Five Biggest LIes in the Health Care Debate

  By Sharon Begley | NEWSWEEK 
Published Aug 29, 2009

From the magazine issue dated Sep 7, 2009

To the credit of opponents of health-care reform, the lies and exaggerations they're spreading are not made up out of whole cloth—which makes the misinformation that much more credible. Instead, because opponents demand that everyone within earshot (or e-mail range) look, say, "at page 425 of the House bill!," the lies take on a patina of credibility. Take the claim in one chain e-mail that the government will have electronic access to everyone's bank account, implying that the Feds will rob you blind. The 1,017-page bill passed by the House Ways and Means Committee does call for electronic fund transfers—but from insurers to doctors and other providers. There is zero provision to include patients in any such system. Five other myths that won't die:

1. You'll have no choice in what health benefits you receive.
The myth that a "health choices commissioner" will decide what benefits you get seems to have originated in a July 19 post at blog.flecksoflife.com, whose homepage features an image of Obama looking like Heath Ledger's Joker. In fact, the House bill sets up a health-care exchange—essentially a list of private insurers and one government plan—where people who do not have health insurance through their employer or some other source (including small businesses) can shop for a plan, much as seniors shop for a drug plan under Medicare part D. The government will indeed require that participating plans not refuse people with preexisting conditions and offer at least minimum coverage, just as it does now with employer-provided insurance plans and part D. The requirements will be floors, not ceilings, however, in that the feds will have no say in how generous private insurance can be.

2. No chemo for older Medicare patients.
The threat that Medicare will give cancer patients over 70 only end-of-life counseling and not chemotherapy—as a nurse at a hospital told a roomful of chemo patients, including the uncle of a NEWSWEEK reporter—has zero basis in fact. It's just a vicious form of the rationing scare. The House bill does not use the word "ration." Nor does it call for cost-effectiveness research, much less implementation—the idea that "it isn't cost-effective to give a 90-year-old a hip replacement."
The general claim that care will be rationed under health-care reform is less a lie and more of a non-disprovable projection (as is Howard Dean's assertion that health-care reform will not lead to rationing, ever). What we can say is that there is de facto rationing under the current system, by both Medicare and private insurance. No plan covers everything, but coverage decisions "are now made in opaque ways by insurance companies," says Dr. Donald Berwick of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

A related myth is that health-care reform will be financed through $500 billion in Medicare cuts. This refers to proposed decreases in Medicare increases. That is, spending is on track to reach $803 billion in 2019 from today's $422 billion, and that would be dialed back. Even the $560 billion in reductions (which would be spread over 10 years and come from reducing payments to private Medicare advantage plans, reducing annual increases in payments to hospitals and other providers, and improving care so seniors are not readmitted to a hospital) is misleading: the House bill also gives Medicare $340 billion more over a decade. The money would pay docs more for office visits, eliminate copays and deductibles for preventive care, and help close the "doughnut hole" in the Medicare drug benefit, explains Medicare expert Tricia Neuman of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

3.  Illegal immigrants will get free health insurance.
The House bill doesn't give anyone free health care (though under a 1986 law illegals who can't pay do get free emergency care now, courtesy of all us premium paying customers or of hospitals that have to eat the cost). Will they be eligible for subsidies to buy health insurance? The House bill says that "individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States" will not be allowed to receive subsidies.

The claim that taxpayers will wind up subsidizing health insurance for illegal immigrants has its origins in the defeat of an amendment, offered in July by Republican Rep. Dean Heller of Nevada, to require those enrolling in a public plan or seeking subsidies to purchase private insurance to have their citizenship verified. Flecksoflife.com claimed on July 19 that "HC [health care] will be provided 2 all non US citizens, illegal or otherwise." Rep. Steve King of Iowa spread the claim in a USA Today op-ed on Aug. 20, calling the explicit prohibition on such coverage "functionally meaningless" absent mandatory citizenship checks, and it's now gone viral. Can we say that none of the estimated 11.9 million illegal immigrants will ever wangle insurance subsidies through identity fraud, pretending to be a citizen? You can't prove a negative, but experts say that Medicare—the closest thing to the proposals in the House bill—has no such problem.

4. Death panels will decide who lives.
On July 16 Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York and darling of the right, said on Fred Thompson's radio show that "on page 425," "Congress would make it mandatory…that every five years, people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner, how to decline nutrition." Sarah Palin coined "death panels" in an Aug. 7 Facebook post.

This lie springs from a provision in the House bill to have Medicare cover optional counseling on end-of-life care for any senior who requests it. This means that any patient, terminally ill or not, can request a special consultation with his or her physician about ventilators, feeding tubes, and other measures. Thus the House bill expands Medicare coverage, but without forcing anyone into end-of-life counseling.

The death-panels claim nevertheless got a new lease on life when Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives under George W. Bush, claimed in an Aug. 18 Wall Street Journal op-ed that a 1997 workbook from the Department of Veterans Affairs pushes vets to "hurry up and die." In fact, the thrust of the 51-page book, which the VA pulled from circulation in 2007, is letting "loved ones" and "health care providers" "know your wishes." Readers are asked to decide what they believe, including that "life is sacred and has meaning, no matter what its quality," and that "my life should be prolonged as long as it can...using any means possible." But the workbook also asks if readers "believe there are some situations in which I would not want treatments to keep me alive." Opponents of health-care reform have selectively cited this passage as evidence the government wants to kill the old and the sick.

5. The government will set doctors' wages.
This, too, seems to have originated on the Flecksoflife blog on July 19. But while page 127 of the House bill says that physicians who choose to accept patients in the public insurance plan would receive 5 percent more than Medicare pays for a given service, doctors can refuse to accept such patients, and, even if they participate in a public plan, they are not salaried employees of it any more than your doctor today is an employee of, say, Aetna. "Nobody is saying we want the doctors working for the government; that's completely false," says Amitabh Chandra, professor of public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

To be sure, there are also honest and principled objections to health-care reform. Some oppose a requirement that everyone have health insurance as an erosion of individual liberty. That's a debatable position, but an honest one. And many are simply scared out of their wits about what health-care reform will mean for them. But when fear and loathing hijack the brain, anything becomes believable—even that health-care reform is unconstitutional. To disprove that, check the commerce clause: Article I, Section 8.

With Katie Connolly, Claudia Kalb, and Ian Yarett

Find this article at http://www.newsweek.com/id/214254

© 2009

 * * * * *

 

 

As a Foreclosure Judge, Arthur Schack Tosses Out Cases, Brooklyn Style - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/nyregion/31judge.html?_r=1
“If you are going to take away someone’s house, everything should be legal and correct,” he said. “I’m a strange guy — I don’t want to put a family on the street unless it’s legitimate.”

There needs to be a lot more judges like this!!!!!

Blago Book Out Next Week

Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) says in his new book, The Governor, that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel "wanted his help in arranging to leave the Obama administration after two years to reclaim his seat in Congress," the AP reports.

Blagojevich writes that Emanuel "spoke with him about whether it was possible to appoint a 'placeholder' to the congressional seat Emanuel was giving up so that he could win back the seat in 2010 and continue his efforts to become speaker some day."

Reality check: The House seat could only be filled by a special election and not an appointment.

NBC Chicago: "Blagojevich blames everyone but himself for his unceremonious ouster from the Illinois Governor's office. Nothing new there. What is new is that you can read his off-the-wall accusations and circuitous logic in the leisure of your own home."

Cheney on the CIA, Torture and the Politicization of Intelligence

Question: Is Cheney endangering the country by talking too much or is he right on the money?

Experts see double-digit Dem losses

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26393.html
Not good news at all for the president's party.

Understand consequences of free speech

In the past couple of weeks there have been some cases of bloggers getting into trouble. One involved an anonymous blogger in New York who allegedly wrote false and defamatory comments about Liskula Cohen, a model. Cohen sued, and a judge ordered Google — who hosted the blogger — to release the blogger's identity to Cohen and her attorney. Turns out the blogger was a woman who turned up in some of the same social settings as Cohen.

No case is more bizarre than one originating out of New Jersey, which involves a blogger, Chicago judges and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Hal Turner is an Internet radio host and blogger who wrote that three federal appellate judges in Chicago should be killed because of their ruling against the National Rifle Association's attempt to overturn a couple of handgun bans. Turner followed up by posting pictures of the judges and a map of the courthouse. He also pointed out where the truck-bomb barriers were around the courthouse. Writing that people should be killed isn't libel but it is dangerous to incite such violence.

Not surprisingly, Turner got a visit from the FBI and is now in jail awaiting trial. Wired reported Wednesday that Turner claims he worked for the FBI between 2002 and 2007.

The aforementioned is an excerpt from an editorial I read in the LSJ ( entire editorial in link) but after reading it , I begun to  think if there  ramifcation and consequences of irresonsible speech?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009716909_ryan23.html?syndication=rss

I feel as if I  I am unarmed  due to the current violently hateful rhetoric coming from the right which distrubes me, and in the absence of any law enforcement counter measures to prevent legitimate dissent and free speech from spilling over into sedition, I think most other progressives are becoming apprehensive for the sfaty of the country.

