbicides has been found to exceed federal safety limits in drinking water in four states, but water customers have not been told and the Environmental Protection Agency has not published the results. An analysis found that yearly average levels of atrazine in drinking water violated the federal standard at least ten times in communities in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas, all states where farmers rely heavily on the herbicide. In addition, more than 40 water systems in those states showed spikes in atrazine levels that normally would have triggered automatic notification of customers. In none of those cases were residents alerted.
Populating the Administration with people from inside the beltway will help in some ways and hurt in others. Progressives are losing the health care reform effort because the inside the beltway team is using methods that have always failed in the past.
They have failed to use the methods from President Obama’s successful election campaign. They are fighting the conservative opposition the same way they always have. They are preaching to the choir while fearful members flee to join the other ‘church.’
Instead of trying to negate the lies of the other ‘church,’ but only reinforcing their lies instead, or talking about the logical interests of of the health care customers, everyone should be talking about what is wrong with the current health care system – The American Health Insurance Failure. It’s broken and needs fixing. The American Health Insurance Failure should be pointed out over and over and over, and consistently from every member of the Administration. They should also explaining how this failed system can be fixed.
Rename the reform effort – The American Plan. The “public option” only helps the other ‘church’ by making it the government option and how the other ‘church’ hates the government. The American Plan will fix our failed health insurance system.
We have a significant health care emergency. Tens of millions must resort to expensive emergency rooms for lack of insurance. Twenty thousand Americans die each year because the can’t get health care. Costs of health care have been, and are, growing faster than wages or inflation while quality suffers from birth to death. Other nations cover all citizens for half the cost. The American Plan is a response to this emergency.
20,000 Americans Die Each Year Being Denied Health Care
Just because you have health care coverage via your employer doesn’t mean your insured. Loss your job – lose your coverage. And unless you are really rich and can afford to buy your own insurance, you are stuck with what your employer provides. You have no choice. The American Plan is about coverage if you become unemployed or have a preexisting condition when you change jobs. It is about choice.
For profit health insurance is about denying care. Even if you’re wealthy and can afford your own insurance, an insurance company doesn’t have to insure you – it’s their choice not yours. If you’re healthy, maybe they will choose you? The American Plan takes choice away from the insurance company and gives it to every citizen.
Health insurance is about delaying expensive health care. “I was, diagnosed with a terminal illness, and I had to wait 6 weeks to get an appointment … … I could have died by then. … I later discovered, my insurance company would have been very happy with that outcome.” Twenty percent of doctor recommended treatments are denied by health insurance companies.
Twenty to thirty percent of what is paid to insurance companies goes to denial of care and adding to the bottom line. This high fee constitutes a private tax on citizens which only benefits insurance company executives and investors. This is taxation without representation. The American Plan will provide relief from this unfair tax.
Doctors care about your health – they know you, insurance companies don’t care – they don’t know you. Corporations have no empathy. The American Plan is about helping doctors provide better care with higher quality and lower cost.
450,000 Doctors Can’t Be Wrong
What about the insurance company bureaucrats? They put profit before health care. They ration care. They delay care. They deny care. The American Plan will put a stop to this.
Care is rationed by insurance companies. They have to authorize medical procedures – that takes time – and may be disapproved. They force your doctor to rush through your exam and get to the next patient by negotiating lower reimbursement fees for each patient. You have to pay more for each visit, so you don’t see your doctor as often?
Insurance companies are inefficient and wasteful. Their administration costs are 8 time higher than government provided medicare.
The American Plan is about doctor-patient care and making it better.
Let The White House know they are losing the health insurance reform battle to fear mongers and that they need to change their approach. They need a new plan – The American Plan.
Michael Bloomberg Has No Idea of What “Don’t Make a Lot of Money” Means – Billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies and their chief executives on Friday, declaring that they “don’t make a lot of money” and shouldn’t be scapegoats in the health care debate.
However, pharmaceutical CEOs are known to make millions, with generous salaries, stock options and other perks. Abbott Laboratories Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Miles White’s compensation was $25.3 million in 2008. The North Chicago, Ill.-based company saw profit rising 35 percent to $4.88 billion. Merck & Co.’s chief executive, Richard T. Clark, received a $17.3 million compensation package for 2008. The company’s profit more than doubled to $7.8 billion.
Earlier this year Bloomberg declared “we love the rich people” while arguing against raising taxes on the wealthy.
