Time Travel Guide to Health Care

Go look at the pictographs, read the little comments on the sides of them and see if you notice some seriously messed up patterns there? That is the link to the wasted money we dump into our for-profit system, though, they try to justify it as the investment we make in innovation. You kind of have to squint and look sideways at the right side top of the page - under "Related" - to find the links to the next part. But the information there is pretty relevant and paints an accurate depiction of many of the problems with our broken system.

GOP Votes Against Biggest Tax Cut In History

And the GOP is clueless as to what just happened:

The compromise stimulus plan includes $282 billion in tax cuts over two years.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Bush's first two years of tax cuts amounted to $174 billion. A second batch in 2004 and 2005 cost $231. And those were thought to be bigger than the tax cuts offered by Reagan, Kennedy or others.

As much as I was against most of the tax cuts, since we really need the money to bail out the failed republican economy of the bush years, it will be entertaining to watch the far right wing try to explain this.

[update] Just something fun to do when you are a sometime insomniac:



[ed. Note] Originally posted - 2/14/2009 12:52:00 AM Bump.

RIP Dave

bigdavefromqueens around these parts, and David Weintraub in real life. There was someone that wasn't afraid to climb out on a limb if it was a cause he believed in.




He thought this was important, important enough to have it as a signature:

"I shall not rest until right wing conservatives are 4th party gadflies limited to offering minor corrections on legislation once or twice a year."

They aren't 4th party, yet, but you pushed them halfway there. And they seem determined to try their best to get the rest of the way.

2008 Bankruptcies Skyrocketed in Connecticut

According to The New London Day, 2008 bankruptcies across the rest of the nation too:

Filings for one of the most common forms of personal bankruptcy have increased by more than 60 percent in 2008 in Connecticut, according to a report released Monday by The Warren Group.

According to the report, Chapter 7 filings of the U.S. bankruptcy code increased 66 percent last year, from 3,417 in 2007 to 5,676 in 2008 and more than doubled since 2006. Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the most common option for individuals seeking relief from debt, wipes away most debt after non-exempt assets are used to pay off creditors.
When combined with Chapter 13 filings, which permit repayment of debt, filings are up 51 percent in the state since last year.

Oh yeah... Chapter 7 bankruptcies are down compared to 2005 levels courtesy of what was little more than the "indentured servitude act - 2005" making it near impossible to get out from underneath debt. You can thank the entire bank loving Congress for that. There are way too many Democratic members in the House and Senate that deserve special attention on this to bother list, never mind the ever-screwing-us-over Republicans.

Tell me something, all you Senators and Representatives, are you proud of this and do you think about this as you hand over TRILLIONS of our tax dollars to these corrupt and incompetent robber baron banks? And how do you live with yourselves knowing that we know you are robbing us?

Politicians and bankers... Criminals with a fancy title.

Mass. Landslide Single Payer Voting Victory

Via DCblogger, A Ballot initiative in 10 Massachusetts' districts gives you a pretty clear picture of what Americans want in health care reform:

Under the Chapter 58 legislation in Massachusetts, law currently mandates the purchase of private health insurance for all individuals not eligible for a public option. Those who are uninsured in Massachusetts are subject to fines. The lack of primary care physicians in addition to the high deductibles have not created universal access to care in the state.

In the most recent election, local ballot initiatives supporting single payer and opposing individual mandates passed by landslide margins in all ten legislative districts of Massachusetts where they appeared. With almost all precincts tallied, roughly 73 percent of 181,000 voters in the ten districts voted YES to the following: “Should the representative from this district be instructed to support legislation creating a cost-effective single payer health insurance system that is available to all residents, and oppose laws penalizing those who fail to obtain health insurance?”

More from Health Care Now!

Does anyone doubt that a vote on this issue in Connecticut would come pretty close to 73 % support for Single Payer health care? You would have to be crazy to think otherwise.

Keeping in mind that, just like Connecticut, we are talking about another very liberal state, this is not some tiny poll sample of a thousand or two thousand people. This is 181,000 people voting for the record. 181,000 people that have already lived the failure of mandated "health care for all for profit".

I may be furious at Dodd

for his position on health care, and Countrywide, and the credit card indentured servant act, etc., BUT it appears he may have done something right here.

Credit where credit is due, Senator Dodd, and all of that.

As for a brain drain at these insolvent banks? If those idiots in the "top leadership" leave... Then they are even dumber than the complete and utter failure of the banks they lead into destruction proved they were.

IOW: Please, Mr. and Mrs. Corporate Welfare Banker, leave and don't let the doors on the bank vaults you looted hit you on the ass on yer way out!