Is  firearm neccessary, to protect myself from the people who are breathing fire against our government and our President? Should I trust the extremist people who disagree with political opposition by spreading lies, slander and inflammatory rumors?  To behave and act responsibly  within their bounds of their loyal opposition when dealing withour legitimately elected President? Isn’t most of this inciting rhetoric creating a  public fear and rebellion against those who do not please the right seditious?

This concerns me because I wonder if there a lax legal response to these veiled threats to elected  public officials and why  is there no accountability required for direct incitement to anger via lies that whip up the GOP base? Why is it cool  to hype  radical discontent,and preach blind partisanship at the expense of others?

Should the  government  exercise its legitimate authority to moderate and restrain extremism leading to unrest, which could lead to chaos that could  lead to civil war and tyranny as a result result?  I'm not talking about suppression of dissent or curtailment of constitutional rights. However, it’s important not to ingnore the real possibilties of dangers when things are not  done civilly and without threat to others. I think President Obama needs to stop being afraid of the right. If I were him, I would take a very long hard look at the proposed dangers.

Sedition was not tolerated when the Republicans held the highest offices in the land and the same rules ought now apply when the other party now holds those positions as a result of legitmate and verified elections that put the Democratic Party in charge of those offices.

Constitutional freedoms does not include standing by and letting sedition happen against the legitimate functioning of government officials.Public law and order and domestic civility  must be defended and maintained. Peoples' rights are limited to constitutional boundaries that imply the safety and good working order of our legimately elected democracy. I guess we won’t be statsifed until majority whom placed Obama in office is silenced by fear and intimidation by this consistent under minding of President Obama unil we get anoter Bush/Chenny.! Just a thought!

Sid Ramone's Apology Goes Here

My Fellow Politicos;

Last week a fellow Politico who goes by the name of Sid Ramone, said outright that President Barack Obama would try to politicize the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy's death by alluding to the health care debate in a eulogy the president delivered at Kennedy's funeral.

Below you will find video and a transcript of President Obam's eulogy. Granted, I have not watched the video, but I did read the transcript. No where did I see mention of the current health care debate nor any other hot-button issue.

What I did read was a heart-felt remembrance of and for the former Lion of the Senate.

What say you Sid Ramone?

The Government Can

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2eh6f5Go0

On this day in 1991: Senate Committee begins hearings on Clarence Thomas' nomination

Start:	Sep 10, '09
Location:	Washington, DC

Having served since 1991. Justice Thomas is the second African American to serve on the nation's highest court, after Justice Thurgood Marshall, whom he succeeded.

Thomas grew up in Georgia, and graduated from college and law school in New England. In 1974, he was appointed an Assistant Attorney General in Missouri (primarily handling tax matters), and subsequently practiced law there in the private sector. In 1979, he became a legislative assistant to Missouri Senator John Danforth, and in 1981 was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. The following year, Thomas became Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which position he served for eight years until joining the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990.

Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court by President George H. W. Bush in 1991. Thomas's confirmation hearings were bitter and intensely fought, centering around accusations that he had sexually harassed Anita Hill, a former subordinate. Thomas was ultimately confirmed by a narrow margin by the Senate and assumed his seat on the Court.

Since joining the Court, Thomas has taken an originalist approach to judging, seeking to uphold what he sees as the original meaning of the Constitution and statutes. Moreover, he has often approached federalism issues in a way that limits the federal government's power and expands power of state and local governments, while his opinions have generally supported a strong executive within the federal government.

On this day in 1987: Gary Hart admits on "Nightline," to cheating on his wife

Start:	Sep 9, '09
Location:	Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire

Formerly served as a Democratic Senator representing Colorado (1975–1987), and ran in the U.S. presidential elections in 1984 and again in 1988, when he was considered a front-runner for the Democratic nomination until various news organizations reported that he was engaged in an extramarital affair.

On May 5, The Miami Herald received a further tip that Hart had spent a night in Bimini on a yacht called the Monkey Business with a woman who was not his wife. The Herald obtained a photograph of Hart sitting on a dock with then-29-year-old model Donna Rice, sitting on his lap. The photograph was subsequently published in the National Enquirer. On May 8, 1987, a week after the story broke, Hart dropped out of the presidential race.

On this day in 1974: President Gerald Ford pardons Richard Nixon

Start:	Sep 8, '09
Location:	Washington, DC

On September 8, 1974, one month after President Richard Nixon resigned the presidency amid the Watergate scandal, his successor, President Gerald R. Ford, announced his decision to grant Nixon a full pardon for any crimes he may have committed while in office.

The Watergate scandal stemmed from a break-in that occurred on the night of June 17, 1972, when five burglars entered the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate office complex in Washington.

Subsequent investigations revealed the burglars were actually agents hired by Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President. A long chain of events then followed in which the President and top aides became involved in an extensive coverup of White House sanctioned illegal political activities. The coverup snowballed as Nixon and White House aides attempted to use the prestige and power of the presidency to obstruct justice.

After a two year battle against the news media, government agencies, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and the U.S. Supreme Court, Nixon wound up resigning amid the likelihood that he would not survive a full impeachment vote in the Congress.

Ford's decision to pardon Nixon ended the possible spectacle of private citizen Nixon going on trial and also likely ended Ford's chances for re-election to the presidency in 1976.

Both the decision and its timing came under severe criticism. The pardon was announced by Ford on a Sunday morning, taking advantage of an off-beat time for Washington newsmakers in an attempt to minimize the initial political fallout.

It was a vain attempt, however, as the decision caused a firestorm of anger in the press and indignation among those who wanted to see Nixon go on trial and possibly to jail.

But among others, the decision evoked sympathy for Nixon, the only President ever to resign. Many saw Nixon as a victim of political infighting in Washington and considered much of Nixon's behavior to be no worse than several of his predecessors in the Oval Office.

The result was a further polarization of a nation already traumatized by the events surrounding Watergate.

Years later, Richard Nixon would make a bit of a political comeback, writing books and granting TV interviews commenting on Watergate and international politics.

By contrast, former President Gerald Ford was destined to political obscurity after losing the 1976 election to Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Federal Budget via Oreo Cookies

On this day in 2004: American military deaths in the Iraq War reach 1,000

Start:	Sep 7, '09
Location:	Iraq

As of Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009, at least 4,337 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes nine military civilians killed in action. At least 3,466 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is equal to the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 179 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each.

On this day in 1995: Senate Ethics committee votes 6-0 to ask for expulsion of Bob Packwood

Start:	Sep 6, '09
Location:	Washington, DC

Robert William "Bob" Packwood, a Republican Senator from Oregon was forced to resign from the United States Senate, under threat of expulsion, in 1995 after allegations of sexual harassment, abuse and assault of women emerged.

On this day in 2005: John G. Roberts is nominated for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

Start:	Sep 5, '09
Location:	Washington, DC

John Glover Roberts, Jr. was born Jan. 27, 1955, in Buffalo, New York. In 1973, Roberts graduated at the top of his high school class from La Lumiere School, a Catholic boarding school in LaPorte, Indiana. Among other extracurricular activities, Roberts wrestled, was captain of the football team and served on the student council.

After graduating from high school, Roberts was accepted into Harvard University, earning his tuition by working in a steel mill during the summer. After receiving his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in 1976, Roberts entered Harvard Law School and graduated magna cum laude from law school in 1979.

Legal Experience:
From 1980 to 1981, Roberts served as a law clerk to then-Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist on the United States Supreme Court. From 1981 to 1982, he served in the Reagan administration as a Special Assistant to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith. From 1982 to 1986, Roberts served as Associate Counsel to the President Ronald Reagan.

After a brief stint in private practice, Roberts serve in the George H. W. Bush administration as Deputy Solicitor General from 1989 to 1992. He returned to private practice in 1992.

Appointment:
On July 19, 2005, Roberts was nominated by President George W. Bush to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court created by the retirement of Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Following the September 3, 2005 death of William H. Rehnquist, Bush withdrew Roberts' nomination as O'Connor's successor, and on September 6, sent the United States Senate notice of Roberts' new nomination to the position of Chief Justice.

Senate Confirmations:
Roberts was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 78-22 on Sept. 29, 2005, and was sworn in hours later by Associate Justice John Paul Stevens. Roberts serves as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States and the youngest to hold the post since John Marshall became Chief Justice over two hundred years ago. Roberts received more Senate votes supporting his nomination (78) than any other nominee for Chief Justice in American history.

Personal Life
Roberts is married to the former Jane Marie Sullivan, also an attorney. They have two adopted children, Josephine ("Josie") and Jack Roberts. The Roberts are Roman Catholic and currently live in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

On this day in 1950: 1st helicopter rescue of American pilot behind enemy lines

Start:	Sep 4, '09
Location:	Korea

A USAF H-5, covered by a Combat Air Patrol, conducted the first rescue of a downed airman behind communist lines during the Korean War.

On this day in 2004: The Beslan Massacre took place

Start:	Sep 3, '09
Location:	Beslan, Russia

The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan massacre) began when a group of armed Islamic terrorists, demanding an end to the Second Chechen War, took more than 1,100 people (including some 777 children) hostage at School Number One in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia-Alania, an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation.

