After you read this article and read the most recommended comments. When allowed even a small voice in the media the majority of Americans are thoughtful, intelligent and interested in the public option. The smart congressmen are listening. The rest will be chucked overboard in '10.
that arrogant smarmy cheating dickweed Ensign don't have a clue as to what real people are dealing with.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Anti-gang operation results in 93 arrests
Day care center also shut down
By Angelica Martinez
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. September 29, 2009
...Taking part in the probe along with San Diego police were the county District Attorney's Office and Probation Department; state Parole Department; U.S. Attorney's Office; U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Marshals Service; and Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
I think it's this gang, but I'm not sure.
Somehow, I missed this:
Media ordeal blamed on escalating security offensive and cumbersome bureaucracy
"...With a total of 55 deaths of journalists since 2000 that were clearly or probably linked to their work, and eight journalists missing, Mexico is the western hemisphere country where press freedom is most endangered..."
And this might be why you won't see the report widely publicized.
"In the report’s conclusions, Reporters Without Borders calls for a complete overhaul of the Mexican judicial system and major legislative changes concerning the press. The press freedom organisation is nonetheless convinced that a solution to the tragedy is impossible unless the United States imposes controls on firearms."
Mexico's museum of drugs.
Ok, I don't usually blog about personal stuff, but since the health care debate is front and center, here goes. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
The local is starting to wear off and it's starting to hurt a tiny bit so I am a little cranky. I had a cyst removed. Before they removed it I had to sign a form that said that I would pay for the procedure if the insurance refused to pay for it. "What?! I was under the impression that it had been pre-approved a month ago when I made the appointment. No wonder 75% of the country wants the public option" I grumbled. She said that the insurance usually pays if they biopsy it. So I think "OK, I get to see in a little specimen container what's been getting infected and bugging me for the last 5 years." So once they excised the "anchored" cyst they sent the little alien looking thing (fucker had it's own little blood vessels, ewwww) off to the lab. Hopefully the insurance will cover the procedure, the Dr.s fee, the lab fee, and the suture removal visit.
So, ya grossed out? I'm not done. At one point I look up and she's got some hose thing and I ask "What's that?" She says "It's for the smoke."
"Ennh?"
I guess the smell of cauterized human flesh is not a big hit, even around a medical office. There are 4 smells that get to me, cauterized infected human flesh, vomit, poop and the contents of a colostomy bag. Fortunately the smoke eater hose thingy worked.
I usually don't have problems with my insurance. There are three levels of care available to retired military dependents, which is what I am. The premium for the highest level of care costs peanuts compared to the out-of-pocket share of premiums paid by other people. I know this. I'm grateful for this, but the retirement pay for enlisted servicemen is shit, and the cost of living in this city is disgustingly high, so something good better come from it. Dental and optical are not covered, and the premium for dental was ridiculously high, so we went with the dental insurance offered by his job, and the current job allows us to pay for glasses. I dunno what we're going to do if he loses his job, we'd be eligible for section 8 vouchers, but the waiting list in most places in Southern California is 10 years or more. Rent here is 2/3 of his gross retirement, not the net, and this place ain't all that and a bag of chips, that's for sure. Never mind stuff like car maintenance, car insurance, renter's insurance, internet access, computers. That would become luxuries.
If he wasn't working, I would not have taken the risk that the insurance might not pay for the procedure that I had done today. A very minor problem, but one that has made me aware in a very personal way of just how screwed up our medical system is, and how important the public option is, even if the congresswhores don't get that.
update 6:10 PM 9/29/2009
And the Senate Finance Committee rejects it
By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009
By Brad Reed, AlterNet
Posted on September 28, 2009, Printed on September 28, 2009
surprisingly the article did not mention that so many doctors specialize because primary care doctors don't get paid shit, they are forced to be the gatekeepers for the fucking insurance companies and that means waaaaay too much paperwork, and they are disrespected.
If you pay very careful attention when you read this you will see why a government run single payer insurance plan is the ONLY thing that makes SENSE for the people in this country, and any businesses (that require labor) interested in investing here.
