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!

Rep. Dingell On Healthcare

Why Health Care Can't Wait

An excerpt from the smackdown...

Our current system is failing the patients. People are having to choose between feeding their families, paying their bills, or filling their prescriptions. Copays and other fees are so high that even people with health insurance are opting not to see a physician. Further, the most simple, cost-effective, and efficient medical procedures, such as check-ups, physicals, and other preventative measures, are being forgone for more expensive, reactive treatments.

For years, people made the case against a heath care overhaul, claiming it would ration medical care. I would say that because of our failure to act, that is what we now have. Instead of taking care of our people, the best health care goes to those who can afford to pay for it.

Health care providers themselves are unable to navigate the inefficiency of our health care system. Primary care doctors, our first line of defense and the physicians most likely to serve underserved populations, can no longer maintain their practices. They can't keep up with payroll because of slow turn around on constantly shrinking reimbursements. We are driving doctors running small family practices into merging with mega-offices, where patients do not experience the kind of personal, quality care Americans need.

Our failing health care system is also hurting our businesses and industries. Everyday, our businesses are forced to choose between providing much needed health care for their employees or surviving to see another quarter. Many years ago, my father and Walter Reuther used to discuss how health care would eventually break the back of our industries. Our current system has placed American businesses at a competitive disadvantage in the world market. I see it nearly every day in Michigan with our automakers, which need a leveled playing field to compete with automakers in countries with national health care. In a time of such severe economic crisis, we simply cannot afford to let our companies fail under the weight of our inaction.

This is an awesome way to come out swinging! Go read the whole thing and cheer him on! And to be clear: He isn't talking about single payer... But it looks like it is game on for the debate. Arm yourselves with healthcare knowledge.

Just Another Nutmegger...

Joining the Front Page of another National Blog Community...



In case you were interested?

Nutmeggers are a crafty bunch that sneak their way in everywhere... If you see one coming with a camera in hand... RUN! Either for office or for your lives. ;)

Houston? We have a problem...

This is a very corny but excellent view of what it can be like trying to get over the barriers to innovation in any government agency, massive global corporation or any other job where the thinking has become too inside the box:

Astronaut’s video slams NASA attitudes
Film takes harsh look at tendencies that stifle innovation

"homemade film shot by a NASA astronaut takes a harsh look at the agency's sometimes impersonal bureaucracy in hopes of encouraging employees to keep a more open mind when confronted with dissenting opinions or new ideas.

Written and produced by four-time spaceflier Andrew Thomas, the 10-minute satirical video was posted to YouTube — with NASA's approval — after being screened at an agency leadership retreat last month. The film follows a young engineer who attempts to present an innovative idea for a spacecraft design only to be stymied at every turn by program managers."

"The point about the video is it's not fiction," Thomas told Space.com Monday. "All of those scenes are real. They've actually happened to people to various degrees."

People are so compartmentalized in their thinking that they are afraid to take a fresh look at new ideas that might actually be a better way to solve a problem.

A good example of that today would be the way the government and the media refuses to take a serious look at single payer health care. Even though, by every metric that we could possibly analyze, it is a far superior way to provide medical care to Americans... Politicians and the media refuse to even compare its very real advantages to the broken health care system we have.

"We can't rock the boat!"

"It isn't the American way of doing things!"

Ok... So, now, the American way is to shut your eyes to the real solutions out there while the economy tanks? Instead of building a better way of doing things so the entire economy has a chance to rebuild itself on solid footings?

Get out of that stupid box that is clouding your thinking and take a look around you.

Whether it is energy policy, health care reform or almost any way you thought the government should be doing things "the good old fashioned American way..."

It has got to change because America is seriously broken right now.

It is that old fashioned way of thinking that broke it. The way some want to keep going, we may as well be trying to patch up the Appolo 13 capsule and sending it to Mars. A new paint job, a sling shot and a lube job won't cut it. Not a hope nor a prayer in that.

Just like the little changes, patches and tweaks to energy, health care and other government programs and policies are not going to solve these HUGE problems. They will just prolong the agony and make the next generation's mess even bigger and costlier to fix.

Take a look at our bloated national debt...

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 11 Feb 2009 at 05:19:14 AM GMT is:

The estimated population of the United States is 305,625,144
so each citizen's share of this debt is $35,082.81.

Can we really afford to make these fixes even costlier for our future leaders and pioneers than they will already be?

Cross Dressing Cult Leader Gives BJs to GOP Members

The Neo-Fascist monotheist cult leader, Janet Porter, gave Barrack Junk to every single one of'em. He may be post-op now. But he is still the same man under all of that makeup and those clothes. The cult leader that was foreseen by a pedophile fortune teller at a republican orgy in '89.

Hey... I get email too!

There are a whole Lott-a nuts out there these days. How can anyone take these people seriously? Oh, wait! We don't...

Why Geithner Sucks

In the corporatist scumbag selling out the American taxpayer kind of way:

The New York Times reports that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner “prevailed” against several top Obama aides in “opposing tougher conditions on financial institutions” in the debate on the bailout. Geithner successfully blocked “more severe limits on executive pay for companies receiving government aid” and replacing top bank executives and wiping out “shareholders at institutions receiving aid.”

There has to be more oversight. Those failed, incompetent and corrupt executive banking windbags stealing our money, right now, should be replaced. And the banks should be nationalized.

I am guessing it is going to get worse than this before the elites in this country start paying attention:

Wearing bright yellow hats and t-shirts with pictures of sharks and the words "Stop Loan Sharks," protesters had already targeted the home of John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley, at 6 Club Road, Rye, N.Y. earlier in the day.

