Synonym Of The Day: Hypocrite = Republican

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Rachel Maddow provides great fodder for campaign ads against Republican candidates this fall. The rampant hypocrisy of those, who spend all their time in the congress, or on television railing against the excesses in the Obama stimulus bill, all the while taking credit for the projects and jobs the spending brought to their state.

While this blatant hypocrisy should embarrass anyone with an ounce of self respect or a conscience .... Oops I almost forgot we were talking about Republicans here, obviously not applicable.

The most important thing, however, that Democrats should take from this segment is Rachel's point that Republican's will NEVER support anything the Democrats do, even if it was a Republican idea to begin with. Stop trying to be bi-partisan. Get something done, and do it before it is too late.

Sarah Palin READS CHEAT NOTES on her HAND

Priceless, and not surprising in the least.

One Year Later and Change Is Nowhere To Be Seen

Hard to believe that one year ago today there was celebration in the air. Our long national nightmare was over, and the embarrassment that was George Bush was on his way back to Texas.
Change was coming. We again had a President who could speak in complete sentences. The financial markets that had run wild and out of control thanks to deregulation would be back under a watchful eye. Our troops would be coming home soon, and most importantly health care reform would finally happen, and the health insurance industry would have rules in place to protect our right to health care, control costs, and insure all of us.

Alas, one short year later it has become painfully obvious, as Paul Krugman blogs in The New York Times, "He Wasn't The One We've Been Waiting For".

Like Professor Krugman, I had pangs of doubt about the Obama campaign. His conciliatory tone, and constant reference to bi-partisanship caused me to wonder if he was naive, or simply running a smart campaign. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, believing that he would be more assertive and forceful if elected. I thought perhaps it was just a strategy, to appear so calm, espouse for the most part a moderate agenda. I felt that once elected, with a strong Democratic majority, that the true progressive agenda would emerge.

Yet throughout this first year, we have been continually let down. From little progress in ending the entanglement in Iraq, to escalation in Afghanistan, to failure to fight for a strong health reform plan, we have seen nothing but weakness. I guess the irony of all this is that the one promise he has kept was the one to keep the fight going in Afghanistan, which of course I thought was just posturing to look like a tough Democrat.

So Mr. President, this lifelong Democrat is incredibly disappointed. With you, and with the weak willed Democrats in both houses of congress. Today in the aftermath of losing Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat to a Republican, the surrender is almost complete. Instead of coming out with guns blazing and vowing to fight for health care reform, we get comments from the White House and Democratic leaders suggesting we weaken the already emaciated health care plan now back in the house.

The strategy seems to be pass any bill, no matter how weak, no matter how little it will actually change anything for most Americans. Why not come out fighting. Pass a real, strong health care bill, with a public program. Bypass the filibuster, pass it with a simple majority as the founders intended the system to work. If you lose the election in 2012, so be it. At least you will lose byfighting for what you believe, and you can leave a real reform in place to improve America. As it stands now, Democrats lose in '12, not because of policy, but because they were too weak to fight for anything, and too weak to lead.

We The People... Are Screwed

So the Senate passes a health care reform package, which is supposed to improve access to health care for all Americans, and reign in the wildly escalating costs. Should be a negative for the health insurance companies, right? Yet the health care industry is seeing its stock values soar.

Here's a quick breakdown of major health insurance company stock performance from October 27 to Friday's market close:

• Coventry Health Care, Inc. is up 31.6 percent;
• CIGNA Corp. is up 29.1 percent;
• Aetna Inc. is up 27.1 percent;
• WellPoint, Inc. is up 26.6 percent;
• UnitedHealth Group Inc. is up 20.5 percent;
• And Humana Inc. is up 13.6 percent.
  

By comparsion, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is only up 2.3 percent during that time; the NASDAQ Composite is up a (relatively) paltry 1.4 percent.


In addition to the spike in stock prices over the past month and a half, there is the rise in stock prices on Monday, after the bill cleared the next hurdle in the Senate, and, moved closer to passage. Of course, after reading the analysis by an analyst at Oppenheimer, it is easy to understand why.

"All in all, relative to the last version of health reform issued by the Senate, things have turned out pretty well for the health insurance industry," said Carl McDonald, an analyst at Oppenheimer. "In particular, all versions of a government-run health plan have largely been eliminated."

Couple that with the fact that lobbying firms are on pace to surpass last years $3.3 billion dollars
spent influencing Congress, and it becomes obvious who the winners are in this game.
Quick hint: It is not the American people.

Funny Stuff

A very funny clip from the Jimmy Kimmel Show, with Billy Dee Williams. This is the type of funny, topical parody that Satruday Night Live used to do when it was still a humorous show. Seems like a long time ago.
Maybe I need to start watching Kimmel more often.