And then there is big pharma and their congresswhores -
FDA: NJ Politicians Pressured Them Into Approving Unsafe Medical Device - After They Received Large Donations
By Susie Madrak Monday Sep 28, 2009 9:00am
A hostile takeover of Zionism hat tip to Danny. 
An armed ultra-orthodox Jewish settler walks in the mountains overlooking the Palestinian village of Burin in the West Bank. AFP
Israel is teetering toward theocracy, with the rise of the Haredim
...One Haredi leader who almost won Jerusalem's mayoralty race last fall, boasts that, within 20 years, the ultra-Orthodox will control the municipal government of every city in the country. And why not? Of the Jewish Israeli children entering primary school for the first time this month, more than 25 per cent are Haredi, and that proportion will keep growing. There are between 600,000 and 700,000 Haredim in Israel, and they average 8.8 children a family...
Nifty. Just what the world needs, more armed religious fanatics, breeding like rats, and seeking theocratic rule. *sigh*
...we are still going after online crime like it is being perpetuated by 1990s-era basement hackers who are looking for more fame than fortune, when today cybercrime has become big business...
...The number of malicious websites has grown 671 percent in the past year, and 86 percent of all unwanted e-mails in circulation contained links to spam sites and/or malicious sites, according to the report...
Hmmm, not surprisingly, the worst cyber-criminals come from unregulated Russia and China both on the list for G 20 countries. If someone knows whether or not this was brought up in Pittsburgh and I can't find it, let me know? And oh yeah, you think your MAC is safe? Ha. I knew it was only a matter of time.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Dear Mr. Taleb,
I'm 70 pages in and a lot of it is tedious shit that I already know. I been a philosophizer and a janitor, and believe me, I get "random."
Moore fears 'Capitalism' movie will be his last
Last Update: 9/06 6:57 am
Moviemaker Michael Moore fears his new documentary Capitalism: A Love Story will be his last - because the footage will grossly offend the financiers who back his projects
The director's latest venture is a scathing critique of Wall Street and lays bare capitalist greed amongst the country's bankers
Moore is adamant he didn't let financial ties stand in the way of his expose, admitting many of the corporations which put up money for the film will be unhappy with the results...
Shit. None of the greedy fucks want to put anything into distribution of this movie. I should be able to buy online tickets to the one theater where it will be playing locally at soon. I will, and I will drive out of my way to see it. Hell, I drove an hour and a half to see his last movie because I didn't think it would be playing here at all. I like seeing Michael Moore's movies. I like to laugh, to be entertained, to hurt, to learn while watching a documentary. I know my emotions are being manipulated. I trust that the greater good will be served by allowing Michael Moore to manipulate my feelings. That is skill. And heart. And integrity.
I really enjoyed Naomi Klein's interview of Michael. The podcast kept me from paying attention to the articles I was skimming at the time. Yeah, I do that, it's the closest I get to "multitasking." I know women are supposed to be able to multitask, but not all of us ever get good at it. ADD is a hindrance to doing one task well, forget doing a shitload of them at the same time.
Here is the best interview regarding this movie that I have seen so far.
R U FN KDDNG?
Who wears this shit?
San Ysidro border crossing closes after shooting
U.S. officers fire at three vans carrying more than 70 suspected illegal immigrants as the vehicles try to speed north through the checkpoint. At least four people are hurt.
You know? I was born and raised in Southern California and sometimes I just feel stunned at the weirdness of the place. Santa Anna's don't help quell that feeling.
and this is some depressing stuff.
Why did the FBI destroy Walter Cronkite's FBI file?
Two years ago, the FBI destroyed documents that “may have” contained information about Walter Cronkite. What documents? We don’t know. Why were they destroyed? Good question!
Raw Story reports that blogger Michael Petrelis filed a Freedom of Information Act request for Cronkite’s file with the FBI, and got back a response that essentially said, “We destroyed a bunch of files a couple years back, and they may have been about Conkrite. We’re not saying they were about Cronkite, but for some reason that we can’t explain to you, we think they may have been about Cronkite, but anyway we threw them away, so thanks for asking.”