At Frey's house, 10 Glenville Road, Greenwich, they chanted slogans such as "Fix our loans, save our homes." They placed furniture on the lawn to symbolize the dislocation felt by people who have had their homes foreclosed upon and been evicted, their belongings tossed outside by state marshals.

"We did it to make them feel what it must be like for someone to have their home foreclosed upon," NACA mortgage counselor Carmen Orta said.

Called the "Predators Tour" these actions were the start of NACA's "accountability campaign," an aggressive, confrontational protest aimed at several top executives of companies that refuse to allow NACA to renegotiate the terms of loans on behalf of members, according to NACA CEO Bruce Marks.

This is a fight over how to solve what is the 2nd Great Depression.

And the haves are already uncomfortable at giving up the 3rd vacation palace, the corporate jets, corporate paid and government subsidized vacation junkets and cutting back on their nannies time to save a few bucks. Just imagine what will have to be done to get them to pay attention to little people all around them - for no other reason than the fact that it is the right thing to do?

From Land of Enchantment...

MODERN DAY HOOVERVILLES

In the last year, the housing situation has deteriorated precipitously, from an already bad situation. Christopher Leinberger in an article called The Next Slum? (Atlantic, March 2008):

At Windy Ridge, a recently built starter-home development seven miles northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina, 81 of the community’s 132 small, vinyl-sided houses were in foreclosure as of late last year. Vandals have kicked in doors and stripped the copper wire from vacant houses; drug users and homeless people have furtively moved in. In December, after a stray bullet blasted through her son’s bedroom and into her own, Laurie Talbot, who’d moved to Windy Ridge from New York in 2005, told The Charlotte Observer, "I thought I’d bought a home in Pleasantville. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that stuff like this would happen."

In the Franklin Reserve neighborhood of Elk Grove, California, south of Sacramento, the houses are nicer than those at Windy Ridge—many once sold for well over $500,000—but the phenomenon is the same. At the height of the boom, 10,000 new homes were built there in just four years. Now many are empty; renters of dubious character occupy others. Graffiti, broken windows, and other markers of decay have multiplied. Susan McDonald, president of the local residents’ association and an executive at a local bank, told the Associated Press, "There’s been gang activity. Things have really been changing, the last few years."

So, houses are empty, and falling to ruin. It's as senseless as destroying crops while people are hungry - the sign of a completely deranged kind of economy. And more and more Americans are finding themselves in squatter tent cities. This is Ontario, CA:

And this Reno, Nevada:

In Miami last week, over a thousand applicants lined up, some camping for two nights in line, to apply for 35 fire fighter jobs with starting pay of $47,000 a year.

Back in the Depression, things got pretty rough. And it's arguably part of why the New Deal did as much as it did for the have-nots - something we've not seen a whole lot of for many years here in the U.S. I've not heard of the website Bits of News before. The food part of this diary is drawn from there. The article, "Hunger on the March" by Garrett Johnson a year ago, has such a good closer, that I'm not going to try to better it.

Some people may be under the impression that FDR's election and the New Deal was simply a logical reaction to extreme hardships. That democracy naturally corrected itself. That wasn't the case. It took a grassroots movement, working against all odds, to push the government into action. It's a lesson we should remember in 2009, even if a Democrat wins the White House.

It's gonna be getting worse before it gets better. And consulting that above-the-fold graphic, the longer the delay, the worse it's gonna get. It's hard to see any way around that.

Hooverville, Central Park, New York City

Frankly and honestly, the have nots have a whole hell of a lot more to worry about -life, death, shelter and food - than the haves minor inconveniences to their pampered lives and stock portfolios in a Depression that they caused.

Some previous pieces from Land of Enchantment for those of you that might not get it:

• Bread and Roses (New Deal TRAP Murals)
• Time for a Little Class Warfare (music and pix)
• Class Warfare: The So-Called Death Tax (w/pix)
• Class Warfare: Heroic Labor (pictorial)

Brutal Torture at GITMO

Waterboarding was way down the list of disgusting and criminal acts that prisoners were subjected to:

But The Daily Telegraph reported over the weekend that the documents actually “contained details of how British intelligence officers supplied information to [Mohamed’s] captors and contributed questions while he was brutally tortured.” In fact, it was British officials, not the Americans, who pressured Foreign Secretary David Miliband “to do nothing that would leave serving MI6 officers open to prosecution.” According to the Telegraph’s sources, the documents describe particularly gruesome interrogation tactics:

The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed’s genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, “is very far down the list of things they did,” the official said.

Another source familiar with the case said: “British intelligence officers knew about the torture and didn’t do anything about it.”

“It is very clear who stands to be embarrassed by this and who is being protected by this secrecy. It is not the Americans, it is Labour ministers,” former shadow home secretary David Davis said. But one unnamed U.S. House Judiciary Committee member told the Telegraph that if President Obama “doesn’t act we could hold a hearing or write to subpoena the documents. We need to know what’s in those documents.”

And the British are just as complicit in these sick criminal acts perpetrated by many in the Bush administration. Will there be any real justice in the USA ever again?

And if the USA will not uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, which nation will have the moral compass and fortitude to prosecute these brutal and heinous crimes against humanity?

[update] Earth-Bound Misfit points out thast these particular crimes do not appear to have happened at GITMO. Either Morocco or Afghanistan would be the likely places:

"Mr Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian, was granted refugee status in Britain in 1994. He was picked up in Pakistan in 2002 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, rendered to Morocco and Afghanistan, tortured and then sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. All terror charges against him were dropped last year."

Sicko Airs On TV Tonight

In case you have not seen it yet...