Democrats Missed a Chance to Show Bold Leadership – Let us imagine for a moment a world where Democrats proceeded from strength. Here is how the health care debate would have unfolded. Before introducing any legislation, the Democrats hold hearings on the state of health care in this country. They bring in the top health care industry executives and ask them to answer for these grave injustices and inefficiencies:
a. The practices of denying people care through rescission and denying people coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Rescission is where insurance companies will let people die because of a technicality. Then the Democratic congressmen and senators would get on all of the cable shows and pronounce that they are shocked to find out that private health care insurance companies kill people for a profit in this country.
b. Then the Democrats would ask the CEOs of these companies how much money they make. The CEO of UnitedHealth Group would have to concede that he has three quarters of a billion dollars in stock options. Then a Democratic congressman would lean in toward his microphone with great gravity and ask, “You mean to tell me that you deny people the life-saving procedures they need because it costs too much money while you personally are set to make over $750 million?”
c. Then you bring out family members of people who have died because they were denied insurance coverage either for pre-existing conditions or because an insurance company executive had found some technicality in their forms. Ask them how it feels to go on without their loved ones and how they felt about the practice of rescission. Finally, ask them how they feel about the millions of dollars the CEO of the company that denied the coverage makes.
d. Bring out the private insurance bureaucrats who deny people coverage on a regular basis. Not just the people who practice rescission or find pre-existing conditions, but also the people who decide what procedures you can and cannot get based on your coverage. Have them explain what [insurance] bureaucratic standards they use to get between you and your doctor.
e. Bring out the accountants of these private health care companies and have them explain how much money they spend on overhead, advertising and executive salaries. Ask them how much they have increased premiums over the last ten years — the answer is a stunning 119%. Ask them to repeat how much money they spent on advertising and executive compensation.
f. Bring back the CEOs and show them pictures of the people who died because their companies wouldn’t cover their medical expenses, as they had promised. Then show them pictures of their own houses/mansions and yachts and jets. And ask them, one simple question: “Was it worth it?”
After the hearings announce with serious concern and appropriate gravity that something must be done about this! The problem is undeniable and there has to be something that Congress can do to help protect the American people.
Then the Democrats introduce the legislation the American people really need, announce that they must do the will of the people by voting as a Democratic bloc, and treat the Republicans as the irrelevancy they are.
Republican Official’s Idea of How to De-Escalates a Conflict – Charles McAffee, an employee of a contractor for Wells Fargo, was sent to photograph a house whose owner, Robert Lutes, was delinquent on his mortgage. Lutes said, “I’m trying to find out why he’s taking pictures of my house. I said, ‘Knock on my door, let me know what you want.’ Then, I think he’s reaching for his business card and he pulls out a concealed weapon and I think he’s going to blow my head off.” McAffee acknowledged he pointed the .357 Magnum handgun at Lutes, according to the police account.
What kind of person would do that? McAffee is among Idaho’s anti-tax tea-party activists, is a member of the Idaho Republican Party Central Committee and Republican chairman from the Boise suburb of Garden City.
One of McAffee’s supporters said, “McAffee brandished the weapon to de-escalate the conflict.” Yes, you read that right: he pulled a gun to de-escalate the conflict.
Bush Administration Pushed to Raise Terror Alert for Re-election According to Tom Ridge – Tom Ridge, the first head of the 9/11-inspired Department of Homeland Security, reveals in his new book that he was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was “blindsided” by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush’s re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.
United Health Group Encouraging Employees To Lobby Politicians, Attend Tea Parties – Last week, United Health Group–the second largest health insurance company in the country–sent out a letter to its employees urging them to call UHG’s United for Health Reform Advocacy Hotline to speak with an advocacy specialist about health care reform. The advocacy specialist, according to the letter, is there to help UHG employees write personalized messages to elected officials, and to arm them with talking points to use at local events in order to better oppose the public health insurance option.
However, a source who’s insured by UHG–and who also obtained the letter–called the hotline on Tuesday and says the company directed him to an events list hosted by the right wing America’s Independent Party, and suggested he attend an anti-health care reform tea party sponsored by religious fundamentalist Dave Daubenmire, scheduled for today outside the office of Blue Dog Rep. Zack Space (D-OH).
Giant insurers like United Health Group see value in enabling right-wing shriek-fests. They’ll either derail reform, and keep a status quo that earned the CEO $124.8 million in 2005, or get a workable, sham “reform” without a public option that would essentially funnel government subsidies to their company. They have a good racket going, and they want to keep it.