With Copenhagen Summit Approaching, Leading Polluters US and China Undercut Hopes of Substantial Pollution Cuts
Federal Judge Dismisses Police Harassment Claims by Activist Groups at Pittsburgh’s G-20
Thousands of additional security forces have been brought into Pittsburgh ahead of the G-20, and tall steel fencing now runs along the the convention center in this former steel town. On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled against two protest groups who accused the Pittsburgh police of harassment. Seeds of Peace and Three Rivers Climate Convergence claim the police used illegal searches, vehicle seizures, raids and detentions to discourage them from taking part in protests later this week.
TIME TO CHANGE BERNANKE'S MEDICATION?
Secret White House letter to G-20
by Greg Palast
Tuesday, September 22, 2009, New York
And finally, another Republican elite to run for CA Governor. She's great at rhetoric, and kissing the ass of rich fucks. The corporate whore will be trolling for corporate money at Gen-Probe in my city today.
"Both McCain and Romney have endorsed Whitman, as has former Gov. Pete Wilson, who is her campaign chairman and joined her in speaking in Fullerton Tuesday."
Romney, the Mormon? The ones who financed the Yes on h8te campaign?
Arnold's secret meeting with Kenny Boy
Chris Kelly over at HuffPo has some questions for her
Chris Kelly
Writer, Real Time with Bill Maher
Posted: May 13, 2009 04:41 AM
Meg Whitman Week -- Wednesday: A Tawdry Episode
...Meg Whitman was the CEO of eBay. EBay's investment bankers were Goldman Sachs. EBay didn't have to hire Goldman Sachs to be their investment bankers, because this was a few years ago, when there were lots of banks, and not just the three we keep bailing out. Goldman Sachs was very grateful for eBay's business and they had a special way of showing their gratitude to eBay's executives. Goldman Sachs would let them buy shares in other companies whose initial public offerings they were underwriting. This was during the dot-com era and IPO companies often posted huge first-day gains. After Meg Whitman brought eBay's business to Goldman Sachs, she bought shares in 100 Goldman Sachs IPOs one day and sold them the next day. She made 1.78 million dollars...
Read more at: Chris Kelly -- Meg Whitman
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But even the politickybitch has to take a short break from politics and be entertained once in a while. I do not know who is playing, but I love this song.
I finished Hollywood Station. It was a nice little romp to places I don't want to be, around criminals and familiar with police officers. My friend and I agreed that we just like to fly under the radar, no cops, no criminals in our lives. I like Wambaugh because he writes about cops as people, as fully fleshed out characters. Cops put up with a lot of crap, and this book is newer than some of the stuff by Wambaugh that I've read recently. It was written after the fallout from the Rampart Scandal, and released after this scum-sucking piece of shit won an Oscar. No, I haven't seen the movie. Why should I? It doesn't look like entertainment to me. What I read and what I watch for entertainment are two entirely different animals. 
Well, no, actually this weekend she showed up at a triathlon in a chicken suit. She said the weather was warm and she got baked and then fried, lol. I hear her young niece did very well.
Congratulations Baby J!
Obviously I had a few years to catch up on, and I just had a ball today. If you are my age, you will know it.
Aint No Mountain High Enough
Brown Eyed Girl
In the Summertime
Mr. Big Stuff
Sunshine (go away today)
Low Rider
Fire
We Just Disagree
In the Evening
Flashlight
You can't change that
101 Eastbound
Who can it be now
One Wish
Nena- 99luft Ballons
Put your records on
The Black Swan by Nicholas Taleb or Hollywood Station by Joseph Wambaugh? Click on the books for reviews. I'm leaning towards the Wambaugh because I just need a break from shit I have to think about. A little fiction break maybe? Anybody read either of these?
Behind the News, Campaign Desk — September 18, 2009 05:44 PM
Was the Baltimore video journalism? Does it matter?
