Now even though the Supreme Court has just ruled that 'Obama Care' can be considered legal in the US, our Drone in Chief has yet to explain what subsidies he has put into place for the low income portion of the population to be able to purchase his Obama Care Insurance Policy? He has further failed to explain just how he plans to punish low income people who are unable to purchase his policy? Will he make us all go lie in a public park at night and get arrested for vagrancy, or what? Drone Man has simply failed to give any of us even the slightest clue to what it is all about, this new muddled, mucked up legislation of his? And will a new president simply scrap the unwieldy mess? Who can really say?
Tag: Health care reform
How to tweak a headline, right wing style.
Without being called an extremist, or if anybody does you can call him a paranoid or otherwise mentally ill "conspiracy theorist". From The Atlanta Examiner: "AARP members bash Obamacare". This mirrors a similar "Shocking" headline Fox did last year when about 1% of the AARP membership left the organization in a huff and on a TeaBag high-horse because AARP endorsed Health Care Reform.<=The proper name. But, with the term "AARP members" and not specifying how many, what percentage of the overall membership, or noting that AARP has members from every political party in America including Anarchists, you could get any two AARP members to say they don't like Health Care and would prefer the alternative, a murderous system of killing elderly, disabled and poor AMERICANS through organized, explicit and consistent Denial of Health Care by the so-called "free" market. And with those two voices you can get "AARP members bash Obamacare". Get 10 to say they want to keep the old Murderous system and you get "A group of seniors say they don't want to have Health Care". Have them organize and you get "Senior Advocacy Group says they'd rather be taken out and abandoned on an ice floe, while their tribe rows away from them singing traditional songs" Have a disabled or Senior AMERICAN say that being left to die and rot sucks, and you get "oh, you're just a paranoid delusional conspiracy theory whiner". Get more people saying that maybe denying people health care and therefore life and you can say "Socialist Cult of Conspiracy Theorists advance crazy notion that denying health care equals murder". There you have it, in a Right Wing "Nut" shell.
National “burn the confederate flag” day, 9/12
Because the Hatemongers and Deathmongers have gotten increasingly abusive in their rallies to drum up support of Killing People. While they say they're not Racist about it in any way, they do fly the Confederate Battle Flag, the "Southern Cross" and sometimes bear signs saying "Not Hate, Heritage" and the Hate Flag. It's a heritage of hatred. Of forcing Americans to surrender their liberties before birth based on THEIR heritage and the color of their skins. Their Hate Heritage, and mine, killed about 300,000 AMERICANS who opposed their Slavery and another 180,000 of their own comrades. Fighting for nothing more, from their sick point of view, than Hatred of other human beings that is so fierce even today that they feel it was right to keep them in bondage. So it doesn't have to be a BIG flag, or even made of cloth, Just print on up on your color printer or go to Kinko's or someplace similar and pay a quarter to have it printed, full color, on both sides. And burn it in front of the Racist TeaBags and other hate freaks who are pushing for endless war. Burn the flag to show solidarity with the notion of People being more than, and worth more than, property. The Corporate Privateers have gotten a couple of Supreme Court decisions that their Corporations have more rights than actual Humans do. Their support of the Insurance Lobby against Universal Health Coverage was based on the same principle of their "states rights" of our ancestors. The "right" to own human beings, and that emancipation of those human beings was somehow an abridgment of Their Rights to own property. Only, the "property" was Human Beings. The Insurance Lobby claims that a Government Health Care option would be such devastating competition that they would lose their "property" in other words, OUR business is their property. OUR health care is somehow THEIR property, to be bought and sold at their whim. It's the Dred Scott decision all over again, only this time it's EVERY American who is deprived of our liberty without due process, EVERY American sold as chattel, as Slaves, to the Insurance Corporations. Force them to admit their Slaver attitude. Waving that particular Hate-Flag is like what the American National Socialist White Persons Party did in Skokie Illinois, parading Nazi Uniforms and Flags through a Jewish Neighborhood. They wave this Flag of Hate in contempt of all decency and morality.
Daily KOS says: you support, we decide
Fuck Markos Moulitsas and the Miniature Lipizzaner he rode in on. KOS calls for deposing Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich because he won't hang with the corporatist Dems on the health insurance mandate reform/bailout. The Daily KOS plays centrist whip, but this pronouncement is beyond tinpottiness. Hopefully Markos will be shown what a Public Option can mean on a blog. What did KOS think of Kucinich forcing the majority party to take ownership of the American murder spree in Afghanistan?! (Here's the list of those who rejected both party lines, Republicans are in bold: Baldwin, Campbell, Capuano, Chu, Clarke, Clay, Cleaver, Crowley, Davis (IL), DeFazio, Doyle, Duncan, Edwards (MD), Ellison, Farr, Filner, Frank (MA), Grayson, Grijalva, Gutierrez, Hastings (FL), Jackson (IL), Jackson Lee (TX), Johnson (IL), Johnson (E. B.), Jones, Kagen, Kucinich, Larson (CT), Lee (CA), Lewis (GA), Maffei, Maloney, Markey (MA), McDermott, McGovern, Michaud (Maine), Miller (George), Nadler (NY), Napolitano, Neal (MA), Obey, Olver, Paul, Payne, Pingree (Maine), Polis (CO), Quigley, Rangel, Richardson, Sánchez (Linda T.), Sanchez (Loretta), Schakowsky, Serrano, Speier, Stark, Stupak, Tierney, Towns, Tsongas, Velázquez, Waters, Watson, Welch, Woolsey) I have my own qualms about Kucinich, he keeps the real Left sucked into concentric electoral circles. Activated voters who should be pushing for a third party are corralled by Kucinich types to hold their breath for the so-called party of the people to represent real people. I'd like to see Kucinich leave the Dems, and I'd like to see the Democrats fool enough to boot him of their own accord. They can't quit Lieberman but they'd dump on Kucinich. What transparency we'd see then. Hearing that call coming from the internet however, from the closest thing Americans have for representatives, our democratically followed Twitter sages, won't do. When dumping Kucinich pretends to poll from the internet, we need to hoist those asses on their monetized petards.
