Bad Deeds for 1-26-2009

Sarah Palin Opposes Protection for Beluga Whales – Last week, the state of Alaska announced it plans to mount a legal challenge to the listing of the Cook Inlet beluga whale under the Endangered Species Act. At the heart of Palin’s objections are concerns that additional safeguards will interfere with oil and gas development, among other lucrative projects. Similar fears led Palin’s administration to launch a legal challenge in August to the listing of polar bears as a threatened species. (And it was no surprise when a host of business groups, including the American Petroleum Institute, followed her lead. Objecting to ESA protections on economic grounds is one thing, but Palin’s team has in the past sought to cast doubt on the science underlying the listings. Fighting back against efforts to list the polar bear, for instance, her administration cited the work of global warming skeptics, one of whom acknowledged receiving funding from the American Petroleum Institute and ExxonMobil for his work. (She not pro-life, she’s pro-profit. – JLV)

 

Ex-CEO of Lehman Brothers Transferred Ownership of his $13.75 Million Mansion to his Wife for $100 – The disgraced ex-CEO of Lehman Brothers transferred ownership of his $13.75 million Jupiter Island mansion to his wife, Kathy, on November 10th. Could Fuld be worried about the flurry of lawsuits from incensed shareholders and creditors? Possibly! According to Martin County, Florida property records, the home was previously owned by the couple jointly. Until, that is, Fuld transferred it to his wife for the princely sum of $100 on November 10, less than two months after the firm went under.

 

Access to Medical Care in the Some Parts of the U.S. Worse Than in the Amazon Jungle – In rural Kentucky, where people have driven within a 200-mile radius to wait in line in the early morning for a spot in line to see a volunteer doctor thanks to the efforts of Remote Access Medical, who originally set out to help people in the Amazon jungle, but now focus 60% of their time on Americans. “The need is enormous,” said the organization’s founder Stan Brock. “We discovered…there are people here that need help just as much as they do in Guatemala or in the Amazon and all these other places we go to.”

 

Medical Insurance is Way More Costly Than Comparable Medicare – By almost every measure, private insurance plans are costlier and less effective than Medicare , according to government and academic research. Medicare spends 2% on overhead; private insurers typically spend 25% to 27% for overhead and profit. A recent Congressional Budget Office report comparing healthcare reform options found that allowing Americans to buy into Medicare before turning 65 would lead to more people with coverage at lower costs. The CBO estimated that a Medicare buy-in for those between 62 and 64 years old would cost $7,600 a year, including drug coverage. A comparable policy on the private market at that age costs $10,000 and up — way up — in combined premiums and deductibles, and is, unlike Medicare, available only to the healthiest seniors. A UC Berkeley study last month found that a public option like Medicare could result in $1 trillion in national savings over 10 years by driving down costs, improving efficiencies and fostering innovation. Studies by AARP and the Commonwealth Fund also show that Medicare patients are more satisfied with every aspect of their care than patients with private plans.

 

Citigroup Gets $45 Billion in Government Bailout; Purchases $50 Million Luxury Jet – Citigroup, which has received $45 billion in government bailout funds, is about to upgrade to a new $50 million, twelve-seat corporate jet. The plane, the Dassault Falcon 7X, is a luxurious jet with a range of 5,950 nautical miles (meaning it can fly from New York to all of Europe and South America, as far east as Riyadh, and as far west as Honolulu or Petropavlovsk, Russia). It has “plush interior with leather seats, sofas and a customizable entertainment center.

 

Twenty-Five People at the Heart of the Economic Meltdown, and Six Who Warned it Was Coming – The article at the link lists 25 people who have led us into the current crisis: Republicans, Democrats, CEOs, and others. And at the bottom of the article are six people who got it right and tried to warn the others of what was coming. Road to Ruin series.

 

Study on Stimulus Package Cited by Republicans and Libertarians Does Not Exist – Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won’t be spent until after 2010, have Democrats on the defensive and the GOP calling for a pullback in wasteful spending. Funny thing is, there is no such report. “We did not issue any report, any analysis or any study,” a CBO aide said.

Regards,

Jim