By Alexandra Fenwick
In a piece in the October 2009 issue of The Atlantic, “The Story Behind the Story,” journalist Mark Bowden examines the source of the Sonia Sotomayor video clips that surfaced during her Supreme Court nomination—and what happens when ideologues step forward to provide the reporting that journalists don’t have the resources to do.(click title link)
Published on Friday, September 18, 2009 by TruthDig.com
by David Sirota
Watching the health care debate unfold these days is a little like watching scenes from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”—the ones showing a collage of strung-out, deranged or otherwise incapacitated patients rotting away in a squalid psychiatric ward....(click on title link)
Sirota makes me laugh.
Bill Moyers is going to expose the Tea Baggers and their leaders' hypocrisy tonight. Whadyaya know, the same people who killed "HillaryCare" are all juiced up with health sector bucks to kill "Obamacare" and the Tea Baggers are so stupid they don't even know they are being used by Glenn Beck and Dick Armey to do the bidding of those that make Armey and Beck wealthy. And hypocritical. Is there no end to teh stoopid?
Man Arrested For Asking Anthem Blue Cross/Shield About His Rate Increase
By Susie Madrak Friday Sep 18, 2009 4:00pm
It gets more unbelievable by the day, doesn't it?
Joe Szakos leads the Virginia Organizing Project, an almost fifteen year-old community organization that Health Care for America Now works with in Virginia to organize for health care reform. Szakos's organization employs dozens of people, and they get their health care through Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
This year, Szakos was informed that Anthem was going to increase the premiums on Virginia Organizing Project's health plan by 14.1%. Around the same time, the Virginia Organizing Project received an email from Anthem:
We strongly support reform that builds a strong, sustainable private-sector health care system - and strongly oppose creating a government-run health plan. We are urging our elected officials in Washington to take bipartisan action that will accomplish that. We are educating policymakers in Washington and working with our trade associations to encourage Congress to build on the current system and not disrupt the quality, affordable coverage on which our members depend....
As our elected officials debate health care, they need to hear directly from you.
Szakos immediately had some questions for Anthem. Chief among them, why is Anthem using its resources to lobby against health care reform with a public health insurance option while at the same time increasing rates by 14.1%?
Szakos, along with three other Virginia Organizing Project board members, went down to Anthem's offices in Richmond, VA to ask. He left in handcuffs.
Szakos, a customer, couldn't get an answer from Anthem. There was no justification for raising rates on one hand, and spending money lobbying against health care reform on the other. And instead of trying to offer Szakos an explanation, they had him arrested.
As Szakos said in the video, this is about greed and force. There is no good explanation for these rate increases, and there is no justification for Anthem to spend money it collects in premiums from customers suffering under its "health care" plans on lobbying against reform that would help these very same people. The only thing motivating Anthem - and all insurance companies - is greed. And they get and keep their money by force.
They were successfully distracted from the fact that the health sector lobbyists were screwing them:
Wendell Potter: Public Option Essential, Baucus Plan An "Absolute Gift" To Health Insurance Industry (VIDEO)
Hmm, looks like I'm not the only one who had that thought, Greenwald points out the M-I-C and the banksters lobbyists activity also.
Glenn Greenwald:
Thursday Sept. 17, 2009 11:18 EDT
The distracting benefits of ACORN hysteria
FACTBOX: Details of Baucus plan for healthcare reform
Yeah. Ever since I read distributorcap NY's post titled Constitutional Side Effects I knew we were screwed. You think corruption is endemic in only states that have large populations?
Bwaaa haa ha ha ha hahahahaha ha ha ha
And the same information keeps popping up. This time from a link to a Robert Parry article I happened upon through Scoobie's The Real Sun Myung Moon blog. Ladies and gentlemen, the truth really is stranger than fiction and more horrifying. The CIA drug smuggling while running a campaign to persecute a clean DEA agent who uncovered it. Nazis. US govt trained death squads all over Latin America. Religious nutcases involved with all of the above while running a national newspaper and funding one of the most powerful political families in the US.
The real nutcases in the world have FAR too much power.
How long before we figure out that there are more of us than there are of them?
Why Obama Won't Be Able to Reform Wall Street
Huff TV
Posted March 31, 2009 | 10:49 PM (EST)
Black Swan Author Nassim Taleb Joins Arianna on CNBC's Squawk Box
Originally Aired: September 14, 2009
Analysis
One Year After Financial Crisis, Reform Questions Loom
On the one year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Jeffrey Brown talks to economists and experts about what has been learned and the future of financial reform.