Healthcare reformist TR Reid visits COS to say universal coverage not possible
COLORADO SPRINGS-- [UPDATED] My question to TR Reid, who speaks tonight at CC's Palmer Hall, is how can voices for health care rights get past the corporate media editors? As Washington Post Denver bureau chief and NPR reporter, Reid's answer will reveal his earnestness, because most clearly his editors have kept the upper hand. The Independent, which is sponsoring tonight's event, has invited two respondents to offer rebuttals, but both represent the health care status quo, there is no one advocating for socialized medicine, automatically framing Reid's centrism as the people's best hope. I remember a TR Reid interview on NPR, which left me with the distinct impression of a hobbled argument. Look at the subtitle of his Frontline documentary: Sick Around the World: Can the U.S. learn anything from the rest of the world about how to run a health care system? They don't say "what can the US learn" but can it. That's the same false question the corporate media use to approach Global Warming. Though the answer is a multiplicity of affirmatives, the headline posed as a question leaves the viewer with the impression the conclusion is his to decide. The moon: is it there? A follow-up Sick Around America was famously, in alternative media circles at least, altered to endorse insurance mandates. Reid broke away from the final product when PBS refused to mention his conclusion that health insurance should not be for profit. Reid chalked it up to a disagreement, not specifically a motive. The book Mr. Reid will be signing is titled The Healing of America: a global quest for better, cheaper, and fairer health care. His own disjointed title reflects why he returned empty-handed. Can you imagine if it had read simply: a global quest for health care? Better, cheaper and fairer are redundant qualifiers and load the theme with false perspective. "Better" assumes American care can be ranked on a scale, this book is obviously only for those getting care. "Cheaper" assumes health care must have a price -- Universal health care is free. "Fairer" again assumes that our current equilibrium is in some measurable aspect fair, besides which, the concept is a fallacy. There's unfair and fair. Moving from one toward the other, fairness is unfair until it is fair. Besides which, every schoolchild knows "fairer" is expressed as "more fair." If Reid had been honest, he would have phrased it "less unfair." TR Reid applauds the health care available in other developed countries, but notes the other systems are not without their flaws. Is this some sort of psychological inducement to feed the American ego, that US reform can aim higher than the health care as a right provided elsewhere? I think it's a loophole with which to scuttle his proposal. It seems TR Reid is ignoring the chief obstacle to health care. It's not reason, it's not taxes. The chief obstacle is capitalist greed, it's class warfare, and the social systems of our like nations are under attack as well. The shortcomings which
Why does Glenn Beck “Hate” the 9/11 families who ask questions?