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, that lightning rod of sociopolitical controversy, continues his provocative cinematic crusade with this incendiary, highly critical examination of the greed fueling America's private enterprise health care system.



Rating - PG13
Duration - 123 Mins

Showtime Advisories
Brief Nudity, Adult Language, Adult Content
Audio Format

Stereo / CC

On Showtime Showcase
02/07/09 at 8:00 PM More Airings
On Demand
Available from 02/06/09 to 03/05/09

[update] It airs again tonight: 02/09/09 at 5:55 PM

A: The "best little whorehouse on Wall Street"

Q: Where did some of these incompetent and corrupt bankers spend their time and the banks' money last year?

• an investment banker from Lehman Brothers who saw "Kelsey and Keely together" and later saw "Aria and Skyler at the same time"
• an investment banker at JP Morgan Securities who "loves Brooke" and spent $41,600
• an investment banker at Goldman Sachs who "only wanted all-American girls" and spent $27,000
• a managing director from Merrill Lynch who saw "Lana" using the name "Nataly"
• a managing director from Deutsche Bank "who called about seeing Nataly again"

Oh yeah... I guess these "corporate expenses" are very likely getting covered by "US" now.

"Some of these guys, I was invoicing on corporate credit cards," she said. "I was writing up monthly bills for computer consulting, construction expenses, all of these things, I was invoicing them monthly so they could get it by their accountants," Davis said.

C'mon an' say it with me: "FRAUD"

Of course, Kristen Davis was prosecuted, jailed and fined for her part... As for the nearly 10,000 high powered clients committing fraud to cover up their misdemeanor crimes, making these crimes a felony? Typically, the men remain untouched by these scandals.

How do you feel about bailing these people out?

Note to ABC news: We want names! All 10,000 of them.

Note to the White House Dress Code Police:

The Emperor Wears No Clothes...

More feigned outrage from the fake conservative side of the aisle.

One day after President Bush's former Chief of Staff Andrew Card blasted President Obama for breaking the Bush dress code, which reportedly required that a jacket be worn by anyone entering the Oval Office, we've unearthed a photo of, well, a jacketless President Bush in the Oval Office.

We have had our laugh... The GOP talking-pointy-heads can go back to getting Cheetos' crumbs on their PJs in their mama's basement now.

Ginsburg Hospitalized for Cancer...

NY Times has it...

The court announcement said the cancer is apparently in the early stages.

In 1999, Ginsburg had surgery for colon cancer and had chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The only woman on the court, she has been a justice since 1993.

The pancreatic cancer was discovered during a routine, annual exam late last month at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

DeLauro and Emanuel Involved in a Scandalous Affair?

I doubt it. And NO! Not that kind of affair. Gawker says that they are sharing a single dwelling in Washington, something that is very common among legislators trying to save a few bucks.

He's the cheapskate of staff. Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's right-hand man, lives in a basement apartment on Capitol Hill rented to him by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro. Just one problem: He's not allowed to live there.

That's what private investigator Joseph Culligan discovered after asking questions of D.C. officials. A zoning administrator responded to Culligan's inquiry and told him that DeLauro's house at 816 E. Capitol St. NE was listed as a single-family dwelling, and as such, could not be rented out.

She rents a place and they share it. I am trying to figure out what the real scandal is? Empty space in newspapers and on Blogs that need to be filled?

Get back to me with pictures of them messing around in a hot tub together with some Playboy bunnies while some Chippendale guys are swinging from the chandeliers butt naked with their asses painted candy apple red and pissing pissing on the crowd. Then you might have have a real scandal.

Anyways... Emanuel is looking for new DC digs already.

I gotta say that I do find it interesting that one of the more lefty leaning members of the Democratic party, Rosa Delauro, and the brass knuckles more conservative type politician, Rahm Emanuel, are able to accomplish the feat of co-existance under the same roof without some kind of nuclear dust up? Sounds like "fly on the wall" type fun.

Republican strategy summed up...

Republicans are crapping in one hand and wishing in the other. Over here on the reality side, we really want you Republicans to get back to us on which hand fills up first?

Nevermind... You still don't get it. Obviously, you never did.

Here is an interesting post on soldiers, suicide and some health care issues that is well worth the read. The post is not all doom and gloom as The Political Cat also offers some humor to lighten up your day.

Daschle pulls his name...

On the heels of Killefer withdrawing her name to be the first chief performance officer... Obama accepts Daschle's withdrawal from consideration as health care Czar due to his tax embarrassment.

Good! We don't need junk like them. Geitner should offer his resignation, as well.

[update] Who will replace Daschle? As much as many in the left have put out this name... Don't make it Dean. He wants the Obama approach too:

Excusing the pun in light of the recent troubles in the auto industry, Dean said the reform doesn't have to be a Cadillac; it can start simply. "It's a false debate whether we should have a single payer or not. That's not the issue. What matters is, how [reform] evolves. We have to proceed at a pace of comfort for the American people."

Americans want single payer NOW!

I doubt it would be him, anyways, given the rift between him and Obama's inner circle. If Obama were really honest about a team of adversaries? Kucinich or Conyers comes to mind...

The Senate Stimulus Vote is in the Bag

Think about it. Obama just tapped Republican Senator Judd Gregg, who stood there at the press conference and said he supported the stimulus package, to be his Secretary of Commerce. If Obama was worried about it passing would he have pulled the one vote he needed to assure it passing in the Senate? If he did, he would have to be stupid. I doubt that is the case.

The only other reasoning there would be is if the Conservative Dems were trying to strip stuff or or the progressive caucus were holding it hostage to get more...