Happy Next Birthday to Me

Finally, I have something to look forward to on my next birthday. Effective May 1, 2010, Michigan will join 37 other states in banning smoking in restaurants, and bars. The bill also bans smoking in just about any workplace, and there will be no such thing as a hotel room that allows smoking. The only exemptions are for the casino gaming floors.

It has been a long struggle getting this bill passed through a legislature that is completely in the pocket of the liquor and restaurant industry. Seems the non-smokers made enough noise to allow the majority preference to overcome the lobbyist.

I look forward to walking into a neighborhood bar, enjoying a birthday cocktail, and not go home smelling as if I had dropped a full ashtray over my head.

On Line For Free Health Care Clinics in America

Health care in America 2009. Bankrupted by cancer, and can't get insurance... I guess Republicans would tell her to look on the bright side... At least the pain from her tooth can take her mind off of dying of cancer without treatment. This should not happen anywhere, let alone in the USA.

The GOP Plan - http://dscc.org/gopplan

Republicans in Congress

Excellent....

An Almost Extinct Species...

A Democrat with cojones. Bravo Congressman Grayson.

The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class

This is almost an hour long, but it goes a long way toward explaining the mess we find ourselves in. It certainly does not make me optimistic about the future.
Do yourself a favor, make some time to watch this.

Greenwald vs Duncehat: No Contest

In his post today, Glenn Greenwald takes apart the latest New York Time column by Ross Dunce.. er Douthat. Greenwald points out that Douthat is just another example of the right wing tacticians, using subtle, and in some cases not so subtle race and culture issues to divide the "have-nots" against each other, rather than against those with wealth and power, who conspire to keep that power away from the masses.

Can't add much more to what Glenn wrote, along with his quotes from Matt Taibbi's piece, the column sums up quite well the sorry state of affairs we find ourselves in today.

On A Lighter Note

see more Fail Blog

Insurance Companies Counting On Windfall

Surprise, surprise.
Over at Daily Kos, Jed Lewison points out an AP article showing that insurance companies are salivating in anticipation of health reform with no public option.

Health care reform without a public option "would be fantastic" for insurers, said Robert Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a Virginia-based health care consulting firm.

"They're going to get millions of new customers and more than a trillion in new premiums over a 10-year period," said Laszewski, a former industry executive. "There's a reason they aren't running any negative ads."

So investors are going all in on Wall Street, sending stock prices up for the major health insurance companies. We all know what is good for insurance companies, is good for us, ... right?

Even after the President's speech, and polls continuing to show support for a public option, Democrats like Baucus and Conrad continue to be in bed with health insurers, and big pharmaceutical companies.

These plans as now constructed may be even worse than doing nothing. I only see two ways to make a successful plan. One, obviously is having the public option. The other would involve serious regulation governing what the health care industry can charge. That does not seem likely to happen, especially when one considers that our legislature in recent years has allowed credit card companies to offer worse credit terms than Tony Soprano.

I continue to be pessimistic, that anything will happen that can impact the health care system in a positive way for consumers. Of course, even if I am pleasantly surprised, the odds of reform being in place soon enough are very long indeed.

The Audacity Of A Dope

Rude, and still lying.

Still lying after being proved wrong, and trying to raise money.

Today's Republican Party in a nutshell (pun intended.)

God Bless The USA

Makes you proud to be an American. UGH!. Tip of the hat to Americablog

"A Change Is Gonna Come", Or is It?

An insightful diary posted on Firedoglake caught my attention early this morning. After a night’s sleep and the “pleasure” of watching more backtracking from the administration on the Sunday morning talk circuit, I feel even more strongly that this post by Marta Evry crystallizes the major issues of concern to many Democrats.

For five months, I gave up my "day job" as a film editor on theatrical films and network dramas to work on the campaign. Now, about that job. Essentially, it can be boiled down to this: I manipulate sound, images and language to create the desired emotional response in a viewer. Give me a couple of close ups of people's faces, a wide shot, an explosion and the right piece of music and I can make you angry, sad, or laugh - depending on how I manipulate those elements.

My point is this: Republicans understand - have always understood - this very, very well. They'll take a set of facts and figures, find the emotional truth inside all that information they want to push and go for it.

Presto-chango, end of life counseling becomes "death panels," reducing fraud and inefficiencies in Medicare become "pulling the plug on grandma."

One of the great joys for me in working on the Obama campaign was being involved with people who understood this concept very, very well. Although I had no part in the messaging of the campaign myself, I watched with great appreciation how the campaign tapped into the emotions of its volunteers. They took a demoralized activist base beaten down by 8 years of quasi-fascist rule and lifted us up with three simple words and one simple concept - "Respect, empower, and include" and "CHANGE."

