Bad Deeds for 8-5-2009

The Return of the Brooks Brothers Brigade Terrorists – Remember when the manual 2000 Bush-Gore recount in Miami-Dade County was shut down shortly after screaming, shoving, fist-waving, intimidating protestors arrived at Miami’s recount center? It turned out that these protesters were Republican Party members flown in from other states, at Republican Party expense. Democracy was hijacked by a hooligan mob.

Well, the Republicans have not forgotten it worked then, so they are trotting out their terrorist tactics again. Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, the operation that’s running a national campaign against a public health care option, is now publicly admitting to helping gin up the sometimes-rowdy outbursts targeting House Dems at town hall meetings around the country. CPR is the group headed by controversial former hospitals exec Rick Scott that’s spending millions on ads attacking reform in all sorts of lurid ways, a campaign that’s being handled by the same P.R. mavens behind the Swift Boat Vets. Scott, who was ousted as a health-care exec amid a 1990s fraud probe, took credit for the town hall showings.

Similarly,America’s Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, the insurance industry group, has stationed employees in 30 states to track local town hall events.

“The more you dig the more you learn that this is a carefully orchestrated effort by special interest lobbyists and the Republican Party, who are using fringe elements on the right to protect insurance company profits and defeat health care reform,” said House Dem leadership aide Doug Thornell.

Lloyd Doggett, one of the targets of the far right “artists,” released this statement:

This mob, sent by the local Republican and Libertarian parties, did not come just to be heard, but to deny others the right to be heard. And this appears to be part of a coordinated, nationwide effort. What could be more appropriate for the “party of no” than having its stalwarts drowning out the voices of their neighbors by screaming “just say no!” Their fanatical insistence on repealing Social Security and Medicare is not just about halting health care reform but rolling back 75 years of progress.

The Republicans are also terrorizing our senior citizens by telling them lies about how they will be killed by health care and even put in concentration camps. They are terrorizing small business owners with a wide array of falsehoods.

All of this is an expensive, coordinated effort, paid for by the rich to make sure the rich get richer. If they have to worry about helping sick people, they might have to put off buying that next Lexus by a week or two. Hey, Cigna’s CEO only gets an annual salary of over $12 million and golden parachute retirement package of over $70 million.

CNN Refusing To Run Health Care Ad Critical Of Insurance Industry – CNN is refusing to run an ad nationally criticizing the insurance industry. CNN’s reason: The ad “unnecessarily” singles out a top insurance industry executive by name for criticism.

That very well may be CNN’s policy. But AUC maintains that the mention of Cigna’s CEO was necessary to dramatize the enormous stake the insurance industry has in the health care wars. What’s more, AUC argues, the industry is made up of companies that are run by individuals deciding how to spend huge money to impact the health care debate — so why are they off limits?

“The bottom line question is: Would CNN run ads from Cigna that are positive about the company?” Funk asks. “If yes, why would they turn down an ad critical of the company for their role in trying to kill health insurance reform?”

By contrast, the ad will air nationally on MSNBC.

CNN Analyst Joins Anti-Healthcare Front Group – Longtime CNN political analyst Bill Schneider has joined, Third Way, one of the most notorious corporate front groups in Washington, most recently working to destroy health care reform:

Third Way was launched in early 2005 to produce policy papers and messaging tactics for congressional Democrats, with a focus on Blue Dog senators. It was then, as it is now, drenched in corporate money and tangled in ties to big business. These ties stretch from the board of trustees, thick with hedge-funders and investment bankers, to its lone senior fellow for health policy, David Kendall, a former Blue Cross Blue Shield consultant.

The Horrifying Hidden Story Behind Drug Company Profits – Factories across the poor world are desperate to start producing their own cheaper Tamiflu to protect their populations — but they are being sternly told not to. Why? So rich drug companies can protect their patents — and profits.

The drug companies who owned the patent for AIDS drugs went to court to stop the post-Apartheid government of South Africa producing generic copies of it — which are just as effective — for $100 a year to save their dying citizens. They wanted them to pay the full $10,000 a year to buy the branded version — or nothing. In the poor world, the patenting system every day puts medicines beyond the reach of sick people.

Regards,

Jim