Tortured to Death

h/t to rose is a rose for this Raw Story piece:

Unredacted documents reveal
prisoners tortured to death

The American Civil Liberties Union has released previously classified excerpts of a government report on harsh interrogation techniques used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. These previously unreported pages detail repeated use of "abusive" behavior, even to the point of prisoner deaths.

Note to Senator Leahy: I am still trying to figure out why anyone would think truth commissions are needed? The truth is out there already, if you were paying attention at all?

Is Gregg Just a Chicken?

When Gregg took the job he said that he would have supported the stimulus package but would not vote on it. Will he tuck tail and run from that position too?

Time for Gregg to own up to what he said.

Will Gregg chicken out when he has to face the ironic ridicule and egging on of the equally ridiculous wingnuts. What would you expect from anyone in the GOP? Seriously? Their track record says they will refuse to take responsibility for their votes, actions and statements even after the majority of voters have tossed them out of office for their blatant incompetence and brazened corruption. Can you think of any reason for Gregg to be any different? Now.

Also, the fact that Gregg now says he will not be running for office again tells me...

Time to wait for the scandal.

Any "bankers/gambling addicts" willing to set the odds on that for the credit derivatives market?

[update] The waiting may be over.

Judd Gregg has a Jack Abramoff problem.

At the very least, Abramoff and his team had easy access to Gregg’s Senate staff and were able to use that access to help their clients by stopping unfavorable legislation while getting earmarks and favorable legislation passed into law.

As it stands right now, Gregg’s best defense is that he is a terrible manager and that "bad apples" joined his staff, went "rogue" and traded favors in his name. And to be fair, Gregg may be that dense. After all, look at the sloppy and moronic way he withdrew himself from consideration as Obama’s Commerce Secretary: it was not the actions of a competent man. On the other hand, it was the actions of a man distracted other things. Gregg strikes me as a nervous man deeply worried about another shoe dropping.

Perhaps he is clean of scandal, but I suspect that Gregg had a fair understanding of what his staffers were doing in his name. After all, Kevin Koonce is not the only link between Senator Judd Gregg and Jack Abramoff.

Like most Republicans since 2005, Judd Gregg denies that he ever knew or had anything to do with Jack Abramoff. The money he returned from Abramoff’s clients was just a coincidence. In fact—to hear Gregg or one of his fellow Republicans explain it—any of the growing list of links between Abramoff and Gregg or Abramoff and the Republican Party are just random points of unrelated data. Yeah, right.

They are tap dancing in the graveyard.

Perhaps it was Jack Abramoff who best explained why this line of BS is so hard to believe when he told Vanity Fair in 2006:

"Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn’t know me is almost certainly lying," he says. Such lies are not just, well, lies, but dumb to boot, he adds, for, as his own humiliations suggest, old e-mails never die; they just sit on hard drives, waiting to be subpoenaed and then to be leaked to the press. "This is not an age when you can run away from facts," he declares. "I had to deal with my records, and others will have to deal with theirs."

It is looking like Judd Gregg will have to deal with his Abramoff record. Perhaps this is why he withdrew as the Commerce Secretary and why he has decided to retire from the Senate at the end of this term.

I am a Pub-going, Loose and Forward Woman

A friend, rose is a rose, sent me this facebook group link and I had to ask her:

"What the heck is this about? I may be Pub-going, loose and forward but I am not a woman?"

Then she explained about it being against oppression and violence against woman. That is when the facebook group started to make sense...

Now, even the media is picking up the story:

India, as a nation, adores Valentine's Day. Indians embrace it as a holiday that goes beyond just being nice to your partner. Everyone – from the coffee guy to the gym receptionist who tried to hand me a red rose – was full of non-lecherous cheer. So I was shocked the next day to find the news awash with stories about far-right Hindu activists – from Shri Ram Sena to Bajrang Dal – who had beaten up unmarried couples and blackened their faces as a mark of shame for celebrating Valentine's Day. Their justification was that the day is a western practice, and promotes "lust not love".

This year, the same groups are out again in force. However, while the Indian government has been slow to act against these self-styled moral police, there's a keen sense that the winds of change are turning against these groups.

For a start, although it is a serious issue, it is hard not to laugh at the blustering of Pramod Mutalik, leader of Shri Ram Sena. Mutalik insists that his men will roam Bangalore armed with video cameras, capturing any unmarried couples found celebrating Valentine's Day and then force them to get married. In response, the brilliantly titled Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women has started a campaign on Facebook – which now has a whopping 28,496 members and counting – that calls on people to send the Sri Ram Sena a pair of pink chaddis (meaning underwear in Hindi) on 14 February as a sign of protest.