Senator Cornyn’s Data Collection Program of Information on Private Citizens – Senator John Cornyn complained in a letter to President Obama that, “By requesting that citizens send “fishy” emails to the White House, it is inevitable that the names, email addresses, IP addresses, and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House. You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program.”
However, if you want to send a comment to Cornyn, in addition to your name and e-mail address, you must also provide your street address, city, state and zip code. Maybe you should send John a comment about this so he can have complete information on you.
Republicans Don’t Even Understand the Concept of Time – Nearly two-thirds of Republican supporters believe President Barack Obama is to blame for the recession that began in December, 2007, over a year before Obama took office, according to an opinion poll from Rasmussen Reports.
Among the general population, 39 percent say President Obama takes the blame for the economic downturn, while 55 percent blame President Bush.
“The partisan gap is noticeable,” Rasmussen states on its Web site. “Eighty-two percent of Democrats see Obama’s Republican predecessor as the cause of the nation’s current economic problems, while 64% of GOP voters blame the policies of the current Democratic president. Voters not affiliated with either party blame Bush more but by just eight points.”
Fox News Viewers Heads Crammed Full of Lies about Health Care – A poll done for NBC News finds that among self-identified Fox News viewers, 72 percent believe illegal immigrants will get free health care; 79 percent believe it will lead to a government takeover of health care; 69 percent say taxpayer money will be used for abortions; and 75 percent believe the “death panel” claim, all of which are untrue.
The same poll found that only 21 percent of the general public surveyed trust the Republicans on the issue of health care.
Want to do something about the misinformation, lies, and hatred being spread by Fox News? Send your complaints to the FCC. Let’s get something done. Here’s their info: Federal Communications Commission Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Consumer Complaints 445 12th Street, SW Washington, D.C. 20554. The completed complaint form (obtained from FCC website) may be faxed toll-free to: 1-866-418-0232. Be sure to include all required information to prevent delay in the processing of your complaint. You may email your completed complaint form and supporting documents.
Why Does the NRA Hate Puppies? – In the 2009 legislation session, the National Rifle Association has been going state to state setting its sights on public policies that would crack down on abusive puppy mills. They actively lobbied against an Arizona bill requiring that puppy mill producers are subject to inspections by county enforcement agents at any time during regular business hours. They are working hard in Indiana and Minnesota to derail bills that would limit the number of dogs confined in puppy mill cages and set basic standards of care for exercise, flooring, and veterinary treatment. The Arizona and Minnesota bills have been shelved, and an NRA-backed amendment would gut Indiana’s legislation.
It’s a mystery why the NRA cares so much about defending the status quo when it comes to puppy mills. It can’t be a core issue for gun owners. The NRA claims that the puppy mill bills would impact hunting dogs, but surely most sportsmen would want their dogs raised humanely by responsible breeders, not treated like a cash crop. A dog who lives in a filthy wire cage with no exercise, socialization, or human interaction might not end up being a very good hunting partner out in the field, after all.
Not so fast there. Think about it. We already license and register dogs. So how much longer will it be before we face total dog confiscation? Well, according to the NRA, if the anti-freedom, er, anti-puppy mill lobby has its way, not long. Not long at all.
Analysis Shows Republican Statements on Health Care Mostly False – As seen from the graphs below, the claims of Republicans and opponents of health care are much more likely to be false than true. Overall, 76% of their claims are either “false” or “pants on fire” lies.
They are also more likely to be false than are claims of Democrats and supporters of reform. Overall, only 28% of Democrats’ claims were found to be “false.”
Woman Shouts “Heil Hitler!” At Jewish Man Praising Israel’s National Health System – At a Las Vegas town hall meeting, an Israeli man holding forth on the virtues of Israel’s health care system, which is “universal and compulsory, and is administered by a small number of organizations with funding from the government.” The World Health Organization ranked it as the 28th best in the world. That said, let me sum up the countering argument, issued by another town hall attendee: “Heil Hitler!”
That’s right! Some idiot woman yells “Heil Hitler” at a Jewish man who was doing nothing more than being a passionate advocate for Israeli health care. The man, quite naturally, goes completely apoplectic, saying “Shame on you” over and over again. The woman counters by saying, “Well, you ought to be the most against President Obama.” The poor man responds by saying, “I want to talk, not against Obama or for Obama. I want to talk about [health care].” He goes on to describe his own experiences with high-cost health care. For his efforts, the woman mocks him some more!
Media and Right-Wing Misrepresent Numbers From AARP – You may have heard on some “news” shows and talk-radio that 60,000 seniors have canceled their membership in AARP this summer, specifically citing AARP’s push for some sort of health care overhaul. What many of these sources did not mention was that, on average, AARP loses some 300,000 members a month, and that AARP actually gained 400,000 members, and 1.5 million people renewed their memberships during the same time period.