On the third day of the standoff, Russian security forces stormed the building using tanks, thermobaric rockets and other heavy weapons. A series of explosions shook the school, followed by a fire which engulfed the building and a chaotic gunbattle between the hostage-takers and Russian security forces. Ultimately, at least 334 hostages were killed, including 186 children. Hundreds more were wounded or reported missing.

Questions about the government's management of the crisis have also persisted, including disinformation and censorship in news media, repressions of journalists who rushed to Beslan, the nature and content of negotiations with the militants, the responsibility for the bloody outcome, and the government's use of possibly excessive force.

On this day in 1989: Reverend Al Sharpton leads a civil rights march through Bensonhurst

Start:	Sep 2, '09
Location:	Bensonhurst, New York

On August 23, 1989, a 16-year-old African-American named Yusef Hawkins was shot and killed in Bensonhurst, after he and three friends had been attacked by a group of mostly Italian-American youths. At least four neighborhood residents were tried and convicted of charges related to the assault and murder.

In connection with the Hawkins murder and the subsequent trials, Reverend Al Sharpton led several protest marches through the streets of Bensonhurst. On January 12, 1991, before one such march, neighborhood resident Michael Riccardi tried to kill Sharpton by stabbing him in the chest. Riccardi later remorsefully said that he "thought the act would make me a hero in my community." Sharpton recovered from his wounds, and later asked the judge for leniency when Riccardi was sentenced.

On this day in 1995: New York City reinstates the death penalty

Start:	Sep 1, '09
Location:	New York State

But on June 24, 2004, New York's highest court declared the state's death penalty unconstitutional.

Three years ago, New York legislators declined to revive that state’s death penalty statute concluding that with more than a decade of new information about how it worked in practice, its high costs, and the inherent risk of executing innocent people, maintaining it could not be justified.

Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200 | FactCheck.org

http://factcheck.org/2009/08/twenty-six-lies-about-hr-3200/
Recently, one of my 'Ply friends actually PM'ed me a video by Glenn Beck (!!) to back up an argument. I'm glad to say he removed himself from my friends' list.

You know your half-deranged second cousin from Texas or 'Bama has been flooding your inbox with messages with a list of claims about the House health care bill. One chain e-mail purports to give "a few highlights" from the first half of the bill, but of the list of 48 assertions only four are accurate.

I'm willing to bet most of his listeners would line up to fellate me if Lush Rimbaugh suggested it enough times, which proves that 1) NO ONE from Texas should ever be allowed to run for POTUS, and 2) it's a sin to let a fool keep his money.

Click the link to get your facts right.

The 48 Sponsors Who Have Dropped Glenn Beck

Here's the official list of Beck sponsors who have pulled their ads from his show.

Airware Inc.
Ancestry.com
AT&T
Blaine Labs Inc.
Campbell Soup Company
Clorox
Ditech
The Elations Company
Experian
Farmers Insurance Group
Johnson & Johnson
Lowe's
NutriSystem
Sprint
The UPS Store
Verizon Wireless
Walmart
GMAC Financial Services
Best Buy
CVS
Travelocity
Re-Bath
Broadview Security
Allergan
Lawyers.com
Procter & Gamble
Progressive Insurance
State Farm
S.C. Johnson
GEICO
Men's Wearhouse
Sargento
ConAgra
Roche
Sanofi-Aventi
Radio Shack
SpendOnLife.com
Applebee's
Bank of America
Bell & Howell
DirecTv
General Mills
Kraft
Regions Financial
SAM
Travelers Insurance
Vonage
Ashley Furniture

Former first daughter Jenna Bush joins 'Today' Show

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/former-first-daughter-jenna-bush-joins-today/27099?nc
NEW YORK NBC's "Today" show has hired someone with White House experience as a new correspondent:

Former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager, a 27-year-old teacher in Baltimore, will contribute stories about once a month on issues like education to television's top-rated morning news show, said Jim Bell, its executive producer.

The daughter of former President George W. Bush said she has always wanted to be a teacher and a writer, and has already authored two books. But she was intrigued by the idea of getting into television when Bell contacted her.

"It wasn't something I'd always dreamed to do," she said. "But I think one of the most important things in life is to be open-minded and to be open-minded for change."

She'll essentially work two part-time jobs as a correspondent and in her school, where she will be a reading coordinator this year.

A New plan

In rebuilding the American economic structure, both Congress and the White House have determined to prioritize the "economy", which is business, over the personal prosperity of the each individual American citizen. This "business first" approach defines the nature of our planetary economic attitude; take care of businesses, so that businesses can employee our population. This is indentured servitude, better known as voluntary slavery. More than 5000 years of recorded history and business practice has proven that this system does not and cannot work. Some get rich, while others are impoverished. We must consider a more thorough and all inclusive system, which has never been tried before. This would eliminate the communism, socialism, capitalism, and any other "ism".
We must think.

ObamaCare = Rationing ~ A Parody........

Will ObamaCare lead to Healthcare Rationing?

Maybe

 

 1

Yes

 

 2

No

 

 4

Wake Up, Mrs. Petrowski

Good morning! Did you have a restful sleep? Yes, I know it's 3 AM, I just thought... well, the whole orderly staff thought a little early morning air would do you some good after all that commotion yesterday. I have to say you're a pretty feisty old gal for 86!

How's that?

You're 78?

Still, you should really take better care of yourself. Just look at those bags under your eyes! You're no spring chicken and all that protesting just causes stress. Here, why don't we wheel you over to the balcony so you can get some of that fresh healthful air.

Yes, I know it's cold. But look at the spectacular 14th story view! A clear night sky full of stars, and if you lean over the railing you can see all the way down to the empty parking lot. Just like the Ferris Wheel at the 1892 World's Fair, back when you were a little girl.

Now if I can just unlatch this... stupid... mmmp... sliding... mmph... door. Crap.

Oops! Sorry Mrs. Petrowski, pardon my French. It's just that I was looking forward to the two of us having a nice friendly chat out there. Let me see if I call get somebody in maintenance to open it for us.

*szkrittchh*

Hi, this is Barack, the night orderly on 14. Can I get someone up here to open the balcony door in 1417? Patient Laverne Petrowski. P-E-T-R...

huh? but... okay, well then what time does his shift start?

8 am? Oh come on man, do you know how many people are in the parking lot at that time of the... okay, okay. Whatever.

*szkrittchh*

Sorry Mrs. Petrowski. With all these budget cuts and strikes, it looks like we had to cut the third shift maintenance crew. Say, how about we take you for a ride down to the cafeteria? It's almost empty this time of day, and I bet they have that green jello you love so much. Mmm... num, num, num!

Please, Mrs. Petrowski, put down the phone. The other patients are all asleep. Besides, after that incident yesterday, you know we had to unplug it. You remember how agitated you made everybody with those crazy stories about "death panels" and what not. Remember when I was giving you the sedatives, and I explained that your mind was playing tricks on you? And how those nice men were only End-of-Life Quality Assurance Counselors?

*ding*

Okay! Elevator's here! Next stop, bottom floor, cafeteria... aaaand... therrrre's...

*swiiip*

a goddamn elevator car in the shaft.

sigh.

Alright, whatever. Let's get on.

*swiiip*

Now that we're in private, can I trust you with something Mrs. Petrowski? We just got a top secret telegraph from the War Department, and it turns out those "death panel" rumors are the work of Nazi saboteurs. And Tojo. Now, I know a patriotic gal like yourself doesn't want to be an Axis dupe, do you? Of course not. Remember, loose lips sink ships. Think about our brave GIs fighting the Japs and Huns. If you hear Tokyo Rose or those other radio fifth columnists spreading those kind of rumors, you tell me first, okay? I'll get the word straight to President Roosevelt and General McArthur, so ixnay on the eath-day anels-pay.

*ding*

*swiiip*

Okay, watch that doorway bump.

Mrs. Petrowski! Back in the chair, please. Am I going to have to strap you in there again? You know your hip is in no condition to be walking around on your own. Yes, I know. But we both know the committee said a hip replacement was a waste of resources for somebody like you, up in her nineties.

Alright, alright, 78. But the point is, it's important that the hospital uses its resources wisely to contain unnecessary cost. That way we can make sure we have rooms for everybody, and still pay a living wage to our dedicated staff. Like Frank here.

Hi Frank! How do you like that new floor waxer? Umm... by the way, did you get my note about the new late night elevator procedure thing?

That Frank's sure a great guy, Mrs. Petrowski. Salt of the earth. Just got elected to the SEIU bargaining committee. Anyway, like I was saying, it's important for the hospital to keep a lid on costs. Instead of complaining, you should really count your blessings. After all, you've got that nice private room up on 14, all to yourself, with a balcony. Even if the door isn't working. I'm guessing we could fit, oh, I don't know, at least three or four patients in that room. Easy. I mean, after you're gone, of course.

Hi Kathy! How's our favorite cafeteria lady? This is Mrs. Petrowski, the patient I told you about.