But this is very clearly a story about violence and oppression of women, religion and freedom:



I'll give you Blue Gals words (and tip my hat to her for the video) to sum up the karmic beauty in this world:

A group of reasonably outraged Indians has started a movement to send pink panties (known as chaddis) (and oh how I love that) to the fundie organization. They have a blog and a lovely Facebook group with panties images I'm destined to steal.

I also love that this horrible incident of violence against women can be met with direct action non-violence that gets lots of well-deserved attention. Fundies don't have a chance against activist women with a strong sense of self and humor.

Smart and funny women and men around the globe are coming together and the people who started this have garnered even more attention to this cause than the shocking and violent video ever would ever have.

As for myself? A great excuse to go out and raise a glass of beer (or tea, or fruit juice) is better than the simple reason that I will probably still go out and have that beer.

I am going to send a pink chaddi in to the addy they give at the movement's Blog (Don't expect me to wear them. lol). I figure I will be at Victoria Secrets tomorrow to get something "valentinish" for my wife anyways... A few bucks on panties and postage will be well worth it to show real support for freedom and against senseless violence for people everywhere around the world.

A final note from the organizers of this movement:

PS. Our good friend L says we should not colour-discriminate. So if you really, really can't send pink chaddis, send those in other colours.

PPS. Both Women and Men are invited to send in their chaddi's/ pictures of chaddi's.

Give the women of the world a very special Valentines gift this year. Give them freedom by lending your voice, and maybe a pair of panties or a picture, to this cause.

[update] OMFG! This is just sick. A commission blames the women for getting beat up:



Sounds just like the same arguments you would get from the far right fundies in the GOP, eh?

Celebrate Lincoln's Birthday the Healthy Way

Below is hijacked in its entirety from DrSteveB at dKos:

National Call-In Day for Single-Payer Healthcare

Celebrate Lincoln's birthday by supporting single-payer healthcare.

Thursday, February 12th is the third National Call-In Day to support real universal national health care, single-payer healthcare, HR 676!

Call Congress and the White House. Every call counts!

If you don't know your Representative, or want a script, all of the information you need for a successful call is here on HealthCare-Now's National Call-In Day page.

If you know your Representative, the Capitol Switchboard number is 866 - 338 - 1015 . Ask to be connected to your Representative, and then ask him or her to co-sponsor HR 676.

The White House number is: 202- 456- 1414 .

Please fill out the form on HealthCare-Now's Call-In Day page to let us know who you called.

Learn more about single payer and HR-676 here, and wonk yourself out on it here.

HR-676 had 93 co-sponsors in the last congresssional session

Just reintroduced two weeks ago on January 26, 2009 (timed to keep the HR-676 number), it currently has 42 co-sponsors so far", a number that is growing daily.

One important short term goal is to get over 100 co-sponsors and demand that the Congressiomnal Budget Office do an honest and thorough analysis of it. Just as they have done for other bills with far less natiowide support.

Additional Single Payer News:

1. National Campaign Launched with Change.org

Last week, Healthcare-NOW! was selected by Change.org, as part of their "Ideas for Change in America" competition, to sponsor their single-payer healthcare "idea." Change.org presented their ten winning ideas to Macon Phillips, Director of New Media for the White House, who said, "I can speak with authority that a lot of people in the transition were paying attention to the competition."

2. Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care Officially Launches

On Janury 28th, Healthcare-NOW! took part in the official launch of the single-payer coalition in Washington, DC.

Member organizations include the California Nurses Association, Physicians for a National Health Program, Progressive Democrats of America, HealthCare-Now, All Unions Committee for Single Payer, Americans for Democratic Action, American Medical Student Association, American Patients United, 1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East and West, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Act-UP, and a whole bunch of other organizations. Find out more at guaranteedhealthcare4all.org.

3. Americans Should Not Stand for Lock-down on Single-Payer Discussion

As an ardent advocate of single-payer healthcare for many years, I am more than a little frustrated by Washington insiders—beholden to healthcare corporations—telling the American people that passing single-payer healthcare reform, specifically HR. 676, the United States National Health Care Act, can’t happen.

The fact is they are standing in the way of it happening.

4. Another Poll Shows Majority Support for Single-Payer

A New York Times/CBS News poll released last week shows, yet again, that the majority of Americans support national health insurance.

The poll, which compares answers to the same questions from 30 years ago, finds that, "59% [of Americans] say the government should provide national health insurance, including 49% who say such insurance should cover all medical problems."

Only 32% think that insurance should be left to private enterprise.

Read the full report here (.pdf)

end of DrSteveB's most excellent action item post. Reprinted with permission too!