Certainly can't be that they're "Conspiracy Theorists". His buffoonery about the Health Care Reform being "Government Death Panels" and the Rockefeller Plaza Secret Bolshevik Symbols rants, that kind of set him in a class by himself vis-a-vis Really Lunatic Conspiracy Theories. Maybe it's because the 9/11 Truth-out questions aren't looney from toony. Like, for instance, the Birth Certificate theory. Admittedly, that's pushed more by his Fellow Travellers in the R.W. Lunatic Fringe Rush Limbaugh and Jerome Corsi and the "we're not Nazis, we just use their imagery and tactics and pal around with Neo-Nazi Terrorist Groups like the Klan" Stormfront. The ones who "busted" the supposedly forged Bush service records. Provided to the news outlets by whom? Corsi doesn't say, but he is an expert on forgery, or so he claims. And he was the one who provided the Forged Kenyan birth certificates. But with the Bush documents, the Right Wing Hate-Speechers successfully deflected certain inquiries into their ChickenHawk Credentials, which are impeccable. Any question, for example, of why Rush Limbaughs brother David didn't get drafted, or George Bush's brother Jeb... are met with the whole flock of Right Wing Sheeple chanting "Forged Birth Certificate good, forged Service Records Baaaaaadddd". Glenn Beck and indeed the entire cast and crew of Fox Hate Networks taking tax exemptions, getting paid through the back door, for their "support" for the families of the Military Men they sent to war with THEIR LIES, allegedly donating their own money to the U.S.O. Only, the money they "donated" was given right back to them on their next tax returns. Lying ChickenHawk Hypocrites get paid to cheerlead the For-Profit War which they helped start, by repeating the same LIES told by the Bu'ush Regime Rogue State Terrorists. Send the kids off to war based on their lies, make a profit from it, Lie about supporting the troops and make a second profit from the people who actually DO pay their taxes. Then say they stand for the American Taxpayer. ***Oh, as for Rush's brother and Bush's brothers... There's a draft exemption for people whose brothers had served in combat. That's expanded to "combat zone" even if they never fired a shot. Rush Limbaugh got out of the draft because he had a pimple in his ass. "Anal Cyst" according to his doctor. So he didn't serve in a Combat Zone. His brother many years later, when criticizing Anika Stormgren for playing in a Golf Tournament, said that Pro Golfers such as himself were Well Conditioned Healthy Athletes. So, how does a Well Conditioned Healthy Athlete like himself avoid the draft? If his brother had serv... oh. Same with George Bush Sr buying George (co)W(ard) an exemption from combat duty even though his job specialty (and commensurate rank and pay) has the word "combat" in the description. No Combat Zone, so... How did George HW get his other Chickenshit Chickenhawk son out of the war? And the fact that nobody from the Right Wing makes any pretense of concern that G.W. hasn't actually brought forth any evidence or documentation, even Forged. Maybe Corsi could help him out there. Of course, that's
US health industry tells Vic to snuff it
Vic Chesnutt took his own life on Christmas Day. By coincidence, he'd just given an upbeat interview to NPR's Fresh Air in spite of an ongoing battle with his health care providers. The segment seemed to pierce the celebrity veil we imagine insulates our talent castes from the worries of everyman. When he died, I reflected on the interview. I was reluctant to mar a eulogy with the villainy of the US medical system -- but then NPR re-aired the piece, en memoriam, minus the damning testimony. They added in its place a remembrance by three colleagues who concluded: "To say poor health care killed Vic Chesnutt would be very reductive." Reductive? These corporate musicians, at the behest of NPR, have to throw an artisan spin on Vic Chesnutt's legacy because his art should transcend his mortality?! Vic's art, real art, is about mortality. Vic's death was real and the anxiety he expressed in his interview was real. He hadn't chosen to keep his troubles to himself for the sake of the listeners' seamless pleasurable enjoyment. Who are these commercial artists to mute Vic's story? It made me sick. Others wonder aloud why Vic's rich musician friends couldn't have offered to pay for the medical procedures he needed. Perhaps they did, who knows. And perhaps their concern not to be "reductive" was extracted from a much longer session where Vic Chesnutt's struggles were discussed at length. Vic's talent may not have been lost on these would-be eulogists, but we can't fault them for not being artist spirits enough themselves to know how to shepherd an honest narrative about Vic. I point my finger at NPR for the rewrite, and I'll take issue with one of the musicians. At a wake, there's always someone who uses the opportunity for self-promotion, and at this one it was REM's Michael Stipe. He discovered Vic Chesnutt, let's get that out of the way. Michael's remembrance of Vic was an anecdote about a lyric he thought he'd stolen from Vic. It was so good, he must have stolen it. Stipe was so honest, he called Vic to confess. Vic's response was gracious, no it's yours. Stipe insisted, and so did Vic. Such was Vic's grace, and so elevated was Stipe's regard for Vic, and evidently so great is Stipe's humility and --in the end it turns out by Vic's own lips-- his genius. He transcended his master. Much of the draw of coattail opportunism at funerals is that dead men tell no tales. NPR's problem, and shall we imagine, the problem of its underwriters, the major health insurers, was that Vic Chesnutt killed himself right after telling an NPR audience he could succumb any day for lack of proper medical care. Chesnutt died from an overdose of pain killers, which raised the disquieting suggestion to listeners that he lived in a lot of pain. Sure Chesnutt had attempted suicide before. He'd written a love song to suicide. The trouble was, he declared in his interview that "Flirted
A bird in the hand is worth health care and a climate consensus in the bush
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. It's better than nothing. We're getting it from all direction now, from Copenhagen to the health care bill. The message is delivered by experienced elder statesmen whose benevolence we do not question because they are retired and have no horse in the race -yet they have access to the halls of power where real stakeholders are denied? Silver hair and silver tongues pitch: "Those who say a bad deal is better than no deal are dead wrong." You're kidding me Grandpa. And what's this for a perverted adage: "One step forward is better than two steps back?" I'm seeing Obama being praised for revising his schedule to get to Copenhagen on the last day, for knowing how late is fashionable when the party's a dud. But that's not a leader. Obama could have given life to the party, instead he ops to give the Gettysburg Address.