Mmhm, yes, that was quite a ruckus she caused yesterday! Say, how about fixing up a plate of your special green jello for Mrs. Petrowski? Yes, the kind with the mandarin oranges and the uh, other stuff.

It'll be just a minute Mrs. Petrowski, Kathy's gonna make some up special, just for you. Let's see... that's $18.95 with tax. I'll grab a twenty out of your purse and put the change back in. What say we grab that empty table over there.

I have to say, I really enjoy these health care conversations of ours. The best part of being an orderly is talking to old people like you, up in their 90's and 100's.

Right, 78. But let's face it, Mrs. Petrowski, that puts you right up there at the average American life expectancy. So, hey, I guess you could say you're already living on borrowed time. There's just something extremely fascinating and wise and selfless about folks like you, so very close to the sweet release of death. Ah! Here comes Kathy with your jello.

Okay, let's open wide for the nummy jello! Num num num! Here it comes! Here comes the choo choo train! Choo choo! Now Mrs. Petrowski, if you don't stop fussing like that the jello train will never get to the station. Now let's open wide, turn your head this way... no, no, this way, and...

sigh.

Okay, fine, you don't want your jello. Boy, if I didn't know better I'd think you were skipping your sedatives.

You're a Christian, aren't you, Mrs. Petrowski? Me too. I guess my favorite part of the Bible is where it talks about how we all get our allotted "three score and ten." Seventy years, right there in the Bible. And you are, now what was it, 83?

Okay, 78. Still, that's what, eight years over your biblical limit? That's one amazing overtime run you're having, I'd say. Almost unnatural. In fact, I was just mentioning you to a bunch of the people on the hospital waiting list the other day, and they were as amazed as me. Still, with all the relentless hip pain and sleepless nights like this, I can only imagine how much you long for the eternal embrace of Jesus. Sure you won't have a little jello?

Just a bite?

sigh.

Okay, have it your way. Let's get you back to your room, maybe they'll have the balcony door fixed later today.

You know, we on the staff are just worried about your state of mind, what with all your outbursts and disinterest in jello. I imagine it must be very lonely for you, with your husband all your friends up there waiting in heaven. God, too. I'd like you to think of the hospital as God's partner. And here on God's team we just want you to know you have options. They're all here in this brochure.

By the way, I noticed from the accounting report that you and your husband saved up quite a little nest egg there. I'm sure it must be a comfort to you that your children and grandchildren will be well cared for, even after the estate taxes. Whenever that day comes, of course.

*ding*

Hey, I just remembered! I think the roof is unlocked. How about we go up there for a look?

Mrs. Petrowski!

You shouldn't run on your bad hip like that!

Mrs. Petrowski!

Incompetence

08/30/2009 Human Observations
Yesterday I had great difficulty delivering fast and friendly customer service behind the Deli Counter at Walmart, because I could not get past my mind’s images of Jaycee Lee Dugard’s 18 years of slavery here in the United States of America. Something is horribly wrong with a system that allows:
1. A property owner to be able to blatantly violate property and sanitation laws.
2. A convicted sex offender to live free of regular authoritative scrutiny.
3. A complaint of “suspicious activity” in the backyard of a home, to go uninvestigated
because the homeowner was Caucasian.
I am noticeably shaken by this horrible episode in human depravity because our history has provided us with the necessary lessons of slavery to prevent such a thing from happening again. Yet, the current generation of responsible adults does not have a working grasp of the perils or signs of slavery, being beguiled by the delusion that such desires no longer exist within the minds of human deviants. Even so, a simple glance at the backyard of Jaycee’s abductor is at best suspicious, the structures obviously hiding quarters for something secretive in Northern California, like a Meth lab or Marijuana storehouse (Reasonable Cause). Someone just had to look. This scrutiny is what is required in the case of this “convicted kidnapper and sex offender”, who was allowed to live amongst the general population. Authorities visited the deviant’s home often, but NEVER checked the backyard! Their obvious and blatant negligence should be visited with the same harshness as the treatment of Jaycee Lee Dugard. Every penny that they were paid to perform their jobs, should be taken from them, because they failed miserably to do the work. As for this deviant, who had previously kidnapped and raped another victim … Take away everything he has or ever will have, and then just throw him away!

Still Pissed

My Blog
Betrayl:The Legacy of … NEW ORLEANS:a trust forgotton



This was first published by the Ashville Global Report in October 2005.There is something fundamentally wrong with an administration that has failed it's citizen twice in four years. Mr.Bush ignored the cries of the old,young, children,dead and dying.Because of that he violated a trust that began during the Revolutionary War,and endured through two WORLD WARS A GREAT DEPRESSION,VIETNAM,GULF WAR, WTC AND IRAQ INCLUDING VARIOUS HOT SPOTS AROUND THE GLOBE.Most Americans place a significant trust in their goverment,as I do.Mr. Bush's "Brownie you're doing one hell of a job"eroded that trust.Americans have earned that trust with their loyalty,patriotism,and outright blood defending America wherever she needed us.In some cases just because "Uncle Sam needs you".Where was that trust in the aftermath of Katrina. That trust or love is reciprocal.It failed miserably in early September. The People where were forgotton.As I sat and watched news coverage of Katrina,and saw through the eyes of T.V. cameras the horror and failure of our government to come to the aid of the citizens of New Orleans I wondered:Where are the Police,and National Guard,but most of all Federal Troops!My Father would have said "Courtmarshall the S.O.B.s the whole chain of Command,echoed by Uncle.Both WWII vets.There are millions of Americans just like me.So when I say we've earned the trust of the government,I mean it.The reality is that Mr.Bush owes all Americans and apology.The tragedy is he didn't (give one). So in the eyes of this one American,he not only forgot the people of New Orleans:He violated our Constitution.





Stephen D'Arbeau


A Yahoo! user said 26 months ago · Delete I could anguish in your words,very heartfelt,Bear.

A question about Chris Rock

Chris Rock said that it's harder to be black then to be white, because blacks hate blacks as much as whites hate blacks, and for the same reasons.

Is he right?

Democrats Lied, People Died

And they claimed Bush lied about WMD?

YES WE CAN! - The weak dollar is pushing energy prices higher - HOPE & CHANGE

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9ABTNOG2&show_article=1

LONDON (AP) - The effect of the weak dollar is again pushing oil prices higher in the face of little demand for energy and huge surpluses of crude.

On Friday, the dollar again fell against major currencies.

Since March, the dollar index, which weighs the U.S. currency against a basket of foreign currencies like the euro, the Japanese yen, the pound and the Swiss franc, has fallen nearly 12 percent. In that same period, crude has jumped 81 percent.

Don't feel bad - Here is the Obama Kids Video!

Davis Leading in Alabama Gubernatorial Race

A new Alabama Education Association survey shows Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) leading the field of Republican candidates for governor by between 6 and 12 points in general election match-ups.

Former Judge Roy Moore (R) is the closest, down six, while State Treasurer Kay Ivey (R) is the furthest behind, down twelve.

Meanwhile, Davis leads his primary opponent, Ron Sparks, by 30 points in the poll.

Senator Edward Kennedy's Memorial Service, Senator Kenedy's memorial service on Friday August 28th 2009. senatorkennedy on USTREAM. Politics

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2064767

Tribute To A Lion

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Stephen --

Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy.

For nearly five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts.

His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives -- in seniors who know new dignity; in families that know new opportunity; in children who know education's promise; and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just, including me.

In the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth and good cheer. He battled passionately on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear, and yet still maintained warm friendships across party lines. And that's one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy.

I personally valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I've benefited as President from his encouragement and wisdom.

His fight gave us the opportunity we were denied when his brothers John and Robert were taken from us: the blessing of time to say thank you and goodbye. The outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories to which we've all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives.

For America, he was a defender of a dream. For his family, he was a guardian. Our hearts and prayers go out to them today -- to his wonderful wife, Vicki, his children Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara, his grandchildren and his extended family.

Today, our country mourns. We say goodbye to a friend and a true leader who challenged us all to live out our noblest values. And we give thanks for his memory, which inspires us still.

Sincerely,

President Barack Obama






Paid for by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee -- 430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

This email was sent to: stephen_darbeau@yahoo.com

Discourse on Voluntary Servitude

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Nonfiction
Author:	ÉTIENNE DE LA BOÉTIE,

Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
The Discours sur la servitude volontaire
of
ÉTIENNE DE LA BOÉTIE,
1548
Rendered into English by
HARRY KURZ

[Published under the title
ANTI-DICTATOR]

New York: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS: 1942.

DEDICATION

COPYRIGHT 1942
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK
First printing, January, 1942
Second printing, June, 1942
[Copyright not renewed, so now in public domain.]

Foreign agents:
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, Humphrey Milford, Amen House, London, E.G. 4, England,
AND B. I. Building, Nicol Road, Bombay, India

http://www.constitution.org/la_boetie/serv_vol.htm

The Central question is; why do people consent to their own enslavement?
To overcome tyranny and oppression all one must do is withdraw consent and support.
The most important insights gathered from the text are humans are free by nature.
It is also true "in the beginning men submit under constraint and by force; but those who come later obey willingly and without regret". Custom then becomes the first reason for voluntary servitude.
I've found the text heroic in nature and insightful especially for a Black man here in the wilderness of north america

Which death was more tragic for America, Ted Kennedy or Billy Mays?