Someone get the video, please? lol

Side note: If anything needs to go from the stimulus, consideration for funding the mythical "clean coal" should be tossed. And the coal industry funded Obama local ads on TV aren't swaying me from that reality.

President Obama has been a longtime supporter of "clean coal," the still-illusory concept of coal-fired power plants that can capture and store the carbon emissions that they generate.

The environmental movement tends to view "clean coal" with skepticism at best and derision at worst -- and few projects epitomize the contentious debate over clean coal more than FutureGen, the $1.8 billion dollar plant slated to be built in the downstate town of Mattoon, Illinois.

The state's congressional delegation, including a pre-election Sen. Obama, has been pressing to restore government aid to FutureGen since the Bush administration abruptly cut off money for the project last year, citing excessive construction costs.

On Dodd's VIP Countrywide Mortgages

"I am not a crook!"

Senator Chris Dodd released the details of his Countrywide mortgages. In a statement released with it he said that he would refinance the loans. But, please, pay no attention to this fact:

"Jackie and Chris have "decided to refinance (their) homes", which seems unremarkable, given that they had an ARM that guaranteed their rates for 5 years and the rates re-set last July or so, I gather. Who wouldn't at least try to refinance?"

h/t to ctblogger and greenpeas, with more commentary, videos and documents available at the link.

On Judge Curtissa E. Cofield

With permission from Wayne Bennett, AKA: The Field Negro, a lawyering kind of guy sometimes seen running the streets of Philadelphia. A local Hartford Judge gets in trouble for a DUI, and then makes matters worse for herself:

Here Come Da Drunk.

Before I start this post, let me say congrats O man for getting your stimulus package passed in the house today. I know the rethugs are fit to be tied, but fuck em, they don't have a party anymore; they are totally irrelevant.

Okay now that I got that off my chest I want to talk about Judge Curtissa E. Cofield.

Honestly, I don't want to pile on the good judge, lord knows she has been getting it from all quarters, and rightfully so. Getting busted for DUI was bad inexcusable behavior for someone who sits in judgement of others, but what really set me off about this story was her behavior after she was arrested. This happened back in October, but this is the You Tube age, and the video of her little ep. recently went public.

Seriously folks, the self hatred that some Negroes display on a daily basis is astonishing to me. Now here is a supposedly educated woman calling out an African American police officer for doing his job. "Well, they got the head n----- in charge and he … Which one, the head n----- in charge?" Now Judge, was that really necessary? "Oh, no. We don't. We're ghetto Negroes. We don't have Triple-A." Well Judge, I hate to break it to you, but you are a serious "ghetto Negro". I don't care where you live, or what you do for a living. Being a "ghetto Negro" is a state of mind. And your state of mind is seriously fucked up. Ahh but come on field, this was black on black hate, what's the big deal? It's a huge deal. Because a lot of our problems as a community stem from black on black hate. And for a Judge, of all people, to be displaying these characteristics, just makes the story even more sad.

In the Islands we have an expression for Negroes like the good Judge: "Neva si cum si" Translated: Never had shit, but now they do. Mrs. Field calls these people "new". As in that Negro done got "new". This Judge obviously can't get over herself, and it only took a little alcohol in her system to bring out the.....well, "ghetto".

Oh well, here is hoping that the good Judge won't allegedly drink and drive anymore. It's a dangerous a deadly practice. Hopefully she will have learned a lesson, and here is hoping that she writes a long letter to that state trooper apologizing for her ignorant and crass behavior.

Apparently the Judicial Review Board might have the final say in this episode, and honestly, I am not from Hartford, so I don't know what type of jurist this woman is. But what I do know is that she might just want to do some serious soul searching.

"I'm not signing anything, because when it comes down to the bottom line, who's smarter — me or you? We'll figure it out, won't we?"

Judge, we already did, and it ain't you.

----------------------------
Well said, Wayne...

We have already established that the client is a fool,
she does not need a lawyer that is one.

While these actions and statements are reprehensible from someone in a position of authority, especially given Judge Cofield's unique position on the bench, I think that Helen Urbinas is beyond a little harsh in this Courant Blog post condemning the judge for taking the basic actions that any lawyer would be a fool not to suggest as the way to go for a client. In this case it would seem the lawyer has the herculean task of protecting the client from herself.

And as bad as what Judge Cofield did clearly was, she, like anyone else, deserves honest representation and a fair trial.

Class War coming to neighborhood near you?

How the heck can we fight for a better America in this very real class war when the evil and criminal CEO masterminds of America's failure turn tail and run like the weak-kneed American breed of foolish elitists that they are?

Don't they understand that there are going to be less and less places on this earth where they can hide? And if they find somewhere new to hide? We will take it to them there.

We are not amused by their actions.

The 1 percenters of the world, and their hired yes men, are so far removed from reality and will never get it until they are kicked around for real. They cause all of the problems and reap windfall profits from it. And playing on the other side of the street on TV for a week will never teach them what it is like to look at a child as a poor parent, a child wanting and needing just the basics in life. And knowing that child will not get that, the most basics, which, just as every other human being, they have a right to.

Food.

There is a hidden epidemic in the United States. All over this country it is striking Americans of every age group and ethnicity, whether they live in cities or rural areas. And so, despite the diversity of targets, those suffering in this silent epidemic have two things in common: they are poor or low-income, and they are increasingly going without enough food. Although politicians talk about “poverty in America,” decision-makers avoid specifically mentioning the growing, and often deadly problem of hunger. George McGovern said in 1972, “To admit the existence of hunger in America is to confess that we have failed in meeting the most sensitive and painful of human needs. To admit the existence of widespread hunger is to cast doubt on the efficacy of our whole system.” Three decades later, evidence indicates that the existing system is failing a vast number of Americans. This Fact Sheet documents the epidemic.