Stiglitz Says Banking Problems Are Now Bigger Than Pre-Lehman
Why a New York Court Unmasked the Blogger Who Wrote Harshly About a Model
By JULIE HILDEN
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
NY TIME SAT: WALL STREET TRIUMPHANT, CRIME UNCHECKED
NYT VIA LBN: A YEAR AFTER A CATACLYSM, LITTLE CHANGE ON WALL ST.
Bitchin'
The banksters are fine and the arms industry is booming.
The middle class?
Uh, not so good.
I have a question. How come I have to get the news from someone who got sick of the BS in the news business and struck out on his own?
posted September 13, 2009 5:44 pm
All of us have been watching drought in action this summer. When it hits the TV news, though, it usually goes by the moniker of "fire." As we've seen, California, in the third year of a major drought, has been experiencing "a seemingly endless fire that has burned more than 250 square miles of Los Angeles County" (and that may turn out to be just the beginning of another fire season from hell).
Southern California has hardly been the only drought story, though. For those with an eye out, the southern parts of Texas, the hottest state in the union this year, have been in the grips of a monster drought. Seven hundred thousand acres of the state have already burned in 2009, with a high risk of more to come...
Early exposure to common chemicals may be programming kids to be fat.
By Sharon Begley | NEWSWEEK
Published Sep 11, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Sep 21, 2009
...In 2006 scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health reported that the prevalence of obesity in infants under 6 months had risen 73 percent since 1980...
...hormone-mimicking pollutants,...
What Causes Hormonal Imbalance?
By Steven Pearlstein
Friday, September 11, 2009
No shit Sherlock. Yeesh what a title.
Update 8:24 PM 9/11/2009
Ironically, I had to go shopping to get the kid ready for the dorms. I am tired.
I don't think any American likes this particular anniversary. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that 8 years ago today was the beginning of the end of my brainwashed existence. I read very little non-fiction now and I read constantly.
The Big White Lie by Michael Levine (c) 1993
So far it's depressing, but not surprising. After all, I have read The Politics of Heroin by Alfred McCoy. Maybe the decriminalization of small amounts of drugs in a couple of Latin American countries will force the CIA to knock off its bullshit, eventually. How many more innocent people will die before then? Who knows? Some moron told me he thought the CIA was a good organization. Good for who? I couldn't have had more contempt. Nothing will really change here until decriminalization of small amounts of drugs and drug treatment takes precedence.
So first of all, I don't get why the Obama speech to a joint session of Congress will get more air-time, but oh well, I don't get why local newz will cover some dead gang-banger and not a Supreme Court decision that will affect 300 million people, not just Hillary Clinton.
This fucking lizard brain thinks that corporations should have more "free speech" rights. You think they control the political message now? HA. This will be Sotomayor's first case as a Supreme Court Justice. Wanna bet that she passes the rich fuck's first test? You think Puerto Ricans have rights? Pffft.
Yes I do understand why the Obama speech needs to be covered and since he's a great orator, I love to watch him. I dunno why the media whores keep saying how much they need "bi-partisanship?" They don't. What they need is to separate the corporate money from the congresswhores.
I hope that some of the right-wing fucktards get a clue, but they probably won't listen to him if they do watch him, so ginned up on hate spew from Hannity, Beck, and the other corporate funded msm whores. So stupid they refuse to see that the highly paid corporate media whores get them to vote against their own best interests.
Big Business's Hidden Hand in the Smear Job on Van Jones
By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet. Posted September 8, 2009.
"...The strategy is simple: Prey upon the worst fears of the right-wing folks who live next door in order to get them to organize against their own interests..."
See?
Update 4:21 PM 9/19/2009
Gordon at Alternate Brain draws attention to a comment that the WSJ
picked up on regarding the original court decision on corporate personhood. I'm still a bit skeptical, being that judges put so much stock in precedent but I'd like to hope for a new precedent on an old case, or no new powers given to corporations in the current case.