Which death was more tragic for America, Ted Kennedy or Billy May?

Billy

 

 3

Ted

 

 5

Equally tragic

 

 0

Good riddence to both

 

 0

I would say Billy Mays. He brought us OxyClean. It not only keeps my concert shirts bright and looking like new, but it's great for digressing parts, cleaning the barbecue, and all around household chores. Just name something that tipsy Ted did that had that positive affect on Americans.

Sure you may say, "But Billy was a sales genius. He could sell porn to the Pope." But I would point out that it would have been a disaster if Ted had that kind of sales ability. We would have lost the cold war, and both gulf wars. And we would have had the cap in trade tax, the elimination of the secrete ballot for workers in union elections, and obamacare by the time congress went on break.

Dr. Andrew Weil: Fear, Greed and X-Rays

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/fear-greed-and-x-rays_b_270828.html
Physicians like to discuss the fear side, because it shifts the blame to lawyers. The greed side, however, deserves just as much scrutiny and reform. Consider "The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care," a must-read New Yorker article by Atul Gawande, M.D. Gawande visited McAllen, Texas, to discover why per-capita health care expenditures there are the highest in the nation. He found that many physicians in high-medical-cost cities such as McAllen have a diversified "revenue stream," the result of what one hospital administrator termed "entrepreneurial spirit." This "spirit" often manifested in physicians owning their own medical testing equipment, which meant the more tests they ordered, the more money they made. A 2002 University of North Carolina study showed doctors who own imaging equipment sent patients for roughly two to eight times more imaging tests than those who don't own.

In Gawande's article, a McAllen doctor who refused to hop aboard this gravy train had a more sensible take on the local "spirit." "Medicine has become a pig trough here," he said. "We took a wrong turn when doctors stopped being doctors and became businessmen."

Lest you think the only drawback of over-scanning is wasted billions, note that from 1980 to 2006, per-capita radiation dosage from medical testing more than quintupled. A controversial study published in the November 29, 2007, New England Journal of Medicine estimated that computed tomography (CT) scans -- the type of imaging that has grown most explosively -- administered today could eventually cause up to 2% of cancer deaths.

As with fear, greed also propels expensive, inappropriate treatment. If a clinic loses money each time it counsels a patient to control type 2 diabetes with diet and exercise, but makes a hefty profit when it amputates a foot riddled with diabetic ulcers, how long will it continue to emphasize the former?

No Longer About Health Care

A Penn & Schoen and Berland survey for AARP survey finds that, for all the noise about health care, most citizens have no idea what the debate is about:

Very few (only 37%) are able to correctly define the term “public option,” even when given only 3 options to choose from. (That’s nearly the equivalent probability that one would expect if everyone were just guessing.)

And when asked to categorize supporters and opponents, Americans tend to expect a landscape similar to 1993 – when pharmaceutical and health insurance companies and lobbyists united in opposition to proposed reforms – rather than grasp the reality of 2009’s process, which has garnered some support from such parties.

My own impression -- and read Jonathan Martin and Russ Smith, among others for more along these lines -- is that this may not matter. The health care debate is no longer about health care: It's about partisan politics, change and fear of change, technology, and the role of government. It may be possible to turn the debate in the Senate back toward policy; I don't see how the public debate becomes wonkier.

Obama Boosts Book Sales

Ever since news of President Obama's reading picks for his summer vacation went public, sales of the books have skyrocketed on Amazon.com, reports Politico.

Wall Street Journal: "To be sure, it doesn't take many sales to move the needle on Amazon. But the presidential effect is clear: when Amazon asks on the site, 'What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?', guess what books come up pretty much every time? The other four."

Obama Approval Falls to 50%

The Gallup Daily Tracking poll shows President Obama's approval rating hitting 50% -- a new low since he's been president.

Unemployment in Detroit Hits 28.9%

"The unemployment rate in the city of Detroit rose to 28.9 percent in July, the highest rate of unemployment since Michigan started keeping modern numbers," ABC News reports.

Rep. Rush Builds Church with Campaign Cash

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/notepad/2009/08/rep-rush-builds-church-with-ca.html
Over the past five years, Rep. Bobby L. Rush has spent more than a tenth of his campaign's receipts on the church he founded, a tidy tithe totaling $152,777.

It's an example of how the campaign finance system allows candidates and office-holders to redirect funds to institutions they care about.

Other lawmakers have influenced their communities -- and preserved their legacies -- by setting up tax-exempt nonprofits, often in the defense and technology industries, to take advantage of federal grant, contract and earmark opportunities.

Useful Idiots on the Left

Mark Alexander

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents...." --James Madison

Nineteenth-century historian Alexis de Tocqueville once observed, "Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."

Tocqueville was commenting on liberty and free enterprise, American style, versus socialism as envisioned by emerging protagonists of centralized state governments. And he saw on the horizon a looming threat -- a threat that would challenge the freedoms writ in the blood and toil of our nation's Founders.

Indeed, a century after Tocqueville penned those words, elitist Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt tossed aside much of our nation's Constitution. Though its author, James Madison, noted in Federalist Paper No. 45 that "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined [and] will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce," FDR summarily redefined the role of the central government by way of myriad extra-constitutional decrees, and greatly expanded the central government far beyond the strict limits set by our Constitution.

FDR, perhaps unwittingly, used the Great Depression to establish a solid foundation for socialism in America, as best evidenced in this dubious proclamation: "Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle."

If Roosevelt's "American principle" sounds somewhat familiar, then you're likely a student of history (or The Patriot). Not to be confused with the Biblical principle in the Gospel according to Luke, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required...", which some Leftist do-gooders cite as justification for socialist policies, Roosevelt was essentially paraphrasing the gospel according to Karl Marx, whose maxim declared, "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

Some have suggested that Socialism is a Biblical concept, but the Bible places the burden of responsibility for stewardship on the individual, while Marx, FDR and his Leftist successors advocate that the state should enforce redistribution of wealth. In failing to discern this distinction, FDR set the stage for the entrapment of future generations by the welfare state and the incremental shift from self-reliance to dependence upon the state -- ultimately the state of tyranny.

English writer, sociologist and historian H.G. Wells, whose last work, The Holy Terror, profiled the psychological development of a modern dictator based on the careers of Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler, said of Roosevelt's reign, "The great trouble with you Americans is that you are still under the influence of that second-rate -- shall I say third-rate? -- mind, Karl Marx."

More to the point, Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev said of Roosevelt's "New Deal" paradigm shift, "We can't expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have communism."

Like Khrushchev, perennial Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas wrote: "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."

FDR never embraced self-reliance as the essential ingredient of a free society, nor have his Demo-successors Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Albert Gore, John Kerry and Barack Obama.

Why?

Perhaps it's because most leftist protagonists and their benefactors come from tragically broken families (see Pathology of the Left) compounded by the fact that many of them inherited their wealth, their privilege and their political office.

The character of these "inheritance-welfare liberals" -- those who were raised dependent on inheritance rather than self-reliance -- is all but indistinguishable from the character and values of their constituencies who have been inculcated to depend on state welfare.

Today, eight decades after FDR seeded American socialism, the Soviet Union is but a memory. Former Soviet Block countries are thriving on low taxes and free enterprise. In addition, China and most other states with centralized economies (Cuba notwithstanding) are undergoing a dramatic shift toward free-enterprise -- as well as the political challenges that accompany such a shift. Yet despite the collapse of socialism around the world, wealthy liberals still dominate the Democrat Party and control their Leftmedia propaganda machine. They continue to advocate all manner of dependence upon the state (the poor man's trust fund), but have always been more dedicated to their country clubs than our country.

Western apologists for socialist political and economic agendas are nothing more than "useful idiots" advocating Marxist-Leninist-Maoist collectivism.

The great promise of socialism was to replace the alleged uncertainty of markets with the comforting certainty of a central economic plan. Socialized central planning has failed in every national application.

In 1916, a minister and outspoken advocate for liberty, William J. H. Boetcker, published a pamphlet entitled The Ten Cannots:

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

Fact is that government cannot give to anybody what it does not first take from somebody else. And as Thomas Jefferson noted, a government that is big enough to give you anything, is big enough to take it away.

However, now the once great Democrat Party is replete with western apologists for socialist political and economic agendas advocating, essentially, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist collectivism -- the antithesis of Boetcker's principles of free enterprise.

Indeed, as George Bernard Shaw wrote, "A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."

Has America learned its lessons, or is our great nation still under the spell of its useful idiots? Perhaps one day an American majority will reject the propaganda of the Left and their inheritance-welfare benefactors, will restore our Constitution as the central authority of the land, and will reclaim self-reliance as the central character of our people.