A home.

Although single men constitute about sixty percent of the homeless population, families constitute about one third of all homeless and are the fastest-growing group of homeless. The homeless elderly will also be an important group as America ages in the next decades (Rosenheck, Bassuk, and Salomon*; Burt, Aron, and Lee*). Although about seventy percent of the homeless live in central cities, rural homelessness is a hidden problem. The rural homeless are more likely to be families that are homeless for shorter periods of time, often as a result of domestic violence (Singleton et al.*). One of the hardest groups to reach, however, is the one fourth of homeless who have been homeless for at least five years (Burt*).

Some basic medical help when they are sick.

Dodd and Larson Get an Earful on Healthcare

Via Mark Pazniokas of the Hartford Courant, 675 angry and frustrated people showed up to this healthcare forum at Goodwin College:

On the first day of a listening tour on health care, an issue pivotal to the new Congress and his own re-election, U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd got an earful Friday.

The first comment came from a furious homeless shelter manager: He and his clients have no coverage, yet insurance giant American International Group got an $85 billion federal loan.

Over 90 minutes, the Democratic senator heard from a string of constituents, who waved their hands, hoping for a chance to describe a struggle to hang onto middle-class lives after losing jobs and affordable health care. A few were angry, others just scared.

On the way out, Dodd embraced one woman who burst into tears as she described losing health coverage for her disabled 2-year-old. Dodd held her until she stopped sobbing.

Dodd says that Tom Daschle, Obama's pick to guide healthcare reform, will be coming to Connecticut to discuss the issue. I say that they better be prepared to get another earful because the incremental changes being proposed will not answer the massive problems we are facing.

Problems like this:

"[the forum] included the president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a reassuring signal to Connecticut's insurance industry."

Yep! Dodd and Larson think that these people are supposed to be our allies on this issue.

MA regulators: Did Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Partners HealthCare collude to fix prices and raise rates 75%?

Partners, insurer under scrutiny

Attorney General Martha Coakley has launched an investigation into whether the state's largest health insurance company and its largest healthcare provider may have illegally colluded to increase the price of health insurance statewide over the last nine years, according to several legal and government sources.

The attorney general sent formal demands for information to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Partners HealthCare late last week, the sources say, calling for a detailed account of their contract negotiations in recent years.

Since 2000, Blue Cross has boosted the rate it pays for medical care by Partners doctors and hospitals by 75 percent, dramatically more than the increases given to most other Massachusetts hospitals. Blue Cross now pays $2 billion a year to Partners, parent company of Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's hospitals.

Why do we put up with this?

I don't want these insurance industries' input into my healthcare in any way, shape or form. This is the kind of health care the insurance giants have provided us thus far:



H/t nyceve for the video, where I encourage you to go read the entire piece and watch all the videos:

We all know that during the Bush regime, American citizens never saw the coffins of our fallen heroes coming back from Iraq.

Americans are also shielded from the brutal ugliness of our collapsed healthcare system. The traditional media is ill-informed (what else is new?), and rarely, if ever, give us frank and candid reporting about the grotesque realities of the U.S. healthcare catastrophe. So the BBC picks up the slack.

One last quote from Dodd:

"I hear people talking about a single-payer plan and the like," Dodd said. "That isn't going to happen. It's going to be a combination of public, private."

Why might Dodd hold the view of "hearing" what we are saying but not listening?

Jackie M. Clegg Dodd serves on the board of health care, pharmaceutical, and financial services companies.

Here's a list:

Director , Brookdale Senior Living Incorporated
Brentwood , TN
Sector: HEALTHCARE / Long-Term Care Facilities

Director , Cardiome Pharma Corporation
Vancouver, B.C. , CN
Sector: HEALTHCARE / Drug Manufacturers

Director , CME Group, Incorporated
Chicago , IL
Sector: FINANCIAL / Diversified Investments

Director , Javelin Pharmaceuticals, Incorporated
Cambridge , MA
Sector: HEALTHCARE / Drug Manufacturers

Through these directorships she's earned more than $1 million for the Dodd family.

You want to stay in Congress with these kinds of answers, Senator Dodd?

"That isn't going to happen."

Not only will all of you hear us, but you will start to listen...

Are you starting to get the picture concerning exactly what we are up against? And it goes beyond just the little people that are really losing this war.

As the one percent of the planet that holds the preponderance of wealth and the other 99% of the planet wake up to the fact that we ARE in a Class War, things are about to get interesting. Especially IF the 99% wake up to the fact that the 1% is killing the planet we all share ...unnecessarily... just so that they can make even more money.

As if money will save them.

McConnell Exits Stage Right...

When he says this:

"We're all concerned about the fact that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters, seem to have more or less stopped paying attention to us. And we should be concerned that, as a result of all this, the Republican Party seems to be slipping into a position of being more of a regional party than a national one," McConnell told the gathering.

And this is part of why you are not only a regional party, now, but your regional party is in serious jeopardy of becoming the 3rd party in this two party country. A country that no longer needs nor wants neoconservatives, far right wing authoritarians, obstructionists, childish name calling mud slingers, warmongers, haters, the criminals and the corrupt. We are done with all of the epic failures and political theatrics that the GOP brings to the political stage.

The problem is not that people stopped listening to you.

It is that they started listening to what you say and comparing it to what you do. And it is because they started looking at those actions and matched them up to the actual results that they are living through right now.