Respect, empower, include, and change. Those four words aptly describe the theme that candidate Obama embraced. He would be a President that would respect opposing views, empower the citizenry, include those who have been left out, and most importantly change the culture of entrenched corporate power which dominates both parties in Washington. After seven and one half months, however, it appears that the candidate Obama who vowed to fight hard against the powerful corporate lobbies, did not move to Washington.

First it is impossible to respect an opponent who is not rational. The Republican Party in Washington, as it exists today is made up almost exclusively of people who hate government. They have no desire to improve government; they only come to destroy it. So rather than offering any plan of their own, they simply shoot down the President’s as being too extreme. Of course, when the President acquiesces and makes a plan that is already too moderate, even more so, Republicans still scream Socialism.

In order to empower you must include. Again that was something that candidate Obama seemed to understand, but President Obama has yet to grasp. Instead of utilizing the millions of e-mail addresses that the campaign gathered to mobilize and involve citizens in the fight for health care reform. E-mails taking a strong message to the public, motivating active support, encouraging letters and phone calls to congress have been lacking. When interest groups like Moveon.org, who were instrumental in the election launch an ad campaign against recalcitrant Democrats, President Obama tells them to back off. Instead of reinforcing the difficulty of the battle ahead against the moneyed insurance and pharmaceutical lobby, there are reports of back door deals with pharmaceutical companies.

That does not sound like "Change we can believe in". It sounds more like same old politics. All of this gets back to the point Ms. Every made in her closing argument:

That is what the fight over the public option is all about - it is not about policy. It's a proxy for the implied contract we entered into when we helped get Obama elected. We expected Change, we expected to be respected, empowered and included, we expected him to fight, and we expected to join him in that fight.

Yes, this is about health care reform, but really it is about the whole promise of “change” which was the Obama campaign. We thought we were ordering change when we cast that vote for candidate Obama. We were promised a change from the politics of the past. If President Obama cannot start to deliver on that promise, there will be a large number of demoralized and disgusted voters who will be very difficult for President Obama to ever reach again.

September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

As the parent of a pediatric cancer survivor, I know this story only too well. The frail children with no hair, who still manage to occasionally flash a smile that will light up a room. Thankfully there are some happy endings amidst the sadness. Please follow the links and help if you can.

Maybe I Should Move to Canada?

As an American, watching the above video is both frustrating and infuriating. In light of what increasingly appears to be another botched attempt at providing a national health care program I find myself increasingly envious of our Canadian friends.

Listening to the comments of these Canadian citizens, what I am most struck by is the calm when they talk about there health care. There is no nervousness about losing a job, no trepidation that they may fall into bankruptcy because of a medical condition. Most of all there is calmness, because they do not even have to give their healthcare a second thought. Health care for these Canadians is something they do not even think about, because it is always there.

Thinking about this further, I realize that one of the bigger flaws in our system is that I should not have to think about shopping for healthcare. Some things should just not be an open market product.

Buying health care is not like shopping for a new refrigerator. I can’t simply plug a model number into Google, and instantly compare prices. If I find a price I like, I can provide my credit card, and just like that my new product is on the way to my door. Even if I could find a health insurance price quote, there would be an asterisk or two. If I indicated that yes I wanted to buy that policy, those asterisks would make the offer null and void as soon as family medical history is provided.

Recently I started shopping my home and auto insurance policy. Looking to save money wherever I can these days, I thought I would give the old open market competition a try. Realizing, that like most people I have stayed with the same insurance company for years simply because it is too much hassle to change. So what did the open market provide? Essentially the same price I had been paying. Sure I found a company that was a few dollars less annually, but nowhere near enough savings to bother switching. If there is such little real competition in this segment of the insurance industry, which is made up of individual consumers only, how can there be competition in health insurance that is driven by group coverage?


So when Republicans talk about open market and competition being best for health care, it is only best for the health care providers. Thanks in larger part to Republican de-regulation fervor there is no real competition for health care dollars in the US.

In many U.S. states, recent consolidation in the Health Insurance industry has left consumers with fewer choices. In all but 3 states, the top 2 health plans have over 50% market share.

For those of us not fortunate enough to be in a quality group health plan through an employer, the market will continue to be a stress filled nightmare. Next time I am in downtown Detroit, I may look longingly across the river at my friends in Windsor, and envy their equanimity about health care, even as my hair goes grayer by the day.

Parenting in the 21st Century

Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

No parent I know would ever think of doing this to their children :)