If not, then tyranny will prevail and we will be a slave to the cycle of democracy:

From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty (rule of law); From liberty to abundance; From abundance to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage (rule of men). (Attributed to Frasier Tytler)

The only economic philosophy congruent with individual liberty and limited government is free market capitalism. Individuals contribute to this system through personal industry and initiative; government contributes by confining its regulatory activity within constitutional limits and by employing a system of taxation that is uniform (Fair or Flat) and comprehensible for all citizens. Entitlements and welfare schemes destroy not only personal initiative and responsibility, but also liberty and prosperity. Political freedom is inseparable from economic freedom. Thus, when the government stays within its constitutional role, America prospers.

http://64.203.107.114/alexander/edition.asp?id=275

 

"Capitalism: A Love Story" Trailer

Moore has said of the film, which opens nationwide October 2:

"I made this movie as if it was going to be the last movie I was allowed to make." And, on the film itself, "It's got it all - lust, passion, romance and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day."

Banks 'Too Big to Fail' Have Grown Even Bigger

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/27/AR2009082704193.html
Behemoths Born of the Bailout Reduce Consumer Choice, Tempt Corporate Moral Hazard.

When the credit crisis struck last year, federal regulators pumped tens of billions of dollars into the nation's leading financial institutions because the banks were so big that officials feared their failure would ruin the entire financial system.

Today, the biggest of those banks are even bigger.

The crisis may be turning out very well for many of the behemoths that dominate U.S. finance. A series of federally arranged mergers safely landed troubled banks on the decks of more stable firms. And it allowed the survivors to emerge from the turmoil with strengthened market positions, giving them even greater control over consumer lending and more potential to profit.

Re-Remics: Wall Street's Old Bad Ideas Are Back

http://tr.im/xhJc
funny - and horrible

Hey kids, remember how once upon a time, a bunch of smarty-pants Wall Street types decided that they could reap a crap-ton of magical treasure by repackaging good mortgages and bad mortgages and snips and snails and puppy-dog tails into massive collateralized debt obligations, presented them butter-side-up to various ratings agencies, earned AAA-ratings, then launched a series of high-stakes bets on their financial performance, leveraged out the ass, with AIG covering everybody's bets? It was a brilliant idea that only hit a teensy little hitch when the housing market didn't keep expanding, forever, like the universe, and the whole infernal house of cards collapsed? GOOD TIMES.

Anyway, those good times are set to roll again! Enter the Re-Remic, which stands for "resecuritization of real estate mortgage investment conduits." Now, WTF does that mean, exactly? Sam Jones at FT/Alphaville calls it "mutton dressed as lamb." "Or," he says, "in the patois of the international back-office banking shameless: recooked CDOs."

A re-remic is - to all intents and purposes - a CDO. A collateralised debt obligation. It's a CDO with a few structural quirks like low granularity or sequential capital repayment that are supposed to convince investors it's a different thing entirely.

A re-remic though...targets a specific bond, and then rejuices it. Take, for example, a subprime CDO triple-A tranche. Said tranche may rather have suffered of late. So why not re-remic it? Take the suffering triple A bond (perhaps its now AA) and then put it through the CDO tranching machine again: carve out, from that single bond, another set of tranches, one of which, according to subordination and other tricks, will be triple-A once more.

Does any of this seem familiar? Unless you are, say, the main character from the movie Memento, you might, like the Awl's Alex Balk, recognize Re-Remics as something that looks "a lot like the collateralized debt obligations that helped bring about the recession in the first place." That's because that's exactly what they are! But, as Balk gently snarks, "this time it will be different, because the only thing that could go wrong is that the housing market loses further value, and we all know that can't happen, because of, I dunno, magic!"

So, as long as nothing happens to the housing market, everything will be fine! Say, how is the ol' housing market projected to perform in the next few months?

The New York Times, August 26, 2009:

As the housing market seeks a bottom, option ARMs, which accounted for $750 billion in mortgages made from 2004 to 2007, according to the industry newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance, remain a risk, especially because many are not eligible for refinancing. About a third are already in default, according to analysts.

Compared with subprime loans, option ARMs are fewer but tend to have larger balances. Resets on option ARMs in recent years have often doubled the payments.

"Everyone's been focused on subprime, but we're more concerned about this," said Todd Jadlos, managing director of LPS Applied Analytics, which analyzes data for the financial industry. "By the time subprime defaults had increased 200 percent, in June and July of 2007, option ARMs had gone up 400 percent. People just didn't notice because the overall numbers weren't as high."

Story continues below

advertisement

First American CoreLogic anticipates 600,000 option ARMS will reset within four years.

Yikes! That does not sound good for the health of the housing market, does it? Oh well, at least we have Benjamin Bernanke, and his solid history of watching over the derivatives market, to fall back on!

Anyway, the word is "Re-Remic," and it rhymes with "pandemic."

and cynic. and triaminic.

Idaho GOPer Jokes About Hunting Obama

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/27/rex-rammell-idaho-goper-j_n_270751.html
An Idaho Republican gubernatorial hopeful insists he was only joking when he said he'd buy a license to hunt President Barack Obama.

Freudian slip or bad taste?

How Nelson Mandela's Legacy Hurts South Africa

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214032?from=rss
South Africans feel so indebted to Nelson Mandela that they prefer his successors to emulate him rather than to govern.

Inhofe: I'll Vote Against Reform Without Reading Bill

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) admitted this week that he would vote against health care reform without reading the bill, or knowing what was in it.

At a town hall meeting Wednesday Sen. Jim Inhofe told Chickasha residents he does not need to read the 1,000 page health care reform bill, he will simply vote against it.


"I don't have to read it, or know what's in it. I'm going to oppose it anyways," he said.

Inhofe said he was able to form such a strong, yet uninformed opinion through polls and the media.

Republicans challenged Democrats to read the whole bill this summer -- even though Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell later admitted that he hadn't.

In July, Inhofe said that stalling or blocking health care reform would be a "huge gain" for Republicans in the 2010 election.

Obama wins praise for Katrina

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090827/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_katrina_obama
Well lookie here...

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama pledged to right the wrongs he said bogged down efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Seven months into the job, he's earning high praise from some unlikely places.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., says Obama's team has brought a more practical and flexible approach. Many local officials offer similar reviews. Even Doug O'Dell, former President George W. Bush's recovery coordinator, says the Obama administration's "new vision" appears to be turning things around.

Abraham, Martin and John

This is revolutionary.They were gunned down for their beliefs.Thats the way to go right wing.

Digital Roam: American health care on (4) napkins. Now all together!

http://digitalroam.typepad.com/digital_roam/2009/08/american-health-care-on-4-napkins-now-all-together.html
Digital Roam: American health care on (4) napkins. Now all together!

You can now download my entire series of four "back of the napkin" health care sketches as a single PDF file here.

very nice

Liberal Lies in National Health Care

　

With the Democrats getting slaughtered -- or should I say, "receiving mandatory end-of-life counseling" -- in the debate over national health care, the Obama administration has decided to change the subject by indicting CIA interrogators for talking tough to three of the world's leading Muslim terrorists. Had I been asked, I would have advised them against reinforcing the idea that Democrats are hysterical bed-wetters who can't be trusted with national defense while also reminding people of the one thing everyone still admires about President George W. Bush. But I guess the Democrats really want to change the subject. Thus, here is Part 2 in our series of liberal lies about national health care. (6) There will be no rationing under national health care. Anyone who says that is a liar. And all Democrats are saying it. (Hey, look -- I have two-thirds of a syllogism!) Apparently, promising to cut costs by having a panel of Washington bureaucrats (for short, "The Death Panel") deny medical treatment wasn't a popular idea with most Americans. So liberals started claiming that they are going to cover an additional 47 million uninsured Americans and cut costs ... without ever denying a single medical treatment! Also on the agenda is a delicious all-you-can-eat chocolate cake that will actually help you lose weight! But first, let's go over the specs for my perpetual motion machine -- and it uses no energy, so it's totally green!

　

For you newcomers to planet Earth, everything that does not exist in infinite supply is rationed. In a free society, people are allowed to make their own rationing choices.

Some people get new computers every year; some every five years. Some White House employees get new computers and then vandalize them on the way out the door when their candidate loses. (These are the same people who will be making decisions about your health care.)

Similarly, one person might say, "I want to live it up and spend freely now! No one lives forever." (That person is a Democrat.) And another might say, "I don't go to restaurants, I don't go to the theater, and I don't buy expensive designer clothes because I've decided to pour all my money into my health."

Under national health care, you'll have no choice about how to ration your own health care. If your neighbor isn't entitled to a hip replacement, then neither are you. At least that's how the plan was explained to me by our next surgeon general, Dr. Conrad Murray.

(7) National health care will reduce costs.

This claim comes from the same government that gave us the $500 hammer, the $1,200 toilet seat and postage stamps that increase in price every three weeks.

The last time liberals decided an industry was so important that the government needed to step in and contain costs was when they set their sights on the oil industry. Liberals in both the U.S. and Canada -- presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter and Canadian P.M. Pierre Trudeau -- imposed price controls on oil.

As night leads to day, price controls led to reduced oil production, which led to oil shortages, skyrocketing prices for gasoline, rationing schemes and long angry lines at gas stations.