The real problem with your party is that people actually started paying attention. And it will continue to be the problem with the GOP as long as the the GOP continues to do what they have already done before. And, so far, they are.

Take a bow Mitch McConnell...

This could very well be the GOP's final curtain call on the national stage. And you, Mitch McConnell, had a grand part in it all...

[update] The Existentialist Cowboy gives a great rundown of some of the many reasons for the GOP's problems. But, as you can see, the GOP just does not get it..

An Economically Created Health Care Disaster

And your state is sure to be suffering:

“Medicaid rolls are surging, by unprecedented rates in some states, as the recession tightens its grip on the economy and Americans lose their employer-sponsored health coverage along with their jobs.” In many states, Medicaid rolls grew by 5 to 10 percent in the last year, often double the growth the previous year. Congress is likely to extend Medicaid aid to states in the upcoming stimulus package.

And, as early as March, Obama will be moving forward on health care reform, according to the Politico:

The move signals Obama’s intent to keep one of the most ambitious and politically crucial campaign promises at the top of his agenda. On the campaign trail, Obama pledged to provide universal health care by the end of his first term, but the severity of the economic downturn has raised doubts about how quickly he can deliver on that promise. Obama and his point person on health care, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, have staffed up like they plan to push forward with it, lining up a roster of communications and policy strategists to assist in the effort.

I wrote last week on a Tom Daschle statement that could be taken as a signal of which way Obama wants him to go:

Be still my single payer heart...

Via DCblogger at Corrente and emphasis mine:

Mercury News

Daschle, the point man for Obama's campaign to revamp the health care system, supports the concept of "a government-run insurance program modeled after Medicare." It would, he says, give consumers, especially the uninsured, an alternative to commercial insurance offered by companies like Aetna, Humana and WellPoint.

But the proposal is anathema to many insurers, employers and Republicans. They say the government plan would have unfair advantages, like the ability to impose lower fees, and could eventually attract so many customers that private insurers would be driven from the market. "The public plan option is a terrible idea — one of our top concerns in the health reform debate," said James Gelfand, senior manager of health policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Why would employers object to a public plan that would be better and cheaper for their workers?

Here, not only do we have the right wing Chamber of Commerce health care Czar telling you flat out that the for profit health care providers can not compete in a free market with Medicare, a government run single payer program... But the fact that it starts with a Tom Daschle hint of things to come that damn near made me have a heart attack.

If this is the starting point of the health care debate than it is already over... (And, for a change of pace from the last 8 years, America wins!)

Anok, over at identitycheck, expanded on what this looked like to herself. And President Obama has this up at the White House website:

HEALTH CARE

On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes -- government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules. President Obama and Vice President Biden believe both of these extremes are wrong, and that’s why they’ve proposed a plan that strengthens employer coverage, makes insurance companies accountable and ensures patient choice of doctor and care without government interference.

The Obama-Biden plan provides affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, builds on the existing health care system, and uses existing providers, doctors, and plans. Under the Obama-Biden plan, patients will be able to make health care decisions with their doctors, instead of being blocked by insurance company bureaucrats.

Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year. If you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.

Make Health Insurance Work for People and Businesses -- Not Just Insurance and Drug Companies.

• Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions so all Americans regardless of their health status or history can get comprehensive benefits at fair and stable premiums.


• Create a new Small Business Health Tax Credit to help small businesses provide affordable health insurance to their employees.


• Lower costs for businesses by covering a portion of the catastrophic health costs they pay in return for lower premiums for employees.


• Prevent insurers from overcharging doctors for their malpractice insurance and invest in proven strategies to reduce preventable medical errors.


• Make employer contributions more fair by requiring large employers that do not offer coverage or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of their employees' health care.


• Establish a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage.


• Ensure everyone who needs it will receive a tax credit for their premiums.

Reduce Costs and Save a Typical American Family up to $2,500 as reforms phase in:

• Lower drug costs by allowing the importation of safe medicines from other developed countries, increasing the use of generic drugs in public programs, and taking on drug companies that block cheaper generic medicines from the market.


• Require hospitals to collect and report health care cost and quality data.


• Reduce the costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and their employees.


• Reform the insurance market to increase competition by taking on anticompetitive activity that drives up prices without improving quality of care.

The Obama-Biden plan will promote public health. It will require coverage of preventive services, including cancer screenings, and increase state and local preparedness for terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

A Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility: Barack Obama will pay for his $50 - $65 billion health care reform effort by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year and retaining the estate tax at its 2009 level.

In the boldly reddened part the key part of the plan is the opening up of the plan available to Congress members. The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) offers many different choices for people that all include prescription drug benefits. While wildly varying in co-pay costs depending on the plan, the FEHBP offers no savings over a plan such a Medicare.

Another problem is the fact that NOWHERE does Obama's plan address the serious issues with private plans that create "Death by Spreadsheet", clearly the most immoral aspect of private plans.

• No indication of how they would address insurance workers being paid bonuses for depriving clients - patients - of services that they have paid for in their premiums. Some have suffered for long periods of time battling for their rightful services to be paid for. Other people have died under these scenarios. That is a fact.


• No indication of addressing caps on services - either over single delivery of a service, a short period of time (a month? a year?) or over a lifetime. I.E.: Last year I had some dental surgery done. That one procedure maxed out my benefits allotted for the year for surgical procedures. I have had to wait for January to roll around in order to schedule work that I needed done because I could not afford the costs out of pocket above the severely low maximum.

Similar problems are seen in all private plans.

A "maximum annual cap" on a health insurance policy is actually the total amount that the insurer will pay during a year. If you see this on your policy benefits sheet, you'll want to pay attention; a low maximum annual cap makes the policy nearly worthless. After all, the idea of insurance is to protect someone from high medical costs.

