Bad Deeds for 8-11-2009

The “Death Panel” Already Exists! – When insurance companies deny coverage to critically ill patients because of what they deem “pre-existing conditions,” they sentence those people to misery and often death. And that has nothing to do with proposed health care reform. This travesty exists now.

When acutely and chronically ill people are unable to purchase medicine because of exorbitant prices, pharmaceutical death panels have spoken. And again, this has nothing to do with universal health care proposals.

When an infant is stillborn because of inadequate or nonexistent prenatal care, a cancer patient forgoes or is denied treatment because of costs, a family is forced to decide whose medical needs will be met — whose postponed, don’t tell me somewhere a death panel isn’t at work.

Please Sign This Pledge Supporting Health Care Reform and this one:

What’s All the Yelling Really About? – It has nothing to do with their perceived choices on health care. This is about the sinking feeling in their stomach that they are losing power in this country — losing control. That the reins of power are slipping out of their hands and they don’t know what to do about it, except yell, really loud.

The reality is that what they have been manipulated into arguing against is a public option that would give them more choices, not less in health insurance. But, they don’t care about the logic of the issue at hand. I’m not convinced they even care what the issue is. These are the same people that were yelling at the Palin rallies. They were screaming just as loud then, and it was different issues, or no issues at all. Just name calling and fear. Pure, unadulterated fear.

It’s a self-justifying anger. The angrier they get the more they feel the imperative to get angry. What is it? What’s really eating away at them? I don’t think it’s a conscious racial thing for them. It’s more a feeling of their way of life slipping away from them.

We’re America. We’re supposed to be better than this.

We’re supposed to resolve our differences peaceably and civilly. We’re supposed to listen to one another. We’re supposed to have the best democracy in the world. As it stands, we’re one burning tire away from Haiti. We have to dial this thing back down.

U.S. Vulnerable to Swine Flu Due to Lack of Universal Coverage – There is an excellent diary today which covers how the media isn’t covering health care reform, but is instead hunting it for sport. Generally, it’s hard to blame elite media figures–all of whom earn six and seven figure salaries–for not understanding that a $120 trip to the doctor can break a family’s budget. As the media continues to cover the new pandemic swine flu and raise alarm about its possible comeback in the Fall, they have completely failed to cover a crucially important fact: our lack of universal access to quality, affordable health care drastically hinders our nation’s efforts to control swine flu.

There are 46 million people in the U.S. without health care coverage. For most of these people, if they come down with swine flu, they won’t go to the doctor. They won’t be diagnosed. They won’t stay home from work. And they will put themselves, and people they are around, in danger by unknowingly spreading the disease.

Is it the End of the World?: Right-Wing Oilman Praises Harry Reid, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Energy Secretary Chu, Al Gore, and President Obama – T. Boone Pickens says, “Harry Reid has never shunned hard work. He may be Majority Leader of the United States Senate, but when he’s in Washington he’s among the first to arrive at the Capitol each morning and one of the last to leave at night. He doesn’t like to waste time — his or yours — which is why I agreed to attend his [National Clean Energy] summit.”

“…using clean energy to reduce America’s dependency on imported oil isn’t common ground. It’s common sense. That’s why President Clinton and I joined Senator Reid, Speaker Pelosi, Energy Secretary Chu, and former Vice President Al Gore in Washington at a second summit about the clean energy economy in February.”

“President Obama has been an adamant supporter of the green economy. Just last week, he awarded more than $2 billion in grants to help U.S. companies bolster large-scale manufacturing lines for ultra-modern batteries.”

“Leaders such as Harry Reid have the answers and are willing to do the heavy lifting. Let’s support them 100 percent.”

Dear Conservative Free-Market Capitalism Muckety Mucks, –

Why haven’t you fixed the economy yet? Seriously—what gives?

I’m asking because conservatives in fancy suits keep telling me—okay, screaming at me—about how fundamentally sound their ideas are, and how the private sector, not the government, is our best and greatest hope for making the economy leap back to life like Mark Sanford’s libido when he lands at Ezeiza International Airport.

So what’s the holdup? We’ve been in a recession since December of 2007. Why aren’t things all better yet for ordinary Americans? You were so awesome at making the mess, but cleaning up the pile of poopies you left on the nation’s living room rug seems to be proving a bit more, um, problematic. Why?

You’ve got an army of giant, throbbing brains in your right-wing think tanks working day and night. The Heritage Foundation has never been wrong…just ask ’em! And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce never misses an opportunity to proclaim their infallibility in multimillion-dollar ad campaigns. So…why are we still in Sucksville? And why does the evil Big Government seem to be running circles around you?

And don’t try and hide behind the fact that there’s a Democrat in the White House. He’s been shoveling money into your coffers faster than Sarah Palin shoveling bullshit through Twitter. And he’s hardly put a regulatory straightjacket on you…more like a snug cardigan sweater.

I admit I’m not an economist. I don’t know a Laffer curve from a box of David Vitter sex diapers. No, I’m just a simple, average citizen who has listened to you jawbone for decades—amplified non-stop by Fox News, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal and right-wing radio—about how perfect your system of “unfettered everything” is. How greed is good and regulation is the devil’s work. And yet, you seem to be strangely ineffective at fixing it when it breaks. Could it be you’ve been bullshitting us all along? Are you nothing more than the financial equivalent of a bunch of two-year-olds randomly pushing buttons in the command center at NORAD? Or did you just lose your instruction manual? (Check under the couch!)
Fix the damn economy on Main Street already, you Ayn Rand-worshipping free-market capitalist wizards. Show us how it’s done. Be the heroes we’ve been holding out for. I’ll check back on your progress in 30 days. I expect Americans to be squatting over solid gold commodes by then. That’s how much I believe in you.

Sincerely,
Billy

P.S. Make sure you do it honestly, ethically and legally. That won’t be a problem, will it?
(And I’m sure I can trust you to do the same great job with fixing healthcare.)

Regards,

Jim