Economy
The New Republic
It's coming--and we just made it worse.
* Peter Boone and Simon Johnson
* September 5, 2009 | 12:00 am
Well water, that is.
Ahhh, Halliburton's lawyers are busy. They just can't seem to stay out of trouble, can they? Good thing they moved to Dubai .
Bet they hate this website:
Halliburton Watch
They probably weren't wild about this post of mine, either, since I have had an interest in gas and oil exploration because it wreaks environmental havoc:
halliburton.com landed here, wtf?
The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow
translated "El poder del perro"
It's about narcotraficantes, the "War on Drugs," mercenaries, dirty cops on both sides of the border, dirty politicians that go all the way up to presidents on both sides of the border, murder, revenge, Iran/Contra, the S American right-wing bullshit wars on the people funded by the US and trained at SOA It mentions NAFTA , you know, all the lovely things our foreign policy has inflicted upon Latin America.
It's in the fiction section, I dunno why, so far the "good guys" are not only non-existent, they're losing. Which brings me to a newspaper article I spotted this morning:
Mother of Colombian girl allegedly raped by U.S. officer seeks justice
By Gonzalo Guillen and Gerardo Reyes | El Nuevo Herald
Posted on Tuesday, September 8, 2009 McClatchy
Olga Lucia Castillo could never bring to justice the men who raped her in Bogota when she was pregnant with her daughter. Twelve years later, she is putting up the fight of her life to have a U.S. Army officer and a Mexican-born contractor indicted because, according to her, they raped her daughter at the military base in Melgar...
...both suspects were taken out of the country under diplomatic immunity,...
(more on the story here) | U.S. soldier's immunity clouds 2007 Colombian rape case
Enough about the "War on Drugs" how's that war in Afghanistan going?
Rep. Keith Ellison
Ellison said private insurers wielded substantial market power "in nearly every major metropolitan area" that gives companies the ability to set premiums at high rates.
"How are we going to get them down? By introducing three things: competition, choice and a competitive price. I don't know how any conservative can be against those three things," he said.
Thank you Mr. Ellison!!
Update, and Dr. Dean
(sorry I missed this)
(c) 2004
Hucky-ducky, here's the deal; these are some sick motherfuckers that were at the helm of this country. Sick, twisted, abused and abusive critters who believed that their shit didn't stink and they could do no wrong. That's probably why you are still seeing the evil bastards on the Sunday talking heads shows. I say 'you' because I never watched watched those bullshit shows, and I don't watch these DC bubbleheads anymore, either. It was hard to go back over the destructive policy decisions again, but I learned a few things, so I'm glad I did. As painful as it was to read, it was worth it. I recommend it.
Pages 276-277
"The only legal way to halt the nation's slide into theocracy, it seems, would be to open serious investigations by the Congress and the press, begin a robust national debate, and finally vote the zealots out of power. And yet that electoral possibility as also been subverted-- to what precise extent we don't yet know-- by the Christian Reconstructionists and their allies in the GOP, for the computerized machines now widely used for voting purposes in the United States are actually the handiwork of Reconstructionist ideologues. It was Howard Ahmanson and his brother Robert who bankrolled American Information Systems (AIS) which was founded by another pair of brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich. Under the corporate rubric of AIS, Bob Urosevich is president of Diebold, while Todd Urosevich is vice president of aftermarket sales at IS&E. Diebold and ESS are the nation's largest manufacturers of electronic voting machines, now mandated to be used in every state, thanks to the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Neither company's machines leave any sort of paper trail; neither company has allowed the public to review its programming code; and machines produced by both firms are notoriously easy to manipulate--from outside the system, so that anyone who has the skills and inclination can just revised whatever "final tally" he may find unacceptable. That a democracy would use such shoddy goods as its electoral infrastructure is disquieting enough. That both those companies were funded by a far-right partisan and active Christian Reconstructionist --whose am is an all-Christian franchise in America --is surely grounds for rational concern and timely action. Heir to an enormous fortune from the savings and loan business, Ahmanson is probably not into touch-screen voting for the money. "My purpose," he told the Orange County Register in 1985, 'is total integration of Biblical law into our lives."