The black ink in the ledgers is being balanced by the red blood of those that die in the name of profitability.

I discussed Daschle's previous statement that would, IMHO, begin the end of private health plans that prey on its victims through their various uses of "Death by Spreadsheet." It is the long road plan to single payer and will expose the fact that the for-profit plans can not compete on a level playing field with any single payer program in the free market. The far right wing knows this and, considering the fact that 65% of Americans want single payer health care, the rest of America knows this as well.

Sixty-five percent of those polled said the United States should adopt universal health insurance that covers everyone under a program such as Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers. Fifty-four percent went where politicians dare not tread, saying they supported a "single-payer" health system whereby all Americans would get their health coverage from a single government plan financed by taxpayers.

To be clear, Medicare is a form of a single payer program.

But the republicans have so polluted discourse on this subject in the past that some Americans think that Single Payer is socialist. A blatant lie that the majority has seen through as they became better educated on this issue. Hell... There is even a Republican group for single payer, now. That is how mainstream this demand is becoming.

Via DCBlogger at Corrente, America has changed a lot in the last few years:

Let me explain where we are right now, it is like 1989 in Moscow. Glasnost is in effect, the old regime has lost what ever legitimacy it ever had and ordinary people are losing their fear. It still looks very formidable, but it is about to crumble.

That is where we are with health care. Everyone is still refighting 1994 without noticing that the entire political landscape has shifted. We didn't have anything like HealthCare-Now, Physicians for a National Health Plan, or California Nurses in 1994. We didn't have a National Day of Action with picketing in cities across the country. Single payer activists are playing the same role dissidents played in the fall of the Soviet Union. We are saying the unsayable and we keep saying it until it becomes obvious.

Specifically how do we get a bill passed? Given our support in the House of Representatives, I am confident that we can get a bill to pass. So how do we win the Senate? Well, to switch historical analogies, we need a Republican Senator to play de Klerk to Conyers Mandela. Someone needs to break ranks, and if we maintain pressure, someone will do so.

Which Republican Senators do you think we have the best shot of winning over?

The people want single payer and we need a strategy on how we can go about getting them one or two Republican Senators to support a plan like H.R. 676. The most popular single payer health care solution and one that will be a direct route to the holy grail of health care and eliminating the need to wait for the free market to prove what everyone already knows and aknowledges on all sides, as evident even by the other sides arguments.

It is all the cover the Democratic party needs to pass single payer and that is what it may come down to if we want to get what we deserve.

Which Republican Senator is really bi-partisan or, at least, bi-partisan enough to walk away from the insurance company Astroturf groups and the far right wing corporatists to support what the vast majority of Americans want and really do need if we are going to weather the shitpile created economic shitstorm?

Arlen Specter and the women on the Republican side of the aisle have shown a more reasonable record of supporting women's rights issues (Equal Pay - Pro-Choice) in the recent and distant past. Is it possible to exploit this for our important issue? I honestly don't know if the statistics of women's support for single payer would make this a feasible avenue to explore?

A good healthy portion of the information linked here is unashamedly and liberally taken from Corrente, though, this piece is written/assembled by myself (blockquoted text excepted) for my Blog and to share in ePpluribus Media's ongoing health care discussions - I believe that Corrente deserves a lot of props for the great work they are doing FOR YOU right now. You could thank them by financially supporting their efforts. Or even just stopping by their site and saying thanks. We need to kick the tires on all of the proposed health care solutions so we know what, exactly, they are trying to sell us.

Previous ePluribus Media pieces:

by Carol White:

1. An Addition to the Discussion on Health Care Coverage

by Connecticut Man1:

1. Be Still My Single Payer Heart


2. How do you know Obama's health plan is bad for YOU?, Tue, 01/13/2009


3. All That I Want..., Wed, 12/24/2008


4. Single Payer Health Care Would Help Auto Industry, Tue, 11/18/2008

And a MUST-MUST read by DrSteveB:

1. The Most Complete & Honest Comparison of Health Proposals...so far, Tue, 01/13/2009

[ed note] 1. 12:44 A.M. Jan. 23rd, 2009 - Extensive edits from the White House information on down to the end. 2. 4:32 P.M. Jan. 30th, 2009 Bumped to the top for more views - originally written 1/22/09 2:05 PM. CM1

Note to Jim Amann

Up is not down...

Via ctblogger at MLN, Jim Amann appears to be a slow learner:

Jim Amann on supporters of Ned Lamont August 2006:

"Shame on all of us if we allow a shrieking minority to hijack the primary."

Amann today:

"That's all in the past. During this campaign, I have met many supporters of Ned Lamont who now support us."

As ctkeith notes in the diary:

"Jim Amann, like George W Bush, Makes his own Reality"

The Jim Amann for Governor 2010 campaign song:

Just come back where I came from,
Looks the same as something's wrong.
And all my friends that used to be,
Have gone and turned their backs on me.
Everyone's got different views,
Now I'm all shook up and all confused.

East is West, left is right,
Up is down, and black is white,
Inside-out, wrong is right,
It's back to front and I'm all uptight.

I've just come back from fantasy,
Right back to reality.
Stayed away too long but now I've found,
My world is turning upside-down.
I don't fit in but I don't stand out,
I should stay cool but want to shout.

East is West, left is right,
Up is down, and black is white,
Inside-out, wrong is right,
It's back to front and I'm all uptight.

No one knows where I come from,
(Who the hell are you and what do you want?)
You've thrown away all that we had,
It's down the drain, it's all gone mad.
The word is out, I've seen the sign,
So you go your way, I go mine.