Tailgunner Joe: health care not for you
Should a television cameraman get photo credit for a studio image? Can NBC copyright what represents a national address in a neo-public forum? I think not. Joe Lieberman reminds me of dogged namesake un-American. What more proof do our fellow citizens need that their US House of Lords/Senators mocks a representative democracy? Senator Lieberman wants the Dems to drop provisions to expand Medicare to Americans aged 55 and above? Would it be that easy? Then conversely, why not expand it to all Americans, all comers actually, and forgo the pages and pages to which the Republicans object? Are Americans guaranteed the pursuit of happiness, but in ill health? Where's the Hulk/Rock SNL Obama when a senator really needs throwing out the window? The ENOUGH OF LIEBERMAN emails have become as ubiquitous as Viagra spam now. Finally, they beg, give us X dollars and we'll make sure the Connecticut voters don't reelect him. Sure. When Lieberman faced a challenger in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic primary election, who stepped in to support him? A veritable who's who of incumbents. Some even campaigned for Lieberman when he was forced to run as an independent. Former President Bill Clinton, campaigned for Lieberman on July 24 CT Senator Chris Dodd IL Senator Dick Durbin IL Senator Barack Obama NY Senator Hillary Clinton NV Senator /Minority Leader Harry Reid CA Senator Barbara Boxer, campaigned for Lieberman on July 24 CA Senator Diane Feinstein CO Senator Ken Salazar, campaigned for Lieberman on July 31 DE Senator Joe Biden, campaigned for Lieberman on July 31 HA Senator Daniel Inouye, campaigned for Lieberman on July 31 IN Senator Evan Bayh NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg DE Senator Tom Carper AR Senator Mark Pryor OR Senator Ron Wyden NE Senator Ben Nelson When it's a choice between you and Lieberman, they choose Lieberman. Between you and the health insurance industry? They let Lieberman decide.
Sen Udall oks metaphorical health care
The only medicine our senators want their constituents to take is the hard-to-swallow metaphorical variety. Senator Mark Udall's monthly email explains his part in the Senate health care holdup. Two things: Udall and ten fellow freshmen set a roadblock to improve the HCR bill with cost containment, approved, Udall adds proudly, by industry experts. Next, he's crossed the aisle to join a bipartisan fiscal task force to limit congressional spending with an eye to reducing the federal deficit. That ol' deficit doesn't come up when the issues are war, tax cuts for the rich, or "bailouts" for banks and industry. Apparently health care is the last straw we cannot afford. That's the: "It will be hard to swallow, but it is medicine we need to take." Udall's amendment package to "improve" the health care bill is endorsed "by many of the nation's leading business, consumer, policy, and health provider organizations, such as the Brookings Institution, AARP and Business Roundtable, a group of leading American CEOs." The 11 Democrat freshmen signing on are Sens. Mark Begich (AK), Michael Bennet (CO), Roland Burris (IL), Kay Hagan (NC), Ted Kaufman (DE), Paul Kirk (MA), Jeff Merkley (OR), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Mark Udall (CO), Tom Udall (NM) and Mark Warner (VA). The bipartisan task force will include eight Democrats and eight Republicans, which I'm inclined to believe will target privatization of whatever is left of the US treasury. I didn't mention the third subject of Senator Udall's email: To combat the bark beetle infestation of Colorado forests, Udall has crossed the aisle again, this time to conservative Idaho Senator Jim Risch, to introduced the National Forest Insect and Disease Emergency Act of 2009 to give the US Forestry service "additional tools and resources." By "resources" they probably mean roads into protected roadless areas, and "tools" is not even a metaphor for saws. For the record, here's the gobbledegook proffered as improvements to the current health care reform proposal: A summary of the specific amendments follows. Working More Closely with the Private Sector on Cost Containment These amendments transform payment systems and improving quality to require the public and private sectors to move forward together on the shared goals of cost containment, improved quality, and delivery system reform. CMS Innovation Center: We give the new Innovation Center explicit authority to work with private plans to align Medicare, Medicaid and private sector strategies for improving care. Independent Medicare Advisory Board: We broaden the scope of the new Independent Medicare Advisory Board to look at total health system spending and make nonbinding, system-wide recommendations. Quality and Value in Private Insurance: We require the Secretary to consult with relevant stakeholders to develop a methodology for measuring health plan value, which would include the cost, quality of care, efficiency, and actuarial value of plans. Developing the tools to assess health plan value will help consumers and employers make better apples-to-apples comparisons when they shop for health insurance and get the best value for their health care dollar. Stepping-up the Commitment to Reduce Regulatory Barriers and Fight Fraud
Does your elected representative need to hear from you?
The emails are flowing in furiously. Senator So & So needs to hear from you; we need your donation to run this ad; our voices must be louder than the interests arrayed against reform. I ask you. On the issue of health reform, climate change, or ending the US wars, does your elected representative still need to hear from you? What sort of amnesia is there in DC, that the party given a mandate in 2008 suddenly lacks for moraL conviction? Change That Works has organized an AMBULANCE TOUR for Colorado Springs, Canon City and Pueblo on December 8 to keep alive the issue of Health Care Reform, although of course it's still framed unfortunately to specifications dictated by the insurance lobby as "Health Insurance Reform." It may not happen tomorrow at 10am, give or take a sign or two calling HEALTH CARE REFORM A SHAM, but the callous bastards will ultimately get what's coming to them, being cut out of the middle entirely. Health is a universal human right which the insurance giants will not be able to deny Americans for much longer. Universal health care is a human right There is no moral basis for earning profits by standing between people and the care they need. Universal health care for all. Profiteers to the gallows.