Republicans Totally Out-of-Touch With the Rest of America on Health Care Knowledge – When a Research 2000 poll asked, “Do you think the health care reform plan being considered by President Obama and Congress creates death panels?”, 88% of Democrats and 76% of Independents gave the obvious answer of “No.” But only 43 % of Republicans answered “No.”
When asked if “the health care reform plan being considered by President Obama and Congress require elderly patients to meet with government officials to discuss “end of life” options including euthanasia,” 74% of Democrats and 61% of Independents gave the correct response of “No.” But only 32% of Republicans gave the correct answer.
Only 7% of Democrats and 8% of Independents didn’t know that Medicare was a government program. But 14% of Republicans didn’t know that.
After the company rented out those 2006-08 model vehicles, Enterprise and countless dealers nationwide offered them for sale on the open market — minus the side-curtain air bags that have been shown to dramatically reduce highway deaths.
What’s more, a Kansas City Star investigation found that hundreds of Impalas already sold were incorrectly advertised on Enterprise’s Web site as having the very head-protecting feature that the rental company opted to exclude on General Motors’ factory floor.
Coal Lobbyists Sent Fake Letters to Congress – A lobbying firm working for a pro-coal industry group sent lawmakers a total of 13 fraudulent letters opposing the House climate bill — five more than initially believed, the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming said Tuesday.
The fake letters purported to be from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, senior citizens groups and Creciendo Juntos, a Hispanic advocacy organization.
In total, the firm sent 58 letters, and committee investigators suspect several more may be revealed to be fakes. The newly discovered letters included one, allegedly sent from a senior center in Charlottesville, Va., that the lobbying firm originally claimed was legitimate, the committee said.
I cannot even begin to consider your view that America is a Christian nation until we have universal health care. Jesus said we should care for the sick. Period. Who would Jesus decline care to? Wouldn’t he endorse the public option? When he healed the sick, there wasn’t even a co-pay.
But maybe instead of healing the sick, your sensibilities are more in line with Joe the Plumber, who speaking about Nancy Pelosi said that “those kind of people I usually took behind the woodshed and beat the livin’ tar out of.”
It’s not okay to throw the word “Nazi” around unless you’re talking about actual Nazis. It’s definitely not okay to use it in a health care debate. In fact, put Nazi and doctor in the same sentence and you come up with one name and one name only — Josef Mengele. I’m going to assume you don’t know who Josef Mengele was. I assume that because if you did, I’d hope you wouldn’t be painting Swastikas on your picket signs.
Dr. Mengele drew a horizontal line across a wall at Auschwitz, five feet from the floor. If you were shorter than that line you were immediately sent to the gas chamber. The line was drawn in the children’s’ barracks.
Dr. Mengele performed experiments on live, fully conscious human beings to determine just how much pressure it would take to crush a skull. In order to be precise, he had to administer the experiment very slowly.
Dr. Mengele put people in bread ovens to determine at exactly what temperature the skin would receive first, second and third degree burns.
Dr. Mengele once murdered a thousand women in one day. Why? Because they had lice and it cost less to kill the women than to kill the lice.
Are you getting it now town hallers, town hollers and town criers? You may not like Barack Obama, but calling him a Nazi makes you sound like a clown, an imbecile and an infant. And continuing to cry about America no longer resembling the one you grew up in only further proves the point that you got it backwards. It’s America that did the growing up, and you’re the one we no longer recognize.
But it’s not about death panels or socialism. America’s currently insured middle class will be increasingly desperate if health reform fails. Millions more such families will see their take-home pay shrink. Millions will lose their employment-based insurance, especially in medium and small-sized firms. And millions will find themselves inexorably priced out of health care as we know it.
If efforts at better cost containment fail once again, and health care costs rise to $36,000 on average for a typical American family of four under age 65 — as almost surely it would — that $36,000 will be borne entirely by the family. That family’s disposable income would be much higher if the growth of future health spending was better controlled. And, as noted, many smaller firms will stop altogether providing job-based health insurance.
It would be a major problem for families with an income of less than $100,000 a year. In 2007, only about 25 percent of American families had a money income of $100,000 or more. Close to 60 percent had family incomes of less than $75,000.
This prospect — relatively stagnant family incomes combined with family health-care costs that double every decade — is what America’s middle class should contemplate as it thinks about the imperative of health reform.
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