You may recall this era as "the Carter years."

Then, the white knight Ronald Reagan became president and immediately deregulated oil prices. The magic of the free market -- aka the "profit motive" -- produced surges in oil exploration and development, causing prices to plummet. Prices collapsed and remained low for the next 20 years, helping to fuel the greatest economic expansion in our nation's history

by Ann Coulter

　

　

　

http://townhall.com/columnists/AnnCoulter/2009/08/26/liberal_lies_in_national_health_care_second_in_a_series

'Cruel and neglectful' care of one million NHS patients exposed

Telegraph.co.uk

One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today.

　

'Cruel and neglectful' care of one million NHS patients exposed

One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today.

The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff.

The Patients Association said the dossier proves that while the scale of the scandal at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust - where up to 1,200 people died through failings in urgent care - was a one off, there are repeated examples they have uncovered of the same appalling standards throughout the NHS.

While the criticisms cover all aspects of hospital care, the treatment and attitude of nurses stands out as a repeated theme across almost all of the cases.

They have called on Government and the Care Quality Commission to conduct an urgent review of standards of basic hospital care and to enforce stricter supervision and regulation

Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association and a former nurse, said:“For far too long now, the Patients Association has been receiving calls on our helpline from people wanting to talk about the dreadful, neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel treatment their elderly relatives had experienced at the hands of NHS nurses.

“I am sickened by what has happened to some part of my profession of which I was so proud.

"These bad, cruel nurses may be - probably are - a tiny proportion of the nursing work force, but even if they are only one or two percent of the whole they should be identified and struck off the Register.”

The charity has published a selection of personal accounts from hundreds of relatives of patients, most of whom died, following their care in NHS hospitals.

They cite patient surveys which show the vast majority of patients highly rate their NHS care - but, with some ten million treated a year, even a small percentage means hundreds of thousands have suffered.

Ms Rayner said it was by "sad coincidence" that she trained as a nurse with one of the patients who had "suffered so much".

She went on: "I know that she, like me, was horrified by the appalling care she had before she died.

"We both came from a generation of nurses who were trained at the bedside and in whom the core values of nursing were deeply inculcated."

Katherine Murphy, Director of the Patients Association, said “Whilst Mid Staffordshire may have been an anomaly in terms of scale the PA knew the kinds of appalling treatment given there could be found across the NHS. This report removes any doubt and makes this clear to all. Two of the accounts come from Stafford, and they sadly fail to stand out from the others.

“These accounts tell the story of the two percent of patients that consistently rate their care as poor (in NHS patient surveys).

"If this was extrapolated to the whole of the NHS from 2002 to 2008 it would equate to over one million patients. Very often these are the most vulnerable elderly and terminally ill patients. It’s a sad indictment of the care they receive.”

The Patients Association said one hospital had threatened it with legal action if it chose to publish the material.

Pamela Goddard, a piano teacher from Bletchingley, in Surrey, was 82 and suffering with cancer but was left in her own excrement and her condition deteriorated due to her bed sores.

Florence Weston, from Sedgley in the West Midlands, died aged 85 and had to remain without food or water for several days as her hip operation was repeated cancelled.

The charity released the dossier to highlight the poor care which a minority of patients in the NHS are subjected to.

Ms Murphy said the numbers rating care as poor came despite investment in the NHS doubling and the number of frontline nurses increasing by more than a quarter since 1996.

The personal stories were revealed to prevent their cases being ignored as only representing a small portion of patients.

The report said: "These are patients, not numbers. These are people, not statistics."

Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said he was concerned that public confidence in the NHS could be undermined by the examples cited and it would affect morale in hardworking staff.

He said: “The level of care described by these families is completely unacceptable, and we will not condone nurses who behave in ways that are contrary to the principles and ethics of the profession.

"However we believe that the vast majority of nurses are decent, highly skilled individuals.

“This report is based on the two per cent of patients who feel that their care was unacceptable. Two per cent is too many but we are concerned that this might undermine the public’s confidence in the world-class care they can expect to receive from the NHS."

Barbara Young, Chairman of the Care Quality Commission, the super-regulator, said: “It is absolutely right to highlight that standards of hospital care can vary from very good to poor.

“Many people are happy with the care they receive, but we also know that there are problems.

“I am in no doubt that many hospitals need to raise their game in this area.

“Where NHS trusts fail to meet the mark, we have tough new enforcement powers, ranging from warnings and fines to closure in extreme cases. We will not hesitate to use these powers when necessary to bring improvement.

"We will be asking NHS trusts and primary care trusts how they are ensuring that the needs of patients and their safety and dignity are kept at the heart of care.”

Chris Beasley, Chief Nursing Officer at the Department of Health said the care in the cases highlighted by the PA was “simply unacceptable”.

She added: "It is important to note this is not representative of the picture across the NHS.

"The NHS treats millions of people every day and the vast majority of patients experience good quality, safe and effective care - the Care Quality Commission's recent patient experience survey shows that 93 percent of patients rate their overall care as good or excellent.

"We will shortly be publishing complaints data on the NHS Choices website and expect trusts to publish the number of complaints they receive, setting out how these are successfully resolved."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6092658/Cruel-and-neglectful-care-of-one-million-NHS-patients-exposed.html

Democratic Health Care Bill Divulges IRS Tax Data

(AP)One of the problems with any proposed law that's over 1,000 pages long and

constantly changing is that much deviltry can lie in the details. Take the Democrats' proposal to rewrite health care policy, better known as H.R. 3200 or by opponents as "Obamacare." (Here's our CBS News television coverage.)

Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and "other information as is prescribed by" regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for "affordability credits."

Section 245(b)(2)(A) says the IRS must divulge tax return details -- there's no specified limit on what's available or unavailable -- to the Health Choices Commissioner. The purpose, again, is to verify "affordability credits."

Section 1801(a) says that the Social Security Administration can obtain tax return data on anyone who may be eligible for a "low-income prescription drug subsidy" but has not applied for it.

Over at the Institute for Policy Innovation (a free-market think tank and presumably no fan of Obamacare), Tom Giovanetti argues that: "How many thousands of federal employees will have access to your records? The privacy of your health records will be only as good as the most nosy, most dishonest and most malcontented federal employee.... So say good-bye to privacy from the federal government. It was fun while it lasted for 233 years."

I'm not as certain as Giovanetti that this represents privacy's Armageddon. (Though I do wonder where the usual suspects like the Electronic Privacy Information Center are. Presumably inserting limits on information that can be disclosed -- and adding strict penalties on misuse of the information kept on file about hundreds of millions of Americans -- is at least as important as fretting about Facebook's privacy policy in Canada.)

A better candidate for a future privacy crisis is the so-called stimulus bill enacted with limited debate early this year. It mandated the "utilization of an electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014," but included only limited privacy protections.

Kennedy Remembered As Civil Rights Champion

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112251970
Sen. Edward Kennedy's skills were never more successful and constant than in the area of civil rights: for minorities, for women, for the disabled and for immigrants.

Over nearly five decades, the Massachusetts Democrat, who died Tuesday at age 77, assumed an increasingly important role in framing the nation's civil rights laws and in leading the opposition to Supreme Court nominees he viewed as hostile to civil rights.

Perhaps it was the NINA — No Irish Need Apply — signs his grandfather told him about in Boston. Perhaps it was the moral legacy left unfinished by his assassinated brothers. Whatever the reason, Kennedy long identified with those who are left out and left behind. Over the course of almost a half-century in the Senate, Kennedy would lead the fight for enactment of a truly astonishing list of civil rights laws.

Womans Health

EmpowHer - Women's Health Online
Browse All Health Topics Home CommunityASK SHARE HerStory HerArticles Connect Media LibraryVideo Audio Articles Encyclopedia News Health Events Providers Experts Log in Join Us Find Out Why Dedicated to EmpowHer'ing women's health and well-being Her WriterHealth Care Reform: Granny Knows Why You Need a Public Health Care PlanWritten by francine on August 26, 2009 - 9:24am

Her Writerfrancine Roger Ebert, famous film reviewer and also a cancer patient, thinks we should enact universal health care because it is morally right. Bill Moyers, 75, is devoting his acclaimed Journal to examining health care reform. And I, in the shadow of giants, have spent the summer immersed in advocacy for health care reform. Ebert, Moyers, and I have one thing in common: we are all on Medicare. Our health care is assured.

There is truly a generational divide on the issue of health care reform. Those of us who, through advancing age have been forced to connect with the health care system, are agitating for reform. Is it for ourselves? No way. We are already on the public plan. We have no reason to fight. But we’re doing it because we have children and grandchildren, relatives and friends, and we are all part of America.

On my Facebook wall, people keep writing that they don’t want the government running health care, that they don’t think they need health insurance, that they can go it on their own.

All I can say is, they’ve never been ill — which is wonderful. But bound to come to an end. And it’s not until you, or a family member, are sick, that you understand why this is such an important issue.

Who understands? Veterans. Elderly people. People with disabilities and chronic conditions. People with sick children, or with HIV. People forced to contact the system.