HR-3962 a travesty of mockery of sham
While a number of Democrats implicated themselves by joining all but one Republican to vote against the Affordable Health Care for America Act, let's make a distinction for Representative Dennis Kucinich who had reasons the other congressmen are not prepared to articulate. For example, Colorado District 4 house rep Betsy Markey rejected HR-3962 for the usual GOP tea party bugaboos, asserting it would hurt the deficit and didn't include tort reform. Below is the statement Kucinich released Nov 7. Chew on this, as Dems pat themselves on the back. Why I Voted NO We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system. Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem, not the solution. They are driving up the cost of health care. Because their massive bureaucracy avoids paying bills so effectively, they force hospitals and doctors to hire their own bureaucracy to fight the insurance companies to avoid getting stuck with an unfair share of the bills. The result is that since 1970, the number of physicians has increased by less than 200% while the number of administrators has increased by 3000%. It is no wonder that 31 cents of every health care dollar goes to administrative costs, not toward providing care. Even those with insurance are at risk. The single biggest cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. is health insurance policies that do not cover you when you get sick. But instead of working toward the elimination of for-profit insurance, H.R. 3962 would put the government in the role of accelerating the privatization of health care. In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high, which will result in at least $70 billion in new annual revenue, much of which is coming from taxpayers. This inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher profits for insurance companies — a bailout under a blue cross. By incurring only a new requirement to cover pre-existing conditions, a weakened public option, and a few other important but limited concessions, the health insurance companies are getting quite a deal. The Center for American Progress’ blog, Think Progress, states “since the President signaled that he is backing away from the public option, health insurance stocks have been on the rise.” Similarly, healthcare stocks rallied when Senator Max Baucus introduced a bill without a public option. Bloomberg reports that Curtis Lane, a prominent health industry investor, predicted a few weeks
Colo. Dem reps only half Blue Bounders
Neither of Colorado's Blue Canis Familiaris Democrats acted the heel enough to merit tar and feathers on yesterday's HCR vote. But these Dems need to go. 64 Democrats voted to load an anti-abortion provision unto the House healthcare bill, among them District 3's John Salazar. The Stupak-Pitts amendment passed, but 23 of the blackguards later voted against the bill, meaning they had acted to try to sink health care reform. Here are their names, via sharedferret/dkos: Jason Altmire (PA-4), Bobby Bright (AL-2), John Barrow (GA-12), John Boccieri (OH-16), Dan Boren (OK-2), Ben Chandler (KY-6), Travis Childers (MS-1), Artur Davis (AL-7), Lincoln Davis (TN-4), Bart Gordon (TN-6), Parker Griffith (AL-5), Tim Holden (PA-17), Jim Marshall (GA-8), Jim Matheson (UT-2), Mike McIntyre (NC-7), Charlie Melancon (LA-3), Collin Peterson (MN-7), Mike Ross (AR-4), Heath Shuler (NC-11), Ike Skelton (MO-4), John Tanner (TN-8), Gene Taylor (MS-4), & Harry Teague (NM-2). For future vigilance, Colorado's Blue Dogs in Dem clothing are Mark Udall, Michael Bennet, Betsy Markey and John Salazar.
The face of the health insurance lobby
Nurse Ratched, to my imagination, was the most despised movie villainess of all time. She didn't murder anyone, but by the sheer frigidity of her indifference, Nurse Ratched caused debilitating anxiety and heart-break. She's my nominee for the face of the US health insurance lobby. When Nurse Ratched --yes, it's not spelled Ratchet-- callously provoked the suicide of Brad Dourif's vulnerable character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I would defy any viewer to deny they wanted to see the evil nurse dismembered. Couldn't we rekindle a little of that seething anger for those who are obstructing health care reform? How is their dispassionate defense of our nation's feudal profit-based medical system any less homocidal than Jeffrey Dahmer? The health insurance business is doing the deed, but their DC lobbyists, like Richard Umbdenstock (AHA), Karen Ignagni (AHIP), Nancy Nielsen (AMA), Billy Tauzin (PhRMA), and David Nexon (AMTA) are keeping would-be rescuers at bay. They're riding shotgun on genocidal manhunts. Health coverage triage isn't some genteel game of music chairs in the waiting room. These are wheelchairs, and the losers who fall are swept out the door and in the gutter. And the for-profit health industry is removing thousands of chairs at a time. What is this polite respect opponents are showing one another over the immoral behavior of health insurers? Signa and Humana are killers plain and simple. They deny coverage, delay approvals, withhold disbursements, and throw up bureaucratic barriers until their patients are too enfeebled to fight, or too dead to sue. While the public is made to debate whether our nation can afford to offer health care to its citizens, and feeling like cheapskates for wanting to deprive the insurance industry of its cleverly earned, admirable profits.