East is West, left is right,
Up is down, and black is white,
Inside-out, wrong is right,
It's back to front and I'm all uptight.
East is West, left is right,
Up is down, and black is white,
Inside-out, wrong is right,
It's back to front and I'm all uptight (alright).
It's back to front and I'm all uptight (alright, alright, alright, alright).

Are you listening?
(NO!)
Well then, I'll have to do it all over again!

The Kinks, Back to Front

I just stole from Blue Gal...

And I feel B.A.D. about it.

I wonder how long it will be before she notices that I did a panty raid while I was there?

B.A.D Blogger... Very B.A.D. Blogger.

this upcoming weekend we will be celebrating the second anniversary of blogroll amnesty & blogroll bloodbath anniversary remembrance day!

this year our partner in this endeavor, jon swift, will join us in celebrating this blogtopian-wide holiday all next weekend beginning on saturday.

update: we will officially start on saturday, jan. 31. the original blogroll amnesty day is february 3, but we're calling for a four-day weekend! huzzah!

as you may remember, the modus operandus of blogroll amnesty day is to link to 5 blogs smaller than your own, thus introducing your readers to new voices.

and may we stop all the stupid jokes right here, right now: yes, there are blogs smaller than yours, no matter who you are.

mas update: ok, so we can't even stop the jokes before they start. ergo, we will ammend the parameters: if you really don't believe there are blogs smaller than yours, then in lieu of making the stupid joke that there aren't any, ha ha, please link to five blogs with traffic equivalent to yours (or in the same ball park). as long as they represent new voices (new to your readers, at least), you will have satisfied the requirement. just please don't do the stupid joke!!

The moral of the story? Link up, link sideways, link down... And never trust a guy like me anywhere near your knickers...

[update] Other Blogs that participated in B.A.D.:

BLKDGRD
Reconstitution 2.0
Mahatma X Files
Peace Arena
Just an Earth-Bound Misfit
Corrente
Simply Left Behind
Outta the Cornfield
Mock Paper Scissors
Vagabond Scholar
Blue Herald
Drinking Liberally in New Milford
Virtuous Skeptic
Cheyanne's Campsite
A Blog Around the Clock
Tangled Up in Blue Guy
The Hackenblog
WTF Is It Now?
Ornery Bastard
Moue Magazine
Newshoggers
Readin
distributorcap ny
Talking Dog
Welcome Back to Pottersville
Rip Coco
Comrade PhysioProf
Mike the Mad Biologist
Rotus
Chuck for...
The BoBo Files
William K. Wolfrum
From Pine View Farm
That's Why
Clark's Picks
TwoTonGreenBlog
The Aristocrats
Darkblack
Life's Journey
Just My Little Piece of the World
Kiko's House
That's Right Nate
Politickybitch
Kittywampus
Slobber and Spittle
Upper Left
Saying Nothing Charmingly
Carolina Naturally
NYC Educator
Barking Rabbits
Bark Bark Woof Woof
I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book!
Third Estate Sunday Review
Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Rawrahs
Thorne's World
Madam Miaow Says...
Right Wing Wiz Kid
The Great Endarkenment
Brilliant at Breakfast
At Home with Books
Graphic Truth
ThePoliticalCat
Zen Yenta
Stop the Press!
Ramblings
Brass and Ivory
Capitol Annex
Mahablog
Liberal Values
Miriam's Ideas
Watergate Summer
Steve Audio
Rubber Hose
J-TWO-O
Greg Laden
Pushing Rope
Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Mikeb302000
Pajama Pundit
Media Bloodhound
Some of Nothing
Liberty Street
Foma
Tin, Steel and Rust
Crooks & Liars
Onyx Lynx
Diary of a Heretic
Southern Fried Science
Scriptoids
Lost in the Ozone
Phil Nugent Experience
Jobsanger
Liberal Journal
Meta Watershed
When Will I Use This?
Divided We Stand, United We Fall
Scribble City Journal
Zaius Nation
Oooh, Hecky Nawl; That Guhl is Raw
Bifurcate in the Road
Left in Alabama
Buzz Twang
The Moderate Voice
Thinking Outside
Independent Bloggers Alliance
Muddy Mo
Popehat
Vast Variety
JM Bell
The Modern Left
Alyson Love
Almost Diamonds
Knight and Stars
Asian Conservatives
MS Maze
My Saturday Evening Post
The Flying Trilobite
Evil Mommy
The Impolitic
True Blue Texan
Drifting Through the Grift
The Quaker Agitator
Blogroll Amnesty Day Blog
Democratic Daily
Howard Empowered People
Ken Levine
Sciencewomen
Redlady's Reading Room
Social Seppuku
Slothropia
Evolving Complexity
That's Why
driftglass
Naked Opinions
Miss Cellania
Frieddogleg
The Reaction
Today's Sermonette
League of Ordinary Gentleman
Dinosaur Trader
Chawed Rosin
Wetmachine
Kirmalak
By Neddie Jingo
Johnny Pez
Republic of T
Sma' Talk Wi' T
Rob Singleton
yikes!
eTrilobite
American Street
The Garlic
Political Byline
Heresy Today
Evolving Complexity
Scientiae
GOPnot4me
Gone Like the Wind
Suzi Riot
Two Ton Green Blog
Over the Cliff, Onto the Rocks
Pushing Rope
Cookiesinheaven
Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy
Inverse Square
Truth, Justice & Peace
News Hounds
Connecting.the.Dots
Unspeak
Bug Girl's Blog
Indigo Journal
Byzantium's Shores
Balloon Juice