The rest of you, Obama’s liberal children and conservatives who fear government intervention can sit out this fight, because we are going to get health care reform for you. Not so much for ourselves, because we are on, or nearly on, Medicare. We will be okay. It’s you who may suffer.

Fortunately, there are a lot of us. It’s very difficult to be a Boomer or older and be against health care reform, because you may have ten years until you can limp over the finish line to Medicare, and those will be ten years of very expensive insurance– even if you work for a large corporation. Unfortunately, the sheer demographic impact of an aging population will drive up premiums as well as costs. And during that time, you may find yourself uninsurable if things go on the way they are now. And then if you get sick, you will be bankrupt. We will be forced to use the system more as we age, because we will need those inhalers, stents, radiation treatments, mammograms, hip replacements, and glycometers.

We already know this, because we are either there, or have already been there. I spent ten years paying for my entire health care. I arrived at Medicare nearly unable to walk. Luckily, I had always taken care of myself and didn’t have any internal problems, just orthopedic decrepitude from running and lifting weights. Still, I was damned glad to get on the public plan and get my hip replacement. Could I have waited another six months if I had been in Canada? Sure. What I wanted was to be free of pain and not have to pay $50,000 for that privilege.

We are not afraid anyone will pull the plug on us. In fact, the closer we get to that time, the more we pray we can get someone to stop treating us when our conditions are hopeless and let us go quietly without pain and suffering, without toxic chemo that won’t help or surgeries that are unproven and just weaken us further.

Theme : 6 Main Lies Have Nothing To Do With This Promising Reform.

Inaction cost, $9trillion over the next decade, can not be compared to the balance between estimate and outcome in a worst case of scenario. Time does not fix endless greed and energy depletion.

When the public health is also one of commodity like a house, we come to a tragic and unthinkable conclusion : As to for-profit business, the more and longer ill patients get, the more profits they make, and it will debilitate the overall economy involving education for the future, not to mention continued bankruptcy of middle class.

Of young adults ages 19 to 29, 13.2 million, or 29 percent, lacked coverage in 2007, and that implies the total of this promising reform will be cheaper than expected, I guess.

1. The contents of savings (below) in this reform 'have nothing to do with' limit to medical access, rationing, tax raise, and deficit etc.

Rather, without wiping out these wastes and roots of bankruptcy for middle class, all fronts are sure to face larger financial ruin than this recession, which leads to more limit to medical access, more rationing, more tax raise, and more deficit etc than today.

$1.042trillion (cost of reform) + $245bn (cost to reflect annual pay raise of docs) = $1.287bn (actual cost of reform).

$583bn (the revenue package) + $80bn (so-called doughnut hole) + $155bn (savings from hospitals) + $167bn (ending the unnecessary subsidies for insurers) + 129bn(mandate-related fine based on shared responsibility) + $277bn (ending medical fraud, a minimum of 3% , the combined Medicare and Medicaid cost of $923.5bn per year, as of July,) = $1.391trillion + the reduced cost of ER visits (Medicare covers some 40% of the total) + the tax code on the wealthiest more reduced than originally proposed = why not ? (except for a magic pill, an outcome-based payment reform & IT effects and so forth).

As lawmakers debate how to pay for an overhaul of the nation's health care system, a new report from The Commonwealth Fund claims that including both private and public insurance choices in a new insurance exchange would save the United States as much as $265 billion in administrative costs from 2010 to 2020.

"Health reform can help pay for itself, but both private and public insurance choices are critically important," said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis, who coauthored the new report. "A public insurance plan can help drive new efficiencies in the system that will produce large cost reductions. Without a public plan, much of those potential savings will be lost."

Unlike high fuel price and mortgage rate in recent years as the roots of great recession and bankruptcy of middle class, the severity in the high cost of health premiums has come to light lately. Similarly, in an attempt to hide these deficit-driven corruptions and wastes, the greed allies struggle to turn the savings via removing these wastes into limit to medical access, rationing, tax raise, and deficit etc.

In contrast, not to mention a wide range of consumer protection, options across state lines, this promising reform takes initiatives in more primary care docs and improved long-term care. Unnecessarily, hope should not be replaced with all forms of malign lies, fear, just like people don't have to fear quitting drug.

2. Greedy insurers with no competitors by consolidation have nothing to do with the law of price, demand & supply.

Under the free market theory and the premise that the public health is also one of commodity like a house, if the demand decreases on a large scale, accordingly the price tends to reflect it, as in the case of house price, and it never happens for the price to spiral up. One step forward, in case the price is spiraling up, to be sure, the remaining clients should withdraw the contract or choose the other options. In practice, runaway premiums with no competitors by consolidation drive the enrollees out, and 4C + 2R (canceling, capping, cherry-picking, cash for special lobby, rationing, rapid premium hike) guarantee multiple times as much profit. Sadly, no way-out other than the prohibitive ER is allowed in America. Therefore, the victims today and tomorrow deserve long overdue protection from non-profit Government.

3. The plans to stem inflation in the House have nothing to do with crowd-out.
With the heartbreaking tears in mind (In no other industrialized country do 20,000 people die each year because they can’t afford to see doctor. Nearly 11 Million Cancer Patients Without Health Insurance), private market also needs changes and should join together to complete this reform , as promised, otherwise, the runaway premium only has itself to blame while new firms are filling the void with competitive deals.
And It can be said that fair competition starts with a fair, sustainable market value.

However, the plan in the House is designed to keep people in an employer-based health insurance system, and the public option would be offered to those for whom employer-provided insurance is not available. And job-based coverage (indirect payment), some mandate code, ample capital, the reduced exorbitant ER costs, IT base to streamline the administrative processes and trim the costs might be favorable to the private market. Over time, supposedly, the public plan will concentrate more on basic, primary cares, and the private insurers will provide their clients with differentiated services. And focus should be on the uninsured, the underinsured.

-- Except For The Underinsured, The Uninsured Alone Outnumber The Entire Population In Canada --

In an attempt to avert innovation, moderation, and social responsibility, accusing essential affordability, citing take-over, will be a dirty play.

4. Profit-driven markets have nothing to do with affordable, sustainable public health.

When the public health is also one of commodity like a house, we come to a tragic and unthinkable conclusion : As to for-profit business, the more and longer ill patients get, the more profits they make, and it will debilitate the overall economy involving education for the future (Of young adults ages 19 to 29, 13.2 million, or 29 percent, lacked coverage in 2007).

Under the most wasteful structure on the planet like no coordinated preventive care program waiting until people get ill, about 50% of idle world's best practices, a pay for each and every service reimbursement and frequent readmissions, no e-medical record and deaths, crushing litigations and the more profits via the unnecessary, risk-carrying procedures, and the most inefficient paper billing systems imaginable, overpriced pharmaceuticals, bloated insurance companies, incredible medial fraud, exorbitant costs by the tragic ER visits etc, it might be no wonder with the comprehensive, systematic reform in the pipeline, just one attitude of patient-oriented value in 10 regions has attained 16% of savings in Medicare while their quality scores are well above average.

Aside from the already allocated $583 billion and the savings of this reform package, 16% of $923.5bn (the combined Medicare and Medicaid cost per year, as of July) is around $147.76bn per year and 1.4776trillion over the next decade, and this patient-oriented value alone could be enough to meet the goal.


Today, another innovative, fundamental change in payment system, or patient's outcome based payment reform that is able to turn the profit-oriented malpractices and volume into the patient-oriented value and quality is waiting for a final decision.

5. Inflation-driven greedy allies backed by the insurers have nothing to do with deficit-neutral.

When some part of our body is ailing seriously, we are going to lose competitiveness, equally, when some part of a nation is ailing servery, it is going to loose competitiveness, too. In case somebody in the house gets ill, health will be put over house, in practice.

6. The analyses of CBO have nothing to do with common sense and practice.

Costs of Preventable Chronic Disease account for around 75% of the nation’s $2.4 trillion medical care costs. U.S. health care spending is also expected to double in the next 10 years. and they are largely preventable -- 80 percent of the risk factors are behavior-related.

Unlike the analyses of CBO, world-wide outstanding public programs put heavier emphasis on preventive program equally, and preventable swine flu pandemic is expected to cost about $2trillion dollars world-wide for the lack of prepared vaccines. (Genes included in the new swine flu have been circulating undetected in pigs for at least a decade, according to a team led by Rebecca Garten of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who have sequenced the genomes of more than 50 samples of the virus).

If CBO asks the profit-driven interests about why they have hindered the budget request for preventive program in Medicare and Medicaid, they will say, " just look at the health Catrina special lobbying has made, the more and longer ill, the more profits, we are professional, and we are obstructing this reform right now, too " .

7. Conclusion : The public health is a fundamental human right.

As I said above, patient-oriented value alone could be enough to meet the goal, and another innovative, fundamental change in payment system, or patient's outcome based payment reform that is able to turn the profit-oriented malpractices and volume into the patient-oriented value and quality is waiting for a final decision.

If At least, some media pay attention to this flower of reform, people will feel empty as the past and current discussion has been time-consuming for sure.

Thank You !