Health reform nuclear option is HR3200
Health insurance, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing --say it again. President Obama spoke of insurers as nice people who perform a valuable service, but where did the flattery get him? Industry death panels have redoubled their determination to kill the insured and uninsured alike. And facing reforms, they don't want a "public option," even if the deal is sweetened with a windfall of mandated insurance premiums. Isn't it time to cut the greedy murderers from the till? H.R. 3200 proposes Medicare be expanded to cover everyone. Period. The extra coverage will be paid from current insurance company profit margins.
The Democratic Party’s sham Health Care offensive
There is so much hullabaloo about the proposed not much CHANGE 'Health Care' legislation that it is all too easy to be taken in by it all. But what's really going on in this wrestling match between the donkeys and elephants? Here is Glen Ford's take on it... “The health care battle has devolved into a charade.” The Obama White House and the insurance industry are putting on a big show for the public, with both sides pretending to be engaged in a battle royal over the shape of health care legislation. In reality, the insurance corporations have already won the war. But for political reasons, it's necessary that the insurance companies and the White House act like professional wrestlers. And like TV wrestling, it's all fake. Full commentary about The Phony Fight: Obama and the Insurance Barons.
we need Lisners of the PEOPLE NOT Dictators of the PEOPLE! USA! ROCKS!
Television cameras today gravitated toward Doug Lamborn supporters. Thank goodness this flag-waver showed up with a sign to confirm visually the nagging suspicion that his crowd was illiterate. Lamborn snickered, literally sniggered, about the success of the summer's tea party gatherings and his hopes for more. CHANGE THAT WORKS brought bingo cards with each square representing an Obamacare untruth Lamborn could be expected to roll out to frighten the audience. As he hit each phrase, players would shout "YOU LIE" until the eventual "BINGO!" The Gazette labeled us hecklers, but got a picture of Pattie scanning her scorecard, and me holding off an interloper. I hope the Gazette goes with this photo for tomorrow's print edition. Health Care Reform up against the forces of darkness. As audience members challenged Lamborn's presentation, sinister looking men would crowd in on us, some physically threatening, others trying to mumble through arguments. The net effect created a disruptive buzz which actually diverted our energies to engage the town hall forum. I found it effective to block their gaze by sticking up my hand, which also prevented their approach. Rita circulated handouts which cautioned the men against personal confrontations. News photographers captured the images, but note that none of these men would reveal their names. Loring documented the goons, including this one who addressed Loring's video camera with his best Tony Soprano impression: "How ya doin? Got a little camera?" Loring's video is already online. Mark will put together a CSAction video shortly. Gazette comment section troll MBurke has posted pictures of the meeting. Here's the full image, taken after the town hall meeting, all cameras on her. Yes, that's Doug Bruce in the background, pushing his latest attack on the Colorado Springs municipal budget. Anti-tax pig Doug Bruce was there handing out brochures about his stealth stormwater fee proposal.
D. Lamborn don’t want to hear from U
Tomorrow brings another last chance to will America some health care. Representative Lamborn is back in town on Monday, asking his constituents to come let him know how to vote on health care reform, as if he were not already fully in every corporate pocket. Come on out, although Doug Lamborn cannot fail but deliver the TV coverage his backers expect. No doubt Lamborn was commissioned to gather his fellow teabaggers, to give the networks more grassroots backdrop for the so-called populist opposition to health reform. Come anyway. Shooting fish in a barrel is underrated. Mostly teabags know only the barest of talking points. They show up to show what good fan club members they are, for their favorite Fox, disinfotainment clowns. It's billed as: Doug Lamborn's Health Care Legislation Town Hall Meeting, on Monday, October 19 from 11:30am to 12:30pm. At the Stargazer Event Center, 10 S. Parkside Drive, off Pikes Peak. Come early. The last time the conservative Lamborn threw a town hall, he overfilled the minuscule room hours before with Republicans only. This time the venue is giant, but it's no surprise the date coincides with the latest tea party roll out. Expect ignoramuses in droves, made to go play outside by their fairy TV godparents, Becks, Limbaughs and Malkins. They'll give KRDO the usual low common denominator that doesn't turn heads in the Springs. The health argument is growing simpler every time we do this. This disagreement isn't between those who have insurance and those who do not. It's between those who haven't needed medical care, and those who have. Insured or not, no one's getting care. The joke's on the poor bastards agitating for the continuing privilege to pay the spiraling premiums. Most, I'll bet, don't actually have insurance. They cling to their right not to buy any. They would be adversely affected if reform passes as currently drafted. Can't argue with that. But wait 'til they need something from a doctor, even just to schedule a visit, or get a prescription. Chief among their recurring arguments is that the uninsured right now can walk into any hospital and get treated. They recite this anecdote either because they've done it, or their friend's done it, or Rush keeps bellyaching about how everybody's doing it. But they're sure of it. Of course, that can remedy a broken arm, or a burst appendix, but forget recurring treatments. If you are diagnosed with something that's not going to kill you in the emergency room, they can wait. You can wait, at home, to let your ailment get the best of you. The end.
Big Insurance greed? COS is Sick Of It!
