Deep Something

Below is a youtube of a segment from Meet The Press this past Sunday in which E. J. Dionne calls out Sen. Orrin Hatch for the Republican’s continuing bullshit about the use of reconciliation to pass things based on a simple majority vote in the Senate. We need to be discussing policy and health insurance reform (or elimination), but instead, all the Republicans can come up with to try to “win” is to run around like Chicken Little complaining that the sky will fall if some Senate procedure is “out-procedured.”

Read more »

Today’s stupid health insurance company tricks includes one lady’s experience of having her insurance company deny paying for the treatment of her broken wrist because it was a “pre-existing condition,” my experience with having denial codes that even the insurance company can’t explain, and the writings of some conservatives who say we can’t reform heath care insurance because it would make a more decent society and let us enjoy more leisure time.

Read more »

Republicans sound like they’re conducting a giant experiment in saying whatever they can get away with, and I suspect they’re surprised as any of us by some of the results. That’s probably too harsh, though. What’s worse is that a good chunk of them might believe the stuff they say.

Read more »

As usual, Keith Olberman does a good job of explaining the need for healthcare reform, and explaining the public option. Olberman cites a comment by Winston Churchill: Churchill’s argument was this, “I have heard it said that the government had no mandate such a doctrine is wholly inadmissible. The responsibility for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate!”

Read more »

CIGNA took in $19.1 billion dollars in revenue last year, with a $292 million dollar income. That doesn’t include the salaries given to people like CEO Ed Hanway. He made a cool $12 million last year, and over the past five years he took in $120 million. Hanway has $28 million in unexcercised stock options.

Read more »

There’s no public option in Senator Max Baucus’ Healthcare bill. Instead, we are forced to buy private insurance. This is a major step backwards for the healthcare reform movement! Watch the video and call your senator at (202) 224-3121.

Read more »

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains what a public option for healthcare coverage really means for working people.

Read more »

What does UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley have to lose if Congress passes real healthcare reform this year? Brave New Films is launching a major new campaign to reveal the truth about the health insurance industry, and we need your help to do it. Contribute $25 today so we can create more campaigns exposing the obscene wealth of the CEOs of Aetna, CIGNA, Humana and WellPoint and the policyholders they’ve abandoned for profit.

Read more »

Al Franken Draws The United States Of America at the SD 29 and Dodge County DFL Joint Fundraiser on April 28, 2007 in Rochester, Minnesota. This is very cool If you have’nt seen this yet.

Read more »

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains what a public option for healthcare coverage really means for working people.Pass it on to everyone you know. We can’t let the insurance companies decide who gets care and who doesn’t.

Read more »

These are interviews with the 60,00 to 70,000 people who turned out for the big Tea Bagger March in Washington. Apparently, you don’t have to really know anything about what you’re protesting. It’s all just bad because it is Obama, and some industry or media flak like Glenn Beck told you to be mad and scared.

Read more »

This week, we had craziness at Walmart in Georgia, Michelle Bachmann coming through for us again, teabaggers berating a lady in a wheelchair at a health care town hall meeting, and Medicare recipient getting treatment for an injury he received while protesting government run health care. But we start with just a tiny bit of the foolishness being spewed over Obama speaking to school children about doing good in schools this year. What a sad place we’ve been brought to in this country by a small group of small-minded and easily manipulated people.

Read more »

While members of the Kennedy family, to this day, continue to enter public service, the death last night of Senator Ted Kennedy brings to an end that original family dynasty. Perhaps the final tragedy suffered by this family is that Ted Kennedy didn’t live to see his life’s goal of heathcare insurance for all come to pass. Requiem eternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Read more »

Ed Schultz of The Ed Show interviews Robert Greenwald about an investigative report on the CEO of United Health Care Group. Turns out the guy is making about $102,000 per hour. At one point a few years ago his salary alone accounted for $1 in every $700 spent on healthcare in America. The fact is, in this country we have always recognized that some things are not best left to the marketplace.

Read more »

As is so often the case, Bill Moyers does another outstanding job of pointing out the differences in how healthcare is viewed. I continued to be amazed at the absolute stupidity of people who can’t understand that their version of “free market” healthcare is not, and will not work. In the free-market, companies are out to make a profit. They don’t make a profit by paying for your care.

Read more »

Sen. Ensign missed some votes this week, including an important one for Nevada. He had to fly home to hold the usual Republican press conference to disclose his nine month affair with a campaign worker back in 2007-2008.

Read more »

Leave it to Bill Moyers to be the voice of sanity in an otherwise insane discussion about healthcare reform. A recent report showing the majority of bankruptcies in America are healthcare related (and most of those people have healthcare insurance) should be causing Americans to demand that our Congress Critters take a serious look at single payer as the only real way to reform healthcare.

Read more »

I continue to be baffled by the arguments in favor of torture, and the justifications that are made for America’s use of torture. I have heard one justification after another, and each falls with daily revelations of what really happened. Most disturbing though is a recent Pew Survey finding that the more people attend church, the more accepting they are of these torture justifications. That, my friends, causes me crisis of faith. I fear for what is to become of us as a people and a Republic.

Read more »

The ink is barely dry on Justice David Souter’s letter of resignation from the Supreme Court, and the wingnuts in Rush Limbaugh’s Republican party are already complaining about Obama’s nominee for his replacement. The talking points are all so similar, it’s clear the effort is coordinated.

Read more »

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx represents the congressional district that includes my alma mater, and she has attended ASU events and activities to advance her political career and give her an undeserved credibility. Over the past several days, Rep. Foxx has made a number of inflammatory statements during the House’s consideration of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act. Today, Rep. Foxx crossed a line when she took to the floor of the House, claimed that Shepard was killed as part of a robbery, and called the hate aspect of the crime “a hoax.”

Read more »