Two Voting Companies & Two Brothers Will Count 80% of U.S. Election -
Using BOTH Scanners & Touchscreens
by Lynn Landes 4/27/04
Diebold Finally Dumps E-Voting Division... But Sells It To Equally Problematic ES&S
by Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Thu, Sep 3rd 2009
Max Blumenthal
Senior Writer for The Daily Beast
Posted: November 4, 2008 02:14 AM
Who Is The Mystery Man Behind Prop 8?
Howard Ahmanson becomes a Democrat. Seriously
March 23rd, 2009, 8:49 am · 7 Comments · posted by Steven Greenhut
And one more thing, Van Jones was right, they are assholes.
Published on Saturday, September 5, 2009 by Rolling Stone
How Washington is Screwing Up Health Care Reform – and Why It May Take a Revolt to Fix It
by Matt Taibbi
(Yep, once again he breaks it down into digestible chunks)
...Let's start with the obvious: America has not only the worst but the dumbest health care system in the developed world...
...Almost every single one of the main players - from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Blue Dog turncoat Max Baucus - found some unforeseeable, unique-to-them way to fuck this thing up...
...The only committee that didn't finish a bill is the one that's likely to matter most: the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by the infamous obfuscating dick Max Baucus, a right-leaning Democrat from Montana who has received $2,880,631 in campaign contributions from the health care industry...
...In the real world, nothing except a single-payer system makes any sense. There are currently more than 1,300 private insurers in this country, forcing doctors to fill out different forms and follow different reimbursement procedures for each and every one. This drowns medical facilities in idiotic paperwork and jacks up prices: Nearly a third of all health care costs in America are associated with wasteful administration. Fully $350 billion a year could be saved on paperwork alone if the U.S. went to a single-payer system - more than enough to pay for the whole goddamned thing, if anyone had the balls to stand up and say so...
(Yeesh sometimes I wonder how many times the Democrats will play Charlie Brown to the Lucy-with-the-football Republicans/Lobbyists/Moneyed Interests? And I did not know the following when I listened to Darrell Issa go on and on bitching about Obama's czars. )
...Many of the health care advisers in Obama's inner circle, meanwhile, are industry hacks - people like Nancy-Ann DeParle, the president's health care czar, who has served on the boards of for-profit companies like Medco Health Solutions and Triad Hospitals. DeParle is so unthreatening to the status quo that Karen Ignagni, the insurance industry's leading lobbyist-gorgon, praised her "extensive experience" and "strong track record."...
...employers who currently offer sub-par coverage will have their shitty plans protected by a grandfather clause. Which means ...
"If you have coverage you like, you can keep it," says Sen. Sanders. "But if you have coverage you don't like, you gotta keep it."
This grandfather clause has potentially wide-ranging consequences. One of the biggest health care problems we have in this country is the technique used by large employers - Walmart is the most notorious example - of offering dogshit, bare-bones health insurance that forces employees to take on steep co-pays and other massive charges. Low-wage workers currently offered these plans often reject them and join Medicaid, effectively shifting the health care burden for Walmart employees on to the taxpayer. If the HELP committee's grandfather clause survives to the final bill, those workers who did the sensible thing in rejecting Walmart's crap employer plan and taking the comparatively awesome insurance offered via Medicaid will now be rebuffed by the state and forced to take the dogshit Walmart offering...
...If the public option is the sine qua non for progressives, then the "individual mandate" is the counterpart must-have requirement for the insurance industry....
And Buzzflash nails it again.
Health Care "Reform" that Will Enrich For-Profit Insurance Companies and Big Pharma is What the WH is Fighting For Now
is a must see if Democracy means anything to you.
Hey, where you going?
You're not done yet.
By Brad Friedman on 9/3/2009 7:10PM
DIEBOLD FINDS ELECTION DIVISION BUYER; ES&S; TO CONTROL MOST U.S. ELECTIONS
Bargain-basement sale price; Anti-trust complaints to be filed; Dreadful history of failure by both companies
Merger causes concern among Election Integrity experts...