KRDO's Eric Singer called today's health care reform rally "very one sided," so much so, seeing it, "you might have done a double-take." Because it wasn't our backwater's customary Teabag Pity Party where agitated ignorants throw their own hopes for adequate health care into the drink; but KRDO doesn't report those anti-rallies as one-sided. Of course, KRDO's advertisers are the medical system conglomerates, pharmaceuticals, and big insurance! Greed. We are sick of it! The Gazette repeated their usual mantra that health care reform is unaffordable, but offered a refreshingly frank representation of Pattie's nuanced address to the energized crowd. The full Gazette article: Health care reform activists rally in Springs October 13, 2009 3:45 PM MARIA ST.LOUIS-SANCHEZ THE GAZETTE Patti Mulkey wants to work and be a productive member of society. Unfortunately, she says, her health insurance doesn’t cover all of the extensive treatment she needs for her chronic kidney disease. She said her insurance plan keeps her alive, but doesn’t provide enough care that would let her go back to work. “They make decisions without knowing how this affects everyone’s lives,” she said to a small, but vocal group of people at a rally Tuesday for health care reform in front of Colorado springs’ City Hall. “People who are ill don’t want to be ill. They want to be working and well.” The “Rally Against Greed” attracted about 40 people carrying signs that read “Greed Sucks” and “Jesus Didn’t Charge Premiums.” The rally was organized by the group Change that Works, a liberal organization that endorses a public option for health care. While protestors were vehement Tuesday, the rally wasn’t close to the size of other local rallies against the proposed reforms. Instead of focusing on the cost of expanded health care, organizers blamed insurance companies for the high costs in relating the stories of people coping with illnesses. Like Mulkey, many of the people who attended the rally said they had health insurance, but it didn’t pay for their care. Pat Hill said that even with health insurance, she was paying $750 a month in medical bills stemming from complications from cancer treatments. James Tucker, a local activist, said the people who reject the proposed reforms may regret it. “If they don’t get involved and join us, they will pay a price when they need the care,” he said.
Not Health Insurance, Health CARE
NOT HEALTH INSURANCE, HEALTH CARE. Local Dems are being rallied again by the SEIU and other corporate handlers to ask for Health Insurance Reform. These are the same gate keepers who squelch calls for Universal Health Care, and who stand back from Democrats like Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) when he labeled his Republican health reform adversaries as callous obstructionists. The Republicans are not meeting anyone halfway, why do the Democrats begin the negotiations from the center? It's a rhetorical question of course, because both corporate parties support the health insurance industry. The real question is why DO YOU ask your representatives in the legislature to begin with a compromise? Why do your organizers insist that the grassroots voice temper its demand? Grayson angered his fellow congressmen by calling them murderers. Was he right? Here's what he said: "If you get sick in America, this is what the Republicans want you to do: If you get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly ... That's right, the Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick." Asked to apologize for the remark, for besmirching Republicans and trivializing the Holocaust, Grayson offered to apologize to the dead, to the more than 44,000 Americans who die every year because they lack health insurance. "That is ten times more than the number of Americans who have died in Iraq and who died in 9/11... But that was just once. This is every single year. That's right. Every single year." "I call upon the Democratic members of the House, I call upon the Republican members of the House, I call upon all of us to do our jobs for the sake of America, for the sake of those dying people and their families ... I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America."
US Senate represents Insurance, Israel
Are you represented by a US senator? I doubt it. Today the Senate Finance Committee rejected Public Option amendments to the health care reform legislation; continued to vilify ACORN based on fraudulent accusations hyped the MSM; and thirty two senators signed a letter drafted by AIPAC, to urge Secretary of State Clinton to block further investigation of Israel for its crimes in Gaza based on the findings of the Goldstone Report. Abolish the Senate! Does America have any use for a House of Lords? Today five Democrats joined the ten Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee to reject a PUBLIC OPTION. The senators voting no were: Max Baucus (D-MT), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Thomas Carper (D-DE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Charles Grassley (R-IA), John Ensign (R-NV), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Jim Bunning (R-KY), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Mike Enzi (R-WY), John Cornyn (R-TX) Senator Rockerfeller promoted his public option saying that "the public option is on the march." There should be more pitchforks than that on the march. Who are these rich bastards who lord over our representatives in Congress? It's a House of Lords, representing America's moneyed interests, against the needs of the common people. Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga) collected signatures last week to urge the GAO to investigate ACORN. I mention this letter because of similar source of today's letter. Isakson and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) circulated the letter to block the UN from taking action against Israel. The other senators, among them 16 Democrats, are: Charles Schumer (D-NY), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Carl Levin (D-MI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Tim Johnson (D-SD), David Vitter (D-ND), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Mark Begich (D-AK), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Dan Inouye(D-HI), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Arlen Specter (D-PA), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), James Risch (R-ID), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Susan Collins (R-ME), Jim DeMint (R-SC), John Ensign (R-NV), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Roger Wicker (R-MS), John McCain (R-AZ), John Thune (R-SD), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Do these people represent the American People? Here is their letter sent on behalf of Israel: Dear Madam Secretary, We appreciate the State Department publicly raising significant concerns about the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone. We believe it is critical that the U.S. continue to work very hard to block any punitive actions against Israel that this report mentions, whether at the Security Council or other U.N. bodies. The loss of innocent lives is unfortunate wherever it occurs – in Israel or in Gaza. But this biased report ignores many of the key facts, and this should be recognized by the international community. We commend the State Department statements criticizing the one-sided mandate directing the Goldstone report and highlighting the real causes of the war between Israel and Hamas. In particular, we are gratified that the Department has very serious concerns about the
Is NPR blocking health care reform?
