Mike's Blog Roundup
By Mike Finnigan Thursday Jul 02, 2009 7:00amSensen No Sen: The health care crisis oligopoly and the real weight of the AMA
The Stranger: A classic example of the Gay Panic Defense
Jack & Jill Politics: New video from @WeekInBlackness - BET doesn't care about black people
D-Day: The Maze of Food Policy
NotionsCapital: American Milestone - 2.75 ton of fudge!
James Wolcott: Sarah Palin taunts John McCain with her runaway caboose
Login or Register to post comments.
Here's Obama's response to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden's "universal coverage" plan being introduced in the Senate: "It's too radical."
A "radical restructuring" would meet "significant political resistance," Obama said, and "families who are currently relatively satisfied with their insurance but are worried about rising costs ... would get real nervous about a wholesale change."
(from today's Portland "Oregonian")
You can read the whole article:
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/...
Basically, then, Obama is hoping to "insure" all Americans through an employer-based system. No word on what happens to microserfs and wage-slaves who contract cancer but are cut to part-time.
we don't want to shock the system.
at least obama is looking out for the 6.32% (i made that number up, it is probably lower) of american families that are 'relatively satisfied' (whatever the fuckus that means), the rest of us, well, we are just... wait for it... radical *plays spooky music*
the healthcare industry has spent too much money on centrist/DLC dems like obama and rahm and baucus and the rest of the corporatists for the dems to actually want real reform. they want managed reform, reform dependent on, and beneficial to, the insurance lobby.
for the centrist dems, and reps, "change" is something that is managed, dictated, shaped and formulated by the establishment, not the people. to establishment politicians (centrists, corporatists, DLC'ers, etc) the people's wants and needs are secondary to the cash industries donate. or, maybe it is third... fourth?
The Kaiser foundation does great work and they publish things like tracking polls of public opinion on health care reform. Here is their latest: http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/7931.pdf
And here is my response to them:
I find it tremendously frustrating that the questions are asked by organizations in the manner that they are.
The question should never be "would you support raising taxes to cover the uninsured," the question should be, ""if your wages increased to reflect your employer no longer paying for your health insurance, would you be willing to pay more taxes to cover the uninsured" or, to those without insurance or buying their own, "if you could be covered by a national health insurance plan, would you be willing to pay higher taxes," or questions like that.
I note in your last section, you point to people believing that this could be done without spending any extra money. This is true, if we adopted a German style Social Health Insurance model or French style single payer model. So, these people are not being foolish, they perhaps just see the tremendous amount of waste in the system and know that if we did things efficiently we would not have to pay more (and I would add, we wouldn't have to pay more after we got through the transition period that would be required).
So I would like to see some organizations asking questions premised on wholesale reform - transformation to a German or French model - rather than continuing to be asked questions premised on rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
"If, rather than minor health care reform, the US adopted a system like Germany's or Frances, with high quality health care for all, no waiting times, and no danger of losing insurance or going bankrupt due to health care costs, would you be willing to pay higher taxes?"
Sincerely,
cmhmd
Isn't employer based health care what we pretty much had in this country for the last few decades until the cost went sky high and companies no longer offered it? Aren't the benefits packages what people claim is keeping American companies from competing? What is a self employed musician like myself or any other independent contractor supposed to do? I spent my whole young adult life trying to find a way to avoid the corporate machine and this is one of the ways people were persuaded to join. If corporations are your only ticket to health, then we again end up slaves to the machine and are required to suckle its tit until our coverage is denied and we die. Bullshit.
Nuns in the U.S. Are Facing Scrutiny by the Vatican
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
The Vatican is quietly conducting two sweeping
investigations of American nuns, leaving some fearful that
they are the targets of a doctrinal inquisition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/us/02nuns.h...
next, nuns will be wearing burkas..... oops! my bad! they already do.
Because American Nuns are developing bad practices
The Committee For Doctrinal Purity (Inqusition) will be looking up their habits.
Here's to looking at you.
PS. I hope the Committee, makes an ass of themselves. ;)
Sounds like my kind of mags.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBta8XyOnwU
All-right, I give up.... :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-QbZCPrvl0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsVovVHVCJE
Much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifBM3SY3G-s
Gotta go 2 the bathroom... aloha ♥
BAD HABITS?
That Wolcott piece is funny. Palin seems to be everything we perceived her to be during the campaign.
over the AIP issue.
Snip - Each mutation on its own increased the risk of developing schizophrenia by about 0.2 per cent but collectively they were found to account for at least a third of the total risk of developing schizophrenia. The condition is known to have a strong inherited component, accounting for about 80 per cent of the total risk, but it is also influenced by upbringing and environment.
Eric Lander, the founding director of the Broad Institute, one of the 11 research centres of the consortium formed from laboratories in the United States, Europe and Australia, which were behind the studies, and a member of Barack Obama's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, said that the pace of research into schizophrenia was accelerating fast. "Over the past year, using techniques designed to study common DNA changes, psychiatric disease geneticists have detected more statistically compelling findings than in the previous 100 years," he said.
[ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/unl... ]
PS. With these fundies going nuts... the sooner we find out the better. :-)
Government releases $4 billion in broadband stimulus funds
The U.S. government Wednesday said that it is releasing $4 billion worth of funds to pay for the first round of broadband projects mandated by the economic stimulus package passed earlier this year.
...providing access to medical care for all would shock the system.
Oh, well. At least we can travel to Venezuela (for the time being). They provide access to all.
?
Joe Conason in truthdig
here
.
But of course they have been handing out checks since april to the Repugs or anybody else who filed electronically.
Its the poor who have to wait or clutch their scrip.
Its amazing and disgusting that an org like a state government has the gall to hand out fake tax rebates when they are technically bankrupt and borrowing money to do so. They should be increasing taxes to make up for the shortfall in their budget, 'rebates' are for when theres a surplas, its blindingly obvious they do not have one, on the contrary they are in shortfall.
Ditto with shares/stocks and companies, in good times they pay out, when the brown stuff hits the fan, technically the company can call on shareholders (owners) to pay money into the company to keep it solvent. Real life most shareholders cut and run, but responsible ones stay if they think the company has a future.
Something isn't quite right. When a corporation/company tries this, the receivers are called in and the board gets investigated by the fraud squad.
Damn, Wolcott is acid. And food regulation has been a mess for decades.
Login or Register to post comments.