It was obvious before I even found a parking space that someone had gotten the word out and I soon found out who that was-- Rick Roberts, local AM hate radio wing-nut.
Or it might have been stump-speech-on-a-stick himself. I dunno.
Waiting in line the way in I heard the lady behind me say to her friend "So how did you hear about this?" Her friend answered "I got a call, personally inviting me." Hmmm, I went with my sister, who happens to be one of his constituents and she didn't get a call. Maybe it's because there is a D on her registration rather than an R?
All I know is that I never want to be in the midst of that many sheeple who will spread their cheeks out of sheer stupidity again. They politely applauded while he didn't answer question after question. God what a weasel he is. He made sure to give about a half dozen shout outs on tort reform, that's always good for Republican sheeple applause. He babbled on for a bit about cash payers being billed more than insurance ever pays. No shit Sherlock. Who created that mess, insurance agencies?
I laughed out loud when he went on about how drug companies spend billions testing and then getting the OK from the FDA to get a drug out on the market. No mention of settlements like this.
He's also really good at droning on until you totally forgot what the question was, you're just happy he quit babbling. It didn't really matter, it seemed most of the people who spoke or asked questions (some obviously rhetorical, it was a wing-nut love fest with no guns, that's illegal here) like everyone had made up their minds before they got there that HR 3200 is positively evil, but nobody knew why. Seriously, nobody could point to anything specific in the bill, they just hated it. Why? They are sheeple. They think what they're told to think and they do what they are told to do.
No mention of a public insurance option.
At all.
I guess Ricky must have been filling the sheeple's heads with noise about a public option being what? Unpatriotic because it might give a few greedy insurers a run for their money? Might crimp the profits of insurers?
I almost felt sorry for one woman who almost pleaded with him to tell her she wasn't a hypocrite for not wanting Obamacare because she already had Tricare and Medicare.
Almost.
I'd make a lousy politician because when she pleaded "Am I a hypocrite?" I said loudly "Yup!" Jesus fuckin Christ lady, you know you're not gonna get the truth at a place where a bunch of sad and sorry rethugs have gathered to have thewe poow widdle bwuised egos salved. Issa weaseled out of the question.
Damn, what kills me is nobody ever mentioned the three trillion dollar war when they talked about a balanced budget. At one point he mentioned $500 a month for health insurance. I wonder if that's his cockamamie bill that offers the health insurance options of Federal employees to everyone, but the government doesn't pay for any of it? I pretty much drove my sister crazy by mumbling not quite loud enough for her to hear me the whole time. I need a shower, I don't like being around people who wear Buck Ofama shirts and mobilize minors to wave signs about a bill that isn't even finished being written.
Fuck it, let's thump these assholes at the next election ALSO.
NC Times says 3,000 people were there, but wait, it says 1500 in the gym and that would make it 1500 outside. I don't know where the fuck they are talking about, but there were NOT 1500 people outside where I was, there were 300 people outside, max.
And here's the fishwrap coverage. One sided as usual.
Update: Wow, I'm glad the drama was in LA and not here. I'm short tempered at times and if "Buck Ofama" lady had punched me in the face, knocked me to the ground, continued to holler at me while pointing her finger in my face, I might have bitten her finger off too.
Update 2 1:00 PM 9/13/2009. I found this article. SONIC WEAPONS USED IN IRAQ POSITIONED AT CONGRESSIONAL TOWNHALL MEETINGS IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY
Hmmm. Sure looks like the loudspeaker I saw above the gym at the Issa event.
Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009
AP
I wonder if she would have been fine with it if she had gotten paid for it?
I mean, is she really known for having good taste? In any of her well known commercial enterprises?
Really?
Have any of her nauseating public projects done anything other than attempt to separate the "classes" more in the US? A supposedly classless society?
the Poles have every right to be pissed off at the West AND the East for what happened to their country and peoples during and After WWII.
Stalin, FDR, Churchill, they all fucked Poland.
If you haven't seen the PBS special "WWII behind closed doors," I highly recommend it.
Polish, Russian press welcome Putin gesture
I guess the PR flacks are recommending a newer, softer, cuddlier approach to governance.