If the corporation from which you get your news is NOT TELLING YOU that the US could give its citizens Universal Health Care for less than the cost of today's system, and could do so tomorrow by expanding Medicare offering free medical care to all like every other developed nation, then they are lying to you. How can you expect any reform if the status quo defends itself with the complicity of the corporate media. That includes the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, all the more duplicitous for pretending to serve the "public." The CPB's underwriters are big oil, big agra, big pharma, the banks and the insurance villains. Listen closely and you can still hear NPR News pronounce the question mark after "Global Warming." NPR's corporate clients, whose PR firms dictate the news show content, represent a near complete lineup of the opponents of the public interest. How then do NPR member radio stations have the nerve to solicit listener contributions? Our local NPR member KRCC is scheduled to begin its fund drive next weekend. Perhaps this is a fine time to question why they subscribe to a news outlet which stands between you and health care reform. Now is no time to quibble whether NPR is lesser evil than Fox. If they distort the mandates which brought President Obama to office, if they cite polls which misrepresent the public, if they hedge their bets by protecting the insurance industry, they serve you not the least. We are better off with no NPR, than a program which poses as a progressive-leaning perspective, informed by educated commentators, only supply a fraudulent left which places the bipartisan "center" fully on the side of the conservative right. Do you want health care, or any reforms at all? You'll need an honest media.
Health [Insurance] Reform rally pics
Health Reform march from Printers Home to Senator Udall's Office. Patrol car keeps low profile. Coloradans For Peace opts for visibility. March leaves rally site. Marchers approach arch of Union Printers Home. SEIU signs betray Health INSURANCE Reform. PPJPC members promote no cause but their own banner. CFP street banners fall in. Marchers reach office of Senator Udall. Senator Bennet representative Annie Oatman-Gardner fills in for Udall staff and receives HCR petitions. Kathy, Jonathan and Eric.
Colorado Springs Union Printers Labor Day event a dead ended march by SEIU to a locked up Democratic Party office building!
Good grief what a pathetic event I just attended at today's Labor Day rally to try to build support for Obama's health insurance reform' project! It had all the usual local area Democratic Party tied people out there, and they marched us, after an insipid talk-to rally attended by about 50 people, straight down Union to the abandoned and deserted offices of Mark Udall, in a locked up building fronted by an utterly empty parking lot. The staff for this guy didn't even have the energy to open up the building for us upon the rally's arrival! It was DP poisoned, dead ended organizing by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) at its worst, and the dead end locked up building symbolized perfectly where Obama will lead this crowd in the long haul. To a dead end for any real reform taking place very soon. This 'rally' was utterly underlined by the no-show DP hack, Udall, and the anemic attendees that came out to give their support to .... what? ...'health insurance reform'? Now just what is that and what happened to single payer as a goal for real reform as opposed to encouraging a rabid herd of profiteers to still take their profits off the sick and maimed? This was one of SEIU's 6 Colorado State recent rallies BEHIND the Democratic Party machine they so hope to get a few crumbs from. One such crumb is now called 'insurance reform'. Forget about American health care reform altogether, or at least keep it hush-hush! How about these 2 signs for none-inspirational de-motivation for health care reform activists? Health Insurance Reform '09 - We Can't Wait! (and the even worse:) Reform Now- Insure People, Not Profits ...? Notice the emphasis on INSURANCE put out by these Obama-Lites of the SEIU? They were rallying us to be keeping INSURANCE at the helm of the delivery of American Health Care, even if more than a few of those who chose to attend the event hardly realized that! Very sad and no wonder the Union Movement in the US is dead, dead, dead. Nobody will get inspired by these union hack goals and their insipid rewrite of any decent goals for organized labor to focus its energies on. The American public is sandwiched in between Right Wing kooks and not even liberal hacks, but flag waving centrist bureaucratic hacks from and allied with the Democratic Party. Thank you, SEIU, for next to nothing here. You are simply not Change that Works, but simply more of the same rotten old dead-ended business unionism that leads to disorganization of the workers you claim to speak for. Change has to be fought for and not compromised into zombie-like existence by hacks like yourselves. It will take much more than this to accomplish REFORM.
COS Health Care Reform Rally Sept 7
Your next chance in Colorado Springs to voice support for health care reform is Monday, Sept 7, from 2-3pm. The Printers Home will host a rally, followed by a march across the street to Senator Mark Udall's office. (Because the historic Printers Home is a patriotic UNION facility, the beautiful grounds will be off limits to health care deniers!) Featured speakers at the rally will be House District 18 State Representative Michael Merrifield; El Paso County Democratic Party Chair, Jason DeGroot; Retired Labor Lawyer, Pete Lee; Colorado Springs Area Labor Council President, Velma Johnson; and Sierra Club Chair, Jane Ard-Smith.